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

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

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

Can you get a good TV for under £500?

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

What is a smart TV?

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

What is the best smart platform?

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

How much does a 4K TV cost?

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

What is HDR?

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

What are gaming mode features?

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

What is the best TV for under £500?

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

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

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

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

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

There's finally time to learn

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

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

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

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

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

StackSocial prices subject to change. 

Opens in a new window Credit: GTHW App Limited Headway Premium: Lifetime Subscription £46.60 at the Mashable Shop
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If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

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

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

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

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

To take.

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

SEIZE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A transition.

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

SEGUE

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Nostalgic.

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

RETRO

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Slight amount.

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

SCANT

Final Hurdle hint

A short story with a moral.

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

FABLE

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

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

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

Here's what's included with your purchase:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Credit: Ed Araquel / Paramount+

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft has announced the end of support for the Remote Desktop app for Windows. You’ll need to switch to the ‘Windows App’ to continue remotely accessing your Windows PCs or servers, though this shutdown doesn’t affect all types of remote connections.

Unless you still own a working Xbox 360, the only real way to play games from this era is via emulation, with some very mixed results. However, what if you didn't have to use emulation to play these games? What if you could easily create native ports of these games for virtually any platform? That dream is quickly becoming a reality.

Your charging brick is basically only good for charging your phone, laptop, tablet, or, at most, multiple devices at once. This dock, however, makes for a pretty multifunctional charging brick in essence—and it's now available for a really good price.

Always one to make a spectacle, the Arch-based Linux distribution Garuda Linux has released a major update that comes with several visually impressive additions and redesigns.

Mark Zuckerberg tried to get Facebook into China, where it is blocked, for well over a decade. According to a whistleblower report, Zuckerberg and Meta considered some fairly unsavory tactics to make it happen, including a censorship system and sharing user data. 

The whistleblower in this case is Sarah Wynn-Williams, who filed a 78-page complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report, obtained exclusively by The Washington Post, alleges Facebook considered giving China’s ruling party the ability to censor content and squelch dissent. Also included in the report was Meta’s willingness to share user data with China.

The complaint from Wynn-Williams reportedly alleged that Facebook, in 2015, created a censorship tool for China that would allow it to remove content or shut down the site during “social unrest.” The complaint from Wynn-Williams, who was fired in 2017 from her job working on a team that worked on China policy, reportedly contains internal Meta documents. 

The complaint also alleges that Facebook faced pressure to store Chinese users’ data in China, which could’ve made it easier for the government to access the information. Facebook also allegedly considered weakening privacy protections for Hong Kong users in an effort to appease China.

SEE ALSO: 8 ways Mark Zuckerberg changed Meta ahead of Trump’s inauguration

Some of this information was already known. Facebook had to answer for its China-centric censorship tool after anonymous employees tipped the media about it in 2015. At the time, Meta — then Facebook — didn’t deny that the tool existed but said it had never been used. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told investors at the time that “we’re studying about the Chinese market, and we’ll see what happens.” Per the report, Facebook did eventually abandon its pursuit of breaking into China in 2019.

The news about sharing user data with China is new but shouldn’t be too surprising. Meta has a history of playing fast and loose with user data, most notably in the  Cambridge Analytica scandal. The company considering questionable tactics is also old news. Just last year, Facebook was caught secretly looking at user data in other apps like Snapchat, Amazon, and YouTube to better understand user behavior. 

The good news is that sharing data with China is currently off the table. As The Washington Post notes, Zuckerberg seems to have turned his attention to replacing TikTok if the Chinese social media app fails to find a buyer and gets banned again next month. Per Trump, talks of TikTok’s sale are still ongoing. 

A potential security issue has been discovered by cybersecurity researchers that has the capability to affect more than one billion devices.

According to researchers at the cybersecurity firm Tarlogic, a hidden command has been found coded into a bluetooth chip installed in devices around the world. This secret functionality can be weaponized by bad actors and, according to the researchers, used as an exploit into these devices.

Using these commands, hackers could impersonate a trusted device and then connect to smartphones, computers, and other devices in order to access information stored on them. Bad actors can continue to utilize their connection to the device to essentially spy on users.

The bluetooth chip is called ESP32 and is manufactured by the China-based company Espressif. According to researchers, the ESP32  is "a microcontroller that enables WiFi and Bluetooth connection." In 2023, Espressif reported that one billion units of its ESP32 chip had been sold globally. Millions of IoT devices like smart appliances utilize this particular ESP32 chip.

SEE ALSO: New 'browser syncjacking' cyberattack lets hackers take over your computer via Chrome

Tarlogic researchers say that this hidden command could be exploited, which would allow  "hostile actors to conduct impersonation attacks and permanently infect sensitive devices such as mobile phones, computers, smart locks or medical equipment by bypassing code audit controls." Tarlogic says that these commands are not publicly documented by Espressif.

Researchers with Tarlogic developed a new Bluetooth driver tool in order to aid in Bluetooth-related security research, which enabled the security firm to discover a total of 29 hidden functionalities that could be exploited to impersonate known devices and access confidential information stored on a device. 

According to Tarlogic, Espressif sells these bluetooth chips for roughly $2, which explains why so many devices utilize the component over higher costing options.

As BleepingComputer reports, the issue is being tracked as CVE-2025-27840.

As I'm sure you've experienced, the way your computer is set up can make all the difference in productivity and overall comfort when using your PC. After resetting Windows 11 recently, I immediately turned off a few settings to get started on the right foot.

Navigating the iFixit website and buying replacement parts can be a somewhat overwhelming experience. So, iFixit is introducing a new Device Compatibility Checker to further reduce the guesswork involved in device repair.