Lifehacker

Dear White People (2017 – 2021)

Dear White People (2017 – 2021)

Adapted from and expanding upon the 2014 movie, this show takes us to a (fictional) Ivy League school for a comedy-drama that tackles campus life and politics from a rather different perspective than that of Rooster. Logan Browning leads the ensemble cast as Sam White, who kind of inadvertently starts the titular radio show following a racially charged incident on campus. Far from the racial screed that some bad-faith YouTubers seem to find it, it's never shy about confronting the complicated and occasionally silly contradictions of campus activism, with each episode approaching life at Winchester University from a different character's perspective. Stream Dear White People on Netflix.

The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021 – 2025)

The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021 – 2025)

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 mostly 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.

Overcompensating (2025 – )

Boarders (2024 – 2026)

Even though we're backing up a couple of years to follow teens in their high school years, this British import's setting is a decent match, finding its students living away from home and family for the first time in their lives. 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. 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.

Boarders (2024 – 2026)

at Tubi

Bel-Air (2022 – 2025)

Another modern take on a beloved '80s/'90s sitcom, this one's a bit different, serving as a total reimagining with no narrative connection to the original. And while A Different World is a comedy with dramatic heft, this one's more of a straight drama. It’s jarring for fans of the beloved original to tune in to find a serious show with the same premise as the Will Smith original—one that often leans into heavy realism. Jabari Banks plays, er, Will Smith, a 16-year-old from West Philadelphia who moves in with his auntie and uncle in Bel-Air following a gun charge and a run-in with a Philly drug lord. Banks is charismatic and believable, bringing a ton of personality to a show that occasionally veers down dark alleys. Stream Bel-Air on Peacock.

Bel-Air (2022 – 2025)

at Peacock

Overcompensating (2025 – )

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, though it's more a story of one young man's coming of age, there's a strong ensemble backing him up. Stream Overcompensating on Prime Video.

All American (2018 – 2026)

All American (2018 – 2026)

The heart of All American (for most of its run) is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), based on real-life NFL linebacker Spencer Paysinger. A star player for his high school team in Crenshaw, he's recruited by the coach (Taye Diggs) of a team in Beverly Hills to come and play for them, forcing Spencer to navigate two very different worlds while trying to build a life and potential career. Stream All American on Netflix.

Never Have I Ever (2020 – 2023)

Never Have I Ever (2020 – 2023)

Following a family tragedy, the already awkward 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) has a pretty terrible freshman year of high school, and decides that she’s going to turn things around the following year, hoping that a nearly academic study of sex will get her the boyfriend(s) her raging hormones have begun to demand. It works, to a point—but getting a surprise yes to sex from her crush leads her to question what she’s really ready for. More about burgeoning sexuality than sex specifically, this Mindy Kaling-produced series is both honest and charming. Stream Never Have I Ever on Netflix.

Deaf U (2020)

For realism in a show about the college experience, you could do a lot worse than this docuseries following several students at Gallaudet University, a school for deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults. In one sense, it's a specific setting where perspectives on deafness vary wildly, even in Gallaudet's self-contained world (aside from being a show about academically driven and horny college students, this is also a great primer for hearing people about some of the issues). But even for all of that, the challenges in building a life and future away from home are pretty universally relatable. Stream Deaf U on Netflix.

Deaf U (2020)

A Different World (1987 – 1993)

A Different World (1987 – 1993)

There's a reason A Different World has returned in 2026, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that there was nothing else on TV quite like it back in the late '80s and early '90s. For all of its sitcom sensibilities, the show tried hard (especially after multi-hyphenate creator Debbie Allen arrived to rework things after its first season) to paint a realistic picture of college life and an HBCU. Of the few shows on TV with largely Black casts, almost none would go so far as to highlight achievement and excellence; A Different World managed to do so while building a cast of characters so memorable that we're more than willing to catch up with them nearly forty years later. Stream A Different World on Netflix.

Anker Soundcore Space 2 Headphones

Anker’s New Soundcore Space 2 Headphones Are Already 18% Off

Naima Karp — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:01:10 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Anker released the noise-cancelling Soundcore Space One headphones a few years ago, and while they were a more budget-friendly alternative to premium models from Bose and Sony, their performance and fit still fell short in several areas. The brand’s updated Soundcore Space 2 headphones are a major upgrade across the board: They’re comfier, have better ANC, and are currently 18% off at $106.49 (originally $129.99), a rare price cut for a still-new release from a popular brand.

Battery life is one of the Soundcore Space 2’s most attractive features: They last up to 50 hours with ANC on and 70 hours with ANC off, and a five-minute charge gives you up to four extra hours. The noise cancellation is strong for the price, blocking out lower-frequency sounds well. Comfort is also a major upgrade from its sparser predecessor, with roomier, more plush memory foam earcups and a padded headband. They’re also travel-friendly, as the earcups rotate and fold.

The Soundcore app allows you to customize EQ and sound presets, giving you added flexibility if you don’t like the default tuning. Instead of touch-sensitive panels, these headphones use conventional buttons, which help prevent accidental commands while adjusting the earcups and are easy to operate. Along with supporting Bluetooth 6.1, they also have a wired-cable option, which isn’t always the case with modern wireless headphones. That said, they don’t support USB-C audio.

If you want over-ear noise-canceling headphones that perform well but don’t have $200 to shell out for a more expensive model, the Anker Soundcore Space 2 headphones are a comfortable, effective, and long-lasting alternative that hover around $100 at the current discounted price.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

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Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

What to Wear When Exercising Outdoors, Based on How Cold It Is

Beth Skwarecki — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

I fell in love with cold weather running while I was training for a spring marathon. It wasn’t a choice at first: Some weeks, the weather was bad for days on end, and if I stayed home, I would fall behind in my training. Everybody else in my training group was braving the elements, so I did too—with no regrets.

I got to run on quiet mornings while snow was softly falling. I signed up for a winter race that herded finishers into a heated barn for hot chocolate and soup. I set a personal record at a spring race, during which I pushed myself hard without breaking a sweat. I now find it sad when somebody tells me they’re afraid of running in the cold, or that they would run in the winter but don’t know what to wear.

No, cold weather doesn’t have to stop you from running, but getting dressed can be a puzzle: How do you keep from freezing your butt off at first and avoid overheating once you start to sweat? Fortunately, it isn’t as tough as it looks. With the right gear, your fingers and ears can stay toasty while you jog through a winter wonderland. Below, I’ll give you a temperature-by-temperature running cheat sheet, and then dive into the specifics on how to buy the best socks, shirts, and more.

Use the"feels like" temperature and the 20-degree rule

When I get dressed to run in winter, I take a look at the “feels like” temperature, not the actual high or low. I also make sure to check the weather for the time I’ll go running, not for the whole day. It doesn’t matter how warm it will be at 2 p.m. if my run will be happening at 6 a.m., before the sun is up. I use the Carrot Weather app, but any app that gives you hourly feels-like temps will work just fine.

Next, use the 20-degree rule. Imagine that the temperature is 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than it really is. What would you wear then? Here's an example: if it’s 50 degrees out, you should dress as if it were 70: in a T-shirt and shorts, most likely. If it’s 30 degrees, you’d dress as if it were 50: long pants and maybe a light jacket. Get the idea?

Everybody has their own preferences. Some people wear shorts even when it’s snowing, while others will pop a beanie on as soon as there’s a detectable chill in the air. I’m a pretty middle-of-the-road runner when it comes to keeping warm, so here’s what I wear at each “feels like” temperature, starting with warmer weather and working our way colder. I'll give a guide to each type of garment or accessory at the end.

What to wear if it's 50 degrees or warmer

At 50+ degrees Fahrenheit, I’m wearing basically the same things I would for a summer run.

Bottoms: shorts or light leggings.
Top: A tank top or T-shirt.
Head and hands: Nothing special. No gloves and no hat, unless it’s a baseball cap to shade my eyes from the sun.

What to wear if it's in the 40s

We’re starting to feel the first bit of a chill. This is where I may start bringing gloves, although they’ll probably get stuffed into a pocket by the end of the run. Remember, with the 20-degree rule, it will feel like 60 degrees by the time you're warmed up.

Bottoms: Leggings, lightweight long pants, or shorts.
Top: Something with long sleeves, but ideally made of thin material (think long-sleeved T-shirt, not a full-on sweatshirt or jacket). If you wore a sun shirt in the summer, that's a good layering option for these cool temps. I like my REI Sahara Shade hoodie here, but any long sleeve will do. If you run fall and winter races, you'll probably be handed a free long-sleeved version at some point.
Hands: I usually just pull my shirt's sleeves over my hands, but you could wear knit gloves if you want. Consider something like Flipmits for an intermediate option (they can be folded down into a wrist cuff when your hands warm up).
Head: A headband if you need protection for your ears.

FLIPMITS Fingerless 3-in-1 Performance Gloves

$29.99 at Amazon

What to wear if it's in the 30s

You may see a few snowflakes drifting down, but don’t bundle up in a snowsuit. Once you’re warmed up, it will only feel like 50 degrees—so go for something in “light jacket” territory.

Bottoms: Leggings or running tights. The fleece-lined kind can be nice. (I have these.)
Top: You’ll want some kind of jacket or sweatshirt. A lightweight, reflective rain jacket is great here, or just throw on a regular hoodie over your T-shirt. (I go with cotton sweats in dry weather or light snow, but I'd go for synthetics or wool if there's rain or sleet.)
Hands: Definitely wear gloves. The cheap knit ones are usually good enough, but consider treating yourself to a nice pair of running gloves.
Head: Your choice of hat or headband; I’d stick with the headband.
Feet: This is around the temperature you may start to want warmer socks. That goes double if snow is in play: snow that falls onto your shoes will work its way through the mesh, melt, and make your feet wet. Wool is a good material here, so consider something like these from Smartwool.

baleaf Women's Fleece Lined Leggings Thermal Warm Winter Tights High Waisted Thick Yoga Pants Cold Weather with Pockets Black L

$33.99 at Amazon

What to wear if it's in the 20s

This is where I’ll officially say it’s “cold.” Whatever warm-weather gear you were getting away with at warmer temps, you’ll probably have to swap it out now. Shorts people will break out their long pants. Headband people will wear a real hat.

Bottoms: Leggings and shorts. I don’t care if you think it looks goofy to wear both; this is an A+ hack. Or try a puffer skirt.
Top: It’s definitely jacket weather. Rather than getting a warmer jacket, I like to wear the same light jacket as I did at 30 degrees, but this time with a long-sleeved fleece or wool base layer underneath.
Hands: Real gloves, please. You can keep wearing your little knit gloves if you’re able to tuck your hands inside your jacket sleeves, or if you have a pair of mittens to wear over top; otherwise, get windproof gloves.
Head: A hat, and maybe also a buff for your nose and mouth. (If you have any cloth masks still hanging around from the early COVID days, they’re perfect for cold weather runs.)
Feet: Warm socks for sure. If you’ll be doing a lot of running in these temperatures, you may want shoes that are specialized for the elements. Look for ones with Gore-Tex uppers, like the Brooks Ghost GTX.

Brooks Men's Ghost 18 GTX Neutral Waterproof Running & Walking Shoe

$179.95 at Amazon

What to wear in the teens or single digits

This is where I tap out. If a run is just barely in the teens, I’ll make do with the 20-degree items I mentioned above, adding an extra layer wherever needed. But if that isn't enough, I opt for the treadmill. You certainly can run in this weather if you are determined. You’ll want windproof everything, some kind of face covering, and you may need eye protection such as goggles.

Whenever the weather gets to your own personal “too cold” temperature, remember that you still have options. The early afternoon is often the warmest part of the day, so a run may be tolerable then. There’s also no shame in using a treadmill (even if you have to join a cheap gym for this reason alone).

Everybody has different preferences, and with practice you’ll figure out if you’re the kind of person who wears three shirts before it hits freezing or the type to run through the snow in shorts. But this should give you a starting point when you head out for your first (or next) cold weather run.

How to buy good cold-weather running gear without overspending

As you continue on your cold-weather running journey, you may need to buy some new gear or repurpose things from elsewhere in your closet. And yes, the first few minutes of your run will feel chilly. But if you’re wearing the right shoes and clothes (and planning routes with a few extra factors in mind, which I’ll discuss below), winter running is not just feasible; it’s actually fun. So here are the items you may want to consider.

Socks

Your feet need to be warm and, if possible, dry. Warm socks go without saying, but there are some extra considerations when you’re picking socks to run in. Wool socks are ideal because they keep your feet warm even when they get wet. You may not think of winter as a wet time, but any snow that meets up with your body heat will turn into water. If you don’t have wool socks, synthetic wicking fabrics are a good second choice. Cotton is a no-no

First, the socks have to be able to fit into your shoes. If you’ve been running in super thin cotton or synthetic socks all summer, thick socks may not fit. Smartwool run socks are available in a thin version that can fit no problem—but in colder weather you’ll want some thickness for extra warmth. That thickness, in turn, may mean that your winter running shoes need to be roomier than the shoes you wear in summer. If you’re buying a new pair, make sure to try them on with the type of socks you intend to run in.

Smartwool Women's Run Targeted Cushion Ankle Socks, Black, Medium

$21.00 at Amazon

Shoes

If your warm socks fit, you can make do with the same shoes you wore in the summer. Your feet will stay dry if the weather is dry and you stay out of puddles. If you encounter snow and slush, though, your feet will have to endure warm-but-wet conditions for the rest of your run. That can be okay for short runs, but for serious winter running, consider upgrading your shoes.

Some running shoes are available with water-resistant uppers. This level of water resistance will keep stray snowflakes out of your socks, but it isn’t reliable if you’ll be stepping in slush puddles. In that case, you’ll want something more waterproof, like Gore-Tex shoes, many of which are made for running trails.

Brooks Women's Ghost 18 GTX Neutral Waterproof Running & Walking Shoe

$179.95 at Amazon

If you expect to run on a lot of ice or packed snow, especially on trails, spikes can give you a little extra grip.

Yaktrax makes a rubber harness that stretches to fit your shoe, with steel coils and small spikes, for about $40.
Microspikes are a notch up from there, costing around $90 for what look like a miniature version of the chains you’d put on car tires.
And if you’re really dedicated—and are seeking a purpose-built pair of snow shoes—you can attach individual spikes: either these traction spikes from IceSpike, or via a DIY approach using sheet metal screws. (There’s a tutorial here.)

The versions that include rubber, like Yaktrax, can wear out quickly on pavement, so it’s best to save these for runs on trails or on unplowed paths. You’ll also want to be careful about the fit. I tried a pair that were similar to Yaktrax, but they were a tad too big. Shortly into my run, I found that the rubber stretched enough to pull the front set of spikes up over the top of my shoe. I've since gotten better-fitting ones, and they work great.

Spikes and specialized shoes help you go more places, in worse weather—but remember that they’re not required to just head out on a chilly day. Regular shoes are fine if the weather is cold but dry, or if you’re willing to put up with a little moisture.

Shirts and jackets

I actually love when the weather gets cold enough that I need a jacket, because then I get to wear something that gives me extra pockets! Stick with thin jackets that have some room inside. By the time temps dip into the 20s or below, you’ll be doing some serious layering: for example, an undershirt, a long-sleeved warm layer, and a jacket. A great option for that warm layer is a wool base layer like this one. (Don’t worry, it’s not itchy.) If you can’t wear wool, a synthetic fleece is a good alternative.

Before you run out to buy all new clothes, experiment with what’s in your closet. Try repurposing a thin sweater, for example. Some people would never wear cotton for running (it can be cold when wet), but I wear it as my undershirt layer and have lived to tell the tale. Just make sure to shower or change after your run, so you aren't sitting around in cold, wet clothes.

The jacket is the most important layer. You can grab a sweatshirt in a pinch, but to be really well-equipped for nasty weather, you’ll want a jacket that is windproof and water-resistant. Jackets made for running are lightweight, for layering. Consider ones that are visible at night, with bright colors and reflective areas, and that come with zippered pockets.

BALEAF Mens Cycling Rain Jacket Windbreaker Waterproof Running Gear Golf Mountain Biking Hood Lightweight Reflective Yellow XL

Leggings, tights, and pants

Once it’s too cold for shorts, you’ll want to start layering your bottoms, too. Loose pants let cold air in, which is why leggings or “running tights” like these are standard winter wear for all genders. Running tights come in different thicknesses; go for something fleece-lined for your coldest runs, or layer two pairs.

Accessories

You need to keep your ears warm, but don’t reach for a winter hat right away: an ear warmer or headband can cover your ears while still letting heat escape from the top of your head. And if anything is falling from the sky (say, snow), a baseball cap will keep it out of your eyes.

ZYXBBD Ear Warmers for Women and Men-Fleece Winter Ear Warmer Headband Ear Muffs for Jogging Running Hiking Cycling Skiing (Black+Red)

$9.97 at Amazon

Fleece or knit hats are great for cold enough days, of course. The dividing line between earwarmer weather and hat weather is a personal one, and depends on whether you’re overheating. If you’re wearing a hat but sweating into your base layers, the hat is probably overkill.

Gloves, however, are essential. I keep a pair of cheap knit gloves in my jacket pockets, but windy or very cold days call for something stronger. You can layer gloves; I find gloves under mittens work well. You can also get windproof insulated gloves, which are warmer than any number of layers of holey knit gloves.

Your face will freeze on windy or very cold days, so this is where your old stash of pandemic face masks really shines. Consider a balaclava or even a fleece-lined bandana. A neck gaiter stays on better than a scarf if your neck is cold. At this point, every inch of you is covered but your eyes. Sunglasses can take care of that.

You Should Enable This Chrome Feature That Flags Suspicious Websites

Emily Long — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

If you use Google Chrome, you can turn on a new safety feature that will warn you if you navigate to a suspicious website that looks like others already known for malicious behavior. The alerts are part of Enhanced Protection mode in Chrome's Safe Browsing, which checks your activity against potentially harmful sites and warns you if you're at risk of encountering malware, phishing, intrusive ads, or social engineering attacks.

How Chrome protects against malicious websites

Most internet users are familiar with the full-page alerts that appear if you navigate to a site that's known to be malicious. These red "dangerous site" warnings indicate a high risk of harm to the user and can't really be ignored since they take up the entire screen and urge you to go back to safety.

The new "suspicious site" alerts indicate possible risk of harm based on patterns consistent with other known malicious sites. This means that Google isn't as confident that the website is actually dangerous, but it looks a lot like others that are spreading malware or running phishing scams. These suspicious site warnings are smaller pop-ups with the text "This site doesn't seem right" and two button options: Mark as safe or Back to safety. The different colors, text, and formatting make it easy for users to distinguish between what Google deems dangerous versus suspicious.

You can enable Enhanced Protection in your Chrome settings

Safe Browsing in Chrome has three options: standard protection, enhanced protection, and no protection at all (which isn't recommended). Standard protection checks your browsing activity, extensions, and downloads against Google's list of unsafe sites, which is updated periodically. By contrast, enhanced protection works in real time and uses AI analysis. Note that enhanced protection does require you to share more information about your activity to Google, and the data are linked to your Google Account.

While privacy-conscious users may be hesitant to send more info to Google, enhanced protection is likely worthwhile for those who aren't as savvy to advanced scam tactics (and therefore more likely to enter credentials or financial information on or download a file from a malicious website). To enable Enhanced Protection and receive suspicious website warnings, go to Settings > Privacy and security in Chrome and toggle Enhanced protection on under the Safe Browsing section.

This Philips Fingerprint Door Lock Set Lets You Ditch Your Keys for Less Than $90

Pradershika Sharma — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon has dropped the price of the Philips Keypad Front Door Lock Set to $89.98 from $142.99, taking $53 off and bringing it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. For that, you get an electronic deadbolt along with two matching lever handles in a matte black finish, so you can replace your existing front door hardware without having to find coordinating pieces separately. The set also makes a good case for itself if you've been considering keyless entry but don't necessarily want another device connected to your home network, since this lock operates entirely offline. Being offline doesn’t limit your ways in, though; you can use a fingerprint, a PIN, or one of two backup keys.

Philips Keypad Front Door Lock Set

Philips claims the fingerprint reader works in 0.3 seconds, which could be handy when you're carrying groceries or don't feel like digging around for your keys. You can also register multiple fingerprints for family members and generate unlimited one-time PINs for visitors—so your dog walker can get in without needing your personal code. There's also an adjustable auto-lock timer that secures the door after 30 to 180 seconds, along with alerts for incorrect entries, low batteries, and a jammed lock. Privacy, away, and silent modes add further control.

Getting all of that onto your door is fairly simple and takes just a screwdriver, provided your door meets the requirements: 1⅜ to two inches thick, with a one-inch edge bore and a 2⅜- or 2¾-inch backset. The biggest limitation is its lack of connectivity—you can't unlock the door remotely, check its status from your phone, or integrate it with other smart home devices. Anyone who needs those features will have to look elsewhere, but for straightforward keyless access without connectivity, this Philips set covers the essentials.

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Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

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Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

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This Versatile Roborock Vacuum and Mop Is $750 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Homes with shedding pets, mixed flooring, and low furniture can quickly reveal the shortcomings of a basic robot vacuum. The Roborock Qrevo CurvX is built to handle those challenges, and it is currently available on Amazon for $749.99, down from $1,499.99. That is a $750 discount, and price trackers also indicate it is the lowest price recorded for this model. And while $750 is still a considerable amount to spend on a cleaning appliance, the discount brings it closer to midrange model pricing while retaining features normally associated with flagship machines.

Roborock Qrevo CurvX

$1,499.99 Save $750.00

Samsung 57" Odyssey Neo G9 Series

$1,499.99 Save $750.00

The CurvX earns that higher price by doing more than simply vacuuming an open stretch of floor—its 22,000 pascals of suction can handle pet hair, crumbs, and debris caught in carpet, while the DuoDivide main brush guides hair toward the center to reduce tangles. There’s also an extendable side brush that reaches along walls and into corners, and a lifting chassis that helps the robot cross rugs, exercise mats, and other raised surfaces without getting stuck. Its mop pads are similarly adaptable, extending toward room edges for better coverage and lifting by up to 17 millimeters over carpet so the CurvX can move between hard floors and rugs without dragging a wet mop across both.

When it encounters low furniture, its top-mounted LiDAR sensor retracts to reduce the robot’s height to 3.14 inches, allowing it to clean beneath most sofas and beds. And once the CurvX finishes cleaning, its docking station takes care of much of the work that would otherwise fall to you—it empties the dustbin, refills the water tank, washes the mop pads with water heated to 176 degrees Fahrenheit, and dries them with air heated to 113 degrees. It also has a dirt sensor that can prompt it to wash its mop pads again or repeat a cleaning pass when an area needs more attention. The Roborock app gives you further control, allowing you to clean specific rooms, create schedules, set virtual barriers, and mark areas the robot should avoid, while SmartPlan 2.0 adapts the routine to different rooms and floor types.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Ultra-Wide Samsung Gaming Monitor Is $600 Off

Daniel Oropeza — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

An ultra-wide curved gaming monitor with ridiculous specs is every gamer's dream, but they (usually) don't come cheap. The 57-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, one of the best ultra-wide gaming monitors on the market, is currently on sale for $1,499.99 (originally $2,499.99 at launch)—that's its second-best discount, according to price-checking tools.

Dual 4K UHD 1000R Curved Gaming Monitor, 240Hz, 1ms with DisplayPort 2.1, Quantum Mini-LED.

$1,499.99 at Amazon

$2,099.99 Save $600.00

$1,499.99 at Amazon

$2,099.99 Save $600.00

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Series is not a regular ultra-wide gaming monitor. It has impressive specs, but you'll need a top-notch gaming computer with specific outputs to take full advantage of its 240Hz refresh rate potential.

This monitor came out in 2023 with an "excellent" review from PCMag, mainly due to its impressive 7,680 by 2,160 4K native resolution, the ridiculous 57-inch screen size, its great color range and accuracy, the 240Hz refresh rate, and its design. The VA panel also means you get a bright 1,000-nit screen. To make full use of its powerful 240Hz refresh rate, you'll need to use a DisplayPort 2.1, or you'll be limited to 120Hz. You'll also need a powerful modern graphics card that is able to push the frames at a native resolution to max out the monitor's potential.

Although it is pricey, this monitor is a great value for the right gamer. You'll need plenty of space to fit a 57-inch screen, as well as a powerful computer to justify using the monitor—if you're not a competitive gamer with a powerful computer, it's probably not worth the price tag. Instead, consider this Asus gaming monitor going for $329.99 (originally $499) right now.

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What's New on Netflix in November 2026

Emily Long — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Holiday content returns to Netflix in November, with the monthly slate weighted toward dozens of Christmas and seasonally themed films and shows as well as season nine of The Great British Baking Show: Holidays (Nov. 23). Netflix will also be hosting a Thanksgiving Eve NFL game with the Packers vs. Rams matchup on Nov. 25.

Other titles of note include The Altruists (Nov. 19), a limited drama series about the rise and fall—and crimes—of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison (played by Julia Garner of Ozark and Inventing Anna fame). Jessica Chastain stars in the Netflix original film Heartland (Nov. 13), a thriller about a former country music star whose niece disappears.

On the documentary side, there's Ron Howard's Avedon (Nov. 11), a film about the photographer's life and influence, plus comedy specials from Mike Tyson (Return of the Mike, Nov. 3), Janelle James (How Romantic, Nov. 10), and Mike Ward (Modest, Nov. 17).

Here's everything else coming to Netflix in November, and everything that's leaving.

What's coming to Netflix in November 2026

Available soon

Gordon—Netflix Series

Available November 1

100 días para enamorarnos: Season 1
A Sudden Case of Christmas
Air Force One
Barbie in the Nutcracker
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Bridesmaids
Cliffhanger
The Croods
The Day After Tomorrow
El Chema: Season 1
Falsa identidad: Seasons 1-2
Fury
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas
Happy’s Place: Season 2
Insidious: Chapter 2
Insidious: Chapter 3
Looper
Mistletoe Murders: Seasons 1-2
The Mummy
No Sleep 'Til Christmas
Public Enemies
Rectify: Seasons 1-4
The Red Road: Seasons 1-2
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Richard Jewell
Same Time, Next Christmas
Stand by Me
Weekend at Bernie's
Whiplash

Available November 3

A Cinderella Christmas Ball
Bass X Machina—Netflix Series
Christmas Time Is Here
Menorah in the Middle
Mike Tyson: Return of the Mike—Netflix Series Comedy Special
St. Denis Medical: Season 2
Will Trent: Seasons 1-4

Available November 4

A Dog's Perfect Christmas—Netflix Film
A Runaway Bride for Christmas
Anaesthesia—Netflix Series
Deck the Hallways
Ninho: Fame Ain’t Worth It—Netflix Documentary
Taken: Natalee Holloway—Netflix Documentary

Available November 5

Black Doves: Season 2—Netflix Series
Deck the Halls
The Neighborhood: Season 1-8
North of North: Season 2—Netflix Series
One Year to Live, Buy a Man—Netflix Film
Overacting—Netflix Film

Available November 6

Carolina Caroline
Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story
Possible Love—Netflix Film
Under Siege—Netflix Series
Unprotected: Murder in Galicia—Netflix Documentary

Available November 9

Doozie's Doghouse—Netflix Family
The Good Lawyer—Netflix Film
Misty Green
Power: Seasons 1-6

Available November 10

The Devil's Plan: Season 3—Netflix Series
Janelle James: How Romantic—Netflix Comedy Special
Last One Standing: Season 4—Netflix Series
Reminders of Him

Available November 11

Alicia's Law—Netflix Series
Avedon—Netflix Documentary
The Body—Netflix Series
ChiaroScuro—Netflix Series
The Gospel of Christmas—Netflix Film
How to Fall In Love By Christmas
Rodeo Christmas Romance

Available November 12

A Christmas Castle Proposal: A Royal in Paradise 2
Allen—Netflix Film
Bros: Season 2—Netflix Series
The Christmas Switch—Netflix Film
The Empress: Season 3—Netflix Series
Ethos: Season 2—Netflix Series
The First 48: Season 16
Love Is Blind, Habibi: Season 2—Netflix Series
Miracles of the ER—Netflix Series
Never Surrender—Netflix Film

Available November 13

A Merry Christmas Wish
Heartland—Netflix Film
Murder in Galicia—Netflix Series
Stars and Vows: Anele & Buzza—Netflix Series

Available November 15

Insidious
Smile

Available November 16

Christmas On The Ranch
Reporting for Christmas

Available November 17

Mike Ward: Modest—Netflix Comedy Special
Obsession
RBG
Run the World: Seasons 1-2

Available November 18

America's Test Kitchen Friendsgiving: Season 1
Gentle Monster—Netflix Film
Guarding Stars—Netflix Film
The Law of Beasts—Netflix Series
Valentina and the 12 Signs—Netflix Series
Win the Mall—Netflix Series

Available November 19

A Cherry Pie Christmas
The Altruists—Netflix Series
Christmas at Fields Ranch

Available November 20

On Behalf of My Son—Netflix Film
Primetime Preacher$—Netflix Documentary
Steps—Netflix Family

Available November 21

The Family Holiday
Marry Christmas
Mistletoe Mixup

Available November 23

The Great British Baking Show: Holidays: Season 9—Netflix Series
Mark Rober's CrunchLabs: Season 6
Sesame Street: Volume 4—Netflix Family
The Trials of Karen Read—Netflix Documentary

Available November 24

All for Christmas
Rob Lowe: The Outsider—Netflix Documentary
The Trouble With Mistletoe

Available November 30

Pressure
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

What's leaving Netflix in November 2026

Leaving November 1

13 Going on 30
42
American Sniper
Black Adam
Broadchurch: Seasons 1-3
Catch and Release
Eat Pray Love
Fast Five
Hitch
Jumanji
Nightcrawler
Pompeii
Speed
Speed 2: Cruise Control
Starship Troopers
Steel Magnolias
Under the Skin

Leaving November 5

The End of the F***ing World: Seasons 1-2

Leaving November 6

Safe Haven

Leaving November 9

The Lost City

Leaving November 14

The Big C: Seasons 1-4

Leaving November 15

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Shallows

Leaving November 19

Saw X
True Romance

Leaving November 20

The Resident: Seasons 1-6

Leaving November 25

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life: Limited Series

The Best Apple Watch for Most People Is Over $100 Off

Daniel Oropeza — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Apple Watch Series 10 was released in September 2024, and it's one of the best ways to get into the Apple Watch in 2026 without breaking the bank. Right now, the titanium 46 mm case model with cellular capabilities is $112 off, bringing the price down to $637 (originally $749). That's the lowest price after Apple raised prices this summer due to the RAM shortage, according to price-tracking tools. The same model in gold titanium is also over $100 off, reaching $679 (originally $799), saving you the same amount compared to the latest Series 12 going for $799.

Smartwatch with Slate Titanium Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Fitness Tracker, ECG App, Always-On Retina Display, Water Resistant

Apple Watch Series 10 [GPS + Cellular 46mm case]

Smartwatch with Gold Titanium Case with Gold Milanese Loop - M/L. Fitness Tracker, ECG App, Always-On Retina Display, Carbon Neutral

Apple Watch Series 10 [GPS + Cellular 46mm case]

The Apple Watch Series 10 was considered the best Apple Watch for most people last fall and is a great replacement if you're still wearing the more budget SE. There are also some key upgrades from the Apple Watch 9, although they're less noticeable than previous Apple Watch upgrades. If you're curious to know how it compares to other flagship smartwatches from its time, you can check out our head-to-head comparison.

Some of the first things you'll notice on the Series 10 are a thin case and a big OLED screen (either 1.6 inches or 1.8 inches, depending on which model you get). The Series 10 has audio playback, meaning you can listen to podcasts, take calls, or listen to Spotify on its speakers. The sleep features allow notifications for signs of sleep apnea. What you're giving up by saving on this version over the latest Series 12 is a faster S11 chip, a newer Health Sensing System and the Readiness app (tracks daily insights, vitals, and other metrics), a longer battery life (from 18 to 24 hours), 5G RedCap support (it helps save on battery life and has better network coverage compared to 5G), and audio intelligence features like Live Rewind, Siri Recap, and Sound Recognition.

If those extra features don't matter to you, the Series 10 is a great Apple Watch to get in 2026 at a discount, when many are still suffering from their price hikes.

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Everything You Should See Along With ‘You Can See Everything’

Jeff Somers — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000

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You Can See Everything, the new documentary about Theranos founder (and accomplished con artist) Elizabeth Holmes from filmmakers Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, is breaking records (and brains). Not only is it raking it in at the box office in a way that few documentaries can manage, it’s also dominating the pop culture chat right now thanks to genre-defying techniques; a huge, rule-breaking twist (that I won't spoil); and its unrepentant and inexplicably mesmerizing subject.

While some might argue that you should head into this incredible film experience fresh, if you’re unfamiliar with any of the three major figures involved, you will benefit from a little prep work before you head in—and if you've already seen it, you're no doubt eager to dive even deeper into this truly remarkable (in every sense of the word) story. Here’s what you should watch, read, and listen to before or after You Can See Everything.

Films, shows, podcasts, and books to check out before you watch You Can See Everything

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Nathan For You - Season 1

at Amazon

The Rehearsal: The Complete First Season

at Amazon

To put it simply: There’s a lot going on here. To ensure you can appreciate the film, you should make sure you know at least the basics about three things: Elizabeth Holmes (and why she’s infamous), and the work of both Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Here’s the crash course.

Podcasts

The 2019 podcast The Dropout is one of the most efficient ways to get the background on Holmes and Theranos. In the style of a true crime podcast, this show from ABC and journalist Rebecca Jarvis offers a deep dive into Holmes and her crimes that will give you all the background you’ll need.

Books

John Carreyrou is the journalist who broke the Holmes story wide open, and his award-winning book Bad Blood offers a more journalistic and less sensational investigation than other accounts, providing a close-up look at Holmes in her CEO persona—an alternately terrifying and charismatic person who comes across as a “character” Holmes is playing. The book will inform your viewing of the documentary in important ways.

Films

While Nathan Fielder is getting most of the attention for You Can See Everything, co-director Lance Oppenheim brings his signature technique to the film—it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without his visual sensibility and framing.

Oppenheim has helmed several notable films, as he’s made a name for himself as a brilliant documentarian over the last few years, but to get ready for You Can See Everything, check out Spermworld, his 2024 exploration of unregulated sperm donations (you read that right). The doc deals with people who are as reality-challenged, manipulative, and possibly delusional as Holmes, and it will prep you for his visual style of extreme close-ups and excessive coverage that seems almost impossible in a normal documentary setting. You can stream Spermworld on Hulu.

TV shows

If you’re unfamiliar with Nathan Fielder’s work, you need to strap in, because he’s unlike any other comedian or documentarian you’ve ever encountered.

To get a sense of his style, start with Nathan for You, a comedy-documentary-reality TV hybrid in which Fielder—as a version of himself—tries to use his business experience to help struggling people and small businesses. Presented as totally sincere, Fielder’s ideas are nevertheless increasingly elaborate and, in a word, unhinged. This show will familiarize you with Fielder’s persona and approach, but if you only have time to cram one episode, check out the series finale, “Finding Frances.” It follows Fielder’s attempts to reunite one of his earlier clients with his long-lost love, and it is a nearly perfect encapsulation of his style and approach. You can stream Nathan for You on HBO Max, Hoopla or Paramount Plus, or rent it episode-by-episode on Prime Video.
You should also watch at least some of Fielder’s other series, The Rehearsal. Here, Fielder (again, portraying a version of himself) attempts to help people prepare for difficult conversations utilizing increasingly outlandish techniques and scenarios that spiral into comedic insanity, including building sets, hiring actors, and immersing himself and his subjects in an alternate reality of sorts—an approach that will prepare you for some of You Can See Everything’s swerves. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, just check out the first episode, “Orange Juice, No Pulp.” It’s a self-contained chapter and will give you the basics. You can stream The Rehearsal on Apple TV or HBO Max, or rent episodes on Prime Video.

Films, shows, podcasts, and books to check out after seeing You Can See Everything

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

Have more bandwidth before watching You Can See Everything, or want a deeper dive after the documentary has melted your brain? Here’s what else you can check out.

Podcasts

The companion podcast to Carreyrou’s book, Bad Blood: The Final Chapter, is well worth a listen. Hearing the journalist’s perspective about his investigation and work during and after Holmes’ trial offers additional insight into her personality and methods that will really resonate after watching her in Fielder and Oppenheim’s doc.

Films

Once you’ve noodled on You Can See Everything for a moment, there are two more movies you should check out.

For more on Holmes’s specific grift and how she pulled it off, Alex Gibney’s excellent The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley is the way to go, especially if you didn’t follow the Theranos story closely at the time and your main visual guide to Holmes is the new documentary. Gibney’s film is more traditional, but offers a wealth of insight into Holmes and her bubble. You can stream The Inventor on HBO Max or rent it on Prime VIdeo.
If you more from co-director Lance Oppenheim, watch Some Kind of Heaven, his 2020 breakout documentary about The Villages retirement community in Florida. It’s the film that put Oppenheim on the map, and offers hints of the same detached observational style that makes You Can See Everything so arresting. You can stream Some Kind of Heaven on Kanopy or Hoopla, or rent it on Prime Video.
Speaking of which, if you loved the visual style and “enhanced” reality of You Can See Everything and want to see more of that, catch the Robert Pattinson-starring Primetime, still in theaters. It’s Oppenheim's narrative film directorial debut, and combines his hyperstyled visual flair with thriller pacing and a narrative based on a true story.

TV shows

The Curse, Fielder’s 2023 TV series, is his first work of fiction, and it offers some fascinating insights. It follows a newly married couple (played by Fielder and Emma Stone) who struggle to get an HGTV-style show off the ground as things get excruciatingly awkward (and, eventually, kind of surreal). After watching You Can See Everything, it will be interesting to see how Fielder views the power of editing, the ethics of reality TV, and working with a name actor to get the results that he wants. Plus, similarly to the film, The Curse swerves into a final act that will melt your brain. You can stream The Curse on Apple TV or rent it on Prime Video.
You should also definitely watch The Dropout, the 2022 Hulu series starring Amanda Seyfried. It’s a well-made film, and Seyfried’s performance was rightly praised for capturing the weirdness of Holmes' public persona. You can stream The Dropout on Hulu.

10 Hacks Ever Siri AI User Should Know

Khamosh Pathak — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

If you're like me, you've spent years ignoring most of Siri's functionality. Sure, it's great for setting timers, making calls, and sending a text. But that's kind of it—Apple's promise of an "always-on" digital assistant never truly delivered.

But that's finally changed with the recent launch of Siri AI. Fifteen years after debuting the app on the iPhone 4S and four years after the release of ChatGPT, Apple has taken the time to build out its own private Apple Foundation Models (with little help from Google) that work both on-device and on Apple's servers to give quick responses to your queries. Siri AI's answers are short, to the point, and actually useful. However, the conversational side isn't the only new thing about Siri AI. In fact, once you scratch the surface, you'll find Siri AI features embedded across the entire iOS and macOS ecosystem. Here's how to get the most out of Apple's new, enhanced digital assistant.

Use Silent Response to make sure Siri always answers silently

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Siri AI is already tuned for brevity. Compared to Gemini or Claude, its responses are short and to the point. But still, if you ask something with your voice, it responds using voice as well. I personally prefer to quickly read through Siri responses. If you’re like me, you can enable a hidden setting that makes sure that Siri always answers silently, no matter if you’re writing to it or using your voice. Go to Settings > Siri > Responses and switch to the Silent Response option.

Make Siri AI sound more natural using Expressive Voice

Credit: Apple

On the other hand, if you prefer to listen to Siri's responses, it's worth it to spend some time fine-tuning them. If you have an iPhone that’s under two years old, you have access to a more expressive Siri voice. Siri AI has an Expressive Voice feature that works on iPhone 17 Pro and higher, iPhone Air, and Macs with an M3 processor or higher (at least 12GB RAM).

To find this feature, go to Settings > Siri > Voice. Here, you can change the Pace to make Siri faster or slower. The big feature is the Expressivity slider; you can use it to make Siri sound brighter and more enthusiastic, rather than flat. You also have several voice options at the top (color-coded).

Use Visual Intelligence to have Siri take action on anything on your screen

Visual Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 27 and macOS 27, and it turns anything on your screen into a source that Siri AI can act upon. It can search anything on your screen, and even take action on things it finds out. You can highlight any text on an iPhone, tap and hold, and choose the Ask Siri option. On the Mac, Ask Siri is the first option in the right-click menu. Choose a file, select text, and get started talking to Siri.

But it goes further. Just pull up Siri AI on your iPhone or Mac and start asking questions about what you’re seeing on screen. If you’re seeing a photo of a cafe on Instagram, ask where it is, or ask Siri to open it in Maps. If you’re watching a scene from a movie or a TV show, ask Siri where it’s from.

Use Apple’s Cloud Photos Cleanup feature to reliably remove objects from your photos

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Clean Up was part of Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18, but it wasn’t great. It used on-device models to remove objects, and the results were lacking. Now that Apple runs its own Apple Foundation Models in Private Cloud Compute, it can securely process images on its servers, and the Clean Up process is much better. It now removes objects from photos very reliably, and even accounts for shadows. But to use this, you have to make sure to use the High Quality feature (instead of the default Auto mode).

Tap the Edit button in a photo, go to Tools > Clean Up, and from the top, switch to the High Quality option. Now brush over or tap an object you want to remove. Then, tap Clean Up and wait for a while until Apple’s servers complete the process. Tap Done to save the changes.

Add multiple calendar events to the Calendar app at once using Siri Visual Intelligence

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

One of the most tedious parts of using the Calendar app is manually entering multiple events from a complicated schedule—say, for a season's worth of your kid’s soccer practices, or your college course's weekly lecture schedule. With Visual Intelligence in iOS 27, this is now table stakes: You can point your iPhone camera towards a schedule or take a screenshot of one, then tap the Add to Calendar button. Siri will recognize all the events, and you’ll get an option to add them to the calendar individually or all at once.

Use the Mail app integration to archive, triage, and manage emails

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Siri AI's Mail integration is a hidden gem. Once your iPhone or Mac is done indexing your local data from Mail, you can use Siri AI to triage and manage your Mail without even opening the Mail app. In my testing, it works really well, especially because Siri AI understands the context of an email. This means you don't need to remember the exact details about the sender or the subject. You can just ask something like, "Find all emails about my flights from last week and send them to my accountant." You can also ask it to do things for you. For example, you can say, "Archive all the emails from Walmart from last month," and it will give you a one-button option to do just that.

Use this hidden setting to automatically send messages without confirmation

When you start using the new Siri AI more often, you'll realize that it asks for confirmation way too often. For things like deleting mail, that's useful. But for sending messages, less so. There is a hidden setting that removes the extra step when it comes to sending messages via Siri. Go to Settings > Siri > Responses and enable Automatically Send Messages.

Use the Camera Control gesture to manage Siri AI’s camera features

Credit: Apple

After the Siri AI upgrade in iOS 27, I find myself using the Camera Control often, and you should try it too. Just press and hold the Camera Control button to launch the camera's Siri mode. Point towards anything you want to find out more about and tap the big Siri icon. In a second or two, you will get the Siri response at the top, along with relevant actions based on what you're looking at. This feature is genuinely useful, and if you don't like using the Camera Control (or don't have access to it on your iPhone), you can also add the Siri AI shortcut to the lock screen, Control Center, or the Action button.

Ask Siri AI to create custom Shortcuts for you

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

While Shortcuts has been one of Apple's most powerful features, it's also one of the hardest to use. Making an automation requires setting up steps, selecting variables, and thinking about chronology, and more. With Siri AI, Apple is trying to reduce that burden. And when it comes to simpler stuff that an everyday iPhone user needs, it works.

For example, you can open Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and use the Describe a shortcut feature to talk about a Shortcut you want to build in natural language. You can ask Siri to create a daily morning Shortcut that shows you the day's weather, upcoming calendar events, and the to-do list for the day. You can also ask it to create a Shortcut that converts images in batches and creates new notes with a pre-made template.

Talk to ChatGPT using this hidden gesture

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

While Apple is now using its own Apple Foundation Models for the new Siri AI, ChatGPT isn’t technically gone. If you have a complex question, or if Siri AI’s answer isn’t doing the trick, you can still summon ChatGPT from the Siri AI app (no need to go to the ChatGPT app for this). Tap on the text field in the Siri app, choose the Ask option and then switch to the ChatGPT service. Siri AI is quite intelligent at routing, so if ChatGPT can’t answer, it will route you back to Siri AI’s own models.

Why Your Smartwatch Size Really Does Matter

Beth Skwarecki — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:30:17 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

“Is my watch too big?” is a constant question on forums dedicated to smartwatches and fitness trackers of all kinds. (Some, but fewer, wonder if their watch is too small.) Personally, I don’t much care how a watch looks, but I’ve noticed that size can make a big difference in how accurately a watch functions. If your watch is too big, your numbers may be off.

How smartwatch size affects heart rate accuracy

Garmin Forerunner 265 (larger) in red, 265s (smaller) in pink. Chest strap for reference in black. Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Watches measure heart rate through an optical sensor on the back of the watch. (That’s what you see glowing green back there.) The heart rate sensor detects how that light reflects off the blood vessels in your skin. To get a proper reading, it needs to be snug against your skin, ideally in a way that blocks out ambient light.

If the sensor loses contact with your skin, or if too much light sneaks in, heart rate readings may be inaccurate. If a watch fits you well to start with, you can generally get an accurate heart rate by simply making sure the watch is snug during workouts.

But if a watch is too big, it can move around, letting light in. When you run, if a watch is bouncing around, the sensor may detect a flash of light with every footstep. This can lead to your watch reporting a heart rate that is the same as your cadence (footsteps per minute), which is sometimes called “cadence lock.” Some runners will cover their watch with a sleeve (especially in cold weather) to minimize this possibility.

No matter how you wear it, a big watch on a small wrist is likely to have a lot more difficulty than one that fits properly. Very small devices can have a similar problem: The device isn’t large enough or can’t be tightened enough to block light. This isn’t usually a problem with wristwatches, but it may explain why smart rings tend to be so poor at daytime heart rate tracking.

Now, is this a real-life concern, or just a theoretical quibble? I wasn’t sure, until I took the Forerunner 265 and 265S for a run at the same time. These are the same watch, with the same heart rate sensor, differing only in size. You can read about my results here, but the graph tells the story pretty well: The smaller 265S (42 mm) captured my heart rate more accurately than the 265 (46 mm).

Garmin Forerunner 265

$429.99 at Amazon

Garmin Forerunner 265S

$441.95 at Amazon

Why you may want a bigger (or smaller) watch

If heart rate accuracy were the only issue, I would tell you to get the smallest watch you can find. It wouldn’t even look weird; before smartwatches became popular, wristwatches were often much smaller than a person’s wrist. (Watch old movies and you’ll see some tiny watches, even on people who don’t have tiny wrists.)

But watches are big and seem to be getting bigger. A bigger screen means numbers, text, and icons are easier to read. This is great news if your vision isn’t the best anymore, or if you use the watch while exercising and want to be able to see what’s on your screen with a quick glance.

Bigger watches can provide bigger screens, but also bigger batteries and more room for other internals. This is probably at least partly why more “premium” watches come in bigger sizes. That said, it’s hard for me to distinguish when a watch is huge because it needs room to pack in its hardware features, versus when the company is making the watch bigger so it will seem fancier and thus justify a higher price.

Companies should make smaller watches

And this brings me to something I need to rant about. Smartwatch and fitness watch companies know that watch size matters: They often offer two sizes for at least some of their models. The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in 42 or 46 millimeters, while the Garmin Forerunner 570 comes in 42 or 47 millimeters, to give a couple of examples.

Apple Watch Series 12

$389.99 at Amazon

Garmin Forerunner 570

$549.99 at Amazon

Garmin Forerunner 970

Amazon Basics 20,000mAh Power Bank

Apple Watch Ultra 4

$774.00 at Amazon

But when it comes to premium models, those options often disappear. The Garmin Forerunner 970, far more feature-rich than the 570, only comes in a 47-millimeter size, matching the larger size of the 570 but without a smaller option. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 only comes in a 49-millimeter size, which is even larger than the larger size of the Series 12. I’m about to start testing a Hyrox feature that only comes on Amazfit’s Balance 3 or Balance Ultra watches; those watches are 51 and 52 millimeters, respectively. This is getting ridiculous.

As a woman reporting on tech, I can’t ignore the way gender plays into this. According to ANSUR II, a U.S. Army study, women have an average wrist size of 154 millimeters (about 6.1 inches), and men have an average wrist size of 176 mm (about 6.9 inches). My wrists are right around 6 inches, making me very average for a woman.

When companies make two sizes of watch, the smaller size usually fits the average woman’s wrist fairly well, and the larger size is a better fit for men’s wrists. This isn’t a perfect match, of course, since plenty of women may fit or prefer the larger size, and vice versa. I’m glad the companies market these as “small” and “large” or just by the numerical size.

But as a person with six-inch wrists, I can’t wear a large watch without dealing with bouncing, rubbing, and potentially inaccurate data. I’m no twig; I’m perfectly average for my half of the population. But those larger watches just aren’t going to be as accurate for me as they are for the average man. I noticed a similar phenomenon when I tested the heart rate tracking in Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds: They barely worked for me, but did fine when I tried them on a man with larger ears.

There's also an uncomfortable intersection between this gender dynamic and the way watch companies use size as a signifier of how fancy a watch is supposed to be. While Garmin only offers the 970 in a large size (47 mm), they only offer the cheaper 70 and 170 in smaller sizes (both 43 mm). Garmin’s Venu 4 comes in both 41 and 45 millimeter sizes, but the cheaper Vivoactive 6 is only available in 42. Having a small wrist can save you money, but it still shuts you off from some of the more premium options out there.

How to know if your watch is too big

For my work reviewing and testing watches for Lifehacker, I’ve worn smartwatches ranging from around 40 millimeters (an older Apple Watch) up to 48 millimeters (a tie between the Kospet Tank and the Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro). I love a watch in the 40-42 millimeter range; I can tolerate one around 46 millimeters if it’s lightweight enough that it doesn’t bounce too much; and I really have a hard time with anything larger.

Those bigger watches are hard to snug up sufficiently for a workout; get them tight enough not to bounce, and they’ll feel like you’re nearly cutting off your circulation. After a long run with a big, heavy watch, I’ve sometimes gotten red, irritated spots on my wrist from the inevitable friction. You may not be able to judge how badly a watch will fit when it's still in the box, but I do have a rule of thumb for when you try it on.

To judge visually, I find it helps to put a watch on your wrist, rest your arm on a table, and look directly down at it. If the lugs of the watch extend past your wrist, it’s too big. You want the watch to fit on your wrist, not overhang the sides.

And if you prefer a watch size that isn’t going to be the most accurate for heart rate, remember that you can always pair a chest strap to a watch that supports it, or to your phone if you don’t have a compatible watch. If you prefer a larger watch for more readable text or maps, or if you want a premium feature that doesn’t come in smaller sizes, a chest strap may be the way to get the best of both worlds.

Beware of These iPhone Duo Preorder Scams

Emily Long — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

iPhone Duo preorders officially launched last week to high demand, a quick sellout, and delayed delivery estimates. Naturally, scammers are finding ways to capitalize on the rush to obtain Apple's new foldable, so if you're in the market for a new device, be on the lookout for signs of compromise.

Malware disguised as iPhone preorder portals

Soon after the iPhone Duo was announced, threat actors jumped into action, setting up fake preorder pages that looked like Apple's official website but were actually designed to deliver a malicious payloads to your device. As Malwarebytes outlined in late September, these pages promised a $500 voucher and AppleCare+ coverage in exchange for your contact information. But submitting the form isn't actually the scam. Rather, simply opening the page launches the attack, which uses the DarkSword exploit chain to bypass iPhone protections and gain access to cryptocurrency wallets, messages, contacts, emails, calendar entries, and location data.

This scam began several weeks ago and seemed to specifically target iPhones running iOS 18.4 to 18.6.2. Apple has said that devices running the latest versions of iOS 15 to 26 are protected from the exploit, so if your iPhone is up to date, you are likely at minimal risk for this specific scheme. That said, beware of websites and social media posts that promise access to the iPhone Duo faster or cheaper than other sources, as this is almost certainly a scam designed to steal your information or install malware on your device. Official sources for preorders include Apple itself (through the official Apple website or Apple Store app) as well as major cell carriers.

Fraudulent credit card charges for the iPhone Duo

Another scam to be on the lookout for involves fraudulent charges for an iPhone Duo you didn't order. News outlets in Hong Kong have reported that shoppers are seeing transactions from Apple appear on their bank and credit card statements—even when they haven't actually tried to buy the device since preorders went live. This may be the work of bad actors who have harvested credit card details via phishing or data leaks and are using them for fraudulent purchases.

While this specific scheme doesn't appear to be widespread (yet), you should check your financial statements and accounts regularly anyway given how vulnerable your data are to theft and fraud. If you see a charge you don't recognize or duplicate charges, report it to your bank or card issuer immediately using contact information from a trusted app or client portal.

Calls from scammers spoofing trusted brands

Scammers will also take the threat of fraudulent charges one step further: They may contact you directly about supposedly suspicious transactions and claim they can help resolve the issue if you provide personal information or account credentials. With the iPhone Duo specifically, bad actors may also call pretending to be Apple or a carrier and ask you to confirm information about your order, possibly to avoid having it canceled. As always, any communication that provokes fear and a sense of urgency should raise red flags. If you're not sure who you're talking to, hang up and call back directly to confirm.

Take This Step Now to Avoid Being Locked Out of Your Spotify Family Account

Emily Long — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

If you are on a Spotify Family plan, you may need to verify your location to keep your account active. Like many streaming services, Spotify is cracking down on family sharing for users who don't live in the same household by requiring QR code verification for some plan members—and once prompted, you must verify within seven days or risk being locked out of Family and Duo plans for a full year.

Spotify family plan verification rules

Spotify does require users on shared plans to verify their address when they join to confirm that they live with the plan manager and to re-verify if the manager changes addresses. Users may also be prompted via to re-enter their full address if Spotify "can't confirm" their location. This obviously doesn't prevent users from sharing plans, as Spotify isn't actually tracking your location but rather cross-checking addresses.

Some users may start seeing a QR code verification requirement, which has stricter parameters and may be more difficult to get around if plan members aren't in the same location. In these cases, the plan manager must open a QR code on their phone via Profile > Your Premium > Manage, and plan members must scan it with the camera on their phone.

According to Spotify's support page, both users must be in the same location to complete the scan, and the QR code changes every few seconds, making it hard to send screenshots to anyone not present in person. However, as 9to5Google notes, some users have been able to work around these restrictions with video calls, using multiple devices to complete the scans.

If you are prompted to complete location verification either by email or QR code, make sure you do it within seven days of the notification—otherwise you'll be lose access and be downgraded to a free plan. Spotify says that you can rejoin the same Family or Duo plan again, but you'll be restricted from joining a different shared plan for a full year.

This Amazon Basics Power Bank Is 67% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Woot has dropped the price of the Amazon Basics 20,000mAh portable charger in black to $12.99 from $38.99, making it considerably cheaper than the $34.85 the same model currently costs elsewhere. You also get free standard shipping if you’re a Prime member (while everyone else pays $6), but keep in mind Woot doesn't deliver to Alaska, Hawaii, P.O. boxes, or APO addresses.

For that price, you're getting a fairly substantial backup battery that measures 4.48 by 2.83 by 1.16 inches, making it compact enough to slip into a backpack or tote, although its 0.77-pound weight might make it a little bulky for a jacket pocket. The trade-off is a fairly generous 20,000mAh capacity that should be enough to recharge a typical smartphone several times, making it particularly useful for camping trips or long weekends when access to power outlets is limited. And since you're likely to have more than just your phone with you on those trips, the charger comes with two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, allowing you to charge up to three devices at once.

When used individually, either USB-C port can deliver up to 20W, enough to fast-charge many modern smartphones, while the USB-A port tops out at 12W, making it better suited to older devices and smaller accessories. The catch is that connecting two or three devices reduces the total output to 15W shared across the ports, so charging everything together will take longer than plugging in one device at a time. Both USB-C ports can also be used to recharge the power bank itself, which takes around 4.4 hours, and the box includes a 1-foot USB-C to USB-C cable for charging (it won’t transfer data).

All said, anyone hoping to charge a laptop will need a higher-wattage model, but for occasional travel, commuting, or keeping your phone running during a long day, the capacity and price make a reasonable combination.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

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Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

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The Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet Is 53% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Though it's not the most powerful tablet Amazon has ever sold (that would be the Amazon Fire Max 11, discontinued in 2023 with no successor yet released), the Fire HD 10 is the strongest value pick in the lineup, offering a good balance of performance and affordability for anyone who wants a tablet to stream movies and TV, play casual games, browse the web, and read or listen to music and podcasts. And right now, it’s more affordable than ever, with a 53% discount, bringing its price down to a record low of $72.99. (Note that this deal is for the version of the device with lock-screen ads.)

Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet

The Fire HD 10 offers a range of everyday features that are hard to beat in a sub-$75 tablet, including a generous 10.1-inch 1080p display, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and microSD expansion up to 1TB, plus USB-C connectivity and a headphone jack. It’s an ideal choice for anyone who already uses Amazon services like Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, and Alexa—although, as it can only access the Amazon app store, its app selection is more limited than a standard Android tablet’s.

As for its battery life, it delivers up to 13 hours of usage (more than 10 hours while streaming HD video at maximum brightness), according to PCMag, which gave it an Editors’ Choice award. It comes with a 9W charger that delivers a full charge in around four hours; that drops closer to three hours with a 15W charger (sold separately).

With a solid screen, impressive battery life, and a well-constructed build designed around Amazon services, the Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet has enough power for daily tasks and is a worthy choice given the current major discount. If you want a faster Android alternative with full Google Play access, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ is a reliable option, though it costs significantly more.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

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Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Super Fast ASUS OLED Gaming Monitor Is $100 Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 20:17:07 +0000

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The 27-inch ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG gaming monitor has earned stellar reviews for its excellent visuals, refresh rate flexibility, and other impressive gaming-focused features. If you've been looking to upgrade your setup, right now is a good time: It’s $100 off, reaching its lowest price ever—$549 (originally $649).

ASUS ROG XG27AQWMG 27 Inch 1440p 280Hz Tandem OLED G-SYNC Gaming Monitor

TrueBlack Glossy OLED, Neo Proximity Sensor, 0.03ms, DisplayHDR 500, 99% DCI-P3, FreeSync Premium, for PS5 and Xbox

This 27-inch monitor has a 4K UHD WOLED panel that delivers high contrast and deep blacks, making games, movies, and TV shows look more vivid. Compared to a traditional OLED panel, WOLED (White OLED) uses a white light source with filters to provide deeper blacks, faster response times, and more uniform images across a range of lighting conditions. The TrueBlack Glossy coating is better at reducing glare than a matte screen while delivering a clearer picture (though some reviews claim it’s still not bright enough to mitigate intense glare if bright light hits the screen directly).

A native 4K, 280 Hz refresh rate allows for high-detail gaming and multimedia use, while its Frame Rate Boost mode offers versatility for playing different kinds of games. For example, FHD at 330 Hz also makes it a solid choice for competitive shooting games and high-FPS play. The monitor has an overall 0.03 ms response time, which is best-in-class, and minimizes motion blur. Other notable features include NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync support, and reduced burn-in risk due to OLED Care Pro and the Neo Proximity Sensor.

If you’re looking for a gaming monitor with dual-mode features, nearly instantaneous response time across a range of refresh rates, low input lag, and inky blacks, the 27-inch ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG monitor for gamers is a great choice.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

You Can Now Lock Your Private ChatGPT Conversations With a PIN

Emily Long — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:58:53 +0000

If you have personal conversations with ChatGPT that you don't want others to see, you can now add an extra layer of security for those specific chats. The new Locked Chats feature allows you to hide sensitive conversations behind a four-digit account PIN (or biometric authentication on mobile), meaning others with access to your device or screen can't read them.

Locked chats are retained in your chat history—unlike temporary chats, which are private conversations that aren't saved by default—so you can return to or continue them at any point. However, once locked, they are hidden from your regular chat history, pinned chats, and regular conversation search. To access them, you have to go to Projects > Locked chats and enter your PIN or device unlock method (such as Face ID or Touch ID).

How to set up Locked Chats on ChatGPT

To start a locked chat for the first time, open an existing conversation that you want to keep private and open the options menu. Select Lock chat > Lock chat and create or enter your account PIN. This moves the conversation to your locked chats project. You can repeat this with any existing conversation or start a locked chat from scratch under Projects > Locked Chats by entering your PIN or authentication method and typing a message to launch the chat. When you're done, select Lock now to end access to locked chats and hide them from the sidebar.

Note that if you don't already have an account PIN set up, you should be prompted to do so the first time you attempt to lock a chat. Select Create a PIN, enter your four-digit code, and enter it again to confirm. You can also enable biometric authentication in Account PIN settings. If you reset your account PIN at any point, all locked chats are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

Locked chats are available on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans on both mobile and desktop apps. The feature is not available for ChatGPT for Healthcare. There are other limitations, too: For example, temporary, archived, and group chats can't be locked, nor can those with shared links, scheduled and background tasks, or meeting recordings. OpenAI says locked chats are rolling out gradually, so they may not be available to all users yet.

Locked chats are not encrypted

While locked chats do add a layer of privacy in terms of how conversations appear on your device, they are not suddenly encrypted or otherwise protected from being retained or used by OpenAI. As the support page notes, locked chats are not encrypted end to end or placed in a separate encrypted vault, and locking a chat does not affect other privacy settings, such as Improve the model for everyone (which can be turned off in Settings > Data controls) or remove information ChatGPT already knows about you.

Six Things to Do Between Sets at the Gym

Beth Skwarecki — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

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Rest is a crucial part of strength training. Depending on the exercise and your goals, you may find yourself resting 30 seconds, or one minute, or three to five minutes. So what do you actually do during that time? Let’s talk about your options, both in terms of training effectiveness and gym etiquette.

You can literally do nothing between sets

As awkward as it may feel at first, this is the best option for most people, most of the time. Actually rest. Don’t stretch, don’t work a different muscle; just allow your body to recover.

Some gyms will have stools, benches, or folding chairs near the platforms where people are lifting heavy (and thus need the longest rests). I’m mostly thinking of powerlifting and weightlifting gyms, but I’ve been to big-box gyms like Crunch that provide seating as well. And impromptu seats are common in many other places—who hasn’t sat on a plyo box or some other convenient surface?

You can do these minor chores between sets

There are plenty of little actions that you take at the gym (or should take) that are not explicitly exercise. The rest between sets is the perfect time to do these little maintenance tasks. Things like:

Change the weights to what you’ll need for your next set.
Write down what you just lifted in your notebook or lifting app.
If you took a video, watch it to give yourself feedback for the next set.
Trim that video so that you (or your coach, or your friends) don’t have to watch all 20 seconds of you fumbling with the camera and adjusting your belt before you actually lift.
Have a drink of water and, if needed, a snack.
Clean up after yourself! Rack any plates and dumbbells you aren’t using.

Start warming up for your next exercise

During the last few sets of an exercise, it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll do next. This could mean grabbing the equipment you’ll need or changing your shoes, but it's also an excellent opportunity to start warming up—especially if it’s an exercise that can benefit from a little gentle mobility work.

Let’s say you have a few sets of squats left, but after that you’ll do some overhead press. You probably want to warm up your shoulders with some mobility work so that you won’t be so tight when you hit that nice stable overhead position. Or maybe it’s the other way around, and you’re pressing, but next you’ll do squats. It’s a great time to start doing some ankle mobility work so that you’ll be able to comfortably hit a deeper squat.

Walk (or dance) between sets

When the weights are routine, I sit and chill. When they get heavy, I need to pace. (At weightlifting competitions, I not only stake out a warmup platform, I also pick out a walking path that I can pace between attempts.)

Or if you’re more of a cheerful, high-energy person, maybe you just want to dance. You’ll see this most often from people who lift at home, or at a chummy small gym where an impromptu dance party might occur between friends. Alone in my garage gym, I’ve been known to put on some good karaoke songs and sing along, with or without dancing.

The idea is not to get some extra cardio or get your steps in, but just to stay busy and loose and have fun—or, if you’re nervous about a big lift, to keep your head. At a busy commercial gym, make sure not to walk too far away, and consider leaving your water bottle or gym bag on your equipment to let people know it’s still taken.

Read or scroll on your phone while you're waiting

I promise that it is actually OK to look at your phone between sets. You’re probably doing it anyway. There’s your lifting app, your videos that you took to check your squat form—and, yes, your usual texting and social media stuff.

The risk you’re taking here is that you’ll get distracted and rest too long. Too much rest, say more than 10 minutes, can make you feel both mentally and physically unprepared. Long rests can also lengthen your workout. Sticking to the minimum necessary rest times will get you in and out of the gym a lot faster.

From others’ perspective, a person who sits on a machine for 10 minutes scrolling is committing an unforgivable sin in gym etiquette. Don’t take longer rests than you need, if you’re holding up equipment. (That said, if you’re polite to others who approach, and you accept requests to “work in” (take turns) while you scroll, you’re morally in the clear.)

For your own sake, set a timer when you do anything that might distract you between sets. I like how I can program rest times into a Garmin watch workout, but Hevy also has a timer, and you can always use the regular timer function on your watch or phone.

Another tip: Be mindful about what you’re doing on your phone. Now is not the time to get into an argument on the internet, or check your work email and see what will be waiting for you back at the office. It is a good time to play little games on your phone, or read an ebook, or put together your next great workout playlist.

You can superset (sparingly)

I’m leaving this option for last because I don’t want it to be your go-to. Just because you can do one exercise while resting for another, doesn’t mean you should.

Why not? If you really want to give squats your full energy, for example, don’t do pull-ups on the squat rack in between. You’ll fatigue yourself more than you realize, and you won’t do your best on those squats.

But supersets can be great if you’re willing to sacrifice a little weight for a lot of time. They’re best for exercises where the exact weight doesn’t matter—you can pair bicep curls with tricep extensions, or pull-ups with dips (so long as you’re a person who can bang out multiple reps of each with ease).

To do a superset, you just do a set of the first exercise, then a set of the second, then rest a short time (if needed at all), and repeat. I have a list of the best superset pairs here—usually you’ll want to do opposing muscles, like a push exercise with a pull exercise.

'Vorssaint' Replaced at Least 10 Utility Apps on My Mac

Pranay Parab — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Plenty of Mac apps do one job, and do it quite well. For example, KeyboardCleanTool lets you disable your Mac's keyboard temporarily while you get dust, food particles, and gunk off the keyboard. I love these apps, but if you keep installing utilities, things start to feel crowded; it can be a real problem even trying to remember that you have an app installed for a specific task. This is where Vorssaint comes in: It's the Swiss Army knife of Mac apps, packing over 75 utilities into a single, free resource.

The best thing is that you can choose which of these utilities you wish to enable—if you need only five of Vorssaint's features, you can disable the rest. This prevents the app from becoming a resource hog, which is particularly valuable for those of us with older, base-model MacBooks. Even though Vorssaint has replaced multiple Mac apps on my MacBook, however, it's not always better than the apps it replaces. If you use Vorssaint to set a custom volume level for each Mac app, for example, it doesn't mean Vorssaint can do everything SoundSource does.

Vorssaint is very much a jack of all trades, master of none, and that's perfectly fine for most people. If that sounds like the kind of tool you need, then Vorssaint could be great for you. Here are 10 Vorssaint features that I've used to replace apps on my MacBook:

Use Super key to replace Caps Lock modifier apps

Unless you're addicted to appearing like you're yelling all the time, you probably don't need the Caps Lock key at all. You can always hold Shift whenever you want to capitalize something, and in my opinion, Caps Lock should be repurposed for something better. Apps such as Raycast allow you to convert Caps Lock into a "hyper key," which means that when you press that button, your computer registers it as a combination of other modifier keys. On my MacBook, pressing Caps Lock equals holding Command-Control-Shift-Alt together, and I've used it to create keyboard shortcuts that don't conflict with those in macOS or third-party apps.

To enable this feature in Vorssaint, open the app, and go to Settings > Features. Go to the "Mouse and keyboard" section, and enable Super key. Vorssaint allows you to map modifier keys to Caps Lock. It also lets you continue using the button for capitalization, switching input sources, or as an alternative way to press the Esc key (useful for keyboards that don't have this button). It works by triggering the "Super key" only when you hold Caps Lock, and toggling the other feature you chose when you press the button once.

Try Vorssaint's built-in clipboard manager

Credit: Pranay Parab

Your Mac's Spotlight has a basic clipboard manager, but Vorssaint adds a few more features. The app lets you clean tracking data from URLs, and even adds a "Cut and Paste" feature to your Mac's Finder. The latter is great for people switching from Windows—Finder's cut/paste feature isn't as seamless as the one on Microsoft's platform.

Once you enable these features in Vorssaint, you can cut any file in Finder by pressing Command-X, and paste it elsewhere with Command-V. The URL cleaner is customizable, and it allows you to define parameters to remove. It also allows you to create filters for specific websites, which reduces the chances of breaking URLs when you try this feature. By default, Vorssaint will automatically clean a link the moment you copy one, but you can also manually clean links in the app if you wish to.

The app's clipboard manager has all the basic features you'll need, and it lets you exclude some apps too. This lets you keep Vorssaint from storing clipboard items from sensitive apps. The shortcut to view clipboard history from Vorssaint is Command-Option-Alt-V.

Use Vorssaint's disk image installer to replace Rapidmg

I use Rapidmg, a popular app installer format on the Mac, to auto-mount and install DMG files. After the app is installed, Rapidmg also gets rid of the installer file. Vorssaint has this feature built-in, and you can enable it by going to Vorssaint settings > Features > Disk image installer. It's located under the "Clipboard and files" section.

Try its free volume mixer for per-app volume control

If you're looking for an app to set a custom volume level for each Mac app, then Vorssaint has a tool for the job. It's good enough to replace basic volume control apps like FineTune, but not nearly as powerful as SoundSource. Vorssaint lets you set a per-app volume level, quickly switch between output devices, and even set priority for audio devices. It doesn't support sending audio to multiple devices at once, tweaking latency levels, boosting volume above the maximum, or sending audio from certain apps only to specific output devices (e.g., Spotify always goes to headphones, VLC always sends audio to speakers, etc.). If you value power-user features, then SoundSource has to be your go-to. For most people, Vorssaint is good enough to get the job done. You can enable volume mixer in the app by going to Vorssaint settings > Features > Volume mixer. It's under the "Sound" section in the app.

Use "Keep awake" to replace Amphetamine

There are many good reasons to stop your Mac from going to sleep, such as connecting your MacBook to an external display and using the laptop with its lid closed. Apps such as Amphetamine allow you to keep your Mac from going into sleep mode, and Vorssaint has this feature built-in as well. You can use it by enabling the "Keep awake" feature in the app, which lets you disable sleep mode on your Mac for a custom time interval that ranges from 15 minutes to indefinitely.

Replace notch apps with Vorssaint's built-in Dynamic Island

Credit: Pranay Parab

If you're missing your iPhone's Dynamic Island on your MacBook, you could install one of several useful notch apps on your Mac. These apps show a now playing widget, brightness or volume levels, calendars, or even have a temporary shelf to help you drag and drop files on your Mac. Vorssaint ships with a notch app, too: Dynamic Island. Once you enable it, Vorssaint's Dynamic Island can show notifications, calendar events, timers, song lyrics, playback queue, etc. Note that this feature is labeled "Experimental" in the app, which means that it's not as stable as most other features. I've also been using it to activate other Vorssaint features such as Keep awake and volume mixer, since Dynamic Island shows toggles to control them.

Monitor system stats with Vorssaint's CPU, GPU, and memory monitors

iStat Menus is one of my favorite Mac apps—it allows me to monitor my MacBook's current load and operating temperatures. Vorssaint also ships with the ability to monitor CPU load, GPU load, RAM usage, network usage, battery temperature, etc. It's not as elegant as iStat Menus, but it'll do the job for those who need a basic system stat monitor. In my tests, though, I observed that Vorssaint incorrectly reports CPU temperature. Two other apps (iStat Menus and TG Pro) reported my Mac's CPU temperature at around 104°F (40°C), but Vorssaint kept showing a number closer to 145°F (63°C). All other temperature readings were nearly identical in the three apps, which indicates that Vorssaint probably has a bug to fix.

Try its modifiers to enhance your Mac's Dock

Credit: Pranay Parab

Vorssaint can also be a substitute for apps that enhance your Mac's Dock. It allows you to enable features like previewing open windows by hovering over an app's icon in the Dock, quitting apps from the Dock preview, clicking the dock icon to minimize, hide, or cycle between apps' windows, etc. One useful feature allows you to click the green button to maximize any app's window, as opposed to switching to full-screen mode. I don't use it, but I can recommend it to people who switch from Windows and ask me about the maximize button.

Vorssaint's mouse modifiers replace Mac "mouse fix" apps

macOS doesn't always allow your mouse to work the way you want it to. Third-party "mouse fix" apps add nice features such as smooth scrolling, customizable actions for side buttons, and so on. Vorssaint includes support for smooth scrolling, and a few other features. It lets you map extra mouse buttons to custom keyboard shortcuts, and even has a feature to prevent accidental double-clicks. The latter is good for people who have a mouse with double-click problems. You can enable these features under the "Mouse and keyboard" section in Vorssaint.

Use Cleaning Mode to temporarily disable the keyboard while you clean it

Apps like KeyboardCleanTool allow you to temporarily disable your Mac's keyboard for you to give it a good clean, or to allow your cat to sit on the keyboard without disturbing your workflow. Vorssaint supports this, too—you can enable this feature by toggling "Cleaning Mode" under the Tools section in the app. Once you lock the keyboard, you can either click the "Unlock" button or press Esc five times to start typing again.

10 Shows Like 'Below' You Should Watch Next

Ross Johnson — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

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If horror films have taught me anything, it's that nothing good ever comes out of the fog, but the haze-filled thriller Below has definitely earned record ratings and enthusiastic audiences for Netflix—it's the top debut for a Canadian show in the streamer's history, as it happens. In its wake, consider these 10 other series that take you to isolated and evocative landscapes filled with horrors both human and monstrous.

Midnight Mass (2021)

Claustrophobic, mysterious, and perpetually misty (seriously, you can't see shit in any of these towns), Midnight Mass is very much about the monsters within being no less frightening than those without. It may or may not be the best of Mike Flanagan's Netflix work, but it's certainly the most emotionally devastating. Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns to the tiny, isolated community of Crockett Island, his arrival coinciding with that of Catholic priest Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater). Riley is wrestling with his justifiable guilt over a drunk-driving death for which he was responsible, while the charismatic priest is reviving the town's once-flagging religious fervor while exacerbating local tensions. The brewing conflict, involving the limits of both faith and guilt, is fascinating, while the inseparably horrific elements are terrifying. Stream Midnight Mass on Netflix.

Midnight Mass (2021)

Katla (2021)

Running to the darker end of the spectrum, the often devastating Katla moves slowly until it doesn't, deliberately picking up speed as it builds to an emotional climax. Set in Iceland, the show takes place one year following the eruption of the real-life Katla volcano, which buries the nearby town of Vik in choking ash. The few people who've elected to remain are surprised, to say the least, when soot-covered figures from the past start arriving, including the dead son of the volcanologist studying the meteorite in the nearby glacier. Stream Katla on Netflix.

Katla (2021)

The Terror (2018 – )

Each season of The Terror is distinct, but all converge on the idea that real life is far, far more horrifying than the supernatural stuff going on in the background. Season one, adapted from the Dan Simmons novel, is our focus here, involving as it does the true story of two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, searching for the Northwest Passage before becoming trapped in a field of ice. Starvation, madness, and monsters ensue. While set in the 1840s (and in an ice field), the vibe isn't wildly dissimilar to Below. Stream The Terror on AMC+ and Shudder.

The Terror (2018 – )

at AMC+

The Third Day (2020)

This weird, ambitious slice of folk horror finds Jude Law's Sam arriving on Osea Island while grieving his murdered son and trying to save his failing business. After he intervenes when he sees a young woman attempting to hang herself, Sam is caught up in some wildly atmospheric creepiness around the town. Later, Naomie Harris' Helen arrives on the island with her daughters only to discover that everything's gone to hell, and that the causeway that connects the island to the mainland is gone. In between the two halves of the miniseries, the creators produced an immersive 12-hour, single-camera livestream capturing a day in the life of the island, a wild bit of innovation. Admittedly, it's all a bit more vibes than plot, but the vibes are genuinely disturbing. Stream The Third Day on HBO Max.

The Third Day (2020)

True Detective: Night Country (2024)

True Detective: Night Country (2024)

One of the better creepy-stuff-in-an-isolated location narratives of recent years, moving away from the schvitzy bro energy of earlier seasons in favor of a darker (literally) and frostier mystery involving missing scientists at a research station near a tiny and necessarily remote Alaskan town, where the dark and the cold are practically characters themselves. The resulting case ties together veteran Chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), two women with complicated pasts and screwed-up present family lives. Stream True Detective: Night Country on HBO Max.

Gyeongseong Creature (2023 – )

Gyeongseong Creature (2023 – )

Set in 1945 Gyeongseong (modern-day Seoul), and during the Japanese occupation of Korea, this series finds the title's monster arising out of human experimentation conducted in secret by the Japanese army. The scars of occupation have been justifiably fertile ground for storytelling in the last few years (see also Apple’s Pachinko), and Gyeongseong adds science fiction to that mix. The second season moves the action to the present day, with a third season renewal looking likely. If Below's monster is a primary draw, South Korean import Gyeongseong is about as good a follow-up as you're likely to find. Stream Gyeongseong Creature on Netflix.

Curon (2020)

Set near the real-life Lago di Resia in northern Italy, this show was inspired by the lake's singular view: the bell tower of a 14th century chapel rising above the water, the only visible remains of a village submerged by a dam in the 1950s. That eerie setting is home to Anna Raina (Valeria Bilello); it was, anyway, until she fled while pregnant with her twin daughters following her mother's tragic and mysterious death. The twins are now teenagers, and the three of them have returned—except nobody seems to want them around. They come to learn that Anna's been having dreams about her mother's death in which she's the killer, and then she herself disappears. It all ties back to that lake and the creepy bell tower—more about family mystery and vaguely supernatural menace than monsters, but the evocative setting ties this and Below together. Stream Curon on Netflix.

Curon (2020)

Widow's Bay (2026 – )

Another recent addition to the atlas of regrettable vacation destinations is Widow's Bay, an isolated New England island trying to shrug off its literally cursed reputation in favor of becoming a tourist destination à la Martha's Vineyard—but, alas, the timing isn't great. Cozy and idyllic on the surface, Widow's Bay appears to be "waking up," according to a few of the more tuned-in locals. Mayor Tom Loftus (Matthew Rhys), a relative newcomer, is having none of it—at least until a killer clown and waterlogged lady come for him, convincing him to join forces with local eccentric Wyck (Stephen Root) who seems to be on to something with his crackpot theories. The show is frequently funny, but also legitimately scary, with an everything-and-the-kitchen sink approach to the horror genre. Stream Widow's Bay on Apple TV.

Widow's Bay (2026 – )

at Apple TV

The Rig (2023 – 2025)

As we in the real world well know, monsters can be tiny at least as easily as they can be large. This import finds us on a Scottish oil rig (obvi) in the North Sea, abruptly cut off by a mysterious fog (never a good thing) just as the facility is beginning to experience catastrophic system and structural failures. The mysterious haze is more than just a weather phenomenon, though, as there seems to be a microorganism carried within it that causes dramatic behavioral changes, and that may have a relationship to every mass extinction event in Earth's history. But hey—anything to push down the price of oil, amirite? Stream The Rig on Prime Video.

The Rig (2023 – 2025)

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023 – )

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023 – )

The tone is wildly different, but so many of the shows here are included on the basis of their claustrophobic, mist-shrouded settings and similarly hazy human motivations, so it's only fair to give you some actual monsters, and no show has more creatures than this Godzilla spin-off. Monarch does a surprisingly effective job of telling its own story within the universe of all those American Godzilla movies of the past decade or so, bringing the narrative back down to Earth while building out an entire monster-verse mythology in the process. Anna Sawai stars as a young teacher searching for her father, missing since Godzilla's attack on San Francisco (depicted in the 2014 film), and finds herself drawn into the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the Army colonel who helped set the whole thing in motion. Kong and Godzilla make appearances alongside the whole Toho monster stable. Stream Monarch on Apple TV.

at Apple TV

How to Lock Your Phone Number Against eSIM Hijacking on Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T

Ritoban Mukherjee — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 14:00:25 +0000

Your phone number is the skeleton key to your digital life, and carriers have spent years handing out copies to anyone with a decent script. Resetting a bank password, recovering an email account, approving a crypto withdrawal: All of it can run through a text message sent to a number that a call-center rep can reassign in minutes.

The good news is that all three major U.S. carriers now let you lock your number with a toggle. Here's how the attacks work and where to find each switch.

How SIM swaps and eSIM hijacking work

A SIM swap starts with research. Attackers collect your name, address, and account details from data breaches or phishing, then contact your carrier pretending to be you. If they convince someone to move your number onto a SIM they control, your calls, texts, and two-factor codes go to them instead. A close cousin is port-out fraud, where the attacker opens an account with a different carrier and arranges for your number to be transferred there.

The scale is hard to pin down, but the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 982 SIM swap complaints and about $26 million in losses in 2024, down from 2,026 complaints and $72.7 million in 2022. That decline looks encouraging, but the figures only include crimes that victims bothered to report to one federal portal.

eSIMs removed the plastic card, not the weak link. Researchers at the Russian firm F.A.C.C.T. found that attackers now break into a victim's carrier account with stolen or leaked credentials, generate a QR code, and scan it on their own device. Your legitimate SIM is deactivated at the same moment. There's no store visit and no phone call to a rep.

Intel 471 also flagged a provider that let the activation code go to email instead of SMS, which gave attackers a second inbox to compromise. That provider has since closed the loophole, but the lesson stands: Every shortcut for locked-out customers is also a shortcut for criminals.

What SIM locks and port-out PINs actually do

Carriers now offer three overlapping defenses. A SIM lock blocks SIM or eSIM changes and device upgrades; a port-out lock stops your number from moving to another carrier; and a PIN adds a password check when you contact customer service or request a transfer.

I'd treat the PIN as the weakest of the three. PINs aren’t bulletproof because company reps can still override them. A lock that grays out the option entirely is much harder to talk your way around.

In its 2023 order, the FCC instructed wireless providers to offer customers a free account lock and to notify them of SIM change and port-out requests. Compliance deadlines were pushed back until federal paperwork review finishes, though, so don't assume every carrier has implemented these features fully.

How to lock your number on AT&T

AT&T bundles everything into a single toggle called Wireless Account Lock. According to AT&T's support page, it blocks device upgrades, SIM and eSIM swaps, IMEI changes, number changes, transfers to another carrier, and edits to authorized users and billing info. You can still pay your bill, change plans, and unlock a device.

To turn it on (postpaid):

Open the AT&T app on a device that's active on your wireless account, and sign in.
Tap the person icon.
Scroll to Wireless account lock.
Swipe to lock.

Prepaid customers follow a different path: Sign in, choose your number, tap Profile & Settings, then Account Info & Preferences, and select Turn on under Wireless Account Lock. AT&T texts a one-time code to confirm.

Only users with primary or secondary access can flip the switch, and AT&T emails the account holder and texts every active number whenever the lock changes. I like that. A silent change is the whole point of these attacks, so noisy notifications are half the defense.

How to lock your number on Verizon

Verizon splits the job in two. SIM Protection blocks unauthorized SIM and device changes, while Number Lock blocks your number from being transferred to another carrier. Verizon's own documentation notes that Number Lock alone doesn't prevent SIM card changes, so you want both switched on.

To enable them:

Open the My Verizon app.
Tap the Me tab, then Edit profile and settings.
Find SIM Protection and toggle it on for each line you want covered.
Find Number Lock and do the same.

After you disable SIM Protection, SIM changes and upgrade orders stay blocked for another 15 minutes. And if you ever port out, Number Lock must be off before you can generate a Number Transfer PIN. Two toggles is slightly more homework than AT&T's single switch, but it lets you lock the number while leaving device upgrades open, which is handy if you swap phones often.

How to lock your number on T-Mobile

T-Mobile also uses two features. SIM Protection blocks SIM and eSIM changes, and Port Out Protection blocks transfers to other carriers. Both are free.

To enable SIM Protection on a postpaid account in the T-Life app:

Tap the Manage tab, then the gear icon.
Select Security, then SIM Protection.
Toggle protection for the whole account or for individual lines.
Tap Save Changes, then Continue.

Port Out Protection works differently since it's an add-on you apply to each line separately. In T-Life, go to Manage, then See Plans, then Manage add-ons, and check the box next to Port Out Protection. Repeat for every line on the account.

On T-Mobile's side, authorized users can add either feature, but only the Primary Account Holder can remove them. The per-line setup is tedious on a big family plan, though it's worth the ten minutes. T-Mobile also recommends setting an account PIN of 6 to 15 digits, which you can only change from the primary holder's phone while on T-Mobile's network with wifi off.

What these locks don't cover

A lock protects against changes made through your carrier—it doesn't protect against someone who already has your carrier login, who might be able to switch it off.

AT&T at least requires its app on a device active on your account, which raises the bar. Still, researchers recommend unique passwords and two-factor authentication on the carrier account too.

Remember to unlock before you upgrade your phone or move an eSIM, because every carrier will block you otherwise. Flip it back on afterward.

The bigger fix is to stop letting your phone number guard anything valuable. Switch your bank, email, and crypto accounts to an authenticator app or a passkey where you can. Think of the carrier lock as a seatbelt: You'll rarely need it, and you'll be glad it was buckled the one time you do.

This 55-Inch LG OLED TV Is $400 Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

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LG’s OLED TVs are widely hailed as some of the top-rated on the market, and while their price tags can climb with the fancier models, critics and reviewers agree that one of the brand’s most popular, best-performing OLEDs is the LG OLED Evo C6. The 55-inch model is down to a lowest-ever price of $999.99 (originally $1,399.99), saving shoppers $400 on the impressive TV. The deal also comes with 90 free days of Amazon Music, upping the value even more.

LG 55 inch Class LG OLED Evo

Eufy Security SoloCam E30 (Two-Pack)

Brighter than its predecessor, the OLED evo C5 has a peak brightness of 1,522 nits with a 10% white field, according to PCMag. The outlet praises its gorgeous picture quality, excellent contrast, and well-balanced colors. It has perfect black levels with no light bloom and uses LG’s webOS smart TV platform, like most current LG TVs. It’s also strengthened by features like AI dialogue enhancement, which helps improve the internal 2.2-channel audio system.

It has a native 120Hz refresh rate, with VRR up to 165Hz, and supports AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, making it a solid choice for gamers. It also has an input lag of 4.6 milliseconds with a 1080p120 signal in Game mode. If you’re using it primarily for gaming, though, the faster Samsung S95H may be more appealing.

Ultimately, if vibrant, bright, and accurate 4K OLED picture quality is your priority but you don’t want to spend the $3,000 that some competitors with similar features cost, you won’t find much better than the 55-inch LG OLED Evo C6 at this price point—as long as you’re OK with the lack of Wi-Fi 6.

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TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

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These Subscription-Free Eufy Security Cameras Are 24% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

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A two-pack of Eufy’s SoloCam E30 is down to $189.99 at Amazon from $249.99, a $60 discount that lands within a dollar of its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. At roughly $95 per camera, it’s still an investment, but Eufy doesn’t charge a monthly subscription to view or store footage, so you won’t have to worry about recurring fees adding to the cost over time. Each camera is also IP65-rated for outdoor use and can pan 360 degrees and tilt 70 degrees, giving you enough flexibility to monitor multiple areas using a single unit.

That flexibility extends to how you power the cameras, since their built-in batteries can last around three months between charges, although frequent motion alerts could shorten that considerably. To reduce the need for manual charging, Eufy says about two hours of direct sunlight a day is enough to keep the batteries topped up, while connecting the cameras to a wired power source enables continuous recording and short pre-roll clips that capture what happened just before motion was detected—but you’ll have to buy the power cables separately.

As for video quality, the cameras record in 2K, which helps capture reasonably clear footage even after dark using infrared night vision. The catch is that there's no built-in spotlight for color night vision, so while you should be able to see a car pulling into your driveway at 2 a.m., you might not be able to tell what color it is. Footage is stored locally on a microSD card of up to 128GB or through either of two compatible Eufy HomeBase models (all sold separately)—the HomeBase S380 offers advanced AI features and terabyte-scale storage, while the S280 makes it easier to manage multiple cameras, with support for up to 16 units, giving you room to expand coverage later. That said, there are some compatibility limitations, since the E30 connects only to 2.4GHz wifi and works with Alexa and Google Assistant but not Apple HomeKit.

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TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

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The Newly Released Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ Is $200 Off Right Now, With a $200 Gift Card Included

Pradershika Sharma — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

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Samsung’s newly released Galaxy Tab S12+ with 512GB of storage is already down to $1,399.99 at Amazon from $1,599.99, its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. This bundle also includes a $200 Amazon gift card through October 21, along with 90 free days of Amazon Music. CNET calls it a significant upgrade over the Tab S10+, with a body that slims down to 5.3mm from 5.6mm and weighs 553 grams while still carrying IP68 protection against dust and water for up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter. It also manages to fit a slightly larger 12.6-inch screen (up from 12.4 inches) into its frame by trimming the bezels.

Galaxy Tab S12+ (512GB) with $200 gift card

$1,599.99 Save $200.00

Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless Headphones

$1,599.99 Save $200.00

That screen is a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits—you’re unlikely to hit that number in everyday use, but it’s one of the brightest panels you’ll find on an Android tablet, making it well suited to watching movies, reading, or working across multiple apps. Powering it is an upgraded MediaTek Dimensity 9500 processor with enough headroom for demanding games and multitasking, especially if you plan to use Samsung DeX, which gives the tablet a more desktop-like interface.

That said, making the most of DeX usually means adding a keyboard, and Samsung’s options raise the overall cost considerably, from the $199 Book Cover Keyboard Slim to the $299 Pro Keyboard with its built-in trackpad. The S Pen, on the other hand, comes in the box, so you can jot down handwritten notes, sketch, or mark up a PDF, and Galaxy AI’s Note Assist can organize and summarize those notes afterward.

Beyond productivity, Samsung has upgraded the four-speaker system with four-channel spatial audio for a more immersive listening experience, while the 13MP rear camera and 12MP ultrawide front camera cover document scanning and video calls. And with seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates promised, the S12+ should remain supported for years to come.

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TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

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Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

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Lifehacker Is on TechPulse, and You Should Be Too

Jordan Calhoun — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:00:17 +0000

Your homepage used to say something about you. When I got my first computer in high school, back when Google was just a weird name, my homepage was MSN. Later, in college, I changed it to ESPN—it was espn.go.com back then—and then to a new site called Facebook. By graduation, it was Google. Like a screensaver or background, the homepage represented a small part of our identity, but functionally, it crafted how we found information. If you're old enough, your experience of sorting through the internet was probably the same, evolving from homepages to RSS feeds, browser extensions, and apps. My latest guide to the internet is called TechPulse.

TechPulse is a free app with tech news, reviews, and culture from sites like CNET, PCMag, Mashable, and my team at Lifehacker. It's a clean feed with no algorithms or noise, featuring articles and videos that run the gamut from tech news to digital culture trends. If you're looking for hands-on, lab-tested reviews and advice on what tech to buy, you can prioritize CNET and PCMag coverage. If you already own a new piece of tech and are looking for practical hacks and productivity tips, you can sort through Lifehacker. For internet trends, movie reviews, and entertainment, you can browse Mashable. There are both articles and videos integrated directly into the app, streamlining your tech news intake into one place while still reading varied, unique perspectives.

It's obviously self-serving for me to talk about TechPulse and hope you give it a try, but I do think it's the best centralized hub for a broad range of news from sites with their own unique approaches to covering tech. TechPulse unifies those sites into a single platform that gives readers direct access to tech coverage in a chronological feed. My favorite part? No subscription is required. You don't even need to give your email address, sign up, or log in.

TechPulse features tech news written, filmed, and curated by real people, and I hope it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the algorithm-driven feeds that warp to our unconscious whims and fight for our attention. You're welcome to customize the daily dashboard and better control your news, but if you prefer, you can leave it to TechPulse to keep you informed in a simple, straightforward way. I hope that the next time you read my work or catch a video, you find it there. TechPulse is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

I Tried Strava's New Strength Coach Feature, and I'm Optimistic

Meredith Dietz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 20:30:47 +0000

Strava has built its reputation on runs, rides, and swims. Strength training, however, has always felt like an afterthought in the app. Strava is trying to close that gap with its new guided strength workouts, and I spent some time with the beginner session to see whether it delivers.

Strava’s new strength coach feature

The update brings guided workouts directly in the app. Instead of just logging that you lifted, you're walked through each exercise with animations, and you track sets and reps live as you go. Tap into any exercise, and you'll find form guidance, tips, and the specific muscles it targets.

When you finish, everything (every exercise, set, and rep) is saved automatically to your activity through the Workout Log. Your muscle map then updates to show where the effort went, which is a neat way to see at a glance whether you've been neglecting certain areas.

The feature is rolling out to subscribers over the next few weeks, and free users get access to a sample workout, so you can try it before deciding whether it's worth paying for.

My experience with Strava's strength workouts

I started with the beginner workout, and I want to be clear about who it's for: true beginners. There's no equipment required, so you don't need dumbbells, bands, or a gym membership. If you've been lifting for years, this isn't going to challenge you—but that's clearly not the point. For this first workout, it's designed to lower the barrier to entry.

Credit: Meredith Dietz

The interface is clean and easy to use. I especially liked the graphics, which make it simple to follow along without having to pause and decipher what a movement is supposed to look like. Everything worked smoothly throughout, with no glitches, lag, or lost progress.

I have only two real notes:

Exercise instructions sometimes cut off. A few of the written descriptions were truncated with no way to see the full text, so I couldn't always read the full guidance on form.
Switching sides isn't always clear. For movements that work one side at a time, it wasn't obvious when I was supposed to switch. A simple cue or prompt would go a long way, especially for beginners who are already juggling a lot of new information.

Exercise instructions sometimes cut off. Credit: Meredith Dietz

What's coming next to Strava's strength workout feature

Strava says more workout series will arrive before the end of the year, which should give the feature more range beyond that first beginner session. The company is also planning additional ways to log strength work:

Screenshot uploads: Snap a screenshot of text-based sets and reps from a training plan or notes app and import it instantly.
Build-your-own workouts: Create custom sessions instead of relying only on Strava's.
More partner integrations: So strength data can flow in automatically from wherever you already train.

These additions are what could turn this from a nice beginner tool into something I'd actually use. The real test will be whether Strava delivers the variety, progression, and range that lifters need to stick with it over time. For now, if you're new to strength work or curious, the free sample workout is an easy way to try it out. I'll be watching to see where Strava takes it from here.

These Sennheiser Wireless Headphones Are 32% Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

In a market where every year there is an expectation of releasing a new model, how long tech companies take to feel the need to upgrade a product is a testament to how good the product is. The Sennheiser Momentum 4 has been around since 2022, and they were only succeeded this summer with the Sennheiser Momentum 5. However, they are still great headphones, and with their $204.60 price (originally $299.99) after a 32% discount, they're a great opportunity to get top-quality headphones at a more than reasonable price.

ANC, 60 Hr Battery, White | Sennheiser Signature Sound, Adaptive Noise Cancellation Plus Transparency Mode

The Momentum 4 competes with other flagships from its time, including the Sony 1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort 45, in terms of comfort, design, audio quality, and other features. The Momentum 4 has a more bass-forward sound compared to its competition, but it's still balanced. The biggest con is that you don't have full EQ control, only being able to select certain presets from the Momentum app. The ANC is great, but not a match compared to the Sony and Bose competition. Where it does beat its competition is with the codecs it supports, including AAC, AptX, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs. This means better audio quality for Android devices than the Sony or Bose options.

The battery is powerful, reaching about 60 hours of juice at mid-level. It also has a 3.5mm audio cable, so you can use it wired. The microphone is perfect for making calls, with four-MEMS-mics helping make your voice stand out even in noisy environments. You can see more features from the Momentum 4 in PCMag's "excellent" review. If you're looking for a bargain on an established flagship headphone model without having to pay the premium in 2026, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 are a great pair to consider.

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How to Prepare Now so the End of Daylight Saving Time Is Less Jarring

Beth Skwarecki — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:30:00 +0000

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Sadly, we did not manage to abolish Daylight Saving time changes during that brief, hopeful moment a few years back, so in just a few weeks we will all be going ahead with our usual ritual: Wake up early, forgetting that the time changed during the night, then get confused when the time on our phone doesn’t match the one on the microwave. Here’s how to be a little more prepared.

Know exactly when daylight saving time ends

Daylight saving time is what we call the time in summer, and yes, it’s daylight “saving” time, singular. This time actually gets its own time zone abbreviation: EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) instead of EST (Eastern Standard Time) on the east coast, with corresponding CDT, MDT, and PDT across the country. So in November we change from daylight time to standard time.

Specifically, daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. That’s when the clocks “fall back.” (In the spring, they "spring forward"—get it?) If you’re changing your clocks manually, 2 a.m. becomes 1 a.m. This means that if you’re used to waking up at 7 a.m., you’ll open your eyes after sleeping the usual amount of time to find that it is now 6 a.m.

Decide how to spend your “extra” hour

The fall time change is a great moment for me, a night owl. When I was younger I would be thrilled to stay up an extra hour and still not feel excessively tired in the morning. These days, I’m more likely to use the time change as an assist to my morning routine. I’ll be up at 6:30 (for example) instead of 7:30, and I can get in an early workout or do some journaling.

If you’re more of a morning person, this may be a bit less pleasant. You’re going to fall asleep watching TV in the evening—earlier than you usually do, anyway. Maybe you should try to stay up a bit, to get a head start on shifting your routine an hour later.

Start adjusting pets' and kids' schedules now

For the creatures in your house who are blissfully ignorant of the concept of standardized time, routines are about to get a little weird. Most importantly: They’ll get hungry (and everything else) an hour earlier than usual.

If you think ahead, you can start moving breakfast time later, before the time change arrives. Instead of feeding your dog at 7, start feeding him at 7:15 now, and you’ll be less likely to get a cold nose in the face at 6 a.m. (Since we have about two weeks from this writing, you can shift the time to 7:30 after a few days, and then 7:45. You get the idea.)

Same goes for kids: Expect them to wake up an hour before the clock says they should, and to get tired (and overtired) an hour earlier than they normally would. A gradual shifting of routines will help here as well, and you may want to explain the situation ahead of time to kids who are old enough to understand. And if you expect your own tummy to be grumbling on cue? Consider a gradual change in mealtimes for yourself, as well, or at least have a snack on hand in case you need it.

Expect a colder, darker evening

When daylight saving time ends, we stop “saving” that extra hour of sunlight in the evening. Your evening workout or your evening commute will be darker and colder than before. On the bright side, we’ll see light earlier in the morning, which can be a good excuse to take a morning walk you might not otherwise take. (Morning light and morning exercise both help to set your body clock and may put you in a better mood for the day to come.)

If you head outside for exercise in the evening, check out our guide to how to layer for an outdoor run, depending on the temperature. You may also want to bring a flashlight or wear a headlamp. Here's the one I use.

PETZL TIKKINA Headlamp - Compact, Easy-to-Use 300 Lumen Headlamp, Designed for Hiking, Climbing, Running, and Camping - Grey

$48.49 at Amazon

Revisit your bedtime routine

It may be easier to wake up after the time change, but the flip side is that it may be harder to go to bed. This is a good time to take a look at your bedtime routine, or even to create a bedtime routine if you haven’t really had one.

I have a guide to good sleep hygiene here, but one of the most important tips is to give yourself a wind-down time in the evening—30 minutes minimum—where the lights are dim and you aren’t staring at a screen. It’s a good time to take a bath, read a book, or do something else you find relaxing. Soon you’ll be locked in to your new schedule—at least until our next time change in the spring.

How I'm Using the Time Change to Kickstart My Morning Exercise Routine

Beth Skwarecki — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

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I look forward to the fall time change every year, because I have plans for that extra morning hour. Turning back the clock is a perfect opportunity to kick-start a morning routine, since you can get up an hour early without it feeling like you're getting up an hour early.

We are, unfortunately, still doing clock changes twice a year. But I will take advantage of that fact while I can, because the fall time change gifts us with an extra hour in the morning, even if it is cruelly ripped from our evening routines. I'm not a morning person by nature, but my day always goes better when I get my workout in early, so I'm going to take that extra morning hour and use it for a workout instead of recalibrating my body clock to wake up later. I recommend all my fellow night owls do the same.

When to wake up if you're taking advantage of the time change

I mean, you could use your extra hour to sleep in—take it if you need it. But personally, I'm going to set my alarm an hour earlier than I get up, starting on Nov. 1, the first day of standard time for 2026. An hour is enough time for a simple strength workout or for a short run and a quick shower before officially starting your day. I reserve one day a week for sleeping in, which for me is Saturday. On days I'm resting from exercise, I'll still wake up on schedule but use my morning hour for something fun or relaxing, like reading a book.

If you want to fit a full workout in and need more time than the hour gives you, this is still a good way to soften the blow. For example, you can wake up 90 minutes earlier (according to the clock) with it only feeling 30 minutes earlier than usual (according to your circadian rhythms). I've been using my extra hour a little differently each year, depending on how committed I am to those morning workouts. This year, I may split it between extra sleep and a mini workout.

How to plan for morning workouts

On the first day you wake up "early," things will be much as they always are. But now that you're becoming a morning exerciser, you'll have to come to terms with the winter darkness. It will creep in, sunrise getting a few minutes later each day, until your morning jog is, most likely, fully in the dark.

If you are running in the early mornings, definitely get yourself a light to help you see and be seen. I have a Petzl Tikkina, which I bought a few years back because Petzl has a reputation for reliability, and the Tikkina is one of their more affordable models. It's worked so well that the second winter I used it, I sprang for the rechargeable battery that fits in place of its three AAA cells. The rechargeable is designed to work well even in cold conditions, which is a nice plus for winter runs. Also consider wearing bright colors, a reflective vest, or even something like the Noxgear Tracer to give you good visibility on the side of the road. I have a neon pink jacket that comes out on cold dark mornings.

PETZL TIKKINA Headlamp - Black | Compact, Easy-to-Use 300 Lumen Light, Designed for Hiking, Climbing, Running, & Camping

$19.95 at Amazon

At the gym, be aware that the rhythm of the place will change. There will be a different group of regulars, and it may be more or less busy than you're used to. But even if everything is the same, there’s something luxurious about being able to take your time, when normally you have to squeeze your last few exercises together and rush to work. Savor that extra hour.

This Powerful Lenovo Laptop Is Down to $629 at Walmart

Naima Karp — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 16:03:37 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If you’re shopping around for a reliable laptop but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on a premium model from Apple, Lenovo has some highly underrated options that are versatile and offer great processor performance for the price—and it's now even more affordable, thanks to Walmart’s newly discounted Lenovo V14 G5 14-inch FHD Laptop, now 37% off and down to $629 (originally $999.99).

Lenovo V14 G5 14-inch FHD Laptop

It’s powered by the 10-core Intel Core i7-13620H, with six performance cores and four efficiency cores) and has a maximum turbo speed of 4.9GHz. It’s more powerful than many similarly priced 14-inch laptops and can excel at heavy multitasking, light video or photo editing, and data-heavy office work. It includes 16GB of DDR5 memory, comes with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for additional storage, and is powered by a modest 47Wh battery.

Despite its power, it’s relatively lightweight, clocking in at around three pounds and 0.7 inches thick. One reason the weight stays low is its plastic build. It might not feel as durable or premium as an aluminum laptop, but the tradeoff for an under-$650 price tag makes it worth it for those on a budget. The V14 G5 includes a range of ports, including two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an HDMI 1.4b port, as well as a headphone and microphone jack.

It supports Wi-Fi 6 and includes a physical webcam shutter for added privacy. The keyboard is designed for office use and has a conventional layout that’s helpful for those who find added touchscreens and convertible hinges unnecessary. Despite having a relatively sharp resolution and an anti-glare coating, the panel technology is somewhat outdated and has limited contrast, so it may not be the best choice for photographers, designers, or video editors.

Still, if you’re looking for an everyday office or personal laptop with a strong processor, a solid port selection, and a lightweight build—but don’t mind a couple of cost-cutting compromises—the budget-friendly Lenovo V14 G5 14-inch FHD Laptop strikes the right balance between affordability and performance, especially at nearly $370 off.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

10 Hacks Every AllTrails User Should Know

Emily Long — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:30:57 +0000

AllTrails is a popular tool for finding walking, hiking, running, and biking routes around the world. You can use it to locate trails and check user reviews, but the app has plenty of features for customizing activities, tracking conditions, and navigating (safely) in real time. Here are the tips and tricks to get the most out of AllTrails.

Scrub the elevation chart to find hill grades and obstacles

The elevation map is useful for visualizing total gain and loss on your route, but you can scrub the chart on mobile to see exactly where climbs or obstacles are on the map. For example, you can see where the grade increases (and what the percentage is) or how far you are from stream crossings or switchbacks. Open the map from the trail page or the Navigate function and drag your finger across the elevation profile to track the location marker on the map.

You may be most likely to search for trails based on length and difficulty as well as location, but AllTrails has a wealth of filters to find routes with specific features, or that are dog- or kid-friendly. You can also use filters to identify trails that are likely to be less crowded (though if a route is on AllTrails, it certainly isn't a secret). In the Search window, tap All to open available filters. Select Not very busy under Visitation and Loop under Route type (out-and-back trails can feel busier). Select a rating and add any other requirements, then hit Show trails.

Reverse engineer custom routes from other hikers’ completed activities

When you use AllTrails to log an activity or write a review, a map of your track is saved to the trail listing and visible to other users. You can disable this in Settings > Privacy settings > Content—but even if you don't display your activity, you can use those that are public to find custom routes that string multiple trails together or add a ridgeline not included in the official AllTrails track. Scroll down to the reviews section and tap the activities link to pull up maps of completed activities. Note, though, that some variations in routes may not be actual detours, and you should still follow Leave No Trace principles and stay within your skill level when it comes to difficulty.

Connect an REI membership to get a discounted AllTrails subscription

A free AllTrails account will get you most of the service's basic features, but you have to pay for a Plus subscription—$35.99 per year—for things like offline maps and wrong-turn alerts. If you have an REI membership, you get a 30% discount on paid AllTrails subscriptions, bringing the annual fee down to $24.99 per year. (A Peak subscription that usually costs $79.99 per year drops to $49.99 per year.) In the AllTrails app, go to your profile > Settings > REI Membership and follow the steps to connect your account and claim the discount.

Keyword search reviews to get specific intel about conditions

User reviews can give you a good sense of current trail conditions, such as seasonal closures and whether there are muddy or snowy conditions, as well as more global environmental considerations like bugs and river crossings. You should obviously read the most recent reviews for your route, but you can also keyword search on desktop (CTRL/CMD + F) for terms like "mud," "scramble," "snow," "gate," "bugs," or "ticks." A trail may be marked as "easy," but this can reveal issues like snowmelt that have made running water trickier to wade through. You can read the reviews from the same month in previous years too.

Open directions from the AllTrails listing to route to exact GPS coordinates

When you search trails and trailheads by name on popular mapping apps, you may not always get directions to the exact starting location pinned on AllTrails. Instead, launch directions from the AllTrails listing to use the GPS coordinates, which you can then search in Google Maps or Apple Maps. On the trail page, scroll down to Get directions, then select your preferred map app (or copy the coordinates to the clipboard).

When you record an activity in AllTrails, you have the option to add a waypoint, which is essentially a note pinned to a specific location on the route. This can be useful if you want to remember details, such as tricky turns or hidden features, and you can opt into adding your waypoints to community layers to help other users. Open the Navigator in the mobile app and tap the arrow in the lower-right corner. Swipe up and tap Add Waypoint. Select the waypoint type, add details and select privacy settings, and tap Save.

Use Airplane Mode plus AllTrails offline maps to save your device’s battery

Paid AllTrails subscribers have access to offline maps that allow you to navigate routes in real time even if you don't have a signal. To ensure you don't drain your phone's battery while you're mid-hike, download offline maps for your trail in advance and then switch to Airplane Mode once you lose connection. GPS passively receives signals to triangulate your position, but it does not require the ability to transmit, so you can still follow your location on the map in Airplane Mode without straining the battery by constantly searching for a signal.

Apply AllTrails map overlays to see real-time environmental conditions

AllTrails maps have optional layers that contain a lot more data than just the route itself. All users have access to the Wildfire overlay, which shows current wildfire perimeters in the U.S. With a premium subscription, you get additional overlays for precipitation, temperature, ground conditions, snow depth, fall foliage, and community heat maps so you can see real-time environmental conditions at that specific location. A Peak subscription unlocks advanced overlays for slope angle, high-definition terrain, and public and private lands. Open a map and tap the Layers button in the upper-right corner.

Basic trail safety includes letting someone know exactly where you're going and when you plan to return. The AllTrails Live Share feature (available on paid plans) centralizes this information and shows trusted contacts where you are in real time so they can send help if things go wrong. When you share a link with safety contacts, they'll be able to see your real-time location, planned route, recorded mileage and elapsed time, estimated end time, coordinate info, and cell signal strength. They can also opt into SMS alerts. Activate Live Share under the Navigate tab—you'll need to generate a unique link each time you head out.

I Tried the 'Normatec Go' Compression Boots, and My Calves Have Never Felt Better

Meredith Dietz — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:00:55 +0000

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If you've ever been on your feet all day and your calves felt like two sandbags, you know how tough it can be to find relief. I'm a marathon runner, so I know it well. Training blocks mean high mileage, and calves take a beating on every mile. I've tried foam rollers, massage guns, stretching, and my favorite maneuver: lying with my legs up against the wall.

This week's upgrade is the first recovery tool that seems to do all the work for me, and hey—after a long run, I'm not complaining. It's my first foray into compression boots: the Hyperice Normatec Go.

Hyperice Normatec Go Calf - Recovery System with Patented Dynamic Compression Massage Technology (Normatec Go) FSA-HSA Approved

$379.00 at Amazon

How the Normatec Go compression boots work

The Normatec Go is a pair of wearable compression sleeves that wrap around your calves and give you a dynamic air compression massage. Hyperice describes it as a fully portable version of its Normatec line, which pro athletes and recovery rooms have used for years.

The sleeves inflate and deflate in a pulsing pattern (as opposed to just squeezing constantly). Hyperice calls this compression "gapless": There are three overlapping zones of 360-degree compression working through the calf. In theory, the wave of pressure helps push fluid and blood through your lower legs, which is why Hyperice says the massage increases circulation and reduces tension and swelling.

Hyperice also points out that the calf is often called the body's "second heart" because it helps push blood back up from your lower legs. That matches my experience: After a long run, calves are where the heaviness and tightness show up first.

The biggest upgrade over traditional compression boots is that you don't need to set up a whole system. You strap on the sleeves, open the app, pick an intensity, and relax. I've worn them at my desk, on the couch, and while answering emails after a long run. I show up to my next run feeling fresher, and for a marathon runner, that's the whole point of recovery.

A few features make the experience better:

Seven compression levels (40 to 200 mmHg), so you can go gentle after an easy run or firm after a long one
The two sleeves always stay in sync for a symmetrical massage
Bluetooth control through the Hyperice app, so you adjust everything from your phone
1.2 pounds total, and TSA friendly, so they can travel with you

Hyperice recommends sessions of about 20 to 30 minutes. You can go up to 60 after a tough workout, or use a shorter 15- to 20-minute session at medium intensity before a run to warm up your legs.

The Normatec Go costs $379. Full-size compression boots that cover your whole leg usually run well over $1,000, so that's a big difference. These only cover the calves, but if calves are where you need relief, you don't have to pay for coverage you won't use. They're also FSA/HSA eligible.

At the same time, the obvious limitation is that these are for calves only. I suppose it's a testament to the product that I've never been more tempted to spring for full-size boots, so that my quads and hamstrings can experience the same treatment.

The battery life also leaves something to be desired. Hyperice claims they last three hours per charge, but in my experience, you're better off charging between every hour or so of use.

If you're training for a race, spending long days on your feet, or just tired of tight, heavy calves, the Normatec Go is the upgrade I'd recommend. I can't imagine my recovery routine without it now.

Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Is 'Loser Core'?

Stephen Johnson — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

This week's Out of Touch Guide delves into the musical genre/sub-culture of "Loser Core," a pointed response to overly polished music and Instagram-polished fashion. We also define some slang, so if a young person says you have EBK or nods and says "GiGis" to you, you'll know whether you're being insulted or complimented. And then there's Biddy Blas, Star Wars fandom's newest Glub Shitto.

What is Loser Core and the Loser Core Playlist?

Loser Core is a growing subculture and musical style among young people. The music is influenced by indie, alternative, and lo-fi, with lyrics that tend toward depressing. They're usually about alienation, teen angst, and how hard it is to talk girls. Loser Core is like emo, but more homemade and more hopeless, or like grunge with less anger. Prominent Loser Core artists include Memo Boy and Wifiskeleton. Notable influences include Radiohead and Weezer.

The Loser Core look is anti-fashion: over-size, slouchy hoodies, anime T-shirts, digital watches, and beat-up sneakers. The personality type is alienated nerd with niche hobbies and few friends. So basically, depressed young people who gravitate to depressing music and a slobby look. No matter your age, I'm sure you knew (or were) this type of person when you were 17.

Here's a video that explains it a bit more:

So that's Loser Core, the genre and lifestyle. Explaining the prominence of the Loser Core Playlist is a little more complicated. Created on Spotify by depay178, LOSERCORE is a playlist of 155 songs in the Loser Core genre. Back in June, a TikTok user called @user406398991 started posted AI-generated cartoons to promote the LOSERCORE playlist. The videos feature a recurring cast of characters, are usually about music, and end with a recommendation to visit the LOSERCORE playlist. Here's an example:

The videos started appearing on a lot of people's feeds in October, raising the profile the musical genre and generating reenactment videos like this:

...as well as videos from artists who are confused at their own inclusion on the list, people selling rip-off merch, and people gate-keeping what Loser Core is and questioning the inclusion of some songs on what is becoming the canonical list. Also: a ton of videos asking, "why does this keep showing up on my feed?"

Online chatter about the playlist revolves around the perceived lack of quality of the videos, and why, exactly, someone would spend so much time promoting a playlist on Spotify when you can't monetize the followers it gets.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

It's a good question. There are indirect ways this list could be making someone money—maybe there's a connection between the promotion and the bands on the list who get paid per stream—but I like to think it's just kids who identify with these artists and want other kids to hear what they're into, like people did with zines in the old days. We don't have to monetize everything, right?

What does "EBK" mean?

EBK stands for "Extreme Baller Knowledge." It goes beyond the sports reference to apply to to anyone who has deep knowledge of a subject. It's usually used ironically.

What does GiGis mean?

Pronounced like the name Gigi, "GiGis" comes from sports by way of gamer culture. The post game pleasantry "good game" has been a staple in sports since forever. Gamers adopted it and shortened it to "GG" in text. So GiGis is a way of saying "good game."

Viral video of the week: Biddy Blas

This week's viral video comes by way of a video game cut-scene. Star Wars: Galactic Racer was released on Oct. 6, and its breakout star has emerged: Biddy Blas. You won't find him in any of the Star Wars movies or TV shows. Biddy is only in this one game, and basically only exists as an opponent to be beaten in a race. But Biddy is too great to go out in obscurity. Just check him out:

Soon after the release of the game, fans dubbed Biddy the "best Glup Shitto (Star Wars background character with a silly name)" and started making memes to celebrate him, like these:

View this post on Instagram

Biddy Blas' popularity is the result of voice actor Richard Summers-Calvert's spirited performance, particularly his reading of Biddy's catchphrase, "scrib doon," (i.e.: "Write that down."). The phrase gets caught in your brain:

and there are so many occasions when "scrib doon" is the perfect thing to say:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Dialogue-Enhancing Samsung Dolby Atmos Soundbar Is $400 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Samsung’s HW-Q800H soundbar has dropped to $696.99 from its usual $1,097.99, which brings it to its lowest price so far, according to price trackers. This 2026 model combines a soundbar and wireless subwoofer in a 5.1.2-channel setup, with dedicated channels for dialogue, surround sound, and overhead effects, plus a separate subwoofer to handle the bass. That layout makes it a sensible upgrade for anyone who keeps turning up the TV volume to catch a conversation—only to turn it down again when the action gets loud—since most built-in TV speakers lack a dedicated center channel to separate voices from the rest of the soundtrack.

Samsung's 2026 Q-Series HW-Q800H Soundbar

$697.99 at Amazon

$1,097.99 Save $400.00

$697.99 at Amazon

$1,097.99 Save $400.00

Samsung builds on that center channel with two dialogue enhancement modes and a new feature called Sound Elevation, which attempts to raise the apparent height of voices so dialogue seems to come from the actors on screen and not from beneath the TV. That could be particularly useful if your soundbar sits on a low entertainment unit. And if you already have a compatible Samsung TV, Q-Symphony lets its speakers work alongside the soundbar, potentially creating a broader soundstage without buying any extra hardware.

The HW-Q800H also supports Dolby Atmos, adding a greater sense of height and space to compatible movies and shows, though the lack of DTS support is worth considering if you regularly watch Blu-rays with DTS soundtracks. Also, since there are no separate rear speakers included, surround effects won't feel quite as immersive as they would with a full home theater setup. Samsung does include automatic room correction, though, which adjusts the sound to suit your space without requiring much manual tweaking.

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Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Joy-Con Replacement for the Nintendo Switch Is 56% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The CRKD Nitro Deck (in the Renegade Raider Fortnite Edition) is down to $34.99 on Woot, a noticeable drop from its usual $79.99 and lower than its current price on Amazon. Price trackers also suggest this is the lowest it has gone so far. Shipping is free for Prime members and costs $6 for everyone else, with the deal expected to last about a week unless it sells out earlier. Keep in mind that Woot doesn't ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. Box addresses.

CRKD Nitro Deck (Renegade Raider Fortnite Edition)

At its core, the Nitro Deck is trying to solve one of the Nintendo Switch’s most persistent problems: Joy-Con stick drift. But it isn't a traditional controller—it's a full shell that your Nintendo Switch slides into and locks in with a simple latch system that feels secure without being annoying to use. Once it's in place, it feels more like holding a proper controller with a screen attached—the grips are thicker and shaped more like what you would find on a standard console controller, so your hands have something to rest on instead of flattening out against the Joy-Cons. The sticks are full-sized, the triggers have more travel, and there are four back buttons you can map if you like customizing controls.

You still get motion controls and rumble, and there is also a USB-C passthrough for charging or video output. The right stick sits a bit too far out, so using it for camera control or aiming can feel cramped and slightly awkward. It is manageable for short bursts, but it can get uncomfortable over time. The kickstand is also limited—it works, but you don't get much flexibility in how you prop the system up. And because everything is built into one shell, you lose the option to detach the controllers entirely, which is part of what makes the Switch unique in the first place. And while the added bulk improves grip, it makes the system less portable. Still, if you mostly play in handheld mode and want something sturdier with drift-resistant sticks, the Nitro Deck feels great, especially at this discounted price.

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Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

I’m a Deals Writer, and These Are My Top 10 Tech Deals This Week

Daniel Oropeza — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:41:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

As Lifehacker's deals writer, I'm always looking for the best bargains on TVs, speakers, laptops, and other tech. Now that it's Friday, I've gathered together this week's sales highlights, all of which I've vetted using my favorite price-tracking tools to make sure they are actually good deals.

This week, you can find bargains on the Apple Watch 10, Samsung soundbars, the best sleep earbuds, QLED TVs, and more.

Apple Watch Series 10 [GPS + Cellular 46mm case]

Samsung HW-Q600F 3.1.2ch Soundbar With Wireless Subwoofer

Soundcore Sleep A30 Special by Anker, Noise Reduction Sleep Earbuds

LG ‎UltraGear 27GS93QE 27" 1440p 240Hz OLED Monitor

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (2025) 47mm LTE Smartwatch, Titanium Casing, Advanced Sleep Coaching, Running Coach, Energy Score, Heart Rate Tracking, GPS, Titanium Blue [US Version, 2 Yr Warranty]

Ultimate Ears MINIROLL Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker

TCL Nxtpaper 14 256GB 14.3" Tablet With Pen and Case (Gray)

Samsung 65-Inch Class S90H Series

Acer Predator Gaming Monitor

The Apple Watch Series 10 is $120 off

Amazon has dropped the 46mm Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + Cellular) to $679 from $799, taking $120 off this titanium model. Although it's no longer Apple's newest smartwatch, the Series 10 still has plenty going for it, with PCMag giving it an "outstanding" rating. Much of its appeal comes down to the design, which is thinner and more comfortable than the Series 9, with a larger always-on OLED display that gives you more room to read notifications and messages without making the watch feel particularly bulky. The titanium case also gives it a more polished appearance than most smartwatches, especially if you plan to wear it beyond workouts.

A Samsung Dolby Atmos soundbar and wireless subwoofer for $110 off

Samsung’s HW-Q600F soundbar is down to $389.99 at Amazon from $499.99, a $110 discount that brings it to its lowest price ever. This 2025 model sits in the middle of Samsung’s Q-Series lineup and pairs a sleek, angular bar with a subwoofer in a 3.1.2 setup. Dolby Atmos also brings a modest sense of height, and effects track cleanly from left to right. You get a graphic equalizer and sound presets for adjusting the audio to your preferences through the included remote.

The best sleep earbuds on the market are over $60 off

The Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds from Anker are 27% off, bringing them down to $168.99 from their original $229.99 price. Not only do these in-ear buds reduce the sounds of commotion like traffic and environmental factors (from roaming pets to noisy appliances), they can also detect and filter out the sound of snoring by playing audio to obscure it. I've been loving mine and can vouch they're worth every penny.

One of the best QLEDs of 2026 is over $1,200 off

Right now, the 65-inch QM8L is $1,297.99 (originally $2,499.99), its lowest price since it launched in April. The QM8L has a “Zero Border” bezel design, which gives it a modern, minimalistic look. When you turn it on, you'll likely note how bright this TV gets. TCL claims it reaches 6,000 nits; no OLED can come close to this unit's brightness. Another important spec to note here is the local dimming zones: TCL claims this TV has up to 4,000, which means it gets top-tier backlight control, limited light blooming, and incredible contrast levels that some might not be able to distinguish from an OLED.

An LG OLED gaming monitor for $400 off

Amazon has dropped the 27-inch LG Ultragear 27GS93QE OLED gaming monitor from $899.99 to $499.99, bringing it to its lowest price ever. That’s a $400 reduction worth considering if you’ve been thinking about upgrading from a conventional IPS gaming monitor to OLED. The GS93QE offers a 1440p display with a 240Hz refresh rate. Since this is an OLED, you'd be getting the best picture quality monitors can offer.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra starts at $368

Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra in the summer of 2024, and then refreshed it in August of 2025 with double the storage and new color options. The Galaxy Watch Ultra emphasizes outdoor and exercise features, putting it in competition with the Apple Watch Ultra as a premium fitness watch at a premium price. Ever since the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 came out this year, the 2025 Galaxy Watch Ultra has been dropping in price, currently reaching a new low price of $471.78, over $175 off the original $649.99 price tag.

This clip-on Ultimate Ears speaker is $50

The Ultimate Ears Miniroll is down to $49.99 (originally $79.99), the second-lowest it has sold for so far. It’s a small, flat, puck-shaped Bluetooth speaker that weighs just over half a pound, with a removable rubber strap you can attach to a backpack, bike handlebar, or shower caddy. Despite its size, the Miniroll can get surprisingly loud—which PCMag confirms in its review—and at moderate volume, it has enough sound for a kitchen or backyard without sounding thin. As for its battery life, you get about 12 hours of playback before it needs a charge over USB-C, while its IP67 rating protects it from dust and a brief dunk in water.

A paper-like TCL tablet for $90 off

TCL's NXTPAPER 14 Android tablet, which has a massive matte screen with different viewing modes for reading, streaming video, and writing, is $379.98 (originally $469.99) after a 19% discount. With a 14.3-inch display, the NXTPAPER 14 might not be as portable as other tablets on the market, but the screen itself is the biggest perk. The matte display has a paper-like feel and three different viewing modes: You can switch from black-and-white Ink Paper Mode to Color Paper Mode (a must for comics) to full color (for streaming video or using other full-motion apps) with the push of a button.

A premium OLED TV with an over $1,000 discount

If you're looking for a premium model, Samsung’s 65-inch S90H OLED TV is down to $1,497.99 from $2,697.99 at launch, saving you over $1,000. The sale price is easier to justify when you consider that this is a new 2026 model. If the 65-inch model does not suit your space, Samsung also sells the S90H in 42-, 48-, 55-, 77-, and 83-inch versions, and those sizes are discounted as well.

An Acer OLED gaming monitor for 43% off

The Acer Predator X27U is a premium gaming monitor that gets most things right—the 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time make fast shooters and racing games feel incredibly smooth, especially if you are coming from a standard 144Hz LCD panel. Motion blur is minimal, and its FreeSync Premium compatibility helps reduce tearing without much setup hassle. The 1440p resolution also feels like a good balance for most people. You get sharper visuals than 1080p without needing the kind of graphics card power that 4K gaming still demands. Plus, its stand adjusts for height, tilt, swivel, and pivot, which sounds minor until you spend eight hours staring at a screen positioned slightly wrong. At $314.99 (originally $549.99), this is an incredible deal for a gaming monitor.

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Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Apple Watch Series 12 — $389.99 (List Price $389.99)

Sony WH-1000XM5 — $198.00 (List Price $248.00)

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The Adventure-Ready Samsung Galaxy Watch Is Over $175 Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra LTE (2024, 32GB)

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra LTE (2025, 64GB)

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra2, Titanium Gray, 47mm LTE Smartwatch | Rugged Design, AI Assistant, Advanced Sleep and Running Coach, Dive-Rated, Heart Rate Tracking [US Version, 2 Yr Warranty]

$671.43 at Amazon

The Galaxy Watch Ultra excels over other watches in one key aspect: its outdoorsy features. If you're an avid hiker or an athlete who spends long hours outdoors, this is a worthwhile choice. Like any good rugged watch, this one is tough, made out of Grade 4 titanium, and has an IP68 water- and dust-resistant rating. You can also take it up high altitudes (up to 9,000 meters) and it can withstand up to 10ATM of pressure (about 330 feet underwater). You also get a built-in siren in case of emergencies. The screen is a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display, brighter than previous Samsung AMOLED smartwatches. The only downside is that it comes in just one size—47mm.

The watch runs WearOS from Samsung and comes with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 590mAh battery is one of the best for its price point, making it perfect for prolonged outdoor use. If you don't use any power-saving modes, it'll last 60 hours, but it can go up to 100 hours if you're conservative.

One of the new features this watch brings is AI-based health metrics and advanced sleep tracking, which you can read more about in PCMag's "excellent" review. If you're looking for a more budget-friendly (and smaller) option for more general use, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 at $220 (originally $329.99) is a great option.

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Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

Whatever Happened to Daylight Saving Time Going Away?

Beth Skwarecki — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

It will soon be time, once again, for our clocks to “fall back.” Nov. 1 is the date most places in the U.S. quit daylight saving time for 2026 and go back to standard time. We're still on this clock-changing treadmill, despite legislation that was supposed to eliminate it a few years ago, and despite medical professionals warning that these clock changes are bad for our health.

For example, a study out of the Stanford School of Medicine found that switching the time back and forth every year probably contributes to increased rates of stroke and obesity. Permanent daylight saving time would be an improvement on that, and permanent standard time would be even better, health-wise. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a position paper a few years ago stating that scientific evidence supports the idea "that the United States should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of permanent standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology."

But despite all this, we’ll still have to turn the clocks ahead again in spring. So whatever happened to those bills in Congress aiming to abolish the time changes?

The most recent attempt to eliminate clock changes failed

The Sunshine Protection Act was a federal bill that would have made Daylight Saving Time permanent. If enacted, it would have taken effect on Nov. 5, 2023, the date that we would otherwise have changed the clocks. The result would be that our winter mornings would stay dark an hour longer than they currently do, but we’d get an hour more of daylight in the winter evenings.

The bill passed the Senate in March of 2022, but it wasn't taken up by the House of Representatives. In July of 2026, a similar law passed the House of Representatives, and President Trump wrote on Truth Social this month that "Republicans in the Senate have to get moving on what I call the 'No More Changing of Clocks Act.'" The Senate Majority Leader said it doesn't have the support to pass, since it would mean dark mornings for commuters and for children waiting for morning buses.

Which time would we stay with if we stopped changing the clocks?

We operate on two different times throughout the year: "standard time" and "daylight saving time." These even get their own time zones! For example, if a time is marked as "EST," that means eastern standard time, which is different from eastern daylight time.

Standard time is the one we use in winter, and daylight saving time is the one we use in summer. The bill mentioned above would have done away with standard time and kept us on daylight saving time year-round. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has taken the position that we should stay on standard time (that is, winter time) year-round, since screwing with our circadian rhythms twice a year has detrimental effects on our health and safety. If they got their way, we would fall back some year and then never spring forward again.

What about state laws?

States have their own ideas about what time it should be. Currently, states are not allowed to switch to permanent daylight saving time, but they are allowed to stay on standard time year-round if they prefer. Two states do so: Hawaii and Arizona (minus the parts of Arizona in the Navajo nation).

Nineteen states have passed laws or resolutions that would allow them to switch to permanent daylight saving time if the federal government ever allows them to do so. Those states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, are Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Three other states have made attempts to join the list: Similar bills made it partway through the Kentucky and Ohio legislatures but were not signed into law. California voters have authorized a law that isn’t yet officially on the books.

Until a federal law passes, those states are stuck with their current time zones. Current federal law, as passed in 1966 , allows states to opt out of daylight saving time (as Hawaii and Arizona have) but does not offer a way for states to make daylight saving time permanent or to choose their own dates for changing the clocks. If you’re sick of time changes, you can always move to one of the territories that don’t observe daylight saving, which include the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

This Anker Portable Power Station Is 40% Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Whether you love camping, own an RV, frequently deal with seasonal power outages, or just want to be ready with off-grid essentials, it's useful to have a power station. The Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 has received a 40% price cut, bringing it down to $899.98 (originally $1,499).

Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station

$899.98 at Amazon

$1,499.00 Save $599.02

$899.98 at Amazon

$1,499.00 Save $599.02

This power station delivers a 2,048Wh capacity and 2,400W output, with 4,000W peak power for running a variety of appliances, including a dual-door fridge for up to 32 hours. It has two handles on its sides and is relatively lightweight for its capacity at 41.7 pounds. The LiFePO4 battery can last up to a decade and is rated for 4,000 charging cycles. It recharges to 100% in under an hour (or three hours via solar) and is expandable up to 4kWh. It supports up to 800W solar input (panels sold separately) for off-grid charging and includes five AC outlets, as well as a car outlet, RV connection, and high-output USB-C ports.

Compared to its predecessor, it’s quieter and more compact in both weight and footprint, and the added perk of app connectivity makes it easy to monitor and control. If you want reliable, high-capacity portable power, the Anker SOLIX C2000 Gen 2 is a great emergency essential, though if you want something with true grab-and-go appeal, you may want to opt for the Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2, which weighs about 40% less but has half the battery capacity—and also happens to be 46% off right now.

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The Difference Between Suunto's Race, Run, and Vertical Series Smartwatches

Meredith Dietz — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

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This week, Suunto launched its newest addition to its Race line of performance watches, the Race 3S. At $599, it’s lightweight with a premium feel, and to me, its most interesting upgrade is the new silicon-carbon battery, which Suunto says offers up to 38 hours of dual-band GPS, up to 45 hours in Endurance mode, 10 days of training use, and up to 12 days in daily mode. While I usually stick to my Garmin Forerunners, I’ve been personally testing the Suunto 3S and loving it on first impression.

Suunto Race 3S Titanium Black

$599.00 at Suunto

Suunto may be one of the lesser-known fitness watch brands, but its offerings, aimed at hikers and outdoorsy people, have long been well regarded. The company sorts its sports watches into families: Run, Race, and Vertical. Three families of watches, all with several generations of models and a lot of overlapping specs, are enough to leave you staring at a product page, wracked with decision fatigue. This week’s launch of the Suunto Race 3S, the newest member of the Race family, is a good enough reason for me to help you sort it out.

SUUNTO Run Sports Watch

Suunto Race GPS Sports Watch

$399.00 at Amazon

SUUNTO Race 2 GPS Sports Watch

$599.00 at Amazon

SUUNTO Vertical 2 GPS Sports Watch, 1.5”AMOLED 115+ Sports Modes, Black

$599.00 at Amazon

The Suunto Run series: Lightweight and run-focused

Best for: Road runners, 5K-to-marathon trainers, and anyone who wants a watch they forget they're wearing, including overnight. It's also a good first step into Suunto's ecosystem.

In her review of the Suunto Run my colleague Beth Skwarecki calls this watch on of her favorite running watches, pointing to features that not only rival, but maybe even outshine Garmin and Coros watches at a similar price point. Both watches in the Run series, the Run and the Run 2, are known for being easy to wear and simple to use, but still with all the core features of a reliable running watch.

The Suunto Race series: Performance training and racing

Best for: Trail runners, triathletes, and runners who want serious training tools and navigation.

The Race S is the compact option, while the Race 2 has since replaced the original Race and has a bigger screen and larger case. It might best suit people with bigger wrists who want a big display and don't mind the weight.

As of today, the Race 3S is the lightweight premium pick. It combines the Race S's compact size with a titanium and sapphire build, a bigger battery, a brighter screen, and double the storage. Suunto says its battery capacity is 46 percent larger than the Race S's, and its display is 233 percent brighter.

When in doubt, the Race series is the middle of the lineup, and it's a natural sweet spot to land on. If you can't decide between the Run and Race options, Beth's got you covered with an in-depth comparison.

The Vertical series: Built for the backcountry

Best for: Ultrarunners, mountaineers, backpackers, and anyone doing multi-day trips where charging isn't an option. It's also a good fit if you want a watch that holds up to rough use.

The Vertical 2 is marketed as an expedition-grade watch. It weighs about 87 grams and measures 49 mm, and it's available in stainless steel or titanium. It's water-resistant to 100 meters. It has a built-in LED flashlight that the lighter Race and Run watches lack, a redesigned heart rate sensor, and more storage and processing power than the original. Its main selling point is battery life—allegedly up to 65 hours of GPS in Performance mode and up to 250 hours in Tour mode.

The original Vertical is the older model, with a solar-assisted MIP display. It's still sold and often discounted, but the Vertical 2's AMOLED screen is a major step up in clarity.

The bottom line

The Suunto Run series is for runners who want a light, simple watch. The Race series is for performance athletes who want a premium build and strong all-around training and navigation tools. The Vertical series is for people who go far from civilization and want the longest battery life and the toughest build.

The Suunto lineup also includes Core outdoor watches and dive computers like the Ocean, but those are a different conversation. For runners and trail athletes, the choice comes down to Run, Race, or Vertical, and which of them fits how far, how long, and how rough you like to get:

If you mostly run on roads and want a lightweight entry-point watch, look at the Run.
If you race, train across several sports, or run trails and want a premium build, look at the Race 3S, or the Race if you're sticking to a smaller budget. Or you can choose the Race 2 if you prefer a bigger case and screen.
If your adventures last days rather than hours, choose the Vertical 2.

For more, here are five hacks every Suunto user should know.

This Apple Watch Series 10 Is $120 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon has dropped the 46mm Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + Cellular) to $679 from $799, taking $120 off this titanium model. Although it's no longer Apple's newest smartwatch, the Series 10 still has plenty going for it, with PCMag giving it an "outstanding" rating and an Editors' Choice award, along with naming it the best Apple smartwatch of 2024. Much of its appeal comes down to the design, which is thinner and more comfortable than the Series 9, with a larger always-on OLED display that gives you more room to read notifications and messages without making the watch feel particularly bulky. The titanium case also gives it a more polished appearance than most smartwatches, especially if you plan to wear it beyond workouts.

46mm Apple Watch Series 10 (GPS + Cellular)

The cellular connectivity is particularly useful if you like leaving your iPhone behind occasionally, since an active carrier plan lets you make calls, reply to messages, stream music, and receive notifications directly on the watch, even when your phone isn't nearby—in practice, that means your phone can stay on the kitchen counter during a morning jog or a quick trip to the corner store, and you’ll still be able to pick up a call from work or reach someone if something goes wrong. It also supports Apple Music playback through its built-in speaker, though you'll probably want to connect wireless headphones for longer listening sessions.

The watch is just as capable as a health tracker, logging your heart rate and sleep, taking ECG and blood oxygen readings, and using its accelerometer to spot breathing disturbances overnight that could point to sleep apnea. Swimmers get a depth gauge and water temperature sensor as well, handy for seeing whether you’ve drifted a few feet below the surface while snorkeling or how chilly the lake is once you’re in. As for battery life, PCMag recorded around 36 hours in testing (though using LTE regularly can drain it faster), which is decent for an always-on smartwatch but still falls short of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. You’ll also need an iPhone to use it, since the Series 10 doesn’t work with Android devices.

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This LG Ultragear OLED Gaming Monitor Is $400 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon has dropped the 27-inch LG Ultragear 27GS93QE OLED gaming monitor from $899.99 to $499.99, bringing it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. That’s a $400 reduction (plus 90 days of free Amazon Music) worth considering if you’ve been thinking about upgrading from a conventional IPS gaming monitor to OLED, particularly since you’re getting a 1440p display with a 240Hz refresh rate. And the difference isn’t just speed, either—OLED’s individually controlled pixels produce deep blacks without the backlight glow you sometimes notice on LCD screens.

LG Ultragear 27GS93QE OLED Gaming Monitor

That picture quality gets another boost from VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, a 1.5 million-to-one contrast ratio, and 98.5% DCI-P3 color coverage, which help bring out the details in darker scenes and make colors look more vibrant. Once the action picks up, the monitor’s 240Hz refresh rate and near-instantaneous 0.03ms response time keep movement smooth and sharp, while AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility reduce tearing and stuttering when frame rates fluctuate.

It's worth noting that getting the full benefit of 240Hz at 1440p does require a capable PC, and although the two HDMI 2.1 ports and DisplayPort 1.4 input all support that refresh rate, console gamers won't benefit from anything beyond their system's 120Hz output limit. There’s also the usual OLED risk of burn-in to consider, particularly if you spend long stretches working with static elements like taskbars and application windows on screen—though LG offers some reassurance with a two-year limited warranty that covers the OLED panel, subject to terms.

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How to Enable Global Privacy Control in Every Browser (and Why You Should)

Ritoban Mukherjee — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Security-wise, most browsers are an open door, happy to reveal your screen size, operating system, language preferences, or GPU model when a website asks. But telling those websites to stop selling your data to third parties is still more confusing than it should be.

Although about a dozen U.S. states—including California, Delaware, New Jersey, and Texas—now require businesses to honor consumers’ privacy preferences online, most browsers do not offer a native opt-out option that lets you signal those preferences by default. Now, the California Opt Me Out Act, which goes into effect on Jan 1, 2027, is making it mandatory for browsers to do so.

Still, for now, native support for a global privacy opt-out remains inconsistent among web browsers. TSome privacy-forward browsers like Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla Firefox enable this feature by default, while others, like Chrome or Edge, require you to install third-party extensions such as the EFF Privacy Badger. Since coverage and setup vary wildly, I’ll walk you through the exact steps to enable this feature on every major browser.

What is Global Privacy Control?

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is an open-source consumer privacy protocol developed jointly by several universities, media organizations, and privacy-focused tech companies. Instead of having to hunt for a manual “Do Not Sell” or “Refuse Third-Party Cookies” link on every website and app, you enable this feature once in your browser to send a legal notification to every online destination you visit that you’d like to opt out of all data sharing and targeted advertising features.

On a technical level, GPC combines an HTTP header (Sec-GPC) with a JavaScript property (navigator.globalPrivacyControl) that your browser sends with every website fetch request to let website owners know that they are not supposed to share or sell your data.

Unlike previous iterations like Firefox’s Do Not Track, GPC issues a specific request that’s backed by leading data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), making websites and businesses more likely to honor them. With over 150 million users and more than 66,000 participating websites, the GPC project has garnered support and participation from the Mozilla Foundation, The Washington Post, Automattic, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The New York Times, and others. It has even been made into an official work item at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Unfortunately, even when enabled, GPC isn’t foolproof. USENIX found that about 45% of the 11,708 websites they surveyed did not honor privacy signals even when regional laws required them to do so. Still, it’s better than having no legal privacy opt-out at all, since cookie and tracker blockers work client-side and may end up breaking functionality on certain sites.

How to enable Global Privacy Control on your browser

When it comes to GPC support, web browsers fall broadly into two camps. There are privacy-focused platforms like Brave Browser, DuckDuckGo, and Firefox that offer native support using a built-in toggle, or just enable it by default. Then there are mainstream browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Safari that offer limited support through third-party extensions, or sometimes none at all. Here are the exact steps to follow to enable Global Privacy Control on Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave Browser, and others:

Brave

Being a privacy-first Chromium-based web browser, Brave has GPC enabled by default on Windows, macOS, and Android. However, due to certain platform limitations on iOS, Brave can only enable the feature through the JavaScript API and not the HTTP header on iPhones.

You don’t need to do anything to enable GPC on Brave Browser, but there’s an easy way to confirm whether it’s active and running:

Launch Brave. In the address bar, type in “brave://flags/#brave-global-privacy-control-enabled” and hit Enter.
Confirm that the Settings page reads Default or Enabled, not Disabled.
To disable GPC on your browser, navigate to Settings > Brave Shields and Privacy to find the corresponding toggle.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo, like Brave Browser, enables GPC by default on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and iPadOS. There’s no built-in toggle to disable it, which tells you just how seriously this browser takes its privacy implementation. (There's even a DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection extension you can add to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox to enable GPC on those browsers, too!)

If you’d like to confirm that GPC is on when you’re using DuckDuckGo, there’s an easy way to do that:

Open a new tab on DuckDuckGo Private Browser and visit the Global Privacy Control website.
Check the notification banner at the very top to see if it reads “GPC signal detected.”

To avoid breaking certain websites on Android, iOS, and Mac devices, DuckDuckGo only sends the GPC signal to websites that are known to respect it. However, you still get full coverage on Windows or if you use the Chrome extension.

Firefox

Firefox has offered GPC support since version 120. However, it’s not enabled by default, and you need to hunt for a specific toggle to switch it on.

Click on the menu button on your Firefox app, then navigate to Settings.
Access the Privacy & Security tab from the panel on the left.
Keep scrolling until you see Additional protections. On Android version 122+, look for a section that says Enhanced Tracking Protection.
You should see a checkbox next to an option that reads “Tell websites not to sell or share my data.” This is what you’re looking for.
Make sure you check the option to enable GPC, then relaunch Firefox.

Chrome

As of this writing, Google Chrome does not offer a built-in toggle or native support for GPC. However, you can install a third-party browser extension like the Privacy Badger by EFF or DuckDuckGo Search & Tracker Protection to enable Global Privacy Control very easily.

Search for Privacy Badger on the Chrome Web Store.
Once you find it, click Add to Chrome. Make sure to enable any required permissions for the extension to work too.
That’s it, GPC is enabled on all sites now. You don’t need to fiddle around with the settings since everything comes pre-configured.

Edge

As with Chrome, Microsoft Edge users must also rely on third-party extensions to enable Global Privacy Control. And like before, you can choose between Privacy Badger or the DuckDuckGo extension to activate this feature.

Open the Edge Add-ons store and look for Privacy Badger. EFF’s website lists both Edge and Edge for Android as supported browsers for the extension.
Click Get, followed by Add extension.
GPC is now on by default. You don’t need to configure anything else.

The difference between GPC and an ad blocker

At this point, you might be wondering if there’s any difference between this and just using an ad or cookie blocker extension on your web browser. Well, there are a few important distinctions.

First, GPC is a signal. It merely informs websites of your privacy preferences, but does nothing to actively block or prevent tracking or sharing of your data. Second, GPC is narrower in scope because it only covers selling or sharing your data with third parties, not collecting or storing data for a website’s own use.

Finally, ad blockers are very likely to break functionality on websites that rely on certain cookies or trackers to work as intended. Since GPC is a request rather than a blocking mechanism, it preserves existing functionality while sending a legal notification to websites that they may not share your data with anyone.

When you’re enabling Global Privacy Control instead of using an anti-tracking app or ad blocker, you’re trading coverage and effectiveness for convenience. You’ll have to just trust that websites will honor your privacy preferences, which many don’t, even when they are required to. For example, Disney just settled a $2.75 million lawsuit with the California AG’s office because it didn’t honor opt-out requests for logged-in users on every device like it was supposed to.

One of the Best QLED TVs of 2026 Is Over $1,200 Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 21:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

TCL has been pushing the boundaries of QLED TVs, making some of the best in the market at very competitive prices. This year, the company released its QM8L model, introducing a new design and impressive features and specs to a series that isn't even their flagship. Right now, the 65-inch QM8L is $1,297.99 (originally $2,499.99), its lowest price since it launched in April, according to price-tracking tools. Larger sizes are also seeing good discounts.

75" TCL QM8L Series 4K SQD-Mini-LED QLED Smart TV (2026 Model)

TCL 85 Inch Class QM8L Series

TCL 98 Inch Class QM8L Series

Sleep Earbuds, ANC, Passive Isolation, Snore Masking Sleep Headphones, Extensive Sleep Audio, Ultra Comfort for Side Sleepers, 8-10H Playtime

One of the first things you'll notice about the QM8L is the “Zero Border” bezel design, which gives it a modern, minimalistic look. When you turn it on, you'll likely note how bright this TV gets, which is a huge advantage QLEDs have over OLEDs. TCL claims it reaches 6,000 nits, and seeing as the brightest OLED TV on the market only reaches 700 nits, no OLED can come close to this unit's brightness. Another important spec to note here is the local dimming zones: TCL claims this TV has up to 4,000, which means it gets top-tier backlight control, limited light blooming (thanks in part to TCL's "Halo Control"), and incredible contrast levels that some might not be able to distinguish from an OLED.

While many of us won't manually calibrate our TVs, the picture modes you can switch to in the settings will be most people's go-to. This TV's "Filmmaker mode" provides accurate color and picture, and if you're a gamer, you can use the native 144Hz high-refresh rate. If you don't already have a surround sound system at home and want to keep a minimalist setup, the QM8L comes with Dolby Atmos-ready Bang & Olufsen speakers, which offer above-average audio output compared to most TVs. You can read more about these features in CNET's 8.8/10 review. If 65 inches isn't quite right for your home theater setup, take a look at the QM8L's other sizes, which are also discounted right now.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

10 Hacks Every Goodreads User Should Know

Emily Long — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Goodreads is a popular platform for managing your To Be Read (TBR) pile, finding recommended titles, tracking your reading stats, and sharing reviews, ratings, and notes with friends, but there are ways to make the experience better. If you're an avid reader, use these tips, tricks, and hidden hacks to get the most out of what Goodreads has to offer.

Use the barcode scanner to vet books while you're in the bookstore

The Goodreads mobile app has a built-in scanner that uses your device's camera to scan either the book cover or barcode. It then pulls up information about the title, including a description and ratings/reviews from other Goodreads users, so you can decide whether to add it to My Books while you're in the store or perusing a friend's shelf. Simply tap the camera icon in the search bar. You can also see a history of scanned books in the camera tab.

Log rereads with separate dates to avoid overwriting your existing data

There are some books that are worth reading multiple times, and Goodreads allows you to track each reread as a separate activity so you don't overwrite your original entry or affect your reading challenge stats. If you just hit the Read button on the title page, it'll simply log the item as read without any additional information. Instead, select Edit my activity > Add read date to enter start and finish dates for each reread.

Select your book’s correct edition to get accurate progress tracking

If you care about nitty-gritty reading stats, make sure you choose the specific edition of the title you're reading. Different editions have different page numbers, and you can also select audiobook versions if you're listening rather than reading to keep those pages from being counted in your totals. Find available editions on the book's title page, or tap Show all editions and select Switch to this edition next to the correct one.

Exclude audiobooks and graphic novels from your Reading Challenge to preserve your stats

Goodreads counts all books read within a calendar year toward your annual Reading Challenge, but there may be titles you don't want included in your year-end stats. For example, if you're tracking audiobooks, graphic novels, or children's books in Goodreads, you can exclude them from your Reading Challenge so they don't count toward your page goal. You can also exclude titles if you want your Reading Challenge to focus specifically on one type of book. In the app, go to More > Reading Challenge > Challenge details, select the book you want to remove, and hit Remove from challenge > Remove. (This can be found under your profile on the web interface.) To add titles back later, remove and re-add the read date.

Use Goodreads to access Kindle notes and highlights directly

If you're a Kindle user, you can link your Amazon and Goodreads accounts to see your Kindle notes and highlights centralized on Goodreads, including those for library books read through Kindle. You can add to or edit existing notes, which sync back to your Kindle book, as well as share notes and highlights with other users. On the web, open the profile menu and select Kindle Notes & Highlights > Connect your accounts.

Create a secret group to maintain a private reading log

Goodreads doesn't have the option to make a bookshelf private, meaning anyone can view your activity. Even if you set your profile to private, your shelves and reading activity are visible to your Goodreads friends. To keep a reading log that no one can see, you can create a secret group of which you are the only member and use the group's bookshelves to track private activity. On the web, go to Community > Groups > Create a group and select This group is secret.

Use a DNF shelf to separate abandoned titles from those you've read

A DNF shelf is spot for titles that you started but abandoned, giving them a dedicated place separate from your other categories. Earlier this year, Goodreads added a default Did Not Finish shelf alongside Want to Read, Currently Reading, or Read, so you no longer have to create one manually. If you give up on a book before finishing, you can still track progress but put it on your DNF shelf. (Note that these books will still count toward your goals if you include a read date with the entry, so you'll need to exclude them using the steps above if you only want to count books you've read all the way through.)

Use Compare Books to find recommended titles for book club or reading with friends who have different tastes

If it's difficult to find books that both you and your friends want to read together, you can use Goodreads' Compare Books feature to see a head-to-head comparison of your shelves for shared interests. Go to your Friends list and tap compare books next to their name to pull up an analysis of your libraries, including a list of books you have in common and a score for how your tastes line up.

Set sort criteria to keep highly ranked titles at the top of your TBR

Goodreads has granular settings for what criteria you can view and sort by on your bookshelves. If you have hundreds of titles saved on your Want to Read list, customize and save a category to sort by so you always see the highest-rated books (or those with the lowest page count or most recently published, for example) at the top. Each shelf must be sorted separately. Open the Settings tab at the top of the list, select inclusion criteria, and then choose a sort option from the dropdown. Press Save Current Settings to your shelf to lock them.

Export your data for backup or for in-depth analysis of your reading history

Goodreads tracks your reading history and stats, but you may want to do a regular backup of your data to ensure you don't lose years of logs if something happens to your account. Library exports include fields like book title, author, publisher, year published, and number of pages, as well as read dates, ratings, and notes. When downloaded as a CSV, the data can also be sorted and analyzed in myriad different ways. To export your books on desktop, go to My Books and click Import and export under the My Tools section. Click Export Library followed by the file name to download it to your device.

I Tried a Smart Band That Measures Body Temperature During Workouts, and I'm on the Fence About It

Beth Skwarecki — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:56:51 +0000

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The market for smart bands is getting pretty crowded. It’s hard to beat the Fitbit Air on value or the Whoop on performance analytics, and anything in between struggles to make itself stand out. But the Speediance strap caught my eye for an unusual feature it includes: a sensor that claims to measure your core body temperature during workouts.

Speediance Strap

$159.00 at Speediance

Does the Speediance Strap really measure core temperature?

The only other device I’ve seen make a similar claim is the Core 2 thermal sensor, which I wore for a summer’s heat training and found it valuable and useful (though not without a few caveats). A Speediance rep told me their device works the same way as the Core 2: It has a sensor for skin temperature, and another for heat flux, which can estimate how much you’re warming up over the course of a workout.

Core 2 requires that you pair its device to a chest strap heart rate monitor because its algorithm can only relate data from the sensors to your core temperature if it knows how your heart rate is responding. It also asks you to wear the sensor on the chest strap, so that it’s as close as possible to your actual core temperature. Speediance doesn’t have those requirements; you can get temperature estimates while wearing the device on your wrist and without any extra equipment.

To test Speediance’s claims, I wore both devices together for several workouts and compared the heat strain each device says I was under. While the Core 2 device is geared toward heat adaptation, Speediance uses heat data mostly to tell you when you’re done warming up and when your performance may be suffering due to heat.

How I tested the core temperature features of the Speediance band

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Speediance app shows your “heat load” during workouts, right on the same screen that shows your heart rate, time, and running mileage. At the beginning of a workout, you’ll see a label that says you’re insufficiently warmed up. Once your body temperature rises by about 0.5 to 1 degree Celsius (about 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit), you’re deemed to be in the “optimal performance” zone. A numerical strain index increases as you get warmer; above 5.0, you’re told you’re in “performance decline,” and above 7.0, you’re in “heat overload.”

For comparison, the Core 2 sensor uses a slightly different scale, or at least has different cutoffs: Between 1.0 and 2.9, you’re increasing your heat training load, and from 3.0 to 6.9 you’re more effectively increasing that load. Above 7, you’re not recommended to train because risks of overheating are too high.

It’s fall as I was testing the Speediance strap, and the weather was beautiful, so I wasn’t able to test this feature in any extreme temperatures. I did notice that, in a strength workout in my garage, my warmup was supposedly over before I had barely done any work. And I hit the “performance decline” level of heat load toward the end of several relatively cool runs.

To get a better sense of how the Speediance band does at measuring temperatures, I took it out alongside the Core 2 for an hour-long trail run on an unseasonably warm day (it was in the high 70s), and compared the heat load readings at various points during the run.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The numbers didn’t match up directly; the Speediance band always read several points higher than the Core 2 sensor, and seemed to show more ups and downs. But both climbed more or less together. I don’t think I’d say the Speediance band is as accurate—and in any sense, I don’t have a gold standard to compare to—but it seems like it could certainly be useful in monitoring how your performance varies with temperature in hot weather.

How the Speediance band performs for activity and sleep

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

If you’re going to get a Speediance band for its temperature features, you’re probably also going to use it for general activity and sleep tracking. On that front, I have plenty of good news. It’s comfortable to wear, with a soft band that feels a bit nicer than Whoop’s. I often completely forgot I was wearing it.

The app has a lot of nice little features. You get a circular visual of your day, showing when you slept versus when you exercised. My only complaint here is that the background is a generic visual that suggests you’re looking at a graph of daytime and nighttime, but it’s not lined up with the actual times of sunrise and sunset. Aligning those times with the visual would do a much better job of showing how your habits are (or aren’t) matching up with your circadian rhythms.

The band and app measure all the usual things, and display the data well: My HRV, skin temperature, and resting heart rate are all reported as vital signs, and I can easily see how they’ve changed over the past week, month, and year. A “TRIMP” number shows up among my daily metrics, which I know refers to the same thing that other apps call cardio load. A little obscure in the naming, but a good metric to track. The app suggests a bedtime, and its sleep tracking seems relatively accurate (not counting the time it read a dentist appointment as a nap—although, to be fair, I was lying still for half an hour).

But I’m disappointed by a few things. One annoyance is that, since Speediance is primarily a home gym company, you can’t log a strength workout without creating an exercise routine. (I ended up logging my strength sessions as “mixed cardio” instead.) If you want to share your exercise data on a graphic, you get stock images of Speediance equipment for backgrounds.

And I was never able to properly sync my workouts to Strava. I got a message in Chinese after attempting the connection, which a translation app told me means “the binding is successfull!” and the settings in my app told me in English that Strava was connected. Still, nothing ever showed up on my Strava page. That’s a bummer, both for everyday use if you use Strava, and for me personally since I could have used Strava to download more specific data from my workouts than I can get from just viewing workouts in the Speediance app.

Is the Speediance strap worth the money?

At $159, I’m on the fence. The temperature features of the Speediance strap could be useful for anyone who wants to keep track of how heat affects their workouts, especially in the summer. It doesn’t track heat adaptation, so it can’t replace the Core 2 sensor, but I do appreciate that Speediance is offering something more than just another heart rate measurement.

But the glitches (especially the lack of Strava connection) are a dealbreaker for now, and I wasn’t able to get as much information as I’d like about how well it measures heart rate. If I could overlook those, I don’t think this band is particularly worse than the Polar Loop or the Garmin Cirqa, which both cost a bit more. But I certainly can’t say it’s better than the Fitbit Air or the Whoop. Perhaps with time, this will be a better device, but at this point, I’m more inclined to watch for improvements than to recommend it as is.

Google Just Removed This Major Perk From Its AI Plus Subscription

Jake Peterson — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

While ChatGPT might have been first out of the generative AI gate, Google has established itself as more than a major player in this new technological race. While plenty of people use Gemini free of charge, there are also a plethora of paid subscribers who want access to Google's latest and greatest models. Like other AI subscriptions, Google's best plans are wildly expensive, but it's cheapest paid tier, AI Plus, is much more reasonable: For $4.99 per month, you get access to faster Gemini models, and bump your Google storage up to 400GB to boot.

But if you're subscribed to Google AI Plus for access to better versions of Gemini, change is coming. Google is warning subscribers this week that they're losing a major perk—perhaps the perk—of the AI Plus subscription tier, as subscribers will soon no longer have access to Gemini's advanced models.

How Google is changing its subscription tiers

As 9to5Google reports, this isn't necessarily out of the blue. When Google rolled out Gemini 4 Argon, the company advertised that its latest model would only be available on AI Pro and AI Ultra plans, not AI Plus. At the same time, the company said that its plans meant AI Plus subscribers would soon lose access to all Gemini Pro models. It now seems those plans are now rolling out—one Redditor shared an email they received from Google as an AI Plus subscriber, which reads:

We wanted to let you know about changes to the models that you can access with your Google AI Plus plan.
Starting on 13 November 2026, the ability to select Pro models in both the Gemini app and AI Mode in Google Search will only be available to Google AI Pro subscribers and above. You’ll still have access to our latest Flash-Lite model and Flash, built for speed and intelligence. Your previous chats using the Pro model can be continued with a different model.
To learn more about these changes, you can visit our Help Centre article for additional details. You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time.
Thank you for being a Google AI Plus subscriber.
– The Google One team

According to the message, AI Plus subscribers have less than a month left to access Gemini Pro models. On Nov. 13, these users will be limited to Flash-Lite and Flash in both the Gemini app and AI Mode. While it's fortunate that previous Pro chats will still be available, users will need to use one of these less powerful models if they want to continue those conversations.

So now, access to models in Google's AI subscriptions looks like the following:

Free: Gemini Flash-Lite
AI Plus ($4.99 per month): Gemini Flash-Lite and Gemini Flash
AI Pro ($19.99 per month): AI Plus perks, plus Gemini Pro models and access to Gemini 4 Argon
AI Ultra 5x ($99.99 per month): AI Pro perks, plus higher access to Gemini Pro models and 5x higher usage limits
AI Ultra 20x ($199.99 per month): AI Ultra 5x perks plus 20x higher usage limits and highest access to Pro models

It always rubs me the wrong way when companies take away features after customers have already paid for them. If Pro models were always locked to a higher tier I could think, whatever, that's just what Google charges. But the fact that AI Plus subscribers have paid for access to Pro models, and now the same $4.99 subscription is missing a major feature for no particular reason, is, in my view, scummy. If you're subsequently rethinking your choice of Google subscription, here is a full breakdown of all perks across the various subscription options.

Apple’s New M6 Mac Mini Is $119 Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

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Powered by the M6 chip, the compact 2026 Mac mini is currently 13% off at Amazon, dropping its price to $779.99 from $899. That gives shoppers in the Apple ecosystem a small but mighty computer, meant for home offices and creative workspaces short on desk space.

The entry-level model pairs a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU with 16GB of unified memory and a modest 256GB SSD, but its speed and five-by-five-inch footprint help make up for the limited storage. If you want to upgrade to the 512GB model, you can still get a 14% discount, although it costs $170 more. The Mac mini supports up to three monitors and can handle everyday work and multitasking.

It comes in a sleek aluminum enclosure with rounded corners, and the metal case sits atop a rubberized plastic base lined with cooling vents. It has front-facing USB-C ports and a headphone jack, as well as plenty of connectivity options, including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, 2.5Gb Ethernet, wifi 7, and Bluetooth 6. For those with iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices, it also offers seamless integration. PCMag, which gave it an Editors’ Choice award, praises its ability to stay cool and quiet under load, along with its impressive CPU and GPU performance.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

My Favorite Earbuds for Sleep Are $60 Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

I've been a fan of Soundcore's Sleep A20 earbuds since I first put them on to sleep over two years ago. I've never experienced earbuds that feel so comfortable when sleeping on your side. But that model was missing one crucial feature: ANC. The new Sleep A30 Special earbuds have taken care of that, and more—and despite their release this January, they're already significantly discounted. Right now, you can get them for $168.99 (originally $229.99), the lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools.

Soundcore Sleep A30 Special by Anker Sleep Earbuds

30dB High-Frequency Noise Reduction, Small Earplugs for Side Sleepers, 80H Playtime, Stream Content via Bluetooth 5.3, Sleep Monitor, Personal Alarm

Refurbished Soundcore Sleep A20 by Anker Sleep Earbuds

$99.99 at Amazon

As noted in Mashable's review, the Sleep A30 Special are the most popular and arguably the best sleeping earbuds you can buy right now. They're designed for sleep in every way: Side sleepers can doze off without feeling pressure in their ears, since the earbuds sit comfortably inside, and with the addition of ANC, you can now block more outside noise than before.

The battery life isn't the best, but this new Special version from 2026 will get you through the night: You can get eight to 10 hours of juice with ANC on, with some variation depending on your settings. There's also some cool tech and features designed for sleeping: The companion app lets you set a timer for your music so you don't drain the battery after you've fallen asleep; the earbuds now integrate with the Calm app for sleep-focused meditations and sleep stories; the charging case's microphones use Adaptive snore masking to block snoring sounds by increasing white noise; and the app includes an alarm and sleep-tracking features, among other features.

All in all, I really can't recommend these earbuds enough to anyone who values quality sleep and doesn't mind wearing earbuds to bed. If the ANC isn't a big deal to you and you're looking to spend a bit less, the refurbished Sleep A20 or a refurbished Sleep A30 Special pair are cheaper options.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

10 Shows Like 'Crystal Lake' You Should Watch Next

Ross Johnson — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000

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The new streaming series Crystal Lake takes us back to the early days of the Friday the 13th franchise to explore the origins of hockey-masked killer Jason's power and fury—by focusing, once again, on his mom (Linda Cardellini). Is this backstory we needed? Probably not! But I'm happy to revisit the bloodiest (and horniest) summer camp in America. If you're looking for other like-minded horror adaptations, here are 10 chilling shows to stream next.

Bates Motel (2013 – 2017)

You want some more backstory on an iconic serial killer and his mom? Say no more. Freddie Highmore stars as Norman Bates, the character author Robert Bloch based on the real killer Ed Gein, with Vera Farmiga playing his mother Norma (in her pre-desiccated-corpse days). Norman might not have accrued nearly the body count of Jason, but he's a lot more charming. Like a lot of media spun off from Alfred Hitchcock's seminal Psycho, it's better than it has any right to be, with impressively compelling character development and several surprises, even if we already know more or less where it's headed. Stream Bates Motel on Prime Video.

Bates Motel (2013 – 2017)

Hannibal (2013 – 2015)

More high-minded than Crystal Lake, this reboot/prequel/fresh take on the Thomas Harris novels came from Bryan Fuller, who took a first crack at the Friday series before A24 decided it wanted something a little closer to the movies than what he'd proposed. Fuller goes back to the source material here, adapting the first Lecter novel with grand, operatic style and a visual flair unmatched on network television (you're still unlikely to find more gorgeously constructed scenes of carnage). What's more, 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.

Hannibal (2013 - 2015)

Wreck (2022 – 2024)

Just a British meta-slasher-comedy on a boat (initially). Oscar Kennedy plays Jamie Walsh, who takes a job on board a cruise ship in order to investigate the disappearance of his sister, last seen working on the same vessel. Once on board, he soon realizes that everyone is a suspect and, being that he's on a boat, there's no escape from the murderous web of conspiracy in which he's deliberately entangled himself. The show has an infectious energy that blends Agatha Christie-style mystery elements with gnarly kills among a largely queer group of suspects. Season two moves the action to an island camping retreat for the ultra-wealthy, offering up an even more explicit Friday the 13th vibe. Stream Wreck on Hulu.

Wreck (2022 – 2024)

Stan Against Evil (2016 – 2018)

Stan Against Evil (2016 – 2018)

Drawing inspiration from Evil Dead, Stan Against Evil stars John C. McGinley as the crotchety, obnoxious former sheriff of a New Hampshire town overrun with vengeful spirits. Janet Varney comes to town as his replacement, and the two soon realize the uneasy spirits and demons aren’t going to be quiet for much longer. The awkward chemistry between the leads is a big selling point, as are the old-school practical monster effects that harken back to the great slasher horror movies of the late '70s through the '80s. The show leans more toward funny (and it’s often very funny) than scary, but the monster effects are well done, and the show doesn’t shy away from great 80s-style gross-out gags. Stream Stan Against Evil on Shudder and AMC+.

at Shudder

Chucky (2021 – 2024)

One of our most reliable horror franchises went the series route with impressively smart results—not really surprising for fans of the tongue-in-cheek, increasingly meta film series. Zackary Arthur is Jake Wheeler, a queer teen subject to relentless bullying at school and abuse at home from his homophobic father. Jake picks up America's favorite serial-killing doll at a garage sale school art project, and Chucky begins to see the (justifiably) angry kid as a potential protégé. Before long, characters from Chucky's past pop in to complicate things, but the relationship between Jake and Chucky remains the show's beating heart. Even with its dark sense of humor and over-the-top murders, the show became an unlikely critical favorite. Stream Chucky on Peacock and Prime Video.

Chucky (2021 – 2024)

at Peacock

Slasher (2016 – 2023)

Each season of this series tells the story of a single serial killer and their would-be victims, stretching out a traditional slasher-movie narrative over several hours. With that time, the show (like Crystal Lake) manages to actually build lives and backstories for its characters, something that movies don’t always have time for or can't be bothered with. It works here, and each season has introduced fairly compelling characters—it doesn’t hurt that the focus is largely on adults, rather than more typical teenage victims. The whole series is excellent, but for our purposes, I'll direct your attention to season two's "Guilty Party," in which a group of former counselors returns to the scene of the crime to retrieve the body of the camper they all accidentally killed, and whose death they purposely concealed years earlier. Stream Slasher on Netflix.

Slasher (2016 – 2023)

Fear Street (2021 – )

Cheating just a tiny bit by including this series, technically a run of movies, but it plays so much like a miniseries as to be pretty indistinguishable. Adapted from the R. L. Stine books, Fear Street Part One: 1994 kicks off the series by introducing the town of Shadyside, which the local kids call “Shittyside,” and which has a dark history of multiple murders. A group of teens upsets the grave of a witch, kicking off the revival of a killer cult, which requires a trip back in time to truly understand. There is some legit gore and scares (it’s YA, more or less, but definitely not kids’ stuff) as Janiak pays homage to a wide range of horror movies past, particularly with an impeccable camp slasher homage in Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and then an origin tale that brings the initial trilogy to a conclusion in Fear Street Part Three: 1666. Stream Fear Street on Netflix.

Fear Street (2021 – )

The Midnight Club (2022)

Mike Flanagan never really misses, and this series has a summer camp vibe with a deeper, darker twist while rarely feeling entirely gloomy. Based on a few different YA Christopher Pike novels, it concerns a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice home run by a secretive and mysterious doctor (A Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp). Each night the kids meet to share scary stories covering a wide range of genres and styles, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when their time comes. It's spooky and often moving without ever being schmaltzy or precious. It was planned as more than a miniseries, so the cancellation leaves several questions unanswered—but that works in terms of the overall tone and subject matter, which grapples with unanswerable mysteries about life and death. Stream The Midnight Club on Netflix.

The Midnight Club (2022)

American Horror Story: 1984 (2019)

American Horror Story: 1984 (2019)

AHS is always wildly divisive and more or less critic-proof. The fun 1984 season is as over-the-top as you'd expect, with the show's style grounded thoroughly in the milleau of '80s slasher sequels. Starting with a prologue involving a summer camp threesome that turns into a slaughter, we jump forward 14 years to revisit the same camp with a new group of counselors, hunted this time by both the fictional Mr. Jingles (John Carroll Lynch) and the real-life Night Stalker Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa)—at least until the mid-season twist throws everything out the window. The references come fast and furious and the period vibes are exquisite. Stream American Horror Story: 1984 on Prime Video and Hulu.

Friday the 13th: The Series (1987 – 1990)

Friday the 13th: The Series (1987 – 1990)

How does Friday the 13th: The Series tie into the Jason mythology, you may well be asking? It doesn't—not even a little bit, sharing nothing with the film series other than a name, the presence of a couple of actors, and the involvement of producer Frank G. Mancuso Jr. And yet, this creepy, late-night gem has much to recommend it, blending an anthology format with bits of serialized storytelling and a recurring cast. The premise: Cousins Micki Foster (Louise Robey) and Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay) inherit an antique shop from an uncle who died under mysterious circumstances that turn out to involve years of dealings with Satan that eventually went wrong. Now, the two are stuck trying to reclaim a bunch of cursed artifacts with the help of family friend and occult expert Jack (Chris Wiggins). There's no Jason, but much of the horror goes impressively hard, even if we know that our leads will (mostly) make it through to the end. And if you aren't convinced, consider this: Guest directors David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan helmed standout episodes. Stream Friday the 13th: The Series on Fubo.

at Fubo

You Can Now Join a WhatsApp Call Without an Account

Jake Peterson — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:30:11 +0000

The worst thing about your favorite chat app is trying to get your friends and family to use it. WhatsApp may be the most popular messaging platform in the world, but in the United States, it is hardly universally adopted. On the contrary, you'll find plenty of people who don't use it at all. In short, it's difficult to get a whole group to commit to any one platform, which can make casual video calls frustrating: If you don't use WhatsApp, and your friends are hosting a call, what are you supposed to do? You can't join a WhatsApp call without a WhatsApp account.

That's now changing. Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, announced "guest calling" on Wednesday. Now, any WhatsApp user can invite any non-WhatsApp user to a call, even if the recipient doesn't have an account. These calls still get the same core perks as traditional WhatsApp calls, Meta says: They're free and end-to-end encrypted, so you won't be compromising on your privacy by calling a non-WhatsApp user this way.

Non-WhatsApp users are still limited. Meta says these users always need a call host's approval to join. If you're a non-WhatsApp user, you'll find yourself in a waiting room until the call host lets you in. Meta also says that you can be kicked off the call at any time, and you won't be able to see other callers' phone numbers. You won't be able to send messages or add other users to the call. You are purely a participant.

How to invite someone without a WhatsApp account to a WhatsApp call

If you're trying to add a non-WhatsApp user to a call, first head to the Calls tab in the app. Here, hit (+), create a call link, then send it to the recipient. Meta says the user can open the link in their computer browser, enter their name, and join. This applies to one-on-one calls as well as calls with up to 32 people. While guests will have the aforementioned limits, they do have some features available to them. They can share their screen, react with emojis, or raise their hand.

WhatsApp isn't the first chat app to offer such a feature. Apple's FaceTime platform, for example, lets you create call links that anyone can join, whether they're calling in on an Apple device or a device running Android or Windows (or Linux, for that matter).

This Top-Rated 65-Inch LG OLED TV Is $200 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The 65-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV has dropped to $1,499.99 from $1,699.99, a $200 price cut that brings it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers—and the savings aren't limited to this particular size either, with discounts extending across the C6 lineup, from the compact 42-inch model to the massive 83-inch version, although the 65-inch screen is particularly appealing if you want a larger OLED without spending more than $2.000. You also get a 90-day free trial of Amazon Music with the purchase.

65-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

$1,699.99 Save $300.00

77-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

$1,699.99 Save $300.00

$1,999.99 at Amazon

$2,499.99 Save $500.00

$1,999.99 at Amazon

$2,499.99 Save $500.00

55-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

48-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

$1,099.99 at Amazon

$1,599.99 Save $500.00

$1,099.99 at Amazon

$1,599.99 Save $500.00

42-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

$1,049.99 at Amazon

$1,199.99 Save $150.00

$1,049.99 at Amazon

$1,199.99 Save $150.00

83-inch LG Evo C6 OLED TV

$3,299.99 at Amazon

$5,299.99 Save $2,000.00

$3,299.99 at Amazon

$5,299.99 Save $2,000.00

Beyond the discount, there's plenty to like about the C6 itself, with PCMag calling it an excellent midrange OLED that is slightly brighter than last year’s Evo C5 while still retaining its color accuracy and sleek design, giving you much of what makes LG’s flagship OLEDs appealing at a considerably lower price. The nearly bezel-free design also keeps the focus on the picture, while its 4K OLED panel delivers bright HDR highlights in Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG content. That should work well in most living rooms, although a particularly sunny space may still benefit from a brighter Mini-LED TV.

For streaming, LG’s webOS platform covers most major services, and AirPlay and Google Cast make it easy to share videos or photos directly from your phone. You can also use hands-free voice controls through LG's assistant, Google Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot to search for content or ask questions without reaching for the remote. Gamers will also appreciate the C6’s native 120Hz panel, which supports variable refresh rates up to 165Hz, along with AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility to help keep fast-moving games smooth and tear-free. It’s also highly responsive, with an input lag of just 4.6 milliseconds at 1080p120 and 12.8 milliseconds at 4K60. The C6’s main drawback is its Wi-Fi 5 connection, which feels dated for a TV at this price, although it should still handle most 4K streaming without trouble. It also lacks an ATSC 3.0 tuner, meaning you won't get support for newer over-the-air broadcast standards.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Exceptionally Fast Asus OLED Gaming Monitor Is $210 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27ACDNG is down to $549 on Amazon, a $210 discount from its usual $759 price. This is a high-end gaming monitor designed for players who want top-tier performance without stepping up to a larger display—and you also get 90 days of Amazon Music free with your purchase right now. It pairs a 27-inch QD-OLED panel with a 2560x1440 resolution and a 360Hz refresh rate, a combination that has become one of the most sought-after setups for competitive gaming, placing the XG27ACDNG in direct competition with premium models like the Alienware AW2725DF.

Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27ACDNG

27-inch 1440p 360Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor

Image quality is one of the monitor's biggest strengths. The QD-OLED panel delivers deep blacks and excellent contrast, making games and movies look especially striking in darker rooms. The monitor also supports both FreeSync and G-Sync, helping gameplay stay smooth across a wide range of frame rates on either AMD or Nvidia systems. Performance is equally impressive, especially in motion handling—the 360Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time keep fast-moving objects sharp, making competitive shooters, racing games, and esports titles feel especially responsive. Input lag is also very low, further enhancing that sense of immediacy.

Outside of gaming, Asus has also included several features aimed at long-term usability—including a built-in heatsink and OLED Care+ tools, which are designed to help minimize the risk of burn-in, a USB-C port with 90W power delivery, a USB hub, and a KVM switch—making the monitor more useful for work setups and multi-device users. That said, like many QD-OLED monitors, the panel can lose some of its inky-black appearance in bright rooms, where ambient light may cause darker areas of the screen to take on a slight purple tint. VRR flicker can also become noticeable when frame rates fluctuate, particularly in darker scenes, and there are no built-in speakers.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

The Best Sales on Headphones and Earbuds Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 21:02:44 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

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.

45dB Hybrid Noise Cancelling Earbuds, Hi-Res Audio, Advanced Equaliser, Dual Connect, 6 Mics, 42.5H Playtime Ear Buds Wireless Bluetooth, White

Nothing Ear (a) Wireless Earbuds with ChatGPT Integration, 45dB Hybrid Noise Cancelling Earbuds, Hi-Res Audio, Advanced Equaliser, Dual Connect, 6 Mics, 42.5H Playtime Earbuds Wireless Bluetooth White

Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Audio, Personalized Spatial Audio, Live Translation, Bluetooth Headphones for iPhone

Apple AirPods Max 2 Wireless ANC Over-Ear Headphones (Blue)

Adaptive Noise Cancelling, 70 hours (40hrs with ANC on), Hi-Res Audio (3.5mm or USB-C), Spatial 360 sound with Head Tracking

JBL Tour One M3 Smart Tx

Open-Ear Bluetooth Bone Conduction Sport Headphones - Sweat Resistant Wireless Earphones for Workouts and Running with Premium Deep Base - Built-in Mic, with Hair Band

Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 Premium Bone Conduction Open-Ear Sport Headphones

True Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds - Apple H1 Headphone Chip, Compatible with Apple & Android, Class 1 Bluetooth, Built-in Microphone, 6 Hours of Listening Time

Beats Fit Pro Earbuds

Wireless Industry Leading Noise Canceling Bluetooth Headphones (Renewed)

Sony WH-1000XM5 (Refurbished)

Sony WH-CH720N Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones

$0.00 at Amazon

Soundcore Sleep A30 Special

Nothing Ear (Open) Open Ear Headphones, Ultra-Light with Adjustable Earhooks, Multipoint Connection Bluetooth Earbuds, Clear Voice Technology for AI Calls, IP54, Fast Charging, ChatGPT Supported

$99.00 at Amazon

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds

The Nothing Earbuds are $67

Nothing keeps impressing with its value. The Nothing Ear (a) earbuds come with a companion app that lets you customize the sound with presets or adjust the bass, mids, and highs individually. They support 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. You can now get them for $66.99 (originally $109 at launch).

The best Apple headphones are $120 off

The new AirPods Max 2 currently have a rare discount and are down to $429 (originally $549.99), their second-lowest price yet. The biggest upgrades to the AirPods Max 2 include the new "dynamic range" amplifier, live translation, and Apple's H2 chip. But there are many other upgrades also worth noting.

My favorite travel headphones are $137 off

The JBL Tour One M3 headphones are my favorite traveling headphones, and Lifehacker writer Stephen Johnson said he liked them so much they turned him into an audio snob. They're on sale for $312.99 (originally $449.95), their second-lowest price yet.

The Shokz OpenRun Pro are $70 off

The older but still capable Shokz OpenRun Pro s are discounted to $109.95 ($179.95 at launch), the lowest price they've reached. If you've never used bone conduction headphones, they're worth a try, and the Shokz OpenPros are a great introduction to the technology. As the name implies, these are meant to be used on outdoor runs. They have an IP55 rating for dust- and water-resistance, are lightweight and comfortable, and can be worn with bicycle helmets and sunglasses. You can use them as everyday headphones too; they can even take calls, but you'll need to be mindful of the fact that they don't block any competing sound.

The Beats Fit Pro earbuds are $75 off

The Beats Fit Pro (1st Gen) earbuds aren’t the newest exercise earbuds on the market (or even in the Beats line; 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 the AirPods Pro, with a slight edge when it comes to battery life. You can get a pair in white or pink for $124.95 (originally $199.95), their lowest price ever.

The older and refurbished Sony 1000XM5 are just $160

If you don't need the latest XM6 headphone, the older XM5 version are still incredible headphones. Right now, a refurbished pair is $159.99 on Amazon. A new pair will run you $298, which is still a pretty good deal compared to the $399.99 launch price.

The Sony WH-CH720N are just $104

Not everyone needs or can spend nearly half a grand on the latest Sony headphones. If this sounds like you and are looking for a bargain on a budget, then perhaps the more affordable Sony WH-CH720N could work for you. While they're not quite as premium, they're significantly cheaper and offer good enough quality for most people. You can get them for $103.99 (originally $179.99) on Amazon right now.

The Sleep A30 earbuds are $50 off

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 $168.99 (originally $229.99), the lowest price ever.

The Nothing Ear (Open) is just $99

The Nothing Ear (Open) are Nothing's open-ear earbuds from 2024, and they're currently $99 ($149) for Prime Members, the lowest price they've ever been. They come with a multipoint connection, so you can hook them up to your phone and laptop simultaneously. There's also a "Find My Earbud" feature that plays a loud sound on the earbuds if you misplace them. There's also a low-lag mode with 120 milliseconds of latency for gaming, so the audio will be in sync with your actions. If you use a supported Nothing phone, this feature is automatic, and there's also a ChatGPT integration that you can access directly through the earbuds.

This is your chance to get the AirPods Pro 3 for $199

The AirPods Pro 3 are a big step up. The third iteration of Apple's iconic earbuds comes with a number of quality-of-life and software improvements that make them worth the typical premium over the AirPods Pro 2—and right now, the AirPods Pro 3 are even cheaper than the previous generation. They're $199 on Amazon, down from $249 and matching their second-lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

How to Preorder the 'HomeView' and Apple's Other New Smart Devices

Jake Peterson — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Apple announced a lot of new devices during its "Welcome Home" event yesterday. The Apple HomeView, the company's first smart display hub, stole the show, with its squared-off seven-inch display and its "oversized Apple Watch meets iMac G4" design, but Apple is also collaborating with LG and Schneider on a collection of smart devices, like lights, doorbells, and cameras, that the HomeView can control. Plus, the company also announced updates to existing products, including the Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini.

None of these items is currently available to pick up in-store. However, many—but not all—of them are already available to preorder, if you're interested in being among the first to try them. Here's how you can reserve the HomeView, Apple TV 4K, and HomePod mini 2 today.

The best preorder deal on the Apple HomeView

Apple's HomeView is a unique product for the company. With it, you can control your entire smart home, chat with Siri AI, check your messages, take FaceTime calls, and play music, among other tasks. Though it's generally far more limited than an iPad, it's the only device of the two to offer individualized experiences per user: It can recognize up to six people in your household and display personalized information (like Messages) for each. You can preorder the HomeView from stores like Apple, Amazon, and Best Buy. However, if you opt for Amazon, you can take $10 off the Space Gray and Starlight standard models:

Just remember: If you're buying a wall-mounted option, you'll need to buy the actual mount separately. If you buy the Power Mount USB-C wall connector, that'll add $59.99 to your total, while the Power Mount AC-wired option will add $79.99.

Apple HomeView (Space Gray)

$299.00 at Amazon

How to preorder the Apple TV 4K

Apple's newest Apple TV 4K looks a lot like the previous model, but what's inside has changed. This model uses Apple's A19 chip and can connect to up to four HomePod devices at once. The new Siri Remote supports Precision Finding through Find My, and has a speaker you can ping if you lose it in your couch. Apple doesn't always make its product names all that clear. For example, the latest iteration of Apple TV 4K is simply called "Apple TV 4K." If you're looking to buy one, don't just buy any "Apple TV 4K" you see. Instead, make sure it is the fourth-generation model. You'll have two clues there, besides the (4th-gen) label: First, it isn't currently available to purchase, so you'll only be able to preorder it; second, it costs $299, $100 more than the third-gen Apple TV 4K.

Apple TV 4K (Fourth Generation)

$289.99 at Walmart

How to preorder the HomePod mini 2

The HomePod mini 2 comes in refreshed colors that just so happen to match Apple's iMacs. The new speakers run on the Apple S10 chip and come with a new "Sound Glow" feature that can pulse to the music with colors that match the track's album art. They can also act as default speakers for iMacs over Wi-Fi 6e. Amazon doesn't have Apple's latest HomePod mini device ready to preorder. If you search for it, you'll only find previous-generation speakers available to purchase now—and only renewed versions, at that. In addition to Apple, Best Buy also has the new HomePod mini 2 available to preorder in all five colors:

Apple HomePod mini 2

$149.99 at Best Buy

You can't preorder the Apple Home Collection yet

The Apple Home Collection is pricey, but Apple won't be taking your money for it just yet. While the company has a landing page for the new smart devices, including the $349.95 LG Smart Deadbolt Lock and $399.95 LG Floodlight Cam, none of them are officially available to preorder or purchase. Apple says some of these devices will be available in December, while others will arrive in early 2027, though it doesn't say which devices will launch when.

The Best OLED TV for Most People Is $400 Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 18:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

OLEDs are known for having the best picture quality TVs can offer, if you're okay with the trade-offs. One of the biggest cons of OLEDs is their price; if you've never owned an OLED because they've cost too much, Samsung made an OLED that's within reach: the Samsung S90H Series TV. Right now, the 65-inch Samsung S90H Series TV is $1,497.99 (originally $1,897.99) after a 21% discount, reaching its lowest price ever according to price tracking tools. This TV is also considered one of the best OLED TVs for most people.

Samsung 65-Inch Class OLED S90H Series Samsung Vision AI Smart TV (2026 Model, 65S90H) OLED HDR+ with Glare Free, NQ4 AI Gen3 Processor, 4K AI Upscaling Pro, AI Motion Enhancer Pro, Alexa Built-in

The House of the Spirits (2026)

What makes the Samsung S90H TV stand out is its picture quality, because it's comparable to far more expensive OLEDs. Some other stand-out features are its excellent response time for gaming—9.33 milliseconds, according to CNET's review—and its anti-reflective filter, which makes it a great fit for bright environments.

The display's anti-reflective coating helps eliminate glare and reflections while watching TV during the day or when lamps or lights are placed at angles that can make the screen less visible. This is a huge benefit—OLED TVs are known to already not be as bright as QLEDs. On top of the specialized coating, the light output of the S90H is comparable to more expensive OLEDs, like the LG C6, reaching up to 1,600 nits of brightness.

The S90H comes with Amazon Alexa built in, has AI Motion Enhancer Pro (a type of motion smoothing), 4K AI Upscaling Pro (an upscaling technology that increases the resolution), and comes with Samsung's updated Tizen OS.

If you've been wanting to upgrade to an OLED but haven't been able to justify the price, the S90H is an incredibly worthwhile option.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

Four New Features Coming to Your iPhone in iOS 27.2 (and One That Will Be Missing)

Jake Peterson — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

If you're like most people, you might still be getting used to iOS 27 on your iPhone. Perhaps you haven't even installed it yet, or maybe you're confused about why iOS 27.0.1 exists. (The short answer: The iPhone 18 Pro is a bit glitchy.) But there's a new iPhone update on the horizon that adds even more new features and changes to the mix: iOS 27.2. While this update isn't nearly as big of an overhaul as iOS 27 itself, it's still impactful—even if Apple already removed its best new feature. Here's what's new.

The update is currently in testing, so if you want to try it out early, you can enroll your iPhone in Apple's beta and check these features out today. Just know that all betas come with some level of risk, so if you decide to go down this path, create a proper backup of all important data before installing the beta.

iOS 27.2 expands "Call Context"

Call Context is an excellent use of Apple Intelligence. When you're on a phone call, Apple Intelligence checks if the phone number you're calling is related to a business that you have relevant information for elsewhere on your device. If so, it fetches that information for you and displays it on the call screen. For example, if you're talking with your airline's customer service line, Call Context can proactively display your flight number based on the itinerary it finds in your email.

With iOS 27.2, Call Context now includes anniversary alerts. If you're on a phone call with someone you have a saved anniversary for, that alert will appear on-screen. That way, you can get a small reminder if you call a friend on their birthday, but you happened to forget the occasion. (Thank you, technology, for saving some of us from our thoughtlessness, even if you are enabling bad habits.)

FaceTime is getting ASL support

As part of a previous announcement of accessibility features, Apple revealed it was adding a new API to FaceTime that supports adding a human interpreter to video calls. This feature did not make it to iOS 27, but it appears to be rolling out in Apple's next update, making video calls more accessible going forward.

Apple TV profiles are coming to iPhone and iPad

If you have an Apple TV, you likely know you can set up profiles, so individual users can personalize the experience when watching shows and movies. As MacRumors highlights, these profiles are now coming to the Apple TV app in iOS and iPadOS 27.2. That way, multiple users can personalize the Apple TV experience on a single device: If your family shares an iPad, for example, each user can switch to their Apple TV profile when it's their turn to watch. Now, if we could only get system-level profiles too, Apple.

Siri AI is coming in more languages

At launch, Siri AI is only available in English. But with iOS 27.2, Apple is expanding that list. Once you update to the latest version, you'll be able to use Siri AI in French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

iOS 27.2 introduces small UI changes

Apple isn't thrilled with how some of its apps look in iOS 27, apparently. MacRumors also spotted that in the Music app, Apple removed some of the red accents and turned certain buttons from red to black—including the Play and Shuffle buttons, and the icons in the Library sections. In subsequent betas, Apple introduced a subtle new Apple Music icon, with a black music note against a white background, and changed the "active tab" color from red to blue.

In the Clock app, "AM" and "PM" are now smaller than the time when setting alarms. In Podcasts, "Up Next" is now "New Episodes," perhaps adding a touch more clarity. Finally, Apple changed "App Access" in Siri to "Excluded Apps," and now allows you to exclude multiple apps from Siri at once.

Apple was testing a new Health app with iOS 27.2

With the first iOS 27.2 betas, Apple totally overhauled the Health app. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem destined for release just yet. With iOS 27.2 beta 4, Apple removed the new version of the Health app, reverting it to the one you'll find in iOS 27. As such, when I first published this article, there were five new features coming to iOS 27.2. Now, there are four.

When Apple does roll out the new Health app, fitness users will likely welcome many of these new features. With the new Health app, you'll be able to see your Fitness rings within the Health app, rather than the Fitness app; there's a new "Longevity" tab that gives you insights into key aspects of your long-term health, including mental wellbeing, nutrition, daily movement, heart health, metabolic health, sleep, and hearing health. There are also new assessments you can take to analyze your current overall health and where you can improve, including a new "Health Age" feature. You can even allow your iPhone's camera to watch you exercise in order to rate your fitness in categories like flexibility, balance, VO2max, and strength.

This is by far the Health app's biggest revamp in years, and I'm looking forward to exploring the new features when Apple eventually releases it, hopefully in iOS 27.3. For more on what's new with this upgraded Health app, check out Lifehacker senior health editor Beth Skwarecki's guide here. (Beth is particularly fond of the new step count that appears at the top of both the Health and Fitness apps.)

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

10 Shows Like 'East of Eden' You Should Watch Next

Ross Johnson — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

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It turns out the kids can't get enough of John Steinbeck. The Florence Pugh-led, Zoe Kazan-created adaptation of his novel East of Eden has been a massive hit for Netflix, its epic story covering decades in the lives of two California families in the run-up to World War I. And why not? It's got grand family drama and plenty of sex, set against a massive historical backdrop and stuffed with biblical allusions that make it all feel like less of a guilty pleasure. If this is your bag, here are more similar shows to stream after you've finished your binge-watch.

The House of the Spirits (2026)

One generation will inevitably influence those that follow, for better and worse—sins and strengths in equal measure, dramatized most succinctly, perhaps, by Steinbeck's East of Eden and in Isabel Allende's seminal novel, adapted here (indicentally, both books are among the most frequently challenged in the United States). Told from the perspective of Alba (Rochi Hernández), House of the Spirits starts in the 1970s and works backward as Alba explores four generations of family history through he journals of her grandmother, Clara (Dolores Fonzi). Though their country is never named, Allende based it all on the real history of Chile through those decades of political violence and upheaval, and on her own family's triumphs and tragedies in its wake. Stream The House of the Spirits on Prime Video.

The Forsyte Saga (2002 – 2003)

War and Peace (2016)

The most recent adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's epic, and a pretty good one. We begin in 1805, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, meeting Pierre (Paul Dano), the idealistic illegitimate son of an oligarch; romantic and impulsive dancer Natasha (Lily James); and thoughtful, high-minded Andrei (James Norton), destined to become a soldier. Throughout the years of war that follow, the three of them and their families move in and out of each other's lives, as tragedy alternately unites and divides them. Stream War and Peace on Peacock and Prime Video.

War and Peace (2016)

at Peacock

Pachinko (2022 – )

Starting in 1915, this multigenerational saga follows one woman (played in different time periods by Youn Yuh-jung and Kim Min-ha) and her family, taking us from the Japanese occupation of Korea through the decades of the Korean diaspora. With her opportunities limited, Sunja leaves her home and family in Busan to pursue a life in Japan, even as racism and anti-immigrant sentiment are rampant amid the war. In a parallel narrative that begins in 1989, we see what has and hasn't changed for Sunja and her family. It’s a journey as personal as it is epic, with better location cinematography than most movies. Stream Pachinko on Apple TV.

Pachinko (2022 – )

at Apple TV

The Forsyte Saga (2002 – 2003)

I haven't been the biggest fan of the newer adaptation of the John Galsworthy novels—though The Forsytes has already been renewed for a further two seasons, so I'm apparently in the minority. Nevertheless, I'll direct you back to 2002 and this extended miniseries led by Damian Lewis. It starts off in 1884 when the slightly scandalous engagement of one of the wealthy new-money Forsytes is marred by the revelation of an affair between cousin Joylon (Rupert Graves) and the governess, kicking off an impossibly complicated series of events that plagues the family for decades. Author Galsworthy was inspired to write by his own extramarital affair, so the drama is in the show's DNA. Stream The Forsyte Saga on Netflix.

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

An epic love story that cleaned house at the 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards (that's South Korea's most prestigious entertainment award ceremony), Tangerines stars IU as Oh Ae-sun (and as Ae-sun's daughter and the series' narrator, Geum-myeong), a young woman born in the 1960s on rural Jeju Island. The series spans decades in her life with friend and later romantic interest Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum), as South Korea changes around them. The focus is more on Ae-sun's own love story than some of these broader narratives, but the scope is epic all the same. Stream When Life Gives You Tangerines on Netflix.

North & South (2004)

Not to be confused with the American Civil War miniseries North and South from the 1980s, this series adapts Elizabeth Gaskell's 1851 novel that follows Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) and her family, forced to leave their Hampshire home and travel to the industrial north of England to avoid religious scandal involving the clergyman father. Poor but well-educated, Margaret runs up against the wealthy owner of the local mill, John Thornton (Richard Armitage), whose family sees her as haughty despite her circumstances; meanwhile, hers sees John and his peers as gruff and inhumane where workers are concerned. Despite their very opposing views, you won't be surprised to learn that Margaret and John find themselves growing closer over the subsequent years, even as their families remain divided. Stream North & South on Prime Video and Tubi.

North & South (2004)

House of Guinness (2025 – )

House of Guinness (2025 – )

There's plenty of upper-crust family drama in this loosely-based-on-real-events series, but it comes from Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders), so expect bloody fisticuffs, too. The first episode begins shortly after the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, who became the wealthiest man in Ireland by expanding the trade in Guinness beer throughout the British Empire. The cracks begin to show on the way to the funeral: Religious leaders deplore all of the beer-drinking, while Irish Republicans want the company brought down for colluding with the Empire. Sir Benjamin's four heirs have wildly different goals and/or hate each other, so, you know—lots of drama, and lots of beer. The show has been renewed for a second season, so a second round is on the way. Stream House of Guinness on Netflix.

Roots (2016)

Subtitled The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley in his novel, Roots, in any of its incarnations, is hard to top as an epic family drama grounded in history. Absolutely nothing can match the cultural importance of the 1977 miniseries, also an easy recommendation, which centered the generations-long story of a Black family at a time when such narratives were rare on television. The 2016 version couldn’t possibly have that kind of impact, but it works just the same: it's impressively acted and adds a modern polish that doesn’t detract from the story’s power. Covering much of the same ground, the newer version goes further in focusing on the American family at its center, spending less time leading white viewers into the story that begins with Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby) captured in Gambia and sold as chattel. There’s a very reasonable debate about the preponderance of slave narratives in film and television and the purpose they serve for white audiences; while both versions of Roots are unflinching in that area, they also go beyond it by engaging with what came before and after. Stream Roots on Prime Video and Tubi.

Roots (2016)

The Plot Against America (2020)

The Plot Against America (2020)

A dark turn down an alternate path in American history, The Plot Against America asks: what if Charles Lindbergh had succeeded in his bid for political power in the 1930s, bringing to bear his vision of an America that followed in the footsteps of Nazi Germany by halting the “infiltration of inferior blood” (by which he meant, mostly, Jewish people). Adapted from the book by Philip Roth, the series bends imagination with real history, depicting Lindbergh's successful campaign for the American presidency against Franklin D. Roosevelt, which ultimately keeps the U.S. out of World War II—and which results in things at home growing increasingly dangerous for the Jewish family at the show's center, which splinters between members who advocate for resistance, quiet acquiescence, or active participation. Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro star. Stream The Plot Against America on HBO Max.

The Thorn Birds (1983)

Rarely has so much drama been sparked by a herd of sheep, but here we are with this blockbuster miniseries adapting Colleen McCullough's novel in suitably grand style. It's set on a sheep station in the Australian outback over several decades in the 20th century. Rachel Ward plays Meggie Cleary, a tough but damaged young woman who becomes the de facto leader of her family after her father uproots the family from New Zealand to New South Wales to live and work on a ranch owned by her wealthy, widowed Aunt Mary (the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, whose performance lives on in "Kiss me on the mouth!" gif reactions). Both Mary and Meggie have eyes for the same man, Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain), who just happens to be a priest. It's expensive, star-studded melodrama par excellence. Buy The Thorn Birds from Prime Video.

The Thorn Birds (1983)

Samsung Q-Series Soundbar HW-Q600F

Your PC Has Over 1,400 (Known) Security Flaws—Here's How to Fix Them

Emily Long — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday bug count has been trending higher since the beginning of the summer, and October is no different. The company just issued fixes for a record 1,411 vulnerabilities, including three zero-days, which are flaws that have been actively exploited or publicly disclosed before an official patch is available, making them especially risky.

For comparison, in October 2025, Microsoft issued patches for fewer than 180 flaws—six of which were zero-days—which was considered a large update at the time. Fixes typically numbered in the double digits until the middle of this year, when the totals jumped to 206 (June), 570 (July), 400 (August), and 966 (last month). That steep increase is largely attributable to AI models, which are making it easier for bad actors to develop hacking tools to exploit vulnerabilities, and for companies to find and patch these flaws more quickly. This means that update cycles are being shortened and/or include a significantly higher number of fixes. Companies like Microsoft are using AI to discover and address bugs, though AI isn't as good at the latter, and may, in some cases, introduce additional vulnerabilities in the process.

October's Patch Tuesday fixes 1,411 flaws, including three zero-days

As BleepingComputer reports, the October 2026 security update addresses flaws across the following categories: 677 elevation-of-privilege vulnerabilities, 40 security feature bypass vulnerabilities, 317 remote-code-execution vulnerabilities, 254 information disclosure vulnerabilities, 28 spoofing vulnerabilities, and 73 denial-of-service vulnerabilities. 70 of the bugs are rated "critical" and include remote code execution, elevation of privilege, and spoofing flaws. Microsoft patched an additional 348 bugs earlier this month for various Azure, Mariner, and Microsoft products.

One of the zero-days patched this month has been actively exploited in the wild. CVE-2026-96951 is a security feature bypass vulnerability in Windows Shell that allows attackers unauthorized access over a network. Microsoft has not provided details on who disclosed this flaw or how it was exploited.

The other two zero-days were publicly disclosed. CVE-2026-108398 is a security feature bypass vulnerability in the .NET framework that would allow attackers to bypass Windows Defender Application Control restrictions and run unauthorized applications without user interaction. This flaw has been attributed to James Forshaw of Google Project Zero. Finally, CVE-2026-92707 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in MessagePack-CSharp credited to an anonymous source.

You should update your PC ASAP

PC users should ensure that they download and install all security updates as soon as they're available. Patch Tuesday typically releases on the second Tuesday of every month around 10 a.m. PT and should be applied automatically. However, given the increasing risk, it's a good idea to confirm your machine's update status via Start > Settings > Windows Update > Check for Windows updates.

Samsung's Dolby Atmos Soundbar (With a Wireless Subwoofer) Is $110 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 16:00:34 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Samsung’s HW-Q600F soundbar is down to $389.99 at Amazon from $499.99, a $110 discount that brings it to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. This 2025 model sits in the middle of Samsung’s Q-Series lineup and pairs a sleek, angular bar with a subwoofer in a 3.1.2 setup, where the bar’s nine drivers cover the left, center, and right channels as well as two up-firing height channels. Those up-firing drivers let it handle Dolby Atmos and other object-based audio correctly, an advantage over Samsung’s 5.1-channel HW-B750F, though it gives up the extra audio channels, app support, and broader connectivity of the pricier HW-Q800F.

Samsung B-Series Soundbar HW-B750F

Samsung Q-Series Soundbar HW-Q800F

$1,097.99 at Amazon

For everyday listening, the HW-Q600F performs particularly well, with balanced tuning across the stereo and center channels that keeps dialogue clear without requiring much adjustment. It also preserves the dynamics of a soundtrack, so an explosion still lands with more force than the conversation before it. Dolby Atmos also brings a modest sense of height, and effects track cleanly from left to right. Surround sound, on the other hand, is less convincing, since the soundbar doesn’t include rear satellite speakers and downmixes surround formats, which limits its ability to convincingly place effects behind you. You do get a graphic equalizer and sound presets for adjusting the audio to your preferences, though without a companion app, you’ll be making those changes through the included remote.

On the connectivity side, the bar includes an HDMI input, so you can plug a game console into it and pass video through to your TV, while an optical port covers older devices. That said, HDMI audio latency runs slightly high, potentially requiring an adjustment in your TV's settings to keep dialogue synchronized with what's happening on screen. As for wireless connectivity, it is limited to Bluetooth, meaning no wifi streaming or multi-room audio. Also, Samsung's SpaceFit Sound Pro room correction and Q-Symphony integration, which lets the TV’s speakers play alongside the bar, only work with compatible Samsung sets.

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Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

I Tried Google's New Gemini 4 Argon Model, and Here's How It Measures up to GPT-6

David Nield — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Gemini 3.1 Pro launched back in February of this year—quite a while ago, in AI terms. Now Google has jumped to the next full number with Gemini 4 Argon, which it says "excels at deep work in complex, real-world tasks."

You can get the new AI model now inside the Gemini app if you're on the AI Pro ($19.99 a month) or AI Ultra ($99.99 or $199.99 a month) plans. Users on the free and AI Plus ($4.99 a month) plans miss out for now, though you can expect a smaller, cut-down version of Gemini 4 Argon to roll out to these tiers eventually.

What can Gemini 4 Argon do?

Google has a long list of areas where the new AI model excels. There's mention of complex engineering tasks (like checking millions of lines of code for efficiency improvements), predicting molecular structures in chemistry, and delivering 3D visualizations. It also enhances knowledge work across legal, finance, science, and coding.

Google says Gemini 4 Argon is now better at advanced physics modeling, picking through genetic databases, protecting software from vulnerabilities, and resolving problems in physical space (handy for robotics development). The new model "answers questions more directly with less hedging, doesn't repeat itself more than necessary, and skips clichés throughout the responses," according to Google.

Gemini has some suggestions for how to use the new model. Credit: Lifehacker

With many in the industry worried about an AI-driven apocalypse of some form or another, Google has upped its defenses against misuse and jailbreaking. The company has significantly upgraded its blockers for harmful requests, limits on AI agent overreach, and resistance to malicious prompt injections.

All of these stats are things you would expect to read about in a new AI model announcement, whether it's from Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI: "Our new model is better and safer than ever, and particularly good in these specific benchmarks we've chosen." But is it any more helpful for the average user tapping away in the Gemini app?

I don't have any pressing scientific breakthroughs to research or large-scale software optimizations to run, but I have put Gemini 4 Argon to the test against GPT-6 Sol, which is the latest model available to consumers through the ChatGPT app—though you need to be on at least the Plus plan ($19.99 a month) to get to it.

Testing Gemini 4 Argon against GPT-6 Sol

Make no mistake: Both of these new AI models are quite capable. I first prompted Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-6 Sol with the following: "Using information online, create a web app I can run locally that plots the lighthouses of the world on a map. Clicking on a lighthouse should give me some details about it, show how far its light reaches, and display a simple 2D model showing its shape and height (if known). Put a lighthouse keeper in each model pop-up for scale."

At the highest, slowest levels of "thinking," these AIs took a while to get back to me: Nearly 10 minutes for Gemini and almost 26 minutes for ChatGPT. Both hit the same problem—restricted access to map data online—but both were able to make a rudimentary world map of their own when prompted a second time.

The ChatGPT effort, dubbed "Beacon," wasn't bad, apart from a bit of map clunkiness (it clearly needs to work on its cartography skills). It presented plenty of information, laid out everything well, and gave me nice, neat diagrams on each of the lighthouses featured. The day/night mode worked fine, and it was an impressive bit of coding work, even if it did take 26 minutes.

However, the Gemini effort, called "Pharos," was better in almost every respect. The map was more detailed, lighthouses actually showed their light range (with an impressive animation), and there was more information on each location—perhaps due to Google's expertise in web search. Some of the layout choices were a bit off, but Gemini 4 Argon produced what was clearly the superior app in less than half the time.

ChatGPT's lighthouse map was pretty good—but had its problems. Credit: Lifehacker

Next, I fed PDFs of 10 recent scientific studies into each AI model. The prompt: "Give me a brief summary of each of these studies in plain English, with a single sentence each for the main finding, one study strength, one study weakness, and the main implication." While I hadn't read the studies through entirely myself, I had read news stories on all of them, and I lowered the "thinking" level to low.

This time ChatGPT was faster—25 seconds versus Gemini's 55 seconds—and gave what I thought were the better summaries, at least for my purposes. Gemini did well, and its answers were accurate and to the point, but the summaries ChatGPT gave were easier to understand and shorter. ChatGPT also offered some overall thoughts on the most promising study, which Gemini didn't.

Finally, I checked the imagination and creative juices of the models: "With the success of the Apple TV shows Severance, Slow Horses, Silo, and Widow's Bay, give me five pitches for new show ideas on the platform that combine elements from some or all of these shows. Try and be as original as possible and keep each pitch to around 100 words." I put the "thinking" level back up to "high" for this job.

Gemini's lighthouse map offered more information and a better layout. Credit: Lifehacker

(Is this how Apple TV executives actually get their ideas nowadays? I hope not.) As far as the answers the AIs gave me, Gemini was faster than ChatGPT (1 minute and 28 seconds against 3 minutes and 48 seconds, respectively), and both served up responses that were a bit more literal in their mashing up than I wanted: failed secret service agents and supernatural terrors abounded, which is I suppose what I asked for.

The ideas were mostly "Widow's Bay set somewhere else" or "Slow Horses set somewhere else," and didn't make a whole lot of sense for the most part, but the best Gemini offering was about a Silo-style underground bunker whose operators go through a Severance-style procedure every 24 hours: outside, the bunker protecting it from zombies by night; inside, the bunker planning social activities for residents by day. It's not perfect, but I might watch the trailer at least.

My favorite of the ChatGPT suggestions was a show about a remote, Severance-style weather station whose employees discover they're not recording the weather—they're creating it. Again, it didn't really logically hold up, but overall I found the suggestions from GPT-6 more nuanced, more likely to be an actual show, and better "thought" through. Maybe Gemini should've given itself more time to "think."

This is only a narrow set of quick tests, but, in my view, it seems Gemini is back to, at the very least, an even playing field with ChatGPT. It performed much better on the lighthouse task, though its summarizing and TV show pitching weren't quite as impressive. Access to the best models requires a subscription on both platforms, but if you're able to, it's worth comparing them against each other on the jobs you most commonly need AI for.

10 Hacks Every YouTube TV User Should Know

Emily Long — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

YouTube TV is one of several streaming services for live TV—and a particularly good pick for sports fans who want to be able to watch and record every matchup from their favorite leagues. If YouTube TV is your platform of choice, here are the tips and tricks to optimize your experience.

If you and members of your household have wildly different streaming tastes, you can create unique profiles for each person to prevent recommendations from one from influencing another and to separate DVR libraries. A single subscription can be shared with five additional family members, who technically must reside in the same household, and those who are outside of the home need to check in once every three months (more on that below) to maintain access. You're also limited to three active streams at a time, so six people can't be watching on six separate devices at once.

Regularly reset your YouTube TV 90-day home area allowance

If you travel frequently or are part of family sharing based anywhere besides your home, make sure you launch YouTube TV whenever you are in the account's home area. YouTube TV requires all users to check in every 90 days to avoid losing access when away from your home area. (For baseball fans, MLB imposes viewing restrictions after just 30 days.) If you get in the habit of resetting your 90-day window, you're less likely to find yourself locked out when you're on the road.

Create custom multiviews to monitor multiple games or content types at once

YouTube TV has pre-built multiviews that show you three or four channels at once—these are often either several games across a single sport or a combination of sports channels. Earlier this year, the platform launched customizable multiview, which allows you to select up to four channels across content categories. This means you can choose the specific games you want or mix and match sports with news, TV shows, and movies so that everyone in your household can be entertained. From any livestream, press the down button and select Multiview > Your multiview to choose up to four channels.

Use “catch up through key plays” to get curated highlights before syncing with live action

YouTube TV is heavy on features benefiting sports fans. If you can't begin a broadcast when a game starts, the platform offers you several options when you launch the stream: Start from the beginning, join live, or catch up to live through key plays. The latter shows you only the highlights of the action then drops you into the live stream, so you don't miss anything important but don't have to watch or fast-forward through the entire game to see what's happening now. You can also find the key plays view via Scores & stats at the bottom of the screen. This feature is supported for events from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, and college basketball.

Hide sports scores to avoid spoilers until you can watch a recorded game

Another way to avoid spoilers for live sports is to hide scores, which prevents final scores or live previews from launching before you start watching. For NFL, NBA, and MLB games, you can hide scores on a team-by-team or league-wide basis. If a league doesn't have pages for individual teams, you can hide scores for the whole league. On the team or league page, go to More and turn on Hide all scores for this team/league.

Customize your YouTube TV Live Guide to minimize scrolling

If you aren't sure what you want to watch on YouTube TV and none of the recommendations do it for you, you can use the platform's Live Guide just like the channel guide from traditional cable. However, this version is customizable, so you don't have to scroll through dozens of channels you never watch to reach the ones you do. On the web browser or app, go to Settings > Live Guide to reorder, favorite, or hide channels from your list. This can't be done directly from a streaming box, but when you open the live guide on your TV, select the Custom filter view to see your updates.

Pause your YouTube TV watch history when you don’t want content informing your algorithm

Your watch history informs recommendations on YouTube and YouTube TV, which is useful for discovering new content but also means that your algorithm can be influenced by anything and everything you watch. If you don't want certain content affecting what you're served—let's say you're binge-watching a show you wouldn't normally or you have someone staying at your house and using your account—you can pause your watch history temporarily. Tap your profile photo, go to Settings > Privacy, and toggle on Pause watch history.

Select specific teams or franchises for recording to keep your library under control

YouTube TV has unlimited DVR, but that doesn't mean you need to fill your storage with content you don't plan to watch. You can record everything from an entire sport or league, or you can select only the specific teams or franchises you care about. This depends on how you set up recording: You can search for the league and tap Add + or the "+" icon to get every game, or search for your favorite team or individual matchup. DVR playback has similar options to live events you start on delay, including resuming where you left off and watching key plays.

Switch from VOD to DVR versions on playback to skip ad breaks

Some content you record from the live feed may also be available as video on demand (VOD). With the former, you can fast-forward through ads; with the latter, ads can't be skipped. However, you may be able to choose your version if you used DVR. Click down on the stream to see whether you're on VOD or DVR, then go back to the show page and select Choose a Version > DVR (if available).

Check Stats for Nerds to diagnose streaming issues

If you have technical issues with YouTube TV, the built-in Stats for Nerds feature can help you diagnose the problem (and whether it's coming from your network or YouTube TV itself). For example, if your resolution drops significantly, connection speed, buffer health, and dropped frames can give you a clue as to whether your wifi is the culprit. Access Stats for Nerds on your TV via player controls > More > Bug icon. On your computer, right-click on the video player; on mobile, tap More > Stats from the video player.

The AirPods Max 2 Are $120 Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Apple’s latest flagship headphones, the AirPods Max 2, are currently $429 (down from $549.99) on Amazon—taking $120 off every available color and bringing them within $30 of their lowest price ever, according to price trackers. They’re still a considerable investment, but the AirPods Max 2 have plenty going for them, earning a spot on our shopping editor Daniel’s list of the best over-ear headphones of 2026. PCMag is similarly impressed, giving them an “outstanding” rating for their excellent sound quality, noise cancellation, and seamless integration with Apple devices.

Much of what makes the AirPods Max 2 an improvement over their predecessor comes down to two hardware changes: a new high-dynamic-range amplifier and Apple’s H2 chip, replacing the older H1. The amplifier delivers cleaner audio, fuller bass, and better instrument separation with minimal distortion, while spatial audio makes movies and compatible music feel more immersive. Meanwhile, the H2 chip improves active noise cancellation, Transparency mode, and Voice Isolation, which helps callers hear you more clearly when you're speaking from a crowded environment.

Also, noise cancellation is now adaptive, meaning it adjusts how much outside sound comes through as your surroundings change, saving you from constantly switching listening modes. You’ll also find some useful additions beyond audio performance, including Live Translation, which lets you hear supported foreign-language conversations translated through the headphones when paired with a compatible iPhone. The buttons on the headphones can also act as a remote shutter for your iPhone’s camera, which could come in handy for group photos or hands-free recording. All said, the AirPods Max 2 makes the most sense for someone already invested in Apple's ecosystem, since several of their more interesting features depend on compatible Apple devices and software.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

Four Ways the Fitbit Edge Is Better Than the Charge 6, and Two Ways It Isn’t

Beth Skwarecki — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 21:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

The Fitbit brand has long been defined by fitness trackers with tiny screens, yet it's been three years since it released a new one. Now that the Fitbit Edge has been announced (and pre-orders have opened), longtime Fitbit users are probably wondering how it compares to the last Fitbit release with a screen, the Charge 6.

The design is the first clear difference: The Edge fits in perfectly between the screenless Fitbit Air and the smooth, curved screen of the Pixel Watch. It runs on the same operating system as the Fitbit Air, which is slightly different from the OS that runs on Pixel watches. Like other Fitbits, the Edge pairs with both iPhones and Android devices. Now, let's look at what Google has added since the Charge 6—and what it took away.

Google Fitbit Edge

$179.99 at Amazon

Google Fitbit Charge 6

The Fitbit Edge has a real side button

I just unboxed the Fitbit Edge that Google sent me to review, and can confirm: There is a physical button on the right side of the casing. It makes an audible click when you press it in, even when the device is turned off. The Charge 6 has a "button" that is just a haptic nub—squeeze it, and if you're lucky it might recognize your touch and buzz in response. (Sadly, I found it often didn't work.)

The Fitbit Edge has an altimeter and an allegedly better GPS chipset

The altimeter is a brand-new bit of hardware in the Fitbit Edge. You have to go back to the Charge 4 to find a Fitbit tracker with an altimeter. This is the sensor that tells you your altitude and enables a measurement of how many "floors" you have climbed throughout the day. It also allows for more accurate tracking of hills on your hikes and hilly runs.

The Charge 6 and the Edge both have GPS capabilities, allowing the device to know where you are in the world, even if you left your phone at home. (The Fitbit Air, by contrast. does not have its own GPS and has to pester your phone to find out where you are and how fast you're running.) The Charge 6's GPS has some serious flaws, the main one being that tightening the wristband too much could strain the GPS antenna, leading to comically distorted maps, as you can see from my testing. Google says the Fitbit Edge has better GPS hardware. I believe them, but mainly because it would be hard for it to be worse.

The Fitbit Edge does not have Google Pay or NFC capabilities

This is the biggest downgrade: With the Charge 6, you could set up Google Wallet and be able to tap your Fitbit to pay for things at stores. That's a convenient feature if you like to run or walk without your phone and still be able to buy a drink at a convenience store. But the Fitbit Edge dropped this capability, probably to make room for other internal components. If you loved Google Pay on your older Fitbit, you'll miss it if you upgrade to the Edge.

The Fitbit Edge will be able to play music from any app, not just Youtube Music

The Charge 6's music player is one of the most frustrating things about it. The music controls only work for Youtube Music. That's a premium service, meaning you need to pay a monthly subscription fee just to be able to control music playing on your phone, and it has to be a subscription to Youtube Music—Spotify or Apple Music users are out of luck.

Fortunately, that's been fixed in the Fitbit Edge. Google says it will be able to control whatever is playing on your phone (like pretty much every other watch in existence) rather than relying on a specific app.

Google Maps directions are unsupported on the Edge—but "coming soon"

At launch, the Fitbit Edge doesn't support Google Maps directions—but Google's spec sheets say it's "coming soon." To be fair, Google Maps directions were never particularly useful. They lived in their own little app, and only gave you turn-by-turn directions, not a map view showing where you are. In the long run, this isn't likely a difference that matters, since Google plans to bring this feature to the Edge. But if you enjoy it on your Charge 6, you should know it's not going to be available right away on the Fitbit Edge.

This Ultra-Slim Robot Vacuum and Mop Is $700 Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:45:52 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If you’re looking to outsource as much of your floor cleaning as possible, a combination robot vacuum and mop is your best bet short of hiring regular house cleaners. The Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum and Mop is a great option, with powerful suction, a slim silhouette that gets into tight spaces, and a bevy of automated features that deliver a mostly hands-off experience—especially at its current 44% off price of $899.99 (originally $1,599.99).

Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum and Mop

$899.99 at Amazon

$1,599.99 Save $700.00

$899.99 at Amazon

$1,599.99 Save $700.00

Though it comes in at under $1,000, it still delivers reliable obstacle avoidance, a super-slim design, and powerful hard-floor vacuuming and mopping, with up to 22,000 Pa of suction. According to Mashable, it’s better at mopping than competitors like the Saros 10, and comes with dual rotating mop pads and an extending arm to get into nooks and crannies, as well as a split brushroll to reduce hair or fur tangles. Its slim 3.14-inch profile means it more easily fits under low-profile furniture than bulkier robot vacuums, which are typically about an inch taller.

While it excels at cleaning hard floors, it’s also more effective than older Roborock models at managing rugs, thresholds up to 4 centimeters high, and rooms with various obstacles, including furniture. The low-maintenance dock empties the dustbin, refills the Saros 10R’s water tank, and washes and dries the mop pads. While it accomplishes quite a lot, the self-cleaning station does require dedicated floor space, as the dock is on the larger side.

If you want an everyday cleaner that excels at navigation and hands-off routines, the Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum and Mop is one of the most reliable “set it and forget it” vacuum-and-mop combos available. And at a lower-than-ever $700 off, it offers a fantastic value right now.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Massive Ultra-Thin QLED TV Is 43% Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

QLEDs are a great mid-tier TV option, sandwiched firmly between cheaper LEDs and premium OLEDs—but there's a wide range within that QLED category, too. The Hisense E7SF QLED is in the low to mid-range of that category, but with its 46% discount, the price is much lower. Amazon currently has the 100-inch Hisense E7SF QLED for $1,697.99 (originally $2,999.99), a new record-low price, according to price-tracking tools. The other sizes are all also seeing discounts, like the 65-inch E7SF QLED, which is down to $599.99 (originally $999.99). These discounts are especially notable given this TV came out in April of 2026.

Hisense 50" E7 Cinema Series Hi-QLED Mini-LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV (50E7SF, 2026 NEW) - Native 144Hz, AI Picture, Dolby Vision IQ · Atmos, FALD, MEMC, HDR10+ Adaptive, Alexa+

Hisense 55" E7 Cinema Series Hi-QLED Mini-LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV (55E7SF, 2026 NEW) - Native 144Hz, AI Picture, Dolby Vision IQ · Atmos, FALD, HDR10+ Adaptive, MEMC, Alexa+

Native 144Hz, AI Picture, Dolby Vision IQ · Atmos, FALD, HDR10+ Adaptive, MEMC, Alexa+

65" Hisense E7 Series 4K Hi-QLED Mini-LED Smart Fire TV (2026 Model)

Hisense 75" E7 Cinema Series Hi-QLED Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV

Hisense 85" E7 Cinema Series Hi-QLED Mini-LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV (85E7SF, 2026 NEW) - Native 144Hz, AI Picture, Dolby Vision IQ · Atmos, FALD, HDR10+ Adaptive, MEMC, Alexa+

$947.99 at Amazon

$1,199.99 Save $252.00

$947.99 at Amazon

$1,199.99 Save $252.00

Hisense 100" E7 Cinema Series Hi-QLED Mini-LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV (100E7SF, 2026 NEW) - Native 144Hz, AI Picture, Dolby Vision IQ · Atmos, FALD, HDR10+ Adaptive, MEMC, Alexa+

$1,999.99 at Amazon

The first thing you'll notice about the Hisense E7 is how thin and lightweight it is. It comes with four HDMI ports, including one with eARC support for connecting a soundbar and two that support a native 144Hz refresh rate for smoother gaming. Like most new TVs these days, it'll be 4K and have AI modes that improve picture quality. This will be most noticeable when watching sports; the TV will recognize the content and automatically switch the picture settings to sports mode. Because this is a Fire TV, it'll come with built-in Alexa+, which is a nice touch for those already in the Alexa ecosystem. You can also install Kodi to watch virtually anything for free.

Another standout feature is the support for Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, which can make your streaming much more immersive as your TV adapts its picture in real time to its environment and gives you a 3D surround-sound experience (if you have a sound system). For its price, this is an excellent choice for someone looking to upgrade their TV to a new 2026 QLED without breaking the bank.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

Should You Buy Apple's New HomeView, or Is an iPad Enough?

Jake Peterson — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Apple's new HomeView smart hub is fun. It looks like a cross between an iMac G4 and an Apple Watch, especially if you opt for the one with the stand—which you should probably do, seeing as the wall-mounted option requires separate hardware purchases. If you have more than one Apple user in the house, it's certainly a tempting product. But as sleek as the HomeView looks, I can't help but wonder: Is this really a better decision than an iPad on a stand?

Apple HomeView

$299.00 at Amazon

Apple iPad 11-inch (A16 Chip)

After all, you can already control smart devices from the Home app on your iPad, not to mention take FaceTime calls, play music, check the weather, etc. And, since it's an iPad, it's inherently more versatile than a device made as a smart hub. Would you be better off buying one of Apple's tablets with a stand, and calling a day? The short answer: maybe, but not necessarily. After thinking it through, it might not make sense for everyone to splurge on the iPad in this scenario.

Feature crossover between the HomeView and iPad

Despite being a new product, there's a lot of crossover between the HomeView and your average iPad. They both support FaceTime, and both place the camera along the top bezel—at least, if you have one of Apple's modern iPads. (For years, the company put the camera along the short side of the iPad, which meant it was always off-center for landscape video calls.) They both run the Home app, which means both can control your compatible smart devices. You can access Apple Music on both devices, as well as the Messages app. To that point, they both run some of the same first and third-party apps, including Calendar, Weather, Podcasts, and Find My, but it's a bit too early to know the full list of compatible apps. That said, Apple told The Verge that any app that works with CarPlay and supports audio and video streaming will appear on your HomeView if you have it on your iPhone or iPad.

Both devices also come with Safari. That's obvious on the iPad, but it's a welcome addition on the HomeView. I'm not seeing much about how Safari works on HomeView, however, other than the fact you can tap "Start Cooking" on a recipe you find in the browser to see the steps in a "streamlined format." While you can do many things on HomeView with simple gestures and voice commands, Apple also includes an on-screen keyboard here, so the iPad isn't the only device of the pair you can type on. Depending on the iPad, HomeView might actually be on-par power-wise, as well: Apple outfitted this device with the A18 chip, one generation newer than the A17 Pro in the iPad mini, and two generations newer than the chip in the A16 iPad. That runs Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, a big selling point for Apple with this device. Like other smart displays, the company wants you to ask Siri AI complex questions and make requests across your apps. That's something you can do on certain iPads too, as long as they support Apple's AI suite.

The iPad can do a lot the HomeView can't

It might sound like the HomeView and the iPad are surprisingly similar, but there's a wide array of features that are exclusive to Apple's dedicated tablet. Perhaps most importantly, you have a dedicated OS to work with on iPad. It might not be macOS, but you can run multiple apps side-by-side, including with desktop-like window management, if you'd like. Speaking of apps, you'll have many more options on iPad than on HomeView. It's great that there's third-party support on HomeView, but your iPad can also tap into the entire App Store; HomeView can't.

iPads have mouse and keybord support as well, in case you don't want to rely on gesture and touch controls for everything. There's also Apple Pencil support; optional, but useful. And while both devices have front-facing cameras, all iPads have rear cameras—some better than others, but they come in handy. If you're on a FaceTime call, you don't have to turn the entire device to show someone something in front of you. There's a host of other smaller features that may matter to some, but not all, like a USB-C port, or external drive support.

The HomeView has exclusive features of its own

On the flip side, there are perks you get with a HomeView that you just don't get on an iPad. While you can place an iPad on a stand in your kitchen, you won't be able to take advantage of HomeView's dedicated "faces." That includes the Home face, which puts all your smart devices on-screen in tiles. If your home is relatively smart, this is useful (not to mention sleek), and is a bit more streamlined than moseying over to the Home app on your iPad. To that point, HomeView's other faces make it stand out in your room: You can use it as a dynamic clock or calendar, with fun designs and effects. Even the Weather app's face looks better on HomeView than the Weather app on iPad.

The HomeView really shines if you have multiple people in your house—at least, on paper. Apple says the device can recognize up to six different users, and personalize the experience to each. You can have a custom Home Screen layout, and only be able to access your own data (like Messages); then, when a different member of your household looks at HomeView, they can access their personal setup. This type of personalization is great, and is sorely missing from the iPad. Hopefully, Apple adds profiles to iPadOS at some point in the future, like it does on macOS. Until then, HomeView offers a much better experience for multiple users.

HomeView also has the advantage when it comes to speakers—particularly if you buy the model with the stand. Apple says the screen comes with two full-range drivers, while the base has a down-firing woofer and two force-canceling passive radiators. If you opted for an iPad on a stand, you'd need some sort of external audio solution to match that, which would only increase your costs.

The HomeView's price actually makes sense

If you're torn on buying an iPad as a HomeView alternative, the cost might just be the decision maker here. Apple is pricing the HomeView on a stand at $299, which, to me, sounds a bit pricey at first. But you get a lot for that money, especially when you consider the other option: Apple's cheapest iPad is still quite expensive, retailing for $449. The iPad mini, which gives you a more comparable display size to the HomeView, is even more expensive. Your best bet would be to find a refurbished iPad, but even then, you're likely still spending more than the cost of the HomeView. That's before you factor in a stand, or even alternative audio solutions, like a Bluetooth speaker or HomePod mini.

If you plan to use your iPad as a dedicated tablet in addition to a smart home display, that additional cost might be worth it. After all, you can switch from taking FaceTime calls in the kitchen to sending emails, making music in GarageBand, or playing games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley. But if your main goal is finding a smart display that fits in well with your existing Apple ecosystem, the HomeView isn't a bad buy.

This Ecovacs Robot Lawn Mower Is 37% Off Right Now

Naima Karp — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Although October Prime Day is officially over, some significant deals on home-maintenance essentials are still available. One of the best is the Ecovacs Goat O1000 LiDAR Pro Robot Lawn Mower, now 37% off at an all-time low of $949.05 (originally $1,499.99).

Ecovacs Goat O1000 LiDAR Pro Robot Lawn Mower

$949.05 at Amazon

$1,499.99 Save $550.94

$949.05 at Amazon

$1,499.99 Save $550.94

The O1000 Pro can mow up to 0.25 acres and handle slopes of up to 45%, making it ideal for smaller suburban lawns that need regular upkeep. It uses LiDAR, a 3D time-of-flight sensor, and an AI camera to map and navigate, so it doesn't need perimeter wire or an RTK antenna. In the app, you can create zones and no-go areas, adjust cutting settings, and schedule mowing.

The built-in TruEdge trimmer is what sets it apart from many competitors. Unlike some robot mowers that still leave a strip for you to finish manually, this model has edge trimming integrated to reduce cleanup. Another perk is how quiet it is: The mower operates at just 61 dB (significantly quieter than a gas mower), though the trimmer can reach around 81 dB.

While it has a PIN and lift alarm, it doesn’t offer the same location-tracking protection as premium competitors, which could matter if your mower is accessible from the street. Still, if your lawn is a quarter acre or less, somewhat level, and regularly maintained, the wireless Ecovacs Goat O1000 LiDAR Pro Robot Lawn Mower can handle most of your weekly mowing needs—and is even more appealing at nearly $550 off.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

How to Preorder the New Fitbit Edge (and Why You Might Want To)

Beth Skwarecki — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 18:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Google announced the Fitbit Edge earlier this week, making it the company's first Fitbit with a screen since the Charge 6 was released in 2023. Pre-orders are open now, and the devices are expected to start shipping on Oct. 27.

Google Fitbit Edge

$179.99 at Amazon

The Fitbit Edge ($179.99) has features and a price that are right in between the Fitbit Air, which has no screen and retails for $99.99, and the Pixel Watch 5, a full-featured smartwatch that starts at $399.99.

You can pre-order the Fitbit Edge here. It comes in black with a black band, silver with a "fog" (gray) band, "champagne gold" with a salmon-pink band, and a metallic color they're calling "satin pyrite" with an olive green band. There's also a Steph Curry edition for $219.99 in gray and orange. The standard packages come with two bands, a small/medium that fits wrists 130 to 170 millimeters around, and a medium/large for wrists 170 to 210 millimeters. There are a few other bands available for an extra fee: an "active sport" band with larger holes for ventilation ($39.99), a magnetic band ($49.99), and a band with metal links ($149.99).

What's new in the Fitbit Edge

Unlike the screenless Fitbit Air, the Fitbit Edge adds its own GPS chipset, so you can track distance without bringing your phone, and an altimeter to detect elevation changes like hills. The latter also enables a "floors climbed" metric each day. The Fitbit Edge also has an ECG app, a morning report, and can control music playing on your phone no matter what app is playing it.

If you're upgrading from a Fitbit Charge 6, the Edge adds an altimeter and a morning report, and you'll be glad to see the music controls work for any music app, not just Youtube Music. The Edge is missing some features, though: With no NFC, it can't do tap-to-pay with Google Wallet. The Edge also does not have Google Maps directions at launch, although Google says these are coming soon. The EDA scan and stress tracking are also gone. (Personally, I'm glad about that. Stress tracking isn't accurate enough to be useful.)

Garmin Just Launched a Luxury Smartwatch With a Price to Match

Meredith Dietz — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

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Yesterday the MARQ Gen 3 turned up on Garmin's support pages, and today, the company has made it official. Garmin launched its third-generation luxury smartwatch collection, a lineup of six models priced from $2,500 to $3,100. That sure is a lot of money for a watch. Let's take a look at what exactly you get with the new Garmin MARQ Gen 3.

Garmin MARQ® Adventurer (Gen 3)

$2,700.00 at Garmin

What to know about the Garmin MARQ Gen 3

The new collection consists of the MARQ Athlete, Adventurer, Aviator, Commander, Golfer and Diver. Across all six, Garmin has moved to larger AMOLED displays, added LTE and satellite connectivity, expanded its mapping, and brought in its latest health and fitness features that I detail in my review of Garmin's other recent release, the Fenix 9 Pro.

The hardware follows the luxury formula the MARQ line is known for. Each watch has a 47 mm Grade 5 titanium case, a sapphire crystal lens, and a ceramic bezel inlay. Each is 15 mm thick and carries a 1.4-inch AMOLED display, up from 1.2 inches on the previous generation.

At the bottom of the range, the MARQ Athlete is the entry point at $2,500. It comes on a silicone strap with VO2 max markings on the bezel, and includes Garmin's full collection of running and training features. The MARQ Adventurer costs $2,700 and pairs an Italian leather strap with a compass bezel. This one is aimed at hiking, navigation and climbing, and includes preloaded ClimbPro information.

And so on: The remaining four models are each built around a specific pursuit, as MARQ variants have been since the line debuted. The MARQ Aviator is the flight-focused model, the MARQ Commander is the tactical one, the MARQ Golfer is built for the course, and the MARQ Diver is the one for the water. Garmin's pricing and strap details for these four sit between the Athlete's $2,500 and the $3,100 top of the range.

What else is new about the Garmin MARQ Gen 3?

In terms of software updates, the biggest addition is embedded inReach connectivity. All six watches support LTE calling, messaging and location sharing without a phone nearby, along with satellite messaging and emergency SOS through Garmin Response. Note: These services require a separate inReach subscription.

Garmin has also added a speaker, a microphone, and an LED flashlight. Other upgrades include the ECG app in supported regions, newer health and recovery metrics, and worldwide TopoActive maps with address search. Storage has jumped from 32GB to 128GB, and battery life reaches up to 18 days in smartwatch mode, or seven days with the always-on display enabled.

How the MARQ compares to non-luxury Garmins

What's most exciting is how these changes bring the MARQ much closer to Garmin's latest high-end sports watches, as opposed to being more of an aesthetic purchase. Previously, MARQ buyers were paying a considerable premium for hardware that lacked some features already available elsewhere in the range. Honestly, the earlier MARQ was, in effect, a fancy-materials version of a watch you could get for less, with fewer capabilities.

Now, the MARQ Gen 3 is finally a watch that tops the Garmin lineup with all the features of a Fenix. And for the first time, the MARQ has pluses the Fenix doesn't, like increased storage and on-device mapping features. The question of whether such premium price Garmin has set is worth it? That's still up for debate.

Garmin says the collection is available now, with broader availability reportedly scheduled for Nov. 5. You can see the full lineup on Garmin's site here.

Which Should You Believe After a Race, Your Official Distance or Your Watch?

Beth Skwarecki — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

You just finished running a race, but your watch disagrees with the official distance and timing. Which should you trust? While race organizers can screw up their distance or timing, they usually don't. Let's look at how races are measured and why they may disagree with your watch—which happens more often than you might realize.

How races measure your time

Before we compare a watch time to an official race time, we need to know what kind of official race time we're looking at. There are two different numbers you might see from a race: gun time and chip time. They may differ from each other and from your watch. Here's where each comes from:

Chip time

Chip time, also sometimes called net time, is the time from when you personally cross the start line until you personally cross the finish line. This is the time that matters for most of us.

Chips measure your personal start and finish because big races often have a crowd at the start line. If you’re running a big-city marathon, it could be 10 minutes or more of waiting and then slowly moseying forward with the crowd before you are able to cross the start line. In that case, your marathon could have a 4:40:00 gun time and a 4:30:00 chip time.

The “chip” in the name refers to a computer chip that is usually embedded in your racing bib (the numbers you pin to your shirt). The timing system registers a data point whenever you cross a timing mat on the ground. There is a timing mat at the start and another at the end of the race. (Longer races like marathons and half-marathons may also have timing mats at a few checkpoints along the way, such as the halfway point.)

Gun time

Gun time is the time from when the race starts (often signaled by a starting pistol, hence “gun”) until you cross the finish line. This is also sometimes called clock time.

If you are trying to actually win the race, you may need to care about gun time. Sometimes the rules specify that the person who wins the race is the person who crosses the finish line first, regardless of when they crossed the start line. If you are an elite athlete who is in the running to win a big race, you’ll generally work out arrangements with the race organizer to be at the actual start line when the race starts, so that the gun time accurately reflects how long it took you to run the race.

But for the rest of us, gun time doesn’t matter at all. The exception is if you are in a very small local race that doesn’t use chip timing, or that only has one mat at the finish line (no mat at the start). In that case, only a gun time will be reported, and no chip time.

Watch time

Watch time is the name I’m using here for the time you see on your wristwatch, or in your running app after the fact. If you start and end the timer exactly when you cross the start and finish lines, and never pause it in between, in theory, it should be the same as the chip time. All the major brands of running watches and smartwatches do an accurate-enough job in most situations. But you shouldn't trust it too much—let me explain why.

COROS PACE 4 Ultralight Sport GPS Watch (Black Crystal, Aluminum)

$279.00 at Amazon

Chip time is the one that counts (for most of us)

As I mentioned above, gun time only matters if there is no chip time, if you’re trying to win an award in a race that uses gun times for awards, or if you’re trying to qualify for the Olympics.

Use the chip time anytime you’re telling someone what you ran, or when you’re keeping track of your personal bests (PBs). (Only use a watch time if you ran a race with no chip time, and even then make sure to use your actual total time between the start and finish lines, no pausing. In that case, you're not trusting the watch over the chip time; you're just using it to estimate a missing chip time.)

Watch time should be the same as chip time if you started and stopped your watch at the start and finish lines. But it’s often not. Some of the reasons your watch time might be wrong:

Your watch auto-pauses. This is a convenient setting on training runs, if you often stop for a water break or to wait to cross a street. Your watch will pause your run when you stop, and resume recording when you move again. But during a race, stops aren’t free! If you stop to spend two minutes in a porta-potty, that’s still part of your race time.
Your app (such as Strava) might report a “moving” time. Same idea as above, but it happens even if your watch recorded the whole thing. For example, on one longish run I did, I remember stopping to tie my shoe. Strava shows this run as taking 1:17:02. But if I scroll down through the numbers it gives, I can also see an elapsed time of 1:17:28. I guess it took me 26 seconds to tie my shoe.

On Strava, you can make your elapsed time show up first by selecting Edit Activity and then changing Type of Run to Race. If I do that on my shoe-tying run, the elapsed time with the extra 26 seconds shows up on that Strava activity.

There is one other reason why your official race result might not make sense, even if it’s a chip time and it’s showing the same as your watch’s elapsed time: Every now and then, a race organizer fucks up.

One time, I was running a 2K race (1.2 miles) and was expecting a finish time somewhere between nine and 10 minutes. My watch registered a number in that range, but I knew it was probably off by a few seconds. When I checked the official results shortly after crossing the finish line, I had a time of 12:29, about three minutes longer than I was expecting! And in this case, I had started near the start line (it was a small, local race), so I couldn’t blame a gun/chip time difference. Turns out the timing service had accidentally added three minutes to everyone’s times. They noticed the error pretty quickly, though, and my official time was soon updated to 9:29. (I got an age group medal that day, and wrote my time on the back, which is why I remember it all these years later.)

So if your official race result is way off, consider speaking to the race organizer. There may have been an error that affects everybody, or they may only have a gun time and not a chip time.

How races measure distance

There’s one other consideration here: not just the time on your watch, but the distance. You may find that your watch’s time was within a few seconds of your chip time, but the distance seems wrong—usually too long. Or if you upload your run to Strava, you may find that the notorious "Strava tax" has been applied, appearing to shave off a bit of distance. (My best 5K in the last few years was recorded on Strava as 4.99 kilometers and thus didn't update my 5K PR. Am I mad? OK, yes.)

The first thing to check is whether the race course was certified. (Most are.) The process of certifying a race course ensures that the course has been measured to be the correct distance. And that distance is nearly guaranteed to be shorter than most runners actually run. So, yes, you will probably run a smidge longer than 3.1 miles in a 5K (3.1 mile) race!

You can read the USATF course certification guidelines here. Of particular interest is this part: "A race course is defined by the shortest possible route that a runner could take and not be disqualified. A given runner might not follow the shortest possible route…[t]he actual path of any given runner is irrelevant. The shortest possible route is a reasonably well-defined and unambiguous route that ensures all runners will run at least the stated race distance." (Emphasis theirs.)

How does one find the shortest possible route? "You might envision the shortest possible route as a string, stretched tightly along the course so that it comes within 30 cm (one foot) of all corners, straight through S-turns, and diagonally between corners when crossing a street. You should measure the course following the same route as that hypothetical string." In addition, there is a 0.1% correction factor added to the measured distance, to ensure “that your course will not be short, even if you make small errors in following the shortest possible route.”

The only time your smartwatch’s distance should make you doubt the course measurement is if your watch thinks you covered a significantly shorter distance than the advertised length of the race. In that case, check your map to see if the GPS route looks like the route you actually ran. If you had poor GPS accuracy, your watch (or phone) might draw a line that cuts a corner that you did not actually cut.

If your map looks correct, but your distance is still short, it’s worth checking with other runners to see if they had a short distance as well. Mistakes in course measurement or signage are rare, but they happen! The San Francisco Marathon accidentally shaved half a mile off its half-marathon course once. If you think your race course was short, contact the race organizer.

What counts as my PB?

Your PB, or personal best, can be whatever you want it to be in your heart. But if you want to brag about your times or compare them with other runners, you'll want to talk about chip time.

This is where the distance issue comes up. Maybe you finished your first 5K in 30:03 chip time, but your watch congratulated you on a 5K PR of 28:59. What gives? Check the distance, and you might see that your total race distance was 3.22 miles, with 28:59 being the time it took you to hit 3.1 (at which point the finish line was in sight, but you weren't actually done with the race). Sorry, but you didn't officially run a sub-30 5K.

This is why we distinguish race PBs from training PBs. The race course's timing is more accurate, and its certified distance is more accurate than your GPS even though the actual route that you personally run may be a bit longer than the certified distance. People tend to hit PBs at races because that's when you're the best prepared for a big effort and you have a crowd cheering you on. But the distance being potentially longer than advertised means that it is more of an accomplishment to run a "5K" race in a certain time than to run exactly five kilometers in that time.

So when another runner asks for your 5K time, they mean a race. You can proudly and accurately cite your chip time—in our example, 30:03. But you could also add: "My best training PB for that distance is 28:59, so I know I'm going to break 30 minutes officially soon." You will. I believe in you.

One of the Best Entry-Level Ultrawide Gaming Monitors Is $500 Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Having a powerful monitor with high-end specs can make gaming more immersive and make input lag as small as possible, which is helpful for any serious gamer looking for an edge over their opponents. The Samsung Odyssey G9 is a 49-inch gaming monitor with some impressive specs, including a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1 ms response time. It's available for $797.99 (originally $1,299.99 at launch), $502 off and the lowest price it has reached this year, according to price-checking tools.

49" Samsung Odyssey G9 Curved 5120x1440 240Hz Gaming Monitor (LS49CG954ENXZA)

DQHD 1000R Curved Gaming Monitor, 1ms(GtG), VESA DisplayHDR 1000, 240Hz, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, Height Adjustable Stand, Ultrawide Screen, LS49CG954ENXZA, 2024

$797.99 at Amazon

$1,299.99 Save $502.00

$797.99 at Amazon

$1,299.99 Save $502.00

The Odyssey G9 came out in January 2024 as a refresh of the QLED Odyssey G9, sporting a new stand, HDMI 2.1, a black design, and a cheaper listing price (the 2020 version launched at $1,479). In addition to the low response time and high refresh rate, this monitor has NVIDIA’s and AMD’s adaptive sync technologies. Its huge 49-inch diagonal screen has a sharp curvature of 1000R and a 178-degree viewing angle. Because of its curve, the monitor measures 11.5 inches front to back, so make sure you have enough space on your desk before buying.

The VA screen panel has a 5,120 by 1,440 resolution with a 32:9 aspect ratio, which is equivalent to two side-by-side 2,560 x 1,440 monitors. Since this isn't the OLED version, it can get brighter, reaching 1,000 nits of brightness while still giving you a good contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. You can swivel, tilt, and adjust the height of the monitor.

If you're an Xbox Series X or PS5 gamer, be mindful of the output at 16:9, meaning you'll have empty space on the sides of the screen. Try the even bigger Odyssey Neo G9 if this one isn't enough.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

Apple's First Home Hub Looks Like a Tiny iMac G4

Jake Peterson — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:30:00 +0000

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Apple's "Welcome Home" event has come and gone. Unlike the company's recent iPhone event, this one wasn't livestreamed. Instead, Apple invited select members of the media to see the announcements firsthand in New York City. Concurrently, the company posted all of its updates to its Newsroom. If you weren't at the event in person (I wasn't), you can check out everything that's new below—including a look at the company's first smart hub, new Apple TV 4Ks and HomePod minis, and a new line of smart home devices.

Apple HomeView is the company's first dedicated smart hub

Apple HomeView

$299.00 at Amazon

Credit: Apple

Without a doubt, the biggest announcement of the day is the new "Apple HomeView." This is Apple's first dedicated smart hub, complete with a seven-inch square display attached to a domed speaker by a stainless steel hinge. While it doesn't resemble anything in Apple's current collection of devices, it is vaguely reminiscent of the iMac G4. Like Apple's other screens, the display comes with True Tone, and while it reaches a respectable 500 nits of brightness, it can also drop to as low as 0.3 nits, which Apple says makes it great for nightstands. It is also selling a display-only HomeView that mounts to your wall.

Apple isn't positioning HomeView as a personal device—the smart hub can recognize up to six people, so each member of a household can set their own Home Screens with custom apps and widgets, while shared data (like photos and music) can be accessed by anyone, even guests. Apple also designed Apple Watch-like faces for HomeView: You can customize your HomeView face to include things like calendars, clocks, full-screen images, the weather, and more.

Like other smart hubs, HomeView uses an AI assistant to answer questions and run tasks. As such, it seems well-timed with the launch of Apple's new Siri AI. If you have an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad, you can ask Siri AI to take action in the app or pull relevant info from Messages, Calendar, and Apple Music. Any conversation you have with Siri on HomeView syncs across the Siri app on your other devices.

Apple is also touting the HomeView's speakers. The company says the device has two custom full-range drivers in the display, as well as a down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators in the base. You can stream audio and video from Apple's many services, including Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple News, Apple TV, as well as some third-party apps. If you have more than one HomeView, HomePod, or AirPlay-compatible device, you can beam audio to all. It even works with Handoff, so if you're listening to or watching something on your iPhone, you can pick it up on your HomePod.

The HomeView's greatest strength might be as an always-available FaceTime receiver. It has a camera built into the top bezel with Center Stage, which makes it easier to stay in frame when walking around the room. HomeView can read your messages and let you respond with your voice, but there's also an on-screen keyboard. If you have other HomeViews or HomePods, you can use Intercom to send an audio message to everyone in the house.

This is a smart hub, so HomeView comes with a smart home dashboard to control all of your smart devices. You can check on video feeds (including up to nine at once), adjust lights, or change the thermostat, in addition to a number of other tasks. Apple is adamant that the A18 chip in the HomeView, including its Secure Enclave, ensures all data passing through the device is protected. It even notes that personal data, like Messages, is not accessible until the user verifies themself via Face ID.

How much will the Apple HomeView cost?

Apple is charging $299 for HomeView or HomeView (Wall Mounted). If you choose the latter, you can pick from three different wall-mounting options, each sold separately. You can preorder either starting today. A note: You need an iPhone or iPad running iOS 27.2 or iPadOS 27.2 or later to use the HomeView, so don't order one if you don't.

Apple TV 4K doubles as a home hub

Apple TV 4K (4th Generation)

Credit: Apple

Apple also announced its next-generation Apple TV 4K this morning. At first glance, you wouldn't know anything's changed. Both the Apple TV and its remote look just about the same as the previous model. But the major changes are inside, not out. Apple is positioning this Apple TV 4K as a home hub of its own, pairing an upgraded processor with Siri AI to offer new smart capabilities.

Like other smart devices, you can ask Siri AI on Apple TV 4K questions in natural language and get results in kind. Apple says you can request things like "What Apple TV shows won at the Emmy Awards this year?" or "What are some nature documentaries available on Apple TV?" While watching content, you can ask Siri AI about what's on screen, including questions like "Where was Pluribus filmed?" or "Is this movie appropriate for a 14-year-old?" Apple says Apple TV 4K won't stop your content to answer a question; it will place answers in a subtle overlay, so you can keep watching while getting your answer. Apple even recommends trying to control Apple TV 4K hands-free now, which I suppose is a response to complaints about how easy it is to lose the remote.

If you do lose the remote, you're in luck: It now comes with Find My support with Precision Finding. You can play a sound on the remote from your iPhone to make it easier to find, or you can get guided directions to know exactly where it is. (Spoilers: It's between your couch cushions. It's always between your couch cushions.)

Inside, the Apple TV 4K runs Apple's A19 chip, which Apple says improves the CPU performance by up to 50% and offers up to double the GPU performance of the previous model. Apple says the new Apple TV 4K offers a new AV1 decoder, which should improve the quality of streams while using less data. You can also pair the new Apple TV 4K with four speakers if you have Apple's new HomePod mini 2 (more on that below). Apple's AI calibrates the speakers to your space by analyzing their position in your room.

While Apple would love for you to buy a HomeView too, you can also control all your smart devices from the new Apple TV 4K. You can see who's at your front door and unlock it if necessary, and even set the Apple TV 4K to guest mode if you want your friends to be able to adjust the lights when you're not around.

How much is the new Apple TV 4K?

Apple's newest Apple TV 4K starts at $299, or $49.83 for six months. You can pre-order it today, and it will go on sale starting Friday, Nov. 13.

HomePod mini 2 has an upgraded chip and cute new colors

Credit: Apple

Apple's second-generation HomePod mini is now official. While the new HomePod mini 2 isn't as radical a change as the HomeView or even the Apple TV 4K, it does have some upgraded hardware and comes in new colors: pink, green, blue, white, and midnight.

Apple says the new HomePod mini 2 comes with its S10 chip, quite an upgrade from the S5 chip used in the original HomePod mini. While we'll need to wait for testing to confirm sound quality, Apple says the S10 chip powers the mini's new computational audio, which automatically optimizes things like dynamic range, loudness, and acoustics to fit your space. As mentioned above, you can now pair four HomePods together with the Apple TV 4K, including any assortment of HomePods and HomePod mini 2s.

While the original HomePod mini has a glowing touchpad, the new HomePod mini 2 takes it a step further with "Sound Glow." This new feature glows and pulses in sync with your audio, and reacts to both bass and treble in real time. Sound Glow pulls the color scheme from the current album art. Of course, this announcement is all about smart home, so Apple also touted how you can control your smart home from your HomePod mini 2 as well. You can ask Siri AI on the speaker to configure your smart home devices, and you can find manual controls from the Home app as well.

How much is the HomePod mini 2?

HomePod mini 2 is $149, and is currently available for preorder. You can buy the unit in stores starting Oct. 30.

Apple Home Collection includes third-party devices designed to work together

Credit: Apple

Finally, there's "Apple Home Collection." This is a series of devices not made by Apple, but by partner companies that now sell their devices through Apple. The idea is that these devices were all designed with Apple's smart home experience in mind, which means you can buy them knowing they'll work with HomeView, Apple TV 4K, and the HomePod mini 2. (Apple also seems quite proud of how each device matches the company's overall look.) Here's what's in the collection:

LG Video Doorbell: This doorbell has dual cameras (one 2.5K camera, one 1080p camera), a built-in spotlight, and a chime that plays on HomeView, HomePod, and HomePod mini. ($249.95).
LG Floodlight Cam: This camera comes with dual floodlights that automatically turn on when it detects motion. It also supports low-light color night vision. ($399.95.)
LG Outdoor Cam: This camera supports low-light color night vision with flexible angles. ($299.95.)
LG Indoor Cam: This camera can automatically adjust itself, including tilting out of frame when someone comes home. ($199.95.)
LG Smart Deadbolt Lock: This lock uses Ultra Wideband to automatically unlock when the user approaches it. You can also tap to unlock with your iPhone or Apple Watch, use the hardware keypad, or use the hidden physical key slot. The lock alerts users if it detects tampering. ($349.95.)
Smart Thermostat: Apple is working with both LG and Schneider to sell two different thermostats. Schenider's is square, while LG's is round. Both pull from iPhone data to automatically adjust the temperature based on certain scenarios, such as whether anyone is home, time of day, or user preferences. There are also optional temperature and humidity sensors. ($199.95 per thermostat, $39.95 per sensor.)

With an iCloud+ plan, you can access up to 10 days of video event history, with automatic video descriptions and summaries of those events. You can use natural language to search your event history for specific clips, and there are built-in storage options to retain data when a connection goes down.

This Pocket-Sized DJI Vlogging Camera Bundle Is 21% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo is currently down to $495 from $629, saving you $134 and bringing the bundle to its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. That's a decent discount if you've been considering a dedicated camera for vlogging, travel videos, or social media content, particularly since the Creator Combo includes accessories you'd otherwise have to buy separately—along with the camera, you get a DJI Mic 2 transmitter for clearer voice recordings, a battery handle for longer shooting sessions, and a mini tripod that comes in handy when you want to film yourself without holding the camera.

DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo

As for the camera itself, it uses a one-inch (Type 1) sensor that handles dim light better than earlier Pocket models and records 4K video at up to 120fps, so you can capture everything from everyday vlogs to slow-motion footage. And because it has a three-axis mechanical gimbal, you can walk around while filming without ending up with shaky footage, while the wide 20mm-equivalent lens gives you enough room to fit yourself and your surroundings into the frame. Its rotating two-inch touchscreen also makes switching between horizontal videos for YouTube and vertical clips for Instagram fairly simple.

PCMag also praised its natural-looking color profiles, while more experienced creators can use 10-bit D-Log M for greater control over colors during editing. Audio gets similar attention, as the camera records in stereo and connects directly to up to two DJI Mic 2 or Mic Mini transmitters, so the bundled transmitter clipped to your collar keeps your voice clear during an interview or a walk down a busy street. Its main limitation is durability: It isn't weatherproof or particularly rugged, so rain, dust, and rough handling are concerns. You'll also need a microSD card for storage, and there's no HDMI output.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This Highly Rated 75-Inch TCL Mini-LED TV Is 50% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Amazon is currently offering a 50% discount on the 75-inch TCL QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV, bringing its price down to $1,497.99 from $2,999.99, its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. That's a pretty significant price cut for a television that only came out earlier this year, especially considering PCMag gave it an outstanding rating and its first Lab Award for being the brightest LED TV it has tested. The discount also extends to the 65-inch model, now $1,197.99 (from $2,499.99), along with steep cuts on the larger 85- and 98-inch versions. You also get free delivery to a room of your choice, a service that normally costs $19.99, though unpacking, assembly, packaging removal, and haul-away aren't included.

TCL 75-inch QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV

TCL 65-inch QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV

TCL 85-inch QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV

TCL 98-inch QM8L SQD-Mini LED TV

Anker Solix S2000 Portable Power Station

Beyond the price, the QM8L has TCL’s slim “Zero Border” bezel for a clean, minimalist look—but its brightness is the real draw, with PCMag measuring an impressive 3,504 nits. And while that falls well below TCL’s advertised 6,000-nit peak, it is still enough to make HDR highlights stand out and keep the picture easy to see in a sunlit room—an area where Mini-LED televisions generally have an advantage over OLED models. TCL pairs that brightness with up to 4,000 local dimming zones and Halo Control, which limits the glow around bright objects and brings the contrast closer to OLED. CNET was similarly impressed, giving the QM8L an 8.8 out of 10 and naming it the best television its reviewer had tested in 2026.

Gaming support is equally comprehensive, with a native 144Hz refresh rate, variable refresh rate, and four HDMI 2.1 ports capable of accepting 4K video at 144Hz. Beyond gaming, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ cover movies and streaming, while Google TV brings together your apps and adds Gemini voice controls. As for audio, its Bang & Olufsen audio system works with Dolby Atmos and produces better sound than many built-in TV speakers. While it cannot give you the deep bass or directional effects of a dedicated surround-sound system, it may still be enough for someone who wants to avoid adding a soundbar immediately.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

This High-Capacity Anker Power Station Is 46% Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Ever since I got my power station, I've been sleeping a bit better whenever a storm comes through, confident I'm covered if my power goes out. Power stations are pricey, so the best time to get one is during a sale, and not when a storm is imminent or the food in your fridge is spoiling from a power outage.

Right now is a good time to buy: The Anker SOLIX S2000 is 46% off, landing at $649.99 (originally $1,199). The S200 is great for anyone who lives in an area that is prone to losing power or in need of a compact but powerful portable power station they can take camping. It can power an average fridge for 35 hours, according to Anker, which gives you an idea of how powerful it is.

$649.98 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $549.02

$649.98 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $549.02

Don't let the size or weight of the Solix S2000 fool you. Although it's small, at 8.2 × 11.1 × 12.7 inches (LWH), and relative light, weighing in at around 36 pounds, it has a battery capacity of 2,010 Wh. According to PCMag's "excellent" review, the Solix S2000 delivers an unusually high percentage of its rated capacity while consuming remarkably little idle power on intermittent loads like refrigerators and routers. It's very quiet while operating, and the Anker app is one of the best power station apps I've used.

There are two AC outlets in the back and three more on the front. There are also two USB-C ports in the front, along with a USB-A port and a solar port that will allow you to attach an optional Anker solar panel to recharge the unit.

To give you an idea of how long you can expect to have the S2000 last, if you were to use this power station and charge it every day, it would give you about 15 years of use (10,000 charge cycles) before the battery becomes severely affected. That's a long lifespan for a small power station. If you don't have a solution to power your home essentials in an emergency, this is a great option at a huge 46% discount.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

Deals are selected by our commerce team

10 Hacks Every Proton Pass User Should Know

Emily Long — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:30:09 +0000

Proton Pass is the password management app from privacy-focused Proton (whose suite of tools also includes Proton Mail and Proton VPN). Whether you're already a Proton user or are looking for a new password manager to securely store your credentials and other data, these are the tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of Proton Pass.

Create a separate shareable vault in Proton Pass for guests

Password managers offer a secure alternative to writing down wifi passwords and other logins or sending them via text. In Proton Pass, you can create a separate vault specifically for your home and share a limited list of credentials—such as guest wifi, smart lock codes, and streaming information—with visitors. Vaults can be set as view only, and you can revoke access at any time. Users without a Proton Pass account receive a shared link, which can be set to expire after a specific amount of time or number of views.

Another use case for separate vaults is as an "in case of emergency" selection of items that you can share with trusted contacts. For paid users, Proton Pass has a dedicated emergency access feature, which lets up to five contacts of your choice get into your account after a dedicated waiting period in the event of your illness or death. Alternatively, you can set up a vault that contains only specific items, such as logins or secure notes, and share it with those who may need the information if you are incapacitated or unreachable. Remember that guest access can be set to expire or revoked at any time.

Use custom hidden fields to protect security answers and PIN codes

When you create an item in Proton Pass, you have the option to add custom fields, which allow you to save additional information relevant to your credential, such as text notes and 2FA codes. You can also select a Hidden field, which masks the text by default until you reveal it (similar to how passwords are masked). This prevents someone from looking over your shoulder and catching sight of sensitive information, such as security question answers and PINs. Custom fields are available on paid Proton plans.

Create burner identities for online shopping by combining email aliases and virtual cards

A Proton Pass selling point is its hide-my-email alias feature, which generates a unique email address when you sign up for a new account. Email aliases forward to your main inbox, but they prevent you from having to share your real address, essentially creating burner identities that you can use for online shopping, newsletters or promotional lists, and other activity that you don't want tied to your personal email. Free users get 10 hide-my-email aliases, while those on paid plans have an unlimited number. While Proton Pass doesn't yet have an integrated virtual card option like 1Password, you can use a service like Privacy.com or Revolut to create single-use or merchant-locked payment cards that protect your real account information.

Add custom descriptions to hide-my-email aliases to track who is selling your data

Another benefit of hide-my-email aliases is that you can find out who is selling your data (again, without compromising your personal email address). When you generate an alias, add a custom text field with notes on exactly what the address is being used for. If you start receiving marketing emails or spam to that alias, you'll know where that compromise came from. You can then disable the alias instantly within Proton Pass.

Some employers, universities, and service providers have multiple URLs for accessing online portals, but you use the same credentials across all of them. Instead of cluttering your vault with duplicate entries, you can add multiple URLs to an item so Proton Pass will autofill that item across all of them. This also prevents an issue where you have to update a password and then remember to sync it across duplicate items. When you edit an entry, simply tap Add in the Website box.

Recover old credentials using item history in Proton Pass

Proton Pass stores a history of your saved items so you can see previous passwords and information that's since been changed. This makes it easy to revert back to earlier versions if you encounter an error when updating a credential. You have access to the last 50 versions of an item on paid plans, and you can restore earlier versions to be the current version directly from the item history.

Switch password generation to passphrase for secure but easy-to-type credentials

When you create a new credential, Proton Pass can randomly generate a strong password to match site requirements. Alternatively, you can opt for passphrases, which are strings of words separated by hyphens (or another symbol). These are still highly secure but much easier to remember and type than a random string of letters, numbers, and symbols. Passphrases can be useful on accounts for which you have to manually enter your credentials.

Enable Extra Password to provide an additional layer of protection to your Proton Pass vault

When you sign up for Proton Pass, you start by creating a global Proton account that works across Proton apps. You should, of course, make this password highly secure and enable multi-factor authentication, but you may also want to set up a password specifically for your Proton Pass vault(s) so even if your Proton account is somehow compromised, your credentials remain protected. You'll find this option under Settings > Security > Extra password on the browser extension and under Profile > Account name > Manage account on the mobile app. Note that if you forget or lose this password, you won't be able to access your Pass account.

Use notes and attachments to create an encrypted document vault in Proton Pass

Some of the best password managers can double as encrypted storage vaults, meaning you can upload sensitive documents that you don't want to entrust to other cloud services that may be more susceptible to compromise. Proton Pass includes 1 GB of storage on its free plan and 10 GB for paid users. You can create secure notes and attach uploaded files to any item in your vault.

Why the Treadmill Can Feel So Much Easier Than Running Outside (but It Actually Isn't)

Beth Skwarecki — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 20:00:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Is the treadmill harder or easier than running outdoors? Survey runners, and you’ll get plenty of different opinions on which feels harder or easier, but the basic physics of running are the same on both. (I promise.) So why do people who are used to treadmills find that they’re suddenly slower when they run outdoors? I’m going to run through the factors that are at play here, and talk about how to adapt if you want to be able to enjoy both.

NordicTrack T Series Treadmill

Why treadmills sometimes feel harder than running outside

If you find treadmill running harder, you probably already know the reason: It’s boring. You have nothing to distract you from your own effort and the glowing numbers telling you how little progress you’ve made. This is a problem that we can train our brains to solve for us over time, whether with distractions, mindfulness, or simply being grateful that we’re not outdoors in the bad weather.

The treadmill does not move your feet

Physics-wise, running on a treadmill is pretty much identical to running outdoors in identical conditions. It is not true that the treadmill "moves your feet," as I have seen runners claim. Running is the action of pushing off the ground to move yourself forward relative to the ground. If the “treadmill moves your feet” theory were correct, would we not have to consider the rotating Earth its own sort of treadmill? And thus it would be 2,000 times harder to run west than to run east?

In reality, you have to spend just as much effort to stay in place on a treadmill going 6.5 miles per hour, as you do to move forward at 6.5 miles per hour on flat, steady ground. In other words: in both scenarios, you are asking your muscles to push off with a force that will keep you moving 6.5 mph faster than the ground. Physics is not the reason why the treadmill feels different.

You only need to add a 1% incline if you are running very fast

Then there’s the issue of wind resistance. Some runners will say you need to set the treadmill’s incline to 0.5% or 1% to mimic outdoor air resistance. Even on a calm day, your body has to push into the air to keep moving. Adding a small incline to the treadmill is supposed to mimic that extra effort.

But that is only true if you run at a pace of 7:30 per mile (8.0 mph) or faster. Below that, “the difference is so small as to be meaningless,” a scientist who studied the question told Runner’s World. So if you’re jogging at 6 mph, you don’t have to worry about accounting for wind resistance. Now that we understand the physics, let’s talk about why treadmill runs often feel easier than outdoor runs.

The treadmill may feel easier because it handles the pacing

Pacing is probably the biggest factor (aside from weather) in why outdoor running feels harder for a person who is used to treadmill running. On the treadmill, you decide on a pace, punch it in to the treadmill, and then you'll keep going at that pace whether you're thinking about it or not.

But outdoors, you don't know when you start what pace you're running. Even if you're relying on a watch to tell you your current pace, it can take a moment to catch up and give you the correct numbers. It's easy to take off a little too fast, especially if you have a good song playing or you're excited to get the workout going (or over with).

So you, the treadmill runner, head off on an outdoor run without a good sense of how fast you’re going, and maybe you find yourself tired out a few minutes in. Meanwhile, outdoor runners learn to develop a sense of pace out of necessity. They know you have to listen to your body, not just look at a number, to know whether you're running at a pace you can sustain for the whole workout. Fortunately, you can learn this skill! Just run outdoors at least some of the time, and pay attention to your breathing and effort level.

The treadmill has no weather

If all your treadmill runs are inside of a 68-degree gym, they’ll all feel pretty similar. But the great outdoors is fond of blessing us with heat, wind, humidity, rain, snow, ice, and similar complications.

Heat slows us down a lot, especially if we aren’t used to it. (You do build up some heat adaptation throughout the summer.) Humidity, in combination with heat, makes this even worse. Your body can’t cool itself as well through sweating, so you get hot and stay hot. It’s normal for your pace on a hot day to be anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes slower each mile.

Heavy winds can also slow you down (when you’re running into the wind) or speed you up (when you’re running with the wind at your back). Ice can make you slow down to watch your footing. Snow can make you work harder as your feet sink into the ground and you have to fight to pull them back up again.

On the other hand, a cool, dry day is better for your performance than the conditions inside a sweaty gym. Perfect running weather is (in my opinion) around 50 degrees, calm, and overcast. Most people will run a lot faster and feel better in those conditions than on a treadmill at room temperature.

The treadmill has no unexpected hills

If you live in a pancake-flat part of the country, you can skip this section. But many of us live where there are hills. Big ones, little ones, maybe some mountains. On the treadmill, you get to choose what incline to run with. Outdoors, your choices may be limited.

I live in a hilly place, so even my “flat” outdoor routes aren’t entirely flat. A regulation running track is my only truly flat option. Even gently rolling hills can add up over the course of a long run, making you work harder on the uphills without ever fully giving you that speed back on the downhills.

The treadmill has a more predictable surface

A treadmill only has one surface. Every step meets flat ground. Every step is the same softness or hardness. Outdoors, there’s so much more variation.

Even on a simple city run, you’ll find yourself traversing curbs, slightly tilted sidewalk slabs, cambered edges of roads, pebbles, stray garbage, and occasional patches of grass or dirt. Take your run to the trails and you’ll also hit packed dirt, mud, soft grass, leaf litter, rocks, sticks, logs, little streams you have to hop over, ruts carved by mountain bike wheels—you get the idea. Your feet have to land and push off just a little differently for each of these.

The variety in outdoor running is good for your feet, but it can be fatiguing on the small muscles of your feet and lower legs if you’re not used to it.

How to train for an outdoor race if you prefer to run on the treadmill

It’s OK to do plenty of your training on a treadmill, even if you're training for an outdoor race, and in some situations it may be necessary. The treadmill can let you get your training in when the weather is bad, when you can’t line up child care at your running times, or any number of other reasons.

The important thing is to still run outdoors at least sometimes. If you’re training for a marathon, try to do your long runs outdoors, even if some of your shorter runs and speedwork have to be on the treadmill. Get outside when you can. That way, you’re adapting to the weather, training your feet on different surfaces, and building the muscles and mindset necessary to tackle hills.

I Love My Hisense CanvasTV, and It's up to 50% Off Right Now

Daniel Oropeza — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:30:00 +0000

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

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 they 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 50-inch Hisense CanvasTV for $649.99 (down from $1,299.99). This is the lowest price ever, according to price-tracking tools. Other sizes are also discounted right now.

Hisense 50“ QLED S7 CanvasTV Series 4K UHD Google Smart Art TV (50S7SG, 2026 New) - Art Mode, Anti-Glare Panel, Dolby Vision HDR, Hi-Matte Display, Frame & UltraSlim Wall Mount Included, Lifestyle TV

$649.99 at Amazon

$1,299.99 Save $650.00

$649.99 at Amazon

$1,299.99 Save $650.00

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, The Frame requires you to buy the actual frames that go around the set and pay for most artwork separately, while Hisense includes all of that in the base price. Like The Frame, the CanvasTV also comes with a flush TV mount that will allow you to hang it so it looks like a piece of art.

I 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 frame 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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Use This Hack to Get the Pixel's AI Dictation on Any Android Phone

Jake Peterson — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0000

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Rambler, Google's AI-powered dictation feature, seems genuinely useful. At its core, Rambler is like your phone's existing dictation tool, only much smarter. It can automatically edit your speech into a more polished end product. It'll eliminate your filler words like "um" and ah," shape up your grammar, and understand your intended meaning (e.g., if you say "we need to pick whole milk...I mean, oat milk," Rambler will type "we need to pick up oat milk.")

Google Pixel 11

$899.00 at Amazon

This is the type of feature most of us would like to have on our phones, there's only one problem: Despite developing the Android operating system, Google decided to make Rambler a Pixel 11-exclusive feature. As such, if you have a non-Pixel phone, like a Samsung or a Motorola, you're out of luck, unless you want to upgrade to one of Google's smartphones—or, as it turns out, download this third-party tool instead.

"PixelBoard" adds Rambler to any Android

As reported by Android Authority, developer Akshay Kadam modded Google's Gboard app and uploaded it to GitHub under the name PixelBoard. Kadam advertises PixelBoard as a "supercharged Gboard mod" sporting features from the Pixel 11 series—including AI writing tools, and, notably, Rambler.

According to Kadam's GitHub page, PixelBoard runs side-by-side with the Gboard app on your phone. You don't need to replace the existing app or uninstall it, nor do you need to root your Android. Still, this is an unofficial port that requires sideloading onto your Android device. While the tool comes from a public GitHub page, exercise caution if you want to give it a shot.

If you do, Kadam's GitHub page has detailed instructions for downloading the app on your phone. It seems you have three options: You can download PixelBoard directly from GitHub, then install it from the notification drawer or File Manager on your phone; if you're a developer, you can sideload the app by connecting your phone via USB with USB Debugging enabled; and, finally, you can patch the stock Gboard APK using Morphe Manager. (Kadam recommends the first method.)

Once you do have PixelBoard on your phone, head to Settings > System > Languages & input > On-screen keyboard (or Manage Keyboards), then enable PixelBoard. Tap the keyboard switch button or spacebar selector, then choose PixelBoard as the input method. To use Rambler, choose "Rambler Dictation" from this settings page, choose "Voice typing," then, under "Dictation type," switch from "Standard" to "Rambler."

Hopefully, Google brings Rambler to more phones in due time. But, until then, you can use PixelBoard to bring the feature to your device on your own.

Five Garmin Data Screens That Helped Me Improve My 'Running Economy'

Meredith Dietz — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

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On most runs, I prefer to pay attention to pace and heart rate data from my Garmin, and ignore the rest (even though I love playing with the data later on). But I also believe in trying a fun experiment now and then. So, for my most recent training block, I’ve retooled my watch's data screens around several of the more nitty-gritty metrics available to me— cadence, stride length, vertical oscillation, ground contact time, and more—to see what useful insights I could gain.

First, a quick definition, because "running economy" gets thrown around a lot: Running economy is the energy (oxygen) cost of running at a given speed. Two runners can hold the same 8:00 pace, but the one who uses less oxygen to do so is more “economical.” That runner can run the same pace at a lower heart rate, hold it longer, or go faster for the same effort. It's one of the big levers for performance, alongside VO2 max and lactate threshold, and it's one you can improve with training, strength work, and technique.

Technically, your watch can't measure running economy directly and give you one neat number. What it can do is show you how you're producing your speed, so you can spot inefficiencies and then test whether fixing them lowers your heart rate at the same pace. That's the experiment I’m running (pun intended). After my next marathon, I'll break down how my running economy actually improved, and in what ways.

All the running dynamics on Garmin watches

Garmin groups these metrics under "running dynamics." Depending on your watch and accessories, they include cadence, stride length, ground contact time, ground contact time balance, vertical oscillation, vertical ratio, running power, and step speed loss. In all the examples below, I'm using a Garmin Forerunner 970; note that not every Garmin can show all of these data fields.

Garmin Forerunner 970 Premium GPS Smartwatch (Black)

Google Fitbit Edge - Activity Tracker - Pyrite/Olive - Small & Large Band

Cadence works on nearly every Garmin running watch.
Stride length is available on many mid-range and higher watches, sometimes from the wrist and sometimes only with an accessory.
Ground contact time, ground contact balance, vertical oscillation, and vertical ratio have historically required a compatible chest strap, but many newer watches now measure these from the wrist.
Running power has its own requirements, depending on your watch and whether you use an accessory. Check Garmin's running power device requirements.
Step speed loss and step speed loss percentage require an HRM 600 chest strap paired to a compatible watch. They aren't measured when you're moving at a walking pace during a run.

Check your watch's owner's manual (the "Running Dynamics" page) to see what metrics are available for you to rebuild your own data screens.

How I use Garmin data screens to chart my running economy

Keep in mind that while these metrics are useful, there is no universally "correct" cadence or vertical oscillation number. Chasing the oh-so-coveted 180 steps per minute can do more harm than good if you end up overstriding at a fast turnover or running stiff and choppy. Think of everything below as a diagnostic, not a target. Some more tips to make the most of your Garmin data screens, without succumbing to information overload:

Change one variable at a time. I spent a few weeks laser-focused on cadence before getting stressed over anything else.
Use the new data screens on easy runs. Hard workouts are for hard efforts; easy runs are where you can afford to observe more.
Review after the run, not during. Staring at vertical oscillation mid-stride is a great way to trip and fall. Feel free to glance, but don't let the numbers take over your run.
Watch the trends, not single numbers. Again, focus on personal patterns, not any specific number targets.
Keep screens sparse. Three or four fields per screen is plenty. Anything denser is hard to read mid-stride.
Consider keeping your base screen first in the rotation and add the experimental screens after it, so you can flip over on easy runs without losing your usual setup.

Screen 1: Cadence + Stride Length + Lap Pace

Credit: Meredith Dietz

"Run at 180 steps per minute" is one of the most repeated pieces of running advice, and one of the most misunderstood. Cadence naturally varies with pace, so chasing one magic number regardless of how fast you're going can actually hold you back. Pace is the product of cadence and stride length. Seeing those two variables together can help show you how you're getting faster paces (or not).

What I noticed immediately: on easy runs, I naturally fall into a longer stride and lower cadence. It felt relaxed, but it also meant a lot of braking on each landing. Over the past several weeks, I've been nudging my cadence up by about 3 to 5 steps per minute, which shortens my stride slightly at the same pace, and my heart rate at that pace has come down a bit (although cooler weather certainly helps there, too).

The goal is to find your own cadence range and shift it slightly higher, not to force a fixed number. When in doubt, aim for a cadence at each pace that keeps your foot landing close to your body rather than reaching out ahead of it.

Screen 2: Ground Contact Time + GCT Balance + Step Speed Loss

Credit: Meredith Dietz

This screen needs compatible hardware, and if you do have it, it's my favorite for spotting fatigue.

Ground contact time (GCT) is how long your foot stays on the ground each step. Generally, shorter is associated with a springier, more efficient stride, and it tends to shrink as you get faster. GCT balance shows the left/right split.

Step speed loss is the newest of these metrics, and the one most directly tied to economy. Every time your foot lands, it acts a bit like a brake, and your forward speed dips before you push off again. Step speed loss measures how much speed you give up during each footstrike, and the percentage version expresses that loss relative to your running speed. Lower numbers mean less braking and more of your energy going into moving forward instead of fighting yourself.

It's useful for a few reasons:

It captures overstriding. Reaching your foot out ahead of your body increases braking, and this metric shows you the cost. That makes it a great companion to the cadence screen: if raising cadence brings your landing closer to your body, you may see step speed loss drop.
It's a cleaner efficiency signal than bounce. Vertical oscillation tells you how much you move up and down. Step speed loss tells you how much you're slowing down horizontally, which is closer to what actually costs you energy.
It shows fatigue. Like GCT, it can creep up late in long runs as form degrades.

Two other uses I found valuable on this screen:

Fatigue tracking. In long runs, my GCT always creeps up in the final third, well before my pace or heart rate tell me I'm utterly cooked.
Asymmetry flags. A consistent tilt away from 50/50 isn't automatically a problem, since a small imbalance is common. But if yours shifts noticeably on days something feels off, it's worth listening to.

Again, don't stress about small imbalances. Look for changes from your normal.

Screen 3: Vertical Oscillation + Vertical Ratio

Credit: Meredith Dietz

Vertical oscillation is how much you bounce with each step. Vertical ratio is that bounce relative to your stride length, which makes it easier to compare across paces and across runners. Lower generally means less energy spent going up rather than forward.

Personally, this was the most misleading screen in the beginning. I saw my number, decided it was too high, and tried to "run flatter." That just made my stride feel forced and awkward. What worked better was treating it as a trend. The plan is that when I improve cadence and let my stride shorten a touch, vertical oscillation naturally drops on its own. Strength work and a slightly higher cadence should do more for me than any overly contrived form cue about "floating."

Screen 4: Running Power (if you have it)

Credit: Meredith Dietz

The economy framing here is simple: compare power to heart rate over time. In fact, I'm planning to go in and put heart rate on my screen alongside power. Because power responds instantly to changes in effort and terrain, it's a better gauge of your economy compared to pace on hills or extra windy days.

If you can hold the same wattage at a lower heart rate than you could two months ago, that's a real improvement in fitness and efficiency, regardless of what pace says. Just be aware that different power systems calculate the number differently, so stick with one source and don't compare across devices.

Screen 5: Base screen

Credit: Meredith Dietz

Finally, the screen I never removed: pace, heart rate, and lap or average pace (plus a timer and time of day, since this is still my watch, after all). For the sake of these runs, I could judge my form changes by whether my heart rate at a given pace went up or down. At the end of the day, this is how you find out whether any of the tweaks above are making a difference.

How to add or edit data screens on your Garmin watch

You can customize your screens on the watch itself or in the Garmin Connect app. The app is easier if you're editing several screens at once, since the fields are larger and easier to read. Menu names vary by model, so treat these as the general path.

On your watch

Open the activity settings. From the watch face, press Start and select Run. Then hold the Up/Menu button (or tap the screen on touchscreen models) and choose Run Settings.
Choose Data Screens. This lists every screen you cycle through during a run.
Pick a screen to edit, or choose Add New to create one.
Set the layout. Choose how many data fields appear, from one large field to several smaller ones.
Choose your data fields. Select each field slot, browse the categories (Cadence, Running Dynamics, Power, Heart Rate), and pick the metric you want.
Reorder or remove screens back in the Data Screens menu.

In the Garmin Connect app

Open Garmin Connect and tap your watch (usually under More or the device icon).
Go to Activities & Apps, then select Run.
Tap Data Screens and pick the screen you want to edit.
Change the layout and fields, then sync your watch so the changes carry over.

The bottom line

If you have the hardware and a little curiosity, spending a few weeks with running dynamics on your wrist can help you nerd out like you're a true running machine. Look, learn, adjust one thing, and let your heart rate tell you whether it worked. For more, check out these ten hacks every Garmin user should know.

How to Try WhatsApp's New Scheduled Messages Feature Early

Jake Peterson — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

All messaging apps should let you schedule texts by default. Sometimes, you need to send a message to a friend or family member, but you don't want them to get it just yet. Maybe they're in a different time zone, and it's too early or late to politely text them; maybe they're in an important meeting, and you don't want their phone sounding or buzzing as a distraction. Either way, a scheduled message can save you: You won't forget to text them later, and they'll get the message whenever you think they should. Win-win.

Of course, this is not a standard feature in all apps yet. Some apps have it, like Telegram or iMessage, and it's a great addition when you need it. Others, like Messenger or WhatsApp, are sorely missing it. While Meta doesn't appear to have any plans to bring scheduled texts to Messenger, it does seem like WhatsApp users are getting the upgrade on the horizon. In fact, you might be able to try it out today.

Scheduling messaging in WhatsApp

As reported by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is currently testing a new feature for users to schedule texts, photos, and videos to send at a later time. At this time, the feature works even when you're offline, so your scheduled messages will still send even if you don't have a wifi or cellular connection. In addition, the feature is not limited to single chats, as so many new messaging features are. You can schedule texts in both one-on-one and group chats, and all scheduled messages are still end-to-end encrypted.

At this time, it looks like Meta is only testing scheduling messages on WhatsApp for Android. The bright side for iPhone users is that this test is quite limited: Only select users are getting the feature at this time—and, while it's no guarantee, you should enroll in the WhatsApp beta if you want a chance at trying it out early. To start, head to WhatsApp's official beta tester page on the Google Play Store. Here, make sure you're logged into your Google Account, then enroll in the beta. Head back to the official WhatsApp Play Store page, and you should have a new update. This is the beta.

Once you're on the WhatsApp beta, you can check if you have the feature like so: Craft a new message in any chat, then tap and hold on the send button. If you have it, WhatsApp will present a pop-up, letting you cycle through a date and time to schedule your message. (You can choose to send the message in as little as 10 minutes, or as long as two weeks.) When you're ready to schedule, you can tap the green schedule button at the bottom of the menu. You can then tap the contact or group name at the top of this window, then tap "Schedule messages" to manage all scheduled texts in that thread.

I Tried 'PhotoCraft,' the AI Clone of Photoshop, and It's Almost Exactly Like the Real Thing

David Nield — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Love it or hate it, AI is changing tech at a rapid pace. Case in point: AI is now being used to reverse-engineer big-name software packages. Once complete, developers upload the cloned versions online as open-source tools that anyone can use for free. It seems no company is immune from these dupes, no matter how big it happens to be. That includes Adobe, and its legacy software like Photoshop, which now has a free-to-download AI clone called "PhotoCraft." I gave this clone a shot, and while it isn't perfect, it's remarkable how similar it is to the real deal.

The ArtCraft apps have their own launcher. Credit: Lifehacker

What's the story behind apps like PhotoCraft?

One of the developers leading this particular charge is Brandon Thomas, a seasoned software engineer who has used Claude Opus 5.5 to build copies of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat Pro, After Effects, and InDesign in the Rust coding language. They all get new names—Photoshop is PhotoCraft, Premiere is FilmCraft—but they're very similar in terms of features and layout to what Adobe puts out and charges a monthly fee for. It's another seismic industry shift driven by AI, and Thomas is apparently building clones of Microsoft Office apps next.

According to the developer, Thomas "got bit by the dark pattern 'cancellation fee' one too many times," which prompted the start of the project. "AI lets us take back tech and set the clock back to the pre-shitty era," says Thomas. "But now you can just create 1:1 functional equivalents, clean room, that are highly performant and cross-platform. Nothing is stopping you." In another comment, he declares, "Software is over."

It's not clear exactly how Thomas completed this project, but he has used the term "vibe coding," so it sounds like some kind of AI-powered observe-and-copy is going on here, even with his programming experience. The developer has also suggested this is a more worthwhile endeavor than supporting open source apps such as LibreOffice and GIMP as, in his view, "There is no reason to save broken software."

This looks a lot like Photoshop... Credit: Lifehacker

Are apps like PhotoCraft legal?

As Ars Technica points out, reverse engineering is usually tolerated as long as no code is directly copied, but if the new suite of tools too closely matches the look and feel of the apps they're cloning, that could mean legal trouble. The truth is, no one's sure yet—and it brings up again the legality of the AI models themselves, which have been trained on vast amounts of human-made code to get to this level.

Adobe is no doubt taking a very close look at this, but while it's still available, I decided to give the software a try myself. You can download the apps from the ArtCraft website, though they're labeled as "early alpha" and "in development" for now. According to Thomas, 99% feature parity with the Adobe equivalents should be "measured in months and not years".

Getting started with PhotoCraft

The ArtCraft web portal offers a launcher app through which you can manage the entire 'Craft' selection of tools, but I focused on PhotoCraft as Photoshop is the only Adobe program I really make much use of. My first impressions: It definitely looks like a Photoshop rip-off.

PhotoCraft has the same color scheme, the same layout of panels, and the same menus in the same order—with the exception of Plugins, which I suppose will take a while. The keyboard shortcuts are the same, as far as I could tell, and the various preferences screens are very similar too—both in terms of the options you have and how they're laid out.

Editing a screenshot of Photoshop, in PhotoCraft. Credit: Lifehacker

Most of the Photoshop work I do involves cropping and combining images, tweaking their colors and balance, and getting them in fixed formats for articles. I was able to transform my workflow from the Adobe app pretty much wholesale: The same panels, the same dialogs, and the same tools (from the clone stamp to the magic wand).

Plenty of image editors ape Photoshop, of course, because it's the industry leader—Pixlr, anyone?—but this seems on another level entirely. PhotoCraft is also fast and slick, and as far as I could tell, free from bugs. The only bumps I came across were some clunky snapping and selecting operations, which could definitely be improved upon but didn't actually break anything.

I'm by no means a power user of Photoshop, and people with more experience than me have found plenty of issues under the hood. I suspect that when it comes to playing around with more advanced tools and layer functions, cracks might start to show in the way you would expect from AI code trying to copy what another program does. I'm not sure "watch this program and make something that behaves the same" is the best way forward for software development.

A lot of the same tools are available, in the same place. Credit: Lifehacker

That said, for me, PhotoCraft did everything I needed it to in terms of image manipulations, adjustments, and layer control, and did it well. How the app carries on long-term remains to be seen, as AI-written bug fixes and feature upgrades will presumably be piled on top of existing AI-written code—and that's assuming Adobe doesn't get involved.

Personally, I'm not going to cancel my Photoshop subscription: I can afford it, I use it, and I'm not yet ready to trust my projects to something that's been coded by AI. But this is the era we're in now, where AI can look at something—a painting, a website, a movie, a sprawling Adobe software application—and give you a very convincing imitation in not much time at all.

The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: Why Are Kids Throwing Fruit in Toilets?

Stephen Johnson — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000

This week's deep dive into young people culture answers questions you may not have thought to ask, like, "Why are young people throwing fruit in their toilets?" "What does it mean when someone tells me to 'visualize spinning apples'?" "What is glass skin?" and "How can Minecraft help you understand the age of the universe?"

Why are young people throwing fruit in the toilet?

This is a weird one, but young people are throwing fruit in the toilet in honor of the rapper Lucki. Backstory: The Atlanta rapper best known for his track "New Drank" was attending ComplexCon in Los Angeles on Oct. 3 when an entourage vs. entourage tussle with rapper Playboi Carti's crew broke out and Lucki was stabbed.

In response, the hashtag #throwfruitinthetoiletforlucki appeared on Instagram and TikTok, and kids started throwing fruit in the toilet and posting videos like this one:

and this one:

So that's what's happening; why it's happening is a little harder to explain. People posted screenshots indicating the lyrics to Lucki's "Y Not" include the line "When I get stabbed at ComplexCon, throw fruits in the toilet"—but the song doesn't actually include those lyrics and it's hard to imagine many fans bought into it. Some suggested that the trend is a dig at Lucki's lifestyle and weight: a not-subtle suggestion he eat more fruit. Maybe, but I think it's a classic online non sequitur. I don't think anyone is legitimately trying to honor Lucki by posting these videos. It seems like jokers trying to get fans of the rapper to throw fruit in their toilets so they can say, "Look at those weirdos! We tricked 'em into throwing fruit in their toilets!" But it doesn't seem to be working. All the fruit-throwers I've seen seem like they're "in on the joke," which actually reverses the joke. Anyway, Lucki is doing well and expected to make a full recovery.

What does "imagine spinning apples" mean?

The second fruit-related meme trending this week is "imagine spinning apples," a way to insult pretentious dinks online. It's a journey to explain how it came to mean that, so here goes.

Aphantasia is the inability to visualize things. If you can't imagine apples, you may have aphantasia. The idea that some people can imagine apples and some can't is big on 4Chan, Reddit, and other online communities populated by young people who would like to claim superiority over others, but can't do it based on money, attractiveness, or any other traditional measure of preeminence. Despite the actual neuroscience showing a correlation between aphantasia and a slightly higher IQ, these online weirdos decided that having aphantasia means you are dumb, or lack an inner life. Some took it even further and suggested that intelligence can be measured by the number of apples one can visualize and whether you can visualize them spinning.

So memes like this:

and posts like this:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

started showing up as a way of clowning on people who boast about how smart they are using a metric that actually makes them look dumber. It's like bragging about the results of an online IQ test or joining Mensa.

What is "glass skin"?

Glass skin is a beauty trend taking over TikTok. It's based on Korean skin care trends and refers to skin so smooth, luminous, and clear, it seems to shine. How one can achieve this look is debatable, but there is no shortage of videos giving instructions and hawking creams and tinctures that promise to make your skin shiny as glass. Like this one:

I'm in favor of people looking as greasy as they want, but viral "glass skin" videos are not giving good advice—a recent study found that almost 95% of viral Korean skincare and “glass skin” TikToks are misleading, and many can even be dangerous.

What is the "door kick challenge" (and does it exist)?

Reports about the new "door kick challenge" are coming from all corners of the nation, from Portland to Phoenix to West Virginia to California this week.

Here's how West Virginia's Taylor County Sheriff's Office Deputy Sheriff Chris MacQueen describes the door kick challenge: "There is a new trend out that’s either referred to the 'door kick challenge' or 'donkey kick challenge' and what that essentially is, is teenagers late at night are donkey kicking doors and then recording their reactions as they run off. This is absolutely not ding dong ditch."

There's so much wrong with this statement. First, the "door kick challenge" isn't new. Here's a report from 2021 about the supposed challenge. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar news stories have been published regularly since, all across the country, a steady drumbeat of warning about this dangerous trend. But it doesn't seem to be real.

I've looked through TikTok's doorkickchallenge hashtag and similar places on other video platforms, and I can't find any evidence of any young people "recording their reaction" to kicking a stranger's door or mentioning the challenge in a "you should try this too" kind of way. There are plenty of videos of people kicking doors, but they're all shot from doorbell or security cameras, presumably posted by homeowners, and we have no idea who is doing the kicking or why. They could be stalkers, robbers, or angry because they left their keys on the coffee table. So there is no discernible trend or challenge, beyond the trend of more people having doorbell cameras.

The cop's last point, that "this is not ding dong ditch," is debatable. Ding dong ditch dates back to the early 1800s, and I can't find any evidence that the game has changed since then, or that more kids are kicking doors instead of ringing doorbells. No one keeps stats on it, but it seems reasonable to assume that kids today do dumb things as often as you and your friends did dumb things. That's where the safe money always is.

If police departments want to warn the public about a truly deadly trend, they could look at the number of adults who shoot teenagers on their porches. Then they could hold a press conference warning about the "murdering children for ringing your doorbell" challenge.

Viral video of the week: "Running Minecraft Until It Beats Itself"

Looking at the volume of AI-generated brainrot that floods video-sharing platforms makes it easy to conclude that young people are not able to visualize apples spinning. But the counter evidence is out there, too. Like this week's viral video: "Running Minecraft Until It Beats Itself." It's a video about a kids' video game, but on a deeper level it's a video about deep time, evolution, the second law of thermodynamics, and more.

This video runs a simulation of a Minecraft world to prove that if you have the right starting seed and leave Minecraft running long enough with no input, the winning condition (the dragon being slain) would happen even if there was no player, by chance. You'd have to run your PC for a billion years instead of playing Minecraft for 100 hours, but it would happen.

The idea that anything that could happen will happen if enough time passes isn't new, but it's hard to grasp the concept of time scales so vast. This video uses a relatively simple model (that viewers understand intimately) to make the billions of years imaginable.

I have no doubt that the seven million people who have viewed this video (and played Minecraft enough to understand the implications) grasp the concept of a billion years better than the people who haven't: A billion years is about how long it would take for an Enderman to randomly drop a carved pumpkin on two snow blocks and for the resulting snow golem to lead a creeper to blow up next to the walls around the end portal so Endermen could randomly carry enough blocks from the Overworld to The End to make piles high enough that randomly moving snow golems would throw enough snowballs to destroy all seven crystals that protect the Ender Dragon.

This Rugged and Portable JBL Bluetooth Speaker Is 27% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:30:00 +0000

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The JBL Go 5 is down to $39.95 from $54.95 on Amazon, and price trackers show that this is its lowest price so far. At roughly four inches wide and just over half a pound, it is small enough to toss into a backpack, clip onto a bag, or keep on your desk without taking up much room. The upgraded IP68 rating also makes it a better travel companion than the Go 4, especially for beach days, hikes, or anywhere dust and water are likely to show up.

Battery life gets a modest improvement too, with JBL rating the Go 5 for up to eight hours of playback, or around 10 hours with Playtime Boost turned on. That should comfortably cover a day out, but it is not built for all-day-and-night listening. The same goes for volume. It gets reasonably loud for something this small, but it is better suited to a picnic table, bedroom, or a few people sitting nearby than covering a backyard party. Its front-facing driver also makes placement more important, since the sound is noticeably stronger when you are sitting in front of the speaker than off to either side.

The Go 5 does add a few conveniences that make it easier to live with—you can now play audio over USB-C, Bluetooth 6.0 brings LC3 codec support, and AirTouch lets you pair two Go 5 speakers for stereo simply by bringing them together. JBL’s companion app also gives you more control over the EQ if you want to tweak the sound. None of these upgrades dramatically change the listening experience compared with the Go 4, so owners of the older model do not have much reason to rush out and replace it. At $40, though, the Go 5 is the better buy for someone who wants a compact speaker with more durability, slightly longer battery life, and a few useful extras without moving up to a larger model.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

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Google Finally Made Another Fitbit With a Screen

Beth Skwarecki — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:00:00 +0000

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The rumors are true: Google has announced a new device, the Fitbit Edge. It’s a band with a narrow screen, much like the old Charge 6, but updated to match the look and some of the functionality of the Fitbit Air.

$179.99 at Amazon

Before the Fitbit Air, which came out earlier this year, Google hadn’t come out with any new Fitbits since the Charge 6 in 2023. In the meantime, the Pixel Watch has gotten up to its fifth generation, and the Fitbit app became the Google Health app. I was worried the idea of a small-screen fitness tracker might have been lost for good. Fortunately, I was wrong.

What’s new in the Fitbit Edge

Google says that the new Fitbit has:

A physical button on the side, unlike the Charge 6’s haptic nub
Its own GPS chipset, instead of relying on your phone.
An altimeter, which the Fitbit Charge 6 did not have (but many fitness watches do)
A seven-day battery life, or about two days if you enable the always-on display
The same charger as the Fitbit Air
A replaceable battery
Music controls that work with anything your phone is playing

Pre-orders open today, and the Fitbit Edge is expected to start shipping on Oct. 27. The retail price is $179.99, making it $20 more than the Charge 6’s regular price. For comparison, the Fitbit Air is $99.99, and the Pixel Watch 5 starts at $349.99. The Fitbit Edge’s price, size, and functionality put it right in between those two devices, and honestly it’s a well-rounded lineup.

Google representatives said in a briefing that it will be possible to connect both a Fitbit Air and Fitbit Edge to your phone, so that you can switch between them at will. (Previously, you could pair a Fitbit and a Pixel Watch, but not two Fitbits.)

Compared to the Charge 6, the Fitbit Edge gains an altimeter and more useful music controls; the Charge 6 could only control music playing on Youtube Music, which required a subscription. However, the Fitbit Edge will not have a tap-to-pay option like the Charge 6 did; it does not have NFC capabilities. Google says GPS tracking is more accurate on the Edge than the Charge 6, which isn’t surprising since that was a major weak point of the Charge 6. I’m looking forward to testing out the Fitbit Edge and reporting back on how well it performs in real-life use.

This Insta360 Phone Gimbal Bundle Is 32% Off Right Now

Pradershika Sharma — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

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Amazon currently has the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro Ultimate AI Tracker Bundle for $154.99, down from $227.99, and price trackers show that as its lowest price so far. The main reason to consider a phone gimbal like this is not just smoother footage, but having a setup that can keep you in frame even when there's nobody behind the camera—its three-axis stabilization helps take the shake out of walking shots and handheld clips, while the built-in tripod and selfie stick make it easy to set the phone down for a vlog, workout, livestream, or travel video without carrying separate accessories.

On the iPhone, Apple DockKit support allows subject tracking across more than 200 compatible apps, while the included AI Tracker brings similar hands-free tracking to Android and iPhone users across supported apps. That tracking is where this bundle earns its higher price over a basic gimbal—it can rotate continuously through 360 degrees, so you can move around without repeatedly walking back to reposition the phone, and its multi-person mode can keep a group framed instead of locking onto one face. The AI Tracker can also follow subjects while zoomed in, with the Flow 2 Pro supporting tracking from 1x to 15x.

Its built-in fill light also helps when the lighting is poor, while its Free Tilt Mode gives you more freedom to move the camera up or down while keeping the shot stable. None of those tools will make your phone camera better by themselves, but they can make it much easier to get usable footage without repeatedly reshooting a clip.

It's not waterproof, so rain, poolside filming, or other wet environments require more care than an action camera would. And some of its smarter tracking features also depend on the phone, app, and shooting mode you're using, so the experience isn't identical across every device. Still, for solo travelers, vloggers, sports parents, or creators who regularly move around while filming themselves, this $155 bundle gives you a lot more control without needing a second person behind the camera.

Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Noise Cancelling Heart Rate Wireless Earbuds — $199.00 (List Price $249.00)

Apple HomeView Smart Display (Silver, 2026 Release) — $299.00 (List Price $299.00)

Apple TV 4K 4th Gen 128GB Streaming Player (2026 Model) — $289.99 (List Price $299.00)

TCL Tab 10 Gen 4 128GB 10.1" Tablet (Dark Blue/Gray) — $149.98 (List Price $199.99)

Google Fitbit Edge Activity Tracker (Obsidian) — $179.99 (List Price $179.99)

Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $399.00 (List Price $449.00)

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There's Now a Better Way to Turn Off AI 'Insights' in the Google Health App

Beth Skwarecki — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 18:00:00 +0000

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Ever since the Fitbit app became the Google Health app, the app’s AI features became impossible to avoid for Premium users—or at least it may seem that way. There are two ways to avoid the long-winded, sometimes judgy insights that pop up on your screen multiple times a day. I'll show you both: a way to turn off the AI entirely, and a way to get those insights to go away without turning off all the AI-enabled features.

Google Fitbit Air - Obsidian

$99.99 at Amazon

Why you may want to turn off the Google Health Coach

The AI-based Health Coach is the centerpiece of the Google Health app, at least if you have a premium subscription. You may have accepted a three-month free trial of Google Health Premium when you connected a new device, or you may pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra, which includes the Health Coach.

When the Coach is enabled, it updates the main screen of the app with a few paragraphs of text several times a day. (You’ll also get a notification with each of these updates). The Coach will tell you how well you slept, congratulate you on a hard workout, or suggest workouts for the day given how recovered you seem to be.

But, as I wrote in my Fitbit Air review, the Coach hallucinates pretty often, misreporting your workout data or misunderstanding what you’ve told it are your goals. One user, returning to their normal routine after surgery, posted to Reddit that the Coach keeps trying to talk them out of doing workouts. They called it a “Demotivation Coach.” Others have pointed out that the Coach doesn’t seem to be reading its own data correctly. On a more personal note, the Coach uses a tone that I find insufferable: arrogant and excessively positive, except when it’s being unnecessarily negative. I’d prefer neutral, factual feedback or none at all.

To be fair to Google, the team has been hard at work on the Coach, and I've noticed its insights become a little more readable and a little less random since the feature first launched. But I'm still not always in the mood to see the Coach's chipper little pep talks.

How to turn off the Coach "insights" without losing other AI features

Left: the Today screen with no insights. Right: asking the Coach for an insight on-demand still works. Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Those unprompted pep talks are what the Google Health app calls "insights." Google quietly added a setting to turn them off in the August 2026 feature update. Tap on your profile picture, then Google Health Settings, then Coaching, and select No Coach Insights.

Once I turned off the feature, the insights stopped, as promised. But if I miss them, I can still tap Ask Coach in the bottom right corner of the screen, and ask the Coach how my day is going. All other features still work, including the AI-powered ones, like logging nutrition and workouts from the chat interface.

How to turn off the Google Health Coach entirely

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

If you're sick of the entire Google Health Coach, you can disable it: The same August update that gave us the "no insights" switch also made the Health Coach easier to turn off. To reach it, tap on your profile picture, then Google Health Settings, then Coaching. Then you can tap Turn off Google Health Coach. As the next screen explains, "your app will stop providing tailored guidance like fitness plans, recommendations, and proactive summaries of your sleep, fitness, and health trends. You also won't be able to ask questions or log your progress by chatting with the coach. You can turn this back on anytime."

Confirm your decision, and the AI will be gone. When you return to the Google Health app, you’ll still see the paragraphs of text that the Health Coach previously wrote, but you won’t get any new ones. There will be a card inviting you to re-enable the Health Coach, but you can tap “not now.” You can re-enable the Coach at any time by hitting the “Ask Coach” button in the corner (it does not go away) and following the prompts to turn it back on.

I Tried the At-Home Flu Vaccine, and It Was Great

Beth Skwarecki — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

If I ever skip my flu shot, or fail to get one for my kids, it's because I didn't find time to get to the pharmacy during flu shot season. But that changed with FluMist at Home, a mail order flu vaccine (covered by insurance!) that I've used two years running. The vaccine comes in the form of a nasal spray, so you don't have to inject anything.

The at-home version of the vaccine was approved in 2024, and became available for the first time in 2025. I used it then, and the process was so painless I did it again this year. I placed an order online, and one day a refrigerated box of vaccines showed up at my doorstep, one for each member of the family. We administered them in minutes, and could check "get flu shot" off our to-do lists.

How to get the at-home flu vaccine

The nasal spray vaccine, called FluMist, still needs to be prescribed by a medical provider. But since nearly everyone aged 2 through 49 is eligible, FluMist’s maker (AstraZeneca) has a created a telehealth website that bundles the provider's approval with an order to an online pharmacy. The process takes about five minutes on average, the company says, and I found that to be accurate.

The first time I ordered, last year, I had already gotten a flu shot, so I ordered just for my kids. The website allowed me to add multiple people to the same order, so I filled out the questionnaire for each child, giving their names, ages, allergies, and so on.

The website then reached into some big data cloud out there and told me it already knew their insurance information (existentially frightening, yet convenient!) and presented me with my bill: an $8.99 fee, which included $2.50 for physician evaluation and $6.49 for shipping and processing. Insurance covers the cost of the vaccine itself.

This year was similar, except that I ordered the vaccine for five people in total, one of whom had a different insurance plan than the rest. It took some extra time to manually enter that person's info, but otherwise the process was the same. The $8.99 fee only covers up to four vaccines, so in total I had to pay $17.98 for all five.

Who can use the at-home flu vaccine?

The at-home vaccine is the same as regular FluMist, which is approved for ages 2 through 49. That means babies and older adults will still need to visit a provider for the regular, injectable flu vaccine. Children can get flu shots starting at the age of six months.

FluMist uses a live, weakened virus. It can't give you the actual flu, but it can cause some respiratory symptoms in people with weakened immune systems. So it's not recommended for people who are pregnant, have certain medical conditions, or are immunocompromised or have close contact with an immunocompromised person. If that's you, talk to a provider about your best options. You may be advised to get the regular injectable type, which doesn't include any live virus.

What happens when the at-home flu vaccine arrives

When I placed the first order, I had to choose a delivery date (to be sure I'd be home and ready to receive it). This year, there was no option to choose the date, but perhaps that's because I ordered it in mid-September, a few weeks before it actually shipped. Each time the box arrived via FedEx, with multiple texts ahead of time letting me know it was on its way. The vaccine needs to stay at refrigerator temperature, so you don't want it sitting out on your porch all weekend. I thought I would have to refrigerate it immediately—the instructions say as much—but it can actually be unrefrigerated for up to 12 hours before administration.

So the box arrives, insulated and with the vaccine packages surrounded by cold packs. There is a "TiveTag" sticker on the interior box, so when I received my first order I followed the instructions to download the TiveTag app from a QR code on the package. (This year, I had the app installed already.) It installed quickly, and then I just had to hold the top of my phone up to the RFID sticker on the box while my daughter said "now kith." I felt a buzz and a green checkmark appeared, telling me that the box had stayed at an appropriate temperature the whole time. We were good to go.

How to give yourself the at-home flu vaccine

Giving the vaccine to yourself or a child takes seconds, with no special preparation. All you have to do is remove the rubber cap, squirt the vaccine into one nostril, then take off the little spacer around the plunger and squirt into the second nostril. (The spacer makes sure that you get half the vaccine into each nostril.)

I hate having things in my nose, but this wasn't bad even for me. It isn't much liquid, and you don't have to inhale or do anything special. Just squirt and you're done. If you've gotten a FluMist at a pharmacy, it's the same idea.

Adults can administer it to themselves, and children will need an adult to do it for them. Instructions are, of course, provided. After I gave it to my kids, I clicked a link in a text message to "report vaccination," which supposedly updates their health records in, again, some big ol' data cloud. That cloud didn't convey the message to their pediatrician, though, so I just made sure to tell them at the next appointment.

After you administer the vaccine, there is a prepaid envelope you can use to return the sprayers for disposal. The paper packages and inserts obviously could be recycled. That left me with a cardboard box from each shipment, its insulated foam liner, and six liquid cold packs that the FluMist site says are filled with "non-toxic water" and can be either poured out and recycled, or reused as ice packs if I'd like.

I Tested Google’s New AI Image Detector, and It’s Difficult (but Not Impossible) to Trick

David Nield — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000

An abundance of AI imagery is something we all have to live with these days—from school posters to restaurant menus—and while there are still certain tells that indicate something was made with AI, they're not always present. In a lot of cases, it can be almost impossible to distinguish an AI image from a real one.

This is a problem for all kinds of reasons, and, as such, the AI companies are attempting to address it. Images produced by Gemini and ChatGPT come with an invisible watermark called SynthID. That way, AI-generated images don't need visible branding in order to identify their origins. Of course, you need access to a detector to know whether this watermark is present. As it happens, Google just launched a standalone SynthID checker tool on the web, free for anyone to use. I gave "SynthID Detector" a shot, and while it largely works as expected, it isn't perfect.

How Google's SynthID Detector works

SynthID doesn't promise to always detect AI. Credit: Lifehacker

For a while now, Gemini has let you upload an image and ask if it is AI-generated. With the new online portal, it's even easier to check—though you do still need to sign in with your Google account. Once in, you can check a wide variety of files. This checker supports JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, WEBP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, and GIF image formats; MP4, MOV, and WEBM for videos, and WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and M4A for audio. As long as a file was made by a SynthID-supporting AI, it should have a watermark. (The SynthID watermark is a standard supported by Nvidia, OpenAI, Kakao, and Google, though OpenAI has its own detection tool.)

Google doesn't say exactly how SynthID works, presumably to make it more difficult to get around, but does confirm the watermark is "robust against common transformations." It also says the watermark is "woven into the content itself", which means pixels for images and video, and frequency components for audio. The company also admits its detection tool isn't infallible. What it calls "heavy modifications" can degrade the watermark sign, as can multiple "transformations" applied to the same image. The recommendation is to use files that are as high quality as possible, so it seems to me that more data makes detection more reliable (similar to AI text detectors).

Google also says the SynthID watermarks are "imperceptible" to humans, so you don't need to look or listen out for them—they're only revealed by an AI detector tool like this. If you're generating images, video, or audio with AI, the watermarking shouldn't impact the quality of the end result in any way.

Putting SynthID Detector to the test

I started with some easy tests. The detector correctly spotted that images created in Gemini and ChatGPT, and downloaded directly to disk, were indeed fake. It only took a few seconds to confirm, and it also identified the AI tool that had been used to make them.

It also correctly marked one of my own photos as AI-free, although it did hedge its answer a little, saying that it was "unlikely" that the media was made with AI. All the detector could say with confidence was that there was no SynthID watermark, showing that it's this watermark in particular that it's checking for. It's not looking for any other signs of AI.

In the majority of tests, the detector worked flawlessly. Credit: Lifehacker

I then tried screengrabs of the same AI images, and the detector correctly flagged that they came from Google and Anthropic's AI tools. This shows there's something buried deep in the pixels, rather than in the file metadata itself, revealing the SynthID watermark. You can't just copy and paste to get around it. Applying an oil painting filter in Photoshop to an AI image didn't trip up the detector, nor did adding a slight blur. Adjusting color, contrast, and tone made no difference, and the detector still spotted SynthID when I cropped and combined two different AI images: one from Gemini, one from ChatGPT.

Eventually, I did beat the detector. Once, when I heavily pixelated an AI image—at which point I rather suspect my disinformation campaign would be pretty ineffective anyway—and once when I created a composite image, which was 75% real, 25% AI-generated. With less AI to work with, the detector can falter.

Only the man in the foreground in this photo is AI—but the detector flagged it as fake. Credit: Lifehacker

On the back of that result, I used ChatGPT to add an extra person into an otherwise genuine group photo, though this time the tool detected SynthID—even though less of the overall image was AI. There might be some work to do in images that are only partly AI, which is understandable as the detector has less data to work with.

There is a quota limit here, which seems to be around 10 files per day—but 10 each for images, videos, and audio files. Once you've hit your limit, you need to wait 24 hours to try again. As far as I could tell, the SynthID Detector is exactly what Google says it is: a useful check to have, but far from a guarantee one way or the other.

10 Shows Like 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story' You Should Watch Next

Ross Johnson — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:30:00 +0000

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The Ian Brennan/Ryan Murphy true crime anthology series Monster is back with its first trip into the more distant past, taking us back to 1892 to examine one of the most famous and discussed murderers in American history: Lizzie Borden, a woman said to have killed her father and stepmother with an axe. Borden was never convicted; controversy and conspiracy theories linger; and though it happened more than a century ago, the crime was recent enough that we can pore over police files and crime-scene photos and argue over the facts, which makes for thrilling dramatic television.

After all, while a story about an evil killer is one thing, one following an ambiguous, possibly sympathetic killer? That's the stuff of truly juicy true crime. If you're looking for more in the same violent vein, here are 10 shows to stream next.

Candy (2022)

The real-life Candy Montgomery has been portrayed multiple times—by Barbara Hershey in a 1990 CBS movie, by Jessica Biel in this Hulu miniseries, and, more recently, by Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max's Love & Death. Like Lizzie Borden, Candy is a woman killer (maybe?) who we can't seem to get enough of. Jessica Biel is so good here, though, that this one earns extra points. In an impeccably reproduced 1980, Candy was accused of murdering her neighbor, Betty Gore (Melanie Lynskey), following the woman's affair with Candy's husband, Allan (Pablo Schreiber). And with an axe, no less. Was it cold-blooded murder, or self-defense? Stream Candy on Hulu.

Candy (2022)

The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015)

The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (2015)

This TV movie could be described as speculative—it plays a bit like high-end Lizzie Borden fan fiction (or perhaps a fever dream), with a phenomenal cast led by Christina Ricci. Set after Lizzie Borden's acquittal for crimes that, the movie makes clear, she absolutely did commit, we find Lizzie and Emma (Clea DuVall) trying to get on with their lives, even as a Pinkerton agent (Cole Hauser) dogs their every move. A trip to New York City finds Lizzie in a love triangle involving a playwright and a sex worker, a woman whose pimp tries to extort our young murderer. That turns out to be every bit as bad an idea as you might expect. Stream The Lizzie Borden Chronicles on Prime Video.

The Staircase (2022)

Inspired by a documentary of the same name, The Staircase sidesteps true crime tropes by taking a meta approach to its twisty story. Colin Firth stars as real-life crime novelist Michael Peterson alongside Toni Collette as his wife and, perhaps, his victim, Kathleen, who dies following a fall down a flight of stairs. Peterson was convicted of murder, a charge later reduced to voluntary manslaughter, but there are a lot of lingering questions about the case, and the drama focuses on many of the tangential players—lawyers, family members, and the French film crew that turns up to document everything—offering a glimpse of what life might be like inside of such a whirlwind. Stream The Staircase on HBO Max.

The Staircase (2022)

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (2025)

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (2025)

In 2007, 19-year-old American student Amanda Knox was studying in Perugia, Italy, only to find herself arrested and accused of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. The prosecution did a remarkable job at smearing Knox's name in the Italian press, such that she was eventually convicted of the crime despite an almost total lack of evidence, and the fact that the actual killer had already been tried and convicted. Grace Van Patten is great in the lead, and the series does a phenomenal job of dramatizing the various missteps and fabrications that lead to a conviction. A bit of fascinating behind-the-scenes with this one: While the family of Meredith Kercher did not participate, Knox herself executive produced alongside Monica Lewinsky, another person who knows what it is to be tried in the media. Stream The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox on Hulu.

The Act (2019)

As its subject has become something of a social media influencer and a reality star in the years since, the story of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has become more complex, not less, since this show's 2019 debut. At the time, though, the series earned rave reviews for its exploration of the childhood of Gypsy-Rose (Joey King), who ultimately conspired in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette), after years of apparent psychological abuse. Stream The Act on Hulu.

The Act (2019)

Why Women Kill (2019 – 2021)

Why Women Kill (2019 – 2021)

Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) created this dark comedy series with a title that makes the premise entirely clear: it’s the story of women (Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Allison Tolman) with reasons to kill. The first season took place in three time periods (the '60s, the '80s, and the present) with three main characters linked by a single home, each caught in a web of lies and infidelity that pushes them to the brink of murder, or beyond. The stronger second season sticks to 1949 Los Angeles. It’s a gorgeously photographed and deliciously soapy series—not true crime per se, though it does explore the big themes of the Lizzie Borden story: What drives a seemingly contented woman to contemplate murder, and how much can we blame her? Stream Why Women Kill on Paramount+.

at Paramount+

The Girl from Plainville (2022)

Another true crime story that's been dramatized multiple times, The Girl from Plainville doesn't redeem its murderer, but does add nuance to our understanding in the manner of the best true crime dramas. Elle Fanning is Michelle Carter, who undertook an extended campaign to encourage her emotionally fragile boyfriend, Conrad (Colton Ryan), toward a death by suicide, mostly via text messages. Elle Fanning is phenomenal, as is Chloë Sevigny (who, incidentally, played Lizzie Borden back in 2018) as Conrad's grief-stricken mother. Stream The Girl from Plainville on Hulu.

The Girl from Plainville (2022)

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (2025)

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story (2025)

Set in the 1950s, the miniseries dramatizes the story of nightclub performer Ruth Ellis, the last woman to have been executed in the United Kingdom (in the U.S., we're clearly far less chivalrous). Lucy Boynton is phenomenal in the lead role as Ruth, a tough and sometimes callous woman who found herself seeking escape from an abusive relationship with an emotionally manipulative lover. When she shot David Blakely dead, there was really no chance whatsoever that the British press or legal system were going to have any pity on her, despite the best efforts of her attorney, John Bickford (Toby Jones). This series might have impacted her conditional pardon in 2026, a reprieve that came around 70 years too late for Ruth. Stream A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story on Britbox.

at Britbox

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)

Another Ryan Murphy true crime epic (for better and worse, given the creator's penchant for the operatic), this one stars Darren Criss as sociopath and serial killer Andrew Cunanan, whose last victim was legendary fashion designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez). With an emphasis on the sun-soaked sex and party life of Miami Beach in the 1990s, Murphy here refined his signature style: polish, heightened drama, and a focus on the killer that borders on the sympathetic. Stream The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (Season Two) on Hulu.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (2018)

Alias Grace (2017)

The other big Margaret Atwood novel adaptation (existing in the shadow of the buzzier Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments), this miniseries is every bit as biting and well-crafted. It’s based on the true story of a poor Irish immigrant found guilty of a double homicide in 1843 under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and following a life of trauma. Years later, a psychiatrist comes to examine her and explores her past and the circumstances that might (just might) have led a disenfranchised and powerless girl to kill. As with the best explorations of Lizzie Borden, the show understands that knowing whether or not she did it isn't as interesting as understanding what might have gotten her to that point. Stream Alias Grace on Netflix.

Alias Grace (2017)