IT General

Whether you're skeptical of the AI hype or counting on them to get you through finals, the reality is that AI tools are showing up in classrooms whether you asked for them or not.

The upside: many AI companies are actively courting college students with steep discounts. So, if you're a college student hunting for deals on AI services like Gemini or Copilot, this guide's for you.

In addition to the deals in this guide, your college may also offer access to a variety of AI tools at a reduced or free rate. Here are the AI college discounts available right now.

Google Gemini + NotebookLM

Google's student offer is probably the most generous on this list. Eligible college students 18 and older can get the Google AI Pro plan — normally about $20 a month — completely free for a full year. That gets you access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, NotebookLM, Deep Research, and 5TB of storage, among other perks.

NotebookLM is the quiet standout here. You feed it your source material — lecture recordings, PDFs, textbook chapters — and it organizes, summarizes, and lets you ask questions about it. It can even generate audio study guides. Worth noting: set a calendar reminder before the year is up, because it will start charging you automatically.

Sign up at gemini.google/students.

Perplexity Education Pro

Perplexity's AI-powered search tool offers a dedicated student tier, Education Pro, at $10 a month — half the standard price — after verifying your enrollment through SheerID. Beyond the discount, student accounts get expanded citation counts, file and image uploads, access to a guided learning mode with flashcards and quizzes, and broader access to its Academic and Research features. It's a more source-transparent tool than most, which makes it a reasonable choice if you care about where information is actually coming from.

Sign up at perplexity.ai.

Wolfram Alpha Pro

If your coursework involves a lot of math, physics, or chemistry, Wolfram Alpha Pro has long been a quietly useful tool. The student plan runs $5 a month (billed annually at $60), and it unlocks step-by-step solutions, practice problems, guided calculators for calculus and algebra, and extended computation time. A Premium tier at $8.25 a month adds even more. The free version exists but won't show you how to get to an answer, which is usually the whole point.

Sign up at wolframalpha.com/pro/pricing/students.

Microsoft 365 (with Copilot)

Microsoft actually has two separate offers worth knowing about, and most students don't realize either exists. First, the base Office 365 Education plan — which includes web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Teams, and Copilot Chat — is completely free for students at eligible institutions, donated directly by Microsoft with no strings attached. If your school qualifies, you may already have access and not know it.

For students who want more than the browser-based versions, Microsoft is currently running a limited-time promotion giving college students 12 full months of Microsoft 365 Premium at no cost, just by signing up with a college email. That tier unlocks the full desktop apps across multiple devices, expanded cloud storage, and deeper Copilot integration baked into the productivity tools you're already using.

The practical advice here: check with your school first. If your institution is already enrolled in Office 365 Education, you have free access to the core tools without doing anything. The premium offer is worth grabbing separately if you need the desktop apps or want more storage.

Sign up at microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/office.

What about ChatGPT?

OpenAI no longer offers a dedicated student discount for ChatGPT, but the good news is that GPT-5.2, one of OpenAI's flagship models, is currently available to all users at no cost. OpenAI also works directly with some universities to provide campus-wide access, so it's worth checking with your school before paying for anything.

A note before you spend anything

Most of these services have free tiers that handle basic tasks reasonably well. Before committing to a paid plan, check whether your college already covers any of these tools — many schools have institutional licenses for Google Workspace, Microsoft, or others. Spending money on software you already have access to is its own kind of homework mistake.

It should also be noted that a discounted subscription doesn't come with a free pass to use these tools however you want. AI policy varies wildly from campus to campus — some professors welcome it as a research aid, others treat AI-assisted work the same as plagiarism, and many fall somewhere in the murky middle.

A few major universities have published approved tool lists, but most haven't yet, so the safest move is to ask before you submit anything. Getting caught submitting AI-generated work as your own isn't just an academic integrity problem — it can follow you. These tools work best when they help you understand the material, not do the thinking for you.

There are people who fight over terminals the way audiophiles fight over headphones—deeply passionate and extremely opinionated. If this behavior confuses you, it's probably because no one explained what these tools are actually competing on. Spoiler alert: it's not the ability to run commands—every terminal can do that. Here's a breakdown of how terminals differ from one another, and which ones you should care about.

At a glance, the pitch for The Sheep Detectives seems less like an actual movie that exists and more like an unhinged Mad Libs page: From the co-creator of TV's The Last of Us, Craig Mazin, comes a cozy crime comedy in which Hugh Jackman stars as a misanthropic shepherd, whose unexpected death spurs his furry flock into amateur investigating. Lending their voices to these sleuthing sheep are Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, and Bella Ramsey. At the helm sits Kyle Balda, director of Minions: The Rise of Gru. And for good measure, the rest of the human cast includes the likes of Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, and Emma Thompson. 

Incredibly, The Sheep Detectives is a real movie. Frankly, it could have been a deeply stupid movie with bad CGI animation and a predictable solution, and I still would have been pleased that it even existed at all. I just love a big swing for its bonkers ambition. But props to Balda and his kooky cast, because The Sheep Detectives is so much more than silly fun. It's a smart parody of the detective stories with a cheeky sense of humor, a sensational ensemble, and an ending so poignant that I actually teared up! 

It might sound like sheer hyperbole, but I mean this sincerely: The Sheep Detectives is an utter crowd-pleaser sure to be one of the most entertaining movies of the year. 

If you love Only Murders in the Building or The Thursday Murder Club, you'll adore The Sheep Detectives.  Regina Hall as the voice of Cloud, Chris O’Dowd as the voice of Mopple and Julia-Louis Dreyfus as the voice of Lily in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Based on Leonie Swann's 2005 novel Three Bags Full, The Sheep Detectives begins on the farmland of George Hardy (a terrifically game Jackman), a lonely shepherd who dedicates his life to the care of his sheep. Through voiceover, George explains that he doesn't care much for people, but he loves his flock. Then, he introduces each ram, lamb, and ewe by name. There's the fluffy diva Cloud (Regina Hall), the spunky lamb Juno (Ramsey), the sage-like Mopple (O'Dowd), the rambunctious twin rams (both voiced by Brett Goldstein), and his favorites, the tawny-colored Lily (Louis-Dreyfus) and the surly black sheep, Sebastian (Cranston). 

At the end of each day, George settles down with the setting sun and a mystery novel, which he reads aloud to his sheep. He suspects they understand neither hide nor hair of these detective stories, but he treasures the tradition all the same. Little does George know that when speaking amongst themselves, the sheep compare notes each night, hoping to crack the case ahead of the novel's sleuth. It's always Lily who gets it right. So, when one morning they find George dead in their meadow, Lily leads the others in finding his killer. 

With Sebastian and Mopple at her side, she travels to the nearby village to size up the suspects, including a grimacing butcher (Conleth Hill), a rival shepherd (Tosin Cole), the rude bed-and-breakfast proprietor (Chau), and a mysterious stranger (Gordon), whose arrival in town is quite suspicious. 

Of course, while Lily and her flock understand English, they don't speak it. So, they'll need to figure out how to communicate their findings with investigative journalist Elliot Matthews (Galitzine) and the village's only police officer, Tim Derry (Braun). Along the way, they'll not only use what they've learned from George's books, but also face some hard truths about what it means to be a sheep. 

Cozy crime has a new masterpiece in The Sheep Detectives.  Nicholas Braun stars as Officer Tim Derry and Molly Gordon as Rebecca Hampstead in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Craig Mazin's script doesn't spoof detective stories. Instead, like Scream did for slashers, The Sheep Detectives draws attention to the tropes of its genre to better subvert them. Lily dedicatedly notes how motive, means, and alibis are all crucial pieces of information. But both she and the cop soon realize that solving a murder isn't as simple as a checking off the boxes in a game of Clue. Humor comes not only from the weird twists the investigation takes, but also from the inventive ways the sheep find to communicate their message to this clown of a cop. 

Braun is a solid fool in the role, bouncing not only off the CGI sheep, which are brought to life with animation that finds a cozy spot between photo-real and cutesy critter. He also plays the foil to smarter figures, like Galitzine's reporter, Gordon's could-be femme fatale, and Emma Thompson's lawyer, whose tongue is as sharp as her attire. 

Emma Thompson stars as Lydia Harbottle in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Alex Bailey / Amazon MGM Studios

Mazin shrewdly brings together archetypes from a cozy English village and from film noir to create a thrilling conflict of tone. Reflecting this mash-up, The Sheep Detectives repeatedly leaps from bouncy comedy to tense moments around the murder investigations. And Balda's ensemble manages each leap with grace. Louis-Dreyfus shoulders the lead, making Lily vibrant, determined, and on occasion rattled. Cranston recalls his Isle of Dogs performance, playing a mangy animal whose yearning to belong and fear for self-preservation are at odds. O'Dowd brings a dopey sweetness that matures into a solemn sincerity as The Sheep Detectives grapples less with the mystery than with the grief of George's death. As these sheep butt heads over the case, there's terrific tension because of how the animation and voice work knits together to create characters who feel absolutely real, even in their wacky scenarios. 

Allow me to give my favorite non-spoilery example. In this quaint village, where a festival consists of three small booths arranged in a line behind the bed-and-breakfast, every shop seems to have a neon sign. Not the expected hand-painted wooden sign announcing their shop name. Neon. I first noticed it at the butcher shop, where the grimacing butcher was interviewed under neon pink signs resembling butcher knives. Later, I saw the words "police station" emblazoned in blue neon. And then, during a walk-and-talk where much exposition was being laid down, we see two big green wrenches on the side of a building... in neon, of course. Then, the characters walk past a sign that serves as an explanation and punchline for a joke I didn't even realize was being set up. It read: "Nancy's Neon — huge discounts for locals." 

It's a small, blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag. But it had me cackling. And beyond that, it bolstered The Sheep Detective's genre-mashup by infusing the small English village coziness with the harsh lighting of a neo-noir neon signage. The Sheep Detectives is filled with thoughtful elements like this that reflect the layers Balda, Mazin, and their terrific cast have built in. 

The Sheep Detectives is fun for the whole family.  Laraine Newman as the voice of the Fainting Sheep and Hugh Jackman as George Hardy in "The Sheep Detectives." Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

For grown-ups who love a mystery to solve, The Sheep Detectives offers a murder case that is curious and not easy to crack. The suspects, played by dazzling comedic performers, are colorful, quirky, and even a bit cranky, adding a burst of energy to each interrogation.  

For kids who love animal movies, The Sheep Detectives smartly offers furry, funny heroes who offer life lessons in an easy-to-understand way. Sure, this movie involves death, murder, and grief. But there's no blood and little violence. Plus, death is not taken lightly by man or beast here. Actually, how Lily and her flock learn to face what has happened to George could be a learning moment for kids, as it's explained simply but sensitively. 

The humor here ranges from physical comedy to quips to visual gags and sheep shenanigans. And as such, The Sheep Detectives is a rare thing, a comedy unashamed to be a comedy. Yet with Mazin's eye for detail and Balda's skill for crafting sheer silliness, The Sheep Detectives is more. It's a feel-good movie that's sure to delight all ages. 

The Sheep Detectives opens in theaters May 8. 

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will test your knowledge of multiple American sports.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections: Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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

Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes before the game ends.

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

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Going, going...

• Green: AKA

• Blue: First name

• Purple: One of a kind

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Hard-Hit Baseball

• Green: NBA Teams With Singular Nicknames

• Blue: ____ Johnson

• Purple: What "1" Might Mean

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #580 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Hard-Hit Baseball — FROZEN ROPE, LASER, LINER, SCREAMER

• NBA Teams With Singular Nicknames — HEAT, JAZZ, MAGIC, THUNDER

• ____ Johnson — FLAU'JAE, GUS, LANE, RANDY

• What "1" Might Mean — FASTBALL, PITCHER, POINT GUARD, TOP RANK

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

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

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

A smart speaker is supposed to connect everything easily and let you control your house without effort. We gave up some privacy for the convenience of setting timers, controlling lights, and getting quick answers just by speaking a command. As these speakers get smarter, it feels like they've become a little too human.

TL;DR: Live stream Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs (Game 5)for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Denver Nuggets are on the brink of exiting the NBA Playoffs. The Minnesota Timberwolves have so far managed to keep Nikola Jokić quiet in their first-round matchup, but can they finish the job at the Ball Arena in Game 5? Rudy Gobert will need to deliver another defensive masterclass.

If you want to watch Nuggets vs. Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs (Game 5) for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Nuggets vs. Timberwolves?

Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs starts at 10:30 p.m. ET on April 27. This game takes place at the Ball Arena.

How to watch Nuggets vs. Timberwolves for free

Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA Playoffs is available to live stream for free on YouTube.

This free live stream is geo-restricted to India, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in India, meaning you can access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.

Stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a VPN (we tested ExpressVPN and it worked great)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in India

4. Visit YouTube

5. Watch the NBA for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Learn More

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select games from the NBA before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NBA?

ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing free live streams on platforms like YouTube, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream the NBA for free with ExpressVPN.

I finally got tired of using Gigabit networking with my NAS, so I upgraded to 2.5GbE. The upgrade was actually cheaper than I expected, and the results were better than I expected. Moving to 2.5GbE completely changed how my NAS works in my homelab, and I think it will for you, too.

TL;DR: Amazon has the Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box on sale for $94.32, down from its $167.76 list price. That saves you $73.44 on 24 Jumpstart Boosters, each with 20 Avatar-themed Magic cards.

Opens in a new window Credit: Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box $94.32 at Amazon
$167.76 Save $73.44 Get Deal

The Avatar: The Last Airbender expansion has been one of the most fun to hit the Magic: The Gathering trading card game in recent times, and it’s thankfully becoming more affordable in steady price cuts.

As of April 27, the Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Jumpstart Booster Box is on sale for $94.32 at Amazon, down from its $167.76 list price. That’s a 44% discount, saving you $73.44 on the full box. Since this display includes 24 Jumpstart Boosters, that works out to about $3.93 per pack before tax.

For anyone who’s recently jumped into MTG, Jumpstart boxes are designed to make getting into the game as easy as possible. Instead of drafting, deckbuilding, or sorting through a pile of singles first, you just grab two boosters, shuffle them together, and you’ve got a playable deck ready to go. 

Mashable Deals Be the first to know! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Loading... Sign Me Up By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Thanks for signing up!

Lands are already included, so this is especially useful if you want something that works for quick games, newer players, or friends who like Avatar but haven’t fully fallen into Magic just yet.

This box comes with 480 cards in total, with 20 cards in each of the 24 packs. There are 46 possible Avatar: The Last Airbender-themed pack variants, letting you relive different scenes, characters, and elemental combos from the acclaimed Nickelodeon series. The packs can also be mixed with other Jumpstart boosters, giving you more ways to stretch the format later.

For more from the newest MTG expansion, you can grab the Strixhaven Play Booster Box for around $140. Meanwhile, Magic: The Gathering’s Final Fantasy Play Booster Box is still available for just under $185. 

More people are looking for alternatives to proprietary apps every day—even hugely popular apps like Google Maps. OpenStreetMap is the backbone of many open-source map apps, but it relies on volunteers to keep it updated. StreetComplete makes it easy and fun to participate.

Updated on April 27 at 4:15 p.m. ET — After rolling back a series of recent updates, Microsoft says that the Outlook issue has been resolved for most users. However, according to the latest update, iOS users may still be unable to access Outlook.

"System telemetry indicates that the service is recovering following the configuration roll back. Impacted iOS users on iPhones will need to follow additional steps to resolve the issue. For the list of steps and more information, please visit https://status.cloud.microsoft."

Strangely, the linked website does not provide additional information, at least not for all visitors. However, Outlook users on iPhone should try the following steps, courtesy of our colleagues at CNET:

• Open Settings on your iPhone

• Go to Mail

• Go to Accounts

• Select your Outlook account

• Enter your Outlook password in the Password field.

• Tap Done

• Re-open the Mail app

User error reports remain elevated on DownDetector, though they are down from their peak earlier this afternoon. (Disclosure: DownDetector and Mashable are both owned by the same parent company, ZiffDavis.)

Updated on April 27 at 3:04 p.m. ET — The bad day at Microsoft continues to get worse as the ongoing Microsoft Outlook outage continues to lock many users out of their accounts.

Earlier this afternoon, Microsoft announced it was rolling back a previous update that may have caused the bug. However, Microsoft later said that the "roll back that was completed does not appear to have provided the intended impact relief," as reported by our colleagues at CNET.

Meanwhile, the Microsoft 365 status account on X posted a series of updates on an apparently unrelated Microsoft Copilot outage.

Updated on April 27 at 1:40 p.m. ET — On its X status page, Microsoft said that it's testing a potential fix for the ongoing Outlook outage. As of this writing, Outlook users are still complaining of login errors.

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

Workers trying to log in to Microsoft Outlook experienced unexpected problems Monday morning, with some users receiving error messages and unexpected signouts.

On its official Microsoft service status page, the company confirmed that some Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise customers were experiencing a service interruption and directed them to X for more information.

The Microsoft 365 Status page on X stated that some customers were unable to log in to the email software.

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

"We've discovered some users may experience intermittent sign‑in failures, including 'too many requests' errors, or unexpected sign‑outs. We're analyzing service telemetry further to identify any potential next steps and mitigation actions."

Around 9:35 a.m. ET, the Microsoft 365 Status X account, posted a further update stating that the issues were ongoing.

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

The platform DownDetector also reported a spike in user error reports beginning around 5 a.m. ET Monday morning, with a majority of users identifying login issues as the problem. Microsoft Outlook error reports continued to climb on Monday morning as U.S. workers began their workweek.

Meanwhile, Microsoft users on X complained that they were still unable to access Outlook and criticized Microsoft for the lack of information regarding the issue. The Microsoft service status page directs users to X for more information, while the Microsoft 365 support profile on X directs users back to the website status page.

Microsoft Outlook also experienced an outage in January.

This is a developing story...

UPDATE: Apr. 27, 2026, 11:21 a.m. EDT This article was updated with more information about the Microsoft Outlook outage.

Omegle is in the ground, and Thundr is dancing on its grave. Since Omegle's demise in late 2023, the internet has been introduced to a number of Omegle alternatives, from the tame to the explicit. Thundr is a random video and text chat service that's emulating Omegle the most in 2026. Think of it as Omegle with actual guardrails, offering far more ways to get your exact match through tags, country selection, and AI moderation. Thundr prides itself on being one of the safer random cam connection sites, claiming to instantly block nudity, spam, and hate speech.

SEE ALSO: What happened to Omegle? The rise and fall of the internet's favorite stranger danger

But what is Thundr, and is it really Omegle's best replacement? And is the site as safe as it claims to be?

How does Thundr work?

Like Omegle, Uhmegle, Flingster, DirtyRoulette, and the like, Thundr matches users to random strangers across the globe through video or text chat. Like most alternatives, Thundr has a customizable matching process designed to help users find better matches, faster. Add up to 33 tags, select your preferred countries, and Thundr will do its best to connect you accordingly. Note: Thundr is one of the only cam sites that allow users to choose multiple countries without payment.

While this doesn't affect matching, Thundr also offers a number of color themes for a better visual experience, including Dark, Light, Pink, Brat (neon green, likely inspired by Charli XCX's hit 2024 album), and more.

Thundr requires every user to create an account before connecting with strangers, with options to sign up via Google or Apple. This is a safety measure, which is a breath of fresh air in this space since most similar sites don't bother — but it's very easy to create an anonymous account even without an email, so it's difficult to say how safe this requirement is.

On the home page, Thundr claims to be different from nearly every other cam site out there: "Thundr uses a match-making algorithm that is designed to give you an amazing experience from the first match, and it only gets better with time." In our experience, this is half true. You can add tags and select countries, but the country filter works noticeably better than the tag filter. You'll find someone with a similar tag maybe every 20ish people.

Where it gets interesting is how the algorithm actually learns. It seemingly sorts users based on nudity and sexually explicit conversation more than anything else. Match with hundreds of faces, take your dick out once, and suddenly, everyone Thundr pairs you with is there for the same thing. While that works great for NSFW users, the algorithm will occasionally misfire and place users who did nothing wrong into NSFW matches, pigeonholing people who are otherwise there for connection. Outside of the SFW versus NSFW divide, we haven't seen much evidence that the algorithm is doing anything more sophisticated than that.

Is Thundr free?

Yes, Thundr is free to use, including all the aforementioned filter options. The only form of payment Thundr offers is something called Boosts. A Boost is a one-time purchase that puts you at the front of Thundr's match queue from 10 to 60 minutes, making it more likely you'll be paired with higher-quality users. Thundr doesn't say much about Boosts on the site itself, but when they launched, the creator of Thundr took to Reddit to explain: "All that happens is that when a user is boosted, they are temporarily at the top of the match queue. This means they're more likely to be matched to what the platform thinks is the highest quality users."

When it comes to pricing, here's what you're looking at as of April 2026, according to a Thundr pop-up:

• Small Boost: $3.99 for 10 minutes

• Normal Boost: $7.99 for 30 minutes

• Super Boost: $16.99 for 60 minutes

But, do Boosts on Thundr work? We're unsure. We haven't tested this ourselves, but users on Reddit claim the answer is a big, fat "no".

Is Thundr available on mobile?

Thundr is browser-only and does not currently have a dedicated app, but you can use it on your phone through your mobile browser. It's worth noting that the mobile version works slightly differently from the desktop one. On desktop, the experience mirrors classic Omegle, with a skip button in the corner of your screen near your camera feed to move on to the next person. On mobile, that button still exists, but users can also swipe up to skip. 

Is Thundr NSFW?

Yes, Thundr is NSFW. Although the site prides itself on its AI moderation, nudity and explicit content slip through more often than you'd expect. You must be 18+ to use Thundr.

Is Thundr safe?

A hard question to answer. Thundr claims to have end-to-end encryption (meaning Thundr and other third parties cannot see messages), zero data-sharing, and AI moderation, and seemingly does its best to keep explicitly-minded users in their own corner of the site. But this doesn't always work. You have to actively do something Thundr deems sexual to end up in the NSFW zone, meaning someone can expose an unsuspecting user to explicit content just to trigger the algorithm.

Here's something else we take issue with. In Thundr's FAQ section, the question "How does Thundr's free video chat let me chat with strangers safely?" is answered like this:

"Every live video or text session is end-to-end encrypted and protected by real-time AI that instantly blocks nudity, hate speech, and spam. You can report, skip, or mute any stranger with one tap, so you enjoy free video chat without compromising safety."

This is false. Just because Thundr separates explicit users into their own corner doesn't mean nudity is blocked. It just means that it's pushed elsewhere. When you get to this side of Thundr, you will know by the amount of penises that appear on screen over and over and over again, which wouldn't happen as much prior. That's not blocking nudity, that's just doing something else with it.

Adding a mandated sign-in requirement is an excellent step, but anyone can have an email without confirming their age (or make an anonymous account without an email and do the same). Children under 18 can access Thundr just as easily as adults, and given what can slip through the moderation, that's a serious problem.

Final thoughts on Thundr

Thundr is doing something many other sites are not doing: requiring users to sign in. Although Thundr does not say it explicitly, this holds people accountable in a way. This will push away a number of bad actors who intend on using Thundr for the wrong reasons, ultimately making Thundr safer than a lot of Omegle alternatives. Like always, when using Thundr or any other cam site that connects users to strangers from around the globe, use caution. The internet has always been a weird place. Thundr is no exception.

The Adaptive Lighting custom component in Home Assistant can change the brightness and color temperature of the lights in your smart home throughout the day to mimic the natural light of the sun. This can help make lighting feel more comfortable throughout the day and may help support better sleep habits.

I've tried vibe coding for fun mostly. But I realized that when done right, it can make some quality software products, especially if you're a vibe coder with programming knowledge. That's why I've been testing different techniques and found some that work really well.

Though bloody, Euphoria's "version of the Red Wedding" actually had a very pink colour palette.

Season 3, episode 3 of the HBO series saw combustible lovers Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) getting married in a ceremony that was just as lavish and over-the-top as it was harrowing.

SEE ALSO: 'Euphoria' just did its version of the Red Wedding

The Euphoria wedding was filmed on the south lawn of The Langham, Huntingdon in Pasadena, as well as on a Warner Bros set for the interior reception scenes. From the ceremony to the afterparty, Cassie and Nate's wedding is a cornucopia of pink drapery, Cartier jewels, and $50,000 flower arrangements, including rose aisle arches and a custom C&N logo.

In a behind-the-scenes video from HBO, production designer François Audouy said he talked to Euphoria creator Sam Levinson early in pre-production with his vision: "I told him that I was inspired by a shrimp cocktail."

"I literally sampled the pinks from a shrimp and then that became the color palette for the wedding," Audouy added.

I mean... Credit: HBO / YouTube That feeling of a $50,000 flower budget. Credit: Eddy Chen / HBO Shrimpy pinks abound. Credit: Eddy Chen / HBO

If you watch the episode again, you can see the production team, including set decorator Anthony Carlino, not only took cues from the favoured dish of 1960s dinner parties, but included a ton of prawns within an ice sculpture, emblazoned with Nate and Cassie's initials. The team also wrote a menu, which includes blinis, steak tartare, and smoked salmon and crème fraîche — all the fancypants canapés you'd expect. And you'll notice Cassie's bridesmaids dresses, designed by Euphoria costume designer Natasha Newman-Thomas, are the same shrimpy pink.

🦐 loooool 🦐 Credit: HBO / YouTube

"It's a bit over-the-top, all these incredibly detailed tables, and the flower arrangements, and the food — it's supposed to be very Californian," Audouy said of the Spanish Revival-style interior set the Euphoria team built at Warner Bros. for the reception scenes. The level of detail here is just staggering, from the wedding table to the table setting (with Fujifilm Instaxes) and that horrendous ice sculpture of Cassie and Nate.

🦐 Credit: HBO / YouTube 🦐 Credit: HBO / YouTube 🦐 Credit: HBO / YouTube

If the wedding site looks familiar, The Langham is regularly used for film and TV shoots; the hotel's website lists The Parent Trap, Hacks, Westworld, The Brothers Sun, Modern Family, and American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. It's also where Ashley and JP’s wedding was filmed for The Bachelorette in 2012, which feels right for Cassie and Nate.

Wedding planning website The Knot prices The Langham at $34,500 average spend for a wedding, however, that seems hilariously under Cassie and Nate's budget. Mashable has reached out to The Langham for a quote of our own.

With those $50,000 florals, the multi-venue hire, Cassie’s Natasha Newman-Thomas/Jackson Wiederhoeft dress and Cartier jewellery, Nate’s Bottega Veneta tuxedo, the full band, DJ and dance floor, wedding planner, highly opulent food and drink budget, and those lavish table settings, we’re thinking six figures at a minimum. But remember, Nate’s in serious debt and though Cassie’s making that OnlyFans money, they’re not millionaires. Yes, Nate’s financial situation has toe-curling consequences.

New episodes of Euphoria Season 3 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Featured Video For You How TikTok is Changing the Music Industry

Electric vehicles often face the range wall, a common concern for car buyers when trying to decide whether to go full-electric or stick with a gasoline vehicle. If a person is taking frequent cross-country road trips, this range wall becomes a major factor in their buying decision.

Network issues can be frustratingly difficult to troubleshoot, especially if they're intermittent. Sometimes it is a hardware problem, sometimes it is the layout of your home, and yet other times, it comes down to a software issue.

"Our main story tonight concerns AI: It saves significant time writing emails, and all it costs us is everything else on Earth."

That's how John Oliver launches his latest Last Week Tonight segment on AI chatbots, taking half an hour to break down the darker side of artificial intelligence apps — from chatbots becoming sexually explicit with young users to the dangerous lack of safeguards in place when people use them to talk about suicide.

Oliver ends by advising parents to speak with their children about what chatbots they're using, and "treat these apps with extreme caution" if you're pre-disposed to mental health issues.

"In general, it is good to remember that however much an app may sound like a friend, what it is is a machine. And behind that machine is a corporation trying to extract a monthly fee from you. And that kind of sums up for me what is so dystopian about all this, because while that guy you saw earlier said that selling AI friends is low risk because they're just entertainment, that's not actually how friends work. Friends can be the most important figures in your life," says Oliver. "True friends know when to listen, when to push back, and when to worry about you."

If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.

SAVE $20: As of April 27, the Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees are on sale for $44.99 at Amazon, a return to their lowest-ever price at the retailer.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees (10373) $44.99 at Amazon
$64.99 Save $20.00   Get Deal

Lego's Botanicals sets are perfect builds for spring and summer, thanks to their bright colors and blooms that are beautiful on display. If you've been searching for a new set to piece together, the Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees (10373) are a terrific little trio. They're even discounted right now at Amazon, so there's no better time to grab them.

As of April 27, the Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees have dropped to $44.99 at Amazon, marking a return to their lowest-ever price. Usually they're listed for $64.99, so this is your chance to save $20. It's currently marked as a limited time deal, so this set may not stay on sale for long.

Mashable Deals Be the first to know! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Loading... Sign Me Up By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Thanks for signing up!

The Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees is a delightful display, coming with 709 pieces in total that create three trees: a ginkgo bonsai tree with vibrant yellow leaves, a black pine bonsai tree with green needles, and a wisteria bonsai tree that features lovely lilac flowers.

Since it's a display piece, it's a set that's recommended for adults of ages 18 and over. However, if you know someone younger who wants to tackle this set, just have an adult help them out with the building process.

Again, since it's a limited-time offer, this deal on the Lego Botanicals Mini Bonsai Trees may not be available for long. If you're hoping to have it as part of your Lego collection, now is the time to scoop it up and save.

There's a long-standing myth that the "best" Excel users write the longest formulas. Excel mastery used to be measured by how many functions you could cram into one cell, but that standard no longer holds up. Modern tools have changed the game—what once looked like a genius nested formula is often just technical debt in disguise.

Far too often, I see 3D printing guides skip one of the most important steps of all—prototyping. Making prototype prints is absolutely crucial to getting a quality end product. Just about every time I skip prototyping, I regret it. So, here’s why you should value and pay attention to prototyping way more than 3D printing guides normally let on.