IT General

Not all hybrids are built the same. The word “hybrid” often brings the Toyota Prius to mind, but that famous fuel-sipper represents just one approach to hybrid technology—and it’s far from the only one on the road today.

With historic heatwaves, the product of summer 2025 was the personal fan. These pocket-sized devices were everywhere, with people using them to stay cool on their commute home or while in the throes of VidCon. Portable fans are an easy, cheap way to stay cool with dozens of options available on Amazon, yet we're not surprised to see a luxe option appear in 2026. Enter, the Shark ChillPill.

Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark ChillPill $149.99 at Amazon
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Shark's ChillPill is a handheld fan with digital controls. It twists to contort into a comfortable handhold or to create a little perch, like it's a miniature tabletop fan. It has 10 speeds, which the brand claims push air up to 25 feet. When kicked up to max speed, it's a noisy device akin more to a hair dryer than a fan.

The Shark ChillPill comes with three interchangable attachments: The InstaChill Cooling Plate (installed), fan head, and misting head. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

It's a bladeless fan that comes with two interchangeable heads. One is the InstaChill Cooling Plate, which has a metal plate that acts as a sort of on-the-go ice pack, cooling skin by up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit upon contact. The other head is a mister, which has a tiny water tank that provides up to 10 minutes of cool mist, perfect for those in hot, dry climates. The ChillPill is USB-C chargeable and has 11 hours of battery life. Plus, it comes in dazzling colors, including pink, teal, blue, green, and rose gold. Perhaps an opportunity to color coordinate at all your upcoming summer weddings?

The one catch with the Shark ChillPill? Its $149.99 price tag. While you can score most personal fans for $25 or less online, the ChillPill is a much pricier fan. While we've yet to thoroughly vet the latest portable fan, its long battery life and extra attachments may make it a worthy invest.

The Shark ChillPill is now available to purchase on Amazon.

March is ripe for must-see TV. While 2026 has seen a fair number of new releases so far, they’re nothing compared to the superstar shows that the streaming world is dropping on us viewers this month.

Our time is limited, but there’s a nearly unlimited number of podcasts, audiobooks, and YouTube videos to watch. You wouldn’t be alone if you turned to the seemingly innocent “1.5x” or 2x” speed button as a solution, but at what cost?

Smartphones have gotten ridiculously good over the years. Screen resolutions went from 480p to 4K, performance has more than quadrupled, and cameras are well over 20MP. They’re super thin and sleek now, too, and yet some would have you believe thickness is still a problem. It’s not.

Netflix's new additions on the movie front are warming up like the weather is, with some interesting picks landing in the streamer's recent Top 10 (at time of writing), including Expendables 4, The Addams Family animated movie, K-Pop Demon Hunters (37 weeks and counting!), and a couple on the list below.

Compact SUVs have come a long way in a short time. What started as a niche alternative about a decade ago is now the default choice for families, and just about every automaker—from budget brands to luxury heavyweights—wants a slice of the segment.

Smart buttons are a useful way to trigger scenes and automations in your smart home. With Home Assistant, I've found that sometimes NFC tags can be more useful, as they allow me to know not just when a tag was scanned, but also the device that scanned it.

If the internet has taught us anything, it's that every few months, a new front opens in the quiet cultural skirmish between millennials and Gen Z. First, it was side parts versus middle parts. Then skinny jeans versus baggy denim. Then came the millennial pause and the Gen Z stare. Now the latest battlefield is… the top of your head.

Specifically, how much space you leave above it in a video.

SEE ALSO: Is Gen Z driving a return to the cinema?

The debate began with Gen Z creator @taylormknott joking that you can instantly tell how old someone is by how they film a TikTok, because millennials leave "a ton of space between the top of their head and the top of the screen."

The observation resonated with younger viewers accustomed to TikTok's tight, face-forward framing. But it also triggered an immediate response from millennials. One such creator, screenwriter Andrew Briedis, posted a stitched rebuttal on Instagram Reels.

"Gen Z, you know I love you," he began, before launching into a lightly exasperated defense of millennial filmmaking instincts. His argument was simple: millennials aren't leaving that space by accident. They're doing it on purpose.

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"It's called the Rule of Thirds," he said, referring to the classic photography and cinematography principle that divides a frame into three sections and positions subjects along those lines for visual balance. Leaving space above the head, he argued, draws the viewer's eye intentionally rather than cramming a face into the center of the frame.

In other words, what Gen Z sees as awkward framing, millennials see as composition.

But beneath the technical explanation lay one rooted in generational experience with technology. "Any of us millennials, we didn't have phones to record on," he said. "You know what I had in high school? A digital camera that recorded like 20 seconds, and then I had to plug it into a computer and download it."

For millennials, visual storytelling was something learned deliberately: photography classes, film studies, and early YouTube tutorials about composition and lighting. The grammar of images, like the rule of thirds, was taught as a skill.

Gen Z, by contrast, grew up with front-facing cameras in their pockets. Video wasn't just something you learned in a class. It was something you did constantly, from a very young age. The result is a different visual language: closer framing, direct eye contact with the camera, and compositions optimized for a vertical phone screen rather than cinematic balance.

As a millennial myself, I don't think either approach is necessarily wrong. They’re just products of different media ecosystems.

Millennials were raised on cameras and camcorders that adhered to traditional photography rules. Video felt closer to filmmaking. Gen Z was raised on smartphones and social media platforms where immediacy and intimacy matter more than textbook composition. The goal isn't to frame a shot like a director — it's to feel like you're FaceTiming a friend.

Even the creator who started the "millennial space" debate eventually responded with another video that zoomed out from the joke (but, notably, kept the camera angle tight).

"All these things that we tease each other for," @taylormknott said in a follow-up TikTok, "are indicators of a larger truth that exposes how we interact with technology differently based on when we were given access to it during our childhood development."

In other words, the debate about how much space you leave above your head in a video isn't really about framing at all. It's about how two generations learned to see themselves on camera and how the tools they grew up with shaped what "normal" looks like on screen.

So when Gen Z jokes about the "millennial space," they’re not just roasting millennial camera angles. They're pointing at a visual style shaped by an earlier internet. And when millennials defend it, they're defending something else entirely — the idea that framing a shot is a craft.

Like most generational internet debates, the argument is less about who's right and more about how quickly media habits evolve. What looks correct to one generation can look completely off to another.

Even when it's just the space above your head.

2025 has seen some of the biggest leaps forward for folding smartphones. With its newly refined look, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the most well-received foldable to date. And yet, while these book-style devices are getting all the attention, it'll be the smaller flip phones that ultimately win out.

Today, the NVIDIA Shield TV is a niche but well-regarded streaming box. However, when it first saw the light of day, that wasn't at all what the company had in mind for it. Yet through some clever pivots, that's what the Shield TV eventually became.

TL;DR: Live stream Newcastle United vs. Barcelona in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player or Prime Video. Access these free live streams from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Champions League playoff round was truly fantastic. We had loads of goals, moments of real drama, and surprise results. Is there more to come from the knockout rounds? We can dream.

Newcastle United vs. Barcelona is one of the most interesting matchups from this round. Can Eddie Howe's team deliver a couple of massive performances and progress against the might of Barça? They are going to need huge efforts from the likes of Tonali and Woltemade if they stand any chance of advancing.

Barcelona will be looking to Lamine Yamal to continue his fine form of late. Yamal’s superb goal earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao at the weekend. That restored Barcelona's lead at the top of La Liga. Now the focus for Hansi Flick's team is squarely on St. James Park.

If you want to watch Newcastle United vs. Barcelona in the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Newcastle United vs. Barcelona?

Newcastle United vs. Barcelona in the Champions League kicks off at 8 p.m. GMT on March 10. This fixture takes place at St. James Park.

How to watch Newcastle United vs. Barcelona for free

Newcastle United vs. Barcelona is available to live stream for free on a number of streaming platforms:

• Ireland — Virgin Media Player

• UK — Prime Video (30-day free trial)

These free streams are geo-restricted, but anyone can access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player or Prime Video to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Newcastle United vs. Barcelona for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

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 Ireland or the UK

4. Visit Virgin Media Player or Prime Video

5. Watch Newcastle United vs. Barcelona for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Newcastle United vs. Barcelona without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select Champions League fixtures before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for live sport?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on Virgin Media Player and Prime Video, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Ireland and the UK

• 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).

Watch Newcastle United vs. Barcelona in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

FREE WITH PURCHASE: Through March 16, spending $150 at Lego.com unlocks a free Lego Botanicals Floral Picture Frame.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Botanicals Floral Picture Frame 40916 $0 at Lego
$24.99 Save $24.99 Free with $150+ purchase Shop Now

New month, new seasonally-appropriate free Lego. Through March 16, you'll get a free Lego Floral Picture Frame from the Botanicals series when you spend $150 at Lego.com.

The 310 piece set is decorated with Lego roses, daisies, cineraria, delphinium, pussy willow, and camellia, matching the recently-released Lego Botanicals Flower Wall perfectly. The frame can then be hung vertically or horizontally.

Several popular premium Legos would meet the $150 minimum easily, like Claude Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water set for $249.99 or the Milky Way Galaxy set for $199.99. You could also combine multiple lower-priced sets to hit $150 — and in that case, you have options. More than 40 new Lego sets were released on March 1, including Botanicals Magnolia Branches ($49.99), Floating Sea Otters ($119.99), and eight Lego Star Wars Smart Play sets ($39.99 to $159.99).

If you're stumped by an abstract math problem or a complicated physics concept, ChatGPT can help.

Announced today, OpenAI's chatbot can now generate interactive visuals in response to prompts on math and science questions, including dynamic, customizable graphs, diagrams, and geometric renderings. Once generated, users can adjust variables and manipulate formulas directly in the chat and watch the visuals change in real-time.

SEE ALSO: Trump's latest AI announcements: Tech Corps, data center costs, modern warfare

For now, visual explanations are available for 70 "core concepts" in science and math, including specific physics and geometric formulas like the Pythagorean theorem, Charles’ and Ohm's laws, kinetic and potential energy, and more. The subjects are curated for high school and college-age learners, OpenAI says, and the company plans to expand the feature with additional subjects in the future.

Credit: OpenAI

ChatGPT fields math and science questions from 140 million users each week, according to parent company OpenAI. Last year, the company launched Study Mode, a toggle-on ChatGPT experience designed to act more like an AI tutor rather than an all-around helper. With Study Mode on, ChatGPT is instructed not to give direct solutions but to encourage a more socratic style of learning. In Mashable's tests, however, the chatbot still provided answers, even when unprompted.

Dynamic visuals aren't a Study Mode-only feature, however, and the company told Mashable that the experience was designed and tested using the standard ChatGPT mode. Math and science visuals will appear across all ChatGPT experiences and plans, and are available now.

IBM OS/2 was an alternative to Microsoft Windows throughout the 1990s, but Microsoft won out in the end, and the operating system was relegated to niche use cases. Over 24 years since the final OS/2 release, and 19 years since IBM's support ended, the officially-sanctioned continuation ArcaOS is still going.

The big selling point of SSDs over hard drives has always been the fact that they are fast. You might think, then, that speed is the most important thing about an SSD. But these days, there are actually a lot of other things you should prioritize instead.

Google Photos is generally considered one of the best apps from the company, but it’s not without problems. One feature in particular has been under constant fire since it was announced. Thankfully, Google has finally relented, and “Ask Photos” can be turned off.

I use a lot of Zigbee devices in my smart home. For my needs, Zigbee still offers the best combination of low cost and utility. The truth is that Zigbee isn't perfect; it has plenty of frustrating issues.

Apple's latest iOS beta — 26.4 beta 4 — rolled out this week and came with a serious upgrade in emoji.

Your mileage may vary on what's technically new, but iOS 26.4 beta 4 brings a total of 163 new emoji designs. There are 13 truly new emoji concepts (which we've seen before), and then 150 new skin tone variations for the existing wrestling and people with bunny ears emoji.

The emoji-focused resource, Emojipedia, helpfully published a first look at all the new emoji. They appear to be variations on the new emojis introduced by Unicode — the nonprofit that standardizes digital characters — last year.

Credit: Unicode

The new concepts, as shown above, include a distorted face, a so-called fight cloud, a bigfoot-esque creature (technically, it's known as the "hairy creature"), an orca, a landslide, a treasure chest, and a ballerina in various skin tones. These are long-expected updates to emoji, as we covered back in 2025, but now they're starting to roll out.

Hairy creature, aka Bigfoot, appears to be the most anticipated of the new emoji. Personally, I think the fight cloud emoji has a bright future, especially for anyone who loved Saturday morning cartoons back in the day.

To see all the new emoji introduced in iOS 26.4, head to Emojipedia.

Reliability rankings often shift from year to year, but a few automakers consistently compete for the top spot. In recent years, Subaru managed to climb to the front in several industry reports, challenging Toyota’s long-standing reputation for building some of the most dependable vehicles on the road. Now, new data suggests that the balance of power has shifted once again.