IT General

TL;DR: Launch a coding career with an additional $10 savings on this bundle of online coding courses, making them under $3 per course.

Companies are laying off workers, hiring freezes are everywhere, and even ‘entry-level’ jobs require experience. But don’t lose hope — you may just need to rethink your approach. You’ve probably heard about how in-demand tech jobs are, and learning to code can give you a competitive edge with real, hands-on experience.

And it’s not even something you have to go back to school for. You can pick up these online coding courses that cover most, if not all, top programming languages like Python, C++, and Java for only $39.97 (reg. $49.99). This one-time payment gives you lifelong access to video lectures and written course materials.

Here’s what you’ll learn

When you think about coding, you might picture Neo from The Matrix sitting behind a computer monitor typing — but what exactly is he creating? Coders work on many different projects, and these courses introduce you to several different career paths:

• Software developer: Designing and developing software applications.

• Web developer: Creating websites and web applications.

• Data scientist: Analyzing data to extract insights.

• AI engineer: Developing AI-powered applications and systems.

• Full-stack developer: Working on both frontend and backend development.

After you complete the 213 hours of course material, you can start building your own websites, apps, or games and showcase them in a portfolio for prospective employers. Even if your degree is in a different area, you can now add practical coding skills to your resume.

Get our Premium Learn to Code Course Bundle for $39.97 (reg. $49.99) and get ready to start a whole new career. 

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Opens in a new window Credit: Joseph Delgadillo The Premium Learn to Code Certification Bundle $39.97
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TL;DR: Bring deleted files back from the dead with a 10-year license to a Stellar Data Recovery Professional Plan, now $89.99 (reg. $199). 

What's worse than accidentally deleting an important file? In the digital world, we've all gone through that terrible realization. Fortunately, recovery software makes it easy to recover lost files.

Stellar Data Recovery helps you get back your lost files in a few clicks. And at the Mashable Shop, a 10-year license to the Stella Data Recovery Professional Plan just went on sale for $89.99, $110 off the usual price. 

Restore deleted data in a few clicks

From hard drive crashes to malware to accidental clicks, data loss happens for all sorts of reasons. When it happens, Stellar Data Recovery is ready to step in and help. 

Recover deleted photos or videos, important documents, or vital emails thanks to deep scan technology and support for multiple file formats. You don't need to be a tech pro to take advantage of this user-friendly app. 

Have a drive that's corrupted? Stellar can also recover data from formatted, encrypted, or corrupted drives. It can even recover data from completely crashed and unbootable systems. 

All kinds of storage devices are supported, including hard disks, PCs and laptops, SSD cards, SD cards, external drives, and USBs. It also lets you preview the data before saving it, categorizing it for your convenience once it is all recovered. 

There are three themes to choose from: Dark, Light, or Vibrant. Both Windows and Mac options allow you to pause and resume scans to fit your busy schedule, too. 

The reviews are in, and they're, well, "stellar." Techradar raved, "Stellar Data Recovery is one of the best data recovery tools we've used, with highly customizable searches, a huge file-type library, and deep scan abilities."

Give your data some insurance with this 10-year Stellar Data Recovery Professional Plan License, yours for just $89.99 (reg. $199).

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Opens in a new window Credit: Stellar Data Recovery Stellar Data Recovery Professional Plan: 10-Year License $89.99
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TL;DR: Score a year of savings with Sam's Club thanks to this 1-Year Membership, now on sale for Mashable readers for just $25 (reg. $50). 

Want your dollar to go a little further? At Sam's Club, members can shop for everything from groceries to cleaning supplies to jewelry or even fun activities for family outings. And a 1-Year Sam's Club membership is currently on sale for just $25, half off the usual price.

Enjoy one-stop shopping at Sam's Club

Let a Sam's Club membership serve as your secret financial weapon, offering budget-friendly options for your day-to-day needs. With Sam's Club, everyday essentials take less of a dent out of your wallet. Shopping at Sam's Club could even help save you time, as you can buy in bulk and cut down on the amount of shopping trips you make. 

Whether you need to buy diapers, get a new couch, or pick up a prescription, Sam's Club is your go-to place for great deals. Travel discounts and member-only events are some of the other cool perks of a Sam's Club membership. 

Members can also shop with peace of mind, knowing that Sam's Club has made a commitment to sustainability. They have taken actions like ensuring energy-efficient operations, supporting eco-friendly products, and offering bulk packaging to reduce waste.

This 1-year membership offer is available to new Sam's Club members and former members who let their membership expire for 6 months or more. 

Get a Sam's Club membership with Auto-Renew for just $25 (reg. $50). 

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TL;DR: Host epic movie nights year round with this Netflix-certified XGODY projector, now only $109.99 (reg. $399) with free shipping.

If you've scrolled TikTok lately, chances are you've seen a vibey movie night setup courtesy of a projector. Whether it's used in a cozy backyard or atop a chic rooftop, these cool projectors turn any space into a movie theater. 

The XGODY projector is ready to help you set the scene anywhere — whether you're hosting an outdoor event or hoping to ditch your TV and up your bedroom's aesthetic. And right now you can bring one home for $109.99, $290 off the usual price. 

Give your movie nights an upgrade

With warmer weather just around the corner, let the XGODY projector improve your spring and summer nights with some outdoor cinema. This compact projector can tag along anywhere, but don't be deceived by its tiny stature — it's packed with powerful technology. 

Officially licensed for Netflix, the XGODY projector is ready to let you binge your favorite shows or devour that buzzed-about film in any space. That certification means you can watch your Netflix content as it's meant to be enjoyed.

No matter what you choose to watch, you can enjoy it in stunning 1080P full HD resolution. This makes the projector an excellent option for TV, movies, or video games, making you feel like you're a part of the action. And three brightness modes adapt to your location's lighting conditions and reduce blue light for comfortable viewing.

The auto focus and Auto-Keystone Correction feature adjusts the sharpness and eliminates distortion anywhere it's set up. And a built-in 5W speaker eliminates the need for lugging around a Bluetooth speaker for sound. 

Want to really take a load off? You can control it hands-free thanks to the Google Assistant voice control feature that lets you start or stop content or adjust settings with your voice while you kick back and relax.

Act fast and get an XGODY projector on sale for just $109.99 with free shipping.

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There's a class of objects in the cosmos that are neither stars, nor are they quite planets.

Astronomers used the powerful James Webb Space Telescope to sleuth out some of these objects, called brown dwarfs, in a vibrant star-forming region of our galaxy called the Flame Nebula. Brown dwarfs are too small to trigger the nuclear engines in stars, but are more massive than most planets. They are unbound, free-flying objects in the universe.

And with this new research, scientists have improved our understanding of these elusive free-floating worlds and earned a good grasp of their mass limitations. Their mass can be as low as two to three times the mass of Jupiter, a gas giant over 300 times more massive than Earth. (Webb could view smaller objects, but didn't find any.)

"Webb, for the first time, has been able to probe up to and beyond that limit," Michael Meyer, an astronomer at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "If that limit is real, there really shouldn’t be any one-Jupiter-mass objects free-floating out in our Milky Way galaxy, unless they were formed as planets and then ejected out of a planetary system.”

The research will be published in the peer-reviewed science journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

SEE ALSO: A dramatic total lunar eclipse is coming. You don't want to miss it.

The Webb telescope image below shows what are likely three brown dwarfs in the Flame Nebula, which teems with hot, young forming stars (protostars). Previously, researchers spent 10 years peering at the Flame Nebula, but couldn't find these objects in the dense areas of the star-forming region. They aren't easy to find: Lower-mass objects like brown dwarfs are extremely faint to telescopes, as they lack the heat and size of stars. But the Webb telescope, which views faint infrared light (detected as heat), revealed these deep space objects.

Three of the low mass objects in the Flame Nebula revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / M. Meyer (University of Michigan) This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Stars and brown dwarfs alike are created in dense clouds of gases like hydrogen. These clouds "fragment" apart, and inside each of these objects take shape under forces dominated by gravity, temperature, and pressure. Stars form when a contracting object's core is massive enough to stoke nuclear fusion and become an energy-producing, luminous star. Brown dwarfs are too small to create this fusion, and become solitary objects in the cosmos, without signs of a surrounding solar system.

These new observations, and those forthcoming, will help researchers understand objects in the cosmos that could be rogue planets or small brown dwarfs. “There's a big overlap between the things that could be planets and the things that are very, very low mass brown dwarfs," Meyer explained. "And that's our job in the next five years: to figure out which is which and why."

The Webb telescope's powerful abilities

The Webb telescope — a scientific collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency — is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. It's also examining intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system.

Here's how Webb is achieving unparalleled feats, and may for years to come:

- Giant mirror: Webb's mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That's over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror, meaning Webb has six times the light-collecting area. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. The telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. "We're going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed," Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021.

- Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that's visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn't as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb's infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can't.

"It lifts the veil," said Creighton.

- Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrographs that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be they gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb looks at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we'll find?

"We might learn things we never thought about," Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, previously told Mashable.

TL;DR: Organize your family's busy life with an HD Touchscreen Calendar on sale for $249.99 (reg. $299.99). 

Love to follow those influencers on social media who seem to have perfectly happy and organized families? Then chances are, you've already seen this cool digital calendar and chore chart. And while many things on TikTok aren't worth the hype — this handy calendar is viral for a reason. 

If you're looking for ways to tone down the chaos in your busy home, let this HD Touchsceen Digital Calendar and Chore Chart come to the rescue. If you act fast, you can score one for $50 off at just $249.99 (making it a much more affordable option than the Skylight Calendar). 

Let this touchscreen calendar help run your roost

There's nothing better than being a parent... but handling your kids' busy schedules is a full-time gig by itself. From school projects to sports practices and doctor appointments, it's a never-ending cycle of dates and times to remember. That's where this digital smart calendar can help, serving as your personal home assistant operated by a free companion app. 

This Wi-Fi-enabled touchscreen calendar is ready to keep you organized, no matter how many balls you're juggling. It seamlessly syncs with your calendar of choice, whether it be Google Calendar, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, or Cozi, to make sure you don't miss a beat (just remember, syncing can take up to 24 hours!).

Embrace color coding and assign family members their tasks and chores right on this touchscreen so everyone can stay accountable and on top of tasks. And make sure everyone is happy with dinner thanks to the built-in meal planner that displays the day's menu right on the screen. 

A 15.6" full HD display brightly shows off everyone's responsibilities and items for the day, and when the calendar isn't in use, it doubles as a digital photo frame that can display your most cherished memories. 

Worried where you'll put it? Don't be — this smart calendar can be wall-mounted or placed on any surface thanks to the built-in stand. And no matter where it's placed the display will automatically adjust its orientation for optimal viewing. 

Simplify your home life with help from the HD Touchscreen Digital Calendar and Chore Chart, now on sale for $249.99 (reg. $299.99).

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The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Tuesday, March 11, 2025:

AcrossFormat for many e-signed documents

• The answer is PDF.

Aspirations

• The answer is Goals.

"This thesaurus is awful. Not only is it awful, it's also ___!" (joke)

• The answer is Awful.

Southpaw, by another name

• The answer is Lefty.

Deli bread variety

• The answer is Rye.

DownWord after flower or fire

• The answer is Power.

Looney Tunes character with the catchphrase "You're dethpicable!"

• The answer is Daffy.

What you might blow in, when you're blowin' in the wind?

• The answer is Flute.

Actress Gadot

• The answer is Gal.

Adjective for a fox

• The answer is Sly.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

Tesla's stock plummeted by over 15 percent on Monday, giving the electric vehicle company its worst day of trading since September 2020. It's the latest in an ongoing string of losses, with Tesla's shares having consistently fallen in the seven weeks since President Donald Trump took office. 

Over 50 percent of Tesla's stock value has been wiped since its all-time high of $479.86 on Dec. 17 last year, with shares now sitting at $222.15 when markets closed on Monday. This erased approximately $800 billion from the company's value, causing Tesla to lose its status as a trillion-dollar company last month.

SEE ALSO: Tesla used car prices are cratering

Despite this, Tesla CEO and close Trump ally Elon Musk doesn't seem to think anything needs to change. Responding to Tesla's falling stock in a post on X, the billionaire merely claimed that "it will be fine long-term," but offered no further elaboration.

Musk's split focus has been a cause of concern for some investors and market analysts, particularly as he funnels his efforts into working with the Trump administration in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In addition to Tesla, Musk is also CEO of SpaceX, owner of X, founder of the Boring Company, and co-founder of Neuralink.

Speaking in an interview with Fox Business on Monday, Musk stated that he was running his various businesses while working with the Trump administration "with great difficulty," but that he expected his work with DOGE to continue for another year.

Investors aren't the only ones who appear leery about Tesla at the moment. Tesla's own board members have dumped millions in stock over the past few months, which doesn't inspire confidence in their ability to reverse the company's fortunes. CFO Vaibhav Taneja has sold over $8 million in Tesla shares since January, while chairperson Robyn Denholm offloaded over $115 million of her own since December. Board member and Musk's brother Kimbal also sold Tesla shares worth almost $28 million last month.

Tesla is having a rough time of it right now. While its stock price initially surged following Trump's election win, all those gains have since been wiped out. The electric vehicle company seems to be on a downward spiral as global sales have slumped, and even used Tesla prices are dropping. Drivers are reportedly turning away from Tesla due to its association with Musk, which may have contributed to its profits plummeting by a shocking 70 percent in Q4 2024. 

All this isn't even to mention the protests against CEO Elon Musk which have taken place outside Tesla showrooms across the country, with people even booing the Tesla Cybertruck at New Orleans' Mardi Gras parade. At this point, Tesla's association with Musk may be doing it more harm than good.

So, you want a new TV? We all do. With the rate that manufacturers update their smart technology and release new models, there's never a bad time to upgrade. But that doesn't mean it's always a good time to splurge thousands of pounds.

If you’re in the market for a cheap TV, you might assume you’re going to miss out on smart features and picture/audio quality. But that’s actually not the case. You won't get the absolute best of the best without fully emptying your wallet, but you can find plenty of bang for your buck if you really shop around.

The problem with rapidly evolving TV tech is that the jargon is sometimes impenetrable. What is HDR? What about VRR? And why do you need HDMI? These should inform your decision on buying a specific TV, but it’s important to know what they are first. Read on for a quick guide and a selection of the best TVs for under £500.

Can you get a good TV for under £500?

Absolutely. There are plenty of impressive TVs available for less than £500, with things like Ultra HD resolution and HDR. We don't want you to set your expectations too high, because you're not going to get a 75-inch QLED TV for this price. But you might be surprised by the budget-friendly options out there.

What is a smart TV?

All the TVs listed below are smart TVs. In fact, it’s harder to find a TV that isn’t smart these days. A smart TV is basically a TV that connects to the internet, with a platform that has streaming apps (Netflix, Disney, NOW, Prime, YouTube, and more) and other features, such as voice assistant and games.

What is the best smart platform?

It’s not about which is the best, but which one you find easiest to use. Some TV brands have their own smart platforms. LG uses WebOS and Samsung uses Tizen, for instance. Whereas other TVs use familiar platforms such as Android. You’ll find a selection of smart platforms in the list below.

How much does a 4K TV cost?

4K TVs (which typically have a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels) are now the standard for ultra HD home viewing. And while the sharpest display technology — such as OLED and Neo QLED — typically comes at a higher price, it’s possible (as you’ll see below) to a get a 4K TV for £500 or less. Generally, TVs in this price range use LED display technology, with other features to refine and bolster the visuals. However, you also find Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) and HD Ready (1280 x 720 pixels). 4K is named as such because it’s four times the resolution of Full HD.

What is HDR?

You’ll see these initials lots when shopping around for a new TV. It means High Dynamic Range, which gives you a wider gamut of colours and shades. That means deeper, more vibrant, more nuanced colours and details. The most popular HDR formats are Dolby Vision and HDR10. Not all TVs support all HDR formats (Samsung’s otherwise excellent TVs, for instance, don’t support Dolby Vision).

What are gaming mode features?

This is a feature you’ll commonly find on smart TVs. A games mode recognises when you’ve switched on your games console and optimises the TVs settings to maximise gameplay for a smooth, immersive experience. Gaming specific features to look out for include a high refresh rate, ALLM (auto low latency mode) and VRR (variable refresh rate). ALLM means low-lag and low-latency (processing data with minimal delay) — it instantly kicks in and gives you smooth, lag-free, unbroken gameplay. VRR helps your screen to adjust how often it refreshes the image to match the frame rate, which can vary moment-to-moment — all depending on how hard your console processor is working,

What is the best TV for under £500?

You can find great TVs from top brands like Samsung, Hisense, and Toshiba without breaking the bank. To help you find something that works for you, we have tracked down a selection of your best options for less than £500. We have checked out customer reviews, specifications, and features to put together this list of top TVs. What we’re saying is that we’ve done all of the hard work so you don't have to.

These are the best TVs for under £500 in 2025.

TL;DR: Learning fits any schedule with a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium. Through 30 March, Mashable readers can get this app for life for £37.28 (reg. £232.25) by using the discount code LEVELUP20 at checkout. 

Sometimes, you can sit down with a book everyone else liked and still get absolutely nothing out of it. It doesn't matter if you're a speed reader, that's still a lot of lost time, and life gets busy. 

If you want a faster way of getting to the meat of a good book, check out Headway. Headway is a mobile app that summarises a ton of nonfiction bestsellers into quick, actionable insights. You can use these either as a lesson in their own regard or as a way to see which books are actually worth reading in full, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for £37.28 (reg. £232.25) for a limited time when you use the code LEVELUP20.

There's finally time to learn

Headway gives you access to a huge collection of titles, and it's growing all the time. There are already over 1,500 books, with 30-50 added every month. Headway even gives you an incentive to keep learning and growing by gamifying the whole process. See how many days you can keep your streak going. There are even achievements for the completionists. 

The insights you get from Headway summaries are a quick way to learn the key lessons from a book. It's not quite the same experience as reading the full text, but nothing's stopping you from going back and diving in once you know a book is worth the time. 

Headway tailors recommendations to your unique interests, so every summary aligns with your aspirations. Whether you prefer reading or listening, professionally narrated audio versions let you learn on the go. 

Join over 15 million other users and find time to learn. 

Get a Headway Premium Lifetime Subscription for £37.28 (reg. £232.25) through 30 March at the Mashable Shop. Just be sure to use the discount code LEVELUP20 at checkout.

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If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

To take.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

SEIZE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A transition.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for March 11, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

SEGUE

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Nostalgic.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for March 11 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for March 11, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

RETRO

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Slight amount.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for March 11 Hurdle Word 4 answer

SCANT

Final Hurdle hint

A short story with a moral.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

FABLE

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

TL;DR: Leave recurring costs behind and get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for just A$87 (reg. A$348) through 30 March.

With this limited-time offer from the Mashable Shop, you can get an unlimited device license for Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2021 for Windows with a one-time purchase. Once it's set up on your device, your device's license will never expire.

Here's what's included with your purchase:

• Lifetime access to essential Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams (free version only), OneNote, Publisher, and Access for all your work and personal projects

• Access these productivity tools without recurring subscription fees

• Fully compatible with Windows 10 and 11, ensuring smooth functionality on modern PCs

• Perfect for business, school, or home use, offering all the apps needed to create, edit, and share documents, presentations, and spreadsheets

• Delivered digitally for quick and easy setup with instant access to your license key

Take advantage of this limited-time price drop on a lifetime device license to the complete Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2021 suite on sale for A$87 until 30 March at 11:59 p.m. PT.

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In a world of billionare-owned social media, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wants to send a clear message. Decentralized open-source platforms, like the one she runs, prioritize user control over corporate interests.

And what better way to say that than with a T-shirt that calls out Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?

Speaking at SXSW 2025, Graber wore a shirt that read Mundus sine Caesaribus ("A world without Caesars" in Latin). It used the same design as the one Zuckerberg wore at Meta Connect 2024, a now infamous shirt that read Aut Zuck aut nihil ("Zuck or nothing").

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg wants to be like Augustus Caesar. How close is he?

"If a billionaire tried to ruin things," Graber said of Bluesky, "users could just leave — without losing their identity or data.” Bluesky’s open protocol gives users the ability to "fork off" the network if needed, Graber added.

Bluesky, originally spun out of Twitter, has grown to over 32 million users. Its AT Protocol allows users to own their identities and their experience on the platform without Bluesky's permission.

"The key to what we’re doing is shifting power back to users and developers," Graber said. Bluesky isn’t just another social media app, she emphasized — it's a whole structural alternative to bigger platforms.

Graber drew a bright line between Bluesky and billionaire-owned social media in another key area: content moderation. Bluesky's opt-in approach lets users install third-party moderation services, filtering content to fit their preferences.

"Moderation is governance," Graber said. "It’s about choosing how you want your digital space to be governed.”

The Bluesky ecosystem includes apps from Flashes, a third-party photo-sharing service, to Flushing.im, a joke app for logging bathroom visits. "You can really build anything," Graber laughed.

Despite its ideals, Bluesky faces challenges. The company has said it is exploring subscription models, and developer services, in order to remain financially viable.

Graber remains optimistic that enough people want this service to keep it going in the long run. "We don’t think social media has to be inherently toxic," she said. "We want to give people real choice — not just a new platform, but a new paradigm."

Featured Video For You 7 ways Mark Zuckerberg changed Meta ahead of Trump’s inauguration

Rumors suggest that Apple will announce a major iOS, iPadOS, and macOS software design overhaul at WWDC 2025. If true, this will be the biggest iOS UI revamp since 2013, and it will replace a lot of the iPhone-like design elements that invaded macOS in 2020.

If cruising is your thing, then you’re probably familiar with the uber-popular map-based cruising site Sniffies — it’s like Grindr, but for more adventurous gay and queer folks. On Sniffies, it’s implied that you’re there for sex, no pretense required. (That’s why we chose it as the best hookup site for gay men.)

Until now, Sniffies was only available on web browsers, but the company has just announced the launch of its first-ever iOS app. So, they may actually give Grindr a run for its money.

SEE ALSO: Get laid, not played: These are the best hookup apps of 2025

The new Sniffies app promises to make it even easier to find local guys looking for action. It still features the map-based interface, but the anonymity users are allowed to have on the website, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to the iOS app, which requires users to create profiles with "common provider" emails like Gmail or Yahoo. On the web-based version, you only need a birth year to view nearby profiles.

When users download and open the app, it opens in “Vanilla Mode,” which hides the more explicit content. Users can toggle this setting to access the full, uncensored version of Sniffies. The only slightly annoying thing is that it takes you back to the website to enable the naughtier content, but it takes you back to the app once that's done.

Get real-time notifications about people who are nearby and interested in getting busy. Credit: Sniffies

This change was likely made to comply with Apple’s App Store guidelines, which prohibit “overtly sexual” material. According to Eli Martin, the company's chief marketing officer, that's why Sniffies waited so long to launch the app in the first place.

“There was certainly back-and-forth with the App Store and figuring out how to make it work on both ends,” Martin said in an interview with Fast Company. “It took way longer than we thought, but it seems like Apple was very open to us being a part of the store as long as we could meet the guidelines.”

One of the app’s main draws is that you can switch between safe-for-work and default (NSFW) modes and receive real-time notifications about people who are nearby and interested in getting busy.

“Sniffies has always been about breaking barriers and making real-time connections easier,” Blake Gallagher, CEO and founder of Sniffies said in a press release about the app launch. “With the iOS app, we’re giving our Cruisers an even more seamless way to explore, connect, and play — wherever they are,” adding, “Our web-app remains the foundation, but this launch is a major step in expanding the Sniffies experience — giving our cruisers even greater access to the connections they desire.”

It turns out that maybe we were a little too hasty to throw out our CRT computer monitors all those years ago. We didn't quite appreciate what we had, but I've been looking for my own CRT slice of heaven and have finally found a decent screen for my retro games.

Elon Musk claimed Monday that X suffered a "massive cyberattack," which caused the site and app to crash throughout the day.

Musk quoted a post theorizing there was an attack on X, claiming that was, in fact, the case.

He wrote: "There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …"

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Musk didn't provide evidence that X was under attack and isn't always the most reliable source of information. He previously claimed a Spaces interview with then-candidate Donald Trump suffered an attack in August of 2024, for instance, which X employees said wasn't true.

Whatever the case may be, X first crashed for many users in the early hours of Monday morning, Eastern time. According to user reports on Down Detector, it seemed to rebound and re-crash a few times throughout the day. Things appeared to be mostly fixed by Monday afternoon, Eastern time.

Musk himself was back to posting conspiracy-adjacent attacks at his perceived enemies. So things were back to normal.

Understanding our parents can sometimes feel impossible, staring across a generational divide and an ocean of shared memories that we see differently from each other. Now imagine how much harder coming to grips with the complexity of your parent would be if your dad was an infamous serial killer. That's the premise of Happy Face, a new true crime drama from The Good Wife creators Robert King and Michelle King. 

Annaleigh Ashford, who recently thrilled on Broadway as the murderous Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, stars as Melissa Reed. Melissa is a wife, a mother, and a professional make-up artist — and the haunted daughter of the Happy Face Killer, Keith Jesperson (The Substance's Dennis Quaid). During the decades since he was caught, they have been estranged. That is, until he claims there was a ninth victim the cops never tied to him. But he'll only give details to his darling "Missy," who just so happens to work for a talk show that's equally eager for exclusive interviews with this serial killer.

This is a rich setup for a crime investigation thread. But what makes Happy Face a standout is how series showrunner Jennifer Cacicio balances the murder mystery with character-driven drama that is alarmingly relatable. Be warned: This show is ruthlessly gripping. 

Happy Face is based on a true crime case and a survivor's story.  Credit: Ed Araquel / Paramount+

The first episode of Happy Face details the broad strokes of Jesperson's real-life crimes. A truck driver in the 1990s, he targeted young women that he came across in his travels, sexually assaulting and then fatally strangling them. His jarring nickname came from the letters he sent to the media as taunts. These menacing missives were signed with a doodle of a happy face. 

The troubling juxtaposition of Jesperson's predilection for a cheerful exterior and a dark heart is reflected brilliantly in Happy Face through Quaid's unsettling performance. In the present-day timeline, he is downright jolly as he addresses Melissa, the grown daughter who's being morally blackmailed to reconnect with him. Yet, despite the orange jumpsuit and the shackles, he's giving off a disarming dad vibe, even as he speaks bluntly about his victims. In flashbacks to time before he was caught, he seems outwardly like any blue-collared dad, his grin paired with a plaid shirt, playful attitude, and a ball cap. However, a vicious intensity hits in bursts, as his eyes flash with panic or his smile twists with menace. Even in the present, that smile can slice like a blade.

Credit: Ed Araquel / Paramount+

Smartly, director Michael Showalter picks jaunty tunes with lyrics about having a "happy face," which not only reflects Keith's troubling duality but also play as a warning to his daughter. For years, she's worn a happy face as a mask of normalcy, protecting her husband (James Wolk) and children from her dad and the shame and recriminations from those appalled by him. But as she's pressured to wade back into their past and her own sense of guilt over the killings, songs urging to "put on a happy face" feel like they mock her — or worse — push her toward the dangerous duplicity her dad used to hide in plain sight. Basically, if you're presenting one face to the world to hide another, aren't you inherently a threat?

Over the four episodes presented to critics, Melissa grapples with the desire to do right, aiming to free a man she believes was wrongfully convicted of her dad's murder. But the show pulls inspiration Jesperson's real-life daughter, Melissa G. Moore, who made a podcast (Happy Face) and co-wrote a book (Shattered Silence) about her experience. As such, this series also digs into the psychological challenges of processing her father's truth and his crimes. What do they mean as far as who she is, who she will become, and what she owes the world? 

Happy Face explores true crime and personal accountability.  Credit: Katie Yu / Paramount+

This crime series explores regret and redemption as its heroine reconnoiters her past to save someone else's future. But in doing so, she must sacrifice the anonymity that served as protection, keeping her husband and children away from the influence of her devilishly charming father. This makes every episode a meal for Ashford, whose heroine must leap from everyday dramas like reprimanding her reckless teen daughter Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) to plunging into childhood artifacts for clues and staring down her father, while her co-workers look on. 

See, making things even more complicated for Melissa is she's the make-up artist for Dr. Greg, a Dr. Phil-like talk show that is happy to exploit her familial tragedy for ratings. The producer assigned to her is Ivy (Tamera Tomakili), who is hard-nosed when it comes to getting the story, but also at times the voice of reason Melissa needs to pull her out of a self-focused spiral. Through Ivy and the talk show, Happy Face takes a step back to take in the complicated ethics around exploitation and spectacle in true crime. The two will have frank conversations about why people are so fixated on this subject, and how societal biases impact who's cast as the heroes and villains, justly or not. 

Beyond that, Happy Face explores how Melissa's relationship with her parents compares to her relationship with her daughter. Flashbacks to Melissa's teen years are framed to be parallel to Hazel's experience with bullies, but also in the way both Melissa and her own mother are overwhelmed with the challenge of coping with the discovery of a serial killer in the family tree. Sure, few of us may be able to relate to the latter. But with the opening episode, Cacicio's writing and Showalter's direction so masterfully knit the fabric of this family — estranged and strange as they may be — as to be joltingly familiar. In casual conversations about dinner and grounding, goofy moments of getting caught off-guard while on a secretive phone call and impulsively buying treats to smooth over a rough day, Melissa's journey has enough tactile touch points for viewers that we can't help but be sucked into her story. 

For her part, Ashford is an enchanting tour guide through the show's trauma, tragedy, and sharply witty moments of release. She's no-nonsense without being stiff. Her eyes flash with the intensity of her onscreen father, but carrying an agony and earnestness absent in his. While the series' first four episodes are thoughtfully plotted with surprising twists and gnarly revelations, it's Ashford's grounded but riveting performance that makes them downright addictive. Her openness and frankness gives the air that anything could happen next. And while this is based on a true story, halfway through the first season, I can't be certain where this mystery show will end up. And that's damn exciting.

Happy Face was reviewed out its World Premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. The first two episodes will debut globally on Paramount+ on March 20, with new episodes airing each Thursday.

The PlayStation 5 Pro's main promise is better, more stable graphics—there's a reason why it costs a lot more than the regular Slim model of the console. Now, though, Sony is thinking about party tricks to raise the bar even further, and the latest party trick thought up by the company actually looks very, very nice.

Apple Arcade is a mobile gaming subscription that offers excellent quality games built on a simple foundation of zero adverts and in-app purchases, but it could always be better.