Technology

SAVE $250: As of Nov. 13, get the Garmin Fenix 8 for $849.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,099.99. That's a discount of 23% and the lowest price we've seen.

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Are you a hardcore fitness enthusiast? Or maybe you're serious about keeping track of your workouts, sleep, body readiness, and more. You need more than a run of the mill fitness tracker. You need something like the Garmin Fenix 8, which you can snag at a significant discount now that it's dropped to its lowest price ever at Amazon.

As of Nov. 13, get the Garmin Fenix 8 for $849.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,099.99. That's $250 off and a discount of 23%. It's also the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: I tested the top fitness trackers for running a marathon (by running the NYC marathon)

The Garmin Fenix 8 has just about every feature you could ask for and then some. It boasts a bright 1.4-inch AMOLED screen, GPS functionality, a built-in LED flashlight, and features a carbon gray titanium watch face with a pebble gray band. Its scratch-resistant sapphire lens makes it great for rugged outings, and its battery can last up to 16 days in smartwatch mode with 47 hours in GPS mode.

It offers a wide variety of fitness tracking features, including sensors that track your performance, endurance, and resistance to injury. It can provide strength training plans, offer real-time stamina tracking, take inventory of all your workouts, and connect with sports apps to help further fine-tune your regimen.

It also offers a training readiness score based on your sleep quality, training load, and other factors that your watch keeps an eye on for you. But it also has phone-centric features that let you make and take calls, as well as a voice assistant to facilitate all of this. It's got a little bit of everything and more, and it's targeted at hardcore users.

If you're ready to take your training to the next level, grab yours while it's still on sale.

Folks streaming sports illegally on their Amazon Fire Sticks could be in for a rude awakening. The tech giant aims to crack down on folks using Fire Sticks for that purpose.

The Athletic, which is a part of the New York Times, reported on the news as a part of a podcast on illegal streaming. The Athletic worked with YouGov Sport and found that approximately 4.7 million adults watched illegal streams in the UK alone, and that Fire Sticks were a common tool in that endeavor. Previous versions of the Fire Stick employed open developer software, meaning users could side-load illegal streaming platforms and play those streams on their television.

Amazon told The Athletic that its latest version of the Fire Stick will crack down on piracy via a new operating system and an inability to load apps not in Amazon's store.

Why is this a big deal? Because sports streaming involves big, big money. In an era where our attention is as divided as ever, sports remain the closest thing we have to monoculture. Take the NFL in the U.S., for instance. Of the top 10 most-watched broadcasts last year, every single one was an NFL game. And NFL games accounted for 32 of the top 50.

So, as we covered in depth at Mashable, broadcasters trip over themselves to pay billions of dollars to buy a piece of the NFL's broadcast offerings. It's so bifurcated that it'd cost a user at least $810.86 to watch every single game. Illegal streams, at least in theory, would devalue that very expensive product. But now accessing those illegal streams just got more difficult.

There's so much nostalgia for '90s and early 2000s culture right now. Part of that is because of the novelty of analogue forms of communication. After all, keeping up with your WhatsApp group chat, scrolling for the appropriate emoji just doesn't feel as chic as calling up your friend on a landline, twirling the cord around your finger à la Carrie Bradshaw. But the idea of relying on a plug-in telephone to communicate with anyone outside your home feels practically ancient. After all, the landline is completely unnecessary in the age of the smartphone. At least, it was. Now, young people are turning to it as a way to cure their smartphone obsessions.

15 years ago, 62 percent of Americans said the landline was a necessity of life, according to a study by Pew Research Center. However, with the advent of smartphones, landline usage quickly plummeted. By the end of 2022, 72.6 percent of adults and 81.9 percent of children lived in households without a landline, according to the National Health Interview Survey.

The new-wave landline

But just as the landline becomes endangered, a wave of young people have discovered it could be the easiest way to cure their brain rot, as young people are increasingly worried about the effects their screen time has on their mental health, attention span, and capacity for critical thinking. There are calls to bring back traditional landlines, but there's also a new approach to the analogue device. Catherine Goetze is an AI educator and online creator (she's better known online as @askcatgpt). Goetze has designed a landline phone called Physical Phone that connects to your smartphone, so you can take calls via your device without picking it up. The video she posted on Instagram sharing the concept has over 2 million views and even though the phone hasn't launched yet, the brand's Instagram account has over 38,000 followers.

SEE ALSO: The Brick taught me how to be bored again

The idea of the Physical Phone is to prevent doomscrolling and reduce your screen time. Think about it – the reason you tend to pick up your phone is probably a matter of practicality. Maybe you go to text your friend to make sure they're still on for plans or you realise you forgot to call your mum, only to find yourself in a doomscrolling hole 30 minutes later. The landline negates this – it still allows that communication without the temptation to dive head first into your For You Page.

Other people are finding new ways to embrace the idea of a landline. Erin Wakeland (@erinwakeland.studio) shared a TikTok video that now has over 50,000 views about her very literal approach to the landline. Wakeland's method involves attaching her smartphone to a chain on her wall, creating a literal landline. This means that any time she wants to use her phone she has to sit on a chair in one spot. "It's a physical boundary that helps my digital boundaries," she said in the video. "I've tried Opal, I've tried using screen limits, I've thought about buying a Brick," Wakeland told Mashable. But so far, nothing she's tried has curbed her screen time. "The nature of my work as an artist, I have to be online, I have to post online and there's a lot of enjoyable things about it, so that's why I like this way of monitoring and using my usage patterns," Wakeland says.

29-year-old Kassadi is another creator who went viral for sharing her take on the landline, which involves putting her iPhone in "landline mode", which means she only gets call and text notifications. "On days that I do landline mode, there's a couple of hours difference in my screen time," Kassadi told Mashable. She claims in the viral video that she got her screen time down to 29 minutes per day, significantly lower than the UK average of five hours and six minutes. "More than that, it's [given me an] awareness of how often I'm using my phone," she adds.

Featured Video For You Galaxy S25 FE: Samsung Powers Up Its $650 Entry-Level Phone The kids are going analogue

Kassadi has two young children and she says that they play a big part in why she's trying to stay off her phone. "I don’t want my kids to constantly see me on my phone and I want to model healthy relationships to technology," she says. And she isn't the only parent worried about screen time. In fact, research suggests that there has been a 52 percent increase in children’s screen time between 2020 and 2022, and that nearly 25 percent of children and young people use their smartphones in a way that is consistent with a behavioural addiction. With that in mind, 83 percent of parents believe it's important to limit their children's screen time.

Chet Kittleston is a father of three and he started thinking about children's relationships with social media when his 10-year-old daughter asked him for a smartphone. "I really didn't want to give her a cell phone. I didn't think it was right for my kids to have that in their pocket at all times, and be constantly on alert," he tells Mashable. He looked back to his childhood and how he communicated with his friends and he realised the landline was the first social network between his group of friends. Why couldn't the same be true for his children? With that idea, Kittleston launched Tin Can, a landline phone specifically designed for kids. It works similarly to a traditional landline, but it connects to an app, so parents can control who their kids can make and receive calls to and from, and set do not disturb hours. "We've spent so many years rushing toward what we considered forward progress, and I think we're all now scratching our heads wondering, were all these steps forward, or were some of them backwards?" Kittleston says.

According to Dr. Ysabel Gerrard, a senior lecturer in digital communication at the University of Sheffield, it's predictable that people are looking to the past to find solutions for modern problems. "Nostalgia often operates in 20 to 30 year cycles, so it's really normal that people are going back to things like landlines or other wired technologies," Gerrard explains. Nostalgia is key to both Tin Can and Physical Phone's marketing, with both companies offering phones that look like retro landlines. "The nostalgic angle is a physical reminder of what it was like when we were just more connected and more offline," Kittleston says. And according to recent research by broadband comparison site Uswitch, 21 percent of Gen-Z use a landline phone for decoration. 

SEE ALSO: A lifetime of guilt-free screen games for the littlest minds is on sale for $60 The age of smartphone-phobia

This yearning for analogue forms of communication is largely down to the current moral panic around smartphones. 41 percent of people living in the UK say that they use their phone too much and 31 percent of people are taking steps to try and use their phone less. But according to Gerrard, this anxiety around phone usage might be misplaced. "Young people are turning to forms of analogue communication because they are told that the tech they are using is bad for them, not because they even necessarily believe themselves that it is," she says. The digital culture expert adds that it's too simplistic to conclude that smartphones are bad and landlines are good and this approach might not be helpful. "[Smartphones provide] so many more ways of communicating and what we have a tendency to do is that when we experience nostalgia, we over-romanticise the past and assume that what came before was better innately," she explains. In fact, when landlines were popularised in the late 20th century, similar conversations were happening around how they would affect young people. LIFE magazine shared a photo story from 1956 about "phone-obsessed teens", in which they're using the same retro landlines that are now posed as a solution to brain rot caused by excessive screen time. 

Dr. Briony Hannell is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Manchester and an ambassador for Rehabs UK and she says that transforming your relationship with your smartphone and decreasing your screen time isn't necessarily as simple as switching to a landline. "It's not coincidental that the term "doomscrolling" entered the cultural lexicon during the pandemic - a pandemic that, in the UK and much of Western Europe, came at the end of a decade of austerity measures and declining standards of living," she says, adding: "The term 'doomscrolling' emerged at a time when almost everyone was housebound and unable to access many of the routine parts of their lives."

But that's not the only reason quitting scrolling can be so tough. 71 percent of 16 to 24 year olds get their news through social media and with so much political turmoil, from the climate crisis to the war in Gaza, Hannell says that: "Doomscrolling news about this can feel like a moral obligation to bear witness." This makes the decision to switch to a landline a lot more complicated, and she adds that: "This takes place on platforms designed to incentivise and maximise engagement."

SEE ALSO: Samsung reveals key features of upcoming Galaxy S26 smartphones

Despite this, finding small ways to reduce your screen time is something that might make a lot of people feel better and more in control of their phones. Gerrard says that while this is sure to be helpful for a lot of people, completely abandoning modern technology might not be the answer. "If young people stopped using smartphones and started using landlines, they would experience their relationships and identity differently," she says. "But that doesn't mean your life would be any better or worse. A lot of the time people find solace in online spaces because they offer them identities and cultures and communities that they don't otherwise have access to." But Kittleston says Tin Can users are finding that sense of togetherness with their new landlines: "What I think is lasting is this desire for people to connect more, more intimately and personally with their family and their friends and their partners," he says. 

We're all craving a greater sense of community right now. Maybe you'll find it chatting to grandparents on a rotary dial-up, or perhaps it is in obscure corners of Reddit.  Maybe a phone isn't involved at all, but, at this point, that seems unlikely.

Spotify has added a tool for audiobook listeners who have a habit of forgetting what they've just heard.

Currently in beta, Audiobook Recaps is the streaming platform's latest feature, one that sounds a lot like Amazon's recently added Recaps for Kindle. Announced in a blog post on Thursday, Spotify's new tool is "designed to help listeners jump back into stories they’ve put down" by providing a short refresher on the narrative thus far.

Recaps are AI-generated, but according to Spotify, "the work of authors and narrators stays protected," adding, "We are not using audiobook content for LLM training purposes or voice generation, and Recaps do not replicate narration or replace the original audiobook in any way."

SEE ALSO: Spotify Wrapped 2025 date: When it releases, how to view it

So, how do Recaps work? When you fire up an audiobook you've already been listening to, a Recap button will now appear on the page that you can tap to hear the summary. According to the company, Recaps only activate after you've listened to the first 15-20 minutes of a book, and will constantly update as you listen. Importantly, Recaps will come without spoilers for anything up ahead.

So far, Recaps are only available in Spotify's iOS apps on mobile and desktop with a selection of English language books — so if you don't see a Recap on your book, it's probably not in this range. And notably, audiobooks are currently available only to Spotify Premium subscribers in the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg.

Featured Video For You How to make your favorite songs sound better on Spotify

In its post, Spotify said it had developed audiobook recaps with its publishing partners. Paul Bennett, a research director at Spotify, wrote in a separate post, "From the start, we worked closely with industry partners to make sure Recaps respected their creative contributions. Many of our partners told us they were interested in and excited by the concept of Recaps but not comfortable with a model that stored the book’s data in the model’s weights. We honored that request. Our system does not train on any book’s content, and it does not imitate narrators’ voices. We created a neutral voice that feels comfortable to hear and distinct from the performance of the book itself."

Since launching audiobooks in 2022 (after acquiring audiobook platform Findaway in 2021), Spotify has inked multiple publishing deals with major and independent publishers including Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Blackstone Publishing, Crooked Lane, Alcove Press, and many, many more. As of 2025, Spotify has more than 500,000 English-language books in its library, triple the number it had at launch, and reported that half of Premium users have listened to at least one.

In 2024, Spotify said it has "paid hundreds of millions of dollars to publishers on an annualized basis," though the payout reportedly varies according to individual deals, as outlets like Bloomberg, Guardian, and The Bookseller, as well as the Authors Guild, have dug further into.

Overall, in its Q3 2025 earnings report, Spotify said subscribers had climbed 12 percent to a total of 281 million.

Meanwhile, the company has been adding new features like the wind of late, with Spotify adding regular Wrapped-style listening stats, managed accounts for kids, search and play abilities for free accounts, custom transitions in playlists, and finally launching that long-awaited lossless audio. But the company is also under quite a bit of heat from artists.

UPDATE: Nov. 14, 2025, 11:02 a.m. UTC Added context from Spotify's Paul Bennett and quote from Spotify clarifying protection for authors.

TL;DR: Live stream Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers for free on FIFA+. Access this free streaming site from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

It's crunch time for the remaining African sides still seeking qualification for the 2026 Fifa World Cup. After finishing as the four best second-placed finishers across the nine World Cup qualifying groups, Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, and DR Congo are competing in the playoffs. A place in the final is up for grabs as Cameroon take on DR Congo in Morocco.

If you want to watch Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Cameroon vs. DR Congo?

Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Nov. 13. This fixture takes place at the Al Barid Stadium.

How to watch Cameroon vs. DR Congo for free

Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers is available to live stream for free on FIFA+.

FIFA+ is geo-restricted to these locations, but anyone can access this free streaming service with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can access free live streams on FIFA+ from anywhere in the world.

Lve stream Cameroon vs. DR Congo for free 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 another location

4. Visit FIFA+

5. Stream Cameroon vs. DR Congo for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 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 Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select World Cup qualifiers before recovering your investment.

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

What is the best VPN for FIFA+?

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

• Servers in 105 countries

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

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also 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 $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).

Live stream Cameroon vs. DR Congo in World Cup qualifiers for free with ExpressVPN.

A few years after successfully expanding the handheld gaming market with the Steam Deck, Valve is trying its hand at a console-like experience again.

Valve announced several new hardware products yesterday, one of which is simply called the Steam Machine. It's actually Valve's second attempt at such an idea (the first being about a decade ago), but the conditions feel a bit more right this time around, especially with the future of Xbox being a bit uncertain. The Steam Machine is, essentially, a console version of a Steam Deck: It runs the same software, SteamOS, and will play games from your Steam library while plugged into a TV, like a console.

There is some bad news, though: We don't have a price or release date for it yet. Stay tuned for that.

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The main difference between this and a Deck, of course, is that the Steam Machine will be far more powerful. According to Valve, it's six times more powerful than the Steam Deck. Here are the specs Valve released for the Steam Machine:

• CPU: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T

• GPU: Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs, 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP

• 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

• Two storage options: 512GB SSD and 2TB SSD

• 2x USB-A ports on the front

• 2x USB-A ports on the back

• 1x USB-C port on the back

Valve is promising visuals and performance in the neighborhood of 4K and 60 frames per second with this device. It's hard to say yet how it will compare to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in terms of power, but it will almost certainly be at least in the same ballpark, given that those devices launched five years ago. Of course, it also has the advantage of being able to play a massive library of PC games spanning multiple decades.

It might be a while before it's out, but there are plenty of reasons to get excited now.

Fallout fans, we're heading back to the wasteland! And not just any part of the wasteland: New Vegas.

The setting of the fan-favorite game Fallout: New Vegas takes center stage in Fallout Season 2, after Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) fled there in the Season 1 finale. Now, his daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell) and her traveling companion the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) are hot on his trail. She hopes to bring her father to justice, while he seeks out his family, including his wife Barb (Frances Turner), who played a key role in Vault-Tec's plan to kickstart the nuclear apocalypse.

SEE ALSO: 'Fallout' Season 2 teaser is all about New Vegas and Mr. House

Lucy and the Ghoul's journey will bring them right into the heart of New Vegas, where they'll encounter dangerous monsters and rival factions. Among them are the Kings, a group of Elvis impersonators who, in a departure from the game, are now Ghouls. Also in play is Mr. House (Justin Theroux), the ruler of New Vegas.

While Lucy and the Ghoul take on New Vegas, Maximus (Aaron Moten) and the Brotherhood of Steel prepare for an oncoming civil war. New cast member Kumail Nanjiani enters the fray here as a Brotherhood of Steel pilot looking to get in on the action.

Joining Najiani as a new member of the Fallout cast is Macaulay Culkin, who pops up ever so briefly in the trailer as a member of Caesar's Legion. Between them, the Brotherhood, and Mr. House, it looks like our heroes sure have their hands full.

For more wasteland chaos, check out the full trailer above.

Fallout Season 2 premieres Dec. 17 on Prime Video, with a new episode every week.

More than six decades after its release, "Pretty Little Baby" by the late Connie Francis found new life on TikTok this year, even landing at No. 5 on the platform’s global Song of the Summer list.

The easy-going song, which sounds like an ode to the devotion of a really sweet pet, was never released as a single. Yet, 63 years later, it became a viral sensation, with creators using it to soundtrack at least 2.4 million mostly wholesome videos featuring babies, kids, pets, and their carefully styled outfits.

At its peak over the summer, "Pretty Little Baby" averaged more than 600,000 daily videos on TikTok, including posts from Kim Kardashian and North West, Kylie Jenner, Brook Monk, Jarred Jermaine, Abbie Herbert, Ariana Greenblatt, Mistermainer, and Samara. In the U.S., the song hit No. 1 on both TikTok’s Viral 50 and Top 50 charts and No.  67 on Spotify’s Global Top 100, where it has generated over 120 million Spotify streams, making it her most-streamed song to date. Before her passing in July, Francis said her newfound TikTok fame gave her a “new lease on life,” and she joined the platform herself at the age of 87.

TikTok has influenced music discovery since its inception as Musical.ly in 2014. But over the past decade, its impact on the music industry has become indisputable. TikTok's algorithm has a unique ability to make the old feel new again, reshaping the way artists and the music business connect with fans.

"For a lot of younger users on our platform, this is the first time they’re discovering these songs," Clive Rozario, the global music program manager at TikTok, told Mashable. "You have users rediscovering these songs, and you have those users who it’s the first time. And that’s amazing to see, particularly when older, iconic bands and artists reach a new fan base through TikTok."

The renewed popularity of "Pretty Little Baby" — both on the charts and in the cultural conversation — is just one example of TikTok’s power to reanimate catalog music. Similar revivals have occurred with songs like "Rock That Body" by the Black Eyed Peas, "Let Down" by Radiohead, "Breakin' Dishes" by Rihanna, "Headlock" by Imogen Heap, "Champagne Coast" by Blood Orange, "Forever Young" by Alphaville, "So Far So Fake" by Pierce the Veil, "Covet" by Basement, "Safe in Your Skin" by Title Fight, and "Youngest Daughter" by Superheaven. A February Luminate and TikTok Music Impact Report found that "84 percent of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 went viral on TikTok first."

SEE ALSO: Meet Caroline Timoney, the TikTokker whose joke ended up in a Taylor Swift song

"Artists like Imogen Heap, Blood Orange, and Pierce the Veil have had some of their biggest moments off the back of these huge trends and virality driven by our community," Rozario said. "Pierce the Veil got their highest Billboard Hot 100 entry off the back of [one of these trends]."

As record labels try to adapt, playlist curators hold new power. Songs recorded decades ago are rising on the charts; musicians are testing hooks in front of millions before ever uploading a single; and yes, that hardcore track from 2010 is now soundtracking TikTok fit checks.

When old songs become new again

When I was 14, I discovered nearly every new-to-me song through Grey’s Anatomy. It's how I first heard "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol and "Portion for Foxes" by Rilo Kiley, and how Tegan and Sara broke through with "Where Does the Good Go." Imagine that same influence — but with the instant feedback and reach of TikTok, where TV, culture, comedy, and everyday life are all soundtracked in real-time.

Consider "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush. Recorded in 1985, it originally peaked at No.  30 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was then featured in Stranger Things Season 4, nearly four decades later, and began trending on TikTok. Soon after, it reentered the charts, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 and surpassing one billion streams on Spotify in 2023.

"If something's gonna go viral on TikTok, it's usually connected to something," Damian Keyes, a music industry educator with more than 100,000 followers on TikTok, told Mashable. "We saw [that with] Stranger Things and Kate Bush. If you get your music [in] a film or a Netflix series that hits No. 1, there's a good chance that [it] will probably go viral.”

That virality, Keyes notes, also drives value in the catalog market. "What they’re doing is banking on more platforms like TikTok to help them make that money back."

TikTok’s rediscovery effect has even reignited the careers of touring artists. When "Youngest Daughter" went viral two years ago, a post appeared on the Hardcore subreddit noting how "kids are making remixes of 'Youngest Daughter' on TikTok with a bunch of memes… but at the same time, a Lo-Fi rap remix of Superheaven kinda demolishes the whole vibe of the song." The band had stopped touring in 2016, playing only a show a year, but the renewed attention to the 2013 track from Jar sparked new momentum. On Feb. 18, 2025, Superheaven announced a 16-stop North American tour — their first in nearly a decade.

Whether it was made 50 years ago or today, great music is going to cut through the noise of any algorithm and rise to the top. - Ari Elkins

It may seem counterintuitive that a youth-driven platform would spark a catalog revival, but the explanation is simple. As Ari Elkins, a playlist curator with 2.2 million followers on TikTok, told Mashable, "A good song is a good song."

"Whether it was made 50 years ago or today, great music is going to cut through the noise of any algorithm and rise to the top."

SEE ALSO: On TikTok, viral songs from 2020 elicit mixed emotions and nostalgia The DIY era of music discovery

If catalog artists are finding renewed life, emerging artists are using TikTok to build their careers from the ground up. 

Many newer artists use TikTok to cultivate a fan base before releasing their music, including Lil Nas X with "Old Town Road," Erica Banks with "Buss It," Tommy Richman with "Million Dollar Baby," Dasha with "Austin," and Gabriella Rose with "Doublewide." Artists like Lola Young, Ravyn Lenae, CMAT, and Doechii made their mark on TikTok (and in Doechii’s case, also YouTube). According to the Luminate and TikTok Music Impact Report from February 2025, “84 percent of songs that entered the Billboard Global 200 in 2024 went viral on TikTok first."

That same system of rediscovery now doubles as a tool for creation. While catalog success often depends on luck — a sync in a hit show, for instance — newer artists can engineer their growth. "If you want to build an audience, you can do it step by step, stage by stage. And that’s the magic of TikTok — you don’t have to rely on luck," Keyes said.

Clive echoed this, describing TikTok as a testing ground for new material. "TikTok is a place where lots of artists preview their music and tease their music, and often you’ll see it go viral even before it comes out. It can be a never-released piece of music that goes viral…[and] as a result of the traction on TikTok, an official version gets released and becomes a global hit." Think: "Anxiety" by Doechii.

Unlike the industry’s past gatekeepers, TikTok enables direct artist–fan relationships. "If real people genuinely care, not just discovered me because I did something crazy on a TikTok, that's where you can house them. You can literally house an audience in a place where you can talk to them, communicate, sell to them, tell them where you’re performing, or push them to Spotify," Keyes said.

SEE ALSO: How 'Group 7' became TikTok’s biggest inside joke

However, success on TikTok requires both artistry and digital fluency — knowing not only who you are, but how to present it within seconds, multiple times a day, every day. "This is where art and science combine… The art is who you are, what you stand for… The science is how you wrap this up in a way that people will understand context," Keyes said. "As an artist, your job is to do that in literally seconds."

Even TikTok Live has become a discovery engine. "I’ve got a couple of artists that make $10,000 a month from going live on TikTok every night," Keyes said.

The rise of both old and new artists on the platform isn’t a zero-sum game. "It’s happening simultaneously," Elkins said. "We’re seeing a resurgence of past artists like No Doubt, while also the introduction of new artists like Somber and Alex Warren."

Rozario says this dual rise of both old and new artists helps democratize music. And that very well might be true. The charts are significantly more diverse by both artist ethnicity and age today than they were in 2003, well before TikTok existed, according to an analysis of the charts published in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Science.

But algorithmic listening has drawbacks. Filter bubbles can narrow musical taste and homogenize culture — and, some argue, can weaken the strength of our connection with music altogether.

Looking past the artists themselves and into the audience, it becomes a bit easier to understand why artists might want to adapt their music to fit the form. On TikTok, it's essential to capture viewers' attention within the first three seconds of a video — often, songs go viral because of a dance, a popular lyric, or something else not necessarily tied to musicality as a whole. That leads to discovery.

"Music is integral to the whole experience on TikTok," Rozario said. "Users use music to soundtrack their creations, often very personal creations. It's very creative. We are a creation-first platform."

The future of music is algorithmic

TikTok’s ecosystem continues to evolve. Its "Add to Music App" feature has already been used to save more than three billion tracks to streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and SoundCloud, driving billions more streams. TikTok offers programs like "New Music," "On Tour," and TikTok for Artists, which provide real-time insights and data to help artists optimize their platform usage.

It doesn't seem that TikTok is interested in keeping its users passively listening on its platform — it's content to be the discovery tool and let another platform take the streams. "Fans discover music on TikTok and then consume elsewhere," Clive said. 

But whether discovery happens on TikTok, Spotify, or Apple Music, it’s still driven by algorithms, and that reliance on technology is here to stay.

Elkins remains hopeful about that future. He said he’s "discovering music in so many different ways: on TikTok, curated playlists on Spotify, algorithmic playlists like [Spotify’s] Discover Weekly. Sometimes I find my favorite music just by talking to friends and sharing tracks."

In the end, TikTok has redefined discovery, blurring the lines between old and new, fame and fandom, algorithm and artistry. And I, for one, could not be more excited for Olivia Dean.

TL;DR: Live stream Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers for free on FIFA+. Access this free streaming site from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

World Cup qualifiers are moving to the next phase for African sides that didn't top their groups. Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, and DR Congo will compete in African playoffs for the 2026 Fifa World Cup after finishing as the four best second-placed finishers across the nine World Cup qualifying groups. The first matchup sees Nigeria take on Gabon for a place in the playoff final.

If you want to watch Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Nigeria vs. Gabon?

Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers kicks off at 11 a.m. ET on Nov. 13. This fixture takes place at the Moulay Hassan Stadium.

How to watch Nigeria vs. Gabon for free

Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers is available to live stream for free on FIFA+.

FIFA+ is geo-restricted to these locations, but anyone can access this free streaming service with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can access free live streams on FIFA+ from anywhere in the world.

Lve stream Nigeria vs. Gabon for free 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 another location

4. Visit FIFA+

5. Stream Nigeria vs. Gabon for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 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 Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select World Cup qualifiers before recovering your investment.

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

What is the best VPN for FIFA+?

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

• Servers in 105 countries

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

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also 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 $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).

Live stream Nigeria vs. Gabon in World Cup qualifiers for free with ExpressVPN.

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour was a cultural phenomenon, becoming the highest-grossing tour of all time and spawning a smash hit concert film. But Swift, fresh off the press cycle for her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, isn't done with the Eras Tour quite yet.

This December, Swift is releasing The End of an Era, a Disney+ docuseries that gives viewers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the record-breaking tour. Based on the trailer, it's going to be a real treat for Swifties who want a glimpse at the life of a showgirl on tour.

SEE ALSO: How to watch the new Taylor Swift 'Eras Tour' docuseries: When is it streaming?

In the trailer, Swift talks about the initial conception for the Eras Tour, which came two years before she began touring.

"I wanted to overserve the fans in terms of the amount of songs they were going to hear, and how far I was going to push myself," she says in the trailer. Cue the footage of moments that captured millions of Swifties' attention, like Swift's cleaning cart entrance or her stage dive transition.

The End of an Era also features a litany of cameos from Swift's fellow performers, from openers to surprise guests. Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran, and Florence Welch are all slated to appear in the series, along with Swift's family, crew, band, and dancers.

And of course, The End of an Era dives into the Travis Kelce of it all, going from the early stages of their relationship to the moment Kelce joined Swift onstage in London.

The first two episodes of The End of an Era premiere Dec. 12 on Disney+, with two new episodes weekly.

SAVE OVER $5: As of Nov. 13, the Lego Christmas Table Decoration (40743) is on sale for $33.49 at Amazon. That's over $5 off the list price ahead of Black Friday.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Christmas Table Decoration (40743) $33.49 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $6.50   Get Deal

Lego deals are picking up the pace as we approach Black Friday. What started as a gentle trickle has become a steady stream. We're not experiencing a deluge just yet, but that time will come.

We're keeping close tabs on everything that is dropping in price right now. We already made some noise about the Lego Christmas Tree that went on sale this week, and now we've got another festive treat to consider. As of Nov. 13, the Lego Christmas Table Decoration (40743) is on sale for $33.49 at Amazon. That's over $5 off the list price ahead of Black Friday.

This is not the cheapest this set has ever been, but we're talking about a few cents here. Come on. Cut us some slack.

SEE ALSO: 10+ best Advent calendars that are on sale right now at Amazon

This 433-piece set makes the perfect centerpiece for any Christmas display. Looking for a unique gift for the Lego lover in your life? This is it. Seeking something that can bring the family together over the festive period? This set has you covered. It just screams Christmas. Not literally. Nobody wants a Lego set that yells. Even if it is festive yelling.

Score over $5 off the Lego Christmas Table Decoration (40743) at Amazon.

It's no surprise that we're seeing a 'King of the Hill' trend on TikTok. In fact, we've seen it before. TikTok is heavily based on sound, and the classic animated sitcom has some of the best audio snippets in TV history. E.g., Hank Hill saying "propane and propane accessories."

But man, there's just something about Bobby Hill's voice. It rules. It's gravelly yet smooth, an egg cracked and sizzling in a hot pan. Plus, Bobby is a unique and fascinating character. So, it tracks that a quote from Bobby would go viral on TikTok.

You've probably seen it — he's telling Hank, his dad, about "wabi-sabi," the Japanese concept of finding beauty in flaws. Here's the scene, which is from before the show was rebooted with an adult Bobby.

SEE ALSO: Pamela Adlon reacts to Bobby Hill TikTok videos

The TikTok trend employs Bobby's raspy proclamations on wabi-sabi to celebrate, or have a chuckle at, things that might be considered imperfect.

It's a fun, mostly harmless trend that celebrates the flawed, imperfect, or quirky aspects of our lives. And, frankly, I'm with Bobby; I do appreciate something a little wabi-sabi. Perfection is overrated.

Almost a year ago, OnePlus released the OnePlus 13, a quality flagship smartphone with high-end specs and a lower starting price than its competitors in the U.S. It also did the same thing the year before, as well as the year before that. This is pretty normal, in other words.

What is surprising about the new OnePlus 15 (aside from the fact that they skipped 14, presumably for cultural reasons) is that it's coming out in November instead of January. OnePlus may have accelerated its release schedule for this year's flagship, but not much else has changed. The OnePlus 15 is a very solid Android handset with glossy specs, including a super high refresh rate and the biggest battery you'll currently find in a smartphone of this caliber.

And with an $899 starting price, it's at least $100 cheaper than the flagship models from Google, Apple, and Samsung.

SEE ALSO: Samsung plans to sell a ton of foldable phones next year OnePlus 15: Price and specs It's got a good display. Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

I've already explained that you can get a OnePlus 15 for $899 (compared to $1,099 for the iPhone 17 Pro). Here's what you get for that price:

• 6.8-inch display with 2772x1272 resolution and up to 165Hz refresh rate

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile chip

• 12GB RAM

• 256GB storage

• 7,300mAh battery

• Three rear cameras: 50MP wide, 50MP ultrawide, 50MP telephoto

• 32MP front camera

There is only one other variant of the OnePlus 15. For an extra $100, you can get a version of it with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. I personally don't love that anyone who opts for the slightly cheaper phone is getting less RAM, but that's also pretty unlikely to affect most people's daily lives in any meaningful way. The lack of a 1TB storage option also stands out among other recent flagship smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Still, compared to the competition, OnePlus comes out looking like a winner here. No other flagship from the Apple-Google-Samsung triumvirate has a 165Hz display, and the OnePlus 15 is the first smartphone to hit the U.S. with the cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. At 7,300mAh, the battery is also larger than the ones found in the S25 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro, or iPhone 17 Pro. And while the higher-end OnePlus 15 costs the same as a base Pixel 10 Pro, none of those other devices can be had for $899.

This is a pretty good deal, is what I'm saying.

OnePlus 15: Design This looked cooler last year. Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

However, there are a couple of areas where OnePlus didn't really bring the wow factor this year, and the design of the phone is one of them.

It's not bad, but it is boring. Your three available colors are Infinite Black, Sand Storm, and Ultra Violet. So, in other words, two of the most uninteresting colors imaginable, and a third, more eye-catching one that OnePlus says will only be available in limited quantities. Bleh.

My other issue with the OnePlus 15 is that the rear camera bump is now a fairly safe-looking square (with rounded corners), rather than the more visually distinctive circular bump found on the OnePlus 13. At a glance (at least to the eyes of people who don't look at phones every day for their jobs), it just kinda looks like an off-brand iPhone. It's perfectly functional and inoffensive, but I wish it had a more unique look.

Other than that, though, the phone is at least comfortable to hold and the bezels around the display are very thin. This isn't a total boondoggle by any means; it's just a little boring.

OnePlus 15: Performance It charges fast, too. Credit: Joe Maldonado/Mashable

One area where OnePlus very much did not drop the ball is performance.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is probably one of the best chips you can get in a phone in the U.S. right now, or at least that's what the marketing says. I'm inclined to believe it, though, as the OnePlus 15 performs like a dream. Everything is smooth as silk, and even when running benchmarks or playing intensive games, it doesn't get too hot to the touch.

Speaking of games, those are what benefit the most from the maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. PUBG Mobile, in particular, is astoundingly smooth on this thing. I'm not a big mobile gamer at all, but if I was and I needed a new phone, I'd take a close look at this one.

And if you want numerical proof that this phone is powerful, I ran it through the Geekbench 6 benchmark test. Its multi-core score of 10,560 is about 500 points higher than the S25 Ultra, and about 700 points higher than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Again, this phone is cheaper than both of those. Geekbench numbers aren't necessarily the definitive word on a phone's performance, but I can more or less promise that you won't find any performance issues here.

OnePlus 15: AI features

Like any other high-end smartphone these days, the OnePlus 15 has some AI features. For the most part, it's pretty normal stuff, including integration with Google's Gemini chatbot. It's got automatic voice transcription in the sound recorder app and the ability to scan images and turn them into PDFs, both of which are nice and convenient, if not especially novel.

Mind Space is probably the most unique AI feature on the OnePlus 15. It's a pre-installed app that stores anything you ask the phone to analyze using Plus Mind. Plus Mind is something you activate by either pressing the Plus Key on the phone or swiping up on the screen with three fingers. Doing so will basically take a screenshot and use AI to analyze whatever is in it. For instance, I took a screenshot of some movie listings on a website for a theater near me. After doing that, I can go to Mind Space and look at a text analysis of what's in the screenshot, including the names of the movies and showtimes, and I can make calendar entries for them.

This is not bad, per se, but its usefulness is a little muted, in my opinion. It's nice that I can take a screenshot and automatically turn that into a calendar entry, I suppose, but an app that tells me what's on my screen feels a little redundant when I could simply look at the screen myself. I just don't know that this is doing anything that I can't already easily do with my brain.

OnePlus 15: Battery life

Battery life is, without a doubt, the standout feature of the OnePlus 15.

The 7,300mAh cell is, as previously noted, bigger than what you get in some other flagships. But that doesn't necessarily guarantee anything on its own. That said, I can confirm that this thing lasts a while. I would estimate that I could go about 30 hours between charges on the OnePlus 15, depending on what I'm using it for. My testing involved playing 3D games at high frame rates and streaming basketball on YouTube TV, so I might have been able to squeeze even more juice out of a charge without doing that.

In other words, the battery's real good, folks.

OnePlus 15: Camera

As I said in the specs section earlier, you get a trio of 50MP lenses on the rear end of the OnePlus 15. I love even numbers. They make my job easier.

Anyway, photos taken on the new OnePlus 15 look nice. Colors really pop and images are sharp and clear.

NYC is a little gloomy these days. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

As for nighttime shots, I don't have too many complaints here. You can brighten up the image without making them look too fake.

Left: No night photography here. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable Right: Night mode turned on here. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

For what it's worth, you do only get 3.5x optical zoom here, as opposed to slightly higher counts on some of the other flagship phones from big companies. You also get 7x "optical-quality" zoom, which is slightly lower than the 8x count on the iPhone 17 Pro. If you stick within those parameters, zoom shots look nice and sharp.

No zoom. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable 7x zoom. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

Macro photography is always a plus for photographers who love taking photos of tiny things.

Tiny. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable

And lastly, portrait mode works as you'd expect, too.

Portrait mode. Credit: Alex Perry/Mashable OnePlus 15: Final thoughts

OnePlus phones are honestly a little boring to talk about because they're quietly very good, fairly no-frills devices that you can get for a marginally more agreeable price than an iPhone. The OnePlus 15 is no different.

A quality display, a powerful processor, and a huge battery make this a perfectly acceptable handset for anyone in the market for an Android upgrade. I'd definitely take it over a Galaxy S25 Ultra, and maybe even over a Pixel 10 Pro. I wish it looked a little more interesting, but that's so far down the list of concerns with a smartphone that I can't hold it against OnePlus too much here.

The best early Black Friday gaming deals at a glance Best Xbox deal Xbox Elite Series 2 Core Wireless Gaming Controller $139.99 (save $60) Get Deal Best PlayStation deal PlayStation 5 Pro Console (Renewed) $662.99 (save $86.01) Get Deal Best Nintendo deal 8Bitdo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller for Switch/Switch 2 $55.99 (save $14) Get Deal Best PC gaming deal Thermaltake LCGS View u2880-380 Gaming Desktop (Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB SSD) $2752.46 (Save $447.53) Get Deal

Black Friday is jam-packed with gaming deals, and we're not just talking about actual games. Consoles, controllers, headsets, extra storage, gaming PCs, gaming laptops, and more are all fair game at this time of year. If you're looking to upgrade your battle station or add to your backlog, this is the best time to do it because there's already a ridiculous number of live early Black Friday deals to consider.

SEE ALSO: I found 8 DJI deals that you can shop right now ahead of Black Friday

And it's important to note that this isn't the end of the line. Make sure to bookmark this page as we'll be updating this article throughout the month for the best Black Friday gaming deals as they drop. Let's get straight into it:

Best early Black Friday Xbox deal Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Xbox Elite Series 2 Core Wireless Gaming Controller $139.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $60   Get Deal Why we like it

Whilst we're seeing price hikes across the board at camp Xbox, their best-in-class premium controller, the Elite Series 2 Core, is currently $60 off. It's one of the cheapest ways to get a modular controller that does the job on Xbox Series consoles and PC.

More early Black Friday Xbox dealsXbox controllers

• Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition Wired Gaming Controller — $79.99 $99.99 (save $20)

• Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flightstick — $109.99 $139.99 (save $30)

• Xbox Series X|S PDP Victrix Pro BFG Wireless Gaming Controller — $119.99 $199.99 (save $80)

• PowerA FUSION Pro Wireless Controller for Xbox Series X|S — $125.99 $169.99 (save $44)

• Xbox Wireless Controller (2025) Carbon Black + Fire TV Stick 4K Max Game Pass Ultimate 1 Month Bundle — $129.97 $144.97 (save $15)

• Xbox Series X|S Razer Wireless Controller & Quick Charging Stand Bundle — $145.67 $199.99 (save $55.32)

• Xbox Series X|S Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra High-Performance Wireless — $179.99 $219.99 (save $40)

• SCUF Instinct Pro Performance Series Wireless Xbox Controller — $199.99 $239.99 (save $40)

• Xbox Elite Series 2 Core Wireless Controller (Black) + Fire TV Stick 4K Max Game Pass Ultimate 1 Month Bundle — $219.97 $279.97 (save $60)

Xbox headsets

• Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Wireless Headset — $79 $89.99 (save $10.99)

• RIG 600 PRO HX Dual Wireless Universal Gaming Headset — $89.99 $99.99 (save $10)

Xbox games

• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 – Collector's Edition — $92.62 $129.99 (save $38.37)

Best early Black Friday PlayStation deal Opens in a new window Credit: Sony PlayStation 5 Pro Console (Renewed) $662.99 at Amazon
$749 Save $86.01 Save $86.01 Get Deal Why we like it

Getting a PlayStation 5 Pro for around the same price as the Xbox Series X is crazy talk, but Xbox is doing Xbox in 2025. This is a renewed deal, but you still get all the bells and whistles and a warranty from Amazon. For me, I'd sooner save the $90 and get a refurbised bit of kit. The main sell for the PlayStation 5 Pro is 120hz support, so if you have a TV that supports it, you can look forward to crisper visuals and more frames per second for a smoother experience compared to the base PS5.

More early Black Friday PlayStation dealsPlayStation consoles

• PlayStation 5 console (slim) (Renewed) — $515.74 $549.99 (save $34.25)

PlayStation headsets

• Sony INZONE H9 Gaming Headset — $198 $228 (save $20)

PlayStation games

• MLB The Show 23 — $31.49 $38.20 (save $6.21)

• Lego Horizon Adventures — $31.49 $38.20 (save $6.21)

• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — $35.99 $69.99 (save $34)

• Returnal — $36.38 $69.99 (save $33.61)

• Horizon Forbidden West Standard Edition — $36.38 $69.99 (save $33.61)

• MLB The Show 24: Collector's Edition — $37.99 $59.99 (save $22)

• The Last of Us Part II Remastered — $39.99 $49.99 (save $10)

• The Last of Us Part I — $39.99 $69.99 (save $30)

• Gran Turismo 7 Standard Edition — $44.70 $69.99 (save $25.29)

• Rise of the Ronin — $44.70 $69.99 (save $25.29)

• Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition — $51.99 $69.99 (save $18)

• Stellar Blade — $51.99 $69.99 (save $18)

• Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition — $52.99 $59.99 (save $8)

• Astro Bot — $52.99 $59.99 (save $8)

• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - Standard Edition — $59.99 $69.99 (save $10)

• Ghost of Yōtei — $65.99 $69.99 (save $4)

Best early Black Friday Nintendo deal Opens in a new window Credit: 8Bitdo 8Bitdo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller for Switch/Switch 2 $55.99 at Amazon
$69.99 Save $14.00   Get Deal Why we like it

This has replaced my Pro Controller when playing my Nintendo Switch 2. The buttons are nice and clicky, the RGB thumbsticks are a nice touch, and it feels great to hold. It carries the same minimalist aesthetic of Nintendo controllers, but feels more tactile. Plus, with the added discount and an included charging dock, you should be considering this controller for Nintendo Switch 1/2 and even PC.

More early Black Friday Nintendo dealsNintendo games

• Sonic Superstars - Nintendo Switch — $19.93 $29.99 (save $10.07)

• Sonic Mania + Team Sonic Racing Double Pack - Nintendo Switch — $23.64 $39.99 (save $16.35)

• Lego Horizon Adventures - Nintendo Switch — $26.87 $39.99 (save $13.12)

• Darksiders Genesis - Nintendo Switch — $36.75 $36.75 (save $19)

• Sonic Origins Plus & Sonic Frontiers - Nintendo Switch — $49.59 $79.98 (save $30.39)

• Demon Slayer - The Hinokami Chronicles 2 - Nintendo Switch — $53.84 $59.99 (save $6.15)

• Story of Seasons Bundle for Nintendo Switch — $54.82 $29.99 (save $5.16)

• Sid Meier's Civilization VII – Nintendo Switch 2 — $54.82 $29.99 (save $5.16)

• Mario Vs. Donkey Kong + Mario Pop PowerA Protection Case — $61.93 $69.98 (save $8.05)

• Dead Cells + Skul: The Hero Slayer Nintendo Switch — $66.34 $69.98 (save $3.64)

Nintendo controllers

• HORIPAD Turbo (Black) for Nintendo Switch 2 — $29.99 $36.99 (save $7)

• Nintendo Switch Wireless HORIPAD (Wario & Waluigi) — $32.99 $51.99 (save $19)

• PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller for Switch - PAC-MAN — $32.99 $51.99 (save $19)

• Mario Pop PowerA Enhanced Wireless Controller for Switch / Switch 2 — $53.92 $59.21 (save $19)

• CRKD NEO S - Wireless Collectible Controller — $54.41 $59.99 (save $5.58)

• HORI Split Pad Compact Attachment Set for Switch 1 — $62.46 $79.99 (save $17.63)

Best early Black Friday PC gaming deal Opens in a new window Credit: Thermaltake Thermaltake LCGS View u2880-380 Gaming Desktop (Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB SSD) $2,752.46 at Amazon
$3,199.99 Save $447.53 Save $447.53 Get Deal Why we like it

As a quick rule of thumb, NVidia GeForce RTX 5080 is the sweet spot for gaming rigs in 2025, smashing out 4K 60FPS performance at a minimum and having DLSS 4 to crank extra frames on lower spec builds overall. On AMDs side, the RX9700 XT is a cracking GPU, roughly $300 cheaper and great for similar levels of gaming. Personally, I prefer running mine RX9700 XT at 1440p for the higher frame rate.

This build rocks a RTX 5080 with a solid CPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM (16GB is enough for high-spec gaming right now), and a spacious 2TB M.2 SSD. It's a beastly gaming rig and is nearly $500 off, bringing this build to well under $2,800. Now that's an early Black Friday deal. I've also found some more great deals on pre-built gaming PCs, gaming laptops, mice, keyboards and headsets. If you need something for your loadout, it's here.

More early Black Friday PC gaming dealsPrebuilt Gaming PCs

• HP OMEN 45L Gaming Desktop — $1,399 $1,899 (save $500)

• GIGABYTE AORUS Gaming Desktop PC — $1,999.99 $2,099.99 (save $100)

• Corsair Vengeance i7500 Gaming PC — $2,072.45 $3,199.99 (save $1,127.54)

• Thermaltake LCGS View 7870TS-270 Gaming Desktop — $2,089.99 $2,499.99 (save $410)

• Skytech Gaming King 95 Desktop PC — $2,249.99 $2,499.99 (save $250)

• Skytech Gaming King 95 Desktop PC — $2,469.19 $2,899.99 (save $230.80)

• Corsair Vengeance a7500 Call of Duty Warzone Edition Gaming PC — $2,899.99 $3,399.99 (save $500)

• Thermaltake Reactor u2880S Gaming Desktop — $2,999.99 $3,299.99 (save $300)

• Corsair Vengeance a5100 Gaming PC — $5,999.99 $6,499.99 (save $500)

• Corsair Vengeance i8300 Gaming PC — $6,499.99 $6,999.99 (save $500)

Gaming laptops

• Acer Nitro V — $635.93 $769.99 (save $134.06)

• ASUS ROG Strix G16 — $1,499.99 $1,899.99 (save $400)

• Razer Blade 14 — $1,799.99 $2,099.99 (save $300)

• Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 AI — $2,099.99 $2,299.99 (save $200)

• Alienware M18 — $2,109.70 $2,216.96 (save $107.26)

• ASUS ROG Strix G18 — $2,199 $2,499.99 (save $300)

• Alienware 18 Area-51 — $2,999.99 $3,499.99 (save $500)

• GIGABYTE - AORUS Master 16 — $3,099.99 $4,299.99 (save $1,200)

• ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 16 (2025) — $3,729 $4,299.99 (save $570.99)

• ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) — $3,999 $4,499.99 (save $500)

Gaming monitors

• LG 34GX90SA-W 34-inch Ultragear Curved Gaming Monitor — $679.73 $1,399.99 (save $720.26)

• HP OMEN 31.5-inch UHD 144Hz Smart Gaming Monitor — $682.49 $839.99 (save $80)

• ASUS ROG Strix 26.5-inch 1440P QD-OLED Gaming Monitor — $699.99 $759 (save $150)

• AOC Agon PRO AG346UCD 34-inch Ultra Wide Curved Gaming Monitor — $699.99 $799 (save $100)

• MSI MAG341CQP QD-OLED, 34-inch Curved OLED Gaming Monitor — $699.99 $779 (save $80)

• Samsung 49-inch Odyssey G9 — $799.99 $1,299.99 (save $500)

• Sony INZONE M9 II 27-inch 4K UHD — $848 $949.99 (save $101.99)

• MSI MPG 321URX QD-OLED, 32-inch 4K UHD Quantum Dot OLED Gaming Monitor — $885.70 $1,049.99 (save $164.29)

• ASUS ROG Strix 34-inch Ultrawide QD-OLED HDR Gaming Monitor — $899 $999.99 (save $300)

• Samsung 32-inch Odyssey QD-OLED G8 (G81SF) — $999.99 $1,299.99 (save $300)

Gaming keyboards

• ASUS ROG Falchion Ace 65% RGB Compact Gaming Mechanical Keyboard — $84.38 $119.99 (save $35.61)

• Logitech G PRO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $99 $119.99 (save $10)

• Razer Huntsman V2 Analog Gaming Keyboard — $134.99 $249.99 (save $115)

• Razer BlackWidow V4 X Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $150.99 $169.99 (save $19.99)

• Glorious Gaming - GMMK 3 PRO Barebones Custom Keyboard Kit — $160.80 $239.99 (save $79.19)

• Logitech G715 Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $170.99 $219.99 (save $49)

• Logitech G PRO X TKL LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Keyboard — $179.99 $219.99 (save $40)

• Razer Huntsman V3 Pro Esports Gaming Keyboard — $199.99 $249.99 (save $50)

• Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $199.99 $249.99 (save $50)

• ASUS ROG Azoth Extreme Wireless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard — $399.99 $499.99 (save $100)

Gaming mice

• Logitech G705 Wireless Gaming Mouse — $69.99 $99.99 (save $30)

• HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 — $69.99 $89.99 (save $20)

• Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse with Hero 25K Sensor — $86.24 $119.99 (save $33.75)

• Logitech G PRO X SUPERLIGHT Wireless Gaming Mouse — $89.13 $149.99 (save $60.86)

• Razer Cobra HyperSpeed Wireless Gaming Mouse — $89.99 $99.99 (save $10)

• Logitech G903 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Mouse W/ Hero 25K Sensor — $94.99 $139.99 (save $50)

• Logitech G PRO 2 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse — $99.99 $149.99 (save $50)

• Razer Naga V2 Pro Wireless MMO Gaming Mouse — $159.99 $179.99 (save $20)

• Logitech G502 X Plus Wireless Gaming Mouse — $169.99 $179.99 (save $10)

• ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Extreme Wireless Esports Gaming Mouse — $199.99 $289.99 (save $90)

Gaming headsets

• Corsair HS55 Wireless HS55 Wireless Gaming Headset — $79.99 $99.99 (save $20)

• Logitech G535 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Headset — $89.99 $119.99 (save $30)

• ASTRO Gaming A20 Wireless — $93.99 $139.99 (save $46)

• Razer Barracuda Wireless Gaming & Mobile Headset — $99.99 $159.99 (save $60)

• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wireless — $119.99 $199.99 (save $80)

• Corsair HS65 Wireless Gaming Headset — $119.99 $199.99 (save $80)

• HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless - Gaming Headset — $130.99 $199.99 (save $69)

• Logitech G735 Wireless Gaming Headset — $167.99 $259.99 (save $92)

• JBL Quantum One Wired Headset — $199.95 $329.95 (save $130)

• Logitech Astro A30 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset — $199.97 $249 (save $49.03)

FREE RED CUP: Starbucks Red Cup Day takes place on Nov. 13, 2025. Buy any handcrafted holiday drink in any size to get a free reusable red cup.

Opens in a new window Credit: Starbucks Starbucks Red Cup Day 2025   Learn More

Is that the sound of sleigh bells in the distance? No, it’s the sound of coffee lovers gearing up for one of the most anticipated days of the year. Clear your schedules, because Starbucks’ holiday season officially started on Nov. 6.

So what exactly is included in this hotly-anticipated festive celebration? Starbucks is welcoming back those holiday beverages that we simply can't go a whole year without. We're talking about favorites like Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Iced Sugar Cookie Latte, and Iced Gingerbread Chai. And later in the season, two holiday classics — the Chestnut Praline Latte and Eggnog Latte — will make a glorious return. We don't know about you, but we're feeling the festive spirit.

SEE ALSO: Starbucks discloses secret menu, announces $25K drink contest

But that's not the highlight of the holidays. That's the return of Red Cup Day. On Nov. 13, Starbucks is giving away limited-edition reusable red cups for free with any handcrafted holiday beverage (at participating stores while supplies last). The free red cup is a 16-oz grande with a lid.

We really wouldn't want you to miss out on this special giveaway, so plan ahead. That might sound slightly ridiculous. This is a reusable cup, for goodness sake. But shockingly, people really love free stuff? Red Cup Day tends to draw large crowds, so arriving early or placing your order through the Starbucks app can help you beat the rush and secure your precious cup before they’re gone for good.

The Ozlo Sleepbuds, one of the most premium sleep earbuds around, is expanding their lineup.

As of Nov. 13, the brand has teamed up with Calm, the company behind the popular sleep and mediation app. The result? The new Ozlo x Calm Sleepbuds, which comes in a new calm blue colorway and with a big perk: a free year of either a Calm Premium or Calm Sleep subscription (which are valued at $80 and $70, respectively). The sleep earbuds retail for $349, the same price as the original Ozlo Sleepbuds at full price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ozlo Ozlo x Calm Sleepbuds $349 at Ozlo
Includes a free year of either Calm Premium or Calm Sleep Shop Now

At $349, the Ozlo Sleepbuds are one of the most expensive sleep earbuds on the market. Because of their higher price point, we don't currently recommend them unless you can find them on sale for less. (At the time of writing, the original Ozlo Sleepbuds are on sale for $299, but don't come with the Calm subscription). With that said, the more affordable sleep earbuds on the market don't currently have any existing partnership with a mindfulness and sleep company like Ozlo, meaning that these might be the perfect choice for someone interested in trying both sleep earbuds and a Calm subscription.

If you were to subtract the cost of the Calm Sleep subscription, the Ozlo Sleepbuds come out to $279, which puts them in a closer range to the $229.99 Anker Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds (though the latter option does come with ANC). The Ozlo Sleepbuds are also available to purchase with an HSA or FSA.

SEE ALSO: I tested sleep earbuds for months: Here are the 3 I'd buy, and the one I'd skip

Which Calm subscription you get depends on which device you plan on using with the Ozlo Sleepbuds. iOS users will have access to the Calm Sleep app, which is not currently supported for Android devices. As such, Android users will have access to the Calm Premium app. As for the main difference between the apps, the Calm Sleep's Apple App Store description notes the app provides "deeper, more personalized sleep support" over the more general Calm app.

Calm app subscriptions Calm Sleep $69.99 (for one year subscription) Shop Now Calm Premium $79.99 (for one year subscription) Shop Now

The Ozlo Sleepbuds also come with their own dedicated companion app, which can be used to set alarms, listen to sleep sounds, or stream your own audio — like the Calm app library.

In the press release for this collaboration, Calm's chief content officer, Greg Justice, spoke of the compatibility between the two brands: "“Put simply: sleep is a superpower. By combining Calm’s trusted content library with Ozlo’s best-in-class sleep tech, we’re enabling people to fall (and stay) asleep more easily, ensuring they wake up refreshed and ready to own the day.”

The Calm logo is engraved on the Ozlo x Calm Sleepbuds. Credit: Ozlo

 In addition to the blue colorway, the case for this collaboration features an engraved Calm logo and the brand's signature phrase, "Take a Deep Breath."

Best Buy's best early Black Friday deals at a glance: Best TV deal Hisense 50-inch QD6 Series QLED 4K Fire TV $199.99 (save $130) Get Deal Best laptop deal HP Victus 15 (AMD Ryzen 7 7445HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $549.99 (save $350) Get Deal Best earbuds deal Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) $249 (save $50) Get Deal Best portable speaker deal JBL Charge 6 $129.95 (save $70) Get Deal Best fitness tracker deal Garmin Venu Sq 2 (GPS, 40mm) $149.99 (save $100) Get Deal Best vacuum deal Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni C20 $349.99 (save $350) Get Deal Best kitchen deal De'Longhi Classic Espresso Machine $149.95 (save $80) Get Deal

Best Buy started offering Black Friday deals earlier than everyone else (on Halloween — scary!), but it's not the only retailer in Black Friday mode anymore. Most major retailers' early holiday discounts are now live, making the competition pretty ferocious.

After spending a full day combing through Best Buy's virtual shelves and cross-checking its prices, I can tell you that a lot of its early Black Friday deals are being one-upped elsewhere. Samsung Galaxy smartwatches, Sony portable speakers, several LG and Samsung 4K TVs, and other gadgets carrying its "Black Friday deal" badge are anywhere from $1.99 to $70 cheaper at other retailers. (Amazon is the biggest culprit, as per usual.)

SEE ALSO: The 30+ best early Black Friday Apple deals: We found record lows on AirPods and MacBooks already

I know most people don't have the bandwidth to do the same research, so I've compiled a list of the very best early Black Friday deals at Best Buy below. I've only included deals that aren't cheaper anywhere else, but know that many are being price-matched by one of Best Buy's rivals. I expect it to get more aggressive during its official Black Friday sale, which runs in stores and online from Nov. 20 to 29.

Why shop at Best Buy over Amazon, Target, or Walmart this holiday season? For one thing, it's giving away bonus rewards to paid My Best Buy members who drop a certain amount of money on certain products. (Spend at least $299 on a smartwatch, for example, and you'll get $30 to spend on a future purchase.) Best Buy is also running some limited-time doorbusters every weekend through Christmas, which typically involve discounts of well over 50% on popular products. If nothing else, be on the lookout for those.

Best TV deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 50-inch QD6 Series QLED 4K Fire TV $199.99 at Best Buy
$329.99 Save $130   Get Deal Why we like it

QLED TVs are brighter than your standard LED displays (but not as expensive as high-contrast OLED TVs). Mashable's Leah Stodart thinks they're "ideal for people whose TV usage happens mostly in the daytime, especially watching sports." Best Buy has this 50-inch Hisense model marked down to just $200 as an early Black Friday deal, beating its October Prime Day offer by nearly $40. It's currently sold out on Amazon.

43-inch TV deals

• Toshiba 43-inch C350 Series 4K Fire TV — $129.99 $299.99 (save $170)

• TCL 43-inch F35 Series 4K Fire TV — $149.99 $249.99 (save $100)

• Hisense 43-inch QD6 Series QLED 4K Fire TV — $169.99 $299.99 (save $130)

• LG 43-inch UA77 Series AI 4K TV — $229.99 $329.99 (save $100)

50 and 55-inch TV deals

• Insignia 50-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $169.99 $299.99 (save $130)

• Samsung 50-inch U7900 Series 4K TV — $229.99 $329.99 (save $100)

• Insignia 55-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $189.99 $349.99 (save $160)

• Samsung 55-inch Q8F Series QLED 4K TV — $599.99 $749.99 (save $150)

• Samsung 55-inch S90F Series OLED 4K TV — $1,199.99 $1,799.99 (save $600)

65-inch TV deals

• LG 65-inch UA77 Series AI 4K TV — $379.99 $499.99 (save $120)

• LG 65-inch 70A Series QNED AI 4K TV — $449.99 $579.99 (save $130)

• Samsung 65-inch Q8F Series QLED 4K TV — $699.99 $999.99 (save $300)

• Samsung 65-inch QN70F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $799.99 $1,199.99 (save $400)

• Samsung 65-inch S90F Series OLED 4K TV — $1,399.99 $2,499.99 (save $1,100)

70- and 75-inch TV deals

• Samsung 70-inch U7900 Series 4K TV — $399.99 $569.99 (save $170)

• Insignia 75-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $379.99 $529.99 (save $220)

• Samsung 75-inch Q6F Series QLED 4K TV — $599.99 $899.99 (save $300)

• Samsung 75-inch QN90F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $1,799.99 $2,999.99 (save $1,200)

Deals 77-inch TVs and bigger

• LG 77-inch B5 Series OLED AI 4K TV — $1,499.99 $2,999.99 (save $1,500)

• Samsung 77-inch S90F Series OLED 4K TV — $1,999.99 $3,499.99 (save $1,500)

• Samsung 85-inch QN90F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $2,299.99 $4,499.99 (save $2,200)

Best laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP Victus 15 (AMD Ryzen 7 7445HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $549.99 at Best Buy
$899.99 Save $350   Get Deal Why we like it

I only see a few gaming laptops dip below $600 every Black Friday season, and they tend to sell out pretty quickly. This 15-inch HP Victus model has a 144Hz display, a backlit keyboard with a numpad, and an HDMI port in case you want to hook it up to a TV. Now 395 off, it's currently the same price as the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE, our favorite Chromebook for gaming, which lacks a discrete GPU. (Chromebooks can only stream games; you need a dedicated graphics card to play AAA games natively.)

Windows laptops

• Asus Vivobook 14 (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $279.99 $529.99 (save $250)

• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 (AMD Ryzen 7 5825U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $399.99 $629.99 (save $230)

• Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155U, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $629.99 $1,049.99 (save $420)

Gaming laptops

• HP Omen 16 (AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,149.99 $1,579.99 (save $430)

Chromebooks

• Acer Chromebook 315 (ntel Celeron N4500, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC) — $119 $219.99 (save $100.99)

Best earbuds deal Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) $249 at Best Buy
$299 Save $50   Get Deal Why we like it

The second-generation QC Ultra are the best noise-cancelling earbuds we've tried. "As a premium option, you'd be hard-pressed to find earbuds with a better combination of comfort and noise cancellation," wrote lead shopping reporter Bethany Allard, our reviewer. Best Buy's pre-Black Friday deal of $249 (or $50 off) deal matches their record-low price on Amazon. Take your pick from five colors.

More earbuds deals

• JLab Go Pop ANC — $19.99 $29.99 (save $10)

• JLab Go Pods ANC — $20.99 $29.99 (save $9)

• JLab Epic Sport ANC 3 — $59.99 $99.99 (save $40)

• JLab Epic Lab Edition — $99.99 $199.99 (save $100)

• Bose Ultra Open Earbuds — $199 $299 (save $100)

Best portable speaker deal Opens in a new window Credit: JBL JBL Charge 6 $129.95 at Best Buy
$199.95 Save $70   Get Deal Why we like it

The new JBL Charge 6 is our favorite Bluetooth speaker for most people: It's "big enough to produce sound that will fill an outdoor party, yet still small enough to live on your bookshelf," our experts said. It can also charge smartphones, headphones, and other devices via USB-C — very handy. Best Buy, Amazon, and the JBL website all had it on sale for $129.95 at the time of writing (or $70 off). That appears to be an all-time low.

More portable speaker deals

• JBL Flip 7 — $109.95 $149.95 (save $40)

• Bose SoundLink Plus — $229 $269 (save $40)

Best fitness tracker deal

My Best Buy Plus and Total members get a $30 bonus reward for spending $299 or more on smartwatches and accessories.

Opens in a new window Credit: Garmin Garmin Venu Sq 2 (GPS, 40mm) $149.99 at Best Buy
$249.99 Save $100   Get Deal Why we like it

A 2022 release, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is a budget-friendly smartwatch with an always-on AMOLED display and a battery life of up to 11 days. It can track your steps, calories burned, respiration, an fluid intake, among other metrics, and it comes with over two dozen built-in sports apps. It's the only early Black Friday fitness tracker deal I spotted at Best Buy that Amazon isn't beating (just matching). It's the same price on Garmin's website, too.

Best vacuum deal

My Best Buy Plus and Total members get a $15 bonus reward for every $50 spent on floor care (up to $75).

Opens in a new window Credit: Eufy Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni C20 $349.99 at Best Buy
$699.99 Save $350   Get Deal Why we like it

The Omni C20 is a do-it-all robot vacuum that can also mop, empty itself, and wash and dry its mop pads. It offers 7,000 Pa of suction power, making it only a hair less powerful than the Eufy 10X Pro Omni, our favorite budget self-washing and drying robovac (which retails for $150 more). Best Buy and Amazon both have it on sale for $350, reviving its record-low price from October Prime Day.

More vacuum deals

• Dyson V9 Motorbar — $269.99 $599.99 (save $330)

Best kitchen deal

My Best Buy Plus and Total members get a $15 bonus reward for every $125 spent on small kitchen appliances (up to $75).

Opens in a new window Credit: De'Longhi De'Longhi Classic Espresso Machine $149.95 at Best Buy
$229.95 Save $80   Get Deal Why we like it

De'Longhi's entry-level espresso machine has 15 bars of pressure and a built-in frother with two steam settings (one for heating milk and another for making latte art). In the cheapest Black Friday espresso machine deal I've encountered so far, it's on sale for just $150 at Best Buy... and Amazon, Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma, and Macy's. It last hit that price in July.

More kitchen deals

• GE Profile Opal 2.0 Ultra Nugget Ice Maker — $399 $579.99 (save $180.99)

• De'Longhi Magnifica Evo Espresso Machine with Frother — $549.95 $899.95 (save $350)

• De'Longhi Magnifica Plus Automatic Espresso Machine — $999.95 $1,299.95 (save $300)

• De'Longhi Eletta Explore Espresso Machine — $1,499.95 $1,999.95 (save $500)

SAVE OVER $10: As of Nov. 13, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is on sale for $21.99 at Amazon. This deal saves you over $10 on list price ahead of Black Friday.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select $21.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $18.00   Get Deal

Did Amazon really need to release another Fire TV Stick? Were we crying out for more options? The honest answer is that it's probably overkill, but hey, we shouldn't complain about another budget-friendly streaming stick that can help to upgrade your TV for less. Plus, it's already on sale for its lowest-ever price at Amazon.

As of Nov. 13, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is on sale for $21.99 at Amazon. This deal saves you over $10 on list price ahead of Black Friday.

SEE ALSO: Amazon's top-of-the-line 55-inch Mini LED Fire TV is at its best price ever pre-Black Friday

The Fire TV Stick 4K Select lets you start streaming in 4K Ultra HD with HDR10+. Amazon promises that it’s the fastest 4K stick for under $40, so if speed is your thing, consider this your perfect streaming partner.

Setup is straightforward — simply plug in and connect to the WiFi to gain immediate access to Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, and whatever else you're subscribed to. It really is a hassle-free way to boost your streaming options.

Save over $10 on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select ahead of Black Friday.

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're into fashion.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for November 13, 2025 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Clothes

• Green: They lather

• Blue: Strainers

• Purple: A workroom

Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Attire

• Green: Foamy Things

• Blue: Things that use filters

• Purple: ___ Office

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #887 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Attire: DUDS, FIT, GETUP, THREADS

• Foamy Things: BEER, FIRE EXTINGUISHER, SEA, SHAVING CREAM

• Things that use filters: AIR PURIFIER, CIGARETTE, COFFEE MAKER, INSTAGRAM

• ___ Office: BOX, MICROSOFT, OVAL, POST

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 13, 2025

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

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

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're always doing laundry.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 13, 2025 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 13, 2025 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Out, damned spot!

The words are related to cleaning.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe ways to get clothes clean.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Stain Removal.

NYT Strands word list for November 13

• Spray

• Stain Removal

• Scrub

• Blot

• Soak

• Bleach

• Launder

• Steam

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

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