Blogroll

If an app icon appears on my desktop—ZAP! Gone. I now even hide my taskbar so that nothing greets me but a pristine wallpaper and my open apps. I don't plan to be less vigilant any time soon.

The sun is out, the birds are singing, and the wildlife is buzzing with plenty of activity, which puts me in the mood for some action-packed streaming entertainment to watch this week.

Tesla is bidding farewell to the Model S and X with ultra-limited editions for both. The car giant is making Signature Series versions of the Model S and X Plaid with unique trim that will help them stand out in an already rarified EV category.

Slate Auto, the EV startup backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has raised $650 million in a Series C funding round that will help launch its affordable, modular pickup truck in late 2026.

It's a quieter week for new movies on streaming compared to last week's lineup, which included Thrash and Outcome. However, there are still some noteworthy releases in the U.S., especially on Netflix and Prime Video. Our top pick of the week stars the daughter of Adam Sandler, who produces and appears in a smaller role.

The art of partitioning system drives seems to have all but died. Yes, your PC probably has a partitioned drive, but you're probably not the one who partitioned it. Your laptop's manufacturer and the operating system you've installed probably made a few for system and restoration purposes, but as far as I can tell most computer users these days don't make disk partitions.

Merging cells in Excel is a trap—it can disrupt your spreadsheet's structure and make simple tasks like sorting pretty much impossible. Center Across Selection is the superior choice, and a simple macro lets you pin it to your Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).

If you're new to Android Auto, you might think that Google Maps and Spotify are all you really need. But there are a handful of other programs that can enhance your driving experience. Whether you're doing your daily commute or embarking on a long road trip, these Android Auto apps will make the journey a lot easier.

The best TV deals to shop this week at a glance: LG 55-inch Class OLED B5 4K TV $799.99 at Amazon (save $700) Get Deal Samsung 75-inch Class QLED Q7F 4K TV $567.99 at Amazon (save $432) Get Deal Hisense 85-inch Class U8 4K TV $1,499.99 at Amazon (save $2,000) Get Deal

You deserve some time to relax. Chill out on the couch with a great show, play a classic Mario game, or watch this weekend's best baseball games. But are you really gonna do this on your tiny phone or a handheld device? You deserve something bigger. Give those squinting eyes a break and spend some time with a great TV. If your current TV isn't doing its intended job anymore, it might be time for an upgrade.

Thankfully, the world of TVs hasn't seen a wild price increase like some other categories have in recent years. You can still snag great deals on a new, high-end TV that'll work well for years. And if we break down the time spent watching TV, it might be well worth the investment.

I've scanned the best TV deals at Amazon this week to find the sales worth shopping. Some models come from our favorite TV brands and shave big money off the normal price. It's worth mentioning Amazon has inaccurately noted several list prices on these TVs compared to their accurate MSRP as listed by the brand. We've noted the correct savings on each model based on the brand's own list price.

Here are some deals worth shopping this week if you're looking to upgrade your TV this spring.

Best LG deal Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 55-inch Class OLED B5 4K TV $799.99 at Amazon
$1,499.99 Save $700   Get Deal Why we like it

Not every room needs a massive TV. A great 55-inch model could be perfect in your bedroom, living room, or the kids' room. Today's deal on the LG 55-inch Class OLED B5 4K TV takes $700 off compared to the list price at LG. This model uses LG's Alpha 8 AI processor that automatically adjust the picture and sound quality to give you the best experience possible. The OLED display focuses on giving off perfect blacks and bright contrast colors, using over 8.3 billion self-lit smart pixels. Plus, it comes with the LG Ultimate Game Play functions with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Best Samsung deal Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 75-inch Class QLED Q7F 4K TV $567.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $432   Get Deal Why we like it

Down to a record-low price at Amazon, the Samsung 75-inch Class QLED Q7F 4K TV uses 4K upscaling to give a great image. A 75-inch TV from front-runner Samsung that's on sale for under $568 is something worth paying attention to. This 2025 model uses Samsung's supersize picture enhancer that ensures the larger pixels on such a large display stay clear and crips with excellent contrast.

You also get access to Samsung TV Plus which contains over 2,700 channels of premium TV. Amazon is also tossing in one month of free access to Xbox GamePass for new users and free delivery into the room of your choice and unpacking.

Best Hisense deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 85-inch Class U8 4K TV $1,499.99 at Amazon
$3,499.99 Save $2,000.00   Get Deal Why we like it

Ready to go big? TVs in the 85-inch and up range tend to come with eye-watering prices. That's why we're thrilled to see the Hisense 85-inch Class U8 4K TV down to a record-low price at Amazon of $1,499.99.

Perfect for larger living rooms or rec rooms, the Hisense shines with up to 5,000 Nits of brightness and an impressive 165Hz refresh rate. That means it'll be a great gaming TV for your favorite titles. If you tend to watch TV during bright hours, the addition of the Anti-Reflection Pro coating will help with distracting reflections. This model is also certified by the IMAX corporation should you want to watch some of Hollywood's greatest films at home.

It's been a long time coming for Pragmata. Capcom's new sci-fi third-person shooter first debuted with a memorably vague trailer during a showcase of PS5 games — before the PS5 even came out — then entered a prolonged period of radio silence. Three or four years ago, you could've convinced me the project was canceled, as so many new-console-showcase games often are.

However, almost six years later, Pragmata is here, it's real, and it kicks ass.

The action game gurus at Capcom have crafted another inventive, tightly designed, and (in this instance) surprisingly heartfelt adventure that stands out in a world where so many big-budget games seemingly want you to never play anything else. Pragmata doesn't have a long bullet-point list of features; instead, it stretches one unique gameplay hook to the extreme for no more than 10 to 12 hours.

Between its excellent hacking-based combat and touchingly sincere interactions between its two protagonists, Pragmata has a real argument as being one of the best recent games in Capcom's portfolio, and that's no small thing if you've been keeping up with Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and the like over the last seven or eight years.

SEE ALSO: 4 things I really want from the rumored 'Zelda: Ocarina of Time' remake (and a couple I don't) Meet Hugh and Diana. You'll love them. Pragmata is a great game to look at. Credit: Capcom

For almost all of Pragmata's story, there are two characters with speaking roles. It's a good thing they're both easy to love.

Players step into the spacesuit boots of Hugh Williams, an exceedingly normal man sent to a futuristic moon base called the Cradle on a repair mission, only to find that the Cradle's entire human staff has been exterminated by angry 3D-printed robots who nominally exist for maintenance and assistance purposes. After the rest of Hugh's repair crew unceremoniously eats it within the first 20 minutes of the game's story, Hugh meets up with a mysterious little robot girl named Diana, who spends the rest of Pragmata riding around on his shoulders as the two try to escape the Cradle and get back to Earth.

Pragmata's story has some twists and turns, many of them predictable if you pay any attention to the various text and audio logs left behind by the former human crew of the Cradle. It's a perfectly fine excuse to romp through a cool moon base full of 3D-printed architecture and freaky robots, but it's unlikely to win any narrative awards at the end of the year. That's fine, though, because the story's main purpose is linking Hugh and Diana together, giving Pragmata some real emotional juice it wouldn't have otherwise.

This is a standout environment in a game with plenty of those. Credit: Capcom

Over the past 10-ish years, video games have been plagued by stories about sad dads learning to become regular people by virtue of having to escort and protect kids through some perilous journey. The Last of Us and Sony's recent God of War reboot games come to mind. Pragmata could have easily fallen down this same hole, but instead, its writers made the gloriously correct decision to give Hugh and Diana more of an uncle/niece relationship instead. Their conversations can be playful and goofy as often as they are sincere and emotional, and Hugh seems to delight in being able to teach Diana (who has never been to Earth) what it's like to live on the human homeworld as they traipse through artificial facsimiles of Earth-like environments.

I'm especially fond of the 3D-printed Times Square environment that's been shown off in various trailers, but rest assured that Pragmata has plenty of environmental variety despite its setting, and it all looks gorgeous and runs flawlessly on a PS5 Pro.

Anyway, most importantly, Hugh is not some traumatized, damaged, sad bastard who needs a child to fill an emotional void in his heart like Joel or Kratos. His backstory isn't entirely pleasant, but for the most part, he's a nice guy who's had a pretty good life full of people who love him, and he's fully aware of that. Hugh spends much of Pragmata extolling the virtues of human love and companionship to Diana, which I found refreshingly positive compared to the overwhelming misanthropy of something like The Last of Us.

All of that characterization manages to transcend what is otherwise a fairly standard sci-fi story, coming to a head in an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Hack, shoot, and dash your way to freedom The hacking minigame in its most basic form. Credit: Capcom

Pragmata's narrative elements elevate the experience, to be sure, but they are not the reason why I think you should play it. Rather, I think you should play Pragmata because the part where you fight robots is as fun and clever as any third-person shooter has been in the past few years.

If you haven't been following along (there's a free demo on every platform that you should check out), Pragmata is a shooter where your guns don't really hurt enemies by default. Their robotic exoskeletons are nearly impervious to conventional weaponry, which is where Diana comes in. She uses her android powers to hack enemies, causing them to expose weak points that Hugh can then shoot.

This is done through a simple hacking minigame that accompanies the shooting. When you aim at an enemy, a grid will appear on screen that you navigate through using the four face buttons. The idea is to navigate through beneficial hacking nodes while avoiding harmful ones on the way to a final "complete hack" node, all in real-time as enemies are coming towards Hugh with ill intent. Put more simply, you're completing a little maze on-screen while also trying to avoid and shoot bad guys.

You might think that adding one additional layer to what is otherwise a pretty normal-feeling shooter wouldn't be that big of a deal, but you'd be wrong. The developers at Capcom manage to wring everything they can out of this hacking minigame, as the player gradually unlocks new nodes with different effects, a gauge that builds up with each successful hack that you can expend on more powerful hacks, and some other fun abilities I won't spoil.

Pragmata also has a ton of enemy variety, so while you're just trying to shoot humanoids in the head at the start of the game, combat strategy becomes significantly more interesting and dynamic by the end.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention there's a cool robot who wears a hat. Credit: Capcom

In practice, Pragmata takes what works about recent Resident Evil combat (namely, the tension of carefully aiming at weak points as enemies slowly, ominously trudge towards you), adds all of this fun hacking nonsense, and even adds an acrobatic dash function to the mix. It culminates in something that is extremely fun to do from the very first fight until the final confrontation.

It's also got multiple satisfying upgrade systems that benefit from careful exploration, as secret areas throughout the world are usually filled with exceptionally useful rewards. Pragmata is generally pretty linear, but paying attention to hidden nooks and crannies is every bit as important here as it is in any recent RE game.

I could keep going on about how cool it feels to do a slow-motion perfect dash out of the way of a big boss attack, complete a hack in mid-air, and bombard its weak point with ultra-crunchy space shotgun blasts, but really, you should see it for yourself. Pragmata makes quality use of all its systems, rewards experimentation with different kinds of builds and weapons, and its best challenges ask you to incorporate everything you've learned along the way. I can't really ask for much more out of a great action game.

Well, there is one small thing: It can be kind of hard to wrap your head around hacking when there are lots of enemies on screen. Sometimes, simply locking onto the right one can be a bit of a chore in those circumstances. It's not a big deal, but if the game has one flaw in its combat, it's that.

Pragmata isn't super long, but it makes an impact

I was able to finish Pragmata in about eight hours, but a completionist mindset might stretch that out to 12 to 15 at most. If I have one real complaint about Pragmata beyond its occasionally muddled group combat scenarios and somewhat utilitarian story, it's that I do wish there was just a little more of it. It's less that the game is too short and more that it's so good that I was sad when it was over.

But maybe that's alright. In a world of Crimson Desert-like games that try to do everything at once, maybe we need more experiences like Pragmata. The world of big-budget games would definitely benefit from smaller-scale games with extremely tight, focused design like this. Pragmata was clearly the product of one great idea, and everything that's great about it can be traced back to it.

That's all a game needs.

Roblox has been popular with kids for a very long time, but some of those kids might soon get locked out of their favorite content.

That's because the popular online game creation and sharing tool is rolling out specific, age-gated accounts for younger users in early June, per an official press release. The move is part of a larger push to improve safety on Roblox, after the company faced backlash and legal action for allegedly failing to protect young users from child predators lurking on the platform.

The new accounts are called Roblox Kids and Roblox Select, with the former existing for users between the ages of 5 and 8, and the latter for users between 9 and 16. Roblox Kids accounts can only play games with "Minimal" or "Mild" content ratings, while Select accounts can access "Moderate" games. Chat is also off by default for Kids accounts and "gradually introduced with safeguards" for Select accounts.

SEE ALSO: A parent's guide to keeping kids safe on Roblox

Roblox will enforce all of this in one of two ways: Either users will submit to an age verification system, or linked parental accounts will set an age for the child's account. Anyone who refuses to submit to an age check will automatically be placed into a Kids account.

The press release didn't go into detail about the age verification system, so there may be privacy concerns once it actually rolls out. Roblox said that it will track an account's age over time, so anyone who ages out of a Kids or Select account in real life will also age out of it in the game.

It should also be noted that Roblox will only let Kids and Select accounts play games that have been vetted through a three-step program that includes ID verification for the developers and a pass through Roblox's moderation system.

Even with the potential for privacy problems related to age verification, all of this is arguably overdue for Roblox. As Mashable has covered in the past, Roblox started adopting more safety measures a couple of years ago. However, these tools often required active parental involvement, rather than restricting access for young users across the board.

Age verification critics warn that the practice can be a threat to both privacy and freedom of speech.

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

The Duffer Brothers may be finished with Stranger Things, but they're still backing Netflix projects about creepy monsters, cookie-cutter communities, and subterranean mysteries.

Created by showrunners Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) and produced by the Duffers' Upside Down Pictures, The Boroughs sees a major cast — Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Clarke Peters, Jena Malone, Denis O’Hare, Jane Kaczmarek— dwelling in a sun-drenched, New Mexico retirement community.

It all seems idyllic on the surface until you see the monster claw in the oven.

The Boroughs is streaming on Netflix May 21.

SAVE 19%: As of April 13, you can get the 75-inch Samsung Class QLED Q7F Series Samsung Vision AI Smart TV for $567.99, down from $697.99, at Amazon. That's a 19% discount or $130 in savings.

75-inch Samsung Class QLED Q7F Series Samsung Vision AI Smart TV $567.99 at Amazon
$697.99 Save $130   Get Deal at Amazon

If you're staring down an outdated, undersized TV, it might be time for an upgrade.

Right now, Amazon has the 2025 Samsung 75-inch Class QLED Q7F Series marked down to $567.99. That's a 19% discount (or $130 in savings) and a pretty good deal for a TV this size. It's also the lowest price we've seen this model go for! They'll even deliver it to your room of choice and unbox it for you for free (they won't take your old TV, though.)

SEE ALSO: What's the best time of year to buy a TV? Yes, there's an answer.

The 75-inch display is powered by a Q4 AI Gen1 Processor that actively upscales your older content into crisp 4K. That means you can be watching TV Land reruns and they'll still look like a brand-new show. Combine that with Quantum HDR and 100 percent Color Volume with Quantum Dot technology, and you get over a billion shades of color that'll stay vibrant, even in a living room that gets a lot of natural light.

For gamers and sports fans, it features Motion Xcelerator 60Hz to predict and smooth out the on-screen action, plus Object Tracking Sound Lite, which uses a virtual top channel to make the audio physically follow the movement on the screen.

With a 4.3-star rating from over 2,000 buyers, it's currently sitting as the #1 Best Seller in QLED TVs for a reason. If you've been putting off upgrading because of the price (or just the hassle of moving a giant screen), this deal solves both problems at once.

Chrome extensions are powerful and versatile, but they're also a massive privacy and security risk. This is why I and most people who know at least a little about cybersecurity minimize or eliminate our use of extensions as much as possible.

Most off-the-shelf travel routers are only good for a handful of things. They can share a Wi-Fi network, run a VPN, and even share files. The travel router I built out of a Raspberry Pi can do everything a regular travel router can, but it can do almost anything else you can imagine. Here are 5 ways I've expanded what my travel router can do.

The trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping promises the most colorful, beautiful Hunger Games yet. But fans of Suzanne Collins's book series know something much darker (and emotionally devastating) lurks right below the surface.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, who's helmed every Hunger Games film but the first, this prequel follows Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark's mentor Haymitch Abernathy as he braves the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. Each Quarter Quell comes with a new sadistic twist, and this one's is especially painful. Instead of 24 young tributes competing in the Capitol's elaborate death match, there will be 48.

The trailer introduces the four District 12 tributes who will be heading into the arena: Haymitch, wealthy Maysilee Donner (Mckenna Grace), oddsmaker Wyatt Callow (Ben Wang), and young Louella McCoy (Molly McCann). Another key District 12 figure to keep your eye on is Lenore Dove Baird (Whitney Peak), Haymitch's beloved and a member of the Covey introduced in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Sunrise on the Reaping's trailer also features glimpses of familiar faces from The Hunger Games trilogy. President Snow (Ralph Fiennes) is still terrorizing District 12 tributes, Plutarch Heavensbee (Jesse Plemons) is laying the groundwork for the rebellion that will come 25 years later, and Caesar Flickerman (Kieran Culkin) is bringing sparkles and showmanship to the Hunger Games media coverage. Plus, Effie Trinket (Elle Fanning) is finding her calling as a tribute stylist, and District 3 victor Wiress (Maya Hawke) continues to find ways to exploit the arena's machinery.

For a closer look at all these characters, as well as an unrecognizable Glenn Close as Capitol escort Drusilla Sickle, check out the full trailer above.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters Nov. 20.

I've never really been a OneDrive person. It always felt like one of those things Windows pushes on you whether you want it or not, and for a long time I treated it like something to avoid rather than something to learn. Most of what I thought I knew about it came from the usual frustrations, files syncing when I didn't expect it, folders showing up in weird places, and that constant question of what's actually stored locally versus in the cloud.

Step aside, Apple and Samsung; it's China's Huawei that currently rules the unusually-wide-foldable-phones niche.

On Monday, the company published a teaser video of its upcoming Huawei Pura X Max foldable phone.

SEE ALSO: Every foldable phone planned or rumored for 2026

The Pura X Max will officially launch on Apr. 20 alongside the more conventional Pura 90 Pro, so we don't know all of the exact specs yet. Huawei, however, did say the foldable will come with a triple rear camera, with 12/16GB of RAM, and 256/512/1,024GB of storage.

I could watch a movie on this. Credit: Huawei

The video clearly shows the device from all sides, including some of its color options (the phone will be offered in five colors: Interstellar Blue, Olive Gold, Phantom Night Black, Vibrant Orange, and Zero Degree White).

Huawei hasn't been very popular in the U.S. since it was restricted from using U.S. tech seven years ago, forcing the phone maker to give up on Android as an operating system. But what makes this particular phone interesting is the form factor; the Pura X Max has an unusually wide body when folded, expanding to a tablet-like device when unfolded.

Huawei Pura X Max will be available in five colors: Interstellar Blue, Olive Gold, Phantom Night Black, Vibrant Orange, and Zero Degree White Credit: Huawei

Samsung is rumored to be working on a similar device, and Apple's widely rumored iPhone Fold could look a little bit like that, though details are unofficial and unclear on that one right now.

Amazingly, this isn't even the first wide foldable Huawei has launched. The Pura X Max follows the Huawei Pura X, which is a similarly wide flip foldable that came out in March 2025. The company also sells the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design, a tri-folding phone that boasts powerful specs and an extremely slim profile.

Featured Video For You 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' cast confesses which apps have them addicted to their phones

Photoshop is widely considered the industry standard for photo editing, but it's costly and has a steep learning curve. Most of us just need to remove a background or fix a grainy photo without complicated tools. Surprisingly, the best tool for the job is already on your PC: in early 2026, PowerPoint added a powerful photo editor. Here's how to get started.