IT General

As we near the 98th Academy Awards, which will air on March 15, prep for the star-studded event is underway. Host Conan O'Brien has rolled out the red carpet, statuettes gleam with fresh polish, and influencers are prepping their interview questions amid viral nominee backlash.

Also on the docket: The annual Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as The Razzies, which dishonorably award the worst Hollywood had to offer in the year prior.

SEE ALSO: How to watch the 2026 Oscars online for free

Many of Hollywood's finest take a Razzie win in stride, including Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock, who attended the Razzies to accept the dishonor on behalf of Catwoman and All About Steve, respectively.

Alas, this year's virtual parody ceremony didn't feature any in-person Hollywood cameos. You'll also have to stomach some unsettling animated visuals on the YouTube livestream — or just scroll down for the full list.

Worst Picture

The Electric State          
Hurry Up Tomorrow
Disney’s Snow White (2025)   
Star Trek: Section 31
War of the Worlds (2025)

Winner: War of the Worlds (2025)

War of the Worlds, the latest film adaptation of the H.G Wells novel directed by Rich Lee, swept this year's Razzies. It currently has a 2.5-star rating on IMDb, a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a single star on Letterboxd. The movie is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Worst Actress

Ariana DeBose, Love Hurts
Milla Jovovich, In the Lost Lands
Natalie Portman, Fountain of Youth 
Rebel Wilson, Bride Hard
Michelle Yeoh, Star Trek: Section 31

Winner: Rebel Wilson

Bride Hard is a real movie in which Wilson plays a secret agent whose spy duties are getting in the way of her being a bridesmaid. It has a 4.4 rating on IMDB, a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 1.9 on Letterboxd.

Worst Actor

Dave Bautista, In the Lost Lands
Ice Cube, War of the Worlds
Scott Eastwood, Alarum
Jared Leto, Tron: Ares
Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, Hurry Up Tomorrow

Winner: Ice Cube

Despite widespread panning from critics and viewers, War of the Worlds gave the world at least one good thing: a meme-worthy shot of Ice Cube sitting at a computer monitor, the glow of Zoom tinging his glasses.

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

Anna Chlumsky, Bride Hard 
Ema Horvath, The Strangers: Chapter 2
Scarlet Rose Stallone, Gunslingers 
Kacey Rohl, Star Trek: Section 31
Isis Valverde, Alarum

Winner: Scarlet Rose Stallone

Stallone is, in fact, the daughter of action star Sylvester Stallone. She stars alongside another famous Hollywood name, Nic Cage, in Gunslingers, which has a 3.6 on IMDB, 5% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 1.8 stars on Letterboxd.

Worst Supporting Actor

All Seven Artificial Dwarfs, Snow White (2025)
Nicolas Cage, Gunslingers
Stephen Dorff, Bride Hard
Greg Kinnear, Off the Grid
Sylvester Stallone, Alarum

Winner: All Seven Artificial Dwarfs

The uncanny, CGI dwarfs of 2025's Snow White took home a joint Razzie, stealing yet another award that could have actually gone to a real-life actor with dwarfism.

Worst Remake / Rip-Off / Sequel

I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Smurfs (2025)
Snow White (2025)
War of the Worlds (2025)

Winner: War of the Worlds

Remake or rip-off? How about both...

Worst Screen Combo

All Seven Dwarfs, Snow White (2025)
James Corden & Rihanna, Smurfs (2025)
Ice Cube & His Zoom Camera, War of the Worlds (2025)
Robert De Niro & Robert De Niro (as Frank & Vito), The Alto Knights
The Weeknd & His Colossal Ego, Hurry Up Tomorrow

Winner: All Seven Dwarfs

Let's just use this moment to shout out the real voices behind the digital Razzie winners: Martin Klebba (Grumpy), George Salazar (Happy), Andy Grotelueschen (Sleepy), Tituss Burgess (Bashful), Jason Kravits (Sneezy), and Jeremy Swift (Doc).

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

Rich Lee, War of the Worlds (2025)
Olatunde Osunsanmi, Star Trek: Section 31
The Russo Brothers, The Electric State
Trey Edward Shults, Hurry Up Tomorrow
Marc Webb, Snow White (2025)

Winner: Rich Lee

Lee's bookshelf will be full of golden raspberries, which are actually really cute decor IMO. In the words of the Razzies, "Own your bad!"

Worst Screenplay

The Electric State, Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Adapted from the illustrated novel by Simon Stalenhag.
Hurry Up Tomorrow, Screenplay by Trey Edward Shults, Abel Tesfaye, Reza Fahim.
Snow White (2025), Screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson et. al. Drawing from the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.
Star Trek: Section 31, Screenplay by Craig Sweeny with original story concept developed by Bo Yeon Kim & Erika Lippoldt.
War of the Worlds (2025), Screen story and screenplay by Kenny Golde and screenplay by Marc Hyman. Adapted from the novel by H.G. Wells.

Winner: War Of The Worlds (2025) / Kenny Golde, Marc Hyman

Trying to adapt War of the Worlds in the age of TikTok dances and mogging is a doomed enterprise. But with this win, War of the Worlds ties with Cats for the most wins at the Razzies.

Razzie Redeemer AwardWinner: Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue

The Redeemer Award is presented to a previous nominee or winner who has successfully come back from a critical failure. Hudson has multiple Razzie nominations, including My Best Friend’s Girl, Mother’s Day, and, most recently, 2021's Music. However, Hudson redeemed herself with a "pitch-perfect" performance in Song Sung Blue and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Installing apps on Windows hasn't changed much in years. Most people still open a browser, search for the program they want, download an installer, and click through a handful of setup screens. It works, but it's slow and repetitive. If you're setting up a new PC or reinstalling Windows, the process gets even worse. Installing a handful of everyday apps can mean jumping between half a dozen websites and repeating the same steps over and over or pulling out a USB drive full of installers and running them one by one.

If you ask me, the 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of action films. However, everyone knows the classics from the 20th century. If we start the clock at the year 2001 or later to give newer films a fair chance, how do they rank? This is my attempt at putting up a scoreboard for the new century so far.

Thanks to the rising prices of everything, including PC components, the looming RAM-pocalypse, and the fact that RGB is slowly falling out of favor among PC gamers, there's a growing trend of PC components once considered "obsolete" finding their way back into more and more desktop PCs.

Are you tired of everyone recommending a new Linux distro claiming it's the best? Are you wondering which one of these best distros is actually aligned with your needs and requirements? Well, let me spotlight five popular Linux distros and what they do, so you can finally make your choice!

I cut the cord and went all-in on streaming back in 2015. Thanks to Sling TV, I ditched my expensive cable TV bill and got all the essential channels at a fraction of the price. Everything was great for a few years, and eventually, I switched to YouTube TV, but the good old days are long behind us.

An anonymous group installed an anti-Elon Musk vending machine that dispenses the Epstein Files at SXSW 2026 in Austin, Texas, on Saturday morning.

Mashable witnessed a group of four men installing the piece of guerrilla protest art at the corner of Red River Street and 4th Street in downtown Austin. After a brief installation, passersby started collecting DVDs titled "Elon's Epstein Files." The vending machine is covered with anti-Elon Musk slogans, and messages on the machine say "Grok makes AI child porn free!" and "Our founder Elon Musk is in the Epstein Files."

A group of unidentified men install an anti-Elon Musk art project at SXSW 2026. Credit: Timothy Werth / Mashable

Grok has been the subject of global investigations after the AI chatbot was accused of generating nude images of children. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and the New York Times found that Grok created an estimated 3 million sexualized images, which included 23,000 images depicting children, during an 11-day period between December and January.

When Grok Imagine first launched, Mashable reported that the tool lacked basic safety guardrails to prevent sexual deepfakes.

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A QR code inside the DVD takes you to Jmail, a site that lets you search through Epstein's emails in a Gmail-like interface. (Exercise caution when scanning QR codes from unknown sources.) Specifically, this code links to a search in Jmail that shows emails between Musk and Epstein. What Mashable has covered previously: Jmail is the brainchild of Riley Walz, a digital "prankster," and developer Luke Igel. However, it's unclear if this Elon Musk vending machine is associated with the Jmail project.

The men setting up the vending machine refused to say who they were or who hired them. Two men who described themselves as the "security detail" said the vending machine would be up until Wednesday. A photographer and the man installing the machine told Mashable they were hired by a company that was hired by another company, and refused to provide identifying details.

An Anti-Elon Musk vending machine appears in downtown Austin during SXSW 2026. Credit: Timothy Werth / Mashable Credit: Timothy Werth / Mashable

The men installing the machine also claimed responsibility for the Epstein Walk of Shame art installation, which appeared in downtown Austin earlier in the week.

The annual SXSW festival takes place in Austin, Texas, where it runs from March 12 to 18.

The golden era of couch co-op gaming is still one of the most loved times in video game history. Even though modern consoles focus on online-only multiplayer, that immediate, in-person feeling you get from local competition is exactly why games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and the Mario Party series are my favorites. For years, if you wanted to keep that nostalgia alive, it meant you had to track down old hardware, hunt for controllers, and deal with those fuzzy, standard-definition graphics.

Meta is pulling its end-to-end encryption option on Instagram DMs.

The company announced the change in an update to its support page and via alerts to users in the app, writing:

End-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8, 2026.

If you have chats that are impacted by this change, you will see instructions on how you can download any media or messages you may want to keep.

If you're on an older version of Instagram, you may also need to update the app before you can download your affected chats.

Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce told The Verge that the company was discontinuing the feature because "very few people" were using it. With end-to-end encryption enabled for both users, DMs and calls aren't visible to outside actors, including Meta, unless they're shared.

SEE ALSO: Child safety group blasts YouTube for million dollar gamble on AI content for kids

Meta and other tech leaders have come under fire for turning over user communications to outside entities, including law enforcement. But they have also received flak for offering end-to-end encryption to users across the board, with some critics saying that the feature enables child predators to target and communicate with minors undetected.

TikTok, for example, does not offer end-to-end encryption for user DMs and explained to the BBC that the decision is the result of numerous safety considerations. The company told the outlet that providing law enforcement and internal training teams with chat data keeps users safe.

For users who still want end-to-end encryption, Meta's spokesperson says to turn to WhatsApp — but the Meta-owned messaging service isn't entirely safe from intrusions, either. Meta says end-to-end encryption will still be available on Messenger.

How many devices do you have in your smart home? How many are connected to the internet, and how many of them are running updated firmware? Do you even know for sure? If not, it's time for an audit of your smart home devices.

Electric vehicles were once among the most expensive options on the market, often carrying price tags far beyond comparable gasoline-powered cars. But as the EV market matures and more models return from leases, used prices are beginning to fall quickly. In some cases, the shift is dramatic enough that buyers can now purchase a used electric crossover for the same price as a brand-new compact sedan.

If you'd like to get more done in your day without getting overwhelmed, these free tools may just save your day to day.

Ask ChatGPT to make you a short film, and it soon may be able to do just that.

Inside sources told The Information that OpenAI is planning to integrate its video generator tool, Sora, directly into ChatGPT, only a few months after launching Sora's standalone app.

SEE ALSO: Child safety group blasts YouTube for million dollar gamble on AI content for kids

While the TikTok-style app would still remain available to users, insiders say, the move suggests OpenAI is putting most of its effort into beefing up ChatGPT. Sora's integration and the processing demands that come with it would cost the company money — OpenAI estimates it will spend $225 billion to run its models between now and 2030 — but it would stand to recoup those costs if ChatGPT remains the dominant chatbot on the market. OpenAI could also monetize video generation itself, a strategy they floated to users on the Sora app.

Sora 2 has had its highs and lows since its launch last year. OpenAI received a $1 billion investment from Disney in a deal that included licensing the entertainment giant's characters for use by ChatGPT and Sora users. This followed widespread criticism of the model after it generated numerous problematic deepfakes of historic figures and infringed on Hollywood IP.

In February, a judge ordered OpenAI to cease using the term "cameo" to describe its in-app AI likeness tool after it was sued by the eponymous social media app Cameo. Broadly, the app has seen a dip in popularity among users.

The company has adjusted its priorities for its tentpole chatbot over the last few months, including pivoting away from its proposed shopping integration and launching native advertising for ChatGPT as a reinvestment aimed at boosting the chatbot's user base and profits. The company is pushing ChatGPT's multimodal capabilities. Last week, OpenAI announced new dynamic visuals for chatbot users, providing more detailed, interactive visual references for math and science questions.

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

When you switch from a Windows PC to an Apple Mac, you'll probably hit a few hurdles. These quirks will go away over time, but that can be frustrating and slow you down, especially if you've used PCs for ages. I'll go into the subtle but important operational differences between a Mac and a PC to get you ready for those less obvious changes you'll need to make to really get things done. If I had known how different the Mac was, I wouldn't have been so eager to switch over.

Wi-Fi 7 routers are heavily marketed as a massive leap over older Wi-Fi standards, promising faster speeds, lower latency, and much better optimized connections.

This was another busy week in tech, with Google announcing a big change to Maps navigation, impressive updates for the Dolphin emulator and Ghostty terminal, Amazon's ad-free Prime Video plan going up in price, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Thanks to big leaps in lithium-ion battery technology, the days of the tangled extension cord are finally winding down. There's a new class of powerful, portable cordless tools designed to solve common household problems. You no longer have to deal with bulky equipment or hunt for an outlet to deal with a sudden mess or emergency. Here are some of the best tools for the job.

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for March 14, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for March 14, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 14 Pips

Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 5-1, placed vertically.

Equal (1): Everything in this space must be equal to 1. The answer is 5-1, placed vertically; 4-1, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-0, placed vertically.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 4-4, placed vertically.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 14 Pips

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 3-4, placed horizontally; 4-4, placed horizontally.

Number (14): Everything in this space must add up to 14. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally; 5-5, placed horizontally.

Number (15): Everything in this space must add up to 15. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 3-3, placed vertically.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically; 0-3, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for March 14 Pips

Number (15): Everything in this space must add up to 15. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally; 5-6, placed vertically.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 5-6, placed vertically; 2-1, placed horizontally.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically.

Number (6): Everything in this space must add up to 6. The answer is 2-3, placed vertically; 0-3, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 5-3, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically.

Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 0-1, placed vertically; 2-4, placed vertically.

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

Microsoft has a pretty long history of bringing out ambitious products and then, sometimes really quickly, just stopping them. Its graveyard of discontinued projects is full of promising, and sometimes much-loved, software and hardware that, for various reasons, just didn't fit into the company's long-term plans. This whole process is a big part of how Windows has changed over time, often leaving you scrambling for other options. From simple, nostalgic apps that were too pure for today's Windows and were killed, to clever hardware platforms that maybe launched a bit too soon, a new bunch of services and features have officially been retired. We're going to look at several recently discontinued Microsoft products and features that you may not know are dead.

Today's Connections: Sports Edition is easy for people who like golf.

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. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of 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 until the game ends.

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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: Baseball no-no's

• Green: Teams in the Peach State

• Blue: Winners on the green

• Purple: Famous college matchups

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Banned in Baseball

• Green: A Georgia Athlete

• Blue: Golf Awards

• Purple: College Football Rivalries

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 #537 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Banned in Baseball - BETTING, CORKED BAT, SPITBALL, STEROIDS

• A Georgia Athlete - BRAVE, FALCON, HAWK, YELLOW JACKET

• Golf Awards - CLARET JUG, GREEN JACKET, SOLHEIM CUP, WANAMAKER TROPHY

• College Football Rivalries - BACKYARD BRAWL, BEDLAM, EGG BOWL, THE GAME

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.