Category Archives: Blog

Saturday Night Live is back, baby.

The enduring NBC sketch comedy series is set to kick off Season 47 on Oct. 2. The announcement blasted across the show’s social media channels serves up the host and musical guest lineup for the season’s first four episodes, using the index-cards-on-bulletin-board format that’s become the standard for these reveals.

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First up is Owen Wilson on Oct. 2, with Kacey Musgraves providing the tunes. The next week, Oct. 9, brings Kim Kardashian West to the historic 30 Rock set, backed by Halsey. Rami Malek is up next on Oct. 16, appearing on the show just a week after he appears as the villain in Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie, No Time To Die. Young Thug is the musical guest that week.

The last one in the set, falling on Oct. 23, brings in Ted Lasso star (and recent Emmy winner) Jason Sudeikis, alongside musical guest Brandi Carlile. This is a bit of a homecoming for Sudeikis, who wrote for the show starting in 2003 and then moved in front of the camera in 2005. He stayed with SNL as a cast member until 2013, but he’s never hosted before.

(Listen, SNL: I expect jokes about delicious shortbread biscuits and humans who are actually CG creations when Jason’s episode air.)

There’s plenty more to come for Season 47 of SNL, but hosts and musical guests are announced piecemeal like this throughout the season. Rest assured, though: When we know, you’ll know.

Halloween season is almost upon us, and Netflix is adding a frightening amount of content to its library to celebrate.

Among the new original films coming to the streaming service are horror movie Night Teeth, Army of the Dead prequel Army of Thieves, and the Jake Gyllenhaal-led The Guilty. October also marks the return of Netflix series like You, On My Block, and Locke & Key. Plus, if you’re looking for a retro binge watching experience, all 9 seasons of Seinfeld hit Netflix on the first of the month.

There’s even more on its way. Here’s everything coming to Netflix in October 2021.

Top Pick: MAID

Inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, this limited series tells the story of Alex (Margaret Qualley), a single mother who begins working as a maid after escaping an abusive relationship. As she struggles to make ends meet and overcome homelessness, Alex works tirelessly to make a better life for her daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet). If MAID‘s trailer is anything to go off of, this series will be an inspirational tearjerker anchored by a strong performance from Qualley.

How to watch: MAID is streaming on Netflix Oct. 1.

Movies

A Knight’s Tale (10/1)

An Inconvenient Truth (10/1)

A World Without (TBD)

Army of Thieves (10/29)

As Good as It Gets (10/1)

Awakenings (10/1)

B.A.P.S. (10/1)

Bad Teacher (10/1)

Begin Again (10/27)

Bright: Samurai Soul (10/12)

Convergence: Courage in a Crisis (10/12)

Dear Mother (10/29)

Desperado (10/1)

Diana: The Musical (10/1)

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (10/1)

Double Team (10/1)

Eagle Eye (10/1)

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (10/6)

Endless Love (10/1)

Escape The Undertaker (10/5)

Fever Dream/Distancia de Rescate (10/13)

Flip a Coin – ONE OK ROCK Documentary (10/21)

Forever Rich (10/1)

Found (10/20)

Ghost (10/1)

Gladiator (10/1)

Going in Style (10/11)

Grudge/Kin (10/8)

Hairspray (2007) (10/1)

Hiacynt (10/13)

Hypnotic (10/27)

In for a Murder/W jak moderstwo (10/19)

Insidious: Chapter 2 (10/9)

Jet Li’s Fearless (10/1)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (10/25)

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (10/1)

Léon: The Professional (10/1)

Little Big Mouth (10/22)

LOL Surprise: The Movie (10/8)

Malcolm X (10/1)

Making Malinche: A Documentary by Nacho Cano (10/12)

My Brother, My Sister (10/8)

Night Teeth (10/20)

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight Part 2 (10/27)

Observe and Report (10/1)

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (10/1)

One Night in Paris (10/14)

Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle (10/8)

Project X (10/1)

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It (10/12)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (10/1)

Rumor Has It… (10/1)

Serendipity (10/1)

Sharkdog’s Fintastic Halloween (10/15)

Smart People (10/12)

Spy Kids (10/1)

Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (10/1)

Spy Kids 3: Game Over (10/1)

Step Brothers (10/1)

Stuck Together (10/20)

Swallow (10/1)

The Cave (10/1)

The Devil Inside (10/1)

The DUFF (10/1)

The Forgotten Battle (10/15)

The Four of Us (10/15)

The Guilty (10/1)

The Holiday (10/1)

The Karate Kid (2010) (10/1)

The Motive (10/28)

The Seven Deadly Sins: Cursed by Light (10/1)

The Trip (10/15)

The Ugly Truth (10/1)

There’s Someone Inside Your House (10/6)

Till Death (10/1)

Titanic (10/1)

Tommy Boy (10/1)

Unthinkable (10/1)

Upcoming Summer (10/1)

Victoria & Abdul (10/16)

Violet Evergarden the Movie (10/13)

Waterworld (10/1)

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (10/24)

Zodiac (10/1)

TV

A Sinister Sect: Colonia Dignidad (10/1)

A Tale Dark & Grimm (10/8)

Adventure Beast (10/22)

An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts (TBD)

Another Life Season 2 (10/14)

Are You Afraid of the Dark? Season 1 (10/1)

Bad Sport (10/6)

Baking Impossible (10/6)

Blue Period (10/9)

Call My Agent: Bollywood (TBD)

CoComelon Season 4 (10/15)

Colin in Black & White (10/29)

Dynasty Season 4 (10/22)

Encounters Season 1 (TBD)

Family Business Season 3 (10/8)

Gabby’s Dollhouse Season 3 (10/20)

Go! Go! Cory Carson Season 6 (10/21)

House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (TBD)

In the Dark Season 3 (10/14)

Inside Job (10/22)

Insiders (10/21)

Inspector Koo (TBD)

Karma’s World (10/15)

Komi Can’t Communicate (10/21)

Life’s a Glitch with Julien Bam (10/21)

Little Things Season 4 (10/15)

Locke & Key Season 2 (10/22)

Love Is Blind: Brazil (10/6)

Luis Miguel – The Series Season 3 (10/28)

MAID (10/1)

Maya and the Three (10/22)

Mighty Express Season 5 (10/12)

Misfit: The Series (10/16)

More than Blue: The Series (10/22)

My Name (10/15)

Mythomaniac Season 2 (10/29)

On My Block Season 4 (10/4)

Paik’s Spirit (10/1)

Power Rangers Dino Fury Season 1 (10/15)

Pretty Smart (10/8)

Roaring Twenties (10/22)

Scaredy Cats (10/1)

Scissor Seven Season 3 (10/3)

Seinfeld Seasons 1-9 (10/1)

Sex, Love & goop (10/21)

Sex: Unzipped (10/26)

Sexy Beasts Season 2 (10/7)

Shameless (U.S.) Season 11 (10/11)

Sintonia Season 2 (10/27)

Reflection of You (10/13)

Roswell, New Mexico Season 3 (10/26)

The Baby-Sitters Club Season 2 (10/11)

The Billion Dollar Code (10/7)

The Blacklist Season 8 (10/6)

The Five Juanas (10/6)

The King’s Affection (10/11)

The Movies That Made Us Season 3 (10/12)

The Raincoat Killer: Chasing a Predator in Korea (TBD)

The Time It Takes (10/29)

The Way of the Househusband Season 1, Part 2 (10/7)

Thomas and Friends Season 25A (10/29)

Wentworth Season 8

You Season 3 (10/15)

It could be a long time before you get to play Fortnite on your iPhone again, kids.

In fact, it could take so long that some of you won’t even technically be kids anymore.

“Apple informed Epic that Fortnite will be blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem until the exhaustion of all court appeals,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney in a thread posted to Twitter on Wednesday.

That could be a while. As Sweeney pointed out in his tweet, the appeals process could very well take as long as five years.

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And, according to email correspondence embedded in Sweeney’s tweets, the end of the appeals process would only signify that Apple would be willing to consider reversing its decision to ban Fortnite, along with Epic’s entire developer account.

“Apple has exercised its discretion not to reinstate Epic’s developer program account at this time,” reads an email from Apple’s legal counsel. “Furthermore, Apple will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court’s judgment becomes final and non-appealable.”

Oof.

Fortnite, the popular free-to-play multiplayer battle royale video game, was booted from the App Store by Apple more than a year ago, in August 2020. Epic Games, the game’s developer, had included a way for users to purchase Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks, directly from Epic.

This workaround would avoid Apple’s 30 percent cut for in-app purchases. It would also break Apple’s terms of service. Apple soon removed Fortnite from the App Store. And when the inevitable happened, Epic Games was ready with a legal complaint, a battle the two companies have been embroiled in ever since.

Fast forward to earlier this month when a judge handed down a mixed ruling in Epic’s lawsuit: Apple won as Epic was unable to prove the iPhone-maker was acting as a monopoly by forcing in-app purchases be made through their platform. Epic also had to pay Apple 30 percent of the revenue it withheld from Apple when it bypassed the in-app purchase system.

However, Epic came out on top as the judge ruled that Apple did violate laws regarding blocking developers from providing links to third-party storefronts. As a result, Apple will no longer force in-app purchases to be made through the company.

As Epic Games CEO Sweeney showed in his tweets, the company reached out to Apple in order to reactivate its developer account, saying it would agree to Apple’s new terms and work to bring Fortnite back to iOS.

According to Sweeney, Apple declined to do so and won’t reconsider until the appeals process is complete. Meanwhile, Epic Games is saying Apple “lied” and “broke its promise to allow Fortnite back on iOS.”

So, gamers will need to continue playing Fornite on platforms other than iOS and Mac for the near future…and probably the distant future as well.

Mashable has reached out to both Epic Games and Apple for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.

The disappearance of Gabby Petito has captivated the country for weeks, but the widespread concern and fascination with her case outshines that of countless Black and Indigenous women who are missing today.

Petito, a 22-year-old white woman, went missing during a cross-country road trip with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. The online frenzy to discuss her disappearance may have contributed to the FBI investigation that eventually led to her remains, which were found near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Sunday, and confirmed on Tuesday to be those of Petito. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Updates on Petito’s case have been widely covered by news outlets, as well as thoroughly discussed online by true crime enthusiasts. The couple had been traveling in a white camper van, which belonged to Petito, and documenting their trip on social media. Laundrie returned to his home in Florida earlier this month without Petito, and refused to speak to both investigators and his fiancée’s family. Amateur sleuths tried to piece together a timeline of her disappearance. Petito’s name was trending on Twitter for days, and TikTok tags related to her racked up millions of views.

Unfortunately, the public is far less likely to apply that same energy and outpouring of support when Black and Indigenous people go missing.

Jolie Varela, a Nüümü land protector who runs the Instagram account Indigenous Women Hike, expressed her condolences for the Petito family on Monday, and asked followers to share the same care for missing people who aren’t white.

“It wasn’t the outcome that anyone had hoped for, and I hope that her family receives justice,” Valera wrote in the post. “For everyone that followed and became invested in this devastating story, I ask that you put that same energy into caring and amplifying the story of the many…who do not receive national attention and resources to aid in their recovery.”

Though numerous followers shared her sentiment, Valera still received messages from “angry white people” who were offended by her request.

“It’s pretty telling that when we ask for the same energy and care for our missing and murdered sisters and relatives that we’re met with such fragility,” Valera responded in an Instagram story. “This country does not value or care for Black and/or Indigenous, Trans, or WoC bodies the same way that it does a thin/pretty/white woman’s.”

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Others shared the same opinion.

During ReidOut on Monday, host Joy Reid questioned whether people would be as interested in Petito’s case if she was a woman of color.

The way this story has captivated the nation has many wondering: Why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?

“The way this story has captivated the nation has many wondering: Why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?” Reid mused on-air. “Well, the answer actually has a name: Missing White Woman Syndrome, the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill to describe the media and public fascination with missing white women…while ignoring cases involving people of color.”

Ifill, the late PBS anchor, coined the term during a 2004 conference for journalists of color. As interest grew in true crime since then — especially in the past five years— so has criticism of the unwavering whiteness of the genre. Both fictional and nonfictional true crime media disproportionately centers around cases in which white women are the victims.

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Missing white women statistically receive more media coverage than any other racial and gender group. Northwestern University sociologist Zach Sommers published a 2013 study in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology analyzing coverage of FBI missing person cases in four online media outlets. Cross-referencing the FBI’s database of missing persons with coverage from the Star-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, CNN.com, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sommers concluded that white women make up roughly a third of the national population, but account for half of the news articles in his data set.

News outlets were likely to report on the same missing white women multiple times, which added up. Sommers wrote in the study that by disproportionately writing about white victims, the four news outlets “are implicitly — or perhaps explicitly — intimating that the cases of those individuals matter more.”

Conversely, the lack of media attention trained on victims of color denotes that their lives are less valuable and less of a priority for rescue.

“White women and girls in particular are more easily seen as ‘universal’ victims with whom all viewers and readers can identify,” Sommers continued. “Their outsized presence in the news as crime victims implies that they are inherently good and innocent. Conversely, the lack of media attention trained on victims of color denotes that their lives are less valuable and less of a priority for rescue.”

People of color, particularly Black and Indigenous women, get disproportionately less media coverage than white people who are reported missing. The FBI’s National Crime Information Center reported that in 2020, of all missing persons in the U.S., 33.6 percent were Black. Only 13.4 percent of the U.S. population is Black, per U.S. Census Bureau records. Cases involving Black victims receive significantly less coverage by news outlets, let alone the attention of true crime enthusiasts like the ones dedicated to Petito’s case.

Statistics regarding missing Native American women are largely underreported, as law enforcement agencies and tribal governments are often at odds. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that more than four in five Native American men and women have experienced violence in their lifetime. The Department of Justice reports that on some reservations, the murder rate of Native American women is more than 10 times the national average. In Wyoming alone, where Petito’s body was found, 21 percent of the state’s homicide victims were Native American, despite Native American people only making up 3 percent of the population. A horrifying 710 Indigenous people — most of whom were young women and girls — have gone missing in Wyoming between 2011 and 2020. In Canada, a national inquiry concluded that while Indigenous women and girls only made up 4 percent of the country’s population, they represented 16 percent of female homicides between 1980 and 2012. Despite the staggering rates, news outlets neglect to cover their disappearances.

In an effort to raise awareness for violence within Indigenous communities activists began using the hashtags #MMIW and #MMIWG2S, which stand for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit individuals. The tags have circulated online since 2016, when Canada opened a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

On Instagram, the tag #mmiw has more than 144,000 posts. On TikTok, the tag #mmiw has 248.6 million views, and the tag #mmiwawareness has 65 million.

But in the days since Petito was reported missing, TikTok tags related to her case have skyrocketed. Her name #gabbypetito has roughly 812 million views, the tag #findgabbypetito has 69.3 million, #gabbypetitoupdate has 133 million, and #whereisgabbypetito has 48.4 million.

The fact that Petito and her fiancé was so active on social media may have contributed to the widespread attention on her case. In addition to her online presence, which portrayed her nomadic life with Laundrie as an idyllic one, outsider recordings and clues in posts from other YouTubers in the area made Petito’s case even more compelling. A 911 caller reported Laundrie for slapping Petito weeks before she went missing, and bodycam footage from a police stop in Utah shows a clearly distressed Petito describing Laundrie locking her out of the van. Law enforcement undoubtedly failed to protect Petito, who admitted to hitting Laundrie in an effort to take back her phone and keys; the police wrote off the encounter as a mental health crisis rather than a domestic incident.

Petito’s death is a tragedy, and the events leading up to it make it even more devastating. The national concern for her wellbeing, and widespread grief after her body was found, is completely understandable. It’s just as tragic that the coverage revolving around her far overshadows that of Black and Indigenous people who also went missing in that area around the same time she did — if they received any coverage at all.

When cases involving victims of color do receive attention, the victims typically aren’t described as righteously as their white counterparts are. Cara Chambers, the chair of the task force that released the report on Wyoming’s missing and murdered Indigenous people, told NPR that media coverage of Indigenous homicide victims is often more centered on the grisly act than on the victim’s personhood.

“When you had an Indigenous victim, the articles were more likely to have negative character framing,” Chambers said. “More violent and graphic language, really focusing more on sort of where the homicide occurred versus anything about the victim.”

Amid mourning for Petito, others on social media are trying to bring the same awareness for missing people of color. As Twitter users expressed condolences for the Petito family, they also asked that the true crime community and others following Petito’s case bring attention to victims who aren’t white women.

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Few, if any, have expressed resentment toward Petito. The widespread attention on her case is not her fault; she is as much of a victim of violence as any missing or murdered person. If anything, her case should alert the country to how many women experience violence in their lifetimes. But the lack of awareness and care for Black, Indigenous, and non-white victims is even more apparent when compared to the attention that Petito’s case received.

The fact that so many people are offended at the suggestion that Petito’s whiteness influenced media coverage of her case is telling. Pointing out the disparity between empathy for her and the lack of it for Black and Indigenous people doesn’t diminish the tragedy of Petito’s death. Instead, it amplifies the fact that many people don’t seem to care for Black and Indigenous victims the way they do for white ones. We can start by raising awareness for their cases the way true crime enthusiasts did for Petito’s.

“Bring them home,” Valera wrote in her Instagram post about the countless missing Indigenous women and Two Spirit, Black women, and women of color. “Bring them justice.”

It’s high time we free Britney.

With Britney Spears’ conservatorship once again making headlines, Netflix dropped the trailer for Britney vs. Spears, a documentary from Emmy-nominated filmmaker Erin Lee Carr about the pop star’s quest for freedom. Through interviews and new information from within the conservatorship itself, Carr and journalist Jenny Eliscu elaborate on the Spears conservatorship and what it means for Britney’s past, present, and future.

Britney vs. Spears hits Netflix Sept. 28.

Changes may be in store for SpaceX’s Starlink network. The satellite internet system will exit beta next month, according to CEO Elon Musk. 

Musk made the statement in a tweet on Friday. But for now, he hasn’t said what the ending of the beta phase may mean for Starlink. 

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Still, exiting beta usually signals that a service is stable and ready for a wider rollout. Starlink is currently serving 100,000 users across a dozen countries, including the U.S. However, the system has a backlog of over 500,000 users still waiting to try out the satellite broadband service. 

One problem facing the service is that the ground-based satellite dishes necessary to connect to the Starlink network have been expensive to manufacture. The company currently produces about 5,000 Starlink dishes each week, meaning it would take two years to fulfill the current backlog of users.  

Fortunately, SpaceX is preparing to boost production. The company developed a next-generation Starlink dish, which it can churn out in “multiples” of 5,000 each week.

The ending of the beta may also signal speed increases for the service. The official Starlink website currently says beta users can expect data speeds “from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s and latency from 20ms to 40ms in most locations.” However, Musk himself has been promising Starlink’s speeds will get even faster and reach 300 Mb/s later this year. 

In addition, the latency for Starlink is going to drop under 20 milliseconds, making it capable of competitive gaming, Musk has previously said.

The Quaffle has fallen. I’m racing toward the grass from 50 feet in the air to retrieve it, but I’ll have to recover from my nose dive — fast — if I want to grab the Quidditch ball without slamming into the ground. Can I pull it off? Closer, closer, I reach out my arm, and at the same time as I’m grabbing the ball with my left hand, I’m pulling up on the broomstick with my right and YES! The Quaffle is mine!

Multitasking in mid-air is a necessary skill to hone in a new VR game for Oculus Quest called Seeker VR. It’s the creation of a Harry Potter super fan so dedicated that he spent the better part of the pandemic year teaching himself how to code in VR, all to bring to life the Hogwarts castle and grounds, as well as the flying mechanics of the broomstick and autonomous balls, for fans like him.

“No one had made a Quidditch game for the headset yet,” the developer, who goes by Team Eldritch, said via email. “And it felt like somebody should.”

It debuted in August, and as of late September, had over 10,000 downloads on itch.io.

Seeker VR is an unofficial Quidditch game, but what really makes it stand out is the virtual, multi-sensory, three-dimensional and tantalizingly explorable Hogwarts world Team Eldritch has constructed with high fidelity to the films. In order to create the VR Hogwarts, he adapted the highly detailed spatial images from a previous Harry Potter game that’s currently out of print and no longer playable on most devices.

Potter fans, there are some things to know before you go running to your Quest (or start planning to buy one). Seeker VR is an “unofficial” game in two ways, which means playing it requires jumping through some hoops.

First, it is not affiliated with Warner Brothers, the studio that owns the rights to Harry Potter. The webpage for the game includes an all-caps disclaimer noting that it is a fan creation, available for free, and is for non-commercial use only. Team Eldritch is hoping that “the nice people at Warner Brothers,” as he calls them in the game site’s disclaimer/plea to c’mon lawyers just let him do this, will stay true to their previous stance with fan creations and let him carry on as long as he doesn’t claim affiliation or try to make money. He would also be open to working with the official Portkey Games if they wanted to.

However, Team Eldritch prefers to stay anonymous and go by his developer name, in hopes of avoiding any cease-and-desist letters should the “nice” lawyers change their tune.

Seeker VR is also an “unofficial” game in the Oculus universe. That means you won’t find it in the Oculus Store, where you can download Facebook-approved games like Beat Saber and The Climb (Facebook owns Oculus, in case you forgot).

Instead, anyone with enough technical know-how can find games that are experimental or still in development by using alternate content libraries and installation mechanisms. This is a practice called “sideloading.” Some tech platforms — notably Apple — take a hard stance against sideloading. But it’s ok on Facebook’s Oculus for now, as long as you enable “Developer Mode,” which requires confirming your identity with a credit code or phone number.

One popular way to sideload on the Oculus Quest is with a free service called SideQuest, a platform that also serves as a content discovery library. Essentially, you download the game on itch.io, and then SideQuest is the platform that lets you install it on your Oculus. Seeker VR‘s SideQuest page is here, but there are other methods for sideloading, too.

But jumping — and hopefully throwing the Quaffle — through those hoops just might be worth it, because the best way to describe the experience of Seeker VR is that it’s magical. While there have been other Harry Potter games, a VR version feels special because of its ability to transport you inside the world, where you become an active participant. AKA a wizard.

“Playing a Quidditch game in VR isn’t like playing one on a flat screen,” Team Eldritch said. “You put the headset on and you’re standing there on the pitch… no cables, no headphones, just the towers stretching up and the sound of the wind at your back. And then you take off, and the ground’s 50 feet below, and you can look down and actually feel it. What it’d be like to fly up there. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to real magic.”

Quidditch, and then some.

In terms of actual gameplay, Seeker VR is mostly a demo right now. When you fire it up, you’ll go through a 10-minute tutorial that mimics Harry’s first Quidditch lesson, when then-Gryffindor Quidditch team captain Oliver Wood explains the rules: Team Eldritch even hired an actor to voice the demo, and he uses a very Oliver Wood-esque accent.

In the demo, you learn how to fly your broomstick; throw, catch, and score with the Quaffle; beat away the Bludgers; and, if you’re fast, catch the Golden Snitch. I wasn’t able to achieve that last feat, but my husband did, and he said he felt “really cool.”

I had some trouble just getting the flying down, and I kept getting stuck under the grass somehow. But eventually I got the hang of it, and taking off, accelerating, and doing loop-de-loops is a rush.

“I spent a long time just figuring out the flight mechanics and making sure they felt fun,” Team Eldritch said. “Cornering, braking, accelerating – everything had to be dialed in exactly to strike that balance between speed and control. The first time I felt like I’d nailed it was when I finally managed to do a figure-eight around the three goal hoops without smacking into any of them.”

While accelerating on my broomstick towards the hoops, I find that my left arm holding the Quaffle is accessing some long-forgotten muscle memory from (mandatory) eighth grade Water Polo class. So I wind up and bring my elbow in line with my engaged shoulder, and then use my back muscles to launch the Quaffle, one-handed, through the hoops. I definitely have better aim and force in (virtual) mid-air than I ever did in the pool, and scoring is all the sweeter since throwing the ball through those hoops prompts the same “score” noise as in the films.

“You can look down and actually feel it. What it’d be like to fly up there. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to real magic.”

In separate parts of the demo, interacting with the Bludgers and Snitch that move of their own volition is a different kind of challenge. The Snitch buzzes around like a mischievous golden fly, and whacking the menacing Bludgers with the small bat is as satisfying as it looks in the films. Team Eldritch said that those balls actually represented some of the most challenging parts of the game to create.

“They’re essentially mini-AIs,” Team Eldritch said of the Quidditch balls. “Finally managing to code a Bludger that was capable of homing in on you, firing itself at your head and whizzing off again was a very proud moment.”

Multiplayer gameplay probably isn’t in the cards for Seeker VR — it would require overhauling the game with even more advanced coding, and server hosting costs would be prohibitively expensive. But Team Eldritch is still working, and he said that playing with a virtual team against some AI opponents is more likely.

You can also fly out of the Quidditch arena to explore Hogwarts castle and the surrounding grounds. This isn’t exactly a game, but as a straight up Harry Potter dork more motivated by fandom than by gameplay, it’s my favorite part. Taking in the turrets from 360 degrees, zooming through the bridge Neville Longbottom eventually blows up, discovering the owlery and the boathouse and courtyards in VR — all on a broomstick! — feels like a privilege. Like I got to explore the Harry Potter world in a way even the actors never could.

“The castle was never originally supposed to be part of the game, but I kept adding to it,” Team Eldritch said. “It’s kind of the fulfilment of a lifelong dream – ever since I saw that beautiful movie miniature, I’ve wanted to shrink [it] down and walk around it for real. It’d be awesome to think I made that dream come true for a few other people as well.”

During the game, the music from the scene where Harry rides Buckbeak the Hippogriff swells as you ride over Hogwarts Lake. In the moment, I feel the tingles of watching that scene, and the wonder I felt laying on my elementary school library’s floor reading about the Hogwarts letters filling up 4 Privet Drive, with a potency I haven’t channeled in years.

So how did this developer do it?

Working from blueprints.

Team Eldritch describes himself as a “jack of all trades” who took advantage of Epic Games’ 3D development tool, Unreal Engine, to teach himself VR game creation. He familiarized himself with the standards of this sort of game development — like pressing the trigger on a Quest handset to grab something — which makes it easier for frequent VR users to catch on.

To build the world, Team Eldritch looked to the official Harry Potter games from the mid-aughts. The developer Bright Light Studios went to great lengths to create a realistic model of Hogwarts based on the films where players could run around. The team even worked from the same blueprints as the movies.

Unfortunately, Team Eldritch says that “due to various licensing entanglements, it’s not actually possible to buy or play those games on PC anymore. (You can get the DVD-ROMs on eBay, but the DRM they use isn’t compatible with modern Windows unless you run a virtual machine, which is way too much hassle for most people.) Effectively, those games are now abandonware, which is a bit of a sad legacy for a series that had so much love and artistry poured into it.”

He gives copious credit to the original developer, and hopes that the Bright Light team from back then would appreciate their creations getting new life.

“Extracting 3D assets from a 15-year-old game built on a closed-source engine isn’t easy,” Team Eldritch said. “It took me a month and a half just to finish putting together the exterior of the castle. But it was absolutely worth it, because the detail the artists at Bright Light achieved was phenomenal.”

He’s also hoping that the fact that the original game is no longer really playable will give him some legal leeway. Team Eldritch extended that philosophy to other media assets, too.

“I’ve tried to only use 3D assets in this game that are already available for free or that nobody seems interested in making money from anymore, like the Bright Light games,” Team Eldritch said. “This has genuinely been a labor of love for a series I adore and respect.”

Another element that makes the game feel real is sound. Team Eldritch himself “voiced” the spitting and hissing Bludgers, but the tech that powers Quest experiences allowed him to go much further. Oculus supports an “open source spatial audio plugin” that lets developers play to the way our brains process sound in three dimensions.

“That means you can have a Golden Snitch flying around your head and know immediately which direction the sound is coming from – which completes the illusion as far as 360° audio is concerned,” Team Eldritch said. “It’s the difference between hearing a stereo recording of a city sidewalk and actually going and standing outside.”

Paying attention to that sound is, in fact, part of the key to catching the Golden Snitch. My most burning question for the developer was how in the heck do I get my (virtual) hands on the elusive flier?

“Most of the time, you’ll be able to hear the Snitch before you see it,” Team Eldritch said.

Just like magic.

UPDATE: Sept. 21, 2021, 4:54 p.m. EDT This story has been updated to include the latest deals.

Check out our favorite bargains from across the Apple universe as of Sept. 21:

• BEST MAC DEAL: 2020 Mac Mini (M1, 256GB) — Save $99.01

• BEST IPAD DEAL: 2021 iPad Mini (WiFI, 64GB) — Save $39.01

• BEST IPHONE DEAL: iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at AT&T — Save $349.99

• BEST APPLE WATCH DEAL: Apple Watch Series 6 (40mm, GPS) — Save $70

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You could really kill some time trying to dissect the iron grasp Apple has on the general population, but when it comes down to it, their products look good, work well, and stay cutting edge — of course people like them. Whether your favorite day of the year is their annual September reveal event or you just want a solid computer no matter the brand, Apple’s got you covered. Sure, they are a little notorious for their higher price points, but we’ve rounded up the best weekly deals on iPads, AirPods, and every Apple product in between. Check them out below.

Mac

OUR TOP PICK: 2020 Mac Mini (M1, 256GB) – $599.99 (save $99.01)

One of the most affordable Macs is even more affordable this week. Don’t let its size deceive you — this mini computer is powerful. As a nice bonus, it’s also quiet, despite working at a speed that runs apps nice and smoothly. If you’re in the market for a new desktop, you’ll want to jump on this deal while it lasts.

• MacBook Pro (Intel Processor, 1TB) — $1,599.99 (save $399.01)

• MacBook Pro (Intel Processor, 512GB) — $1,499.99 (save $299.01)

• MacBook Air (M1, 512GB) – $1,099.99 (save $150)

• MacBrook Pro (M1, 512GB) — $1,399.99 (save $99.01)

• 2021 iMac (8-core CPU,8-core GPU, 256GB) — $1,449.99 (save $50)

iPad

OUR TOP PICK: 2021 iPad Mini (WiFi, 64GB) — preorder for $459.99 (save $39.01)

The new iPad Mini is finally here and its already on sale (bless). The Mini has officially undergone first redesign since 2012 and now comes equipped an A15 processor. If you’re looking to tote around what essentially looks like an iPad Pro but cuter, you’ll want to jump on this preorder deal and get ready for the Mini’s official release on Sept. 24.

• 2021 10.2-in iPad (WiFi, 64GB) — preorder for $299.00 (save $30.99)

• 10.9-in iPad Air (WiFi, 256GB) — $649.99 (save $99.01)

• 10.9-in iPad Air (WiFi, 64GB) – $539.99 (save $60)

• 2021 11-in iPad Pro (WiFi, 128 GB) – $749.00 (save $50)

• 2021 12.9-in iPad Pro (WiFi, 128GB) – $999.00 (save $100)

iPhone

OUR TOP PICK: iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at AT&T — $349.99 (save $349.99)

We know the new iPhones are here (and that some are even on sale, cough, see below, cough) but don’t be so quick to hit pre-order on the newer model. This remains the only deal that requires no trade-in for 50% off a phone that still has 5G, and a ton of comparable features to its newer counterpart. iPhone 12 Mini, you remain on top another week.

• 128GB iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro at AT&T — free with an eligible trade-in on an unlimited plan

• iPhone 12 Mini (64GB) at AT&T — $349.99 (save $349.99)

• iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max at AT&T – save up to $700 with a trade-in

• 128GB iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro at Verizon — free with select trade-in and unlimited plan

• 64GB iPhone 11, XR, and SE at Verizon — free with an unlimited plan and new line

• iPhone 12 at Verizon — save up to $700 with a trade-in (new line required)

Accessories

OUR TOP PICK: Apple Watch Series 6 (40mm, GPS) — $329 (save $70)

Though it’s no longer the newest model on the market, the Series 6 still has an SPO2 censor and a decent processor; plus, it’s great for tracking fitness goals. It’s possible we’ll see even better deals once the Series 7’s release draws nearer, but in the meantime this one is pretty damn good.

• AirPods (second generation) — $119.00 (save $40.00)

• AirPods Pro — $197.99 (save $52)

• AirPods Max — $489.98 (save $59.02)

• Renewed AirPods Max — $427.41 (save $62.57)

• OttorBox Slim Case with MagSafe for iPhone 12/12 Pro — $39.95 (save $10)

More related content:

• 8 monitors to take your MacBook Pro to the next level

• MacBooks aren’t the only great laptops — and this list proves it

• Best headphones for iPhone owners: Think outside the (AirPods) box

Peacock just announced a Pitch Perfect spinoff with Adam Devine, because there are approximately a million streaming services, and they all need stories..

Devine starred in Pitch Perfect and its 2015 sequel (but not the 2017 threequel), in which he played antagonist Bumper. Devine, 37, will not be playing a college student, but a future version of Bumper now cultivating a music career in Germany. We can only hope Amy (Rebel Wilson) features in his adventures and brings along more of the Pitch Perfect cast. Elizabeth Banks returns as producer.

“We’re so happy to have the opportunity to bring the beloved Universal Pictures franchise Pitch Perfect to the small screen and to explore the hilarious and distinct characters in this musical-filled world,” Erin Underhill, President, Universal Television said in a statement. “We’re lucky to partner with the talented Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman and Paul Brooks, who produced the iconic films; the exceptionally funny and memorable Adam Devine; and Megan Amram, whose clever adaptation of Pitch Perfect is sure to have audiences laughing out loud and tapping their feet.”

Bumper Allen will return, only on Peacock.

Save $100: The Hisense 55-inch ULED U7G Android 4K TV is on sale for $749.99 at Amazon as of Sept. 21. That’s a savings of 12%.

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You finally have a good shot at grabbing a new gaming console these days. But if you want the total experience when you pick up Far Cry 6 in a couple of weeks, you also need a TV that draws out the full potential of a PS5 or Xbox Series X. Luckily, you have more options these days that won’t strain your gaming budget.

Gamers can get the Hisense 55-inch ULED U7G Quantum Dot Android 4K TV for only $749.99 from Amazon: a match of its lowest price ever.

Wondering why you need a new TV for your console? The answer is HDMI 2.1. This updated output allows for increased bandwidth, which translates to faster refresh rates and higher resolutions. And the Hisense U7G offers two HDMI 2.1 ports along with two standard HDMI 2.0 connections. This ensures that you enjoy that coveted 120Hz refresh rate for super smooth gameplay.

This TV is good beyond gaming, too. With its Hisense ULED technology, it’s able to provide a wider color gamut in over one billion shades. The Dolby Vision HDR provides ultra-realistic pictures; plus, it includes a voice remote and you can customize your home screen on the Android TV to better organize your favorite streaming apps.

The Hisense U7G covers plenty of bases when it comes to entertainment, so at $749.99 it’s a pretty sweet option — even if you aren’t much of a gamer.

Explore related content:

• 7 of the best gaming chairs to maximize your gaming experience

• 7 of the best gaming headsets that will change the way you play PlayStation for the better

• 9 of the best gaming routers to supercharge your game