Disney Reorganizes Business With Focus on Streaming

The Walt Disney Company has unveiled a new corporate structure that places a higher priority on streaming in light of the rapid success of Disney+. The company announced the reorganization of its media and entertainment businesses on Monday in a post that highlighted Disney's desire to "further accelerate" its direct-to-consumer strategy. Under the new structure, Disney's content creation groups will focus on "producing and delivering content for theatrical, linear and streaming, with the primary focus being the company's streaming services." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/17/the-mandalorian-season-2-trailer-breakdown"] "We are strategically positioning our Company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value," Bob Chapek, Disney's CEO, said in a statement. "Managing content creation distinct from distribution will allow us to be more effective and nimble in making the content consumers want most, delivered in the way they prefer to consume it." Disney's distribution and commercialization activities will also be centralized into a single, global organization that will be responsible for delivering and monetizing content in "the most optimal way" across all of the company's various streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and the coming Star international streaming service. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=disney-plus-spotlight-october-2020&captions=true"] The global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted several of Disney's revenue streams, including the organization's media and entertainment businesses. A number of planned theatrical releases have been rescheduled in the release calendar or moved over to the ever-growing content library on the company's Disney+ streaming service. It was recently announced that the upcoming Pixar film Soul would skip its theatrical release and head straight to Disney+ this holiday season, debuting exclusively on the streaming service on December 25. This is the third major Disney film to forego theaters in lieu of Disney+ after the release of Artemis Fowl on June 12 and Mulan on September 3, which was made available as a premium-access title. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Best Amazon Prime Laptop Deals

Prime Day 2020 is winding down, but that doesn't mean there still aren't tons of opportunities to save. For those looking for a new laptop for a great price, this may be the perfect opportunity for you. Not only are there chances to save on gaming laptops, but non-gaming laptops, like the MacBook Air, are also on sale. Amazon Prime day is all about the best deals and savings, and this could be the perfect time to upgrade your laptop or make that purchase you have been thinking about. Here are the best laptop savings and deals for Amazon Prime Day 2020:

Best Amazon Prime Day Laptop Deals

[poilib element="commerceDeal" parameters="slug=best-prime-day-mac-deals"] [poilib element="commerceDeal" parameters="slug=best-prime-day-laptop-deals"] Laptops are only a small part of the many deals offered on Prime Day, so make sure to check out our main Amazon Prime Day page to keep up to date on the best deals and savings that are just waiting for you, including the Best Prime PC Mouse and Keyboard Deals and Best Prime Day Desk Deals.

The Best Amazon Prime Day Deals

Right now, if you're going to spend $40 on Amazon, you can save some cash and send yourself a $40 gift card and Amazon will send you $10 in Amazon credit within 24-48 hours.

[poilib element="commerceDeal" parameters="slug=master-article-amazon-deal"]

Also, it's important to note that you'll need to have an active Amazon Prime account to score the steepest of discounts. You can sign up for Amazon Prime right here. Moreover, if you've never taken advantage of the free trial for Prime, pick up the 30-day trial right now and save money even without a subscription. You can even cancel your subscription before the first bill shows up, if you want to roll that way. If you've already used the free trial, you can subscribe for $12.99 a month, or $119 for a full year.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

PS5 UI Tease Comes From an Unexpected Place: Burger King

An unlikely source - Burger King - is teasing an announcement with PlayStation for October 15 with what very well may be the start-up sound for the PS5. Burger King took to Twitter and shared a video featuring The Burger King opening up a big bag that shines a blue light in his mascoty face. In addition to the light, we hear a sound that was also featured in the PlayStation 5 reveal event with a UI tease and may be the sound we will hear as we turn on Sony's next-gen console. While this could be a tease for Sneak King 2 for a PS5 and The Burger King revealing the PS5's UI to the world (listen, it's 2020, anything can happen), this is most likely some sort of contest where patrons of Burger King will be able to win a brand new PlayStation 5 by purchasing a Whopper or something similar. Taco Bell is currently running a promotion that gives fans a chance to win an Xbox Series X by simply purchasing a medium or large drink. The PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition will be released on November 12, 2020, for $499 and $399, respectively, and we still haven't seen an in-depth look its UI and menus in action. Sony did promise that the PS5's UI would be a "complete overhaul" from the PS4, and it can't be much longer before it's fully revealed. We recently learned more about its backward compatibility with PS4, how saves will transfer between the new systems, and what PS4 games will not be playable on PS5. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/09/biggest-ps5-teardown-takeaways-next-gen-console-watch"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Star Wars: Squadrons Review – Catch Me If You Can

For all the ups and downs I've had with various Star Wars media products over the past few decades, the formative space combat simulations of X-Wing and TIE Fighter on MS-DOS (or at least, my memory of them) have always been a fixed highlight. It's hard to go astray when you're focused on the minutiae of inherently cool sci-fi fantasy planes, as opposed to whatever's going on with Jedi lineages or space politics now.

There have been a few arcade-style Star Wars space combat games that filled the 20-year period since the last flight simulator, and some of them were even good. But Star Wars: Squadrons is now making a welcome return to some of the simulator intricacies, while still retaining a large degree of the approachable spectacle of the arcade-style flight games. And the balance Squadrons has settled on works very well in creating an experience that makes you feel as if you're really an active participant in a Star War.

The basic mechanics will be familiar if you've ever played any kind of flight game. You pitch your fighter up and down, you bank it left and right. You fly forward, not backward, and you can twirl until you feel sick. You maneuver your crosshairs onto an enemy and then fire lasers or missiles at them. You're locked to a first-person cockpit view of the action, but all of Squadron's missions are in space, which means maintaining altitude isn't something you have to worry about, and instead, you get the wonderful freedom of being able to fly along any axis--rolling your ship and flying upside down is a hoot. It feels like you could feasibly finish the Squadrons campaign relying mostly on those principles if you wanted to, especially on lower difficulty levels, and that's great. But Squadrons digs a little deeper with the ability to reroute power on your ship, a system that brings a nice layer of complexity in the advantages that it can open up for you and the considerations that come with that.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Star Wars: Squadrons Review – Catch Me If You Can

For all the ups and downs I've had with various Star Wars media products over the past few decades, the formative space combat simulations of X-Wing and TIE Fighter on MS-DOS (or at least, my memory of them) have always been a fixed highlight. It's hard to go astray when you're focused on the minutiae of inherently cool sci-fi fantasy planes, as opposed to whatever's going on with Jedi lineages or space politics now.

There have been a few arcade-style Star Wars space combat games that filled the 20-year period since the last flight simulator, and some of them were even good. But Star Wars: Squadrons is now making a welcome return to some of the simulator intricacies, while still retaining a large degree of the approachable spectacle of the arcade-style flight games. And the balance Squadrons has settled on works very well in creating an experience that makes you feel as if you're really an active participant in a Star War.

The basic mechanics will be familiar if you've ever played any kind of flight game. You pitch your fighter up and down, you bank it left and right. You fly forward, not backward, and you can twirl until you feel sick. You maneuver your crosshairs onto an enemy and then fire lasers or missiles at them. You're locked to a first-person cockpit view of the action, but all of Squadron's missions are in space, which means maintaining altitude isn't something you have to worry about, and instead, you get the wonderful freedom of being able to fly along any axis--rolling your ship and flying upside down is a hoot. It feels like you could feasibly finish the Squadrons campaign relying mostly on those principles if you wanted to, especially on lower difficulty levels, and that's great. But Squadrons digs a little deeper with the ability to reroute power on your ship, a system that brings a nice layer of complexity in the advantages that it can open up for you and the considerations that come with that.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Researchers Found Humans Have Been Evolving Without Wisdom Teeth

Most people learn about the phenomena of evolution in their middle school and high school science classes, but researchers have recently discovered evidence of “microevolution” with noticeable differences between generations of human beings.

According to September’s Journal of Anatomy, via Sky News, more babies are being born without wisdom teeth, with an extra artery in their arm, or with smaller jaws and shorter faces as a result of microevolution.

"A lot of people thought humans have stopped evolving. But our study shows we are still evolving - faster than at any point in the past 250 years," Dr. Teghan Lucas of Flinders University said.

The reasoning behind fewer teeth in human mouths can be attributed to human faces getting shorter and mouths getting smaller, leaving less room for teeth to develop. Natural selection and humans' increased ability to chew food has resulted in fewer humans developing wisdom teeth.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"]

An additional artery in the human arm goes as far back as the 19th century. The “median artery” previously used to form in babies during pregnancy, and would normally disappear after birth while radial and ulna arteries had grown.

One in three people now keep their median artery for their entire life. Thankfully, this poses no known health issues and actually increases blood flow to the hands.

"The median artery is a perfect example of how we are still evolving because people born more recently have a higher prevalence of this artery when compared to humans from previous generations,” author Professor Maciej Henneberg said.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/12/new-tyrannosaur-species-discovered-dubbed-reaper-of-death"]

Researchers determined their findings by both tracking how many subjects retained different body parts throughout the generations, as well as dissecting preserved corpses of people born throughout the 20th century.

The study also predicts that people born 80 years from now (so 2100) will all possess a median artery if the trend continues. For more historical discoveries, check out the theory on why Megalodons were so massive (hint: it's because of cannibalism in the womb).

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and his jaw is clenched.

Researchers Found Humans Have Been Evolving Without Wisdom Teeth

Most people learn about the phenomena of evolution in their middle school and high school science classes, but researchers have recently discovered evidence of “microevolution” with noticeable differences between generations of human beings.

According to September’s Journal of Anatomy, via Sky News, more babies are being born without wisdom teeth, with an extra artery in their arm, or with smaller jaws and shorter faces as a result of microevolution.

"A lot of people thought humans have stopped evolving. But our study shows we are still evolving - faster than at any point in the past 250 years," Dr. Teghan Lucas of Flinders University said.

The reasoning behind fewer teeth in human mouths can be attributed to human faces getting shorter and mouths getting smaller, leaving less room for teeth to develop. Natural selection and humans' increased ability to chew food has resulted in fewer humans developing wisdom teeth.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"]

An additional artery in the human arm goes as far back as the 19th century. The “median artery” previously used to form in babies during pregnancy, and would normally disappear after birth while radial and ulna arteries had grown.

One in three people now keep their median artery for their entire life. Thankfully, this poses no known health issues and actually increases blood flow to the hands.

"The median artery is a perfect example of how we are still evolving because people born more recently have a higher prevalence of this artery when compared to humans from previous generations,” author Professor Maciej Henneberg said.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/12/new-tyrannosaur-species-discovered-dubbed-reaper-of-death"]

Researchers determined their findings by both tracking how many subjects retained different body parts throughout the generations, as well as dissecting preserved corpses of people born throughout the 20th century.

The study also predicts that people born 80 years from now (so 2100) will all possess a median artery if the trend continues. For more historical discoveries, check out the theory on why Megalodons were so massive (hint: it's because of cannibalism in the womb).

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and his jaw is clenched.

Tiger King’s Doc Antle Charged With Wildlife Trafficking

Doc Antle, the owner of the Myrtle Beach Safari animal park featured in Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, has been charged with wildlife trafficking, prosecutors announced on Friday, according to the New York Times.

Bhagavan Antle, otherwise known as Doc, has been charged with animal trafficking in a case connected to lion cubs being moved between Virginia and South Carolina.

Antle was charged with two felony counts as well as 13 misdemeanors, according to the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/22/lets-cast-the-tiger-king-movie"]

Antle’s two daughters, Tawny Antle and Tilakam Watterson, are also facing several misdemeanor charges connected to animal cruelty and alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act.

Antle issued a statement strongly denying the charges.

“I categorically deny any act or conduct that could ever be considered as ‘animal cruelty,’” Antle said. “I have spent my entire professional life promoting the welfare and conservation of big cats and other species.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/01/tiger-king-whos-the-worst"]

Antle’s public profile skyrocketed as a result of Netflix’s Tiger King documentary series, but it was Joseph Maldonado-Passage (AKA Joe Exotic) who was featured as the documentary’s true star. Maldonado-Passage is now serving a 22-year sentence for attempting to hire a hitman to kill animal rights activist Carole Baskin, who was also featured in the series.

Netflix has declined to comment to the Times on the charges brought up against Antle.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-true-crime-shows-and-movies-to-watch-online&captions=true"]

The charges are one part of a lengthy investigation by the Virginia attorney general’s law unit. The investigation focused on the relationship between Antle and one Keith A. Wilson, owner of Wilson’s Wild Animal Park in Virginia. Wilson faces two felony charges in connection to wildlife trafficking and 17 misdemeanors. Wilson was also previously indicted in November with 46 counts of animal cruelty by a grand jury in November and is awaiting trial in June 2021.

“I have deep regard and feelings for the animals in my care and would never hurt or abuse them in any way,” Antle said in his statement. “I look forward to being able to answer these charges and be able to clear my good name.”

The craze over Netflix’s Tiger King docu-series proved so vast that multiple offshoots are now in various stages of production. Kate McKinnon and NBCUniversal have teamed up to produce a new series focused on Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin. Nicolas Cage has also been cast as Joe Exotic in a different series from CBS, which will be Cage’s first TV role. Investigation Discovery has greenlit a series focused on investigating Carole Baskin.

IGN gave Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness an eight out of 10, calling it a “fascinating and depressing look inside the world of big cat fanatics.” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he's emphatically a dog person.