IT General

Samsung has a pretty hilarious escape plan for you if you’re stuck watching the national championship on a screen that’s seen better days. The brand just launched its first-ever TV Transfer Portal, which is basically a bribe to get you to a watch party with a better TV.

SEE ALSO: 4 coolest TVs at CES 2026 are from Samsung, LG, and TCL and feature wildly different tech

On Jan. 19 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET, you can "transfer" out of a bad viewing situation. If you’re among the first 900 people to DM @SamsungUS on Instagram or X with a photo of your current non-Samsung setup and your Venmo handle, they’ll send you $50 for a rideshare to a party that actually has a Samsung TV.

Here's the fine print:

• It has to be a real photo of a non-Samsung TV in a home setting. Stock or AI photos will get you disqualified immediately.

• Commercial spots like bars or public spaces don't count (this is for home setups only).

• You can only enter once per person/Venmo account, but a single household or party can have up to three different people submit.

• If you're one of the lucky 900, the money should hit your Venmo on or around Jan. 20.

If you’d rather just be the host with the better setup so your guests don't ditch you, Samsung is also knocking up to 50% off select TVs through Feb. 8.

Updated on Jan. 16 at 11:21 a.m. ET: X appeared to be recovering from its earlier outage. User-reported issues eased on Downdetector. We were successfully able to load the site and browse, about an hour after it went down.

Elon Musk's X appeared to suffer a major outage on Friday.

User-reported issues for X on Downdetector spiked shortly after 10 a.m. ET. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, the same parent company as Mashable.)

Upon trying to open the social media site, we received an error message that read: "Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot." It was not immediately clear what caused the outage.

The error message on X. Credit: Screenshot: X

X also suffered a relatively brief outage earlier in the week. In fact, it's been quite the week for outages, with Verizon suffering a huge outage, with folks across the U.S. losing cell service for a long stretch.

Users on Bluesky, especially, reacted strongly to X being down, dunking on the site amid the ongoing issue of its AI tool, Grok, being used to create nonconsensual, sexual images. Some users have migrated away from X over time amid its rightwing shift.

X-Twitter is down Oontz oontz oontz oontz

— Ms . Penny Oaken, SkyWitch 🧙‍♀️ (@skywitches.net) January 16, 2026 at 10:47 AM

Brace position BlueSky - X is down

— Tom Jamieson (@tomjam.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 10:44 AM

X is completely down, now is BlueSky's chance to shine. So, we're replacing one letter in song titles today?

— Michael Kupperman (@mkupperman.bsky.social) January 16, 2026 at 10:52 AM

This story is developing and will be updated as necessary...

SAVE $100: As of Jan. 16, the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo is on sale for $599. That saves you $100 off its $699 list price for 14% savings. That brings the device down to its lowest price ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo $599 at Amazon
$699 Save $100   Get Deal

There's been so much news about DJI drones being banned in the United States, but are they actually? Technically, yes, however, there's still plenty of ways around the ban. If you already own a foreign made drone you can still operate it. Plus, already imported drones can still be sold, like the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo, which happens to be on sale.

As of Jan. 16, the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo is down to $599. That saves you $100 off its $699 price tag. That's some pretty good savings and actually, the devices lowest price ever.

The DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo is a lightweight and easy to use drone. It features palm takeoff and landing, so it'll come right to you after it finishes flying. As we expect in DJI drones, it has stunning 4K image capturing. The Fly More combo includes the DJI RC Motion 3, DJI Goggles N3, DJI Neo 2 Digital Transceiver, three batteries, a charging hub, and propeller guards.

Get the DJI Neo 2 Motion Fly More Combo for $599 at Amazon and save $100.

SAVE $903: As of Jan. 16, the LG 86-inch 85A QNED Mini-LED 4K TV is on sale for just $1,396.99 at Amazon. That's a savings of over $900 or about 39% off — its lowest price on record.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 86-inch 85A QNED Mini-LED 4K TV $1,396.99 at Amazon
$2,299.99 Save $903.00   Get Deal

TV deals tend to pop off at this time of year, but they also move pretty fast. So it’s worth jumping on those that catch your eye. One we're looking at heading into the weekend is an all-time low price on a massive 86-inch Mini-LED TV from LG, one of our favorite TV brands.

As of Jan. 16, the LG 86-inch 85A QNED Mini-LED 4K TV is on sale at Amazon for just $1,396.99. While Amazon's listing might make it look like a price drop of only a couple hundred dollars, it's actually a savings of over $900 (about 39% off). Its actual list price is between $2,299.99 and $2,499.99 — as seen as Best Buy and LG's own website — so Amazon cuts itself way short.

Debuted at CES 2025, the LG Class 85A is a mid-range Mini-LED option that leans heavily into AI to improve your picture and audio. Thanks to its Alpha 8 AI Processor Gen2, AI can find the perfect HDR and brightness settings for whatever you're watching, while boosting dialogue over background noise and refining your sound to suit your preferences. The AI Magic Remote also provides content recommendations and viewing choices, picture and audio customizations, and even a generative AI gallery to turn your TV into art. Gamers will also appreciate its 120Hz native refresh rate and VRR 144Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium, and LG Game Optimizer.

Ultimately, if you want a massive screen with stunning picture quality that won't put a major dent in your wallet, the LG 86-inch 85A Mini-LED is a great pick.

SAVE $998.01: As of Jan. 16, get the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 portable power station for $999.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,998. That's a discount of 50%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 portable power station $999.99 at Amazon
$1,998 Save $998.01   Get Deal

Losing power is never fun. Whether you're dealing with an emergency or you prefer to go off-grid, you want to make sure you're always covered where electricity is concerned. A good way to do that is by having a portable power station to make sure you're covered at all times. Right now, you can grab a fantastic deal on an Anker portable power station, but this is your last chance to get it before it's no longer on sale.

As of Jan. 16, get the Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 portable power station for $999.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,998. That's $998.01 off and a discount of 50%.

SEE ALSO: The Jackery HomePower 3000 power station is $1,400 off at Amazon — act fast to save huge

The C2000 Gen 2 has a 2,048Wh LiFePO4 battery that offers 1,056Wh of power. It's pretty massive at around 28 pounds, so this is a big power station you'll need to account for, but it'll keep you afloat for a long time, which is worth that tradeoff. It can handle a 30amp plug and has a sustained power output of 2,400W with a peak at 4,000W, so it's a great pick for powering your life until you get electricity back or for camping trips.

Plus, you can use the included 200W solar panel to charge it back up to 100% when a wall charger just isn't an option. It can be fully charged in just 58 hours when you need to top it up, which means you won't be left waiting long when you finally deplete it.

If you're looking for a solid portable power station without spending the kind of cash one demands, don't wait. Get yours before it's out of stock and back up to its normal price.

Forget Team Black versus Team Green. When it comes to House of the Dragon, the bigger conflict appears to be Team George R.R. Martin versus Team Ryan Condal.

In a Hollywood Reporter interview, the Song of Ice and Fire author revealed that his relationship with the House of the Dragon showrunner is "worse than rocky. It's abysmal."

SEE ALSO: George R.R. Martin hints at a 'tragic' end for Tyrion in 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books

The pair co-created the Game of Thrones prequel together, but during Season 2, cracks in their relationship began to surface. In an Aug. 30, 2024 post on his Not A Blog blog, Martin wrote, "I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON."

That post came just days later, on Sept. 4. In a now-deleted post titled, "Beware the Butterflies," Martin argued that, by removing Helaena (Phia Saban) and Aegon II Targaryen's (Tom Glynn-Carney) baby Maelor from the show's infamous Blood and Cheese sequence, House of the Dragon had unleashed a butterfly effect that would negatively impact its adaptation of plot points from the rest of Martin's Targaryen history Fire and Blood.

SEE ALSO: How 'House of the Dragon' Season 2 is different from George R.R. Martin's 'Fire and Blood'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Beware the Butterflies" was meant to be the first of six posts Martin would write about House of the Dragon. However, the other five never saw the light of day.

The post was a culmination of what appears to be a strained creative partnership.

"I thought Ryan and I were partners," Martin told The Hollywood Reporter. "And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought."

Then came Season 2.

"He basically stopped listening to me," Martin said. "I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn't doing it. Other times, he would tell me, 'Oh, OK, yeah, I'll think about that.' It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes."

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Martin and Condal's falling-out escalated in a Zoom meeting with producers and HBO executives where Condal outlined his season plan. Following that, Martin allegedly told him, "This is not my story any longer."

Following the call, Martin reportedly stepped back from House of the Dragon at HBO's request. However, a few months later, he returned to the show for reasons he told The Hollywood Reporter he "can't talk about."

Featured Video For You Sorry to break it to you, the dragons in 'House of the Dragon' are actually wyverns

In a March 31, 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Condal gave his side on Martin's critiques of Season 2, citing practical needs for the adaptation changes.

"I will simply say, I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time," Condal told EW. "But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way. And I think as a showrunner, I have to keep my practical producer hat on and my creative writer, lover-of-the-material hat on at the same time.

"At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that's my job. So I can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday."

House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres this summer on HBO and HBO Max.

To the surprise of no one, Meta is shutting down its Horizon Workrooms virtual office software.

According to Meta's announcement, Meta Horizon Workrooms is being discontinued as a standalone app on Feb. 16, 2026.

The company spun it as a logical step given that Meta Horizon is now a "social platform that supports a wide range of productivity apps and tools."

SEE ALSO: Meta lays off more than 1,000 employees from metaverse division

But we believe the real reason has to do with the fact that people just don't want to sit in virtual reality meetings.

Launched in August 2021, the Horizon Workrooms is a virtual office that allows people to hold virtual meetings. The fact that it required users to wear an Oculus Quest headset made it impractical for many companies to have company-wide meetings this way, as well as made it more cumbersome for a lot of users.

Case in point: Meta itself gave a Quest to all of its employees for free in 2021, and they still didn't use it very much.

Featured Video For You Your AI soulmate is here! Her name is Ami

The evolution of Meta's virtual reality worlds also came with a number of challenges, at one point including the lack of lags on avatars, which made early Horizon Workrooms meetings a bit awkward.

Meta also announced it would end the sales of enterprise Quest headsets and accompanying services starting February 2026. It appears that the metaverse, from which Meta derives its name, isn't such a great place for work after all.

The shuttering of Horizon Workrooms comes days after Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from its metaverse division. With AI being every tech company's main preoccupation these days, VR will have to go sit in the back of the class.

January is already flying by, and if your good intentions are still intact, you may be itching to continue improving your smart home. If you have some free time this weekend, here are three Home Assistant projects you might want to try.

Police procedurals have been winning over viewers for over 70 years. From Dragnet and Hill Street Blues to NYPD Blue and NCIS, police-driven TV shows are extremely reliable forms of content. Many of these procedurals have found new audiences thanks to their resurgence on streaming.

Admin night doesn't look like much at first glance. A few friends on a couch. Laptops open. Phones out. Someone lights a candle. Someone else orders takeout. And then, quietly, the work begins: canceling subscriptions, paying overdue bills, booking dentist appointments, opening long-avoided emails, and finally setting up that high-yield savings account you've been meaning to deal with "next week."

On TikTok, admin night is emerging as one of 2026's most relatable low-key hangout trends — a structured, communal way to tackle the invisible labor of adulthood together. Less party, more parallel productivity. And in a cultural moment defined by financial anxiety, burnout, and an appetite for quieter socializing, it makes a surprising amount of sense.

SEE ALSO: How to get help with small tasks when your mental health blocks your way

At its core, admin night reframes productivity as a social activity. Instead of carving out solo time to face overwhelming to-do lists, friends gather with the shared understanding that everyone has life tasks they've been avoiding. The hang isn’t about grinding through work; it's about making those tasks feel finite, survivable, and, crucially, less lonely.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, journalist Chris Colin framed admin night as a response to "the isolation fanned by our collective overwhelm," arguing that our drift from one another isn't just about screens, but "the endless micro-obligations that keep us tethered to them." In that sense, admin night offers a small but meaningful interruption to that cycle.

The timing isn't accidental. In 2026, low-key hangs have fully replaced nights out as the default social currency. Rising costs, post-burnout fatigue, and a collective reassessment of what "fun" should look like have led people toward gatherings that are more affordable, quieter, and more intentional. Admin night fits neatly into that shift: no reservations, no cover charges, no pressure to perform. Just snacks, companionship, and a shared goal of getting your life slightly more together.

But admin night isn't just about saving money. It's also about emotional relief. Modern adulthood is administratively overwhelming in ways previous generations didn't experience. Subscription creep, fragmented healthcare systems, digital bureaucracy, and financial tools that assume a baseline literacy most people were never taught — all of this creates a constant background hum of stress. Ignoring those tasks can spiral into shame. Facing them alone can feel paralyzing.

Doing them together changes the equation.

There's also a real psychological mechanism at play. Admin night taps into a concept known as "body doubling," a practice that involves completing tasks alongside others to enhance focus and follow-through. Often used by people with ADHD, body doubling reduces task avoidance by providing gentle accountability and lowering the emotional barrier to starting. You don’t need advice or supervision; you just need someone else there, doing their own thing, reminding your nervous system that you're not in this alone.

Friends check in on each other’s progress. Celebrate small wins. Normalize how behind everyone feels. Someone asks, "Did you cancel it yet?" and suddenly the task feels doable.

Admin night also fits into a longer lineage of peer support that challenges the notion that personal worth is tied to productivity. In a 2021 Mashable story by Chase DiBenedetto about mutual aid communities like Extra Spoons, executive skill coach Lisa Joy Tuttle explained how peer support helps de-stigmatize the so-called "inability to adult" — a cycle in which anxiety, depression, or burnout makes everyday tasks feel impossible, and unfinished tasks then amplify shame. The goal of these communities, Tuttle noted, isn't to become a "shinier machine," but to create more space for connection, ease, and a life that feels enjoyable rather than optimized.

On TikTok, the aesthetic reflects that softness. There's no hustle-coded urgency. Admin night videos favor candles over timers, cozy couches over desks, wine or tea over energy drinks. The tone isn't "optimize your life" — it's "let's survive it together." In that way, the trend quietly rejects grind culture's obsession with individual discipline and replaces it with something more humane: shared responsibility.

There’s something subtly radical about that shift. Admin night acknowledges that being "bad at adulthood" isn't a personal failing. In reality, it's a structural one. It treats bureaucratic competence as communal knowledge, not a moral virtue. And it redistributes invisible labor by making space for people to admit what they don’t know without embarrassment.

Admin night won't magically fix your finances or cure burnout. But it does something smaller and maybe more important: It turns the most isolating parts of adult life into a reason to gather. In 2026, when fun increasingly looks like sustainability — and TikTok's own trend forecasting suggests the era of fantasy escapism is giving way to a return to reality — that might be the point.

After all, if adulthood is mostly admin, then admin night is just friendship adapting to reality.

Most people never give a second thought to how their phone connects to a cell tower. It’s something that constantly happens in the background without our input, and therein lies the potential for trouble. What if that tower isn't what it seems? Android can tell you about it—maybe.

Are you looking for useful software to run on your Linux PC? There's never a better time to try some out than the weekend, and I've found a song identifier, a powerful image viewer, and a ping replacement.

If you want to know the path we’ll walk in the future, CES is one of the best places to get a glimpse, and this year, Hypershell literally showed us how we’ll walk in the future.

SUVs are everywhere these days, and it’s easy to see why. Families love the space, comfort, and versatility, and now automakers are sneaking in hybrid powertrains to make these roomy rides a bit kinder on gas.

Last summer, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland brought fresh life to the zombie franchise 28 Days Later with 28 Years Later, a jaw-dropping marvel of a horror movie. So, Candyman director Nia DaCosta had a dizzyingly high bar to hit with this year's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a direct sequel that plunges deeper into the curious characters of the ossuary-building Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), the infected Alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), and the dynamic cult leader, Jimmy (Jack O'Connell).

Critics have been universally blown away by DaCosta's frightening and fascinating film. In her review for Mashable, Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko cheered, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a phenomenal film. As a sequel, it builds the saga of Spike without retreading its predecessor's steps. As a zombie movie, it delivers scenes of gut-churning violence and haunting loss. As a horror film, it is sublime, gorgeous, rich in visual splendor, surging with feeling, and intoxicating in its unexpected twists. Simply put, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple fucking rules."

So it was with great excitement that Mashable welcomed DaCosta and O'Connell to the Say More couch to celebrate Bone Temple, while shouting out their 2025 work — three of which made our best films of the year list — 28 Years Later, Sinners, and Hedda.

Above is the first five minutes of the conversation between Puchko, O'Connell, and DaCosta, tapping into how they came to be a part of this franchise and the dream that is working with Boyle.

For more from the interview, including insights into Jimmy's perverse cult and that show-stopping Kelson dance number, check out the full episode on YouTube.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is now in theaters.

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SAVE $1,400: As of Jan. 16, the Jackery HomePower 3000 is on sale for $1,599 at Amazon. That's a 47% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Jackery Jackery HomePower 3000 $1,599 at Amazon
$2,999 Save $1,400   Get Deal

For reliable power in a tricky situation, you can't go wrong with a portable power station. And for something that can power your whole house, the Jackery HomePower 3000 is the natural choice. And as of Jan. 16, this model (inclusive of solar panels and AC cable) is on sale at Amazon. Right now you can get $1,400 off the list price, bringing it down to $1,599. That's almost half off.

This is a seriously powerful unit, designed to keep all your home essentials running during outages. It has a 3,600W output, 7,200W surge, and a 3,072Wh capacity, so it can power big appliances like fridges. It also has a built-in UPS that switches in under 20ms to keep important devices running without interruption.

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It comes with multiple AC, USB-C, USB-A and DC ports, and you can charge several devices at once, including fast charging. You don't need days to prep it either, charging it up takes less than two hours with the AC or hybrid charging.

And like all Jackery devices, it's robust and built to last. It has LiFePO4 batteries that offer 4,000 cycles, all while maintaining 70% capacity, so you're guaranteed a long, reliable performance with this investment.

Get this power station deal from Amazon.

I'll be the first to admit that Netflix cranks out so many documentaries and docuseries that you're bound to click on a title or two that aren't up to muster. I'm happy to report that for this week, that is not the case.

Stuck in a boot loop or missing features after a Windows 11 update? Before you reinstall, try these fixes that usually work.

In the mood for a weekend binge that actually feels like a binge—the kind that grips you early, and before you know it, you're five episodes in? Impressively, Paramount+ is still yielding new and old shows to watch.

BEST LEGO DEAL: Lego is running make and take events on Jan. 18. A limited quantity of Burger Bike Carts will be available for free at participating stores.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Lego Group Lego Burger Bike Carts: Free Malke and Take Event   Learn More

Lego has been in the news a lot lately.

Preorders for the new Lego Star Wars Smart Play sets have landed alongside preorders for the first-ever Lego Pokémon sets. There's only one downside with these exciting new launches, and that's the wait. These new sets are available for preorder, but what are we all supposed to do until release dates? We can't just sit here reading early-access reviews and angry conversations on Reddit about how Pikachu looks weird. Instead, we should all make plans to attend our nearest Lego store this weekend.

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Visitors to select Lego Stores on Jan. 18 (from 12-2 p.m.) can participate in a Lego Burger Bike Cart make and take event. During this special event, participants can build and bring home this fun model for free. This event is intended for participants aged 6+ years, and the model is available on a first-come-first-serve basis, at participating locations, while supplies last.

It's important to note is that this Lego Burger Bike Cart is not available for purchase. So by taking part in this event, participants can take home something that money literally cannot buy. The only catch is that you're limited to one build per participant, but that seems fair to us.

Head to your nearest Lego store to get the Burger Bike Cart without spending anything.