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If you're like most people, your TV is the centerpiece of your living room decor. That means when it's off, all your furniture is pointed at a black rectangle. If this bothers you, the "art TV" trend that started with Samsung's The Frame could be the answer. These sets are made to look like a piece of art, and 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.
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.
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.")
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 shootteenagers 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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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+.
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.
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.
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 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.
Since iOS 15.4, Apple has allowed you to add a driver’s license or other state ID to your iPhone’s digital wallet. That was a while ago, seeing as we just got iOS 27 (or what would've been iOS 20, had Apple not changed how it names the updates) last month. But that doesn’t mean you’ve been needlessly carrying your ID around since then—some participating states have been slow to roll out support for the feature, and most have yet to sign on at all.
Here’s the full list as it stands in October 2026:
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maryland
Montana
New Mexico
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Puerto Rico
Virginia
West Virginia
In addition, the U.S. supports adding your password to the Wallet app as a digital ID.
Support is still "coming soon" in these states
These states had originally pledged that support was "coming soon," but after four years, still haven't committed:
Connecticut
Kentucky
Mississippi
Utah
States that will not support digital ID
I am not surprised that some states are delaying support for digital IDs, but up until recently, none had rejected the features outright. That changed this week, as reported by 9to5Mac, as officials from both Florida and Rhode Island independently rejected digital IDs for their states. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida posted his dismissal on X:
Meanwhile, Walter Craddock, Chair of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) International Board of Directors, said the following on a podcast:
I want to see more universal adoption or need for an MDL [mobile drivers license]. I had one of my senators approach and try to talk me into doing it. I had to give him the old Heisman move and push him back…the main user right now is TSA. Up until recently, there was no airport in New England area that could accept an MDL. So why would I spend the money in the development of it? And also, I’m looking to do a solution that is across all platforms. Instead of just doing one for Apple or the Google Wallets, I don’t want to replicate and duplicate efforts.
In short, don't expect digital IDs to come to either of these states anytime soon—not that the program is expanding all that quickly elsewhere.
Airports where you can use a digital ID in Apple Wallet
Now, be warned: You can't simply hand a cop your iPhone when you get pulled over. There are specific, limited use cases for this feature. Right now, that means identifying yourself at the airport, as well as at select businesses. Apple worked with the TSA to make this happen, and while it used to maintain an active list of supported airports, it seems to have taken it down. This is the list as it was last updated:
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport (CVG)
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Des Moines International Airport (DSM)
Eastern Iowa Airport (CID)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)
Los Angeles International (LAX)
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU)
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
San Jose Mineta International (SJC)
Missoula International Airport (MSO)
Great Falls International Airport (GTF)
Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN)
Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)
Lea County Regional Airport (HOB)
Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
This feature will also work with participating businesses to verify your age, including bars, restaurants, liquor stores, festivals, concerts, and certain age-restricted apps. However, there is no list of venues that support this feature.
How to add a digital ID to your iPhone
If you do live in a supported state, setting up the feature is simple. Open Wallet, then tap the (+) in the top right, then choose “Driver’s License and ID Cards.” Choose your state, then choose whether to add the ID to your iPhone 8 or newer, as well as your Apple Watch Series 4 or newer. (There are caveats here: California requires an iPhone XS or later running iOS 17.5 or newer, or an Apple Watch Series 4 running at least watchOS 10. Puerto Rico requires an iPhone XS or later running iOS 18.1 or newer, or an Apple Watch Series 6 or later running watchOS 11 or newer.)
If you're adding a passport to the Wallet app, there are different requirements. Apple says you'll need an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 26.1 or later, or Apple Watch Series 6 or later with watchOS 26.1 or later. Either way, you’ll need to scan your ID with your iPhone’s camera, then scan your face to prove your identity. Once complete, send all information to your state to confirm. If you live in North Dakota, you will need to pay a $5 fee to use this feature.
Credit: Lifehacker
The next time you fly from a participating airport, you can unlock your iPhone and place it next to the ID scanner. You’ll see your digital ID appear, complete with all information you will be sharing with the TSA if you approve (name, date of birth, sex, issuing authority, and issue and expiration dates).
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Roku’s first OLED TV is already considerably cheaper than many competing models, and Amazon has now dropped the 65-inch Pro Series OLED to an even lower $799 from $1,199, taking $400 off and bringing it to its lowest price on record, according to price trackers. For that price, you’re getting a 4K OLED panel that delivers deep blacks and excellent contrast, though at around 496 nits, it’s relatively dim, meaning darker scenes can lose detail in rooms with plenty of sunlight or ambient light.
Where the Pro Series OLED makes a stronger case for itself is gaming—its 120Hz refresh rate, VRR support, and AMD FreeSync Premium help keep fast-moving games looking smooth, with this PCMag review measuring an input lag of just 4.8 milliseconds at 1080p/120Hz and 8.8 milliseconds at 4K/60Hz, earning it the publication’s Lab Award for lowest input lag. That translates to very little delay between pressing a button and seeing the action onscreen, which is especially useful in racing games and competitive shooters. You also get four HDMI ports and support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG, although Nvidia G-Sync support is absent.
Outside gaming, the TV runs Roku’s own OS, whose straightforward interface puts your streaming apps front and center without burying them beneath endless recommendations—and it supports nearly every major streaming service except Twitch, along with AirPlay for casting from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Beyond streaming, you get Wi-Fi 5 for wireless connectivity and an ATSC 1.0 tuner for watching over-the-air broadcasts, although one convenience that's missing is hands-free voice control, so you'll need to use the remote for voice commands.
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Anker’s Nebula P1i Portable Projector is down to $299 from $399 on Amazon, taking $100 off a full HD projector with built-in streaming—it runs Google TV out of the box, so you can jump straight into apps like Netflix without plugging in a streaming stick, while Anker’s Smart Instant Setup automatically handles focus, keystone correction, and screen alignment to get the picture ready with minimal effort.
That convenience extends to the projector’s portability, too, with the Nebula P1i weighing just under five pounds, making it easy to move between rooms or take outdoors—although its lightweight design does mean that an accidental bump can shift the image, so a tripod is worth considering if you want a more stable setup. Connectivity is fairly straightforward, with an HDMI port, USB-A port, and headphone jack for hooking up external devices, but the built-in interface already covers most streaming needs.
As for picture and sound quality, the Nebula P1i delivers a decent viewing experience for its price, but there are a few limitations to keep in mind—it supports 4K input but projects at 1080p, producing fairly natural colors and a reasonably sharp picture, though the edges can appear softer when the projector is positioned at an angle. Brightness is another consideration, as the picture looks best in a dark room or at night, with daylight washing out much of the detail.
On the audio side, the fold-out speakers have enough volume for a small gathering and reproduce dialogue clearly, but they lack the depth to give movies a particularly immersive feel, so you may want to connect a Bluetooth speaker for better sound. There’s also no built-in battery, so it needs to stay plugged in, which takes away some of the flexibility you might expect from a portable projector.
Last month's Apple event was a big one. The company announced (and subsequently released) the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12, and Apple Watch Ultra 4. It also announced the iPhone Duo, though the company's first foldable phone still isn't out yet. Despite all these new products, Apple apparently wasn't finished. Next week, the company will host another product announcement, titled "Welcome Home." Here's what we know.
What will Apple announce at its "Welcome Home" event?
Apple's product announcement hints are usually pretty subtle. This time, it isn't. "Welcome Home" is almost assuredly referencing Apple's long-rumored smart home devices. Sure, the company makes some smart devices, like the HomePod and HomePod mini, but leaks suggest the company has some big updates up its sleeve.
Perhaps no announcement will be bigger than its smart home hub. This device, according to the rumor mill, will be a mix between an iPad and a HomePod, competing with similar devices from companies like Amazon and Google. It may ship with a six-inch display (some reports suggest the screen is a square), but it won't be like an iPad on a stand. Instead, the experience seems more focused, letting you control smart home devices, make and receive FaceTime calls, watch videos, display the news and water data, and check your calendar. Of course, it will likely work with Siri AI, the company's new AI-powered assistant.
Apple may even expect users to buy more than one of these hubs. The idea could be to have multiple hubs throughout your house, which could let you use them like intercoms. (Apple currently offers a similar feature with its HomePods.) If the rumors are to be believed, the smart hub will understand the voice of whoever is talking to it, and tailor the experience to that user personally. If you have guests over, you could switch to a "visitor mode" to avoid revealing sensitive information.
While the smart home hub may steal the show, Apple is planning some updates to existing devices as well. The HomePod mini may come in new colors, and is expected to get both the N1 chip for improvements to wifi and Bluetooth, as well as an upgraded S-series chip for Siri AI. Apple may also update the Apple TV 4K with the A19 or A19 Pro chip, as well as that new N1 chip, and a new Siri remote. Apple may take this opportunity to reveal its new OLED iPad mini, but the company may keep the focus on smart home specifically.
When is Apple's "Welcome Home" event?
According to Apple's announcement, "Welcome Home" kicks off on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. PT). That's an early start time, considering the company is based in California, though it seems Apple is hosting the event in New York City this time around. For context, Apple's events usually kick off at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) when the company hosts them in Cupertino. It's not yet clear if there will be a livestream of the event, or if it will be exclusive for invited members of the media.
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Garmin watches are my favorite training partner. The brand has long been one of the biggest names in the world of rugged sports watches and fitness trackers, and the Forerunner line especially is a go-to pick for accurate and reliable GPS tracking for runners.
So, looking at the date on my Garmin Forerunner 970, I can see that Amazon's October Prime Day sale is officially over. But if you missed your chance to upgrade your running watch, you're in luck: Two of the most popular Garmin Forerunners are still on sale, even after Prime Day has technically ended.
These Garmin Forerunners are still a great deal right now
The Garmin Forerunner 55 is $161.99, down from $199.99. This is the most basic Garmin running watch you can buy new. Don't be deterred by the word "basic." As my colleague Beth Skwarecki reports, it was good enough for Sabastian Sawe to wear to break the sub-2-hour marathon barrier earlier this year.
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is $199.99, down from $249.99. This is my favorite entry-level running watch. The music version is also on sale; as always, it runs $50 more than the standard.
While it's not a dramatic, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is 5% off, bringing the original price of $449.99 down to $429. Although it isn't the latest and greatest anymore, this is still a fan favorite among Garmin users. It's a step above entry-level options, with dual-band GPS, power meter compatibility, and advanced analytics (like training status).
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Amazon's October Prime Day sale has wrapped up, but the Sonos Arc Ultra is still selling for $899, down from its usual $1,099. PCMag named it the best soundbar of 2024 and gave it an “outstanding” review. $899 is still a lot to spend on a single soundbar, and anyone shopping on a tighter budget will find more affordable picks in our Fire TV soundbar roundup.
For those who can make room in their budget, the next thing to plan around is space, since the Arc Ultra measures a little over 46 inches across and weighs about 13 pounds, making it a natural match for a larger TV. Despite all that width, it keeps a low profile at just under three inches tall, so it can sit beneath most screens without blocking the picture, or you can wall-mount it if you would rather keep your TV stand clear. All that size makes room for a 9.1.4-channel layout (a big step up from the original Arc) that gives Dolby Atmos effects more space to spread around and above you. Sonos also added a new Sound Motion driver that it says doubles the original Arc's bass, giving action scenes real weight without a separate subwoofer, though you can still add a Sub 4 later for more rumble.
At the other end of the sound spectrum, voices and dialogue come through clearly even at low volumes, and a Speech Enhancement mode lifts them further. Trueplay tuning then adjusts the sound to your room, with a quick version on Android and iOS and a more detailed one for iPhone owners. The biggest drawback is connectivity, since the Arc Ultra has a single HDMI eARC port with no passthrough, which can leave you short on inputs for a console or streaming box, and no optical port. It also lacks DTS:X support, a letdown for some Blu-ray collectors, and voice control is limited to Alexa or Sonos' own assistant, though Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and AirPlay 2 make streaming music from your phone easy.
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Amazon’s October Prime Day event may be over, but the Bose SoundLink Max is still available for $279, down from its usual $399, keeping it at the lowest price we’ve seen so far, according to price trackers. Unlike many speakers in this price range, the SoundLink Max keeps things fairly simple, leaving out wifi, smart assistants, and speakerphone support. That lets Bose focus on what most people buy a portable Bluetooth speaker for in the first place: loud, well-balanced sound, long battery life, and a design that can handle being taken almost anywhere.
That practical approach carries over to the design—it has a steel frame that is wrapped in silicone for added durability (though the textured exterior tends to collect dust more easily than smoother finishes), and the woven carry handle makes it easy to grab before heading to the backyard, the beach, or a campsite. I also like that Bose uses physical buttons here instead of fussy touch controls. Inside, three front-facing drivers and dual passive radiators deliver a wide stereo sound with clear vocals and crisp instruments. According to this PCMag review, the mids and highs remain detailed even at higher volumes, though the deepest bass notes lose some impact when the speaker is pushed to its limits. Bose rates the battery life at up to 20 hours, and the IP67 rating means it can survive dust, rain, accidental splashes, and even a brief drop into water.
The companion Bose app adds a little extra flexibility without becoming a requirement. You can adjust bass, mids, and treble, switch between connected devices, and customize the shortcut button to launch Spotify or jump to the auxiliary input. Just don't expect dramatic changes from the equalizer; it is better suited for small tweaks than completely reshaping the speaker’s sound. Bose also does not include a shoulder strap in the box, which feels like an odd omission for a speaker this large. Even so, if you're looking for a rugged Bluetooth speaker that prioritizes sound quality over smart-home features, the SoundLink Max remains one of the stronger options in its class, especially at its current price.
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As Amazon’s October Prime Day winds down, you can still find the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar on sale for $844.99 (originally $1,099), its lowest price yet, according to price trackers. It replaces the Smart Ultra Soundbar in Bose’s lineup and sits at the center of the company’s newer Lifestyle Ultra family, with matching speaker and a subwoofer available if you eventually want to build out a larger system. On its own, though, this is a substantial soundbar at 43.3 inches wide and 14.3 pounds, though its 2.6-inch height keeps the profile relatively low.
Inside are nine drivers arranged in a 5.0.2 configuration, including a center tweeter for dialogue and two upward-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos height effects, and the result is crisp, detailed audio with a convincing sense of space. That said, while the bass is solid, it doesn't quite keep pace with the rest of the sound, with this PCMag review recommending adding a subwoofer. Until then, Bose's app gives you plenty to work with, including a three-band EQ for nudging up the low end and separate level controls for the center, height, and surround channels, so you can bring voices forward or dial in the Atmos effect for your room.
Connectivity covers one HDMI eARC port, Ethernet, a subwoofer output, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5.3, but there's no passthrough for a second HDMI device and no 3.5mm aux input. It also skips DTS entirely and can't pair with Bose headphones for private listening. Anyone already invested in Bose speakers or planning to build out a full system around it will get the most from this discount, while those wanting deeper bass without buying a subwoofer may be better served by the Sonos Arc Ultra, which is also on sale for $899, though it comes with the same single-HDMI, no-DTS limitations.
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October Prime Day is over, but you can still grab this great bargain. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+, a well-reviewed tablet at a solid price. Amazon is currently selling it for $229.99, $70 off the list price of $299.99.
The Galaxy Tab A11+ has an 11-inch display with a refresh rate of 90Hz. This model has 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage. While that's not a particularly large SSD, the specs should be enough for most tasks, whether that's browsing, streaming, gaming, or getting some work done. The Galaxy Tab A11+ comes with a 5 MP front camera for video calls, and a big enough battery to last through a long flight. If you do find yourself needing more RAM or storage, the 256GB model with 8GB of memory isn't currently discounted: You can get it for $379.99.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold series is excellent, and its devices are perhaps the best foldable smartphones you can buy. (Though we'll see if the iPhone Duo stacks up later this month.) The very best of these devices, the Galaxy Z Fold Ultra, comes with everything Samsung has to offer in a folding smartphone, which doesn't come cheap. Samsung lists this device at $2,099.99, which could buy you two or three laptops, let alone one foldable. But during the even after October Prime Day, you can save 19% on this device and take advantage of big discounts on Samsung's other foldables.
When closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a 6.5-inch 1080p display, perfectly usable as a typical smartphone experience. But once opened, you get an eight-inch 120Hz display with a much higher resolution of 2256 by 2504, effectively turning the Z Fold 8 Ultra into a small tablet. It comes with the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip as the Galaxy S26 line, which means performance is on par with Samsung's flagship smartphone lineup. You also get some of the benefits of the S26 Ultra's cameras: The Z Fold 8 Ultra has a 200MP wide lens, a 10MP telephoto lens, and a 50MP ultrawide lens. And since this is a foldable phone, you also get two selfie cameras: One 10MP ultrawide on the inside, and one 10MP side on the outer display.
Amazon's deal on the Z Fold 8 Ultra is great, but it's still expensive. You save $415, but you still need to put down $1,684.99. Alternatively, you could take advantage of Amazon's deal on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. This device is 18% off, down to $1,549.99 from $1,899.99. This is Samsung's "passport-shaped" foldable, with a smaller 5.5-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch 120Hz inner display. It, too, runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, though you miss out a bit on cameras: The Galaxy Z Fold 8 doesn't have a 200MP shooter, but has a 50MP wide and a 50MP ultrawide. It also comes with 10MP selfie cameras on the inner and outer displays.
If you're looking for the most affordable foldable Galaxy phone, you could consider the Galaxy Z Flip 8. As the name implies, the phone flips, not folds, meaning it has a much smaller footprint than Samsung's other devices. With it, you get a 4.1-inch cover display, which opens up to a 6.9-inch 120Hz 1080p inner display. It also runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, but it has the least powerful camera options yet: a 50MP wide lens and a 12MP ultrawide. There's only one 10MP selfie camera on this device. However, the Flip 8 is also Samsung's most affordable. Right now, Amazon has it 19% off, down to $974.99 from $1,199.99.
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It's hard to believe you can get an HDTV released in 2026 for under $100, but you can. This Roku 32-Inch Select Series Smart TV is still on sale for $99.99—40% off the list price of $179.99—even after the October Prime Day sale has ended. There's no telling how much longer the discount will last, so act quickly if you missed your shot at other Prime Day TV deals.
It's 1080p, so not the highest resolution, but if you need a smaller set for the bedroom or kitchen, it will more than do the job for less than the cost of dinner and a movie for two. Because it's a Roku TV, it's designed around streaming apps, with a simple-to-navigate Home Screen and an uncluttered remote control that includes voice control. It even comes preloaded (yay?) with a ton of free TV options too, if you don't want to subscribe to anything.
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Samsung makes a lot of devices, but if you want the best of its "traditional" smartphones, your only option is the Galaxy S series, including the current Galaxy S26 series. While these devices can get quite pricey—particularly the S26 Ultra—Amazon has discounted all of the smartphones in the line for the final hours of October Prime Day. You can save up to 32% right now, and the most expensive options have the biggest savings.
The cheapest of the bunch is the Galaxy S26 FE. This is the "budget" model of the Galaxy S26 line, but still a great phone in its own right. It comes with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with three rear cameras: a 50MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, and an 8MP telephoto. (You also get a 12MP selfie camera.) It has a 4900mAh battery, runs the Exynos 2500 chip, and 8GB of RAM with either 128GB or 256GB of storage.
Samsung's standard S26 is probably the best balance for most people. It offers a smaller 6.3-inch AMOLED display with three rear cameras: 50MP, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP telephoto lens, with a 12MP selfie camera. Crucially, with the S26 you get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which offers better performance than the Exynos 2500. The smaller footprint gets a 4300mAh battery, with 12GB of RAM. While this model does come in 256GB, only the 512GB model is discounted, which is the case for the other phones here. For the S26's features with the FE's larger display, go with the Galaxy S26+. This option comes with a 6.7-inch AMOLED display, with a higher resolution than either of the previous devices. The rest of the features are the same, however, minus the 4900mAh battery.
But for the best Samsung has to offer, choose the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This option comes with Samsung's biggest and best display, a 6.9-inch AMOLED with the same solution as the Galaxy S26+. It has Samsung's best cameras, too: a 200MP wide lens, a 10MP telephoto lens, a 50MP periscope lens, and a 50MP ultrawide. It has a 5000mAh battery and either 12GB or 16GB of RAM—if you opt for the 1TB model.
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The JBL Tour One M3 Smart Tx headphones are still on sale for an excellent price: They list for $449, but you can pick them up on Amazon for $179.99 after the October Prime Day sale. That's 60% off for a pair of my personal favorite over-ear headphones. You can read my own testimonial here or read our full review.
These headphones are designed for travel, so they pack up into a tight space, and the sound quality is excellent. Before I got these, I usually took flights with cheap earbuds. Never again. Even long flights are almost enjoyable when you can cancel the sound of the engine.
They come with a Smart Tx Audio Transmitter, a separate module that acts as a universal audio bridge. It plugs into 3.5mm headphone jacks and other audio sources and improves the sound quality, wirelessly beaming audio from anywhere—airplane in-flight entertainment systems, that jack on the stair machine at the gym, older TVs, PCs, etc.—right to your headphones. It's also a wireless, touchscreen remote control. Very, very slick—especially at 60% off.
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October Prime Day 2026 is over, but there are still some great deals on Bluetooth speakers. If you want great sound on a budget, I went through all the under-$50 offerings to pull out the best, focusing on trusted names like Anker and Sony.
Anker's Soundcore Select 4 Go is 31% off
If you need music in the shower or by the pool, the Soundcore Select 4 Go is so waterproof it floats. It plays music for 20 hours on a single charge and supports wireless pairing, so you can hook it up with another compatible speaker for stereo sound. Despite its small size, this speaker delivers strong playback.
Sony's SRS-XB100 wireless Bluetooth speaker is 34% off
Sony's SRS-XB100 pushes right against the $50 maximum. It offers Sony's Sound Diffusion Processor for audio that punches above its weight, and 16 hours of playback per charge. You can take it to the beach, too; it's IP67 rated, so it's both dustproof and waterproof.
RadioShack's Vintage AM FM radio and Bluetooth player is 8% off
The sound quality you'll get from this speaker probably doesn't measure up to brands like JBL and Sony, but their speakers aren't also AM and FM radios, and they don't say "RadioShack" on the front, nor do they have a retractable antenna. This retro-styled speaker looks like a 1970s portable radio, but it's a Bluetooth speaker that can also play audio from USB cards.
Apple's smallest Mac is a favorite amongst AI enthusiasts and value-seekers alike. Despite its size, this Mac is as powerful as any other, which makes it as great an option for running AI agents as it is for handling simple macOS tasks.
While the "mini" isn't as affordable as it used to be—the memory crisis has certainly taken its toll—it's now cheaper than ever, even after October Prime Day has ended. If you've been thinking about picking up a Mac mini, now's the time to buy.
Apple's latest Mac mini runs the company's newest M6 chip, with a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. This processor is so new, in fact, that the company hasn't ported it over to its laptops yet. That means the M6 Mac mini will largely outperform Apple's M5 laptops, like the M5 MacBook Air and M5 MacBook Pro, at a much lower price. Why the discount? Because Apple isn't providing you with a keyboard, trackpad, or display. This is a standalone computer, and it is priced accordingly. It's a great value if you already have those peripherals on hand, but your investment does increase if you need to buy one, two, or three of those items.
Most users will likely connect one or two displays to this Mac mini, but it actually supports up to three. While it doesn't have a webcam, it does come with a built-in speaker, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. For ports, you have three Thunderbolt 4, two USB-C, HDMI, and 2.5Gb Ethernet—though you can upgrade to a model with a 10Gb Ethernet port. All that typically costs you $899. But as we close out October Prime Day, you can spend just $779.99 on this machine, saving around $120. While it's still more expensive than Apple's former Mac mini MSRP, it's the best price yet for the M6, and a great value for what you get.
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The heart rate sensors on smartwatches are usually good enough for casual training (and some of them are really good), but to get the best possible accuracy, you want a separate heart rate monitor—ideally a chest strap. Fortunately, these wearables are still on sale even after the end of October Prime Day. Heart rate monitors from Polar, Coospo, and more were available at discounts, and two of my favorite models are still discounted.
The Polar H10 chest strap is $20 off
All electrical chest straps are good, but the consensus in the fitness world is that if you want the best, you get the Polar H10. It’s the chest strap that Apple used in its own heart-rate accuracy testing; it’s also the one I recall being put on me when I did a VO2max test in a lab. It retails for $104.95 but goes on sale from time to time, and now is one of those times: You can pick up a Polar H10 for $84.74.
I love when a budget option works as well as the top-of-the-line model, and that’s why I swear by my Coospo heart rate monitor. Full disclosure, the H6 model I used for over four years finally gave up its ghost, so I’ve moved on to a newer model, the H808S. Both are on sale: the H6 for $23.99, down from $29.99, and the H808S is $26.26, down from $36.99.
Heart rate monitors connect to your watch or to gym equipment wirelessly, usually with Bluetooth and sometimes with an older protocol called ANT+. (Many heart rate monitors can do both.)
You’ll need to set up the heart rate monitor to either broadcast your heart rate or to pair to another device. (Usually you broadcast to gym equipment, but pair to a watch or phone.) The specifics vary by brand, but it’s usually pretty straightforward. If you have a fitness watch like a Garmin, an Apple Watch, or a Samsung Galaxy Watch, pairing a chest strap is a simple job. Pixel Watches, unfortunately, can’t pair a heart rate sensor.
But even without a watch, you can use a sensor with your phone. I like the Polar Beat app as a simple heart rate tracker, but there are plenty of other options. The Apple Fitness app can use third-party heart rate sensors, and so can Strava.
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If you’re looking for a last-minute October Prime Day deal on budget noise-canceling earbuds that still deliver big sound, the JBL Tune Buds are currently seeing a massive 67% discount. They’re down to $32.95 (originally $99.95), giving you most of the features you likely want from your everyday earbuds, at a record-low price.
Battery life is one of the biggest selling points of the JBL Tune Buds. They last up to 48 hours—12 hours on a single charge, with an additional 36 hours from the charging case, when ANC is off. A 15-minute quick charge delivers up to four extra hours of playback, although it’s worth noting that the case doesn’t support wireless charging. They also have an IP54 rating, making them somewhat resistant to dust and water.
According to PCMag, they offer modest active noise cancellation, which is still a steal at the current price. The earbuds also come with built-in Alexa and an accompanying app that lets you further customize the sound and switch between modes such as ANC, Ambient Aware, and TalkThru. The sound is bright and bass-heavy thanks to JBL’s bass-forward Pure Bass tuning, but you can adjust it with the in-app EQ if it’s not to your liking.
While they don’t have all the bells and whistles of pricier noise-canceling earbuds, the features you get at this price make them easy to love. If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to more expensive models that you can use for workouts, commuting, travel, and more, this last-minute JBL Tune Buds October Prime Day deal is worth grabbing while it lasts.
October Prime Day is Oct. 6 and runs through Oct. 7. It happens every year during October.
When does Prime Day end?
October Prime Day ends on Oct. 7 in 2026. It’s a two-day online sale.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
October Prime Day is the fall version of Prime Day, which is the biggest sale Amazon hosts during the spring, summer, and fall. You can find deals on many categories during the sale, including tech, tools, appliances, apparel, and more.
Do we need another adaptation of Carrie? Maybe/maybe not, but the horrific bullying faced by the teen protagonist of Stephen King's first book is not even the tiniest bit less relevant now than it was way back in 1974, and Mike Flanagan has proven himself King's most adept modern-day translator—and that's before taking his other work into consideration. So we'll happily give it a shot before diving into these other shows to remind ourselves that growing up is hell.
The Glory (2022)
There are at least a couple of different levels to The Glory, a justifiably well-received South Korean import, rather remarkably holding together despite some wild shifts in tone. Most obviously, it's a revenge drama, with a relatively simple set-up: Song Hye-kyo plays Moon Dong-eun, an elementary school homeroom teacher who's playing a very long game: Her school bullies are grown up now, and their kids (some of them, anyway) are now in Dong-eun's care. Right where she wants them. Smartly, the show makes clear the extent of the past violence faced by Dong-eun (much of it hard to watch), and the resulting post-traumatic stress that's consumed her life. The parents of her tormentors were all far too wealthy for the girls to face any consequences for their actions, so Dong-eun feels like she has no choice. It could have been a revenge fantasy, or a straight horror show about a woman carrying out a questionable revenge, but instead it's a more nuanced tale of high school bullying, with a victim whose revenge takes a much colder path than Carrie's. Stream The Glory on Netflix.
Sophia Lillis, straight from playing Beverly Marsh in the It movies (if you wanted a Stephen King connection), stars as Sydney Novak, a 17-year-old living in a small town with her mother and sister. Her father recently died by suicide; she has a crush on her best friend; and all she and her mother do is argue. In the middle of all of that, she discovers that she has powers triggered by her emotions, both of which she'll need to learn to control if she wants to get her life in order. As the lead, Lillis sells the hell out of this offbeat coming-of-age story—the tone is more dark comedy than horror, but Sophia definitely has some Carrie moments of her own before it's over. Stream I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix.
Situated between flashbacks and flash-forwards (think Lost or Yellowjackets), mystery/thriller The Wilds sees an airplane full of teenage girls crash on the way to an empowerment program in Hawaii. It quickly becomes clear that the accident was engineered and that the whole thing is some sort of social experiment, and the survivors are forced to compete against each other if they want to live. The show understands the ways in which young women are exploited and expected to compete against each other in the real world, mirroring the horrors of the high school social hierarchy that dominate Carrie's life. Stream The Wilds on Prime Video.
Likely the least buzzy of Mike Flanagan's Netflix offerings, coming, as it did, near the end of his contract with the streamer, is every bit as good as the others. Based on the YA novel by Christopher Pike, it follows 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 secretly to share scary stories, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when the time comes. Spooky, funny, and impressively moving as a coming-of-age story about kids who know they'll never come of age, the show was planned as more than a miniseries, but the ending is still pretty satisfying. Stream The Midnight Club on Netflix.
Kathryn Newton heads this surprisingly smart William Golding/Lord of the Flies riff about a group of teenagers forced to create their own community after all the adults disappear and a dense new forest crops up around their small enclave, cutting them off from everything and everyone else. This one's about coming of age in a world where the usual rules are no longer in effect, and about how we're quick to reestablish an oppressive social order even when outside forces are no longer at work. Stream The Society on Netflix.
A cloistered, repressive upbringing for a young woman with dramatic telekinetic powers? The stories of Carrie and Eleven play out very differently, but that's largely because they're in different kinds of stories—one's a more introspective high school drama, while the other is a retro government conspiracy adventure involving demons and parallel universes. Still! You kinda feel like Carrie and El would recognize each other's trials, with hope that the bullied kids of Hawkins would welcome them both. You're probably familiar with Stranger Things by now, but just in case: An ensemble cast of mostly kids uncover dark deeds in their small Indiana town after a mysterious girl (Millie Bobby Brown) turns up displaying impressive, if alarming, abilities. Stream Stranger Things on Netflix.
The big link here is, of course, Stephen King, who's not just great at situating horror in small towns, but in conveying the unique trauma of being a kid trapped in a small town—Carrie and It being two of his best in that vein. Set in the 1960s, this It prequel dives into the backstory of Derry and Pennywise the clown through the eyes of children who met him during his previous visit to the town. By the end of the first episode, it's clear that even the most adorable children aren't safe, and this is a show that will, if nothing else, go hard—and that's before Bill Skarsgård's memorably creepy Pennywise even shows up, and before we dig deeper into the secrets and lies of the adults of Derry. As in the book and earlier adaptations, each kid here has their own specific family and social issues, and Pennywise is very good at exploiting those dynamics to make the kids feel isolated and afraid.Stream It: Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.
Hang in there, Carrie! Help is on the way! Well, OK...maybe if you lived in South Korea and in the very specific world of this webtoon adaptation. Following a rise in bullying, violence, and generally shitty behavior in high schools, including the murder of a teacher, the government establishes the Educational Rights Protection Bureau (ERPB)—tasked with reforming the school system BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. The team's first assignment takes them to a school where a bullied student has recently died by suicide, strongly related to the actions of the son of a prominent politician. What else to do but expose dad's secrets, knocking the bully down a few pegs and leaving him vulnerable to the consequences of his own actions. It's a little less Carrie and a little more Avengers: High School, but it's a fun fantasy for anyone who had a rough time back then. Stream Teach You a Lesson on Netflix.
Mariam (Andria Tayeh) is brutally bullied by the cool clique at her private school in this Jordanian import, a high school drama that's both universal and distinctly Muslim in character. Fed up, Mariam convinces a couple of similarly outcast friends to join forces with her in a revenge plot that quickly gets out of hand. The show deals with Jordanian-style patriarchy head-on, without drawing any easy conclusions about its characters—Mariam catfishes one of her bullies and convinces her to send a revealing picture, one that she immediately posts, exploiting the very same repressive cultural elements that she claims to deplore. It's a smart and compelling drama with soapy elements (as well as a surprise hit for Netflix), and few if any clear heroes or villains. Stream AlRawabi School for Girls on Netflix.
One of our most reliable horror franchises went the series route with impressively smart results. 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. Before long, Jake's tormentors are facing consequences rather a bit beyond what Jake would have hoped for, and he's torn between fighting Chucky or leaning into the chaos. The tone is very different, of course, but Chucky's violence plays out very much like an externalized (and quippier) manifestation of Carrie's abilities—both teens dealing with forces that they have little control over. Stream Chucky on Peacock and Prime Video.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Amazon collects data about you based on what you buy. And now, you can get a direct look at what the company has concluded from all that activity.
Amazon's "About You" page, currently in beta after launching this May, uses data from customers' activity to generate details about them in categories like Product Preferences, Interests & Hobbies, and Home & Family. Amazon uses those details to personalize the shopping experience. Here's how to navigate and personalize your "About You" page in your Amazon account.
What Amazon thinks it knows about you
The results can be oddly specific. My editor-in-chief, Jordan Calhoun, shared his page, which includes these entries:
"Likely has 2 adults"
"Owns a PlayStation 5 console"
"Prioritizes plant-based meat alternatives over traditional options"
"Subscribes to multiple streaming services continually"
"Owns a large dog"
"Likely has a cat"
Full disclosure: I try to never use Amazon personally. I pretty much exclusively use it to round up deals for you, my dear reader. That being said, here's what Amazon thinks it knows about me: "Values durable travel gear," "prefers athletic and casual clothing styles," "practices yoga regularly," and "listens to music frequently."
What counts as data
In its Privacy Notice, Amazon lists every activity that provides user data to the company. That includes the obvious, like searching for items and placing orders. It also includes actions you may not realize are being tracked, like interacting with Alexa Voice Service, participating in discussion boards, or linking an Amazon account to a third-party business.
How to view your own "About you" page
On desktop:
Hover over where Amazon says "Hello, [your name]" in the upper right corner.
Under the "Your Account" section, click "Account."
Under the "Ordering and shopping preferences" section, click "Your Shopping preferences."
From here, you can add information of your own, like your shoe size, interests, and dietary preferences. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and you'll see a blue hyperlinked option that says, "Manage your information." Click it, and you'll see what dirt Amazon has on you.
On the mobile app:
Tap the hamburger icon in the bottom menu bar, then go to Account > Shopping preferences > About you.
You can edit it, but not opt out
Shoppers can't directly opt out of the "About you" feature. They can, however, customize the data by adding details they want Amazon to know and deleting assumptions they consider inaccurate or too personal.
Importing data from other AI chatbots
On the "About you" page, customers also have the option to "make Amazon even more personal to you" by importing personal data they've shared with other AI agents. Amazon provides a prompt for you to feed to your chatbot to generate a shopping profile, then asks you to copy the bot's response and paste it back into Amazon.
Whether that's worth doing is up to you. Given how much Amazon already infers from your browsing and buying, handing over a profile from another AI service is a choice worth thinking through. Either way, taking a few minutes to review your page and delete anything inaccurate or too personal is a simple way to see and shape what Amazon knows about you.
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Amazon's October Prime Day sale ends tonight, which means you have a few more hours to snag some great deals on my favorite brand of workout headphones: Shokz. If you're unfamiliar with Shokz (and the world of bone conduction headphones in general), I could talk your ear off about the big selling points: better situational awareness, all-day comfort, and ears that stay free and open. If you want to join the club, or need an upgrade, these are the best Shokz deals from this year's October Prime Day sale.
For runners, the OpenRun Pro 2 are down to $109.95 in Rose Gold (originally $199.95). In other colors, they're discounted down to $119.95 (originally $179.95). This beloved bone-conduction model combines Shokz’s signature open-ear design with a bassy sound and long battery life (up to 12 hours), making it one of the most popular choices for outdoor workouts.
The regular OpenRun headphones are also discounted, dropping down to $89.95 (originally $129.95). They offer many of the same benefits of the Pro line at a lower price point, including a lightweight frame and open-ear design geared toward runners and all kinds of outdoor athletes.
For anyone with a smaller head size, the OpenRun Mini have 0.83-inch (21mm) shorter band than the standard size, and they're seeing the same discount—currently available for $89.95 (originally $129.95).
The trendy OpenDots ONE are $60 off
If you've been following the trendiness of clip-on-style earbuds, the OpenDots ONE are 30% off, dropping down to $139.95 (originally $199.95). One of Shokz’s newer designs, the OpenDots ONE sit outside the ear canal, offering a lightweight alternative to traditional earbuds while still maintaining that signature situational awareness. Plus, they're a strong alternative to the pricier Bose Ultra open earbuds.
These swimming headphones are $50 off
Swimmers can save 22% on the OpenSwim Pro, now $179.95 (originally $229.95). Unlike most workout headphones, this bone conduction model has an IP68 rating and is built for use in the water. They support onboard MP3 storage, allowing you to listen to music even when Bluetooth connectivity isn’t available.
October Prime Day FAQs
When is Prime Day in October?
October Prime Day is a two-day event that starts Oct. 6 and ends on Oct. 7.
Is Shokz a reliable brand?
Yes, Shokz is one of the best brands when it comes to bone conduction and sports headphones. The OpenRun Pro 2 model especially is a go-to pick for battery life, comfort, and situational awareness.
Do Shokz Prime Day discounts apply to all their product lines, or just select items?
Unfortunately, not all Garmin products are on sale. However, there are many Shokz products on sale, and you can find them all on the Amazon landing page.
What else goes on sale on Prime Day?
Since Prime Big Deal Days happens in the fall, you're likely to see more deals on gaming and indoor gym equipment. Amazon has already announced some of the 35 categories that will be on sale, including beauty, tech, kitchen, fashion, and home. Some brands Amazon has already mentioned are: Shark, Princess Polly, Soundcore by Anker, UGG, Nest New York, Sony, Tarte, Adidas, and Barefoot Dreams.
This past summer, I replaced the deadbolt on my front door with a smart lock, and it's possibly the best house upgrade I've ever made. I'm still not over the convenience of being able to leave the house without worrying about where my keys are, or if my absent kids have their keys. The only thing I need to worry about is the battery going dead, as that means the, uh, deadbolt will, too; thus, I still need to make copies of the manual key and figure out where to hide it in case of a lockout. But what if there was a smart lock that you could open without a key, even if the batteries were totally drained?
Turns out that Ring built one, and the concept behind it is as simple as it is ingenious. In the first quarter of 2027, the Amazon-owned company, whose name is synonymous with video doorbells, will release its first-ever smart lock, and it will include a truly innovative feature: a built-in "Power Dial" that will allow you to manually generate enough energy to quickly unlock your door, even if the battery is totally dead—no manual key required. I got a chance to preview the mechanism at a meeting with Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, and I walked away kicking myself that I didn't wait to get one.
Why Ring's "Power Dial" will stand out among smart locks
Credit: Ring / Amazon
According to Siminoff, Ring had long resisted stepping into the smart lock market, as he saw no real upside in dropping another virtually identical product into an overcrowded market. But then, when trying to choose a smart lock for his own guest home, located in a remote area, he couldn't find a device he wanted: one that would work reliably every time, even if no one had been at the house to change the batteries, and that didn't require worrying about hiding a backup key in a fake rock somewhere. So he designed one.
Inspired by those battery-free flashlights that charge via friction when you turn a crank, Siminoff sketched out plans for a rotating dial built directly into the lock's keypad that could generate enough energy to open it after just a few seconds spent turning it back and forth. Once recharged, the lock will open in all the usual smart lock ways: with a numerical code, or a fingerprint, or the Ring app, or an Alexa request.
The Power Dial is a way to "get rid of [the need for a] backup key without the anxiety," said Siminoff, who noted that, considering the pace of technological development (he's able to turn on his Tesla using his phone), "it's insane that we still use keys [to enter our homes]"—pin tumbler locks being essentially unchanged from technology invented nearly 200 years ago. With no keyhole that can be picked, a smart lock can also be that much more secure.
Despite this innovation, when it comes to market early next year (after receiving FCC approval), Ring's smart lock will cost about the same as its competitors, around $250 in one of three finishes (brass, stainless steel, or black). There's no exact release date yet.
Ring is also releasing a new line of security cameras
Credit: Image courtesy of Ring / Amazon
In addition to the new lock, Ring has also announced an expansion of its line of smart security cameras. It's releasing four new indoor and outdoor 4K cameras with (according to the company) improved viewing angles, better low-light recording, and options like true 360-degree panning and 175-degree tilt. These devices are available for purchase or preorder now, ranging in price from $70 to $220.
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Amazon’s October Prime Day sale has brought the latest Google Pixel Watch 5 (45mm, LTE) down to $444.99 from $529.99, its lowest price ever, according to price trackers. PCMag calls it the best smartwatch for Android users, largely because Gemini is built in so deeply—the assistant works proactively, so it can surface your flight details on the way to the airport or suggest a contact's number while you text about dinner plans, and a new AI-powered Health Coach reviews your workouts with tailored feedback, though some of its fitness advice sits behind a paid subscription.
Helping all of those AI features along is a faster Qualcomm processor that Google says improves the overall performance of this smartwatch by 20%, while RAM increases from 2GB to 3GB and storage doubles to 64GB compared with the Pixel Watch 4. As for its health hardware, Google left it largely untouched, so you still get heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, ECG readings, skin temperature, GPS, and sleep tracking, with reportedly accurate findings. The catch is that this remains an Android-only watch, requiring Android 12 or newer, and some of the better AI features work best with a newer Pixel phone.
Physically, the Watch 5 doesn’t stray far from its predecessor, keeping the familiar domed display under 3D Corning Gorilla Glass while adding new watch faces that curve around its edges—with the screen reaching up to 3,000 nits and adjusting to ambient light, so it should remain easy to read during a sunny afternoon run or in a dim room. As for its durability, its IP68 and 5ATM ratings mean you can wear it through a workout, at the beach, or in the pool without worrying about dust or water. And charging shouldn’t necessarily be a nightly routine, either, with the watch lasting up to 56.5 hours in testing. Heavier use will cut into that figure, but you should still have a good chance of making it through two full days with enough power left to track your sleep overnight.
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Wireless charging is convenient, but faster speeds can generate more heat, potentially putting additional strain on your phone’s battery over time. The Anker Prime 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger is designed to manage that heat while keeping charging speeds high, and for October Prime Day 2026, it’s down to $132.98 from $229.99, its lowest price to date, according to price trackers. The setup is aimed squarely at Apple users, with dedicated charging spots for an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods in one compact station.
Its main pad supports 25W Qi2 wireless charging, which is about as fast as cable-free charging gets right now, and it’s paired with a built-in thermoelectric cooling system and fan to keep temperatures under control, as noted in this ZDNET review. That cooling system actively pulls heat away from your phone while it charges, so you can charge while streaming or scrolling without the phone getting uncomfortably warm. There are three charging modes you can choose from: Boost Mode is for quick top-ups when you’re heading out, Ice Mode keeps things cooler during heavier use, and Sleep Mode slows everything down and turns off the fan for overnight charging. You can switch between these on the unit’s small on-board touchscreen or through Anker’s app, which also lets you schedule charging behavior and tweak the display.
The rest of the setup is solid as well, with the Apple Watch and AirPods pads charging at the standard 5W. You also get a 65W wall adapter and a five-foot USB-C cable in the box. Build quality feels premium, with metal accents and a clean finish that won’t look out of place on a desk, and the unit itself is heavy at about 1.4 pounds, so it stays stable even with larger phones attached. The pad also tilts up to 80 degrees, so it doubles as a stand for watching videos or taking calls.
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Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is in full swing, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic (46mm, LTE) is down to $389.99 from $549.99, a $160 discount and its lowest price to date, according to price trackers. That's still $90 more than the 44mm LTE version of the standard Galaxy Watch 8—even while these smartwatches share most of their core features, including Google Gemini, sleep coaching, and Galaxy AI-powered running plans that can help you prepare for anything from a 5K to a marathon.
What you’re paying extra for with the Classic is primarily its better battery life (49 hours in PCMag's testing, where the base model needs a charge every day) and more premium hardware, particularly the stainless-steel case and physical rotating bezel (last seen on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic), which lets you scroll through menus and notifications without constantly swiping across the screen. The Watch 8 Classic comes in a single 46mm size with Samsung’s five-core Exynos W1000 processor, 2GB of memory, and 64GB of storage (twice that of the base Watch 8).
It’s also built for more than everyday wear, with IP68 dust and water resistance, a 5ATM rating, and MIL-STD-810H certification for environmental stresses such as temperature changes, vibration, and shock. As for its health and fitness features, it covers GPS, heart rate tracking (which is reportedly accurate, according to PCMag), blood oxygen, temperature, and ECG monitoring—all while LTE lets you take calls with your phone left at home. The biggest catch is compatibility, since the watch needs an Android 12 or later phone with more than 1.5GB of memory. Also, Samsung keeps gesture controls, AI insights, and snoring detection exclusive to its own phones.
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Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is underway, and the second-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are down to $369 from $449, their lowest price to date, according to price trackers. That $80 discount makes Bose’s combination of excellent noise cancellation, long-wearing comfort, and immersive spatial audio easier to justify, particularly with stronger competition this year from models such as Sony’s WH-1000XM6. For more discounts worth considering during the sale, our ongoing October Prime Day 2026 coverage has more of the latest editor-vetted deals.
Bose hasn't changed the formula much in this second generation—you still get an over-ear design with plush padding and a firm but comfortable clamp for a secure fit. The only noticeable tweak is that the frame now uses a glossy metal finish instead of a matte one, which gives it a slightly more premium feel without changing how it wears.
The feature set is broad and mostly well-executed—these headphones support Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint pairing, so you can stay connected to a laptop and phone at the same time without juggling settings. There is also a USB-C connection for wired listening, which unlocks lossless audio, something many competitors still skip. Plus, they power on automatically when you put them on and slip into a low-power mode when left flat, which is a small quality-of-life upgrade you notice quickly in daily use. Battery life is rated at 30 hours with active noise cancellation turned on, which is in line with most premium options. Bose also lets you charge and listen through USB-C at the same time, a practical addition for long work sessions.
Performance-wise, noise cancellation holds up well across different environments, taking the edge off airplane rumble, muting bus engines, and pushing most café chatter into the background, so you don’t have to keep adjusting volume just to stay immersed, notes this PCMag review. As for the sound, these headphones deliver a rich, bass-forward profile while keeping vocals and detail intact. Tracks with heavy low-end, like electronic or hip-hop, come through with depth and punch without overwhelming the mix, and vocals sound full, though the slightly recessed midrange means guitars and some instruments don’t cut through as sharply. Also, while you do get presets and noise control modes in the companion app, the simple three-band EQ does not give you much room to fine-tune the sound.
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Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is in full swing, and the SimpliSafe 12-Piece Wireless Home Security System with HD Camera is down to $159.99 from $339.99, a nearly $180 discount and its lowest price to date, according to price trackers. It is a fairly comprehensive starter kit for the money, with a base station and keypad, along with five entry sensors, two motion sensors, a key fob, a panic button, and a SimpliCam indoor camera— enough to cover the front and back doors and three windows, with the motion sensors watching a hallway and a living room. Our broader roundup of smart home deals during October Prime Day has more security cameras, smart locks, and video doorbells currently on sale.
Each motion sensor covers 35 feet across a 90-degree field of view, so one placed in a corner can watch a whole room, and both ignore pets under 60 pounds, according to the manufacturer, meaning a cat or beagle shouldn't trip them but a Labrador might. You can arm or disarm the system through the SimpliSafe app, while Alexa and Google Assistant support adds voice controls. Keeping all of that connected is the base station, which uses both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity and has a backup battery that can keep the system running for up to 24 hours during a power outage.
While the current price covers the equipment and includes one free month of professional monitoring (after which plans start at less than $1 to just over two dollars per day), some features are tied to that subscription, including the panic button’s ability to dispatch police, as well as app alerts and 30-day camera video storage. Without a plan, you can still use the system as a local alarm and arm or disarm it from the keypad or key fob, but you’ll lose some of the remote and monitored features that make the full setup more useful.
When I was a kid, a portable game system that could play over 20,000 games, including just about every arcade game in the world, would have sounded like science fiction. In 2026, during October Prime Day, it's less than $100, and it can be delivered to your house in a day.
The RG52MINI Retro Handheld Game Console features a 5.5-inch, 720x1280 IPS screen, a 2.0GHz processor, and 2+4GB RAM. It supports EmuELEC, the emulator for classic games from systems like the NES, Genesis, PS1, and more. It also supports wifi for multiplayer and for RGBOX, so you can download thousands of game ROMs directly to the device, no PC required.
If you want a game system that can play everything from prehistoric titles like Pong to fifth-generation games like Metal Gear Solid, for less than you probably spent trying to beat Dragon's Lair, here you go.
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Earlier this year, I explained how a Christmas gift I'd bought my then-15-year-old son—a set of adjustable dumbbells ($255) and an adjustable weight bench ($59.49)—had actually gotten me to stick to a steady lifting routine for the first time in years. And now, for October Prime Day, both are on sale, and the dumbbells are even cheaper than what I spent during last year's Black Friday sale.
I've had 9+ months of regular use with both (plus intermittent use by my now-16-year-old, 6-foot son), and both still look and feel brand new. The dumbbells can be adjusted in five-pound increments from 10 pounds all the way up to 55; the bench can lie flat or be adjusted at eight different angles, including a decline position. (Plus, they match, if that sort of thing is important to you.)
I was admittedly skeptical about how the padding on the seat of the bench would hold up over months and years of use; I've pre-emptively addressed that by adding a blanket to the seat when I use it, but it's likely not necessary. I've also caught my son as recently as two days ago dropping the weights to the ground as though he was standing on a padded gym floor, rather than a 100-year-old cement basement floor with unforgiving carpet, and they survived the abuse.
If you live in a small home but want to create a little weight-lifting space for yourself, I highly recommend both of these products—especially while they're on sale for October Prime Day.
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As you can see from our various tool round-ups, all kinds of specific tools, from belt sanders to nail guns, were marked down for October Prime Day. But if you missed out on the sale, all is not lost: This DeWalt 192-piece tool set is still 38% off after the end of Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, so you can still build out your DIY kit for less. (It will also still make a great gift for a family member who still hasn't gotten around to fixing that sofa leg.)
This set includes a variety of ratchets, drive ratchets, socket sets (SAE & metric), combination wrenches, extensions, adapters, hex keys, a metric wrench set, metric socket set, deep socket sets, and accessories. In other words: everything you need to fix nearly everything in your house or in your car. These tools are made by DeWalt, a trusted name in tools, and they're constructed from chrome vanadium steel, so they'll last a long time, won't corrode, and will look professional. They come in a hard-shelled, handled case, so you can take them along with you as needed, and you can store them away when you don't.
Marshall is famous among music types for the iconic JTM 45, aka the "Marshall Stack," a guitar amplifier setup that basically invented "loud" in music. The company's Bluetooth speakers are styled like the amps—a nod to the history of rock and roll—but beneath the iconic look is a damn good Bluetooth speaker.
The Emberton III is waterproof, dustproof, and portable. It's rugged, like a rock amp should be. It comes in four colors, and the battery lasts for 32 hours per charge. The sound is pushed by dual 10W drivers and tuned by Marshall to provide decent sound at any volume, including "all the way up."
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A lot of companies offer discounts during October Prime Day, but the steepest price drops are usually on Amazon's house brand. Case in point: This Amazon Fire 4K Stick is $37.99, a 45% discount on the list price. The 4K Fire Stick is optimized for streaming to 4K televisions. It's Wi-Fi 6 compatible, supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos audio, too. There's no installation hassle either: You just slide it into the HDMI port, and you're rolling.
The 4k Fire Stick provides a lot of entertainment for $38. Obviously, you can stream thousands of movies and TV shows across all major streaming services, but you can also use it for gaming. Hook up a controller and your Luna or Xbox Game Pass, and you can play hundreds of games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Hogwarts Legacy, without a console. The Fire Stick is fully Alexa-ed up, too. Just hit the voice remote button and talk to the digital assistant to get show recommendations, ask questions like "Wasn't that guy in that other show?" or just have a little conversation about any topic at all. You can even manage your smart home from your remote control.
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I've been poring over Lifehacker's round-ups of tools all day, and I've concluded I need a new drilland I need a new hammer. Specifically, I need Vanquish's 11oz Titanium Framing Hammer. I already have a hammer, but it's made of steel and weighs nearly a pound and a half—this hammer is Titanium and carbon steel and only weighs 11 ounces. That's about half the weight, as much as two baseballs or a can of soda.
The core shaft and neck are forged from a single piece of heat-treated carbon steel, and Vanquish promises that its hammer delivers 50% more force than a standard steel hammer. The anti-slip grip promises to deaden vibrations, and the overall design results in 30% less recoil. In other words, this is a solid hammer that will terrify all nails.
For Amazon's October Prime Day, Vanquish's hammer is at the lowest price it's sold for all year, $68.79, which is 20% less than the list price of $85.99.
Plex has been around for almost 20 years at this point, and has added plenty of features and functions in that time. We've previously covered some of the ways it can be useful for creating your own personal streaming service.
Even if you're a seasoned Plex user, you should find something of use here, as there's everything from tweaking the metadata that the apps use to create your library, to improving the quality of your video streams—with a particular focus on films and TV shows (though Plex is capable of handling music and photos, too).
Edit your show and movie metadata if Plex gets it wrong
Your filenames and folder structure should give Plex enough information to correctly label TV shows and movies, but it doesn't always get it right every time. If you spot a mistake then there are a few ways to change it.
From the main page for a show or film, click the three dots and choose Refresh Metadata. This gets Plex to check again with its online sources, so if the data was missing or incorrect the first time around, this may fix it.
Your second option is to head to the listing for a specific movie or show, click the three dots, and then pick Fix Match. This lets you pick from a selection of online search results, and is useful for titles that are very similar to each other or very common.
The final way of fixing metadata is to go to an individual movie or episode, and click the Edit button (the icon that looks like a pencil). This lets you enter manual metadata edits that won't be overwritten by any online databases that Plex references.
Clean out the clutter from your library
Delete leftover bundles from your library.Credit: Lifehacker
As your media library grows and evolves, clutter can start to build up—particularly when it comes to items you've removed, that tend to leave metadata, preview thumbnails, and other bits of digital detritus behind. These leftovers are known as bundles.
You can clear out bundles and keep your library trim in a couple of ways: In the web app, click the three dots next to your media server on the left-hand navigation pane, then choose Manage Server > Clean Bundles.
The same option is in the troubleshooting part of settings on the web. Click the wrench icon (top right) to open Settings, then choose Troubleshooting > Clean Bundles. You can also follow the Scheduled Tasks link on the same page to have Plex do this chore automatically every week for you.
Set up multiple editions of the same movie
There may be times when you have multiple editions of the same movie in your library—director's cuts, perhaps, or extended editions—and if you have the Plex Pass plan then you can label these as separate entities inside your library
You can either change the filename on disk to have the edition in curly brackets after the title—so "Blade Runner (1982) {edition-Final Cut}.mp4" for example—or click the Edit button (the pencil icon) on a movie listing page and enter the details in the Edition field.
Add subtitles to your media with FileBot
FileBot can find subtitles for you.Credit: Lifehacker
Your Plex content isn't automatically going to come with subtitles attached, and that's where the FileBot tool can help. Get the program installed on your system, sign up for a free account at OpenSubtitles, and you're ready to start looking for your subtitle titles. This is done via the Subtitles panel inside FileBot.
Use the green user icon to log into OpenSubtitles through Filebot, then search for your films and shows via the drop-down at the top and the Find button. When you find the files you need, double-click them to move them down to the lower window—in there, you can right-click, choose Export, and save them in the relevant Plex library folder.
There are other options, like a basic built-in subtitle search that's available if you have the Plex Pass, and the standalone Bazarr app, which gives you more options than either the integrated tool or FileBot, but takes longer to set up.
Share your Plex library with friends and family
You don't have to keep your Plex library to yourself, but there are some tricks to sharing it with friends and family. From the web app, click the wrench icon (top right) to open the Settings pane, then choose Manage Library Access on the left.
Click Grant Library Access to let someone else into your media library: You'll need to supply a Plex username or an email address (which will be used to prompt them to sign up for a Plex account). You're then able to select the servers and libraries they can access. If you have a Plex Pass, you can set more limits in terms of age ratings and whether or not your friends and family can download content.
The wrinkles come with remote access. If you as the media server owner have a Plex Pass, then your friends and family can stream content remotely, as well as on the local network; if not, they each need a Remote Watch Pass ($2 a month or $20 a year) if they're not watching on the same local network as you and the server.
See who watched what and when with Tautulli
Tautulli is one of the best Plex add-ons around, giving you a host of useful stats about your media server—including records of who watched what. Once you've downloaded the installer for Windows or macOS, you'll be taken step-by-step through the process of connecting it to your Plex server.
If you've shared your Plex library with the family, then you can, for example, see what the kids are watching and when, and even the devices they've used and how much bandwidth they've used up along the way.
The plug-in is interesting enough even if you haven't shared your library: It's possible to break down viewing to day-by-day or hour-by-hour graphs, see the movies and shows you're watching most often, check out detailed information on your media files, and keep track of when new films and shows are added.
Create collections for easier library management
Use Collections to organize your Library.Credit: Lifehacker
Collections are a useful way of applying some order to the chaos of your Plex media library, and the feature is perhaps not as well known as it should be. You can collect whatever you like, whether it's feel-good TV episodes or spy films.
To get started with collections, click the Edit button on a listing page (the pencil), then choose Tags, and enter something into the Collections box. If the collection already exists, it'll show up as you start typing.
You can also set up smart collections, where media files are added automatically. Set a search filter via the Library tab on your Films or Shows screen, and if you click the Add to button (the plus and horizontal lines icon on the right), you get a Create Smart Collection option. Any files that are added in the future that match your search filter get automatically added to the collection too.
Make videos look as good as possible
Most of the time Plex will handle video quality automatically, and do a good job of it, but there might be occasions when you're not getting the best quality possible (particularly if you're watching on less powerful devices).
To make sure Plex is always serving up video as best it can, in the web app click the Settings icon (the wrench, top right), then Transcoder. If you know you've got the computer to handle it, you can set the top Transcoder quality drop-down to Make my CPU hurt, and enable the Use hardware acceleration when available.
In the apps for individual devices, you'll also find video quality options in the settings. Put video quality up to Maximum for best results—you may need to experiment to find the limits of what each device can handle.
Customize the Continue Watching pane
You can decide what's in Continue Watching (up to a point).Credit: Lifehacker
You might not have given much thought to the Continue Watching pane that shows up on your Films and Shows pages, but you can customize this on the web to suit your own preferences—and maybe remove some content you don't want to keep around.
Click the wrench icon (top right) to open Settings, then select Library on the left. You're able to set a threshold (a number of weeks) beyond which titles disappear from Continue Watching, as well as limiting the number of titles included in title. Turn off the Include season premieres in Continue Watching checkbox to hide premieres for new seasons when you've finished old ones—otherwise they'll show up indefinitely.
The settings you configure here should propagate to the Continue Watching rows in your other apps; try closing and restarting them if not.
Get the channel surfing experience back with QuasiTV
If you miss the traditional channel surfing experience when using Plex, there's a solution in the form of QuasiTV: This app works on Android TV, Google TV, and Fire TV devices, and wraps your Plex library and streaming services in a more conventional interface.
Sign into Plex, point it towards your libraries, and it'll create a custom channel guide filled with your shows and movies. These might get assigned to genres, or to the TV stations they originally aired on, and you can browse around until you find something you like—just like the old days.
It's not the most efficient way of searching through your Plex media library, but it's fun to use, and when I tested it out I rediscovered a few movies and TV episodes that I hadn't watched in a while.
I'm tired of my drill with a damn power cord. It made sense when I bought it 15 years ago, but batteries have gotten so much more compact and powerful since then that you're not giving up the light weight of a corded drill just because you're using batteries. Both the drill and impact driver in this DeWalt set are powered by 20Volt Li-ion batteries that weigh around 12 ounces and are about the size of a deck of playing cards. The result is small, maneuverable tools (the drill weighs 3.6 pounds and the impact driver 2.8) that can fix that bookcase without you worrying about where an outlet is.
Some other improvements over my 15-years-ago-drill: an LED worklight, a simple upgrade that makes a huge difference, and one-handed loading of bit tips. The price is pretty sweet too: $149.00, which is 38% off the list price.
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
The October Prime Day sale is proving to be a good time to pick up fitness equipment at a discount—for proof, look no further than this list of the best fitness equipment deals. But if you're looking specifically for Peloton equipment, there's more good news: one model of the Peloton Tread is on sale for $1,000 off, and several Bike models are deeply discounted as well.
Peloton's Cross-Training Tread (that's a treadmill, obviously) is $2,295, down from the regular price of $3,295. This is Peloton's standard treadmill, currently in its second generation. It has a swiveling screen and upgraded hardware compared to the original Tread. Peloton offers running classes you can do on the Tread, and as with all its equipment, you'll need a $49.99/month subscription to use it and get all the streaming content.
The Cross-Training Bike and Bike+ are both deeply discounted
If you're looking for one of Peloton's signature Bikes, they're on sale today as well. The Cross-Training Bike is $1,295, down from a regular price of $1,695 (that's $400 off). And the Cross-Training Bike+, which applies resistance automatically as you follow a class, is $1,795, down from a regular price of $2,695.
For a budget option, there is also an original Bike, available refurbished for just $995. This Bike is still a solid pick (I have one myself!) and gets the same content as the more expensive bikes. It normally goes for $1,395 as a refurbished model, and was $1,695 when it was new.
The Powerbeats Pro 2 are a popular choice for gym-goers and runners. The flexible ear hooks are made with a strong nickel-titanium alloy, and are designed to stay put during high-impact movements. They also come with five ear-tip sizes, allowing for a more customizable fit. An IPX4 rating means they’re sweat- and water-resistant, though not meant for swimming or submersion.
Apple’s H2 chip powers these earbuds, including both active noise cancellation to block out sound and Transparency mode to let you hear your surroundings. Powerbeats Pro 2 also include Adaptive EQ and personalized spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. PCMag, which gave the earbuds an "Excellent" rating, calls the sound “bass-forward,” which isn't surprising for anyone who has used Beats. These earbuds even have a built-in heart-rate monitor, which transmits live workout data to compatible fitness apps and equipment for both Apple and Android users.
Battery life lasts up to 10 hours without ANC and eight hours with it on. The case holds an added 28 hours of charge with ANC on and 35 hours with it off. Plus, a five-minute quick charge provides around 90 minutes of playback. The buds also use tactile buttons instead of touch controls, located on a stem that extends forward from the in-ear module.
While the ear hook design isn’t for everyone, if you're looking for an alternative to traditional earbuds with powerful noise cancellation and physical controls for both Android and Apple users, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are worth considering – especially since they rarely reach this low of a price.
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