Technology

There's good news if you've ever had Android apps scramble your contact list, or change contacts behind your back. Google has outlined how the upcoming Android 17 QPR2 update will limit how apps can modify contacts.

Looking to build your first software application but not sure where to start? Web development might be the best place. That's where most developers start, including me. After so many years of programming, I think it was a wise decision.

One dodgy text message can ruin your day. Scammers are getting better at making fake messages look legitimate, and the red flags aren’t always easy to spot at a glance. As an Android phone user, I want better protection without having to second-guess every text that lands in my inbox.

I've been using Calibre for at least eight years to manage my eBook collection. It's done the job really well. But as a Jellyfin user, I like the convenience of having all my content on a single media server and want something similar for my books. The recent updates in Jellyfin 12 have introduced eBook and audiobook enhancements that now make it much more practical.

I've been using Windows long enough to accumulate an embarrassing list of software recommendations that didn't last. I've tried apps that looked revolutionary for a week, productivity systems that demanded more maintenance than the work they were supposed to organize, and utilities that seemed essential right up until I stopped opening them.

I didn’t take to smart home tech right away, but solar is different — I’ve always loved the idea of solar panels. Now I have plenty of them, and as it turns out, solar and smart home tech go hand in hand.

Microsoft offers a wide range of apps on various platforms, but most people only think about Office. While Word and Excel are pretty good on Android, it's Microsoft's other apps that are probably more useful to most people. Let's check them out.

One of the most influential RPG developers of all time is no more. And just like that, another beloved gaming studio is closing its doors for good.

Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that powerful video game publisher Electronic Arts is shutting down RPG studio BioWare, which had been around in some form or another since 1995. This move came as part of a wider layoff of around 400 employees. According to reporter Jason Schreier, BioWare's headcount at the end was around 50.

Minutes after Bloomberg broke the news, the BioWare X account shared a heartfelt message with gamers:

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Whether or not you've ever played a BioWare game, you've most likely heard of them or played something inspired by them. The studio made its name in the late 90s and early 2000s with hit RPGs like the original Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Neverwinter Nights. All of those games, as well as the studio's later works, helped pioneer and popularize storytelling that was shaped by player choices.

SEE ALSO: 'Final Fantasy Resonance' doesn't hit as hard as the classics, but it's still a fun throwback

BioWare arguably hit the apex of its popularity in the late 2000s and early 2010s with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series. Both franchises saw massive success early on before waning a bit with controversial entries like Andromeda and Veilguard, but you do not have to look far on the internet to find people who love every single game BioWare made. A new Mass Effect was in the works at BioWare when the studio was shut down, but that title has been canceled, per Bloomberg.

Some gamers will argue that this development was inevitable given the events of the past few years. As Variety and Bloomberg reported last year, after the release of Veilguard, EA laid off some BioWare employees. EA was recently acquired by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Cuts were always a possibility after a big acquisition like that, and BioWare evidently found itself in the crosshairs once more.

If you're buying the new iPhone Duo, Apple's first-ever foldable, the first thing you should do is marvel at its opening animation. The very next thing you should do is get a case for it. Not only is the Duo an expensive phone, but it's also a slippery one, according to Mashable's Stan Schroeder.

Since regular iPhone cases won't fit its passport-style design, you'll have to buy a brand-new protective case for your Duo. Below, I've rounded up over a dozen of the best iPhone Duo cases available ahead of its release on Friday, Oct. 23, including options from popular brands like OtterBox and Casetify with kickstands, MagSafe, and/or hinge protection. Prices range from $30 to $129.

If you haven't locked in your iPhone Duo preorder yet, you can save up to $1,200 with various carrier offers. Just know that it might be a couple weeks until yours arrives: The Duo sold out almost instantly when preorders opened on Oct. 16, and it's currently on backorder pretty much everywhere.

The best iPhone Duo cases so far Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPhone Duo Case $79 at Amazon
  Shop Now at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand $129 at Amazon
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If some of your usual websites aren’t working today, their operators may have temporarily shut them down to keep hackers out.

Two serious security flaws have been discovered in PHP, a programming language that helps websites run. On vulnerable servers, those flaws could allow hackers to run their own commands or access sensitive information. Because PHP is used across so many different websites, the same security problem has left operators around the world scrambling to protect their systems.

A fix became available on Oct. 21, but releasing it doesn’t automatically secure every affected site. Website operators and hosting providers still need to install the update on their servers. Some have taken sites offline or restricted features while they do that work, creating disruptions for visitors along the way.

SEE ALSO: PHP vulnerability: PHP security issues today explained From gaming services to government websites

Those precautions have disrupted everything from online forums to gaming services. 4chan switched to read-only mode while awaiting a PHP security update, while Wikimedia, the organization behind Wikipedia, took supporting tools offline until they could be safely patched. In a statement to Mashable, the Wikimedia Foundation confirmed its recent downtime was related to the PHP security issues.

Fur Affinity, Pinboard, and Miraheze also announced precautionary shutdowns, while games including Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Granblue Fantasy, and Princess Connect! Re:Dive announced maintenance to address PHP vulnerabilities.

Government websites have taken similar precautions. Reuters identified the Port of Rotterdam, Dutch football association KNVB, government portal Overheid.nl, and the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre among those taken offline. Finnish government public web services, Belgian foreign ministry websites, French prefecture websites, and several German federal websites also underwent preventive shutdowns. Taking these services offline doesn’t necessarily mean they were hacked — it can help prevent that from happening.

Other disruptions haven’t been publicly linked to PHP. Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon HOME, and Pokémon Champions underwent emergency maintenance, but a PHP connection remains unconfirmed. GOG also announced maintenance without specifying a cause, while Duolingo reported increased errors without mentioning the vulnerability. In addition, DownDetector users are reporting problems with popular tools such as the Internet Archive and Asana, though those issues couldn't be directly linked to the PHP security update.

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

Here’s what we know about the PHP-related disruptions and the other outages happening alongside them.

Which websites are affected by the PHP security update?

The following sites and services have announced PHP-related restrictions or shutdowns, or have been reported to have taken them. These disruptions occurred at different points on Oct. 21, so some services may have returned as operators completed their updates.

• OpenStreetMap’s wiki and secondary services: Its operations team temporarily shut down several supporting services, including its wiki. The announcement concerns those services, rather than the main map.

• Choice of Games: The interactive fiction publisher announced an overnight shutdown of its website while awaiting the security update.

• GrapheneOS forum: The project temporarily took its discussion forum offline. This concerns the forum, rather than the GrapheneOS phone operating system.

• Umamusume: Pretty Derby: The game’s maintenance notice identified a PHP vulnerability on its servers, according to Dexerto.

• Something Awful: The forums posted a maintenance notice linking their temporary shutdown to the PHP vulnerability. The forum homepage was accessible during our check.

• 4chan: The imageboard switched to read-only mode while awaiting an urgent PHP security update, according to reporting quoting its notice. That limits posting without necessarily preventing people from reading existing threads.

• Wikimedia supporting services: The organization behind Wikipedia took services including Toolforge and Cloud VPS offline. Wikimedia also warned that users might encounter wiki outages during the work. (Its announcement does not describe a complete shutdown of Wikipedia.)

• Fur Affinity: The art community announced it would take its site offline until it could apply a patch, citing the PHP vulnerability.

• Miraheze: The wiki hosting service said it was taking all services offline to protect its systems while awaiting a PHP patch.

• Pinboard: The bookmarking service said it had taken itself offline to protect users' data until patches became available.

• Granblue Fantasy: The game issued a maintenance notice related to the PHP vulnerability.

• Princess Connect! Re:Dive: The game also announced maintenance to address the PHP issue.

• Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond: The game underwent emergency maintenance that Japanese technology outlets linked to the PHP security issue.

• CHUNITHM: The rhythm game’s international account announced emergency maintenance following reports of a PHP vulnerability.

• Pokémon Sleep, Pokémon HOME, and Pokémon Champions: The games underwent emergency maintenance, though a direct connection to the PHP vulnerabilities has not been confirmed.

• Port of Rotterdam: Its website was taken offline as a precaution.

• KNVB: The Dutch national football association’s website was taken offline.

• Overheid.nl: The Dutch government portal was taken offline.

• Dutch National Cyber Security Centre: The cybersecurity agency took its public-facing website offline as a precaution.

• Finnish government public web services: State IT provider Valtori shut down the services as a precaution.

• Belgian foreign ministry: The ministry temporarily took its websites offline.

• French prefectures: The Interior Ministry temporarily took local administrative offices’ websites offline.

• German federal websites: Federal IT provider ITZBund temporarily deactivated several websites as a preventive measure.

SEE ALSO: OpenAI says GPT-5.6-Sol helped find the PHP flaws now shaking the internet When will affected websites be back?

There’s no single restoration time. Each operator needs to update its affected systems and make sure its services can safely return.

That process can be more complicated for organizations hosting tools managed by different people. Wikimedia, for example, said some volunteer-run services require their individual owners to make changes before they can come back online, potentially extending their downtime.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters today.

Before O'Neil Thomas had millions of followers, he had a third-grade Christmas production and a serious case of stage fright.

But the nerves didn’t last past curtain call. Watching family members, faculty, and staff stand and applaud, he knew he wanted to keep performing. "I felt something really warm in my heart," Thomas tells Mashable. "I was like, 'I think this is something I want to do for the rest of my life.'"

By high school, he was studying performing arts, writing scripts, and filming YouTube sketches between classes and auditions. And as new platforms arrived, he kept finding new places to perform, learning what audiences responded to and how his comedy could work differently on each app.

Over the past decade, Thomas, 29, has grown his audience to more than six million across social media platforms, with fans following his social commentary, comedy sketches — like his YouTube series Shady Family — and viral recreations, including his take on Beyoncé's Grammy-award-winning album Cowboy Carter's cover art (which earned a shoutout from her team). But his latest project brings that work back to the passion that started it all: acting.

His vertical "microdrama", the 7:33 minute Investigator, Investigator, was selected for New York's inaugural Alza Film Festival, held Oct. 16–18, where he also joined a conversation aptly titled "What Does Creator Even Mean" to discuss the increasingly blurred lines between creators, filmmakers, actors, and producers, especially as the vertical series boom is getting bigger.

For Mashable's Creator Playbook, Thomas sat down with deputy editor Olivia Tauber ahead of the festival to explore his beginnings as a performer, how he brings an actor's approach to content creation, the comedians who inspire him, and how he gives viewers a reason to keep coming back.

Credit: O'Neil Thomas/Mashable

Mashable: You started out as an actor before becoming a creator. What drew you to acting, and how did that transition happen?

O’Neil Thomas: Honestly, it all started in the third grade. That’s when I found my calling for acting. I was in our first-ever Christmas production, and it was my first time ever onstage. I was terrified when I was first doing it.

But something about doing the lines, getting off the stage, and then, at the end, for curtain call, where all the cast and crew are on the stage, and I see all the family, the faculty, staff just standing up and clapping — I felt something really warm in my heart. I was like, "I think this is something I want to do for the rest of my life."

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Ever since that moment, I just went full-fledged into learning about comedy and acting, sketch comedy and everything. When I got into high school, I went there for performing arts. Whenever I wasn’t auditioning or in classes, I was just putting myself on camera. So I kind of learned the ropes as I went along.

I’d write my own little scripts and make my own little YouTube sketches, and just really enjoyed doing that. Over time, as more apps came to grow, I kept finding myself on a new platform, really testing it out and learning how to write my own stuff.

From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable talks to creators about how they built their platforms, the gear they swear by, and the trends they see coming next. 

What did you learn about making content for different platforms?

I learned that each platform has its own purpose, which I do love, because you don’t want different platforms to all serve the same way.

I like to credit my previous work on other platforms, like Vine and YouTube growing up. I really learned to study the algorithm and study what the audience is saying in the comment section. From there, I can learn, okay. This short-form works best on this platform. This long-form works best on this platform.

It’s a really fun challenge. One of my series that’s really popular now is a short-form series, Shady Family, but I’ve been able to transition it into a full-fledged, long-form episodic series.

I think that’s definitely something I've learned while cross-posting. Each thing has its own purpose, and once you know how to reach your audience and meet them where they are, you’re good.

Take me through your creative process.

It depends on the day, the week, the planning. There are some times that I do fully strategize and execute, like, here’s this episode that’s going to release this day, this week, this month. I have that scripted series that I take more time to nurture and really grow.

Then there’s also the occasion where I’m scrolling, and something really funny is going on. There’s a really funny conversation happening, and I want to throw my hat into the race.

When it comes to my scripted stuff, I really have to sit down in my own writers' room. I’m on my laptop somewhere in my house, and I break it down into an outline. What’s the overall story that I want to tell for this episode, and how do I see myself from start to finish?

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From there, I’m able to put in some jokes. I love writing the jokes in real time because I’m able to test it out. I kind of know how it’s going to respond, so I’m able to add a joke in, take something out. Maybe it’s not working well, or maybe this one isn’t the right time for it.

It’s more of a full-fledged showrunner process when it comes to my scripted stuff. I can just pop my camera in front of my face and press record [for other videos].

Are there comedians, actors, or creators who inspire you?

Honestly, I want to say it kind of changes. But as of right now, Druski is a huge one. I love Druski’s commitment to his craft, and it’s something that I find really admirable, especially in the social landscape that we’re in.

He’s someone I can really admire, who can take my concept to the next level and hire a whole production company for it.

SEE ALSO: Is Druski hosting 'SNL'? Here's why it would be a big deal for internet creators.

Quinta Brunson is also a huge role model for me because she’s able to navigate the social landscape and transition into the traditional TV space, which I absolutely love. I love the writing styles. I love their comedy, and I’m really inspired by them, for sure.

Building an audience is one thing, but getting people to stick around is another. What do you think has helped you do both?

I feel, number one, it’s how I show up on the platform, and I show up as authentically myself.

I think we’re in an age now where a lot of people do want to try this, and they see the success behind it. We’re still in the really scary world of perception, and I do not care about being perceived at all.

I think that resonates really well with my audience. They love seeing me whenever I show up. I can see a trend and add my own funny twist to it to really make it my own.

They say that they see a lot of themselves in me. It also makes me feel like that’s another good reason why they want to stick around, just to see what else I’m up to, what else I’m creating, and what else I’m doing.

Read more of our creator coverage, sign up for our Trending Now and Top Stories newsletters or get Mashable push alerts to discover the internet's most exciting voices. 

Are you wanting to start building out your homelab, but aren't sure where to start? The best approach that I've found is separating your services from the beginning with a two-system setup. Thin clients are cheap and readily available basically everywhere, and it's not hard to find a NAS, either. So, if you're wanting to kickstart your homelab setup, try the two-tier approach I lay out below.

OpenAI says its AI models helped uncover the critical PHP security flaws that have websites across the internet scrambling.

In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said it had spent the past two months leading a coalition of PHP maintainers, security researchers, and security companies to deal with the vulnerabilities, now nicknamed "PHP2SHELL." In its own Wednesday blog post, the PHP foundation thanked OpenAI, among other industry partners and cybersecurity researchers.

The newly exposed flaws could allow attackers to take over servers running PHP, the programming language behind a large share of the web. OpenAI called the bugs one of the most impactful security problems in recent memory.

SEE ALSO: PHP vulnerability: PHP security issues today explained

According to OpenAI, security firm Calif found one of the critical flaws using the company’s GPT-5.6 Sol model as part of Patch the Planet, an OpenAI security program. Security company Wiz also discovered and reported both vulnerabilities on its own, OpenAI said. PHP’s maintainers led the work on the fixes. OpenAI, Wiz, Cloudflare, and other partners contributed research and helped prepare protections before the flaws went public.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman added more detail in a post on X. He said PHP was the first programming language he learned, which gave him a personal connection to the work.

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According to Brockman, the bug had existed in PHP for 14 years. A smaller version of it was found in 2024, but wasn’t treated as serious at the time. Calif found a version of the bug in August, and OpenAI’s own team independently found a more complete version in September.

The coalition planned to disclose the flaws on Oct. 22, Brockman said, but details leaked early, and PHP’s maintainers released the fixes a day sooner. He said the two months of preparation still mattered, because the fixes were complicated and an earlier leak could have caused far more damage.

OpenAI said it also worked with U.S. government agencies on the response, including the White House’s Super Intelligence Force, the Office of the National Cyber Director, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

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OpenAI says PHP won’t be the last case of this kind. The company said it has already found several other serious vulnerabilities and expects similar discoveries to rise sharply in the coming months. Brockman pointed to a separate remote code execution flaw that Node.js, another widely used web technology, disclosed on Wednesday.

This year, new AI models like GPT-5.6-Sol and Claude Mythos have led to a rapid rise in bug discoveries, pushing some zero-day bug initiatives to shut down entirely, as Mashable reported previously.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today. 

Brockman wrote that the current way of handling bugs like these is "slow and manual," and won’t scale as AI gets better at finding them. OpenAI is now asking the security community for feedback on a new process for coordinating disclosures. One idea that floats is having governments or other authorized defenders constantly scan the internet for vulnerable systems. They would warn site owners when they find one and, in extreme cases, patch the systems themselves.

OpenAI also acknowledges the risk in its pitch. The same AI capabilities that helped find these bugs could help attackers build exploits faster. To put more of those tools in defenders’ hands, the company says it has committed $1 billion toward subsidized access to its security tools for organizations that protect essential services. It is also releasing a tool that helps site operators check whether they’re running a vulnerable version of PHP.

Meanwhile, the internet is having a week

The patch scramble has been very visible. Wikipedia went down Wednesday morning, and the Wikimedia Foundation confirmed to Mashable that the outage was tied to the PHP vulnerabilities. The foundation said it had taken other systems offline as a precaution until they could be safely patched.

Other popular sites have also gone down or posted maintenance notices. According to Downdetector, sites having trouble in the midst of the PHP issues include Asana, GOG, Duolingo, Capital One, Bitbucket, Moodle, Quest Diagnostics, Final Fantasy XIV, War Thunder, and the Internet Archive. Most haven’t said whether their problems are connected to PHP, but, again, the programming language runs much of the internet.

Even outside of the response from the cybersecurity arm of the U.S. government, other world leaders are getting involved too. Japan’s prime minister made an unusual public appeal on X, urging anyone who runs a website to act that night, according to a translation of the Japanese-language post.

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The PM asked site owners to check whether their public websites use PHP and to install the fix as soon as it was released at 11 p.m. Japan time on Oct. 21, which matches PHP’s 10 a.m. ET release.

For most people, the impact should be limited to some sites being temporarily unavailable. Regular users don’t need to install anything, since the fix is up to the companies running the sites.

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.

Updated on Oct. 21 at 2:16 p.m. ET — As of around 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, both the Internet Archive and Wikipedia appear to be back online. Wikipedia's status page is still showing the issue as unresolved, but Down Detector reports for both sites are at near-zero at the time of publication.

Updated on Oct. 21 at 12:03 p.m. ET — A spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, told Mashable that the outage was related to newly discovered security vulnerabilities in PHP, which is what Wikipedia is built on.

“The Wikimedia Foundation is currently in the process of addressing security vulnerabilities in PHP, the programming language that underpins most wikis, including the Wikimedia projects. This issue affects all known versions of PHP, and is not specific to the Wikimedia Foundation," the spokesperson said. "All Foundation-supported systems and volunteer-run systems that use PHP are affected. We have taken down a number of other systems as a precautionary measure until they can be safely patched.”

Two of the best internet repositories of information appeared to go down on Wednesday morning.

Visitors to both the Internet Archive and Wikipedia, to be more specific, reported outages at the start of hump day. According to DownDetector, both sites started experiencing problems sometime around 10 or 11 a.m. ET. Mashable reached out to the Internet Archive for comment, and we will update this article if we hear back.

As of this writing, the Internet Archive website, the host of the popular Wayback Machine, which lets users see historical versions of popular webpages, returned a connection timeout error message for Mashable reporters. (The Wikipedia website was still accessible, however.)

The Internet Archive confirmed the site was experiencing problems in a message posted to X on Wednesday morning:

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The Wikimedia status page listed an ongoing incident for Oct. 21 with the following message: "Unresolved incident: Emergency Maintenance."

SEE ALSO: Google Cloud outage: Revolut down as multiple services experience issues That's less than ideal. Credit: Screenshot: DownDetector So is that. Credit: Screenshot: DownDetector

It's unclear if these outages are related to each other in any way, aside from the fact that both sites are famous places to find access to information online.

This story is developing...

Two Chicago men are suing delivery robot companies Coco Robotics and Serve Robotics for allegedly collecting their biometric information without consent.

The two separate class action lawsuits were filed earlier this month. Both claim that the robots' external cameras and internal LiDAR technology are used to scan and collect measurements of customers' faces and hands as they approach the devices. That data was then retained and used to train AI systems, according to the plaintiffs, and attached to personally identifiable information like names and addresses.

SEE ALSO: Judge asked to toss 60-year prison sentence over use of Flock cameras

One suit filed against Coco Robotics claims the company didn't disclose to customers that its device would scan and collect information, thereby violating Illinois privacy laws. It also extends the privacy violation claim to the use of remote human operators, who were allegedly able to watch the delivery and scanning in real-time.

The two cases similarly hinge on the fact that neither customer chose to use delivery robots will ordering food, but were instead assigned to robots by the company after placing their orders. Their data was then sold to third parties, including OpenAI, the plaintiffs claim. The lawsuits cite company disclosures indicating that video and sensor data can be licensed for AI training.

Both Serve Robotics and Coco Robotics provide robotic delivery services for popular food delivery platforms, including DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. The companies have denied the claims in the lawsuits, stating that the data they collect is navigational and shared with third parties to improve their services.

"This lawsuit fundamentally misunderstands our technology, we have not collected biometric data in Chicago," a spokesperson for Coco Robotics said in a statement.

A Serve Robotics spokesperson said that the company does not use sensor data to identify customers or create biometric profiles.

I got pretty bored the other day. So I said to myself, “Self, you should build an ambitious project today and share it with the world.” My Raspberry Pi was on the fritz, so I came up with something even better: a budget, self-hosted media streaming project. And I did it using second-hand hardware and open source software.

You no longer have to go through the company website to get one of Samsung's second-hand devices. Samsung has made some Certified Re-Newed (read: refurbished) Galaxy phones available through Amazon, making it that much easier to buy a previous-generation model at a discount.

3D printing doesn't have to be difficult or expensive when you can get a beginner-friendly model like the Creality K2 Combo at 19% off on Amazon. This 3D printer includes everything you need to get started and can print up to four colors at a time with the included CFS filament unit.

Self-hosting is awesome, because you own the hardware, and you have control over access and uptime. However, unless you've also written the software that runs your self-hosted services, there's still much of your homelab that depends on a third party to function.

TL;DR: Live stream Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free on RTÉ Player. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Champions League isn't short of huge matchups, but this week feels like an extra special treat. Fresh from PSG vs. Barcelona, we're now blessed with Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal. Both sides are unbeaten after two rounds, and this could easily have been the final last season.

We're expecting a fascinating clash between two teams laden with stars. We're hoping for big performances from the likes of Harry Kane and Declan Rice. If it's anything like last night's battle at the Parc des Princes, we're in for a treat.

If you want to watch Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal in the Champions League from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal?

Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal in the Champions League kicks off at 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 21. This fixture takes place at the Allianz Arena.

How to watch Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal for free

Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal is available to live stream for free on RTÉ Player.

RTÉ Player is geo-restricted to Ireland, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock RTÉ Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal for free by following these simple steps:

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

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

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Ireland

4. Visit RTÉ Player

5. Watch Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal for free from anywhere in the world

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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 access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for RTÉ Player?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on RTÉ Player, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries, including Ireland

• 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 usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.

Live stream Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.