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There's nothing quite like Japanese horror. What makes it so terrifying is the eerie uncanniness its stories wade into so comfortably, so willingly. It's hard to articulate without just defaulting to "atmospheric" — a quality my Western-centric horror brain simply wasn't built to process.

J-horror, both in film and in video games, has always been a hard no for me. Silent Hill gets a pass purely on the merit of its deeply American setting, but I will never forget buying Siren for $5 a couple of years ago, getting absolutely scared shitless by the opening minutes, and never touching it again. Maybe I'm still traumatized from accidentally walking in on my parents watching The Grudge when I was five. Who's to say? But in an effort to conquer my fears, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE sadly made me wet my pants — figuratively.

SEE ALSO: 'Resident Evil Requiem' review: Entertaining nostalgia slop

Suffice to say: this game is scary as hell. Technically, the second remake of the second entry in the Fatal Frame franchise, Crimson Butterfly, follows the same basic blueprint as the rest of the series. You play as a pair of twins trapped in a cursed village that just so happens to sit on top of a portal to hell, and it's on you to uncover what set off that whole grisly chain of events — and figure out how to save your own skin while you're at it.

I never played the original 2003 version, nor the 2012 Wii remake that was quietly released in Japan, Europe, and Australia. This is, in every sense, my first exposure to the series. My playthrough left me thoroughly unsettled — and slightly annoyed — and in the same way I'll never watch Bring Her Back again despite giving it a 5/5, I don't think I'll ever return to Crimson Butterfly. And I mean that as the highest compliment I can give.

Welcome to Minikami Village Credit: Koei Tecmo / Team Ninja

Crimson Butterfly follows twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura, who, while revisiting a childhood spot in the woods, stumble upon a lost village consumed by the spirits of the dead. Minakami Village is locked in perpetual night, and things only get worse when Mayu falls under the influence of a vengeful spirit with a very specific, very deadly plan for both sisters.

What becomes clear pretty quickly is that Mio and Mayu's story is almost secondary to the village itself and the game's true antagonist, Sae Kurosawa. If you've played any Fatal Frame before, the formula is familiar. A cursed location, a mansion or a village swallowed by darkness or fog, a history steeped in ritual that at some point went catastrophically wrong.

Minakami Village is said to be reliving the same night on an endless loop, the fallout of that failed ritual — one that, not coincidentally, also involved twins. New to this version are side stories: Short optional quests packed with items and lore that flesh out the other poor souls trapped alongside Mio and Mayu. And while exploring, it seems the villagers and the village itself has a thing for luring pairs of two.

As settings go, I love Minakami Village, even as it makes my skin crawl. The location and its people are quite literally trapped in hell — and the more you uncover about why, the harder it gets to feel sorry for them. There's a general dread that coats every inch of this place, and it compounds with every new building you step into. I'd wander through a thousand Silent Hills before I'd willingly spend another minute in Minakami.

As for the plot itself, it's a classic early-2000s J-horror affair. Crimson Butterfly deals heavily with themes of guilt, trauma, and codependence, along with this, at times, explosive feeling of rage and sorrow that permeates throughout the game. The original Crimson Butterfly launched with three endings; the Wii remake added three more; this version adds one new one on top of that. What you get depends on choices made near the end and the difficulty you're playing on — and in the original, unlocking the "good" ending required beating the entire game a second time on hard mode. You should be able to complete the game in about 10 hours, 12-14 if you're constantly taking breaks like I was.

The Camera Obscura Credit: Koei Tecmo / Team Ninja

The backbone of Crimson Butterfly's gameplay, as with the rest of the Fatal Frame series, is the Camera Obscura — an antique camera that is your only weapon against the parade of horrifying wraiths who want to kill you. The remake expands on the original's foundation by adding zoom, focus, and switchable lens filters, each with its own Special Abilities and Special Shots, turning what was already a distinctive combat system into something with real tactical depth.

The new Willpower gauge sits alongside your health bar as a second resource to manage and stress about, and the game is almost perversely creative about the ways it can drain it — getting hit, touching a wraith, running during combat, hiding for too long, accidentally locking eyes with a spirit that decides to leer at you through a doorway, the list goes on. Successfully landing a Fatal Frame shot — timed to the flash of a red light on top of the camera, which requires you to let a wraith get uncomfortably, terrifyingly close before you shoot — staggers the enemy, deals heavy damage, and actually restores Willpower, which means the game is constantly dangling this beautiful risk-reward loop in front of you while your hands are shaking too badly to properly aim.

Credit: Koei Tecmo /

Where the combat starts to work against itself, though, is in how long individual encounters can drag on, and how the aggravated wraith system has a particular talent for making an already sluggish fight feel like a genuine punishment. When a wraith becomes aggravated — which the game tells you can happen the closer an enemy gets to defeat, but seems to trigger with all the logic and consistency of a coin flip — it recovers health, hits harder, and attacks with a relentless frequency that turns what should be a satisfying final stretch of a fight into an exhausting war of attrition. The first time it happens is terrifying, and you're taken by surprise. By the fourth or fifth time, in the middle of what was already a long and draining encounter, it stops feeling like a challenge and feels more like the game is just being mean.

To give a concrete example of how badly this can spiral: In one fight, a wraith went aggro after just two hits with the camera. I managed to bring it back down with a Shutter Chance shot, took one more photo immediately after, and it aggravated again — something the game gives you absolutely no indication is even possible. There is no warning, no visual tell, no moment where the game extends you the basic courtesy of explaining that yes, this can, in fact, happen to you twice in the same encounter, so good luck with that.

I understand, at least in theory, what the aggravated wraith system is trying to do. It's designed to punish passivity and push you to play more precisely and aggressively — the faster and cleaner you are with the camera, the less likely you are to trigger the state in the first place. That's a reasonable design goal on paper.

The problem is that the execution is so wildly inconsistent that any lesson it's trying to teach gets completely buried under frustration, because sometimes a wraith will aggravate on the very first shot, before you've had any meaningful chance to do anything wrong. There's nothing to learn from that. It's just the game being capricious and mean for no discernible reason, and if there is one thing guaranteed to destroy tension in a horror game, it's being forced to repeat the same section over and over again because of a system that can't be bothered to follow its own rules.

Hell never looked so good Credit: Koei Tecmo/Team Ninja

Combat is probably the weakest part of Crimson Butterfly, which is genuinely a shame because everything else about this game absolutely rocks, and I mean that without a single caveat.

This game is stunning to look at. Team Ninja did a remarkable job rebuilding it from the ground up, honoring rather than sanitizing the original, and nowhere is that more apparent than in how masterfully the remake handles its lighting. The darkness in Minakami Village operates on some kind of advanced eeriness — your only sources of light are scattered candles, the occasional torch, your flashlight, the save points glowing faintly in the black, and the cold blue light emanating from wraiths as they drift through the village on patrol, which is somehow simultaneously the most beautiful and most deeply upsetting thing the game does on a regular basis. It is the kind of darkness that feels alive, and the way it presses up against those tiny pockets of warm candlelight creates something that is uncanny, creepy, and genuinely gorgeous all at once.

The game's visual identity, particularly in its cut scenes, carries a strong echo of early-2000s J-horror filmmaking — the same washed-out, almost VHS-degraded aesthetic that made The Ring's tape sequences so iconic and so deeply wrong-feeling. Sound design is where Crimson Butterfly quietly, devastatingly does some of its best work. There isn't much of a traditional soundtrack to speak of — instead, the game wraps itself in a haunting ambient drone that sits just underneath everything

What fills the silence in its place is Minakami Village itself: Every groan of a floorboard, every shudder of a wall, every structural complaint from the ancient, rotting buildings rendered with a clarity and presence that makes the whole place feel genuinely, oppressively alive. Inevitably, you will accidentally kick over a bucket or knock something off a shelf, and the resulting crash will be so catastrophically loud relative to everything around it that you will scare yourself half to death. Which is both a tremendous bit of audio design and a deeply humiliating personal experience. The contrast is entirely deliberate, and it works almost unfairly well at keeping you in a constant state of low-grade dread even in the moments when nothing is actively trying to kill you.

On a quieter note, the ability to hold Mayu's hand is the kind of small, considered design choice that reveals how much thought went into this remake beyond just upgrading the geometry and textures. You already understand from the story that these two sisters share a profound and complicated bond, but physically reaching out to take Mayu's hand as you guide her through the village adds a layer of tenderness and dread to their relationship that no cut scene could have delivered on its own.

On the technical side, my time with the PlayStation 5 version was largely smooth, with nothing significant enough to pull me out of the experience.

Is Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE worth it? Credit: Koei Tecmo/Team Ninja

What Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo have delivered here is a remake that understands the assignment. It doesn't sand down the original's edges or modernize away everything that made it distinct; it takes what was already there and makes it more itself, more vivid, more present, more suffocating.

Minakami Village is one of the most convincingly horrible places I have ever been asked to spend time in across any medium, and the remake's lighting, sound design, and visual identity combine to make it feel less like a video game location and more like somewhere that exists independently of the software running it.

The combat will frustrate you. The aggravated wraith system in particular will, at certain points, make you want to put the controller through a wall, and I say that as someone who understands what it's trying to do and still found it maddening on a fairly regular basis. It is the one area where the seams show and remind you that you are, in fact, playing a video game and not being slowly consumed by a cursed village in rural Japan.

But here's the thing — and I want to be careful about how I phrase this, because I mean it sincerely — I don't think I'll ever play it again, and I think that's a genuine testament to how well it works. It is scary in the way that the best horror is scary, not through cheap jolts or manufactured tension but through a deep, pervasive wrongness that follows you out of the room when you put the controller down. Crimson Butterfly is the first piece of J-horror I have seen all the way through, and I came out the other side thoroughly unsettled and completely unwilling to go back.

So yeah. Worth it. Just maybe leave the lights on.

TL;DR: Live stream Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Concacaf Champions Cup rolls on with a number of high profile fixtures this week, including Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul. This battle between two fierce rivals is one to watch, and you can do so without spending anything. You do need to follow a few steps to unlock a free live stream, but the process is quick and easy.

If you want to watch Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul ?

Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup kicks off at 9 p.m. ET on March 10. This fixture takes place at the Estadio BBVA Bancomer.

How to watch Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul for free

Monterrey vs. Cruz Azul in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup is available to live stream for free on YouTube.

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TL;DR: Live stream Philadelphia Union vs. Club América in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup for free on YouTube. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The early rounds of the Concacaf Champions Cup didn't match up top-quality opponents. Most games were fairly predictable, but that's all changed. The Round of 16 includes some fascinating matchups, including Philadelphia Union vs. Club América.

Club América are one of the most successful teams in this competition. Philadelphia Union are tricky opponents, but the Mexican side will still hope to advance into the quater finals.

If you want to watch Philadelphia Union vs. Club América in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Philadelphia Union vs. Club América?

Philadelphia Union vs. Club América in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on March 10. This fixture takes place at Subaru Park.

How to watch Philadelphia Union vs. Club América for free

Philadelphia Union vs. Club América in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup is available to live stream for free on YouTube.

This free live stream is available in most locations around the world, but not in North or Central America. Fortunately, fans in these excluded territories can still access this free live stream with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK (or somewhere else with access), meaning you can unblock free live streams of the Concacaf Champions Cup from anywhere in the world.

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If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for YouTube?

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• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

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Bluesky, the popular alternative social media platform that rose to prominence following Elon Musk's acquisition of X, is looking for a new CEO to guide it through a growth phase.

In a post on Bluesky's website, Bluesky's now-former CEO Jay Graber announced that she was stepping down from the role. Graber noted that she's stepping back to build new products, not leaving Bluesky.

Graber will be staying with the social network as the organization's first Chief Innovation Officer — while a more experienced CEO is found. Bluesky now has more than 40 million users.

Venture capitalist Toni Schneider, a partner at the VC firm True Ventures, will step in as temporary CEO while Bluesky searches for its next head. Schneider previously served as CEO of Automattic, the parent company of the popular blog and CMS platform Wordpress.  

Toni has been an advisor to us for years, and it's an honor to have him come in to lead us into this next phase 🚀

[image or embed]

— Jay 🦋 (@jay.bsky.team) March 9, 2026 at 12:32 PM

Graber has been with Bluesky since its early beginnings in 2019. Back then, it was a project being worked on from within Twitter, the social media platform now known as X. Bluesky eventually spun off into a standalone organization working on a decentralized platform.

She cited "several intense and incredible years building Bluesky from the ground up," and the need for "a seasoned operator focused on scaling and execution, while I return to what I do best: building new things."

Bluesky gained traction as an alternative to Elon Musk's X after Musk acquired then-Twitter in October 2022. Bluesky's user base surged following the 2024 election as more liberal and progressive social media users looked for less far right online spaces, which was what Musk's X was transforming into.

As CEO, Graber seemingly became the reluctant face of Bluesky. As Wired points out, Graber started her career as a software engineer and always seemed more enthusiastic about the tech aspects of running Bluesky, as opposed to the business side of the endeavor.

Toni is a wonderfully thoughtful and insightful exec, who has shown that you can build a real business around open software. Finding someone who can execute and who understands the vision of an open protocol at the same time is rare—Toni gets it. I'm excited to see what Toni and Jay build together.

[image or embed]

— Mike Masnick (@masnick.com) March 9, 2026 at 12:15 PM

Despite this, and unlike many other tech CEOs, Graber enjoyed broad support from Bluesky's users. For example, a shirt that Graber wore at SXSW last year that poked fun at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg quickly sold out on Bluesky's online store.

Graber will also play a role in choosing her successor. While the search is just beginning, Bluesky’s board of directors will ultimately appoint the social media platform's next CEO. Members of the board include Jabber founder Jeremie Miller, TechDirt founder Mike Masnick, and Graber who will also remain on the board while also in her new role.

Some popular recent Home Assistant posts on Reddit revealed that the smart home of someone living in Miami Gardens was exposed to the internet. Other people could turn off their lights and even rename their devices. This was all due to their MQTT broker being public and unsecured.

A decade after the Bentayga first entered the ultra-luxury SUV segment, Bentley is returning to the model's geographic roots. The British automaker has announced the 2027 Bentayga Artenara Edition, a design-led variant inspired by Artenara, the highest village in Gran Canaria, which overlooks the Roque Bentayga peak that gave the SUV its name in 2015.

If you’re the kind of movie lover who actually enjoys bouncing between genres and appreciates the kind of classics that still hit even after you’ve seen them a dozen times, then Paramount+ has a deep well you can draw from for days.

TL;DR: Live stream Newcastle United vs. Barcelona in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player and 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 certainly hope.

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. The defense must keep a close eye on Lamine Yamal, as always.

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:

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2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

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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.

Luxury cars have always been a tricky buy. They’re often expensive to keep running once the warranty ends, and their resale values can drop fast thanks to complicated tech and questionable long-term reliability.

Apple introduced its lowest-priced MacBook yet last week: the $599 MacBook Neo (which is $499 for anyone who claims the Apple education discount.) But the company is working on new products at the pricier end of the spectrum too.

Apple will likely call this line "Ultra", According to a new report from Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman. As Gurman points out, the company already has a number of high-end items that bear this name — including the Apple Watch Ultra, CarPlay Ultra and its Ultra chips, the company's most expensive chipset.

The iPhone Fold, the next generation of AirPods, and the touchscreen MacBook would all be products in the "Ultra" line, Gurman says.

It's possible that Apple won't go with the Ultra name, Gurman notes, but they are working on a line of high-end products — above and beyond its current premium products, the iPhone Pro and the MacBook Pro.

All three products are expected to carry a premium price, even for their base models. For example, Apple's forthcoming foldable smartphone, the iPhone Fold, which Gurman says could carry the "Ultra" name, is expected to launch at a starting price of around $2,000.

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about the iPhone Fold: Specs, pricing, rumors and leaks

The next-generation AirPods will reportedly include "computer-vision cameras" so that Siri can use visual data for its AI assistant feature. Gurman believes these AirPods could carry the "Ultra" name, and they would certainly be a higher-end product than the current AirPods Pro.

Meanwhile, Apple may present its long-rumored touchscreen MacBook as a separate entity from the MacBook Pro line of laptops. Gurman reports that they could opt for the Ultra name or call the touchscreen MacBook something different, but the point remains: Apple appears to want the touchscreen MacBook alongside the MacBook Pro, not as a replacement.

According to Gurman, the touchscreen MacBook may be priced even higher than the recently announced M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models. The M5 Max MacBook Pro currently has a starting price of $3,599.

There is reportedly debate within Apple about whether to manufacture a foldable iPad. A high-end "Ultra" version of the iMac is also under discussion. All of which fits Apple CEO TIm Cook's strategy of multiple pricing tiers for proven products, in order to capture the entire spectrum of its market — the MacBook Neo being proof that this strategy is in progress.

Laptops aren't as powerful as regular desktop PCs, but they can still be quite capable. If you have a laptop with a busted screen, these are 5 great ways to put it back to use and keep it out of the landfill.

Anthropic's AI app, Claude, is surging to the top of global download charts — while the company wages a legal battle against the Pentagon for designating it a national security risk.

In a complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Anthropic claims the federal government launched an unprecedented campaign against the company after it stood by its safety restrictions. Anthropic says it doesn't want its AI to be used for lethal autonomous warfare or mass surveillance of Americans.

"Anthropic brings this suit because the federal government has retaliated against it for expressing that principle," the complaint states. "When Anthropic held fast to its judgment that Claude cannot safely or reliably be used for autonomous lethal warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, the President directed every federal agency to 'IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology.'"

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about the looming DJI drone ban in the United States

The fallout has been swift and wide-ranging. The General Services Administration terminated Anthropic's government-wide contract. The Treasury Department, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the State Department, and other government agencies announced they were cutting ties with the company.

Yet the controversy appears to have done little to dampen public enthusiasm for Anthropic's products. If anything, users are more enthusiastic now Anthropic is going head to head with the Trump administration.

The company says it is now adding more than one million new users every day globally — breaking its own signup records every day since the dispute erupted.

Claude currently holds the top spot on Apple's App Store in 16 countries, surpassing both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in more than 20 markets, according to data from AppFigures.

The lawsuit marks the culmination of mounting tensions between Anthropic and the Department of Defense, which the Trump administration calls the Department of War. The company had a major contract that made its generative AI systems the most used across the Pentagon.

That relationship unraveled when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed to dramatically expand AI's role throughout the military, and wanted unrestricted access to AI technologies. The effort required every AI company with Pentagon contracts to renegotiate its agreements.

But because Anthropic had become the military's dominant AI provider — with Claude reportedly the only advanced model allowed to operate on classified systems — the company found itself at the center of a contentious standoff with Hegseth and Trump.

The breakdown was as much about clashing personalities as competing principles, according to the New York Times. Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael, a former Uber executive, grew increasingly frustrated with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei throughout weeks of negotiations.

As talks deteriorated, Michael began negotiating a fallback deal with OpenAI — a company whose CEO, Sam Altman, had been actively courting the Trump administration. Hours after the Pentagon's deadline passed without a deal, Altman announced that OpenAI had reached an agreement with the Defense Department.

The lawsuit argues the government's actions — including Trump's directive ordering every federal agency to immediately stop using Anthropic's AI, and Secretary Hegseth's designation of the company as a supply chain risk — violate the First Amendment, as well as the Fifth Amendment's due process protections, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Anthropic's filing notes that the supply chain risk label has historically been reserved for foreign companies believed to pose a threat to national security. It has never before been applied to an American firm. The company is asking the court to declare the government's actions unlawful, and to issue a permanent injunction blocking their enforcement.

The start of a new week on Netflix means there are several high-profile movies now streaming on the service. The one with the most buzz is War Machine, a new action movie starring Reacher's Alan Ritchson. The sci-fi thriller is about a group of soldiers who face an otherworldly threat that crash-lands on Earth. With Ritchson at the helm, War Machine is a fast-moving action movie that packs a punch.

Your Mac or Linux machine might already have a terminal emulator, but replacements like Ghostty can give you more features and extensive customization options. Ghostty version 1.3 has now arrived with improvements to searching, clipboard, macOS integration, and much more.

I’ve definitely wondered if my specific brand of horny was actually “normal.” As it turns out, the concept of "normal" is basically an illusion. That is the main takeaway from the hookup app Feeld's new "State of Reflections: Am I Normal?" report, which found that 42 percent of mainstream, non-Feeld daters actually practice kink.

Coinciding with the report, which "explores the gap" between what society labels as "normal" and what people really desire, Feeld launched an interactive quiz called Reflections to help you map out your own preferences. The tool was developed with researchers at the Bodies, Identities, Intimacies, and Technologies (BIIT) Lab at the University of Michigan, and you don’t need a Feeld account to do it.

But whether you’re single, coupled up, or in a messy situationship (Godspeed), trying to articulate your boundaries and desires to another person can be exhausting — especially if you’re on the apps. This feature is designed to make things a little less awkward.

SEE ALSO: Gen Z fantasizes about both monogamy and kink, Feeld says Feeld's new kinky quiz

Here’s how it works: Go to the link and click “Get started.” You’ll then be asked whether you’d like to continue in the browser or use the app. I’m on my computer writing this, so naturally, I chose to continue in Chrome. Of course, there’s a little age verification check. But it’s based on honesty; just check the box to confirm you’re 18 or older.

The questions are divided into three categories: Desires (four parts, 10 minutes), Boundaries (five parts, seven minutes), and Relationships (five parts, seven minutes). Each category asks you to answer questions based on a scale that ranges from “not at all interested” to “extremely interested.” The questions are written in very easy-to-understand language.

One quick tip: Make sure to really take your time with your answers. Once you finish the assessment, there doesn't seem to be a reset button to go back and take it again from scratch.

The Desires category explores different types of kink play (e.g., BDSM, exhibitionism, group sex). This makes sense, considering Feeld's report found its members are almost three times more likely to engage in BDSM and power play than the general population. The Boundaries section covers potential red flags and dealbreakers. According to the study, 75 percent of Feeld members consider talking about safe sex normal, while only 25 percent of external daters say the same. Having a whole section dedicated to this makes establishing those ground rules incredibly validating.

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The Relationships portion focuses on communication styles and whether non-monogamy is something you’d be comfortable with (which tracks, since Feeld originated as an app for polyamorous folks, even as more normies have made accounts). There are two written questions at the end of this section. You can only write up to 300 characters, and I'm not totally sure how they factor this into your overall "score."

Once you finish a section, the tool provides customized results that reflect your specific values and communication style. For example, the Boundaries section measures your voice and consent on a scale from "finding voice" to "warming up" to "clear," complete with a specific percentage. You can then click “go deeper” to get a full breakdown of your results, and there’s even a QR code you can scan to save them to your Feeld account.

Overall, I felt my percentages were pretty fair — though my experience highlighted an interesting quirk about the assessment. The quiz gave me a 24 percent rating for my kink affinity, which I don't believe is exactly accurate. I realized I was answering those specific prompts through the lens of a specific relationship rather than thinking about my desires in general, which definitely skewed my results. If you take it, keep that in mind: Your score might shift depending on who you’re picturing.

Credit: Screenshot: Feeld

On the flip side, my kink orientation score was spot on. It gave me an 83 percent ("integrated"), correctly noting that kink plays a meaningful role in my desires. It even broke that down into sub-categories, giving me a 78 percent ("kinky") for expression, a 53 percent ("exploratory") for interests, and a 100 percent "enthusiast" rating for toys.

After the assessment is over, your results are available via a shareable link, which is a great way to get your boundaries on paper. The tool basically does the heavy lifting of figuring out how to describe what you want, so you can skip those awkward introductory questions with potential partners. If you're comfortable sharing your preferences upfront, just take the quiz, save your results, and send the link to anyone you’re talking to. Above all, don't worry about being "normal."

If you've purchased a new smartphone, you're probably planning to use it for a few years. Obviously, you'd like to keep it running like new for as long as possible. I recommend following these tips to keep your smartphone in top shape.

The Nvidia Shield TV is arguably the most powerful streaming box on the market, but the Play Store can feel a bit limited. The good news is that, as an Android TV device, it can run most Android apps. You just have to know how to get them on your Shield. That’s where sideloading comes in.

Save 51%: Grab the Beats Studio Pro headphones at Amazon on sale for just $169.95. That deal slashes $180.04 off their $349.99 list price.

Beats Studio Buds $169.95 at Amazon
$349.99 Save $180.04   Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Walmart Get Deal at Best Buy

We love a good headphones deal, and we love it even more when a good deal gets better.

Last week, we saw the Beats Studio Pro headphones drop down to $199.95, but just four days later, their price has fallen even more. As of March 9, the Beats Studio Pro headphones are just $169.95 at Amazon, saving you 51% on the $349.99 headphones. This sizable discount also brings the headphones just $10 away from their record-low price of $159.99.

SEE ALSO: The 11 best headphones of 2026 — see the top contenders from Sony, Apple, Bose, and Beats

Though these headphones are a few years old, they're still an especially great option for Apple users who want over-ear headphones with great Apple integration, minus the exorbitant price of the AirPods Max. Mashable contributor Alex Bracetti says that the ANC on these Beats is on par with AirPods Max, and they have better internals than the Maxes for producing well-rounded and detailed sound.

Bracetti determined that the main drawbacks of the headphones are that they can become uncomfortable after a couple of hours of wear, and the build quality could be better. Still, for $170, these are a solid all-around pair of over-ear headphones made for Apple users.