Technology

There are some products that are so successful that the brand name becomes the default term for that product. Brands such as Band-Aid, Photoshop, and Scotch tape are often used for any products of that kind, and the same is true of Kindle. While the Kindle has been the dominant force in the eReader market for a long time, a tiny eReader makes me believe that things are starting to change.

The Pixel Tag gives Android users their first true first-party rival to Apple's AirTag, backed by Google's massive Find Hub network. But after looking into how it actually works, one omission stood out immediately, and it's the single feature I've wanted from an Android tracker for years.

When Even Realities introduced its G2 smart glasses, there were some fair criticisms of its interface limits and performance. However, I had the opportunity to try them on at IFA 2026 — and they've found new purpose at a time when the backlash against Meta's camera-equipped glasses is fiercer than ever.

ESP32 boards are cheap and versatile, making them highly popular in the maker community. Setting them up isn't always that simple, but there's a tiny OS you can run on an ESP32 that allows you to use one as if it were a very small PC.

The streamers are loading up on new and returning shows to kick off the month, giving viewers plenty of options for weekend streaming. Netflix has two shows that made the cut for this list. One is a reality show featuring an extremely popular influencer, and the other is the second season of a Guy Ritchie show. Elsewhere, a British motoring show returns for an all-new season on Prime Video.

Intel has had a colorful history over the years. While many people have made the switch to AMD Ryzen, plenty still remain loyal to Intel—and for good reasons.

Dyson's beauty lineup may be most famous for its multi-styling Airwrap and luxurious hair dryer, but the product range doesn't stop there.

In fact, it's growing. At the Dyson Unveiled event on Sept. 3, the brand announced two new beauty products: the Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush and the Corrale CoolShine straightener.

The products aren't available to purchase just yet, but we've gathered everything to know about them so far.

Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush: Price, release, what's new The Revlon One-Step finally has a Dyson analogue. Credit: Dyson

The Dyson AirSmooth dryer brush will retail for $249 and be available to purchase starting Tuesday, Sept. 8. The brush is the first dedicated dryer brush released by Dyson. Before this product, anyone looking to get a dryer brush experience from the brand would have to invest in a Dyson Airwrap.

SEE ALSO: I tested the best Dyson Airwrap dupes under $300: This underappreciated multi-styler deserves consideration

Dryer brushes have been an option from other brands for quite some time. One of the most popular budget options (and an early Airwrap dupe) was the Revlon One-Step. T3's AireBrush and Drybar's Double Shot are both options priced more in line with Dyson at $149.99 and $155, respectively, but both have dropped down to near $100 in the past.

So what makes the Dyson brush special? According to the brand, that'd be the PivotFlex and anti-snag tech behind the brush's design and bristles that allow for the smoothest possible styling (literally and figuratively). The bristles themselves can flex up to 90 degrees, while the open base allows for optimal diffusion of the air. Rounding out the experience is intelligent heat control that monitors the temperature 100 times per second, and universal voltage for easy travel.

Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener: Price, release, what's new The Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener. Credit: Dyson

The Dyson Corrale CoolShine straightener will retail for $329 and be available starting Sept. 15.

The original Corrale straightener (not to be confused with the Airstrait) dropped in 2020, with a cordless look designed to optimize the straightening experience. At the time of writing, the Corrale is available for $539.99 and on sale for $399.99.

This new Corrale seems to want to combine the heat-minimizing Airstrait tech with the efficacy of the original Corrale. As the name suggests, cooling is built into the process, thanks to a cool attachment that houses heat-extracting pipes. The effect is that hair is cooled immediately after it's styled with heat, which can help reduce heat damage and lock in styles. Unlike the original model, this Corrale will feature a cord, so charging is no issue.

Cloud-based smart homes have been the norm for over a decade now. There are inherent problems with cloud-based smart devices though, with privacy being at the forefront of those issues. UGREEN just surprised everyone and announced the first turnkey local smart home hub that actually matters.

Just how much will the foldable iPhone Ultra cost? That's the biggest lingering question ahead of Apple's big iPhone launch event on Sept. 9.

Leaks point to a price of $2,000 or more, and now, a new report from the analysts at the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projects an average selling price of $2,550. The IDC has a solid reputation and is well known for its mobile market research in particular.

The foldable iPhone Ultra is a brand new product category for Apple, so there's no baseline to say how much it could cost. However, the latest IDC report backs reports that the iPhone Ultra will launch at above $2,000.

We should note that the iPhone Ultra won't necessarily set you back $2,550. The average selling price could be quite a bit higher than the starting price, as many consumers will pay more for configurations with more storage. Despite the high price, the IDC projects that Apple will sell more than 17 million iPhone Ultras by the end of 2027 and bring in more than $45.7 billion from the foldable.

"Apple’s entry into the foldable market has done more than reignite growth in a category that was losing momentum," said Nabila Popal, Senior Research Director of IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in a statement. "It has fundamentally altered the market’s trajectory. Without Apple, foldable shipments would have declined at a double-digit rate year over year." 

The $2,550 estimate gives us a clearer idea of what to expect from the iPhone Ultra. Some Apple analysts have projected a $2,399 launch price for the iPhone Ultra, and it could cost up to $3,000 with more storage.

IDC projects that Apple will capture around 40 percent of the global foldable market and account for more than half of the total value of foldables.

According to the IDC, the iPhone Ultra is expected to be such a hit that it will propel the foldable market forward as the only mobile category that experiences growth in 2026. The firm expects the rest of the global smartphone market to decline this year due to higher prices driven by ongoing global memory shortages.

"Perhaps most notably, Apple is positioned to challenge Huawei and Samsung for leadership in markets where they have long dominated, an extraordinary outcome for a product expected to be less than two years into its lifecycle," Popal said.

Top Apple Deals we found this week:

• Apple AirTag 2 (4-Pack) — $79.99 $99 (save $20)

• Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30)

• Apple iPad Air 11-inch (M4) — $649 $749 (save $100)

• Apple iPhone Air (256GB, unlocked) — $849.99 $999.99 (save $150)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)

• Shop all the best Apple Labor Day deals

A year after the launch of GPT-5, OpenAI has announced the arrival of GPT-6 Astra, which will begin rolling out immediately. The AI company called Astra "the world’s most intelligent and aligned model."

OpenAI Astra marks a new generation of models for the AI company, but also carries new risks.

The day before Astra's launch, OpenAI confirmed that Astra had been deemed a "critical" cybersecurity risk, but that the company would move ahead with a launch with safeguards in place. The company's Preparedness Framework tracks risk in three domains (chemical/biological, self-improvement, and cybersecurity), and an OpenAI spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that Astra is the first OpenAI model to be designated a critical risk — the highest threat level — in any domain.

Strangely, in its blog post announcing Astra, OpenAI did not call Astra its most advanced model, but only "the most capable model we have ever broadly deployed." The company also released a detailed system card outlining the model's training and safety risks.

How to try GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI will be rolling out GPT-6 starting today, though it may not be available to everyday users right away.

OpenAI said that GPT-6 Astra will be available at launch to select organizations, but that it will be available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users "over the coming days." It will also be available via the OpenAI API and AWS.

The API pricing will be:

• $10 per million input tokens

• $50 per million output tokens

You can learn more about pricing and availability at the GPT-6 Astra webpage.

GPT-6 Astra: Cybersecurity and safety

OpenAI wrote that "with the right tools and access, GPT‑6 Astra can find previously unknown security flaws and develop new ways to exploit them across many well-protected systems without a person guiding each step." As a result, Astra's most advanced cybersecurity skills will only be available to a select group of testing partners, and OpenAI said it's tightened security around the model as well. Per OpenAI, these safeguards are designed to prevent two outcomes:

• Stopping malicious actors from using Astra to develop new exploits or carry out cyberattacks against critical systems

• Stopping the "model itself [from] causing cyber harm when taking an unauthorized (or misaligned) action"

On the ExploitBench cybersecurity benchmarking test, OpenAI reports that GPT-6 achieves a perfect 100 percent score, even at its lowest-tested reasoning level. On the ExploitGym Honeypot benchmarking test, OpenAI reported a perfect 0.0 percent score.

GPT-6 shows significant improvement over GPT 5.6 Sol on the ExploitBench benchmarking test. Credit: OpenAI

Despite posing existential cybersecurity risks, OpenAI said in its announcement that GPT-6 is generally safer than its recent predecessors. In particular, the company said, "GPT‑6 Astra is significantly safer in higher-risk scenarios."

The GPT-6 Astra system card reports better scores on safety evaluations measuring risks such as promoting emotional reliance in users, engaging with self-harm requests, and inappropriate responses to users under 18.

OpenAI says Astra achieved higher scores than other recent models in safety evaluations (higher scores are better). Credit: OpenAI

At the same time, OpenAI admitted that "GPT‑6 Astra’s monitorability has decreased relative to GPT‑5.6 Sol," meaning that the model may be more difficult to understand and control.

"We have found that GPT‑6 Astra is more capable of controlling its own CoT than GPT‑5.6 Sol, and less likely to include incriminating information in its CoT," reads an OpenAI blog post. "In adversarial settings (where we push the model to evade our monitors) we find that the model is able to remain undetected when strategically underperforming in evaluations (sandbagging) and can sometimes evade our internal monitors when asked to perform certain sabotage tasks."

GPT-6 Astra: Hallucination rate

OpenAI provided fewer details on the hallucination and factuality rates of GPT-6. In previous system cards, OpenAI provided specifics about its models' propensity for inventing facts or repeating users' own misinformation.

That being said, the system card states that GPT-6 has made strides in this regard, generating fewer mistruths and hallucinations than GPT-5.6 Sol and other recent models.

Credit: OpenAI

"We find that Astra makes substantially fewer factual errors than GPT-5.6 Sol and is significantly less likely to reproduce user-reported hallucinations. These improvements are particularly pronounced at very low latency and reasoning settings."

Hallucinations remain one of the most stubborn problems with AI models.

GPT-6 Astra: Benchmark performance

OpenAI released benchmark scores for GPT-6 Astra, showing marked improvement on most common benchmarking tests compared to both GPT-5.6 Sol and Fable 5.1, which Anthropic released earlier this week. Notably, GPT-6 Astra scored lower on Humanity's Last Exam (with tools).

Highlights include:

• Terminal-Bench Science 0.1: 64.6 percent

• FrontierMath Tier 4 (v2): 97.6 percent

• GPQA Diamond: 96.0 percent

• Humanity's Last Exam (w/ tools): 57.2 percent

• ExploitBench: 100 percent

• Exploit Gym: 42.4 percent

• ARC-AGI-1: 98.5 percent

  ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Once you've applied for more than a handful of jobs, keeping track of them can become a job in itself. You need to remember where you applied, when you applied, how you applied, who you spoke to, what the salary was, and whether you ever heard back.

Classroom technology is the focus of a new report from the American Psychological Association (APA), which argues we should be focusing less on bans and more on the specific harms of flashy new tech.

The report, which includes a long list of findings and recommendations for educators and parents regarding all kinds of EdTech, hones in on a new genre of educational technology that increasingly relies on game-like features such as earned rewards, flashy graphics, and customizable avatars to increase student engagement.

In the absence of authoritative scientific evidence, the association cautions against tools — including AI-powered ones — that claim to improve intelligence, thinking, or learning writ large.

SEE ALSO: Mamdani's AI ban may not be enough to protect NYC students Screen time can be misleading

Raw screen time numbers, whether too much or too little, aren't an effective indication of how well a student is learning, the report authors found. "What young people do on screens matters as much as, or more than, how long they spend on them," the report reads.

Likewise, a student's perceived engagement or confidence with a program isn't enough to gauge whether they will have positive learning outcomes. Basically, a student winning an educational game or completing assignments effectively does not directly translate into becoming smarter, according to the APA.

Instead, the APA urges educators to test how well students can apply learned skills in real-world contexts outside of the technology itself, whether it's an app, computer game, or chatbot. If students struggle, the report says, the tech has failed.

To this end, the association recommends school districts evaluate new classroom technology on its ability to foster "durable knowledge and skills," and encourages schools to steer clear of tech that enables multitasking, relies on self-management from students, and has human-like qualities.

Be wary of AI and gamification

The APA urges educators and parents to exercise even greater caution with generative AI. "AI can help a student produce a better essay, but the improved final product does not necessarily mean the student has become a better writer," said Nicole Barnes, APA’s executive lead psychologist for education, in a press release. "Just as we need to separate engagement from learning, we will increasingly need to separate performance from learning."

The APA also joined other groups in calling for greater investment in AI literacy among young learners, teachers, and parents. Recently, coalitions of parents and educators have lobbied for AI moratoriums that curb the introduction of generative AI tools and promote digital and AI literacy programs as a precursor. Both New York City and Los Angeles's chool systems have instituted partial pauses on AI and reductions in screen time for the 2026-2027 school year.

Child psychologists have long warned about the impact of lifelong screen time and personal devices on children as they age through school. As criticism of social media's impact on young minds has increased, so too have warnings about platform features designed to grab and retain attention. These include controversial design elements like autoplay, recommendation algorithms, and tailored advertising.

Many of these features replicate the motivational structures of gaming, more commonly referred to as "gamification." The concept has been put under the microscope by advocates across industries, many of whom argue that constant, dopamine-driven reward systems are degrading critical cognitive skills and executive functioning.

The Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL bring back notification lights with a feature called HiLight. It's a nice touch, but Google isn't the first to modernize this idea, and its version currently trails what's already on the market.

Most Windows users just want to get to the desktop, so they blindly accept whatever Microsoft wants them to install. That indifference is exactly what Microsoft is counting on, and it's shaped the OS for years in ways that frustrate people who actually pay attention. If people paid more attention to what was going on, Windows wouldn't have nearly as much bloat as it does now, and it would be much faster.

It's that time of the weekend again, time to start thinking of what Raspberry Pi projects you're going to be working on before Monday rolls around! Today, I'm showing three unique projects that can run on either a Pi Pico or a full-size Pi.

If you've got a Galaxy Z Fold you aren't using anymore and don't plan to sell, you can put it to good use even if its screens no longer work. Thanks to the phone's versatility, courtesy of its massive foldable display and beefy hardware that's quite capable even in older Galaxy Z Fold models, the most popular foldable around can fulfill a variety of roles.

Best Labor Day home and furniture deals Best home deal Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum $899.99 (Save $700) Get Deal Best smart home deal Amazon Echo Spot $69.99 (Save $40) Get Deal Best furniture deal Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa $1,280 (Save $937) Get Deal Best kitchen deal Chefman Air Fryer $69.96 (Save $50.03) Get Deal

Brands are launching their pumpkin-spiced flavors, so you know what that means — summer is coming to an end. I know, we can't believe it either. But if you're holding onto the last bits of summer, you better be enjoying Labor Day weekend to its fullest. That means getting outside, but it also means taking advantage of all those Labor Day sales.

Virtually every retailer, from Amazon to Costco, has major savings right now. If you're particularly in the market for some upgrades around the home, we've rounded up the best savings on everything you need for a refresh. While Amazon is often a go-to for low prices, for major savings on furniture, make sure to check out Wayfair and Anthropologie, too.

Whether you're in the market for a new robot vacuum, air fryer, or an Echo device, here are all the best home and furniture Labor Day savings to shop now.

Best Labor Day home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Roborock Roborock Saros 10R Robot Vacuum $899.99 at Amazon
$1,599.99 Save $700   Get Deal

Now that summer is coming to a close, it's all about falling back into routines. If you have a busy schedule ahead of you, then take one thing off your plate: cleaning your floors. The Roborock Saros 10R robot vacuum keeps your floors clean. It has an ultra-thin design to navigate under and around furniture. Plus, it's a mop too, and even self-washes its mop pads, so you can rest assured your floors stay sparkling.

Usually $1,599.99, during Amazon's Labor Day sale, the Roborock Saros 10R robot vacuum is down to $899.99, saving you nearly half its price. Shop now and save $700.

Air care Labor Day deals

• Levoit 36-inch Tower Fan — $54.93 $74.99 (save $20.06)

• Levoit Core 300-P Air Purifier — $84.99 $99.99 (save $15)

• Blueair Blue Pure 511i Max Air Purifier — $99.99 $139.99 (save $40)

Bedding Labor Day deals

• Puredown Goose Down Pillow Set — $51.89 $61.99 (save $10.10)

• Bedsure Bamboo Sheets — $59.99 $73.14 (save $13.15)

• Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow — $71.20 $89 (save $17.80)

• Anthropologie Organic Cotton Percale Sheet Set — $110.60 $158 (save $47.40)

• Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Ergo Neck Pillow — $113.90 $134 (save $20.10)

• Coop Home Goods Cool+ Adjustable Pillow — $127.20 $159 (save $31.80)

Floor care Labor Day deals

• Shark Rocket Pet Plus Corded Stick Vacuum — $149.99 $199.99 (save $50)

• Shark Steam & Scrub — $159 $189.99 (save $30.99)

• Roborock New Qrevo S Pro Robot Vacuum — $429.99 $699.99 (save $270)

• Dreame L40 Ultra Gen 2 Robot Vacuum — $499.99 $699.99 (save $200)

Best Labor Day smart home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Spot $69.99 at Amazon
$109.99 Save $40   Get Deal

All Amazon Echo devices are useful, but the Amazon Echo Spot makes itself crucial for your day-to-day. As an alarm clock and Echo device, it's an incredible addition to your bedroom, waking you up, playing music to jump-start your day, and telling you the weather report so you know how to dress for the day.

Right now, it's at a major discount — 36% off — perfect timing as many head into a new school year. Get the Amazon Echo Spot for $69.99, saving you $40 off its $109.99 list price.

More Labor Day smart home deals

• Amazon Echo Show 5 — $69.99 $99.99 (save $30)

• Amazon Echo Show 11 — $189.99 $249.99 (save $60)

• Amazon Echo Show 21 — $399.99 $499.99 (save $100)

Best Labor Day furniture deal Opens in a new window Credit: Wayfair Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa $1,280 at Wayfair
$2,217 Save $937   Get Deal

While Amazon has lots of Labor Day savings, the best place to shop for furniture over Labor Day is at Wayfair. Right now, you can save over 40% on the Hokku Designs Heffernan 106-inch Modular Sofa. Usually $2,217, this modular sofa is just $1,280, which saves you $937. That's a great deal on a huge couch. It has plush cushions and can host a huge crew, perfect as you settle in for fall football and TV.

More Labor Day furniture deals

• Millwood Pines Lift Top Coffee Table — $79.99 $160.99 (save $81)

• Dakota Fields Chingford Indoor/Outdoor Hanging Egg Chair — $184.99 $219.99 (save $35)

• Anthropologie Dog Icon Side Table — $298.80 $498 (save $199.20)

• Anthropologie Irie Carmine Jacquard Oak Dining Chair — $398.40 $498 (save $99.60)

• Anthropologie Fern Marble Top Bookcase — $1,518.40 $1,898 (save $379.60)

• Anthropologie Sinclair Irena 80-inch Sofa — $3,428.60 $4,898 (save $1,469.40)

Best Labor Day kitchen deals Opens in a new window Credit: Chefman Chefman Air Fryer $69.96 at Amazon
$119.99 Save $50.03   Get Deal

Another thing that will make your life easier this fall? An air fryer. When you need dinner fast, an air fryer gets food crispy and fast. If you want to save on a new air fryer, Chefman's is majorly discounted. It's down to $69.96, which saves you $50.03.

The Chefman Air Fryer is six quarts and comes with four presets, so you don't even need to think about how long your food needs. Plus, it's so easy to clean as it has a dishwasher-safe basket.

More Labor Day kitchen deals

• Stanley Quencher ProTour Flipstraw Tumbler — $17.50 $40 (save $22.50)

• Keurig K-Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker — $49.99 $59.99 (save $10)

• Chefman Microwave Oven — $69.96 $99.99 (save $30.03)

• Ninja Nutri-Plus Personal Blender — $69.97 $89.99 (save $20.02)

• Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer — $89.99 $119.99 (save $30)

• Ninja Pro Air Fryer — $89.99 $129.99 (save $40)

• Instant Pot Duo Pressure Cooker — $89.99 $109.99 (save $20)

• Our Place Wonder Oven — $149 $185 (save $36)

• KitchenAid Artisan Tilt Stand Mixer — $399.96 $499.99 (save $100.03)

Every year, Hot Girl Summer arrives with the same promise that this will finally be the season when you meet someone. You’ll have a summer fling, fall in love on vacation, or somehow find your future boyfriend while drinking an Aperol spritz on a rooftop. Then Aug. starts winding down, you’re still single, and it can feel like you missed your chance.

But there’s no need to panic, because I’m here to tell you that fall is actually the best time of year to date. Let me make the case for something better: Flirty Fall.

SEE ALSO: 'I get so upset and frustrated': What dating is like on a GLP-1 Fall in love in the fall

Obviously, fall already has romance on its side. There’s a reason movies like When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail have made so many of us associate love with changing leaves, long walks, and really good sweaters. Hallmark has even built an entire "Fall Into Love" lineup around the premise that all anyone needs to find a partner is a charming small town and some sort of harvest festival.

The weather certainly helps sell the fantasy. It’s cool enough to spend an afternoon walking through the park without sweating through your outfit (and your blowout can actually survive the walk there), but it’s not so cold that every date has to take place inside. You can go apple picking, watch a football game, wander around a farmers' market, or spend a lazy day in the park before heading to a cozy restaurant for dinner in a turtleneck and red lipstick. Even the corniest fall activities give you something to do together besides sitting across from each other at a bar and exchanging résumés over a $25 cocktail.

I love all of that, and I’m not going to pretend that seeing someone in a really nice sweater has never affected my judgment. Still, I don’t think the clothes, weather, or seasonal activities are the main reason fall is so good for dating. The real advantage is much more practical.

In my opinion, summer may be a great time to meet people at a concert or local bar, but it can be a terrible time to actually get to know them. Everyone is traveling, spending weekends with friends, going to weddings, visiting family, or trying to squeeze every possible activity into the final few weeks of warm weather. One weekend you’re away, the next weekend they’re away, and suddenly you’ve been talking for a month but have only managed to go on one date.

Even when you genuinely like someone, it can be difficult to build any momentum when your routines are constantly being interrupted. You spend more time saying, "Let’s figure something out when we’re both back," than actually seeing each other, and by the time you are finally in the same city again, one of you may have lost interest or become distracted by something else.

Fall fixes a lot of that. Vacations slow down, work schedules become more predictable, and weekends stop filling up months in advance. Asking someone when they’re free no longer requires opening a shared Google Calendar, and you can see each other consistently enough to figure out whether there's actually something there.

Personally, returning to a routine makes me feel more motivated in general. I’m 27, but some part of my brain still treats Sept. like the beginning of a new school year. Once fall arrives, I suddenly want to clean my apartment, buy a new notebook, exercise regularly, cook meals with vegetables, and become the organized person I briefly convinced myself I would be back in Jan.

New season, new me

Some people call it "New Year’s for the girls" or, as TikTok Shop categorizes it, "Sept. reset." Whatever you call it, the idea is basically the same: Fall feels like a chance to get your life together after a summer when routines fell apart, and responsibilities became suggestions.

There is even some psychology behind that impulse. Researchers call it the "fresh start effect," which describes the increase in motivation people can experience after a meaningful point in time, such as the beginning of a week, month, year, or school semester. These moments help us mentally separate our current selves from our past selves, making it feel easier to start pursuing a goal again.

The research isn’t specifically about dating, but the connection makes sense to me. If you’re already thinking about the habits you want to build, the goals you’ve neglected, and the version of yourself you want to become during the final few months of the year, dating can easily become part of that reset. Maybe you finally redownload the app you deleted in June, agree to the setup your friend keeps suggesting, or simply become more open to meeting someone now that your schedule has calmed down.

And while there isn’t enough independent research to declare fall the official best season for love, dating app data suggests that people’s behavior and intentions really do change as the weather gets colder. According to OkCupid data, in 2023, the app saw a 26 percent increase from Oct. through Dec. in users saying they wanted to find their "forever person" rather than something casual. From June through Oct., meanwhile, it recorded a 14 percent decrease in people prioritizing love over sex.

Is it cuffing season yet?

The validity of "cuffing season," the time of year when single people supposedly start looking for someone to keep them company through winter, the holidays, and Valentine's Day, is contested. While some daters want to "uncuff" themselves for summer, others go into hibernation in the winter and want to find love in the warmer months instead. But there is something to be said for being "cuffed," a term from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "partnered." More than half of the OkCupid users surveyed by the company said in 2023 that they went on more dates during fall and winter than during spring and summer.

SEE ALSO: How to navigate cuffing season as a single person

Sometimes "cuffing season" carries a negative connotation, as if any relationship that starts in the fall is just a temporary arrangement to help two people survive winter without sinking into seasonal depression. But I don’t think people suddenly develop an interest in dating simply because the temperature drops. Maybe we aren’t all desperately searching for someone to keep us warm. Maybe we finally have the time and energy to give dating the attention it deserves.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every person you meet in Oct. will become the love of your life, and dating app data can only tell us so much about when real relationships begin. But the season may give you a chance to figure out if someone is worth pursuing rather than losing touch after a few Instagram Story likes.

So, if summer is winding down and you didn’t have the fling you expected or meet your future boyfriend over an Aperol spritz, have no fear. You have several months of good outfits and even better dates ahead of you.

Amazon's Fire TV streaming devices have been based on Android from the start, which made them an excellent choice for anyone who likes to tinker and modify things. Amazon subsidized the price of Fire TV streamers by monetizing them with ads and, of course, using them as a funnel for subscriptions and more Amazon purchases.