IT General

This Small iPhone Control Center Tweak Has a Big Impact

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 19:00

I've been using an iPhone as my daily driver for over three years. Over time, enabling and disabling connectivity options like mobile data, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth became habitual via a single tap. iOS 18 changed this, and not for good, so I had to fix it.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I Love PlayStation Plus But I Would Still Like to See These 7 Improvements

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 18:30

I have been using PlayStation Plus Premium for a while now and I love the benefits of online multiplayer and a ready-to-go game catalog. Still, I have noticed some missing features that could make it better.

Categories: IT General, Technology

15 Hidden Galaxy S25 Tips and Tricks You Should Know About

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 18:00

Samsung's Galaxy S25 lineup is one of the most feature-rich Android smartphones on the market. While that works in the favor of the handsets, it also means that you can face trouble in keeping track of all its capabilities. To elevate your experience, here's a list of 15 hidden Galaxy S25 tips and tricks.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Best Ergonomic Keyboards of 2025

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 17:30

The best ergonomic keyboards reduce strain on your hands, wrists, and arms. They help lower the risk of repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) by letting you type in a more natural position, thanks to features like split layouts, curved designs, and palm rests.

Categories: IT General, Technology

7 Reasons I’m Ditching My AirPods (And You Might Too)

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 17:00

Thrilled. Perhaps that’s exactly how you also felt back when you were unboxing the brand-new AirPods in 2016. At that time, it was Apple’s latest innovation that had just hit the market. I was itching to get my hands on them. But my enthusiasm has waned.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The New Pirate Yakuza Knows It’s a Game and Owns It

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 16:30

Yakuza is a long-running franchise celebrated for its unique blend of intense drama, whimsical humor, and everything in between. The latest entry, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, continues the tradition by unapologetically embracing its identity as an entertaining and self-aware video game.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Here's What Ubuntu Linux Looked Like 10 Years Ago

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 16:00

Ubuntu 25.04 is almost upon us, which makes this a good time to look back at just how much Canonical's popular Linux desktop has changed over the past ten years. The answer? Both more and less than you might expect.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Hubble sees mini galaxies surrounding Andromeda are pretty wild

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 16:00

Surrounding the Andromeda galaxy, three dozen tiny galaxies aren't behaving the way scientists expected. 

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has trained on Andromeda for a deep dive into how its orbiting satellite galaxies formed and changed over time. What they found revealed a population of dwarf galaxies that are quite unlike the ones circling the Milky Way

Some 2.5 million light-years away, these space neighborhoods formed the bulk of their stars long ago. But rather than halting production, as computer simulations would suggest, they continued slowly making new stars out of a stockpile of gas.

"Star formation really continued to much later times, which is not at all what you would expect for these dwarf galaxies," said Alessandro Savino, an astronomer at UC Berkeley, in a statement. "No one knows what to make of that so far."

SEE ALSO: A tiny galaxy ceased making stars for billions of years. Then it rebooted. Hubble captured a bird's eye view of the known dwarf galaxies orbiting the large Andromeda galaxy. These 36 smaller satellites are circled in yellow. Credit: NASA / ESA / Alessandro Savino / Joseph DePasquale / Akira Fujii DSS2

In the past, scientists primarily observed dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way, but they were never sure whether those were representative of others in the universe. That's why they pointed Hubble, which orbits Earth, at the closest large galaxy, which has its own bevy of satellite galaxies.

The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, is based on observations from over 1,000 telescope orbits. The sweeping science campaign allowed astronomers to build a detailed 3D map of Andromeda's 36 dwarf galaxies and reconstruct how they made new stars over the 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. The images have provided a unique bird' s-eye view of Andromeda and its environment.

In addition to the dwarf galaxies' prolonged star-bearing years, scientists were surprised to find that half were sitting on the same plane and moving in the same direction. However, mergers and collisions usually result in objects traveling in inconsistent directions.

"That's weird," said Daniel Weisz, the principal investigator at UC Berkeley, in a statement. "It was actually a total surprise to find the satellites in that configuration, and we still don't fully understand why they appear that way." 

Astronomers have learned that galaxies tend to start out small and grow larger by collecting gas and merging with other galaxies. But most dwarf galaxies that made stars before the so-called Epoch of Reionization never got back to business after. Reionization was an era of major transition that occurred more than 13 billion years ago.  It was when the baby universe transformed from a neutral state to one filled with free electrons and protons. 

The above animation gives a fly-around view of the Andromeda galaxy and its surrounding dwarf galaxies, based on Hubble data. 

Because most of the tiny galaxies turned off their star-making activity in the first few billion years of the universe, many scientists have thought reionization was the reason. However, some researchers are calling that idea into question

Astronomers suspect Andromeda had a major collision with another galaxy relatively recently, perhaps 2 to 5 billion years ago. The Milky Way, on the other hand, probably hasn't had a run-in with another galaxy for 8 to 10 billion years. Andromeda's collision — and its more massive scalecould explain the galaxy's exotic and diverse satellite system.

The study has only deepened the team's speculation that dwarf galaxies aren't all like the ones close to home. They can have a wide range of fates, the researchers posit, and it'll take more observations to ascertain why. 

"Everything scattered in the Andromeda system is very asymmetric and perturbed. It does appear that something significant happened not too long ago," Weisz said. "Our work has shown that low-mass galaxies in other ecosystems have followed different evolutionary paths than what we know from the Milky Way satellite galaxies."

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Blackberry Pi and the End of Skype: Weekly Roundup

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 15:30

This was a busy week in the tech world, from Framework revealing its new compact desktop PC to Microsoft's announcement of Skype's shutdown. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Some Carriers Are Still Missing RCS on iPhone: Who’s to Blame?

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 15:00

Five months ago, iOS 18 began rolling out, and that meant Android and iPhone users could finally text over RCS. Well, most of them. There's a hold up with several smaller carriers, and it seems Apple is to blame.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Why the iPhone 16e Is Great News for Android Users

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 14:30

The new mid-range iPhone 16e is good, but not that good. It's cheap, but not that cheap. With room to beat it on both price and features, could it inspire a new wave of great mid-range Android phones?

Categories: IT General, Technology

7 Reasons PC Gaming Is Better Than Console Gaming

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 14:00

Players have spent decades arguing the pros and cons of PC and console gaming. While it all comes down to your needs as a gamer, one platform comes out on top. This is why you should build a PC rather than buy the latest gaming console.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Proton Drive Review: It Could Be So Much More

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 13:00

Proton Drive is the Switzerland-based security company’s foray into cloud storage. It’s just as ambitious as its siblings Proton Mail and Proton Pass, but despite some interesting features, falls short of its own promises, never mind the competition.

Categories: IT General, Technology

NYT Mini crossword answers, hints for March 1, 2025

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 13:00

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Saturday, March 1, 2025:

AcrossChocolate/marshmallow sandwich
  • The answer is Smore.

Weighed down (with)
  • The answer is Laden.

Birthday cake inserts
  • The answer is Candles.

First U.S. state alphabetically
  • The answer is Alabama.

0%
  • The answer is Not a bit.

Free-for-all fight
  • The answer is Melee.

Puts on the market
  • The answer is Ash.

DownWinding ski races
  • The answer is Slaloms.

Herbivore seen off Florida shores
  • The answer is Manatee.

Strange person
  • The answer is Oddball.

Give another name
  • The answer is Relabel.

Bowser and King Boo, in the Mario games
  • The answer is Enemies.

Container on the pantry shelf
  • The answer is Can.

Took a chair
  • The answer is Sat.

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

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

Categories: IT General, Technology

How to watch South Africa vs. England online for free

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:56

TL;DR: Live stream South Africa vs. England in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

We've reached the final round of group-stage games in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. Things are seriously heating up, as places in the knockout rounds are limited. It's now or never for the likes of South Africa and England.

If you want to watch South Africa vs. England in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is South Africa vs. England?

South Africa vs. England in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy starts at 4 a.m. ET on March 1. This ODI takes place at the National Stadium.

How to watch South Africa vs. England for free

The following platforms are offering coverage of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy:

The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy is available to live stream for free in Pakistan. The free streaming platforms are geo-restricted to Pakistan, but anyone can access these free live streams with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Pakistan, meaning you can unblock free live streams of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy from anywhere in the world.

Live stream the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy 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 Pakistan

  4. Visit Tamasha or PTV

  5. Live stream South Africa vs. England for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream South Africa vs. England (plus every other 2025 ICC Champions Trophy game) 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, for a number of reasons:

  • Servers in 105 countries including Pakistan

  • 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 eight simultaneous connections

  • 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream South Africa vs. England in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy for free with ExpressVPN.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Building the Twilight Lego set was the therapy session I didn’t know I needed

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:30

I have something to admit upfront before we get into this. And don't come for me in the comments, please.

I've only seen the first Twilight film, so I can't really say that I'm a true fan. For what it's worth, I really enjoyed that movie. Especially that scene where Bella struggles to use a ketchup bottle.

"Well, then, why'd you spend $220 on the Twilight Cullen House Lego set, Dylan?" you're probably saying to yourself. It's simple: My wife is a Twilight superfan, and I thought it'd be a lot of fun for the both of us to undertake the massive, 2,000-plus-piece replica of the Cullen's modern forest mansion that Lego released in mid-February. Now, that's quite the chunk of change for a box of plastic bricks, but as we constructed the three-story behemoth, we quickly realized that we were getting way more out of the experience than just our money's worth.

SEE ALSO: Why Pharrell Williams made his biopic ‘Piece by Piece’ a Lego movie

After almost a month of waiting since we placed our preorder, our long-awaited shipment arrived at our door. I shook the box just to be sure, and from the sound of it, there were definitely Lego pieces in there. We cut open the package and marveled at the set in all its glory, albeit feeling somewhat nervous. Were we ready to take on a project like this? How long would it take? Would Jacob's minifigure come with a pair of ripped denim shorts? We were going to find out. We waited until the following weekend so we'd have as much time as we needed, and then began our pre-build preparations.

The box that the set came in was, not surprisingly, quite large. For scale, here's a photo of my dog sitting next to it:

Unfortunately, Stevie couldn't help us build the set. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

As you can see, the box itself is almost exactly one Stevie tall, which is pretty damn big. Upon opening the box, we were greeted with a whole lot of Lego pieces (also not surprising). Thankfully, the over-2,000-piece set was neatly portioned out into 18 separate bags, all numbered to coincide with the included booklet's step-by-step instructions. That was a huge relief to the two of us — we'd never tackled a Lego set of this size before, so we didn't know what to expect when it came to the actual process of putting everything together. But, it seemed like our hands were going to be held all the way to the finish line. Splitting each section up into manageable and understandable chunks kept us from feeling overwhelmed by the sea of colored plastic that was strewn across our kitchen table.

The workspace. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable A few hours later... Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

We carefully opened the first bag that Lego kindly meal-prepped for us, which included a brick removal tool in case we made any mistakes and a sheet of stickers that would be used on specific pieces throughout the process. We emptied out the pieces from the first group and started making our way through the instructions, which kicked things off with Charlie Swan's truck. It was a breeze to put together, thanks to the easy-to-follow instructions, and looked great when it was done. It even has working wheels!

Then, it was time to move on to the house, which got a bit more complicated. The instructions were still just as simple, but our method of dumping all the bricks from each bag onto the table wasn't working anymore. Too many of them looked alike, and it would take us minutes just to find the one part we needed. The small moments of panic that would set in whenever it seemed like we were missing a piece weren't fun, either. We never were, and each bag had some extras in it just in case something did vanish into the void.

Something tells me that a lot of people will be happy with the inclusion of Bella's dad. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

So, we changed our plan of attack. Going forward, every time we opened a new bag, we'd carefully sift and sort through each plastic piece, grouping them with their identical cohorts. This way, we'd know exactly where everything was and how many of each piece we had at all times. Once we got the hang of our new game plan, we started zooming through the rest of the set. (Well, relatively zooming. It still took us about eight hours to complete from start to finish.)

We were a well-oiled machine, quickly glancing back and forth between the instruction booklet and the miniature Cullen household, adding to it each time. We worked on different sections simultaneously and with finesse as if we'd been doing it our whole lives. We were officially in The Flow State™. Is this what Lego hobbyists felt like all the time?

Brick by brick, floor by floor. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

We constructed the compound literally from the ground up, starting from the foundation all the way to the third floor. As we built, we were constantly impressed by the sheer detail that went into the items on each floor of the house — stuff you wouldn't see unless you opened the whole thing up and inspected it closely, like the Cullen's wall of graduation caps or their grand piano. Those items require you to be a bit more surgical while building due to their small pieces, but the result is super rewarding.

A part of the building experience that I personally loved was the tension of not always knowing what you were building right away. The instructions are careful not to spoil the end product before you get there yourself, so a lot of times, you're staring at a strange grouping of bricks, wondering if it is, in fact, anything at all. It's a great exercise in relinquishing control and trusting the process, which can get especially challenging when it seems like whatever you're building just isn't coming together. It always came together, though. I feel like there's a life lesson somewhere in that.

“You better hold on tight, spider monkey.” Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable Another one of my favorite details is the Cullen's grand piano. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

We kept progressing through the set, eventually hitting autopilot. Now, we were well-versed enough to multitask — 50 percent building, and the other 50 percent just yapping. My wife would talk me through all the Twilight movie references I didn't understand, and perk up with excitement whenever I was able to call one out myself. It was a joy to connect with her over what Lego detractors would refer to as a children's toy. It felt nostalgic, like we were in a simpler time. For those next few hours, I wasn't thinking cynically, which feels wild to say in 2025. I wasn't thinking about planes falling out of the sky or about the dire condition of our political landscape. I was only thinking about how each of these tiny plastic pieces would snap together, how I was enjoying quality time with my favorite person, and how, at least at this moment in time, everything felt like it was OK.

Look, I’m not saying that you should bury your head and ignore what’s going on in the world — actually, I advise heavily against that. But if the state of it all is getting to be overwhelming, maybe I am saying that you should pick up a Lego set and just see what happens. You might be surprised by how therapeutic it can be.

SEE ALSO: 33 years to read 'Twilight'? This TikTok account isn't in a hurry.

Before we knew it, we were putting the finishing touches on the set, which involved making a wolf version of Jacob and the verdant surrounding area of the Cullen abode. We also put together all of the character Minifigures, including Carlisle, Alice, Rosalie, Charlie, human-form Jacob, and, of course, Bella and Edward. The latter two even came with an extra piece that lets you attach Bella to Edward's back so you can perfectly reenact the iconic tree-climbing scene.

The final product. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

Finally, our job was done. We carefully lifted the replica and placed it on our bookshelf where we could appreciate its beauty. We stepped back to enjoy the view, proud of the work we'd put into it and feeling unexpectedly reinvigorated. I'm not trying to sound dramatic — it's not like this Lego set fundamentally changed us as people. But, it was a moment of respite during a time filled with uncertainty, and that was enough.

If you haven't already gleaned that I think Lego's Twilight collaboration is absolutely worth the money, consider this my confirmation. I'm most certainly a Lego and a Twilight guy now. So, I guess it's time for me to watch the rest of those movies.

And in case you were still wondering: No, Jacob's minifigure did not come with a pair of ripped denim shorts.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego 'Twilight' Cullen House Lego set $219.99 at Lego
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Categories: IT General, Technology

An excellent reason not to miss the imminent total lunar eclipse

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:30

There are a number of compelling reasons to catch the looming March 13-14 total lunar eclipse, which will be visible in the entire lower 48 states and greater Americas.

Perhaps the best one is that no two such eclipses are the same. That means, weather permitting, you'll witness something unique.

Total lunar eclipses occur when the sun, Earth, and moon are in alignment, allowing Earth to cast a shadow on the moon and block most sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. But our planet's atmosphere still allows red wavelengths of light to squeeze through, illuminating the moon in reddish, rusty, orangish, or crimson colors. Crucially, both the fickle conditions in Earth's atmosphere, and how deeply the moon passes through Earth's shadow, impact how light is ultimately projected onto the moon. This means different, and even unexpected, light shows.

"It's part of the thrill," Bennett Maruca, an astronomer at the University of Delaware who has witnessed a number of total lunar eclipses, told Mashable. "You don't know exactly what you're going to get."

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

Totality — meaning when the moon is totally within Earth's shadow — will begin at 11:26 p.m. PDT on March 13, 2025 / 2:26 a.m. EDT on March 14 / 06:26 UTC, lasting for 65 minutes. And the reddening progresses over hours, as the moon gradually moves into the Earth's shadow. (Technically, the eclipse starts with slight dimming on March 13 at 8:57 p.m. PDT / 11:57 p.m. EDT / 03:57 UTC). So, weather permitting, you'll have ample opportunity to see these bloody colors in action.

During a total lunar eclipse, the sun, Earth, and moon are in alignment. Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio A map showing how the Americas will have the opportunity to witness a total lunar eclipse on March 13-14, 2025. Credit: NASA

The first major factor at play in the amount of light and coloration illuminated on the moon is what's transpiring in our atmosphere, as sunlight must pass through our skies.

"Dust and clouds can affect the ultimate color of the moon during this event, which means that each total lunar eclipse ends up being somewhat unique and ultimately 'reflective' of the state of our own planet's weather," Eric Edelman, the planetarium director at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Jim and Linda Lee Planetarium, told Mashable.

For example, if there's lots of dust in the atmosphere — such as expansive dust clouds from the Sahara desert — you'll generally get a redder eclipsed moon, Edelman noted. Storms play a role in impacting how the penetrating light hits the moon, too. And volcanic eruptions — which can blast prodigious amounts of ash and gas high into the atmosphere — can dim lunar eclipses, as volcanic particles impede light that would otherwise get refracted towards the moon.

"It can be quite surprising."

The other significant player in the moon's illumination is how far the moon travels into Earth's shadow (called the "umbra," and visualized in the short NASA video below). When passing closer to the shadow's center, the moon is illuminated with the darkest colors — to deep browns and even purples. When passing nearer to the shadow's edge, the moon is illuminated with rusty, orange colors. The coming March 2025 eclipse, then, may be more on the rusty spectrum.

But the moon won't be all the same color. Our expansive natural satellite, some 2,159 miles across, will be illuminated by different parts of Earth's shadow, meaning it will display some of those darker colors, as well as the lighter rusty colors. "That's one of the cool things about this eclipse," noted Maruca. "You see the color gradient."

Tweet may have been deleted

Witnessing totality will mean a late night, or early morning, for many of us. But Maruca emphasizes it's worth it. It'll be a one-of-a-kind space light show. And you don't know exactly what you're going to get.

"It can be quite surprising," Maruca said.

This story has been updated with more information about the March 13-14 total lunar eclipse.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Today's NYT Connections Hints and Answer for March 1 (#629)

How-To Geek - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:00

Connections is a game from the New York Times that challenges you to find the association between words. It sounds easy, but it isn't—Connections categories can be almost anything, and they're usually quite specific. If you need a hand getting the answers, we've got you covered.

Categories: IT General, Technology

High school sweethearts met on a quiz website

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:00

While social platforms like Instagram and TikTok seem to rule the internet, some prefer quieter sites.

"I get very burnt out from social media a lot," 19-year-old Lauren told Mashable. Lauren prefers to chat with her long-distance boyfriend, Charlie, on Discord, but they met on another non-major social site: Quotev.

SEE ALSO: They met on Tumblr, and their relationship outlasted their accounts

Quotev, formerly Quizazz, is a quiz-making and fan fiction website aimed at teens. Lauren and Charlie met there nearly five years ago, when they were both 15, and they've been together ever since.

Bonding over a passion for writing

Lauren and Charlie's relationship started when she noticed his writing on Quotev.

"This was before I even knew I wanted to go into journalism," said Lauren, who's since published work in publications like The Nation and Teen Vogue. "I was still very impressed with his writing. I was like, 'I need to keep in touch with this person. Like, this person is really cool. I want to be this person's friend,'" and that's how it started.

They chatted on Quotev for a while (the site used to have more social functions that no longer exist), but eventually moved to Discord and texting as they built more trust. Now, they talk every day for hours about school, their lives, and their fandoms — even though their interests don't always align.

"We do both love writing, and we both focus on that," she said. She discovered she wanted to go into journalism when she was 16. "We obviously have that to kind of bond us together."

"We talk every day for hours so we share a certain type of mundaneness," she said, "which is really nice. And I kind of prefer that over the interests part of it."

Lauren didn't tell her parents about Charlie due to the nature of how they met.

"We met really young, and when you're really young, you can't exactly come up to your parents and be like, 'Hey, I found this guy online that I'm dating now,' because there's a lot of safety concerns in that," she said. The concerns are valid and should be considered, Lauren said, but when she was 15, she wasn't thinking about that.

Lauren still hasn't told her parents about the relationship, however, because they're both queer and trans. Lauren uses both she and they pronouns.

"I'm very open about it anywhere else," like the internet, "but, yeah, it's still a bridge that I have to cross, that I will have to," Lauren said. 

That's also part of the reason Lauren and Charlie haven't met in person yet. They both live in the American South, but because of circumstances, they haven't taken their relationship offline.

That's going to change this year, however.

Meeting in person for the first time

"We do have plans to meet this year," Lauren said. She's graduating from community college in May, and Charlie plans to attend the ceremony. Once Lauren transfers to a four-year college, they will look into moving in together as she'll be living off-campus. 

"Hopefully, exciting things will be happening," she said.

While she's excited to finally meet Charlie in person, she's also nervous because he's a secret from her parents.

"I will need to figure out some sort of solution," Lauren said. She said she could lie and say Charlie is just a friend, but lying all this time has been exhausting. 

"I've always hidden this anyway, so it's not just the five years," she said. "Hiding my queerness has been a lifelong thing for me that I'm getting very frustrated and tired of doing, but at the same time, that fear is just still so high."

This is, unfortunately, not entirely uncommon. According to research gathered by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth advocacy organization, one-third of LGBTQ young people face parental rejection, while another one-third don't come out until they're adults.

"The truth will come out eventually, but I don't know how I feel about that," Lauren said.

Lauren also calls the prospect of meeting Charlie surreal, as they've been together but apart for so long. "We are so used to being online and so we both always wanted to be together in person, but it's just like we're so close now, after talking about this since forever," she said.

While some might gawk at an online-only relationship, Lauren feels very lucky to have met her boyfriend. 

"Being almost 20 years old, people will see a relationship like mine, almost five years entirely online, high school sweethearts, something like that, and they'll kind of be like, 'Um, how did you do this?'" she said. 

But she doesn't regret meeting Charlie on Quotev. "Even though we haven't met in person, it's very hard, if anything happened to us, would I try to find someone else online? No, I wouldn't. But that doesn't mean that I regret how things are now. I just hope for a future where we're together in person, and we're still comfortable."

Categories: IT General, Technology

Snag a refurbished MacBook Air for only $230

Mashable - Sat, 03/01/2025 - 12:00

TL;DR: Get a refurbished 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air (1.8GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) on sale for just $229.97. Act fast, because we have fewer than 50 available.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Refurbished 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air (1.8GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) $229.97
$999.00 Save $769.03 Get Deal

MacBooks rarely come cheap, so this is a deal you don’t want to miss.

Get a refurbished 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air (1.8GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) that was originally $999 laptop for just $230, plus free shipping.

This MacBook received a grade “A” rating — the highest possible. Plus, on the off chance you run into any issues, your purchase is backed by a 90-day warranty.

Let’s talk about your new-to-you laptop

You arrived just in time to grab this MacBook Air deal, but you don’t have much time to grab it before they’re gone. So here’s what you need to know before you check out:

  • An Intel Core i5 and 8GB of RAM are enough for everyday tasks and multitasking, but not for running intense programs

  • You’ll have 128GB of SSD storage for downloading apps and saving files

  • Enjoy a 13.3-inch display with Intel HD Graphics 6000

  • Get up to 12 hours of battery life on a single charge

Hurry — get your MacBook at a steep discount of $230 with free shipping before they’re all gone (reg. $999).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Categories: IT General, Technology
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