Technology

A lot of us still have a few decade-old USB flash drives with tiny amounts of storage lying around the house. If we're being realistic, these flash drives are way too small for modern use and too old to be reliable, yet somehow, it's hard to justify throwing away a functioning USB flash drive.

The Toyota Highlander has long been a go-to for families who want a safe, dependable three-row SUV. Its reputation alone is often enough to justify the price, making it one of the most predictable choices in the segment. But in 2026, that predictability comes at a steep cost, and not everyone is getting their money’s worth.

Prepare for Brat Prince Summer.

Interview with a Vampire returns June 7 with Season 3, titled The Vampire Lestat. Fans of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, on which Rolin Jones' scintillating TV series is based, know this title means we'll be getting Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) making the leap from the Théâtre des Vampires stage to full-blown rock star. And lucky fans can see Reid perform in character live at a special one-night-only concert ahead of the season premiere.

SEE ALSO: 'The Vampire Lestat' trailer sees Lestat embracing his inner rock god We want to go to there. Credit: AMC

On June 2, at the Beacon Theater, The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only – LIVE will offer an advanced screening of the premiere episode of The Vampire Lestat, followed by Reid performing songs from the show.

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Fans have already been streaming The Vampire Lestat's songs on Apple Music, including "Long Face," "All Fall Down," and a cover of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself." Other songs written and composed by Daniel Hart could debut there.

But how can fans get in on the fun?

Are you ready for rock star Lestat? Credit: AMC

Out of the AMC Upfronts, TV Insider reports that complimentary tickets will be offered.

To get these much-coveted tickets, go to The Vampire Lestat One Night Only Live on May 6, at 12 a.m. midnight ET. Supply is limited. (The Beacon has fewer than 3,000 seats.) And it's an 18-and-over show, so age restrictions apply.

At the Upfronts, Reid said of the event, "I’m really proud of Daniel’s music... and there are songs that we’ll be playing that haven’t been released yet."

And for those wondering if Jacob Anderson will be in the audience — as Louis is in the Vampire Lestat trailer — he told TV Insider, "I wouldn’t miss it for the world."

How to watch: The Vampire Lestat premieres June 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on AMC and AMC+.

SAVE $1,099.01: The Anker Solix F2000 portable power station is on sale for $899.99, down from the normal price of $1,999. That's a 55% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Anker Solix Anker Solix F2000 $899.99 at Amazon
$1,999 Save $1,099.01   Get Deal

We're already at the end of April and that means summer camping season is nearly here. For those who prefer to stay connected while camping with a phone or other devices, keeping them charged up has often be a challenge. Instead of trying to conserve phone battery this summer, pack along a portable power station. There's a hefty model on sale today at Amazon.

As of April 30, the Anker Solix F2000 portable power station is on sale for $899.99, marked down at Amazon from the standard list price of $1,999. That's a 55% discount that takes off a massive $1,099.01.

Anker put an emphasis on the portable aspect of the Solix F2000. Instead of hauling around the 2,048Wh power station that weighs almost 70 pounds, Anker added a telescoping handle and all-terrain wheels. With an stable output of 2400W, you'll be able to keep heavy-duty items powered up at the campsite like an electric kettle, blender, portable freezer, electric grill, air fryer, or a mini fridge in the RV.

The Solix F2000 is also a great model if your summer plans include getting work done in the yard. Instead of running a massive extension cord from the house to the yard, the Solix F2000 can power up the electric chainsaw or a corded weed whacker.

SEE ALSO: The Anker Solix C2000 power station is half off at Amazon right now — save over $700

If you'll be out camping this summer, recharging via solar might be a great bet. The Solix F2000 is compatible with up to 1,000W of solar input. With that amount, Anker says it'll take about 2.5 hours to fully recharge the F2000. With 400W solar input, it'll take about 5.7 hours to recharge.

In total, the Solix F2000 has 12 ports including four standard AC, three USB-C, two USB-A, and a TT-30, to spotlight a handful.

Before camping season kicks into high gear, upgrade your setup this year with the Anker Solix F2000. You'll be able to keep everything charged up and ready to go, espeically when recharging with solar panels.

Most proxy servers, sometimes called forward proxies, can be used to obscure your location from whatever service you're connected to. Reverse proxies do almost the exact opposite—they sit between your self-hosted services and whoever is trying to connect. It might not sound that exciting, but it is one of the most useful things you can run for your homelab.

SAVE $300: As of April 30, get the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 gaming monitor for just $699.99. That saves you $300 off its $999.99 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor $699.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $300   Get Deal

You don't need to be a professional to take your gaming setup seriously. If the worlds you're exploring in games deserve to stretch beyond your laptop or monitor screen, it may be time for an upgrade. If you want to go supersized, it's time for a screen that's over four-feet long.

SEE ALSO: Rate your favorite audio brands for a chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card

We're all over the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9. As of April 30, get the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor for just $699.99 at Amazon. Typically $999.99, this Samsung monitor has dipped in price by 30%. That means you'll save $300 on the giant monitor.

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But are you just paying for its size? No, there's plenty more offered in this gaming unit that makes it an exceptional buy. It delievers at 32:9 aspect ratio for the widest view of your game, or allowing for multiple screens at once. The 49-inch screen has dual QHD quality and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. It has an extensive contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and paired with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, it provides vivid detail seamlessly.

Shop the Samsung 49-inch Odyssey gaming monitor at Amazon for just $699.99 now.

There are certain things you expect from a Resident Evil movie, and it certainly looks like Zach Cregger's upcoming adaptation of the Capcom game series will have the gore aspect firmly covered.

In the teaser above we follow Austin Abrams as he struggles through the snow to an abandoned house, making a panicked call to his girlfriend while cut aways show him navigating a nightmarish world filled with multi-limbed monsters and splatting corpses.

Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, and Johno Wilson also star in this new film from the writer/director of Weapons.

Resident Evil is in theaters Sept. 18.

Want more of the latest entertainment news, reviews, trailers, and interviews? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter.

SAVE $322: As of April 30, the LG 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor (27GX704A-B) is on sale at Amazon for only $477.99. That's a 40% price drop from its usual $799.99 and just $12 away from its best price on record.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor (27GX704A-B) $477.99 at Amazon
$799.99 Save $322   Get Deal

Just like TVs, OLED monitors offer extremely high contrast, with true blacks and a wide color gamut. They make excellent choices for everything from gaming to streaming your favorite shows, but the market is wide and varied. If you want to upgrade without emptying your wallet, we recommend this deal on an entry-level LG UltraGear OLED model.

As of April 30, the typically $800 LG 27-inch UltraGear OLED gaming monitor (27GX704A-B) is on sale at Amazon for only $477.99. That's 40% or over $300 in savings and only $12 away from its lowest price ever on record.

LG's UltraGear gaming monitors are some of the most popular models on the market for several reasons: premium specs, excellent build quality, reliability, and performance. As far as specs go, the UltraGear 27GX704A-B packs a 27-inch glossy 1440p OLED panel with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, a 240Hz refresh rate, and 0.03ms response time for fluid gameplay. Sure, they make monitors now with up to 1000Hz refresh rates, but that's overkill for most people. As our friends at PCMag (also owned by Ziff Davis) noted, most people won't notice a huge difference beyond the 240Hz mark.

There's plenty of ports for your gaming peripherals on board, including dual HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, USB 3.2 upstream and two 3.2 downstream ports. And yes, it's NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible.

While the LG UltraGear 27GX704A-B's premium specs might be out of reach on a normal day, this 40% price drop knocks it down closer to budget-friendly territory.

Your Kindle has a web browser where you can play board games like chess. It makes for a fun, distraction-free experience, so I wanted to see how far I could take it. With my jailbroken Kindle, I can actually install new apps on my Kindle and play games offline.

You're tired of your TV's crappy sound quality, so you go online to try and find a decent soundbar. To your dismay, every "best of" article insists that you need a $1,000 soundbar—anything else is a terrible, stupid, idiotic purchase. I'm here to tell you that the influencers are full of bologna.

HBO Max has released its May schedule, and it’s a thick one. The month kicks off with plenty of hit flicks from the 1970s through the 2020s, such as Enter the Dragon, Walk the Line, and Saltburn; then you're in for new seasons of hit shows, new documentaries and comedy specials, and a handful of movies making their streaming debut.

The electric vehicle market has grown from having only a scant offering of eco-friendly econo-boxes to accessible sports cars for enthusiasts. Those who live for the weekend canyon-carving run or the occasional track day may find the Porsche Taycan 4S is a strong benchmark, a proverbial “go-to” considering its design and engineering, along with Porsche’s legacy.

Excel has a powerful feature most people never touch—and it quietly turns spreadsheets into something far more capable. If you've ever hit the limits of the grid, Power Pivot is where things start to get interesting. It lets you connect large datasets so you can analyze them without merging everything into one massive spreadsheet.

Windows Virtual Desktops have been around for years, and for most of that time, I completely ignored them. I assumed they were one of those features Microsoft added that sounded useful in theory but didn't really change how most people worked. I already had multiple monitors, plenty of screen space, and a workflow that felt good enough, so I never saw the point.

The mistake some people make is thinking about Gemini exactly like they thought about Google Assistant. However, you’re probably missing out on one of Gemini’s best features if you’re using it that way. It’s called “Connected Apps,” and it may change how you use your Android phone.

NVIDIA has finally enabled RTX 5080 graphics for GeForce Now game streaming, and the move promises major improvements to your experience — provided you're willing to pay.

USB generational numbering is sort of straightforward, right? A bigger number means better, and so we have USB 1.1, USB 2.0, uh, 2.0 Revised, USB 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 (but now USB 3.2 Gen something or other), USB4, and USB4 2.0.

In his own words, Jonah Evarts is "just some guy that talks about books on the internet." But with more than 158,000 followers on TikTok, the Kansas-based creator has built a devoted audience around his love of reading, especially high fantasy. Since 2023, Evarts has transformed that passion into a full-time career, landing a spot on the reality competition series Destination X and publishing his debut novel, Reaper's Bend.

The return of BookCon after a six-year hiatus offered a rare chance for the online BookTok community to connect in person. We caught up with Evarts at BookCon 2026 to talk about turning a hobby into a career, choosing the independent publishing route, and what's next for his growing platform.

SEE ALSO: You wrote a book! Now make a viral TikTok about it. We sat down with Credit: Ian Moore/Mashable/Adobe Stock Mashable: When did you start your BookTok account?

Jonah Evarts: I started my BookTok account about three years ago, and I think I'd been posting for a couple of months before I really started even having anybody see my videos, which was crazy. And now, three years later, it's my job, which is crazy.

Are you doing it full-time now?

I've been doing it full-time for a year and a half, which feels really weird. Sometimes I wake up, and I'm like, "What am I gonna do for work? Oh, I'm gonna read a book."

How has it felt turning this passion for books into a career in content?

It happened so organically for me. When I first started posting, it was just for fun. None of my friends back home read, so I needed to put this energy somewhere, and I started making videos. I almost immediately started building a huge community of people who were also interested in the books I read. It just feels so strange to think that so many people like the same thing as me.

Has your relationship to reading changed since becoming a creator?

A little, sadly. At different times throughout the past three years, it's felt like I have to read this [book], because that's what's going to get views even if it's not what I'm in the mood for. I've had to grapple with that. I don't want to just read books because they're gonna get views. I think people can tell if I'm not super passionate or excited about a book. So I try to mood-read as much as possible. But sometimes people really want me to talk about a book, and it's hard not to get carried away with the crowd.

You're also a writer and an author, too. Was writing always a part of your content, or did you bring it in later?

I kept it hidden from everyone. None of my followers knew that I was a writer until I was already done with my book. So when I made a post saying, "I wrote this book, and it's coming out later this year," the general reaction was like, "Wait, what, you write books?"

It makes sense, writing is such a personal and often vulnerable thing to share.

That's part of the reason I kept it hidden. It's different to present yourself as a book reviewer rather than an artist. As an artist, you're the one being judged.

Now that you're in both spaces as a creator and writer, how have you navigated that?

There hasn't been a ton of crossover yet because most of the readers are my friends. I think a lot of that is because I went indie. Most of the people reading my book have followed me for years. So far, I haven't really had to branch out of my circle or my own audience. It's been really cool because everyone's been really supportive and affirmed me as an artist.

Do you feel that being a creator allowed you to take the indie publishing route?

When I first started writing, I was so certain I was going to try to go the traditional route. But for me, I wanted [this project] to be something where I could just overcome my fear of being seen as an artist. Going indie felt a little more like confronting my fear rather than seeking affirmation because I got a book deal. And I knew I could take that risk and invest in an editor and a book cover, expecting a return, because I knew some people in my audience might buy it. So [being a creator] let me take a bit bigger risk than I would have otherwise.

What's it like to interact with fans at BookCon when so much of your audience interactions happen online?

It's been crazy. The first time someone stopped me and asked, "Are you Jonah?" I freaked out. I feel famous right now, but I'm just some guy who talks about books on the internet. I went to Dragonsteel last year, and I expected to be a little more recognized there because that's my specific niche: epic fantasy books. The coolest part for me is seeing a bunch of other creators that I've known for years and bumping into them. Everyone's so friendly and supportive.

Also, you were on the show Destination X last year. Was that a fun side quest, or something you'd been dreaming of doing?

It was just a fun side quest. I got on the show because of BookTok. A casting agent found me on TikTok and asked if I would do an interview. And I said, "Sure," and two months later, I was in Belgium filming the show. It came out of nowhere, and it was crazy, but I represented BookTok.

What's next for you and your platform?

I am writing another book, and I'm really hoping to get a traditional deal with this one. And I'm hoping to progress my content in the same way. Maybe I'll start talking more about writing, because right now, it's mostly still just me talking about other people's books, but I love writing as much as I love reading. I would like to move in that direction eventually. I know other people in the space who have done so. I know there's a path for that, and I want to go after it.

There are few filmmakers who can say they established the formula for an entire genre of film. Well, the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams certainly did! If you look at the most celebrated spoof films of the past 50 years, if they weren't made by them, they were inspired by them. It's hard to believe that some of their biggest hits almost didn't even get made.

As David Zucker told Mashable's Executive Producer, Mark Stetson: "Airplane was turned down by every studio. Believe me, it's the story of my life!"

Lucky for them, Michael Eisner, President of Paramount at the time, heard about the Airplane script and wanted to make it. "You're in," he said. "You don't even have to pitch this. I want to make this movie." Airplane ended up grossing $80million, over 5 times the film's budget.

Their next project was a short-lived tv series called, Police Squad, which ended up being the precursor to Naked Gun films. The tv show format wasn't quite right fit for the now iconic character Frank Drebin, so they had to "put a pin it" until they could make the film. In the meantime, they took their obsession with WWII spy films and made the tragically lessor-known cult classic, Top Secret, starring Val Kilmer. After the films moderate success, they finally made The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, and the rest is movie history!

David Zucker will be presenting a special screening of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad at the Netflix is a Joke Fest on May 5th.

You can learn directly from David by joining his comedy community on Master Crash.

Bambu Lab’s Automatic Material System, or AMS, received a big upgrade with the release of the AMS 2 Pro in 2025. It’s one of the best quality-of-life upgrades you can make to a Bambu Lab printer, but it’s not without its flaws.