T-Mobile Galaxy S26 Deal
at T-Mobile
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If you’ve had your eye on Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone releases, one carrier is currently running a considerable promotion. The latest T-Mobile Galaxy S26 deal could save you hundreds—or even the full cost of a new phone. Depending on your plan and whether you’re adding a line, you can get the Galaxy S26 for free or get a Galaxy S26 Ultra for under $200 through monthly bill credits.
The standout offer is on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Throughout the promotion, existing and new customers on qualifying Experience Beyond or Go5G plans who plan to add a new line can pay under $200 for Samsung’s flagship phone after 24 monthly bill credits, potentially saving you well over $1,000. The deal is available for a limited time, though T-Mobile hasn’t announced an official end date.
If you don’t need all the bells and whistles on the Ultra, you can get up to the standard S26 phone (up to four) at an even better value. When eligible customers add a new line on Experience or Essentials plans that qualify, they can get the Galaxy 26 for free (the discount will be applied over the same 24 monthly bill credits mentioned before). You can also get the S26+ free with a qualifying new line or eligible trade-in on select premium plans.
If you were planning to switch carriers or add a new family member to your account (and feel comfortable committing to T-Mobile for the next two years), these promotions are worth considering. A free S26 is a hard deal to beat, and if you’ve been waiting for a discount on the brand’s top-tier model, this is a smart time to invest.
Just keep in mind that these deals do come with conditions; they require qualifying service, a new line (for most offers), and 24 months of bill credits. If you pay off the phone early or cancel service before the credits finish, you may be required to forfeit the remaining discount. Paying off the phone early or canceling service before the credits expire may result in the remaining discount being forfeited.
The Galaxy S26 lineup comes with Samsung’s latest flagship processor, AI-powered features, detailed camera systems, and bright AMOLED displays, making this T-Mobile Galaxy S26 deal a worthwhile consideration for Android users.
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While bass-heavy headphones can be controversial (especially for those who like a more balanced sound signature), Skullcandy remains a leader in affordable over-ear options for people who prefer throttling bass. If you’re in the market for mid-range headphones that deliver comfort, long battery life, and a unique bass adjuster, the Skullcandy Crusher Evo Wireless headphones are a great option, and according to price trackers, they’re currently 52% off, bringing them to a record low price of $99.99 (originally $209.99).
The immersive bass is the star of the show here, courtesy of extra bass drivers that complement the dual 40mm drivers and an adjustable bass slider. Slide it down for a milder bass response, or crank it up for a heavier rumble that’s perfect for action-packed movies, gaming, and EDM or hip-hop (though perhaps not ideal for podcasts). Even at their lowest setting—and with the Skullcandy app offering three EQ presets and a Personal Sound feature that customizes audio to your preferences—these are still decidedly warm and bass-forward headphones.
Despite the reasonable price point, they give you an impressive 40 hours of wireless playback, and with a 10-minute rapid charge, you’ll get four hours of listening time. Plush memory foam earcups and a lightweight build also make them comfortable enough for extended listening. They don’t include active noise cancellation, relying instead on passive isolation. They also lack multipoint pairing and support for advanced codecs.
While these might not be the best choice for audiophiles with a warm, bass-heavy sound prioritized over complete accuracy and detail, the Skullcandy Crusher Evo Wireless headphones are a fun, comfy option with a unique adjustable bass feature, and at more than half off, their shortcomings are much easier to overlook.
YouTube is great—except for the annoying, unskippable ads. And after the introduction of YouTube Premium, it seems like the number of unskippable ads for free accounts keeps going up. If you don’t want to sit through three ads just so you can watch your video, it might be time to try a different approach.
There are several great third-party YouTube apps and tools that will give you a great ad-free YouTube experience—and they’ll do it for free.
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first. YouTube Premium is the best and only way to remove all ads from YouTube videos on all the platforms that you use (including smart TVs). No other tool will offer that.
But it does come at a cost, and that cost keeps rising. As of writing, you can snag a subscription for $15.99 per month. If your household would all benefit from a subscription, you could consider a YouTube Premium Family plan for $26.99 a month, which lets six users share the same ad-free experience. But, like Netflix, YouTube Premium also deters password sharing, and it only works if all the members live at the same residential address as the account manager.
YouTube also has a cheaper $7.99 per month plan now in the form of YouTube Premium Lite, which promises an ad-free viewing experience for most non-music YouTube videos.
You can also try subscribing to YouTube Premium from a country where the rates are low. In countries like Argentina, India, and Turkey, YouTube Premium costs less than $2 per month. Install a VPN, change the location, and try your luck subscribing to the cheaper plans.
DuckDuckGo is quickly becoming the anti-AI browser. Unlike Chrome, the privacy-focused browser lets you choose exactly how many AI features show up in DuckDuckGo Search and the browser (there's an option to disable all AI features as well).
Now, the company has integrated a YouTube ad blocker directly into the browser on the desktop and on mobile apps. DuckDuckGo is directly integrating community filters from uBlock Origin, making sure to cover a wide net of ads on the platform. And because there is no third-party extension, you don't need to worry about ad-blocking extensions being deprecated (as in Chrome). DuckDuckGo should be able to block most of the pre-roll and mid-roll ads on YouTube.
And the feature is enabled by default for the desktop and the iOS apps. If you're on Android, you'll need to enable it manually. Make sure that you're running the latest version of DuckDuckGo and then go to Settings > Ad Blocking, and enable the ad blocker.
NewPipe is perhaps the best way to watch YouTube ad-free on Android. This is not a modded YouTube app. Instead, it’s a separate, free, and open-source player for YouTube. NewPipe is lightweight, but offers the features you care most about: background playback; picture-in-picture; and, of course, no ads.
While the app isn’t available in the Play Store, you can directly download the APK installer from their website, or you can find the app on the F-Droid app store—an alternate to Google Play Store that hosts free and open-source apps.
The app has an option to import your subscriptions, but you can’t sign in using your YouTube account.
SkyTube is another free and open-source third-party YouTube app for Android, just like NewPipe. It also offers the basic features you’ll want, including ad-blocking and background payback.
The downside is that SkyTube is a view-only app; you can’t sign into your YouTube account, so there’s no sync feature. The app does have its own feature for channel subscriptions and bookmarks. On the other hand, there’s a version of SkyTube called SkyTube Extra, which is also free, and supports the official YouTube player and casting features.
You can think of LibreTube (also Android only) as a NewPipe app but with a modern interface. It has a bottom tab bar, updated icons, and an overall smooth operation. This level of fit and finish is something that’s usually lacking in other popular YouTube apps. It supports SponsorBlock, so sponsored sections can be skipped as well. Plus, it has extra features like chapter selection. This, too, is a free and open-source client.
Unlike Chrome on Android, Firefox actually supports extensions, and a single extension can change your entire YouTube experience. If you don’t mind using YouTube on the web (you can’t access it offline), you can install the popular ad-blocker uBlock Origin to automatically block all ads on YouTube.
Download the uBlock Origin add-on, then go to Menu > Add-ons > and enable uBlock Origin.
If you don’t want to use an extension, you can use a browser that has a built-in ad-blocker. Now, you’ll find many browsers that do this on the Play Store and App Store, but it would be best to use a trusted browser here. Brave Browser is a highly regarded privacy browser that also comes with a great ad-block feature that works on Android, iPhone, and PC. As long as you have the Shields Up feature enabled for YouTube, you won’t see ads in your videos anymore.
Thanks to the way iOS is set up, there’s no easy way to install an unofficial YouTube app like you can on Android. But if you’re okay using YouTube in Safari, you can remove ads using Safari extensions. Here too, you’ll find multiple trusted apps that do the job. AdGuard is a good option, as they have a specific feature built-in for removing all YouTube ads. After the extension is set up, go to YouTube.com, tap the Share button, and choose the Block YouTube Ads (by AdGuard) option.
So you've blocked YouTube ads in your browser, and on your smartphone. But what's more annoying than sitting through long, unskippable ads when you're listening to lo-fi music? Thankfully, there is a workaround here. If you have an Android-based smart TV or streaming box (Amazon Fire TV devices sold after October 2025 aren't supported), you can simply install the SmartTube app (previously called SmartTubeNext) to act as a YouTube replacement. You will have to manually sideload the app, but once that’s done, you can say goodbye to all the ads.
SponsorBlock is both a browser extension and a service embedded in a couple of YouTube replacement apps we’ve covered above (like LibreTube). It does one thing, and one thing only: crowdsources data for sponsor segments in videos, and lets you automatically skip through those sections. Chances are, if you’re watching a remotely popular channel, SponsorBlock will recognize the sponsor segment. If you can’t stand watching another 45-second ad for Squarespace, this is the extension for you.
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A TV upgrade is only half the story if you're still relying on the speakers built into the screen. That's where a soundbar starts to make sense, and Sony's Bravia Theater Bar 6 is now down to $448 from its usual $699.99 price, matching its lowest price yet according to price trackers. It sits near the entry point of Sony's current home theater lineup, but unlike many basic soundbars, it includes a wireless subwoofer in the box and supports Dolby Atmos through a 3.1.2-channel setup. If you've been thinking about improving movie nights without filling the room with speakers, this discount makes it easier to consider.
For everyday TV watching, the Theater Bar 6 is strongest where most built-in TV speakers struggle: voices and bass. Its dedicated center channel helps keep dialogue anchored and easier to follow, while Sony’s dialogue enhancement mode gives speech an extra lift when background music or action gets busy. The included wireless subwoofer also adds weight to explosions, sports crowds, and movie scores, and the two upward-firing drivers give Dolby Atmos content a little more height than a standard bar can manage. As for setting it up, it's a straightforward setup that connects through HDMI eARC, and because it has relatively low audio latency, dialogue stays in sync with what's happening on screen.
That said, there's no HDMI input for connecting another device through the soundbar, no wifi for services like Spotify Connect or AirPlay, and wireless music streaming is limited to Bluetooth. Virtual surround processing also has its limits—while movies sound bigger than they do through TV speakers, this is not a replacement for a true surround-sound system with rear speakers. If your priority is movies with more convincing surround effects, it's worth looking at the Samsung HW-Q800D instead. Its 5.1.2-channel handles surround content better and gives you more control over the sound.
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The iRobot Roomba 505X vacuum-and-mop combo is down to $499.99 on Amazon, half off its $999.99 list price and the lowest price tracked so far, according to price trackers. The main appeal is not just that it vacuums and mops in one pass, but that it takes care of much of the mess that comes after—its AutoWash Dock empties the dust bin, refills the robot with clean water, drains the dirty water, washes the mop pads, and heat-dries them once the run is done. For a household with pets, kids, or a kitchen floor that collects crumbs and paw prints no matter what, that cuts down on a lot of the upkeep that usually falls on you between cleanings.
The 505X should be a noticeable step up if you are coming from an older basic Roomba—iRobot says it has 70 times the suction of the Roomba 600 series, but the more useful difference is its PrecisionVision obstacle avoidance AI, which is designed to steer around the usual household hazards: cords, socks, and the occasional pet accident. From there, it handles the actual floor work with dual spinning mop pads for everyday grime, plus a multi-surface rubber brush and edge-sweeping brush for pet hair, crumbs, and dust along baseboards. The mop pads lift when the robot crosses carpet or rugs, so it can move from tile or hardwood to fabric without dragging wet pads across the wrong surface.
That mix of floor handling and room control is where the app becomes useful—you can schedule cleanings, set no-mop zones, choose vacuum-only or mop-only runs, and send the robot to specific rooms instead of cleaning the whole house every time. That said, this is not a full replacement for a stick vacuum or steam cleaner: Dried-on spills and stuck-on messes will still require a hand scrub. Also, the dock needs a permanent home near an outlet, and iRobot recommends enough clearance around it for the robot to park and empty properly, so this might not be the best fit for a cramped apartment or narrow hallway.
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With this live blog, you can keep up with the best deals the Lifehacker team finds every day—all in one place. Bookmark this page to keep an eye on what we're finding. As always, we use price-tracking tools to suss out the deals that are actually worth paying attention to, not just hype designed to instill a false sense of urgency.
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As I've explored these browsers, I've been mindful of the many security risks to contend with: Prompt injection, where malicious AI prompts are hidden in a website or browser extension’s HTML source code, is the most obvious threat. But there are also cases of AI agents acting without a user’s permission to access your logged-in accounts. Moreover, AI browsers can leak data between browser tabs and hand over user credentials on clever prompting without even using any malicious code.
But despite the risks, there are legitimate ways to experiment with AI browsers without compromising your privacy. In fact, most of these browsers have optional features you can enable to both beef up your security and keep the apps from having more access than they need. If you're going to use an AI browser on your device, here's what you need to know to protect yourself.
A regular web browser can only open a page for you after you make the request. You still decide which sites to navigate to and what buttons to interact with. With AI browsers like Atlas or Comet, the browsers themselves scan and analyze a web page for you, summarize information, and even act autonomously to execute tasks in agent mode. These things make AI browsers very convenient for daily use, but they also expose them to new vulnerabilities, as attackers can now manipulate the browser to access your accounts and data much more easily.
AI prompt injection is the most popular example, since bad actors simply need to hide malicious instructions within websites for it to work. Even the official OpenAI documentation warns against using Atlas with production data because of prompt injection fears. Worse still, prompt injection attacks require no compromising action on your part. Simply navigating to a web page that has these AI prompts hidden in layers of source code is all it takes. You won’t even see the malicious instructions while you’re browsing the web page, but your browser will read the invisible instructions and automatically do what it tells them without asking for verification or consent from you.
Brave’s security team used several prompt injection attacks to demonstrate issues with Perplexity Comet, which has since been termed CometJacking. In one particular case, Comet dug up its user's email address, obtained a one-time password from their inbox, and forwarded it to an attacker without anyone the wiser. All it took was a request to summarize a Reddit thread that had malicious prompts hidden in it.
ChatGPT Atlas has also revealed similar vulnerabilities. Security researcher Johann Rehberger got the browser to switch from light mode to dark mode using a simple command hidden inside a Word document that he asked the browser to read. As LayerX explains, Atlas is also susceptible to cross-site request forgery (CSRF), where a malicious web page can send instructions to your browser as if you had typed them yourself. Moreover, AI browsers don’t use the same blocklists and heuristics as traditional ones to flag known phishing websites, so they’re more likely to let you access a scammer’s website without blocking it. LayerX says Atlas users are 90% more susceptible to these types of attacks compared to Chrome or Edge users.
Automated checkouts carry a direct financial risk. While AI browsers are relatively new, Amazon already won a court injunction to prevent Comet from completing checkouts for users on its websites, because it’s known to bypass certain security measures put in place to prevent financial fraud.
AI browsers carry too many vulnerabilities and loopholes for regular usage, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them at all without compromising your data. There are many built-in privacy settings you can enable for extra protection, along with some general best practices for safe browsing that can be particularly useful. Before you start using an AI browser, make sure that it’s configured correctly to get rid of the biggest loopholes that attackers tend to use. Here’s what I discovered to be most effective.
Almost every AI browser uses your browsing patterns and search history to train future iterations of its AI models, so it’s effectively getting better at doing things by learning from your day-to-day tasks. That means all your browsing data is being sent to the browser’s developers by default unless you specifically opt out. Luckily, browsers that train models on your data also give you the option to disable training, at least on paid plans. This is always the first feature you should turn off if you use AI Browsers.
ChatGPT Atlas: Navigate to Settings > Data Controls and disable Improve model for everyone to disable model training. You can also selectively opt out of letting ChatGPT use your browsing history or audio recordings of chat sessions for model training here.
Perplexity Comet: Go to New Tab Page > Account > Preferences. Toggle off AI data retention to opt out of model training from Perplexity.
Dia: From your browser window, visit Settings > Privacy. Disable the option that says Share content data to improve Dia.
As we saw with the Comet demonstration, AI browsers can be manipulated into accessing your logged-in accounts on different websites and retrieving sensitive information through prompt injection. Depending on their level of access, they can also go into your accounts to execute certain actions without your knowledge, like sending an email or downloading a file.
In ChatGPT Atlas, you can specifically prevent the AI from accessing your logged-in browser sessions in Agent Mode, so that it’s forced to ask for your credentials each time it needs to log into an email account or social media profile. While there’s no exact equivalent to this feature with Comet or Dia, those browsers also offer controls that let you decide how much access your agent can have.
ChatGPT Atlas: When you start a new chat inside ChatGPT Atlas, choose Agent mode from the + menu. Right next to the + menu, you’ll now see a dropdown that lets you switch between Logged in and Logged out to control whether the AI agent has access to your logged-in browser cookies. If you choose to stay logged out, Atlas won’t be able to access your active sessions by default, instead prompting you to log in manually if your task requires access to a user account.
Perplexity Comet: In Comet, there’s no universal toggle that restricts access to logged-in sessions. Perplexity notes that Comet does not have access to your passwords since those are only stored in your operating system’s vault, but it can still use your active sessions to pull sensitive information from logged-in accounts or execute tasks using those accounts. So, your best bet is to use Incognito mode when logging into any websites with the Comet browser, so you don’t stay logged in after you quit.
Dia: Like Atlas and Comet, Dia is also vulnerable to CSRF, prompt injection, and memory poisoning attacks that allow hackers to hijack your logged-in account sessions. Like Comet, Dia does not have a dedicated Logged out mode, and the AI is designed to access all your logged-in sessions by default to automate web-based tasks. Once again, you should use the browser’s incognito mode whenever you log into an account. You can also navigate to Privacy and security > Delete browsing data from dia://settings/ to delete your existing session cookies and log out of all active accounts.
With standard prompt injection attacks, AI browsers read an attacker’s instructions and execute them only a single time. But there’s a more sophisticated form of prompt injection called memory poisoning. Attackers inject malicious instructions into your AI’s account-specific memory, which is retained across all your devices in each and every session. For example, an attacker could use memory poisoning to have your browser leak your most recent emails each day, instead of just the one time it reads malicious instructions. Hackers can use this tactic to compromise your data and hijack access across multiple devices where you use the same AI browser, which is even more of a threat with cross-platform browsers like Comet and Dia.
ChatGPT Atlas: Go to Settings > Personalization. Toggle off Reference browser memories to prevent ChatGPT from retaining any memory from your previous chat sessions. This will effectively prevent it from getting better at your tasks by learning from your data, but it will also shield you from attacks that specifically target this feature. OpenAI notes that ChatGPT Atlas has built-in security filters that restrict access to sensitive information like government ID, bank account or credit card numbers, and SSNs. But disabling browser memories entirely offers much better safety. If that feels too extreme, you can also use incognito mode when performing any tasks that you’d rather not have relegated to your browser memory, or go to Settings > Personalization > View browser memories to delete or archive memories you don’t want retained.
Perplexity Comet: You can go to comet://settings/ > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data to clear your browsing history, cache, and cookies. To delete saved AI memories from your Perplexity account, you can navigate to New Tab Page > Account > Preferences > Memory, where you can choose to disable memory retention by toggling off Use search history and Notes. You can also click Manage memories to alter or delete specific memories.
Dia: If you click on the Personalization button in a new tab, Dia will take you to a page where you can adjust how memory gets used. Toggle off Personalize new chats so Dia can’t draw from its preexisting memory when you start new conversations. If you want to clear or disable memory retention altogether, you can go to Settings > Memory, then click Reset Memory or Disable Memory.
With Atlas, hardcoded limits prevent the browser from running code, downloading files, installing extensions, or accessing your device’s file system by default. With Comet and Dia, things are kept more open-ended, though they both offer some protection from letting your agents handle sensitive financial data by default. But if you’d like to take this a step further, you can disable agent access to sensitive websites like banking and healthcare platforms, so that they can’t see anything or take actions on these sites. Doing this fully insulates you from prompt injection attacks aimed at these platforms.
ChatGPT Atlas: Go to Settings > Personalization. You’ll see an option called ChatGPT page visibility. If you click on it, you can add a list of websites where your agents won’t be able to access any data or take actions even when prompted. But you’ll still be able to access these sites using the browser manually.
Perplexity Comet: You can adjust Comet’s permissions on a more granular level to prevent it from performing specific tasks on certain websites. Go to Settings > Privacy and security, then take a look at the options under Comet Assistant to find Block personal search for these websites. This should give you more options to configure which websites Comet can navigate to and interact with, as well as whether it can access your browser history by default.
Dia: You can visit dia://settings/ > Privacy and security > Site settings to control all site permissions on an individual level. However, this does not prevent agents from seeing the data on these websites. To prevent Dia from gaining access to data from sensitive sites, it’s better to just avoid logging into any private accounts unless in incognito mode.
Generally speaking, the less data and permissions that your agentic browser has access to, the less damage it can do during an attack. Apart from the built-in security settings described above, there are some general best practices that I like to follow whenever using a browser like Atlas, Comet, or Dia:
Keep using your regular browser, like Chrome or Firefox, for most day-to-day work. Maintain a separate profile for AI browsers with no sensitive logins just for running AI browsing tasks.
Don’t download AI browsers or AI browser extensions from unofficial sources or third-party marketplaces. Hackers are floating a lot of fake and malicious software in this space, so keep to the official sources to reduce exposure.
Avoid accessing user-generated content platforms like Reddit with your AI browser, which are a haven for prompt injection attacks. But if you must do it, make sure to restrict your agents from seeing or accessing anything on these sites.
Don’t copy-paste long strings of text or URLs into your AI browser without verifying them first. Attackers can bury prompt injection attempts in longer URL strings. This is a very common exploit from hackers targeting Atlas’ Omnibox, the browser's search and prompt bar combo.
When asking an agent to execute multi-step workflows, always keep an eye on what it’s doing and use the pause or interrupt controls to stop any suspicious activity as soon as you spot it.
For sensitive platforms like financial websites or workplace communication apps, enable two-factor authentication on your account to prevent agents from logging in without your knowledge.
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I've been recommending the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones since I reviewed them in 2025, with my only real gripe being their high price. Unfortunately for those without deep pockets, Sony has since released a newer, more luxurious version of these beloved cans with an even higher price tag.
Awkwardly named as always, the Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones retail for $649.99, an arguably crazy price to pay for headphones. However, Target has just given them their first significant discount, cutting the price by $50 to $599.99.
So what's different with these headphones to warrant such a high price tag? They're heavier, going 254g to 320g, giving them a more premium feel. Instead of plastic hinges, you get stainless steel hardware. The earcups are made of faux leather, which provides pleasant texture. The thicker padding on the earcups helps with the extra weight, making them more comfortable during long listening sessions.
As far as software goes, you get the same excellent features as the 1000XM6 and the same app experience, with the addition of a new spatial processing mode for movies, games, and music. On the hardware side, you get Bluetooth 6.0 support, Sony’s newer V3 processor, and built-in Auracast support.
Other than the price and the lack of foldability for storage, the battery life is about 12 hours shorter than the cheaper model, leaving you with about 24 hours of juice. The ANC and audio are virtually the same, so you're essentially paying more for a fancier design. If that's important to you, you'll undoubtedly be pleased with them. If you'd prefer to save some money, the Sony WH-1000XM6, currently $398 from Amazon, are arguably the better value.
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Should you work out if you haven't gotten enough sleep? While you're always allowed to take a guilt-free rest day if you feel you need it, I often see people talking themselves out of a perfectly good workout because they think it will somehow be a waste of time. Fortunately, we have some science to answer the question.
In that study, people who habitually got five (only five!) hours of sleep were able to make good gains while strength training with resistance bands. I’ll dig into the study a bit more below, but first, let’s cover the basics of how sleep relates to muscle growth and strength building.
A healthy lifestyle should include a healthy amount of sleep, which will be somewhere between seven and nine hours, depending on the person. If you exercise a lot, that may add to your sleep need; it’s not unusual for athletes to sleep nine hours or more.
When it comes to muscle growth specifically, there’s no definitive number of hours needed. Exercise science researcher Brad Schoenfeld, who posted about the study of five-hour sleepers on Instagram in 2024, mentioned in the caption that there probably is a minimum amount of sleep we need for gains, but “exactly how much isn’t clear and likely would be specific to the individual.”
In other words, science can’t answer this for you quite yet, but you probably can’t get by on way too little sleep. Seven hours is probably fine. What about five? That’s what the study looked at.
Yes, most likely! The study is, of course, not the be-all-end-all answer to the question (no study ever is), but it gives strong evidence pointing toward five hours a night being probably fine. You can read the full text of the 2024 study here. The participants were men who did not usually do any strength training, and they were excluded from the study if they had any diagnosed sleep disorders. The 36 men were divided into three groups: a group that averaged seven hours of sleep per night, a group that averaged five-ish hours a night, and a control group that averaged more than seven hours a night.
The control group did not exercise in the study. The seven-hour and five-hour groups did. (Perhaps we can think of the control group as the “what if I slept in instead of hitting the gym?” group.)
The results? For some muscle groups, the seven-hour group got slightly better gains than the five-hour group, but for others. they were roughly even. Both groups gained more muscle than the non-exercising control group. The authors write: “The results of the present study suggest that the value of 7 hours as a minimum night sleeping time can be relaxed when it comes to a recuperative state related to muscle strength performance.”
The study has its limitations, including the fact that it was all men, that they used resistance bands instead of barbells or dumbbells, and that the subjects were untrained to start with (making it easier for them to grow muscle). But the results match up with what pretty much any trainer or fitness enthusiast could tell you: A full night’s sleep is great to have, but not essential to making progress in the gym.
How can this be, if rest is important to muscle growth? Well, for one thing, rest isn’t a magical spell that needs to do its work uninterrupted. If you work out an hour a day, you're still "resting" the other 23 hours. (You don’t even need full rest days if your workload is managed appropriately, but that’s a whole ’nother conversation.)
But ultimately, the big lesson every experienced gymgoer wishes they could impart to every noob is that getting most things right, most of the time, beats the pants off of occasionally getting everything to line up perfectly. If you only lift when you’ve had a good night’s sleep, you may not end up training as much as you’d like.
You don't need any particular product or gadget to achieve that, but wearables like smart rings and watches can help you keep tabs on how much sleep you're actually getting and whether you've been consistent about exercise. On the pricier end, there's the Oura ring, which is comfortable to wear to bed and will let you know how well you've been sleeping. If you're on a budget, something like the $99 Fitbit Air can do the job as well. Just remember that if a device gives you a poor score for your sleep or recovery, it doesn't mean you should automatically skip the gym. Prioritize consistency—including making it to the gym whenever you can—and you’re in a much better place to realize those gains.
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Preview is one of the Mac's most underrated apps. At first, you'll likely only encounter Preview when you try to open images or PDFs, but there's much more to the app than just opening files. I began exploring Preview's advanced features a decade ago, and I've found it's one of the best free PDF editors for the Mac. And, if you have an iPhone or iPad, you get many of the same benefits with Preview's mobile version. If you'd like to make the most of Preview, here are 10 hacks you should know.
It might seem paradoxical, but one of the best Preview hacks is avoiding using Preview when you don't need to. If you're opening every single app on your Mac each time you want to quickly view something, you're probably wasting a lot of time. Instead, you can preview files without opening them. Start by locating the file you wish to preview, then select it and press the spacebar. This action activates Quick Look, which taps into Preview to view the file without opening it. To close this preview, you can press the spacebar once again. I use this regularly to view images, PDFs, or even to check how many files are inside a folder. If you're annoyed by Preview's limitation of not showing the contents of a folder in Quick Look, then you can use an app called Folder Preview to add that feature to your Mac.
Preview can open PDFs for you, but those files often have a bright white background—even when your device is in dark mode. If, like me, you dislike reading documents with bright backgrounds, there's good news: Preview allows you to use a dark background for PDFs. To try this, open a PDF in Preview, select View in the menu bar, then click Use Dark Appearance for PDF. This will switch the PDF to a dark background with white text, and Preview will remember your preferences for all PDFs that you open in the future. This feature also works in Preview for iPhone and iPad. Just open a PDF in the app, tap the three dots in the top-right corner, and select Dark Background.
Most of us save images to our Macs before opening them using Preview. However, you can bypass this step by opening images directly from your clipboard. This way, you can copy an image from any app, including browsers or messaging apps, and have Preview open it for editing instantly. Copy any image to your Mac's clipboard, open Preview, and press Command + N to open the image for editing. Alternatively, you can open Preview and select File > New from Clipboard.
Most people turn to image editors for relatively simple tasks such as removing the background from a photo. Preview can actually handle this task well, but the feature isn't obvious when you start using the app. You can check it out by opening an image in Preview and pressing Command + Shift + K, which should remove the picture's background.
There are two other ways to use this feature in Preview. You can either click Tools > Remove Background from the menu bar, or select Remove Background in the app's toolbar, which has a camera icon with diagonal lines within the borders. (This was a recent discovery for me, as I didn't know what this icon did until I accidentally left the cursor on the button and read the tooltip.)
Preview also makes it easy to copy text from images and PDFs. While most PDF documents make it easy to select text, I've come across quite a few where each page is a scanned image, which prevents you from selecting text. In these situations, Preview can help you extract text from images easily. To use this feature, open an image, screenshot, or PDF in Preview, move the cursor over the text, and double-click or drag the cursor over the text to select it. Feel free to copy and paste it as you like. This feature works in Preview for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Preview for Mac allows you to use your iPhone as a document scanner. Open the app and go to File > Import from iPhone > Scan Documents. As long as your iPhone and Mac are signed in to the same iCloud account, this should open the Camera app on the iPhone, automatically set to scan documents. Point the camera at a page, and your iPhone will automatically identify borders and scan the page. It's set to keep scanning until you press the checkmark button in the top-right corner. Once you're done, the document is automatically imported into Preview for Mac, where you can edit the scan before saving it. The same scanning mode is available in Preview for iPhone and iPad. Open the app and tap Scan Documents to get started.
Metadata, like EXIF data, allows you to identify important details about a photo, such as when it was captured, which camera and lens were used, where you shot the image, and so on. Preview lets you view this metadata easily. Just open any image in Preview, and tap or click the i button in the app. On iPhone and iPad, this reveals a long list of all metadata for the photo. On Mac, you'll see these details organized into two tabs. Click the i tab to view the rest of the metadata in Preview for Mac.
This can be a great way to learn more about how your photo was shot. (There really is a lot of data here.) But I also recommend reviewing this data before sharing the image with others, or on the internet. If you find too many personal, sensitive, or identifying data points within, take steps to remove the EXIF data before sending the image out into the wild. Before sending a photo on Mac, right-click it in Finder, choose Quick Actions > Convert Image, then uncheck Preserve Metadata.
Preview is a good free PDF editor for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can use it to combine multiple PDF pages into a single document, or to remove pages from a PDF file. To use this feature, open a PDF file in Preview. If you're doing this on a Mac, click the sidebar button, located to the right of the green full-screen button in the toolbar. Select Thumbnails, and click the tiny + button in the bottom-left corner. Then, choose Insert Page from File… If you wish to delete a page from a PDF, simply select its thumbnail in the left pane, and press the delete key on your Mac's keyboard.
In Preview for iPhone and iPad, open a PDF, and swipe right from the left edge of the screen to show page thumbnails in a pane. Tap the three dots on any page, and select Insert from File to combine pages from another PDF. In the same menu, tap Delete Page to remove a page from the PDF file.
Preview allows you to digitally sign documents, which can be a big help. If someone asks you to send a signed copy of a document, you don't have to print it, sign the file, and scan it again to send it back. Instead, you can open the file in Preview, and click Form Filling Toolbar (the rectangle with three dots and a pencil). This appears in the toolbar up top in Preview for Mac, and in the bottom bar in Preview for iPhone or iPad. Then, you can choose Add Signature to create your digital signature, and sign the document quickly.
Preview for Mac is also a good tool to add or remove passwords from your PDFs. To add a password to your PDF, open a document in Preview, and select File > Export. Click Permissions, and you'll be able to add a password to open the document, and even an owner password for the file, which lets you stop people from editing, printing, or copying text from your PDFs without the password. To remove a password from a PDF file, open it in Preview on your Mac, and go to File > Enter Password. Once you enter the owner password in the right pane, select Edit, which will let you edit the permissions for the document. You can use this settings pane to remove all passwords from the file, and save it to your computer.
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Note that Beeswax has nothing to do with the game Spelling Bee, a New York Times game that is bee-themed but involves manipulating written letters. Beeswax replicates the format of an actual in-person spelling bee. You click a button to hear the word (or to replay it if needed). If you're stuck, you can use hints.
The hints don't impact whether you win or lose, but the shareable text you get at the end will make a note of how many hints you used. The hints are, as in a spelling bee, all spoken as well. You can ask for a definition, a sentence using the word, the word's part of speech, or (my favorite when I'm stuck) the word's language of origin.
If you misspell a word, the game is over. The correct spelling is available on the "game over" screen, but it's hidden like spoiler text, in case you want to ponder your mistakes before revealing the answer. I've played several games, and so far I've missed two words: one that I thought I knew but must have been misspelling all this time, and one that was a new word to me. I can't say I'm disappointed: I've learned a new word.
This is where I'd normally share some hints and tips, but the truth is: You just have to know how to spell the word, or be able to plausibly guess. The tips that apply to spelling bees in general are good ones here. The best tip is just to read more, so you get used to seeing more words. It's also helpful to become a nerd about etymology, constantly looking up words to see where they come from and why they're like that. (You'll start to recognize roots, prefixes, suffixes, and get a sense of how words of different language origins tend to be spelled.) This is more of a lifelong hobby than a strategy for a game, so, uh, good luck.
Personally, I find the language of origin the most helpful type of hint, but I've only played a handful of games so far (and never actually got to compete in a spelling bee as a child), so I can't promise that will always be the most helpful. The 12-year-old winner of the 2017 National Spelling Bee shared some tips with Lifehacker after her win, and she also recommended paying attention to word origins, so perhaps it's a good strategy after all.
Each word comes with a two-minute timer, so you can't think about it forever. That's plenty of time to simply look up the word yourself, of course. And paradoxically, that's what makes the game cheat-proof: After all, "go look up this word" isn't a fun game, and so there's no temptation to cheat. You also don't have to worry about running out of play time: Beeswax makes its entire archive available, even if you don't have an account. Free accounts give you the ability to keep a streak and to show up on the leaderboard.
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You would think that whenever Google releases new apps or features on only one platform at a time, it would choose Android over iOS. After all, the company makes Android too, so it'd only seem logical for Android users to get the first crack at new Google products. As it turns out, however, it's often the opposite. Google will sometimes release new features for some of its apps on iOS first, before bringing them over to Android. Back in April, for example, the company released "Edge Eloquent," an on-device AI transcription app, on Apple devices only.
Today, however, Google is bringing one of its previously iOS-exclusive Chrome features to Android. As highlighted by Android Authority, Google is now rolling out Chrome 150, which comes with a change for Android devices: a dedicated back button.
You'll notice the change after updating your Chrome for Android app, and opening the three-dot menu. Before, you'd only have the option to go forward a page in the Chrome app, and had to rely on Android's native back button or gesture. It's a small change, but one that makes Chrome for Android feel a bit more like Chrome for desktop, and will certainly be an easier adjustment for anyone switching to Android for the first time.
It's not clear why Google felt the need to bring the button over now, but I understand why it might have thought it didn't need to in the past. Unlike Android, iOS has no dedicated back button, so it makes sense that Google would add the back button to Chrome for iOS. And while users could get the same effect with Android's system-wide back button, it isn't necessarily the most intuitive experience in a browser, since you might not be sure whether you're going back a web page, or returning to the previous app you were using. This update might add a bit of redundancy to Chrome for Android, but I think it's for the better.
You'll also notice the site info button (i) is no longer in the same row as the navigation buttons. Now, you'll find it in the overflow menu under "Site controls." "Add to home screen" is now "Install and create shortcut," which is far more vague in my opinion. If you're used to adding webpages to your home screen, I wouldn't be surprised if you simply thought Google took the feature away with this update.
Speaking of updating, your app may update automatically. But you can check manually by heading to Chrome's page in the Play Store. Alternatively, you can go to your profile in the Play Store, tap "Manage apps & device," then under "Updates available," choose "See details" to look for Chrome.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jake Peterson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:36:"The GoPro Max2 Is $200 Off Right Now";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KFP513K4E7AJXHX7D90JSVHD";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:30:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"An award-winning, 360-degree 8K action camera that rivals the Hero series.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/gopro-360-max2-camera-sale-july-2026?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Tech";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KFP513K4E7AJXHX7D90JSVHD/hero-image.png";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22911:"We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
360-degree cameras like the GoPro Max2 are designed for creators who want to capture more than what a single-lens camera, like the GoPro Hero series, can handle. Right now, the GoPro Max2 action camera is down from $499 to $299 on Amazon, the $200 discount marking its lowest price ever.
Compared to the Max1, the Max2 has a higher 8K resolution and 29MP stills, resulting in sharper, more detailed footage and photos, while 10-bit color, GP-Log, and up to 14FPS Raw capture with 3D Tracking focus make it appealing for pros or anyone who wants more flexibility in post-production. It shoots 360-degree spherical video, unlike the single-lens action cams like the Hero, earning it an Editors' Choice Award from PCMag. This lets you record everything in your vicinity and reframe at any level, allowing for even more creative possibilities when editing.
With a magnesium chassis and weather protection, it's built for adventures and high-impact environments, with waterproofing up to 5 meters, a compact build, easy-to-replace lenses, and a variety of mounting options. As part of the GoPro ecosystem, it works seamlessly with the GoPro Quik video editing app for edits and reframing, while Bluetooth mic support and voice control make it even more versatile.
Still, compared to the Hero series and its sensor design, low-light performance may be weaker, and battery life varies depending on whether you’re shooting with both lenses, the resolution, and the frame rate. Long 8K sessions will be more demanding, during which heat buildup can also happen. Slow motion also maxes out at 100 fps, and editing isn’t as slick or built for social shares as platforms like Insta360.
If your priority is immersive storytelling, post-shoot reframing, and more creative freedom, the GoPro Max2 action camera is a strong choice for pros and casual users at $200 off, and a major upgrade over the original. But if you mainly want traditional action footage, often shoot in low-light conditions, and want longer battery life, the less-niche Hero line may suffice.
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
I've been plagued by an odd iOS bug for a while now. I couldn't tell you exactly when it started, but sometime during the iOS 26 era, I noticed that my iPhone 17 Pro Max's brightness controls were slower than usual. I found this strange: As far as I know, iPhones have had a consistent speed when changing brightness. You pull up Control Center, move the brightness slider up or down, and the brightness levels adjust accordingly, almost instantly. But not with this bug.
Since the bug, I've occasionally noticed that lowering the brightness is weirdly sluggish. Moving the slider still works, but I can see each brightness level adjust tick and tick, rather than one smooth adjustment. Plus, even when it reaches the bottom, it doesn't seem as dark as it should be. I can tell, especially when using my iPhone in a dark room, it shouldn't be this bright at its minimum level.
I wasn't sure whether this was a hardware or a software quirk. The latter, of course, would be preferable. If this was something Apple could fix with a software update, that'd be easy enough. But if there was something wrong with 17 series' displays, that could be another beast entirely. I didn't really think it was hardware, since the issue was intermittent, but still, I had no idea what was going on, or how to fix it when it appeared.
The good news is I found a solution—though one I never would have expected. I finally thought to Google the problem, and found myself on this Reddit thread, with an iPhone 17 Pro user with the same problem as me. The top comment presented the solution: Press the Dictation button on your iPhone's keyboard.
That made zero sense to me. What would dictation have to do with screen brightness? But I tried it anyway: I opened something like Spotlight on my iPhone, which activated the keyboard, and then I pressed the Dictation button. Presto: My screen immediately dropped its brightness, even though I had been on its "lowest" setting. When I tried adjusting the brightness, it worked as you'd expect: Lowering it was instantaneous. Why does this fix the problem? I have no clue, but it works. Whatever is dragging down the display brightness settings is relieved with iOS' Dictation feature, or at least by activating the mic.
That Reddit post was from January, which means Apple still hasn't patched this bug. I'm currently running the latest version of iOS as of this article (26.5.2), though I haven't yet dipped my toe in the iOS 27 beta. It's possible Apple has a patch in its next big iPhone update, but until I run it, I can't say for sure. If your iPhone also has this strange brightness bug, at least there's a solution—as unconventional as it may be.
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Your nervous system is the network that runs your body's background operations—breathing, heart rate, digestion, hormone release, immune response—largely without your conscious input. It's split broadly into two systems that work in tension: the sympathetic nervous system, which mobilizes you for action ("fight or flight"), and the parasympathetic nervous system, which handles recovery and maintenance ("rest and digest"). But from what I’ve been seeing online, the idea of “regulation" reads more like a lifestyle brand than a biological process.
Some parts of this appeal to me. It seems like a lot of the solutions come from well-meaning yogis and therapists who aren’t trying to sell you any sort of product. Many of the practices in my feed are cheap or free, and I appreciate that. I welcome the idea of a wellness culture focused on doing less, as opposed to endless optimization.
At the same time, with a new wellness trend comes new ways to spend your money. There’s a growing category of consumer devices that promise to "hack" your vagus nerve into a state of calm. I’m currently testing some of these products, like this daytime wearable or this Vagus Nerve Stimulator. Before I issue my ruling on these devices, let’s separate fact from fiction here: Because the phrase at the center of it all, "nervous system regulation," has drifted so far from its clinical roots that it's worth asking what it actually means—and whether the products cashing in on it can deliver anything real for you.
It should be no surprise that the clinical definition is narrower and less mystical than the social media version suggests. Clinically speaking, nervous system regulation refers to “the nervous system's capacity to adapt to stress, maintain homeostasis, and return to baseline efficiently after a challenge,” neuroscientist Dr. Ramon Velazquez says. Being "regulated" isn't as simple as just feeling calm. Instead, “a well-regulated nervous system can appropriately shift between states of arousal, focus, recovery, and rest as circumstances demand,” Velazquez says.
Most techniques marketed for nervous system regulation—including breathwork, cold exposure, mindfulness practices, HRV-guided training, and vagus nerve stimulation—are really attempts to shift the balance from your sympathetic to your parasympathetic system. However, “effective nervous system regulation is not about suppressing stress responses,” Velazquez says. “It’s about flexibility.” Regulation might sound like it means “control,” but it’s more accurate to think of healthy regulation as your ability to respond appropriately to a situation and then recover from that response, rather than staying stuck in either overdrive or shutdown.
“From a scientific perspective,” Velazquez says, “the strongest drivers of nervous system health remain the fundamentals: quality sleep, regular exercise, good nutrition, stress management, avoiding toxins, and social connection.” Consumer products may offer additional benefits, but they are unlikely to replace these foundational behaviors.
Individual responses to any nervous-system intervention vary widely, shaped by underlying health conditions, medications, stimulation intensity, and simple differences in sensitivity. But if you're healthily average, like myself, and you, too, are getting nervous system content online, here’s how you can sift through the noise.
What's real: Breathwork and mindfulness have solid research behind them for improving stress resilience and autonomic flexibility. These are low-risk, well-studied practices that can influence the sympathetic-parasympathetic balance Velazquez describes.
What's promising but up in the air: cold exposure and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation. Both have some promising findings, but any sweeping claims might go beyond what the science shows.
What causes more harm than good: buying into the idea that a single device can do the work of foundational habits, or ignoring your body's signals because a product is marketed as safe and calming. If a "relaxation" device is producing pain, cramping, or muscle seizures, it's a sign to stop and, if needed, talk to a doctor.
Velazquez shares a few practical steps if you want to support your nervous system without chasing trends:
Prioritize sleep, movement, and nutrition first.
Try breathwork or mindfulness before reaching for a gadget. Something as simple as slow, extended exhales has more research behind it than most consumer devices on the market.
Build in real recovery, not just stimulation. Regulation is about your ability to return to baseline—social connection, downtime, and stress management all help on this front.
If you try a consumer device, treat it as a complement, not a fix. Start conservatively, pay attention to how your body responds, and stop if you experience pain, twitching, or discomfort rather than pushing through it.
None of this means nervous system regulation is a myth, or that the interest in recovery over optimization is misguided—if anything, I'd argue it's quite a healthy correction. But the version being sold on social media, distilled into a single gadget or a five-minute hack, doesn't reflect what the term actually describes in clinical practice. For most healthy individuals, your ability to regulate your nervous system is built primarily through sleep, movement, nutrition, and social connection. As with all health trends, there's rarely a magic device that can replace the fundamentals.
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While iOS 27 might be focused on Siri AI, there are plenty of other upgrades under the surface. Case in point: The new update brings a number of new features to Messages. The app is getting an AI feature that's actually useful, better notifications, and performance updates that bring faster loading and syncing across devices. Here's everything that's coming to Messages in iOS 27. Note that the update isn't due out until sometime in the fall, and while you can try these features on the iOS 27 beta now, understand the risks involved before you do. See Lifehacker's explainer here for more information.
I do send voice notes here and there, but not nearly enough to justify keeping the voice message button in the chat box. More often than not, I hit that button accidentally and end up sending garbled audio from my pocket. With iOS 27, you can now customize that button. Once you've updated to iOS 27, you can go to Settings > Apps > Messages, and select Show in Text Field. You have three choices here: Record Audio, Start Dictation, and None. I went with "None," but you're free to replace voice messages with dictation too.
When you receive a voice note in iMessage in iOS 27, you'll notice that your iPhone allows you to control the playback speed. Previously, you had to listen to the voice note at 1x speed. In iOS 27, you can bump it up to 1.25x, 1.5x, or 2x. Just tap the 1x button next to any voice note once to reveal the playback speed menu. This'll save you a lot of time when listening to longer voice notes.
The new Siri AI from iOS 27 is also fully integrated with Messages. When you open a chat and tap the chat box, you'll see a "Write with Siri" button above the keyboard. You can tap this and ask Siri to compose a message for you, or even rewrite or edit your message to change its tone or add a few more details. You can also ask Siri AI to find specific messages, images, or links sent in the app. This feature is exclusive to devices that support Apple Intelligence.
It's easy to forget that iMessage has "apps," but it looks like Apple hasn't given up on the category yet. In iOS 27, Apple added a new one called Drawing, which allows you to quickly draw something and send it to your contacts. Even if your contact doesn't have iOS 27, they'll still be able to view the drawings you send. To access it, press the + button next to the chat box, and you'll see all available iMessage apps.
iOS 27 is also adding one-tap suggestions to Messages for iPhones that support Apple Intelligence. I haven't tried this feature yet, but Apple has shared a couple of examples of how this could play out. When someone asks you for photos, Apple says Siri AI can suggest relevant options by recognizing keywords, locations, and people in your photo library. In another scenario, if your friend asks you to bring something to your next meeting, you'll see buttons to add that message to Notes or Reminders.
Whenever a message fails to send, it typically sits in the Messages app with a big red exclamation mark next to it. With iOS 27, your iPhone will try to resend these messages. Other reliability updates include faster message loading and faster syncing across devices.
When you send a large attachment, like a high-res photo or video, it can add confusion to your chats in Messages, as text messages sent after the photo or video may look like they're waiting for the media to send first. Apple is fixing this in iOS 27 by showing you a send indicator for each individual message. That way, you can see that while a video might still be sending, the message you sent after already went through.
In the Messages app, you can use the search field to look up conversations by phone number, and you'll see all the conversations that include the person who has that number. You can also search for a person's nickname in Messages to reveal all conversations with that person—assuming you've added their nickname to their contact.
When you're in a big group chat, and 15 people react to your joke, it blows up your iPhone's notifications. Apple's changing that in iOS 27, and will only show a single notification for multiple reactions.
When you're texting people who use Android, you'll automatically use RCS messaging. In iOS 27, you can send inline replies to people via RCS, which means you and the recipient will be able to see which of their texts you're replying to. This is great when you're on a text thread with a mix of people on iOS and Android, as it will make the conversation a lot easier to follow.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Pranay Parab";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"I Tried ChatGPT's Improved Voice Mode, and It's More Natural Than Ever";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KX38TDNEVPR7958XPCW7WWKF";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"With GPT-Live, ChatGPT promises improved responses and more natural interactions.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/chatgpt-new-improved-voice-mode?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"AI";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KX38TDNEVPR7958XPCW7WWKF/hero-image.jpg";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6780:"The latest upgrade being pushed out to ChatGPT, heading to all users now, is GPT‑Live. OpenAI is describing it as a "new generation" of voice models for interacting with the AI chatbot, and you might find that it leads you to spend more time chatting than typing.
Voice mode for ChatGPT is nothing new, but previously it's been a relatively basic wrapper on top of the standard text input and output. It has been billed as a more natural way to engage with the AI, but GPT-Live promises to dial this fluidity up to an even higher level.
For the first time, the voice mode will be able to think in the background while continuing the conversation. It'll also give you extra space to pause when you need it, and indicate it's still listening with phrases like “mhmm” or “yeah."
You should find the upgrade on mobile and the web now (or very soon). Free users get access to GPT‑Live‑1 mini, while those on paid plans are able to access the even smarter GPT‑Live‑1 model.
OpenAI's end goal is to make talking to ChatGPT feel like talking to a real person, and GPT-Live gets closer to that. Originally, interacting with the AI via voice required a specific model for speech-to-text, another for actually responding to the query, and another for text-to-speech.
The previous voice mode in ChatGPT combined all of that into a single AI model, but it was still turn-based: You spoke, the chatbot answered, then you spoke again. With GPT-Live, ChatGPT can be talking and listening at the same time. You can interrupt it as and when needed, and responses should be faster and more nuanced.
The new voice mode is supposedly smarter when it comes to recognizing the difference between you pausing mid-thought and actually finishing your query. The model now recalculates several times a second "whether to speak, continue listening, pause, interrupt, or invoke a tool."
An added benefit of the upgrade is that even complex work and deep thinking can be passed back to ChatGPT's servers in the background, while the conversation is continuing. You can also tell ChatGPT to take a beat or slow down; visual responses have been improved as well, so you might, for example, see pop-up cards for locations, weather forecasts, and sports scores.
You can also now ask GPT-Live to translate something into a foreign language as you speak. Thanks to the new capabilities, you'll hear a running translation in the other language as you talk, with no pauses or interruptions. Improvements have also been made in terms of ignoring background noise (like background traffic or conversations happening nearby).
To get to voice mode in the mobile app, tap the soundwave-style icon to the right of the prompt box. The new mode looks a lot like the old one on the surface, but with this update, you should see Live at the top of the screen (for the time being, at least, you can tap this to switch back to the older models).
Right away, the upgraded voice mode feels more realistic and natural. ChatGPT will talk in a varied and expressive way, throwing in useful markers like "let me check" whenever it's looking something up. It'll lso hesitate and draw words out at times.
I chatted with GPT-Live for several minutes about upcoming movies, recent soccer matches, and tech news headlines, and got back answers that made sense and were respectfully brief (voice mode continues to be a refuge for those who don't want to see walls of text for every response).
There were a couple of moments where the speech glitched and the conversation hung, but that was in about half an hour of chatting (presumably these bugs will get ironed out over time). Interruptions are handled well too, with the AI pausing to acknowledge what you've said and then continuing its train of thought.
You can tweak the level of thinking ChatGPT puts into the new voice mode: Tap the sliders icon (top right), then tap Intelligence. There are three modes to pick from—Instant, Medium, and High—with varying levels of trade-off between the speed of the response and how detailed and accurate it is.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"David Nield";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"This Samsung Gaming Monitor With Adjustable Stand Is $100 Off Right Now";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KRJNS3D87MWGP2FY54PCNM5P";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"It balances gaming and everyday work surprisingly well.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/samsung-180hz-odyssey-g5-gaming-monitor-sale-july-2026?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Tech";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KRJNS3D87MWGP2FY54PCNM5P/hero-image.png";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23615:"We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Samsung’s 27-inch Odyssey G5 (G51F) gaming monitor has dropped to $149.99 on Amazon, which is the lowest price it has reached so far, according to price trackers. That’s a noticeable discount from its usual $249.99 price, and it makes a lot more sense now for anyone ready to move on from a basic 1080p setup without jumping into the much higher cost of OLED displays. It’s a flat panel (unlike Samsung’s many curved gaming displays), with a matte coating that helps minimize glare in brighter rooms, and comes with a stand that supports height, tilt, and pivot adjustments (something many budget gaming monitors skip entirely).
The G51F’s combination of 180Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and AMD FreeSync support makes fast-paced games look smoother and feel more responsive than they do on standard 60Hz displays, especially in shooters, racing games, and competitive multiplayer titles. The VA panel also helps the monitor deliver deeper blacks and stronger contrast than many IPS alternatives in this price range, so darker games and movies tend to look less gray and washed out. That said, while HDR10 support is included, buyers should keep expectations realistic—with 300 nits of brightness, this is more of a basic HDR experience than the kind of dramatic HDR you get from higher-end Mini LED or OLED displays.
Outside of gaming, the Odyssey G5 works reasonably well as a general-purpose monitor too. The sharper 1440p resolution makes multitasking easier, and the extra screen space helps when editing photos, managing spreadsheets, or keeping multiple windows open. Connectivity is decent as well, with HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB support for accessories and peripherals. That said, like many VA panels, it can show some motion smearing in darker scenes, and people who mainly play competitive esports games may still prefer faster IPS or OLED options. Still, for under $160, this makes for a practical upgrade for someone who wants sharper visuals, smoother gameplay, and a more versatile display without overspending.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Amazon has the Anker Solix S2000 portable power station for $599.99 right now, down from its $1,199 list price, and price trackers show this is the lowest it has gone so far. For that price, you are getting a 2kWh battery (meant for the things you would miss fast during an outage, like a refrigerator, router, lights, fan, laptop, or CPAP machine) in a unit that weighs 35.7 pounds. That is still heavy enough that you won't want to carry it across a campsite all afternoon, but it's much easier to store in a closet or move around the house than many large backup batteries.
It delivers 1,500W of continuous output, which is enough for most everyday devices and many household appliances. Anker says it can keep a refrigerator running for up to 35 hours, though your real runtime will depend on the fridge, the room temperature, and how often the door opens. Its outlet layout is also more practical than it looks at first, with eight power outlets split between the front and rear, so you can keep always-on appliances plugged in at the back while using the front ports for devices you connect and unplug often. That said, this is not the battery I would buy for running multiple high-wattage devices like microwaves and hair dryers at the same time.
Once the battery runs low, you have several ways to recharge it. The S2000 accepts power from a wall outlet, solar panels (up to 400W), a generator, a vehicle, or a combination of AC and solar. As for its management, you can keep an eye on everything via its companion app, which lets you monitor battery levels, control individual outlets, and adjust power settings over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. One potential drawback is the missing 12V DC car socket, which could bother van campers or anyone with car-powered accessories. For most homes, though, the Solix S2000 is a compact emergency backup battery that is easier to justify at $599.99 than at full price.
Another massive data breach is putting consumers' identities at risk of being used for fraud and theft—this time, an incident at AssuranceAmerica exposed nearly 7 million individuals' insurance information, including driver's license numbers.
AssuranceAmerica is an insurance company that offers auto and renters policies to residents across a dozen states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The company recently disclosed the breach, which occurred in March of this year.
According to a data breach notice obtained by TechCrunch, AssuranceAmerica identified "suspicious activity" on its systems on March 17, likely the result of threat actors targeting a company employee. An "unauthorized third party" was able to obtain and copy data files containing customers' personal information, including the following:
Names
Contact information
Auto insurance policy or account information
Driver or vehicle information
Information related to claims
Driver's license numbers
While all of this information could be used in malicious ways, including phishing attempts, your driver's license number is an especially high risk. Scammers can use your number to open financial accounts in your name, create fake IDs, change your mailing address, or generate an entirely new identity to commit fraud. Driver's license numbers are also sold on the dark web.
As TechCrunch reports, AssuranceAmerica is expected to send notices to affected consumers starting on July 10, so if you've held a policy with the company, you should keep an eye on your mailbox. Even if you don't receive a letter, you should still take precautions if AssuranceAmerica has any of your data. Look for subtle signs of identity theft. All of the usual recommendations, like ensuring your credit is frozen, setting up fraud alerts, and keeping a close eye on your financial accounts, apply here.
There are additional steps to protect your identity when your driver's license number has been exposed. Experian advises running a background check on yourself as well as requesting your driving record to spot any fraudulent or criminal activity carried out under your identity. You may be able to request a new license number from your state's department of motor vehicles if you have a police report or evidence that yours has been used fraudulently.
At this time, AssuranceAmerica doesn't appear to be offering any credit monitoring or identity theft protection services, though you can sign up for these if you want help keeping track of activity on your accounts.
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Finding a pair of headphones or earbuds that precisely meet your needs—whether you’re using them at the gym, while working from home, or even when showering—doesn’t have to mean shelling out a ton of money. The best of them can be really expensive, yes, but if you're a patient shopper, you can usually find a good deal on just about any pair of headphones.
With that said, here are the best deals, discounts, and sales you can find on earbuds and headphones right now. I'll be regularly updating this list as offers come and go, so check back in as needed—but given these prices can change at any time, I would advise you not to wait if you spot a pair that fits your needs and budget.
Right now, you can grab a "grade A" refurbished pair of Beats Studio Pro over-ear headphones for $139.99 from Woot. That's $220 off the original $349.99 price and $20 less than you'll pay for a renewed pair on Amazon. These durable, comfortable headphones are a great choice if you're an Apple user, as Apple owns Beats, but they work well with Android devices too.
The fantastic first-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds in the Moonstone Blue color are going for $179.99 (originally $299) on Amazon, the lowest price they've ever reached. No earbuds have reached the standard set by the Bose QuietComfort series when it comes to ANC, and after the launch of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen), these earbuds have been dropping in price.
The Beats Fit Pro (1st Gen) earbuds aren’t the newest exercise earbuds on the market (or even Beats, that would be the Powerbeats Pro 2), but they’re a classic option with ANC and a comfortable fit, making them a sportier version of AirPods Pro, with a slight edge when it comes to battery life. You can get a pair in white or pink for $124.99 (originally $199.95), the lowest price ever.
The Sony WH-1000XM6 came out in 2025, and are the best over-ear headphones I tested last year (or ever, really). These headphones go with a companion app that's packed with lot more features that you can nerd out on. The audio quality is second to none, with the fully customizable EQ giving you plenty of options to get the sound how you like it. Right now, you can get the WH-1000XM6 headphones for $398 (originally $459.99), $20 off their lowest price ever.
The earbuds version of the WF-1000XM6 are also discounted for the first time. They're $298 (originally $329.99), the lowest price since the recent release. Whenever Sony releases a new version of its flagship earbuds, you can generally trust that they will be the best your money can buy until the next iteration rolls around, and these are no exception.
If you don't need the latest XM6 headphones and are good with the older XM5 version, which are still incredible headphones, a refurbished pair is $194.99 on Amazon. A new pair will run you $248, which is still a pretty good deal compared to the $399.99 launch price.
Nothing is an upstart tech brand from the U.K. that makes tech products with unique features and designs, and the prices are very competitive. Right now, Nothing's latest budget over-ear headphones, which were released in October, the CMF Headphone Pros, are just $74.88 (originally $99), the product's lowest price ever. This is a great option for anyone looking to get budget over-the-ear headphones with 100 hours of battery life that punch above their weight.
Nothing keeps impressing with its value. The Nothing’s Ear (a) earbuds come with a companion app that lets you customize the sound with presets or adjust the bass, mids, and highs individually. It supports AAC, SBC, and LDAC codecs, Bluetooth 5.3, plus multipoint for two devices at once, ANC, and a 9.5-hour battery life. If you have a Nothing phone, you can use a pinch-to-speak ChatGPT feature. Get them for $59 (originally $109).
Marshall products are for people who value style and love that retro look without sacrificing quality. Marshall is offering these Monitor III ANC headphones for the lowest price ever of $229.99 (down from $379.99), beating the heavyweights from Sony and Bose on price and looks.
The new Sleep A30 earbuds have ANC and new features the older A20 model didn't have—and despite their recent release this past August, they're already significantly discounted. They are my favorite earbuds for sleep, and right now, you can get them for $179.99 (originally $229.99), the lowest price ever.
When you shop on Amazon, you inevitably have to sort through a whole lot of sponsored ads and listings for products of dubious quality or from no-name brands with inexplicable names before you find what you're looking for. Well-known and trusted brands often get buried in the noise, so unless you run a very specific search, there's effort required to filter out what's worth considering from what isn't.
A new browser extension—called Knockoff—aims to handle this decluttering for you. It greys out or hides items from shady and no-name brands, making it easier to find the reputable ones.
Knockoff is available for both Chrome and Firefox, and it works by cross-referencing listings on Amazon against a register of 5,000 established brands. Pseudo-brands—such as those with all-caps names, unpronounceable consonant runs, and vanishing vowels—as well as unbranded items are flagged.
Depending on what settings you select, Knockoff will label, dim, or remove those listings altogether from your Amazon results. You can also hide sponsored listings and set an allowlist and a blocklist for brands you always or never want to see. The "Relaxed" filter removes only the worst offenders and items on your blocklist, while the "Standard" filter also catches suspicious names and unbranded listings. If you choose "Strict," you'll see only what's on your allowlist.
The extension, created by developer Josh Pigford, runs locally on your device, and it doesn't require a user account login, nor does it track your search activity. It is also free and open source, and integrates community feedback to keep its list of curated "safe" brands current.
While Knockoff does filter out some of the noise, it's worth noting that not all of the products it catches are inherently bad, and you don't necessarily need to discount every seller that isn't a household name. For example, Lifehacker e-reader reviewer Joel Cunningham noted that, at least as of the time of publication, the extension blocks items from Xteink, a Chinese company that makes a line of pocket e-readers that have gathered a fervent following in recent months.
If you use the "labeled" or "dimmed" settings, you can still see and compare filtered items and look for other trust signals before making a purchase. For example, you should read a mix of recent reviews, check the seller's profile, view the price history, and compare product specs beyond the listing's title.
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You've probably heard of Sonos smart speakers and soundbars, which offer some of the best audio quality in the market. What you may not know, however, is that Sonos also makes the excellent Sonos Ace headphones, which were released in the summer of 2024. Right now, they're on sale for $279 (originally $449), the lowest price they've ever been, according to price-tracking tools.
The Sonos Ace are soft, comfortable, and adaptable to different head sizes. You get actual buttons to control the headphones (as opposed to touch controls), which I personally consider a huge plus. The battery life is impressive, with about 30 hours with either the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) or Aware Mode settings active, or about 40 hours with both of those off. The Bluetooth multipoint connectivity means you can connect up to two devices at once and switch seamlessly between them.
The headphones perform well, according to PCMag's "excellent" review. The sound is balanced with an EQ adjuster in the app, and the ANC and Aware Mode are top-tier, competing with the best headphones on the market. Unfortunately, the Sonos Ace aren't wifi-enabled, meaning you can't stream media into them like you can with Sonos speakers, but then again, not many headphones are.
At their current price, the Sonos Ace are competitive with the best headphones for Apple users, the AirPods Max, and the best headphones for Android users, Sony's WH-1000XM6, and arguably offer a better value since they're much cheaper. If you care about transparency mode or have Sonos speakers at home, the Sonos Ace headphones are your best choice.
YouTube really doesn't want you using an ad blocker. For the past couple of years, the company has cracked down on browsers and tools that prevent ads from appearing before (and during) videos on its site. It's part of a larger push by YouTube parent company Google to block ad blockers on its platforms, including, notably, Chrome. It's understandable—ads are how YouTube makes most of its money—but for those of us who can't browse the web without an ad blocker, it's starting to get more difficult to watch YouTube while the tool is engaged. Difficult, but not impossible.
On Wednesday, DuckDuckGo announced that its browser now blocks most video ads, including those on YouTube. The company says its ad blocker can stop both preroll ads as well as ones that play in the middle of videos. Ad blocking is nothing new for DuckDuckGo: The company says that its browser has blocked "invasive ads" and "annoying pop-ups" before, but this is the first time the browser has shipped with an ad blocker for video.
Perhaps the best feature here is that the ad blocker is enabled by default: New users who install DuckDuckGo on their device won't have to configure anything in order to take advantage of the tool. The same goes for existing users, assuming they've updated the browser to the latest version: So long as you're running the most up-to-date version of DuckDuckGo, the ad blocker is engaged. There is one exception, however: DuckDuckGo for Android. While the company's app for iOS, Windows, and Mac will run the ad blocker without intervention, Android users will need to flip a switch to take advantage of the new tool. (DuckDuckGo says it will soon make this the default for Android users, too.)
The company says it uses filter lists from uBlock Origin in order to find and block YouTube ads. DuckDuckGo warns that, like most ad blockers, videos may have some extra buffer time before playing, but the videos will play uninterrupted once they fully load.
As previously mentioned, it's likely your DuckDuckGo browser or app is running this ad blocker already. But, to be sure, make sure you're running DuckDuckGo's latest version. Then, head to Settings > Ad Blocking, and enable the ad blocker.
Note that you need to be watching YouTube videos in the DuckDuckGo app or browser directly to take advantage of this ad block. As your mobile device may still try to open YouTube links in the YouTube app, you'll need to open that link in DuckDuckGo, or else you'll likely see ads.
You can also toggle the feature on and off while watching videos. If you're watching a video on YouTube, and feel that you should support the creator with ad revenue, you can head to settings and disable the ad blocker without reloading the video.
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If TV can tell us anything, it's that sex and hockey are a winning combination—first with the steamy drama of Heated Rivalry, and more recently in the streaming smash Off Campus, an adaptation of the sports romance novels by Elle Kennedy. The latter stars Ella Bright as Hannah Wells, a music student who has a meet-cute with Boston Bruin-in-waiting Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli) when she accidentally walks in on him naked in the gym showers. He needs a tutor, she needs to make the guy she has a crush on jealous...you get the picture. Off Campus is streaming on Prime Video, and once you've binged it, you can catch these other tales of young, horny, and occasionally athletic love.
Kimberly (Pauline Chalamet) is an endlessly naïve scholarship student; Bela (Amrit Kaur) is an aspiring comedy writer on the make for the hottest guys; Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) is an overachieving athlete and senator’s daughter; and Leighton (Reneé Rapp) is a closeted sorority girl. They're all randomly assigned to room together as freshmen at the fictional Essex College in Vermont. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, this comedy-drama isn't nearly as salacious as its title suggests. There's sex for sure, but like Sex and the City before it, it's a funny, queer-friendly show that's a little less about one overarching romance than it is about growing up, and the value of female friendship. Stream The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO Max.
A bit more soapy than the frothier Off Campus, this is a thoroughly addictive campus romance all the same, the German import being Prime Video's top non-American series launch ever. Damian Hardung is James Beaufort, wealthy heir to his family's fashion line, star athlete, and imposingly muscular physical specimen. Harriet Herbig-Matten is Ruby Bell, a scholarship student at the elite Maxton Hall, and one who doesn't mind being invisible—the rich snobs don't interest her, and she's more interested in keeping her top marks. Ruby stumbles onto a secret involving James' sister, which she also doesn't care about, except that James pisses her off by trying to buy her silence. The situation escalates until they're forced to work together and, if you can't see where this is going, you're watching the wrong genre of show. Stream Maxton Hall on Prime Video.
There’s a lot of backstory here that you don’t really need to know to enjoy the show, but in brief, Heartbreak High is a sorta soft-reboot of a popular, long-running 1990s Australian show, which was itself a spin-off from a 1993 movie. It's a solid blend of teen drama (sealing with issues related to gender identity, race, and teen sexuality) and comedy (the main characters are corralled into the Sexual Literacy Tutorial, with the unfortunate acronym SLT). It all starts with Amelie and Harper, two students at a diverse Sydney high school, who set off a firestorm when they create a detailed map of the sexual exploits of the student body. Stream Heartbreak High on Netflix.
A complicated, messy relationship sits at the center of this addictive, if also slightly messy, South Korean miniseries. Art student Na-bi (Han So-hee) is coming off a borderline abusive relationship and no longer believes in love, which is not to say that she's entirely lost interest in sex. Convenient, then, that she meets flirty fellow student Jae-eon (Song Kang), similarly disinterested in anything long-term—at least initially. With impressive chemistry between the leads and a strong supporting cast of characters with their own issues, the show solidly depicts a modern situationship that slowly turns romantic despite its leads' best intentions. Stream Nevertheless on Netflix.
Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, kinda, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college while desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's both a frequently raunchy college comedy, and a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel), and there's a romantic component, even if the emphasis is more on what not to do when it comes to young love. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.
Heavier than Off Campus but no less romantic, this one is based on Sally Rooney's bestselling novel about the appropriately steamy coming-of-age romance between Marianne (Daisy Edgar Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), two characters (and actors) with impressive chemistry. She's rich but lonely, he's popular but the son of the housekeeper. As time goes on and their roles start to shift, life and love only grow more complicated. The plot isn't groundbreaking, but there's an uncommon intelligence here, as well as a frankness about sex and sexual violence that sets it apart. Stream Normal People on Hulu.
While not exclusively a romantic drama (though several do bubble up), this British import features a scholastic setting and a talented cast of young stars-in-waiting (including leads Josh Tedeku and Jodie Campbell). At the (fictional) prestigious boarding school St. Gilbert’s, five Black teens are newly attending on scholarships, but their integration into the existing cliques is less than smooth—especially given that they're there largely as a PR stunt on the school's behalf. Boarders blends teen romance, coming-of-age drama, and a delightful willingness to take the piss when it comes to the whole "rich private school" thing. Stream Boarders on Tubi.
Adapted from the trilogy of YA bestsellers by Jenny Han, this series focuses on the coming-of-age of teenager Belly Conklin (Lola Tung), who is 16 as the series starts. Belly and her family spend every summer at Cousins Beach with the Fisher family, a tradition that's all well and good until she starts to develop a romantic attraction for first one Fisher brother (Christopher Briney), then the other (Gavin Casalegno), planting the seeds for a love triangle that unfolds over the course of several summers, and that sees Belly grow into young adulthood to a soundtrack made up largely of Taylor Swift tunes. The three-season run is over, but there's a continuation movie on the way. Stream The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
Obviously I need to mention the other steamy hockey romance. Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) are professional ice hockey players who compete on rival fictional teams, the Montreal Metros and the Boston Raiders. Even as their public relationship remains contentious over a period of years, the two develop a casual (at least at first) sexual relationship that grows increasingly sweaty, ice notwithstanding. The book series on which Off Campus is based has been around for a while, but Heated Rivalry set off a wave of interest in sports-related romances (because the takeaway from the show's success was apparently "people like hockey"), so it's not hard to draw a line between the two. (If you want to narrow your recommendations to more shows like Heated Rivalry, we've got a list for that too—along with the books, movies, and video games to explore next.) Stream Heated Rivalry on HBO Max.
Who does teen drama better than Judy Blume? This adaptation of her widely censored 1975 novel updates the setting to current-ish day Los Angeles, and expands the novel's exploration of the complexities of teen love and sex to include the challenges of being young, exceptional, and Black in 2020s America. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) attends a predominantly Black private school and is working toward a track scholarship at Howard, while Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.) goes to school with white kids and is on his parents' track to go to Northeastern, ideally on a basketball scholarship. The smart show follows their budding romance in a way that feels real and compelling. Stream Forever on Netflix.
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Nobody likes to feel sluggish and sweaty, so when the sun is set to “broil,” a lot of us would rather take our workout to an air-conditioned gym. But the human body can acclimate to exercising in the heat, so it may be worth heading outdoors anyway. After a few weeks, these temperatures will be your new normal—and research suggests you may enjoy a small performance boost when the weather cools down again.
Hot workouts can be dangerous, so I trust that you know common-sense advice about running in the heat. Among the most important: Drink to thirst (or a little bit more), and stop and get help if you start feeling symptoms of heat illness like nausea, dizziness, or weakness. And while it’s great to work on your ability to run in the heat, don’t be stupid about it—stay inside if the temperature is hotter than you can handle, and stay aware of air quality levels (which get worse on hot days).
Running is miserable and heat is miserable; therefore, running in the heat is miserable. But there’s more to it than that, and exercising in the heat feels even worse than you'd expect from stacking those two factors together.
Exercise raises your body temperature, and when you stack that rise in temperature on top of the heat from the weather, it's very possible to reach dangerous levels of body heat. That means your body has to work harder than usual to cool itself down. The ways we cool ourselves also interfere with exercise performance. For example, your heart is working to supply blood and oxygen to your muscles, and to pump blood to the surface of our skin for cooling. Those tasks are a lot of work—no wonder we feel exhausted in the heat.
As a safeguard, your brain perceives effort differently in the heat, so even before you overheat, you feel sluggish. In a study published in the European Journal of Physiology, cyclists who worked out in a lab with a temperature of 95 degrees were slower than when they did the same time trial at 59 degrees. That makes sense, but here’s the weird part: They didn’t overheat and then slow down. They were slower from the start. It seems our brains slow our bodies down proactively on hot days in order to conserve energy.
As a workout continues, our bodies heat up. In another study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, when asked to cycle to exhaustion, participants pooped out when their core temperatures reached 104 degrees, no matter what temperature they started at. That's the temperature where serious heat illness can set in, so it makes sense that our bodies will put on the brakes at that point. In that study, athletes who kept cool with a fancy water-cooling jacket lasted the longest. (You can mimic this effect in your own workouts by drinking ice-cold beverages and pouring water over your head.) The longer you can keep your body cool, the longer you can keep up a hard effort.
But cooling your body isn’t a complete solution. Dumping a cup of ice water over your head or putting one into your belly only provides momentary relief, and water-cooling jackets aren’t practical outside of physiology labs. So let’s look at what happens in real-world conditions.
Our most efficient way of cooling off is sweating. When moisture evaporates from your skin, it takes some body heat with it. In humid weather, though, sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily because the air is already full of water vapor. So when we’re talking about “heat,” we really mean something more like “perceived heat,” which is a combination of heat and humidity. This heat index chart shows the relationship:
You’ll run slower in the heat (and humidity). While you can find charts like this one that predict how much slower you will run a race, the truth is that heat's effect on your running depends on whether you’re used to the heat, and on your body size.
That’s right—not your fitness level, but your actual physical size. People who are larger have more muscle, fat, or both. Muscle generates heat, and fat acts as an insulator. On the other hand, smaller folks generate less heat, but have more skin through which to dissipate that heat—the ol’ surface area to volume ratio. This is why petite runners place better in races on hot days.
Some people think being more fit makes you better at dealing with heat, but that's only partially true: The fitter you are, the more body heat you produce, just because you’re so good at working hard. Short of changing your body shape (which is possible, but hardly a short-term fix), what can you do to tolerate exercising in the heat better? The answer is simple: Spend more time exercising in the heat.
Running in the heat makes you better at running in the heat—and it makes you better, period. Say you do all your workouts outdoors this summer, while your equally fit twin does identical workouts on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym. Who do you think will finish first in a 5K on a hot weekend in August? That’s right, you will.
But even if the weather is unseasonably cool on that August day, your heat training will still help you beat your twin. Part of the magic of heat training is that it increases the amount of blood in your veins (the better to put it towards your skin for cooling, while still having enough to fuel your muscles). The effect has been compared to a mild, totally legal version of blood doping. Scientists are still debating exactly how this effect works and whether it always happens when people attempt to adapt to heat, but overall, the evidence is strong enough that I believe we should all try to get some of those adaptations if we can do so safely.
Here’s the bad news: Heat adaptation takes work. It’s not enough to sit around in the air conditioning all summer, only venturing outside for occasional workouts. A study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that people who made no particular effort to exercise in the heat didn’t have any better heat tolerance in the fall than in the spring. If you want the advantages of heat training, you have to work for them.
I'll go over some heat adaptation strategies below, but the general idea is that you spend at least two weeks making sure to get plenty of time in the heat. Your body will get better at cooling itself, and those hot-weather runs will feel a little less awful. Heat adaptation isn't magic, though. You'll still feel hot, and you may still run slower than in cool temperatures. You'll just be able to get more of a workout in before your body temperature rises to dangerous levels. If you want to know more about heat training, I wrote about my experience last year with a heat-training sensor, which allowed me to get detailed feedback about how my heat training was going.
In scientific research, heat acclimation protocols for athletes generally involve 7 to 10 consecutive days of exercising in the heat, for 60 to 90 minutes each day. A simpler method that can be done by entire teams, or by individuals, is to simply do your normal training in the heat for about two weeks.
Take it easy at first. Remember that your body is still trying to convince you that you are super tired and need to slow down. Safety guidelines for workers provide a reality check here. On their first day in the heat, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends giving workers just 20% of their usual workload. Within a week, they should ramp up to 100%.
This U.S. Army training protocol provides a good road map for adapting yourself to the heat: Spend at least two hours in the heat each day, it says, and include cardiovascular exercise (like running, cycling, or anything that gets your heart rate up) as part of that. If you can’t handle two hours without feeling symptoms like nausea or dizziness, do what you can and view the two-hour benchmark as a goal to work toward.
You can expect to be better adapted to the heat after about two weeks of spending two hours per day in the heat, although you may be able to start seeing results in just a few days.
A way to combine the protocols above, without relying on the weather, is to step into a sauna or hot bath after your workout. If your gym has a sauna, this is a great way to use it. The post-workout sauna time will help your heat adaptation, and you can do it even if your workout was done in less-than-sweltering temperatures.
The time spent in the sauna can be 15 to 30 minutes, starting with a shorter time and working up to longer. Note that these targets only apply if you're using the sauna after a workout when your body temperature is already elevated from exercise. If you skip the workout, you'll need to add 20 minutes or so to your sauna time to get the same effect.
To stay adapted to the heat, you have to keep spending time in it. You can take a few days off, but if you slack off for a week, you’ll start to lose your hot-weather superpowers. This snowballs quickly: you'll lose about 75% of your adaptations after three weeks, according to the Army’s estimates.
To keep up your heat training in cool weather, you can try wearing long sleeves and tights, like elite runner Kara Goucher did when training for a world championship race in muggy Osaka. (She won a bronze medal, the first American ever to do so). She also spent a few weeks in Osaka before the race began; traveling to experience the heat might be an option worth considering if you’re a dedicated athlete with vacation time to burn.
You can also try the opposite of all the standard keep-cool advice, and choose to run at the hottest time of day on asphalt roads with no shade. Or return to the sauna protocol after your cooler-weather workouts. Whatever you do, stay safe, and enjoy your new superpowers.
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Mad Men is a show that transcends its logline. On its face, it sounds a bit dull and mildly ridiculous—a show about Madison Avenue ad men in the stodgy early 1960s?—but Matthew Weiner and his cast delivered one of the best TV shows ever, a deep dive into the changing mores of America across the '60s, as the Consumer Age came into dominance.
If you miss the detailed recreations of the era, the fab fashions, and Don Draper’s fascinating antihero aura—and you’ve already burned through our suggestions for streamalike shows—there are still plenty of movies, books, podcasts, and even video games that can scratch that itch.
Mad Men was a literary show. Aside from all the overt allusions to and actual books visually referenced on the show, there’s a writerly aspect to the scripts that made it feel like a collection of short stories as much as a TV series. If you want more of that vibe, here are some great books to dive into.
An obvious influence on the show, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit was a bestseller in 1955, and the title became shorthand for a certain type of middle-class American. It’s the story of Tom Rath, a World War II veteran and family man making his way up the corporate ladder while dealing with what we would now recognize as PTSD, not to mention the new pressures of affluence. Like Don Draper, Tom keeps up the appearance of a detached, confident businessman while his inner monologue is a riot of conflicting emotions and stress.
Jaffe was just 26 when she wrote this, her debut novel, and it offers the perfect alternate perspective on the Mad Men era (Don Draper, in fact, is seen reading it in season one). The story follows five young women who work at a big office in Manhattan, and details their lived experience as people with dreams, as sex objects routinely harassed at work, and as willing participants in extramarital affairs and other scandalous behavior. It’s a snapshot of a bygone era with the same depth and attention to detail as the show.
Sure, you can (and should, because it’s hilarious) actually buy a copy of Sterling’s Gold, the fictional memoir by Roger Sterling from Mad Men. But you should also read the book that filled Sterling with so much envy—Confessions of an Advertising Man, by advertising legend David Ogilvy. It’s basically an instruction manual in which Ogilvy shares the lessons he’d learned from decades in the business, and it established him as a kind of Ad Guru for the 1960s. If you want insight into how real "Mad Men" thought, this is the book for you.
Mad Men often feasted on the theme of affluent ennui and suburban malaise—no matter how successful or wealthy Don and everyone around him becomes, they’re desperately bored and unhappy. One of the most potent moments on the show comes late in the series: Don has reached the pinnacle of professional success and is sitting in a boring meeting when he spots a plane in the sky outside his window—and just stands up and leaves for an adventure. That’s the energy in Yates’ classic, tragic novel: Frank and April Wheeler plan to escape the trap of 1950s American drudgery by saving up to live in France and live as bohemians, but their empty lives can't support their outsized dreams.
This 1963 novel should be better known (as should the 1966 film adaptation, which is perhaps the best work Rock Hudson ever did), and it’s ideal for Mad Men fans because it’s also about a successful man who can’t seem to resist the urge to flee his happy life and reimagine himself. In this case, literally: "Wilson,” as the 50-ish bank executive in this book calls himself, signs up with a company that fakes his death, remakes him into a physically younger man, and sets him up with his dream career in an all-new life, to disastrous consequences. There’s no doubt Don Draper would have done this if he had the chance.
Mad Men might be literary, but it’s also a damn fine-looking show. If you want some feature-length entertainment that explores the same time period and similar themes, you can’t go wrong with these movies.
Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, this film follows middle-aged professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) on the day he has decided to commit suicide due to the unbearable grief he feels after losing his long-time partner, Jim (Matthew Goode). He initially observes everything he experiences with renewed interest, believing it will be the last time he does so, but his encounters over the course of the day impact him in unexpected ways. It’s a gorgeous glimpse of the early 1960s and the story of a man living—and ruined by—a double life. Stream A Single Man on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
A 1960s-set period piece about a brilliant man who won’t get out of his own way? That’s a perfect match with Mad Men. In 1961 New York, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer in the time just before Bob Dylan’s breakthrough. Broke and bitter, his life collapses around him as poor decisions, grief, and simple bad luck conspire to make him consider giving up his dreams. It’s a lot funnier than that sounds, and a brilliant examination of a narcissist who has the looks and talent but not the moral fortitude to make it big. Aside from the pitch-perfect recreation of the time and place, fans of the show will appreciate it as a deep character study. Stream Inside Llewyn Davis on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
If you ever thought the rampant sexism and alcohol-soaked chicanery in your average episode of Mad Men was a bit over the top, The Apartment will set you straight. In 1960 Manhattan, C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is an ambitious clerk in an enormous insurance company who allows the executives in his division to use his bachelor apartment to stage their extramarital affairs. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking, and a contemporaneous depiction of what office life was like, contemporaneous to the first season of Mad Men is set. Stream The Apartment on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
If you were surprised to see Bert Cooper (Robert Morse)’s ghost sing and dance for Don Draper in season seven of Mad Men, you never saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This 1967 film (based on a hit Broadway musical) follows J. Pierrepont Finch (Morse) as he follows the ethically dubious advice found in a self-help book to rise steadily from the mailroom to the boardroom at a huge company. It’s a funny, bright take on the 1960s business world that’s somehow more joyous and also more cynical than Mad Men. Stream How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Hoopla or rent it on Prime Video.
Written by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, Patterns was explicitly named as a major influence on Mad Men by Matthew Weiner himself—he said he used the film to “get a sense of the real offices and to see how virtue and ambition can clash.” The story centers on an idealistic young executive who is pushed by his company’s owner to replace an older, highly respected executive who’s lost his touch. It’s a story of manipulation, ambition, and greed, and you can see the clear echoes of Mad Men’s office scenes in every frame. Stream Patterns on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
If, like Don Draper, you’re more about taking action, controlling your own destiny, and not having a contract, video games can give you at least a hint of that Mad Men vibe. (There actually was a kind-of-a-joke Mad Men visual novel-style game released back in 2012, but it’s no longer playable, so you’ll have to make do with these suggested substitutes.)
The obvious choice is L.A. Noire, for two basic reasons. One, the game employed a lot of Mad Men actors, starting with Aaron Staton (Ken Cosgrove) as the lead character Cole Phelps and including Julie McNiven (Hildy), Ryan Cutrona (Betty Draper’s father, Eugene), Michael Gladis (Paul Kinsley), and Rich Sommer (Harry Crane), just to name a few. And two, the game’s 1947 setting is a similarly immersive recreation, from the fashions to the gritty, noir-soaked tone.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
If you loved Mad Men, you’ll love the whole vibe of Disco Elysium. It’s set in a dreamy universe with visuals that look like an oil painting, and you play as a burned-out, amnesiac detective with substance abuse issues, so at first glance the connection to Mad Men isn’t obvious. You’ll find it not only in the antihero main character and his struggles with identity and sobriety, but in the dense, literary approach to story and character—playing the game is almost like taking Don Draper, removing his memory, and dropping him into an alternate universe mystery.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Stadia, Nintendo Switch, Steam
On the one hand, BioShock is a demented first-person shooter set in an underwater city (and the sequel is set in a floating sky city) where insane people have overdosed on Objectivism and "plasmids" that give them superpowers, none of which is very Mad Men-esque. On the other hand, the visual design is a pitch-perfect 1960 vibe, the story is an exploration of how narcissism and consumerism destroy societies, and the questions of identity and free will the game explores slot nicely into a Draper-style narrative, questioning whether any of us truly know who we really are.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Steam
A recurring plot beat in Mad Men is the liminal weirdness of working late at an office. Whether it’s Don hallucinating the ghost of Anna Draper after she passes away, Harry living at the office post-affair, or Paul Kinsley, drunk as a skunk, having a creative epiphany late at night, the offices of Mad Men are a character unto themselves. One Late Night is a free-to-play indie horror game, but it captures that eerie vibe as you wander an empty office, following clues to a haunting (and probably being scared out of your wits a few times). Imagine you’re playing as Don, hungover and depressed, experiencing a long dark night of the soul.
Platforms: Steam
If you love the deep characterization and exploration of generational trauma inherent in Don Draper's story, play What Remains of Edith Finch. You take up the role of Edith, a 17-year-old girl who is the last survivor of her family. She returns to the estate where she grew up to learn the real reasons her family collapsed into chaos and tragedy. It’s a thoughtful, absorbing walking simulator-slash-mystery that offers a similar vibe to Draper’s story, as Edith struggles with the possibility that her family is cursed, and that the curse remains with her.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Whether you want to discuss and quote Mad Men endlessly or find an audio drama offering a similarly absorbing story, podcasts can help.
Despite the fact that the podcast abruptly stopped before covering the final episode of the series (due to the hosts' health issues), They Coined It remains one of the best recap podcasts for Mad Men. Whether you’re watching the show for the first time or re-watching it for the tenth, Roberta and Dan offer up detailed, insightful analyses of every episode except the finale, making this the perfect podcast if you want to really dig in and catch every cultural reference, literary allusion, and subtle character note.
Mad Men is a fascinating study of postwar America, midcentury corporate culture, and existential malaise—from a white, cis, and male perspective. In a Snit offers a feminine and feminist perspective of the show, digging into the fashion and sexual politics. It’s a refreshing change from a lot of Mad Men podcasts that concentrate almost entirely on Don Draper.
If you’re looking for an absorbing audio drama with Mad Men vibes, check out The Diarist. Set at a 1950s New York advertising firm (check), the story follows Andrea Davies, a young secretary who has an affair with her handsome, charming boss (check) and stumbles into a dark web of lies and betrayal. The setting and characters might have come straight from an early episode of the show, and the tone is a perfect match for some of the darker and more suspenseful episodes.
Looking for a period story that offers a different experience with similar levels of intricate character work and literary storytelling? Check out Bronzeville. Starring Larenz Tate and Laurence Fishburne, the story is set in 1940s Chicago in the Black neighborhood known as Bronzeville. Its depiction of a specific time and age is spot-on, and the story, involving an unofficial lottery, murder, and the racial tensions of the era, is as compelling as anything on Mad Men.
If you’re looking for more historical context and a deeper psychological investigation of the show, check out Mad Men Deconstructed. Although the podcast only covers most of the first two seasons, the episodes are packed with useful information that will inform your experience of the entire show. The aim is to judge everything from the perspective of the 1960s rather than our modern-day point of view, a pivot that often reveals important subtleties in various character choices and plot swerves.
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It's not clear yet whether smart glasses will be the next smartphone, though perhaps they don't have to be. While there may not come a time when everyone is walking around with high-tech glasses on their faces, these things are undeniably popular. Seeing as Meta sold seven million of its smart glasses in 2025 alone, you certainly can't discount the category as niche. The next time you head out somewhere particularly busy, there's a chance you'll walk past someone wearing a pair.
While the tech has its advantages, it also has its criticisms, especially when it comes to user privacy. We're all used to the ubiquity of smartphone cameras while out in public, but they're far from discreet: If someone is taking a photo or recording a video on their iPhone, it's often pretty obvious. Meta smart glasses, on the other hand, are much more subtle. These devices have cameras embedded in the frames, and since people wear their glasses all the time, it's not the same as someone overtly taking out their smartphone to capture a shot. Meta is basically equipping people with spy cams and sending them out into the wild.
To be fair, there is a built-in solution here: the "capture LED" indicator light. If you've ever used a camcorder, you're familiar with the concept. Whenever the camera on Meta smart glasses is engaged, the capture LED light turns on, letting everyone know the wearer is currently recording. While there's not much you can do to avoid being in the video, at least you know that there is a recording in progress. What's more, Meta will disable the camera if you block the capture LED light, so putting a piece of tape over the indicator will do the creeps no good.
Of course, the creeps figured out a solution here. Rather than cover up the indicator light, users discovered that you can physically disable the capture LED without alerting Meta smart glasses. As such, it became relatively easy to bypass this privacy feature—so easy, in fact, that it set off a cottage industry of techs happy to help you disable your capture LED. Users could pay a fee, and turn their Meta smart glasses into the spy glasses many of us assume they already are.
Luckily, there's a silver lining for those of us who would rather not be secretly recorded everywhere we go. On Tuesday, Meta published a post to its newsroom titled "Meta's AI Glasses: Your Questions Answered." In it, the company ran through some of what it calls frequently asked questions about Meta smart glasses, including who can see the photos and videos taken on the glasses ("You, and only you — unless you choose to share them") and "What about playing a loud sound in addition to the light?" (There's a shutter sound only the wearer can hear.)
In these FAQs, Meta addressed its capture LED recording light, explaining, obviously, that the light is there as an indicator. But, interestingly, it took the time to address questions about what happens if users tamper with the light. According to Meta, the company is now updating its glasses to disable the camera if they detect the LED was "tampered with or destroyed." Going forward, users should not be able to use their Meta smart glasses' camera if the light is anything other than fully operational. The company even says it's going after companies that advertise services to destroy the LED in Meta smart glasses, both by taking down their ads on Meta platforms, and by seeking legal action.
I'm not convinced this will be the end of the conversation. The fact that Meta is patching the flaw with an update implies that glasses that don't update can still manage to work without the capture LEDs. If so, perhaps some users will keep their devices offline, or will purposely buy out-of-date Meta smart glasses to record incognito. But even if that isn't the case, I wouldn't be surprised if users find another way around this feature. Meta has made it possible to literally wear cameras on your face. Some of its users will always seek out ways to disable the capture LED, and, if they do, we'll continue to have this privacy problem.
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Apple's next big update for iPhones, iOS 27, is a big one. The upgrade, which is currently in beta testing, ships with features like Siri AI, new AI image editing tools, and notable updates for AirPods. We finally have a custom EQ (something users have demanded for a decade), a new way to adjust Adaptive Audio mode, among other changes. If you own AirPods, iOS 27 is going to be a major update.
As of this article, these features are available in the iOS 27 beta, and they might change or evolve before the final public release in the fall. While anyone can install the iOS 27 beta, I recommend at least waiting for the public beta release, which should be around the corner. To test the new AirPods features, you'll also have to upgrade to the AirPods beta firmware (from AirPods > AirPods Beta Updates). Once you are running the latest software, here's what you'll find:
The AirPods settings menu has always left something to be desired. It's a bit clunky and not particularly accessible, which means a lot of these features are likely going unnoticed by many AirPods users. That changes with iOS 27. While you still head to Settings > AirPods to find the options, the interface is now modern, easier to access, and more compact.
In iOS 27, you’ll see a visual preview of your AirPods and their battery life, along with the name, mode selector, and a volume slider. Below, all the features are now arranged in their own sections, like Audio & Routing, Hearing Health, Controls & Gestures, and so on.
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Most Bluetooth earbuds on the market come with some kind of customizable EQ—except, of course, AirPods. There's a basic EQ setting that applies to the entire Music app, but these options are barebones, and don't let you fine-tune how your AirPods sound. With iOS 27, Apple is finally planning to change this.
If you have AirPods with Apple's H2 chip, go to Settings > AirPods > Audio & Routing > Equalizer in iOS 27. Here, switch to Custom. Apple will play a preview of a recently played song, with an option to change the EQ in three sections: "Low," "Mid," and "High." From here, move the waveform that appears on-screen up and down to tune the sound how you like it.
AirPods with Active Noise Cancellation have three modes: "Transparency," "Adaptive," and, of course, "Noise Cancellation." Transparency lets in environmental noise, while Noise Cancellation blocks as much noise as possible. Adaptive sits somewhere in the middle, blending Transparency and Noise Cancellation depending on what's going on around you.
This is great in theory, but in practice, it didn’t always work for me. In my experience, Adaptive lets in too much environmental noise to be useful. For you, it might be the opposite. To mitigate this, Apple lets you control how much audio Adaptive lets in, but the option is buried in Settings, making it easy to miss. As of iOS 27 beta 3, Apple now has an easy-to-use slider to control Adaptive Audio. Under "Listening Mode" in AirPods settings, you can move Adaptive Audio's slider left or right to make it sound closer to Transparency or Noise Cancellation.
There are three additional small yet notable features for AirPods that Apple is adding to iOS 27:
Name Recognition: iOS 27 expanded Hearing Health for AirPods, and now supports Name Recognition. If you’re hard of hearing, this feature can let you know when someone says your name. Name Recognition is now supported globally in over 50 countries.
Precision Finding via Apple Watch: Your AirPods Pro 3 case supports Ultra Wide Band precision finding. And with the new watchOS 27 Find My app, it's now possible to use precise finding for your AirPods directly from your Apple Watch.
Talk to Siri AI directly: If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, you can chat with Siri AI through your AirPods.
On Tuesday, Meta announced its new Muse Image model, the first release from "Meta Superintelligence Labs." With the new image model, Meta promises to create hyperrealistic images, posters, and even videos—once Muse Video launches, anyway. All of that is par for the course for a major AI company. But as Wired reports, there’s something weird going on with how it integrates with public Instagram profiles.
By default, anyone using Meta AI can create an image using the likeness of a public Instagram account, which they can then share via chat, Stories, or the Instagram feed. This doesn’t have to be a celebrity or a famous person, either (in fact, some celebrity profiles are restricted from this feature). So long as it's public, your personal Instagram profile is fair game here. Google has a similar feature, but it’s limited to the user themself, and it only works after an approval process. There are no such guardrails here.
This is quite a big privacy issue. Every public profile is automatically opted into this new feature, without their consent. If you're using Meta AI features on Instagram, you're in on this as well. For Meta, the distinction is clear. If you’re posting anything publicly, they can use it on their AI platform. Of course, creating an image out of two different faces is nothing new. You can just upload two profile images and get the same effect. But Meta is making this trivially easy on a very large scale.
I tested this out in a couple of ways. First, I tried to make an image of me in a fight scene with Robert Downey Jr. The AI refused, perhaps because of image rights. Then, I asked Meta AI to create an image with me and my colleague Pranay Parab. That wasn’t possible because he has a private profile (more on that later).
Lastly, I asked it to create an image of me having coffee with my friend Dhaval, who owns a cafe, and has a public profile. That image was created in just under a minute, and was based on recent images uploaded by Dhaval and me on our respective profiles (both a couple of years old at this point). It's obviously easy to use, but can you turn it off?
If you have a private Instagram profile, this isn’t something you need to worry about—beyond a mutual taking your photos for their own AI usage. If you have a public profile, you need to disable a setting that lets Meta use your profile data for Meta AI and Reels generation.
Open the Instagram app on your iPhone, go to your Profile and tap the three-lined Menu button in the top-right corner. Go to Sharing and Reuse and navigate to the section called Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features at Meta. Here, disable the Posts and Reels feature.
The good news is that this does work. I tried it on my Instagram coffee page that I rarely use. When I was logged into my personal profile on Meta, I asked Meta AI to create an image of me brewing coffee using my coffee page handle, and it refused, saying it doesn’t have the right to do that. This, of course, should be the default.
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Employment scams are nothing new, and they come in a variety of flavors, from fake job offers sent via text to fake applications distributed via Google Forms. Netflix impersonators even ran a similar recruitment email campaign last year. Bad actors are typically trying to phish personal information or convince you to send them money for various (fake) onboarding expenses.
As BleepingComputer reports, this job scam primarily targets marketing professionals looking for positions with high-value companies across multiple sectors, including tech, hospitality, travel, food, entertainment, and luxury goods.
The fraud begins with a phishing email from a "recruiter" at one of more than 34 companies, inviting candidates to schedule a meeting to discuss further. Scammers appear to be using the names and photos of real recruiters at these companies, making them less likely to raise suspicion if targets try to verify their legitimacy.
If a job seeker clicks the link to the recruiter's calendar, they'll be redirected multiple times and ultimately land on a malicious website designed to look like a real interview scheduling page. From there, they'll be prompted to sign in with Google, which launches a fake login interface that looks like Google's authentication pop-up but is actually just part of the phishing page. (This is an example of a browser-in-the-browser (BitB) attack.)
Threat actors appear to be using a legitimate HR platform called PeopleForce and a domain operated by Salesforce to initiate the scam, though it's not clear whether they created accounts or are using stolen credentials.
Like all scams, this one preys on emotion, like the excitement of being recruited for a highly desirable position in a competitive job market. If you receive an unsolicited message from a recruiter, whether via email, LinkedIn, or some other social platform, proceed with caution—especially if you haven't applied for a job or the opportunity sounds too good to be true. If you're not sure, go directly to the company's careers page to find the listing.
Just because a calendar or application link appears to go to a legitimate site doesn't mean you're safe. Obviously, scammers have many ways of spoofing URLs or redirecting traffic so you don't realize you're being phished. Look carefully at the address bar on the final window for sneaky characters or other URL tricks.
If you're being prompted to enter single sign-on credentials (such as Apple, Google, or Facebook) to schedule an interview or fill out an application, this is a red flag. Try to interact with the pop-up, such as by dragging it away from the main browser window or highlighting the URL. If you can't, it's likely a fake. A password manager can also protect against BitB attacks, as these tools won't fill credentials, except on the legitimate domain.
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Big-screen TVs usually come with equally big price tags, which is what makes this deal on the 2026 Toshiba Z670R worth a closer look. The 85-inch model has dropped to $1,197.99 from its regular $1,699.99 price, marking the lowest price recorded so far according to price trackers. And if 85 inches feels too large (or not large enough), Toshiba has also discounted the 55-, 65-, 75-, and 100-inch versions of the same TV. Positioned near the top of Toshiba's lineup, the Z670R is built for buyers who want a large-screen home theater setup without paying OLED-level prices.
The Z670R backs up that positioning with a feature set that feels more premium than its current price suggests—it combines a 4K Mini-LED panel with QLED color technology, a native 144Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos support. The Mini-LED backlight is arguably the most important feature here. By using thousands of smaller LEDs and local dimming zones, the TV delivers a stronger HDR performance when watching movies, sports, or modern video games—bright highlights like sunlight, explosions, or stadium lighting have more impact while darker scenes retain more detail than you'd typically get from a standard LED display.
The Z670R is also surprisingly well-equipped for gaming. The native 144Hz panel helps keep motion sharp during fast-paced gameplay, while AMD FreeSync Premium and Auto Low Latency Mode help reduce screen tearing and input lag when connected to a compatible console or gaming PC. Also, a screen this large can feel far more immersive, especially for racing games, sports titles, and open-world adventures. The TV uses Amazon's Fire TV as its smart TV platform, giving users access to major streaming services without needing an external streaming stick. Voice control through Alexa is built in, and the interface will be familiar to anyone who has used a Fire TV device before. Toshiba has also included a 50-watt 2.1-channel speaker system with a dedicated bass woofer, which delivers fuller sound than what you'll find on many TVs in this category. It won't replace a dedicated surround sound setup, but it's good enough that you may not feel the need to add a soundbar right away.
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The Philips WiFi Keypad Door Lock with Handle is down to $109.98 from its usual $179.99 price, marking its lowest price so far, according to price-trackers. For that price, you’re getting a smart deadbolt, keypad, fingerprint reader, app controls, and a matching handle set in one package. Many smart locks at this price only replace the deadbolt, so the included handle makes this feel like a more complete front-door upgrade without buying extra hardware. That said, it runs on eight AA batteries, and those are not included.
The day-to-day convenience is the real reason to consider it—since it connects directly to 2.4GHz wifi, there's no separate bridge or hub to buy, plug in, or troubleshoot later. Once connected, you can unlock the door with your fingerprint, enter a PIN on the keypad, use the Philips Home Access app, or stick with a physical key when needed. The app is especially useful if you need to check whether the door is locked, see recent access history, or let someone in while you're not home—it lets you create different types of codes for different people, including one-time codes for guests or recurring codes for cleaners, dog walkers, or family members. It also works with both Alexa and Google Assistant, so checking whether the front door is locked can be as simple as asking a smart speaker.
Philips says the lock is designed for doors between 1⅜ and 1¾ inches thick, and installation should be manageable with a screwdriver, though replacing both a deadbolt and handle still takes some patience. Once installed, you can set it to relock automatically within 0 to 180 seconds after closing. In all, this is probably more smart lock than you need if you only want a basic keypad. But if you want app control, fingerprint entry, guest codes, and a cleaner-looking handle set in one box, this Philips deal makes sense at just over $100.
Apple is actively beta testing iOS 27, trialing new features like Siri AI, new AI image editing features, and upgraded parental controls. Developers and testers can get an early look at these features and more by installing the beta on their devices. And while this beta looks a lot like the iOS 27 Apple advertised at WWDC, it changes massively with each subsequent update. Case in point, Apple dropped the third beta for iOS 27, introducing a number of new features and changes for the OS. Here's what's new:
There's a lot new with Siri this year. Apple finally overhauled the assistant with Apple Intelligence, which promises to be much more useful than the Siri of old. Among those changes, however, was something particularly useful for those of us who love customizing our devices: Apple now lets you customize Siri's voice.
This wasn't available with the first two betas, but now, beta testers can give it a try—assuming they have a supported iPhone. Even though Siri AI is available on iPhone 15 Pro and newer, this customization feature only works with iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air. If you have one of these devices, and you're running the third iOS 27 beta, you'll now be able to adjust both the assistant's pace and "expressivity."
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If you're running the watchOS 27 beta, good news: Apple finally added Siri AI support as part of this third beta round. That includes the new Siri app, so you can pick up conversations from your other devices on your watch. Again, this all assumes you have a compatible Apple Watch: Apple cut support for all Apple Watches older than the Series 9—including the first-gen Ultra and the second-gen SE. You should also exercise caution before installing watchOS betas: Unlike iOS betas, which you can downgrade from (even if there's some pain), Apple does not let you uninstall a watchOS beta. That means if you run into issues or otherwise regret your adventure, you'll need to ride out the wave until Apple releases watchOS 27 in full.
As 9to5Mac highlights, Siri AI can now tap into third-party apps on your iPhone to return results. At the moment, testers have only found one function that works here: pulling battery information from electric car apps. But it's a real development and a small demonstration of how Siri AI could be a capable assistant on iOS. This was something writer Khamosh Pathak was missing when testing out Siri AI on the second iOS 27 beta. While Siri AI seems great at pulling information from your Apple apps, it hasn't thus far been able to tap into your non-Apple apps. Hopefully the list of available functions and apps continues to grow so Siri AI can be even more useful.
Apple's "Adaptive" mode blends Active Noise Cancellation with its Transparency mode. It "adapts" to changes in your environment, pumping in sound when things are quiet and blocking sounds as it gets too noisy. In my experience, it works well, especially when you want to be able to hear what's going on around you without letting particularly loud sounds hurt your ears. But it's not easy to customize: You traditionally need to dive through the settings to find Adaptive mode's controls if you'd prefer it to be more or less sensitive to noise.
iOS 27 beta 3 changes that. Now, as part of iOS 27's improved AirPods settings menu, you can simply control Adaptive mode through a volume slider. It's far more intuitive and present than before, and hopefully makes it to iOS 27's official release.
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When you update to iOS 27 beta 3, you'll notice something new when swiping down to your Lock Screen: The subject of your wallpaper will slowly appear before the full wallpaper pops into view. I'm not 100% sure this is something Apple intended to appear in beta 3, but if it is, it is a bold choice.
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Apple isn't operating its new AI features alone. In addition to tapping into ChatGPT for some services, the company is also utilizing Google servers for certain AI processes. With the third iOS 27 beta, you'll now receive a pop-up before your iPhone sends your data to Google. You can either choose to send the data one time, allow iOS to send your data whenever it needs to, or block access entirely. Apple is adamant that any data sent to Google servers still maintains the same Private Cloud Compute protections as the data that runs through its own servers.
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When I reviewed the Suunto Run, I found it to be a delightful little watch. It's lightweight, with a big, bright screen, and it does a lot of what an entry-level Garmin can do, but at a much better price. It's easily one of the best affordable running watches out there, normally costing around $200. Here are some of the best tips and tricks I've found for getting the most out of the watch—starting with a hard-to-find fix for one of its most frustrating default features.
Even if you set your units to Imperial (miles and so on), the Suunto Run will mark a lap and beep at you after every kilometer. When I first reviewed it, I searched in vain for a setting that would let me switch it to miles, or at least turn off the auto-laps. I couldn't find one. Judging from the number of people asking this question on Suunto forums and on Reddit, I'm not the only one who has this problem. Supposedly, autolap can be turned off in settings, but I checked Exercise Options and didn't see it. I just resigned myself to the kilometer beeps. (Five miles is eight kilometers, for example—a fact I'm now quite familiar with.)
But it turns out there is a setting to change the autolap. You can find this either within the app or on the watch itself, but either way, the trick is that you have to choose a type of exercise (like Run or Trail Run) and then, instead of going into Exercise Options, select Free Training. This is the mode you'll normally use when you run, and that's where you'll find Autolap, which is set by default to 0.62 miles. Change that to 1.00 miles or turn it off, as you prefer. You'll have to go into each activity separately to change the autolap. I wish there were a more general setting for it, but at least there's a workaround.
Every watch has a stopwatch feature, but it's often not easy to get to (or requires you to program and remember a button shortcut). Suunto does something special, though: you can put a stopwatch right into your widget list. This way, all you have to do is swipe up from the bottom of the watch. These widgets are where you would normally check how many steps you've taken today, or how you slept, or what the weather is or when you can expect the sun to set. But you can also add a stopwatch, and I recommend that you do.
When you're looking at your widgets, click the top button (it will have a pencil icon). Here you can add new widgets to the list, or rearrange them. Add the stopwatch, and do yourself a favor and put it right at the top. Now you can start the stopwatch with just a quick swipe-and-tap from the watch face. Best of all, you can exit the stopwatch screen, and the next time you pull up your widgets you'll see the stopwatch's time displayed live on its widget. It's the handiest little thing.
This is another feature that most running watches have somewhere, but Suunto makes it so easy to access that you'll end up using it all the time. If you're running on the road (activity type Run) and decide you're going to finish your run on the trails (activity type Trail Run), you can switch between them by long pressing the top button. Once you select the new sport, your run is paused and the watch shows how long you've been paused at this "transition." Hit the start button when you're ready to go, and Suunto will record the two segments as different parts of the same workout.
This is handy because Suunto offers so many different activity types with slightly different data screens and settings. If your trail run turns hilly, you might prefer the Vertical Running activity to get more data on your power zones as you climb. Or maybe you'd prefer to just change to a Hike, something I've done a few times in this miserable heat wave. You can also create custom activities if you want even more control over your data screens and settings.
One interesting feature of many Suunto watches is the ability for the watch to alert you when it detects that a storm might be coming. This is possible because the watch has a barometer/altimeter that measures air pressure. When the weather is constant, changes in pressure hint that you're climbing up or down hills. But if pressure drops dramatically, that can indicate that a storm is on its way. To turn on storm alerts, go into Settings and then Outdoor and turn on Storm alarms.
While you're in this menu, you may want to make sure your barometer is calibrated. Also under the Outdoor menu, you can select Alti & Baro, and then you have the option to either Set altitude or Auto adjust altitude. The auto-adjustment uses a GPS reading to make sure the altimeter is calibrated. But if you know your current altitude from a map, you can set it manually.
Suunto makes it surprisingly easy to save points of interest and navigate to them without a lot of fuss. I use these "POIs," as the watch calls them, to mark interesting or useful areas in my local park. We're blessed with dozens of miles of trails in a small area, and I can't keep everything in my head. For example, I mark water taps so I can find them the next time my hydration pack is running low. I also like to mark places that I might like to return to on a future trip—say if I see a spot I think my kid would like to hike to.
Suunto's library of POI types is broader than I've seen in other watch brands. Besides the obvious—water, campsite, where you parked your car—you could also do some pretty detailed scouting for hunting, fishing, foraging, or wildlife watching. There are built-in POI types for noting where a deer seemed to have rubbed its antlers, where you've seen marine mammals, or where you've spotted mushrooms. You can save your current location as a POI from the watch or plan a trip before you leave by saving POIs on the map in the Suunto phone app.
I used this feature today to navigate to a favorite scenic overlook. You just have to plug in the POI as a Navigation Target under the options for your trail run or other activity. There's also a navigation app, accessible from the bottom of the widget list (select All Apps), and you can navigate without having an activity running.
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If you're like most people, your TV is the centerpiece of your living room decor. That means when it's off, all your furniture is pointed at a black rectangle. If this bothers you, the "art TV" trend that started with Samsung's The Frame could be the answer. These sets are made to look like a piece of art and display an image of your choosing when not in use. The Frame is a pricey option, but other brands have their own offerings—including Hisense and its CanvasTV, which I've been using and loving for the past six months.
Already a more affordable alternative to The Frame, you can currently get the massive 75-inch Hisense CanvasTV for $1,397.99 (down from $2,499.99). This is the lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. Other sizes are also discounted right now.
The primary attraction of the CanvasTV over Samsung's The Frame is the price: You'll pay $200 to $1,700 less for the same-sized TV (depending on which size you choose). Not to mention, if you choose The Frame, you have to buy the actual frames that go around the set, and pay for most artwork separately, while Hisense includes all of that in the selling price. Like The Frame, the CanvasTV also comes with a flush TV mount that will allow you to hang it so it looks like an actual art piece.
I also like that CanvasTVs come with the Google OS, which is my favorite smart TV operating system, as it lets you cast seamlessly from your phone (Android or iPhone). The CanvasTV is a QLED TV with Quantum Dot technology and 4K resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate in Game Mode Pro, according to CNET's review. What gives it the art look is the low-reflection Hi-Matte display, which combats glare. You can swap out the teak frames with different colors, including white and walnut frames.
Considering Hisense's take on The Frame is cheaper and includes fewer upfront costs, it's a great option for anyone looking to save money on a TV that won't dominate their decor—especially at the current discount.
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Though there is often a deal drought after Prime Day, you can still find a great price on a huge TV right now. The massive 65-inch Hisense U7SG QLED TV is selling for $847.99, over $650 off the original $1,499.99 list price. This discount is especially impressive considering the TV just came out in March 2026. Other sizes are also seeing great discounts, with the 55-inch going for $598.99 (originally $748.99), and the 85-inch going for $1,498.99 (originally $2,499.99).
In my opinion, 65-inch TVs are the perfect size for most people, provided you have the space for one of them—it's big enough that you will never feel like it's too small, but it's not so big that it will dominate your living room. There is a lot of competition for QLEDs at this size, but the U7SG offers great value for its specs: It has 4K resolution, Dolby Vision compatibility (including HDR10+, HDR10, and HDR10+ Adaptive), Dolby Vision IQ support, and full-array local dimming.
This TV was originally announced at CES 2024, but a new version came out in March 2026 that includes the Fire TV OS. It's suitable for gaming, with 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rates, including FreeSync Premium Pro and Dolby Vision gaming. The only possible downside is that the built-in speakers are of only average quality, so you might want to use some of your savings for a good soundbar and subwoofer.
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If you’re looking to upgrade your listening experience at home, whether for music or underwhelming built-in TV speakers, a soundbar and subwoofer combination is one of the best-value options for mixed use. It delivers deeper bass than a standalone soundbar and brings the experience closer to a full surround-sound system without the steep price tag that often comes with it. Right now, the Samsung 3.1 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer is $80 off at Walmart, bringing the price down to $199 (originally $279).
This setup includes wall-mount hardware for a cleaner installation beneath a mounted TV and features a dedicated 3.1-channel soundbar. Unlike basic 2.1-channel soundbars, the extra center channel helps make dialogue clearer and easier to hear, whether you’re watching your favorite show or watching a live game. It also supports DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio for more cinematic sound quality than standard TV speakers.
Meanwhile, the wireless subwoofer adds extra depth and bass to music and TV shows or movies without requiring a complicated surround-sound setup. Bluetooth connectivity lets you stream music or play podcasts from your phone and other devices when the TV is off, and the setup also includes Adaptive Sound, which automatically optimizes audio based on what’s playing.
It’s not a premium Dolby Atmos system, so don’t expect overhead audio effects or rear surround speakers. But at this price, it offers a major upgrade over built-in TV speakers, which constantly require you to turn on subtitles or deliver a below-average listening experience with music. If you’re looking for a subwoofer and soundbar deal from a premium brand and you’re on a budget, this Samsung 3.1 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer deal gives you solid value.
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I wear at least three rings every day—wedding and engagement bands, and an Oura ring as a fitness/recovery tracker. But in the summer, I often find myself taking them off before I go for a run. If I don’t, sometimes they’ll be stuck. This is a common problem, especially in hot weather. Here's what's going on, and what you can do about it.
There are several reasons why your hands might swell during or after a run (or walk). Scientists haven’t figured out this phenomenon with as much precision as we might hope, but there seem to be a few factors that affect swelling in otherwise healthy people who exercise. They include the following:
It’s normal for your fingers to change size throughout the day. Scientists have noted that our hands swell slightly overnight, and that this swelling resolves over the course of the day. By afternoon, our hands are back to what you might call their normal size. Because of this, you may be more likely to notice swollen fingers after morning runs than afternoon or evening runs.
Part of the way our body responds to heat is by dilating the blood vessels close to the surface of our skin. This helps cool us down, but it can also result in swelling since there is more fluid closer to the skin. Fluid can leave the blood vessels and pool in body tissues, which is fine—normal motion of our body tends to massage the lymph away. But when we’re running or walking, there may be more fluid entering our hands than leaving, with the result that we end up with sausage fingers.
Just as our heat response increases blood flow, so does exercise. Even in weather that’s not too hot, the increase in blood flow can result in more fluid entering the hands and fingers. The swinging of our arms that happens when running or walking may also be a factor; this and gravity both contribute to moving fluid toward our hands while also impeding its path back up.
Electrolytes like sodium and potassium can affect the way our bodies hold fluid. If you drink plenty of water but don’t get enough sodium—a condition called hyponatremia that can become life-threatening if severe—you may experience swelling of the hands. This has led some runners and doctors to conclude that electrolytes may help with ordinary finger swelling.
There are other issues that can cause swollen hands or fingers. An allergic reaction, for example, can cause swelling. Swelling is also a symptom of some types of liver disease and heart disease, among other medical conditions. If the swelling is severe or if you notice it often, you may want to see a doctor to find out whether you have a condition that needs treatment.
“The treatment of [swollen hands] is observation and reassurance,” writes a dermatologist who himself gets swollen hands after running. “Once the inciting event—be it hiking, running, or walking—is discontinued, the hand swelling spontaneously resolves.” In other words, it goes away on its own after the workout.
Swelling that is triggered by exercise tends to go down significantly within one to two hours, and it will usually be long gone by the next day. So in that sense, you don’t need to do anything—but the swelling can be uncomfortable, so we have a few tips. You can do these during or after exercise:
Hold your hands above your head, and massage the fingers from fingertip to palm.
Move your arms and hands—for example, repeatedly making a fist or wiggling the fingers.
Make sure nothing is restricting the flow of blood to and from your hands. Consider loosening your watch or adjusting your backpack straps if you are running or hiking with a pack.
To prevent the swelling going forward, or at least try to make it less unpleasant:
Remove your rings (and anything else you wear on your hands) before running. If you’re the kind of person to never leave the house without your wedding band, consider a silicone ring for when you’re exercising.
Adjust the fit of your watch as needed: a snug fit helps with accuracy, but you don't want it too tight. If you can't find a good fit, consider using a chest strap monitor for heart rate, and wearing the watch loosely or just keeping it in your pocket.
Consider the time of day you run. Evenings may be best, since the weather is cooler and you don’t already have that morning swelling we talked about.
Stay hydrated, and remember your electrolytes. This can mean carrying an electrolyte drink or tablets, or simply have salty snacks throughout the day in addition to water.
That said, if your finger swelling is just the normal kind triggered by exercise—and not a result of a more serious medical condition—then it may simply help to know it’s common and it will go down after your workout. If you wear a pack or running belt, consider keeping a carabiner on it to carry your rings in case you forget to leave them at home.
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Earlier this month, Sony announced it would be ending production of physical discs by 2028. This is a devastating blow to anyone who can't download every video game they ever play, especially since Sony is shutting down some of its older digital storefronts. But it's also a blow to game archiving, which raises one very crucial question: can you rip and backup your own PlayStation discs?
The technical answer to that question is a qualified “Yes, depending on how old your games are.” And the legal answer is “No, but it's probably fine anyway.” For that to make sense, we're gonna have to go through some complicated stuff, so let's start with the legal question.
The rules for what's permissible will depend heavily on your region, but we'll focus on the U.S. (in other North American and European regions, the rules are somewhat similar). In the U.S., there are two general, paradoxical rules:
You have a right to make a backup copy of any media you own. Like, say, backing up a copy of your PlayStation discs.
You are not allowed to circumvent any method meant to prevent copies on a piece of media. Like, say, the DRM on your PlayStation discs.
Yes, this is mildly contradictory. It's a bit like saying you can read any book in the library, but only if the door to said library isn't locked—and the door is always locked. In theory, this means you only have the legal right to back up your media if the company you bought it from says you can.
In practice, it's a bit less dire than all that. It's generally not easy (or good for public relations) to go after individuals for ripping a single disc. Instead, most legal fights will center around the tools themselves. Developing (or in some cases, even linking to) ripping tools can expose the people who make them to legal liability. There are gray areas, especially when it comes to game preservation.
What that means for most people is that if your intention is to rip PlayStation discs so you can distribute copies to a bunch of other people, you could end up in legal trouble. However, if you want to make a backup copy for yourself just in case your existing disc dies, and Sony stops making more, you're probably safer. But you still take on that risk for yourself.
Whether it's possible to rip a PlayStation disc will depend heavily on which console you're talking about. In general, the older a console is, the longer archivists and other enthusiasts have been working on the problem, so the easier it's likely to be. Older devices tend to use simpler encryption, or well-known copy-protection mechanisms that are easier for modern users to circumvent. Since it's exactly that circumvention that can trip legal liability, that's also why you'll find fewer people and groups trying to do it for the latest console. It's not impossible, but likely to be harder and less accessible.
In order to rip discs, you'll need a disc drive that can read your game, and which one you'll need will depend on which console generation it came from.
The PS1 used CDs for its games (even though they looked a bit different, due to a custom black coating).
PS2 games were split between CDs and DVDs.
Starting with the PS3, and continuing with the PS4, both consoles utilized standard Blu-ray discs.
Finally, the PS5 added support for higher-capacity Ultra HD Blu-ray discs.
As you might be able to tell from this list, the right drive for a given console generation can range from trivially easy to find, to near impossible. Plenty of desktops and even laptops have DVD drives that can also read CDs. Blu-ray drives are a lot rarer, and there's a decent chance that the only UHD Blu-ray drive you've ever interacted with is the one in your PS5—unless you happen to have one of these.
That only covers backing up the data on your disc in the first place. If you want to write it to another disc (a process called burning), you'll need a drive that doesn't just read those discs, but write them as well. In a lot of cases, these are the same—the drive linked above can both read and write Blu-rays and DVDs, for example—but if you want to burn your own discs, make sure you don't accidentally buy a read-only drive.
Making a backup disc of your games is one thing. This can be helpful for preservation, or for storing games you'll run in an emulator later. That doesn't mean you can just pop a burned disc into your old PlayStation and run them like normal, though.
For the PS3 and older, you'll likely need to mod or at least softmod the console in order to play burned discs. This process can vary widely not just by console generation, but by specific models and even down to when the specific console was manufactured. Since copy protection is an arms race, sometimes newer models block decryption methods that worked on older devices, or, conversely, sometimes new models introduce flaws that can be exploited to jailbreak a console.
Typically, the methods that modders use to jailbreak a console are security vulnerabilities, so the ones that can be patched via software updates will be. This means that even if you have a console from the right generation and manufacturing run, it could still end up impossible to crack open if it's been updated to newer software.
This situation has led to a minor cottage industry of console resellers and modders who will offer to jailbreak existing consoles, or sell specific versions of devices that can still be modded. This market can be dicey to step into, though, as there's not typically much recourse if your complaint is “I bought a PS4, but it came with too-up-to-date software."
Short of modding an existing PlayStation to run burned discs—a complicated endeavor even in the best of situations—the second best way to run your backup copies of games is via an emulator. Yes, if your goal was to keep your physical media for longer, this might be a bit of a letdown, but it's also a lot easier than modding a console to run DIY discs.
Like everything in this guide, the emulators you'll need will vary by platform. There are several options for the PS1, and at least one for the PS2 through PS4. Notably, there are currently no PS5 emulators, which tends to be typical for the current generation console, for a variety of both technical and legal reasons that should be obvious if you've read this far.
It's worth mentioning at this point that, if you're running your own backup copies in an emulator, you're probably in the legal clear (or at least not a significant enough target for most companies to bother pursuing); downloading and playing games you didn't buy yourself can put you in a much more legally dicey situation. And given the absolute state of the gaming industry, I'd discourage you from pirating any game that you could acquire legally right now.
I'll level with you at this point: Sony killing physical media sucks. I've spent this whole piece describing a process of backing up your games and making your own discs in vague enough terms and without specific links so as to be legally defensible, all because companies like Sony want to have a monopoly on making discs for their consoles. And now they don't want to do it either. It's not quite taking the ball and going home, so much as setting fire to the ball and suing anyone who tries to make a new one.
And eventually, it won't matter. Right now, the current PlayStation 5 comes with a disc drive, but if disc production ends by 2028, there's a good chance that the PS6 won't have a disc drive at all. At that point, even if you burned a copy of a game to a disc, there'd be nothing to run it. We're approaching an era where creating your own physical media might be little more than hobbyists cosplaying a bygone era, like a hard drive disguised as a VHS tape.
But this preservation process still matters. Physical media lets games continue to work even after servers shut down; they bring games to places that might not have robust internet access; and they help ensure that lesser-known games don't disappear into the oblivion of time.
Maybe Sony will change its mind and keep making physical media; maybe it won't. If it does give up on discs, maybe it will at least let the enthusiasts who want to keep the practice alive have a go at it without having to look over their legal shoulder. A guy can dream. Until that happens, keep circulating the tapes. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
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If you already participated in Round 1, you know how this works. For new players, here's the gist: Lifehacker is running a guessing game throughout 2026, inviting readers to make predictions about what Apple may be announcing this year. The contest has three rounds.
Round 1, which ended on June 2. This round was focused on Apple's software announcements (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, etc.).
Round 2, which will run from July 7 through July 21. This round has questions about Apple hardware (iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Vision Pro and so on.).
Round 3, which will span Aug. 18 through Sept. 1. This round focuses on Apple's fall event.
Each round has five questions about what Apple may reveal during its keynotes and announcements. We won't know the answers until Apple confirms them, but each correct answer earns you one entry into the grand-prize drawing. CNET Group will hold this drawing at the end of the third round. If you win that drawing, you'll receive the latest version of an Apple Watch.
To be eligible, an entrant must be at least 18 years old, and a resident of the 50 U.S. states or Washington, D.C. You don't just have to play Lifehacker's guessing game, either: All CNET Group sites (CNET, Mashable, PCMag, ZDNET) are also hosting their own questions, which means there will be 75 possible queries to answer across all CNET Group sites and all three rounds. You can answer any or all of the questions on these sites during each round, but note that each entrant is only eligible to win one prize. Each of the five websites will announce the winner of its contest shortly after Apple's fall event.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY to enter or win the "CNET Group Big Guessing Game" Giveaway. Open to legal U.S. residents in the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18+ yrs of age. Other restrictions apply. Begins May 19, 2026 at 12:01 p.m. ET and ends Sept. 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Void where prohibited. Subject to Official Rules. Sponsor: Ziff Davis, LLC.
Apple is not a sponsor of, affiliated with, or endorser of this sweepstakes. Apple Watch is a trademark of Apple Inc.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jake Peterson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"You Only Have One Real Choice Now That Samsung Messages Is Officially Dead";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KWYHKFHGCW7WG7AH2QA9D155";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:30:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"Switch to Google Messages if you want to move your messages over.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/what-to-do-now-that-samsung-messages-is-officially-dead?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Android";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KWYHKFHGCW7WG7AH2QA9D155/hero-image.jpg";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4851:"Back in April, Samsung announced its plans to shutter its proprietary Messages app. It shouldn't have come as too much of a shock to Galaxy users: It's been a long time since Samsung Messages was the default choice on Galaxy devices. In fact, the company didn't even ship the app with newer devices, choosing Google Messages as its new messaging standard. Galaxy S26 users can't even download the app at all.
In its initial announcement, the company said Samsung Messages would shut down sometime in July, but declined to offer a definitive date. So when July 1 hit, and the app was still working, perhaps some users felt a small sense of comfort: Maybe Samsung wasn't serious about ending the app. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case. It seems the company chose July 7 as its deprecation day, as the app is officially defunct. You can still open Samsung Messages, but if you try to send a message, you'll find the text field grayed out.
While Samsung Messages is no longer supported, the app isn't gone forever. As I said, you can still access it, which means you can also see your message history. And, per Samsung, you can still use the app, albeit under extremely limited circumstances. If your device runs Android 11 or something older, Samsung Messages will continue to work. In addition, all users can contact emergency services from Samsung Messages, as well as their emergency contacts. If you set someone as an emergency contact, you have a workaround for continuing to use Samsung Messages.
There is another workaround here, but I don't recommend it. As Android Authority highlights, you can uninstall app updates to restore access by heading to Settings > Apps > Samsung Messages > More options and choosing "Uninstall Updates." From here, head to the Galaxy Store, then go to Menu > Updates > Samsung Messages > More options. Here, disable "Enable auto-update" to ensure that the Galaxy Store and One UI don't check in with Samsung Messages anymore. Per Android Authority, this should let you keep using Samsung Messages as if it were not shut down, but I discourage you from doing so for more than a short period. Now that the app isn't receiving new updates, any security vulnerabilities that pop up in the future will not be patched. As such, Samsung Messages users will likely be targets for phishing and hacking, putting their devices and data at risk.
Unfortunately, the best course of action for most Samsung Messages users is to switch to Google Messages. While I imagine many Samsung Messages fans are loath to switch to Google's app, it really is the easiest transition. Once you make Google Messages your default messaging app, your conversation history will automatically begin migrating over from Samsung Messages—though Samsung says there are no guarantees about how long this process can take.
That said, there are third-party apps out there you can choose from instead. Focusing specifically on SMS apps, you'll find similar features with Textra, Chomp SMS, and Handcent SMS. The issue is that your Samsung Messages history might not automatically transfer over when moving to one of these apps. You can try a third-party SMS backup too, like SMS Backup & Restore, but again, it's not clear whether you'll be able to migrate your messages over. If your main concern is moving your messages over to a new app, Google Messages may be the best move here.
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One Piece, the manga, has been running nearly 30 years, with the anime series just a couple of years shy of that. Rather shocking, truly, that a saga with that much baggage landed as a rather brisk and fun live-action series on Netflix—even if the stretchiness of lead Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) lands slightly better in animation than in CGI. Luffy is the boyish leader of the Straw Hat Pirates, pillaging the seven seas but mostly hunting for the legendary "One Piece," which will make him the pirate king. The live action adaptation of the show leans into the colorful and offbeat world-building of its source materials, as do these other colorful adventure shows.
What if pirates, but a little silly? Not unlike One Piece, this swashbuckling series delivers action and a few laughs, while also serving as one of the better romances of the past few years. It's based (very loosely) on the real-life story of Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), a gentleman who took to piracy despite having barely been on a boat before. It plays as a bit of a workplace comedy with two men in the middle of midlife crises: Bonnet, and legendary pirate Blackbeard (Taika Waititi). It also features, unexpectedly, one of the most believable and compelling gay romances of the last several years; HBO Max cut it short after a mere two seasons (because of course they did) But that doesn't mean it's not worth diving in. Stream Our Flag Means Death on HBO Max.
This short-lived cult favorite follows a crew of mercenaries led by Mal Reynolds and Zoe Washburne (Nathan Fillion and Gina Torres), two disaffected former soldiers who fought on the losing side of a galactic war for independence against the thoroughly conformist central government. The crew tries to stay just under the radar of law enforcement while engaging in activities that aren’t always strictly legal. Canceled after just a handful of episodes aired, the series didn’t get a chance to make much of that core conflict, but the sequel/wrap-up film Serenity (2005) is a good capper, and the crew is forced to take a stand to protect one of its own. Stream Firefly on Hulu.
An iconic, effortlessly cool genre classic, Cowboy Bebop is one of the undisputed GOATs of anime, blending western, noir, and crime genres and setting the resultant mash to a killer soundtrack. The title's "cowboys" are bounty hunters in a near-future in which humans have been forced to colonize the solar system after Earth became uninhabitable. Former hitman Spike Spiegel leads his crew on one nearly disastrous mission after another, their standalone adventures all building to a thoroughly memorable climax. Stream Cowboy Bebop on Crunchyroll or buy it from Prime Video.
An anime import from Japanese animation studio Trigger (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners), Delicious in Dungeon is a cute and clever fantasy series with just enough action to keep things lively. A group of adventurers set out on a traditional dungeon crawl-type adventure only to have the sister of the leader eaten by a red dragon. Out of supplies but in a rush to catch the dragon who's fled to the lowest levels of the dungeon, the party comes to the attention of a dwarven master chef, who convinces them that their idea of cooking and eating dungeon monsters isn't merely practical—it could be high culinary art. The tie-in here is largely the fun, and adventurous vibe, but also in featuring a cast of immensely likable characters on an unlikely adventure. Stream Delicious in Dungeon on Netflix.
This isn't so much a vibe match for One Piece, but it is one of the best pirate-related shows of the past couple of decades—so if you're looking for barely legal action on the high seas, here you go. We're in what's referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy, when you could hardly cross the Caribbean and eastern Pacific without dealing with buccaneers and privateers. Toby Stephens stars as the feared Captain Flint of Treasure Island fame, to which this is a bit of a prequel. Fictional lead aside, the show eschews the romantic view of piracy in media presentations in favor of a darker tone; Flint and company are our protagonists, but the show doesn't ignore the fact that they're hardly heroes. The complex politics of the era, both between the pirates and the governments hunting them, as well as between various factions, lend the show more depth as it proceeds. Stream Black Sails on Starz, or stream the first episode on Prime Video.
Video-game obsessed Arisu gets his wish, after a fashion, when he finds himself, along with a couple of friends, transported to an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly brought to life via some clever green screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given the instructions for the game, which they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. The first competition involves a locked-room-style puzzle; if they fail, the room goes up in flames with them in it—think Ready Player One, with deadlier stakes. There are games each night, though the rules allow for winners to get time off. There are a lot of rules, actually, but the games are cleverly and sadistically constructed. This is heavier than One Piece, but it's another impressively realized manga adaptation set in an impressively conceived, fully realized world—even if this one is virtual. Stream Alice in Borderland on Netflix.
Following a couple of just-OK movies, Rick Riordan's beloved middle-grade+ fantasy series gets a fun and faithful adaptation here with Walker Scobell as the young demigod. Following some shenanigans at a museum, our hero learns that he's been living a lie: His dad is Poseidon, and his mom has been trying to keep the family safe from godly machinations for years. With the cat now out of the bag, he's off to Camp Half-Blood, a training ground for other demigods, where he makes new friends (and new enemies) as he reluctantly pursues his destiny. There's fun camaraderie among the leads (friends and frenemies alike), but the series gets more One Piece-esque during the second season when Percy and company hop on a boat and head into the Sea of Monsters to rescue a friend, facing down the biggest names in Greek mythological sea creatures. Stream Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+.
Another impressively successful animated series-to-live-action adaptation, this one from a series heavily inspired by (but objectively not) anime and manga. Set in a world divided into four warring nations (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air), the show follows the journey of 12-year-old Aang (Gordon Cormier), last survivor of the Air Nomads, and who can control the elemental forces of all four nations. With the help and protection of his allies, he might be the one to unite a devastated world. Stream Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.
Based on the fantasy books of Leigh Bardugo from her series of the same name, Shadow and Bone follows Alina Starkov, an orphan and cartographer who discovers and grows into her vaguely magical Grisha abilities. It’s a beautiful and dense fantasy world—darker but just as fully realized as the setting of One Piece, and content to drop you into its world without a lot of exposition. It’s worth the investment, even if a fan campaign to bring the show back for a third season didn't succeed. Stream Shadow and Bone on Netflix.
And then, of course, we have the 800-pound gorilla of TV anime, with 22 seasons and well over 1,000 episodes (and counting)—if you're truly obsessed, this should keep you occupied for a bit (if you still need more, the original manga series is slowly moving toward a conclusion after a quarter century, and there's a new anime series coming next year). The adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and company, at least in animation, begin here. Stream One Piece on Hulu, Netflix and Crunchyroll.
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We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
If you missed the deals on the long weekend but you still have some summer DIY projects you’ve been meaning to tackle, good news: You have a little while longer to shop. There are still some excellent deals on Milwaukee cordless tools on sale for Home Depot's 4th of July sale.
If you’re building a new cordless tool set, a combo deal is a good option to save some money and also get everything you need, like batteries and chargers along with your tools.
The Milwaukee 18-volt, six-tool combo kit is $449, 55% off its regular price. This set comes with a drill, an impact driver, an angle grinder, a circular saw, an oscillating multitool, a work light, two four-amp-hour batteries, a charger, and a tool bag. This is a good set for most home DIY projects, and it has many of the same tools I use in my professional kit. You’ll be able to use these tools for simple projects like hanging shelves as well as some woodworking and repair projects.
The Milwaukee 12-volt three-tool set is on sale for $249, 38% off its usual price. This set comes with a drill, an impact driver, a powered ratchet, a four-amp-hour battery, a two-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a tool bag. This is a good simple tool set for basic home projects like hanging pictures, changing out drawer hardware, or doing small appliance maintenance.
If you already have a Milwaukee 18-volt tool set, but want to add tools that will work on your battery platform, some of my absolute favorite tools are on sale right now.
The Milwaukee 18-volt oscillating multitool is now $119, 40% off its typical price. It comes with a two-amp-hour battery and a charger, so you’ll be able to use it on its own even if you don’t have a Milwaukee tool set already. This is a versatile tool that can be used to cut metal, wood, drywall, plaster, PVC, and tile. I used mine on a small drain repair in my bathroom and did all of the cutting of metal and PVC pipe as well as the plaster walls with this tool. I also used the sanding attachment to sand down the patch I made afterwards.
The Milwaukee 18-volt cordless inflator is on sale for $299, 45% off its regular price. It comes with the inflator tool, two six-amp-hour batteries, and a charger. You can use this tool in an emergency kit for roadside tire inflation or in your garage for bikes and other vehicles or for recreational floats.
If you already have a Milwaukee cordless tool set, but you want more batteries to allow you to work continuously without needing to wait for a charge, getting a deal on batteries can save you a lot of time and aggravation as well as money.
A Milwaukee 18-volt, five-amp-hour battery is now $99, 41% off its usual price. This battery doesn’t come with a charger, so you’ll need an 18-volt Milwaukee charger to use it.
A set of two Milwaukee 12-volt batteries is on sale for $99, 34% off its typical price. This is also a battery-only deal, so you’ll need a Milwaukee 12-volt charger to use these batteries.
If you've paid for YouTube TV in the last seven years, you may be owed some cash from Disney. The company has agreed to a $50 million settlement stemming from alleged antitrust violations, which forced YouTube TV and DirecTV subscribers to pay more than they should have for their live TV streaming services. Keep an eye on your mailbox and inbox for a settlement notice—if you're eligible, you can claim a payment between now and Sept. 8.
This settlement stems from a 2022 class action lawsuit filed by YouTube TV subscribers, who allege that Disney's control over ESPN and Hulu forced streaming services (specifically those providing live TV) to raise their prices. The suit notes that Google's agreements with Disney resulted in a nearly 100% price hike—from $35 to $65—for a subscription to YouTube TV's base package. Disney agreed to settle the suit, though final approval is pending with a hearing scheduled for Jan. 14, 2027.
The Disney settlement provides cash payments for two different classes:
YouTube TV subscribers who purchased their subscription between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026.
DirecTV live streaming customers who purchased their subscription (branded as DirecTV Stream, DirecTV Now, and/or AT&T TV Now) between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026.
At this time, it's not clear how much each individual will receive from the settlement, though where you live (or lived) during the settlement period will be a significant factor.
According to the terms, 90% of the payouts will go to customers who resided in the following states at any time between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2026: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The remaining 10% of funds will be distributed to class members in all remaining states.
If you had subscriptions to both services, you may receive a cash payment for each, but you only need to submit one claim form. It's worth noting that payouts are likely to be small, with $50 million split among a huge group of streaming subscribers over a period of seven years.
If you are part of a settlement class for the Disney lawsuit, you can submit a claim form online. You'll need to log in using the unique ID and PIN included in your notice. From there, you'll need to provide some personal information, verify your YouTube TV or DirecTV Stream subscription and state of residence, and choose an electronic payment method (otherwise you'll receive a paper check).
If you didn't receive a notice but believe you're eligible for a payout, you can contact the administrator via email at info@OnlineTVSettlement.com. Alternatively, you can print a PDF version and return it by mail to the following address:
Biddle v. Disney
Settlement Administrator
P.O. Box 4720
Portland, OR 97208-4720
Claim forms must be completed online or postmarked by Sept. 8, 2026.
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A 32-inch TV does not need to do everything. In a guest room, kitchen, dorm, garage, or small bedroom, it mostly needs to be easy to use, easy to place, and cheap enough that you are not overthinking the purchase. The Hisense 32-inch A4 Series Roku TV fits that kind of use well, especially at its current price of $97.99, down from $149.99. The larger 40-inch model is also discounted, but the 32-inch version is the more obvious pick if you want a secondary screen without spending much. Also, it weighs 8.2 pounds and measures 28.6 inches wide, so it should fit on a dresser, small media stand, or wall mount without taking over the room.
The biggest advantage here is that Roku TV is built in. You do not need to add a streaming stick to access apps like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, and other major services. The included remote also has shortcut buttons, which are useful for a TV that may be used by guests, kids, or anyone who does not want to dig through menus. Hisense also includes three HDMI ports, one USB port, wifi, RCA, and a 3.5mm audio connection, so the basics are covered for a cable box, game console, antenna, or external speaker. Dolby Audio and the 2.0-channel 12-watt speakers should be enough for a small room, but they will not replace a soundbar.
The main trade-off is the resolution—this is a 720p HD TV, not a 4K set, so it is not the right choice if you want a sharp main screen for movies, sports, or newer games. At 32 inches, though, 720p is still acceptable for casual streaming, local news, YouTube, cartoons, older shows, and background TV. The 60Hz refresh rate is also basic, so serious gamers should look elsewhere. For a Nintendo Switch, an older console, or an occasional HDMI hookup, it should be fine, though.
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Hisense is discounting its 2026 U6 Pro TV lineup right now, and the 55-inch model is the easiest one to recommend for most living rooms—it's currently $529.99, down from $849.99, which is the lowest price we’ve seen for it so far, according to price trackers. The larger 65-inch, 75-inch, 85-inch, and 100-inch versions are also on sale, with even bigger discounts, topping out at $1,200 off for the 100-inch version. Amazon is also including free room-of-choice delivery, but it is worth noting that this only gets the TV to the room you choose. It does not include unpacking, setup, packaging removal, or haul-away service.
The main reason to look at the U6 Pro over a basic 4K TV is its Mini-LED backlighting. Instead of lighting the screen in broad sections, it uses smaller lighting zones to improve contrast—so a bright sky, stadium light, or explosion can stand out without turning every dark scene gray. It's still not an OLED, and you shouldn't expect perfect black levels in a dark room, but it should look more controlled than a standard LED set. Hisense also includes Hi-QLED color, Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+ Adaptive, HDR10, HLG, IMAX Enhanced, and Filmmaker Mode, so it is well covered for streaming movies and shows. Plus, Fire TV is built in, which means you do not want to add a separate streaming stick right away.
This is also a stronger gaming and sports TV than the price suggests. The native 144Hz refresh rate gives fast motion more room than a standard 60Hz panel, while variable refresh rate, Auto Low Latency Mode, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro help with smoother gameplay on supported consoles and PCs. The built-in 2.1-channel speaker system and subwoofer are also useful if you are not ready to buy a soundbar, though a separate audio setup will still do more for movie nights. All said, for a bright 4K TV with Mini-LED contrast, strong gaming features, built-in streaming, and better-than-basic audio, the U6 Pro makes the most sense for someone who wants a more capable TV without moving into premium OLED pricing.
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If you’re deep into comparison shopping for fitness watches, you’ve probably come across some debate on the different display technologies. Manufacturers now use AMOLED style screens on almost all of their watches (bright! Colorful! Sharp! Modern!) while some longtime users are diehards for the older MIP or LCD style screens (the general vibe is: pry them out of my cold dead hands). So where does that leave you, the shopper, wondering what to get for your first or next watch, especially if you're shopping older models? I’m going to break down all the pros and cons.
I’m going to gloss over a lot of the detail you’d need to be an engineer to love and concentrate on what it’s like to use these screens. With that in mind:
AMOLED displays have tiny pixels that glow to create the display, leaving black areas where the pixels are not turned on. Your phone’s screen is probably AMOLED. AMOLED displays are full color, and they use power any time they’re on. They’re bright and highly visible in the dark, but can potentially get washed out in extremely bright sunlight.
MIP displays (memory-in-pixel), also called memory LCD, do not light up on their own. These displays reflect light, much like old-school LCD watches, so they are highly visible in sunlight but require a backlight to be seen in the dark. They can display color, but only a limited range of colors and they are not as vibrant or as high-resolution as AMOLED screens.
AMOLED displays tend to be higher resolution, brighter, and sharper. MIP displays look more old-fashioned, but they always look good in bright sunlight, and they can be always-on without running down the battery life (assuming you have the backlight turned off).
AMOLED displays are usually touchscreens, but MIP displays can have touchscreens as well. For example, the Coros Pace 3 has a touchscreen, while the Garmin Forerunner 55 does not. (If you don’t want a touchscreen, you should know that you can disable the touchscreen on most sports watches.)
We’re currently a little past a transition point where manufacturers have moved toward AMOLED for most new models. Any fancy-looking smartwatch is likely to be AMOLED; there’s no MIP Apple Watch, for example. But among sports watches, there are plenty of models with MIP displays still being sold new. Some of them are older models still on the market (like Garmin Forerunners ending with 55), and it's worth noting that watches with solar charging are always MIP. Here’s a breakdown of some of the more popular watches, which I've linked (where possible) to Lifehacker reviews with original photos so you can see the display for yourself:
AMOLED (or similar) displays:
Fitbit Charge 5 and Charge 6
Coros Pace Pro and Pace 4
Garmin Forerunners ending in "65" or higher, including the 165, 265, and the current generation which includes the 70, 170, 570, and 970.
Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED (other Instincts have a MIP display)
Garmin Vivoactive 5 and 6
Garmin Venu 2, 3, and 4
Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED
Polar Vantage, Ignite 3, Grit X2 Pro
Suunto Race, Suunto Run
MIP (or similar) displays:
Coros Pace 3, Apex 2, Apex 2 Pro, Vertix 2
Garmin Forerunners 55, 255, 955, and any other Forerunner not ending in -65 or -70
Garmin Instinct, Instinct 2, Instinct E, and Instinct 3 Solar (these are actually a regular 2-color LCD rather than full color MIP)
Garmin Vivoactive 4 and earlier
Garmin Fenix 7 and earlier
Garmin Fenix 8 Solar (and pretty much any solar watch)
Polar Pacer, Pacer Pro, Grit X, Grit X Pro
Suunto Core, 9 Baro, 9 Peak
As this list should make clear, MIP screens are mostly found on older models—although often those models have similar functionality as their AMOLED brethren. For example, the Garmin Forerunner 255 and 265 are basically the same watch with two different displays (and very different price points).
The only place I'm seeing MIP or reflective screens on new watches would be Garmin's solar offerings, since the charging panel isn't compatible with AMOLED. The Fenix 8 and the Instinct 3 both come in a MIP version with solar charging, and an AMOLED version without.
The biggest argument in favor of MIP screens is that you can have an "always-on" display without draining the battery. MIP screens are like e-ink in that they always display something, but you may not be able to see what they're displaying without proper lighting. So in normal daytime conditions, a MIP screen is readable even without turning on its backlight. If you're typing on your computer, wrist in view, you can glance at your MIP watch and see the time even without pushing a button or turning your wrist.
AMOLED watches, meanwhile, need to use power for their "always-on displays" (AOD). There are two downsides to the AOD on most watches: First, it eats battery, taking a 13-day watch down to maybe five days. And second, to avoid eating too much battery, the AOD face will be a lower-energy version with less data and a dimmer display. A MIP watch, on the other hand, will display the same watch face all the time.
To view a MIP screen in the dark, you can usually set the watch to turn on a backlight when you raise or turn your wrist. There's also typically a button that turns on the backlight as well. Some watches let you set the backlight gesture so that it's only available in the evening, assuming that you'll have plenty of light at other times of day.
I've happily reviewed a ton of AMOLED sports watches, with no problem viewing any of their displays in strong sunlight, but on forums like Reddit you'll find MIP devotees who say they would never consider an AMOLED watch for outdoor sports. They're afraid it wouldn't be readable in the sun. Ever since I read those posts, I’ve been paying attention to visibility, the better to form my own opinions. I got into the difference in display types in my comparison between the Coros Pace 3 (MIP) and Pace Pro (AMOLED), for example. I've also taken photos here of the Forerunner 55 (MIP) and 265S (AMOLED). So let’s take a look, using those two pairs of watches as our test subjects.
This is a win for MIP, with caveats (see below about shadows). When you have bright light shining directly on a MIP screen, it practically glitters. Modern AMOLEDs tend to be pretty bright as well, and it seems every new watch release claims to have "our brightest screen ever." But on the brightest of days in the directest of sunlight, AMOLEDs can indeed be a bit washed out.
That said, AMOLED screens don't show up well in photos on sunny days, so I don't think the photo above quite does the AMOLED screen justice. (Those black horizontal lines on the AMOLED are an artifact of the camera taking the picture faster than the display could refresh; they're not visible in real life.) In my opinion MIP screens look great in direct sunlight, while AMOLEDs are just OK.
I didn’t have a lot of great side-by-side photos in sunlight, so for another test I put both Forerunners directly under a bright desk lamp. A desk lamp is not the sun. However, I feel like this is a better demonstration of typical conditions—as judged by my own personal eyes and brain. Your own opinion might differ. If you're making your shopping decision based on how the displays look in sunlight, trying them out in person will tell you a lot more than any photo will. (Underrated shopping tip: show up to a running club and ask everybody about their watch. They'll be more than happy to show them off.)
I went for a few runs on bright sunny days with both of the Coros watches, and found I actually preferred the AMOLED display even in the sun. That’s because sunny days are also days with deep shadows. You have to get the angle just right to get that bright glittery effect on a MIP screen, while an AMOLED will shine from the shadows. Most of the time, either my body or the screen’s own bezel was shading it a bit. The photo above was taken on the same day, same run, as the outdoor Coros photo in sunlight. The sun didn't go behind a cloud, I was just standing in a different position.
And the photo here is the exact same setup with the desk lamp, but with the watches angled just a few degrees downward. Drastic difference in readability. Now, if you’re used to MIP watches, you’re used to angling them into the sun to get a good look. If you’re fine with that, great. I prefer the AMOLED in this situation.
Here are both watches outdoors, on an overcast day, displaying the kind of screen you'd see most often during a running or other sports activity. This is probably the most telling photo of all: they are both fine. The MIP watch makes up for its potential visibility issues by defaulting to a white background, and the AMOLED just keeps showing bright numbers on a dark screen like usual. I use the AMOLED (the 265S) in this photo for most of my runs—it's not a review unit, it's the watch I actually own—and it's always visible, always looks great, in any weather and with or without sunglasses. But the MIP? It's good too! Nobody loses points here. And here are both watches indoors, with normal ambient lighting:
You probably expected me to say that AMOLED is better in the dark. Honestly, while AMOLED is prettier in the dark (and prettier almost anytime, because AMOLED displays tend to be higher resolution and have more vivid colors), both screens are equally readable. The same gesture that wakes the AMOLED screen can wake the MIP screen’s backlight. (Please note that both watches are much sharper than the photo in real life. The blur you're seeing is just me failing to hold the camera perfectly steady in a dark room.)
In actual darkness, like when you’re putting your kids to bed, your best bet is an AMOLED watch with a “sleep mode” that displays the time dimly. That way you don’t need to turn on a backlight to see the time. So if you’re concerned about the light being too bright, you probably want AMOLED.
MIP diehards like to say that MIP screens are more battery efficient. That may be technically true, but nobody buys a watch based on the battery life of its display. We want to know about the battery life of the entire watch.
And honestly, AMOLED watches tend to have just as good a battery life as their MIP counterparts. Whether it’s better battery technology, power savings elsewhere in the software or hardware, or AMOLED itself being more efficient than you’d expect, it doesn’t matter. The Forerunner 965 (AMOLED) and the Forerunner 955 (MIP) both have a battery life of 8.5 hours during an activity with multi-band GPS mode and music playing. In smartwatch mode (not tracking activities), the 965 lasts 23 days in smartwatch mode, compared to 15 days for the 955. In other words, the AMOLED watch lasts eight days longer. If battery life is your priority, in this situation you’d want the AMOLED.
That said, I'm assuming that you're OK with the display turning off when you're not looking at the watch. If an always-on display is important to you, the battery numbers will look very different. The Forerunner 965, with AOD on, only lasts about a week.
Battery life will vary by model, of course. Look up the battery life specs for the specific watches you’re interested in. Maybe the MIP model will last longer, but maybe the AMOLED will. Don’t make assumptions about the battery based on the look of the screen.
You've seen my photos and heard my opinions, but ultimately you need to make a decision for yourself. And of the two display types, I'll be honest: neither is unusable or terrible or has some horrific misfeature that should be a dealbreaker. I do think that most people will prefer the AMOLED style. But if you end up with a MIP display, it will be fine. So let me run through a few things to keep in mind:
If always-on display is important to you, consider MIP. You get this feature for free (in terms of battery life) as long as you're OK with angling your watch toward the light when needed.
If bright colors and high resolution are important to you, AMOLED looks sharper and prettier, and is probably what you'll be happiest with.
If you currently have a MIP watch but are afraid that you wouldn’t like an AMOLED watch, don’t let that stop you from shopping AMOLED models. The downsides of AMOLED (as the internet tells them) are wildly exaggerated.
If your dream watch needs to be an older MIP watch to fit in your budget, go ahead and get it. It will be fine.
If you have seen both watches in person, in a wide variety of lighting conditions, and have a strong opinion, just go with your preference.
If you’re new to all of this and feeling confused right now, you’ll probably like AMOLED better. All the new watches are AMOLED anyway.
Often you can get an older generation of a feature-rich watch for the same price as the newest generation of a more barebones model. That’s the case right now for a lot of Garmin models, where pretty much everything released in the last year or so has an AMOLED screen, and everything before it is MIP. Personally I think the Forerunner 255 is excellent value for money if you can find it on a good sale, since it's nearly identical to my beloved 265—the only major difference is the screen type, and you can usually find it at least $100 cheaper.
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You can get thousands of free e-books over the course of 2026 if you know where—and when—to look. All year long, Amazon is offering free Kindle e-books to readers, with new opportunities popping up every month. In July, Prime members can get two free Kindle e-books from Amazon's First Reads program.
Amazon First Reads is a program aimed at Prime members that offers early access to new e-books across many genres, as curated by First Reads editors (one of many Prime Member benefits). Prime members can choose to download one free e-book every month from a rotating list—though some months that number is bumped up to two, usually with a free short novel—and non-members get them for a discounted price. These e-books can be read on any compatible Kindle device or via the free Kindle app.
Go to the First Reads landing page to see the full list of e-books available this month. Once you find a book that seems interesting, click the "Shop Now" button from the First Reads landing page. Make sure you’re not being redirected to the Kindle or Amazon mobile application, because you won't see the free book option there; instead, use your internet browser on your phone or computer.
Make sure you’re not clicking the ”Pre-order for...” button, as that will direct you to pay; instead, click the “Read for Free” or the "Buy Now with 1-Click" button under the "First Reads" banner on the book's Amazon page (don't worry, you won't be charged). This will send the e-book directly to the Kindle linked to your Amazon account.
You can see what it should look like from the screenshot below.
You’ll know you did it right when you see a “Thanks, [your name]!” order summary indicating the e-book is being auto-delivered to the Kindle Cloud Reader.
This month, you can choose one from 9 new Kindle e-books, plus this month's short read. Amazon notes the genre for each of the books above the title, offering a quick way to narrow down your options. (If you hover over the "See Editor Notes" under the "Shop Now" button, you'll be able to read a short description from the First Reads editor who picked the book.)
Here are your options for July 2026. You can get one of these 9 e-books plus this month's short read, John Grebble is Gone:
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The Garmin Forerunner 970 is stacked with more sensors, metrics, and training tools than most runners will ever touch. It's an excellent watch, but it’s not immediately as user friendly as it really could be. Out of the box, this is the kind of watch set up to track virtually everything—which could lead to information overload for most people. When you’re drowning in data screens you don't need, you might be leaving real performance insights on the table.
I've previously shared my favorite race-day features available on this watch, like Auto Laps and Garmin's PacePro. I've also shared my experience using the Forerunner 970's coveted Running Economy metric. While I love these features, they're pretty obvious selling points. Below are five underrated tips and tricks I wish I knew when I first unboxed my 970, turning this from a "watch that tracks my runs" into a "watch that actually helps me run better."
Like with most Garmin watches, the 970's buttons are customizable, and it's worth messing around with the defaults. If you're a regular interval trainer, try assigning your lap button to also trigger auto-pause. It sounds small, but it eliminates the fumbling that happens during that exhausting last lap when you still have to manually stop and restart the clock.
To customize your shortcuts, hold the Up button from the watch face to open the menu. Navigate to Watch Settings > System > Shortcuts, pick a button combination (like Hold Down or Start + Down), and select the feature you want to assign.
For instance, I love running in the rain, so I decided to assign the combo of "Hold Start + Up" to go to "Touch Screen Toggle," which allows me to quickly lock my screen in inclement weather.
Another favorite shortcut is to have the Down button toggle to "Do Not Disturb." The default would be holding the LIGHT button, which opens the Controls Menu, and then selecting the Do Not Disturb icon—which is just a few too many steps than I want to deal with when I'm in a "do not disturb" mood.
Similarly, I recommend stripping down your data screens. Your Forerunner 970 can show you a lot of information, but sometimes less really is more. Mid-interval, pushing an intense pace, your brain does not have the bandwidth to process eight fields of numbers. Build your own custom screens instead. Pace, heart rate, and cadence is plenty for most workouts. Everything else (elevation, calories, lap count) can live on a secondary screen you glance at during recovery jogs, not hard efforts. You can go into your Garmin Connect app, or you can customize directly on your watch:
Press the START/STOP button and select the activity profile you want to edit.
Press and hold UP (or swipe down/up) to open the Activity Settings.
Select Data Screens.
Choose the screen you want to edit and select it.
Select Layout to choose the number of data fields you want on the screen (e.g., 1 to 8 fields).
Select Data Fields to change what metric displays in a specific box
Every runner I know has had to grit their teeth through syncing issues between Garmin and Strava. If you're the type to hit "sync" the second you stop your watch (like I know I am), here's my tip: Slow down. Give Garmin Connect two to three minutes to finish processing the activity file before it pushes to Strava. That processing window is when Garmin finalizes GPS smoothing and segment matching. When you upload too early, you can end up with jagged pace spikes or missed segment credit that never seems to correct itself.
Along the same lines, if you train with TrainingPeaks, it's worth setting up the Garmin Connect integration so your "Training Stress Score" pulls in automatically after each run. Instead of manually logging TSS after the fact, your training plan can adjust according to a more automated feedback loop.
Lactate threshold, race predictor, running economy—these are major selling points on the 970, but none of these numbers are trustworthy on day one. They're generated from algorithms that need real data points to calibrate, not just your resting heart rate and a few easy jogs. Run at least two to three hard, varied workouts (think: a tempo run, an interval session, a hilly long run) with all the auto-detect features enabled. Give it a few weeks before you start working with any of its estimates.
And for the 970 especially, make sure you turn on "Performance Condition" for every run, not just races. It gives you a live read on how your body is performing relative to your baseline fitness. This number ticks up or down in the first ten minutes of a run and keeps adjusting. On an easy day, it tells you if you're more fatigued than you feel. On a workout day, it tells you early whether today is a "push it" day or a "back off" day.
And when it is a "back off" day, you really should listen to your watch. Almost every runner runs their "easy" days too hard. My top tip here is to use Garmin's virtual pacer to keep your easy days honest. To do this, turn on the virtual partner or Garmin Coach pacing guidance for recovery runs specifically, and let the watch hold you to a pace instead of your ego.
If you're heading out on a trail route you don't know well, you might be tempted to rely on full navigation mode, which burns through battery fast with the constant GPS recalculation. Instead, use Record Only mode to lay down a "breadcrumb trail" of where you've been. If you get turned around, you can retrace your own path back without needing turn-by-turn guidance the whole way. It's a lighter-touch safety net that doesn't cost you nearly as much battery.
And when it comes to battery, think about protecting it from degradation the same way you protect your muscles during training. Full charge cycles accelerate battery degradation. So, during normal training blocks, cap your charges around 80% instead of topping off to 100% every time.
On top of that, if you're not racing or doing a hard session, turn off Always-On GPS for easy runs, and save the higher-precision tracking for workouts and races where accuracy actually matters. Your watch will hold its battery health longer, and you won't be scrambling to charge it the morning of a big effort.
If you have a goal race on the calendar, don't leave your pacing strategy to feel. Luckily, the beauty of your 970 is that it's a true training partner—one that gives you the power to control your plan. I recommend building a custom workout in advance with your actual planned splits programmed in (perhaps the first half at your target pace, and the second half a few seconds faster per mile). Send this workout to your watch, and it'll cue you at each transition automatically. It's a simple hack, but it's one of the most effective ways to stop yourself from doing what almost every runner does on race day: going out too hot and paying for it in the final miles.
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When Samsung first released the Frame TV, I thought it was a mere novelty—a TV that doubles as a picture frame when not in use seemed to have niche appeal—the last thing I expected was for competitors to copy the idea. Yet TCL's Nxtvision TV was unveiled in August, and you can already find the 55-inch version for 40% off. Originally called the Nxtframe, TCL rebranded the name to Nxtvision. Most sizes are seeing big discounts right now, including the previously mentioned 55-inch class, currently going for $595.99 (down from $999.99), and the 85-inch class, currently $1,399.96 (originally $1,997.99). Both discounts mark the lowest prices those sizes have reached, according to price-tracking tools.
Like the Frame, the Nxtvision is a QLED 4K display with an anti-glare reflective screen and artistic outer bezels that give it that distinctive "frame" look. Unlike the Frame, the Nxtvision supports Dolby Vision on top of HDR10+, providing compatibility with a broader range of HDR content. It offers a 120 Hz refresh rate with a 144Hz Variable Refresh Rate (VRR).
The TV is slim, measuring 1.1 inches deep, and comes with a flush wall mount, a free bezel set (light wood color, as seen in the product picture from Amazon), and a pre-loaded art library. Unlike Samsung's own Tizen OS, the Nxtvision is loaded with Google TV, which I personally like better. You can read more details about this TV in PCMag's review.
One key difference to note between the Frame and Nxtvision is that the Frame uses an external One Connect Box to hook up things like a gaming console to keep the clean frame look. The Nxtvision has all its input and output ports on the TV's back, which means you'll need to conceal your wires in the wall if you want that slick look. Still, the savings over the Frame will give you some cash to work with if you need to call in a handyman to get the Nxtvision set looking good.
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The Anker Prime Foldable MagSafe Charger is currently down to $99.74 from $149.99, about a 34% discount—and price trackers indicate that's the lowest price for this device so far. This charger makes the most sense for someone who travels with an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, or just wants a cleaner charging setup on a desk or nightstand. It is not a standalone power bank, so it still needs to stay plugged into the wall, but the included 45W USB-C adapter and 5-foot USB-C cable help make the price easier to justify, since you do not have to buy a separate brick to use it properly.
Folded down, this MagSafe charger measures 3.74 by 2.38 by 1.22 inches and weighs 8.11 ounces, about the weight of a large iPhone. That makes it easy to throw into a bag, desk drawer, or carry-on. Open it up and it can charge a compatible iPhone magnetically, charge an Apple Watch on the built-in watch charger, and charge AirPods with a wireless charging case on the base. That makes this particularly useful in a hotel room, where outlet space is often limited, or on a nightstand where three separate cables quickly becomes annoying. The catch here is compatibility: This is built for the Apple ecosystem, so it is not the right buy for someone using a Samsung watch or a mix of non-Apple devices.
The charger is Qi2.2 certified and can deliver up to 25W wireless charging to supported iPhones. Anker says it can charge an iPhone 17 Pro to 50% in 26 minutes, though your results can vary depending on the case, room temperature, and battery level.
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Amazon has the 2026 Samsung Galaxy A37 5G on sale for $399.99, a $140 discount off the regular price of the unlocked 256GB model. That's the lowest price this device has hit so far, according to price trackers. The A37 borrows the clean, squared-off look of Samsung’s Galaxy S series, so it does not immediately read like a basic budget phone. Also helping with that impression is its 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display—it has a 2,340-by-1,080 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a peak brightness rating of 1,900 nits, so scrolling through apps, reading articles, and streaming video should feel smooth and sharp. It can also get bright enough for checking texts or email outdoors, but the glossy panel is reflective enough to create glare in direct sunlight.
You also get a slim design, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back (though the glass back collects fingerprints quickly, as noted in this PCMag review), an IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating, and six years of operating system updates. Performance comes from Samsung’s Exynos 1480 chip, paired here with 256GB of storage—it should be fine for everyday use, including messaging, browsing, video calls, casual games, and switching between common apps, but it is not the phone I would buy for demanding mobile games.
The rest of the phone follows that same practical approach. The 50MP main camera is the one you will use most for everyday photos, while the 12MP ultrawide gives you more room for group shots, travel scenes, or interiors. The 8MP front camera is there for selfies and video calls, though, unsurprisingly, it does not compete with Samsung’s higher-end phones. As for its battery life, its 5,000mAh battery should carry most users through a full day, and its 45W wired charging should help when you need to refill quickly. The main convenience missing is wireless charging. Even so, the Galaxy A37 5G is a solid buy at $399.99 for someone who wants a good-looking Samsung phone with long software support and fewer daily tradeoffs than this price usually brings.
You've got all kinds of options when it comes to choosing how to communicate digitally with friends and family: not just dedicated messaging apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp, but also the DM features built into social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Some of these apps put a lot of emphasis on security and privacy, with mentions of end-to-end encryption and disappearing messages (WhatsApp now lets you hide your phone number for example). For the ultimate in private messaging, though, there's an app you might not have heard of before.
Delta Chat is decentralized (so there's no one point of failure or control), open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and anonymous—you don't need to supply a phone number to get started. You can even message people who don't have the app. Here's what you need to know, and why you might want to make use of it.
Delta Chat has been around for about a decade now, and started as a way to keep your messages out of the clutches of big tech companies. Over the years, it's added more and more features, become easier to use, and expanded to more platforms. There have also been some changes in the way Delta Chat works as a platform.
For much of Delta Chat's existence, it's worked through email: You signed up with your email address, and the chat app was essentially a wrapper for certain conversations in your inbox. Much of the storage and infrastructure work was handled by your email provider of choice, and anyone with an email address could join in.
Now, though, Delta Chat provides an email address for you, and handles all of the necessary plumbing behind the scenes. Not only does this make the service more convenient, it means you don't need to reveal anything to use it—you won't be asked for a phone number, an email address, a name, or anything else.
That may sound like it leaves the service open to spam, but the encryption stops that: Essentially, no one can spam you without knowing your specific encryption key. Your address is a random string of characters that you can pass on to trusted contacts—there's no public directory of users, and no way of looking someone up.
There are plenty of the usual chat app features here: audio and video calls, group chats, read receipts, and the option to have your messages disappear after a certain amount of time. You can easily share files with contacts, and you can log in on multiple devices simultaneously.
You can start your Delta Chat journey through the desktop apps for Windows or macOS, or through the mobile apps for Android or iOS. As noted above, you don't need to provide any personal information to sign up for the service: Just tap or click Create new profile on the opening splash screen to begin.
The app will ask you for a username that your contacts will recognize you by, but it doesn't have to be your real name, and there's the option to add a profile picture as well. You are then taken to the main chat screen, though you won't have any chats yet—just a welcome message and a folder for your saved messages.
To add someone on Delta Chat, tap the QR code icon at the top (Android and desktop) or bottom (iOS) of the interface. Ask your prospective contact to scan this with Delta Chat on their own device, though there are also options if you're doing the scanning. You can also generate an invite link to paste into an email or another messaging app.
Everything works very much as you would expect once you're in the Delta Chat interface. Via a long press on mobile or a right-click on the desktop, you can find options for muting, pinning, and archiving specific conversations, while the new chat button (a plus icon on Android and the desktop; a pen-in-a-box icon on iOS) lets you start a new conversation or create a new group chat.
To get to the settings for an individual chat, tap the three dots (top right) on Android, tap the contact name at the top then the three dots (top right) on iOS, and click the three dots (top right) on the desktop. The options here let you set up disappearing messages, search through chats, and clear the conversation history, as well as muting and archiving.
There's a main settings screen, via the large cog icon on the desktop app interface, the three dots (top right) on Android, and the Settings tab on iOS. The options here include being able to set backgrounds for your chat, turn read receipts on and off, and configure the quality of shared media files.
There are all kinds of encrypted, secure chat apps out there, including WhatsApp and Signal—so what are the compelling reasons to pick Delta Chat instead? The fact that you don't have to offer any personal data is a big one: You don't need a phone number or an email address, and no one is going to find you (or spam you) unless you specifically decide to add them.
Then there's the decentralized aspect of it. Delta Chat's storage servers and nodes are spread out in several different locations, so one power outage or technical failure doesn't bring down the entire system. You can even host your Delta Chat data yourself, if you want.
Due to the email infrastructure underpinning Delta Chat, it's also harder to block and censor than something like Signal, and easier to get your messages exported out.
If you decide to give this app a go, there is the standard problem of trying to convince family and friends to install it too, on top of whatever they're already using—but you don't necessarily have to persuade your entire contacts list to join Delta Chat: It could work well as a private app for you and a handful of people closest to you.
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After a two-year tease, Siri AI is officially available to beta testers—once they get off the waitlist. For the last couple of days, I’ve had access to Siri AI on my iPhone 16 Pro, and naturally, the first question I had was, “Why should I use this instead of just the Gemini app?"
That’s because, underneath Apple’s new UI and Private Cloud Compute, the company trained its new Siri AI on Gemini models, and sends some processes to Google servers—though the company is adamant the same privacy policies apply. I already went hands-on with the new Clean Up tool powered by Gemini and came out surprisingly impressed (though Reframe clearly needs some work). In this article, I want to compare Siri AI with Gemini, the AI system it owes much of its existence to. While Apple has managed to cram useful AI features into quite possibly every native app, this comparison is focused on Siri AI and the Gemini app on iPhone. While Apple has pushed Siri to new heights here, Google's AI, in my view, still has the edge overall.
The first thing to address here is how you use Siri AI on your iPhone. It’s directly integrated into Spotlight, and there’s a brand new gesture that breaks almost 20 years of iPhone muscle memory. When you swipe down from the center of the top of the screen (above the Dynamic Island), you'll activate the new “Search or Ask” field. Here, you can start typing your query, and press Enter to search. (Don't worry: You can still call Siri with the Side button.)
There’s a slick new Siri animation, after which the bubble expands to show you the answer. This can be a simple, short text response, or data from supported apps. This feature is currently limited to Apple’s apps, but after the public release, it will support third-party apps as well. Gemini, of course, doesn’t have all these features, at least not on iOS. The fastest way to access Gemini is through the Home Screen widget, or by assigning a shortcut to the Action button.
Siri AI’s app integration is a real advantage here, even in the early stages. You can ask Siri to bring up all reminders due today, calendar events of the week, or even surface new emails from a sender. In my testing, the first two went quite well. I particularly like how iOS will pull in visual elements from the Reminder and Calendar apps here, along with the relevant data. The Mail app did the job as well, but when compared to Gemini's Gmail integration, it performed slightly worse. For example, when I asked both apps to pull my recent credit card statements, Siri AI only showed details from one statement, whereas Gemini compiled the due date and amounts for all three of my credit cards.
In the Gemini app, you can choose between three models: Flash, Flash-Lite, and Pro. The Pro model uses reasoning and therefore takes longer to respond. Siri AI offers no such options. You ask Siri AI something, and all you get is a “working on it” status message. And then relatively quickly you get an answer.
While Siri AI is trained on Gemini’s models, the company has clearly customized the experience to its own design. The effect is that Siri AI is sometimes faster than Gemini, and, in my experience, always more direct when it comes to answering both general-knowledge questions as well as web research queries. I've always found Gemini's responses a bit too verbose, wasting tokens on buttering you up before getting to the answer. There’s none of that fluff in Siri AI.
The new Siri returns with one-paragraph answers most of the time, and, importantly, includes the actual answer. You are free to swipe down from the floating window to expand the answer, and to open the Siri AI app itself. I find that Siri usually has more context and options here. Just like Gemini, Siri also cites its sources. In fact, Siri lists all its sources at the bottom of the message, while Gemini links to sources in the text and sometimes doesn't provide sources at all.
Siri AI isn’t designed for in-depth research, at least not in its current form. Gemini’s Pro models, on the other hand, excel at things like finding and collating information and guides based on Google searches. For example, I asked both Siri and Gemini to help me find a laptop for my wife’s dental practice.
Both did a good job of outlining the must-haves: a powerful processor like the AMD Ryzen 7, at least RTX 4050 graphics to run the GPU-intensive dental scanning programs, and 16GB RAM. But when I asked Siri to find me suitable options, it just did the bare minimum. It suggested some popular global options, but they weren’t tailored to India. Gemini, on the other hand, showed options that were available in India, with their pricing and links.
Similarly, I asked Siri and Gemini both to give me some hamstring stretches to perform after a workout. Siri just came back with some web images. After further prodding, it gave me a couple of stretches to try. Gemini Flash gave me a detailed breakdown, along with example images, right from the get-go.
As it stands, Gemini is the more complete package in my view. You can organize conversations in notebooks, perform deep research, generate videos, among many other tasks. Siri AI, by design, is more limited and more focused. The answers are to the point and are often paired with a well-designed interface. (Above, Siri AI gives me the timing for an F1 race, along with the starting grid in a cool UI.)
That’s where Apple's bot really shines: use Siri AI to securely pull data from Apple apps; use it to ask for information about current events; use it to ask pointed questions about the world (or things you would usually use Google search for). For all the above, Siri AI returns accurate responses most of the time—but that’s where Siri AI’s prowess ends. If you want to do detailed shopping comparisons, research a topic, or create visualizations, you’ll still need to use the Gemini app. Of course, Siri AI is still in beta testing, so things could change. But Apple doesn't yet have plans to add some of these Gemini features to its own bot, so, on the front, Gemini still has the advantage.
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Every generation, it seems, gets their own Max Cady: the ex-convict with an obsessive grudge against the attorney who helped send him to prison. Played by Robert Mitchum in 1962 and Robert De Niro in 1991, Javier Bardem has picked up the batshit baton for the new Apple TV adaptation—a miniseries, for the first time. We keep coming back to Cape Fear (based, itself, on a bestselling novel by John D. MacDonald) not so much for the the tormented family (they're fine, I guess), but for the vengeful predator with a preternatural ability to show up where he's least expected. On that note, you might enjoy a few other shows featuring TV's nastiest, but most compelling, villains.
Sometimes we love to hate serial killers, and sometimes we just kinda love 'em—a charming, sexy killer seems to be a contrast that's too juicy and entertaining for us to pass up. Late-stage capitalism, the climate crisis, and the insurance industry are far more likely to kill us, which is probably why we'd rather face the statistically less-likely threat of a charismatic murderer like Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg in You, which came to a conclusion after five seasons in 2025. In the first season, he develops an extreme romantic obsession with Elizabeth Lail's struggling MFA student Guinevere Beck. He'll do whatever it takes to clear a path to lasting love—like, literally anything. Stream You on Netflix.
This is loosely based on the true story of "The Watcher" of Westfield, New Jersey, who sent a series of obsessive, very specific, and increasingly disturbing letters to the family who'd recently bought a home in the town. Creator and writer Ryan Murphy gives the story his distinctively batshit touch by crafting a neighborhood full of weirdos, each of whom is a suspect. It's like Cape Fear if you didn't know who the stalker was. Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale play the freaked-out couple, joined by a supporting cast of neighbors that includes Jennifer Coolidge, Richard Kind, Mia Farrow, and Christopher McDonald. A second season is coming, apparently. Stream The Watcher on Netflix.
Jamie Dornan's sexy young serial killer Paul Spector isn't the protagonist of The Fall, strictly speaking, but he co-leads with Gillian Anderson's police Superintendent DSU Stella Gibson across all three seasons of this crime drama. Much like Joe, Paul is, outwardly, a normal guy, and a family man, whom you might not suspect of being a stalker and a serial killer of professional women in Belfast. DSU Gibson is sent from London to help with a stalled investigation that leads her on a hunt for the clever Spector through physical dangers, mind-fuckery, and bureaucratic complications. Stream The Fall on Peacock and Prime Video.
By 2013, it felt as though we'd seen more than enough of Hannibal Lecter, a series of Silence of the Lambs spin-offs and sequels having become increasingly tiresome. Still, producer Bryan Fuller went back to the source material here, once again adapting Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television—the operatic bigness of Cape Fear and themes of obsession resonate all the same. The deeper, sexier relationship between the Doctor (Mads Mikkelsen) and profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) adds some brilliant subtext as the two work together to hunt serial killers. It ended a bit too early, but the three seasons still make for a satisfying meal. Stream Hannibal on Prime Video.
The Creep Tapes picks up from the two Patrick Brice-directed Creep found-footage films, with writer/star Mark Duplass returning to the role of Josef, or Peachfuzz, or whatever the hell he's calling himself at any given time. Nearly an anthology, this one's for viewers who might get bored with a single, season-long hunt, and who'd much prefer a number of individual stalkings. The show finds the charming, funny, forlorn-looking lead giving generally well-meaning people reasons to come and interview him on film, such that they tend to wind up documenting their own deaths. The show maintains the movies' sense of humor, as well as the constant conviction that we'd very likely be taken in by this compellingly manipulative sad-sack. Stream The Creep Tapes on Shudder.
An impressively brutal crime thriller from Scream's Kevin Williamson, The Following takes the notion of a charismatic villain one step further, as reflected by the double-meaning of its title. Kevin Bacon is Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent recalled when serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), with whom he has history, gets out of prison. There's a bit more to it than that, though: Carroll has assembled a cult around himself (a following, if you will): people who are more than happy to kill for him, and also to help him turn the tables and take revenge on Hardy. Stream The Following on Netflix.
There are at least a couple of different levels to The Glory, a justifiably well-received South Korean import, rather remarkably holding together despite some wild shifts in tone. Most relevant here, it's a revenge drama, with a relatively simple set-up: Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, an elementary school homeroom teacher who's playing a very, very long game: Her school bullies are grown up now, and their kids (some of them, anyway) are now in Dong-eun's care. Right where she wants them. Smartly, the show makes clear the extent of the past violence faced by Dong-eun (much of it hard to watch), and the resulting post-traumatic stress that's consumed her life. The parents of her tormentors were all far too wealthy for the girls to face any consequences for their actions, so Dong-eun feels like she has no choice. It could have been a revenge fantasy, or a straight horror show about a woman carrying out a questionable revenge, but, while it's hard to get behind Dong-eun, it's also hard to condemn her completely. Stream The Glory on Netflix.
Do not, under any circumstances, let the title fool you: This British crime drama is as dark as they come. Sarah Lancashire is Sgt. Catherine Cawood, a police officer whose daughter died by suicide eight years earlier (as the series starts) following her rape by Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton); she's also raising the grandchild who's also Tommy's son. Royce is the villain, no question, but the narrative is complicated here by Catherine's long-game quest for vengeance, complicated by her target's criminal connections and his relationship to her grandson. The series, and particularly lead Sarah Lancashire, won a number of BAFTA awards and nominations over its three seasons. Stream Happy Valley on Prime Video and Britbox.
The premise here is brutal, and, to the everyone in the narrative, impossible: A kid is horrifically murdered, and the evidence decisively points to Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). It’s an open-and-shut case—except that he was out of town at a conference while the murder was occurring, and even appeared on the news in another town. The tragedies pile up, and the threat isn’t entirely natural. Without giving too much away, it’s among the most disturbing of King adaptations (it’s also incredibly engaging). There are great performances here from Bateman, as well as from Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney, one of King’s recurring characters. HBO declined to renew the show, but it adapts the entire book and ends fairly decisively. Stream The Outsider on HBO Max.
There are tonal similarities throughout, but The Killing feels most like Cape Fear in its final two (of four total) seasons. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman play homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, initially investigating the murder of a teenager complicated by familial grief and an ongoing political campaign. Later, though, the show becomes a cat-and-mouse game involving Linden and a killer with more personal motives and ties to her past, and one who winds up being much closer than either she, or we as viewers, would suspect. Stream The Killing on Hulu.
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Adventure Time changes you. A show that starts off as a silly cartoon about a kid wearing a bear hat and his shape-shifting adoptive brother Jake the dog hides some of the deepest, darkest lore in entertainment history. The show deals with existential issues in hilarious, sometimes disturbing ways, and once you lock onto its frequency, you realize it might be one of the best shows of all time. If you want to extend that vibe, you’ve probably already burned through all the similar shows you can find, so here are the books, movies, video games, and podcasts that can give you just a little more Adventure Time in your day.
Few shows have as much going on under the surface as Adventure Time, making books an ideal way to replicate the experience. Here are some books that will remind you of Finn the Human and Jake the Dog’s adventures.
Matching the chaotic dynamic and imaginary energy of Adventure Time isn’t easy, but Calvin and Hobbes is as close as you can get. This comic series about a little kid with a universe-sized imagination and his stuffed tiger (who comes to life only for him) as they go on adventures (in the real world as well as in Calvin’s lush fantasy life) might as well be a prequel to the show. Just like Adventure Time, Calvin and Hobbes often lets the real world and its dangers infect the whimsical romps of its protagonists, and you’ll find yourself once again bonding emotionally with a little kid and his real-to-him companion.
One aspect of Adventure Time that makes the show so special is the low-key melancholy that suffuses it, and one of the main ingredients for that is the implied backstory of destruction and loss due to the Mushroom War that left civilization in shreds centuries before Finn and Jake’s story. If that’s your jam, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro is the perfect read. Set in Britain some time after King Arthur’s days, the story follows an elderly man on a quest for his past, and delivers a dreamy, myth-soaked mood that fans of the show will savor.
The apocalypse that led to the world of Adventure Time is glimpsed here and there in the background—the remnants of what is recognizably our world. The slow winding down of civilization and the literal death of our planet are powerful themes the show weaves into many of its stories, and makes them hauntingly beautiful. There’s a whole Dying Earth sub-genre of sci-fi you can dive into, but start with the originator, Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance, set in a far future where the Sun is fading and magic has reasserted itself after technology’s collapse.
If you want more of the dynamic between Finn and Jake, check out A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers. On the moon Panga, sentient robots left human society long ago, retreating to their own enclave. Humanity remade society in a more sustainable and less techno-centric way, and no human has seen a robot since. Dex, a tea monk, travels around listening to people’s fears and misgivings. One day, Dex travels into the wilderness and happens upon a robot named Splendid Speckled Mosscap, and the two begin traveling together. It’s a beautiful, slow burn of a story, and Dex and Mosscap’s relationship will remind you of Finn and Jake in many ways.
If the high weirdness and loopy humor of Adventure Time is what sticks with you, Drew Magary’s The Hike is a great choice. Ben arrives at his hotel for a meeting and decides to take a walk. Almost immediately, he finds himself lost in a surreal predicament, pursued by killers and monsters and accompanied by a talking blue crab named, well, Crab. As Ben’s experiences get increasingly strange (and threatening), he learns he must find a powerful entity called The Producer if he wants to escape alive. His interactions with Crab and the oddly ominous nature of his new reality will definitely resonate with fans of Adventure Time.
Adventure Time is cinematic, in its way—those visuals are eye candy, and the scope of its narrative arc is actually kind of stealth-epic. If you want movies that scratch a similar itch, there are plenty to choose from (including, unexpectedly, the 1979 comedy Meatballs, because Bill Murray’s performance as Tripper in that film directly inspired the character of Jake in Adventure Time.)
Adventure Time and Where the Wild Things Are are so thematically similar you can find endless mashups of them online. Max, who wears a wolf costume like Finn wears a bear hat, is sent to bed, sulking, without supper. He finds himself transported to a magical jungle, where the native monsters—the Wild Things—try to frighten him, but then make him their king and take him on adventures. As with the show, this story has a dark core and a thread of melancholy to it. Stream Where the Wild Things Are on The Roku Channel or rent it on Prime Video.
The combination of adult themes and a strikingly designed universe marks Adventure Time as something special, and the same goes for The Dark Crystal, Frank Oz’s triumph of puppetry. The story of two Gelflings, Jen and Kira, as they seek to heal a magical crystal and save their world from eternal darkness and tyranny is a visual treat. Like the show, the film is ostensibly aimed at kids, but deals with a lot of heavy, adult-level themes along the way. Stream The Dark Crystal on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
Another film frequently mashed up with Adventure Time is Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. Although the animation style is quite different, the story of a young girl, Sen, who accidentally enters the spirit world and then must find a way to save her parents after they are transformed into pigs by a witch has the surrealist flair and dark vein of sadness fans of the show will recognize. It’s a visually dazzling story that explores the crossover from childhood to adulthood through a Japanese cultural lens and playful visuals that yield new surprises each time you watch. Rent Spirited Away on Prime Video.
This 1986 film from Jim Henson is live action, but it mirrors many of the themes of Adventure Time (which sports its own Labyrinth that bedevils Finn and Jake), especially the under-the-surface melancholy and the use of fantasy to address serious issues. 16-year-old Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) resents her father’s remarriage and her infant stepbrother, Toby, and in a moment of irritation, she offers him to the goblins she was just reading about. When the Goblin King, Jareth (David Bowie), shows up, she is told she must solve his labyrinth in 13 hours or Toby will become a goblin. Through a lush fantasy world, Sarah must use her brain and rely on her sense of right and wrong to defeat the Goblin King in a story that any fan of Adventure Time will love. Stream Labyrinth on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
If it’s the “I’m not crying, you’re crying” vibe that often creeps into Finn and Jake’s interactions on Adventure Time that you love, The Iron Giant is a must-watch. In 1957, a 50-foot tall robot crash lands on Earth, discovered and befriended by nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes. When the government learns about the Giant, it reacts with violent paranoia, forcing Hogarth and the Giant to flee even as the Giant wrestles with the destructive force it potentially wields. It’s a gorgeous animated film exploring the power of friendship between disparate beings—what could be more Adventure Time-y? Rent The Iron Giant on Prime Video.
Adventure Time’s stories often work with beats and dynamics that are similar to video games, with quest-based stories and wildly imaginative graphics. If you want more of that, check out these video games.
Because it’s pretty much a game in cartoon form, there are a lot of video games officially based on Adventure Time to choose from. Adventure Time: Finn And Jake Investigations isn’t the most challenging game on that list, but it’s one of the most fun and immersive. Finn and Jake decide to become detectives, like their parents, and begin collecting treasures as they solve puzzles throughout the Land of Ooo. The game lets you wander the world, interact with other denizens, and generally have fun. It’s like playing inside an actual episode of the show.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Wii U, 3DS, Steam
It’s a skating game, yes, but visually and tonally it’s like playing a skating game set inside Adventure Time. The characters live in a world called Radlandia, but they could just as easily have migrated from the Land of Ooo, and the world’s visuals are equally Adventure Time-ish. You play as a candidate for the title of Skate Wizard, and you have to travel around Radlandia impressing folks with your amazing skateboard skills, which sounds like an episode of Adventure Time as well. Olli Olli World doesn’t have the strain of sadness and loss you find at the deep center of the show in later seasons, but it’s a blast that will remind you of the early episodes.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
If you want a visually lush game that gives a bit more of the melancholic and existential mood of Adventure Time, check out Dungeons of Hinterberg. You play as a tourist named Luisa who has arrived in Hinterberg to investigate the dungeons and slay the monsters that have appeared in the surrounding mountains. There’s combat and skilling up as you might expect, but you also have to navigate social interactions in town that illuminate Luisa’s backstory and emotional state, giving this dungeon-crawler game a unique aspect. In the end, it’s the visual style and exploration of Luisa as a character that will remind you of Adventure Time as you play.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Steam
With its nonlinear gameplay, open world design, and exploration-based dynamics, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers a gaming experience that can offer similar levels of comfort and fun, especially if you find clever ways to avoid fighting (which is possible, and adds an element of extra challenge to the game as well). Both are set in beautiful post-apocalyptic worlds, both play around with a “sci-fantasy” mix of magic and technology, and there’s definitely a vibe of loss and sadness to Breath of the Wild that will feel familiar to Adventure Time fans.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Wii U
The RPGs Undertale and its parallel-story sequel Deltarune definitely give Adventure Time vibes. In Undertale, you play as a child who slips through the magical barrier between your world and the Underground, where monsters were banished after a war with humanity; in Deltarune, you’re in the same universe but you explore a Dark World with a different set of goals and challenges. The games feature whimsical, lo-fi graphics filled with fanciful monsters, and a range of tones that shift from hilariously silly to moments of surprising emotional devastation.
Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Sometimes you just want to close your eyes and let someone tell you a story, or tell you what they think about a story you love (like Adventure Time). In that case, here are some of the best podcasts for fans of the show.
The dynamic on Never Ending Adventure is genius: Host Russell has never watched the show, and reacts to each episode in chronological order. The other host, Ned, is a deep fan of Adventure Time and knows far too much about it. Their discussions mirror those moments when you’re desperately trying to get a friend to love something as much as you do so you can obsess over it together. It’s a terrific way to rekindle your excitement for the show and catch some stray insights you missed on your own journey.
If you just want a straightforward—yet hilarious—deep dive into each and every episode, check out Oh My Glob! An Adventure Time Podcast. It’s just two smart people, Matt and Amy, recapping and analyzing each episode. If you lack a group of weirdos who also want to just sit around re-watching episodes and excitedly noting the Easter eggs and hints scattered throughout, putting this podcast in your ears is the next best thing.
Like Adventure Time, this narrative fiction podcast starts off as a humorous story and then slowly develops into a much more emotional and powerful story. Doug Eiffel is part of the small crew on board the U.S.S. Hephaestus as it orbits the star Wolf 359, seeking signs of alien life. As Doug investigates some weirdness, the crew slowly realizes that their mission and existence is not what they assumed, and the tone slowly shifts into a compelling drama in a way that fans of the show will appreciate.
The depth and sensitivity of Adventure Time kind of sneaks up on you, and if that’s one of your favorite aspects of the show, this Everything Is Alive is just the ticket. Each episode is an interview with an inanimate object—a towel, for instance—and each episode offers a surprisingly nuanced, funny, and often hilarious rumination on existence, purpose, and the hidden world all around us. This combination is exactly what fans of Adventure Time are looking for.
For a more “adventure”-based story that offers the same slow burn as Adventure Time, the Balance arc of The Adventure Zone is a great choice. The first campaign of the podcast starts off as a simple role-playing game narrative with a focus on friendships, but slowly morphs into a deep examination of the power of love, the nature of time, and dealing with an existential threat beyond anything you’re prepared to deal with. For AT fans, it’s a treat.
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If you have DIY projects to tackle, choosing quality tools that will last a long time is a good way to save money over time. DeWalt is one of my favorite brands for cordless power tools: Their tools tend to be durable, their batteries hold up over time, and you can find them on lots of professional job sites. DeWalt has been producing power tools for over a hundred years and began their line of cordless tools in 1994, building a reputation for durability and good battery life. You can find over 300 tools compatible with DeWalt’s 20-volt system, so the batteries are a practical choice if you want to expand your set over time without investing in multiple battery systems.
I use their tools at my professional shop for woodworking and installation projects, and they’ve stood up to daily use for more than ten years. My first cordless tool was a DeWalt drill that took a giant battery with a big stem that plugged into the handle, but as technology has progressed, the batteries have gotten smaller and lighter, allowing for a wider range of practical cordless tools that can run for hours without needing to be recharged. I’ve been using the same set of batteries for a good decade without replacing them, and they still hold up.
An oscillating multitool can be used for a wide variety of projects, from cutting drywall to plumbing repair. I used mine recently to repair my bathroom after a drain leak, cutting out the damaged plaster, trimming the ends of the old metal and new PVC drain pipes, cutting a drywall patch, and sanding the edges of the patch, all with the same tool. At my shop, I use my oscillating multitool to plunge-cut and trim the edges of rough lumber cuts, as well as to carve foam for specialty builds.
You can switch between cutting and finishing with this tool by using an adapter to attach a sanding, polishing, or buffing attachment. The compact size allows you to get into tight spaces, like under a sink. You can also use different cutting blades for metal, PVC, plaster, wood, or foam.
The DeWalt 20-volt oscillating multitool is on sale at Lowe's for $99, 55% off its regular price, as part of their 4th of July sale. It comes with a multitool, a two-amp-hour battery, a charger, one wood with nails, a multi-material blade, a quick-cut blade, a universal attachment adapter, and a tool bag. You’ll be able to use this tool right out of the box, as it comes with a battery and charger, but if you want to be able to use it continuously, you can get a couple of spare batteries on sale for $149 right now, 40% off their regular price. Because you can do so many different things with this tool, it’s a good deal for a DIY home repair kit.
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Fourth of July weekend brings many traditions in the U.S., but my favorite is using the extra time to tackle DIY home improvement projects I’ve been putting off. There are often great sales on power tools and home improvement supplies, with retailers banking on the holiday to draw in DIY enthusiasts who have hosting and entertaining top of mind. It's one of the best times to look for deals on quality tools, and this year, the Fourth of July sale at Home Depot includes some big discounts on cordless power tools and batteries, up to 55% off.
If you’re just starting your DIY tool set or looking to upgrade old or damaged tools, investing in a combo set can save you money when you're just starting out. Choose a tool set with a wide variety of tools compatible with its batteries; that way, you can continue building your set without needing to buy multiple battery systems and chargers.
One of the best deals on quality cordless tools from Home Depot is the DeWalt 20-volt, 6-tool combo set on sale for $499, 44% off its regular price. It comes with a drill, an impact driver, an angle grinder, a sawzall, a circular saw, an oscillating multitool, a 5-amp-hour battery, a 2-amp-hour battery, and a charger. This is a pretty comprehensive starter set that will allow you to tackle basic DIY projects like hanging shelves, but also allows you to do some woodworking and repair work, like replacing fence boards or decking.
A DeWalt 20-volt, 6-tool combo set and rolling case is on sale for $549, 39% off its usual price. This set is a little different than the previous one: it comes with the drill, impact driver, angle grinder, and circular saw, but it has an orbital sander instead of a sawzall. It comes with a 2-amp-hour battery and a 5-amp-hour battery, a charger, and a hard-sided rolling case. The case is a good option if you need to take your tools outside your home workshop, as transporting a full tool set can be cumbersome without the right equipment.
Last but certainly not least, the Milwaukee 18-volt, 6-tool combo set is on sale for $449, 55% off its typical price. This set comes with a drill, an impact driver, an angle grinder, a circular saw, an oscillating multitool, a work light, two 4-amp-hour batteries, a charger, and a tool bag. This is a good set for most DIY home improvement projects, allowing you to handle basic and intermediate repairs as well as some woodworking.
Drills and drivers are basic tools you’ll need for DIY home maintenance, useful for anything from hanging a picture to replacing door hardware. This Ryobi 18-volt drill and driver starter set is on sale for $99, 34% off its regular price. This is an excellent beginner set, including the batteries and charger you need to use it right out of the box. It comes with a drill, an impact driver, two 2-amp-hour batteries, a charger, and an insulated case.
The DeWalt compact 20-volt cordless impact driver is also on sale for $99, 45% off its usual price. This is a good addition to a DeWalt drill set, or on its own, for tackling basic DIY projects. It comes with a 2-amp-hour battery and a charger, so you can use it right out of the box.
Batteries are often the most expensive part of a cordless tool set, and they're sometimes the first thing to wear out because even the best-quality batteries tend to lose their ability to hold a charge over time. A good deal on batteries for your tool set will set you up for success, and this set of two DeWalt 20-volt, 5-amp-hour batteries is on sale for $149, 40% off its typical price. This is a battery-only deal, so you’ll need a DeWalt 20-volt charger to use them. These are a good choice if you already have a DeWalt tool set or are buying DeWalt 20-volt tools and want extra batteries.
And the Ryobi 18-volt, 3-battery set is on sale for $179, and it comes with a free tool as well. To get the free tool, click on the “shop this deal” on the menu to the right, then choose what you want from the menu. The final sale price will show up in your cart. The biggest discount on this deal is to add the two-pack of 18-volt batteries from the free tool menu, which gets you four 4-amp-hour batteries, one 2-amp-hour battery, and a charger for $179, 70% off its regular price. This is a good deal if you want to add to your Ryobi tool collection and need extra batteries, or if you use an inverter in your emergency kit, because it lets you keep multiple batteries charged in advance.
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Apple has a MacBook for everyone. The Neo is a great value for anyone who wants a laptop for light tasks, while the Air is the next step up for tackling a wider range of computing needs. The Pro, on the other hand, is Apple's "premium" machine—or at least, its most capable. It comes with fans for active cooling, extra ports like HDMI and an SD card slot, and a mini-LED display with a high refresh rate. It's really the best choice for professionals who need extra processing power, or for users who want the Mac with the most features possible.
While Apple's latest MacBook Pros work great out of the box, you're leaving a ton of potential untapped by sticking with the default settings. If you have a MacBook Pro, consider these 10 hacks, tips, and tricks to help you use your laptop to its fullest. (I'd also encourage you to scan my list of hacks for MacBook Air users, as most of those hacks apply here as well, giving you extra opportunities to push your MacBook Pro to its limits.)
Low Power Mode isn't just for iPhones anymore. Since 2021, MacBooks have shipped with the feature as well, reducing processing speeds to give you some extra juice when your battery starts to get low. But you shouldn't think of Low Power Mode as just a tool for making the most out of 20% battery. Instead, think of it as an all-day battery booster. As long as you don't need the power, you can use Low Power Mode any time your laptop leaves its charger.
To set your machine to switch to Low Power Mode automatically, open System Settings, then choose Battery. Under "Energy Mode," find "On battery," then click the drop-down menu and choose "Low Power Mode." Now, every time your Mac leaves the charger, it'll kick on Low Power Mode without you having to turn it on manually. You can undo this at any time from this menu, but if you head over to System Settings > Control Center > Battery, you can set "Show Energy Mode" to "Always" so you can access Low Power Mode from the battery icon in your menu bar at all times.
If you have the right "Pro" or "Max" MacBook Pro—meaning something like an M4 Pro or M1 Max—you have access to Low Power Mode's inverse: High Power Mode. Apple says High Power Mode pushes your MacBook Pro's fans further than they'd normally go, keeping its components cooler for longer during intense workloads, but the feature also ignores processes that take up system resources so your Mac can focus on the task at hand. If you need to push your MacBook Pro to its limits, you should definitely flip this feature on, especially when you know you need the extra boost.
This feature is only available on select Pro and Max MacBook Pros. That includes M1 Max and newer (16-inch), M3 Max and newer (14-inch), and M4 Pro and newer, in both 14- and 16-inch models. You'll find High Power Mode under the same settings menu as Low Power Mode, and you can choose to turn it on when you need it, or anytime your Mac is on battery or connected to power. If you use High Power Mode all the time, you will likely use up more juice than usual. In fact, Apple specifically recommends using a 96W power adapter when using the feature on the 14-inch M4 Pro and M5 Pro MacBook Pros, implying the feature is particularly taxing.
While High Power Mode is definitely a useful feature, it's a simple on/off switch, with no additional customization options. That leaves your fan speeds at the discretion of macOS. If you want total control over your Mac's cooling system, you'll need to download a third-party tool. There are a number of options out there to choose from, but I've used Macs Fan Control since the Intel days. My 2016 MacBook Pro (with touchbar, mind you) was really slowing down towards the end of its life, but by running the fans on max at all times, I was able to keep that i7 chip cool enough to stay somewhat speedy during working hours. While Apple's M-series Macs haven't quite hit that point yet, I have noticed my M1 iMac slowing down a bit, especially when running a host of tasks at once. I've pushed the fans every now and then to help keep the first-gen Apple silicon chip from overheating, and I imagine I'll have to do the same for my M3 Pro MacBook Pro when it starts to show its age (probably years from now).
Apple's modern MacBook Pros have fantastic displays. They're high refresh, so motion is a buttery-smooth 120Hz, and they support HDR, particularly emphasizing the highlights in images and video. All that extra work could take a toll on battery, however, so if your main goal with your laptop is maximizing time between charges, consider "dumbing down" your display when you aren't plugged in.
Doing so is easy enough: If you're on Low Power Mode, your display automatically drops the refresh rate. However, you can manually adjust it from System Settings > Displays. Here, under "Refresh rate," choose "60 Hertz" rather than "ProMotion." You can also drop your MacBook's display from XDR (which can display a maximum of 1,600 nits) to the standard "Apple Display" option, which will lower the max brightness to SDR limits. (My M3 Pro Mac maxes out at 600 nits, but newer Macs can reach 1,000 nits here.) Alternatively, you can choose for your Mac to drop into SDR only when streaming video on battery power. You'll find this setting in System Settings > Battery > Options.
Your MacBook Pro likely has a built-in DAC (digital-to-analog converter) that makes it possible to listen to lossless music—or, in other words, to hear your songs without compression. There are many debates about whether the average listener can tell the difference, and you definitely need the right headphones or speakers to notice. But if you do have the necessary equipment, and you subscribe to a streaming service that supports lossless like Apple Music, it's worth giving the added fidelity a try.
The thing is, your MacBook Pro might not be set up to deliver that output by default. You'll have to check through an app called "Audio MIDI Setup," which you'll find via Spotlight, or in your Utilities folder in Applications. From there, select your audio source from the list on the left, then click the menu next to "Format." You can boost the output up to 96 kHz on your MacBook alone. If you want to go higher, as some Apple Music tracks support up to 192 kHz, you'll need a dedicated DAC or audio interface.
Your iPhone is often a distraction when you're working on your Mac, but it's pretty difficult to go an entire workday without checking it. While this feature might not save you from getting sucked into Instagram, it may stop you from constantly picking up your iPhone while at your desk. "iPhone Mirroring" lets you view and control your iPhone's display directly on your Mac, so you can do things like catch up on messages, review notifications, and scroll through your apps without actually touching your iPhone itself. Check out Lifehacker's full guide to the feature for more.
One of the best ways to turn your MacBook Pro into a true workhouse is to connect it to an external display, which instantly transforms your MacBook into a desktop computer. If you already have a monitor, great! If not, you'll need to pick one up, which can be costly—especially if you're looking for something optimized for MacBooks.
But if you happen to have an iPad, you can actually use it as a second display. Apple's Sidecar feature lets you treat an iPad as an extended display, which means you can move Mac windows over to your iPad's screen. Alternatively, you can use Universal Control to interact with your iPad's windows from your MacBook's keyboard and trackpad, if your workflow is better set up that way. It works both wirelessly and via a wired connection, and there are some limited touch controls available on the iPad side when displaying Mac windows. (Fun fact: macOS 27 will introduce full touch controls for Sidecar, so your iPad can essentially run a touch-based version of macOS for the first time.) Once set up, you can simply "push" your cursor from your Mac into the iPad to interact with it. It's one of those things that reminds you why it's so hard to leave the Apple ecosystem.
In response to how popular "ring" lights have become for video calls and short-form video production, Apple added a native ring light feature to the Mac. When enabled, macOS displays a light ring around the edges of your display, simulating the effect of a dedicated light. While this works across many different Mac models, it is likely most effective with MacBook Pros, since they alone have XDR displays with higher peak brightness.
To use this feature, open a video calling app and turn on your camera. (If you're just testing the feature out, open FaceTime, which activates the camera right away.) Here, click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar, then choose "Edge Light" from the drop-down menu. If you click the arrow alongside the feature, you'll find options for controlling the brightness of the light ring, as well as its color temperature.
I love my MacBook Pro, but I can't stand Apple's default cursor speed. Personally, I need it set to its fastest speed, though I imagine there are many opinions on this front. But speed isn't the only consideration here: Apple also sets the scrolling direction to "Natural" by default, which means "scrolling up" on the trackpad scrolls down on a page, and vice versa. It's supposed to replicate the experience of scrolling on a touchscreen device, and I'm quite used to it, but I know plenty of users who can't stand it.
Whether you're in one camp or another, "fix" your trackpad from System Settings > Trackpad. Here, play around with the different trackpad speeds to see which one feels best for you. Below that, adjust the click "feel" of the trackpad, which doesn't actually move, since it uses haptic vibrations rather than a physical button to work. (I find "Firm" the best setting, since I think it most accurately represents a physical click.) There are many settings here to explore, but if you're looking to reverse the scrolling defaults, click "Scroll & Zoom," then disable "Natural scrolling."
Your MacBook Pro likely supports fast charging, which means you can get up to 50% battery in about 30 minutes. If you find your supported MacBook Pro doesn't charge this fast, it's likely because you're not using a large enough power adapter. Apple has a list of the power adapters that support fast charging on each of its compatible MacBooks, and when it comes to MacBook Pros specifically, the options are limited. If your Pro is a 14-inch from 2021 or later, you'll need at least a 96W charger for fast charging. A 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2021 or later, however, needs a 140W charger for fast charging. Anything less than that, and you'll be charging more slowly than you could be. Mind the cable you use too: You'll need a MagSafe 3 cable, or a USB-C charging cable.
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The screenless strap known as the Fitbit Air is probably the best fitness tracker out there for most people, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to improve. There are ways to wear it more comfortably (on nearly any body part!) and ways to work around some of the less enjoyable features of the app. Read on for some hacks that will make your Fitbit Air experience even better.
While the Fitbit Air will auto-detect workouts, the only way to get data on your heart rate or time during the workout is to start a workout on your phone. Unfortunately, the Google Health app doesn't give you much information on the workout screen—just the total time, your heart rate, and, if you're running outside, the distance you've covered. On the iPhone, you won't even get a live activity on your lock screen to remind you that the workout is still going, just a notification that says something like "run" that you can easily lose track of.
But there's a really nice way to change all that. The Strava app has a ton of great features for live workouts. And by broadcasting your heart rate data from the Fitbit Air to the Strava app, you can get the best of both worlds. Here's how to set it up:
In the Google Health app, tap on your device in the upper left corner. Tap on the Fitbit Air and then on Share Heart Rate. I set mine to Always Visible to be sure it was broadcasting, but it should still work without that toggle.
In the Strava app, hit Record to get to the workout recording screen, and then swipe up to see options.
Tap Add a sensor and choose the Fitbit Air.
Start the workout in the Strava app, and you'll see your heart rate in your stats!
Using the Strava app instead of the Google Health app gives you a map of where you're going (and you can load routes from your Strava library). It shows your lap pace and distance in addition to your total pace and distance, and in Run activities, you can tap a button on your phone to mark laps.
This is the Internet's favorite Fitbit Air hack, but to be honest, it has so many caveats that it may not be a good hack for everybody. But here's the idea: The Fitbit Air's standard band is an 18 millimeter nylon band, so you can slip it under the pins of just about any watch. This lets you use the Fitbit Air, strap and all, in place of the watch band on your favorite mechanical watch.
This works best with the Obsidian (black) band, a mechanical watch with 18-millimeter lugs, and a person with a large wrist. If your watch takes a larger strap than 18 millimeters, you'll find there are gaps between the strap and the watch. And if you have a small wrist, you may find you don't have quite enough space for the watch, the Fitbit Air sensor, and the velcro closure all on the same strap. I also can't guarantee that you'll get the most accurate readings from this setup, since it puts the Fitbit on the bottom of your wrist where it doesn't make great contact with your skin.
That said, it's a good hack if your watch and your wrist allow the space, and you like the look and aren't picky about accuracy. I wrote more about this hack here, but here's the basic idea:
Remove the band from your mechanical watch.
Lay the Fitbit Air's nylon band across the back of the watch, making sure that the outside of the band is facing the watch back.
Insert the watch band's pins into the watch to hold the Fitbit band in place.
Now you have the Fitbit and the watch on the same band! Put this contraption on your wrist, and slide the watch around until everything is in a good position.
The heart of the Google Health app is the AI-based Google Health Coach. It greets you every morning with a few paragraphs of text on how you slept and how it thinks your day should shape up. It checks in throughout the day to let you know how you're meeting your goals or what it thinks of your recent workout. And sometimes—OK, often—I get sick of this and want to strangle it. I know I'm not alone, because forums where people discuss the Fitbit Air are full of complaints about the Coach making errors or just saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Fortunately, you can turn off the coach without waiting for your Premium subscription to expire. Here's how:
Tap your profile picture in the upper right corner.
Tap Your Data in Google Health.
Tap Manage Feature Privacy Controls.
Tap Google Health Coach, and turn it off.
There. Now the app will be blissfully quiet. If you decide to turn it back on again, don't bother with the settings above—the Google Health Coach won't appear there when it's disabled. Instead, just tap the "ask coach" button in the bottom right corner of the app. That's the only place I've found where you can turn the coach back on.
The Fitbit Air counts your steps by detecting the movement of your wrist (assuming you're wearing it on your wrist, as usual). If you're walking, your arms will move too. It's a fair enough assumption. But this means that hand movements can sometimes register as steps, even if you're sitting still.
To avoid this overcounting, consider wearing it on your non-dominant hand (so, wear it on your left hand if you're right-handed). If it's still overcounting, go into your device settings, tap Device preferences, and then set Wrist preference to Dominant even if you're wearing it on your non-dominant hand. That will nudge it into undercounting.
The Fitbit Air can track strength training sessions, but you need to tell it what exercises you're doing. There's an easy way to make this quick, though. During your workout, just start a strength training session and don't worry about exercises. End and save the workout.
Then go to the Coach, and upload a picture that shows your workout. If you took a workout class that posted the workout on a whiteboard, snap a picture of the whiteboard. If you used an app like Hevy, take a screenshot of your workout from that app. If you use a paper notebook like I do, snap a picture of that instead.
The Coach will detect the exercises, sets, and reps from that photo. You can also describe the workout in your own words, if you remember it. However you added that information, the Coach will attach the exercises, sets, and reps to your workout. So far, I've found it's pretty reliable about recording that information correctly.
The Fitbit Air's bands only come in a few colors, and they're a little weird. "Lavender" is a bright blue, for example, and the blue-gray color known as "Fog" seems to be sold out at the moment. If you end up with a color you don't love, a Redditor has helpfully noted that Rit DyeMore Synthetic dyes the band perfectly. Overdyeing isn't always predictable, since you'll get a mix of the original color and the dye color, but it's worth a try if you're up for a gamble.
At the top of your home screen in the Fitbit app, you'll see a few tiles and a circular progress graph for your steps or cardio load. There's a ton of information that this area of the screen can display, but it's not easy to edit. You can add tiles, and they'll overflow to a second screen, but there's no way to rearrange the tiles that are already there unless you carefully remove them and re-add them in a different order.
But there's an easier way: Just delete everything. There aren't that many tiles, and you'll have an easier time if you just nuke them all. Hit the minus button on each tile (making sure you got the stuff on the overflow screens, too) and then re-add the things you want, in order. You don't need to have the big circle graphs if you don't want—or you can have two of them if you prefer.
While we're waiting for a proper bicep band, people have been coming up with creative solutions that make it so they don't have to wear the Fitbit Air on their wrist. There are 3D-printed adapters that let you use a Whoop strap and impromptu solutions that involve velcro straps or spare bands to use as an extender.
But the simplest tip of all is to simply stick the sensor to your skin with a long-lasting adhesive. KT tape—the same stuff people use for achy joints—does the trick fairly well. You can also get the same kind of overpatch that people use for continuous glucose monitors. These are designed to stay on for a week or more, so find a good spot, then set it and forget it.
The Google Health app, sadly, cannot support using two Fitbits at once. But it can connect to one Fitbit and one Pixel Watch. If you have an old Pixel Watch you don't use anymore, consider resurrecting it for workouts. This way, you can get your heart rate and pace data on your wrist where you can see it, then switch back to the Fitbit Air for the rest of the day and for sleep. The Google Health app will combine the metrics seamlessly.
Good fit is important for any fitness tracker, but for the Fitbit Air, you may find that the proper placement is more important than for other fitness watches. That's because a larger sensor does a better job of blocking out ambient light. But with as small a sensor as the Fitbit Air has, even a slight unevenness in the fit can mean that light gets in and messes with the optical sensor's readings.
The solution is simple: Instead of wearing the band at the place where your wrist hinges, or even right above your wrist bone, move it up toward your elbow by an inch or two. Then secure the strap so you get a nice snug fit. Your workout heart rate will be much more accurate, and then you can loosen it for a more comfortable fit when your workout is over.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Beth Skwarecki";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:61;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:59:"The Top 10 TV Series Right Now, According to Streaming Data";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KWJ32ZKGRS7ETAHWT45FG8YQ";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:30:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"If you're wondering what TV show to watch tonight, here are 10 certified bangers.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/the-top-10-streaming-series-june-2026?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Entertainment";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:82:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KWJ32ZKGRS7ETAHWT45FG8YQ/hero-image.webp";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54436:"We may earn a commission from links on this page.
June's streaming charts were dominated by heavy hitting shows, from dark thrillers, to anarchic animated series, to razor-sharp comedies. From the haunted shores of Widow's Bay to the top-tier comedic actors in The Four Seasons, there is something for every taste. Here are June's most streamed series, according to data from streaming information repository JustWatch.
This series from Apple TV has won nearly unanimous praise from both critics and audiences. It's a rare horror-comedy that manages to be genuinely scary and really funny. In the island town of Widow's Bay, literally everything is haunted, cursed, and otherwise beset with unspeakable evil, but mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) still really wants to bring tourism to the island. Mayor Tom is so married to his vision of Widow's Bay as the next Martha's Vineyard, he ignores the sea hags, fog monsters, and serial killer ghosts surrounding him. The great Stephen Root plays Wyck, an old-timer who's always there to remind everyone that time is short and everyone is doomed. Stream Widow's Bay on Apple TV+.
Nicolas Cage plays Spider-man (sort of) in this superhero story set in the pulpy, stylized world of classic film noir. In an alternate universe version of New York in the 1930s, Ben Reilly (Cage) is a world-weary private detective who once secretly cleaned up the town as his alter-ego, The Spider. After a personal tragedy, Reilly hung up his mask, choosing to drown his memories in cheap whiskey. But when an investigation uncovers a sprawling political conspiracy, he is forced to confront his past and become the Spider again. To enhance the classic Hollywood feel, this series is viewable in both color and black-and-white. Stream Spider-Noir on Prime Video.
The residents of the unnamed town at the center of FROM cannot catch a break. If it's not worms crawling around under their skin, it's the mysterious Man in Yellow stealing people's souls. Season four of this mystery-heavy show from the executive producers of Lost sees the survivors pushed to their limits as the veil between the strange town and the real world gets thinner. Stream FROM on MGM+.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, Cape Fear is a 10-episode reimagining of the classic novel, previously adapted into two celebrated films. In this extended version, Amy Adams plays Anna Bowden, a defense attorney who unsuccessfully defended murder suspect Max Cady 17 years previously. Turns out he wasn't guilty, and Cady has had nearly two decades to plan his revenge against the woman he blames for putting him behind bars. Javier Bardem brings unsettling energy to the role of Cady, previously played by Robert Mitchum, Robert De Niro, and Sideshow Bob. If you like slow-burn suspense that gradually ratchets up tension, you'll like Cape Fear. Stream Cape Fear on Apple TV+.
The Boroughs of the title is a fictionalized version of one of those Florida mega-retirement communities like The Villages. Alfred Molina plays Sam, a grieving widower and new arrival who is not impressed with the community. The Boroughs' wizened residents live out their days carousing and/or waiting for their grandkids to visit, but their golden years are interrupted by a supernatural threat, so Sam gathers a squad of grannies and greybeards and sets out to destroy the Evil like it's an early bird special at Denny's. The Boroughs was executive produced by the Duffer Brothers, so think "Stranger Things, but with old people." Unfortunately, the show has already been canceled, but the first season ends on a relatively satisfying note. Stream The Boroughs on Netflix.
Like Max Cady in Cape Fear, the main character in I Will Find You has been imprisoned for a murder he did not commit. But unlike Max Cady, David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) doesn't set out to murder his lawyer. He was accused of killing his own son, and when he sees evidence that the boy is alive, he escapes prison to find his child. It's a modern take on The Fugitive: with the authorities on his trail, David must unravel a twisting conspiracy to clear his name and bring his child home. I Will Find You is a perfect summertime thriller. Stream I Will Find You on Netflix.
Ice hockey players are having a moment—first in the breakout series Heated Rivalry, and now in Off Campus. This college-set soap opera is based on the bestselling book series from Elle Kennedy. Set at the fictional Briar Academy, Off Campus details the heartbreak, romance, and drama between top college ice hockey players and the women who love them. Season one follows the opposites-attract romance between Hannah (Ella Bright), a sarcastic music major, and Garret (Belmont Cameli), the arrogant captain of Briar U's hockey squad. Stream Off Campus on Prime Video.
We are nine seasons deep on Rick and Morty, and by this point, you are either on the bus or off it. In this case, the bus is the chaotic, multiverse-hopping animated adventures of a sociopathic scientist and his chronically anxious grandson as they battle cosmic horrors and navigate dysfunctional family dynamics. It's unapologetically weird, cynical, and rambunctious, and the latest season proves there's still plenty of gas left in Rick and Morty's portal gun. Stream Rick and Morty on Hulu and Max.
In Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Tatiana Maslany plays Paula, a divorced single mother locked in a custody battle. Her secret vice is an online relationship with camboy Trevor, played by Brandon Flynn. But something goes wrong when someone attacks Trevor on camera, then starts sending Paula ransom notes. Did she really witness a crime? Is her online gigolo scamming her? Or is something even darker going on? If you want to revisit the twist-filled glory days of '90s erotic thrillers, but with a dose of cynical comedy and modern paranoia, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed is the show for you. Stream Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed on Apple TV+.
If you're fiending for quality ensemble comedy television, don't miss The Four Seasons. Co-created by and starring Tina Fey, this reboot of the classic 1981 Alan Alda film stars heavy hitters Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, Will Forte, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Marco Calvani. The situation: Three couples who have been vacationing together for decades find their group getaway derailed by a divorce. The Four Seasons is a hilarious-but-honest exploration of grief, aging, and the complicated dynamics of adult friendships. Stream The Four Seasons on Netflix.
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No matter which edition of GTA VI you preorder, you'll get a free month of GTA+, Rockstar's online subscription service. According to the company's preorder page, GTA+ will net you a monthly GTA$500,000 deposit into your GTA Online bank account—that's in-game "Grand Theft Auto dollars," not USD, obviously. You also get Shark Cards with 15% bonus GTA$, both free and discounted GTA Online vehicles, and access to "classic" Rockstar games, among other perks. (Those games seem to include a large percentage of the Rockstar library, including Red Dead Redemption, Bully, GTA: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, L.A. Noire, and, now, even Grand Theft Auto V.)
GTA VI doesn't come out until Nov. 19, but that GTA+ credit is valid as soon as you preorder the game. You might have to wait until Thanksgiving to sink your teeth into the latest interpretation of Vice City, but you can start playing GTA Online (or any of the Rockstar games available under the subscription) right away, or you can choose to activate it after the game comes out (or by March 2027).
Free subscriptions are always welcome, but they're also dangerous. Anyone who has ever signed up for a free trial of anything knows how easy it is to forget about it—until the charge comes through on your credit card. That could be the eventual case for thousands, if not millions of GTA VI preorderers. As Gamespot highlights, your GTA+ subscription auto-renews, which means you'll be on the hook for $7.99 one month after activating it. That means if you redeem your free GTA+ subscription and you don't want to pay for it, you'll need to cancel it before it automatically renews.
To cancel GTA+, you'll need to return to the store where you purchased the subscription—or, in this case, the platform you preordered the game on. That might include any of the following:
PlayStation Store: https://store.playstation.com/
Microsoft Store: https://account.microsoft.com/
Rockstar & Epic: https://store.rockstargames.com/gta-plus/manage
To be clear, your GTA+ subscription doesn't start as soon as you preorder the game. You need to redeem it first. If you intend to use it, make sure you do so before March 31, 2027, or you'll lose access to the free month. After that, you'll need to cancel before the month is up to avoid being charged.
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When I raced Hyrox last month, I opted for my Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro—and I was quite pleased with the results. Over the past year now, I've been keeping an eye on how Amazfit (and its parent ecosystem, Zepp) is steadily gaining a loyal following among people who want serious fitness data without a $400 price tag. And now, I've discovered that most Amazfit owners are barely scratching the surface of what their watch can actually do.
Below are five hacks that go beyond the manual, whether you're using something like the budget-friendly Bip 6, a rugged T-Rex 3, an advanced trainer Balance 3, or any of the Amazfit options in between.
In the Zepp app, go to Profile > Settings > About, then tap the Zepp logo seven times. Voilà: You've just unlocked developer mode. Here's what you can do with this under-the-radar hack:
Install custom watch faces via QR code. This lets you bypass the existing native watch face library and upload a custom face on your computer, scan a generated QR code, and install it directly onto your watch.
Cross-load watch faces between compatible models. If you own multiple Amazfit models that share a screen resolution with each other (the Bip 6, Active, and Cheetah are one such group), developer mode lets you move watch faces between them. Similar to the hack above, this effectively expands your design options beyond what any single model officially supports.
View live device logs. See real-time debugging information for app performance, crashes, and Bluetooth connectivity issues, straight from your phone or computer.
Take true screenshots. Tap the screenshot icon to capture exactly what's on your watch face, saved automatically to your phone's photo gallery.
Enable Developer Bridge Mode, which connects the Zepp app's runtime to desktop development tools like the Zepp CLI or Watchface Maker, for more advanced customization projects.
Not every user needs all five of these tools—I know I don't. But even if you don't plan on investigating bugs on your own, something like the QR code watch face installer makes the seven-tap trick worth it.
For instance, think about when you typically charge your electronics. If you're using your Amazfit to track your sleep, that means charging has to happen somewhere else in your day. The fix: Keep a charger in your bathroom. A 10-minute top-up while you shower or get ready in the morning is more than enough to keep most Amazfit batteries topped off, and it happens during the exact window you're not wearing the watch anyway.
In the same vein, I recommend re-scheduling your wrist-wake settings. If you've ever been woken up by your own watch flashing on because you rolled over, this one's for you. Instead of leaving "Lift wrist to view info" running 24/7, set it to operate only during your actual waking hours. Whatever hours you set for yourself, the display simply won't activate on wrist movement. This not only stops the middle-of-the-night light attack, but it's also a great way to save battery, since display is one of the biggest power drains on any smartwatch.
Amazfit watches default to fairly frequent data collection, well beyond what you really need to know. If you're not actively training for something, dial it back like this:
When you're not actively exercising, reduce heart rate measurement frequency from every one minute down to every five or 10 minutes.
Turn off "Automatic Stress Monitoring" and "Auto Blood Oxygen" tracking unless you specifically rely on that data.
Disable continuous location tracking and heart rate logging when you're not working out. Just remember to re-enable both when you start a workout.
These quick settings changes are help stop your watch from unnecessarily draining battery in the background, and you really aren't sacrificing much in terms of data.
And when it comes to heart rate, rather than letting your watch collect data every minute, I highly recommend investing in a chest strap. Wrist-based optical heart rate sensors are convenient, but they're not perfect, especially during high-intensity intervals or activities with lots of wrist movement. If accuracy actually matters to you (say, for zone training), it's worth pairing your watch with an external chest strap like this COOSPO one here. Once paired, enable Heart Rate Push in your sensor settings, and your Amazfit will pull HRM data directly from the strap during workouts instead of relying on its built-in sensor.
The native Zepp app ecosystem covers the basics, but I've been scouring multiple Reddit threads to collect the best third-party apps to level up your Amazfit:
Navigation Wear syncs Google Maps directions straight to your wrist, so you can follow turn-by-turn directions without needing your phone.
Remotify (and similar apps) store music locally on the watch, letting you control playback without needing your phone nearby.
RuWeather replaces Amazfit's so-so stock weather app with more detailed, accurate forecasting. You can install it using a QR code from GitHub here.
Beeper lets you reply to messages from WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, and more.
Together, these apps close a lot of the gap between Amazfit and pricier smartwatch ecosystems.
Amazfit has plenty of useful features, but they're only useful if you know about them now, before you really need them.
One thing I've noticed about my Amazfit over other stop watches is that the crown (aka the top right button) is either bigger or more sensitive, meaning the watch thinks I'm constantly pausing mid-workout whenever I accidentally bump against it.
Here's my fix: Head into Workout Settings and switch the pause mechanism from a simple press to Long Press. The long press did take me some getting used to, but I'm grateful that I don't have to worry about any more accidental pauses caused by natural wrist movement.
Make sure to go into your Bluetooth settings and set a disconnection alert, so that your watch will notify you the moment your phone's Bluetooth connection drops. This alert could save you from leaving your phone on a restaurant table or a gym bench.
After getting caught in the rain, water can linger in your watch's microphone and speaker ports, muffling sound or triggering false touches. Amazfit's fix is a built-in water ejection feature: Swipe down from the main screen to open the Control Center, tap the Droplet icon, and hold your watch with the speaker facing downward. The watch will vibrate at specific frequencies designed to physically push moisture out of the ports. Like so many of the hacks above, this is one of those features it's good to know about now, so you're ready for the moment you really need it.
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While the tech world's collective attention is currently fixed on iOS 27, Apple is still churning out updates to iOS 26. While we're not likely to get another feature-filled release in the "26" era, there will always be bugs and security flaws to squash whenever Apple or third-party researchers discover them. Case in point: On Monday, Apple dropped iOS 26.5.2, which includes fixes for 29 security vulnerabilities.
More interesting than what bugs these patches fix, however, is that the company didn't originally intend to release them yet. In fact, iOS 26.5.2 marks a stark change in how Apple rolls out security updates, in large part due to potential threats from new AI models.
iOS 26.5.2 wasn't always meant to be. Apple told Reuters earlier this week that these patches were actually meant for a future version of iOS—perhaps iOS 26.6—but the company is now changing how it handles security updates going forward, specifically due to the security threats of models like Anthropic's Claude Mythos. These models can easily detect security vulnerabilities in software earlier than human researchers, and, as such, Apple feels it necessary to release patches as soon as they're available. Traditionally, the company bundles security patches with its typical software updates, as opposed to other companies that separate security patches from feature updates. But as these new AI models spread, and the risk of bad actors discovering security vulnerabilities grows, Apple will now release new patches much sooner than it normally would.
As such, you should expect to see more updates appear on your Apple devices than in the past. I wouldn't be surprised to see iOS 26.5.3 hit the scene before an iOS 26.6, and Apple may release more "iOS 26" updates than usual before iOS 27 drops this fall. You should always update your devices whenever those updates become available, as the threat from AI security models really is significant.
First, the good news: None of these vulnerabilities appears to be a "zero-day." A zero-day is a security flaw that is publicly disclosed or actively exploited before the software developer has a chance to issue a patch. They're especially dangerous, since it gives hackers the advantage: They can attempt to find an exploit—or, worse, take advantage of that exploit—for as long as it takes the developer to issue an update, and for its user base to install it. Luckily, none of these flaws appear to qualify, meaning this isn't a mission-critical situation. Still, any unpatched security flaw is concerning, and now that these are disclosed, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out how to exploit them—especially when assisted by new AI models. As such, it's important to install iOS 26.5.2 as soon as possible.
According to Apple's official security release notes, iOS 26.5.2 (and iPadOS 26.5.2) patches 29 security flaws. Many of the flaws have to do with how WebKit, Apple's engine that powers Safari, secures user data. You'll see some flaws that could expose sensitive data if the user processes malicious web content (e.g., if you click a fraudulent link), as well as one vulnerability that could leak sensitive data just by visiting a website, even if that site isn't necessarily malicious. Another patch handles a flaw that would let malicious websites process data outside of the "sandbox," or the secure element that Apple keeps websites in so they don't venture into secure parts of iOS, while another patches a flaw that could steal clipboard data without your knowledge.
You'll find all 29 patches listed below, along with a description, the fix, and the CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) number used to track them. Again, none of these flaws has a known active exploit.
IOGPUFamily: An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination. A race condition was addressed with improved state handling. CVE-2026-43743: Lyutoon, Dun
Kernel: An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination or write kernel memory. The issue was addressed with improved input sanitization. CVE-2026-43724:
Kernel: An app may be able to leak sensitive kernel state. The issue was addressed with improved input sanitization. CVE-2026-43722.
Kernel: An app may be able to cause unexpected system termination or corrupt kernel memory. This issue was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2026-39868.
libxslt: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. A double free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43706.
libxslt: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2026-43703.
Web Extensions: A malicious web extension may be able to cause an unexpected process crash. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43704.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may disclose sensitive user information. A cross-origin issue was addressed with improved tracking of security origins. CVE-2026-43700.
WebKit: A malicious website may exfiltrate data cross-origin. The issue was addressed with improved checks. CVE-2026-43735.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43734/CVE-2026-43726/CVE-2026-43709/CVE-2026-43699/CVE-2026-43742.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may disclose sensitive user information. A path handling issue was addressed with improved validation. CVE-2026-43732.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to memory corruption. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43731/CVE-2026-43715.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43727.
WebKit: A malicious website may be able to process restricted web content outside the sandbox. The issue was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2026-43725.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2026-43663/CVE-2026-39872/CVE-2026-43712.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2026-43716.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. An out-of-bounds access issue was addressed with improved bounds checking. CVE-2026-43676.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may result in the disclosure of process memory. The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2026-43740.
WebKit: Visiting a website may leak sensitive data. A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. CVE-2026-43713.
WebKit: A malicious website may exfiltrate data cross-origin. The issue was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2026-43708.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling. CVE-2026-43707.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to memory corruption. A type confusion issue was addressed with improved checks. CVE-2026-43705.
WebKit: A malicious website may be able to process restricted web content outside the sandbox. The issue was addressed with improved checks. CVE-2026-43701.
WebKit: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2026-43745.
WebKit Canvas: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43720.
WebKit Storage: A malicious website may be able to silently hijack clipboard data. This issue was addressed through improved state management. CVE-2026-43721.
WebRTC: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash. An out-of-bounds access issue was addressed with improved bounds checking. CVE-2026-28979.
WebRTC: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. A stack overflow was addressed with improved input validation. CVE-2026-43718.
WebRTC: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected Safari crash. A use-after-free issue was addressed with improved memory management. CVE-2026-43717/CVE-2026-43746.
Installing this security patch is the same as any other iOS update. If you have Automatic Updates enabled, the OS should update on its own in due time. However, you can manually kick-start the process by heading to General > Software Update and following the on-screen instructions.
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The feature, called Paste Protect, is designed to stop code injection attacks such as ClickFix. When Paste Protect believes you are the target of a ClickFix attack, it displays a pop-up, warning you not to copy malicious commands, and offers a button to close the tab to sidestep the attack. You do have the option to click "Show content" to view the first 120 characters of the command, in case you want to review what Paste Protect flagged as malicious.
Paste Protect allows you to bypass the block if you wish, with a red button labeled "Hold to copy (unsafe)." To copy the command, you'll have to hold this button for over five seconds. You'll also have the option to always allow copying code from a site you trust, which is helpful in case the feature accidentally blocks code from a legitimate site. The warning may be enough for most casual users to realize that something's off, similar to how Apple and Microsoft protect you from installing untrustworthy apps on your computer. You'll see a warning that blocks you from installing those apps, but there's an option to bypass it if you know what you're doing and are confident that it's a false positive.
ClickFix attacks are quite sophisticated: They may show a fake captcha verification that's designed to fail, and offer a "solution" in the form of malicious code that you can run on your device. Opera claims it uses platform-specific detection techniques for Linux, macOS, and Windows to identify patterns associated with malicious scripts, and blocks them via Paste Protect.
This isn't Opera's first security feature aimed at protecting users from malicious activity. The browser has offered a "Hijack Protection" feature for a few years, which prevents sites from replacing the contents of your clipboard without your permission. This means that if you copy a URL, Opera will stop sites from changing the copied link to a malicious URL. Paste Protect adds an extra layer of security to the browser.
While added security features are more than welcome, vigilance is always the best defense against online scams. Don't install extensions or apps from developers you don't know or trust; never click suspicious links, whether you find the on the web or someone shares them via text or email; and never copy code from the internet and paste it in your device's command prompt without being 100% sure of what you're doing.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Pranay Parab";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:66;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"I Tried Proton’s Privacy-First AI Chatbot to See If It’s Better Than ChatGPT";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01K3131Q4TV2K1FJNGNCC3NKAA";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 02 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"Proton's AI assistant now has image generation and deep-thinking capabilities.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/proton-privacy-first-chatbot-comparison-to-chatgpt?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"AI";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01K3131Q4TV2K1FJNGNCC3NKAA/hero-image.jpg";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13367:"If you're a regular Lifehacker reader, you'll know Proton develops a range of privacy-first products, including an email service, a VPN, and cloud storage. It also now has its own AI chatbot, called Lumo—first launched in August 2025, and recently upgraded with a host of new capabilities, including image generation.
Having given Lumo 1.0 a test run last year, I found it a capable AI assistant. While it wasn't on the same level as apps like ChatGPT and Gemini, it got close enough to make it worth considering if you didn't want to deal with OpenAI and Google. Now that Lumo 2.0 is live, I was keen to give it another go.
Lumo is available on the web, on Android, and on iOS, and you can get started for free—you don't even need a Proton account. As you might expect, there's a $12.99 per-month Pro tier available, which gets you features like a full chat history, more advanced AI models, and higher usage rates in terms of chats and file sizes. Unfortunately, the Pro tier is not included in Proton's other subscription packages—it's separate.
Read the Lumo 2.0 launch post, and you'll see the company is very keen to make its AI assistant stand out in terms of how little data and personal info it keeps. Of course, some data storage is necessary for the bot to actually work, and if you want, you can keep your chats around to refer back to.
First of all, your chats aren't used to train the AI models Lumo is built on. That's something you'll find as an option you can toggle in bots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, while it's also a selling point for Apple Intelligence. Other AIs are less transparent when it comes to this aspect, so it's good to see Proton mentioning it up front.
There's also zero-access encryption for your chats, which means no one can take a peek at what you're reading—not law enforcement, government agencies, or even Proton staff. That's a clear advantage over other AI platforms, though the likes of Google and OpenAI would argue there are strict legal procedures and strong regulations in place to keep your saved chats private. However, like other AIs using LLMs, Lumo can't offer full end-to-end encryption, as Proton explains here.
It's hard to be definitive here in comparing Lumo to other services, because a lot depends on whether you're saving or erasing chats as you go. To complicate matters further, OpenAI is currently having to hang on to a good chunk of all user chats (even the deleted ones) as part of its ongoing lawsuit with the New York Times.
What is clear is that Proton takes the issue more seriously than just about anyone else at the moment. There is no review of chats by humans, which happens with other chatbots like Gemini—in order to "help improve Google services" for you and everyone else, supposedly (which is why you should never share anything too private with an AI chatbot).
What's more, Lumo runs on open source AI models, which should mean more transparency. There's no partnership with any third party in terms of how the service is run, so you can be sure that the policies and protections Proton has implemented aren't going to be compromised through connections to other companies.
You can read more on Lumo privacy on the Proton website, including information on the large language models (LLMs) used by the chatbot. As ever with Proton, it's worth remembering that it operates out of Europe—meaning it's not subject to the same kind of data surveillance and retention policies as somewhere like the U.S.
In my Lumo 1.0 hands-on, I mentioned that image generation and deep reasoning were a couple of the features that it lacked compared to other chatbots—but that's no longer the case. To begin with, Lumo 2.0 can both generate and analyze images, so I was eager to give this new functionality a go right away.
I set Lumo to work on generating an image of a spaceship, a forest cabin, and a cartoon cityscape, and the results were pretty even: Lumo can certainly hold its own against ChatGPT in terms of the pictures it creates, and I actually preferred its space one. ChatGPT's efforts were a little bit more impactful overall, though they also went off-script (or off-prompt) more.
Lumo lets you modify images you've created through follow-up prompts like ChatGPT does, and it really impressed me in terms of how quickly the images were generated—it produced something usable in fewer seconds, though to be fair, the graphics it produced were also at slightly lower resolutions.
Lumo 2.0 comes with a new Thinking mode, which is slower than the alternative Fast mode but better at reasoning. I put it to work on a few dense scientific research papers, and its analysis and summaries appeared to be on a par with ChatGPT's in terms of how well they were written and structured. On a couple of occasions, Lumo actually presented the relevant information in a more accessible way than the OpenAI chatbot.
Web search is another area where Lumo 2.0 brings improvements, and again, Proton's AI app matched ChatGPT in terms of how it collected and organized information from the web. I got both bots to summarize a few current tech news stories, and they were equally capable in terms of summaries, complete with updates on search progress along the way, and references at the end. ChatGPT tended to be a little more thorough, but I liked the way Lumo presented its info.
Other upgrades in Lumo 2.0 include improved memory recall and management, and Custom Lumos that match the Custom GPTs in ChatGPT: They let you create siloed AI assistants for specific tasks, like polishing text or outputting web searches in specific formats. Lumo has clearly come a long way since the initial release, both in terms of the quality of its answers and the features on offer.
ChatGPT is still the more mature AI product, with features like live voice mode and professional coding assistants, but the gap between Lumo and the established AI chatbots is now significantly smaller—certainly for casual, everyday use. If you're looking for AI with a few more principles built in, it's worth considering.
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The two most streamed movies in June were about the end of the world, but they offer wildly different takes on how it will go down. This month's top streamers indicate a collective subconscious that's split down the middle. For every violent, cynical, dog-eat-dog survival thriller like Send Help, there is an equally popular, life-affirming antidote like The Sheep Detectives waiting to restore your faith in humanity (or at least in farm animals). What does it all mean? Beats me. I just want to turn on the air conditioner and watch some movies.
In this crowd-pleasing sci-fi, Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who is blasted into the firmament in a last-ditch effort to save the world. Grace is the only person on Earth who might know how to protect the sun from a cosmic infection that threatens all life, but he's definitely not an astronaut and doesn't see himself as a hero either. Will he rise to the occasion and learn something about his inner strength and resilience while saving us all from death? My money is on, "yeah, probably." Project Hail Mary is streaming on FuboTV and MGM+.
Legendary director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean) is back with a satirical, gleefully maximalist science fiction comedy that takes on AI, social media addiction, VR, and the modern world itself. Sam Rockwell plays a man from the future who shows up in an LA diner demanding that customers help him save the future from an artificial intelligence that is about to be born. Being a time traveler, Rockwell has tried this many times before, and has always failed, but this time, it's going to be different—or everyone is going to die again. Part Terminator, part Black Mirror, Don't Die is a throw-everything-at-the-wall movie that goes so far over the top, you'll be forced to submit to its weird logic and style out of sheer exhaustion. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.
A family movie with enough darkness to balance out all the cute sheep, The Sheep Detectives tells the tale of a English farmer played by Hugh Jackman who reads mysteries to his flock of sheep every night. When he's found dead, the authorities attribute it to natural causes, but his sheep know better, and they set out to find the culprit using what they've learned from all those whodunnits. If you like the Babe movies, you'll like The Sheep Detectives, and if you think you're too cynical to get into a movie like this, you're probably wrong; it is charming and fun. The Sheep Detectives is streaming on Prime Video.
Horror master Sam Raimi is the perfect director for this violent, unhinged, darkly funny thriller. Send Help stars Rachel McAdams as Linda, a dorky cubicle drone in an office full of well-dressed sharks. Her boss is Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), a nepo baby executive with unlimited funds and zero compassion. The pair end up stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. It turns out Bradley's skill at belittling people is no help in the jungle, but Linda is something of a survivalist. She's also insane. It's a perfect setup for a twisty plot that ends in a bloody showdown. Send Help is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
Director Kirill Sokolov (Why Don't You Just Die!) delivers a fast-paced action-horror-comedy packed with violence and blood—my favorite genre at this point. They Will Kill You stars the great Zazie Beetz as Asia, an ex-convict who answers an ad to be a live-in housekeeper at a luxurious New York City high-rise. She soon learns that the building's eccentric tenants—including characters played by Patricia Arquette, Tom Felton, and Heather Graham—are a bloodthirsty Satanic cult who want to sacrifice her. But she's not going out easy. If you liked Ready or Not and/or You're Next, you'll like They Will Kill You. Stream They Will Kill You on Max.
Directed by Daniel Chong (creator of We Bare Bears), Hoppers stars Piper Curda as Mabel, a passionate college environmentalist who transfers her mind into a lifelike robotic beaver to get closer to nature. But she soon finds herself leading an animal uprising against her own kind. Jon Hamm lends his voice to the enemy, Mayor Jerry, a smarmy politician who wants to bulldoze the nature preserve in favor of a highway. Pixar has carefully engineered this movie so that you will be charmed. It's what they do. Hoppers is streaming on Disney+.
Steven Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi masterpiece experienced a streaming resurgence in June in connection with the director's latest alien-conspiracy thriller Disclosure Day in theaters. Dude just can't help making movies about space creatures, but Close Encounters is the best of them all. Richard Dreyfuss plays Roy Neary, an everyman electrical lineman whose quiet suburban life unravels after an encounter with a UFO. He devotes his life to figuring out what the hell happened to him, and the answer is gentle and beautiful in a way we rarely imagine aliens anymore. Stream Close Encounters of the Third Kind on The Criterion Channel.
Director Paul Feig's The Housemaid is a psychological thriller equally influenced by steamy suburban potboilers like Gone Girl and suspense classics like Vertigo. Based on Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel, The Housemaid has a classic setup: Millie (Sydney Sweeney), a young woman with a secret past, lands a job as a live-in housemaid for wealthy couple Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar). Millie soon discovers that the nice couple who hired her is hiding some very dangerous secrets. Stream The Housemaid on Starz.
In this feel-good woman-meets-octopus drama, Sally Field plays Tova, a widow who spends her days cleaning the tanks at the local aquarium and grieving the death of her son. Lewis Pullman plays Cameron, a drifter who needs a mentor and a mom. Alfred Molina voices Marcellus the Octopus, the cephalopod who brings them together. If you like smart, sensitive movies with amazing performances, it's a great pick. Stream Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix.
People love Jennifer Lopez, even when she's starring in weird sci-fi movies like Atlas and even weirder sci-fi movies like This is Me...Now: A Love Story. She's more at home here, playing the lead in a by-the-numbers, raunchy rom-com. In Office Romance, J.Lo is Jackie Cruz, a high-powered airline CEO who rigidly enforces a strict zero-tolerance anti-fraternization policy at work. But then Daniel Blanchflower, a charming lawyer played by Ted Lasso breakout Brett Goldstein, shows up for work, and things get a lot less strict. It's sexy and funny and lightweight, just the thing for a summer movie fling. Stream Office Romance on Netflix.
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The Samsung HW-Q990H is a full home-theater-in-a-box setup, with the soundbar, subwoofer, and rear speakers included. And right now, it's down to $1,597.99, which is $400 off Samsung’s list price for a new unit. Price trackers also show this as the lowest price it has hit so far, making the discount more meaningful if you were already looking at a premium Dolby Atmos system.
The HW-Q990H is a follow-up to the HW-Q990F, and Samsung did not mess much with the basic formula—you still get an 11.1.4-channel system, which means the sound can spread across the front of the room, come from behind you, and create height effects for Dolby Atmos content. The more useful upgrade now is how the soundbar adapts to the room it is in. SpaceFit Sound Pro analyzes the space and adjusts the audio balance, so voices, bass, and overhead effects are less likely to get muddied by your walls, furniture, or ceiling. In the right room, that can make dialogue easier to follow and keep the low end from overpowering everything else. It is not a perfect fix, though, so you may still want to use the seven-band equalizer to fine-tune the sound yourself.
This is also a practical setup for someone who uses the same TV for movies, streaming, and gaming. It supports major audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS, works with wireless Dolby Atmos on compatible Samsung TVs, and includes HDMI 2.1 passthrough for 4K gaming at 120Hz on a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. That said, while the subwoofer should have enough punch for most living rooms, it does lose some control when pushed close to maximum volume, so it is not the best fit for a huge space or someone who wants wall-shaking bass every night.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Bose has built much of its headphone reputation on noise cancellation, and the standard Bose QuietComfort headphones are a practical entry point to that lineup without paying for the company’s most expensive model. They’re currently $179, down from $229, which price trackers show as their lowest price so far. For someone who wants strong active noise cancellation, long-wearing comfort, and the Bose sound profile without moving into premium pricing, this is the model to look at first.
The important distinction is that these are not the QuietComfort Ultra headphones. Bose released both models in 2023, and the Ultras sit higher in the lineup with extras like Bluetooth 5.3 and Immersive Audio, which makes the sound feel as if it is coming from different directions. Those features may be useful for some listeners, but they are not essential for everyone. The regular QuietComfort headphones still cover the basics most people care about: effective noise cancellation for commutes and work, a transparency mode to hear what is happening around you, and multipoint Bluetooth so you can stay connected to two devices and switch between them more easily.
PCMag rated the Bose QuietComfort headphones “excellent,” and the 24-hour battery life is one of those details that makes them easy to live with. You can charge them, toss them in a bag, and get through a few workdays or a long travel day without thinking about the battery. The adjustable equalizer is helpful as well, especially because not everyone likes the same Bose tuning out of the box. The physical buttons may be the most divisive part here—they don't look as modern as touch controls, but they are easier to use without looking, which is useful on a walk, on a train, or while wearing gloves.
Smart home platforms have plenty of powerful features for automating every device in your home, but you have to do some upfront work to make it happen. You also have to know what you're looking for. Here are the hidden tips and tricks to maximize everything connected via Apple Home.
Apple's critical alerts feature allows a limited number of emergency notifications to break through Silent and Do Not Disturb modes so you know immediately if there's a safety or security risk threatening life or property. Specific sensors can trigger these alerts, such as smoke, carbon monoxide, and leak detectors and security system devices that have a "panic" mode. When enabled, these alerts will appear on your lock screen and play a sound even if your device is on silent. Go to Settings > Notifications > Home and ensure the Critical Alerts toggle is on. You may need to configure critical alert permissions in the device's app as well.
For other types of notifications that don't qualify as critical—but that you want to break through, such as person detection on your cameras—you can customize your Focus modes.
When you open your Control Center on iOS (swipe down from the top-right corner of your device), you'll likely see at least one Home scene or accessory pinned to the Favorites screen, giving you one-tap access to the automation or device without having to open the Home app. Apple does a pretty decent job of selecting frequently used scenes to pin here, but you can also customize the ones you want most. From the Control Center, long-press and tap the Home control. Toggle off Use Recommended and choose Add New Item to select from your Apple Home scenes and accessories. You can also tap Add a Control to pin additional automations on the Home-specific Control Center screen.
Some smart home devices, like thermostats and motion detectors, actually contain multiple sensors, but they're all bundled together under the main device tile. When you split them into separate tiles, you can view and manage them as though they were independent devices. This can be useful if you want your smart shades to open or close based on ambient light levels or enable a fan or space heater (via a smart plug) based on the temperature in your bedroom as detected by a motion sensor. Long-press on the device and tap Accessory Settings. If multiple sensors are available, you'll see the option to Show as Separate Tiles. (Even if you don't separate the tiles, you should be able to choose the individual sensors from the device list when building an automation that uses a sensor.)
If you use motion, contact, or presence sensors to turn on lights, you can program those same lights to turn off after a set amount of time within the same automation—even if the sensor is still activated. This way, no one needs to worry about forgetting to turn off lights, and you don't need a separate automation to run the behavior.
In the Home app, tap the plus sign > Add Automation > A Sensor Detects Something. Then select the sensor and select Opens > Next. On the following screen, select the device you want to turn on and tap Next. Make sure the tile for the device is set to On. At the bottom of the screen, tap Turn Off and select your desired timeout. Then tap Done.
Beyond automating your smart home devices to do certain things at specific times of day, you can set up a shortcut that responds to local weather conditions and behaves differently if, for example, it's sunny or cloudy at your house. One specific application is lowering your smart shades in the afternoon if it's sunny by keeping them open if it's cloudy or raining—or you could set them based on outdoor temperature if you want solar heat during the winter.
To set this up in the Home app, tap the plus sign > Add Automation > A Time of Day Occurs and set the time that your room gets the most sun. Tap Next. On the following screen, scroll down and hit Convert to Shortcut. Clear the default action, enter Weather in the search bar, and select Get Current Weather. Type If in the search bar and select the If block. Tap Weather Conditions in the first block and change the type to Condition. (If you want to do a temperature-based automation, change the type to Temperature instead.) Tap the next field, change to Contains, and type Sunny in the text block. Search for Home, select Control Home, and drag this to just beneath the If block. Tap Scenes and Accessories to select your smart home device and its action, then tap Next > Done to save it.
Another creative use of Shortcuts: Set your smart bulbs to flash off and on to get family members' attention instead of yelling across the house. For example, you could use the pattern as a silent dinner bell. Tap the plus sign > Add Automation > An Accessory is Controlled (for a smart switch or light) or A Sensor Detects Something (such as motion in the kitchen) > Next. Scroll down and hit Convert to Shortcut. Clear the default action, enter Home in the search bar, and select Control Home. Tap Scenes and Accessories to select your target light bulb, and set it to Off. Type Wait in the search bar and select the Wait block, and set the time to 1 second. Repeat, but choose On as the action. Add one more Off and one more On to the sequence, then tap Next > Done.
Shortcuts can also be programmed to switch streaming audio from one speaker to another in response to a trigger event, such as motion detection when you leave one room and enter another. This allows your playlist or podcast to follow you around your house so you don't miss anything. In the Add Automation flow, select A Sensor Detects Something and choose the motion sensor you want to initiate the action. Select Closes > Next. Tap Convert to Shortcut, then search for and select Hand Off Playback under the Media library. Set the device to your iPhone, and set the destination to your target smart speaker. Search for and select Set Volume and set the slider to a comfortable level. Tap Next > Done.
Your smart switches don't have to be limited to just one function—with an inexpensive smart plug and a few shortcuts, you can have a single press run one automation and a double tap another. The spare smart plug serves as a dummy switch that activates a secondary scene if it detects a second tap before it times out. For example, the first tap simply turns on your usual lighting scene, while a second tap launches an "away" mode that includes turning off lights, turning down your thermostat, and locking your back door.
In practice, this requires you to add a spare plug to your Home devices (tap the plus sign > Add Accessory) and program your lighting scene (tap the plus sign > Add Scene). From there, you'll have to set up two shortcuts: one to have the smart plug turn on when your switch is turned on with a five second timeout, and another to run the second scene if you press the switch again while the dummy switch is still on.
While we're on the subject of dummy switches, these can also be used to prevent one-time automations from running over and over if the sensor is triggered multiple times. A dummy switch can prevent your HomePod from repeating announcements each time someone enters a given room (beyond the first time motion is detected) or your robot vacuum from running again if you lock your door, forget something, return home, and lock it again when you leave.
A final use of that cheap smart plug: program it to continuously refresh your motion sensor's timer so your lights don’t turn off while you’re still present but still turn off when you're not. You'll first need to add the smart plug to Home and set up an automation that turns both your lights and the plug on when motion is detected.
To build the timer automation, you'll need the third-party Controller for the Apple Home app. Go to Automations > Create Automations > A Sensor Detects Something. Choose your motion sensor and select Stops Detecting Motion. Select Control Home, then choose your plug and set it to Turn Off. Select Delayed Execution/Auto-Off, set the delay to 20 minutes, and toggle on Reset timer if triggered again. Finally, you'll need an automation back in the main Home app that turns your dummy plug and lights off.
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If you're getting password reset requests or two-factor authentication (2FA) code texts or emails that you didn't initiate, someone is almost certainly trying to gain access to your accounts. In the case of 2FA alerts, they may already have your primary credentials. Hackers will attempt to get past 2FA with tactics like prompt bombing, which involves sending dozens of notifications to your device in a short amount of time, and phone spoofing. Note that while 2FA does add a layer of security, SMS and email codes can be easily phished, so you should change your password and switch to a stronger MFA method, like biometrics or a physical key, if possible.
Similarly, a notification of a login attempt when you aren't trying to access your account is cause for alarm, and you should change your password and ensure that your recovery methods are in order. Some platforms also allow you to see active sessions and where your account is logged in—if you find locations or devices you don't recognize, sign out everywhere and update your credentials. (Note that if you're using a VPN, a legitimate session may look like a suspicious one.)
If your phone or computer suddenly starts behaving differently, you should investigate to determine whether it has been compromised. A few warning signs:
Rapid battery drain and/or overheating when your device isn't in use.
Your screen lights up or stays on for no apparent reason.
The camera or microphone indicator lights activate unexpectedly.
Device processes, such as shutdown, take longer than normal.
Apps launching and/or crashing or pop-ups appearing without explanation.
Unusual permissions requests.
Spikes in data usage.
Malware can be the cause of these odd behaviors, though they can also be the result of either hardware or software problems that aren't malicious at all. Check for system and app updates that may solve the issue with known bug fixes. If that doesn't change the behavior, you should scan for malware.
If you find an app you don't remember downloading on your device, you should be suspicious, as it could be spyware or another form of malware that allows threat actors to steal information or track your activity. These programs can even be hidden from your home screen or disguised as something more benign, so you should regularly audit what's on your device and review app permissions and settings. We've also got guides for finding and removing malware from your Mac and PC.
We all expect to receive spam calls, texts, and phishing emails with some regularity, but if these increase drastically and suddenly, scammers may be actively targeting you. This could indicate a data breach or other account compromise—threat actors will use leaked or stolen information to make their communication more believable. Keep an eye out for data breach notices, use the dark web monitoring tools in your password manager, or check Have I Been Pwned.
If bad actors gain access to your financial accounts, including your debit or credit card information, they may test the waters to determine whether the payment credentials still work before moving on to larger purchases and full identity theft. Test charges—which can be for as little as a few cents—are a red flag, so don't ignore unrecognized transactions. Check your statements regularly, as test charges may not post to your account, making them easy to miss.
If you open your email or messaging app to messages in your inbox marked as read and think "huh, I don't remember seeing that," it may be because someone has gained access to your account and looked at it first on another device. There are a few other signs that your email or messaging accounts are being monitored or used maliciously, such as contacts reporting that you've sent them suspicious content—phishing links, payment requests, or spam—or emails in your sent or scheduled folders that you don't recognize. If you suspect account compromise, change your password ASAP.
If you find yourself unexpectedly locked out of an account, it may be because hackers have already taken it over, or they've tried and failed to log in too many times. The same goes for a social media account that has been banned. These may be the consequences of a data breach or a successful phishing attempt. Either way, you can report it to the platform and try to recover your account.
If your Netflix, Spotify, or YouTube algorithms are suddenly serving you content that's way outside of your typical viewing or listening preferences, or if you find things in your history that you definitely didn't stream, someone may have gained access to your account. This on its own may not seem like a big deal, but it could indicate or lead to much larger problems if your data has been compromised. Change your password and, if you can, sign out across all devices.
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If you've made the switch to bone conduction, you probably use Shokz. And if you use Shokz, you already know the big selling points: situational awareness, all-day comfort, and ears that stay free and open. But once you've had your Shokz headphones for a few weeks, you start to wonder if you're really making the most of this technology. Personally, I've been rocking with my OpenRun Pro 2s before every run for the past year now. I've discovered a number of hacks to make the Shokz experience better. Here are five of my favorites:
I know this one sounds backwards: Why would you block your ears when the whole point of bone conduction is to keep them open? Beth Skwarecki, another one of Lifehacker's resident Shokz fans, swears by this combo.
"Wearing Shokz plus earplugs is so much less sweaty and uncomfortable than over-ear headphones when you're in a loud gym," Beth says. "I started doing this when I realized that the clanking and bar dropping of my weightlifting workouts is probably loud enough to be unsafe over the long term, especially when I'm in an enclosed space like my garage. My Apple Watch was constantly telling me I'd been exposed to loud noises. So now I keep earplugs in my gym bag, and combining those with Shokz works really well." With this combination, you can still play music while protecting your ears. Beth's go-to earplugs are these high-fidelity ones.
If your Shokz ever feel like they're not quite locked in, your glasses can help, even if you don't actually need them for vision. (Sunglasses work just as well.) Here's the trick: Put your Shokz on first, making sure they sit flat against your skin in front of your ears. This is where the transducers—the small pads that actually deliver sound through vibration—make contact, just in front of your ear canal, roughly level with your cheekbone. Then, put your glasses on over the top. The arms of the glasses gently press the transducers a little closer to your cheekbones, tightening the contact and naturally amplifying the sound without you having to touch a single setting. It's a simple two-second adjustment, and it's especially handy for runners or cyclists who are already wearing sunglasses anyway.
Bone conduction headphones need more surface contact with your skin than typical earbuds, which is great for sound quality, but not always great for comfort once you start sweating. Before a workout, swipe a super thin layer of antiperspirant stick along the spots on your jaw and in front of your ears where your Shokz sit. It cuts down on sweat buildup at the contact points, which means less slipping and a less sticky feel by the end of your session.
And if your Shokz are still sliding around even with the deodorant trick? Try the opposite approach: lightly dampen your skin at those same contact points, either with a splash of water or by letting yourself work up a light sweat during warmup. I've found that just the right amount of moisture actually improves grip and helps the headphones stay put. Just be sure to dry off afterward so they're not sitting against damp skin for too long.
Open-ear headphones like Shokz let in ambient sound by design, which is a huge plus for safety, but it does mean you sometimes need a little extra volume to hear your music or podcast clearly over street noise, gym clanking, or wind. When I felt like my Shokz just couldn't get loud enough, I turned to my phone's settings.
Most smartphones have a built-in volume limiter for hearing protection that can quietly cap how loud your Bluetooth audio gets. Here's how to check:
iPhone: Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Headphone Safety, then toggle off "Reduce Loud Audio."
Samsung: Settings > Sounds and Vibration > Volume > More, then turn off "Media Volume Limit."
Other Android devices: Look for "Absolute Volume" in your Bluetooth settings for your Shokz device and enable it.
Turn these off and you'll likely notice an instant difference in headroom, especially outdoors. Just be careful with the overall loudness of your headphones going forward: Keeping them too loud for too long can hurt your hearing in the long run.
If you're really in a pinch, or just feeling retro, some Shokz models support a 3.5mm aux connection, which means you're not totally dependent on Bluetooth. If your connection is acting up, or your battery's dead, you can plug in with a compatible aux adapter and keep going wired. It's a great backup option for travel, or any time Bluetooth just isn't cooperating.
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Conversation Focus is an audio-enhancement feature that isolates the voice of the person you're talking to, reduces ambient noise, and amplifies the voice back to you. It's useful in crowded, noisy situations, particularly for people with mild hearing difficulties. Rate limiting this feature is particularly frustrating given how Conversation Focus actually works. No AI tokens are being spent to provide this service, and no outside computer is involved. The entire process takes place on your glasses' hardware—it even works if you're offline—so it's an arbitrary limitation, a way of charging you for a feature that's part of the hardware you've already paid hundreds of dollars for. It's holding your own microphone hostage.
Meta offers an entry-level tier to Meta One for $7.99 a month, but it leaves smart glasses owners out in the cold. If you want extra minutes of Conversation Focus, that's locked behind its most expensive "Premium" tier. Meta didn't build a $20-a-month subscription specifically for the glasses; the charge seems designed to force users into a broader Meta AI subscription ecosystem. Other benefits to the premium tier include a "Thinking Mode" AI that provides more detailed answers for complex tasks inside the Meta AI app and web portal, and higher generation caps for AI-generated images and videos across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp—neither of which is all that useful if you just want to hear people better.
Luckily, Meta isn't the only company making smart glasses that can help you have conversations in noisy rooms. If you want a wearable that isn't locked into Meta's paywall, here are some alternatives to consider:
Even Realities G2: These visual glasses won't amplify the voices around you; the glasses' standout "Conversate" feature goes further by providing live subtitles for anyone talking to you. The glasses also save a transcript of the conversation and provide a post-chat, AI-generated summary of your interaction. There's no monthly charge or time limit on this feature, but it does require a Bluetooth connection to your phone. Check out my review for insight into everything else these glasses can do.
Nuance Audio: If you're using Meta glasses because of a hearing problem, Nuance Audio glasses from EssilorLuxottica do the same thing as Conversation Focus. These are over-the-counter hearing aid glasses, so they tend to be more expensive than off-the-rack smart glasses, but because they're an FDA-cleared medical device, they're eligible for pre-tax HSA funds, and some high-end medical insurance plans offer partial reimbursements for hearing aids.
XanderGlasses: These glasses are specifically designed as adaptive technology for people with hearing problems. They provide captions for people you're talking to and do it without requiring a connection to your phone (or anything else). Downside: They provide no other features, look like medical glasses, and the price tag is steep at $4,999—it's a one-time price, though; no monthly fees.
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Apple's MacBook Air is a great value—even now, after the company significantly raised the price of the machine. The Air offers the best of both worlds: It's a lightweight laptop with a powerful Apple chip, without the expense that comes with the added features of the company's "Pro" line. Most of us could probably get by on an Air—if not a Neo—which explains why so many of us own these laptops, and use them every day.
But while you can get a lot done with the Air out of the box, there are so many ways to push this machine to its limits. Below, I've compiled 10 hacks, tips, and tricks that should help you get the most out of your Apple laptop.
If you maxed out your MacBook Air's storage upon purchase, you might not need this hack. However, if you, like many of us, purchased a base model MacBook Air—especially when Apple still started the machines off at 256GB—you'll want to consider an external SSD.
Having extra storage is always helpful, but that's not the motivation behind this hack. By adding an SSD to your setup, you sharply reduce the chance of pushing your MacBook Air's storage to its limits, which, in turn, helps it run better. Like all computers, your MacBook Air needs a certain amount of accessible storage space to operate properly. If your MacBook has limited RAM as well, it'll tap into the SSD for "swap." The closer you get to a full drive, the greater the chance for slowdowns or crashes.
Due to the global demand for memory and storage, external SSDs are more expensive than they used to be, but you can still find good deals out there to upgrade your setup. Take this 2TB option from Seagate, for example. For $145, you can potentially octuple your MacBook Air's available storage, ensuring it has the free space on the internal drive it needs for optimal performance.
MacBook Airs released in 2022 and later support power adapters up to 140W, but yours might have shipped with a power adapter as wimpy as 30W. If your MacBook spends most of its life on the charger, that might be just fine. But if you're frequently on the go and you need to charge up as fast as possible, you're going to want a power adapter as close to 140W as possible. Take note of the cable itself, too: If you want to take advantage of fast charging on your MacBook Air, you'll need a MagSafe 3 cable or a USB-C charging cable. (As it happens, not all USB-C cables are created equal. For more information, check out Lifehacker's explainer on USB-C charging cables.)
Most of our discussions around batteries concern ways to make day-to-day charges last longer, but equally important is how to stretch the lifecycle of the battery itself. The lithium-ion batteries that most of our devices now use age over time, and, as they do, they lose their capacity to hold a charge. A three-year-old battery that has been frequently recharged won't last as long after being charged to 100% as it did when it was new. Slowing down that aging process can keep your MacBook Air's battery from losing its overall capacity too quickly.
There's no way to prevent battery aging entirely, but you can slow down aging by reducing the number of charging cycles you put the battery through. One of the easiest ways to do that is to set a limit to how charged the battery gets while connected to power, which prevents it from overcharging when you don't need that extra juice. Your MacBook Air tries to do this on its own through a feature called "Optimized Battery Charging," which analyzes how you use your computer to set charge limits accordingly. You can bypass these automated processes and set your own charge limit. That way, you can choose to cap charging at 80% all the time, so that no matter how long your MacBook sits on the charger, it almost never breaks 80%—except for the occasional charge to 100% for "accurate battery state-of-charge estimates."
But that's getting a bit in the weeds. The point is, you can set charge limits for anywhere from 80% to 95% to prevent your Mac's battery from charging when you don't want it to. Here's how: Open System Settings, then choose Battery. Here, click the (i) next to "Charging," then adjust the slider next to "Charge Limit."
Copy and paste is pretty straightforward: You highlight something, copy it, then paste it somewhere else. If you spend a lot of time on your MacBook copying and pasting, however, you know it can get tedious to jump back and forth every time you want to copy something new. Enter: clipboard managers. These tools are essential for frequent copy and pasters, as they save a history of everything you copy on your Mac. When you need to retrieve something, you pull up the clipboard manager, click the item in question, then paste it, eliminating the need to switch between windows all day long.
My clipboard manager is essential, and I've been using one for the past decade or longer. While you had to go third-party for years on Mac, Apple tried to implement its own clipboard manager with macOS 26 by embedding a Clipboard menu in Spotlight. I tried to replace my third-party clipboard manager with this native solution, but, in my view, it's too cumbersome and limiting. There are plenty of options out there, but my go-to is CopyClip. It's free and lives in your menu bar, so your entire clipboard history is accessible from anywhere in macOS.
On the flip side, a window manager has been indispensable for me when working across multiple windows at once. If you use windows side-by-side on your Mac, you should never drag and drop your windows again—a good window manager will let you quickly snap windows into place with keyboard shortcuts. I frequently use this tactic when writing: I snap my editor on one half of the screen, and my sources on the right. If you have a large enough screen, you might even want windows in thirds—I imagine having my chat apps on the third pane would be quite useful as well.
Again, for years you had to pick a third-party app to get these features on macOS. But in recent years, Apple also added a new window management system to the mix. You can now hover over the green button on any window to reveal quick resizing options, but you should definitely use the keyboard shortcuts instead. It definitely works better than Spotlight's clipboard manager, and I encourage you to give it a try if you've never used a window manager before.
But, again, I still prefer third-party here. I find the keyboard shortcuts a bit glitchy at times, and some app shortcuts override the macOS shortcuts, so you end up doing things you don't mean to. There are plenty of options to try, but I've used Magnet for years. It costs $4.99, but I've certainly gotten my money's worth, and it's definitely the option for anyone who needs more options than macOS' built-in solution can offer—like window thirds. Before you commit, however, give the built-in shortcuts a try, and see if you like moving windows around with your keyboard.
One of the first things most of us do when setting up a new computer is download a third-party browser. Chrome is the world's most popular option, so perhaps that's your go-to as well, but I'd argue that you should give Safari a chance. Apple's browser comes with some great built-in privacy tools, including tracker blocking and preventing extensions from accessing your browsing history. If you have an iCloud+ subscription, you can use iCloud Private Relay to shield your MacBook's IP address from sites as you browse. I also find Safari much more efficient than alternatives like Chrome, so it ends up draining my battery less. I have to use a few different browsers in my line of work, but in my personal use, I'm almost always using Safari.
The internet runs on ads, but that doesn't mean you need to live with that. I'm all for supporting websites that rely on ads for financial support, but that doesn't extend to every corner of the web. There are way too many obnoxious and malicious adverts out there, pining for your clicks, that I find it nearly impossible to browse the internet without an ad blocker in place. Even the FBI recommends using these tools to keep yourself safe online.
Safari plus an ad blocker is an excellent combination. While options used to be limited, there are plenty of choices these days, including a version of uBlock Origin—though I've been using AdGuard for some time. I'd recommend whitelisting the sites you'd like to support with ads, though some may prompt you to do so themselves. (Most will let you continue reading while using your ad blocker, but some might deny access until you disable it.)
This is one of my favorite features Apple has added in recent years. If you frequently take video calls on your Mac, either for work or via FaceTime, Voice Isolation is a must. It reduces background noise and focuses on your words, so that others on the call hear your voice, rather than your dog, kids, or the people chatting away in the coffee shop. It works well, too, at least in my experience. My dog has decided to start screaming at a passing car while I'm on a call, only for me to be met with confused looks when I apologize for the disruption. "Oh, really? I didn't hear anything."
To turn Voice Isolation on, open a video calling app like FaceTime to activate your MacBook's camera. Then, click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar. Here, you'll find all your system-level video call controls, including "Mic Mode" at the bottom. Click this, then choose "Voice Isolation." (You'll also see "Wide Spectrum," which does the opposite, by emphasizing all noise that hits the microphone.) This feature is available on iPhone and iPad as well, so I highly recommend enabling it on those devices as well.
While you're at it, I strongly suggest disabling "Reactions," if enabled. Someone at Apple thought it'd be fun to roll out animated reactions tied to specific gestures for video calls: holding your thumb up displays a 3D graphic of a thumb up emoji in a thought bubble above your head; holding up a peace sign sends balloons rising up from the bottom of the screen. There are a number of these reactions available, and some may enjoy using them. The issue, however, is they apply not just to FaceTime, but to all video calling apps on your Mac. That means if macOS thinks you're holding two thumbs up, it's going to start shooting out fireworks, whether you're on a FaceTime call with a friend, or a Teams call with your boss. Save yourself some future headaches, and disable this feature now.
On macOS, you get three fingerprint scans for Touch ID. That might be plenty for most, but there is a hidden way to double the number of scans you can make. This goes back to the days when Touch ID was standard on iPhone, before Face ID took over. Apple's fingerprint scanning system seems to still support it on Mac.
First, open System Settings, then choose "Touch ID & Password" from the menu. Under Touch ID, choose "Add Fingerprint." Once the scanner pops up, scan two of your fingers instead of just one. Place one finger on the scanner, lift it when macOS tells you to, then place the second finger down, and repeat. Once the scan completes, you'll have two fingerprints stored on one entry. Do this for all three entries, and you'll be able to unlock your Mac with up to six of your fingers.
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As heat waves get more common, it’s important not only to stay cool for comfort, but to actively avoid heat exhaustion—and its more serious cousin, heat stroke. Knowing the signs of both can help keep you and your friends and family safe.
Heat stroke is a serious condition that can result in seizures, organ failure, and more. Before you get heat stroke, you’ll experience a milder condition called heat exhaustion. Both conditions occur when the body overheats. Normally, our bodies try to cool us down by bringing hot blood from our core to the surface of the skin, where we radiate that heat into our environment. The evaporation that results from sweating also helps to cool our skin. We get into trouble when the environment is too hot or too humid for these mechanisms to cool us down.
Heat stroke in healthy people is often associated with exercise, since working out raises your core temperature. This is especially the case if you’re not very fit, or if you’re used to working out in cooler weather. As you get used to exercising in the heat, your body learns how to cool itself more efficiently.
Things that increase the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke include:
Exercising in high temperatures and humidity
Poor fitness
Being large (regardless of your body type—having a lot of fat or a lot of muscle both affect your ability to cool down)
Dehydration
Wearing or carrying gear, like football pads or a hiking pack
Drinking alcohol
Using certain medications or supplements, including beta blockers and diuretics (check the information that came with your meds)
Any disability or illness that makes it harder for you to get out of the heat or to cool yourself
Heat exhaustion occurs when your core body temperature is elevated, but not enough to involve your brain. If you or an overheated friend shows any sign of being confused, for example, assume it’s heat stroke and get medical help right away.
Signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion may include, according to the CDC:
Dizziness
Nausea and vomiting
Headache
Fatigue or weakness
Heavy sweating
Cold, pale, and clammy skin
A fast, weak pulse
If you begin to feel these symptoms, start cooling yourself down right away: move to the shade or air conditioning, loosen your clothing, have a cold drink, and keep watch for any signs that you’re feeling worse or not getting better. If you haven’t recovered within an hour, seek medical help.
Heat stroke occurs when the body’s temperature is extremely high (over 104, taken rectally) and can affect the brain as well as the body. The person with heat stroke may be too confused to realize they are in danger, so it's critical to watch out for signs of the illness in other people.
Heat stroke is a serious condition, so if you suspect it, get medical help right away. If you’re at an event with medical staff (like if you’re running a marathon or playing in a football game), alert them. Otherwise, call 911 or the emergency number for your area. Signs of heat stroke can include some of the symptoms above, like headache, dizziness, and nausea, plus:
Confusion, irritability, or hallucination
Passing out or collapsing
Trouble walking
Seizures
Reddened skin, with or without sweating
You can help the person cool down while you wait for help. Medical staff may decide it’s best to cool the person down before transporting them to a hospital, but that depends on whether the person needs other medical treatment. The ideal way to cool down a person with heat stroke is to put them in a tub of cold water with ice, and stir the water constantly.
If that’s not possible, a cold shower or a cold hose can work, or apply ice cold wet towels to the person’s body. Swap them out every three minutes, or whenever they stop being icy cold.
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When Samsung’s "The Frame" TV first dropped, it pioneered the concept of the “art TV,” making it a smart lifestyle option for anyone who doesn't want a TV to dominate their decor when not in use. Over the years, Samsung has evolved the concept to include a QLED screen, AI processor technology, and thinner displays that make the "it's not a TV, it's art" illusion even more convincing. And right now is a great time to buy one: The 55-inch model from 2025 is marked down by $400, to $697.99—a 36% discount and the lowest price we’ve seen on this model.
Unlike a traditional TV, The Frame is designed to blend in. When you’re not watching TV, it switches into Art Mode, showcasing artwork or your own photos on a matte, anti-glare screen that looks surprisingly close to a real canvas. It also includes Samsung’s Slim Fit wall mount, so it sits nearly flush against the wall like framed artwork, rather than sticking out like a standard TV.
The 2025 model features Samsung’s NQ4 AI Gen2 Processor and comes with new Vision AI features for improved picture optimization and better content recommendations. It isn't Samsung’s flagship Mini-LED model, but it has fantastic QLED picture quality, with a brighter panel than previous models and strong HDR performance. It’s also a reliable choice for gamers, supporting 4K gaming at up to 144Hz with VRR.
Keep in mind that the set doesn’t come with the customizable bezels that create the framed look (they’re sold separately), and you’ll need a paid Samsung Art Store subscription to unlock the full artwork library. As with every The Frame TV, part of what you’re paying for is the design. While this normally comes at a steep premium, the $400 discount makes it easier to recommend. (That said, if your main priority is the best possible picture quality for the money, you may want to opt for something in Samsung’s Neo QLED lineup.)
Mac users can now call on Google's agentic AI, Gemini Spark, to automate tasks on their desktop and bridge the gap between Google Workspace and their local apps and files. But you should still be cautious when granting Gemini access to your data and workflows, as AI agents can introduce security risks.
Google first announced Spark at I/O 2026 back in May, promising a rollout to the Gemini macOS app at some point this summer. That time has come—the AI agent is now available in beta for Google AI Ultra subscribers on macOS in the U.S. Google has said users will also be able to run Gemini Spark tasks on desktop remotely from their phones, though that functionality is not live yet.
Spark turns Gemini into a personal AI agent that can complete multi-step tasks based on your requirements, even if your device is turned off. When given access to desktop files and apps, it can, for example, sort downloaded PDFs into specific folders or create a budget in Sheets using invoices saved to your computer and update that worksheet on a regular schedule.
Google is also launching integrations with Tasks and Keep as well as apps like Canva, Dropbox, Instacart, OpenTable, and Zillow Rentals, so Gemini Spark could theoretically translate notes into action items, share files, submit your weekly grocery order, or make a dinner reservation. These will be available on web and mobile first, with a rollout planned for macOS "in the coming weeks."
Google has emphasized that Gemini Spark works on your commands: It only has access to the files and apps you permit it to use, and it won't spend money or take other high-stakes actions without your consent. However, handing control over to AI isn't without risk, and you should proceed with caution when allowing Spark (or any other AI agent) to read your files and act on your behalf. At the very least, an AI agent could share sensitive information or send a message you wish it hadn't.
One known security risk is a prompt injection attack, in which hackers trick AI into following their malicious instructions instead of your legitimate ones. When agentic AI acts autonomously without user approval, there's no safeguard against data being shared, malware being downloaded, or a fraudulent purchase being made. If you're going to let Gemini Spark or another AI agent take action on your behalf, you should limit what it can access, require manual review for certain tasks, and enable multi-factor authentication on connected accounts to minimize the risk from threat actors.
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Raise a glass, America. It’s the Fourth of July—and not just any Fourth, but the 250th anniversay of Independence Day. Why not celebrate with an over-the-top, ultra-violent action spectacular exhibiting the can-explode spirit of the country we all ostensibly love?
Patriotism means a lot of things to a lot of people, and these movies, bless 'em, all at least try to exemplify shining American ideals, if with mixed results and some, uh, different ideas about what it means to love your country. They all do have at least one thing in common: explosions. Lots of ‘em. Wherever these films sit on the American political spectrum, they are all pretty much aligned on the idea that rugged individualism should be backed by heavy firepower. These are movies that don’t just say “America!” They say, “America? Fuck yeah!”
In the pantheon of cool movie presidents, Harrison Ford’s James Marshall stands tall. There’s a pretty solid setup here: No sooner has Marshall stated, publicly and unequivocally, that the U.S. government will not negotiate with terrorists than a group of terrorists takes control of Air Force One and threatens the resulting hostages, including the First Family. The baddies think the president has been ejected from the craft, but he’s actually hiding in the cargo hold, and there’s only one thing for him to do: get them off his plane! (It’s no way to pick a president, but I’d probably vote for him.) Rent Air Force One from Prime Video.
John Wayne, best known for his work as an actor and as a World War II draft dodger, sat in the director's chair for this one—a film he passionately set out to create to counter the anti-war sentiments of the lily-livered cowards becoming increasingly disenchanted with America's role in Vietnam. David Janssen plays a reporter with concerns about the conflict, at least until he's embedded with Wayne's fictional Colonel Beckworth. At that point, we journey with them into the heart of the Vietnam War and learn that the conflict isn't complicated at all. It is, rather, a Starship Troopers-style fight between goodies (Americans) and baddies (Vietnamese commies led by a young, distinctly not Vietnamese, George Takei). The baddies don't deserve our mercy, nor due process, so best just to shoot them a lot. The movie did decent business but was almost universally panned. Rent The Green Berets from Prime Video.
Stupid aliens. Are you really going to blow up the White House just a couple of days shy of the Fourth of July and think America is going to let that slide? The aliens certainly didn’t count on a cross-section of American rebels, including Marine pilot Will Smith, Gulf War vet President Bill Pullman, tech guy Jeff Goldblum, alcoholic crank Randy Quaid, and Star Trek’s Mr. Data, standing up to defend our freedom to deliver cheesy one-liners. This thing was such a huge hit, it kicked off a major disaster movie resurgence in the mid 1990s, but none could top it for fun and sheer spectacle. (That includes the 20 years later sequel, minus Will Smith.) Stream Independence Day on Hulu.
The sometimes-great Antoine Fuqua directs this slightly cheap-looking spin on Die Hard in the White House, with Gerard Butler playing a disgraced former Secret Service agent who becomes the only one who can save the president (and the country) from the terrorists. A great cast (Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, and Angela Bassett) elevates this violent, middling, but perfectly entertaining action thriller. Stream Olympus Has Fallen on Prime Video.
Anyone old enough to remember the Iraq War of the aughts knows one thing: It was an entirely uncomplicated conflict involving a noble American administration putting an end to an imminent and entirely real threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). To tell this story, director Clint Eastwood naturally selected the memoir of Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle, a decorated soldier who wasn't quite as decorated as he always claimed, and whose unprovable or easily disprovable stories (including one about saving New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina by summarily executing dozens of looters) caused legal headaches for his publishers. The Iraq portion of the film opens with Kyle (Bradley Cooper) shooting a woman and her small child in order to stop them from lobbing grenades at fellow soldiers; he feels bad about it, which is approximately as nuanced as Sniper gets in its good vs. evil take on the war—even if the movie makes a strong case for the damaging physical and psychological toll of the war on the soldiers fighting it. Rent American Sniper from Prime Video.
The USS Missouri (the third U.S. Navy ship with the name) had a long and illustrious career before being towed to Pearl Harbor and made into a memorial. It’s also held a prominent (if eclectic) place in pop culture: among other appearances, it was featured prominently in the 2012 film Battleship (more on that one shortly) and was also the setting for Cher’s slightly risqué video for “If I Could Turn Back Time.” But it probably got the most screen time in this 1992 Steven Seagal vehicle. Mirroring the ship’s real history, President George H.W. Bush decommissions the ship (true) just in time for terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey to seize it for nefarious purposes (less true). Only Seagal, playing the ship’s plucky cook, can stop them (very untrue). Stream Under Siege on Prime Video.
Maybe a bit of fascism, for a treat. Walter Huston plays the charming, wildly ineffective President Judd Hammond—he's more than content to coast along in his job without doing much to help a country in the grip of a Great Depression. That all changes when he crashes his car and, maybe, chats with an actual angel on his deathbed. The angel's apparent message: Take the bull by the horns, buddy, and get this country in order! He dismisses his cabinet, adjourns Congress, has a gangster summarily executed, and threatens to send the United States military to attack every nation on the globe unless they...do peace, or something. The movie is clear that we ought to see Hammond as a genial, but wise and clear-eyed father figure; he's going to do whatever it takes to drain that swamp and he's going to do it with the full support of a grateful nation, Jesus, and assorted angels. Rent Gabriel Over the White House from Prime Video.
Given that images of the modern White House involve large swaths of literal rubble, the title here takes on an added poignance—but let's travel back to a more innocent time, shall we? Director Roland Emmerich makes his second appearance on this list, and it won’t be his last. Following efforts by the president (Jamie Foxx) to make peace in the Middle East, a cabal of white supremacists lead by James Woods launches an attack on the Capitol building (if you can imagine) that sends D.C. into lockdown. Luckily, Marine vet, Capitol police officer, and tank-top all-star Channing Tatum is on hand when Woods and company attempt to kidnap the President and take over the White House in order to start a nuclear war with Iran for revenge or something. It’s a very solid action movie, but we didn’t come here for the plot: we came for explosions and Channing Tatum’s ever-shrinking wardrobe. Stream White House Down on Hulu or rent it from Prime Video.
Yes, technically Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Guile works for the “Allied Nations” rather than the U.S. Air Force (as in the video games) and, yes, he goes through the movie with a borderline impenetrable Belgian accent. Still, by the time the camera goes in for a close-up on his American flag-tatted bicep during the climactic fight with Raul Julia, it’s clear that Guile is 100% the real American hero. Rent Street Fighter from Prime Video.
American Olympian Kurt Thomas stars in this 1985 film from director Robert Clouse, best known for helming Enter the Dragon. Thomas plays Jonathan Cabot, tasked by American intelligence with infiltrating the secluded nation of Parmistan. The country holds what they call "the Game" every year, and the winner gets a wish. The Americans are hoping that Cabot can enter and win, at which point he will be granted his heart's desire: a U.S. satellite monitoring station in Parmistanian territory. To aid him, he'll be trained in the unstoppable martial arts skill of gymkata ("The thrill of gymnastics! The kill of karate!"), which he'll need to defeat anti-American terrorists, win the heart of the country's princess, and get us the satellite monitoring station we've always dreamed of. Rent Gymkata from Prime Video.
You might not have imagined the relatively simple setup of the beloved Hasbro tabletop game would provide enough fodder for a movie. And you’d be absolutely right—they really had to start more or less from scratch in order to tease an alien-centric plot out of the alien-free strategy guessing game. While Taylor Kitsch is assigned to the USS John Paul Jones, and Alexander Skarsgård commands the Sampson, alien spacecraft from “Planet G” threaten the world, but specifically the water around Oahu. There’s a nod to the mechanics of the game when joint Japanese and American forces realize that they can track the invading warships using tsunami warning buoys, but mostly it’s all an excuse for some Transformers-esque naval action. Stream Battleship on Prime Video.
Rocky and Rambo, two beloved Sylvester Stallone-fronted franchises, had similar trajectories: Each begins on a relatively sensitive and thoughtful note, but, by the gung-ho Reagan mid-1980s, has thrown subtlety out the window. The entry point in what became the Rambo series, First Blood, nodded toward dealing Vietnam-era post-traumatic stress, while the second sent Rambo after forgotten POWs. Number three sends him off to Afghanistan to rescue an old friend, and in doing so takes a definite side in the long-running conflict between the Soviet Union and Afghan Mujahideen rebels, cutting a swath through Soviet forces with a machine gun and a rocket launcher and generating a record-breaking body count (literally! Guinness named it the most violent film ever made in 1990). This wasn’t just a fantasy—supporting Afghan militant groups was a centerpiece of U.S. anti-Soviet planning for over a decade; in a sense, this is Stallone bringing dry government policy to life for children who act out American imperialism via toys, comic books, and video games based on the movie. (And, yes, OK, many of those Afghan militants went on to form the core of what became the Taliban—so that element hasn’t aged very well. But the bit where Rambo blows up a helicopter with a bow and arrow is timeless, so it all evens out. Right?) Stream Rambo III on Peacock or rent it from Prime Video.
James Stewart plays Jefferson Smith, a newly appointed senator whose naïveté begins as a weakness, and then becomes the bedrock for the ideals that keep him from becoming yet another grafting politician. It might seem churlish to include this sweet, inspirational comedy-drama alongside movies like Rambo, but Mr. Smith Goes to Washington's central conceit—that one good ol' fashioned American man could clean up the whole crooked system by standing up for his beliefs—seems less like a charming ideal and more like a depressing reminder that it's nearly impossible to get anything done around here. Rent Mr. Smith Goes to Washington from Prime Video.
The initial Rocky movies all work on different levels, but by the third, the formula was getting tired, and so the fourth took a gamble by going over the top (not to be confused with Over the Top) patriotic, and it paid off in a big way, earning the biggest box office of the series yet. After boxer Ivan Drago (future movie He-Man Dolph Lundgren) literally kills Apollo Creed with the entire Soviet Union behind him, rugged individualist Rocky goes rogue, getting Drago to agree to an unsanctioned match in the USSR. It’s all laid out via an all-time great, utterly memorable training montage: while Drago has a whole team, modern equipment, and the best steroids communism had on offer, Rocky does it the good old-fashioned way: by chopping down trees and pretending to be a doggie pulling Paulie around on a sled. Like a fuckin’ man. Without giving too much away, the ending sees Rocky winning over the Soviet audience and earning the applause of Premier Mikhail Gorbachev himself. And that’s the story of the fall of communism. Stream Rocky IV on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video.
As a couple of Rocky movies taught us, the best way to defeat the Soviet Union and the perfidious threat of communism is through sports. (Given the choice between sports and global thermonuclear war...yeah, let’s do sports.) Miracle tells the roughly true story of the victory that came to be known as the “Miracle on Ice,” when Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and the United States men’s ice hockey team defeated the heavily, heavily favored Soviet team at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, thus ending the Cold War forever and ushering in a lasting era of peace with the USSR. The movie breaks zero new ground when it comes to inspirational sports-movie tropes, but it’s effectively nostalgic and inspirational. Stream Miracle on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video.
Developed at the same time Rambo: First Blood Part II, Missing in Action was probably the second most successful movie of the 1980s to explore concerns of POWs and MIAs potentially remaining in Southeast Asia (though these weren’t the only two). Here, Chuck Norris goes to Vietnam to investigate reports of U.S. soldiers remaining in captivity in Vietnam. He finds them, and then fights his way out. Resolving the fates of missing service members was a major issue in the 1980s (and rightly so), but it’s unclear whether these popular action spectaculars helped raise awareness or just satisfied a thirst for retribution. Stream Missing in Action on MGM+ or buy it from Prime Video.
Like any action franchise worth its mettle, the Die Hard movies get bigger, louder, and more preposterous as they go—and that’s certainly true for Live Free or Die Hard, in which ordinary ex-cop John McClane enters superhero territory. But it actually represents a fair balance between the earlier, (slightly) more grounded movies, and the way-over-the-top (and fairly terrible) fifth entry. In this one, America’s entire cyber-infrastructure is at risk from a vengeful Timothy Olyphant, and since the villain has control of the computers, McClane will have to stop him the old-fashioned way, with guns and such. This one gets a middling score on the “Rah Rah America!” scale, but a million extra points for the very excellent titular pun. Stream Live Free or Die Hard on Hulu.
Despite being incredibly on-the-nose as a metaphor for American military might, Captain America is pretty cool. Not quite as cool in the movies as the comic book version, who kicked off his career by socking Hitler square in the jaw, but there’s still enough Nazi-fighting action to cheer for. Given the largely don't-rock-the-boat tone of the MCU, that's about as good as it gets. Stream Captain America: The First Avenger on Disney+ and Hulu or rent it from Prime Video.
This sprawling, slightly goofy epic goes big in every regard: five directors, a giant ensemble of big Hollywood names (Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, etc.) and a three-lens Cinerama filming process meant to be projected onto an enormous curved screen. It's also epic in timespan, starting in 1839 and continuing over the ensuing half-century. It's a fun but entirely unsophisticated take on American westward expansion, posing the process as a series of family-friendly challenges and setbacks for white settlers, rather than a murky, complicated, and violent series of conquests of indigenous peoples. Rent How the West Was Won from Prime Video.
The apex of the “Communists are coming to get us!” action sub-genre, Red Dawn was such a cult classic that it even scored a post-Soviet remake involving an invasion by North Korea. The original operates from a relatively simple “Rambo, but with teenagers” setup—it’s the perfect suburban fantasy, both timeless and very 1980s. A foreign army has invaded, the government has collapsed, and only you and your friends can stop them! It’s all done with incredible self-seriousness, which only helps to sell the concept (and heighten the cheese factor). Stream Red Dawn on AMC+.
This Chuck Norris vehicle begins with a fake-out: a boatload of Cuban refugees (or “refugees”) is met by a welcoming American Coast Guard… except that it’s not the Coast Guard, it’s Latin American communists, who kill them for the coke that they were smuggling. Once on the mainland, the guerrillas team up with Soviet operatives to plan attacks throughout America (because: reasons). Naturally, when they blow up Chuck Norris’ house, they learn they’ve picked on the wrong guy. Norris intended this as a message movie about a real and present threat, but I’m not convinced that the politics and social messages are ever the reasons to watch a Chuck Norris movie. Stream Invasion U.S.A. on Prime Video.
For generations, members of Benjamin Franklin Gates’ family have passed down a secret—apparently there’s a massive treasure that the spendthrift businessmen who ran the country circa 1776 decided to sock away, a fact revealed to an ancestor of (real life) founder Charles Carroll. (This accumulated wealth, we’re assured, was passed down from ancient empires and had absolutely nothing to do with the 1,000 or so enslaved people Carroll kept to do his work for him). Historian Ben, played by true national treasure Nicholas Cage, realizes that there’s a treasure map of sorts printed on the back of the Declaration of Independence! Which he’ll have to steal! It’s an action-packed tour through something that loosely resembles American history. Stream National Treasure on Hulu or rent it from Prime Video.
We love Spartans. Love ‘em! There’s even a name for it: laconophilia. So, even though Zach Snyder’s 300 (based on the Frank Miller/Lynn Varley graphic novel) is set over 2,000 years before the founding of the United States, it works as a distinctly American, pro-Western fantasy of righteous battle to the last. Delivered smack dab in the middle of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s hard not to see the movie’s east vs. west themes as allegorical. In real life (perhaps surprisingly), it was the Spartan constitution and blended government that most influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution, not the baby oiled pecs: that ancient nation generally had two kings, one to balance the power of the other; the kings ruled mostly in military matters, while a national assembly and two elected legislative bodies made all of the day-to-day decisions and generally could overrule one or both kings. Today, though, we mostly love how they’re in really good shape and won’t let anyone take their weapons. Rent 300 from Prime Video.
In real life and in the movies, the TOPGUN program for Navy pilots is for the best of the best, and, presumably, those who feel the need for speed. Though highly, highly fictionalized, the film does pay tribute to naval aviators in its story of “Maverick” (Tom Cruise) going through training and making time with flight instructor Kelly McGillis (and his sweaty fellow pilots). Not only a fun Fourth of July flick, but a reasonably good lead-in to the long gestating, disappointingly less gay, but Best Picture-nominated(!) sequel. Stream Top Gun on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video.
With tongue in cheek, Quentin Tarantino constructs a violent alternate history fantasy about competing plots to kill Hitler. Tarantino films come with a level of prestige (and star power) that the pictures he’s paying homage to can’t compete with, but there are still hints of exploitation classics that imagined righteous victories when the real-life circumstances were a bit more complex. Here, a Jewish team of American soldiers stalks the Führer, leading to a surprising climax. Stream Inglorious Basterds on Peacock.
One of the defining figures in 1980s American-style action was, weirdly, an Austrian bodybuilder. Yes, before he proved his American bona fides by becoming the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger frequently portrayed superheroic American soldiers. And also Conan. Here, he plays a retired Special Forces Colonel whose daughter is kidnapped by a Latin American dictator, improbably played by Dan Hedaya. It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Hedaya’s President Arius will come to regret it. Rent Commando from Prime Video.
Horror’s hardest-working hack (said affectionately), the great (occasionally) Larry Cohen scripted this Fourth of July slasher, making a play at filling a horror niche by creating a memorable villain around a holiday largely neglected by horror. For a good ten or twenty minutes, this story of an American soldier in Kuwait killed by friendly fire who returns to wreak vengeance seems like it’s going to lean heavily into anti-war and anti-militarism themes. But that’s all pretty quickly forgotten as our murderous Master Sergeant takes to killing anyone and everyone, regardless of their beliefs or political affiliations. Stream Uncle Sam on Prime Video, Tubi, and Shudder.
Roland Emmerich’s career tends to veer between action spectaculars (Independence Day) and slightly more thoughtful movies (the Shakespeare drama Anonymous). The Patriot sort of splits the difference, taking an emotive action-movie approach to the Revolutionary War—Mel Gibson’s fictional Benjamin Martin is drawn into the fight against the British, forming a guerrilla unit to try to get back his captured son. The film rather gleefully dances around ugly historical realities, including in making egalitarians out of slaveholders, but no more than the typical American history textbook. The key moment here might be the sequence in which Benjamin uses a flag as an actual weapon, ultimately impaling a horse on a flagpole (it's a British horse, so therefore this is fine). Rent The Patriot from Prime Video.
No, we didn’t do this one already: This is a 1952 Red Scare movie par excellence, unrelated to the Chuck Norris movie, even though they share a communist invasion leitmotif. Here, a group of weenies at a bar are all debating the reasons why they wouldn’t sign up to fight the commies: a manufacturer figures that tractors are more lucrative than tanks; a cattle baron complains about his high taxes; a fashion model moans about war work having ruined her hands. Well let me tell you, comrade, they’re all in for a pretty big surprise when the TV informs them that Alaska’s just been nuked by the Russkies. Rent Invasion, U.S.A. from Prime Video.
Not nearly as successful nor as well-remembered as the Transformers animated movie released around the same time, the G.I. Joe movie involves the team in a battle against the precursor to Cobra, the ancient race of serpent people known as Cobra-la, and their new leader, Golobulus. Rather than keeping track of any of that, you can probably just watch the opening sequence (possibly responsible for making me gay): a celebration of American fighting men (and one woman!) that blends bazookas, glitter, aerial acrobatics, and extended taint shots in a musical extravaganza unrivaled, in my opinion, in the history of patriotic cinema. Stream G.I. Joe: The Movie on Prime Video.
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As reported by 404 Media's Joseph Cox, Hide My Email has a vulnerability that can expose the email addresses behind Hide My Email's aliases. The details here are slim, and that's by design: This is an active security vulnerability, and revealing too much could spread the exploit even further. But according to Tyler Murphy, co-founder of EasyOptOuts, "almost anyone" can tap into this vulnerability to learn the real email address behind any Hide My Email proxy.
If you're not aware of how Hide My Email works, here's a quick rundown: Let's say your email address is yourname@gmail.com. When you sign up for a new account somewhere, Hide My Email can generate an "alias" for you. In this case, we can pretend the feature came up with sizzle_lax_3y@icloud.com (they almost always look something like this). You sign up for the new account with that alias, rather than your real email address, and all emails to that alias automatically funnel to your legitimate inbox. Functionally, it's like you gave the company your real address. But should you need to sever ties with the company, you can simply kill the alias, and your real email address remains anonymous.
The issue here is that through “free, publicly accessible people-search sites," bad actors can figure out what your real email address is through the alias. Cox says they tested the findings with Murphy. They sent Murphy one of their Hide My Email aliases, and within five minutes, Murphy replied with Cox's actual email address. While Murphy says tests have been limited, the exploit has worked on every alias he's tried. That doesn't bode well for Hide My Emial's security.
What's more, Apple has apparently known about the flaw since June of 2025. Murphy says he contacted the company about the vulnerability more than a year ago. Apple did respond a month later, confirming it was looking into the problem. Then in March of 2026, Apple replied, announcing it had patched the flaw.
Seeing as it's currently July, that clearly wasn't the case. Murphy contacted Apple again to let them know Hide My Email still had this vulnerability. Apple responded that it was again looking into it, and confirmed as recently as May that the investigation is ongoing. Apple did ask Murphy not to disclose the issue until it had patched it, to avoid putting customers at risk. But Murphy said he didn't feel comfortable letting users continue to rely on Hide My Email without knowing about the risks.
This story comes just weeks after TechCrunch reported that Apple was changing Hide My Email for the worse. According to the report, Apple plans to change the domain of Hide My Email aliases from @icloud.com to @private.icloud.com. This significantly reduces the effectiveness of the feature, as it lets everyone know you're using an alias. As it stands now, aliases are indistinguishable from typical iCloud email addresses (perhaps other than the odd names), because the domains are the same. By labeling alias domains with "private," humans and bots alike will know this isn't your real address, and may block your aliases when creating accounts.
Apple hasn't actually rolled out these changes yet, but any way you look at it, Hide My Email is having a bad month. I'm not going to overhaul my entire workflow based on these reports just yet, but I do hope Apple takes appropriate action and patches the flaw as soon as possible. (And, for good measure, drops its plans to change Hide My Email domains.)
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The second generation Google Nest Cam (indoor, wired) is down to $64.99 at Woot, down from its usual $99.99—making this its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. For context, Amazon is still selling the same camera for $99.99. This deal is expected to run for the next 10 days or until stock runs out, with free shipping for Prime members, while non-Prime shoppers pay a $6 shipping fee. It fits neatly into Google’s smart home setup–and if you have a Nest Hub, you can ask Google Assistant to show the live feed on the screen. If your home already revolves around Google Assistant or Google Home devices, this is one of the more straightforward indoor security cameras to add to the mix.
PCMag gave the Nest Cam an "excellent" rating, highlighting its sharp video quality and intelligent alerts—it records in 1080p with HDR, giving you clear footage during the day and better contrast in tricky lighting, while infrared night vision takes over automatically after dark. Its 135-degree field of view is also wide enough for most living rooms, entryways, nurseries, or playrooms, so you do not have to aim it too carefully or buy a second camera to cover the basics. More importantly, the camera can distinguish between people, animals, and vehicles, so you're less likely to receive notifications every time your pet wanders into view.
That said, without a Google Home Premium plan, you'll only have access to the previous three hours of recorded event history. Face recognition, one of the camera's more useful features, is also locked behind the subscription. Plans start at $10 per month or $100 annually for 30 days of event history, while the higher tier extends that to 60 days for $20 a month. The camera also won't fit neatly into every smart home—it doesn't support Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or IFTTT, so it's best suited to households that already use Google's ecosystem. If that's you, though, the Nest Cam remains one of the more polished indoor home security cameras available, and this discount makes it considerably easier to recommend than it is at full price.
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The Samsung HW-Q800F soundbar is down to $467.99 on Woot right now, which is a good chunk less than its $597.99 Amazon sale price, and the lowest price it’s ever gone for, according to price trackers. This offer is valid for four weeks or until it sells out, with free shipping for Prime members and a $6 fee for others. It comes with a 90-day Woot limited warranty, but the real appeal here is the performance: It’s a 5.1.2-channel system with Dolby Atmos support, meaning you get immersive audio, even without extra satellite speakers.
When it comes to performance, the Q800F feels most at home with TV and movies. The subwoofer has plenty of rumble for action-heavy scenes, while the dedicated center channel makes dialogue stand out even when everything else gets loud. That’s something a lot of cheaper soundbars miss, and it makes a big difference if you don’t want to ride the volume button during every show. Additionally, it plays nice with just about any device you throw at it—HDMI passthrough for 4K at 60Hz with HDR and Dolby Vision, plus Bluetooth, wifi, AirPlay, and Spotify Connect. If you’ve got a recent Samsung TV, you can even skip the HDMI cable altogether and stream Atmos wirelessly. Voice control is built in through Alexa; however, reportedly, connecting it to Google Assistant requires a little extra effort using Samsung’s app.
There are some trade-offs. The Q800F doesn’t offer HDMI 2.1 support or features like VRR, which limits its appeal if you’re chasing cutting-edge gaming specs. And Atmos performance, while present, doesn’t match that of the more expensive Q990F with dedicated satellites (the surround effect feels wider than a basic stereo bar, but not always fully convincing). Also, the bass can skew a little boomy, and there’s a dip in the mids that can thin out certain dialogue. Still, for a clean setup with powerful sound and strong format support, the Q800F offers a lot of the premium experience at mid-range price.
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I'm on my third summer of running in a long-sleeved sun shirt. I now enjoy my summer runs a lot more, and I spend a lot less on sunscreen. I even managed to snag a Rabbit UPF Deflector hoodie before they sold out last year, and it was worth every penny.
If you're not entirely sold on wearing long sleeves in the heat, I get it: At first, I wasn't either. I knew that other people ran in sun shirts, but I never thought running in one was for me. Instead, I coated my arms, neckline, and back in sunscreen, and cringed during my run as it mixed with sweat and turned into a gross, drippy slime. I sometimes missed a spot, and enjoyed patches of sunburn on my shoulder blades. It just comes with the summer running territory, right? Not if you wear a sun shirt!
I don't recall exactly why I bought my first one, but it was probably a "what the hell, this can't get any worse" kind of thing. It wasn’t a fancy one. Everybody on Reddit told me to get a particular Rabbit hoodie, but it wasn’t in stock when I needed it. Instead, I ended up getting this UPF 50+ rashguard from Amazon for under $30, and a second shirt I didn’t end up liking as much. I started wearing them on my runs. Two years later, here's what I've learned.
Sun shirts have one main job: They protect you from UV rays (doing the same job as sunscreen). The good ones also wick sweat, which can end up keeping you cooler than if you were running without the shirt.
When it comes to UV protection, sun shirts definitely work. Dermatologists, including those at the American Academy of Dermatology Association, actively recommend wearing sun-protective clothing, in addition to seeking shade and using sunscreen. When you’re out on a run, shade may not be an option, and you’ll still need some sunscreen to cover your face and hands. But when it comes to your torso and arms, a sun shirt offers significant advantages over slathering on sunscreen:
You can’t miss a spot, as you might when you’re trying to get sunscreen on the back of your arms and shoulders.
You don’t need to reapply (as much) sunscreen on long runs, which can feel nearly impossible when you’re sweaty.
You won’t have to deal with sunscreen sweating off or working its way across your skin (which is the main reason we need to reapply, anyway).
If you use a spray sunscreen like I sometimes do, you won't have to deal with its sticky feel, and the fact that you're supposed to rub it in anyway.
You’ll go through far less sunscreen each year—a pretty significant savings if you have sunburn-prone skin like me.
Aside from these objective points, the thing that really sold me on wearing one was that I hate the feeling of suncreen-and-sweat slime dripping down my arms. It's gross, it gets on everything, and I do not like it.
I wore a sun shirt for the first time during a sweltering heat wave. I try to run in the evening or morning when it’s cooler, but no matter the time of day, the humidity was ridiculous and the wet bulb temperature was oppressively high.
I put on the shirt for an evening run first, sunscreened only the parts of me that weren’t covered (face, hands, lower legs), and ventured out. On balance, I don’t think I was hotter or cooler than I would have been without the shirt, but the slime situation was much improved. The shirt also absorbed and (sort of) wicked away my sweat. On the one hand, that means I’m running in a damp shirt. On the other: no dripping.
Intrigued, I wore a shirt again for a sunnier morning run, and had a similar experience. In a real show of how much I trusted these things, I even wore a sun shirt the time I planned poorly and ended up having to do a midday run in 93-degree weather (don’t worry, I carried ice water and stayed safe); it worked well then too. On one of these runs, I noticed a light breeze, so I peeled off the shirt as I finished the run. The air on my skin felt nice and cooling, but it was more like a nice treat than a cause for me to regret that I'd been wearing the shirt in the first place.
I did have one further “aha” moment: On one of my runs, I noticed that the shirt was long enough that it bunched up a bit around my hips. That extra fabric wasn’t doing me any favors, so I got out a pair of scissors and cropped the shirt just below my waistline. Now I get a bit of a breeze on my torso, while still keeping my skin out of the sun.
The first year I wore sun shirts, I really did wear them for just about every run. These days, I've reached a compromise. On really humid days, the sun shirt soaks up sweat that never evaporates. (This is only an issue in humid climates, so if you live out west you'll pretty much always be cooler with the sun shirt on.) So if there's a day when staying cool is a higher priority than sun protection or sensory comfort, I run on shady trails in short sleeves, and leave the sun shirt at home.
Any clothing marketed to runners tends to be expensive, although to be fair, it’s often lighter weight or better quality than bargain-basement stuff. Still, you don’t have to only search for “running sun shirt.” Also consider looking for “long-sleeved wicking shirt,” “UPF shirt,” or even “rash guard” (a rash guard being a long sleeved shirt worn for surfing).
The ideal running sun shirt will have most or all of these features:
A UPF rating (like SPF, but for clothing) - the higher the number, the better.
Wicking or “cooling” fabric.
A high neck or even a hood, to protect your neck and/or head.
Thumb holes, which means longer sleeves, the better to protect your hands.
Lightweight fabric—beware the rashguards that are designed with thicker swimsuit-type fabric.
A moderately loose fit (although this is up to preference). If you normally buy from the women's section, consider the "men's" styles too—you might prefer the way they fit.
Sun protection experts tend to recommend colors that are dark (black, blue) or bright (red, yellow) rather than white or pastel. That’s because darker colors absorb more ultraviolet rays. Personally, I haven’t been able to convince myself to get a dark color when the shirts are available in white and pastels. Maybe black is more sun protective, but I’m worried it will be hotter. (This may be a “me” problem, so if you’re looking for good advice, listen to the dermatologists.)
After running all that first summer in sun shirts made for surfers, I finally picked up the aforementioned Rabbit hoodie. It cost a lot more—$70, versus $30 or less for the cheap ones I'd used the year before. The material on the Rabbit shirt is of a much lighter weight, and it has laser-cut holes at the armpits for venting. It also has a hood with a built-in visor (the better to cover your neck and the sides of your face) and, as a bonus, a zippered pocket at the side. I later got an REI Sahara Shade hoodie, which doesn't have those extra features but has a fabric so comfortable I sometimes just wear it around the house.
With all that in mind, here are some sun shirt options, in a variety of styles and price ranges, that fit the bill. If you aren’t totally sold yet, start with a cheaper one and see how you like it. You might just join me in the less-slimy runners club.
Discord is one of those apps that has helped kill off good ol' internet forums. If you look hard enough, you can find a Discord server for most any niche hobby, online course, or fandom of choice. I'd been aware of the app for a while, but I didn't join Discord myself until I found a server for my favorite iPhone game (Imbroglio, by Michael Brough), which is about as niche as it gets. Thanks to the tips I got from the kind people on this server, I was able to finish the incredibly difficult roguelike with all 16 characters.
Since then, I've used Discord regularly to follow more than a few of my hobbies and interests, including, but not limited to, motorsports, gaming, fountain pens, and studying Japanese. In this time, I've discovered a few tips and tricks to make the experience better, and I've collected the best of them below.
Like every free service out there, Discord shows ads to make money. By default, it uses your Discord activity to personalize some of these ads, and you can disable that to protect your privacy. Click the gear icon in the Discord app to open settings. Go to Data & Privacy > How Discord Uses Your Data, and disable "Use my Discord activity to personalize Sponsored Content." This will also automatically disable the option right below it, which is called "Use third-party data to personalize Sponsored Content." Both these options stop Discord from using your data for ads. While you're at it, you should also disable Use data to improve Discord and Use data to personalize my Discord experience. Both options are located on the same settings page.
Discord has a feature called Clips, which allows people to record a clip of a voice channel. You can think of this as the equivalent of being on a group call and recording a funny moment from the call so that it can be shared on social media. Streamers use this to promote their channel via short clips, which is much easier to promote on social media than an hours-long stream.
If you're a part of a voice channel on Discord, you can ask the app to mute your voice from these Clips, so even if someone else records one clip, it won't contain your voice. To do this, go to Discord settings > Data & Privacy > How Discord Uses Your Data, and disable Allow my voice to be recorded in Clips.
When you make changes to your Discord profile, the app sends a push notification to your friends about it. This is fine when you and your friends don't mind it, but personally, I dislike both sending and receiving such alerts. If you feel the same way, you can disable this feature by going to Discord settings > Data & Privacy > Profile Privacy, and disabling Share when I update my profile.
Discord Nitro is an optional paid subscription service that adds a few features to the app. Nitro Basic costs $3/month, and it lets you upload up to 50 MB per file. The premium tier is called Nitro, and it costs $10/month. For this price, you get 500MB uploads per file, HD video streaming, and a few other features. Most people don't need any of that, but if you're a Discord power user, you'll probably find something of value in the subscription. Before you start paying for it, though, there are a few ways to get Discord Nitro for free, at least for a couple months:
Check for Discord promos. Sometimes, Discord offers a Nitro trial for two weeks or a month. Keep an eye out the promo offers in Discord's app or social media handles.
Try promotions from other companies. Lots of companies, such as Sony, Microsoft, and Epic Games Store, periodically offer Discord Nitro for free. You can check this Discord Support page to see which offers are active. You may need to make an eligible purchase at a third-party site to get Nitro for free.
Participate in Nitro giveaways. Some Discord servers may host a Nitro giveaway, which is an easy way to get it for free. Even if servers don't have giveaways, generous members often gift Nitro subscriptions in popular servers. If you're a helpful member of the right server, you could get Nitro for free for short durations.
Discord has a frankly overwhelming interface. It feels crowded, and it's difficult to use if you don't memorize a bunch of keyboard shortcuts. You can navigate it with your mouse, but everything seems to take one click too many, and useful features are hard to find quickly or are buried beneath layers of menus.
Fortunately, Discord makes it easy to find your favorite keyboard shortcuts—it ships with a cheat sheet. When you're running Discord on Windows, press Ctrl-/ (forward slash) to reveal the cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts. On a Mac, this shortcut is Command-/. The shortcuts are neatly categorized by type and presented in a format designed to be easy to memorize. Try it, and you can level up your Discord game instantly. (I frequently use Ctrl-Shift-M to mute or unmute my microphone, Ctrl-K to quickly switch between conversations, and Ctrl-Alt-Up Arrow/Down Arrow to switch between servers.)
If you're ancient enough to remember IRC (Internet Relay Chat) servers, then you're probably familiar with chat commands that let you make a statement, add a shrugging emoji to your words, and so on. Apps such as Discord have brought some of those chat commands to the modern era, and you can use quite a few of them in the app. Start your Discord message with /spoiler to mark your message as a spoiler, hiding the contents until someone clicks the text. This is great when you're discussing plot points from books, movies, or games and don't want to ruin them for others. Similarly, you can try /shrug, /sticker, /tableflip, and other commands.
The full list of chat commands can be seen by typing a forward slash (/) in the text box; Discord will also explain what these commands do. I use this regularly to search for stickers, gifs, and to add spoiler tags. You can also use Markdown shortcuts to format your messages in Discord. The company has a detailed support page explaining Markdown commands and how you can use them to quickly add bullets, numbered lists, bold, italics, headers, and code blocks to your messages.
Discord lets you add bots to your server, which is great for automation. If you have an upcoming garage sale, are hosting a workshop, or organizing a watch party, you can set up bots to send reminders to members. Other bots let you play music for server members to listen together, play games in the server, and even use AI services without leaving Discord. MEE6 is a highly customizable bot that can handle several automation tasks for you, but that's just one of many options. (For more, check out the Discord Bot List.) If you have some coding know-how, you can follow Discord's guide to building your own bot, too. While it's nice to add multiple bots to your servers, I recommend against adding too many—they'll create unwanted alerts and clutter.
Discord has many apps that let you watch videos, listen to music, or play games together. I really like Watch Together, which lets you watch YouTube videos with your friends. You can add it by clicking your server's name up top, and selecting App Directory, where you'll find Watch Together in the list of featured apps. Once it's added to your server, open any channel, select the apps button in the text box, and select Watch Together. You'll now see a YouTube feed, and you can use the search bar to add videos you wish to watch with others.
To use custom emoji in Discord, you normally have to pay for a Nitro subscription. However, you can create your own server for free, and use custom emoji there without paying. The catch is that you can't import those custom emoji for use in other servers. You can get started by creating a server in Discord. Just click the + button in the left pane of the app, select Create My Own, and follow the on-screen instructions to get the job done. Once your server is up and running, click the name of the server at the top of the screen, select Server Settings > Emoji. Click the Upload Emoji button, and you can upload transparent PNG files to get started. You can add up to 50 custom emoji and an additional 50 animated emoji without paying.
Discord has a bunch of Easter eggs that you should check out if you appreciate when an app offers a sense of fun. There are quite a few gaming-related references in here, so this is particularly interesting for gamers. Here are some of my favorites:
Discord Discord Revolution: Press Ctrl-/ to view the keyboard cheat sheet. Press any arrow key, Enter/Return, or the space bar key to hear different notes. This is a reference to the game Dance Dance Revolution.
Street Fighter animation: With Discord open on your computer, press Ctrl-/ to open the keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet. Now, press this key combination: H, H, right arrow, N, K. You'll see the Raging Demon animation from Street Fighter's Akuma.
Lo-fi beats with Wumpus: Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-W to listen to lo-fi beats with Discord's mascot Wumpus.
Discordo: Press Discord's app icon in the top-left corner 16 times to hear an audio clip that says, "Discordo."
Copy combo: Click your username in the bottom-left corner of Discord's app. In the pop-up, click the Copy button next to your username, and it'll say, "Copied!" Repeat this multiple times and you'll see a new message each time. The final message is "Beyond Godlike."
You can find many more Discord Easter eggs on this Fandom page.
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Working out in the heat can be merely unpleasant, or it can be dangerous, depending on the day—and there's a good way to tell what kind of day it is. In the summer, I check the wet bulb temperature before nearly every run. This number is more important to me than the actual temperature, or even the "feels like" temperature, because it helps me gauge the safety of exercising outdoors. I'll delay, modify, or even call off a workout if the wet bulb temp is too high.
To help you stay safe while exercising during the hottest part of the year, allow me to explain what wet bulb temperature means, and what numbers to watch out for when gauging whether you should attempt that outdoor workout.
It's not just your imagination: You really do run slower in the heat. Your heart has to pump extra blood to your skin to cool you off, and to your muscles to power your exercise. That's why hot-weather workouts feel much harder, and why your heart rate can jump so high. But the temperature of the air isn't the only thing affecting the temperature of your body. Humidity matters too.
Sweat is your body's main way of cooling off, and it works better in dry weather than in humid weather. On a muggy day, your sweat doesn't evaporate as easily, meaning it doesn't cool you off as well. That's why a "dry heat" doesn't feel nearly as bad as the same temperature on a humid day. This is why wet bulb temperature is so helpful, as the reading combines heat and humidity, as I'll explain below. To give you an example, a wet bulb temperature of 82 (commonly considered high risk for heat illness) can occur when it's 100 degrees with 10% humidity, or 80 degrees with 70% humidity.
Instead of just checking the temperature forecast for the day, the best way to figure out how the heat will affect your body is to look at a metric called wet bulb globe temperature, or WBGT. The wet bulb globe temperature comes from the idea that if you wrap the bulb of an old-fashioned thermometer in wet fabric, the thermometer will then give a reading that tells you how much the air can cool you down. (I’m simplifying; the actual process is more complicated and involves three thermometers.)
The WBGT measures how well evaporation can cool off a wet surface in addition to considering the temperature itself. This is important because one of our body’s main cooling mechanisms—sweating—can’t work well when the humidity is too high. Sweat cools us down by evaporating off our skin, but humidity interferes with evaporation. The WBGT accounts for that lack of evaporation.
Fortunately, you don’t need a thermometer and a wet cloth to calculate wet bulb temperature: You can approximate it by looking up the temperature and humidity on a chart, or do what I do, and use the Carrot Weather app to see it in a forecast.
With Carrot, I can see the WBGT hourly throughout the day. Interestingly, it's often more humid during the cooler parts of the day, so the wet bulb temp doesn't always change much from morning to afternoon. I'll still opt for evening runs when I can, since the sun is often over the horizon and not beating down on me directly. But I can use the day's wet bulb temperature to decide if I need to shorten a run or maybe skip it entirely.
Now that you have the WBGT, you need to decide what to do about it. U.S. Soccer has a map that divides the country into three regions, with different cutoffs for canceling practice in different areas. (If you live in Texas, they assume you can deal with a bit more heat than if you live in Minnesota.) Similarly, here are guidelines meant for organizers of road races (like marathons). If the WBGT is over 82 degrees, the race should be canceled. Above 73, “extreme caution and slower pace” are strongly recommended.
To give an idea of what that might look like, a WBGT of 82 degrees can happen in 75-degree weather with 90% humidity, 84-degree weather with 50% humidity, or 100-degree weather with 10% humidity.
For a general set of recommendations, here’s what the American College of Sports Medicine recommends for people who are not acclimated to working out in the heat:
If the WBGT is above 65 degrees Fahrenheit, take extra rests and pay attention to your hydration.
If the WBGT is above 72, take extra rests and limit the duration of your exercise.
If the WBGT is above 78, take extra rests, limit duration, and also tone down the intensity (for example, don’t try to run as fast.)
If the WBGT is above 82, you should be resting as much as you’re working, doing all of the above and keeping a sharp eye out for signs of heat illness, because the risk here is high.
If the WBGT is above 86, pack it in and go home.
For people who are acclimatized to the heat, meaning that they have been safely exercising in the heat for at least several weeks, the safety guidelines can be relaxed a bit since your body has learned how to cool itself a bit better. In those cases, the cutoffs look like this:
If the WBGT is above 72, you can still exercise as normal, but pay extra attention to your hydration.
If the WBGT is above 82, “plan intense or prolonged exercise with discretion” and keep an eye out for signs of heat illness in people who are at high risk.
If the WBGT is above 86, limit intense exercise and limit your exposure to the hot weather. Watch out for signs of heat illness.
If the WBGT is above 90, the risk is too great for even acclimatized athletes.
Personally, I see anything between 62 and 72 as "sucks, but that's summer." Most of my outdoor runs happen in these conditions. When it's above 72, I start paying extra attention to my precautions. I'll avoid direct sunlight (choosing shady trails or an evening run), and I'll make sure to pack plenty of water. For me that means carrying at least half a liter (16 ounces) in my hydration belt for an hour-long run. If I drive to my running route, I also make sure I have plenty more water in my car in case I come back thirsty. Pro tip: put a bottle of water with an ice pack in an insulated lunchbox.
When the wet bulb is in the mid-70s, I do the above, but even more so: If it's a longer run, I plan on returning to my car or house after the first 3-5 miles so I can rest in the air conditioning for a bit. Back when I was doing 10-milers in the summer pretty routinely, I'd do two 5-mile stints, with a little cooldown break in the car in the middle. I'd pack a sandwich to eat during the break, while I sat in the air conditioning, and I'd also reapply sunscreen before I headed back out.
Importantly, I've noticed that how fast I'm running is a major factor. An easy run in 72-degree wet bulb temps is no problem. But if I have something harder planned, like a tempo run or a session with lots of hard intervals, I need to be prepared to cut it short if the heat is getting to me. So far I haven't gone out when the wet bulb temperature was 80 or above. The few days it's hit that high a number, I was able to move my run to another day. A flexible schedule is a beautiful thing when it comes to summer training plans.
All of this advice goes alongside the usual precautions for staying safe in the heat. Bring extra fluids and electrolytes for your hydration breaks, and make sure to find places in the shade or air conditioning to cool off. (A kiddie pool with a bag of ice is one of the suggestions in the U.S. Soccer guidelines.)
It’s also important to know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heatstroke, and what to do if you observe them in yourself, or your teammate or workout buddy. Heatstroke is a 911-level emergency, so get help if needed.
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A word of warning: If you aren't of those generations, and/or you need an online list to know what slang words mean, you should not say them aloud, unless you're trying to be embarrassing.
D1 Crashout: An epic, elite level, extreme crashout. (See "crashout.)
Dah Bih Gah: "That bitch good," ie: "I like that thing." Usually used to describe food.
Dah Bih Tah: "That bitch tough," ie: "I like that thing." Usually used to describe food.
Hiplet: Derogatory slang for a woman who has "hip dips," i.e. inward curves on their outer thighs just below the hip bone.
TLPUR: This supposed acronym section has no meaning. The joke is to tell people it means something like "True Love Pills Until Rope" or "Too Late for Puberty."
304: Hoe. (Type "304" on a calculator and turn it upside down.)
4+4: Ate. Four plus four is eight, or "ate." (See "ate.")
6-7 (or 67): This piece of Generation Alpha brainrot slang doesn't mean anything. It's just funny to some people to say "6-7," especially in answer to any question involving numbers. Ex: "Q: What time is it? A: six-seveeen."
6-7 weekend: A weekend in which Saturday falls on the 6th day of the month and Sunday on the 7th.
7x7=49: Often refers to a man who is attractive in a self-evident way. Based on the belief that the equation 7x7=49 makes intuitive sense in a way other equations do not.
80/20 rule: An axiom in online incel spaces, the 80/20 is the idea that 80% of women only date the "top" 20% of men.
Algo speak: Coded language used to bypass online content moderation. Examples: "regarded" used instead of "retarded" and "unalive" instead of "kill."
Alpha male: Taken from animal ethology, an alpha male is the dominant member of a group of males, or just a male who is in charge. (See "beta male" and "sigma male.")
Alpine divorce: An alpine divorce is when a man takes his wife or girlfriend on a hike, usually in the mountains, and then just leaves her there to fend for herself.
ASAP (or A$AP): When a rapper has ASAP or A$AP in front of their name, it indicates affiliation with the ASAP Mob, a New York hip-hop collective.
Ate/eat: Done very well, often regarding clothing. e.g.: "You ate that outfit." See also: "serving."
Aura: Someone who is mysterious and cool is said to "have aura."
Aura farming: Depending on the context, “aura farming” can refer to a person who does something cool without trying or someone who is trying too hard to appear cool.
Baby Boo syndrome: A joking reference to people who are very into the Baby Boo memes popular on TikTok.
Baddie: A bad/wild girl. Meant as a compliment.
Baka: Japanese word meaning “crazy" or “foolish.” Used mainly in the anime community.
Based: Independent in a cool way.
Bed-rotting: Staying in bed all day. You may know it as “lazing around.” (See "Hurkle-durkle.")
Beez: Popularized in Nicki Minaj's 2012 track "Beez in the Trap," beez means something like "I am always." So "beez in the trap" means "I am always in the trap." (See "Trap.")
Beta male: A beta male, or just "beta," is a weaker, subservient male. (See "alpha male" and "sigma male.")
Boombayah: A euphemism for having sex. It’s used mostly online, often to defeat censorship algorithms.
Bop: A girl who sleeps around. Also: a great song.
Boy aquarium: TikTok slang that describes hockey games.
Boy kibble: The male response to "girl dinner," boy kibble is food boys eat. It usually consists of rice and ground beef, often served without spices or vegetables.
Boysober: Someone who has sworn off sex, relationships, and/or dating.
Brain-rot: A description of the overuse of stupid slang. See also: “Skibidi.” Also used to describe the effects of being overly online.
Brat: The contemporary meaning of "brat" is an adjective describing a person who is edgy, imperfect, and confident. It was coined by pop star Charli XCX who defined it as "that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown."
Bruzz: Bros. Part of the -uzz family of slang words. See "Huzz" and "-uzz."
Bubba truck: A lifted or otherwise modified pick-up truck.
Bussin': Very good or excellent.
Cap: A lie. Often used to say "no cap."
Cake: Butt, especially a nice butt.
Catch a fade: To have a fight. (See "fade.")
Chad: An attractive man; an “alpha male.” See "Giga-Chad."
Chat: A reference to streamers addressing their chat windows aloud. Saying “chat” in real life is an ironic joke.
Cheesin': The slang word "cheesin'" refers to smiling, particularly a big, goofy smile. It comes from the common exhortation to "say cheese!" before a photo is taken. The word "cheesing," with a "g" at the end, often means the same thing, but it can also refer to the trend of throwing slices of cheese at cars and/or people.
Chopped: Ugly. Chopped is often applied to someone's face or outfit, but anything that isn't aesthetically pleasing could be called "chopped," as could anything that is generally not good, like an awkward situation.
Choppelganger: A portmanteau of "chopped" and "doppelgänger," a choppelganger is someone who looks like another person, but worse. (See "chopped.")
Chud: A physically unappealing person. Sometimes used for a man who holds right-wing views.
Clanker: A slur aimed at robots and AI agents pretending to be human.
Clock that: "I understand and agree." Not to be confused with older slang, where "clock" meant to see, or even older slang where "clock" meant "to hit or punch."
Coomer: A man who masturbates too often.
Corn: “Corn” is algo-speak that means “porn.” Used in online spaces where the word might cause your account to be flagged or banned.
Coworker-core: A catch-all description for things that are unfunny or uninteresting in a way that appeals to older people.
Cracked: This slang term has two meanings: to have sex, as in "I got cracked last night," and to be really good at something, like "he’s cracked at Fortnite."
Crashout: To have an intense emotional outburst, usually accompanied by impulsive behavior. Crashing out is often due to being overwhelmed or overly frustrated.
Dead: Past tense of having died laughing. If someone responds to a joke with "dead" or a skull emoji, they find it funny.
Deadass: Seriously. Used like, "I am deadass not lying."
Delulu: Delusional.
Deriod: A combination of "dick" and "period," deriod refers to men seeming to experience the mood swings commonly associated with women's menstrual cycles.
Dih: Algo speak for “dick.” (See "Algo speak.")
Doi doi doi: This piece of brain-rot slang doesn't mean anything. It's correctly pronounced by putting your hand up to your mouth and saying "doi doi doi" in a way that sounds funny.
Doomer: A person who is overly negative and/or cynical.
Drip: A fashionable or stylish look.
Dwerking: A male-centric variation of twerking. A sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the dick. Other variants include "pwerking" and "bwerking" where the "p" and "b" stand for pussy and boobs.
Edgar: A variation of the Caesar haircut worn especially among Hispanic males. Also refers to the kind of person who wears the haircut.
Fade: A fight. (See "catch a fade.")
Fambushing: A combination of "family" and "ambushing," fambushing refers to young people checking where their parents are on location-sharing apps so they can get free food—if you see mom at Chipotle, you ask for a burrito.
Fanum tax: The theft of food between friends. Named for streamer Fanum, known for “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their meals or stealing fries.
Fax, no printer: Telling the truth. Since "fax" and "facts" are pronounced the same, this is a colorful way of saying "facts, no cap."
Fent-fold: A description of the bent-over posture of people nodding on heavy drugs.
Fit: Short for "outfit."
Fuhuhluhtoogan: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. Often paired with "Jittleyang."
Fujoshing: The verb form of the Japanese slang term "fujoshi," fujoshing describes women/girls enjoying media that depicts romantic relationships between men. This word is used almost exclusively in online fandom communities.
Gamer dent: The temporary indentation left on someone’s hair or skin after wearing headphones for too long.
Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs.
Giga-Chad: A Chad among Chads.
Glaze: To overly praise someone, often insincerely, or with the hope of getting something in return.
Gleek: An older slang term that is gaining prominence lately, gleeking describes squirting saliva from under the tongue.
Glizzy: Hot dog. "Glizzy" was originally slang for Glock or gun, but came to mean hot dog based on the hot dog shape of a Glock's magazine.
Green fn: An interjection one might used when someone does something cool or impressive. Often used ironically.
Goonbait: (See "gooning") Goonbait is, essentially, media that exists to inspiring gooning.
Gooner: A man who goons. (See "gooning.")
Goonette: A woman who goons. (See "gooning.")
Gooning: Extended masturbation without orgasm done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness. (See "gooner," "goonette.")
Gyatt or Gyat: Once an interjection used when seeing someone sexy, like “god-DAMN,” “gyatt” has come to mean “attractive booty.”
Heavy soda: Pop with extra syrup. Some gas station soda machines have settings that control the ratio of syrup to carbonated water. A heavy soda is a soda with the syrup level set very high.
Hewwo: An overly cute way of saying "hello." Usually used online, and often ironically.
HGS: Abbreviation for "home girls" used in comment sections.
Hozier yell: Named for singer/songwriter Andrew Hozier, a "Hozier yell" refers to the sound one makes when experiencing a peak, climactic, and/or awe-inspiring moment.
HTN: This acronym comes from the online incel community, where fairly good-looking men are described as "high-tier normies" or "HTN." (See "normie.")
Hurkle-durkle: Based on an archaic Scottish word, “hurkle-durkle” means to lounge in bed after it is time to get up. See also: “bed-rotting."
Huzz: -uzz slang for "hoes." See "bruzz" and "-uzz."
"It's giving": Used to convey that something has a specific vibe. Example: "That dude texts you every 10 minutes; it's giving desperate."
"It's so over": The situation is hopeless. The opposite of "we're so back." See also: "Doomer."
IWEL: This comment-section acronym is short for "I wouldn't even lie." Sometimes written as "IWL."
Jelqing: The use of stretching or weights in an attempt to increase penis size.
Jit: A kid. Used ironically online.
Jittleyang: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. See also: "Fuhuhluhtoogan."
JOMO: A play on FOMO (fear of missing out) JOMO is an acronym that stands for “joy of missing out.”
Jugg: To grab quickly or to steal.
"Learn Chinese": Sports slang directed at failing players. They are in danger of being sent to play in China, so they should "learn Chinese."
Loaded water: Water enhanced with something—a flavor boost, fruit juice, electrolytes, carbonation, and even vitamins or prebiotics. The idea is to increase hydration by making water more palatable.
Looksmaxxing: Maximizing one’s physical attractiveness through personal grooming, working out, and dressing stylishly. See also: “-maxxing.”
🪫 (low battery emoji): The low battery emoji means "I am experiencing emotional depletion, heartbreak, or a general feeling of 'I can't anymore.'"
Lowkenuinely: This mash-up of "low key" and "genuinely" expresses sincerity but in a way that says "let's not make a big deal about it."
Lucky Scoops: Lucky Scoops are a kind of TikTok or Instagram video where buyers purchase a scoop that represents a chance to win merchandise. These videos are very popular with children; critics feel like they are a form of gambling.
Mason (or Mason 6-7 kid): A "Mason 6-7 Kid" or "Mason" is a stereotypical male member of Generation Alpha. Mason kids are known for their love of baseball-inspired fashion (caps and shorts), their "ice cream" haircut, and for repeating brainrot slang like "6-7."
-maxxing: A suffix used with any word to indicate trying to improve. Seeing your friends could be called "friendmaxxing," working out could be called "gymmaxxing," making jokes could be called "jestermaxxing," etc.
Mid: Average, bland, expected.
Mewing: A facial exercise meant to strengthen the jawline.
Mirror sex: Using a mirror to watch yourself have sex.
Mog: To be more attractive than someone, usually in an intentional or aggressive way. Example: "I was rizzing up this girl, but he walked in and totally mogged me."
"My 90 in a 30": A song played while driving that inspires speeding.
"My steak is too juicy": The phrase "my steak is too juicy" and other variants like "my lobster is too buttery," are online insults that suggest someone is complaining about something they should be grateful for.
Neurospicy: A different way of saying “neuro-divergent.”
Normie: A person who is considered normal or average. It's sometimes an insult suggesting someone is boring and witless. (see also, "mid.")
NPC: Non-player character. Originally describing video game characters, NPC is now used on the internet to mean people who don't think for themselves.
Opp: Short for "opposition." Someone who is out to get you. An enemy.
Performative male: An insult for young men whose tastes, hobbies, and lifestyle are seen as a performance aimed at obtaining societal approval, especially the approval of young women.
Phonk: The word phonk can refer to one of two musical sub-genres. It originally referred to throwback '90s hip-hop categorized by slow-tempo "chopped and screwed" production and vintage Memphis rap vocals. It now more commonly describes the heavily distorted, up-tempo EDM used in brainrot videos.
Pink cocaine: Also known as "pink snow," pink cocaine is slang for a powdered drug mixture that usually contains some combination of ketamine, MDMA, meth, opioids, and other substances.
Pole: A gun. See "up pole."
"Press F for respect:" In 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfighter, the player attends a funeral and a prompt is given that reads "Press F to pay respects." Now, a singular "F" in a chat window indicates respect. It's usually ironic.
Rawdogging boredom: Rawdogging is "doing something with no safeguards or support," so "rawdogging boredom" is consciously doing nothing.
Regarded: “Regarded” is algo-speak for “retarded."
RegencyCore: A fashion and design aesthetic that springs from the popularity of the fantasy-regency era look of the Netflix show Bridgerton, RegencyCore combines the opulent style of the British Regency era of the early 1800s with fantasy elements like pastel colors and gold accents.
"Reheating your own nachos:" This slang phrase comes from cultural critics in online fandom communities. It refers to performers and/or artists whose new works are seen as trying to recapture what was good about their previous artistic output. It's not always negative; it's possible to successfully reheat your own nachos.
Rizz: As a noun, "rizz" means charisma. As a verb, "rizz" or "rizz up" means attracting someone with your charisma.
Scientology speedrun: Young people running into a Scientology building and acting foolish until they are ejected.
Scorigami: A slang term among football fans for when the final score of an NFL game has never happened before in the league's history. The most recent scorigami was on September 28, 2025, when the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys tied 40 to 40.
SDIYBT: An acronym for "start digging in your butt, twin," this brainrot phrase doesn't mean anything. Some people just think it's funny to say.
Sendy and “Let’s get sendy": Sendy is an adjective based on the older rock-climbing and extreme sports slang phrase "send it." A shortened version of "ascend it," "send it" is said right before one is about to do something challenging. "Sendy" describes a person who is prone to doing bold things. "Let's get sendy" means something like "Let's get wild." It's been adopted by brainrot fans, so it's often repeated with no meaning meant to be attached.
Serve: Wearing a particularly stylish outfit. See also: "ate."
Serve cunt: To act in a powerfully and unapologetically feminine way; to slay.
Sharking: Looking for people to hook up with.
Sigma male: An internet-created male classification, a "sigma male" is as dominant as an alpha male, but is outside the male hierarchy, i.e.: a lone wolf. Originally used seriously, the concept was so widely derided it's now almost always used ironically. (See "Alpha male" and "Beta male.")
Skibidi: Named after “Skibidi Toilet,” a popular series of YouTube videos, “skibidi” itself has no specific meaning, beyond ridiculing the overuse of slang itself. See “brain-rot.”
Skrt: Onomatopoetic word for the sound of tires squealing upon acceleration.
Slopcore: This term describes the countless 100s of millions of cheesy-looking, unsettling, AI-generated images, videos, and songs that have hit the internet since AI was given to the masses a couple of years ago.
Slopper: Insult directed at people who use AI programs too much, people who takes conversations with LLMs too seriously, and people who have basically offloaded their thinking to an algorithm.
Snatched: Very attractive and/or flawlessly styled.
Spawn point: Mother. Based on the spot you start in a video game.
Spoopy: Spooky.
Striker: Stolen/no-title car.
Surf Dracula: A hyper-specific phrase that describes "prestige" television series. The joke is that if there were an older TV show called "Surf Dracula," Dracula would be surfing in every episode, but modern shows would make the whole first season about how Dracula got his surfboard.
Sweat: A person who tries too hard, usually used in reference to video games. The adjective form is "sweaty."
SYBAU: An online acronym that stands for “shut your bitch ass up.”
That's AI: "I don't believe you" or "I doubt it," even when not connected to artificial intelligence.
Tradwife: Believer in traditional married gender roles.
Trap: Once used to refer to a house where drugs are sold, trap has come to describe both a form of music and any place where one works or hustles.
Treatler (and Treatlerite): "Treatler" and "Treatlerite" are online insults that combine "treat" and "Hitler" to refer to entitled users of services like Doordash or Uber Eats who regard luxury delivery services as a human right, and don't consider the hardships of the people who do the work that makes "private taxis for burritos" possible.
TS: TS originally was AAVE shorthand for "this shit," but it is often used to just mean "this."
Turnt: Excited or intoxicated, or excitedly intoxicated.
Tweaking: In older slang, "tweaking" referred to the nervous and erratic actions of someone on drugs, specifically, speed. Generations A and Z have expanded the definition to refer to any actions that are erratic, or even just mildly energetic, not necessarily related to drug use.
Twelve: Police.
Twin: Best friend.
Unc: Short for "uncle," used to describe slightly older people. Example: "The class of 2024 are unc-status to the class of 2028." See "yunc."
-uzz: -uzz slang words use "uzz" at the end of any word, so "bros" becomes "bruzz," "hoes" becomes "huzz," "granny" becomes "gruzz," etc.
Up pole: To raise a gun.
"We're so back": Opposite of "it's so over."
Venus tummy: When a woman's belly is a little fat, but not too fat, she is said to have a Venus tummy. Named for ancient Greek statues of Venus and Aphrodite who were a little fleshy.
Wojack: The name of a style of internet drawings used to quickly stereotype someone. See this post for a full explanation of the Wojak universe.
Yapping: Describes a presentational style often seen on online streams of talking a lot and/or quickly while not saying anything worthwhile.
Yeet: To quickly and/or forcibly eject.
You the birthday: A phrase that means "you're awesome" or "you're great" in the way a birthday is great: fun, exciting, extra, etc.
Young ho: "Young ho" is both a reclamation of the word "ho" and an expression of youth-based solidarity. Young women are posting videos of themselves defining what makes them "young hos," noting things like "Getting up at 7:50 to be at work at 8," and air-frying chicken nuggets.
Yunc: Yunc is a variation of "unc." In AAVE, a "yn" is a "young n-word." So "yunc" means something like "young uncle," or a person who may be young but has uncle vibes or unc status.
Zoomer Perm: A curly on top, short on the sides haircut popular among young people.
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Based on Netflix's on-screen prompts announcing the change, this would streamline sign-in and account recovery for users and allow the platform to personalize recommendations. However, some users have noted that this provides Netflix more data, which it can then share with marketers and advertisers.
Practically speaking, this change isn't a huge deal for many users—according to Netflix's support page, you can still switch between profiles on your account no matter which one you are signed in with, meaning you don't have to log out and back in with the profile-specific email address. And if each profile is assigned to a different individual in your household, it's fairly straightforward to add a unique email. (Kids profiles are exempt from the requirement, as they can't sign into Netflix directly.)
However, some individual Netflix users have multiple profiles to maintain separate viewing algorithms. In these cases, you'd need to register a unique email address for each profile. If you already have several personal emails, you can attach one to each profile. Helpfully, "plus addressing" in Gmail allows you to create email variations without signing up for a new account—e.g., username+netflix1@gmail.com, username+netflix2@gmail.com, etc. Other providers like Proton, Apple, and Outlook also allow a certain number of email aliases under your primary account.
You may be prompted by Netflix to add profile emails, in which case you can follow the onscreen instructions. You can also go to Account > Profiles > [Your profile] > Contact Info on a web browser. Some Reddit users have reported that you can get around the prompt, at least temporarily, by turning wifi off and on when opening the app. However, Netflix made this change permanent as of June 15, so this may not last long.
Again, Netflix has made it a lot harder to keep family and friends under one account if you don't live in the same household. On Standard and Premium plans, you can add one or two extra users, respectively, for $7.99 (with ads) or $9.99 (without), which is at least cheaper than signing up for a separate subscription. The primary account holder can also share a temporary verification code to authorize access on a device outside of the home. However, devices have to connect to the home network at least once a month.
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Doing something new with a well-established IP—especially when said IP is a bestselling novel that has already received an iconic film adaptation—is a tricky business. Still, the team behind AMC+’s excellent adaptation of Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire more than rose to the challenge.
Bringing the book's queer subtext to the forefront and leveling some of the power dynamics between its central characters, the series has been a streaming TV standout over the course of its first two seasons, and into the currently airing third (under a new name, The Vampire Lestat). If you've devoured every episode and are craving more lush, deeply imagined vampire fiction in the same vein, here are the books, films, games, and podcasts you can turn to next.
It goes without saying that if you love Interview with the Vampire on streaming, you should read Anne Rice’s 13-novel series set in that universe, starting with her titular 1976 debut. If you’ve already read those, or just want to roam a bit more widely to find your vampire thrills, here are some of the best books that Interview fans will love.
If you’re into vampires, you’re at least aware of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Gibson’s novel uses Stoker’s classic as a launching pad, telling the story of Constanta, one of Dracula’s unwilling brides—and a victim of his abuse and violence. Constanta’s turning in the Middle Ages binds her to this monster, but it's his psychological, emotional, and physical abuse that forms the true horror of the story. If you love the complex queer emotional politics of the TV show, this is the vampire story for you.
If you love the newest incarnation of the show, The Vampire Lestat, with its rock star trappings and grimy glamour, check out Lost Souls. When a young girl becomes pregnant after being seduced by a vampire and dies (horribly) during childbirth, the orphaned boy is raised by adoptive parents but doomed to alienation. When he figures out his true nature, he renames himself Nothing and falls in with his vampire father, Zillah (who doesn’t know Nothing is his son), and his coven. The relationship between Zillah and Nothing is twisted, emotionally scarring, and perfect for fans of Interview with the Vampire.
Part of what makes Interview with the Vampire so fun is the sense of verisimilitude—the way the presence of vampires is depicted in a realistic setting. Newman’s Anno Dracula novels are a bit campier, but the premise is gold: In the late 19th century, Count Vlas Tepes (aka Dracula) marries Queen Victoria and becomes the de facto ruler of the English Empire. Vampirism becomes fashionable, and vampires slowly begin a march to world domination, supported and opposed by a broad cast of fictional characters and real-life historical figures. It’s great fun, especially if you like the way the show plays with history.
Is your favorite part of Interview with the Vampire the complicated relationship between Louis and Lestat? Then you might love this short novel. The city of Elendhaven is literally dying, succumbing to a terrible plague and rumored to host monsters that crawl from the dark water lapping at its coastline. Johann doesn’t remember much, but he knows he is not quite a man. When he meets a sorcerer named Florian, he’s recruited into a revenge scheme targeting the city at large, and is embroiled in a complex relationship that journeys into dark places.
Just looking for another vampire story that offers plenty of drama, dark romance, and a deeply-imagined vampiric universe filled with lore and history? Read The Vampire Diaries series. The story begins when a woman named Elena Gilbert becomes involved—in various ways—with vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Although it’s marketed as a young adult series, it’s a twisty, soapy story with plenty of gore, as Stefan struggles to protect Elena from his erratic, dangerous brother, even as she is drawn to Damon. It will definitely scratch that melodramatic vampire itch that Interview inspires in its fans.
Looking for a more cinematic experience with Interview vibes? Well, you should obviously check out the 1994 adaptation directed by Neil Jordan, scripted by Rice herself, and starring an improbably enjoyable Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as Lestat and Louis, respectively. But it’s a very different vibe from the show, so you should check out these other great vampire films as well.
If you're drawn to the show for its exploration of a personal relationship between two immortal (and kind of monstrous) people over the course of centuries, check out Only Lovers Left Alive. Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) are married vampires who currently live on opposite ends of the world. They’re artistic, cultured, and do their best not to prey on living humans. It’s a moody exploration of love and how existence can wear thin if you experience it long enough. Stream Only Lovers Left Alive on Hulu or rent it on Prime Video.
The deep bond between ancient beings that makes Interview so compelling is shared by Byzantium, the tale of Clara (Gemma Arterton), who chose to become a vampire after being sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution, and who turned her daughter Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) to save her life. Centuries later, the two try to survive while being hunted by a secret order of vampires. Things go about as bloodily haywire as you can imagine, making this a great choice for anyone who appreciates a codependent vampire mess. Stream Byzantium on AMC+ or rent it on Prime Video.
It’s splashed with a 1980s aesthetic, but The Hunger sits in the same space as Interview with the Vampire in the way it explores vampires preying on people and surviving in the modern world. In the 1700s, vampire Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) recruited brilliant cellist John (David Bowie) with the promise of eternal life. Centuries later, the couple lives a posh lifestyle in Manhattan, killing their victims in their swanky townhouse. When John begins to experience rapid physical decay, he realizes Miriam lied to him, and launches a desperate effort to save himself as she seeks her next companion. Stream The Hunger on Tubi or rent it on Prime Video.
If you’re just jumping into the third season of the show, retitled The Vampire Lestat, check out this glitzy 2002 adaptation of the third book in the series. Lestat de Lioncourt has discovered that vampirism and being a rock star go together surprisingly well, but his rising fame and power awaken Akasha, the vampire queen, who decides he should be her king—whatever the cost. Starring Aaliyah in her final role before her tragic death, it’s worth watching for its camp value, if not its fidelity to the source material. Rent Queen of the Damned on Prime Video.
With repressed sexuality pulsating under the surface, Carmilla is the adaptation of a 19th-century gothic horror novel you didn’t know you needed. Lara (Hannah Rae) lives a lonely, isolated life with her father and governess until a carriage crash brings vampire Carmilla (Devrim Lingnau) to the house to be cared for. Lara finds herself drawn to the strange woman in ways she barely understands, complicating a subtext-rich relationship with that governess. It’s a hot-and-bothered queer vampire story fans of the show will instantly bond with. Stream Carmilla on The Roku Channel or rent it on Prime Video.
Sometimes you need to be a little more hands-on with your vampiric experience. If you’re a gamer who wants to map a vibe similar to Interview with the Vampire onto their sessions, here are the video games to check out.
Both the original Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and its sequel are ideal choices for Interview fans. These action role-playing games let you play as a vampire (a fledgling just turned in the original; an ancient Elder in the sequel) who must navigate the politics of vampire clans while using their supernatural abilities to navigate the narrative. If you want to see what it might be like to be a vampire in the modern world, these games are the perfect choice.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, PC, macOS, Nintendo Switch, Steam
If you’re looking for an immersive gaming experience where you play as a vampire and struggle with moral and ethical dilemmas similar to those found in the show, look into Vampyr. In this action RPG, you play as a doctor turned into a vampire who is in constant conflict between his deeply-held oath to do no harm and his driving need for human blood. The game’s mechanics allow you to avoid killing for the most part, adding an extra layer of challenge and depth to the experience that fans of the show’s deep writing will appreciate.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
If you’re looking for a more lighthearted and straightforward game, this point-and-click adventure is just the ticket. You play as Mona De Lafitte, an aspiring opera singer who is kidnapped and turned into a vampire. Stranded in remote Draxsylvania, you must find your way back to Paris in order to pursue your singing career, solving puzzles using your newfound powers along the way. It’s much less grim than Interview, but will scratch that itch to roleplay as a vampire throughout history.
Platforms: Steam
If you want the kind of sprawling lore and worldbuilding that Interview with the Vampire delivers, check out the Castlevania games. One of the most storied video game franchises in history, there have been more than 30 games in the series since 1986. In these games, which have their own deep lore, you don’t just battle vampires (often in the form of Count Dracula himself) but also zombies, werewolves, and Frankenstein’s monster.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Looking for more of a thoughtful dive into the emotional and moral impact of being a vampire? Vampire Therapist is the quirky game you need in your console. You play as a former Wild West gunslinger turned vampire named Sam Walls, who now works with other vampires to help them navigate the psychological trauma of being a vampire. At the same time, Sam has his own baggage you have to help him figure out. It’s a quiet game that lets you sink into the ethical dilemma of existence as an undead ghoul.
Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Interview with the Vampire is the sort of show that prompts a lot of discussion, from its exploration of the moral quandaries of vampirism to the deep bonds between ancient characters who have known each other for centuries. Whether you want a dive into the details of the show or a similar narrative experience, here are the podcasts to explore.
Want a conversation about each episode driven by superfans like yourself? Vampire Insider is the show for you. Fans Joann, Marc, and Kristina bring smart, passionate energy to their discussions, offering plenty of insight and commentary with a light, friendly vibe. If you lack a space where you can gush over each episode and get way too involved in the character dynamics of the story, head over here to find your people.
If you’re looking for more vampire-focused narrative drama, look no further than Vampire: The Masquerade Port Saga. This is the story of Titus Reed, a relatively fresh vampire who begins investigating a murder that hit close to his heart and is forced to confront his own violent nature and crimes along the way. It’s set in the tabletop RPG universe World of Darkness, but you don’t need to be familiar with those games to enjoy this complex tale of coming to terms with immortality and violence.
If you want a podcast that explores the divide between the TV and film adaptations and the original books by Anne Rice, check out The Articulate Coven. There are plenty of episode breakdowns and specific discussions about the series, but the hosts also delve into the differences between adaptations and source material and their implications in general. This approach often offers a fresh perspective on Interview that ranges beyond the confines of each episode.
Adapted from Christopher Buehlman’s novel, The Lesser Dead is set in 1978 New York City. A group of vampires calling themselves "the Family" is living in a series of dark, unused subway tunnels, carefully feeding on the unsuspecting population without killing or turning anyone. When a rogue vampire begins killing people, drawing unwanted attention, a young vampire is delegated to find out who’s breaking the rules.
Created by librarian Dax Stokes, The Vampire Historian is a broad examination of vampires throughout history, mythology, and folklore. The podcast digs into how vampires have been viewed in both legend and fiction, the real-life myths and events that inspired classic vampires, and the connections to books, films, and TV shows—including, of course, Interview with the Vampire in its many incarnations.
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This mysterious acronym #tlpur started showing up recently in comment sections wherever younger people hang out. No one really knows where it started, and what it means depends on who you ask. Some say TLPUR stands for "True Love Pills Until Rope." Some say it means "The Lookspill Proves Us Right." Some say it means "Too Late for Puberty." But what does it really mean? It doesn't mean anything. The idea is to make up what it means to anyone who asks. It's an in-group signifier, or, as the kids say, IYKYK. This video sums it up:
But there's a deeper level to TLPUR. As the acronym took off, more and more people started posting repetitive, vaguely hypnotic videos about TLPUR set to an old Weezer song, like this:
... and offering more abstract definitions in the comment sections like, "TLPUR is essentially when belle delphine hand sticker" and "Tlpur is essentially 808." Check out KnowYourMeme's dive into this topic if you want to go further in-depth.
(For more definitions of words only young people use—both with and without meanings—check out Lifehacker's glossary of Generation Z and Generation A slang.)
As previously discussed in this column, a crashout is an intense, angry, emotional outburst. "D1 crashout" borrows college sports terminology and refers to an elite, epic crashout.
When someone says "top 5 horror movies," I say, "Texas Chainsaw, The Shining, The Innocents, The Wicker Man, and Hereditary," but it means something different to the kids. They're noting real-life anxieties and minor inconveniences, setting them to a melancholy snippet of Katy Perry's "The One That Got Away," and posting videos under the #top5horrormovies tag. These videos give a glimpse into the collective psyche of Gens Z and A. They cast all kinds of things that aren't even momentarily concerning to older cats, like "not knowing what's for dinner" and "having to make a decision," as the worst horrors imaginable. It really highlights how dramatic people can be before they face actual horror, like "cancer" and "werewolf attacks."
Many of the videos posted under the top 5 horror movies tag simply list "men" five times, and the rise of the word "hiplet" helps explain why. "Hiplet" is slang for a woman who has "hip dips," i.e., women who have inward curves on their outer thighs just below the hip bone. According to the lore (courtesy of the angry incel parts of the internet) hiplets aren't dating material, as you can see in this video:
What's really going on here is that some dudes are mad that some women say they prefer dating taller men, so they're trying to create a similar category for women. It's the opposite of organic. They're making videos trying to spread the popularity of the term as well as to make sure women know they're seen this way.
It doesn't seem to be working, however. The response from the internet's young women is mostly sarcastic dismissal, as you can see in this video:
Ultimately, there are two losers here: 1) angry dudes on the internet (as always) and 2) the Hiplet Ballerinas, who shouldn't be associated with this nonsense.
Despite decades of dermatological warnings, more and more teens are tossing their skincare routines out the window for the summer. Tanmaxxers track peak UV indexes and bake in the sun intentionally without sunscreen and/or use heavy tanning oils to get as dark as possible as quickly as possible.
Most tanmaxxer content is videos of people lying in the sun doing nothing, but because it's the post-truth age, there are videos appearing questioning whether the sun is actually harmful.
These young people need to hang around places like Florida and San Diego and take a look at the older locals with faces like catcher's mitts to get some perspective. Apart from the health and aesthetics, making "I lie around in the sun a lot" your whole personality is a little suspect.
On the positive side, so far, I haven't seen any evidence of a return of those mirrors that people used to use to reflect even more sunlight onto their faces, but I imagine that's coming soon.
Unlike TLPUR, "Du Bist Gut Genug" actually means something, and it has nothing to do with similar-sounding slang "dah bih gah." Du bist gut genug is German for "You are good enough."
German duo Blumengarten released the song "Gut Genug" a few weeks ago. It's a pretty good song with a pretty good message:
Younger people didn't really notice, though, until Tiktoker @justlove_161 stripped out the chorus and posted a video:
Million of people watched it and its inspired funny remix videos:
and it's quickly becoming a reaction meme in videos like this:
and this:
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Bloody politics is a hallmark of the world of Game of Thrones: Where the original show played out a bloody succession crisis following the end of a dynasty and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes a ground-level look at Westerosi politics, House of the Dragon is all about jockeying for power within the ruling Targaryen family. If you're looking for a streamalike show to get you through the wait between episodes, the 10 below, some fantastical and some historical, all concern the sort of complicated, cross-family power struggles that House of the Dragon traffics in (dragons and magic optional).
You want dragons? We've got a dragon. Maybe the special effects can't nearly compete with those you get on an HBO budget, but this show goes one better in giving us a creature with the voice of the immortal John Hurt. On the lighter side, at least compared to anything going on in Westeros, Merlin follows a pair of ill-matched buddies, one with a larger destiny, adventuring through a medieval-type landscape. Colin Morgan plays the title warlock, who arrives in Camelot to find that magic has been outlawed—which doesn't stop the dragon Kilgarrah from explaining to him that he needs to protect the king's only son (Bradley James), a boy who will grow up to unite the land. (The kid's name is Arthur, in case that weren't obvious.) Stream Merlin on Prime Video and Tubi.
Just as House of the Dragon sees House Targaryen at the height of its power (and with a woman lined up to succeed), this high-end soap opera takes us back to one of England's most luxuriant dynasties. The show may play fast and loose with history, but does remind us that the Tudors were far hornier than all those archbishops would have us believe. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a bit hotter and a lot more lovable than the actual sociopathic, serial-killing Henry, but many of the women give as well as they get (both politically and in bed), particularly Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn. Stream The Tudors on Paramount+ and Prime Video.
This dark fantasy, adapted from the classic novel series by Philip Pullman, is set in an alternate world in which human souls exist outside the body in the form of animal companions called daemons. Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) is an orphaned girl living at Jordan College, Oxford who finds herself involved in a murder plot that brings her into the orbit of the powerful Magisterium, the world's overarching and oppressive religious authority. She's caught between her mother Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), a powerful figure in the Magisterium, and her extremist heretic father Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), neither of whom is a particularly good guide for the heroic journey that Lyra will have to undertake. From her steampunk-ish world, Lyra and her daemon Pan travel across a multiverse that includes our very own Earth. The political intrigue here is on a different level, but fantastic creatures abound, and it's very much about the corruption of and persecution by institutions. Stream His Dark Materials on HBO Max.
Historical-ish, at least in the sense that it conjures a convincing, compelling recreation of Rome, circa the fall of the Republic. As the series opens, Julius Caesar is just beginning his long conflict with the traditionalist factions in the Senate, but our point-of-view characters are primarily the skilled but ground-level soldiers Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson), with some assistance from Polly Walker's deliciously amoral noblewoman Atia. The devil is in the details and, just as the Westeros-based shows have built believable worlds for their narratives to exist in, this series feels mighty real. Stream Rome on HBO Max.
We're here largely for the dragons, particularly given that the tone of this smart but family-friendly animated series doesn't provide for the violent thrills that are a feature of Westeros. Still, we also have politics on a grand scale in a roughly Medieval Europe-inspired world. The show follows two human princes, an elf, and a toad who attempt to forge a peace between warring kingdoms while protecting the infant Storm Dragon Azymondias. The setting is the continent of Xadia, a place full of magic derived from the Moon, Sky, Sun, Earth, Ocean, and the Stars (many of the creatives behind the original Avatar animated series are behind this one, as well). A sequel series is in development. Stream The Dragon Prince on Netflix.
It’s not exactly a history lesson, but Kingdom does open a window into the middle of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, a centuries-long era that stretched until nearly the 20th century, during which time there wasn’t an actual zombie plague, so liberties have been taken. As the series opens, rumors are swirling that the king has died, and his son, Crown Prince Lee Chang, is trying to find out the truth. Turns out that the king did, in fact, die—of smallpox—but the Queen Consort and her father, a powerful courtier, have a plan: They’ve given the king a little-known plant that will revive him long enough to produce an heir, but there's an unfortunate side-effect (you can see where this is headed). A deft combination of horror and medieval-esque political intrigue, this one feels like something wholly unique to either genre, featuring all the violence and shady dealings that you might expect from House of the Dragon, but, ya know, with zombies instead of dragons. So far there are two seasons and a feature-length special episode, plus the spin-off movie Ashin of the North. Stream Kingdom on Netflix.
Returning to the Tudors with a show that dives a little deeper into one of House of the Dragons major themes. The category is: Women Who Can't Catch a Break. This one's a steamy period drama involving England's first (if only for nine days) queen, Jane Grey—but with the addition of an oppressed class of humans who can turn into animals. Based on a book by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, the show stars Emily Bader as the titular queenly contender, dealing with a dying king cousin, a sketchy marriage, and competition from sisters Elizabeth and Mary. The magic and shapeshifting make the whole thing sufficiently bonkers, which is clear when it kicks off with the invocation: "She could have been the leader England needed. Instead, history remembers her as the ultimate damsel in distress. Fuck that." Stream My Lady Jane on Prime Video.
Another expensive fantasy sequel, The Rings of Power expands on events largely only hinted at in J.R.R. Tolkien's books. Both Martin's Westeros and Tolkien's Middle Earth represent efforts to shape unique fantasy worlds from the raw clay of Western European history and mythology. There are a lot of threads to follow in this story set a few thousand years before The Lord of the Rings, but our main character is almost certainly the young(-er) Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). When the helpful but mysterious Annatar offers to aid the elves in forging the title's rings of power, Galadriel is the only one who clocks that something isn't quite right. As with The Hobbit and LOTR, it's the less overtly powerful folk who are the most impacted by the machinations of Middle Earth's elites. Stream The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Prime Video.
Families at war. Clashing cultures. Internal and external pressures: These themes echo through history, and they're similarly the stuff of great fantasy. Starting in 866, this show follows Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), a Saxon taken by Vikings as a child and subsequently raised by a Danish warlord. When his adoptive father is killed by another Dane, he enters the service of Saxon King Alfred, hoping that the alliance will allow him to avenge his loss. Instead, he's forced to choose between the Saxons of his birth and the Danes he has come to identify with. The drama plays out against the backdrop of an England rife with warring kingdoms and facing conquest by outsiders. Stream The Last Kingdom on Netflix.
A series birthed by a Kickstarter and adapting a Dungeons & Dragons-esque web series, Vox Machina has no business being one of the best current animated series' streaming. Yet here we are, with a show that's as watched as it is critically acclaimed. Set in the heavily D&D-inspired world of Exandria, the show stars an appropriately ragtag crew of mercenaries who gradually go from working quests for extra cash to growing into a family as they face increasingly challenging evils together. The cast is made up of experienced voice actors, with the vocal performances being a major selling point. Stream The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime Video.
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Ross Johnson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:90;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:68:" ";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:4:{s:0:"";a:6:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"These Beats Earbuds Are 47% Off Right Now";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:26:"01KWBQE8Z7N1VZPSM5TCWDBE95";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:11:"isPermaLink";s:5:"false";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"You get ANC and compatibility with both iPhones and Android.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://lifehacker.com/tech/beats-studio-earbuds-sale-june-2026?utm_medium=RSS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"category";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Tech";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:29:"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/";a:1:{s:9:"thumbnail";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:0:"";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"url";s:81:"https://lifehacker.com/imagery/articles/01KWBQE8Z7N1VZPSM5TCWDBE95/hero-image.png";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:40:"http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23455:"We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Woot has the Beats Studio Buds for $78.82, a sizable drop from their original $149.95 price and the lowest price tracked so far, according to price tracking tools. For comparison, Amazon is selling the same earbuds for $94.95 right now. Prime members also get free shipping, while non-Prime shoppers pay $6, though Woot notes that these earbuds cannot be shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. box addresses. One of the Studio Buds' biggest strengths is that these earbuds don't really force you to pick a side—iPhone owners get conveniences like one-tap pairing and Find My support, while Android users still get fast pairing and a companion app.
The earbuds themselves are small, light, and easy to wear for extended periods, and the three included ear tip sizes make it easier to find a secure fit for commuting, workouts, or everyday use. They're also rated IPX4, so sweat and light rain aren't much of a concern. That said, these are not neutral-sounding earbuds. They lean bass-heavy, which gives pop, hip-hop, and electronic music more punch, but may feel too boosted if you prefer a flatter sound. Battery life is rated for about five hours with ANC enabled or up to eight hours without it, while the charging case extends total listening time to roughly 15 to 24 hours, depending on how you use them.
Its ANC performance is also good enough to make everyday listening more enjoyable, especially for consistent background sounds like air conditioning, though this PCMag review notes that voices and higher-pitched sounds still come through more than they would on pricier Sony or Bose earbuds. As for controls, you can handle playback, calls, and switching between ANC and Transparency mode from either earbud—with volume being the only exception since you still have to adjust that from your phone. Still, at under $80, they're one of the more affordable ways to get active noise cancellation from a pair of earbuds that work especially well with Apple's ecosystem, without locking Android users out in the process.
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The Soundcore Boom 2 is down to $89.99 on Amazon, a solid drop from its usual $129.99. It has an IPX7 rating and can float, so it's fine around pools or at the beach without needing constant attention. If it falls into the water, it will come back up on its own—your music will cut out while it is submerged, since Bluetooth cannot transmit through water—but in most situations, the bigger advantage is that the speaker itself survives without any issues.
Sound-wise, the Boom 2 delivers up to 80 watts through a setup that includes two tweeters and a dedicated woofer, which is enough to fill a large room or carry across an outdoor space. There’s also a BassUp feature that boosts the low end; turning it off noticeably reduces the impact, so you will likely want to keep it on for a fuller, heavier sound. You can also pair a second unit for stereo sound, though it is limited to Bluetooth since there’s no wifi support.
There is also a built-in light system that syncs with your music. It adds a bit of atmosphere at night, though it also drains the battery faster. Speaking of, battery life is rated at up to 24 hours, but that figure assumes moderate volume with lights and bass boost turned off. In real use, especially at higher volumes, expect less. Charging takes about five and a half hours over USB-C, which works best as an overnight recharge rather than a quick top-up.
The design focuses more on durability than refinement, and the sound, while loud, does not have the same balance you get from speakers like the JBL Flip 6 or Sony SRS-XB23, especially in the mids and highs. The companion app helps by letting you adjust the EQ and control the lighting, which gives you some flexibility to shape the sound. Still, this is not meant for detailed listening sessions or for someone who prioritizes audio precision, notes this PCMag review. It works best for people who want a speaker that can handle unpredictable environments, play loud without much effort, and keep going through a full day of use.
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Prime Day 2026 may be over, but there are still nice bargains available on essential tech basics. If you bought a ton of flashy tech products on Prime Day, save some dough on the little things that you need to keep your flashier devices running smoothly.
If you want to automate your lamps, fans, and chocolate fountains without cluttering your phone with apps, these smart plugs will do the job. This four-pack of Linkind Matter Smart Plugs is just $24.98 after Prime Day, and they are Matter-compatible, so you can pair them natively to Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or SmartThings. Plus, they have local LAN so they'll work if your internet goes down.
I bought an Anker Prime Charger a few months ago, and my charging is so much better now. It delivers 160W of power despite its tiny footprint, letting you charge anything USB-C as quickly as possible. It's enough juice to fast-charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 0% to 50% in about 25 minutes. You can even use an app to customize how much power each port outputs. Be aware, however, that it doesn't come with a cable.
If you want to take your streaming and gaming to the next level, you gotta upgrade your router. The TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 router provides speeds of 5760 Mbps (6 GHz band), 2880 Mbps (5 GHz band), and 574 Mbps (2.4 GHz band). In other words: It's blazing fast, and at $169, it's 32% off the usual price.
If you are constantly running out of room for photos, large video projects, or game backups, the Samsung T9 Portable SSD (1TB) is a massive upgrade that is currently down to $179.99 from its normal $287.99 price tag. It uses a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 interface to deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 2,000 MB per second and features a textured rubber shield that can survive drops from up to 9.8 feet.
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Garmin's Forerunner 55 is not the fanciest of its watches. At its original price, I would have recommended passing it by. But even after Prime day, you can get it brand-new for $129. There was previously a deal on a refurbished model for $99.99, which is gone at the moment—but probably not for long. Refurbished watches tend to fluctuate in price, and I'd expect this one to reappear at some kind of discount.
The Forerunner 55 is as basic as they come, with a MIP screen rather than a modern AMOLED, single-band GPS, and limited functionality compared to more expensive Garmins. It came out in 2021, and was the bottom of the line at that point. (The others in the line were the workhorse Forerunner 255, and the premium Forerunner 955 with offline maps.)
But the 55 gets the job done, as we saw earlier this year when Sabastian Sawe wore it for his record-breaking London marathon. At its original price of $199, it didn't compare to newer watches that did a lot more for a similar or only slightly higher price. But I've always thought that if the price dropped enough, it would be an excellent buy for somebody looking for their first running watch, something that will give you accurate pace, distance, and heart rate and not complicate the experience with too many extra features.
There's no shame in wearing an older Garmin, either: these watches age well, and there's no subscription or software model that removes or degrades old features. Whatever your watch could do when you bought it, it's likely to keep doing that forever. (I constantly meet runners who have no idea what Garmin model they're wearing, and if we check, it turns out to be something that's old enough to go to elementary school. These watches last.)
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That's finally changing: WhatsApp is embracing usernames. The update is launching "later this year," according to WhatsApp, though you can start reserving your name of choice this week. It'll work much like usernames do on other messaging and social media platforms, meaning you'll no longer need to give up your digits to chat with someone.
"Usernames are our latest step to make WhatsApp even more private," explains a recent WhatsApp blog. "There's no directory to browse and no suggestions—people will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time."
There's also an extra level of security just in case you think someone else might stumble across or guess your username: There's an optional username key you can add, which other people will need in order to be able to add you.
WhatsApp didn't offer precise timings on the rollout, but it says usernames will start appearing "gradually over the coming months" and that users will get alerts when the feature is available in their region. Once usernames are enabled, they'll replace phone numbers when making new connections.
Creators, small businesses, and organizations can claim the same username they have on Facebook or Instagram. For everyone else, you can head to Settings in the mobile app and choose Account > Username—though the option doesn't seem to be live yet for everyone (if you don't see it, try updating the app).
And just in case you were thinking about reserving @TomHolland or @Zendaya, WhatsApp told The Verge that celebrity and politician names have already been reserved. If you're completely stuck for inspiration, there's going to be a username generator you can make use of, too.
The announcement blog post specifically says reservations will be open "starting this week," so if you're keen to bag your username of choice before anyone else, keep a close eye on WhatsApp in the coming days.
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As reported by CNET (which is owned by Lifehacker parent company Ziff Davis), T-Mobile will end a number of legacy plans, which will cancel "over 1,100 legacy billing codes." The company has started contacting customers on legacy plans to let them know about these changes. It seems T-Mobile has not specified which plans in particular are on the chopping block, but that some run "10 to 15 years" back. As CNET highlights, that could affect "Simple Choice," "T-Mobile One," "One Plus," and "Magenta" plans. In addition, legacy Sprint plans will likely be affected, if users had plans grandfathered over following Sprint and T-Mobile's merger.
In a statement to Android Authority, T-Mobile explains its reasoning behind the changes. These plans are the company's oldest, many of which were designed for the "3G and 4G eras." In addition, customers transitioning to current plans will have access to a five-year price guarantee. T-Mobile won't be shutting the lights all at once. These changes should take place over the coming weeks, and will be reflected by the following billing cycle. If your plan is affected by these changes, you should receive word either by text or through the T-Life app as soon as today.
The immediate downside to losing your legacy plan is, of course, losing your previous rate. While there are no guarantees at this time, it does seem like users who T-Mobile moves to a current plan will largely pay more than they did on their previous plan.
The good news is that the new plan may not be that much more expensive. T-Mobile's statement to Android Authority says that some customers' plans won't change at all, while others will see a "modest adjustment." Android Authority says that T-Mobile confirmed that the "average" change customers will see will be $4 per line.
According to T-Mobile, nothing. The company says it will be automatically enrolling legacy plan customers into current plans. In fact, Allan Samson, T-Mobile's chief marketing officer, said that "absolutely nothing is required of the customer, and it just is going to happen."
T-Mobile will supposedly move you to a "comparable" plan, including "Essentials," "Essentials Saver," "Experience More," "Experience Beyond," and "Better Value." While these may come with new features, they may, of course, come with that added price tag. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem you can contest the change, and must wait until T-Mobile takes action before you know what plan you've moved to.
If you're on a legacy plan, my advice is this: either wait and see what T-Mobile picks for you, or contact the company and negotiate. There's no guarantee what it might offer you, but once you know what your choices are, you can decide whether to move to another provider, or take what T-Mobile is offering.
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Prime Day 2026 is over, but many great deals on various kinds of smart glasses remain in effect. There are deals on display-style smart glasses, audio glasses, and AI/camera glasses, including a 77% price drop on a pair of Oho audio glasses and a hefty discount on both Rokid Max 2 AR display glasses and Rokid's camera/AI glasses.
The Rokid Max2 AR Glasses separate themselves from the display-glasses pack with a pair of built-in diopters, one for each lens, that let you correct for nearsightedness with a dial turn. Great in theory, but in practice, how well it works depends on your prescription. Still, once you get your prescription dialed in, these glasses project a 215-inch virtual theater screen using Sony Micro-OLED tech. The $299 for Prime Day (a 43% cut from their $529.00 MSRP) is still on, but for how long??
These OHO Audio Glasses are still marked down from $44 to $9.49. A 10-dollar pair of glasses that you can use to play audio, make telephone calls, and protect your eyes from the sun is a good deal, especially if you like the look. I can't vouch for the quality of any aspect of these glasses, but if you need a cheap pair of water-resistant sunglasses to listen to podcasts on while running or cycling, try these out; there's little monetary risk.
The Rokid AI glasses are holding on to their $249.00 Prime Day price ($100 off its standard MSRP). They're an interesting alternative to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses. I haven’t used them yet, but the technical sheets and real-world reviewer consensus suggest Rokid AI glasses are a viable non-Meta alternative. Unlike options locked into a single assistant, Rokid glasses feature a platform-agnostic voice setup powered by ChatGPT-5 and Google's Gemini. They're lightweight, too. The frames weigh in at 38.5 grams, despite packing in open-ear audio and a 12MP Sony camera sensor. On the negative side, some users in Amazon's comment section point to a hard-to-frame, left-aligned camera, hollow sound, and a plastic-y frame.
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I just checked the date on my Garmin watch, so I can see that Prime Day 2026 is officially over. But you're in luck: There are great discounts on Garmin watches still active on Amazon right now.
As someone who has trained for seven marathons in the past seven years, I can tell you that the right running watch is a powerful tool. I’ve come a long way on this front, considering I ran my first few marathons with no watch at all. Now I keep my Garmin Forerunner 970 on my wrist at all times.
Garmin recently released the Forerunner 70 and 170, meaning its older models—which are still excellent—are perfectly primed for Prime Day discounts. Garmin watches have a stellar reputation in the endurance sports world for good reason: they deliver detailed metrics and reliable GPS tracking, usually with a multi-week battery life. Here are the best Garmin deals that have stood out to me so far during this year's Prime Day sale.
The Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Sapphire Edition was a whole 50% off last week, and it's still seeing a generous 35% discount, bringing its usual $999.99 price down to $663.36. The reason for such a major discount is because Garmin has since merged the Epix and Fenix product lines, and this model has been replaced with the Fenix 8 series. Still, this watch holds up. It's got you covered for tracking your sleep and blood oxygen levels, measuring your VO2 Max, tracking 30 activities, offering a multisport mode, plus extras that most running-specific watches don't have, like golfing features, tides, and fish forecasts.
If the Epix Pro feels like overkill, the Forerunner series is where you want to focus your attention.
The Garmin Forerunner 55 is $129, down from $199.99: This is the most basic of the Garmin running watches you can buy new. Don't be deterred by the word "basic." As my colleague Beth Skwarecki reports, it was good enough for Sabastian Sawe to wear to break the sub-2-hour marathon barrier earlier this year.
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is $199.99, down from $249.99. This is my favorite entry-level running watch. The music version is also on sale; as always, it runs $50 more than the standard.
The Garmin Forerunner 265 is $349.99, down from $449.99: Although it isn't the latest and greatest anymore, this is still a fan favorite amongst Garmin users. It's a step above entry-level options, with dual-band GPS, power meter compatibility, and advanced analytics (like training status).
Stepping back outside the Forerunner lineup, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is on sale for $189.99 (normally $229.99). This is another Lifehacker favorite, and it's a solid choice for most casual athletes. It's since been replaced by the Vivoactive 6 ($299.99), but the 5 is still a great watch.
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Prime Day 2026 may be over, but some really solid bargains on Bluetooth speakers are still in effect. Below are some notable deals on speakers that are still going strong, including a mini-Marshall stack that remains at its all-time low price and a Monster portable speaker that's half off.
Chifench Portable Bluetooth Speaker: This entry-level, no-nonsense, IPX5-rated Bluetooth speaker is $18.97, down 33% from its regular price for Prime Day. Word of caution: IPX5 means it's splash proof, not dunk proof.
Marshall Acton III Bluetooth Home Speaker: This 40% off deal means this Bluetooth speaker is still at its lowest price ever. Patterned after the legendary Marshall Stack, the Marshall Acton III features onboard bass and treble control, a 3.5" input, and solid, room-filling audio. At $179.99, it's down 40% from the usual price. Note: this is not a portable speaker, in that it must be plugged in.
Bose SoundLink Plus Portable Bluetooth Speaker: This outdoor speaker is small enough to fit in a gym bag, features a 20-hour battery life, and offers the sound quality that Bose is known for. Plus, you can pair it up with any other compatible Bose speaker. It's on sale for $179 instead of its usual $269 price.
Monster S620 Bluetooth Speaker: This 60W speaker is IPX8 waterproof and lets you switch between indoor and outdoor modes, so you can truly use it anywhere. It's on sale for $49.99, half of its usual cost.
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Prime Day 2026 may have come and gone, but if you're been looking for a new fitness tracker, some great deals are still active. When I signed up for my first Hyrox race—a fitness competition combining eight-kilometer running with nine obstacle stations—I knew I needed a watch that could track everything from split times to obstacle-specific metrics. That's why I opted for Amazfit, and I was quite pleased with the results.
For context, Amazfit is a more affordable brand that's growing increasingly popular, even becoming the “Official Wearable Technology Partner and Timekeeper” of Hyrox events. But even if you have no plans to put yourself through Hyrox training, the brand offers a versatile lineup of fitness watches, and I’m seeing some great deals on the last day of Amazon's mega-sale right now.
Throughout Prime Day, the Active Max was on sale for $132.99, down from $169.99. Even though Prime Day is over, this watch is still currently discounted, now sitting at $139.99. This is a great budget option with a large 1.5″ ultra-bright AMOLED display.
The T-Rex 3 is still on sale for $226.09, down from $277.99. While Amazfit is gaining popularity primarily for its budget options, the higher-end "rugged" models are starting to earn their keep, too. This watch is built for durability in extreme conditions, so if you've got an adventurous summer ahead, the T-Rex line is worth considering.
The Active 3 was on sale this past Prime Day, but has now returned to its standard price $169.99. It's the same for the Balance 2, now back to $299.99. These are both solid mid-tier options, so I'll definitely be tracking their prices during future sales events.
While my Garmin still has my heart when I'm marathon training, Amazfit edges it out when it comes to the best Hyrox training experience. It turns out you don't always need to spend $300+ to get the best training metrics (and while Prime Day still lasts for a few more hours, you're getting even better value).
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