Technology

I’ve always considered myself a somewhat healthy person, especially after I gave up smoking and vaping a few years ago. Unfortunately, that proved incorrect.

That angry green bird just might get angrier.

Google is using Gemini AI to increase the power of Google Translate. Now, Translate allows users to practice new languages by creating personalized listening and speaking practice sessions in their preferred language. Sounds a little bit like Duolingo without its iconic mascot.

"Whether you're an early learner looking to begin practicing conversation or an advanced speaker looking to brush up on vocabulary for an upcoming trip, Translate can now create tailored listening and speaking practice sessions just for you," Matt Sheets, a product manager at Google, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "These interactive practices are generated on-the-fly and intelligently adapt to your skill level."

SEE ALSO: Google and Duolingo think AI can change the way we learn languages. Are they right?

It's pretty simple to get started. Open the Google Translate app, select "practice," set your skill level and goals, and voila! Translate will create a scenario specifically for you.

"In each scenario, you can either listen to conversations and tap the words you hear to build comprehension, or you can practice speaking with helpful hints available when you need them," Sheets wrote. Google Translate will track your progress with each lesson.

"Following positive feedback from early testers, we're excited to start rolling out this beta experience more broadly in the Translate app for Android and iOS this week," the blog reads. "It's available first for English speakers practicing Spanish and French, as well as for Spanish, French and Portuguese speakers practicing English."

Google also announced other updates to its language learning tools, like real-time translations in the Translate app. All of these updates come from Google's AI and machine learning, which it says have helped the company to make "huge strides in translation quality, multimodal translation, and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities."

"Every month, people translate around 1 trillion words across Google Translate, Search and in visual translations in Lens and Circle to Search," Sheets wrote. "Now, thanks to AI, we're making it even more effortless to overcome language barriers."

Instapaper has finally moved forward with the new partnership with Rakuten Kobo that brings its read-it-later service to all Kobo eReaders. This integration comes after Kobo's previous partnership with Pocket ended unexpectedly, but it's a huge win for anyone who saves web articles for distraction-free reading.

Firefox has some neat features that you not have noticed because this browser does more than people give it credit for. Here are a few I always find useful.

If you're a die-hard sports fan looking for ways to stream all your favorite teams, Fubo TV announced a new "skinny" sports package worth considering. At $56 per month, I don't know if skinny is the right word, but it's packed with all the essential channels you'll need for the NFL, NCAAF, and countless other sports as we head into football season.

Forty percent. That's how much Tesla's European sales declined in July compared to the year before.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the lobbying group for the automobile industry in the EU, released new data on Thursday showing that Tesla, led by Elon Musk, is continuing to face a steep decline in sales.

In total, just 8,837 Tesla vehicles were registered across Europe in July 2025. That figure includes the European Union, as well as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

Furthermore, Tesla's drop in sales is not the result of a broader decline across the larger EV market either. In fact, sales of electric vehicles as a whole actually went up in the EU. For example, Tesla's biggest Chinese rival BYD saw 13,503 new vehicle registrations in July. That's a monthly surge of 225 percent compared to the year before, as CNBC reported.

This also marks Tesla's seventh month in a row of declining sales.

Tesla has also seen declining sales in the United States so far in 2025, though the impending end of the EV tax credit has given EV makers a temporary boost over the summer.

No end in sight for Tesla's woes

Tesla's sales issues began shortly Musk's involvement in the President Donald Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has also been involved in other costly controversies, including his support for a far-right party in Germany.

In fact, in the month after Musk supported the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Tesla recorded fewer than 900 sales in Germany — a nearly 50 percent drop.

In July, amid declining sales, Tesla also stopped allowing EU customers to configure and order some of its car models, such as the Model S and X. And, in the U.S., Tesla owners have flooded the market with used Tesla vehicles.

Under increasing pressure, Musk announced in May that he was stepping away from his role with the Trump administration, but Tesla's sales problems have continued.

On top of that, the president's Big Beautiful Bill will see the end of a vital source of Tesla's revenue: Carbon credits.

Over the past decade, these regulatory credits have accounted for a whopping $11.8 billion in revenue for Tesla.

Finally, the federal EV tax credit will expire on Sept. 30, which will immediately make electric vehicles more expensive for U.S. shoppers.

Typepad is a name you probably haven't heard in a very, very long time, but it was surprisingly still alive—it wasn't exactly kicking, but it was alive by most definitions of the word. Now, though, it's getting the cord pulled after years of being essentially in life support.

If you’ve spent any time coding in Java, you know the IDE you choose can make or break your workflow. Over the years, I’ve tried just about every major Java IDE and editor out there. They all have their strengths, but for me, one stands head and shoulders above the rest. It's IntelliJ IDEA.

Tracfone Wireless, one of Verizon’s prepaid mobile networks, just revealed its first unlimited data plan. The new ‘Tracfone Freedom’ option is a compelling option for affordable 5G service, but you should still check out the competition.

KPop Demon Hunters fans, rejoice. The surprise musical hit with the addictive soundtrack might be getting a sequel.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures and Netflix are discussing a follow-up to the animated film that features a K-pop trio called HUNTR/X battling demons, including the alluring boy band, the Saja Boys.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, which features K-pop bops like "Golden," "Your Idol," and "Soda Pop," has also become massively popular, beating out Wicked to become the highest-charting soundtrack of 2025. "Golden" currently has over 430 million plays on Spotify. As of this week, KPop Demon Hunters became the most-watched Netflix original movie ever, with a total of 236 million views since its June 20 release.

Fueled by the fandom, the streaming service offered the theatrical release of  KPop Demon Hunters: A Sing-Along Event in 1,000 theaters across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The two-day event quickly sold out, making it the unofficial box office winner that weekend.

SEE ALSO: 5 takeaways from 'KPop Demon Hunters' sing-along experience

Studios increasingly rely on movies based on preexisting intellectual property (IP), churning out sequels, prequels, and spinoffs of familiar franchises as safe bets for return on their investments through ticket sales and merchandise. The success of KPop Demon Hunters came as a surprise to many, since it's an original story, without any major stars or previous IP with a built-in fanbase to rely on.

But true K-pop fans like Mashable culture editor Crystal Bell anticipated this fandom has the power to create a phenomenon when done right. Bell interviewed the Demon Hunters team to deconstruct how they crafted hit K-pop songs while telling a cohesive narrative. It's worth a read to see how they pulled it off.

Meanwhile, it's up to Netflix and Sony to negotiate some kind of agreement for a sequel. Sony struck a deal with Netflix in 2021, early on in the pandemic when box office sales were down, to distribute Demon Hunters and other films on the streaming platform. Sony gets a cut of the soundtrack sales, but Netflix owns the merchandise, THR explained. Here's hoping they can work something out.

KPop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.

Right now, you can get the amazing Alienware OLED Gaming Monitor for a huge 35% off its usual price. This brings the cost down to just $586.15 on Amazon from its original $899.99. This monitor's discount stands out thanks to Alienware's fast 360Hz refresh rate.

SAVE $3,500: As of Aug. 28, get the 100-inch Hisense Class U8 Mini-LED TV at Amazon for $3,499.99, down from its usual price of $6,999.99. That's a discount of 50% and the lowest price we've seen.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon 100-inch Hisense Class U8 Mini-LED TV $3,499.99 at Amazon
$6,999.99 Save $3,500 Get Deal

Getting ready for the big games this football season? Or maybe you just want to install a bigger TV so you and your family can enjoy your favorite TV shows and movies at home. You can score some big savings on a massive Hisense TV right now, thanks to a deal at Amazon that brings it down to the lowest price we've seen.

As of Aug. 28, get the 100-inch Hisense Class U8 Mini-LED TV at Amazon for $3,499.99, down from its usual price of $6,999.99. That's a 50% discount.

SEE ALSO: Samsung's 55-Inch QLED Q8F 4K TV is down to its best-ever price at Amazon

This is a mammoth TV that you'll definitely have to make some room for. It's one of the most affordable that you'll find in this size range, too. It has a QLED display with up to 5,000 nits of brightness as well as an anti-reflection coating to cut down on glare. It also has a 165Hz refresh rate, which makes it a great candidate for gaming, and built-in Google TV to make sure you can access all your favorite apps and content.

It's a giant TV, so you'll want to make sure you have somewhere sturdy to mount it or somewhere that can withstand its 140-pound weight; it's not exactly light. But its relatively slim profile makes it easier to deal with than other TVs in higher price brackets.

If you're ready to upgrade to what may be your biggest (and best) TV yet, don't miss this massive price cut.

I’ve been using Spotify since the very beginning. Literally—I still have the invite email from 2011. For the most part, I’ve truly enjoyed the service. But it’s time to break up.

SAVE $331.96: As of Aug. 28, get the ASUS ROG Swift gaming monitor for $967.04 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,299. That's the lowest price we've seen.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon ASUS ROG Swift gaming monitor $967.04 at Amazon
$1,299 Save $331.96 Get Deal

If you're looking to get your game on with all the new releases this fall, you'll want a setup that can handle it. That includes a great gaming monitor that can make your games look absolutely eye-popping with bright colors, satisfying visuals, and swift response time. Now's the time to grab a high-quality ASUS ROG gaming monitor from Amazon at its lowest price ever.

As of Aug. 28, get the ASUS ROG Swift gaming monitor at Amazon for $967.04, down from its usual price of $1,299. That's $331.96 off for a discount of 26%. It's also the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: The best monitors in 2025

This 32-inch gaming monitor is a 4K OLED beast with a 3840 x 2160 resolution, 240Hz, 0.03ms response time, and G-SYNC compatibility. It's extremely bright with an optional uniform brightness setting with consistent brightness levels, as well as options that you can adjust with the click of a button. It'll make your games, TV shows, and movies look fantastic and add some realism that you'll appreciate.

It has a custom heatsink and advanced airflow design, as well as graphene film to better manage your heat to help keep you from dealing with issues like burn-in. So if you have long gaming sessions, you don't have to worry about long-term problems with your display.

If you're ready to give your setup a significant upgrade, this is the monitor that you should keep an eye on, especially at its lowest price. With the holiday coming up, it's an especially great pick.

Sling TV's new short-term bundles allow people to watch TV for cheap. And now Disney, a company that owns a bunch of TV channels, is suing them, arguing that the plans violate their licensing agreement.

According to Deadline, Disney filed a lawsuit against Sling TV over its new "Day Pass" system which lets users pay as little as $4.99 for 24 hours of access to a selection of live TV channels, or a little more money for a weekend or even a full week of access. One of those channels is ESPN, a valuable Disney property.

According to Disney, these new tiny bundles violate the existing carriage agreement the company had with Sling.

“Sling TV’s new offerings, which they made available without our knowledge or consent, violate the terms of our existing license agreement,” Disney told Deadline. “We have asked the court to require [Sling parent company] Dish to comply with our deal when it distributes our programming.”

SEE ALSO: ‘A bottomless pit of plagiarism’: Disney takes on Midjourney in scathing new suit

Disney claimed in the suit that Sling never consulted Disney before offering these passes. The concept is, admittedly, very different from how cable or cable-alternative options usually work; simply paying $5 so you can watch one football game, for example, is kind of a game-changer. It's also worth noting that college football, which largely airs on Disney networks, starts in earnest this weekend.

Sling also told Deadline that it stands behind the decision to launch the passes and plans on defending itself. My advice for anyone interested in these day passes would be to use 'em while you still can.

As if there weren't enough privacy concerns in the world, AI ransomware is now reportedly a thing.

Cybersecurity firm ESET said that it discovered the first-ever AI-powered ransomware, which it has dubbed PromptLock. "The PromptLock malware uses the gpt-oss:20b model from OpenAI locally via the Ollama API to generate malicious Lua scripts on the fly, which it then executes," the company wrote.

The ransomware, according to ESET, runs locally on devices via an API, meaning OpenAI cannot detect and alert that ransomware is operating. The AI-powered ransomware can generate scripts that perform functions on the devices while evading defensive tools because the AI-generated results are different each time.

SEE ALSO: Hackers have figured out a new way to steal Microsoft logins

"Based on the detected user files, the malware may exfiltrate data, encrypt it, or potentially destroy it," ESET wrote.

So in the vast world of privacy concerns and cybersecurity issues, now you need to be worried about AI-powered ransomware stealing your information. As if the hacks of major insurance providers and court data, or the potential exposure of your social security info wasn't enough, now we have that. As always, be careful out there.

Chappell Roan's music is everywhere, from presidential campaigns, to Marshalls ads, to trailers for movies like M3GAN 2.0 and now Bugonia.

Sure, some of these marketing folks are chasing a hot beat and a catchy chorus. But when it comes to the latest from Yorgos Lanthimos, the visionary behind such twisted films as The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness, the subversion of Roan's lyrics take on a deeper meaning.

Scripted by Will Tracy (The Menu), Bugonia reteams Lanthimos and Stone, with the latter playing a no-nonsense, high-powered CEO who is enjoying some sing-along time to "Good Luck, Babe" in her luxury vehicle — before being confronted by some clumsy but determined kidnappers.

Jesse Plemons co-stars as the lead kidnapper, a conspiracy theorist who believes Stone's businesswoman is secretly an alien from another planet, hellbent on invasion. She might be a captive, but she's not scared, declaring calmly, "There is no possible scenario where you benefit from this incident."

Let the battle of wills begin.

Bugonia opens in theaters Oct. 24.

SAVE $100: As of Aug. 28, shop the Apple iPad Mini for just $399. That's $100 off of its standard $499 price tag for 20% savings.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad Min (A17 Pro, 128GB, WiFi) $399 at Amazon
$499 Save $100 Get Deal

Most tablets these days come with 11-inch screens. And that's not to say we're complaining — it's the happy medium that's not as big as a laptop but still provides a plentiful viewing area for streaming. But if you want to use your tablet to read, that 11-inch size is going to cause a lot of wrist strain; it can just feel too big. Enter the iPad Mini.

As of Aug. 28, get the Apple iPad Mini with A17 chip and 128GB of storage for just $399. That saves $100 off of its $499 price tag for 20% in savings. Get it now at Amazon.

SEE ALSO: The 11-inch iPad Air is back down to its lowest price ever

If you're interested in an e-reader but want a device that can do a bit more, Apple's iPad Mini strikes the right balance of size and ability. With a Liquid Retina display it streams in gorgeous vivid colors, but at 8.3 inches, it's not too big if you're holding it up for hours at a time.

It's our favorite tablet alternative to an e-reader, as you're able to access the Kindle Store and Libby apps. We have heard some complaints that the iPad Mini's screen has a bit of glare; if that's the case, we recommend grabbing a screen cover that provides a matte look.

SAVE $32: An annual subscription to New York Times Games is on sale for $18, down from the standard price of $50 per year. That's a 64% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: New York Times Games Annual subscription to New York Times Games $18 at The New York Times
$50 Save $32 Get Deal

As if we need more bad news in 2025, The New York Times has taken away one of life's simple joys — the daily Mini crossword puzzle is no longer free to play. Wonderful. Terrific. This is totally fine and we're all thriving (deep breath). The internet rightfully thinks this is a terrible change to our morning routine. The Mini crossword now joins everything else that requires a subscription. While the loss of a free daily game is sad, there's a semi-bright light if you want to pay to play.

As of Aug. 28, an annual subscription to New York Times Games is on sale for $18, marked down from the usual price of $50. That's a 64% discount that takes $32 off the annual price.

Not to belittle the annoyance of the Mini now coming with a price, but once we consider the enjoyment to cost ratio, this annual subscription isn't the worst deal on the Internet. At $18 for one year of games, that works out to $1.50 per month, or just five cents per day on a month with 30 days. If you truly get joy from the daily Mini, maybe it's worth gifting yourself this deal?

SEE ALSO: Apple TV+ just got more expensive. Again.

The New York Times Games subscription gives you access to every daily game, including the Mini, the full-size New York Times Daily crossword, Wordle, Connections, Tiles, Strands, Sudoku, and more. Some of these are currently free to play, but there's no telling when they'll meet the fate of the beloved Mini and turn into a paid-access game.

The New York Times Games subscription also lets you head into the games archives and play over 10,000 old games. The archive includes Daily puzzles that date as far back as 1993 and Minis that go back to 2014. You can also keep tabs on your performance, comparing your Mini times to how you did yesterday or last month. With the subscription, you can play New York Times Games via the Games app on your phone or via an Internet browser.

No one asked for this in 2025, but hey, five cents per day isn't too much to pay for joy considering the price of...everything these days.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Mini Crossword.

Samsung users can now talk to Copilot on their TVs.

Microsoft teamed up with Samsung to bring Copilot to select TVs and monitors for discovering what to watch and more. Copilot is now available as a voice assistant app on Samsung's 2025 lineup of TVs and monitors. For TVs that includes Micro RGB, Neo QLED, OLED, The Frame Pro and for monitors, the M7, M8, and M9 models.

SEE ALSO: What is a Copilot+ PC? Everything to know about these AI laptops.

When you click on the Copilot app, you'll see an animated blob that you can talk to when you activate the microphone on your Samsung remote. Microsoft lists a few different examples of how you can use Copilot for finding shows and movies to watch, with visuals of title cards and details.

You can get hyper-specific, like asking Copilot to find cooking shows under two hours, spoiler-free recaps of what you've watched up to the latest episode, or challenge Copilot to find something that all the viewers can agree on. For instance, maybe your group wants to watch something like a rom-com with sci-fi and thriller elements. You could ask Copilot to recommend some options that check all those boxes. (perhaps Her or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?) Microsoft says you can also ask Copilot for IMDB-esque deep-dives on actors or directors or just ask Copilot general questions like the weather forecast or... to cheer you up after a breakup. Although, if you're asking your TV for emotional support, it might be time to touch grass or check in with a human friend.

Emotional attachment aside, injecting AI in TVs is a natural fit in many ways. Generative AI has proven to be a useful tool for sourcing information. Google has also been working on integrating AI into various hardware beyond phones and computers. Earlier this year, they announced Gemini for Google TV and Android Auto for cars.