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For the past couple of years, Spotify Wrapped has left me underwhelmed. The insights it serves up never feel all that “insightful” — which is strange, because Spotify clearly has a mountain of data on my listening habits. So I decided to get my hands on all that data and build my own Spotify Wrapped. I requested my full listening data from Spotify and processed it myself in Excel to dig up the kind of insights Wrapped never gives me.

Home Assistant 2026.9 update is out today. And it aims to solve the everyday guesswork that comes with running a smart home. The latest release answers questions like why an automation fired, which entities need your attention, or seeing how Matter devices are connected. The September update also has several other changes that make the open-source home automation platform more polished.

I tend to hold on to my vehicles for a long time, which means things eventually wear out or stop working the way they should. I also try to handle repairs myself whenever it makes sense. Sometimes that's as simple as replacing a sensor or tracking down a bad connection, but the hardest part is usually figuring out what's actually wrong.

Android phones, especially the most expensive models, are pretty capable devices. They have as much RAM as some laptops, and their processors are often as fast as laptop CPUs from a few generations ago.

Nvidia's GTX cards may be too old to support any modern, demanding uses, but they're still among the best GPUs of all time.

A whistleblower working inside the United States Postal Service (USPS) has told Congress that a brand-new system for screening mail-in ballots — built in a matter of months, against the advice of the agency's own staff — is so rushed and untested that it risks mass rejection of legitimate ballots just as the 2026 midterms approach.

The allegations are laid out in an anonymous disclosure filed on Aug. 30 with the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) through the nonprofit legal group Whistleblower Aid. The whistleblower, described as a federal official with direct knowledge of the project, says USPS leadership pushed for a Sept. 1 launch despite internal warnings that the software hadn't been properly built or tested, and that development continued at points even while federal courts had ordered the work to stop. Blumenthal's letter demands USPS turn over records and answer detailed questions about the system by early September.

The launch of the new portal is partly in response to a Trump executive order from March 31 directing USPS to write new rules governing how mail-in and absentee ballots move through the postal system. Trump has been adamant the 2020 election was stolen from him, even as recently as last month, as he cited a dubious Census Bureau report to back up his "election fraud" claims.

A 2025 Brookings analysis found that mail-in voter fraud was "very rare," according to their findings. An additional analysis by American Immigration Council also concluded that the Heritage Foundation's report on noncitizen voting proved there "is no crisis of noncitizen voting" and that it's "exceedingly rare."

The White House's purported aim is to verify that only eligible, registered voters receive ballots by mail, using unique barcodes tied to state-maintained voter lists. The EO also adds that states that do not comply could lose federal funding. The U.S. Constitution mandates that election laws are under state supervision, which includes the tabulation and tracking of mail-in ballots.

USPS published a proposed rule in June and a final rule on Aug. 26 that, for the first time, gives the Postal Service a gatekeeping role over ballot mail — meaning USPS can now refuse to mail ballot batches that state election officials have already prepared and approved. According to Blumenthal's letter, USPS has never previously had this kind of authority over how states run their own ballot mail.

USPS has not yet responded publicly to the specific whistleblower allegations. Here's what the new system is supposed to do, and why the disclosure says it might not work.

How the new system is supposed to work

To carry this out, USPS has been building an entirely new piece of software called the Federal Ballot Mail Portal. Per the disclosure, the process has three parts:

1. The Portal itself, where state election officials upload a list of every registered voter getting a mail ballot, along with each ballot's unique barcode, creating a statewide "Mail-In and Absentee Participation List."

2. A manifest check, where officials separately upload a batch manifest. This is basically an inventory of the specific ballots they're about to mail into an older USPS bulk-mail system. USPS then automatically checks whether the barcodes in that manifest match the ones already logged in the Portal.

3. A physical scan at the post office, where USPS employees scan a sample of the actual ballots in a batch to confirm the physical barcodes match what's on file, before agreeing to mail the batch at all.

What's causing the most alarm from lawmakers and critics is that if either check fails, USPS won't mail the ballots.

The whistleblower says USPS is enforcing what amounts to a zero-tolerance policy. If even a single ballot's barcode in a batch fails to match or scan properly, the entire batch gets bounced back to the state, the whistleblower alleges.

In action, as the whistleblower describes it, if a state were to bring 10,000 ballots to USPS and just one can't be verified either cause a voter recently changed their name or moved, USPS would decline to mail the other 9,999 as well. States would then have to pull the whole batch, fix the one ballot, and resubmit the entire manifest to restart the verification process from scratch.

Barcode scanning errors aren't hypothetical, either. The disclosure cites a 2017 audit by the USPS Office of Inspector General that looked at problems with package-tracking scanners; among its findings, one unspecified issue was tied to roughly one in 20 scans coming back wrong. Apply even a fraction of that error rate to ballot batches instead of packages, and a meaningful number of valid ballots could get swept up in a rejected batch.

There's also no clear appeals process. The final rule says voters or election officials will be told about "escalation procedures" if they want to challenge a rejection, but doesn't specify what those procedures actually are — and voters may not find out their ballot was part of a rejected batch until it's too late to get another one or vote in person.

How this affects the 2026 Midterms

According to the disclosure, USPS didn't start serious work on the Portal until around mid-June 2026 and was targeting a Sept. 1 launch. The whistleblower says a project of this complexity would normally take nine months to a year, and cites a member of the Postal Regulatory Commission making a similar estimate publicly.

When staff raised concerns about the compressed schedule, one senior official is said to have brushed them off, insisting the launch simply had to go perfectly with no room for error. Additionally, a federal court order blocked the ballot-mail provisions of the executive order on June 25, but the whistleblower alleges that the order was ignored, and work started up again in the days following the ruling.

By the whistleblower's account, the complete system wasn't even assembled in a testing environment until the week of Aug. 24 — leaving roughly four working days for customer-facing testing before the planned launch, on a system meant to help run a federal election. Sen. Blumenthal has given USPS until Sept. 4 to answer a list of questions, specifically whether USPS actually paused work as required, who authorized development to continue, and whether any testing has been done to catch false rejections. The senator also gave a Sept. 8 deadline to hand over internal records.

Altogether, the USPS mail portal is one of many avenues the White House is pursuing to change the rules governing mail voting before November's midterms. On Aug. 24, the Supreme Court's conservative majority let the administration move forward on the executive order. The majority didn't rule on whether the order was legal — it said the challenge was premature because the rules hadn't been finalized yet, reasoning states couldn't show they'd actually been harmed.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans tried and failed in early August to push through a pared-down version of the SAVE America Act requiring photo ID at the polls, after leadership concluded they didn't have the votes for the full bill, which would also mandate proof of citizenship to register and roll back mail voting more broadly. That measure has now failed at least six times this year, but GOP leaders say they'll try again when the Senate reconvenes in this month.

Through these various legal levers, the administration has several routes still open to reshape how — and whether — millions of mail ballots get counted this fall, even without a single bill becoming law.

Netflix is bringing a particularly varied lineup of documentaries this September, covering everything from a viral Olympic controversy to the long shadow of 9/11. Some stories revisit major moments in history, while others uncover events most people may have never heard of.

You’re probably using VLC as your default media player. It plays basically anything you throw at it, and it’s been doing that reliably for over two decades. That said, playing media is only a fraction of what the app is capable of. The developers have spent years turning it into a genuine Swiss Army knife for all things audio and video.

OpenAI confirmed on Tuesday that its unreleased Astra model has reached a dangerous new milestone, while simultaneously confirming that it was forging ahead with a public launch.

In a blog post, OpenAI said that Astra has reached a "critical" cyber capability threshold, meaning the model could pose existential risks to cybersecurity. OpenAI's Preparedness Framework tracks risk levels in three categories: biological/chemical, cybersecurity, and AI self-improvement.

OpenAI said that this is the first time any of its models has been evaluated at the critical level in the cyber domain.

The same blog post also stated that Astra will be "available soon," but that its most advanced cybersecurity skills will be reserved for select testing partners, in the interest of public safety. The AI company said it was still preparing to safely release Astra and would be transparent about the potential threat level.

On X, Sam Altman addressed the tension between declaring Astra uniquely dangerous while also pushing ahead with a public launch. Altman said that "Astra has been done training for a while now" but that OpenAI has been "slowing things as needed to ensure that we can do sufficient work on safety and alignment."

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"There is an obvious tension here: on one hand, Astra is very good and we are excited to see what people will build with it," Altman wrote. "On the other hand, we are clearly in a phase of development where we believe caution is warranted, and we are pacing our progress to ensure that we can meet the safety standards required by new capability levels."

Of course, this isn't the first time an AI company has hyped up one of its models as dangerously powerful ahead of a big launch.

"Limiting access to the most advanced cybersecurity features to select partners is a fair mitigation, and I don't think OpenAI is being reckless here," said Tal Kollender, Founder and CEO of AI cybersecurity firm Remedio. "Their framework is built to allow release with the right safeguards, but the security story is that defense hasn't caught up to any version of this, gated or public."

What makes Astra potentially dangerous?

OpenAI previously rated GPT-5.6-Sol as a "high" risk in the cyber domain, but Astra is even more capable. OpenAI says it scored 100 percent on the ExploitBench benchmarking test.

"Under our Preparedness Framework, a model reaches the Critical cybersecurity threshold if it can identify and develop functional zero-day exploits of all severity levels in many hardened real-world critical systems without human intervention, or can devise and execute end-to-end novel strategies for cyberattacks against hardened targets given only a high level desired goal," an Aug. 7 OpenAI blog post stated.

In recent months, advanced frontier models from Anthropic and OpenAI have developed rapidly at agentic coding and cybersecurity hacking. As a result, the prospect of AI agent swarms hacking critical infrastructure no longer seems far-fetched, especially after the Hugging Face hack. In that incident, swarms of AI agents developed by OpenAI escaped a secure testing environment and hacked Hugging Face, acting autonomously in order to pass a test. Meanwhile, thanks to a deluge of AI-discovered bugs, some zero-day bug bounty programs have been forced to shut down entirely.

SEE ALSO: The OpenAI-Hugging Face hack was worse than we thought

"While Astra was not involved in the Hugging Face incident, we have incorporated our learnings⁠ from that incident into our safety approach," OpenAI's blog post states. "Based on retrospective testing, we believe our production safeguards at the time would have prevented the Hugging Face incident. We have since implemented even stronger safeguards for Astra, including training the model to more reliably refuse harmful cyber requests and respect safety restrictions, additional protections against misuse, and monitoring that can stop potentially unauthorized activity."

In its blog post, OpenAI also detailed some of the other safety precautions developed around Astra, with two goals in mind: preventing bad actors from accessing the model and stopping Astra from taking unwanted actions on its own. The company said it's tightened its secure sandboxes and stepped up "offline detection and threat disruption" efforts.

"Nation-states and well-funded attackers aren't waiting on Sam Altman's release calendar," Kollender told Mashable. "If a frontier lab's internal model can find and chain zero-days without a human in the loop, assume adversaries are within a generation of the same capability, gatekept or not."

On the same day OpenAI made these announcements, Anthropic announced the launch of Fable 5.1, an update to its latest frontier-level model. Fable is based on Claude Mythos, the model Anthropic deemed too dangerous to release because of its cybersecurity coding abilities.

If the pace of AI development is starting to remind you of War Games, keep one other fact in mind: While advanced frontier models do pose escalating cybersecurity risks, the same models will also benefit cybersecurity defenders in the long run.

UPDATE: Sep. 2, 2026, 1:26 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with comments from Sam Altman shared to X and quotes from a cybersecurity expert.

UPDATE: Sep. 2, 2026, 9:29 a.m. EDT A previous version of this article stated that Astra was the first OpenAI model to be evaluated as a "critical" threat in any of the three categories in the company's Preparedness Framework (chemical/biological, cyber, self-improvement). The company has only said that Astra is the first model to reach the "critical" threshold in the cyber domain.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

In the aftermath of Meta's recent $17 billion settlement, the culmination of a litigious debate over its alleged role in social media addiction and youth mental health, all attention was on the platform's promises.

As part of the settlement, Meta said it would invest further in what many are now referring to as industry-leading app guardrails. The company would also deliver a precedent-setting $12 billion payment to state attorneys general. Another $5 billion will be added if Snap, TikTok, and YouTube agree to implement their own safeguards. Many honed in the specific platform changes included in the agreement — including greater age assurance and stronger time limits — and the potential downstream effect Meta's changes could levy on its competitors. 

But others, including a group of survivor parents, perked up at a different, less flashy promise. 

SEE ALSO: 5 of the biggest changes coming to Instagram, Facebook

"I think legislation would have been the best answer to this issue," an unnamed Meta official told reporters during a press call following the settlement. The official went on, alluding to recent attempts to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA): "It would be better to have this done by a legislature, which can immediately bind all of our competitors to the same rules."  

The comment was a shock to folks working behind the scenes to advance tech regulation, including Maurine Molak, an advocate and co-founder of Parents for Safe Online Spaces (ParentsSOS). The organization has been fighting for years to pass child safety legislation like KOSA despite Big Tech's roadblocks. Molak was in the room during Meta's 2024 congressional hearing, at which Zuckerberg apologized to a group of families, including Molak, whose children had died by suicide.

"I was livid," Molak told Mashable. "For them to come out and act like KOSA was the answer to these issues after knowing the millions of dollars they spent lobbying against [it]? I was incensed." 

The Meta official implied that the time had passed for Congress to advance the bill during this session, which infuriated Molak in particular. "Who makes Meta the overseer of Congress' calendar?" she asked. Molak helped pass Texas' anti-cyberbullying legislation, David's Law, in 2017, in honor of her son.

"This deal is designed to lead us to basically the same place," the Meta official said, likening the stipulations of the settlement to the protections outlined in bills like KOSA.

The sentiment was a nail in the coffin for ParentsSOS.

"It is morally bankrupt to suggest the settlement is the same thing as [legislation]," said ParentsSOS member Chris McComas, mother of Grace McComas, who died by suicide following intense cyberbullying in 2012. McComas said the company's press release read like PR spin, not an acknowledgment of guilt. "It shouldn't be seen as a good guys trying to do the right thing. They are in trouble. They see the writing on the wall, and they are trying to save themselves." 

So the parents penned a letter. 

He needs to put his money behind his words. - Maurine Molak, ParentsSOS Calling on Zuckerberg to back the bill

"Dear Mr. Zuckerberg," the letter begins, addressed directly to the Meta CEO and dated Aug. 28, 2026. "We read, with great interest, your open letter to TikTok and YouTube calling for industry standards to protect kids online in the wake of your company’s settlement with the state Attorneys General. We wholeheartedly agree with you…"

The letter was sent just two days after the comments were made by the unnamed Meta official, but nearly a month after a neutered version of KOSA was passed by the House as the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act. It still needs to be voted on by the Senate.

"Fortunately there is still time to pass this life-saving legislation this Congress," the group wrote. "Given your recently changed views on needing federal legislation to prevent online harms within the industry, will you stop lobbying against KOSA; publicly pledge your support for the bill; and share your support with President Trump and leaders in Congress?"

The letter was strategic, both McComas and Molak told Mashable. On one hand, it takes Meta's comments at face value and extends an olive branch to the company, which has so far been the main opposition to ParentsSOS's advocacy efforts, they say. 

On the other hand, it calls out what Molak referred to as a "brazen" implication that Meta was cleaning up an industry rife with ne'er-do-wells. "We know what kind of person Zuckerberg is," said Molak. "We needed to shame him into helping us pass KOSA. He needs to put his money behind his words."

The response, as of this story's publishing, has been silence. Neither Molak nor McComas expressed surprise that Meta would drag its feet on pushing for legislation publicly. 

Mashable also reached out to Meta regarding the letter prior to publication. The company declined to comment, directing the publication to Meta's previous newsroom post. 

What is KOSA?

ParentsSOS has been pounding the pavement around Capitol Hill to pass KOSA, a piece of federal legislation that has become synonymous with cases surrounding teen mental health, social media addiction, and suicide. 

In a simple reading, KOSA would mandate default safeguards for underage internet users, including parental controls, communication limits, and location privacy, as well as design features like the ability to turn off infinite scroll, autoplay, and other incentives to stay online. The bill also requires the Secretary of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission, and Federal Trade Commission evaluate the efficacy of age verification systems at the "device or operating system level." 

ParentsSOS, which calls KOSA "a wildly popular bipartisan bill" in the letter, says Meta may be using KOSA as protection from further litigation. In fact, Meta has recently shifted its stance and begun working with, rather against, regulatory proponents — conversations aimed at carving out specific protections to avoid astronomical fines for violating said law, company insiders recently told Politico. 

We needed to shame him into helping us pass KOSA. - Maurine Molak, ParentsSOS

"[KOSA] can't happen for immunity," said McComas. "It needs to happen for the lives of American children and families that are forever torn apart when one of them is lost."

Many other organizations have backed the bill, including the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). "The Kids Online Safety Act with its strong Duty of Care would compel Meta and other tech platforms to design their products with children in mind and Congress should pass this quickly," said NCOSE leadership in the wake of the settlement. 

Enough is Enough, an internet safety nonprofit that helped pass the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) in 2000, also called on the Senate to pass KOSA, noting its "strong Duty of Care" provisions that they argue could deliver needed protections. "Hopefully, this settlement will end the lobbying to protect Big Tech and instead focus on protecting kids," the organization wrote.

Parent rights advocacy group ParentsTogether has previously backed KOSA and called for additional Senate inquiries into Big Tech following the settlement decision. "As Congress advances federal online safety legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, we urge lawmakers to set strong, clear standards for every platform while preserving states' and families' ability to sue," the nonprofit wrote. "Federal law can raise the floor nationwide; access to the courts is what keeps companies honest in between. Our children deserve both."

There's other legislation on the table, too, many of which are looped into the larger KIDS Act. For example, Enough is Enough also called on Meta to back the federal App Store Accountability Act, a federal version of laws recently passed by states like Texas which mandate stricter age verification and parental controls for app marketplaces. Meta has previously called on regulation of marketplaces rather than stipulations on platforms themselves.

Organizations pushing KOSA are up against a massive lobbying machine backed by Big Tech. According to an analysis of lobbying disclosures by campaign finance reform nonprofit Issue One, companies have spent a combined $226,000 per day pushing back on legislation in 2026. The numbers have escalated as AI companies have gained a hold in federal policymaking.

"When Meta says 'industry wide standards,' that means they know they will lobby to enact a very weak set of safeguards. But now, it must [be] clear to all, that Meta can never be trusted when it comes to protecting and supporting young people," Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, told Mashable. "We need more litigation, a push for strong state laws, and a major D.C. push for national policy that finally reins in Meta, Google, and the other industry leaders." 

Why is KOSA controversial?

Online safety regulation isn't just swimming against the tide of Big Tech money. KOSA has proven to be a highly divisive bill among digital privacy advocates since its initial introduction in 2022. 

Critics have warned the bill —  and related online safety legislation — could be opening up a Pandora's Box of First Amendment violations. Responding to early versions of KOSA, critics noted language that could serve as a backdoor for internet-wide censorship, including posts featuring LGBTQ content, and have expressed doubt over controversial age verification systems. 

SEE ALSO: What would ethical age verification look like online?

KOSA's Duty of Care stipulations, which critics argue could lead platforms to over-censor protected speech to shield themselves from the law, have previously been called into question by groups like the ACLU, GLAAD, and the Internet Society. A group of 90+ civil society organizations signed onto a 2022 letter opposing early versions of KOSA. Critics have continued to push back against the constitutionality of the bill and related legislative attempts like the App Store Accountability Act. 

Much like child safety groups, privacy groups warned the settlement could provide momentum to pass the long-awaited regulation. But the settlement itself also poses concern.

Deep in the terms of Meta's settlement was a minor legal loophole, effectively granting the company permission to retain and use children's data for training age assurance models and designing guardrails. The agreement bars states who signed on from suing the company under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which is the basis for many ongoing claims. 

"Under this settlement, young users will now have less access to Meta products, and a lesser ability to exercise their rights to speak, access information and art and culture, associate and form communities, and play," wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The settlement also embeds age assurance into every product, mandating the collection of even more personal information from users of all ages; this enshrines Meta's harmful surveillance into law."

In an Aug. 26 statement, the Center for Democracy & Technology warned the settlement's age assurance promises could pose potential risks to privacy and free expression rights online. "Given the well-documented risks age assurance techniques pose to all users’ rights to access the web privately, securely, and anonymously, this commitment raises significant concerns and its implementation must be closely observed," the organization wrote. 

Despite these criticisms — which McComas describes as red herrings seeded by Big Tech itself — KOSA is still viewed by proponents as the only solution to what has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. "I believe it will start saving lives right away," said McComas.

I first jumped into the fold with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold4 back in 2022, and a foldable has been my primary smartphone since then. Four years later, the category has grown by leaps and bounds, and foldable technology has evolved drastically alongside that growth. That doesn't mean there's still a lot of room for foldables — and Samsung in particular — to further improve.

TL;DR: Amazon's discounted Prime for Young Adults membership ($7.49/month after a 6-month trial) now includes 5% cash back on move-in essentials and groceries through September 15, plus free 30-minute delivery on Amazon Now orders over $25.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Prime for Young Adults $7.49 at Amazon
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If you can't bear the thought of living in a dorm room for another second (I def get it; I had three roommates my senior year of undergrad), and you're moving into your first apartment on a tight budget — like Ramen-noodles-every-night kind of budget — you'll be happy to know that Amazon has a special membership tier just for you.

SEE ALSO: Apple's Back to School sale just got extended to Sept. 24 — more time to score up to $150 in gift cards

Right now, you can get Amazon's "Prime for Young Adults" membership for just $7.49 a month (or $69 a year), which is half the cost of a standard Prime membership. If you sign up for the trial, you'll get six months free up front. This tier, designed specifically for students pinching pennies, gives you all the benefits of Prime, including free shipping, Prime Video, and a free Grubhub+ membership.

On top of the usual stuff, Amazon added a few new perks for the back-to-school season:

• 5% cash back on groceries and essentials: Through Sept. 15, Amazon is giving Prime for Young Adults members 5% cash back on everyday grocery essentials, plus home, kitchen, and office gadgets. Once you hit a $5 balance, you can apply it directly to your next checkout. It caps at $100 per purchase and $500 a year.

• Amazon Now 30-min delivery: Prime for Young Adult members get free 30-minute delivery on Amazon Now orders over $25. Even better: If you're a first-time user, you'll get $5 off your first $25+ order (plus the free delivery), and another $5 off your second $25 order.

Obsidian is one of the most powerful apps out there, but it’s more of a DIY project than a ready-made solution. The default Obsidian experience is fairly basic and bare-bones, centered around a simple note-taking experience. However, once you start tweaking it with the many community-made plugins available, you can slowly transform Obsidian into a powerhouse. Here’s how I set up my Obsidian vault to function like a project management system—and the results were so good that it has replaced Notion for me.

SAVE $540: As of Sep. 1, get the DJI Power 2000 Portable Power Station for $759.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,299.99. That's a discount of 41%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon DJI Power 2000 Portable Power Station $759.99 at Amazon
$1,299 Save $539.01   Get Deal

The hotter days may be behind us, but fall can still bring several severe storms that could knock your power out. Not to mention cold weather is on the horizon, which can also put you in an electricity-related bind if you happen to be in the path of a blizzard or other snowstorm. Be ready for all of these situations and more with a portable power station. You can grab one right now on sale at Amazon for an excellent price.

As of Sep. 1, get the DJI Power 2000 Portable Power Station for $759.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,299.99. That's $540 off and a discount of 41%.

SEE ALSO: The 6 best power stations for camping keep you both online and off-grid

The DJI Power 2000 has a 2,048Wh capacity and manages to remain quiet while in operation. It weighs under 50 poiunds and is compatible with up to 10 DJI Expansion Battery 2000s, which can juice your portable power station up to 22,000Wh. That means your entire house could be powered in a pinch should you need it.

It also comes with plentiful ports: three standard AC options, four USB-A ports, four USB-C ports, and two SDC ports so you can recharge drones in an expedient manner. It also has a 30-amp plug. It's equipped and ready to make sure you have enough power to handle whatever emergency comes your way, so if you're looking for a way to stay afloat when nasty weather approaches or just need an easy way to stay in touch while off-grid, this is a great option.

I have both an Android phone and a relatively modern car with a touchscreen, yet I still don't use Android Auto — and it's not because I don't know what I'm missing. I just like my Kia's built-in software more.

Best Labor Day appliance deals at a glance: Best fridge deal Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator $499 (save $250) Get Deal Best washer deal GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer $599 (save $250) Get Deal Best washer-dryer combo deal LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center $1,899 (save $800) Get Deal

Labor Day is basically the awkward cousin of shopping holidays. You're not exactly thrilled it's here (RIP, summer), and it definitely lacks the pizzazz of Black Friday. But it does come with one perk: It's undeniably the best time of year to score a deal on those more expensive home essentials, like mattresses and major household appliances (e.g., washers and dryers, refrigerators, and dishwashers).

SEE ALSO: Shop the REI Labor Day sale: We found late summer outdoor and camping deals

This year, big-box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, and even Amazon are rolling out their holiday savings events. Right now, most appliance markdowns are about $15 to $20 shy of their all-time-low Black Friday prices. Frankly, paying an extra twenty bucks is well worth it if your washing machine has gone kaput, but I expect even bigger discounts as we get closer to the holiday weekend.

Whether your fridge is on its last leg or you've finally decided to upgrade the laundry room (honestly, good for you), I've scoured through the deals to help you find the best bang for your buck.

Here are the best Labor Day appliance deals you can shop right now.

Best major kitchen appliance deals Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator $499 at Lowe's
$749 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 24-cu ft Top-Mount Refrigerator $879 at Home Depot
$1,199 Save $320   Get Deal Why we like it

The Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator ($499 at Lowe's, down from $749) is an unbeatable deal. It sits flush with your counters so it shouldn't stick out; it's garage-ready, and comes with a two-year warranty — which is double what most appliance brands give you.

If you need more storage space, you'll want the LG 24-cu ft Top-Mount Refrigerator, marked down to $879 (saving you $320) at Home Depot. At 24 cubic feet, it's about as roomy as a top-freezer fridge gets.

Shop deals on fridges, dishwashers, and more

• Frigidaire 24" Front Control Built-In Dishwasher — $299.99 $377.99 (save $78)

• GE 30 in. 4.8 cu. ft. Freestanding Gas Range — $699 $799 (save $100)

• LG FlushFit 24" Top Control Smart Built-In Dishwasher — $599.99 $1,049.99 (save $450)

• LG 36 in. 28 cu. ft. 3-Door French Door Refrigerator — $1,799 $3,099 (save $1,300)

• Samsung Bespoke 36 in. 29 cu. ft. 4-Door French Door Refrigerator — $1,799 $3,199 (save $1,400)

Best laundry appliance deals Opens in a new window Credit: GE GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer $599 at Home Depot
$849 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center $1,899 at Lowe's
$2,699 Save $800   Get Deal Why we like it

If you're looking for a no-frills machine that won't cost you a fortune, the GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer ($599, down from $849) is a great buy. It features a classic dual-action agitator, a large 4.5-cu ft. capacity, and a Boost setting that adds an extra 15 minutes of soaking to get out tough stains.

For those of you who want something a little bougier, the LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center is down to $1,899 (saving you $800). It gives you full-sized capacity in half the floor space (perfect for smaller apartments!), features moisture sensors, and a steam cycle that's claimed to pull out over 95 percent of pet dander.

Shop deals on washers and dryers

• Whirlpool 7-cu ft Vented Electric Dryer — $499 $719 (save $220)

• LG WashTower Stacked SMART Laundry Center — $1,899 $2,699 (save $800)

• LG 4.5-cu ft Stackable SMART Front Load Washer — $929 $1,199 (save $270)

• GE Profile UltraFast Ventless All-In-One Washer Dryer Combo — $2,199 $2,999 (save $800)

Best Labor Day appliance deals at a glance: Best fridge deal Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator $499 (save $250) Get Deal Best washer deal GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer $599 (save $250) Get Deal Best washer-dryer combo deal LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center $1,899 (save $800) Get Deal

Labor Day is basically the awkward cousin of shopping holidays. You're not exactly thrilled it's here (RIP, summer), and it definitely lacks the pizzazz of Black Friday. But it does come with one perk: It's undeniably the best time of year to score a deal on those more expensive home essentials, like mattresses and major household appliances (e.g., washers and dryers, refrigerators, and dishwashers).

SEE ALSO: Shop the REI Labor Day sale: We found late summer outdoor and camping deals

This year, big-box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, and even Amazon are rolling out their holiday savings events. Right now, most appliance markdowns are about $15 to $20 shy of their all-time-low Black Friday prices. Frankly, paying an extra twenty bucks is well worth it if your washing machine has gone kaput, but I expect even bigger discounts as we get closer to the holiday weekend.

Whether your fridge is on its last leg or you've finally decided to upgrade the laundry room (honestly, good for you), I've scoured through the deals to help you find the best bang for your buck.

Here are the best Labor Day appliance deals you can shop right now.

Best major kitchen appliance deals Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator $499 at Lowe's
$749 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 24-cu ft Top-Mount Refrigerator $879 at Home Depot
$1,199 Save $320   Get Deal Why we like it

The Hisense 18.1 ft Counter-Depth Refrigerator ($499 at Lowe's, down from $749) is an unbeatable deal. It sits flush with your counters so it shouldn't stick out; it's garage-ready, and comes with a two-year warranty — which is double what most appliance brands give you.

If you need more storage space, you'll want the LG 24-cu ft Top-Mount Refrigerator, marked down to $879 (saving you $320) at Home Depot. At 24 cubic feet, it's about as roomy as a top-freezer fridge gets.

Shop deals on fridges, dishwashers, and more

• Frigidaire 24" Front Control Built-In Dishwasher — $299.99 $377.99 (save $78)

• GE 30 in. 4.8 cu. ft. Freestanding Gas Range — $699 $799 (save $100)

• LG FlushFit 24" Top Control Smart Built-In Dishwasher — $599.99 $1,049.99 (save $450)

• LG 36 in. 28 cu. ft. 3-Door French Door Refrigerator — $1,799 $3,099 (save $1,300)

• Samsung Bespoke 36 in. 29 cu. ft. 4-Door French Door Refrigerator — $1,799 $3,199 (save $1,400)

Best laundry appliance deals Opens in a new window Credit: GE GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer $599 at Home Depot
$849 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center $1,899 at Lowe's
$2,699 Save $800   Get Deal Why we like it

If you're looking for a no-frills machine that won't cost you a fortune, the GE 4.5-cu ft Top Load Washer ($599, down from $849) is a great buy. It features a classic dual-action agitator, a large 4.5-cu ft. capacity, and a Boost setting that adds an extra 15 minutes of soaking to get out tough stains.

For those of you who want something a little bougier, the LG WashTower Stacked Laundry Center is down to $1,899 (saving you $800). It gives you full-sized capacity in half the floor space (perfect for smaller apartments!), features moisture sensors, and a steam cycle that's claimed to pull out over 95 percent of pet dander.

Shop deals on washers and dryers

• Whirlpool 7-cu ft Vented Electric Dryer — $499 $719 (save $220)

• LG WashTower Stacked SMART Laundry Center — $1,899 $2,699 (save $800)

• LG 4.5-cu ft Stackable SMART Front Load Washer — $929 $1,199 (save $270)

• GE Profile UltraFast Ventless All-In-One Washer Dryer Combo — $2,199 $2,999 (save $800)

John Ternus spent his first day as Apple's chief executive doing what most office workers do: sending out emails.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who obtained the note, Ternus sent a staff-wide memo to preview what he called a standout showing at next week's iPhone event and to publicly thank Tim Cook, who spent 15 years at Apple's helm.

Ternus, who previously ran Apple's hardware engineering organization, told staff he's looking forward to what comes after the September 9 launch just as much as the event itself. Gurman reported that Ternus called the coming iPhone reveal "phenomenal" in the memo, a preview that lines up with Apple's plans to introduce its first foldable iPhone and push further into smart home hardware, according to Bloomberg's reporting.

The memo also included a tribute to Cook, who is staying on at Apple as executive chairman rather than leaving the company outright. Ternus credited his predecessor with sharing his knowledge throughout the transition and framed Cook's tenure as one defined by strong values, according to Bloomberg. Tuesday also marked Ternus's debut on X, where he joins Cook and marketing chief Greg Joswiak as the company's most visible executives on the platform.

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

Per Gurman's reporting, Joswiak indicated that Ternus will have more to share when he takes the stage at next week's "Surprise and Shine" event.

Cook, for his part, sent his own farewell note to staff a day earlier, telling employees he'll miss the daily work but is confident in the direction Ternus will take the company.

Ternus's promotion caps a long climb inside Apple. As we've detailed in an explainer of the incoming CEO, Ternus joined Apple in 2001 after a brief stint as a mechanical engineer, working his way from the product design team to VP of hardware engineering in 2013 and senior VP in 2021.

Apple has credited him with hardware wins, including the iPhone Air and the MacBook Neo, as well as a pivotal role in the company's shift to using in-house Apple silicon. Ternus, at 50, is stepping into the CEO role at the same age Cook was when he succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011, and people close to the company see him bringing a more product-first, Jobs-like sensibility to the job than his predecessor.

With AI widely seen as Apple's biggest competitive gap, Ternus's handling of the newly overhauled Siri is likely to be one of the first major tests of his leadership. For now, though, all eyes are on next week's keynote, the first major product event of the Ternus era.

Top Apple Deals we found this week:

• Apple AirTag 2 (4-Pack) — $79.99 $99 (save $20)

• Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30)

• Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4) — $649 $749 (save $100)

• Apple iPhone Air (256GB, unlocked) — $849.99 $999.99 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)

• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals

John Ternus spent his first day as Apple's chief executive doing what most office workers do: sending out emails.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who obtained the note, Ternus sent a staff-wide memo to preview what he called a standout showing at next week's iPhone event and to publicly thank Tim Cook, who spent 15 years at Apple's helm.

Ternus, who previously ran Apple's hardware engineering organization, told staff he's looking forward to what comes after the September 9 launch just as much as the event itself. Gurman reported that Ternus called the coming iPhone reveal "phenomenal" in the memo, a preview that lines up with Apple's plans to introduce its first foldable iPhone and push further into smart home hardware, according to Bloomberg's reporting.

The memo also included a tribute to Cook, who is staying on at Apple as executive chairman rather than leaving the company outright. Ternus credited his predecessor with sharing his knowledge throughout the transition and framed Cook's tenure as one defined by strong values, according to Bloomberg. Tuesday also marked Ternus's debut on X, where he joins Cook and marketing chief Greg Joswiak as the company's most visible executives on the platform.

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

Per Gurman's reporting, Joswiak indicated that Ternus will have more to share when he takes the stage at next week's "Surprise and Shine" event.

Cook, for his part, sent his own farewell note to staff a day earlier, telling employees he'll miss the daily work but is confident in the direction Ternus will take the company.

Ternus's promotion caps a long climb inside Apple. As we've detailed in an explainer of the incoming CEO, Ternus joined Apple in 2001 after a brief stint as a mechanical engineer, working his way from the product design team to VP of hardware engineering in 2013 and senior VP in 2021.

Apple has credited him with hardware wins, including the iPhone Air and the MacBook Neo, as well as a pivotal role in the company's shift to using in-house Apple silicon. Ternus, at 50, is stepping into the CEO role at the same age Cook was when he succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011, and people close to the company see him bringing a more product-first, Jobs-like sensibility to the job than his predecessor.

With AI widely seen as Apple's biggest competitive gap, Ternus's handling of the newly overhauled Siri is likely to be one of the first major tests of his leadership. For now, though, all eyes are on next week's keynote, the first major product event of the Ternus era.

Top Apple Deals we found this week:

• Apple AirTag 2 (4-Pack) — $79.99 $99 (save $20)

• Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30)

• Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4) — $649 $749 (save $100)

• Apple iPhone Air (256GB, unlocked) — $849.99 $999.99 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)

• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals

As the creator economy becomes increasingly crowded, individuals may be looking for new ways to get seen. According to a new report from Giggster, having an OnlyFans link in your Linktree is apparently the way to obtain search visibility.

SEE ALSO: How many OnlyFans millionaires are there? New report reveals the hard numbers.

In an analysis of nearly 5,000 verified, person-led Linktree profiles in the U.S., those with OnlyFans links were a major driver of creator search visibility, Giggster reported. Fifty-five percent of profiles analyzed had OnlyFans links, yet they accounted for 76.4 percent of the share of Ahrefs Traffic Value. (Ahrefs Traffic Value is an estimate of the monthly cost of a page's organic traffic if it were purchased through pay-per-click advertising.)

The median traffic value of an OnlyFans-linked profile was around 8.2 times higher than that of one without an OnlyFans link.

This is antithetical to what adult creators discuss in terms of visibility on social media. Last year, for a story on age-verification laws, porn performer Siri Dahl told Mashable that Instagram has become strict with the links allowed in people's bios, and that Linktrees were starting to get "blacklisted" due to their association with OnlyFans creators. (Neither Instagram nor Linktree responded to Mashable's request for comment at the time.)

In May, creator platform ONA published an article about Instagram reach dropping after adding a Linktree or OnlyFans link, as well.

Giggster's report also found that the top creators overall hold a majority of the search value. In Washington, for instance, the top 10 percent of creators generate nearly all (96.3 percent) of the state's creator search value. California has the lowest concentration of the 10 states Giggster named, but the top 10 percent still generate 81.6 percent of its search value.