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TL;DR: Through 08 December, you can get the Koofr Cloud Storage 1TB plan for just £87.46 (reg. £644.22) — an 86% discount at the Mashable Shop.

Opens in a new window Credit: Koofr Koofr Cloud Storage 1TB plan £87.46 at the Mashable Shop
£644.22 Save £556.76 Get Deal

Losing your phone is painful enough, but if you tack on losing all your photos and videos, it’s tragic. The same goes for a fried hard drive on your computer or a busted tablet. Losing files is frustrating, but it’s a frustration that may be avoidable if you start using cloud storage for all the files you can’t afford to lose. Koofr Cloud Storage has a 1TB lifetime subscription for an unlimited number of devices, and it's a tidy way to prevent devastating file loss. 

For a limited time, a lifetime subscription to Koofr Cloud Storage (1TB) is just £87.46 (reg. £644.22). Head to the Mashable Shop to take advantage of this deal for a limited time.

What can you do with 1TB of cloud storage? 

Running out of space for new apps on your phone is a frustration you can avoid if you keep all your photos and videos safely in the cloud. Upload a file of any size to Koofr from any of your devices. 

Koofr also connects to other external cloud accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon, and OneDrive, so you can transfer files directly from one platform to another. And if you’re worried about duplicates wasting space, just use Koofr’s duplicate finder — a feature that’s only available with the 1TB lifetime plan. 

If you’re storing all your files online, they should be in a secure place. Koofr encrypts all files in rest and in transfer, so they’re only readable with your permission. You can still share files with other people, but it’s done by sharing links or by adding special access to folders or files. 

Store your files somewhere safe and convenient 

Koofr offers a single file hub for you to use across an unlimited number of devices. For a limited time, get a lifetime subscription to a Koofr Cloud Storage 1TB plan for just £87.46. Sale ends 08 December at 11:59 pm PST. 

Prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Live stream Celtic vs. Club Brugge in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Celtic have made a decent start to this year's Champions League, but they need to continue to pick up points if they want to progress to the knockout rounds. Club Brugge are only a point behind Celtic, so this matchup could be crucial to both team's chances of moving on in the competition.

There is still time for both teams to turn things around. If you want to watch Celtic vs. Club Brugge in the Champions League from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Celtic vs. Club Brugge?

Celtic vs. Club Brugge in the Champions League kicks off at 8 p.m. GMT on Nov. 27. This fixture takes place at Celtic Park.

How to watch Celtic vs. Club Brugge for free

Celtic vs. Club Brugge is available to live stream for free on Virgin Media Player in Ireland.

If you're abroad for this fixture, you might need to use a VPN to access Virgin Media Player. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Celtic vs. Club Brugge 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 Ireland

4. Visit Virgin Media Player

5. Watch Celtic vs. Club Brugge for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 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 access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Celtic vs. Club Brugge (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Virgin Media Player?

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

• Servers in 105 countries including Ireland

• 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 includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Celtic vs. Club Brugge in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

You won't find a better time to pick up a robot vacuum on the cheap than Black Friday. Here are the top Aussie robovac deals we've spotted this year so far:

Best ECOVACS Black Friday deals

• ECOVACS DEEBOT N10 Robot Vacuum Cleaner and Mop – A$379 (was $799, 53% off)

• ECOVACS DEEBOT X1 Turbo Robot Vacuum Cleaner – A$798 (was $1,498, 40% off)

• ECOVACS DEEBOT N8+ 3-in-1 Robot Vacuum – A$548 (was $799, 31% off)

• ECOVACS X2 Omni Robot Vacuum Cleaner – A$1,697 (was $2,499, 32% off)

Best iRobot Black Friday deals

• iRobot Roomba 692 Robot Vacuum – A$329 (was $499, 34% off)

• iRobot Roomba i7+ Robot Vacuum – A$1,249 (was $1,699, 26% off)

Best other Black Friday robot vacuum deals

• eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S (Slim) – A$159.99 (was $349.99, 54% off)

• Eureka J12 Ultra Robot Vacuum Cleaner – A$799 (was $1,599, 50% off)

• Eureka NER710 Robot Vacuum Cleaner – A$368 (was $599, 39% off)

• Lefant Robot Vacuum – A$139.90 (was $399.99, 60% off + $20 voucher)

After more Black Friday savings? Check out our guide to the best deals we've spotted in Australia.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday was originally a U.S. tradition, but is now very much a thing in all Western markets across the globe. In short, it has become the biggest period of sales for all retailers in all categories, to help clear our stock in the lead-up to the new year.

Meanhile, Cyber Monday is a recent addition to the Black Friday weekend, taking place the following Monday (in 2025, that's Dec. 2), but is more focused on online retailers. As the lines blur between commerce and e-commerce these days, Black Friday/Cyber Monday has become one connected week of deals.

When is Black Friday in 2024?

Black Friday 2024 officially takes place this Friday, Nov. 29, with Cyber Monday on Dec. 2. However, the whole week prior has now become informally known as 'Black Friday Week', and early deals begin to pop up throughout this week and even earlier. Amazon, for example, kicked their sale off on Nov. 19, and are running deals all the way up to Dec. 2.

What are the best items to buy on Black Friday/Cyber Monday?

You should expect huge discounts on big-ticket items like laptops, Hi-Fi, consoles and TVs. There also seems to be a slant towards gadgets and gift items, which makes sense with the holidays around the corner. Online retailers like Amazon, Kogan and Ebay will have strong deals in all categories. However, keep an eye out specifically for the following products:

• Appliances: Retailers like The Good Guys and Bing Lee always go big on Black Friday, dropping prices on pretty much everything they stock. You can expect deals on washing machines, fridges, freezers, kettles, toasters, and much more. If you're looking to stock up on appliances for your home, these sites should be your first stop.

• Games consoles: Finding console availability has been a total over the last couple of years, but things are definitely improving in Australia, with PS5 bundles being readily available on Amazon. That means there should be opportunities to pick up deals games and accessories for the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PS5 this year.

• Smartphones: Amazon always offers plenty of impressive deals on all sorts of smartphones.

• Toys: Black Friday is probably the best time of the year to shop for toys. The most in-demand toys will sell out fast in the run-up to Christmas, so this is a great opportunity to get in early. We recommend checking out Amazon for the best deals on Lego, especially for the massively popular Star Wars and Harry Potter sets.

• TVs: Black Friday is all about big deals on the biggest products, and that means TVs. We expect pretty much all of the leading retailers to offer fantastic deals on TVs of all sizes from top brands like Sony, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic. It's best to shop around for the best TV deals, because there are going to be so many, but you can't go wrong with The Good Guys, Bing Lee or Kogan.

• VPNs: Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are a fairly new addition to the Black Friday shopping scene, but there are some good deals available, especially by Cyber Monday. Cybersecurity is increasingly important, and VPNs offer online protection for your identity and data. All the leading services are likely to offer discounted rates over the week, and you should be able to find good deals on the likes of NordVPN, Surfshark VPN, ExpressVPN, PureVPN, and CyberGhost VPN.

Be sure to also be on the look out for deals on travel, subscription services, and laptops, because these are likely to feature heavily throughout this shopping season.

Dads often catch flak for corny jokes and being bad at texting, but father figures have another thing in common besides thinking terrible puns are hilarious: They're some of the most selfless people in the world.

To be honest, a lot of us wouldn't know how to live on our own if it wasn't for those father figures — this goes for uncles, stepdads, or anyone else who stepped up to take on that role, too. And though they probably insist that you don't have to get them anything, Father's Day is an extra-special time to show your appreciation.

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about Amazon Prime Day so far

That said, you can’t just phone it in and get him a mug that says "Dad." Sure, it's technically a gift for a dad — but it's also a terrible gift. No shame if you’ve done it before; dads can be notoriously tough to shop for, we know. But we can do way better than that this Father's Day!

That’s why we have you covered with awesome gift ideas for all kinds of guys, from the practical to the eclectic. (We can even help you out if you’re working with a tight budget thanks to this roundup of the best gifts under $50.) And, right here, we’ve rounded up dozens of the best gifts you can give your dad, whether he’s a grilling aficionado, an outdoor adventurer, a tech geek, or the chill kind of dad who just wants to kick back with a cold one and enjoy this fine June day dedicated to him.

From practical gadgets that make his life easier to sentimental keepsakes that tug on the heartstrings of even the most “tough guy” dads, you’re bound to find the best Father’s Day gift for your dad below.

Drake’s feud with Universal Music Group just escalated to DEFCON 1. The Toronto rapper has filed his second lawsuit against the music giant, with his lawyer having previously dropped allegations that UMG engaged in a "pay-to-play" scheme with iHeartRadio to boost Kendrick Lamar’s "false song" "Not Like Us" on the airwaves.

Yes, second lawsuit — this time alleging defamation. The first, filed on Monday to the New York State Supreme Court, claimed the label engaged in a scheme with Spotify, allegedly manipulating the platform in order to artificially inflate the popularity of "Not Like Us," an allegation that would provide an alternative explanation for the song's success besides music fans simply loving it. Lamar's track is a dancey, anthemic rap song, but it's also a diss track that directly throws shots at Drake, including lyrics that accuse the "Certified Lover Boy" of harboring sexual predators in his entourage, and going so far as to label them "certified pedophiles."

SEE ALSO: Kendrick Lamar and Drake's rap beef is big business for content creators

Heavy stuff, and it’s hit harder than anyone could've predicted. "Not Like Us" has become a cultural juggernaut, achieving a record-breaking tenure at the top of the Billboard rap chart, two separate peaks as the number one U.S. song on any chart, over 900 million Spotify streams at the time of this writing. The track has even been nominated for five Grammy awards as well (one of which is for the track's producer, not Lamar).

A spokesperson for Universal Music Group has vehemently denied the allegations, calling them "offensive and untrue." The statement went on to claim, "No amount of contrived and absurd legal arguments in this pre-action submission can mask the fact that fans choose the music they want to hear."

Spotify, meanwhile, has declined to comment, despite multiple outlets reaching out for a response.

Drake’s Monday filing stops short of a full legal complaint. Instead, it’s a petition that could escalate into a lawsuit, with key figures from UMG and iHeartRadio expected to face depositions as Drake’s legal team seeks to gather evidence.

UMG has a deal to license Drake's music releases under its Republic label alongside releases from Drake's own Canadian label OVO Sound. According to Drake’s lawyers, there is "more than enough evidence" that UMG failed to take any action to prevent Lamar from defaming him on "Not Like Us." They argue this lack of intervention is particularly significant given that Lamar is signed to Interscope, which, like Republic, is under the very large UMG umbrella.

The filings on Monday and Tuesday come just days after Lamar released his surprise album GNX, which The Ringer's Charles Homles calls "a 45-minute treatise on the power of rolling up to your biggest hater's funeral to ensure they’ve departed this mortal coil."

Drake is so Draking this thing with Kendrick Lamar we’re gonna have to rename the Streisand Effect.

— Alex Cranz (@cranz.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 10:53 AM

Curiously, Lamar himself has not been named in any of the lawsuits. However, the filings argue that UMG showed favoritism for monetary gain between two artists signed under Universal at the expense of Drake's reputation.

Amazon gift cards usually come with the starting balance printed on the physical card or mentioned in the email if you receive an eGift card. But what if you want to check the balance on a gift card that you previously redeemed to see if you have enough left over to splurge on Black Friday? Or maybe you want to reload a gift card you've already used up? Check the state of your gift cards before your Cyber Week shopping spree by following the steps below.

How to check your Amazon gift card balance on your desktop

Step 1: Open the Amazon website.

Step 2: Click on Accounts & Lists on the top right corner of the screen.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon website

Step 3: A new menu page will open on the website. Select Gift cards.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon website

Step 4: Once you click, you'll be able to see the existing balance on your gift card. If you are checking the balance on an unredeemed gift card and wish to redeem it, you can click on Redeem a Gift card. You can also opt to Reload your card in this menu or check your transaction history which is listed below the gift card balance.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon website How to check your Amazon gift card balance in the app

Step 1: Open the app and click on the account icon at the bottom of the landing page (the little person illustration). Then choose Account at the top of the landing page.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

Step 2: Scroll down until you see the Payments section.

Step 3: In the Payments section, click on Manage gift card balance.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

Step 4: Use the new menu that opens to check your gift card balance, reload your gift card, or check past activity.

Credit: Screenshot: Amazon

The holidays can prove challenging for myriad reasons. Family can be hard. Traveling sucks. But, if your budget is tight, the holiday season can be incredibly stressful.

TikTok creator @dollartreedinners seems to understand that fact and has worked to help folks out on Thanksgiving. That creator, real name Rebecca Chobat, has published a viral series of videos making Thanksgiving food out of affordable options available at Dollar Tree. To be clear, the series isn't stunt food or cosplaying Chopped; Chobat seems genuinely interested in giving folks holiday options on a really tight budget. As her username suggests, Chobat has dedicated her sizable following — nearly 2 million followers on TikTok alone — to helping folks eat for less.

The series started with a shopping video that has garnered some 3 million views. For just $20, Chobat bought the ingredients to make a fried mac and cheese appetizer, a Thanksgiving casserole, and a caramel sugar cookie bar with fruit pie filling.

Sure, the recipes are not gourmet. How could they be? And that's not really the intention. The food looks quite tasty and certainly squeezes the absolute most out of a small budget.

Chobat's casserole, for instance, combines packaged potatoes, canned turkey, canned green beans, dried cranberries, and some margarine to create an entire dish guaranteed to deliver the perfect Thanksgiving bite. The fried mac and cheese balls, meanwhile, reimagine the blue box classic. And what could be bad about sugar cookies with pie filling for dessert?

If you want to feel a bit of hope, read through the comments on these videos from Chobat. In an internet age where most things are negative, this series has inspired some real positivity. You'll see comments like, "I work at Dollar Tree and have seen so many people buying these ingredients," or "I needed this," or, "my mom made something like this and I loved it."

Most notably, a TikTok from creator @CalebCooks94 went super viral in response to Chobat's series. He described being at the Dollar Tree and meeting a woman using Chobat's recipes to feed her three kids this Thanksgiving. He talked about witnessing Chobat making a real difference for folks who thought their holiday options were limited.

And as if things couldn't get more wholesome, Chobat responded in the comments: "I really hope she and her family loves the Thanksgiving dinner and thank you so much for sharing this story!! It brought tears to my eyes."

Chobat has made Dollar Tree Thanksgiving recipes in years past and, obviously, has a channel dedicated to helping folks eat on a budget. In a video responding to a comment about canned turkey, she thoughtfully noted that her channel — and her Thanksgiving series, especially — are dedicated to helping folks find options. Not everyone has a huge budget. Not everyone has a full-size oven or fridge. Not everyone is physically capable of lifting a whole turkey. She makes TikToks for people who need to get around those roadblocks.

Mashable has reached out to Chobat for comment and will update if necessary. But, in general, it is nice to see success for a creator who really seems to be focused on helping folks. And it's certainly great to see folks who need the help get the chance to make tasty food for the holiday.

There are now at least two patients who have had Neuralink's brain chip implanted in their head. While there have been some bumps in the road, it appears that things are going well enough for Elon Musk's neurotechnology company to look ahead at what's next.

So, what's Neuralink looking at testing out now?

Neuralink aims to embed its brain chip into robotic limbs to achieve what Musk refers to as the “Luke Skywalker solution.”

Controlling a robotic arm with Neuralink?

Neuralink is planning trials to determine if its brain chip implant can control an “investigational assistive robotic arm.”

"This is an important first step towards restoring not only digital freedom, but also physical freedom," Neuralink said in a statement.

Neuralink is referring to these tests as the CONVOY study.

Musk has previously discussed this possibility before. One of the goals of Neuralink has been to help "restore full body movement" for individuals with spinal cord injuries, quadriplegia, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 

"When a Neuralink is combined with Optimus robot limbs, the Luke Skywalker solution can become real," Musk said in a post on X in Sept. 2023. He included a link to a scene showcasing Luke Skywalker's robotic prosthetic hand from the Star Wars trilogy.

Neuralink has previously faced scrutiny over the deaths of at least 12 monkeys used in trials. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine alleges that Musk misled investors by claiming Neuralink was not responsible for any monkey deaths.

There's a special corner of the internet that delights in telling people to be grateful. Between hashtags like #blessed and #grateful and "thankful grateful" TikToks, it can be a little much, especially when you're knee-deep coping with difficult emotions like sadness, anger, and resentment.

What's often missing from the gratitude conversation on social media is permission to acknowledge life's complexities. As we head into a holiday season full of sentimental reminders to be grateful, you might be tempted to dismiss gratitude practices as inauthentic or forced.

Yet the right gratitude meditation can help you strike a rewarding balance between experiencing the enlivening grace of this practice and letting challenging emotions be what they are.

Meditation teacher Diana Winston says practicing gratitude can create space for people to turn toward positive emotions that counteract, but do not erase, negativity and hardship. It can also help people notice and appreciate their surroundings in ways they hadn't before, observing features of the landscape, for example, that they'd overlooked.

The act of being present in your life can naturally lead to feeling thankful, says Winston, whose own gratitude meditation is included in the roundup of tracks below.

SEE ALSO: I used an AI journal for a week. What I learned about myself surprised me.

She notes that an effective gratitude meditation can help you access feelings of gratitude, which include warmth and connection. Skeptics should know that these tracks might encourage listeners to use visualization or reflect on how gratitude makes their body feel; language that might make them feel awkward, dorky, or embarrassed. Winston says that's fine.

"Leave space for a complicated humanness," says Winston, director of UCLA Mindful. "It's OK to feel grateful and also feel tired or annoyed."

Unlike a lot of #gratitude content on social media, the guided meditations below don't traffic in toxic positivity. There's no instruction to replace negative feelings with positive ones, or to transform something painful into a reason for giving thanks.

In general, when selecting a guided meditation, feel free to skip tracks that make assumptions about the listener's resources or abilities. If you're blind and the meditation teacher is asking you to feel grateful for the power of sight, or if you're struggling financially and being told to give thanks for your income, this may very well feel inauthentic, if not insulting.

If meditation isn't your thing, Winston says there are other ways to practice gratitude, including making a gratitude list or sending a letter of thanks to someone you care about.

"Leave space for a complicated humanness. It's OK to feel grateful and also feel tired or annoyed." - Diana Winston, director of UCLA Mindful

If you're interested in trying online guided gratitude meditations, the free tracks below range from short, straightforward instruction to more advanced or complex techniques. To further explore a gratitude practice, consider using an app like Happier, Calm, Insight Timer, or Headspace. (Headspace and Happier offer greater accessibility to all users by providing guided tracks with closed captioning. UCLA Mindful's app, which is free to use, offers guided meditations in American Sign Language.)

1. Mindful: A Meditation Series (Growing Gratitude Guided Meditation)

Length: 6 minutes

This brief YouTube guided meditation was published by the National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability as part of a series of guided meditations. The captioned video track focuses on gratitude for being enough as you are, rather than focusing on striving for more. Among its prompts is an invitation to think of one thing that made the listener smile recently, like a meal or funny joke, and then to consider how that joy feels in their body.

2. Gratitude Meditation, Jack Kornfield

Length: 7 minutes

Trained as a Buddhist monk and clinical psychologist, Jack Kornfield is a well-known meditation teacher. Hosted on Kornfield's website, this short audio guided meditation begins with descriptions of the gratitude practices of Buddhist monks, Native people, and Tibetan monks and nuns. He defines gratitude as the "gracious acknowledgement of all that continues to sustain us" and "confidence in life itself." The focus of the meditation is gratitude for how the listener cared for themselves and others cared for them as well.

3. The Massive Power of Not Taking Sh*t for Granted, Matthew Hepburn

Length: 12 minutes

This audio track is from the Ten Percent Happier Podcast, but it can be easily played online via iHeart. Starting with a brief intro from podcast host and Ten Percent Happier co-founder Dan Harris, it features meditation teacher Matthew Hepburn, who asks listeners to begin by acknowledge exactly how they feel.

There's no need to replace the emotion a listener currently feels with anything else, he says, and prompts listeners to think of something for which they're grateful, whether it's as "extraordinary" as winning the lottery or "ordinary" as breathing fresh air. He then asks them to contemplate the sensory details of the experience to make the memory "come alive" in the moment.

4. Reset & Refocus With Gratitude, Lama Rod Owens

Length: 16 minutes

Hosted by the meditation app Insight Timer, this web-based audio track features renowned teacher Lama Rod Owens. A Black Buddhist minister, Owens is skilled at recognizing how gratitude serves people while also making room for their anger and disappointment.

In this guided meditation, Owens asks listeners to feel gratitude for their connections to all beings. When thoughts turn toward anger at someone for their behavior, Owens contemplates the gratitude he might feel when people show you how not to be in the world. To learn more about how Owens balances gratitude with intense feelings, check out his 2020 guided meditation published on YouTube by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

5. Morning Meditation with Tara Brach: Presence and Gratitude

Length: 19 minutes

Tara Brach is among the most-well known meditation instructors, online and offline. In this guided audio mediation, published on YouTube, Brach slowly leads listeners through developing sustained awareness of their body's sensations. This present-moment awareness then gives way to reflection on what listeners feel grateful for, and an invitation to feel that in "your body and your heart." That gratitude, says Brach, might help you know what your prayer is for today.

6. Hammer Podcast: Gratitude, Diana Winston

Length: 32 minutes

This audio-only track is a recording of the Hammer Podcast, a drop-in meditation hosted by UCLA Mindful and the Hammer Museum. In this episode, Winston, author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness, spends the first several minutes talking about what gratitude means and how it can be practiced.

The meditation itself begins at about eight minutes in, with a prompt to consider what in this moment can be appreciated. This might be as simple as the listener's breath or family. Then Winston asks what this feels like in the listener's body, like warmth or a smile, inviting them to let this feeling stay with them even as other emotions may arise.

Since the guided meditation occurred online with a live audience, it concludes with Winston reading what people dropped in the chat when she asked them to share their gratitude. Their responses included "pineapples, my apartment, free food, my cat, my dog, sunlight, joy, road trips, and my 99-year-old mom." It's a lovely reminder that when given the opportunity, we can all find gratitude for something, however small.

Best Early Black Friday Deals Under $50 Best tech deal under $50 Amazon Echo $49.99 at Amazon (Save $50) Get Deal The Last of Us Part I for PlayStation 5 $29.99 at Best Buy (Save $40) Get Deal Best home and kitchen deal BrüMate Era 40 oz. Tumbler $30.14 at Amazon (Save $14.85) Get Deal

Some of the best savings you'll find during Black Friday are on the small stuff. Yes, you can find hundreds of dollars of savings on big ticket items like TVs and laptops, but when you actually look at those percentages, things are only maxing out around 25 or 30%.

While deal hunting this holiday season, some of the best sales are on products falling under $50. Whether you're looking for kitchen or smart home tech, or a new video game to play during your holiday PTO, here are the best deals under $50 to shop.

Best tech deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo $49.99 at Amazon
$99.99 Save $50.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Amazon's line-up of Echo devices is extensive so why not just make things simple and go with the original? This smart home hub is a speaker first, delivering premium sound while responding to voice controls. But you can maintain your home, too, with the Echo's built-in Alexa that helps set routines whether you need a daily alarm or want the lights to come on once the sun sets.

Right now, you can find the OG Amazon Echo for $49.99. That knocks a generous $50 off for 50% savings.

More tech deals under $50

• Amazon Echo Dot Kids — $27.99 $59.99 (save $32)

• Roku Streaming Stick 4K — $29 $49.99 (save $20.99)

• JBL Go 4 — $39.95 $49.95 (save $10)

• Sony XB100 Bluetooth Speaker — $39.99 $59.99 (save $20)

• Sony WH-CH520 Headphones — $39.99 $59.99 (save $20)

• Chromecast with Google TV — $39.99 $49.99 (save $10)

• Amazon Echo Spot — $44.99 $79.99 (save $35)

• Amazon Echo Show 5 — $44.99 $89.99 (save $45)

• Amazon Fire 7 Tablet — $44.99 $79.99 (save $35)

• JBL Clip 5 — $49.95 $79.95 (save $30)

• JBL Tune Buds — $49.99 $99.99 (save $50)

• Beats Solo Buds Earbuds — $49.99 $79.99 (save $30)

• Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet — $49.99 $99.99 (save $50)

• JBL Tune 235NC Earbuds — $49.99 $99.99 (save $50)

• Google Nest Audio Smart Speaker — $49.99 $99.99 (save $50)

• JBL Tune 670NC Headphones — $49.99 $99.99 (save $50)

• Amazfit Bip 5 Unity Smartwatch — $49.99 $69.99 (save $20)

Best gaming deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy The Last of Us Part I $29.99 at Best Buy
$69.99 Save $40.00 Get Deal Why we like it

The second season of The Last of Us is coming in 2025, and if you still haven't played the video game, now is your time to catch up. Ahead of Black Friday, find The Last of Us Part I for PlayStation 5 marked down 57%. It's down to $29.99, saving you $40. Plus, you can save 15% on Astro Gaming headsets with the purchase of a video game at Best Buy.

And while you're at it, you may as well pick up The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PlayStation 5, which is also on sale ahead of Black Friday.

More gaming deals under $50

• NBA 2K25 for PlayStation 5 — $29.99 $69.99 (save $40)

• Hogwarts Legacy for PlayStation 5 — $29.99 $49.99 (save $20)

• Super Mario Odyssey for Nintendo Switch — $29.99 $59.99 (save $30)

• EA Sports FC 25 for PlayStation 5 — $29.99 $69.99 (save $40)

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch — $34.99 $59.99 (save $25)

• The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PlayStation 5 — $39.99 $49.99 (save $10)

• Nintendo Switch Sports — $39.99 $49.99 (save $10)

• Nintendo Switch Pro Wireless Controller — $49.99 $69.99 (save $20)

Best home and kitchen deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: BrüMate BrüMate Era 40 oz. Tumbler $30.14 at Amazon
$44.99 Save $14.85 Get Deal Why we like it

I'm not here to pry your Stanley Cup out of your hand, but I am here to tell you that you have other options. An underrated entry in the 40 oz. tumbler market is the BrüMate Era 40 oz. Tumbler. It keeps beverages ice cold and every part is dishwasher-safe, but the real showstopper is the locking lid. The top of the lid slides to lock and unlock so when you're on the go, the tumbler becomes totally spill proof if you want to toss it in the bag.

During Amazon's early Black Friday sale, find the BrüMate Era 40 oz. Tumbler for $30.14, taking $15.85 off the price.

More home and kitchen deals under $50

• Levoit 28DB Humidifier — $28.49 $39.99 (save $11.50)

• Magic Bullet Blender — $29.49 $49.99 (save $20.50)

• Blink Smart WiFi Video Doorbell — $29.99 $59.99 (save $30)

• Blink Outdoor 4 Security Camera — $39.99 $99.99 (save $60)

• KitchenAid Ultra 5-Speed Mixer — $44.99 $59.99 (save $15)

• KitchenAid 3.5-Cup Food Chopper — $44.99 $59.99 (save $15)

• Nutribullet Personal Blender — $48.99 $69.99 (save $21)

GET $320 OFF: As of Nov. 26, you can get an ASUS Zenbook Duo Laptop for just $1,179.99. That's 21% off the original price or $320 off.

Opens in a new window Credit: ASUS ASUS Zenbook Duo Laptop $1,179.99 at Amazon
$1,499.99 Save $320.00 Get Deal

The ASUS Zenbook Duo Laptop packs together multiple types of productivity into one multi-screened package. Not only does it provide more screen for your buck, this Black Friday deal gets you even more bang for your buck, with 21% off.

If you’re all-in on digital drawing and visual design we think this ASUS laptop could be the right pick for you. Eliminating the need for an expensive drawing tablet accessory, it includes a drawing and touch screen.

SEE ALSO: Slash $450 off the new Microsoft Surface laptop ahead of Black Friday

The Duo’s touchscreen can work in tandem with the included Bluetooth keyboard or function as a virtual keyboard. Beyond touch and drawing, the dual OLED displays can function side by side in portrait or landscape mode. Use the second screen as a secondary monitor to read and edit documents side by side. We loved how it juggles different apps simultaneously.

Nov. 26 the ASUS Zenbook Duo Laptop is available for $1,179.99 as part of Amazon's early Black Friday sale. Buy it now and save 21%, or $320.

With Intel Arc Graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and Windows 11, this laptop isn’t all screen, it also has some solid power. Its 1TB solid state drive should give most people the space they need for storage.

TL;DR: Live stream Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Sporting Lisbon face off against Arsenal in the fifth round of Champions League fixtures. It's going to be an epic clash between two exciting sides.

Sporting Lisbon are unbeaten in this year's competition with three wins from four games, including a stunning victory over Manchester City. Arsenal aren't far behind, and will be looking to capitalise on the fact that Sporting Lisbon have just lost their talented manager.

If you want to watch Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal in the Champions League from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal?

Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal in the Champions League kicks off at 8 p.m. GMT on Nov. 26. This fixture takes place at the Estádio José Alvalade.

How to watch Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal for free

Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal is available to live stream for free on Virgin Media Player in Ireland.

If you're abroad for this fixture, you might need to use a VPN to access Virgin Media Player. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal 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 Ireland

4. Visit Virgin Media Player

5. Watch Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 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 access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Virgin Media Player?

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

• Servers in 105 countries including Ireland

• 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 includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Sporting Lisbon vs. Arsenal in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Live stream Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid in the Champions League for free on Virgin Media Player. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The fifth round of Champions League fixtures includes some really exciting matchups, including Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid. Neither side has really impressed in this year's competition, but there is still time to turn things around.

Atletico Madrid will be favorites to win this important game, but Sparta Prague possess the quality to cause an upset.

If you want to watch Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid in the Champions League from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid?

Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid in the Champions League kicks off at 5:45 p.m. GMT on Nov. 26. This fixture takes place at the epet ARENA.

How to watch Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid for free

Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid is available to live stream for free on Virgin Media Player in Ireland.

If you're abroad for this fixture, you might need to use a VPN to access Virgin Media Player. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid 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 Ireland

4. Visit Virgin Media Player

5. Watch Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 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 access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Virgin Media Player?

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

• Servers in 105 countries including Ireland

• 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 includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Sparta Prague vs. Atletico Madrid in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Live stream Manchester City vs. Feyenoord in the Champions League for free with a 30-day trial of Prime Video. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Champions League is back with another batch of really intriguing matchups, including Manchester City vs. Feyenoord.

Macnester City are struggling right now, but they've still got a decent record in this year's Champions League. A win against Feyenoord should put them firmly back in the running for a top eight finish. Feyenoord are further back in the standings, but still have a good chance of making the playoffs with some positive results.

If you want to watch Manchester City vs. Feyenoord in the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Manchester City vs. Feyenoord?

Manchester City vs. Feyenoord in the Champions League starts at 8 p.m. GMT on Nov. 26. This fixture takes place at the Etihad Stadium.

How to watch Manchester City vs. Feyenoord for free

Manchester City vs. Feyenoord is available to live stream on Prime Video in the UK, but you don't need to be subscribed to Amazon Prime to watch this fixture. Instead, you can watch Manchester City vs. Feyenoord (plus more Champions League fixtures) for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.

If you're abroad for this fixture, you might need to use a VPN to watch the Champions League for free on Prime Video. This process is straightforward:

1. Sign up for a 30-day Amazon Prime trial (if you're not already a member)

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

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

4. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

5. Watch Manchester City vs. Feyenoord for free from anywhere in the world on Prime Video

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 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 Manchester City vs. Feyenoord on Prime Video without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream select Champions League fixtures before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Prime Video?

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

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• 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.

Stream Manchester City vs. Feyenoord in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

UPDATE: Nov. 26, 2024, 10:40 a.m. EST This story has been updated with more Black Friday laptop deals at Amazon, including all-new top picks.

Amazon's best Black Friday laptop deals at a glance: Best MacBook deal Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $844 (save $255) Get Deal Best Windows laptop deal Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) $1,549.99 (save $450) Get Deal Best gaming laptop deal Acer Nitro V 15 (Intel Core i7-13620H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $749.99 (save $250) Get Deal Best Chromebook deal Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC) $299.99 (save $100) Get Deal

Amazon's laptop deals are unusually competitive during its Black Friday Week sale (live now through Friday, Nov 29.)

For reference, Best Buy is typically the major retailer with the best Black Friday laptop deals simply because it stocks the biggest selection. There are tons of discounts on a slew of configurations across a variety of brands there, including lots of newer models. (Best Buy is the exclusive retailer partner for a bunch of this year's Copilot+ PCs, for example.)

Meanwhile, Amazon typically zeroes in on Apple MacBooks and a handful of options from Acer, Asus, LG, Microsoft, and Samsung during major savings events. It seems to pick and choose its Windows models pretty randomly, so those who shop there exclusively may have to settle for a configuration that doesn't have the exact specs they want.

Amazon and Best Buy usually offer the exact same deals where their inventories overlap, but in the case of Black Friday 2024, the former has managed to crush its competitor in several notable cases. The base configuration of the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air (now with 16GB of RAM) is $5 cheaper on Amazon than at Best Buy, for instance, while the base M4 Pro-powered MacBook Pro is $50 cheaper.

Among Windows laptops, the Mashable Choice Award-winning Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is $150 less at Amazon, and the highly rated Asus Zenbook Duo is $100 cheaper even with an extra boost from a My Best Buy discount.

SEE ALSO: All the best early Black Friday deals at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart

Things reach more of a stalemate when it comes to gaming laptops. Best Buy has the best overall deal with its $600 discount on the Alienware m16 R2, Mashable's top gaming laptop of 2024. And the $430 HP Victus featured in one of its doorbusters is the cheapest gaming laptop we've seen thus far. That said, Amazon is offering a pretty stellar deal on a variant of the Acer Nitro V 15, the best budget gaming laptop we've tried. It's actually better than advertised.

Keep in mind that Amazon does not offer price matching, but most items purchased there through Dec. 31 can be returned until Jan. 31, 2025 — save for MacBooks, which can be sent back until Jan. 15. (For its part, Best Buy's price match guarantee does not apply to competitors' offers when they're marked as Black Friday deals. It may eventually decide to conform to Amazon's prices on its own, but there's no telling if or when.)

Read on for a more detailed rundown of the best laptop deals available from Amazon's Black Friday Week sale. We'll continue to price-check our featured offers and look for more deals as the sale progresses, so check back often.

Note: Any deal marked with a 🔥has dropped to a record-low price.

Best MacBook deal at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $844.00 at Amazon
$1,099.00 Save $255.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Read Mashable's full review of the Apple MacBook Air (M3).

The M3 Air is Mashable's favorite MacBook for most people, combining an "exquisite keyboard" with dual external monitor support and "zippy performance," wrote Mashable Tech Editor Kim Gedeon. (She gave it a 4.3/5 in her review.) As briefly mentioned, Apple just upgraded the base configuration from 8GB of memory to 16GB, making it an especially great value at its current sale price.

Amazon has the 13-inch model on sale for just $844 during its Black Friday Week sale, or $255 off its $1,099 MSRP — a 23% savings and a new record-low. It's now less than $100 more than the M2 version, so it's easy to recommend over its predecessor for future-proofing's sake.

The 15-inch version is also on sale for $255 off at Amazon, which Best Buy has decided to match.

More MacBook deals at Amazon:

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M2, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $749 $999 (save $250) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M3, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $1,044 $1,299 (save $255) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,399 $1,599 (save $200) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,749 $1,999 (save $250) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2,199 $2,499 (save $300) 🔥

• Amazon MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,899 $3,199 (save $300) 🔥

Best Windows laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) 🔥 $1,559.99 at Amazon
$1,999.99 Save $440.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Read Mashable's full review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7.

Microsoft's slick Qualcomm-powered laptop lasted nearly 23 hours in our battery life test and one-upped the M3 MacBooks in our performance benchmark (both the Air and the Pro models). If Windows on Arm doesn't pose any compatibility issues for your go-to apps, we think it's the best Windows laptop for most people. It's a Mashable Choice Award-winner that got a 4.8/5 rating from Gedeon, which makes it one of our highest-rated laptops of 2024. (The Asus Zenbook Duo got the same score.)

The 13-inch model we tested came with a Snapdragon X Elite CPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. It usually retails for a hefty $1,999.99, but Amazon's Black Friday Week sale has brought it down to just $1,549.99 there. That's 23% off and another new all-time low. It was $1,699.99 at Best Buy and $1,599 in the Microsoft Store at the time of writing, FYI.

If you don't want to spend that much, pared-down configurations start at $849.99.

More Windows laptop deals at Amazon:

• Asus Vivobook Go 15 (AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $309.99 $389.99 (save $80) 🔥

• Acer Aspire 3 (AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $399.99 $509.99 (save $110) 🔥

• Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $899.99 (save $200) 🔥

• Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7640 (Intel Core i7-13620H, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $699.99 $999.99 (save $300) 🔥

• LG gram 15 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $846.99 $1,499.99 (save $653) 🔥

• Asus Zenbook Duo (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,179.99 $1,499.99 (save $320) 🔥

• LG gram Pro 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,299.99 $1,999.99 (save $700) 🔥

2-in-1 laptops

• LG gram 14 2in1 (Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $799.99 $1,299.99 (save $500) 🔥

• Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (Snapdragon X Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,679.99 $2,099.99 (save $420) 🔥

Gaming laptop deals

• Asus TUF Gaming A15 (AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $649.99 $799.99 (save $150) 🔥

• Acer Nitro V 15 (Intel Core i7-13620H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $749.99 $999.99 (save $250) 🔥

• Asus ROG Strix G17 (AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $799.99 $1,199.99 (save $400) 🔥

• MSI Katana 15 (Intel Core i7-13620H, Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,099.99 $1,399.99 (save $300) 🔥

• Dell G16 7630 (Intel Core i9-13900HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,299.99 $1,699.99 (save $400) 🔥

• Asus ROG Strix G16 (Intel Core i9-14900HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,614.99 $1,899.99 (save $285)

Best Chromebook deal

• Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC) — $299.99 $399.99 (save $100) 🔥

• Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 (Intel Core i3-1215U, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS) — $319.99 $439.99 (save $120) 🔥

• Acer Chromebook 516 GE (Intel Core i5-1240P, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $449.99 $599.99 (save $150) 🔥

As AI-generated content gets more ubiquitous in our everyday lives, you may be wondering, "How do I identify AI text?"

It's no surprise that these models get more difficult to detect as AI technology evolves. For now, the good news is that content such as images and video aren't that hard to parse with the human eye.

SEE ALSO: How to identify AI-generated images How to detect AI-generated text

If you're a teacher or just a seasoned internet traveler, what's the secret to spotting AI-generated text? Well, it's simpler than you might think: use your eyes. There are actually ways to train the human eye to discern AI statements. Experts like MIT Technology Review's Melissa Heikkilä write that the "magic" of these machines "lies in the illusion of correctness."

No two people write in the same way, but there are common patterns. If you've ever worked a corporate job, you know how everyone uses the same generic phrasing when drafting memos to their boss. That’s why AI text detectors often flag content as "likely AI-generated" — because distinguishing between a bland human writing style and a generic AI-generated voice is nearly impossible.

So here's some tips and tricks to spot some potential AI-generated text:

• Look for frequent use of words like “the,” “it,” and “its.”

• Absence of typos—AI text is often too perfect.

• Conclusionary statements that neatly sum up paragraphs.

• Overly verbose or padded writing.

• False or fabricated information and sources.

• A tone more advanced than the writer’s usual submissions.

• Repetitive phrasing or oddly polished grammar.

There are also AI text detectors on the market that you can use, but here's why, in my experience, they're likely less reliable than your own eyes.

AI text detectors: Why they're not reliable

It’s not all doom and gloom, as some solutions to our machine overlords exist. Launching models like ChatGPT and competitors like Gemini and Claude spurred the growth of a cottage industry focused on AI text detection. Platforms like ZeroGPT popped up in response to OpenAI’s language model, while tools such as Grammarly and Copyleaks — originally designed to catch plagiarism — have pivoted to tackle AI-generated content as well.

Depending on who you ask, AI-text detection is, at the moment, the best way to spot AI-generated content or its digital snake oil. In reality, the latter might be closer to the truth. No AI detector is 100% accurate (or even 99% as many claim). Even in ideal conditions, the reliability of these tools is often hit-or-miss.

"The problem here is the models are becoming more and more fluent, [as a result], the older detectors, they stop working," says Junfeng Yang, a professor and co-director of the Software Systems Lab at Columbia University. He explains that as AI-generated text becomes increasingly sophisticated, it "starts to use vocabulary and sentence structures that closely mimic human writing, making it harder to spot even with advanced detectors."

Testing AI text detectors' accuracy

Despite big promises from tools like GPTZero or Hive Moderation, tricking an AI detector into labeling human-written content as machine-made is surprisingly simple. These systems typically analyze lines of text that explain or summarize ideas, which makes them vulnerable to false positives. For instance, I tested a basic summary of Game of Thrones I had hastily written from memory across several of these tools, and in almost every case, it was flagged as "likely AI-generated."

I then took that same Game of Thrones summary, fed it into ChatGPT, and asked it to punch up the writing — making it longer and less straightforward.

Here's what I wrote:

The plot of Game of Thrones follows several families in the fictional continent of Westeros. First, there are the Starks who rule the North. Second are the Lannisters, who rule in the Westerlands. The eldest daughter of the Wastelands is Cersei, who is also the Queen of Westeros and is married to Robert Baratheon. Robert is from the Stormlands and usurped the throne of the Targarayns — a group of dragon riders who took over the land over 1000 years ago but slowly lost their grip on Westeros due to infighting. The series was created by George RR Martin and is currently chronicled in five books — A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and a Dance with Dragons. There are two more books planned for the series with the Winds of Winter set to release sometime in 2025.

Here's the "improved" ChatGPT version:

Game of Thrones throws viewers into the brutal, blood-soaked chessboard of Westeros, where power is the prize and morality is negotiable. Leading the pack are the Starks, who hold dominion over the icy North. Their stoic honor feels like a relic in a land where backstabbing is a form of currency. In sharp contrast are the Lannisters of the opulent Westerlands, the family everyone loves to hate — with Cersei Lannister perched atop the throne as Queen of Westeros. Her marriage to Robert Baratheon, the hard-drinking, boar-hunting king from the Stormlands, is a political match made in hell, bound together by lies and mutual loathing. But the throne itself carries a bloody history. Robert took it after a rebellion that ousted the Targaryens, the long-ruling dynasty of dragon riders who, once unstoppable, eventually imploded in a whirlwind of paranoia and civil war. Their fire-breathing beasts may have once scorched the skies, but family feuds brought their empire crashing down, leaving only whispers of their former glory. Meanwhile, George R. R. Martin’s sprawling saga continues in five books that are equal parts battlefield carnage, political intrigue, and heartbreaking betrayals. While fans devour every page, they remain on edge, waiting for the Winds of Winter to blow, teased for what feels like eons, now with a tentative promise of landing in 2025. But in Westeros, promises — like allegiances — are made to be broken.

The outcomes of my testing had varied results. One of the first I tested was Scribbr, which pegged my original summary as “100% likely AI-generated.” But when I swapped it for the AI-enhanced version, Scribbr surprisingly dropped the likelihood to just 48%.

The orginal summary nabbed a 100% likely AI-generated Credit: Scribbr / Mashable screenshot The ChatGPT summary only garnered a 48% likely to be AI Credit: Scribbr / Mashable screenshot

Another tool I tried out was Winston AI, which flagged the original text as 39% likely to be generated by GPT-4. Ironically, when it came to the actual GPT-4 summary, it only gave it a meager 1% likelihood.

Original summary in Winston AI Credit: Winston AI / Mashable screenshot AI-edited summary in Winston AI Credit: Winston AI / Mashable screenshot

Hive Moderation totally missed the mark when analyzing my work, failing to flag either of the summaries I submitted. According to the system, both were confidently labeled as human-written content.

Credit: Hive Moderation / Mashable screenshot

Now, if I just ask ChatGPT for a random paragraph on any topic and copy-paste that into various text detectors, it'll almost always get flagged as AI-generated right away. But that actually reinforces the issue: without specific instructions, ChatGPT’s default writing style is often bland, formulaic, and straightforwardly objective.

The predictably dull tone is what triggers these false positives — not some advanced in-house tech that these websites claim to have to discern AI content from humans. Even when tools like Originality correctly flagged both instances of AI writing, a bit of sentence tweaking can completely change the outcome. With just a little rephrasing, what was previously flagged with "100% confidence" as AI-generated can suddenly be labeled "Likely original."

All that to say, here's the list of freely available AI text detection tools I tested using the above method. To mix things up, I also used some literature reviews from academic papers I wrote in grad school to see if they'd flag me for using flowery writing to beef up my word counts. Here they are:

• GPTZero

• ZeroGPT

• Hive Moderation

• Scribbr

• CopyLeaks

• Originality.ai

• Grammarly

• GPT-2 Output Detector

• Writefull X

• Winston AI

If your writing sounds like a tonally flat 8th-grade book report, AI detectors will likely peg you as a bot in need of a Turing test ASAP. This testing shows that simply avoiding certain structural patterns can easily fool AI detectors. And that’s a major headache for the companies behind these tools, especially since many offer subscription services and aim to sell their APIs to schools and businesses as a B2B solution.

While these tools can be pretty effective for plagiarism detection, it’s obvious their ability to spot AI-generated text still needs serious refinement. The inconsistency is hard to overlook — submit the same text to multiple detectors, and you’ll get wildly different results. What gets flagged as AI-generated by one tool might slip through unnoticed by another. Given that lack of reliability, it’s tough to recommend any of these tools with confidence right now.

Why is detecting AI-generated text so difficult?

Human language is incredibly fickle and complex — one of the main reasons AI-generated text is so tricky to detect.

Bamshad Mobasher, IEEE member and chair of the AI program at DePaul University elaborates that "text is what these models are trained on. So, it’s easier for them to mimic human conversations.”

"Detection tools look for patterns — repetitive phrases, grammatical structures that are too regular, things like that," Mobasher said. "Sometimes, it’s easier for a human to spot, like when the text is 'too perfect,’ but to be certain it’s AI-generated is challenging."

Unlike image generators, which can produce telltale signs like extra fingers or distorted facial features, Mobasher explained LLMs rely on statistical probabilities to generate text — making their output feel more seamless. As a result, spotting errors in AI-generated text — like nuanced phrasing or subtle grammatical irregularities — is far more challenging for both detectors and human readers.

This is what makes AI-generated text so dangerous as well. Mobasher warns that "it becomes easier to produce and generate misinformation at scale." With LLMs generating fluent, polished text that can mimic authoritative voices, it becomes much harder for the average person to discern between fact and fiction.

"With AI, it’s actually much easier to launch these attacks," says Yang. "You can make the email very fluent, conveying the message you want, and even include personalized information about the target’s role or mission at a company."

On top of its potential misuse, AI-generated text makes for a shittier internet. LLMs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic scrape publicly available data to train their models. Then, the AI-generated articles that result from this process are published online, only to be scraped again in an endless loop.

This cycle of recycling content lowers the overall quality of information on the web, creating a feedback loop of increasingly generic, regurgitated material that makes it difficult to find authentic, well-written content.

There's not much we can do about the lightning-fast acceleration of AI and its detrimental effects of internet content, but you can, at the very least, tap into your knowledge pool of media literacy to help you discern what's human-made and what's generated from a bot.

"If you see an article or report, don’t just blindly believe it — look for corroborating sources, especially if something seems off," Yang says.

It took the Farrelly brothers 10 years to make Dear Santa, Here they talk about the pieces that had be just right and why Jack Black needed to be their 'Santa'.

Dear Santa is now streaming on Paramount+.

When Disney first announced Moana 2 in February 2024, I was apprehensive. Here was a surprise announcement, mere months out from a November release, that a Moana TV show had been reworked into a feature film. Did that mean Moana 2 was a rush job for Disney to recover from some of its 2023 box office disappointments, like The Marvels and Wish? And if so, would that mean sacrificing quality for a swift turnaround?

SEE ALSO: Disney's 'Moana 2' trailer expands on the lore of the original

Thankfully, Moana 2 soothed my worries and then some, thanks to its blend of epic adventure and its deeply felt story about family ties. Yes, there are elements that don't hit as hard, including a cookie cutter villain and some songs that just don't pass muster when compared to Moana's. But most of Moana 2 measures up to (and occasionally even surpasses) what came before — and that's due in no small part to the growth of its incredible heroine.

Moana 2 reminds you that Moana is a certified star Credit: Disney

Even if you haven't rewatched Moana since 2016, Moana 2 wastes no time in reminding you that Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho, Mean Girls) is a total badass. In the film's opening sequence, she runs through a dense rainforest forest, leaps across a ravine, and climbs a steep rock face with her trusty pig Pua on her back. Seconds later, we get a classic hero shot: Moana, hair streaming in the wind, atop an island mountain, surveying the vast ocean around her. She takes a deep breath, blows a welcoming call into her conch... and no one answers. Turns out, despite Moana's expert wayfinding skills, she hasn't been able to find any other humans who live in the ocean.

Moana's island home of Motunui is thriving, though — and Moana is nothing less than a "living legend" there. Young girls dress and do their hair like her, going as far as to find their own version of Pua. (The film dubs them "Moanabes.") Everyone calls her "the future of Motunui." Her father Tui (Temuera Morrison, The Book of Boba Fett), Motunui's chief, even wishes to bestow the title of Tautai upon her, an honor for a skilled navigator and leader that hasn't been held for many, many years.

SEE ALSO: 'Flow' review: An animated animal adventure unlike anything you've seen before

But when Moana gets a desolate vision of Motunui's future should they not reconnect with other humans, she faces a difficult choice. She could strike out for the legendary island of Motufetu, which used to connect all the ocean's pathways and peoples. Yet it's farther than Moana or any of her ancestors have ever gotten (not to mention cursed by the human-hating god Nalo). If she goes, she risks not coming back to her family or her beloved island.

Here's where Moana 2 really shows us how far Moana has grown. With age and greater status in Motunui, she's become far more aware of the stakes of her potential failure. Plus, she's terrified to lose her family — especially her scene-stealing little sister Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda). With the weight of the world on her shoulders, Moana sets a course for Motufetu, along with an upgraded canoe and a new crew.

Moana 2's new characters make an exciting adventure even better. Credit: Disney

Moana may be used to wayfinding by herself, but in Moana 2, she's got to share a canoe with three newbies. Keen-eyed inventor Loto (Starstruck's Rose Matafeo) brings an endearing enthusiasm to the squad, even if her tendency to take apart the canoe in her efforts to improve it is concerning. As the oldest member of the crew, you might expect farmer Kele (David Fane, Our Flag Means Death) to bring elder wisdom to the journey, but he's more the crotchety complainer type. Rounding things out is Motunui legend expert Moni (Hualālai Chung), who doubles as the canoe's resident Maui (Dwayne Johnson) fanboy. (Yes, he paints "fanfic" of him and Maui being best friends.)

So imagine Moni's sadness when he realizes Maui isn't along for the ride. While Moana could desperately use his help, Maui's actually in a pickle of his own. He's trapped by Nalo's accomplice, the goddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), whom I can only describe as a "bat diva." Constantly surrounded by a cloud of the winged creatures, and even sporting bat fangs herself, Matangi exudes vampiric aura. She almost gives Moana's shiny crab Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement) a run for his money.

SEE ALSO: 'Spellbound' review: Netflix's animated adventure finds its magic right at the end

But Matangi isn't the only foe Moana and co. will have to conquer. The coconut pirates known as the Kakamora are back to wreak havoc, while a giant, island-sized clam risks swallowing our heroes whole. With so many colorful creatures to face, it's a shame that Moana 2's Big Bad Nalo is basically a nonentity, reducing the (otherwise very cool) final set piece to a faceless confrontation with inclement weather. Contrast Moana 2's magical waterspouts with Moana's expressive lava monster Te Kā to get a sense of how detached the sequel is from its villain. (Except for a mid-credit scene that somehow implies he's Moana Thanos.)

Luckily, Moana 2 finds plenty of connection elsewhere, from Moana's friendships with Maui and her crewmates to her continued relationship with her ancestors. Gramma Tala (Thor: Ragnarok's Rachel House) is back to pass along some wisdom — and give us a good hard cry along the way. Elsewhere, Moana's steadfast belief in bringing the people of the ocean back together makes for a necessary counterpoint to Nalo's hopes to sow discord and isolation. (At least, what little we learn of it through exposition.) Moana's optimism and determination proves there's power in connection, which we get to see firsthand as her crew begins to gel at sea.

Moana 2's songs are fine, but they're no match for Moana's. Credit: Disney

With its beautiful, textured animation and its propulsive adventure to the far ends of the ocean, Moana 2 is another win for Disney animation. The only major letdown? The film's songs, which are totally OK, but certainly nothing special compared to Moana's greatest hits.

Moana composers and songwriters Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa'i have returned for Moana 2, but one key member of the first film's team is missing: songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda. Taking his place are Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the Grammy-winning team behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical. Even so, Miranda's presence is greatly missed, with songs often feeling like lackluster rehashes of the first film's songs.

Take "Beyond," essentially a toned-down evolution of "How Far I'll Go," where Moana readies herself to go back out into the ocean. Cravalho's delivery is gorgeous, and I could listen to her sing for hours, but do I remember a single line of that song beyond "I'll go beyond"? Then there's Maui's "Can I Get A Chee Hoo?," a patter song that will make you miss the fast-paced wordplay of "You're Welcome." (A flaming conch solo does lend it some extra flair.) The patter extends to travel song "What Could Be Better Than This?" While I adore Matafeo's lightning-fast delivery of Loto's science-themed rap, it all feels like imitation Miranda. Awkward rhythmic moments and some obvious rhymes further highlight how much of an asset he was on Moana.

Even the funky "Get Lost," my beloved bat diva Matangi's big number, is a letdown. Based on her character introduction, you might expect something in the vein of a dark Bond theme. Instead, you get a pop tune that, despite Fraser's serious pipes, feels fairly generic. (The slowed-down piano beginning also can't help but remind me of The Princess and the Frog's "Almost There," although I'm sure other similarities abound.) All I'm saying is, if the previous film's villain song featured a giant coconut crab doing a David Bowie tribute, you've got to aim higher.

At least Moana 2's less-than inspired songs get a boost from their accompanying animated sequences. "Can I Get A Chee Hoo?" drops us into a god-tier obstacle course, while "Get Lost" features some pretty rad bat choreography. "What Could Be Better Than This?" also scores laughs from Kele's annoyance at Moana, Moni, and Loto's increasingly excited dances, which low-key read like they're trying to get him to join their ocean-loving cult. That's the magic of Moana 2: Even when the songs aren't hitting, something else will elevate them, turning a decent number into a great experience.

Moana 2 hits theaters Nov. 27.

OpenAI has added a "SearchGPT" Shortcut to the ChatGPT app for iPhones.

First spotted by MacRumors, when you go to Shortcuts, there's now an option to directly invoke the web search option of ChatGPT. Next to other ChatGPT commands like "Ask ChatGPT," "Start a voice conversation," and "OpenChatGPT," there's a new command that says "Open SearchGPT." This will automatically start a new ChatGPT conversation with the search function turned on.

A new "SearchGPT" Shortcut is available on iPhone with the latest ChatGPT update. Credit: Screenshot: Mashable How Apple is integrating ChatGPT into iOS

OpenAI officially called the AI-powered search engine "ChatGPT Search," but in pre-release testing, the prototype was referred to as "SearchGPT," hence the name of the Shortcut command. Mashable has reached out to OpenAI for clarification and will update this story with a response.

SEE ALSO: How to replace Google with ChatGPT Search as your default search engine

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search in October, which performs real-time web searches in addition to traditional ChatGPT responses. Tapping the globe icon connects ChatGPT to the web, which provides answers with relevant sources linked in and contextualized in its responses. Meanwhile, Apple's partnership with OpenAI brings ChatGPT to its suite of AI-powered features called Apple Intelligence. The December iOS 18.2 release will be the first update to include ChatGPT integration. But the Shortcut provides an easy way to access ChatGPT even without the upcoming iOS update.

The SearchGPT Shortcut became available with the latest release of the ChatGPT iOS app which was released on Monday. So if it's not showing up for you, check to make sure you have the most up-to-date version.

ChatGPT Search is currently only accessible for users with ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Teams subscriptions, with plans to roll out to free accounts in the coming months.

UPDATE: Nov. 26, 2024, 11:35 a.m. EST This post has been updated with the best iPad deals available ahead of Black Friday, including a $100 price cut on the iPad Air and new iPad Pro deals.

Best iPad deals ahead of Black Friday Best overall deal Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2, WiFi, 128GB) $499 (Save $100 at Best Buy) Get Deal Best budget iPad deal Apple iPad, 10.9-inch (10th generation, WiFi, 64GB) $259 (Save $90 at Amazon) Get Deal Best iPad mini deal Apple iPad mini, 8.3-inch (A17 Bionic, WiFi, 128GB) $399.99 (Save $99.01 at Amazon with on-page coupon) Get Deal

If you don't want to wait until the actual day of Black Friday to shop, iPad deals aren't waiting either.

In these days before Black Friday, every major retailer has started some version of their sale programming. That means we're seeing prices at or near record lows already, from the iPad Air at $100 off, the 10th generation iPad at $90 off, and the new iPad mini at $99 off.

SEE ALSO: All the best early Black Friday deals at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and Walmart

As for whether you'll score significantly better prices during Black Friday, it's hard to say, especially as these prices currently are some of the best of the year. What we can say is that we'll be updating this post with any iPad price drops leading into, on, or following Black Friday. As of Nov. 26, here are the best iPad deals already available:

Best iPad deal ahead of Black Friday Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2, WiFi, 128GB) $499.00 at Best Buy
$599.00 Save $100.00 Get Deal Why we like it

We consider the iPad Air the best Apple tablet for most people: it has the flexibility to be a good school companion as it can be a laptop replacement or art tablet. The M2 chip also powers some older Pro models, but you'll be saving a few hundred bucks (especially with this iPad deal).

At $499, this iPad is just a dollar away from its record low pricing, making it an excellent time to pick it up ahead of the holidays. If you're looking to score the most savings possible, even if that means wading into the chaos of Black Friday, you might want to hold off — the Air initially dropped to this price about a week ago, so there is a chance that it drops even more come Black Friday. At the time of writing, this deal is available at Target, Best Buy, and Amazon, with the latter two having all four colors available.

More iPad deals

iPad

• Apple iPad, 10.2-inch (9th generation, WiFi, 64GB) — $199.99 $329 (save $129.01)

• Apple iPad, 10.9-inch (10th generation, WiFi, 64GB) — $259 $349 (save $90)

• Apple iPad, 10.2-inch (9th generation, WiFi, 256GB) — $349.99 $479 (save $129.01)

• Apple iPad, 10.9-inch (10th generation, WiFi, 256GB) — $429 $499 (save $70)

iPad Air

• Apple iPad Air, 13-inch (M2, WiFi, 128GB) — $699 $799 (save $100)

• Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2, WiFi, 512GB) — $799 $899 (save $100)

• Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2, WiFi, 1TB) — $999 $1,099 (save $101)

• Apple iPad Air, 13-inch (M2, WiFi, 512GB) — $999 $1,099 (save $100)

iPad mini

• Apple iPad mini, 8.3-inch (A15 Bionic, WiFi, 64GB) — $349.99 $499 (save $149.01)

• Apple iPad mini, 8.3-inch (A15 Bionic, WiFi, 256GB) — $499.99 $649 (save $149.01)

• Apple iPad mini, 8.3-inch (A17 Pro) — $399.99 $499 (save $99.01 with on-page coupon)

iPad Pro

• Apple iPad Pro, 11-inch (M4, WiFi, 256GB) — $849 $999 (save $150 with on-page coupon)

• Apple iPad Pro, 11-inch (M4, WiFi, 512GB) — $1,049 $1,199 (save $150 with on-page coupon)

• Apple iPad Pro, 13-inch (M4, WiFi, 256GB) — $1,099 $1,299 (save $200)