As a long-time iPad user, who's been covering Apple for several years, I've had a growing suspicion: iPads are basically just laptops now.
In 2024, when Apple launched the iPad Pro with M4 chip — before they'd even put that chip in a MacBook — alongside the iPad Air with M2 chip (and then the M3 version just a few months later), all signs showed my inclination was right. Apple wants its tablets to be as powerful as its laptops.
But the final piece of evidence to prove my hypothesis came at Apple's 2025 WWDC, when the brand announced the newest feature coming to iPads called "Windows." The feature allows users to resize the app windows within the screen to view multiple applications at once. While this feature is new to iPads, it's been a standard feature of laptops for most of their existence.
If the math is mathing the way I think it is, Apple's iPads are basically just laptops now. Here's how Apple is turning its tablets into laptops, and why they might be the more affordable option.
Apple's M series chips now power the brand's computers. It's one of the most powerful processors we've tested, expanding Apple products' speed and efficiency. The first time we saw the M4 chip wasn't in a laptop but Apple's iPad Pro, which scored 14,586 on Geekbench 6, better than most laptops we'd tested at the time.
Half of Apple's iPads now have the M series of chips. The iPad Pro includes the M4, while the iPad Air has the M3 chip. Meanwhile, the other half of the iPad lineup features Apple's A series chips, which are usually found in iPhones. Based on processors alone, it appears that half of Apple's iPad models are quite literally built to compute as laptops. However, that line could soon blur.
Rumors are swirling that Apple's next MacBook may be an affordable model that features an A series chip, which would truly mean you can't judge a laptop or tablet based on its processor alone.
And to be clear, not every iPad is basically a laptop. The iPad mini's screen is just way too small to compete — that being said, it is a great e-reader alternative. But the standard iPad, iPad Air, and iPad Pro all have 11-inch screens, two inches shy of the smallest 13-inch MacBook. However, the iPad Air and iPad Pro fully close that gap with their 13-inch models.
OK, but even if they have the same size screen as a laptop, they're still only half a laptop, right? Sort of. While iPads are technically just a touchscreen, Magic Keyboards turn them into workstations. These keyboards, now available to purchase alongside an iPad, seamlessly connect to the tablets (à la AirPods and iPhones) and allow you to type on any actual keyboard rather than a screen. They even include a laptop-style trackpad.
The keyboards range from folios for the basic iPad to the more advanced keyboard stands for the iPad Air and Pro, which make the iPad look just like a laptop. In fact, an iPad and Magic Keyboard set-up more closely resembles a 2-in-1 laptop, like the Microsoft Surface.
With the addition of an Apple Pencil to the iPad and Magic Keyboard pairing, the iPad becomes the ideal Mac for artists too. While interviewing graphic designers about the best laptops for their line of work, many remarked that an iPad was actually their preferred device over a laptop.
However, where iPads and laptops veer from each other is their ports. iPads offer a single USB-C port while laptops typically have multiple ports, including USB-A, USB-C, and HDMI ports. That being said, Apple's port options are dwindling, with some MacBooks just offering three USB-C ports. However, both the iPad and MacBook can work around this with the assistance of a dongle that plugs in and offers port variety.
Even though an iPad looks like a laptop, it doesn't mean that it can function like one. With a laptop you have the ability to organize file storage and navigate through multiple windows. And on an iPad you now... have the ability to organize file storage and navigate through multiple windows.
Both iPads and iPhones now feature file storage apps that essentially work like Finder on the portable devices. And with the introduction of "Windows" coming to the next iteration of iPadOS, users can view multiple apps at once for a better workflow.
So, in terms of functionality, the iPad and laptop Venn diagram is basically a circle.
iPads don't overlap with laptops, specifically MacBooks, on one particular front: price. And that actually works in the tablets' favor. The basic iPad and iPad Air are priced hundreds of dollars less than Apple's most affordable laptop, the MacBook Air.
I liken the price differences between iPads and MacBooks to that of Chromebooks and standard Windows computers; they're a more affordable option, with some decreased functionality. But in the case of iPads, which are typically more expensive than Chromebooks anyway, they also have far more functionality than Chromebooks.
The most affordable iPad starts at $349, while the most affordable MacBook is the 13-inch MacBook Air, which starts at $999. Even if you upgrade to the iPad Air, which has the M3 chip just like that starter MacBook Air, it starts at just $599. And if you were to add on the $269 Magic Keyboard, that comes out to $868, still saving you over $100 compared to the MacBook Air.
However, the more advanced the iPad model you shop, the more it starts to be priced like a laptop. But, even the 13-inch iPad Pro is $300 cheaper than the 14-inch MacBook Pro — and both come with the M4 chip.
Is this all to say that you should be buying an iPad over a MacBook these days? Not at all. But it is to offer up a more affordable alternative in the iPad, which can go head-to-head with many laptops, especially MacBooks.
These days, every new TV on the market is a smart TV. This means they come with a built-in interface to access all your favorite streaming services. But I have a hot take: most smart TVs make for terrible streaming devices. Sure, you can technically access most of your favorite streamers, but so often these built-in smart TV platforms are clunky, slow, and not very user-friendly. Plus, some older smart TVs can't handle new streaming apps like Peacock or Apple TV+, which means you'll never know what happens on Severance. Even if you do invest in a new TV, the best streaming devices can give it an instant upgrade.
The streaming device market is pretty crowded; there are various boxes and sticks that promise 4K picture and easy navigation. Unfortunately, tech brands are really good at making claims they can't live up to. (We're looking at you, Google Home.) And having spent months testing streaming devices, I can say with certainty that not all streamers are created equal. While some bring swift, theater-quality picture, others get bogged down by slow, ad-laden UX.
So, I tested the best contenders — including Apple TV, Roku, and Google TV — to find the best streaming device for your TV.
The two most popular names in streaming are Apple and Roku. So it begs the question of is a Roku or Apple TV better? The answer isn't so straightforward and depends on what you're looking for. Apple only makes one streaming device, the Apple TV, while Roku makes dozens of devices and TVs.
An Apple TV is an extremely straightforward device that is fast, easy to navigate, delivers stunning picture, and best of all, a totally ad-free home page. The remote features built in voice controls and all of the apps can sync with your TV so all the shows you're currently watching, across streamers, consolidate in one place on the home page. For a long time, it was the priciest streamer on this list, but now the Amazon Fire TV Cube has dethroned it.
While we do prefer the Apple TV to Roku devices, they aren't without their merits. Roku matches Apple's processing speed and delivers, clear, crisp visuals that don't require any buffering time. Roku has a slightly more cluttered landing page than the Apple TV, but it's easily customizable, if you're particular about how it's organized.
And where Roku has the leg up on the Apple TV is in its affordability. A Roku 4K streaming stick costs $49.99, less than half of an Apple TV and even their high end Roku Ultra is just $99.99, $30 less than an Apple TV. If price is your priority, a Roku will serve you well. But if you want the best streaming experience possible, go for an Apple TV.
Back to School: College students love the Woozoo fan, and its on sale for $39The Iris Woozoo fan is a cult favorite in college dorm rooms, and it's on sale for $39.97 in this back-to-school deal.
SAVE $10: Grab the Iris Woozoo globe fan for $39.97 at Walmart.
I've already written about how the Iris Woozoo fan helped save my sheets during this summer's relentless heat waves. And now that we've entered back-to-school shopping season, I wanted to give this fan another shoutout, as it's on sale at Walmart (and Best Buy).
You can find a ton of dorm room essentials, fun decor, and just plain fun products on sale right now. For more recommendations, check out our back-to-school guide for college students. If you're putting together a shopping list, then I highly recommend adding the Woozoo fan.
I got this globe fan as a birthday gift, and it's helped me survive a particularly hot and humid summer in Brooklyn, New York. My dad picked this up after hearing my college-aged cousins rave about it, and Reddit is full of testimonials from college students (and college parents) who are equally enthusiastic. Why do I love this fan?
It's surprisingly strong, quiet, and compact, and I can see why it would be so useful in a dorm room. It's got some cool additional features, such as a sleep timer, a remote control, and a natural breeze setting, which I haven't seen before. The globe shape helps it fit into small spaces, and the oscillation and adjustable speeds let you quickly cool off a small space like a dorm, bedroom, or home office.
You can currently find the best price on the Woozoo fan at Walmart, where it's listed for $39.97, a $10 discount from the usual retail price. Best Buy also has this fan on sale, though for a whopping 2 cents higher price. Amazon also has other Woozoo fans on sale, but none of its deals beat this Walmart Rollback.
The wars in the stars never end. But sometimes they fade away.
That's what happened to the Star Wars franchise after an exhausted George Lucas wrapped the original trilogy with Return of the Jedi in 1983. Decades later, fans still refer to the subsequent 10-year famine of Star Wars entertainment as the Dark Times. It happened again when Lucas wrapped up the prequel trilogy with Revenge of the Sith in 2005, urging fans to "grow up" and leave their moisture farms. It would be another decade before we'd see Star Wars live action on the big screen again.
And it's happening once more in 2025. Lucas himself, of course, is happily divorced from his baby — in his first San Diego Comic-Con appearance ever, the creator was disinterested in Star Wars and focused on his new narrative art museum. But the mouse-eared stewards of his franchise, intentionally or otherwise, are following his lead and letting it lie fallow.
There are just two Star Wars movies and two Disney+ TV shows that are definitely arriving in the next few years. And they skew toward safety, toward a certain kind of built-in Star Wars fandom. More casual fans, or those looking for live-action originality, may be out of luck.
If the messy Mandalorian season 3 finale left you cold, if you're not a fan of the self-referential work of Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka), there's arguably nothing in your wheelhouse with an official release date. There's volume 3 of Visions, an artsy series of Star Wars aperitifs, coming in October — but no meaty meal for which these bite-size cartoons can whet our appetite.
The critically acclaimed Andor had its series finale, wrapping up Star Wars 2025 on a high note. Despite burning questions that remained, despite the revelation (spoiler alert for the season 2 finale) of an Andor junior, there are no plans to revive Tony Gilroy's thoughtful, uncompromising takes on what the Star Wars galaxy looks like at ground level.
The radar shows no signs of a season 2 for the other critical Star Wars hit of the last 12 months, Skeleton Crew. The High Republic series of books and comics, an attempt to create a brand new pre-Stormtrooper area of Star Wars canon, is wrapping up this summer too, with no ambitious book plans to take its place — just a whole lot of reprints.
The High Republic yielded only one on-screen connection, The Acolyte, canceled at its most interesting moment. Love The Acolyte (we did) or hate it, that dangling Darth Plagueis thread at the end meant the show deserved more than it got this year (fans can order a Visual Guide to the series).
Perhaps the most successful attempt to keep that whole pre-prequel wing of Star Wars open is Bioware's Old Republic MMO, still going strong after 14 years. (And even that money-minting mini-franchise appears to have ended its line of expansions; the last was in 2022.)
So, what is on the docket for Star Wars' future, and when can we expect it? Here's a brief guide to all upcoming Star Wars live-action entertainment on the big and small screens that actually has a title:
Finally, 49 years after it first hit the big screen, Star Wars returns to cinemas on May 22, 2026. But what we're getting is essentially The Mandalorian season 4, which Lucasfilm decided to convert to the big screen in the wake of the Hollywood writers' strike. Helmed by Jon Favreau, it promises to be a standalone story that doesn't require audiences to be familiar with the first three seasons, in theory.
Yet it still relies on characters from elsewhere in the canon — hands up: who's excited to see the return of Rotta the Hutt from the 2008 Clone Wars movie? — and the "reset button" problem from season 3 continues: Mando gets a new version of his previously destroyed Razor Crest ship.
If we're lucky, we may get more of the much-loved villain Grand Admiral Thrawn — not that his first live-action appearance was much to write home about.
Dave Filoni's next animated Disney+ TV series sees the return of sliced and spurned Sith Lord Darth Maul. We get to see what he did during the reign of his former master, Emperor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious. This is essentially fulfilling a promise made by Maul's cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), where we learned he was running a crime syndicate during Imperial times.
No exact release date has been set, nor do we know if Maul will take Star Wars into significant new territory.
The only other slated movie is directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool and Wolverine) and stars Ryan Gosling. Maybe that information alone is Ken-ough for you to get excited, or maybe you're thrilled about the fact that it's set 5 years after The Rise of Skywalker (2019), finally pushing the franchise's main tale forward into the post-First Order future.
Either way, you'll have to wait until May 2027 to find out if it's any good.
The only other TV series we're likely to see around 2027 is Dave Filoni's continuation of his first solo-helmed live-action series, Ahsoka. The eight episodes of Season 2 pick up where Season 1 left off, teasing a continuation of the Mortis arc from Clone Wars. And if that lore-heavy information leaves you scratching your head, you're not alone.
Filoni has teased a larger role for Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), last seen dueling Ahsoka (yet again) in the mysterious "world between worlds". The result could be a satisfying explanation for why Anakin was named The Chosen One in the first place. Or it could reveal this franchise as being entirely dependent on a single narrative, the tragedy of Darth Vader, more than 50 years after it began.
Even the well-teased tragedy of Darth Plagueis is not a story Disney+ will tell us.
The bulk of Star Wars plans going forward live under the heading of "untitled." Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy of Ms. Marvel fame is directing the only other movie in pre-production; this is the one featuring the return of Rey (Daisy Ridley), so it presumably ties in to the Starfighter era of the galaxy far, far away.
Beyond that, here are the slim threads of new hope for the rest of the 2020s: untitled Dave Filoni film, untitled James Mangold film, untitled Taika Waititi film, and Simon Kinberg's untitled trilogy set in a brand new Star Wars era with brand new characters. Hopefully, that effort will have more luck than the untitled Rian Johnson trilogy, which reportedly had the same aim.
And you can at least set your reminders for one more cinematic release in 2027. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is heading back to theaters on April 30, 2027, in time for the franchise's 50th birthday. Expect breathless anticipation about we're going to see the 1977 original, or the latest George Lucas "Macklunkey!" version, which you can already watch on Disney+; maybe Lucas himself could be persuaded to tweak his creation yet one more time.
The Force of nostalgia will be with Star Wars, always. But the Force of creative originality? That's still TBD.
I compared Nothing Headphone (1) to my Bose, Sony, and AirPods Max headphonesShould you buy the Nothing Headphone (1), Sony XM6, Bose QuietComfort Ultra, or Apple AirPods Max? We compared them all ear-to-ear.
The Nothing Headphones (1) are officially here and can be purchased for the relatively attainable price of $299. There hasn’t been this much hype around a headphone design since, well, the AirPods Max, which speaks to their popularity right now.
The UK brand's signature translucent aesthetic has been one of the biggest trends in the wireless audio sector, inspiring rival brands (e.g., Beats, Sony) to copy this fashion for select true wireless releases. Their debut headphones are the company’s boldest launch to date and pay homage to vintage audio products, like FM radio headsets and the Sony Walkman.
Reviews for the Headphones (1) have been generally positive (I scored them 4.4 out of 5 for my Mashable review). I was impressed with their adaptive active noise cancellation, hi-res sound, and lengthy playtimes, but was disappointed in their wireless performance and appearance. (What can I say, the aesthetic is love it or hate it.)
If you’re seriously considering the Headphones (1) as your next over-ear upgrade, then you’ll want to know how they compare to the best headphones of the year. In particular, the Big Three: the AirPods Max, Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and Sony WH-1000XM6. You may also be interested in how they fare against other newcomers. I've got you covered.
Here’s a breakdown of the Nothing Headphones (1) versus the field — it's all or Nothing.
The $449 Sony WH-1000XM6 are much more expensive than the Headphones (1). They are considered the best sound-first headphones by many and an improvement over the critically acclaimed WH-1000XM5. Do the Headphones (1) stand a chance?
Battery life: The Headphones (1) last longer on a single charge. Expect up to 35 hours of noise cancellation and up to 80 hours of playback when disabling the feature. That’s 5 hours more in ANC mode and double the listening time with ANC off than Sony offers. Quick charging goes to the WH-1000XM6: a 3-minute charge generates 3 hours of playtime. This requires a USB-PD (power delivery) compatible charge. Nothing’s quick charging isn’t too far behind with a 5-minute charge netting you 5 hours of use.
Noise cancellation: The WH-1000xM6 have superior noise cancellation. These headphones eliminate close to 90 percent of noise and suppress high-frequency sounds at a high level. Sony’s 20-level transparency mode also does a remarkable job of increasing ambient awareness. Nothing’s real-time ANC effectively optimizes noise neutralization for all environments. I was shocked by how well the Headphones (1) silenced most low- and mid-frequency sounds. Their transparency mode was just as rewarding, though some noises sounded tinny.
Sound performance: Only a handful of companies can compete with Sony’s wireless audio. Nothing isn’t one of them. Despite having KEF-engineered drivers, the Headphones (1) lack the WH-1000xM6’s dynamic range and personalization. Sony’s headphones feature a more balanced soundstage, stabler bass, and various proprietary technologies that enhance audio. These include DSEE upscaling, Equalizer with numerous preprogrammed presets, and smooth-streaming LDAC codec support. You have to tinker with the Headphones (1)’s EQ and enable LDAC to get the best audio possible. Otherwise, songs sound compressed with limited detail. Nothing’s spatial is OK. Sony’s 360 Reality Audio platform is more convincing. Lossless playback is equally satisfying over USB-C connection.
Usability: You’re looking at two of the best multiplatform headphones around. They have companion apps (iOS/Android) and support popular Android features like one-tap Google Fast Pair. Connectivity goes to Sony. Multipoint technology (pair to two devices simultaneously) is more reliable on the XM6 and doesn’t cause stuttering like the Headphones (1). Controls also go to Sony. The XM6 have meticulous motion detection, physical/touch inputs, and voice assistance. I love the Headphones (1)’s unique controls, specifically the multifunctional roller for seamless volume adjustment and paddle for track management. However, their iffy voice assistance and terrible wear detection leave much to be desired.
The Nothing Headphones (1) might get you more for your dollar, but the Sony WH-1000XM6 win out with class-leading performance. However, if you can't afford the $450 price of entry for flagship headphones, then the $299 Nothing cans are a more than worthy alternative.
These two smartphone makers are now duking it out in the over-ear headphone market. Apple recently updated its flagship headphones with lossless audio, USB-C charging, and... not much else. The Headphones (1) should have this in the bag. Right?
Battery life: This is the one category where Nothing destroys Apple. The AirPods Max receive a measly 20 hours per charge, whereas the Headphones (1) get between 35 to 80 hours of playtime, depending how you use them. Quick charging is stronger on the Headphones (1). You’ll earn 5 hours on a 5-minute charge versus the AirPods Max’s 1.5 hours in the same charging time.
Noise cancellation: Nothing’s ANC is up there with Bose and Sony, at least based on Mashable's testing so far. Apple’s is not. I've worn the Headphones (1) in multiple environments and have rarely been caught off guard by the fracas around me. Not everything goes unnoticed (i.e., my crying baby). Still, the Headphone (1) minimize high-frequency sounds better than the AirPods Max. It’s hard to judge between the two transparency modes. Both are solid. I'm leaning toward Apple’s version since it makes ambient noise sound more natural.
Sound performance: The Headphones (1) are more suitable for standard listening, and the AirPods Max are ideal for 3D audio. Nothing offers more hi-res playback options via lossless audio over Bluetooth and USB-C connector. The AirPods Max only provide the latter, and the results are great. Bluetooth playback is where the AirPods Max stumble; the standard AAC codec lacks the clarity and nuance delivered by LDAC on the Headphones (1). Apple’s spatial audio creates immersive stereo sound that places you in the middle of live performances. The Headphones (1) have decent spatial audio with raised acoustics. That’s about it.
Usability: Apple’s intuitive ecosystem allows for flawless interconnectivity with all compatible brand devices. The Headphones (1) don’t operate as intuitively as the AirPods Max do on iOS/macOS, but they perform fine. They’re also more Android friendly (e.g., Google Fast Pair) and can pair to two audio sources at the same time, granted the technology isn’t as polished as it is on other headphones. Several features on the AirPods Max are disabled when using an Android phone, like Siri voice assistance. The Nothing brand makes most features available on both platforms via companion app. The AirPods Max have a more versatile control scheme, highlighted by the Digital Crown (aka the multifunctional dial) and unbeatable “Hey Siri” voice activation. As previously stated, the Headphones (1)’s roller and paddle controls are efficient, but their spotty voice assistance and wear detection diminish functionality.
As convenient and high-performance as the AirPods Max are for iOS/macOS users, the Headphones (1) beat their foe in most categories, and do so at nearly half the price. There's a reason the AirPods Max are conspicuously missing from our guide to the best headphones.
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra currently stand as the best noise-canceling headphones overall. This a steep hill for any newcomer to climb, and Nothing puts its best foot forward, even if the outcome isn’t favorable. But there’s more to this battle than just noise cancellation.
Battery life: Nothing pulls off the trifecta and beats the Big Three in playtimes. Up to 80 hours of listening time (35 hours with ANC on) is sufficient for several weeks of moderate use. Battery life remains Bose’s kryptonite. Not only do the QC Ultra max out at 24 hours, but their quick charging is weaker: 2.5 hours on a 15-minute charge versus 5 hours on a 5-minute charge.
Noise cancellation: The QC Ultra prove why Bose is the King of ANC. Adaptive algorithms and more strategically placed mics produce elite noise reduction. It takes incredibly loud commotions to disrupt the soundstage, especially when ANC is set to level 10. Whatever breaks through will sound like background effects on songs. Bose’s Aware Mode accurately picks up ambient noise. The Headphones (1) have superb noise-canceling and transparency modes, but they don’t block out or capture as much ambient noise as the QC Ultra.
Sound performance: Bose gets the nod solely on spatial audio. Its universal Immersive Audio mode works with all stereo content, meaning you can use the feature with practically any media device and take in exceptional 360-degree sound. The QC Ultra also utilize proprietary CustomTune technology to personalize audio based on the unique properties of your ear and ear canal. It works surprisingly well and produces well-balanced frequencies. Then there’s aptX Adaptive codec support for detailed, hi-res playback with minimal latency. The Headphones (1) come with more lossless playback options (LDAC and USB-C), both of which deliver clear, dynamic sound. It’s the restrictive soundstage and so-so spatial audio that prevent Nothing’s wireless cans for making a bigger sonic splash.
Usability: Operating the Headphones (1) is much more fun, thanks to the paddle and roller on the right earcup for track management and volume, respectively. If only their digital assistance and wear detection were on point. The QC Ultra’s physical button scheme, voice activation, and wear detection all work well. Connectivity is stronger on Bose’s headphones. Range extends up to 40 feet when in multipoint mode before stutter occurs. Stepping past the 20-foot mark causes some dropout on the Headphones (1). Both models pair instantly to iOS/macOS and Android devices and have serviceable companion apps.
Which is the better investment? This is another scenario where the Headphones (1) get you more bang for your buck. However, the QC Ultra present the absolute-best noise cancellation and spatial audio money can buy. They're also the most comfortable headphones Mashable has ever tested, and perfect for long flights. Not to mention these headphones are occasionally on sale (I've seen them go for as low as $299), making them just as affordable as the Headphones (1) during annual shopping events like Amazon Prime Day.
The $449 JBL Tour One M3 come to mind. These are feature-rich headphones with robust ANC and a remote controller that doubles as a transmitter to connect to any audio source. The higher MSRP translates to more features and stronger audio performance. Some consumers may find the Headphones (1)’s ease of use and striking ANC more appealing for the price. Another model worth considering is the $399 Sonos Ace, which have engaging sound and fantastic ecosystem integration for Sonos soundbar owners. App support, noise cancellation, and playtimes are greater on the Headphones (1), however.
Curious how the Nothing Headphones (1) compare to mid-range gems like the $199 Sony ULT Wear or some of the best headphones under $100? Give us your feedback and we may put together another comparison piece in the future.
I reviewed the Nothing headphones for Mashable, and overall, it was a very positive review. While these lose out on a technical level to some elite flagships, I actually like them better than the Apple AirPods Max, which cost a lot more. And if you're a fan of Nothing's retro-futuristic aesthetic, then I think you'll be very pleased with these cans.
Here's the bottom line: If you want the best headphones money can buy, I have to give it up to the XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra over the Nothing Headphone (1). However, that $299 price tag is hard to resist, and this is the only pair of over-ears that lets you get true flagship quality for under $300.
A James Webb Space Telescope study is setting the record straight on the ages of some known ancient galaxies, which have turned out to be much older and farther away in space than previously thought.
Webb, a joint observatory of NASA and its European and Canadian counterparts, took a fresh look at a piece of the sky made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope's ultra-deep field view more than 20 years ago. At that time, Hubble's long-exposure image was extremely ambitious: Scientists pointed the telescope at a seemingly starless area, unsure what photons they'd collect.
In the end, that ultra-deep field image was "found to be anything but blank," Webb researchers said, "containing thousands of distant galaxies."
Now with Webb, this patch of sky is revealing more about the universe — even shuffling the cosmic timeline. Known as the MIRI Deep Imaging Survey, the project involved the Webb telescope's mid-infrared instrument, which detects light wavelengths invisible to the naked eye. The new findings from the survey are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
With Webb, astronomers are able to observe the faint infrared glow from ancient stars and the structures they formed. The telescope trained on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field area for 100 hours, according to the research, including 41 hours with one particular filter. The resulting image picked up dim signals from galaxies when the universe was barely a few hundred million years old — a mere whippersnapper.
To understand a deep field space image, think of it as you would a core sample taken from the ground, collecting older rocks and soil the farther down you go: The image is a tiny-but-distant slice of space, revealing cosmic history by cutting across billions of light-years, each deeper layer revealing an earlier time.
"To our knowledge, this constitutes the longest single-filter exposure obtained with (Webb) of an extragalactic field as of yet," the authors wrote.
The project, dubbed MIDIS for short, found nearly 2,500 light sources, most of them distant galaxies. About 1,000 now have revised distance estimates, based on how their light has shifted.
Webb was built to observe an early period known as "cosmic dawn," between 100 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, detecting light at invisible infrared wavelengths. In short, light gets stretched — or "redshifted" — over time and distance by the expansion of the universe. Those infrared waves can also pierce through the prevalent gas and dust in space that could otherwise obscure far and naturally weaker light sources.
In one case, the project found that a galaxy previously believed to be 11.8 billion years old was closer to 13.3 billion — pushing its origins back to when the universe was perhaps just 450 million years old. That puts the galaxy squarely in the first wave of galaxies formed.
Other objects in the MIDIS image reveal a different story: hundreds of red galaxies, some of which got their color because they’re dusty or contain mature, cooler stars. Either way, the results show Webb's MIRI instrument can be a powerful tool for uncovering missed or misidentified ancient galaxies. Not even NASA's Spitzer, a now-retired infrared space telescope, saw with this level of clarity.
That bodes well for researchers looking into how the universe evolved from birthing the first galaxies to a time when star and supermassive black hole formation seemed to peak.
"MIDIS surpasses preflight expectations," the authors wrote. "Deep MIRI imaging has great potential to characterise the galaxy population from cosmic noon to dawn."
The DJI Mini 4K drone is flying off the shelves — here’s where to get yoursThe DJI Mini 4K drone is available to purchase for $249 on Amazon. That's the lowest-ever price.
TL;DR: The DJI Mini 4K drone is on sale for $249 at Amazon (Prime member discount). Not a member? You can still score this drone for under $300.
DJI is one of the biggest names in drones, with a strong reputation for creating incredible aerial shots. The DJI product range is the top choice of TikTokers, YouTubers, and filmmakers. That being said, we were surprised to see the DJI Mini 4K drone so near the top of the charts of best-sellers over Prime Day. We knew these drones were popular, but surely not as popular as AirPods?
Then the real reason hit us like a drone to the head.
President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at helping the U.S. drone industry and shoring up protections against malicious drone activity. The measures don't actually order a full ban on Chinese-made drones (yet), but talk of a ban on DJI drones has been doing the rounds for a while now. That uncertainty is clearly causing an uptick in sales.
The good news for anyone hoping to buy before a potential ban is that you can still find the DJI Mini 4K drone on Amazon. In fact, it's on sale for $249 at Amazon for Prime members. It's being shipped and sold by AeroTech Hubs. We don't generally recommend third-party sellers, but AeroTech Hubs has an excellent track record and times are tough right now. With stock running low, we'll take what we can get.
The DJI Mini 4K is full of helpful features for beginners and advanced users alike. It has one-tap takeoff options and a return to home function. But perhaps most importantly for content creators is the three-axis gimbal and 4K quality, as well as advanced wind resistance and extended battery life. It's a step up from the DJI Neo Mini 4K that we think creators will appreciate.
Prime members can get the DJI Mini 4K drone for under $250 at Amazon. Everyone else can still get their hands on this drone for under $300.
Akiva Schaffer breaks down The Naked Guns outrageous love montage"The Naked Gun" director Akiva Schaffer reveals how he came up with the film's ridiculously funny snowman montage.
Director Akiva Schaffer's Naked Gun reboot is chock-full of deliriously stupid gags, celebrity cameos, and deadpan goodness — in short, all the things that made the original Leslie Nielsen classic so beloved.
But in a film full of comedic highlights, the standout sequence has to be the ridiculous romantic montage between Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson) and Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), in which they head to a romantic snowy cabin getaway, summon a magic snowman, have a threesome with said snowman, make the snowman jealous, and then flee for their lives from the killer snowman. It's Naked Gun meets Jack Frost, and it had me going from "no way they're doing this" to "please, I never want this to end" in the span of mere minutes.
Given that the snowman romance-turned-slasher is such a fever dream, it only makes since that it came to Schaffer in the wee hours of the morning.
"One night, at four in the morning, I woke up to go to the bathroom, and I just saw the entire thing," Schaffer told Mashable in a Zoom interview.
Schaffer, along with co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, had always wanted to include a love montage in the film. It would serve as one of the reboot's many tributes to the original Naked Gun, which throws Nielsen and Priscilla Presley into a gloriously cheesy parody of other '80s movie montages. But Schaffer, Gregor, and Mand knew that they couldn't just recreate that beat for beat: They'd have to do something different enough to make it stand out.
Enter Schaffer's early morning vision of the killer snowman, which he wrote up "in about 10 minutes" and sent to Gregor and Mand straight away.
"[What I wrote] is almost beat for beat what's in the movie," Schaffer said. "It barely changed."
Once the love montage was written, the focus turned on how to bring the snowman itself to life.
"The VFX department flagged a million dollars for a VFX snowman, and then, very quickly, everyone's like, 'Well, you can't do that sequence, it's too expensive,'" Schaffer recalled. "We had to keep being like, 'It's not going to be CG. It needs to be a puppet, a mascot costume.' So we got the Jim Henson Company involved."
"They came in late to the process," added producer Erica Huggins. "They knew exactly what the assignment was, and they worked very closely with Akiva to make sure that [the snowman] wasn't too slick."
"It was basically like Jabba the Hutt," Schaffer joked.
The puppet's lack of slick visual realism is why the snowman sequence works so well. There's an endearing, nostalgic quality to the puppeteering — especially the simple yet expressive eyebrows. When the montage takes its turn into slasher territory, that endearing quality takes the comedy to the next level. After all, who goes into a Naked Gun movie expecting to see a Frosty the Snowman Muppet try to kill Liam Neeson?
Even Neeson was astounded by the sequence, telling Mashable: "I remember reading it in the script and thinking, 'No, this is too crazy. It's too outrageous.' But it seems to work."
The Naked Gun is now in theaters.
The 2025 Apple MacBook Air M4 is down to its record-low price at AmazonThe Apple MacBook Air M4 is on sale at Amazon for $799, down from the list price of $999. That's the best-ever price.
SAVE $200: The Apple MacBook Air M4 is on sale for $799 at Amazon, down from the list price of $999. That's the lowest-ever price on Amazon.
We've spotted some standout deals on Apple over the last few months, peaking over Prime Day. But there's one deal that hasn't just stuck around post Prime Day. It has got even better.
As of Aug. 2, the Apple MacBook Air M4 is on sale for just $799 at Amazon. That's down from the list price of $999, and the lowest-ever price on Amazon. This really is one of the best deals we've come across in 2025 (if not the best). In Mashable's comparison of the best MacBooks, the Air gets the nod as the best overall, and it also happens to be the most affordable. What's not to love?
Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder reviewed the M4 MacBook Air and wrote, "The new MacBook Air is great. It's powerful, silent, and comes with a couple of much-needed upgrades. It's also cheaper than before, making it the best-buy Apple laptop, period."
Get the best-ever price on the MacBook Air M4 at Amazon.
MS Visio’s got all of your visuals handled for just $15Get Microsoft Visio Professional 2021 for just $14.97 (reg. $249.99) and easily turn data into powerful diagrams.
TL;DR: Turn your data into diagrams that make sense — MS Visio 2021 Professional is just $14.97 (reg. $249.99) for a limited time.
We can all agree that giant spreadsheets and complex datasets don’t exactly scream storytelling masterpiece. That’s where Microsoft Visio 2021 Professional can help shake things up.
It’s the tool that turns chaos into clarity, transforming your data into clean, shareable diagrams that actually make sense. Whether you’re mapping out a project plan, designing a floor layout, or wrangling a web of network devices, Visio gives you the shapes, templates, and features to do it with style (and sanity).
No design degree required here. Just pick from dozens of built-in templates — flowcharts, org charts, mind maps, floor plans, fishbone diagrams — and drag and drop your way to something that looks like it took hours (but didn’t). With over 250,000 shapes available through Visio’s online library, your visuals can be as simple or sophisticated as you need.
And if you’re working on a touch-enabled device, you can sketch, annotate, or drag shapes around with just a finger or stylus, because sometimes using a mouse just feels wrong.
Got real-time data in Excel? Pull it straight into your diagrams. Need to automatically generate an org chart from Exchange? Visio’s got it covered. You can even collaborate with your team and validate diagrams against industry standards like BPMN, UML, and IEEE.
It’s Microsoft’s ultimate visual solution, and at this steeply reduced sale price, it’s the kind of deal you grab before it’s gone.
Get lifetime access to Microsoft Visio 2021 Professional for Windows for just $14.97 (reg. $249.99) for a limited time.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: Youbooks turns your ideas into fully written, professionally styled non-fiction books using powerful multi-AI collaboration — get lifetime access now for just $49 (reg. $540).
We all have a book in us — or at least, a great idea for one. But writing it? That’s where most of us get stuck. Youbooks is here to flip the script. With a one-time $49 purchase, you can unlock lifetime access to a seriously powerful AI-driven platform that turns your ideas into full-blown non-fiction books — without the months-long slog or the need for ghostwriters.
Think of it like an AI writing room
Youbooks doesn’t rely on just one AI model — it combines the strengths of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama to create deeply researched, well-structured, and engaging content up to 300,000 words long. It even does real-time internet research while it writes, so that the facts and stats in your book are up to date. Want it to sound like you? You can upload style samples and personal notes so the tone is spot-on.
You define the concept, tone, and direction. Youbooks does the heavy lifting.
Whether you’re a coach looking to package your insights, a content creator repurposing your podcast, or an entrepreneur ready to build authority with a branded book, Youbooks makes it simple — and a little bit thrilling. With full commercial rights, you can publish, sell, or distribute your books as you see fit.
You get 150,000 monthly credits, enough to generate hefty manuscripts or multiple smaller projects. And the platform is built for growth, so you’ll get access to updates and improvements as they roll out.
Youbooks takes your idea, adds AI superpowers, and hands you back a book. No subscriptions. No writer’s block.
Get lifetime access to Youbooks while it’s on sale for just $49 (reg. $540) for a limited time.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: Save big on a Grade A refurbished 16″ MacBook Pro (2019) with a gorgeous Retina display, upgraded keyboard, 11-hour battery, and powerhouse specs — for just $579.99 (MSRP: $2,799).
Whether you’re outfitting your college-bound kid with a dependable machine or treating yourself to a serious productivity upgrade, this offer is one of those rare “wait, really?” moments. For just $579.99, you get a Grade A refurbished 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019) — a powerful Apple laptop that originally sold for nearly five times the price.
Let’s talk highlights: a gorgeous Retina display, the improved Magic Keyboard (no more butterfly blues), 11-hour battery life, and a powerful combo of a 2.6GHz Intel Core i7, 32GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That’s enough firepower to handle everything from Final Cut Pro to 50-tab Chrome browsing marathons.
Oh, and it’s rocking the Touch Bar — love it or leave it, it still looks futuristic as heck — and AMD Radeon Pro 5300M graphics for smooth video editing and design. Whether it’s your main rig, your college toolkit, or your on-the-go creative companion, this MacBook Pro still punches well above its (heavily discounted) price tag.
And let’s not forget versatility. The 16-inch MacBook Pro isn’t just built for creatives — though it can handle Photoshop and Final Cut like a dream — it’s also a solid fit for anyone who juggles spreadsheets, Zoom calls, emails, and everything in between. Thanks to macOS’s seamless integration with iPhones and iPads, it’s an ideal machine for anyone already in the Apple ecosystem.
With a Grade A refurb rating, it arrives in near-mint condition, ready to go right out of the box. You just saved over two grand. Feel free to brag.
Get this MacBook Pro with Touch Bar for just $579.99 (MSRP $2,799) for a limited time.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: Thousands of retro games, 4K visuals, and dual OS magic — this nostalgia-packed retro gaming console is just $89.97 (reg. $159.99) with free shipping through September 7.
If your ideal weekend includes mashing buttons, pixelated dragons, and yelling “Hadouken!” at your screen, this one’s for you. The Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro is a plug-and-play nostalgia machine loaded with thousands of retro and 3D games. And it’s only $89.97 at the moment (reg. $159.99). No monthly subscriptions, no in-app nonsense. Just pure gaming joy, straight out of the box.
What makes this console such a homerun? The Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro takes your favorite childhood gaming memories, upgrades the graphics, adds Wi-Fi, and packs it all into a sleek, plug-and-play system that costs less than a new controller.
You’re getting two powerful systems in one: Android 9.0 for apps and streaming, plus EmuELEC 4.6 for all your retro gaming needs. It supports 4K UHD video output, and the included dual wireless controllers mean you and a buddy can dive into head-to-head battles or co-op sessions without fuss.
The X2 Pro comes pre-loaded with classics across platforms — think Zelda, Final Fantasy VII, Sonic, Street Fighter II, and thousands more — plus you can download even more 3D games for free. Whether you’re revisiting your childhood favorites or introducing younger family members to the golden age of gaming, this console brings all the magic back.
Add in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two operating systems, and compatibility with TVs, projectors, or even your laptop, and this little gray box turns any screen into an arcade.
Don’t miss getting the Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro while it’s just $89.97 (reg. $159.99) with free shipping through September 7.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: No subscriptions, no cloud reliance — just classic MS Office apps for Mac with a one-time $69.97 payment.
We love a good cloud as much as the next person, but sometimes, you just want your tools to live close by, like right on your computer. If you’re on a Mac and tired of subscription fees piling up, here’s a serious upgrade: Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac is now available as a one-time purchase for just $69.97.
No monthly fees, no renewals — just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and even basic Microsoft Teams access, yours to keep forever.
You can rest assured that this isn’t some watered-down online-only version. It’s the full desktop suite — which means you can work offline, organize your life, manage your business, or tackle schoolwork with all the tools you already know and love.
Need to build spreadsheets that auto-calculate your vacation days? Done. Want to make a PowerPoint that actually wows your coworkers? Easy. Would you prefer to write your next great novel in Word while offline in a cozy café? Go for it.
Whether you’re a solopreneur juggling invoices and pitches, a parent managing school reports and schedules, or just someone who likes their digital life neat and organized, this version of Office gives you the flexibility to handle it all. And because you’re using the desktop apps — not cloud-dependent versions — you get faster load times, better file control, and zero surprises if your Wi-Fi decides to take a break.
It’s reliable, familiar, and built to help you get stuff done, even when you’re off the grid.
Since this license is tied to your Microsoft Account (not your device), you can reinstall it if you upgrade your Mac down the road. It’s a pretty rare combo: future-proof, fuss-free, and forever yours.
Get lifetime access to MS Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac while it’s just $69.97 (reg. $219).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Nothing feels as good as a deep, genuine laugh. It's an expression of joy! It's a workout. It's a sign that you're having a good time.
Netflix has a dazzling selection of comedy movies that give you that good-time feeling on demand. Whether you're craving action-spiked shenanigans, quirky coming-of-age adventures, awkward humor, stranger-than-fiction silliness, madcap musical numbers, or crime with a spree of laughs, there's a perfect pick for you. And we've made singling it out all the easier by highlighting the most hilarious below.
Here are the funniest movies now streaming on Netflix.
If Too Much has you craving more Megan Stalter, you'll want to catch up with this underseen gem. Directed by Hannah Pearl Utt, Cora Bora centers on the titular musician (played by Stalter), who has left Portland and her girlfriend (Jojo T. Gibbs) behind to pursue her dreams in LA. The couple's open relationship allows each to explore other connections — or, in Cora’s case, endure an awkward one-night stand with a sexy Flat Earther (Thomas Mann). But when Cora begins to fear that her girlfriend is catching feelings for someone else, it prompts the chaotic bisexual into a hasty homecoming.
In my review out of the film's SXSW premiere in 2023, I cheered, "Cora Bora proves a sensational cringe comedy, spiked with wicked humor, skin-crawling awkward scenarios, and an ardent — if wounded — heart. Deftly dancing from brash jokes to tender dialogue, Stalter reveals a riveting range and stirring screen presence. Simply put, it’s easy to fall for Cora Bora." — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Cora Bora is now streaming on Netflix.
We could all use some Paddington in our lives, so why not kick back and enjoy Paddington in Peru? Sure, it's not the masterpiece that is Paddington 2, but director Dougal Wilson still crafts a charming adventure in its own right in his directorial debut.
This time around, Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) is headed back to his homeland of deepest, darkest Peru, with the Brown family in tow. In his quest to find his missing Aunt Lucy, he'll cross paths with a high-energy, guitar-playing nun (Olivia Colman) and a cartoonish, disguise-loving boat captain (Antonio Banderas). Colman and Banderas elevate Paddington's journey from funny to downright outrageous, proving that there are few things more fun than watching seasoned performers let their freak flags fly. Check out their work and the rest of Paddington in Peru, and see why Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko called it "the movie we need right now." — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Paddington in Peru is now streaming on Netflix.
Unjustly overlooked at release in the fall of 2024, this frantically funny romp from Juno and Young Adult director Jason Reitman details the 90-minute lead-up to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in October of 1975. The ensemble cast is packed, with Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin.
Add Gabriel Labelle as Lorne Michaels, the man with the wild and crazy plan himself, and the fact that this movie managed to only be 90 minutes long with all of these characters (plus a dozen more I don't even have room to list) is a real miracle in itself. Plenty of people do get shafted time-wise — notably, most of the women, which is pretty crappy the show's own track record shafting women back in the day — but Saturday Night definitely captures the chaos and hilarious mayhem that Michaels managed to funnel into a comedy revolution. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: Saturday Night is now streaming on Netflix.
This 1988 gem is a wild watch. John Candy stars as a family man who just wants a relaxing vacation with his wife and kids at a lakeside resort. But then his obnoxious brother-in-law (Dan Aykroyd) crashes with his loud wife and eerie twins. Things get comically tense as the two fathers try to outdo each other in every area of vacation, from waterskiing to dining out. And that's before a bald bear comes onto the scene.
Filled with '80s-style outrageousness, The Great Outdoors is a hilarious comedy that still packs a punch. — K.P.
How to watch: The Great Outdoors is now streaming on Netflix.
Valentine's Day gets a horror-comedy makeover in Heart Eyes, from director Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within). The titular slasher only kills on Feb. 14, when they target happy couples in love. This year, the Heart Eyes killer has marketers Ally (Olivia Holt) and Jay (Mason Gooding) in their sights. There's just one problem: Ally and Jay aren't a couple, even though a coffee shop meet-cute and undeniable chemistry seem to suggest otherwise. Can these star-crossed acquaintances and definitely not lovers survive the night and convince the Heart Eyes Killer they're totally platonic?
What follows is a cross between gory slasher and romantic comedy, and if you're a fan of both genres, chances are you'll be charmed by Heart Eyes. As Mashable contributor Kimber Myers wrote in her review, "Heart Eyes is a gory good time for those who are likely to swipe right on an off-kilter love story and a horror comedy." — B.E.
How to watch: Heart Eyes is now streaming on Netflix.
Comedian Diane Morgan has been gifting the world with her character of Philomena Cunk for a glorious decade and a half now. A dimwitted investigative journalist who butt heads with the real-world leading minds on each subject, Cunk proved to be a one-woman feast of absolute nonsense. The character Cunk started getting her own specials in 2016 with Cunk on Christmas, followed by Cunk on Britain and the epic globe-trotting mockumentary series Cunk on Earth (also streaming on Netflix).
Morgan's expanded her reach all the way to Cunk on Life, her latest side-splitter that tries to uncover the very meaning of existence itself across its humble 71-minute runtime. Does Cunk succeed? Well, Cunk definitely thinks she does, every damn time. But if not, at least we'll get to hear some Technotronic in the process, dammit! — J.A.
How to watch: Cunk On Life is now streaming on Netflix.
Eddie Murphy returns as wise-cracking Detroit police officer Axel Foley. 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop III, this sensational sequel sees Foley returning to Los Angeles to fight a new foe, reunite with old friends, and reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Reprising their supporting roles are Beverly Hills Cop co-stars John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot. New to the crew is Taylour Paige as Axel's hard-headed daughter, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a local ally, Nasim Pedrad as a flustered real estate agent, and Kevin Bacon as a smirking antagonist. The sparks will fly. The punchlines hit powerfully. The soundtrack is fire. And just like that, the heat is back on! — K.P.
How to Watch: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now streaming on Netflix.
Zach Galifianakis' awkward celebrity interview web series Between Two Ferns might not seem like fodder for a full-length movie, but Between Two Ferns: The Movie goes double meta by presenting his success on Funny or Die as an insult to the actor's intention to host a "serious" interview show. Galifianakis the character sets off to correct the assumption that his original show is a joke by interviewing even more celebrities, like John Cho, Keanu Reeves, Tiffany Haddish, and more. — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Between Two Ferns: The Movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Looking for a revenge flick that pays tribute to teen classics like Mean Girls, Heathers, Cruel Intentions, and more? Then check out Do Revenge, a dark comedy sure to join the canon of iconic high school movies. Students Drea (Camila Mendes) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke) couldn't be more different... apart from the fact that both have major bones to pick with people who ruined their reputations. They decide to team up and execute one another's revenge plans, which leads down a winding road of morally dubious choices, snappy one-liners, and excellent outfits.
Mendes and Hawke have great chemistry, but it's Sophie Turner who damn near steals the show in a bit part that simply must be seen to be believed.* — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Do Revenge is now streaming on Netflix.
What if the one who got away got a second chance? Back in the day, Sasha and Marcus were tight as a slap bracelet. But one fumbled night in a sweaty backseat seemed to shatter their future together.
Fifteen years later, she's a world-renowned chef and he's — well — he's working for his dad's HVAC business and playing with his band on the side. Still, fate arranges for them to reconnect, which could mean Marcus (Randall Park) has a shot to show Sasha (Ali Wong) how he feels. Comedy ensues as the stakes get high when Keanu Reeves crashes the party, being all weird and hot and having the audacity to be Keanu Reeves! This Nahnatchka Khan-helmed laffer also boasts appearances by James Saito, Charlyne Yi, Karan Soni, Daniel Dae Kim, and Michelle Buteau.* — K.P.
How to watch: Always Be My Maybe is now streaming on Netflix.
Chronicling the true story of late comedian Rudy Ray Moore — also known as Dolemite — this Eddie Murphy vehicle is worth every minute of viewing.
An outrageous showbiz comedy, Dolemite Is My Name is at once a poignant look at the life of an underdog and an unbelievably good time. With supporting performances by Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, and more, this biopic offers more beat-for-beat joy than many of its fictional counterparts. Sensational, aspirational, and electric: You'll love it. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Dolemite Is My Name is now streaming on Netflix.
Sometimes true crime can lead to some pitch-perfect dark comedy. This is the case for this outrageous offering, which stars Jack Black as infamous scammer/local celebrity Jan Lewan. Black brings all the rock star panache you need to understand how Lewan could be so beguiling to the Pennsylvanian retirees who surrendered their savings to the self-proclaimed Polka King.
Screenwriters Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky gave this story of fraud and showmanship shape. But they wisely trusted in the local flair of the terrific 2009 documentary The Man Who Would Be Polka King to provide some of the wildest lines of dialogue. Plucking directly from interviews with the friends, family, and victims of Jan Lewan, this comedy feels stranger than fiction but is jaw-droppingly real. Salty supporting turns from Jenny Slate, Jacki Weaver, and Jason Schwartzman bring added fun.* — K.P.
How to watch: The Polka King is now streaming on Netflix.
Sony Pictures Animation has given audiences such daring and dynamic animated movies as Surf's Up, Hotel Transylvania, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This zany 2021 release centers on a family who's battling back the robo-apocalypse with togetherness, internet savviness, and a wall-eyed pug named Monchi (voiced by social media icon Doug the Pug).
The Mitchells' adventure into chaos begins when daughter Katie (Abbi Jacobson) is poised to go off to college. Desperate for one last family-unifying road trip, her dad (Danny McBride) piles the whole family into his beater of a vehicle, unknowingly charting a fateful route into heroics. Co-directors Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe infuse Katie's excitable perspective throughout the film by working in internet memes, social media-style reactions, and blitz of bonkers visuals. It’s a bold move that might alienate some viewers but has largely won the acclaim of critics and kiddos.* — K.P.
How to watch: The Mitchells vs. The Machines is now streaming on Netflix.
Writer/director Rian Johnson follows up his critically heralded whodunnit with a sequel that's even more explosive than Knives Out. Southern gentleman/detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back, drawling deductions and whipping out witticisms, much to the chagrin of a group of wealthy and conniving friends.
It was supposed to be a murder mystery weekend where homicide was just a game. But when tech scion Miles Bron (Edward Norton) brings together his closest friends and worst enemy, real blood will be spilled, and the game is afoot! Joining in on the comically chaotic fun are Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., and Jessica Henwick. — K.P.
How to watch: Glass Onion is now streaming on Netflix.
The Forty-Year-Old Version isn’t just any film about a struggling New York artist, but one about a Black female playwright who’s continually held back from creating something authentic to her perspective. Radha Blank's autobiographical directorial debut, which she also wrote, produced, and stars in, is a searing, funny, and unabashedly honest look at the compromises Black creatives are pushed to make in a world dominated by whiteness.
A teacher approaching her 40th birthday, Radha (Blank) gets the chance to produce one of her plays — only after she refuses to write a slave musical. But forced to change her vision to appease white audiences, Radha considers a totally different medium to express herself: becoming a rapper. The Forty-Year-Old Version may be one of the most slept-on Netflix originals, and it’s a shame we've yet to see another film from Blank since, itself an indictment of an industry that fails to continually platform raw and honest Black storytelling.* — Oliver Whitney, Contributing Writer
How to watch: The Forty-Year-Old Version is now streaming on Netflix.
Want a movie that's got excitement, comedy, a scorching message about the evils of gentrification, and is a kid-friendly romp? Then take a bite out of Vampires vs. the Bronx.
Oz Rodriguez's PG-13 horror-comedy centers on Afro-Latino teens who recognize that a flurry of missing person posters and an influx of rich white folks with tote bags means bad news for the neighborhood. Together, they team up Monster Squad-style to take down the bloodsuckers and save their community. With a sharp wit, a warm heart, a rich sense of atmosphere, and an equal appreciation for the Blade movies and '80s Amblin, Vampires vs. the Bronx is an easy watch full of rewards.* — K.P.
How to watch: Vampires vs. the Bronx is now streaming on Netflix.
This hidden gem comes from New Zealand, the fertile comedy ground that gave us Taika Waititi, Flight of the Conchords, and What We Do in the Shadows. Waititi collaborators Jackie van Beek, James Rolleston, and Jemaine Clement team up for a deeply quirky buddy comedy about two long-time besties with a bonkers — but brilliant — business model.
Need someone to dump your partner so you can avoid a messy confrontation? Call on Jen and Mel (co-writers/co-directors/co-leads van Beek and Madeleine Sami). For a reasonable fee, these fearless Breaker Upperers will impersonate police officers, play pregnant, or even fake your death to help you ghost an ex. Whatever the shenanigans, van Beek and Sami sparkle. Booming with wild humor and big heart, this comedy is guaranteed to leave you cackling.* — K.P.
Where to watch: The Breaker Upperers is now streaming on Netflix.
With its reputation for wacky musical numbers, the Eurovision Song Contest is ripe for parody. Luckily for Eurovision lovers, the contest gets the send-up it deserves in this gloriously goofy flick starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. They play the Icelandic musical duo Fire Saga, who find themselves in the Eurovision spotlight. There, they discover that the famed competition is a world of cutthroat competitors, glitzy costumes, and many, many bops.
Eurovision Song Contest is full of larger-than-life characters and ridiculous humor, but it's also teeming with Eurovision references that will have fans laughing and cheering. For every "Jaja Ding Dong," there's a joyful Song-A-Long — and both are great! Pair all that with pitch-perfect comedic performances from Ferrell and McAdams, and you have a comedy that will both have you in stitches and win your heart. (Best of all, if you weren't a Eurovision fanatic before seeing this movie, you'll definitely be one by the time it ends.)* — B.E.
How to watch: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is now streaming on Netflix.
Comedy trio the Lonely Island's Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping may have bombed at the box office, but don't let that fool you for a second. This mockumentary from Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer is pure comedy gold.
Focused on pop superstar Conner4Real's (Samberg) efforts to regain relevance after a flop album, Popstar is filled to the brim with the Lonely Island's signature absurd humor, as well as several hysterical bops. Take your pick between the braggadocious "Humble," the Osama Bin Laden-themed sex ballad "Finest Girl," or the ridiculous LGBTQ anthem "Equal Rights." Also on display is an avalanche of cameos, from Saturday Night Live legends like Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader, and Tim Meadows to musical icons like Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and Questlove. That's just scratching the surface of all the cameos — and comedy — Popstar has in store. — B.E.
How to watch: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is now streaming on Netflix — until Aug. 16.
Richard Linklater and Glen Powell reunite for Hit Man, a rom-com that is killer in all sense of the word.
Powell plays Gary Johnson, a college professor whose side gig as an undercover hit man leads to an unexpected meet-cute with would-be client Madison (Andor's Adria Arjona). The pair's connection (and electrifying chemistry) sparks a delightful game of false identities, reinvention, and twisted love that toggles between hilarious, thrilling, and sexy at a moment's notice. Oh, who am I kidding; sometimes it's all three at once!* — B.E.
How to watch: Hit Man is now streaming on Netflix.
Produced by Issa Rae, One of Them Days stars Keke Palmer and SZA as best friends scraping by in Los Angeles — and rent is due! Unfortunately, a shady boyfriend seems to have made off with their payment. If they don't scramble together enough cash to appease their crooked landlord, aspiring painter Alyssa (SZA) and waitress Dreux (Palmer) will be out on the curb. These inventive girlfriends go through a wild array of hijinks along the way, crossing paths with a vicious romantic rival, a big-mouthed busybody, a ruthless gangster, and Dreux's muscle-bound crush whose nickname is "Maniac." As the ticking clock comes closer and closer to climax, you'll be worn out from cackling.
The script by Syreeta Singleton is crackling with jokes, and director Lawrence Lamont pitches his cast into some grade-A slapstick. While this comedy's dynamic leading ladies are reason enough to give One of Them Days a watch, they're bolstered by a supporting cast that includes Katt Williams, Maude Apatow, Janelle James, Gabrielle Dennis, and Dewayne Perkins. — K.P.
How to watch: One of Them Days is now streaming on Netflix.
Our pals Wallace the inventor and his loyal pup Gromit have been running around for nearly four cracking decades now, but this their latest adventure (and only their second feature-length film, after 2005's The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) proves they've lost not a whit of their vim and verve. Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl happily proves to be yet another gut-busting bit of British whimsy from Aardman Animation head Nick Park and his team of clay-playing creatives.
Vengeance Most Fowl sees our cheese-loving duo facing down a familiar foe – the diabolical penguin mastermind Feathers McGraw, who was last seen being sent off to imprisonment in the City Zoo in the classic 1993 short The Wrong Trousers. Hacking into Wallace's latest invention, a garden gnome robot named Norbot that he's created to do all of the yardwork, Feathers builds himself an army of killer gnomes all programmed to do his bidding. And he wants nothing more than to bid adieu to his nemesis Wallace! — J.A.
How to watch: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is now streaming on Netflix.
Want something cheeky? Then, you'll relish the bawdy, four-letter fun of this British comedy.Set quaint, seaside town of Littlehampton in 1920, Wicked Little Letters centers on a scandalous batch of missives. Someone in this charming place is writing truly nasty letters and mailing them anonymously. Meek Christian and old maid Edith Swan (Oscar winner Olivia Colman) is convinced the author of these horrid letters is none other than her next-door neighbor Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), who is not only found of cursing but also Irish and a single mum to boot. But Rose won't take such accusations lying down. A battle of wills kicks off that pulls in much of Littlehampton, including a wide-eyed constable (We Are Lady Parts' Anjana Vasan) determined to crack the case once and for all. While this movie involves swearing, terms like "foxy-ass" mean its the kind of cursing you could comfortably watch with your mum, chuckling all the while. — K.P.
How to watch: Wicked Little Letters is now streaming on Netflix.
Some people find this 2020 cringe comedy from writer-director Emma Seligman to be so stressful that it stops being a comedy altogether, to which we give a hearty boo. Sure, it's one of the most claustrophobic experiences you can have outside of an escape room that's caught on fire, but Rachel Sennott is a comic genius who spins every moment of horror into gold!
Before the two teamed up again in 2023 for the LOL-worthy Bottoms, Seligman and Sennott gave us this small-scale story of college student Danielle who is attending a Jewish funeral reception where absolutely everything goes wrong. Sitting shiva is never a party, but Danielle's parents (a brilliantly funny Fred Melamed and Polly Draper) are hard on her case. Then her ex-girlfriend Maya (an equally funny Molly Gordon) shows up, and that's awkward. What else could go wrong? Glad you asked! Danielle's secret side gig as a sugar baby is jeopardized when her main client (Danny Deferrari) shows up with his shiksa wife and their newborn baby. Now throw all of this drama into the smallest three rooms you can imagine, all stuffed with the loudest people eating the driest crackers you have ever seen, and enjoy! — J.A.
How to watch: Shiva Baby is now streaming on Netflix.
Straddling the line between a faithfulness to the decades-old RPG and introducing mainstream audiences to its world with a deft touch was always a big ask, but co-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (who also share writing credits with Michael Gilio) did better than anybody expected to be possible with this 2023 adaptation. Starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, and Justice Smith as a band of merry wizards and what-nots hunting down an ancient relic, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is très goofy, but lovingly so. It's honestly a very good time at the movies!
Unfortunately, shifting release dates and other factors led D&D to kinda bomb at the box office. But now that the movie has landed on Netflix, our communal chance to right this infernal wrong has arrived. Let's all slip into our wizarding robes and watch this movie dozens of times, spread the word to all of our friends, and roll the eight-sided die on an improbable sequel! — J.A.
How to watch: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now streaming on Netflix.
Not every movie based on Saturday Night Live characters works, but The Blues Brothers certainly does, cementing itself as a stone-cold comedy classic.
Starring the dynamic duo of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, The Blues Brothers tells the madcap story of Jake and Elwood Blues, who are on a quest to reunite their R&B band and save the orphanage where they grew up. They'll just have to fight through the police, vengeful exes, and the Illinois neo-Nazis in order to accomplish their goal. Car chases in the Bluesmobile ensue, along with a fair share of R&B and blues performance from the Blues Brothers themselves, as well as from icons like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Chaka Khan. So what are you waiting for? Watch for great comedy and great music! — B.E.
How to watch: The Blues Brothers is now streaming on Netflix.
Filmmaker Nathan Silver has been churning out extremely oddball indie films for the past 15 years without a whole lot of fanfare, but he finally found a sliver of mainstream attention in 2024 with Between the Temples, a tender and relatively straightforward (for him) comedy starring the one-of-a-kind twosome of Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane. Schwartzman plays Ben, a recently widowed cantor at the local synagogue, while Kane plays his former elementary school music teacher Carla, who comes to him after deciding she wants to have the bat mitzvah she didn't get to have as a child. The two spark, their families clash, and big life lessons are learned. And if you could bottle the off-kilter chemistry between these supreme character actors, you'd have magic, which is just what this movie, singular and sweet, is. — J.A.
How to watch: Between the Temples is now streaming on Netflix.
Before Frances went Ha or there were any Marriage Stories to tell, writer/director Noah Baumbach made his name with this 1995 post-collegiate comedy starring a who's who of '90s indie icons, including Josh Hamilton, Eric Stoltz, Catherine Keener, Parker Posey, and Chris Eigeman. And it's a very '90s story of life-after-graduation ennui that Baumbach tells too, with everybody paralyzed by decision and the nostalgia for every moment already suffocating them.
There were so many little movies like this that came tumbling out of nowhere at this time, and we didn't know how good we had it — small character studies full of acidic humor as far as the eye could see! This one lands somewhere between the dry archness of Whit Stillman and the sloppy chaos of early David O. Russell; it's a perfectly lovely little time capsule. — J.A.
How to watch: Kicking and Screaming is now streaming on Netflix.
Like 8 Mile with way more vowels, Kneecap tells the true life story of the titular band while starring the band members as themselves. The hip-hop trio of Liam Óg "Mo Chara" Ó Hannaidh, Naoise "Móglaí Bap" Ó Cairealláin, and JJ "DJ Próvaí" Ó Dochartaigh portray their own rise from rough-and-tumble beginnings in West Belfast to their place atop the Irish charts, which stands out since they rapped in the Irish language, which was well out of favor at the time having been usurped by the English colonizers. Their music rises on the tide of the language's popular reclamation, but Kneecap is hardly a linguistics lesson – it's a hilarious and wildly entertaining drug-fueled riot of anarchic artistic expression. Oh, and Michael Fassbender plays Naoise's da, which I guess makes him the Kim Basinger of this situation? — J.A.
How to watch: Kneecap is now streaming on Netflix.
Bong Joon Ho's Parasite is not just a deeply dark "eat the rich" comedy, it's also a Best Picture winner. And for good reason.
Co-written and direct by Bong, Parasite centers on an impoverished family, scraping by in a basement apartment in Seoul, South Korea. When son Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) scores a coveted job as the personal tutor to the youngest child of the wealthy Park family, he sees an opportunity for his father (Song Kang-ho), mother (Jang Hye-jin), and sister (Park So-dam) to get in on the payday. It'll just take some careful strategizing — or, well — flat-out scamming.
Bong and his crackling cast had audiences cackling over these crafty con artists in the film's first and second acts. However, Parasite isn't just a class-conflict comedy but also a scathing critique of a capitalist culture that holds up the haves and scorns the have-nots, so things go from dark comedy to just downright dark in the film's finale. Not for the faint of heart, Parasite is a marvel that'll have you laughing, gasping, and maybe even crying by its end. — K.P.
How to watch: Parasite is now streaming on Netflix.
* denotes that this blurb appeared in a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Jul. 31, 2025, 2:21 p.m. EDT This list was originally published on March 26, 2020. It has been updated to reflect the current selection on Netflix.
The best action movies on Netflix right nowThe best, most exciting action movies on Netflix, including "Hanna," "Kraven the Hunter," "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," "Beverly Hills Cop," and "The Union."
Looking to fuel up your Netflix queue with some high-octane action?
Whether you're a fan of wild Westerns, cunning detectives, high-swinging superheroes, ravenous zombies, rowdy thieves, or hard-hitting heroines, Netflix has a movie pitch-perfect for every kind of adrenaline seeker.
We know scrolling through the streaming app can be a chore when all you want to do is Netflix and chill. So, we've taken out the hard step by highlighting the most stunt-stuffed, battle-powered, high-speed films the streamer has to offer.
Here are the 24 best action movies on Netflix, streaming right now.
Like your action with a blood-splashed buffet of horror? You, my fright-seeking friend, will love Train to Busan.
This South Korean horror thriller imagines what would happen if a zombie outbreak hit a rail train full of average people. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, Train to Busan focuses on a workaholic father who's taking the train with his young daughter to spend her birthday with his ex-wife in Busan. But this dad will have to prove himself when their fellow passengers become flesh-craving, limb-contorting beasts. The action sequences on this journey are nerve-shreddingly intense, thanks to a clever use of contortionists and the screen presence of South Korean action star Don Lee. You'll never look at a train — or a flight of escalators — the same way again. — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Train to Busan is now streaming on Netflix.
Want your action with a side of twisted fairy tale? Then surrender to Hanna, Joe Wright's 2011 thriller about a child assassin played by Saoirse Ronan.
Raised by her father (Eric Bana) to be an unstoppable killer, Hanna is sent on a secret mission to eliminate a CIA officer (Cate Blanchett) with dangerous information. Along the way, this 15-year-old girl will befriend a lovely family, enjoy her first flirtations with a crush, and face off against a whistling killer played by a menacing Tom Hollander. The resulting action will have your pulse racing. But be warned, this father-daughter tale may also break your heart. — K.P.
How to watch: Hanna is now streaming on Netflix.
The always-welcome Logan Marshall-Green stars here as Grey, an auto mechanic who gets sucked into a nefarious world of cyber-horror when a car crash leaves him paralyzed and his wife dead. Implanted with an untested computer chip that can control his limbs and "fix" his paralysis, Grey's mind starts communicating with the technology, which in turns starts egging him on. After all, why just walk when you can be a kick-ass super-soldier? Needless to say, as in any good RoboCop spin, the corporations are not to be trusted when it comes to our best interests. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: Upgrade is now streaming on Netflix.
Land of Bad seems fairly generic at first glance. A ragtag group of soldiers (portrayed by both Liam Hemsworth and Luke Hemsworth, American Gods star Ricky Whittle, and former Gilmore guy Milo Ventimiglia) find themselves stranded behind enemy territory in the Philippines and they must, you know, get the heck out of there. Russell Crowe plays "Reaper," a drone pilot who provides air support to the group on the ground by yelling into a telephone a lot. This is nothing we've not seen before!
And yet the movie's actually a solid B-movie slice of old-fashioned action movie entertainment. The film is directed and co-written by William Eubank, whose previous credits include one of the most underrated action-thrillers of recent times, 2020's Underwater with Kristen Stewart. Like that film, Land of Bad doesn't rewrite its genre, but it does bring the action and thrills efficiently and well. — J.A.
How to watch: Land of Bad is now streaming on Netflix.
Is there anything more surprising than an old TV show that everybody had forgotten about getting turned into a terrific and enormously cinematic movie experience five decades later? (Maybe a video game movie that actually works?) Guy Ritchie somehow pulled it off with this 2015 spy romp, which stars Henry Cavill as the debonair C.I.A. agent Napoleon Solo, who's forced to team up with his KGB counterpoint, Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer).
The plot, as they always inevitably are in such instances, is all convoluted nonsense. But to his credit, Ritchie embraces the fun that can be had in that. Basically, the two spies are trying to rescue the daughter of a nuclear physicist (Alicia Vikander) before she falls into the hands of evil yet fabulous siblings Alexander and Victoria (Italian hunk Luca Calvani and a deliciously diabolical Elizabeth Debicki). So while Daniel Craig was off making 007 all tortured and gloomy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. recalled the sillier Technicolor escapades of superspies in years past, only to unceremoniously flop at the box office for its efforts. It really shouldn't have. — J.A.
How to watch: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is now streaming on Netflix.
Okay. So you're probably thinking, "Why is a movie with a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes on a best-of list? Is Netflix really so thin on good action?!" I hear you. But look, while Kraven the Hunter is not a great film, or even a good one, it is wildly fun. And the action is a major part of that!
This Spider-Man spinoff centers on the comic book villain Kraven the Hunter (Aaron Johnson), but makes him less a poacher and more a bad-guy hunting vigilante. And along the way, there's other Spidey characters haphazardly looped in, like Aleksei "The Rhino" Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola), Calypso (Ariana DeBose), and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott). But the real fun comes in some fight scenes so violent that Sony's sheer reckless rebellion in the face of MCU PG-13 standards is worth the watch. Like, Kraven bites off a dude's nose. And that's not the climax of a fight. Come on. You want to watch that. — K.P.
How to watch: Kraven the Hunter is now streaming on Netflix.
Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry team up for an action-comedy that is surprisingly charming! He's a Boston everyman who works construction by day and by night hooks up with local hotties (including his former seventh-grade English teacher). She's a globe-trekking secret agent — and his high school girlfriend — who shows up at their old dive bar out of the blue to invite him in on a secret mission. Together, they're working for The Union.
Explosive espionage action blends with rom-com chemistry as Wahlberg and Berry delve into car chases, gun fights, and plenty of bouncy banter. J.K. Simmons brings gruff bravado, while Evil's Mike Colter delivers breathtaking swagger. Full of thrills, fun, and verve, The Union is a great pick for movie night at home.* — K.P.
How to watch: The Union is now streaming on Netflix.
Coming back onto the scene 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop III flopped, this fourth installment of the comedic crime-solving adventures of Detroit police officer Axel Foley has no right to be as good as it is. Not only did screenwriters Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten have to manage how public opinion has shifted when it comes to cops who play by their own rules, but also how to approach Axel's wise-cracking sense of humor that traditionally put just about everyone in its crosshairs. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F manages both in a way that gives fresh life to the character without casting aside the fans who loved his wild ways.
As I wrote in my rave review, "Eddie Murphy is as good as ever as Axel Foley." Plus, he's got his old friends, like John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot back and in action. It's an absolute blast to see all these energies colliding, and yet there's room for newcomers, like the dynamic Taylour Paige and the ever-solid Joseph Gordon-Levitt, both of whom prove to be compelling foils to the ever-quipping Murphy. "In the end, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F isn't just a great sequel, or an awesome action-comedy; it might just be the most entertaining movie of [2024]."* — K.P.
How to watch: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now streaming on Netflix.
Want something fun, funny, and full of adventure? Then you'll be game for this rollicking movie, based on the long popular and controversial role-playing game.
Chris Pine stars as bard Edgin Darvis, who's on a quest to reclaim his lost daughter and an ancient relic that might bring back his deceased wife. At his side is a motley band of heroes who include a potato-loving barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), a self-conscious sorcerer (Justice Smith), a shapeshifting druid (Sophia Lillis), and an almost annoyingly glorious paladin (Regé-Jean Page). Together, they'll have to battle beasts, as well as a traitorous rogue (Hugh Grant, perfectly cast) and a ruthless necromancer (Daisy Head). Written and directed by Game Night's creators Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (along with Michael Gilio on screenplay), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves not only boasts a sparkling sense of humor and plenty of thrilling combat but also a treasure trove of Easter eggs for D&D fans. — K.P.
How to watch: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now streaming on Netflix.
Nearly 30 years after their first adventure as cop buddies Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back with the Bad Boys' franchise's fourth installment. Bad Boys For Life co-helmers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah also returned, bringing their high-octane brand of action into a stunt-packed epic about loyalty and redemption.
When the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) gets dragged for alleged ties to corruption, it's up to Mike and Marcus to find the truth and clear his name. In her review of this action-comedy, Mashable contributor Monica Castillo praised this rousing return, writing, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die is an entertaining reminder of what made the original movie work all those years ago." — K.P.
How to watch: Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix has invested big in Millie Bobby Brown. Not only has the English ingenue been leading Stranger Things for years, but also she's becoming an outright action star through movies she has headlined and produced for the streamer, including a pair of Enola Holmes adventures and the fearsome fairy tale Damsel. Here, Brown stars as Elodie, a dutiful damsel destined to wed a handsome prince (Nick Robinson)! But rather than happily ever after, her deceitful groom pitches her into a dragon's pit. However, that's far from the end of her story. She'll fight her way to salvation and vengeance, one fiery sequence at a time.
In her review, Mashable's Belen Edwards wrote, "Boasting some inventive twists and a heartfelt lead performance from Brown, Damsel may not be groundbreaking fantasy, but it is a thrilling ride." — K.P.
How to watch: Damsel is now streaming on Netflix.
Before Denis Villeneuve made his mark on the sci-fi genre with films like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the Dune series, he specialized in taut, expertly crafted thrillers like Enemy, Prisoners, and Sicario. The latter is now streaming on Netflix, and it's a must-watch for anyone craving action — or anyone looking to complete their Villeneuve watch-through.
Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin star as members of a CIA task force intent on bringing down the head of a Mexican drug cartel. However, their mission has more to it than meets the eye. Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) guide viewers through a tense, twisting labyrinth of ambushes and murky allegiances that racked up three Academy Award nominations (Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Editing). Sicario is worth a watch for its border crossing scene alone — talk about a pulse-pounding set piece! — but the entire film proves to be an intense yet contemplative thrill ride. — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Sicario is now streaming on Netflix.
Put 'em up, as this is hands-down one of the best action movies in the Wild West.
Directed by Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall defiantly redefines the predominantly white Western, boasting an incredible cast of Black stars: Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield, and Delroy Lindo. A tale of heroes and villains, the film follows Nat Love (Majors) on his quest for revenge against the formidable Rufus Buck (Elba). But he'll have to make his gunslinging way through "Treacherous" Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (Stanfield) first. Even before the opening credits roll, you'll fall hard for this one. — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How to watch: The Harder They Fall is now streaming on Netflix.
Sherlock Holmes's much cooler little sister is an overlooked young action hero in Enola Holmes. Based on author Nancy Springer's popular book series The Enola Holmes Mysteries, the film puts the great detective's savvy 16-year-old sibling on the case, played with energetic spoonfuls of gumption by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. She's set to solve the greatest mystery of her young life: to find her missing mother (Helena Bonham Carter) through a series of deliberately cryptic clues — all while breaking the fourth wall and confiding in the audience, thanks to Fleabag director Harry Bradbeer and His Dark Materials' Jack Thorne's sharp screenplay.
Stepping into the footsteps of her famous brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and avoiding those of her stuffier misogynist brother Mycroft (Sam Claflin), Enola's case leads her on a wild ride through Victorian-era England, with more than a few fistfights and butts to kick along the way. And lucky for you, the sequel is even better. — S.C.
How to watch: Enola Holmes is now streaming on Netflix.
With this 2023 release, co-writer/director Juel Taylor pulls plenty of inspiration from Blaxploitation. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris star as a drug dealer, a pimp, and a sex worker who undercover a nefarious conspiracy that's happening underneath their neighborhood. Taylor and fellow screenwriter Tony Rettenmaier weave in wild twists, fly fight scenes, irreverent humor, and swaggering style for what our critic called "a propulsive comedy-thriller with weight." As bold as it is star-studded, you won't want to miss They Cloned Tyrone. And stay for the credits, trust us. — K.P.
How to watch: They Cloned Tyrone is now streaming on Netflix.
Gil Bok-Soon (Jeon Do-yeon) is a single mother who often finds herself at odds with her teenage daughter. She's also a highly skilled and successful assassin. Kill Boksoon is a fantastic action film that sees its main character head straight from a brutal killing to the grocery store so she can get dinner on the table. It's one hell of a hook that sucks you in immediately. The fight scenes are hypnotic and the cinematography ambitious and exciting. It's a gripping thriller that makes plenty of space for the complex emotional reality of its characters.* — Kristina Grosspietsch, Freelance Contributor
How to watch: Kill Boksoon is now streaming on Netflix.
This Netflix adventure has Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal coming together as a group of former Special Forces who plan an elaborate heist in South America. But after things get out of hand, their survival skills are put to the ultimate test.
Putting a talented cast in a tension-filled scenario, Triple Frontier is the type of gritty thriller that's hard to turn away from. — Brooke Bajgrowicz, Entertainment Fellow
How to watch: Triple Frontier is now streaming on Netflix.
Blending drama with fantasy/adventure and weaving in a very real message about the horrors of the meat industry, Bong Joon Ho's Okja is a beautifully unique creature feature, striped with action.
The film follows Mina (Ahn Seo-hyun), the granddaughter of a farmer in South Korea who has spent the last 10 years rearing a genetically modified super-pig called Okja as part of a breeding project spearheaded by a grim U.S. corporation. This movie is dark in places, magical in others, and poignant overall, asking us to stop and reflect on the dark side of an industry the majority of us are complicit in. Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal make for an entertaining pair of villains, too.* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor
How to watch: Okja is now streaming on Netflix.
Spike Lee copters audiences back to the Vietnam War with Da 5 Bloods, a daring film that's part drama, part war movie, and part heist flick. Named for a squad of Black U.S. Army soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division, Lee's critically heralded 2020 joint follows this band of brothers through a treacherous war zone, then rediscovers them in a present where they're seeking to uncover the past — and a big payday.
Sequences of brutal battles, narrow escapes, and high-tension hijinks make Da 5 Bloods an enthralling watch. Though inspired by history, it's impossible to predict where Lee's story will lead. Our guides on this intense journey through time, loss, war, and brotherhood are Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and the late Chadwick Boseman. Together, they and Lee create an American war film that can't be missed. — K.P.
How to watch: Da 5 Bloods is now streaming on Netflix.
Sometimes all you want is to grab hold of that action-o-meter and crank the dial, hard, to a solid 11. Army of the Dead more than delivers on that front, opening with a musical montage of guns and exploding body parts — and it only gets gorier from there. Zack Snyder's story follows a band of mercenaries hired to steal $200 million from a casino in Las Vegas. The problem? Vegas has been invaded by zombies, the city is quarantined, and the military is planning to blow the entire thing up with a tactical nuclear strike. The sprawling cast includes Dave Bautista, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, and Ana de la Reguera, as well as a digitally added Tig Notaro.
What follows is a gloriously silly romp that refuses to take itself too seriously, propelling us through a series of explosions and bullets while the story twists and turns through a 148-minute runtime that feels oh, so much shorter. — S.H.
How to watch: Army of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.
Folks looking for that summer blockbuster thrill, search no further than The Old Guard. Based on the superhero comic books of the same name, director Gina Prince-Bythewood's movie sucks viewers into a slick, well-crafted world of action and narrative that isn't particularly unique but delivers its formulaic pieces with enough precision to keep you invested.
Charlize Theron crushes as the ass-kicking leader of an immortal warrior fight crew, with performances by Harry Melling, Marwan Kenzari, KiKi Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Veronica Ngo, Matthias Schoenaerts, and more.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.
You've never seen an action movie quite as bombastic or as bromantic as RRR. Director S.S. Rajamouli draws loosely from history to tell the story of Indian freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.). Over the film's three-hour runtime, the two unwittingly face off in the search for a kidnapped girl, become the best of friends, and square off against villainous English colonizers.
Any of RRR's action sequences would be the pinnacle of a lesser action movie, but the film seems determined to outdo itself with showstopper after showstopper. Take when Raju faces down hundreds of protesters and wins, or when Bheem fights a tiger bare-handed. Would you believe me if I told you those happen within the first 20 minutes? The action — and the movie — only get more awesome from there. — B.E.
How to watch: RRR is now streaming on Netflix.
The dusty dystopia of Mad Max: Fury Road is not one we'd ever wish to live in, but it's one that enthralls us every single time we visit. In some ways, this is a pretty simple film: The meat of the plot is basically one long car chase, followed by a second long car chase in the opposite direction. What George Miller does with that basic template, though, will leave you positively giddy.
There's the striking look of its universe, all rusty reds and dirty browns. And the pounding score by Junkie XL, working as your own Doof Warrior to get your heart rate up. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy lead the cast with two perfectly matched, tough-as-nails performances. And the film even gets in a sharp message about toxic masculinity and female agency.
But above all, there's the action: propulsive and inventive, employing mostly practical effects and a minimum of CG to deliver blows that actually feel like they land, and races that get your adrenaline pumping. Don't blame us if you find yourself running in circles around your own living room by the end of it.* — Angie Han, former Deputy Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Mad Max: Fury Road is now streaming on Netflix.
You don't know Godzilla until you see Godzilla Minus One. The American movies featuring the classic kaiju go for huge monster-versus-monster face-offs, bogged down by tedious human characters. But writer/director Takashi Yamazaki reclaims the Japanese icon with a movie that gets the balance between rampaging monster action and human drama just right.
Set near the close of World War II, Godzilla Minus One proves a fascinating tale of atomic age terror. Ryunosuke Kamiki stars as a kamikaze pilot who first flubs his mission, then crosses paths with the giant lizard with atomic breath. Survivor's guilt torments him, even as he cobbles together a found family of fellow survivors. This cast of characters is dynamic, making the scenes of simple home-cooked meals just as satisfying as sequences of town-trampling destruction. Actually, one deeply informs the other. Because while the movie's jaw-dropping special effects rightfully won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, it's the emotional impact of them that makes this Godzilla hit harder than any contemporary. Even on the small screen, you'll be in awe.* — K.P.
How to watch: Godzilla Minus One is streaming on Netflix.
* denotes the entry comes from a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Aug. 1, 2025, 1:00 p.m. EDT This list was first published on May 24, 2020. It has since been updated to reflect the current selection on Netflix.
How to watch England vs. India (Test 5) online for freeHow to watch India's tour of England for free. Live stream England vs. India (Test 5) for free.
TL;DR: Live stream England vs. India (Test 5) for free on ICC.TV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
There's something special about a Test series involving India. You always get passionate supporters, big name players, and electric cricket.
Fans of Test cricket will have had India's tour of England circled in their calendars for some time. It doesn't get much bigger than this. With England still leading this incredible series 2-1, the attention now turns to the all-important final Test match at The Oval. And the best thing about this Test match is that anyone can watch for free with a quick and easy hack.
If you want to watch England vs. India (Test 5) for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
India's tour of England consists of five Test matches:
England vs. India (Test 1) — June 20-24
England vs. India (Test 2) — July 2-6
England vs. India (Test 3) — July 10-14
England vs. India (Test 4) — July 23-27
England vs. India (Test 5) — July 31 to Aug. 4
The great news for fans is that it's possible to live stream every Test match without spending anything.
England vs. India (Test 5) is available to live stream for free on ICC.TV.
This free live stream on ICC.TV is only available in select regions (see full list of territories here), but anyone can live stream India's tour of England for free with a VPN. These helpful tools can hide your IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in a location with free access (like Italy). This simple process bypasses geo-restrictions so you can live stream on ICC.TV from anywhere in the world.
Live stream England vs. India (Test 5) by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with access (like Italy)
Visit ICC.TV
Live stream England vs. India (Test 5) for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming aren't free, but leading VPN providers do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these deals, you'll be able access free live streams without actually spending anything. This is a temporary fix, but it gives you enough time to stream England vs. India (Test 5) before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free live streams from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for live streaming sport is on sale for a limited time.
ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to live stream England vs. India (Test 5), for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months of coverage for free — 61% off list price. This deal includes a year of unlimited data backup and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month subscription for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).
Live stream England vs. India (Test 5) for free with ExpressVPN.
AI tells me how to invest — here’s how it’s goingLearn how I started investing during a volatile market with help from Sterling Stock Picker’s AI tools — now $68.99 for a lifetime (reg. $486).
TL;DR: Save $417 on this AI stock-picking app that can help you navigate crazy markets and keep your cool.
I was watching the first of the month’s market crashes and wondered, ‘Does it make sense to invest right now?’ I’d always been curious about the stock market, at least in terms of how people actually got rich by practically gambling, but I didn’t have a single clue where to begin — let alone how to even buy a stock.
Once I saw a TikTok calling this period a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (take that with a grain of salt), I decided to take my chance. But I needed help researching everything: what stocks to choose and how to track them. That’s when I found Sterling Stock Picker, and made my first investment with their $68.99 lifetime subscription (reg. $486).
My biggest concern wasn’t that the market wouldn’t eventually recover, but that I would choose ‘bad’ stocks due to my lack of experience. Sterling Stock Picker helped me feel calm with the 5-minute questionnaire covering my wants and ability to handle risk.
Then, I started researching stocks with help from AI. I also learned about something called exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are like groups of stocks. I didn’t know what these were at first, so I consulted the AI assistant, Finley AI, and it told me that it’s like putting a stake into a huge nest of companies at once rather than individually.
Once I selected a few ETFs to invest in, I opened a free brokerage account (sadly, you can’t directly invest through Sterling Stock Picker). I purchased my shares and put the information into Sterling Stock Picker so I could view my portfolio with fun graphs and charts and get alerts when prices change — which may help me determine when to sell.
Well, it’s only been a few days since I’ve made my investments and, if you’ve been keeping up with the news, things have been up and down. One day, my $1,000 portfolio was up $100, and the next, it was down $20.
As a total beginner, I won’t offer any formal advice to you other than to do your research and be well-informed, and Sterling Stock Picker is a great tool to do just that.
Get a Sterling Stock Picker lifetime subscription for $68.99 (reg. $486).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: Unblock porn sites for free with a VPN. The best service for unblocking porn sites is ExpressVPN.
Does the online world seem like a place that you can navigate freely? It might present like that, but it's actually full of content restrictions and blockades. And, of course, that goes double for adult content.
Porn obviously comes with a lot of restrictions, but there's really nothing wrong with adults visiting their favorite sites at entirely appropriate moments. When the time is right, you should be able to bypass content restrictions to access sites like Xnxx from any network and location. And fortunately, you can do exactly that without hassle.
If you want to unblock porn sites like Xnxx from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.
VPNs are tools that can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other locations. This straightforward process can bypass geo-restrictions to access porn sites like Xnxx from anywhere in the world.
Unblock porn sites like Xnxx by following these simple steps:
Sign up for a VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in a location that supports access to Xnxx
Visit Xnxx
The best VPNs for bypassing content restrictions are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can unblock porn sites like Xnxx without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can retain access to porn sites when temporarily away from a secure network.
If you want to retain permanent access to everything the online world has to offer, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for porn is on sale for a limited time.
ExpressVPN is the best service for fast and reliable unblocking of porn sites like Xnxx, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy
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Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month subscription for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee.)
Unblock Xnxx for free with ExpressVPN.
How to watch The Hundred 2025 online for freeHow to watch The Hundred for free. Live stream The Hundred 2025 for free from anywhere in the world.
TL;DR: Live stream The Hundred 2025 for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
We've already been treated to a lot of entertaining cricket this summer, but we're not done just yet. The Hundred is here to make sure the season ends on an exhilarating note. Fancy watching some of the most exciting players in the world compete in a totally unique 100-ball cricket format? You can do exactly that without spending anything.
If you want to watch The Hundred 2025 for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
The Hundred is a professional cricket league in the UK. The tournament, organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board, is the only cricket league in the world that uses the 100-ball cricket format. The Hundred is comprised of eight teams, with seven based in England and one in Wales.
32 matches take place in the league stage of the tournament. Each team plays four matches at home and four matches away, including one match against every other side and then a second bonus match against their nearest regional rivals. The team that finishes top of the league progresses straight into the final. The teams finishing second and third compete for a place in the final in the Eliminator.
The defending champions are London Spirit (women) and Oval Invincibles (men).
The Hundred 2025 is the fifth edition of the tournament. This year's competition takes place from Aug. 5-31.
The Hundred 2025 is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer. 16 games will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer, including the opening Women's and Men's double header and both finals.
BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access these free live streams with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in the UK, meaning you can access free live streams of The Hundred 2025 from anywhere in the world.
Access free live streams of The Hundred 2025 by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK
Visit BBC iPlayer
Watch The Hundred 2025 for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to free live streams without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it does give you time to watch The Hundred 2025 before recovering your investment.
ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including the UK
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).
Watch The Hundred 2025 for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Hurdle hints and answers for August 2, 2025Hints and answers to today's Hurdle all in one place.
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.
A foolish person.
CHUMP
More impolite.
RUDER
A popular peanut butter brand.
JIFFY
A roadside restaurant.
DINER
To throw away.
SCRAP
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on August 2, 2025See the moon phase expected for August 2, 2025 as well as when the next full moon is expected.
Ever wondered why the moon looks slightly different every night? This is to do with the lunar cycle.
The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.
So, let's see where we are in the cycle tonight, Aug. 2.
As of Saturday, Aug. 2, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA's Daily Moon Observation, the moon will be 60% lit up tonight.
It's day nine of the lunar cycle, and there's a whole lot for us to see on the moon's surface.
With the unaided eye, enjoy a glimpse of the Mare Fecunditatis, the Mare Tranquillitatis, and the Mare Crisium. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, look to the top right. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, you'll see these on the bottom left.
With binoculars, enjoy a glimpse of the Alps Mountains, Apennine Mountains, and the Aphonsus Crater. With a telescope, you can also see the Rima Arladaeus, the Descartes Highlands, and Rupes Altai.
The next full moon will be on August 9. The last full moon was on July 10.
According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:
New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.
Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.
Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
How to watch Australia vs. Lions online for freeHow to watch British and Irish Lions for free. Live stream Australia vs. Lions for free from anywhere in the world.
TL;DR: Live stream Australia vs. Lions for free on 9Now. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The 2025 British and Irish Lions secured a massive victory over the Wallabies in the second of three Test matches, but there is still work to do.
The Lions have beaten the Western Force, Reds, Waratahs, Brumbies, AUNZ Invitational XV, and the First Nations & Pasifika XV on this tour. Can the Lions win every game in Australia? You can find out without spending anything.
If you want to watch Australia vs. Lions for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
Australia vs. Lions starts at 11 a.m. BST on Aug. 2. This fixture takes place at Stadium Australia.
Australia vs. Lions is available to live stream for free on 9Now.
9Now is geo-restricted to Australia, but anyone from around the world can gain access with a VPN. These tools can hide your digital location and connect you to a secure server in Australia, meaning you can bypass geo-restrictions to live stream Australia vs. Lions from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Australia vs. Lions for free by following these simple steps:
Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia
Visit 9Now
Stream Australia vs. Lions for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Australia vs. Lions without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream this fixture before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on free platforms like 9Now, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).
Live stream Australia vs. Lions for free with ExpressVPN.
How to watch the 2025 British and Irish Lions online for freeHow to watch Lions Tour for free. Live stream the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia for free from anywhere in the world.
TL;DR: Watch every British and Irish Lions vs. Australia game for free on 9Now. Access these free live streams from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
There really is something for every sports fan this summer, but we would make the case that the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour is the most unique event taking place over the next few weeks. This tour only takes place every four years and brings together the best rugby players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. They are touring Australia in 2025.
If you're interested in watching the 2025 British and Irish Lions for free from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The team tours every four years, rotating between Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in order.
The 2025 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia is scheduled to take place between June and August 2025.
The Lions are scheduled to play a three-match Test series against Australia, plus games against Australia's four Super Rugby franchises (Western Force, Queensland Reds, NSW Waratahs, and ACT Brumbies), an invitational side made up of players from Australia and New Zealand, and a team of players with First Nations and Pasifika origin. The Lions also played a warm-up match against Argentina in Ireland before departing.
The full schedule for the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour is as follows:
British and Irish Lions vs. Argentina — June 20
British and Irish Lions vs. First Nations & Pasifika XV — July 22
The good news is that it's possible to live stream the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour without spending anything.
The 2025 British and Irish Lions tour is available to live stream for free on 9Now (Test matches).
These free live streams are geo-restricted to Australia, but anyone can watch the British and Irish Lions for free with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Australia, meaning you can bypass geo-restrictions to live stream the British and Irish Lions tour from anywhere in the world.
Live stream the 2025 British and Irish Lions for free by following these simple steps:
Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia
Connect to 9Now
Live stream the British and Irish Lions for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer pretty generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the British and Irish Lions without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream every Test match before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming platforms from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
ExpressVPN is the best choice for streaming live sport on free platforms, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries including Australia
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds
Up to eight simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month subscription for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).
Live stream the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour for free with ExpressVPN.
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 2, 2025Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: To paste
Green: Intercourse
Blue: Done in the alley
Purple: Synonyms and antonyms
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Attach with adhesive
Green: Polite terms for sex
Blue: Bowling results
Purple: Contronyms (Words that can mean opposite things)
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #783 is...
Attach with adhesive: ADHERE, AFFIX, GLUE, STICK
Polite terms for sex: COMMERCE, CONGRESS, INTIMACY, RELATIONS
Bowling results: FOUL, SPARE, SPLIT, STRIKE
Contronyms (Words that can mean opposite things): CLEAVE, GARNISH, OVERSIGHT, SANCTION
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands?
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
NYT Strands hints, answers for August 2, 2025The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace.
The words are tech-related.
These words are types of camera functions.
Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
Today's spangram is Photo Editor.
Filter
Markup
Rotate
Photo Editor
Blur
Adjust
Crop
Erase
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.
Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 2, 2025Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1505 on August 2 as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
To intimidate someone
There are no recurring letters.
Today's Wordle starts with the letter D.
Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
DAUNT.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.
The Naked Guns best cameo is so quick you might miss itNot content to rest on the laurels of stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, "The Naked Gun" reboot features more than a few cameos.
In addition to gut-busting performances from stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, The Naked Gun reboot features more than a few cameos from the original film including "Weird Al" Yankovic, as well as appearances from Busta Rhymes, Dave Bautista, and more.
But there's one cameo that you won't want to miss: the co-star of the original film trilogy, Priscilla Presley.
Starring alongside Leslie Nielsen in 1988's The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, 1991's The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and 1994's Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, Presley played gloriously uncoordinated femme fatale Jane Spencer. She's introduced as an assistant to the film's antagonist Vincent Ludwig (Ricardo Montalbán) before becoming the love interest of Nielsen's bumbling protagonist Lt. Frank Drebin.
In the reboot, you'll spy Presley as Jane sitting at home watching the broadcast of the film's major fight event, in which Neeson's character, Detective Frank Drebin Jr. (who is the son of Nielsen's character) finds himself rather exposed. Like the rest of the audience, Jane looks shocked at the dangling disco balls on screen.
It's not clear in the scene whether Jane recognises Neeson's Frank Jr. or whether she's looking at her son. Jane and Frank are married in The Naked Gun 33⅓ and the final scene shows Jane giving birth to a son. Regardless, it's great to see Presley included in The Naked Gun reboot, even if for the shortest cameo of the entire film.
As Anderson told Mashable, Presley herself gave The Naked Gun star a note before filming the reboot. "Priscilla left me a message," Anderson told Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards. "She just said, 'Have a good time. Embrace the silliness. You’re going to do great.'"
The film also pays tribute to Nielsen, who died in 2010 at the age of 84, through several scenes involving Frank Jr. gazing at his father's portrait within the Police Squad building and later believing his spirit being channelled through a particularly well-timed owl. It's perfect.
Summer lovin: Here are the best dating apps for lesbiansLooking for love, friends, or casual fun? We've curated a list of the best dating apps for lesbians, from Her to Hinge.
As a lesbian, you may know all about dating apps. Lesbian Americans (along with bisexual and gay Americans) are far more likely to have ever used dating apps than straight Americans: 51 percent to 28 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.
There are a few reasons why LGBTQ people might turn to online dating quicker than hetero folks. For one, you might live in an area without a thriving LGBTQ community, and in-person dating may be hard. If you don't know other lesbians to begin with, how can you meet more IRL to date? (Sometimes, lesbian spaces can also be co-opted by The Straights.) And, unfortunately, in-person dating may also be less safe depending on where you live.
Thankfully, we live in a time where we can find people like us with a few swipes. Lesbians are welcome on major dating apps, and there are also niche ones specifically for lesbians and other queer women and people. But which one to choose?
In Mashable's recommendations below, you'll find both general dating apps and apps specifically for queer people. As the former appeals to the general population, you'll find more users in these spaces. The caveat, however, is that when you swipe on other women, you might find those coupled with men who are looking for another woman to have a threesome with (aka unicorn hunters). No judgment here, but that's probably not what you're looking for. Then again, people of all types are on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge. You never know who you may come across.
Then there are apps specifically for the community, like HER and Lex. If you yearn for a smaller dating scene, head for these apps. While there's no "Grindr for lesbians" — we go into why in the FAQ section — these apps are more so like stepping into your neighborhood lesbian bar than an app like Bumble.
You can also try multiple dating apps, as each one below has a free version. You can filter out which gender you identify with and are looking for, and sometimes, like in the case of OkCupid, there are many options to choose from.
Diving into the dating pool isn't easy, but the water's fine. Check out our guide below for the full rundown of our recommendations and dating app reviews.
OpenAI pulls ChatGPT feature that let user chats appear in Google Search resultsOpenAI has been forced to remove a feature that allowed some users' ChatGPT conversations to appear in Google Search results.
Thousands of private ChatGPT conversations have been appearing in Google search results because of the chatbot's "Share" feature, which the company recently removed following a backlash.
Fast Company reported this week that ChatGPT users may have inadvertently made their conversations with the AI chatbot public and searchable. The Fast Company report found nearly 4,500 ChatGPT conversations in Google search results, some of them regarding mental health struggles, relationships, and other personal and sensitive topics. Fortunately, the public conversations did not identify the users behind the posts.
How did these conversations end up on the web?
Until recently, ChatGPT users had the ability to share chats with friends, family, or coworkers by making them public. The function worked similarly to the sharing settings on a Google Doc, and users would be given a public link to the chat they could send to others. An additional option gave users the option to make the post "discoverable," and specifically discoverable by Google — whether users realized it or not.
When users created a shareable link to one of their conversations, a pop-up would appear that read: "A public link to your chat has been created." A checkbox also appeared under this message, labeled "Make this chat discoverable." And in fine print below this message, a warning appeared: "Allows it to be shown in web searches."
By checking this box, users were making it possible for their conversations to be indexed by Google, meaning Google's web crawlers could identify the page and make it eligible to appear in search results.
After Fast Company published its report, OpenAI removed the feature, with one company leader calling it a "short-lived experiment."
OpenAI Chief Information Security Officer Dane Stuckey explained on X how the feature worked — and where it ultimately went wrong.
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Even though ChatGPT users had to opt in for their chats to become public, the company decided the potential for user error was simply too high.
As Mashable has reported previously, OpenAI is required to save user conversations — even conversations users have actively deleted — because of an ongoing lawsuit from the New York Times. As part of this suit, OpenAI must retain all conversations indefinitely. (This does not apply to ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu customers, according to OpenAI.)
So, while ChatGPT users can toggle on a "Temporary Chat" feature that's similar to an incognito mode in a web browser, your chat data may still be retained.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Want to match Stray Kids Hyunjins floral phone case aesthetic? We found this K-pop idols fave.We found Stray Kids member Hyunjin’s favorite floral phone cases and accessories. Here's where to buy them.
If there’s one thing STAY know for sure about Hyunjin from Stray Kids, it's that the K-pop star has a deep, poetic love for flowers.
Whether he's painting delicate blossoms in his studio or on the road, sharing poems that echo the beauty of nature, or adorning his space with preserved petals, Hyunjin has made it clear: flowers are more than just pretty — they're a core part of how he expresses himself.
So it's no surprise that floral phone cases are his actual accessory of choice. On Instagram, the dancer has shared mirror selfies snapped during his global travels on the group's dominATE World Tour, and in several, his iPhone is dressed in a floral-covered case. If you don't know what case we're talking about, pop over to Instagram to see the floral case in question.
These rich, botanical designs perfectly capture his dreamy, introspective energy. And the best part? You can shop the same aesthetic to match your own phone to Hyunjin's signature style.
Dark and dramatic, this matte black Roses and Thorns phone case from Casetify is adorned with deep red roses and subtle gold detailing. It's elegant, bold, and unmistakably Hyunjin-coded. The design balances softness with edge, much like Hyunjin's stage presence itself. It's a clear favorite in his rotation and gives off serious romantasy vibes.
This one's for the romantics. With dainty bouquets in pink, red, and white set against a matte black background, the Vintage Flower Monday case from Casetify has a worn-in, dreamy vibe, like something out of a vintage diary. The delicate florals and washed tones feel straight from Hyunjin's sketchbook, capturing that quiet elegance he's so known for.
Technically not a case, but definitely 100-percent Hyunjin. This Butterfly Sunday by Monika Strigel magnetic cardholder stand from Casetify features butterflies and white florals, and it’s been spotted attached to his phone more than once. During a 2024 livestream, Hyunjin explained that he'd stopped using a wallet "a long time ago" but kept misplacing his cards. The Snappy™ was a game-changer. He even called the accessory "amazing," and this is the second design he's been seen using. Stylish and practical? Very Hyunjin.
These floral cases and accessories are romantic, artsy, and effortlessly cool. Just like him.
Last chance: Buy the original Switch consoles before Nintendo raises pricesNintendo confirmed this week that its original Switch consoles are going up in price, but you can still find them on sale.
This is your last chance to get the original lineup of Nintendo Switch consoles before the prices go up on Aug. 3.
On Friday, Nintendo announced that it would be raising prices on the Nintendo Switch 1, Nintendo Switch OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite, and some Switch accessories. While the Nintendo statement didn't specify how much prices would increase, a popular Nintendo fan account on X spotted higher prices in effect at Target already. If these numbers are correct, then shoppers will soon face these prices:
Nintendo Switch 1, originally $300, now $339.99
Nintendo Switch OLED Model, originally $350, now $399.99
Nintendo Switch Lite, originally $200, now $229.99
Nintendo Joy-Con 2 controllers, originally $95, now $100
However, these higher prices haven't gone into effect at other retailers, which means gamers have about 48 hours to get the beloved console at the usual price.
As of this writing, all three of these consoles are available for sale at Walmart for their original prices. Unfortunately, the new Switch 2 landed with a higher price tag of $449. While it was consistently out of stock, a recent Switch 2 restock has changed that. But if that $449 price tag still gives you pause, you can still have a lot of fun on the original Switch, one of the greatest gaming consoles ever made.
Apple is facing high tariff costs in the current quarter, projected to reach a whopping $1.1 billion.
The company's CEO Tim Cook shared the projections, based on current rates and policies, with investors during an earnings call on Thursday. The hike comes amid a continuous trade war between China and the U.S. government.
In the quarter that ended in June, tariffs cost Apple $800 million, which was actually lower than initially anticipated. "The bulk of the tariffs that we paid were the IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] tariffs that hit early in the year, related to China," Cook said, according to The Verge.
"There are many factors that could change, including tariff rates," the CEO continued.
In the past, President Donald Trump has specifically threatened Tim Cook and Apple with higher tariffs on iPhones, part of his pressure campaign to move iPhone production to the United States. Experts say that is extremely unlikely to happen, as the U.S. lacks the infrastructure to manufacture flagship smartphones.
In the Thursday earnings call, Cook also shared that the company set a "June quarter revenue record", with growth across its iPhone and Mac products and services divisions. He said the results were "better than expected."
As Mashable reported on Friday, despite economic uncertainty, a negative July jobs report, and the looming threat of tariffs, tech companies like Apple, Meta, and Reddit are still reporting strong revenue this quarter.
Nintendo is raising prices for the Switch 1 — are tariffs to blame?Nintento announced on Aug. 1 that it will be raising prices on the original Nintendo Switch consoles and select accessories, citing "market conditions."
The original Nintendo Switch will soon hold a higher price tag in the United States.
On Friday, Nintendo announced that it's raising prices on its old gaming consoles and accessories as a result of "market conditions" beginning Aug. 3. The price of the new Nintendo Switch 2 will remain the same. However, the original Switch, Nintendo Switch OLED Model, Nintendo Switch Lite, and some Switch accessories will all get higher prices.
The announcement didn't reveal what the new retail price will be for Switch 1 systems, but we have some idea of what to expect.
Nintendo fans (or anyone who's gone searching for Switch 2 restocks) may recognize the X account Wario64, known for tracking Switch inventory online. The account spotted the higher prices already in effect at retailers like Target; the increases range from $30 to $50.
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As Kotaku reports, video game consoles usually go down in price as time goes on and the products get older. But Nintendo is taking another route, and tariffs may be to blame.
While the Nintendo statement didn't mention tariffs, the company referenced "market conditions," a common euphemism for tariffs. This is the exact same language the company used in April, when it paused Switch 2 pre-orders in the United States following the initial round of tariffs. Earlier this year, Microsoft also announced price increases on Xbox consoles (also citing "market conditions"). And in previous reporting, experts have also told Mashable that tariffs have had a big impact on video game consoles and accessories in particular.
"[A] lot of the big electronic brands may have avoided some tariffs by stockpiling inventories earlier in the year, before tariffs were announced," said Rick Kowalski, Senior Director of Business Intelligence at the Consumer Technology Association, in an earlier interview with Mashable about tariffs and tech prices. "Those stockpiles will only last a few months at most, so eventually, importers will need to restock, and they'll import more products at the higher tariff rates."
Nintendo says that prices for the Nintendo Switch 2 system, as well as physical and digital Switch games, will not change yet. However, the company says further "price adjustments may be necessary in the future."
Shop all the best back-to-school deals for college studentsShop the best back-to-school deals for college, including dorm essentials, noise-cancelling headphones, laptops, tech, and more.
It's almost time to head to campus for the new school year. But before you do, you may want to take inventory of what supplies you need, what tech needs upgrading, and what kind of budget you're working with. With President Trump's tariffs set to take effect today, Aug. 1, we could see some major price hikes in the weeks leading up to the beginning of the semester. In other words, a good deal today could end up being a great deal in just a couple of weeks.
Below, we've rounded up the best back-to-school deals: college edition. These include cute and compact coffee makers, noise-cancelling headphones, laptops and tablets, and of course, your basic school supplies. If you're hoping to deck out your dorm on a budget, we've got you covered.
Five Star spiral notebook 6-pack + study app — $17.99 $26.99 (save $9)
20% off for students on your next qualifying storewide purchase with Circle
Check out our extensive list of all the best back-to-school laptop deals.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (WiFi, 64GB) — $209.99 $329.99 (save $120)
Apple 11-inch iPad (A16 chip, 128GB, WiFi) — $299 $349 (save $50)
Lenovo Idea Tab Pro (MediaTek Dimensity 8300, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $309.99 $379.99 (save $70)
Acer Chromebook Plus 516 (Intel i3-1315U, 8GB RAM, 128GB UFS) — $379 $479 (save $100)
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 (Intel Core i5-1335U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $479 $599 (save $120)
Apple 11-inch iPad Air (M3 chip, 128GB, WiFi) — $499 $599 (save $100)
Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $549.99 $849.99 (save $300)
HP OmniBook X Flip 14 (Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $579.99 $849.99 (save $270)
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $599 $649 (save $150)
Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 14 (AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $599.99 $999.99 (save $400)
Asus Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $599.99 $999.99 (save $400)
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus (Intel Core 3 100U, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS) — $599.99 $749.99 (save $150)
Apple 13-inch iPad Air (M3 chip, 128GB, WiFi) — $699 $799 (save $100)
Acer Swift 14 AI (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $729.99 $1,199.99 (save $470)
Microsoft Surface Laptop, 13-inch (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $799.99 $899.99 (save $100)
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $799.99 $1,199.99 (save $400)
Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $799.99 $999.99 (save $200)
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (AMD Ryzen 9 270, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,349.99 $1,799.99 (save $450)
Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,399.99 $1,749.99 (save $350)
Get a $15 Amazon credit when you spend $50 on household essentials
Get a $15 Target gift card when you spend $50 on household essentials
20% off select Brightroom and Hefty storage and organization items
Philips Hue 10-foot LED lightstrip base kit — $49.98 $76.99 (save $27.01)
Dreo TurboPoly 13-inch table fan — $53.95 $66.99 (save $13.04)
Chefman 4-quart compact air fryer — $59.99 $99.99 (save $40)
Keurig K-Mini Mate — $59.99 $79.99 (save $20)
Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ — $89 $129 (save $40)
Bissell Little Green Pet Deluxe — $100 $139.99 (save $39.99)
Bissell Crosswave Turbo — $179.99 $249.99 (save $70)
Shark Cordless Pet Power — $199.99 $349.99 (save $150)
Anker Soundcore Life Q20 noise-cancelling headphones — $41.79 $65.99 (save $24.20)
Beats Studio Buds+ — $129.95 $169.95 (save $40)
Bose QuietComfort earbuds — $149 $179 (save $30)
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 — $189 $229 (save $40)
Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds — $213 $329.99 (save $116.99)
Bose QuietComfort headphones — $229 $349 (save $120)
Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) — $449.99 $549.99 (save $100)
onn mini wireless keyboard — $9.88 $14.88 (save $5)
Apple AirTag — $25.99 $29 (save $3.01)
Anker Nano 7-in-1 charging station — $35.99 $49.99 (save $14)
Apple AirTags (4-pack) — $79.98 $99 (save $19.02)
Anker laptop power bank — $94.49 $134.99 (save $40.50)
Hisense 40-inch H4 FHD TV — $118 $168 (save $50)
onn 50-inch 4K TV — $178 $329 (save $151)
Amazon 50-inch 4-Series 4K Fire TV — $289.99 $389.99 (save $100)
Hulu — $1.99/month $9.99/month (save $8/month)
Peacock — $2.99/month for 12 months $10.99/month (save $8/month)
Spotify Premium Student — free for 6 months, then $5.99/month $11.99/month (save $6/month)
Walmart+ — $49/year $98/year (save $49)
Paramount+ Premium — $6.49/month $12.99/month (save $6.50/month)
Target Circle 360 — $49/year $99/year (save $50/year)
Amazon Prime Student — free for 6 months, then $7.49/month $14.99/month (save $7.50/month)
The world's gone digital, and the best apps for sexting open up a whole new dimension for your sex life.
Sexting (aka dirty talk, swapping nudes, raunchy audio messages, etc.) is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Sexting is a fun way to explore your sexuality and connect with others on a deeper level, especially when you’re not physically together.
And it’s not just a feeling — recent studies are showing the tangible benefits of sexting. One March 2025 review that looked at 70 scientific papers found that the perks of consensual sexting generally fall into three categories: individual benefits from the act itself (like exploring your desires, safe experimentation, and both sexual pleasure), individual benefits from your partner’s reaction (think validation, feeling better about yourself, and owning your sexual agency), and relationship benefits (feeling more connected emotionally and sexually).
Of course, overthinking isn't a great approach to sexting. We're here to have fun, after all.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, that’s OK! Sexting is just “sex” and “texting” mashed together. It could mean sending sexy snaps, video or audio clips, or writing out a steamy message.
A long time ago, sexting was something you’d only hear about when someone was having an affair or a celebrity’s nudes were leaked. But nowadays, it’s the norm for many couples and single people alike.
Whether you’re in a committed relationship, single and swiping, looking for a regular sexting buddy or friend with benefits, or wanting to amp up your solo sesh with steamy instructions from an AI companion, sexting offers a healthy way to explore your sexuality.
To find the best sexting apps, we tested dozens of platforms, evaluating them on what matters most: privacy controls, ease of use, inclusivity, and the effectiveness of their communication tools. Based on our real-world use (yep, we actually signed up and used 'em!), these are the top apps for safe, fun, and discreet sexting. You might even recognize some from our guides to the best dating apps and hookup apps.
Good news: You definitely don't need to be partnered up to find someone to sext with. There are plenty of apps (and websites) out there designed to connect you with people looking for some digital heat, often pretty quickly.
Just be sure to keep an eye out for sketchy platforms, bots, and catfishing scams. Finding safe, reliable, and genuinely fun options is exactly why curated recommendations (like the ones in this guide!) are so helpful.
To get the lowdown on sexting safely, we talked to Gary Orenstein, Chief Customer Officer at Bitwarden (an open-source password manager).
"If an app is being used to share intimate content, privacy features cannot be optional — they’re essential," he tells Mashable. What tops his list? "First and foremost, end-to-end encryption is critical," so only you and your partner see the messages, not even the app company itself.
Orenstein also recommends looking for apps with "built-in controls, such as disappearing messages and self-destructing media [which] help minimize long-term exposure of shared materials" and features like "screenshot detection or alerts [that] can discourage unauthorized saving," though these aren't always foolproof.
"The most overlooked risk is the assumption that encryption alone guarantees privacy," Orenstein adds. "Even with end-to-end encryption, apps cannot prevent screenshots, screen recordings, or physical access to an unlocked device." He stresses that basic device-level safeguards, such as strong passcodes, biometric locks, and up-to-date software, are essential. And ultimately, "Privacy depends not only on technical safeguards, but also on the trustworthiness of the recipient."
GameChat with your Switch 2 friends with the Hori Piranha Plant Camera for its lowest priceAs of August 1, take $20 off the Hori Piranha Plant Camera at Amazon.
SAVE $20: As of August 1, get the Hori Piranha Plant Camera for Nintendo Switch 2 for $39.99, down from its usual price of $59.99. That's a discount of 33% and its lowest price yet.
If you spend a lot of time on your Nintendo Switch 2 talking to your friends in GameChat, you might want to also add a way for them to see your face. Not everyone wants to be on camera all day long (especially for work), but it can add some fun to hangouts with your buddies, and it can also enhance some of your Switch 2 games. But if you don't want to buy or feel like the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera is for you, you've got an alternative: a Piranha Plant-shaped camera that's a lot more fun. And it's gone down to its lowest price yet.
As of August 1, get the Hori Piranha Plant Camera for Nintendo Switch 2 for $39.99, down from its usual price of $59.99. That's $20 off and a discount of 33%. It's also the lowest price we've seen.
This USB-C camera connects straight to your Switch 2 and is compatible with your system whether you use TV mode, tabletop mode, or portable mode. It enables video chat via GameChat, and it lets you use the camera-based features in all the games that the Switch 2 supports. For example, Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV comes with a special mode built around using your face in-game as you compete on a special game show.
You'll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to use GameChat, however, so keep that in mind when purchasing the camera. And if you're not really interested in using it too much beyond game additions, you won't need the membership. And don't be shy about buying it just so you have an excuse to have a miniature Piranha Plant in your house. Absolutely no one is going to fault you for that.
Get 15% off during Ninjas Back to School SaleWe sorted through the Ninja Back to School Sale to find the absolute best deals on air fryers, blenders, and cookware.
Believe it or not, back-to-school season is in full swing. Retailers are using this as a chance to sell off their summer inventory before we settle into fall. (I’ve already seen Halloween decorations out, and at Hobby Lobby, even Christmas stuff — which is too far, even for me). Right now, you can find deals on just about anything a student might need, from Kindles and MacBooks to printers and dorm decor (with most at record-low prices).
And in a surprisingly smart move, Ninja is getting in on the action. Through August 12, its Back to School Sale gets you 15% off select items (including blenders, air fryers, and cookware) with the code CLASS15.
To save you some scrolling, we’ve sorted through the offers to find the very best deals from the sale.
If there's one appliance college students swear by, it's the air fryer. They’re easy to use, whip up a full meal in minutes, and don’t require a ton of cleanup.
Right now, you can get the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Air Fryer with 7qt MegaZone for $169.99 with the code CLASS15. Normally, this appliance goes for $199.99, so you’re saving $30 with this deal. (You’ll notice that some items aren’t included in the sale, but I’ve double-checked to make sure all of my selections are.) If you want to save even more, we found the same model at Amazon for $157.49.
The Ninja Foodi FlexBasket has one large MegaZone basket that can be divided into two 3.5-quart baskets when you need to cook two different foods at once. So, chicken nuggies on one side and fries on the other — done.
The Dual Zone technology and Smart Finish feature mean that both zones will be done at the same time. You can also sync the settings with Match Cook to cook one large meal in a single 7-quart basket. With six cooking functions (air fry, air broil, roast, bake, reheat, dehydrate), you’ll be able to cook just about anything.
Getting a quick breakfast or mid-day protein shake in the campus dining hall can get pricey, so it's a good idea to have a blender on hand.
The Ninja Twisti High Speed Blender Duo; Euro-Pro Bundle is currently on sale for $101.14 with the code CLASS15. (Amazon, and a few other retailers like Target and Crate & Barrel, aren’t matching this price, so that means this is the lowest you can get right now.)
This deal includes a 1600 peak-watt motor base, pitcher with Twist Tamper and drizzle cap, 34-ounce high-speed pitcher, one 18-ounce Nutrient Extraction single-serve cup and spout lid, one 24-ounce Nutrient Extraction single-serve cup and spout lid, and a recipe guide.
The coolest thing about this blender is the Twist Tamper lid, which pushes the ingredients down while it blends, so you don’t have to stop mid-way and shake it around or scrape the sides with a spoon. The removable drizzle cap is a nice add-on, too. This way, you can add ingredients while blending without removing the entire lid. The single-serve cups are perfect for taking smoothies on the go, and the spout lid makes for less mess.
If you're looking for something that's smaller and more portable, the Ninja Blast Portable Blender is also on sale for $59.49 with code CLASS15.
An air fryer can do a lot, but it can’t do everything. When you need to boil pasta or sauté veggies, you’ll need some quality cookware.
The Ninja NeverStick Essential 10-Piece Cookware Set is currently on sale for $229.49, which is an absolute steal for 10 pieces of cookware. (It’s also out of stock at Amazon.)
The best feature of this cookware (aside from the fact that it’s designed to withstand chips or flaking) is that you can pop it right in the oven. All of the pots, pans, and lids are oven-safe up to 500°F. It’s also all dishwasher-safe, for quick and easy cleaning. And you’ll get a 10-year warranty under the Ninja 10 Year Guarantee.
This set includes an 8-inch frying pan, 12-inch frying pan, 1.5-quart saucepan with glass lid, 2.5-quart saucepan with glass lid, 3-quart sauté pan with glass lid, and a 6.5-quart stock pot with glass lid. What more could you need going into soup season?
Why Reddit, Meta, and Apple revenue is soaring amid tariff threats and economic headwindsSome tech companies saw strong earnings in Q2 2025 despite tariffs, uncertainty, and a negative jobs report. Why are companies like Apple and Reddit thriving?
If you're wondering why tech companies like Meta, Reddit, and Apple reported strong earnings this week despite President Donald Trump's tariffs, well, the tariffs may be the answer. No, the tariffs didn't help these companies, but they did lower expectations. The lower the bar, the easier it is to clear.
Yahoo Finance noted that second-quarter earnings were largely trending positive and that "analysts tempered their expectations amid President Trump's tariffs, stocks' lofty valuations, and uncertainty about the health of the US economy."
Meta, for instance, brought in Q2 revenues of $47.5 billion versus $44.8 billion expected. Still, the company had a good quarter regardless of lowered expectations. Its sales revenue was up 22 percent year over year, and ad revenues saw an upward bump, too.
Reddit saw soaring revenues as well. It brought in $500 million, which far surpassed Wall Street's expectations of $425 million. Apple's revenue was up 10 percent year over year, coming in at $94 billion versus $89.5 billion expected. Reddit just barely beat expectations for daily active users, even as Google's AI push has put a damper on web traffic for most sites. (Reddit has partnered with Google and increased its visibility in Google Search.) It also saw its revenue from licensing deals grow. Apple, meanwhile, beat expectations largely on the strength of iPhone sales, which grew 13 percent year over year.
In short, these tech companies saw strong sales despite significant headwinds and lowered expectations. Still, it's not like the effects of Trump's tariffs and a shaky economy are totally absent. Apple, for instance, estimated tariffs would cost the company $1.1. billion this quarter alone. In addition, a negative July jobs report is increasing economic unease, even among Trump loyalists.
IRS free file is gone according to agency leaderIRS commissioner says Direct File has been shuttered after Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, with the agency looking to new audit tech and private partnerships.
The IRS's free Direct File program — a new initiative that allowed taxpayers to complete their taxes using free, guided tax software approved by the federal agency — is no more, following a push by the Trump administration to axe the service as part of his One Big Beautiful Bill.
The move, which was speculated to happen following the bill's passing, was seemingly confirmed earlier this week, after IRS Commissioner Billy Long told attendees of the National Association of Enrolled Agents Tax Summit that the program was "gone."
Long provided that the agency's new focus is modernized "audit tech," saying: "You’ve heard of Direct File, that’s gone. Big beautiful Billy wiped that out. I don’t care about Direct File. I care about direct audit.” According to an internal IRS report, more than 300,000 Americans used the service in 2025.
The agency's Free File prep service was launched for the 2025 tax season after a pilot period in 2024, galvanized by pressure from political leaders and advocates. Following Long's comments, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others accused the Trump administration of siding with large tax preparation companies, such as H&R Block and TurboTax owner Intuit, capitulating to their tax interests over Americans. "Direct File was an easy way for Americans to file their taxes for FREE each year. It's a no-brainer — and it's popular. So why in the world did the Trump administration kill it? To give a huge handout to giant tax prep companies like TurboTax that rip Americans off," she wrote in a July 29 post on X.
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The IRS has not yet confirmed the end of Free File, but did allude to potential private partnerships that would replace the prep service. "Commissioner Billy Long is committed to modernizing the IRS and providing a taxpayer experience that meets today’s expectations, which includes giving taxpayers transparency into the status of their tax returns and audits," an IRS spokesperson told CNBC. "We look forward to Treasury’s forthcoming report to Congress on the Direct File program and on potential public-private partnership alternatives to Direct File, as required by the One Big Beautiful Bill."
Snag over $100 off this TCL 4K TV at AmazonAs of August 1, get the TCL QM6K Mini LED 4K TV for over $100 off at Amazon.
SAVE $102: As of August 1, get the TCL QM6K Mini LED 4K TV for $497.99, down from its usual price of $599.99. That's a discount of 17%.
Fall will be here before you know it, and that means new shows, plenty of ball games to watch, and cooler weather that you'll probably want to be inside for. Why not get a new TV to enhance all of those things? Right now is an especially good time to do so, since you can save on this still very new TCL Mini LED that's on sale at Amazon.
As of August 1, get the TCL QM6K Mini LED 4K TV for $497.99, down from its usual price of $599.99. That's $102 off and a discount of 17%.
This TV has quickly become a favorite thanks to its impressive performance, with incredible brightness and advanced local dimming that all but eliminates halo effects, improves details when it comes to shadows, and gives more precise image accuracy so your favorite shows and movies get a leg up from other displays and look more realistic.
It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and dynamic HDR for better color, contrast, and precise detail as well as a 144Hz native refresh rate. That translates to less motion blur, and add in the options for gaming with 288 VRR and ultra low input lag to create the perfect mix of features for anyone who loves to get their game on.
Even though it hasn't been on the market for long, this is a solid discount on a TV that just might surprise you with the kind of quality it offers for a much lower price than its competition. It's a good time to lock one in before it's time to park it on the couch and get some good, old-fashioned TV viewing in.
Chappell Roan sings about unrequited love and public transport in The Subway videoChappell Roan's music video for "The Subway" features New York City and lots and lots of hair.
The internet's favorite popstar, Chappell Roan, is back with a new song and video, "The Subway." First performed in June at the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City in June, it's an ode to the city — and love, a theme Roan is very familiar with.
The video begins with Roan in The Addams Family Cousin It drag, pining over a similar head-to-toe hair creature in green. The figure runs away from Roan, hopping the subway turnstiles as the singer croons about nearly having a breakdown when seeing this stunning love interest on public transport.
But, much like her song "Casual," "The Subway" is about unrequited love. Surrounded by hair, Roan sings about a woman who moved on before her, being so heartbroken that she wants to move to the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. In the video, Roan stays put in New York City, sees The Green Lady on the subway, and swims in the fountain at Washington Square Park.
At some point, Roan sheds her famous Rapunzel-like hair for a bob as she sings about the woman who got away. The video ends with a scene New Yorkers are familiar with: waking up on the subway, wondering where the hell you are.
Snag a pair of Bose QuietComfort headphones for their record-low price at AmazonAs of August 1, you can get a pair of Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth with ANC for just $229, down from $349, at Amazon. That's a 34% discount and $120 in savings.
SAVE 34%: As of August 1, you can get a pair of Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth headphones with ANC for just $229, down from $349, at Amazon. That's a 34% discount and $120 in savings. This is the best deal we've tracked on this pair since the spring, making it a great time to buy.
Finding a good pair of headphones that are comfortable, deliver great sound, and are affordable can be tough. It’s hard to decide just how much to spend, and even harder to know if you’re making the right choice.
But right now, you can get a great deal on Bose QuietComfort headphones at Amazon. As of August 1, get the Bluetooth headphones with ANC for just $229, down from $349, at Amazon. That's $120 off for a 34% discount. This is the best deal we've tracked on this pair since the spring, making it a great time to buy. (It’s also valid on all colors except cypress green.)
These headphones have two listening modes: Quiet and Aware. This means you can choose full ANC or full awareness of your surroundings. (A pretty nifty feature for commuters.) You'll also get up to 24 hours of listening on a full charge, or up to 2.5 hours on a 15-minute charge. You can stretch that a little further with an optional audio cable.
They’re also known for their comfort, hence the name. Plus, you can customize your listening experience with the Bose app (fiddle with the EQ, create custom modes, and more).
Bring home a pair of Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for $30 offAs of August 1, get the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for $30 off at Amazon.
SAVE $30: As of August 1, get the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for $149 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $179. That's a discount of 17%.
A great pair of headphones is a must when it comes to the summer months. Having a reliable pair of earbuds is necessary for getting through the hotter days as you head out into the world so you can listen to music, take in audiobooks, and make and take phone calls. If you still don't have a pair and want to invest in a decent option, Amazon has a great one that you should take a look at today, especially since it'll save you money on a tried and true brand.
As of August 1, get the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for $149 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $179. That's $30 off and a discount of 17%.
These earbuds boast fantastic sound quality as well as impressive excellent noise-cancelling features. We've labeled them our favorite mid-budget pick when it comes to earbuds, thanks to their comfortable, secure fit and affordability in addition to their sound.
"The QuietComfort’s sound quality is just phenomenal," wrote Mashable's Bethany Allard and Samantha Mangino. "With these earbuds, listening to Ethel Cain’s A House in Nebraska immersed me in the orchestrations. When Brick House by The Commodores came on, the earbuds elevated the snappy drum beats such that I may have been listening live."
You'll get to experience this top-notch sound quality for up to 8.5 hours when listening, and additional time with their charging case so you can take in all manner of media without having to stop and juice back up too often. It's a good time to go ahead and get yourself a pair while they're still affordable, so don't miss this deal while it's here.
Deep Think is available in the Google Gemini App. How to try it.Google's most advanced AI model is available to Google Ultra subscribers now.
Google is rolling out Gemini 2.5 Deep Think in the Gemini app, bringing its AI reasoning model to Google AI Ultra subscribers.
Subscribers to the AI subscription, which costs $250 per month, will be granted access to Deep Think starting Friday, August 1.
Deep Think was first revealed at Google I/O 2025, where the tech giant introduced the model designed for complex math and coding. The AI reasoning model is reportedly Google's most advanced model so far, with higher reasoning capabilities and the ability to solve complex problems using parallel thinking techniques. In its official announcement, Google said that Deep Think provides "more detailed, creative and thoughtful responses" to prompts.
The company says that Gemini 2.5 Deep Think outperforms competing AI models, using scores from Humanity’s Last Exam (HLE), a complex AI test, as a benchmark. According to Google, its model scored 34.8% on the test, which features questions about math, sciences, and humanities. On the other hand, xAI's Grok 4 scored 25.4% and OpenAI's o3 scored 20.3%. Google's model also outperformed AI models from xAI and Anthropic on LiveCodeBench6, a test consisting of coding tasks.
Google also announced that it is releasing the official version of its Gemini 2.5 Deep Think model, which achieved a gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) earlier in July. The company will offer this version to a select group of "trusted testers", which includes mathematicians and academics. The president of IMO called Deep Think's solutions "astonishing in many respects."
Watch K-pop idols and pop legends team up in KPOPPED song battle series trailerK-pop idols and global pop stars team up to remix hit songs in Apple TV+'s new music competition series "KPOPPED," premiering Aug. 29.
What happens when K-pop idols and global music legends join forces to reimagine iconic hits? Chaos, chemistry, and straight-up bangers.
Apple TV+ just released the trailer for the eight-episode series, premiering August 29, which pairs some of the biggest names in Western pop with top K-pop groups for bold, cross-genre performances.
Hosted by actor-comedian Soojeong Son (Search Party, Servant), the show is led by PSY (of "Gangnam Style" fame) and Megan Thee Stallion, who also serves as executive producer alongside Lionel Richie and Korean entertainment mogul Miky Lee.
Each episode brings together a Western hitmaker — including Megan, Patti LaBelle, the Spice Girls' Mel B and Emma Bunton, Eve, Kylie Minogue, J Balvin, TLC, and Vanilla Ice — with a top-tier K-pop group, including ITZY, ATEEZ, STAYC, Billlie, Kep1er, Kiss of Life, BLACKSWAN, and JO1. The goal? Rework a signature hit into a high-energy, K-popified collaboration, all in just a few days.
Standout pairings include ITZY and the Spice Girls — two generations of "Wannabe" royalty — as well as ATEEZ with J Balvin and Kylie Minogue, and a genre-blending team-up of TLC, Boy George, and STAYC.
A live Seoul audience picks the winner of each head-to-head, but honestly, we all win when "Savage" gets a K-pop makeover and "Motownphilly" finds a glittery new groove.
All the Pixel 10 rumors and leaks to date: Pricing, colors, and specs reportedly leakedWe're only a month away from the rumored launch date of the Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Fold. What do we know so far?
Google has officially announced the date of the next Made By Google event, which will take place on Aug. 20. That's when we expect to see the official debut of the Pixel 10 series.
As is typical for Google, the whole Pixel 10 lineup has been leaking like a busted pipe. Last week, the full Pixel 10 lineup leaked, and we're expecting to see the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold make their debut on Aug. 20. And that's just the tip of the leak iceberg, if you'll forgive us for mixing our metaphors.
Google makes some of the best Android phones on the market, so the latest Pixel launch is a very big deal. Based on the rumors so far, the Pixel 10 series of phones won’t be a massive departure from the previous generation of Pixel 9 devices. For the most part, it seems like some spec updates and feature shuffling are in order.
With the launch less than a month away, here is everything we know (and everything we think we know) about the Pixel 10 series so far.
Barring a massive shock, the Pixel 10 announcement will come on Aug. 20, with a full launch on Aug. 28. This lines up with last year's launch of the Pixel 9 series. In addition, there will almost certainly be a Pixel 10a at some point, but its launch date will likely be 2026. After all, we only recently got our hands on the Pixel 9a (which we named "the budget phone to beat").
For pricing, it seems Google may be shaking it up a bit. Despite initial rumors that prices might actually be lower, that now seems very unlikely. Noted leaker Roland Quandt posted on Bluesky that the prices will increase for virtually the entire lineup. Don't forget that Google makes Pixel devices in China, India, and Vietnam, so tariffs may further impact pricing.
Earlier this summer, Android Headlines reported on a leak that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold model would drop in price by a few hundred dollars. However, that no longer seems to be the case. On July 30, Android Headlines reported that there would be no price increases with the new Pixels, with the base Pixel 10 starting at $799 and the Pro Fold remaining at $1,799.
Have you heard? There's a new Qi wireless charging standard, Qi2. To make wireless charging more efficient, Qi2 wireless chargers will utilize magnets (like Apple's MagSafe devices and accessories) to ensure proper alignment between devices. And because the new Pixels are slightly heavier and thicker, we believe the devices may incorporate magnets into their design. Alternatively, we could see a new PixelSnap line of magnetic accessories.
At first, our only glimpse of the Pixel 10 came from one of the most interesting leaks of all time, where someone apparently nabbed photos of Google shooting a commercial with the new Pixel 10. However, on July 22, the official Pixel store posted a video of the new Pixel 10 in all its glory. As we reported at the time, "In any case, the photo shows the Pixel 10 in a silvery color, with a large, horizontal camera bump on the back hiding three cameras. The entire thing doesn't really look all that different from the Pixel 9 Pro, which also has a triple rear camera, though it's not available in this color."
Based on everything we've seen, the Pixel 10 series won’t look too different from the current Pixel 9 lineup. It’ll still have Google’s patented camera bump, and the sensors appear to be in the same spots as well. More recent rumors seem to confirm this.
The same holds true for the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, as it appears to be about the same as last year. Leaked specs point to a bigger screen and a larger battery. On the whole, the two could be twins. That could give Samsung a major edge, as the newly launched Galaxy Z Fold 7 is significantly thinner than its folding predecessor.
Android Headlines also reported recently that the Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold will be heavier, though not by much. Except for the foldable, we expect the new Pixels could also be thicker. However, the differences reported thus far are pretty minuscule — about 1 mm and 1 to 11 grams, respectively. As we mentioned already, the adoption of magnets for Qi2 wireless charging could explain the change.
For colors, rumors state that the phones will come in the following colors:
Pixel 10: Obsidian (black), Indigo (purple), Lemongrass (yellow), and Frost (blue)
Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL: Obsidian (black), Jade (green), Moonstone (gray), and Porcelain (white)
Pixel 10 Pro Fold: Jade (green), Moonstone (gray)
The colors seem to be consistent among the rumors, but the color names aren’t. In some leaks, Frost is referred to as just “Blue” while Jade is referred to as just “Green”. Moonstone has also been referred to as Sterling (as in silver), and Lemongrass has been referred to as Limoncello. However, it seems black, purple, yellow, blue, green, gray, and white seem to be the colors Google is going with this year.
Unlike the colors, specs have been pretty consistent amongst all the rumors. Google’s new Pixel smartphones are likely to have a TSMC-made Tensor 5 chip, which will power the entire Pixel 10 series. As per the norm, the Tensor 5 will no doubt be Google’s most powerful chip to date, scoring significantly higher than the Tensor 4 in leaked benchmarks. This will be a boon for mobile gamers, AI adopters, and power users.
Other rumors point to modest bumps in various specs, including a peak brightness boost to 3,000 nits (from 2,700 nits), and a boost in regular brightness to 2,000 nits (from 1,800 nits). There have also been some whispers that Google will include higher PWM when dimming the display, an improvement for those who were sensitive to the display dimming of previous Pixels.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is expected to get a bump in battery to 5,015 mAh, a decent bump over last year’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold and its 4,650 mAh. Pixel 9 users have complained about low battery life (a long-running problem), so we'll have to wait and see if the new battery and Tensor 5 chip resolve these problems.
Notably, Android Headlines notes that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold could be the first foldable with a full IP68 waterproof rating, which is genuinely exciting for foldable fans. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Motorola’s foldable both sport IP48 ratings.
The rest of the specs should be about the same. Rumors say that the RAM and storage options will remain the same as they did last year, and the overall design and screen sizes will too (sans the Fold). The batteries will receive a modest (roughly 5 percent) bump in size, and charging speeds are rumored to increase as well. These bumps aren’t huge though, as the Pixel 10 is slated to go from 27W charging to 29W charging.
Much like the specs, the Pixel 10 camera system will see small changes from last year’s Pixel 9. Rumors for this come from Kamila Wojciechowska (via Android Authority). There is a lot to unpack here, so let’s get right to it.
The Pixel 10 is slated to get some new hardware here, including a 50 MP Samsung GN8 wide-angle lens, a 13 MP Sony IMX712 ultrawide lens, an 11 MP Samsung 3J1 telephoto lens, and the same Samsung 3J1 as the selfie lens.
While the Pixel 10 would gain a telephoto lens, something that the base Pixel 9 did not have, the rest of the lineup is widely considered to be a downgrade. Last year’s Pixel 9 had the same wide-angle and ultrawide sensors as the Pixel 9 Pro XL but left out a telephoto. This year, the Pixel 10 is slated to get a telephoto but a downgrade in the wide and ultrawide sensors.
Moving on, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pro XL are rumored to house a 50 MP Samsung GNV wide-angle lens and a trio of 48MP Sony IMX858 lenses handling the telephoto, ultrawide, and selfie cameras. The selfie camera got a slight bump, but otherwise, the camera system will be mostly the same.
Finally, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is slated to have a virtually identical camera system to last year. In case you forgot, that includes a 48 MP wide-angle lens, a 10.5 MP ultrawide lens, and a 10.8 MP 5x telephoto lens with two 10 MP selfie cameras on both screens.
This one is pretty easy. Google will certainly launch the phones with Android 16. That's not much of a rumor: The latest OS is already in the wild, so it just makes sense. Per the norm, there will likely be a bunch of Pixel-specific features.
One such feature is Pixel Sense, an on-device assistant that’ll be able to read data from other apps, such as media apps, your calendar, messages, Maps, email, and others. Many expected this feature, previously referred to as “Pixie,” to be unveiled with the Pixel 9, but it seems the Pixel 10 will be the one. In addition to the above, the assistant will be able to take notes, suggest personal data when you need it, complete tasks and routines faster, and more. Per Android Authority, it’ll adapt to your interests as well.
In addition, there are some new wallpapers and new sounds coming with the device.
We also expect a treasure trove of AI improvements and features. One such example is “Speak to Tweak,” which likely allows Gemini (or another LLM) to edit your photos based on your suggestions. A similar rumored feature is “Sketch to Image,” where you can draw a rough outline of something and AI will fill in from there. There have also been whispers of a Magic Editor for video, some generative AI video editing features, and related tools
One possibility we're watching closely? A bonus subscription to Google AI subscriptions. Currently, when you buy the Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold, you get a 12–month free trial for the Google AI Pro plan. That unlocks one year of access to Gemini Advanced as well as Gemini features in apps like Gmail and Google Docs (you also get 2 TB of cloud storage). In the same way, the new Samsung phones also come with access to Google AI Pro, including access to Google Veo 3, Google's new AI video generator.
We're waiting to see exactly what AI goodies will come with the new Pixel 10 devices, but we're hoping for good news here.
It seems the Pixel 10 lineup is shaping up to be mostly a minor improvement over the Pixel 9 series. There are two caveats to that. If rumors hold, the Pixel 10 camera system will be a slight downgrade, while the Pixel 10 Pro Fold will actually be a sizable upgrade in everything but design. In any case, we only have one more month to wait (allegedly) to see what happens.
UPDATE: Jul. 31, 2025, 2:34 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with additional information on the new Pixel phones.
Tesla launches Robotaxi service in Bay Area, but theres a (human) catchTesla's Robotaxi service has launched in the San Francisco Bay Area, but they're not all that autonomous right now.
As recently promised by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla has launched its Robotaxi service in the Bay Area — but the "robo" part is a bit dodgy right now.
Tesla's AI account on X posted a coverage map on Thursday, with a big chunk of San Francisco, San Jose, and everything in between being covered by the service. Musk retweeted the tweet, saying that "you can now ride-hail a Tesla in the SF Bay Area, in addition to Austin."
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Tesla fans will undoubtedly be happy to see the service expand so quickly - it launched less than two months ago in Austin, and the coverage area was expanded to a wider area in Austin after a couple of weeks.
But as Electrek pointed out, in Bay Area the Robotaxi service is very different from the one in Austin, where the cars are really driving themselves, with no one present in the driver's seat (though the company does use human supervisors in the passenger seat).
In the Bay Area, however, there's a driver in the driver's seat. Their job is to basically use Tesla's Full-Self Driving set of autonomous driving features, allowing the car to drive itself but constantly supervising what it does, always ready to take over if the car makes an error.
Politico noted that Tesla doesn't have a permit to run an autonomous driving service in California, meaning that it can't launch a truly driverless Robotaxi service there.
The news comes after Alphabet's Waymo picked up its expansion plans. The company recently announced it will launch its autonomous ride-hailing service in Dallas next year, on top of previously announced expansion in Miami and Washington D.C.
The Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set has dropped to its lowest-ever price at AmazonAs of Aug. 1, the Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set is on sale at Amazon for $76.99. This is 30% off its list price of $109.99.
SAVE OVER $30: As of Aug. 1, the Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set is on sale for $76.99 at Amazon. This is 30% off its list price of $109.99, allowing you to save $33.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day may not be releasing until next year, but if you're searching for some Spidey in your life right now, look no further than Amazon. The retailer is offering a limited-time discount on the Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set, so you can relive the iconic fight from Spider-Man: No Way Home brick-by-brick.
The Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set is currently on sale for $76.99. This is 30% off its list price of $109.99, but more importantly, it marks a new low price for this set. If you've had your eye on it, now is a great time to grab it.
This Lego set is recommended for ages 10 and up and comes with 900 pieces, including nine minifigures of the three Spider-Men, Electro, Doctor Strange, Green Goblin, Ned, MJ and Doc Ock. It has plenty of cool features as well, including supports for three minifigures to fight midair, a removable roof which reveals Sandman, a flip-open rear that reveals a portal, and a soft web to catch the villains. If you're a Spidey fan, it looks like a very fun set to piece together.
It's currently marked as a limited-time deal, so be quick to grab the Lego Marvel Spider-Man Final Battle set at its lowest-ever price. And if you're looking for another fun Marvel set to work on, the Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet set is also on sale right now at Amazon.
Sasheer Zamata reveals how her interest in witches fatefully led to Agatha All Along — and her hopes for a Season 2Sasheer Zamata, "Saturday Night Live" alum, talks about her hopes for stand-up and her work. Interview.
Sasheer Zamata has earned fans for her Saturday Night Live impersonations of Michelle Obama, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Tyra Banks, and Beyoncé. But she's become a force all her own through stand-up specials like The First Woman and her critically heralded portrayal of midwife/witch Jennifer Kale in the musical MCU spinoff Agatha All Along, for which the actress earned the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Critics' Choice Association's 2nd Annual Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television.
Following the award ceremony, Zamata sat down with Mashable Entertainment editor Kristy Puchko for Say More to discuss her career, online obsessions, and — of course — witches. You can watch the full interview on YouTube. The clip above focuses on how Zamata was already falling down a witchy rabbit hole in writing The First Woman before Agatha came knocking.
Zamata also shared the research she did on how mystics, witches, and women have been "demonized" in trying to better understand their own bodies and the world. "I hope we get to see more coverage of that because it's fascinating, and also it still happens," she said.
Could we see more of Jen in a second season of Agatha All Along? Zamata would be game. "I'm so interested," she said, "I've made it very clear that I would love to keep playing this character in any capacity. But I haven't heard anything. We'll see."
Zamata also spoke to how she uses stand-up to share her own story, which creates a space in her sets where people can relate and feel seen. "I kind of like comedy for that reason," she said, "I think it connects people in a way you wouldn't usually get to connect on that level."
For more from Zamata, including what it was like to play a costumed character at a Disney theme park, check out our full interview on YouTube.
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 1, 2025Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Capability
Green: One letter is not pronounced
Blue: Old movie stars
Purple: Common sayings
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Aptitude
Green: Silent "W"
Blue: Legends of classic Hollywood
Purple: Hit the ___
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #782 is...
Aptitude: BENT, FACULTY, FLAIR, GIFT
Silent "W": PLAYWRIGHT, SWORD, WRAP, WREATH
Legends of classic Hollywood: DEAN, GABLE, GARLAND, TEMPLE
Hit the ___: HAY, JACKPOT, ROAD, ROOF
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands?
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.
NYT Strands hints, answers for August 1, 2025The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferrined pace.
The words are animal-related.
These words are types of reptiles.
Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
Today's spangram is Serpent.
Viper
Anaconda
Rattler
Cobra
Serpent
Adder
Python
Mamba
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Strands.
Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 1, 2025Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1504 on August 1 as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.
Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
A stringed instrument.
There are no recurring letters.
Today's Wordle starts with the letter B.
Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
BANJO.
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Wordle.
Seth Meyers gleefully reacts to footage of Trump nodding off on the jobSeth Meyers has reacted to footage of President Trump appearing to nod off during a White House event.
Seth Meyers has been focussing on the Trump/Epstein scandal lately, but on Thursday's Late Night he also found time to draw attention to the president appearing to casually nod off at work during a White House event with Medicare administrator Dr. Oz.
Meyers shows footage of the president, his eyes slowly drifting shut before snapping open again, while Dr. Oz talks next to him.
"Hold on, I think I might have to do what my teachers used to do to me in math class," says Meyers, picking up a large book and dropping it onto the Late Night desk. "Mr Trump? Care to join us?
"I mean that was very brutal," Meyers adds. "You know when he finally opened his eyes he looked around and thought to himself, 'Oh f***, I'm still president.'"
Stephen Colbert mocks Trumps Presidential Fitness Test revivalDonald Trump signed an executive order to revive the Presidential Fitness Test. Stephen Colbert shared his thoughts on "The Late Show".
On Thursday, Donald Trump signed an executive order to revive the Presidential Fitness Test for school children across the U.S., a move The Late Show's Stephen Colbert joked as meaning "now children will have to be as fit as President Trump."
Bringing out a whistle during Thursday's monologue, Colbert channelled his inner gym teacher to mock Trump's order: "Alright everyone, hop on that golf cart and start poppin' nuggets till your ankles swell like a balloon full of chilli. And dip, and munch, and dip, and munch. Now watch TV and yell, yell, yell."
Colbert noted that the Presidential Fitness Test has been around since 1966, but as the Associated Press reports, "The program changed in 2012 during the Obama administration to focus more on individual health than athletic feats."
"BOOOO!" said Colbert. "Make the children perform athletic feats for our amusement! I had to do it in school and so did all of you. And I think every child should have a chance to struggle through timed sit-ups while the meanest boy in school sits on their feet and farts. Think about it! If they don't have to do that, where will the future comedians come from?"
Samsungs Galaxy Buds2 Pro are over $100 off, but this deal wont last longAs of Aug. 1, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds are on sale at Best Buy for $99.99, $130 off their usual list price of $229.99.
SAVE OVER $100: As of Aug. 1, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds are on sale for $99.99 at Best Buy. This is $130 off their list price of $229.99.
If summertime travel plans have you itching to buy some new earbuds for your trips, there are thankfully some standout deals available right now. If you're quick, Best Buy's Deal of the Day — which is, as the name states, a one-day-only price drop — is offering an excellent discount right now on Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds are usually listed for $229.99, but Best Buy's offering them for $99.99 right now. That saves you $130 on list price. This deal only lasts through the rest of Aug. 1, so act fast to secure this low price.
We consider these earbuds to be "a no-brainer for Samsung fans," as we explained in our review. Featuring Active Noise Cancelation, you can block out any outside noises and stay focused on what's playing. These earbuds are great for turning up for favorite tunes or getting lost in an audiobook. They even boast 360 Audio that makes it seem as if you are surrounded by the sounds. We're all about that immersion.
Act fast to save $130 on the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds at Best Buy as part of its Deal of the Day. And if you're looking for more earbud deals, Apple users can enjoy the AirPods 4 for under $100 right now at Amazon.
Is the DJI Mini 3 drone still in stock? Heres where to find this beginner-friendly drone.The DJI Mini 3 is still in stock at Amazon. Find the standalone drone or bundles in stock.
SAVE $100: As of Aug. 1, the DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo is on sale at Amazon for $619. This is $100 off its list price of $719.
If you've had your eyes on the skies and are looking for a drone to help you capture some aerial shots, Amazon's here to help. The retailer is offering a very nice discount at the moment on the DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo, which comes with everything you need to kickstart your journey with a new drone.
While it's usually listed for $719, the DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo is on sale right now for $619. This is a discount of 14%, allowing you to pocket $100. If you've been hoping to pick up one of these mini drones, this is a great bundle offer to jump on while it's still available.
Alongside the DJI Mini 3 drone, this combo deal also comes with a shoulder bag, the DJI RC, and two additional flight batteries with a two-way charging hub. With the help of these extra batteries, you can get up to 114 minutes of flight time. It can also film in 4K HDR, features Level 5 wind resistance to keep it steady, and can shoot up to 32,800 feet in the air.
It also features a very neat "GPS Return to Home" system, which will command the drone to fly back to its place of origin automatically. So even if you've got a little lost during your flight, you can always retrieve your drone safely.
If you've had your eye on a drone, this bundle deal is worth a look. Don't miss out on $100 off the DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo at Amazon. If you'd prefer to just get the drone on its own, the DJI Mini 3 drone is $60 off at Amazon right now as well.
Now streaming: How to watch Final Destination: Bloodlines at homeIs the new "Final Destination" movie streaming? Find out how to watch the horror hit at home, including the best HBO Max deals.
Driven largely by word-of-mouth and the franchise's loyal fanbase, Final Destination: Bloodlines has become the unexpected hit of the summer. The sixth installment in Jeffrey Reddick's long-running horror franchise managed to find new and creatively horrific ways for people to perish. And audiences and critics alike are loving it.
It's notably one of the last cinema roles of the late horror legend Tony Todd, reprising his Final Destination recurring character William Bludworth. It also stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, and Rya Kihlstedt.
If you missed it in theaters, there are now a few different ways you can dance with death at home. Here's everything you need to know to watch Final Destination: Bloodlines.
Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the newest Final Destination film follows Stefani Lewis (Santa Juana), a college student haunted by visions of her family's horrific deaths through outrageous accidents. She heads home in hopes of getting help to break the cycle and save her family from their inevitably grisly demise. As it turns out, she's not the only one in her family with the gift, as her grandmother Iris (Gabrielle Rose) skirted her own death in the '60s — and she's got the book Stefani will need to face her own.
Check out the gruesome trailer for a sneak peek:
The latest movie in the Final Destination franchise was made on a $50 million budget and managed to gross around $285 million (so far) at the worldwide box office. That not only makes Bloodlines the highest-grossing Final Destination film ever, but also the second-highest grossing horror film of the year (after Sinners), and the 11th highest grossing film of any genre in 2025. It's not easy to succeed as the sixth movie in a franchise, but it truly exceeded expectations and became an unexpected summer hit.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is also the best-reviewed film in the entire franchise, scoring an impressive 93 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 87 percent audience score.
Mashable's own reviewer sums it up nicely: "If watching all of the ways the human body can get exploded is your cuppa, then have I got the hehe-sicko movie for you. You'll cringe, hoot, and holler. You'll wipe the phantom viscera off your face. And you'll spend the entire ride home convinced everything's out to kill you. It's horror movie nirvana."
Read our full review of Final Destination: Bloodlines.
Final Destination: Bloodlines hit theaters on May 16, 2025. If you missed out on the full theater experience or if you can't wait to watch it again, there are now a few different ways to watch it at home: purchasing via digital video-on-demand, renting via digital video-on-demand, and of course, streaming.
As of June 17, the latest Final Destination movie is available to purchase or rent on digital video-on-demand platforms like Prime Video. You can purchase the movie for your digital collection or rent it for 30 days. If you choose to rent, just be aware that while you'll have 30 days to watch, you only get 48 hours to finish once you begin.
You can purchase and rent the film at the following retailers:
Prime Video — buy for $12.99, rent for $5.99
Apple TV — buy for $12.99, rent for $5.99
Fandango at Home — buy for $12.99, rent for $5.99
Google Play — buy for $12.99, rent for $5.99
As a Warner Bros. Pictures film, it's no surprise that Final Destination: Bloodlines made its streaming debut on HBO Max — the Warner Bros.-owned streaming service that keeps changing its name. You can stream the horror franchise's latest entry beginning Aug. 1, 2025.
HBO Max subscriptions start at $9.99 per month, but there are a few different ways to shave a few bucks off your plan. Check out the best HBO Max streaming deals below.
If you choose to pay upfront for an entire year of HBO Max, you can save about 16% compared to the monthly plan. The Basic plan with ads typically goes for $9.99 per month, but if you go annual, that cost drops to about $8.33 per month — a yearly total of just $99.99.
Similarly, for those who prefer an ad-free experience, you can opt for the annual HBO Max Standard or Premium plans and save about 16%. The Standard tier costs either $16.99 per month or $169.99 per year (about $14.16 per month), while the Premium tier costs either $20.99 per month or $209.99 per year (about $17.50 per month). While both tiers offer ad-free viewing, the Premium tier goes a step further with 4K Ultra HD video quality, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and the ability to download more offline content.
Looking for a way to get HBO Max for free? Switch your phone plan to Cricket's $60 per month unlimited plan. HBO Max Basic (with ads) is included for no extra cost. When you open up the HBO Max app, you'll just select Cricket as your provider and use your credentials to log in. That's all, folks.
Another way to get HBO Max for free in 2025 is by signing up for DoorDash's annual DashPass plan for $96 per year ($8 per month). A DashPass membership gets you $0 delivery fees and reduced service fees on eligible DoorDash orders all year long. You'll just have to activate your HBO Max Basic (with ads) subscription through your DoorDash account to get started. If you'd rather watch ad-free, you can upgrade for a discounted rate as well.
College students can expand their movie horizons with an entire year of HBO Max Basic (with ads) for half price. Just verify your student status with UNiDAYS and use the unique discount code you receive to drop the price from $9.99 to $4.99 per month. After 12 months, your subscription will go back up to full price unless you cancel.
Want the most bang for your buck? Check out the Disney+ bundle deal that includes Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max for only $16.99 per month with ads. That lineup of streamers would usually cost you $25.97 per month, so you'll keep an extra $9 in your pocket monthly.
Rather go ad-free? The ad-free bundle will run you $29.99 per month as opposed to $48.97. That's up to 38% in savings for access to all three streaming libraries — arguably the best deal in the entire streaming-verse.
The Apple Pencil Pro is down to under $100 at Walmart — save $30 on Apple’s latest stylusApple’s latest Apple Pencil Pro is now just $99 at Walmart, offering advanced creative features, haptic feedback, and magnetic charging.
SAVE $30: Walmart has the Apple Pencil Pro on sale for $99, down from its usual $129 price tag — a $30 discount on Apple's newest, most advanced iPad stylus.
This latest Apple deal at Walmart is hard to ignore if you’ve been looking to level up your iPad creativity. As of Aug. 1, Walmart has knocked $30 off the Apple Pencil Pro, bringing the price down to just $99. Normally $129, this is one of the best early discounts we’ve seen on Apple’s most powerful stylus yet.
The latest Apple Pencil Pro isn’t just a minor upgrade. It’s packed with intuitive tools designed to make digital art, note-taking, and precision work feel more natural than ever. For instance, it introduces new gestures like Squeeze and Barrel Roll, giving you quick access to brushes, tools, and stroke adjustments without digging through menus. Haptic feedback adds a subtle tactile response when snapping shapes or aligning elements, making your workflow smoother and more satisfying.
For artists and power users, pixel-perfect precision, tilt and pressure sensitivity, and low latency ensure every stroke feels exactly how you intend it. Hover functionality on supported iPad Pro and iPad Air models (M2 and newer) lets you preview your marks before you commit, making it perfect for detailed sketching or photo retouching.
And if you’ve ever misplaced a stylus, support from the Find My feature should help save you from the hunt.
The Apple Pencil Pro even attaches magnetically to compatible iPads for pairing and charging, keeping your setup clean and ready to go. Just note that it only works with the latest iPad Pro (M4) and iPad Air (M2 and M3) models, so double-check compatibility before buying.
If you’re still browsing for upgrades, you can check out our 2025 roundup of the 10 best tablets that are worth your money. And if you’re all-in on the Apple ecosystem, don’t miss our weekly list of top Apple deals — featuring fresh discounts on iPads, MacBooks, and more.
Apple AirPods Max are back under $450 for a limited time — heres where to saveApple AirPods Max are on sale for $449.99 on Amazon — save $99 on Apple's high-end over-ear headphones with premium sound, ANC, and Spatial Audio
SAVE $99: Amazon is offering Apple’s AirPods Max for $449.99 (regularly $549), available in midnight, blue, orange, and starlight.
Now might finally be the time to jumy on Apple’s luxury over-ear headphones. As of Aug. 1, Apple AirPods Max are marked down to $449.99 on Amazon, giving you a cool $100 off their usual $549 price tag. The deal applies to multiple colour options, including midnight, blue, orange, and starlight.
According to price tracker camelcamelcamel, that's the best price we've seen in weeks.
Apple designed the AirPods Max to take your listening sessions to a new level. Their custom-built dynamic driver and computational audio powered by the Apple H1 chip deliver high-fidelity sound with clarity and depth that rivals many studio-grade headphones. Combine that with pro-level Active Noise Cancellation that cuts out twice as much background noise as earlier AirPods models, and you’ve got an experience that’s all about focus and immersion.
We even tested them at Mashable in a dedicated AirPods Max review of its lossless audio, and declared that these are excellent all-rounder headphones.
If you need to stay aware of your surroundings, you can switch to Transparency mode for a natural mix of music and ambient sound, making it easy to chat or hear what’s going on around you without missing a beat. Personalised Spatial Audio is another standout, tailoring playback to your unique ear shape and dynamically tracking your head for a 360-degree soundscape — especially impressive with Dolby Atmos-supported content.
Beyond sound, Apple put serious thought into comfort. The AirPods Max feature a breathable knit-mesh canopy and plush memory foam ear cushions for a secure yet weightless feel, ideal for long listening sessions. A colour-matched Smart Case is included, and with USB-C charging, you can stay powered up with ease.
Seamless setup and automatic switching between iPhone, iPad, and Mac make these headphones as smart as they are stylish. They even pause your music the instant you take them off.
At $449.99, the AirPods Max bring Apple’s most advanced audio tech into a slightly more accessible price range. If you’ve been eyeing a pair, this Amazon deal is a great opportunity to upgrade your sound game while keeping nearly $100 in your pocket.
If you’re still shopping around, our roundup of the top 10 headphones in 2025 is a good starting point. On the off-chance you’re an Apple purist, we also have a list of the best Apple deals of the week — including bargains on iPads and MacBooks.
Mae Martins Netflix thriller Wayward gets a creepy teaser with Toni ColletteToni Collette and Mae Martin star in Netflix's 'Wayward', with a new teaser trailer out.
We love Toni Collette in creepy mode, and we love the idea of comedian and Feel Good star Mae Martin making a rare pivot to thriller. You'll get both in Netflix's Wayward, a new limited series created by and starring Martin with Ryan Scott.
In the teaser above, you'll get glimpses of a creepy facility in the woods called Tall Pines, where "troubled teens" attend under the watch of a strangely smiley founder (Collette). It's not clear what secrets this place holds, but Collette's unsettling welcome suggests you can check in anytime you like but you might never leave. It'll be up to new police officer in town Alex Dempsey (Martin) to investigate, after two students (Sydney Topliffe and Alyvia Alyn Lind) tip him off.
Martin told Netflix's Tudum blog the show is "like if you took the kids from Booksmart and put them in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Wayward hits Netflix Sept. 25.
Dont break the bank: The best budget earbuds, tested by our audio expertsOur experts vetted the best budget wireless earbuds of 2025. Here are the best cheap models from Bose, Apple, and Skullcandy.
We spend a lot of time fawning over the latest tech here at Mashable, and as much as we love nerding out over the newest Sony headphones drop, we know that's not always relatable. New tech is often expensive tech, and a nearly $500 pair of headphones is certainly not always in the budget. That's why we're here to talk about the best budget earbuds.
A pair of cheap earbuds is a compact alternative to over-the-ear headphones, but let's be clear, just because these earbuds are affordable, doesn't mean they skimp on features. Two of the best earbuds we've tested are nearly $300 — Apple AirPods Pro costs $249.95, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds come in at $299 — but we've found models for even less. You don't need to spend $300 on a pair of great earbuds; in fact, you don't even need to spend $100.
Among all the earbuds we've tested, which is an extensive list, these are the best budget earbuds.
Budget is a relative term, so for this list, we're looking at earbuds under $200, but mostly under $100. Our top pick is the EarFun Air Pro 4, which have a list price of $79.99, and have the noise cancellation of a much more expensive pair of earbuds. Going the budget route might mean making compromises, but not sacrifices. For under $100, you can still get active noise cancellation and self-charging cases.
We do include a couple of models closer to $200, which we get isn't exactly everyone's idea of budget-friendly. For those models, the Bose QuietComfort earbuds and the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC, we consider them budget pairs, relatively speaking. Compared to premium options, the Bose QC earbuds offer an awfully similar experience for significantly cheaper. In the case of Apple, AirPods' entire line runs at higher price points than most of the consumer audio market. That's why we recommend the AirPods 4 both with and without ANC for folks who want to stay in the Apple ecosystem, enjoy AirPods' quality sound, but aren't quite ready to make the jump to the Pros.
The models on this list are pulled from our extensive testing here at Mashable. Our previous top pick on this list was the Apple AirPods 3; however, the AirPods 4 have replaced them, making them more expensive, plus they don't have great Android compatibility.
Another pair of headphones we considered for this list were the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds with sound by Bose. We tested these buds, and while they're pretty good for $100, they have a bad case design and just aren't that comfortable compared to other models on this list — plus, the $100 introductory price went up to $129.99.
Hurry! Apple AirPods 4 are back under $100 on Amazon.Amazon is offering Apple AirPods 4 for just $99, down from $129 — a 23% discount on Apple’s latest wireless earbuds with upgraded audio and comfort.
SAVE 23%: Score Apple AirPods 4 for only $99 on Amazon, marked down from $129.
Amazon just handed you a great reason to upgrade your earbuds. As of Aug. 1, Apple AirPods 4 are on sale for $99 on Amazon, which is 23% off the regular $129 price tag.
The AirPods 4 are Apple’s latest take on wireless listening, and they’re more than a minor tweak from previous generations. In our Mashable review of the AirPods 4, we loved them enough to declare them our new go-to daily earbuds to replace the AirPods Pro. These earbuds have been redesigned for all-day comfort, featuring a refined contour and shorter stem that helps them stay secure in your ears whether you’re commuting, working out, or just relaxing.
Audio quality also gets a noticeable bump thanks to Apple’s H2 chip and Personalized Spatial Audio. The latter tailors sound based on your individual ear shape, delivering an immersive, theater-like effect when you’re listening to music, streaming shows, or gaming.
On calls, Voice Isolation technology ensures that your voice cuts through even in noisy environments, so you sound crystal clear to whoever’s on the other end. Pairing AirPods 4 with your iPhone or other Apple devices is practically instant — just pop them open near your device and tap to connect.
Siri support is smarter, too. You can simply say “Siri” or “Hey Siri” to issue commands, and with Siri Interactions, you can now nod or shake your head to respond hands-free.
Battery life holds strong with up to five hours of listening on a single charge, and a total of 30 hours with the USB-C charging case, which is dust, sweat, and water-resistant. Whether you’re heading to the gym or caught in a downpour, your AirPods can keep up.
Whilst grabbing new earbuds, take a look at our other best Apple deals of the week — including MacBooks, iPads, and more. If you’re still shopping around, check out our roundup of best earbuds in 2025 from a variety of brands like Panasonic, Bose, Anker, and of course, Apple.
K-pop rookies KiiiKiii tap into Gen Zs obsession with early internet aestheticsK-pop group KiiiKiii taps into Gen Z's Y2K nostalgia with early internet aesthetics in their "Dancing Alone" single rollout.
If you were online in the early 2000s, KiiiKiii’s aesthetic might feel eerily familiar.
The rookie K-pop girl group is channeling a distinctly Y2K internet vibe for their new single, "Dancing Alone." The first thing you see on their website is a pop-up window featuring a pixelated dolphin defining the word "anemoia," a neologism meaning "nostalgia for a time one has never known." For KiiiKiii's members — all born after 2005 — that time is the early internet: clunky homepages, flashing cursors, Craigslist garage sales, and the tender chaos of adolescent emotion once captured in blurry webcam selfies and broken HTML.
And that’s exactly the world they’re building.
To promote "Dancing Alone," KiiiKiii’s site features Friendster-style profile pages for each member and faux Craigslist listings advertising a "garage sale." Some of the items on sale? A scuffed-up, bedazzled ice-blue Game Boy Advance SP circa 2003. Old camcorders in a variety of colors. And "gently used" DVDs.
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The images themselves are soft flash and pixel blur, all muted tones and melancholy textures, like they were snapped on a thrifted Canon PowerShot ELPH and uploaded from a family desktop. It’s a full-on sensory portal to a time before streaming, when heartbreak lived in AIM away messages and girls uploaded mirror selfies to MySpace with glitter text and lowercase captions.
For a generation that didn’t experience Y2K firsthand, KiiiKiii’s concept doesn’t just replicate the era — it mythologizes it. This is K-pop worldbuilding at its most layered: turning early-web ephemera and analog tech into a dreamy, digital coming-of-age narrative, wrapped in a fuzzy glow of borrowed memory.
KiiiKiii’s vision taps into a much larger trend: Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s ongoing embrace of old tech and Y2K aesthetics. Raised on sleek, algorithm-driven platforms, today’s digital natives are increasingly drawn to the messiness and tactility of the early internet, a time when personalization meant editing your MySpace layout in HTML, not choosing between Instagram Story fonts. The appeal is emotional. There’s something grounding, even rebellious, in returning to the janky textures of pre-streaming digital life — flip phones, digital cameras, wired headphones, chunky plastic hardware. In a social media landscape that prizes polish and performance, retro interfaces offer something more intimate, more handmade.
Gen Z is uniquely nostalgic: A 2023 research study by GWI found that 50 percent of this generation feels wistful for media they never experienced, and 15 percent actively choose to dwell in the past over the future
Whether it’s printing out photos (a practice 43 percent of Gen Z do regularly) or crafting faux Friendster pages, these retro impulses are rooted in a search for literal and emotional texture in an age of polish and automation.
K-pop’s interpretation of this cultural moment is especially potent among teen groups. Acts like NewJeans, tripleS, and now KiiiKiii aren’t just recycling early-2000s trends; they’re reclaiming and reimagining them for a new generation. Through lo-fi visuals, analog tech, and retro internet references, these groups are using Y2K aesthetics to explore identity and girlhood through a distinctly digital lens.
In a culture defined by hyperconnectivity and curated personas, the fuzzy flash of a 2000s point-and-shoot feels, paradoxically, more real than reality.
New telescope captures interstellar comet speeding through space in videoThe Vera C. Rubin Observatory captured Comet 3I/ATLAS racing through space in a video, offering a peek at the interstellar visitor.
A new telescope built to to track fast-moving space objects caught a comet from beyond the solar system moving across the sky — before anyone even knew it was there.
The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile recently captured rare footage of the visitor known as 3I/ATLAS — only the third interstellar object discovered. What’s more impressive: The observatory recorded the video a full 10 days before the comet was officially identified by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.
Unlike the thousands of comets that loop around the sun, this one isn’t from around here. Scientists say 3I/ATLAS was born in a completely different star system and likely got flung into the void by the gravity of a nearby planet or passing star. After drifting for perhaps hundreds of millions of years, the giant comet, which you can watch in Rubin's video below, wandered into our realm — and it's just passing through.
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Comets are icy, rocky objects that travel through space, often trailing long, bright tails of gas and dust as they warm up near the sun. Scientists have detected over 4,000 of them so far, but many more awaiting discovery could be lurking beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt or even in the remote Oort Cloud, the outer edge of the solar system about 50 times farther away.
Unlike Halley’s Comet and others that regularly circle the sun, 3I/ATLAS isn’t one of the locals. When it was first spotted on July 1 by the ATLAS survey telescope, it was over 400 million miles from Earth and well within the orbit of Jupiter. At the time, it was traveling at a blistering speed of about 137,000 mph. That’s far too fast to be held by the sun’s gravity, confirming that it's on a one-way route through the solar system.
Experts say it's only the third-known interstellar comet. The first, a rocky cigar-shaped thing named 'Oumuamua, zoomed by in 2017. Then came 2I/Borisov in 2019, which looked and behaved a little more like a typical comet. Now, 3I/ATLAS joins this rare club, but scientists think it may be the most ancient of all.
Based on early computer models, researchers believe 3I/ATLAS may have come from a little-known region of the Milky Way filled with old, long-lived stars. If so, it could be over 7 billion years old — nearly twice as old as our own solar system. That makes it a sort of time capsule, preserving materials from an earlier time in the galaxy.
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Because it’s already releasing gas and dust as it heats up, astronomers know it’s made of ice — the hallmark of a comet — despite recent sensational headlines suggesting the object might be an alien spacecraft. Its dusty tail may become visible from Earth with a backyard telescope later this year or early in 2026.
"While there's *nothing wrong* with thinking about whether some interstellar objects could be alien technology," said Jason Wright, a Penn State astronomy and astrophysics professor, on X, "3I/ATLAS has had its coma clearly detected since July 3. It's very clearly, *unambiguously*, a comet."
Scientists are especially excited about this discovery not just because of what it is, but because of how it was found. The Rubin Observatory, while still being tested, managed to catch the comet before anyone even knew to look. That bodes well for the future. Researchers estimate Rubin could find dozens more of these interlopers in the coming decade — possibly up to 50.
Interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS offer a direct glimpse into the chemical makeup of other planetary systems. Since they formed around different stars, studying them could reveal how worlds form in other parts of the galaxy — and whether the building blocks for life travel between stars.
Right now, 3I/ATLAS is about 262 million miles from Earth. It's expected to make its closest approach to the sun in late October, then swing back out, never to return. But no need to worry: This comet will stay far from Earth, never coming closer than about 150 million miles, but leaving behind a wealth of data for astronomers to study for years to come.
Are great app-spectations killing your morale? Heres how to change your mindset.Experts tell Mashable how to set realistic expectations for finding love online.
It doesn't matter where you are or who you're talking to — if the conversation you're in turns to dating, it's only a matter of time before somebody says those seven little words we've all heard before: "Everyone meets on the apps these days."
But saying it doesn't make it so, and the pressure that you're putting on yourself to conform to that which isn't true could be turning you off dating altogether. After all, the apps aren't for everyone. And these great dating app expectations (app-spectations, if you will) are liable to result in feelings of low self-esteem, vulnerability, and a vicious cycle of desperation fed by perceived rejection that gets you nowhere good. Mashable asked experts for tips to shed these "app-spectations," and change your dating mindset.
If you think using the apps is the most effective way to date, and you've begun to hate them, it stands to reason that soon you'll start hating dating altogether. But I covered in a previous article, dating apps probably don't work quite as well as you think they do.
A rolling YouGov survey (with the latest results at the time of writing being from June 2025) found that nine percent of Brits met their current or most recent partner on a dating app. That's more than, say, through family (four percent) or through a shared hobby (also four percent), but less than ways like through mutual friends (15 percent), through work (17 percent), and in passing while out at a cafe, pub, or similar (10 percent).
These figures indicate that the apps are certainly a significant part of the dating scene, but they are by no means the be-all and end-all of finding love. If you're beating yourself up for not finding your soulmate on Hinge, your mental wellbeing is at risk over a misconception.
A 2024 survey by Forbes Health found that 78 percent of people felt dating apps had "emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausted" them "sometimes, often, or always". The biggest reason why? Forty percent of those surveyed said it was not being able to find a quality connection.
Yes, it can be rough out there. Even if you've been having a great time on the apps, keeping your self-esteem topped up while you swipe is a challenge. Integrative counsellor Fran Roberts tells me that she's seen it before with lots of her clients. "The daily rejection from random strangers can knock even the strongest of people," she adds, "and any insecurity you do have becomes the reason why you can't meet someone or make them stay."
So, trying to force your way into making dating apps work for you while not having a great time is a recipe for a well-being disaster.
Therapist Shikainah Champion-Samuel says that feelings of low self-esteem can lead to a vicious swiping cycle. "Contrary to what society would have you believe," she explains, "success on a dating app does not lead to lifting your mood and self-worth. It is probably the other way around. If you have healthy self-esteem, you are more likely to make good decisions while swiping on the app, rather than ones based on your emotional state."
Ammanda Major, who's the clinical quality director for the relationship counselling charity Relate, says that feeling rejected — which can happen at speed on lots of dating apps purely based on how they function — causes lots of people to act and feel more and more desperate to make the apps work as well as they think they should. And desperation is not exactly a turn-on. "So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," Major explains.
Champion-Samuel warns against the point where you start experiencing an "inward critical dialogue." If you're finding yourself thinking things like "I'm not attractive enough," "I'll never find love," or "If it's working for others and not me, there must be something wrong with me," then it might be time to quit the apps while you work on feeling better about yourself.
Otherwise, you're liable to end up in "a downward spiral of low mood and feelings of worthlessness," as Champion-Samuel puts it. "In that kind of vulnerable state, such people are more likely to fall prey to unscrupulous characters on the next dating app they try."
As Paul Brunson, Tinder's global relationship expert, puts it: "Dating apps give us the chance to meet new people, but they don't promise a fairy tale. If we can shift our mindset from pressure to potential, we can see dating as an opportunity for fun and growth."
The apps are simply a tool to be used at your discretion. Maybe that tool works for you, or maybe it doesn't. Either way, you don't have to use them to find love in 2025.
Instead, you could strike up a conversation with someone at a bar or ask a friend to set you up with one of their pals. If you're shy about approaching someone in public, you could even reach out to a crush on social media. You could try IRL events for singles like speed dating, which are rising in popularity again and are often specifically designed to help you break the ice.
Aside from diversifying your dating, it's possible to keep using apps with a healthier mindset.
It's important not to get tied up in knots over the opinions of others, Brunson points out. He explains, "It's important not to let rejection define you. The key is to stay true to yourself and not tie your value to someone else's preferences."
Don't stress to find perfection, he says. "When you approach it with the mindset of 'this is a journey, not a sprint,' it's a lot more enjoyable," he adds. "Remember, dating apps give you access to a world of possibility — it's about staying open to the experience, not just the end result. Sometimes, the best connections come when we stop forcing them and just let things unfold."
Roberts, who's a Counselling Directory member, suggests trying not to take your app chats "too seriously" until you've actually met IRL. "If someone does ghost or unmatch you," she adds, "remember [the differences between] fact and fiction. The fact is you have been ghosted, the fiction is any reason you come up with."
She also recommends accepting that we are all simply "a bunch of strangers online hoping that someone is going to like us."
Major has similar words of wisdom, saying: "Another way to look at it is [by thinking,] 'These people don't know me, so how can they reject me?' I think it's about hanging on to the bit that is real, because so much of this isn't real."
What is real is that there are countless other great and fun ways to meet people. What is a fact is that forcing yourself to date in a way that doesn't suit you messes with your chances of finding love in the first place.
Bullying yourself over not being able to find a relationship on an app is like trying to make yourself feel bad for disliking left-handed scissors. Sweetheart, you might simply be right-handed.
The legendary M1 MacBook Air has gone on sale for under $600 — but not at AmazonAs of July 31, the M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB storage) is on sale at Walmart for $599, $50 off its list price of $649.
SAVE $50: As of July 31, the M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB storage) is on sale for $599 at Walmart. This is $50 off its usual list price of $649.
Whether you're shopping for a new laptop for work, everyday use, or the upcoming school year, Walmart's offering an excellent discount on the M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB storage) that you don't want to miss. Right now you can score this laptop for just $599.
This is $50 off its usual list price of $649. This M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB) deal covers multiple colors as well, so you can choose between the silver model, gold, or space gray.
The M1 is probably the most award-winning laptop of all time. It debuted Apple's M-series silicon chip, and was a top laptop pick for years. Sure, there are newer models. But this MacBook is still a beast.
Fitted with the M1 chip, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage, the M1 MacBook Air is a great fit for adults or students looking for a laptop to help them out with day-to-day activities. It also boasts up to 18 hours of battery life to get you through the day, a sleek 13.3-inch Retina display, and its slim design makes it incredibly easy to pack up and take on the go for the rest of your summer adventures or into the new school year.
Who knows how much longer this deal will stick around, so don't miss out on the M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB storage) for $599 at Walmart.
If you're looking for a newer model instead, the 2025 MacBook Air is also on sale right now for under $800.
Review: To Live and Dine at the Tesla Diner in L.A.Mashable editor Neal Broverman gives a first-person account of the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles.
Would I want to check out the new Tesla Diner in Hollywood and write about it, my Mashable colleague asked me last week. Well, let's just say, I'm much more willing to help a fellow journalist than Elon Musk. I said yes.
I initially planned to check out the establishment the first Saturday following its July 21 opening, but I'm glad I waited. Social media images of block-long crowds and raucous scenes of anti-Elon protests — featuring effigies of the contentious electric car CEO — convinced me to hold off that day. I'm glad I didn’t visit on Sunday either, since that’s when a piece of patio furniture fell on a patron’s head. Could my family and I check out the hype and get out unscathed?
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Tuesday seemed like a sensible enough option for a visit that would let me avoid the weekend’s crowds (and mayhem). At about 2:15 that afternoon, a line still wrapped around the retro-futuristic diner — brought to life by Tesla lead designer Franz von Holzhausen — and dozens loitered around the restaurant’s adjoining 80 EV charging stations.
The crowd enduring the 45-minute wait appeared to consist mostly of curious tourists and families with kids — no DOGE or MAGA paraphernalia spotted. Tesla owners utilizing the chargers got to jump the line, leading to some quiet resentment about the sweaty patrons.
While the sun beat down on waiting guests, there were some distractions, including free cups of cold water from the staff and the diner’s now-infamous jumbo screens that, at that time, showed silent clips of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Wacky Races and an episode of the original Star Trek where a possessed Captain Kirk nearly assaults a woman (disturbing choice, to say the least). Tesla owners using the chargers can access the screens’ audio through their sound systems, and movies are screened nightly. Desert landscaping and dining tables dot the front, side, and back of the diner, the latter of which were utilized by seniors and crawled over by children, contributing to a lively, though not chaotic, scene — at least during my Tuesday visit.
My party of three was eventually waved into the restaurant and quickly greeted by a friendly hostess who explained the touch-screen ordering system. It immediately became clear why we had waited so long; there are only two ordering screens. Meanwhile, various tables sat empty. (Maybe the ubiquitous lines outside the restaurant are simply a marketing gimmick?) The menu is limited and offers typical diner fare — burgers, fries, chicken sandwiches, grilled cheeses, and tuna melts.
The restaurant’s interior was covered in slick silver chrome, a few dozen tables, a large counter with comfy-looking chairs, and a busy kitchen behind it. Inside the diner, there were nearly as many black-clad Tesla Diner employees as paying customers.
Our receipt didn’t come with an order number, ostensibly because we didn’t order beverages (the usual sodas and coffee were available). This led to some confusion as to how to receive our food (most people retrieve their items from the counter when their number is called). Using our receipt, an employee made sure our tuna melt, grilled cheese, chicken sandwich, and fries were delivered. Most of the staff, save for some of the harried workers managing the crowd outside, were friendly and outgoing.
Good! My tuna melt came with dill and pickles, which I know is not for everyone, but I loved it. The perfectly toasted bread, melty American cheese, and white tuna reminded me of a meal from beloved East Coast institution Friendly’s (IYKYK). L.A. chef Eric Greenspan was behind the food of Tesla Diner, which is simple but done well. The ranch dip, paired with delicious fries, was also flavored with dill and received accolades from my husband. (The whole menu is posted on the Tesla website.)
One downside is the portion sizes. All three of our sandwiches were small and came with nothing, though they're priced like a diner meal that's sizable and comes with a side. Without any beverages, we still spent nearly $50 on lunch for two adults and a kid.
Our food also didn't arrive in Cybertruck boxes, though we saw some other tables with them. No big loss since we're not fans of the CTs, but others may be disappointed if they miss out.
The first floor of the diner was clean, considering the number of people cycling through it. The interior design was pretty unimpressive, though; other than the aforementioned chrome, there was little to look at on the first floor, save for the line of people outside. At night, with all the dining room's lights set against the darkness, it may look more impressive.
It’s only when you climb the stairs to the second floor that things get interesting. Three Optimus robots encased in glass flank the twisty stairs, which lead you to the entrance of the second floor’s 360-degree open-air dining deck. A counter staffed by humans sells Tesla merch, with an empty popcorn machine nearby — we were hoping for an encounter with the diner’s famous popcorn-serving robot, but were informed by a staff member it had the day off. Musk has very ambitious plans for these bots, and he's on record saying he expects “thousands” of them working in his factories by the end of the year, with millions more to come by the end of the decade, per Investopedia. If they're not up for serving popcorn, well, I have my doubts.
The dining deck’s views of the Hollywood hills, various high-rises, nearby apartment buildings (with their frustrated residents), and the movie screens were truly impressive. The first floor is utilitarian, while the second floor is an experience.
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Well, first off, that depends on how you feel about Tesla and, more specifically, its leader. If you embrace the politically inclined Musk, or can put your feelings about him aside, it’s not a bad place for lunch or a quick bite, especially if you’re with kids. There’s even more incentive to go if you need to charge your Tesla, since owners are treated like VIPs and hop the line. The food is tasty, though limited and expensive considering the portions.
The location, off Santa Monica Boulevard, aka Route 66, is just ok. Traffic is loud and incessant, with a constant thrum of buses and motorcycles. There is little parking if you’re not in a Tesla; it seemed some people took rideshare or hoofed it from the tourist enclave on Hollywood Boulevard. One could take the bus, as well, though the man behind all this spectacle would prefer you drive one of his cars.
This article reflects the opinion of the writer.
Your entire household can be ad-free for $16Get lifetime access to AdGuard Family Plan for just $14.97 and block ads, trackers, and malware on up to nine devices.
TL;DR: AdGuard Family Plan is your ad blocker, privacy protector, and parental filter all in one — get lifetime access for $15.97 (reg. $169.99).
If you’re tired of ads slowing you down, invading your privacy, or popping up where your kids shouldn’t be clicking, it might be time to simplify your digital life with AdGuard Family Plan. For just $15.97 (reg. $169.99) using code FAMPLAN, you can get lifetime access for up to nine devices — with no subscriptions and no interruptions.
AdGuard isn’t just another browser extension. It’s a full-featured ad blocker, privacy tool, and parental filter rolled into one easy-peasy app. It removes banners, pop-ups, and video ads across apps and browsers, while also shielding your data from trackers and preventing access to phishing and malware-laced websites.
Got kids? AdGuard’s built-in parental controls let you block adult content and other sketchy corners of the web — without having to constantly look over their shoulders.
Whether you’re using Android, iOS, or a desktop, AdGuard works across platforms, providing your whole family with a smoother and safer online experience.
And since it’s a lifetime license, this is a one-and-done kind of upgrade. Install it once, and enjoy cleaner, faster, safer browsing for years to come. No subscriptions. No ads. Just peace of mind.
Get lifetime access to AdGuard’s Family Plan for just $15.97 (reg. $169.99) for a limited time with code FAMPLAN at checkout.
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Ever fear you're losing yourself in a relationship? Or maybe that you're less living together — and more stuck together? This fear of intimacy manifests into a physical horror in Together, the latest film from real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco.
Among the pair's previous collaborations was The Rental, an underseen thriller co-written and directed by Franco, which followed two couples (Brie included) on a weekend getaway gone very wrong. While Together puts both husband and wife in front of the camera for a new nightmare written and helmed by Michael Shanks in his feature debut, the films have slow-burn scares in common.
With The Rental, the fear came from the creeping certainty that someone was watching the unsuspecting couples as they frolicked and fought in the rented vacation house. With Together, the terror gets under your skin early — thanks to a creepy opening sequence involving two poor doomed dogs, which gives the audience a hint of what's to befall the central duo before they've even come onscreen.
The resulting body horror and its psychological underpinnings had critics out of Together's Sundance premiere giddy, earning the thriller a 100-percent Rotten Tomatoes rating ahead of its theatrical release. But can Together live up to the festival hype?
Shanks introduces Tim (Franco) and Millie (Brie) in a moment of transition. The long-term couple is unmarried, but making a big move from New York City to upstate, where Millie has an exciting new job as a teacher at a good school. So they're throwing a going-away party, at which struggling musician Tim feels less like a partner and more like a parasite.
Upstate, where the woods are lush and the folks are nosy, could be a fresh start. But while Millie has a job and new friends, Tim feels aimless and trapped. And that's before a fateful hike changes his flesh so that it inexplicably conjoins with Millie's at any opportunity. First, their shins stick together as if glued after they fall asleep side by side. Later, a kiss will feel like a bite as their lips blend. Eventually, an attempt to reconnect through sex gets viciously sticky, turning violent. Before long, power tools will come into play to keep them separated.
Basically, while Millie and Tim debate whether they want to figure out how to become better partners or break up, their skin is desperate to pull them together. Figuring out why this is happening becomes a quest for the couple, but answers aren't the point.
Body horror is a subgenre that thrives on our repulsion and our gnarly desire to not look away. On this front, Shanks delivers. As teased in the eerie ad campaign, the flesh of Tim and Millie will collide and meld in ways uniquely heinous. It's a grisly thrill to witness. But because of the cast, there's a meta level of gawking as well.
Because Franco and Brie are married in real life, their onscreen kisses, collisions, and fights all bristle with the possibility of blurred lines. What here is purely performance, and what in this toxic partnership is them pulling from their real-life relationship? The answer is, of course, none of our business. But both Franco and Brie are too savvy not to realize that this nosiness of imagination is part of the film's inherent allure.
Onscreen they have undeniable chemistry. But as Tim and Millie fight, the ferocity is all the more rattling because we know they're portrayed by a real-life couple. It gooses the stakes crudely. It suggests the film has an intimacy that edges into illicit intrusion, whether or not that's illusion. And that's a useful tool, as Together is otherwise a good, but not great, horror movie.
To the credit of Shanks, what he has scripted is a compelling tale of co-dependency with a mix of the occult and body horror. Together is a wickedly entertaining movie. But watching it in the wake of The Substance, Sinners, Bring Her Back, and 28 Years Later, it's not a winner, but an also-ran.
Props to Together's special effects team, who created the nightmarish realism that has Brie's fingers snaking up under the skin of Franco's forearm. But this feels tame after Coralie Fargeat's Academy Award–nominated The Substance transformed Hollywood sex symbols Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley into a monstrosity in a ballgown. The twisted tale of what Tim and Millie would do for love is satisfyingly gnarly. But it pales in comparison to the blood-drenched frenzy of Ryan Coogler's vampire lovers in Sinners. And while Together is slow-burn creepy with its icky reveals and putrid possession sequences, it can't shake us up like the Philippou Brothers' demonic psycho-biddy thriller, Bring Her Back, or Danny Boyle's epic zombie horror, 28 Years Later.
Perhaps it seems unfair to compare Shanks' indie directorial debut to the works of more established and heralded filmmakers. But because of all the Sundance buzz, even as I watched Together's supremely gruesome climax, I was a bit bereft, hungering for something more.
While The Substance awed us last fall, 2025 has been a banner year for horror. So between January, when Together was impressing Sundance critics, and its release now, audiences have been wowed by visions of horror that defy genre expectations by working in musical numbers, turning Paddington's adopted mom into a monster, and delivering a coming-of-age story exploding with ghouls imagined and all too real.
In the end, even with my appreciation for The Rental, Brie and Franco's freaky follow-up just didn't hit as hard as I'd hoped. Still, Together is a twisted ride that's sure to give you goosebumps.
Together opens in theaters on Aug. 1.
Slay spreadsheets, crush presentations with this $50 MS Office bundleOwn Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for life and get a full MS Office training bundle free — only $49.99 (MSRP: $239.99) for a limited time.
TL;DR: Get Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for Windows — plus a full training bundle — for a one-time payment of just $49.99.
If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to stop renting Microsoft Office and actually own it, this is it. For just $49.99, you’ll get the full Microsoft Office Professional 2021 suite for Windows — plus a free training guide to help you unlock everything it can do.
The suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, Teams, and OneNote. These are the go-to apps for everything from writing reports and crunching spreadsheets to managing emails and creating polished presentations. And since it’s a lifetime license, you’ll never worry about subscription fees, renewals, or losing access mid-project.
But what makes this deal especially useful is the included training guide. With over 25 hours of expert-led lessons, it walks you through everything from basic document formatting to advanced Excel formulas like VLOOKUP and conditional formatting. So whether you’re totally new to Office or just want to sharpen and expand your skills, you’ll find tools to grow your confidence and your workflow.
Need to build a database in Access? Done. Want to finally stop Googling “how to make a PowerPoint look good”? You can. Prefer learning at your own pace? The training’s available 24/7, which means you can access it at midnight in your pajamas if you want to.
You get the software and the skills to use it well, all for less than what you’d pay for a couple of months of Microsoft 365. And it’s yours forever.
Pick up a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for Windows and a free Microsoft Training Guide while it’s on sale for just $49.99 (MSRP: $239.99).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Yes, Legos are for adults, and yes, buying Legos is a much more fun way to spend money than paying rent on the first of the month.
The plastic brick brand has fans covered this Aug. 1, thanks to a huge drop of new sets. If you like Mario Kart, One Piece, Star Wars, Nike, flowers, video games, vintage cars, architecture, and/or Halloween, there's a set for you among the 25 or so that just became available.
I spent my time combing through them all, along with some other recent releases, to pick out the best of the best. Here you'll find affordable options and larger investments. Just under half the list is under $100 for any Lego fans looking to save a little bit of money (real Lego fans know under $100 is a downright bargain).
Below, find the 14 best new Lego sets as of Aug. 1:
The correct day to start celebrating Halloween season is Sept. 1, but as someone who absolutely loves Halloween, I will allow Aug. 1. This quaint Jack-O'-Lantern set (with a pumpkin you can open!) nails the vibe for adorable Halloween bookshelf decor for under $20.
What is the point of being a gamer if not collecting adorable accessories through which to channel your passion? I guess actually playing games, but when your eyes need a break from your screen, building this mini arcade machine could do. The 468-piece set opens up to a mini gaming room for the included minifigure.
Between the bats, spiders, pumpkins, and ghosts, the only Halloween heavy hitter missing on this wreath is a skeleton (though it does feature bones). While this wouldn't be the best outdoor option, Lego's Halloween Wreath comes with a string for easy hanging in your home, making it a great option for getting in the spooky spirit.
Don't quite have the funds to get your hands on the new Mario Kart game just yet? This set requires no Switch 2 to enjoy, featuring Koopa Troopa, Toadette, the Tanooki Kart and Cat Cruiser, and of course, a piranha plant you can attach to either kart.
Lego Botanicals fans: we did it. We finally got a set of bonsai trees that don't have any flowers or leaves actually made up of tiny pink frogs. (No shade to the frog fans, it's just a little unnerving for some of us!).
If there's a Lego Botanicals flower set that isn't gorgeous, I've yet to come across it, and the Hibiscus set is certainly no exception. The 660-piece life-size flower set comes with posable petals in a pretty lilac shade, making it an excellent accent piece.
The Arlong Park arc of One Piece is what some fans consider the real hook — no small feat considering the original anime is over 1,000 episodes long (and still ongoing). Luffy's rubber powers get a fun feature in the arm-lengthening pieces, and a tap to the top of the pagoda causes it to explode in a nod to the show's unforgettable fight scenes.
There's a Lego collab for everyone, including Nike and basketball fans. This 1,180 set comes with a couple of tricks up its sleeve (or down its shoe?), in the form of a storage compartment in the sneaker (where you can drop the minifig or extra shoe lace colors to swap later) and the ability to spin the basketball. That's a slam dunk of a fun set.
Ewoks are the most adorable creature in the Star Wars universe, argue with the wall. While I think Lego could've made real magic with a life size Ewok set, this 1,010 piece that stands around nine inches tall is pretty adorable, too. And true to canon, he comes equipped with a spear and a little treat.
This Spider-Man set packs in the heavy hitters from the beloved series: Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, and Venom — just to name a few of the minifigures found among the 808 pieces that make up this set. The city model features Miles Morales' apartment, the Oscorp building, and Venom's apartment, giving you plenty of opportunities for staging the perfect Spider-Man scene.
Early buyers of the Shelby Cobra 427 S/C set are impressed: the attention to detail paid to the design makes the car look great from afar and up close. The working steering wheel is a nice touch, alongside Caroll Shelly's signature on the glovebox.
If you missed out on the Lego AT-AT set before it was discontinued (and fair — it was $849.99), this AT-ST set is much more reasonably priced at $199.99, and it doesn't require quite as much shelf space, making it overall a much more practical option. And it's still just as iconic to the Star Wars universe.
Lego's architecture line depicts some of the most famous structures from around the globe, from Notre Dame in Paris to the Himeji Castle in Japan. For this latest release, Lego brings us to the impressive Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. It requires you build through 3,455 pieces, but it looks like the view is well worth it.
That's right — we have two iconic One Piece scenes on our list. With 3,402 pieces for building this set, you'll create the floating restaurant with detailed rooms where you can place 10 included characters and wanted posters.
TL;DR: Need serious cloud storage without the monthly fees? Internxt is offering 20TB of lifetime cloud storage for $389.97 (reg. $4,900), but only through August 3.
If you’ve ever tried to back up your entire digital life — photos, videos, work archives, old tax documents — you’ve probably run into the same issue I did: most cloud services either cap you at a few terabytes or make you pay a subscription indefinitely. That’s why this Internxt 20TB lifetime cloud storage plan caught my eye.
Right now, you can grab a lifetime subscription for $389.97 (reg. $4,900) for only two more days. That breaks down to less than a year’s worth of fees from many mainstream providers, and after that, it’s all yours.
So what do you actually get? 20TB of secure, end-to-end encrypted storage that works across desktop, mobile, and browser. Internxt is privacy-focused and fully GDPR-compliant. Files are encrypted both in transit and at rest, and you hold the encryption keys, not the provider. That means even Internxt can’t peek at your data.
Functionally, it works like other major cloud services: you can store and sync files, share links, and access everything across your devices. There’s also a dedicated backup app, so you can automate full system backups without having to manage files manually.
There are some things to keep in mind: Internxt has a slightly more stripped-down interface than Dropbox or Google Drive, and upload speeds may vary depending on your connection and encryption load. But if you’re looking for long-term digital storage that emphasizes security and privacy, this is a strong alternative, especially at this price.
You probably don’t need 20TB today, but that’s the point. For creators, families, and anyone building a growing archive of digital life, it’s space you won’t have to worry about running out of, or paying monthly for.
You have until August 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT to grab this Internxt 20TB cloud storage lifetime plan for $389.97 (reg. $4,900). Act now before supplies sell out for good.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
You can get a refurbished Apple MacBook Air for just $200 — reallyGet a quality refurbished Apple MacBook Air (2017) for just $199.97 (reg. $999) with 128GB SSD, i5 processor, and 12-hour battery.
TL;DR: You can pick up a high-quality, refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Air (2017) for just $199.97 (reg. $999) with free shipping. It's ideal for a travel laptop or a backup.
Ever wish you had a backup MacBook just lying around — you know, for travel days, coffee shop work, or when your main one’s acting up? At just $199.97, this refurbished MacBook Air makes that wish an attainable reality.
Whether you’re on the hunt for a budget-friendly laptop for school, a lightweight travel companion, or just a backup machine you won’t be afraid to toss in your bag, this refurbished Apple MacBook Air (1.8GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) checks every box. Even in 2025, it still holds its own when it comes to web browsing, working in Google Docs, streaming, emailing, and light creative tasks.
The 13.3-inch display features a crisp 1440×900 resolution, making your spreadsheets and Netflix sessions look clean and colorful. With 12-hour battery life, it’s a reliable all-day performer — great for commuters, college students, or anyone who prefers to spend the day untethered from an outlet. And thanks to WiFi and Bluetooth, connectivity is no big deal.
It may not be the flashiest MacBook on the shelf, but at just $200, it doesn’t have to be. This Grade A/B refurbished model arrives in good condition (with only light cosmetic wear, if any), giving you a premium Apple experience without the premium Apple price tag.
It’s just a solid Apple machine that gets the job done.
Pick up this refurbished Apple MacBook Air while it’s just $199.97 (reg. $999) with free shipping, but only while stock is available.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
The DJI Mini 4K drone is flying off shelves — here’s where to get yoursThe DJI Mini 4K drone is available to purchase for $249 on Amazon. That's the lowest-ever price.
TL;DR: The DJI Mini 4K drone is on sale for $249 at Amazon (Prime member discount). Not a member? You can still score this drone for under $300.
DJI is one of the biggest names in drones, with a strong reputation for creating incredible aerial shots. The DJI product range is the top choice of TikTokers, YouTubers, and filmmakers. That being said, we were surprised to see the DJI Mini 4K drone so near the top of the charts of best-sellers over Prime Day. We knew these drones were popular, but surely not as popular as AirPods?
Then the real reason hit us like an out-of-control drone.
President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at helping the U.S. drone industry and shoring up protections against malicious drone activity. The measures don't actually order a full ban on Chinese-made drones (yet), but talk of a ban on DJI drones has been doing the rounds for a while now. That uncertainty is clearly causing an uptick in sales.
The good news for anyone hoping to buy before a potential ban is that you can still find the DJI Mini 4K drone on Amazon. In fact, it's on sale for $249 at Amazon for Prime members. It's being shipped by Amazon but sold by AeroTech Hubs. We don't generally recommend third-party sellers, but AeroTech Hubs has an excellent track record and times are tough right now. With stock running low, we'll take what we can get.
The DJI Mini 4K is full of helpful features for beginners and advanced users alike. It has one-tap takeoff options and a return to home function. But perhaps most importantly for content creators is the three-axis gimbal and 4K quality, as well as advanced wind resistance and extended battery life. It's a step up from the DJI Neo Mini 4K that we think creators will appreciate.
Prime members can get the DJI Mini 4K drone for under $250 at Amazon. Everyone else can still score this drone for under $300.
The Daily Show reacts to Republicans defending the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad"The Daily Show" host Desi Lydic has responded to Republicans getting angry about the reaction to the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad.
The Daily Show took a day off from the Trump/Epstein scandal on Thursday to talk about Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle jeans ad, which has received backlash for a slogan that some are arguing echoes language used in the eugenics era.
The criticism the ad has received has prompted a backlash from right wing online commentators and the White House itself, with communications director Steven Cheung describing it as "cancel culture run amok."
In the monologue above, Daily Show host Desi Lydic mocks the various pundits responding to the story, from creepy uses of the word "sensual" to Megyn Kelly defending Sweeney after previously making fun of her.
"This is such bullshit. Blonde women have had constant representation, okay?" concludes Lydic. "It's not that they want to see more white women, it's that they want to see none of anyone else."
Update your iPhone and Chrome now to fix critical vulnerabilityApple has addressed a critical bug with its iOS 18.6 software upgrade.
Apple's iOS 18.6 update, which was released earlier this week, fixed a critical vulnerability that is being exploited by hackers in the wild.
Bleeping Computer reports that the bug, tracked under the name CVE-2025-6558, allowed for attackers to target Google Chrome users by crafting malicious HTML pages, potentially allowing them to run arbitrary code on the victim's computer.
The bug has been added to America's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)'s vulnerability catalog, which listed it as being actively exploited. That makes it far more dangerous than bugs that have only been found to work in theory, which is why you should update your devices and software as soon as possible.
The bug primarily affects Chrome — Google fixed the vulnerability on July 15 with an update (Chrome version 138.0.7204.157), and you should update your Chrome browser right now if you haven't done so before. Google didn't release all the information about the vulnerability, saying that it's waiting until the majority of users have updated their browsers.
The same bug also affects Apple software, which is why Apple published a fix and bundled it with the iOS 18.6 release. According to the company, the bug can be used by malicious hackers to craft a web page that may unexpectedly crash Safari.
The same bug also affects iPads, so if you have one, make sure to update to iPadOS 18.6.
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 1, 2025Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times word game about finding common sports threads between words. How to solve the puzzle.
Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: Working the rules
Green: Regionally specific
Blue: Honored athletes
Purple: Expansion
Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Fake a foul
Green: Indiana college teams
Blue: Miami Heat players with retired numbers
Purple: Future WNBA home cities
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #312 is...
Fake a foul - ACT, DIVE, EMBELLISH, FLOP
Indiana college teams - BUTLER, INDIANA, NOTRE DAME, PURDUE
Miami Heat players with retired numbers - BOSH, MOURNING, O'NEAL, WADE
Future WNBA home cities - CLEVELAND, DETROIT, PHILADELPHIA, TORONTO
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.
NYT Mini crossword answers, hints for August 1, 2025Answers to each clue for the August 1, 2025 edition of NYT's The Mini crossword puzzle.
The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.
With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.
So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.
Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Thursday, July 31, 2025:
The answer is Hug.
The answer is Pure.
The answer is Tango.
The answer is Acted.
The answer is Jesse.
The answer is Hunts.
The answer is Urged.
The answer is Geode.
The answer is Pace.
The answer is Taj.
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.
Four fitness gadgets to help improve your healthHere are some of the best fitness gadgets to help you on your health journey, from walking pads, to gym shoes, to fitness trackers.
Maintaining fitness and health is a constant struggle, with a lazy morning in bed often much more alluring than a sweaty gym session. As such, anything which might help encourage you and keep you on track can make a significant difference.
Here are four fitness gadgets that may help set you up for success in reaching your health goals.
One of the keys to good health is consistency. Even so, it's easy to give up when the mirror doesn't seem to be reflecting any impact from your regular workouts.
Withings' Body Scan smart scale helps address this challenge by measuring your body composition as well as your weight, showing you the progress that may otherwise be hard to see. Using handheld electrodes, the Body Scan utilises bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to determine your percentage of fat and muscle. This means that even if your weight seems stagnant, you can take heart in knowing that your heart work is still paying off in fat loss and muscle gains.
According to Withings, the Body Scan's handheld electrodes make it more accurate than the Body Comp smart scales, which measure body composition using the user's feet. Even so, either set of scales is suitable if you want to track trends in your muscle and fat percentage, which will be the most important data for many users. After all, fitness is a journey, not a destination.
Specialised gym shoes aren't technically a workout necessity. Countless people work out in ratty old trainers every day. Even so, thoughtfully selected footwear can make exercise more comfortable, as well as lower your risk of injury. As such, the R.A.D One V2 shoe is worth your consideration if you're looking to upgrade your gym gear.
Designed specifically for the gym, the R.A.D One V2 has a wide toe box for stability when lifting yet still fits snugly around the heel, offering a secure fit even for those with broader feet. It also has a noticeably grippy sole, ensuring your feet aren’t shifting as you strain yourself under your weights. Such grip makes the R.A.D One V2 particularly suited for activities such as CrossFit, though it's also a decent gym all-rounder.
The R.A.D One V2's aesthetics may not be for everyone, with a contrasting coloured wave pattern along the sides of the shoe. However, choosing a colourway in which the wave is the same colour as the shoe makes this much less ostentatious.
Fitness trackers have become ubiquitous gadgets for anyone interested in monitoring their health. Most measure data such as your heart rate and the number of steps you take per day, as well as track your exercise and sleep.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch8 does all this, but takes it a step further (no pun intended) by introducing an antioxidant index. This intriguing new feature measures users' carotenoids, which are pigments found in plants. Simply press your thumb to the back of the Watch8, and its light-activated sensor will detect carotenoids in your skin, offering an indication of whether you're getting enough fruits and vegetables in your diet. (Spoiler alert: you probably aren't.)
Skin carotenoids have a high correlation to carotenoids in blood, which is widely used as an indicator of a person's vegetable intake level. Carotenoids' strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects play an important part in slowing aging, as well as cancer and chronic diseases, so you're definitely going to want to make sure you're keeping those levels up.
Though diet is a crucial piece of the health puzzle, it's difficult for fitness trackers to gauge. The Samsung Galaxy Watch8's antioxidant index offers a handy reminder to add more veggies to your plate, and might help make you more mindful of what you eat.
Incorporating enough movement into your day can be difficult when you work a desk job. As such, many health-conscious corporate slaves who work from home have turned to walking pads, grinding out their daily steps during their daily grind.
The WalkingPad C2 foldable treadmill is a good option to consider for this purpose, especially for anyone working with limited space. Its ability to fold in half means it can be neatly tucked away when not in use — albeit only under furniture that is significantly elevated off the ground. The walking pad measures over 5 inches (13cm) thick when folded, so storing it under a table may be more realistic than sliding it under a couch. Wherever you position it, the C2's foldable design means it won't have a large footprint of your living space. It also had a set of wheels on one end, so you can move it in front of your TV while you binge The Bachelor on the weekend.
With a top speed of 6km/h, the WalkingPad C2 comes with a handy three-button remote control for adjusting the pace. It also has an auto mode which ostensibly detects your speed and adjusts accordingly, though Mashable's testing found it felt precarious and accelerated too quickly (which is particularly dangerous considering the C2 has no handlebars). Even so, manual mode is all you really need, and is enjoyable and easy to use. Combined with its ability to fold for storage, the WalkingPad C2 is a tempting choice for apartment dwellers.
Use this AI tool to finally write your bookYoubooks combines multiple AI models to create a unique AI book writer, and it just went on sale for £37.05 for life.
TL;DR: Youbooks is a unique AI tool that combines AI models to write your book how you want it, and it’s only £37.05 for life.
If you’ve ever thought about writing a book but got stuck on where to start, Youbooks can help get you over that hurdle. This AI-powered platform helps transform your ideas into professional-quality non-fiction books, and right now, you can get a lifetime subscription for just £37.05.
What makes Youbooks stand from other AI tools is its use of multiple AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, to craft well-rounded and coherent content. You can create massive manuscripts of up to 300,000 words, so whether you’re a content creator, educator, or entrepreneur, Youbooks gives you a solid way to bring your ideas to life.
You can even upload your own research, documents, or notes to steer the AI in the right direction and make sure the final product reflects your voice and expertise. Plus, Youbooks taps into real-time web research to pull in current facts and stats, keeping your book accurate and up to date.
You also have a lot of flexibility when it comes to style. You can set the tone and writing style you want, and once your book is ready, you own it completely. You’re free to publish, sell, or share it however you like.
With 150,000 monthly credits included (and the option to stack codes for more), there’s plenty of room to create.
It’s now only £37.05 to get a Youbooks lifetime subscription.
StackSocial prices subject to change
Hurdle hints and answers for August 1, 2025Hints and answers to today's Hurdle all in one place.
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.
Attractive.
HUNKY
To go fast.
SPEED
The sound a duck makes.
QUACK
Deadly.
FATAL
Not before or during.
AFTER
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Moon phase today: What the moon will look like on August 1, 2025See the moon phase expected for August 1, 2025 as well as when the next full moon is expected.
It's a half moon tonight, with the whole of the right side on display for us. Keep reading to find out what this means, and where we are in the lunar cycle.
The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.
See what's happening tonight, Aug. 1.
As of Friday, Aug. 1, the moon phase is First Quarter. This phase occurs when the moon is half lit up. NASA confirms this, according to the Daily Moon Observation, it is 50% lit up tonight.
It's day eight of the lunar cycle, and the first moon in August. What can we see tonight? With the unaided eye, enjoy a glimpse of the Mare Serenitatis, the Mare Tranquillitatis, and the Mare Crisium. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, look to the top right. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, you'll see these on the bottom left.
With binoculars, you'll also see the Endymion Crater, the Mare Nectaris, and the Posidonius Crater, a lava-filled impact crater that's visible from the fifth to the 19th day of the lunar cycle. Add a telescope to the mix, and you'll also see the Linne Crater, Apollo 11, and Apollo 16.
The next full moon will be on August 9. The last full moon was on July 10.
According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:
New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.
Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.
Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
How to unblock porn sites and stream porn anonymouslyUnblock porn sites and stream anonymously with the best porn VPNs.
Online privacy is in short supply, but that doesn't make it any less important. Your data is seriously valuable stuff, and you should be doing everything you can to protect it when navigating the online world. And if you watch porn, you should be even more vigilant.
We're going to take a wild guess that you'd prefer to be protected from the prying eyes of advertisers, your internet service provider (ISP), and your roommates when you're visiting porn sites. If that is indeed the case, you should consider investing in a VPN. These cybersecurity services also provide everything you need to unblock porn sites, circumvent geo-restrictions, and stream adult content anonymously.
VPNs provide powerful protection for your data and identity when you're online. VPNs offer this online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network that hides your real IP address (digital location), making all of your activity untraceable and secure. Incognito mode could never.
This concept can be difficult to grasp, so it can be helpful to think of VPNs as encrypted tunnels through which all of your online traffic passes. Nobody can see into the tunnel, and everything inside the tunnel is protected against online threats like viruses, hackers, and malware. It's all about anonymity and cybersecurity, and that's particularly important if you're watching porn.
There are two key reasons to consider a VPN for porn: anonymity and access.
The first reason is perhaps the most important. If you're concerned about your ISP, housemates, landlord, or someone totally random accessing your data, you could probably benefit from using a VPN. Any sort of activity on an unsecured WiFi network leaves your private information and browsing habits exposed to the world, unless you're using a VPN. Even porn sites can track your activity if you're unprotected. Pornhub tracks IP addresses for example, which means it has the potential to collect information about your site usage. But with a VPN, your IP address will always remain hidden.
Remaining private and anonymous is the key argument for using a VPN for porn, but there's another point to consider concerning access to your favorite sites. If you're in a location that has a firewall up to block access to porn sites, you'll need to use a VPN to bypass these restrictions. VPNs hide your real IP address and connect you to a server in another location, meaning you can bypass firewalls to stream on your favorite sites from anywhere in the world.
There are a number of things to consider before selecting a VPN for porn. We have highlighted a selection of the most important VPN features to help you make a decision:
Connection speed — VPNs generally produce a drop in your connection speed, but you shouldn't accept anything significant. Make sure you opt for a VPN that doesn't negatively impact your connection speed to the point that you can't stream porn without disruption.
Encryption — There are different levels of encryption, and while it's important to take note of the grade provided by your VPN, the best services will all offer powerful protection for your data. This is obviously vital when navigating porn sites because you need to know that your data is secure.
Number of connections — Leading VPNs let you connect an unlimited number of devices with the same account, while others limit you to just a single device. Prioritize services that offer multiple simultaneous connections so you can stay secure on all your devices at the same time. You might stream pornography on a number of devices, so it's best to secure everything with the same account.
Privacy policy — This is something that some users might take for granted, but you need to pay special attention to the data-handling, storage, and usage practices of a VPN. These practices should be clearly laid out in a privacy policy, and if they aren't, you should not subscribe. Most VPNs require access to your IP address, online transactions, and browsing history, plus your personal details when you sign up. Your favorite VPN should not store these details under any circumstances, as that would negate the whole anonymity thing.
Server network — The top VPNs provide access to literally thousands of geographically diverse servers. This is useful because you should always be able to find a stable and speedy connection for streaming porn.
You also need to consider things like price and subscription plans, but these features are a good place to start with your selection process. Once you've picked a favorite option, you can consider the wide range of subscription plans on offer from leading services. There should be something that suits everyone.
The big question when it comes to watching porn securely is whether you need to pay for a VPN. The bad news is that, just as with most things in life, you get what you pay for with these cybersecurity services.
There are plenty of free versions of popular VPNs, and free trials of VPNs with full access to everything you get with a premium plan. The catch is that free versions usually come with limited data usage, meaning you can't really do any streaming or downloading. Free trials come with everything you get in a paid plan, but they obviously don't last very long. Trials are great for testing out a service before committing, but this isn't a long-term solution.
Considering all of this, the best option for unblocking porn sites and streaming anonymously is with a paid subscription to a VPN. To gain access to advanced security features without limitations on usage, you will need to cough up the cash.
Based on our in-depth tests of the top VPN services, we're here to recommend the best VPNs for porn in 2025.
The best headphones for your iPhoneFind the perfect partner for your iPhone with this selection of top headphones from brands like Apple and Sony.
Listen up: Your whole life is packed inside your phone. And if listening to music — as well as podcasts and audiobooks — is one of life's greatest pleasures, you need a good set of headphones or earbuds to connect to your phone.
That's particularly true for iPhone users. As Apple fans know, Apple iOS is a uniquely designed system, built for syncing Apple products together. That means only certain headphones will do, though the best ones aren't always Apple-produced.
If you’re serious about your sounds — and we know you are — you need a pair that both suit the capabilities of your iPhone and your lifestyle. It's important to know what you're looking for, so we've gone ahead and done the research for you.
To put it simply, yes. If you have an iPhone, it's probably time to go wireless. You have to go back several generations to find an iPhone that has a regular 3.5mm audio jack input. Apple has insisted on equipping its phones with a Lightning port for several years now. Apple headphones also use Lightning connections so they can plug straight into your phone. And if you have a pair of wired non-Apple headphones, Apple also sells an adaptor which connects a regular audio jack to the Lightning connection. But these adaptors are unreliable and break all-too easily. The best option is to connect your iPhone to the headphones. It's much easier and means fewer cables.
Yes and no. AirPods are great — especially AirPods Pro and AirPods Pro Max (as you’ll see below) — but they're also expensive. They're definitely a good one-stop solution as they're so convenient to set up with your iPhone and they fit the Apple aesthetic perfectly. However, if you're keen to search around and spend a little longer setting things up (or spend a little less), there are other good options out there.
You can spend a few pounds on the cheapest pair of headphones, but you might as well just use the buds that come free with your iPhone. Going cheap is a false economy and you'll sacrifice quality and function. If you regularly listen to music, it's worth investing a little more. The sound quality is going to be much better.
Noise cancellation blocks out ambient noise, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in your music. It's usually a mark of the best, most advanced headphones.
There are two kinds of noise cancellation: Passive and active noise cancellation. Passive noise cancellation is achieved by the design and build of the headphones, which physically block out noise by having oversized ear cups that create a seal. Active noise cancellation (ANC) uses a system of small microphones that pick up incoming sounds and create anti-noise sound waves to cancel them out. Also, look out for advanced ANC modes such as "transparency mode". This allows a certain level of ambient noise to seep in, such as other people's voices. It's handy for listening out for train platform announcements or having conversations with pals and colleagues.
Wireless sound quality can be affected by factors such as distance and obstructions between your headphones and device, but also the codec software that your headphones support. Codecs are algorithms that encode and decode digital audio signals. Look out for headphones with low latency that support Qaulcomm’s aptX codecs, which are usually rated as the best codecs — particularly for streaming video on your phone and ensuring the picture and audio stay in sync. The latest versions to look (and listen) out for are aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive.
This is another term you'll see when shopping for high-spec headphones. It essentially means 3D audio, which separates the sounds and places them in different locations around the room. If you're watching a film, for instance, you'll feel like you're in the middle of the action. Apple and other brands have their own versions of the technology but it's all essentially the same thing. Some spatial audio headphones have head tracking, which anticipates the movements of your head and adapts the sound.
Think about the main reasons that you need new headphones: Are you going to be using them while you travel? Will you be listening to music mainly at home? Or while exercising? We’ve looked at a number of different scenarios and figured out the best headphones or earbuds for you and your lifestyle. In other words, we’ve done the hard work for you. There should be something for everyone and every budget in this list.
These are the best headphones for your iPhone in 2025.
Chief of War review: Jason Momoas historical epic is more than just its big battle scenesMomoa stars in and co-created "Chief of War," based on the real-life story of the unification of the Hawaiian Islands.
When you call a series Chief of War, you're setting an expectation for jaw-dropping battle sequences and wartime chaos. It's unsurprising, then, that Apple TV+'s new historical epic carries those in spades — and boy, do they deliver. From a horrifying beach invasion to an unforgettable volcanic showdown, Chief of War delivers enough adrenaline-fueled fight scenes to make you feel like you can run through a wall or two.
Yet for as much as those battles stuck with me — and granted, I'm a sucker for epic battles — it's Chief of War's lulls between storms that wound up sticking with me the most. Here, the series tells a tale about the corrupting power of prophecy, and about the compromises people make in order to ensure their survival. These themes undoubtedly heighten the stakes of Chief of War's spectacular battles, although they occasionally risk being drowned out by the spectacles themselves.
Co-created by Jason Momoa and Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, Chief of War aims to tell the story of the unification of Hawaii from an Indigenous perspective. The show's primarily Polynesian cast, led by Momoa, spends the vast majority of the series speaking in Hawaiian, while an army of cultural consultants worked behind the scenes to ensure cultural and historical authenticity. Their efforts, along with those of Chief of War's entire production team, create an immersive, stunning look back through time, as the series transports viewers to the Hawaiian Islands at the end of the 18th century.
As the series opens, the kingdoms of O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, and Hawai'i are trapped in a non-stop cycle of war. A prophecy foretells that one day a great king will unite the kingdoms and end these wars. However, that prophecy has only made kings believe that they'll be the ones to unite the kingdom, further exacerbating conflict.
At the center of it all is Maui warrior Ka'iana (Momoa), one of many real-life figures who appear in the series. His introductory scene involves him lassoing then killing a full-grown shark. If that doesn't convince you how strong he is (or what kind of larger-than-life spectacle you're in for), I don't think anything else could.
Despite his strength, Ka'iana has no illusions that he is the prophesied king. Instead, those illusions belong to Maui's King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison), who kicks off a bloody campaign to unite the kingdoms. In this case, "unite" really means "brutally conquer and kill," all of which horrifies Ka'iana and leads him to desert Kahekili and Maui. Torn between kingdoms, traditions, and calls for war or peace, can Ka'iana help bring the Hawaiian Islands to a united future with as little bloodshed as possible?
The prophecy at the center of Chief of War leads to some of the show's most fascinating developments. Kahekili approaches it with a religious fervor, slowly descending into madness the more he strives to accomplish what he believes to be his right. Meanwhile, in the kingdom of Hawai'i, counselors believe Kamehameha (Kaina Makua) to be the prophesied leader, pushing him towards conflict even as he prefers to choose peace. The two are polar opposites when it comes to prophecy, one actively trying to shape it to his will, the other taking his own course of action. Who is "correct" in their approach to shaping history? That's a question Ka'iana wrestles with throughout the season, especially as he reckons with his own relationship to war.
Described as "a chief of contradictions" by Kamehameha's wife Ka'ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan), Ka'iana sits at several crossroads. He's from Maui but comes to serve Hawai'i. He's a Chief of War who initially wanted peace. He's also one of the few Hawaiian characters to spend considerable amounts of time among Europeans and Americans. In that time, he learns to speak English and how to use a gun, a weapon that he comes to believe will turn the tide of war against Kahekili.
Ka'iana's quest to obtain more guns leads down discussions of trade, of letting Europeans and Americans come to the Hawaiian Islands. If he is to be victorious using guns, Chief of War hints, the price of his victory will be colonization. So even though the conflicts between the various kingdoms take place on an epic scale, there's also a sense of claustrophobia, as the show makes it clear that outside colonial powers are slowly closing in. That creeping fear permeates much of the show, especially the quieter moments when Ka'iana and his friends and family wonder at how much he's changed since his time among white people.
For all its mulling on prophecy and the creep of colonialism, Chief of War also wants to knock your socks off with action. Hey, starting the show with a shark-killing scene sets the bar pretty high for the level of epic you're going to get. That level only gets higher and higher as the series continues, culminating in a literally earth-shattering battle that had me writing "this goes so hard" over and over in my notes. (Again, sucker for epic battles over here.)
But for a show where so much time is spent on debating whether war is the correct course of action, does Chief of War go too far when it comes to creating glorious spectacle out of blood and guts and gore? Are the lingering shots on throat-slitting and bone-snapping meant to shock and awe, or to remind viewers of the horrors of war?
Ultimately, a show can do multiple things at once, including hold those two truths simultaneously. There are certainly moments when Chief of War's violence stunned me into silence, like a massacre that emphasizes the perils of treating with colonial powers. And there are others that made me let out a big "hell yeah," even if they could feel a tad like they were undermining some of the show's broader themes. Look, sometimes you just need to see Momoa rip a man's tongue out with his bare hands.
You'll get plenty of both kinds of moment in Chief of War, and while the balance isn't always right, it's immediately engaging — and an undeniable landmark achievement for Polynesian representation.
Chief of War hits Apple TV+ Aug. 1.
Microsoft Office 2019 is currently on sale for A$45 — pay once and use it foreverThis Microsoft Office license is discounted to A$45 for a limited time. It has Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more for Windows computers.
TL;DR: Hurry and grab lifetime access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more with a Microsoft Office 2019 license for Windows at A$45 for a limited time.
Your credit card is exhausted from all of today’s subscription fees. While you probably don’t want to cancel Peacock and never see the ending of Yellowstone or say goodbye to two-day shipping with Prime, you could swap your Microsoft 365 subscription for a Microsoft Office lifetime license.
Instead of spending A$10 monthly (or A$107 yearly), you can pay once and use the apps as much as you’d like. For a little while longer, the Windows software suite is on sale for A$45.
Microsoft Office 2019 isn’t the newest version available, but it’s the cheaper one for people who just need to use the apps and don’t care about what they look like inside. However, it does have a classic, timeless design.
Here's a list of the apps you get:
Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Outlook
OneNote
Publisher
Access
This purchase is a no-brainer if you aren’t taking full advantage of Microsoft 365’s OneDrive storage, mobile app access, and cloud-based backups. Those just wanting the apps should be more than comfortable with a Microsoft Office download.
You might actually like this license more than the subscription. The apps are downloaded directly onto your PC instead of hosted on the cloud. While this does mean there are no built-in cloud backups, you don’t have to worry about the hassle of trying to work offline.
Plus, now that Microsoft added Copilot’s AI features to Microsoft 365, you might be looking for a way to escape them. Not everyone is crazy about having a virtual robot interfere with their work, and these classic apps won’t ever bug you about it.
The codes for this lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2019 for Windows are limited, so get yours now while it's available for A$45 (reg. A$350).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
How to watch the entire Alien franchise — from the 1979 classic to the new Alien: Earth seriesCatch up on the entire 'Alien' franchise and tune into the new 'Alien: Earth' series with these streaming deals.
UPDATE: Jul. 31, 2025, 2:20 p.m. EDT This article has been updated to include the streaming details of "Alien: Earth."
There's a new addition to the Alien universe and for the first time, it's in the form of a TV series. Alien: Earth premieres Aug. 8, nearly a year to the day after Alien: Romulus, the latest film in the Alien franchise, hit theaters.
Created by Noah Hawley, the Emmy-winning creator of Fargo and Legion, Alien: Earth is set in 2120, two years before the events of the 1979 original Alien movie. And this time it doesn't drag us to the deepest reaches of space — it brings extraterrestrial horror to our home planet.
Unlike many other film franchises, all of the Alien films currently live inside one streaming app — from the original to 2024's Alien: Romulus. As of Aug. 8, that will also include the Alien: Earth series. It's a modern-day streaming miracle, truly. Here are all the juicy details on how to watch the entire Alien franchise online (and in order).
There are seven films in the classic Alien franchise, including the newest release, Alien: Romulus. Prior films include Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997), Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017). There are also two crossover films to add to your binge if you really want to complete the saga, although no one will blame you if you skip AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). Then, of course, the new FX series Alien: Earth adds a new layer of lore into the mix.
Like any good franchise, the official release order of the films and new series differs from the actual narrative. The order you watch them is completely up to you. If you want to simply watch the whole franchise in release order, it would go like this:
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Alien: Earth (2025)
If you're more into the timeline jumps and lore of it all, you'll probably want to watch in chronological order. Though it's the newest film in the franchise, Romulus takes place somewhere in the 57-year gap between Alien and Aliens. And the new series is basically a prequel to the original Alien, set two years before. So story-wise, your marathon would go something like this:
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien: Earth (2025)
Alien (1979)
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Thanks to Hulu, you can watch every single Alien movie in one place — including the latest film Alien: Romulus, which made its streaming debut last fall. And while Alien: Earth is an FX series, it will stream simultaneously on Hulu — the official streaming home of FX.
It's becoming rare for an entire franchise to live on a single streamer, so you should definitely take advantage of your chance to enjoy an Alien marathon. Hulu subscriptions start at just $9.99 per month. Plus, there are plenty of ways to save on a subscription. We've rounded up all the best Hulu streaming deals below.
New to Hulu or returning after a while? You can kick off your streaming with a free 30-day trial. That's the most generous of any streamer. Just remember that if you want to avoid charges, you'll have to cancel your subscription before the 30 days are up. If you choose to keep it going, it'll cost you $9.99 per month with ads or $18.99 without.
If you just want to save some money after your trial ends, you can sign up for an annual Hulu subscription instead of monthly and save about 16%. Hulu with ads now costs $9.99 per month, but if you pay annually, that monthly fee drops down to just $8.33 per month. Sure, you'll have to pay more upfront, but in the long run, it'll save you about $19.89 total.
Want more bang for your buck? You can bundle Hulu with Disney+ (with ads) for just $10.99 per month. That's just $1 more per month and about 45% in savings for access to another entire streaming library. Even better, if you're a sports fan, you can add ESPN+ into the mix for just $16.99 per month and save 47% on all three streaming services.
As long as you're a college student, you can sign up for Hulu for just $1.99 per month instead of the usual $9.99 per month. That's 80% in savings for the ad-supported plan. You'll just have to verify your student status using SheerID in order to secure the deal.
T-Mobile customers on the Go5G Next or any Experience Beyond plans now get Hulu with ads included with their plan for no extra cost. And that's on top of the already stacked streaming lineup of Netflix and Apple TV+. Just head over to the T-Mobile promo page and click on "redeem now" to claim your offer if you haven't already. You'll just have to enter your T-Mobile number and account details in order to sign up.
Note: After your initial 12-month promotional period, you'll have to take action to keep your subscription alive.
The Conjuring: Last Rites trailer reveals a demon returnedPatrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in "The Conjuring: Last Rites."
Whether or not you believe in the real-life Ed and Lorraine Warren, it can't be argued that their movie counterparts have been successfully scaring audiences since 2013's The Conjuring.
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga have brought gravitas to the roles of husband-and-wife paranormal investigators across The Conjuring 2, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. And now they're back with The Conjuring: Last Rites, which — counting the spinoffs and sequels of Annabelle and The Nun — makes for the ninth installment in this sprawling spooky franchise.
Michael Chaves, director of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and The Nun II, takes the helm of The Conjuring: Last Rites. Set in 1986 Pennsylvania, this scary sequel centers on the case of Jack and Janet Smurl, who suffered the notorious Smurl haunting. As the story goes, a demon plagued their home for years. So, who better to call than the Warrens?
As teased in the trailer above, this dastardly demon brings destruction to the Smurl family. And the evil entity in The Conjuring: Last Rites is not new to Ed and Lorraine. It's a wickedness they've faced before. Now, it's back and after their daughter, played by Mia Tomlinson. This premise is sure to bring fresh scares and terror to this film series, so brace yourself for goosebumps.
The Conjuring: Last Rites opens only in theaters Sept. 5.
LinkedIn removes explicit protections for transgender usersProfessional networking platform LinkedIn quietly updated its hateful conduct policy — its first change in years.
LinkedIn has joined the throng of social media platforms and companies silently removing protections for LGBTQ users, amid an increasingly dangerous time for transgender communities across the country.
The networking site removed a line from its hateful conduct policy that explicitly prohibited the misgendering and deadnaming of transgender individuals. Open Terms Archive first reported on the change, which was not announced publicly.
In the eyes of LGBTQ advocacy groups, explicit protections such as these are considered the bare minimum for companies seeking to protect LGBTQ users, and are used as a barometer in assessing a platform's willingness to protect historically underrepresented groups. According to GLAAD's annual Social Media Safety Index, which scores major platform policies on how they address anti-LGBTQ online hate, harassment, and disinformation:
Every platform should have public-facing policies that: protect LGBTQ people from hate, harassment, and violence on the platform; prohibit targeted misgendering and deadnaming on the basis of gender identity; prohibit content promoting so-called 'conversion therapy;' prohibit advertising content that promotes hate, harassment, and violence against LGBTQ individuals on the basis of protected characteristics; explain the proactive steps it takes to stop demonetizing and/or wrongfully removing legitimate content and accounts related to LGBTQ topics and issues; and explain its internal structures to best ensure the fulfillment of its commitments to overall LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression on the platform.
In addition, LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, removed mention of "race or gender identity" from its list of protected "inherent traits" that are monitored for potential harassment. These are the first changes to the hateful conduct policy since 2023, according to Open Terms Archive.
In a statement to Engadget, a LinkedIn spokesperson said the change doesn't reflect a difference in the company's "underlying policies," reiterating: "Personal attacks or intimidation toward anyone based on their identity, including misgendering, violates our harassment policy and is not allowed on our platform." They did not provide explanation as to why the wording was removed completely.
LinkedIn is just the latest to roll back previously strong protections. Most notably, Meta completely overhauled its hateful conduct policy to allow users to post previously banned divisive and harmful rhetoric — including the use of phrases such as "mental illness" and "abnormality" when discussing gender and sexual orientation — in the name of free speech. Meta's own independent Oversight Board called for the removal of discriminatory language in the company's updated policy. Advocates have called the move, and others like it, a direct attack on marginalized groups, a potential threat to public health, and even a "precursor to genocide."
Liam Neeson takes the absurd comedy of The Naked Gun very seriouslyLiam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, and Paul Walter Hauser break down the comedic secrets of "The Naked Gun" reboot, now in theaters.
With its treasure trove of ridiculous gags and a deadpan masterclass from Liam Neeson, The Naked Gun proves to be an inspired reboot of the classic Leslie Nielsen film series. So what was the secret to bringing The Naked Gun's inspired stupidity to life?
According to the actors, complete and total seriousness.
"To play each scene seriously, that was certainly a note for myself," Neeson, who plays Frank Drebin Jr., told Mashable in an interview.
"You have to play it seriously in order to be funny," added Pamela Anderson, who stars as femme fatale Beth Davenport.
Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Ed Hocken Jr., agreed, highlighting the importance of separating the characters' comedic circumstances with the actual emotions they're feeling.
"I try not to think about what is actually being said," Hauser explained. "And Liam, if you turn it on mute, he does look intense, and it looks like it could be an action film. Then you hear what he's saying, and you'll lose your mind laughing."
Check out the full interview above to hear more from the cast of The Naked Gun, including how Priscilla Presley, star of the original, sent Anderson a note before filming, and how Saturday Night Live legend Phil Hartman influenced Hauser's performance.
The Naked Gun is now in theaters.
AI-generated animals in fake surveillance videos are fooling the internetAI-generated animals are all the rage online, but be careful what you believe. Not all unlikely animal friends are created equal.
If the internet loves anything, it's cute animals. But now, in the age of AI, you cannot trust the animal videos you see online.
You might've seen a recent viral video featuring bunnies jumping on a trampoline, seemingly captured via a home surveillance camera. It's adorable. And fake. Completely and totally fabricated via artificial intelligence.
Here's the AI video in question. It was seemingly first posted on TikTok by @rachelthecatlovers with the caption: "Just checked the home security cam and… I think we’ve got guest performers out back! @Ring.”
That video has racked up a whopping 203 million views on TikTok. Tech-focused site 404Media first pointed out that it was generated by artificial intelligence. As the site spotted, you can clearly see one of the bunnies spontaneously disappear in the midst of a jump, and the background of the video appears to be very static.
Still, the AI video does a really good job of disguising itself. For one, it's made to look like night-time surveillance footage, which means it's easier to hide AI artifacts and low quality. Second, it does look pretty good and incorporates sounds that seems to be real — bugs in the distance, springs squeaking as the bunnies jump. Third, it even tags Ring to make it seem like it was captured by a real camera. But it is, in fact, fake, even if it did fool lots of folks.
Ever since Google Veo 3 was released, it's become easier to make convincing AI videos with sound.
People are getting a little freaked out that they got fooled by AI, something they thought only happened to other, more gullible people. "This is the first AI that has ever got me," read a top comment. "[How] is this not real," read another. "A few years ago I was laughing at my mother for believing ai," read another.
The bunny video — while possibly the most believable — is far from the only AI-generated animal video to go viral. There seems to be a whole genre of fake videos of people cleaning barnacles off of whales, for instance.
Or here's a mash-up of all the silly, fake doorbell-cam footage of animals. Faux surveillance footage of animals seems to be a new genre of AI slop, unfortunately.
So if you see unbelievable animal footage out there, then maybe don't, you know, believe it.
Megadoc teaser promises behind-the-scenes look at MegalopolisDocumentary "Megadoc" goes behind the scenes of Francis Ford Coppola's mind-boggling "Megalopolis."
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis is one of this century's most confounding movies, a sci-fi epic that draws on Roman history, incorporated a live performance element in certain screenings, and featured a character named Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza).
But if you think Megalopolis is crazy — and it is, undoubtedly so — then you might be even more surprised by the story of its production. That's where Megadoc comes in.
Directed by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), Megadoc serves as a fly-on-the-wall look at the making of Megalopolis and Coppola's creative process. The documentary, which will premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, features interviews with Coppola, along with input from Eleanor Coppola, Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Dustin Hoffman, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman, Shia LaBeouf, Laurence Fishburne, Jon Voight, Talia Shire, and Robert De Niro.
The first teaser for the film gives a very, very small taste of what to expect from Megadoc, including Coppola declaring, "No one I'm working with realizes how weird a movie this actually is."
Other than that, Megadoc's teaser isn't quite ready to spill its behind-the-scenes secrets just yet. Still, the information that is public about the production of Megalopolis is intriguing enough to act as its own teaser.
Megalopolis was Coppola's passion project for decades. When he couldn't find funding, he financed the film himself, spending $120 million. (It took in just over $14.3 million at the global box office.)
Production on the film proved tumultuous, with Coppola often shifting shooting plans on the spot. He fired Megalopolis' visual effects team, and many other members of the crew departed soon after.
Several female extras on the film also alleged that Coppola behaved inappropriately with them onset. Extra Lauren Pagone sued Coppola for civil battery and civil assault, as well as negligent failure to prevent sexual harassment. Months before Megalopolis' theatrical release, Variety also published a video of Coppola's alleged sexual misconduct, along with accounts from his accusers. Following the release of that article, Coppola sued Variety for libel, seeking $15 million in damages.
Following its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Megadoc will open in select theaters Sept. 19.
Where does Alien: Earth sit on the Alien franchise timeline?"Alien: Earth" is the first TV series of the Alien franchise. But where does it sit chronologically in the canon timeline?
Alien: Earth is the first TV series of the Alien franchise, sitting in the earlier batch of films. But where exactly does it sit chronologically in the canon timeline?
Set in 2120, Alien: Earth takes place just two years before Ridley Scott's original 1979 film, Alien. In the film, which takes place in 2122, almost the entire crew on the Earth-bound Nostromo space vessel is turned into Xenomorph fodder after they decide to investigate a mysterious distress signal.
Alien: Earth is also set 16 years after the events of 2017's Alien: Covenant, which takes place in 2104, when the crew of the titular colonist vessel investigates yet another mysterious signal on the inhabited planet of Origae-6. (It never pays to investigate in Alien films.) Covenant is the sequel to Prometheus, which takes place between 2089 and 2093.
Here's the timeline in which Alien: Earth sits, so you can get a handle on the chronology (and though Alien vs. Predator films are set in 2004, we're not including them here).
Prometheus: 2089-2093
Alien: Covenant: 2104
Alien: Earth: 2120
Alien: 2122
Alien: Romulus: 2142
Aliens and Alien 3: 2179
Alien: Resurrection: 2381
Now, here's how to watch every Alien movie online, so you're all over the timeline.
Alien: Earth premieres Aug. 12 at 8 p.m. ET on Hulu and FX with two episodes, then weekly on Tuesdays.
South Parks anti-Trump episode was its biggest season premiere in yearsAccording to Paramount, the Season 27 premiere of "South Park" pulled in record viewership numbers for the show.
South Park's Season 27 premiere didn't just stir up controversy — it stirred up big ratings for Comedy Central and Paramount+.
According to a statement from Paramount, the episode, which featured a scene of President Donald Trump in bed with Satan, as well a hyperrealistic deepfake of a naked Trump, scored 5.9 million cross-platform viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+. These numbers come from Nielsen, which defines the total number of viewers by global watch time divided by run time over the course of the first three days the episode was out, from July 24 to July 26.
The episode also earned South Park its biggest linear season premiere share since 1999 and was up 68 percent from from its Season 26 premiere. In addition, the episode brought in South Park's best season premiere rating since 2022.
The premiere went viral on social media as well, with Paramount claiming it's the "#1 most social episode ever for South Park." #SouthPark trended on X for over 12 hours (five of which were spent in the top spot), and at the time of writing this, the Trump deepfake PSA has raked in 4.4 million views on YouTube.
Following the premiere, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers bashed South Park in a statement sent to Variety, Rolling Stone, and The Hollywood Reporter among other outlets.
"This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention," Rogers said in the statement. "President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak."
For a "fourth-rate show," though, it's clear people are watching.
Amazon invests in Netflix of AI startup that lets you make your own showsAmazon is has invested in Fable Studio to fund its Showrunner platform that launched this week. Showrunner lets users create their own animated shows with generative AI.
Amazon is investing in Fable Studio, the startup best known for a viral AI-generated South Park knockoff.
According to Variety, Amazon's investment (the amount of which was not disclosed) is going towards the startup's new streaming platform, Showrunner, which the company describes as the "Netflix of AI." Specifically, that means a streaming platform that lets users create shows with Showrunner's generative AI model.
In 2023, Fable Studio published a research paper about its SHOW-1 model that trained on South Park episodes and subsequently posted a 20-minute South Park-style clip entirely written, voiced, and illustrated by generative AI. Part of the video's virality was because it was posted during the SAG-AFTRA strike, which dealt with writers and actors negotiating protections against studios use of AI. The video was created without the permission of the South Park creators. Fable asserted in the research paper that it was an "experimental, non-commercial endeavor aimed at exploring the potential of artificial intelligence, voice synthesis, and deep learning technologies."
But now, Fable has launched a commercial endeavor with Showrunner that went live on Wednesday. The idea is for users to become the creators by generating their own animated shows or inserting scenes and characters into existing shows. Fable CEO and co-founder Edward Saatchi told Variety the company is pursuing partnerships with Disney and other Hollywood studios to license their IP for the platform.
The existing shows created by Showrunner include a Silicon Valley satire called Exit Valley that looks like Family Guy and a show called Everything Is Fine that has a Tim Burton-esque quality. It's unclear whether this is the result of licensing partnerships with copyright holders or from training data acquired without permission. Mashable has contacted Fable Studio for comment.
Showrunner is live in alpha mode on showrunner.xyz and Discord. Saatchi told the outlet that the platform is free to use and watch videos, but will eventually charge $10 to $20 a month for credits for users to want to generate new content.
The Threesome trailer unveils a surprisingly sweet and sexy comedyZoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, and Ruby Cruz hook up in "The Threesome" — but that's just the start!
A love triangle has been rich terrain for cinema of late, ranging from the tender Past Lives to the hot-as-hell Challengers to the clever Materialists — and that's just from married screenwriters Celine Song and Justin Kuritzkes!
But if you're looking for more sweetness with your spice, we recommend The Threesome. Directed by Chad Hartigan, this comedy scripted by Ethan Ogilby begins with some threeway sex, but spins into a funny and heart-filled tale of love, friendship, and the chaos of figuring out adulthood.
Set It Up's Zoey Deutch and The Little Mermaid's Jonah Hauer-King star as Olivia and Connor, two friends who've been doing the will-they-won't-they dance for a while. Then they meet the winsome Jenny (Ruby Cruz), and embrace the three-way chemistry for a night of casual group sex. But things get complicated when both women get pregnant, and the wider world all of a sudden knows about their private encounter.
I saw The Threesome out of its SXSW World Premiere and was charmed. This comedy embraces the messiness of modern love while never making its lusty lovers come off as clowns. Instead, it's an empathetic comedy that's equal parts warm and naughty. Plus, on top of the great chemistry of its three leads, The Threesome has got a supporting cast that includes Jaboukie Young-White, Josh Segarra, Robert Longstreet, Arden Myrin, Kristin Slaysman, Allan McLeod, and Julia Sweeney.
The Threesome opens in theaters on Sept. 5.
The Marvel Legends Series Iron Man helmet is on sale for a record-low price at AmazonThe Marvel Legends Series Iron Man helmet is on sale at Amazon for $61.99, down from the list price of $99.99. That's a 38% discount.
SAVE $38: The Marvel Legends Series Iron Man electronic helmet is on sale for $61.99 at Amazon, down from the standard price of $99.99. That's a 38% discount, and the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.
Not to shock anyone, but Halloween is exactly three months away. Yes, somehow summer is coming to a close, and we'll soon be chest-deep in everything pumpkin-spice and then Halloween. If you're a Marvel fan, and you haven't decided on your costume for 2025, Amazon just decided for you, thanks to today's deal.
As of July 31, the Marvel Legends Series Iron Man electronic helmet is on at Amazon for $61.99, marked down from the normal price of $99.99. That works out to a savings of $38 for a 38% discount. It's also the lowest price Amazon has ever offered by a long shot.
Sure, you could go with a basic Iron Man mask, but this Hasbro helmet includes light effects that'll make your costume come to life. As part of the Avengers Endgame movie collection from the iconic toy brand, the premium Iron Man helmet has a light-up visor which will illuminate Iron Man's eyes. Plus, it comes with a dimming feature.
Hasbro also considered the fit and comfort when designing the Iron Man helmet, making it adjustable for a better fit on more heads. The hinge at the top of the helmet is useful when opening or closing the helmet.
While it's on sale for the lowest price ever and way before the last-minute push to get a Halloween costume arrives, snag the Marvel Legends Series Iron Man electronic helmet from Amazon while it's just $61.99. Come October, you'll be set to win the costume contest.
Get $15 of free Amazon cash when you spend $50 on household essentialsSpend $50 at Amazon on household essentials like toilet paper and cleaning products and get a $15 credit back to spend on anything.
SPEND $50, GET A $15 CREDIT: As of July 31, Amazon shoppers get a $15 credit when they spend $50 on household essentials, like cleaning supplies, batteries, laundry gear, insect traps, and more.
You have to buy household essentials anyway, so why not get some free money while you stock up?
As of July 31, when you purchase $50 worth of household essentials at Amazon, you'll get a $15 credit back. Just load up your Amazon cart with items from the promo page until you reach the $50 threshold. The offer will then automatically be applied at checkout and, once shipment is complete, you'll receive an email from Amazon letting you know that a $15 credit has been added to your account. You can use the credit on anything you want.
The list of products included in the promotion is lengthy, so there's a pretty high chance it includes items you regularly use and need to stock up on. Just to give you a little taste, there's STEM bug traps, Clorox wipes, Kleenex, toilet paper from many brands, dishwasher detergent, laundry pods, paper towels, baby wipes, all-purpose cleaners, batteries, trash bags, Ziploc bags, and so much more. I scrolled for 10 minutes and still didn't reach the end of the list.
It's worth noting that Target is running a similar deal, but you need to be a Circle member (which is free to join) to score the free gift card. With this Amazon promotion, you (surprisingly) don't even need to be a Prime member. You will, however, need an Amazon account to check out and receive your credit.
Nintendo Direct: See all the new games coming to the Switch 2, plus a bonus Hyrule trailerIn a July 31 Nintendo Direct event, we learned about new games coming to the Switch 2 and saw a new trailer for 'Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment.'
During a July 31 Nintendo Direct livestream, Nintendo teased a ton of upcoming games for the Switch 2 (and some titles for the Switch 1 as well). The event focused on Nintendo's partners, featuring games from companies such as Sega, Ubisoft, and EA Sports.
Perhaps the most exciting moment of the event came when Nintendo unveiled a new trailer for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. This hotly anticipated game is set in Hyrule (duh) and tells the story of “the canonical events that led to the Tears of the Kingdom game.” Nintendo says this game will be released sometime in the winter, with more details to come.
To watch the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment trailer, skip to 10:55 in the Nintendo Direct YouTube video. Plus, keep scrolling to learn about all the new games coming to the Switch 2 this fall and winter, most of which are available for preorder now.
The event featured teasers of upcoming titles like Hela, where you get to play as an adorable mouse and witch's familiar on a journey to heal his beloved mistress. We also got teasers for beloved titles like Apex Legends, Borderlands 4, and the Yakuza franchise.
During the livestream, we learned about over a dozen games that will soon be available on the Switch 2, Switch 1, or both consoles. Some of the games are remakes of beloved titles (Yakuza Kiwami), while others have already been released for other consoles or PC gamers (Star Wars Outlaws).
From the weird to the wild to the familiar, here are the titles you'll soon be able to play. And if you still haven't gotten your hands on the Switch 2, we have more good news: Our long national Switch 2 inventory nightmare may finally be over. Simply put, it's a lot easier to find the Switch 2 in stock.
Chillin by the Fire - July 31
Apex Legends - Aug. 5
EA Sports Madden 26 - Aug. 14
Star Wars Outlaws - Sept. 4
Cronos: The New Dawn - Sept. 5
Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac - Sept. 26
EA Sports FC26 - Sept. 26
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles - Sept. 30
Borderlands 4 - Oct. 3
Plants vs. Zombies Replanted - Oct. 23
Persona 3 Reload - Oct. 23
Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Nov. 13
Yakuza Kiwami - Nov. 13
Battle Beyond the Limit — Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO - Nov. 14
Octopath Traveler 0 - Dec. 4
Hela - coming in 2026
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales - coming in 2026
You can preorder most of these games now at the My Nintendo Store.
