Technology

TL;DR: Live stream the 2026 NRL for free on 9Now. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

There are few other sports that can compete with rugby league when it comes to physicality and skill. It's clever handling and outrageous trickery combined with absolute brutality, and that's why we all love it.

And if you're looking for all of that and more on a weekly basis, you should check out the NRL. It's an electric competition featuring some of the best players and teams in the world. We're definitely not knocking what you get in the Northern Hemisphere, but there's something special about the National Rugby League. It feels like something wild happens every week.

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If you want to watch the 2026 NRL for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

What is the NRL?

The National Rugby League (NRL) is a professional rugby league competition in Australasia, including clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, and New Zealand.

Each team plays 24 matches in the regular season, with the first-placed team at the end awarded the minor premiership. This is followed by a finals series contested between the eight highest-placed teams from the regular season, culminating in the NRL Grand Final.

The defending champions are the Brisbane Broncos.

When is the 2026 NRL?

The 2026 NRL season is the 119th edition of professional rugby league in Australia and the 29th season run by the National Rugby League. This season runs from Feb. 28 to Sept. 5.

How to watch the 2026 NRL for free

Select fixtures from the 2026 NRL season are available to live stream for free on 9Now.

9Now is geo-restricted to Australia, 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 Australia, meaning you can unblock free live streams of the NRL from anywhere in the world.

Live stream the 2026 NRL from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

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

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

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

4. Visit 9Now

5. Live stream the 2026 NRL for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch the 2026 NRL without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select NRL fixtures before recovering your investment.

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

What is the best VPN for 9Now?

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on 9Now, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Australia

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• 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).

Live stream the 2026 NRL for free with ExpressVPN.

I've always wanted to be more productive. The more work I can get done in a set amount of time, the more free time I can have. It isn't always easy to stay on task, so I got Home Assistant to help.

Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan's outstanding crime-comedy Deadloch earned every last skerrick of high praise for its debut season. Described by Caitlin Welsh for Mashable as "the feminist Australian buddy-comedy-murder-noir you didn't know you needed" and "Broadchurch crossed with Letterkenny, but with way more lesbians," Deadloch carved out its own glorious TV niche in 2023.

In Season 2, directed by Beck Cole and Gracie Otto, polar opposite detective duo Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami), trade in Lutruwita (Tasmania) for the crocodile-populated waters of Australia's Top End, with a second season that’s just as consistently hilarious, sharply constructed, and deeply Australian as its first. With more twists and turns than a Viennetta, McCartney and McLennan's series spins overused murder-mystery tropes into something new: a breath of fresh, hot, thick, mid-summer air, if you will.

SEE ALSO: 34 bloody excellent Australian horror movies that'll mess you up (and where to watch them)

Deadloch once again proves it's one of the best crime-comedies on TV, with new overlapping cases, suspicious locals, and impeccable insults you’ll scramble to write down. Ultimately, thank fuck for this show.

What’s Deadloch Season 2 about? Dream team. Credit: Prime Video

Having solved the murder investigation in the titular town of Deadloch in Season 1, Eddie and Dulcie decided to head north, all the way to Garramilla (Darwin), Larrakia country. Here, in Season 2, Eddie seeks answers for the fate of her former partner, Bushy, whose death doesn’t sit right with her. 

However, there’s quite literally something in the water in the small Northern Territory town of Barra Creek — no really, it's a dead crocodile with a body part in its mouth. Whose is it? Which locally famous and/or pet croc is it? Does it have anything to do with missing backpackers who a local tour guide says "got Wolf Creeked"? Dulcie and Eddie head to the one-pub, one-caravan park town, where crocodile-based tourism is a territorial business and where Eddie just happened to grow up.

Their investigation won't be easy though, with hurdles including zero resources, sexist and showy detectives running their own dodgy investigation, as well as the diabolically dominant Darrell family (led by the scene-stealing Nikki Britton as Amber Darrell) and their croc tour rivals, Land of Crocs, led by a Hemsworth in extremely small shorts as schmucky celebrity wildlife presenter Jason Wade.

Good grief. Credit: Prime Video

Working out of a storage space filled with snakeskins, Eddie and Dulcie will also need help from new faces including deadpan local journalist Leo Lee (a hilariously understated Jean Tong) who is "dangerously bored in my job," and old friends including Deadloch gem Abby Matsuda (the ever-delightful Nina Oyama), who thankfully has made it to the Top End's forensics team.

Madeleine Sami and Kate Box serve up comedy excellence, leading an impeccable cast The gang's back together! Credit: Prime Video

Supercharging Deadloch with their signature sharp comedy writing, McCartney and McLennan once again contrast Redcliffe and Box as sublime buddy cops. 

With the fish-out-of-water factor flipped this season, Dulcie sweats through her new environment — through brash conversations, unbridled sexism, Eddie's unconventional police work, and heat that’s "thicker than Clag." While Eddie was the sore thumb sticking out in Deadloch, Dulcie’s the odd one out this time, supported by her sanguine wife Cath (a delightfully funny Alicia Gardiner), who is frankly bored out of her brain in Barra Creek.

As the core dynamic of the show, Box's level-headed agitation once again clashes with Sami's audacious candor, and it's TV gold. Eddie wrestles with her return to her hometown "full of shitcunts," facing old nemeses and a profanity-charged family reunion. Sami's comedic excellence remains top tier, bringing depth and heart to Eddie beneath her abrasive personality, whether they're getting mad at someone for not knowing a Neil Diamond song, seeing blood over croc poachers, or dropping clangers like "he's not my boss and neither are you so stiff clitties."

Shari Sebbens in everything, please. Credit: Prime Video

Newcomers to Deadloch this season are also a welcome bunch, from the ever-talented Shari Stebbins as no-nonsense ranger Miki Evans to Hemsworth perfectly cast as Jason Wade, a Steve Irwin-meets-Bear Grylls-channelling showman who, along with his "Boys," made me want to jump into a croc-filled river.

Talijah Blackman-Corowa is a deadpan delight as Gen Z-staring shop attendant Alira; Ling Cooper-Tang and Ursula Yovich don't miss a beat as bar owners Lynn and Mary; and Genevieve Morris and Steve Bisley seem to have a great ol' time as local cop Pat and cranky local Frank, respectively. Plus, musician Kira Piru makes momentary cameos which had me in stitches.

Deadloch remains extremely, specifically, gloriously Australian *plays "Agadoo" and instantly remembers the dance (yes, there's a dance)* Credit: Prime Video

No doubt about it, Deadloch remains a deeply Australian show — from killer king python lollies only available in bulk to the country's undying love for Black Lace's 1984 hit "Agadoo," place names like Dickie's Knob and the incessant small talk about how bloody hot it is ("I could steam a dumpling in my cooch," Eddie (obviously) says). This level of specificity in the show's comedy hopefully doesn't feel alienating as much as intriguing to viewers outside the country, but it might help to have an Australian around to explain the Blue Heelers references.

However, it's not just McCartney and McLennan's superb writing and the cast's comedic excellence that makes Deadloch so wonderfully Australian. Stunning landscape shots from director of photography Rob Marsh and cinematographers Katie Milwright and Simon Ozlins showcase the extreme beauty of Larrakia country, across red earth and eucalyptus trees. In addition, the season's core pub, the Barra Creek Tavern, is a masterpiece of production design from Helen O'Loan, right down to the coaster.

Having Deadloch back on our screens makes me want to air punch through the thickest Top End air. If you're not watching this show, as Eddie would say, "you're up shit creek without a snorkel."

Deadloch is streaming on Prime Video March 20.

The way we use mobile networks has changed drastically since the first person made a call using a cellular radio. A modern mobile connection has to be everything for everyone, which often leads to plans that don’t really fit all needs — even if they look good on paper.

When I started using Linux, the file system was nothing like the folder structures I’d been used to on Windows. I’ll admit that it took me a while to feel comfortable. However, with time, I realized that the more you understand the file system, the more control you have over your computer.

Perhaps we should change the title of Spider-Man: Brand New Day to Spider-Man: Mental Health Day, because goodness knows Peter Parker (Tom Holland) needs one.

At the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) cast a spell that made everyone forget Peter's existence. The spell saved the multiverse, but it left Peter completely isolated, even from his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon).

SEE ALSO: 'Dune: Part Three' teaser is here to get you back on the Timothée Chalamet train

Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up four years after the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and it's clear that isolation has never gotten easier for Peter. In the trailer, he watches social media videos of MJ and Ned's first day at MIT and continues to yearn for their company — especially when they become his neighbors.

As if the crushing loneliness weren't enough, Spider-Man: Brand New Day also sees Peter going through some serious physical mutations including developing organic webs. For help on that matter, he goes to another expert on painful superhero transformations: Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

Bruce isn't the only MCU favorite to make an appearance in the trailer. Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) is also in the mix, sassing Peter in a high-stakes car fight. Plus, villain Scorpion (Michael Mando) from Spider-Man: Homecoming is back, just one of many frightening bad guys Peter faces off with in the trailer.

Notably missing? Sadie Sink, who's confirmed to star in an as-yet undisclosed role. IGN speculates that she appears briefly in the trailer as a character in a long coat and grey hoodie, who seems to be a powerful psychic. Could this be our first look at the MCU's take on Jean Grey?

Will Peter find his way back into MJ and Ned's lives? What is happening to his powers? And how will Spider-Man: Brand New Day set up Avengers: Doomsday? We've got to wait until July to find out.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theaters July 31.

Normally, once you break a laptop's screen, the device is done for. That’s what happened to my old laptop, which quickly ended up gathering dust. Then one day, I realized a simple $5 USB-C hub could bring it back to life with an external display.

There's plenty to love about Samsung's new Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. Out of the box, they have the latest One UI 8.5 update based on Android 16, which is chock-full of exciting new features, controls, and customization options. However, just like One UI 7, some of the changes are quite frustrating. I immediately changed these settings, and you should too.

FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on March 18-21. This Romance Book Blast, hosted by Indie Author Hive, is offering free romance books for your e-reader.

The Stuff Your Kindle Day schedule was completely wild at the start of this year, to the point where we needed a break. We got exactly what we wanted, and now we're ready to jump back into a busy period after weeks of nothing.

The latest Romance Book Blast, hosted by Indie Author Hive, is offering participants the chance to download romance books without spending anything. And everything that you download is yours to keep forever, so this is your best opportunity to stock up ahead of the summer. We're sure you've got some serious reading planned for the coming weeks and months, so you'll need some material.

SEE ALSO: I tested the best Kindles to help you find the perfect e-reader

Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We've lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.

When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

This Romance Book Blast takes place on March 18-21. Unlike a lot of 24-hour giveaways, this event gives you the opportunity to properly take stock of your options and download the titles you know you want to read. There's no need to panic.

Which ebooks are free?

This Romance Book Blast offers free (or heavily discounted) romance books from a number of sub-genres, including dark romance, small-town romance, fantasy, paranormal, romcom, sports romance, and more. Anyone can participate in this event: Kindle and Kobo readers can download these romance books for free.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there's no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don't count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time.

The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Kindle (16GB) + Kindle Unlimited (3 Months) $109.99 at Amazon
  Shop Now Why we like it

These popular e-readers let you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase.

Arch Linux has always been painted by some persistent and intimidating myths, Arch has memes about it like it being unstable, overly complex, or having an elitist, gatekept community. For ages, people thought it was just for terminal wizards, demanding so much expertise that it actually scared off anyone new and curious. However, the Linux world has really changed, and so has what Arch is actually like. The biggest myths about Arch Linux need to be busted because it isn't that fragile, intimidating beast of legend anymore. It's evolved into one of the most dependable, flexible, and surprisingly accessible operating systems around, as long as you're a bit careful.

So, you want to build an DIY external SSD, and you want it to be fast? Sadly, your only option is NVMe. While NVMe blows the pants off USB transfer rates, it’s still the best option if you want more than 600MB/s transfer speeds—plus you might even have storage lying around that needs to be put to use, making it a more economical option, too.

Families still looking for a roomy three-row SUV with solid efficiency and a reasonable price have a refreshed option in the 2026 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It’s been updated for the new model year as part of a mid-cycle refresh, building on the current generation that launched in 2022.

Ryobi is wildly popular among DIYers and professionals for its expansive selection of 18V cordless power tools, but its USB-C rechargeable Lithium-ion tools for around the house are super helpful. With over 36 items and more coming in 2026, here are a few upcoming tools you'll actually want.

If you've used the internet for many years, you may have heard of AOL Instant Messenger—a popular turn-of-the-century chat system—but have you ever encountered Pidgin? If you were around the open-source community over the past two decades, you no doubt have, but it wasn't just a mere chat application; it was so much more. Built on a forward-thinking engine and pioneering private communications, Pidgin got it right for so many, long ago—something that modern chat applications could learn from.

When it comes to streaming media hubs, Roku has always had its own thing going on. Roku's clean, app-focused grid has stayed in this dependable space, but that doesn't mean it's always been easy to find where you left off. If you paused a great movie on Netflix last night and then wanted to watch something on Max today, you had to go on a scavenger hunt, jumping into each app just to resume your progress.

The fact that there's still an active Lord of the Rings group chat after 25 years is a testament to the close bond of hobbits.

In the Late Show clip above, Elijah Wood reveals to Stephen Colbert that he still speaks to his fellow cast members every day, and that their group is called "Shire Folk".

"Dom [Monaghan] retitled it 'Shire Folk'. It was 'The Hobbits', but he was like, 'Ah, it's too on the nose.' And we text each other every day," says Wood. "We do the New York Times Mini Crossword, so we share our scores on there."

Deeply wholesome.

Did your NAS become louder than normal all of the sudden? Mine did that a few weeks ago, all because it got hacked by a crypto miner. So, if your NAS server’s fans have become a nuisance and they normally aren’t—you might be compromised.

Let's get this out of the way—Linux doesn't need to prove anything to anyone. Any discussion about Linux's lack of success is strictly about the desktop operating system market. By every other metric, Linux is king of the hill. When it comes to servers, scientific supercomputers, billions of phones and other embedded systems, Linux is the OS of choice.

Once you set foot down the Home Assistant rabbit hole, you’ll reach a stage where you want to automate everything. As a result, many genuinely useful automations materialize alongside a handful of useless ones that are quickly discarded or never triggered again.

The pendulum isn’t shifting. It’s shifted.

As we enter year two of the second Trump administration, mainstream brands are becoming more comfortable working with conservative creators and shifting ad dollars to apolitical creators. That’s what several experts on the creator economy told me at SXSW 2026.

Last year, Business Insider reported that blue-chip advertisers were embracing right-wing outlets like Fox News and The Daily Wire. Fox News told Business Insider at the time it had onboarded 125 new large advertisers following Trump’s election. The publication reported that companies feared that “avoiding conservative platforms [was] a risk to their brands,” while others wanted to avoid “signaling a political allegiance on either side of the aisle.”

Now, experts say the same shift is happening in the fast-growing creator economy, where advertisers spent an estimated $37 billion in 2025, according to IAB.

“There’s certainly a level of comfortability with conservatives, no doubt. Look at the mainstream brands who support all the channels today, right?” said Arthur Leopold, CEO and co-founder of Agentio, a programmatic creator advertising startup, in an interview at SXSW.

“If you even consider how much the pendulum has swung, five years ago, if you were a brand and you didn't have the pride flag during June...” Leopold told me, "There would be little boycotts and national news would be covering that X, Y, Z brand doesn't have a pride flag. But now you think back to last year, and you barely saw that, right? So there's been a desensitization to politics and how brands respond to it on social. And because of that, brands care a little bit less about whether they are working with a Ben Shapiro or Meidas Touch.”

Conservative media is home to hundreds of proudly right-wing podcasters, YouTubers, and streamers. And let’s not forget about the right-leaning manosphere. While these creators have always received deals from conservative-aligned brands like Black Rifle Coffee, many are no longer off-limits to mainstream brands.

At the same time, that means proudly progressive creators are sometimes losing out on dollars they used to count on.

Creators often earn limited income from monetization programs on platforms like YouTube or TikTok. Typically, brand deals are essential to building a sustainable career as a creator. So, if progressive creators who are outspoken on LGBTQ+ rights or climate change can’t secure partnerships, their voices could disappear from your feed.

SEE ALSO: The unseen risks creators face when they get political

“These are amazing, amazing people. Incredible freaking people, but there are brands that feel like they shouldn’t be supporting them. Whereas, two years ago, everyone did,” Leopold said.

Antonia Alakija, a creator economy strategist and Meta and TikTok alum, told Mashable she’s definitely seeing brands seek out more apolitical creators.

“I think before it was OK to have more of a social perspective or moral perspective. I'm seeing brands choose creators who don't really speak to those topics and don't have a brand aligned with either side, just because of the polarization and opinions going on right now. So, I would say, in terms of creator selection, I'm definitely seeing that," Alakija said.

Brooke Berry, head of creator development at Snapchat, told Mashable that creators who are having a hard time finding deals because of their political beliefs shouldn’t feel like they need to silence themselves. Instead, they should find other formats and topics to create alongside their more outspoken content.

“I had one of my reality TV star creators say, you know, on another platform, it's hard for him to sometimes find deals, because he does speak out a lot and has very specific views," Berry said. "But that's when I told him, you don't have to necessarily stop what you're speaking about, but you need to identify content formats within other areas. Like, he's into fitness, he's on the spectrum, he has high-functioning autism, and he talks a lot about those. Find the formats within that that brands can plug into.”

However, being too outspoken can still impact a creator’s ability to secure deals, as Mashable has reported before.

“Even sometimes when you do do the apolitical stuff, if you do even have a roster of any political stuff, that could get in the way of opportunities, in this era specifically,” Alakija warned.

Leopold told me there are, of course, hard lines for companies. Whether on the right or left, extreme opinions or controversies are often unattractive to brands, for obvious reasons.

“If there are creators who might be way too controversial or have said something that could be damaging for a brand, we have to be honest with that, and we wouldn't onboard them. We are a closed platform, right?” Leopold told me. “And the brands can also say, ‘Hey, we want to work with creators that are more aligned to certain causes, political or otherwise. You know, we are a brand looking for a highly male audience and success on channels like Ben Shapiro's. So, OK, well, there are similar channels, like maybe outdoor lifestyle channels or apolitical channels that have a similar audience.”

The trend to support apolitical and conservative creators is troubling for left-wing creators trying to carve out a living in the increasingly crowded creator economy.

However, that’s the thing about pendulums.

They always swing back eventually.

The quotes in this story have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.