Tuesday’s top tech news: Hands-on with the HomePod

Plus GM’s Hummer EV SUV goes into production, and Paramount’s streaming service gets a rebrand.

We have a review of Apple’s new smart speaker as Chris Welch and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy evaluate the “all-new” $299.99 HomePod.

They praised its sound quality, useful set of sensors, and deep integration with Apple TV, but noted it’s a bit more expensive than similar smart speakers, and said you’ll really need two of them to get the best experience.

The E3 video game trade show, which has traditionally served as one of the year’s major press events, could be a much smaller affair in 2023. A new report from IGN suggests that the three major console manufacturers, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, are all skipping out on the June convention. There’s a chance they could still hold press events that month that aren’t officially part of E3, but it’d be very bad news for the Entertainment Software Association’s flagship event itself.

Elsewhere, GM’s Hummer EV SUV has entered mass production, and the first customers are expected to receive their gigantic electric cars by the end of Q1. The SUV joins the truck version of the Hummer EV, whose deliveries started in late 2021.

And finally, Paramount is reconfiguring its streaming offering to combine Showtime with Paramount Plus. The resulting streaming service will be called, inventively enough, “Paramount Plus with Showtime.” It’s part of a wave of changes coming to streaming players that also include the merger of HBO Max and Discovery Plus.

For now, here’s a silly tweet to start your day:

Stay tuned, as we continue to update this list with the most important news of today: Tuesday, January 31st, 2023.

Read the full article here