Technology

When the galaxy is going to hell, you're fighting with your daughter at her wedding, and you've just learned an old friend will die for the sake of the Rebellion you're leading, how do you shake it off?

If you're Senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) in Andor Season 2, episode 3, here's your answer. You down some shots, hit the floor with other moms in a stunning gold number with shoulder capes when the DJ drops an EDM banger, and make like an X-wing: Lock S-foils in dance position.

"We wanted to get inside her head somehow," O'Reilly explains to Mashable. "We wanted to see the physical chaos. She was releasing ... in a way we've never witnessed before. She got to throw off the strictures of her physicality, and that says something about her."

SEE ALSO: 'Andor' Season 2 review: The best Star Wars show goes out with a brilliant bang

The result is the first electronic dance music scene in Star Wars, and arguably its best dance scene ever (sorry, Ewoks), in which the future leader of the Rebellion, plus a floor full of dignitaries from Mon's highly traditional home planet, Chandrila, throw some shapes in the church of noise.

And in context, it's all played as incredibly dark irony. Which only makes Mon's wild moves more meme-worthy.

Making the dance scene look natural, and incorporating a lot of made-up Chandrilan styles, took "days" of choreography rehearsals, and Chandrilan formalwear that was also designed to be danced in, O'Reilly says: "There's a lot of work in there."

What is that EDM banger?

Mon's chaos groove moment begins after the kids hit the dancefloor. A drone-like DJ droid has floated in playing what Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy wanted for the scene: "a galactic hit."

"The young people are waiting to cut loose," Gilroy says. (After a three-day Chandrilan wedding that has been all tradition at this point, no wonder.) "And what do they want to hear? They want to hear the Tarzana EDM mix of 'Niamos!'"

"Niamos!" was composed by Nicholas Britell, the genius behind that ultimate TV earworm, the theme from Succession. It's cropped up repeatedly in the background of Andor so far, Gilroy points out — starting in the brothel scene on Morlana that opens Season 1, episode 1.

SEE ALSO: 'Andor': more, more! Burning questions for Season 2 of the best Star Wars.

Prior to this brand new EDM remix, "Niamos!" has also been available in "Coruscant Lounge Mix" and the funkier "Galaxy Mix" on Britell's Andor Season 1 soundtrack albums. Niamos turned out to be the name of the vacation planet where Cassian is arrested.

Whether Britell's banger from a galaxy far, far away is also a hit in the here and now ... remains to be seen. Especially after Gilroy made the interesting choice to have this thumping track also play over Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) as they deal with some intense grief and trauma.

Why the dance scene is Star Wars' darkest moment yet

Mon Mothma doesn't just need some balm for that burn from her daughter (whom Mon suggested back out of an arranged marriage to a 15-year-old boy). She also just learned that Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) has arranged the death of suave old school friend Tay Kolma (Ben Miles), a banker who was suggesting a little light blackmail.

"How nice for you," Luthen says when Mon doesn't catch his meaning at first. Waves of doubt and guilt then cross Mon's face as she peeks outside her bubble of privilege — before retreating back into its safety by downing those shots and allowing herself to be pulled onto the dance floor.

She may be the coolest dancing mom in the galaxy. But while Mon shakes it off like Tay-Tay, Tay is still going to die — and at the bottom of the social ladder, far worse things are happening.

Intercut with the dance, Bix knocks out an imperial officer, ending what is the first attempted rape scene (and the first use of that R-word) in Star Wars. Cassian arrives to take Bix away, but not before their dear old Ferrix friend Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) dies on his way to save her.

Already, there may not be enough clubs in the galaxy for our downtrodden heroes to shake off their grief. And be warned: Worse is on the way as Andor continues its dark prequel path toward the Death Star and the battle of Yavin.

It's murder on the dance floor, but Andor won't kill the groove as it burns the Empire's house right down.

The first three episodes of Andor Season 2 premiered April 22 on Disney+, with new episodes every Tuesday.

Other shows give you a ticking clock. Andor, which just returned to Disney+ for its second and final season, gives you a ticking calendar.

That's the meaning of "BBY 4," which appears on screen at the beginning of Andor Season 2, episode 1. Casual viewers may not remember all the way back to Andor Season 1, episode 1, when we were given another time setting: BBY 5.

SEE ALSO: 'Andor' Season 2 review: The best Star Wars show goes out with a brilliant bang

Get used to it, because time jumps are coming: The second batch of Andor season 2 (dropping next week) is set in BBY 3; the third in BBY 2; and the final three episodes, hitting Disney+ on May 13, cover the events of BBY 1, and dovetail with the beginning of Rogue One.

However, Andor never explains this mysterious acronym. You'd be forgiven for thinking the "Y" refers to year. But no, BBY means Before the Battle of Yavin — another name for the Death Star-destroying conclusion to the original Star Wars movie in 1977, which George Lucas renamed Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981.

BBY and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) became a useful dating system for Star Wars books, comics, and other media. The Empire Strikes Back, for example, takes place in ABY 3; Attack of the Clones was BBY 22. Not that either movie ever said so on screen, of course.

And the more that Lucasfilm's chief nerds thought about it, the less BBY and ABY made sense in the Star Wars universe. After all, the Empire didn't fall until the events of Return of the Jedi (ABY 4). Wouldn't the new Galactic Republic choose that as its key date?

One company veteran mocked the whole concept of the BBY dating system in a now-deleted tweet: "'I know! Let's make a calendar based around our second-greatest victory!' — The Rebels."

SEE ALSO: 'Andor': more, more! Burning questions for Season 2 of the best Star Wars.

Lucasfilm's 2014 canon reset, which declared all previously published novels and comics to be part of a separate, never-happened timeline called Legends, effectively did away with the dating system. But it persisted in fan discussions, and in the online resource known as Wookieepedia.

And when director Tony Gilroy came along to create Andor as a prequel to Rogue One, he needed to indicate his time jumps to viewers. BBY made sense given that Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) dies in Rogue One, mere days before the Battle of Yavin — and far from being wiped out, BBY became enshrined on screen for the first time.

The first three episodes of Andor Season 2 premiere April 22 on Disney+, with new episodes every Tuesday.

I have a huge problem with my Gmail account. It's filled to the brim with email subscriptions, some of which I subscribed to several years back—and going one-by-one unsubscribing to each is an extremely time-consuming task. Now, Gmail might actually help me fix that problem.

Students won't be using Pinterest during class — or, at least, they will be heavily discouraged from doing so.

The social media app is experimenting with a prompt that will encourage American and Canadian users between the ages of 13 (the minimum age for account holders) and 17 to close the app and pause notifications during typical school hours (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Pinterest confirmed in an email to Mashable that the prompt will reach "millions" of school-age users, and the wide-scale experiment is intended to better inform the app's teams. This comes after Pinterest CEO Bill Ready announced his support for the Kids Online Safety Act and phone-free school policies in the Washington Post.

"Focus is a beautiful thing," the prompt says, according to the Verge. "Stay in the moment by putting Pinterest down and pausing notifs [sic] until the school bell rings."

SEE ALSO: Instagram will restrict teens from going Live, as Teen Accounts expand to Facebook and Messenger

Pinterest also announced on Tuesday a partnership with the International Society for Technology in Education to develop digital citizenship and well-being action plans through newly established Digital Innovation Wellbeing Task Forces.

"At Pinterest, we believe that schools can take advantage of all that technology has to offer students, while minimizing the harms and distractions," Wanji Walcott, Pinterest’s chief legal and business affairs officer, told the Verge. "Tech companies need to work together with teachers, parents, and policymakers to build solutions that ensure in the hands of our students, smartphones are tools, not distractions."

Samsung has released its 2025 Odyssey lineup of gaming monitors. The collection comes with the Odyssey 3D, Odyssey OLED G8, and the wide-screen Odyssey G9. They're pretty pricey, but Samsung is offering $300 Samsung credit for purchasing any new Odyssey monitor until April 27.

When you really think about it, life is just a constant cycle of acquiring new stuff and figuring out what to do with the old stuff. And when there's not a one-size-fits-all way to properly get rid of that old stuff, clutter happens.

Most of us have been conditioned to recycle some common everyday materials, but curbside recycling isn't too helpful past paper, metal, glass, and certain types of plastic. Even then, a shockingly low percentage of recyclable items are actually recycled. I digress.

Other personal items, like clothes and shoes or electronics and batteries, are more confusing to deal with. Can they be recycled, or is throwing them away the only option?

SEE ALSO: Texas resident used Apple AirTags to track her recycling. It ended up in the middle of nowhere.

Perhaps you've Googled "how to recycle insert item here" just to be given some vague instructions like "Check locally." You'll quickly learn that most municipal recycling programs don't cover much beyond trash-like recyclables. Past that, it can be hard to pin down actionable ways to downsize sustainably.

Fortunately, getting rid of hard-to-recycle stuff isn't so mysterious. In many cases, there actually are solid options for recycling all of that junk crammed under your bed and into old shoeboxes. Once you hone in on a certain category — beauty empties, coffee maker pods, smartphones, old chargers — there's usually a super straightforward answer for how to recycle said items. In fact, you can often find easy (and free) drop-off or mail-in programs.

SEE ALSO: 15+ eco-friendly gifts that someone would actually use

It just takes a little more effort than plopping them in the curbside recycling bin and hoping the recycling fairy whisks it away to the right place. That's called wishcycling, or aspirational recycling, and I would definitely sleep better at night if I were still blissfully living in "everything can be recycled" ignorance.

So, to help you recycle electronics, clothing, beauty packaging, and other awkward items, let's break it down in the most candid way possible.

How to recycle electronics

E-waste is a doozy of a rabbit hole. As with plastic pollution, a good chunk of e-waste (the umbrella term for improperly discarded electronic devices) comes from big tech corporations. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group estimates that we generate around 6.9 million tons of e-waste each year. Of that, less than 18 percent is recycled properly.

But as a species that has treated our personal devices as extra limbs for almost two decades, it's also our personal responsibility to deal with our old devices in the most sustainable way possible. Not only do electronics in landfills leak dangerous toxins into the ground, but it's also a missed opportunity to recover metals and precious rare earth minerals.

SEE ALSO: How California's high-speed rail is already helping the planet

To be fair, people aren't exactly given clear instructions on how or where to safely recycle old devices. A recent CNET survey found that over 30 percent of U.S. adults hold onto old phones, tablets, and chargers simply because they don't know what to do with them.

Cellphones, laptops, TVs, and more

You're probably aware of the trade-in promos that your smartphone carrier offers. Similar incentives exist for devices like iPads and tablets. But even if the device in question isn't exactly in trade-in or sell-on-Mercari condition, there are still super accessible ways to recycle the gadget without smashing it for parts.

Best Buy actually has a super-expensive in-store electronics recycling program. Items accepted in store include TVs, computers and routers, audio gear (from headphones to old CD or cassette players), cameras and camcorders, and video game controllers. A household can recycle up to three items per day. You can also pay Best Buy to come haul away larger items, like an old fridge or treadmill.

No Best Buy store nearby? The company also offers a mail-in recycling service.

SEE ALSO: Want to avoid tariff price hikes? Shop our giant list of 91 refurbished tech deals.

Once received, recyclers disassemble the tech to pull out and properly get rid of ozone-depleting chemicals like PCBs, mercury, and insulation, then separate materials like plastic, glass, and metal to be repurposed when possible.

Samsung device owners can also conduct a similar zip code search to find participating Samsung e-cycling drop-off centers. They pop up all over in retail stores like Best Buy and Staples, and sometimes even at your local solid waste authority. Before recycling, check to see if Samsung will offer credit to trade in your old device — yes, cracked screens count.

Apple offers its own recycling program for old Apple devices, and you can even get a prepaid shipping label.

Chargers, cables, and dongles

That harrowing nest of old cords in your basement or junk drawer is growing more powerful by the day. Rather than continue feeding it, you can recycle old chargers and similar connectors through the Best Buy recycling program mentioned above. Apple's service also takes old Apple chargers.

Batteries

Call2recycle is a nationwide battery recycling program that offers free battery recycling at partnering stores like The Home Depot, Lowe's, and Staples. Head to the website and enter your zip code to find the closest drop-off location to you. Note that not all participating locations accept every type of battery, so be sure to check the box.

If no collection boxes are popping up in a practical distance, call2recycle also has a mail-in battery recycling program — though at $80 for the smallest battery and cellphone recycling kit, it's not exactly the cheapest route.

How to recycle clothes and shoes

There are paths forward for both gently-worn clothes and too-worn-to-donate clothes that aren't merely forcing them upon Goodwill and hoping they squeeze their way onto an overflowing rack.

If the clothes are in decent enough condition, consider trying to sell them online. You don't need a ton of followers to get eyes on your items on Depop, Mercari, or Poshmark — just take well-lit, clear photos, write a detailed and honest description, and add a price. (Check out my full guide to selling your stuff online.)

SEE ALSO: Zero Waste Daniel is drag's sustainable fashion pioneer

If you don't feel like getting into online resale, there are a few mail-back options for repurposing old clothing. Give Back Box is a non-profit that partners with a slew of small charities from which you can choose to send your items, depending on what they need (i.e., kids' shoes or gently used women's clothes). Once you find a good fit, Give Back Box will just ask for $20 to cover the pre-addressed shipping label and the weight of the box. Then, pack your items in any random box you were going to recycle anyway, and send it off.

Of course, there are always the straggler pieces of clothing that are probably too worn to donate. Sustainable clothing brand Girlfriend Collective has partnered with SuperCircle (a growing textile recycling platform) to facilitate ReGirlfriend, an amazingly easy mail-in garment recycling program. Shipping labels are free, and you can pack multiple pieces in each bag, regardless of brand. As a "thank you" for not contributing to the pile of textiles in landfills, Girlfriend offers credits to girlfriend.com.

How to recycle random household items

Ah, Swiffer pads. The ubiquitous mopping and dusting thingamabob that, turns out, is a pain in the ass to recycle. That's just one of a horde of everyday household items that folks mindlessly trash. But what's the alternative?

Well, my initial suggestion would be to retire the Swiffer and buy a robot vacuum and mop combo. Even if you insist on keeping the Swiffer as backup for some pesky corner cleaning (though I have a robot mop recommendation for corner cleaning), a robot vacuum that can mop at least minimizes your Swiffer use.

When you do collect enough used Swiffer refills, you can mail them to TerraCycle: a mega-recycling business that gives average consumers an easy way to recycle everyday items that don't play well with curbside recycling. Its free mail-back system covers a ton of household items, with the cost of shipping labels funded by participating brands like Swiffer, Tide, Brita, Black + Decker, and Febreze.

SEE ALSO: Spring cleaning starter kit: 10 products to cover all your bases Coffee pods

Nespresso has a ton of drop-off points across the country to recycle pods. You can also request free pre-labeled recycling bags on Nespresso's website to fill and eventually mail back to Nespresso. (Each mailer can hold up to 200 Original Line pods or 100 Vertuo pods.)

Keurig has a similar setup, but it's not free — and Keurig only describes the program through the lens of office use (like "use the small box in offers that brew 24 K-Cups or less in day") with no mention of keeping a box at home in a Keurig-heavy household.

How to recycle beauty and bathroom stuffMakeup and skincare

Though much of it looks recycling-friendly, most beauty packaging isn't. Many bottles that feel like glass aren't the same type of glass as a beer bottle or jelly jar, and many containers that feel like plastic are actually a peculiar type of mixed plastic, which doesn't fall under the number system used to sort at recycling plants. (This includes the pain in the ass plastic pump.)

The presence of the triangle of arrows symbol is misleading, and doesn't automatically mean that said material can be recycled. This is one time when checking locally is crucial — just Google what plastic numbers are accepted in your area. (For example, I live in Philadelphia, and plastics 1, 2, and 5 are cleared for curbside here.)

For beauty empties with a non-accepted number or no number at all, beauty-centric take-back programs are the move. Both Ulta and Sephora have partnered with Pact Collective to offer recycling bins for your empties in a ton of stores across the country. Nordstrom has a partnership with TerraCycle, offering a similar in-store drop-off option for beauty packaging.

SEE ALSO: Yes, there is a plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

Project Beauty Share is one great option for giving opened skincare products a new home, as long as they're not expired. Accepted gently-used beauty items include moisturizers and serums, cleansers, body lotions, shower gels, perfumes, and sunscreens. Squeeze tubes of foundation or primer and pressed eyeshadow, blush, and highlighter are accepted if they're open but only barely used.

Hair tools

Beauty brand Mane repurposes hair tools also partners with Pact Collective to take your unwanted hot hair tools, whether they work or not. Hair tools in good working condition will be properly sanitized and shipped off to be distributed to young women through Project Glimmer, an organization dedicated to helping end gender and racial inequality for women and girls. Hair tools that don't work will be taken apart and processed for proper recycling. Labels are prepaid by Mane, as long as you use your own box.

Razors

Sure, most disposable razor handles are plastic, and razor blades are metal. Both materials are recyclable separately, but mixed materials like that bar disposable razors from being curbside recyclable. Luckily, TerraCycle has a free recycling program for common shaving brands like Gillette and Venus, from handles, to blades, to the bags the replacements come in. Consider keeping a separate receptacle to safely house a few months' worth of used razors, then send them back to be properly taken apart and recycled. If people caught onto this, just think of the dent that could be put into the estimated two billion disposable razors thrown out each year.

Toothbrushes

The number of toothbrushes thrown out each year is just as grim. National Geographic clocks around one billion plastic toothbrushes ending up in landfills annually, and toothpaste tubes are a similar story. If you use Colgate, Arm & Hammer, or Tom's of Maine toothbrushes, tubes, caps, and more, there's a free mail-in TerraCycle program for that.

SEE ALSO: Bite Toothpaste Bits are the first eco-friendly bathroom swap I'll tell anyone to try

For old toothbrushes, electric toothbrush replacement heads, used flossers, and toothpaste tubes from Crest, Oral-B, or Fixodent, you can collect and mail those in for free through Oral-B's direct recycling program.

Building out fiber optic network over thousands of miles to provide internet to millions of people is a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive task. What if you could cut out the physical connections entirely and only use wireless? That is exactly what Starlink aims to do.

SAVE UP TO $280.99: The Samsung Re-Newed program has certified refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphones on sale that take between up to $280.99 off retail.

Samsung Re-Newed deals S24 deal Samsung Galaxy S24 (128GB) $619 (save $80) Get Deal S24+ deal Samsung Galaxy S24+ (256GB) $799 (save $200) Get Deal S24 Ultra deal Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (256GB) $1,019 (save $280.99) Get Deal

It's Earth Day, which means many of us are considering ways we can make our existence slightly less taxing on Mother Earth. Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to reduce our impact is to purchase reused goods, including refurbished tech. And as a bonus, buying refurbished gadgets also means sweet discounts, like today's deal at the Samsung Re-Newed storefront.

As of April 22, refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphones are on sale for as low as $619.99 (Galaxy S24, 128GB) at Samsung Re-Newed. That's $80 in savings compared to buying a new Galaxy S24 with the same storage for $699.99. The savings increase if you're interested in the Galaxy S24+, but the highest discounts come when buying a refurbished Galaxy S24 Ultra, which comes in at $1,019 (a new model sells for $1,299.99). That works out to a savings of $280.99.

Here's a breakdown of the refurbished options available:

• Galaxy S24 Re-Newed: $619 (128GB) and $669 (256GB)

• Galaxy S24 Plus Re-Newed: $799 (256GB) and $919 (512GB)

• Galaxy S24 Ultra Re-Newed: $1,020 (256GB) and $1,139 (512GB)

Keep in mind that the refurbished models only come in black, but that's what cases are for, right?

All Samsung Re-Newed phones come with new batteries

We understand that buying used can sometimes feel iffy, but the Samsung Re-Newed program offers reassurance that you're still getting a great product, just one that's undergone a facelift. For starters, Samsung equips all Re-Newed S24 smartphones with a brand new battery, and if it needs other repairs, Samsung uses authentic parts. The brand also assigns a new IMEI number and upgrades to the latest software.

Plus, before it goes back on the shelf, Samsung puts it through a quality test that includes 147 checkpoints. Finally, it's given new packaging, a new data cable, and fresh quick-start guide. Boiled down, you won't need to worry you're buying a lemon.

SEE ALSO: Save $50 on the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and improve your summer playlist experience

The Samsung Galaxy S24 family was announced in January 2024, but the smartphones still hold up as solid contenders, offering some of Samsung's best features. All S24 models come with Samsung's live translate function and circle to search. The included S Pen with the S24 Ultra is always useful, and it works as a remote trigger to take photos.

For budgeting or Earth-saving reasons, buying a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 via the Samsung Re-Newed program is a great option. You'll be reducing your impact while saving some money, and we could all use a win-win these days.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Shop Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra $1,019 at Samsung
$1,299.99 Save $280.99 Get Deal

Sharing your Max account with someone outside of your household? You're not alone, and Max has a new way to handle it that looks awfully familiar. Just like Netflix, Max is now letting you add an "Extra Member" to your account, but it'll cost you.

President Donald Trump's tariffs continue to cause mayhem upon the gaming industry, disrupting the global economy in the process. As a result, various gaming companies have cranked up their prices, pushed back pre-orders, and even increased how much subscription services would cost players—we're looking at you, Nintendo, and Sony. But they're not the only companies that have responded to Trump's tariffs.

The mobile carrier Google Fi is now 10 years old, and Google is celebrating with a new unlimited plan for $35 per month, eSIMs for data-only devices, and helpful updates to its other plans.

Whether you're shopping for Mother's Day or looking for a new portable Bluetooth speaker for warmer weather, my favorite mini speaker is at its lowest price yet. I'm talking about the Soundcore Select 4 Go, which is 41% off for a limited time.

Scientists have identified a planet that has a turbulent relationship with its parent star: it is being disintegrated, and leaving a spectacular trail of dusty debris in its wake. Within a few million years, the planet will be completely destroyed.

You typically get phones through carriers, but with the rise of other kinds of devices with cellular support, lines are needed for those devices as well. Most carriers offer tablet and smartwatch lines, and now, Boost Mobile is joining the fray.

Whether you work from home, spend a lot of time on airplanes, or simply want to turn down the volume of the outside world, noise-cancelling headphones are exactly the tool you need.

Even the best value headphones will feel lacking if they don't come equipped with halfway decent noise cancellation. Besides, there are simply too many headphones on the market (our testing pool gets bigger by the month) for you to pay hundreds only to get subpar ANC.

SEE ALSO: The 7 best earbuds to buy in 2025 from Bose, Apple, and more

To help you wade through the top options from brands like Apple, Beats, Bose, Sony, and Sonos, Mashable editors and reviewers tested dozens of headphones and earbuds. From flagship models to budget buds, we picked out the best noise-cancelling headphones of 2025.

How do noise-cancelling headphones actually work?

Even cheap headphones can block some noise from the outside world. And you can always blast your music loud enough to drown out nearby conversations and street noise via passive noise cancellation. However, if you really want to turn the volume of the world down to the limit, then you need headphones with active noise cancellation.

Active noise-cancelling headphones electronically cover up the sounds coming from your surroundings. They use internal microphones to listen to the world around you, then invert the noise and send it to the speakers. The idea is that both the output and the input will cancel out, leaving you with near-silence. The best over-ear headphones also create a tight seal around your ears, providing an extra layer of passive sound blocking.

Testing the Apple AirPods Max headphones, which didn't make the final cut for this guide. Credit: Zlata Ivleva / Mashable Getting up close and personal with Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-cancelling headphones. Credit: Molly Flores / Mashable

If you've tried a pair of noise-cancelling headphones before and haven't been impressed, don't be discouraged, as not all ANC performs equally. For instance, cheaper ANC headphones may have a more noticeable hissing sound that you'll hear when the noise cancellation is turned on, which can be distracting for some folks.

Other headphones may be great at blocking at low tones, but more prone to letting in high-pitched tones. Typically, premium headphones will yield better results all around, but we have budget picks below that still do a solid job.

In the past, not many wireless earbuds featured active noise cancellation that was comparable to over-ear headphones, but newer iterations like the AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds hold their own in the ANC space. However, even these earbuds can't quite get the same seal (or fit as many mics) that headphones can, so if you're looking for maximum silence, stick with over-ear headphones.

What are the best noise-cancelling headphones?

Bose is often a top name (and in our top picks) when it comes to noise-cancelling audio, often leading the industry for the best ANC available.

With that said, it's not the only brand worth checking out. If you want top-notch ANC with great sound quality, Sony makes excellent options. On the other hand, folks looking for a more affordable option might be drawn to EarFun, which brings great value to the noise-cancelling space. Essentially, what makes the best noise-cancelling headphones depends on what other features and price range you're looking for in a pair of headphones — our guide below lays out where each of our picks shines.

Every year, fans and Apple enthusiasts eagerly await the new iPhones. This year, it will be the iPhone 17 that breaks cover, likely in September. But what if you need a new iPhone right now, in the middle of the company's product cycle? Let's find out which iPhone model suits you best.

Looking forward to Tesla's long-awaited "affordable" electric vehicle? Well, prepare to wait even longer.

For years, Tesla has promised a cheaper, affordable version of its electric vehicles. And each time one of those reports breaks, they are usually followed by news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk "killed" the company's latest affordable car project.

However, the most concrete news of an affordable Tesla came late last year when the company gave an update during its earnings report.

"Preparations remain underway for our offering of new vehicles — including more affordable models — which we will begin launching in the first half of 2025," Tesla said in the report, even doubling down on the timeframe.

So, how's that affordable electric vehicle coming along?

It's been delayed once again, according to a new report from Reuters.

It's unclear exactly why the affordable Tesla model, known internally at the company as E41, has been pushed back this time. Reuters' sources say that the company is still planning to make the vehicle, with production expected to begin in the U.S. soon.

The current timeframe for Tesla's seemingly eternally delayed affordable EV? Sometime between the third quarter of this year and early 2026. Next year, the company could produce as many as 250,000 affordable Model Y vehicles. 

While the price point for an "affordable" Tesla hasn't been revealed, Musk has long talked about an affordable EV for around $25,000, which would be roughly half the price of the current Tesla Model Y. The company may be hoping that a cheaper Tesla would help the company boost sales during a difficult time period. 

Tesla sales have taken a hit in recent months. (And as a result of Tesla's sales woes, Tesla's stock has fallen, too.) The company has experienced blowback from consumers over CEO Musk's relationship with President Donald Trump and Musk's involvement in the federal government cost-cutting project known as DOGE. Tesla protests have become global as well. In Germany, Tesla sales have plummeted by 76 percent. 

Tesla customers are also seeking to get rid of their vehicles through trade-ins and on the used car market at record-highs.

Rumors about iPhone 17e production suggest Apple's budget-friendly iPhone might be a regular part of its product cycle moving forward.

Questions around Apple's somewhat sporadic launch of the iPhone SE were revisited this year, when it launched the iPhone 16e, the fourth generation of Apple's more affordable model, this past February. The previous three iPhone SEs launched in March 2016, 2020, and 2022 respectively, so that roughly lines up with this year's product cycle.

SEE ALSO: Apple iPhone 17 Pro leaks highlight major new design change

Here's the wrinkle: Because this year's device was called the iPhone 16e (instead of the iPhone SE 4), Apple followers are speculating on whether the "e" model will now sync up with the regular batch of iPhones released annually.

And according to a credible leaker, reported by 9To5Mac, this looks to be the case. The source shared on the Chinese social media app Weibo that the iPhone 17e is underway. "There will still be 17e next year, and it is almost in the trial production stage​​​," the source wrote (translated to English via Google Translate).

So, per the leak, Apple is working on an iPhone 17e, and it's in Foxconn's small-scale production phase, which occurs before mass production, as 9To5Mac explained. At the very least, this means Apple is planning a consecutive iPhone "e" model launch, and it could mean the company will continue to release a new budget model annually.

Typically, Apple leaves models from previous generations on the market, and their prices naturally drop. So, a new iPhone 17e doesn't necessarily mean Apple will do away with older models. It could also mean that Apple is experimenting with different iPhone offerings to see what resonates with consumers, like it did with the iPhone mini (RIP).

A new survey is a wakeup call for parents who believe their teen would never exchange sexually explicit imagery of themselves for money or other valuable items like gift cards, clothing, gaming currency, and social media followers and likes.

The survey, conducted in fall 2024, found that 1 in 7 young people participated in a "commodified sexual interaction" at least one time before they turned 18.

Thorn, a nonprofit organization that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse, surveyed 1,200 teens and young adults. One in four teens said they were sexually solicited online for money, gifts, or social opportunities. The respondents who received solicitations got them from both minors and adults, as well as from strangers and known contacts, offline and online.

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The findings illustrate the surprising prevalence of commodified sexual interactions. And while it's not news that teens actually receive solicitations online, anecdotal evidence suggests that they are being offered social media perks such as likes and followers in return for complying, according to Thorn's research.

Melissa Stroebel, Thorn's vice president of research and insights, says that it can be less clear that an exploitative transaction is occurring when the offer is something of value other than money.

The dynamic also indicates that the marketplace for child sexual abuse material, in which explicit imagery is bought, sold, and traded, is becoming responsive to young people's interest in building an online following.

Though parents have to manage an ever-growing list of online threats to discuss with their children, Stroebel says there are ways to talk about commodified sexual interactions in order to emphasize that teens' bodies "are private and they are personal, and they are not commodity to be traded, for money or for likes, or anything else, whether that is with another minor or with somebody they haven't met, online."

Here's what Stroebel says parents should know:

1. This overlaps with other risky situations and behaviors.

Some parents may understandably assume that their child will never receive or comply with a request for an explicit image in exchange for something of value. But Stroebel says young people need to know their parents can and will help them with this and other difficult challenges they'll encounter online.

When parents have already talked to their teen about sending or receiving nude images, or the threat of sextortion, they can draw on previous discussions related to consent, healthy relationships, and personal agency to talk about commodified sexual interactions.

Stroebel says that teens may resist conversations that pivot around specific examples. Instead, Stroebel recommends speaking plainly about the risks, and being curious, candid, and supportive.

Parents can also give particular attention to how their teen reacts to online celebrity and whether they understand what influencers are willing to trade for popularity. Parents may be surprised to learn about young adult influencers who embrace selling imagery of themselves to online buyers as an act of empowerment or autonomy.

2. Some solicitations are coming from minors.

Thorn's research shows that, of the minors who previously engaged in commodified sexual interactions, 65 percent and 42 percent of them believed the age of the buyer to be an adult or another minor, respectively. Nine percent were unsure of the age. (Respondents could choose multiple answers.)

While 59 percent of respondents knew the buyer exclusively online, 40 percent said that they knew the buyer offline.

In other words, it's much more complicated for parents than just warning their teens to stay away from strangers online who ask them for imagery. Instead, they'll need to help their teen understand that anyone, including minors they know from school, might make this request.

3. Teens can get hurt quickly.

Stroebel says that teens are in a developmental stage where they often feel invincible and are more prone to risk taking. This combination might work against parents who try to raise the topic of commodified sexual interactions. Teens may not grasp the danger of sending imagery. They might even think their parent is being over protective.

But the risk is real, Stroebel says. What begins as an exchange for material that's rewarded with money, goods, or social opportunities can quickly turn into ongoing abuse and sextortion.

When a teen waves away a parent's concerns and shuts down the conversation, Stroebel says that it can be helpful to try a different approach, like waiting for another opportunity, rather than trying to force the issue.

"You just have to keep coming back," Stroebel says.

If you are a child being sexually exploited online, or you know a child who is being sexually exploited online, or you witnessed exploitation of a child occur online, you can report it to the CyberTipline, which is operated by the National Center for Missing Exploited & Children.

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