Mashable

Livestream viewers have never been content to just sit back and watch. They chat. They donate. They subscribe. They clip. They make memes. They tell the streamer what to do next. Sometimes, they even feed cats thousands of miles away.

Barbara Macdonald remembers that last one particularly well. Macdonald, YouTube's product manager for Live, has worked on the platform's livestreaming products for more than a decade. Years ago, after YouTube opened an API that let creators connect Super Chats and channel memberships to real-world effects, someone hooked a livestream to a cat-feeding station in Russia. A viewer could send money from their own home and watch as food was dispensed for the cats on screen.

"I would say Live has always been really focused on how audiences are able to participate and control the action," Macdonald told Mashable. "That's what makes live stand out from asynchronous video."

Now, YouTube wants to give creators and their communities a lot more ways to do exactly that.

At its annual Made on YouTube event in New York City on Wednesday, the platform is unveiling more than 30 new products and features for creators and viewers, including a slate of updates aimed specifically at livestreaming. Among them are Live Showdowns, timed competitions between creators in which audience participation can influence who wins; an expansion of Watch With, which lets creators build live commentary around other YouTube content; and a pilot that brings YouTube's Auto-Dubbing technology to live video.

SEE ALSO: The Mashable 101: The creators defining the internet in 2026

The announcements arrive as YouTube makes a bigger push into a live format it has supported since 2011. But the company's bet isn't that livestreaming is suddenly becoming interactive. It always has been. Instead, YouTube is building more of the behaviors that already define livestream communities — collaboration, competition, fan funding, and audience participation — directly into its products.

And with more than 600 million logged-in viewers already watching live content on YouTube every day, the company now wants to give more creators a reason to go live.

YouTube wants more creators to go live It's time for a Live Showdown. Credit: YouTube

Macdonald has watched YouTube Live change dramatically since she first started working on the product. Around 2019, she said, livestreaming began moving away from its more desktop-heavy, high-production roots toward something increasingly mobile and casual.

YouTube has responded by investing more in mobile live creation and discovery. Looking toward 2027, Macdonald said her team's priorities can essentially be reduced to two things: reach and monetization.

"When you go live to an empty room, you're there doing a stream so you can engage with an audience and riff back and forth with them," she said. "We want to get you as many relevant eyeballs as we can."

One way YouTube hopes to do that is by making collaboration easier. An update to Go Live Together will introduce smart matching, allowing creators who are live at the same time to find one another and link up. From there, they can choose to launch a Live Showdown.

Let's Go Live Together, shall we? Credit: YouTube

During a Showdown, activity from each creator's audience contributes to a competition displayed on screen. Free participation counts, meaning viewers don't have to pay to influence the result. But paid interactions — including Super Chats, Super Stickers, gifts, and gifted channel memberships — count more. That's another potential revenue stream for creators. It also raises an obvious question: At what point does participating in a livestream start to feel pay-to-play?

Macdonald, who previously worked on YouTube's fan-funding products, including Super Chat, said it's a tension the company has considered for years.

"We do want to make sure that every viewer, no matter their means, is able to participate in some fashion," she said. Showdowns are designed so everyone can contribute, she added, while viewers who want to financially support a creator can have a larger impact on the outcome.

YouTube is also expanding Watch With, which allows creators to react to and provide commentary around other content on the platform. The idea addresses another problem Macdonald said YouTube frequently hears from creators curious about livestreaming: They simply don't know what they'd do once the camera turns on.

By giving them something to react to, YouTube hopes to make that first stream less intimidating. "We're really hoping it will open up the funnel and allow more people to dabble and to try live," Macdonald said.

Featured Video For You Creators Taryn Delanie Smith and Kay Poyer on the insecurity no one talks about after going viral What happens when viewers become stakeholders?

Creator and conservationist Maya Higa already knows what can happen when a livestream audience is given something to do. Higa began streaming in 2019, the same year she started bringing the wildlife education work she'd previously done in person as a zookeeper online. She quickly realized livestreaming allowed her to reach far more people without transporting animals to schools, birthday parties, and other events.

In 2021, she founded Alveus Sanctuary, a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary and conservation education center that isn't open to the general public. Instead, viewers can visit virtually through cameras livestreaming from its animal enclosures around the clock.

And the community doesn't just watch. Alveus is funded in large part through crowdsourced donations. Higa said her community has helped build the sanctuary from the beginning, creating a relationship she describes differently from a typical creator-fan dynamic.

"Not only are they a part of building it — I mean, they did build it," Higa told Mashable. "That also makes them stakeholders in it in an interesting way."

Sometimes that participation is financial. Alveus auctions paintings made by its animal ambassadors. Viewers can donate to activate an automated feeder that dispenses treats to the sanctuary's cow and herd of emus. Another feature lets them turn on a splash pad for the emus. Fans who send toys or enrichment items to Alveus can later watch the animals encounter them on the sanctuary's livestreams.

"I guess by definition, it is a little bit transactional, but it's never felt that way," Higa said. "It just feels really good and really special. It feels like we're all doing it together."

But money isn't the only way Alveus has figured out how to turn viewers into participants. Higa recently launched a citizen-science project around the sanctuary's pollinator garden. A pan-tilt-zoom camera lets viewers search the garden for insects and other pollinators, submit their observations, collect points and stickers, and compete on a leaderboard.

"It's kind of like playing Pokémon," Higa joked. Except that the Pokémon are real, and the observations could potentially become useful scientific data.

SEE ALSO: Google wants you to listen to coral reefs. It just might help restore them.

The idea came to Higa after attending an invertebrate conference where she heard about a citizen-science project that had collected roughly 400 observations from members of the public. Alveus, she realized, routinely has between 1,000 and 2,000 concurrent viewers watching its live cameras. "We could get 400 observations in half a day," she recalled thinking.

On the viewer's end, it's effectively a game. On Alveus' end, Higa hopes the project can generate information on which pollinators visit which plants at different points in the year and eventually share that data with conservationists.

"Our community is so invested in what we're doing, they always want to do something," she said. "They really want to make an impact, and they want to be involved in any way they can."

Livestreaming is increasingly global, too

YouTube's ambitions for Live don't stop at getting more people to participate. It also wants creators' communities to cross borders more easily.

Macdonald said more than 40 percent of watch time on YouTube Live comes from viewers outside a creator's home region. Now the company is piloting Auto-Dubbing for Live, an extension of the Gemini-powered technology it already uses to translate uploaded videos into other languages. Since launching in 2023, YouTube's existing auto-dubbing system now supports 27 languages.

For live video, translated audio will be made available as a separate audio track that viewers can select in the YouTube player while a broadcast is happening. Doing that in real time presents a much harder technical problem than dubbing a finished video, particularly when livestream conversations move quickly. Macdonald said YouTube's infrastructure team is working to deliver the translated audio with the low-latency live video required.

Higa sees the potential for conservation, a subject whose audience is inherently global, but she's also more cautious about what technology can replicate. Her ideal, she said, would be growing Alveus' education team to include educators from different parts of the world who can speak directly to audiences in their own languages.

"There are things that they understand and things that they could say in a language that I could never convey auto-dubbed," she said.

A viewer, a fan, or something else?

The question at the center of YouTube's new features is one that livestreamers have been navigating for years: How much agency should an audience have? YouTube's answer increasingly seems to be: quite a lot.

Showdowns allow audiences to influence a competition. Watch With turns watching someone else's content into a communal event. Smart matching is designed to put previously separate creator communities in the same room. Fan-funding products allow viewers to financially affect what's happening on screen. Auto-Dubbing could eventually allow those communities to form across languages.

But Higa's experience with Alveus suggests the most meaningful outcome of all that participation might be harder for a platform to quantify.

Since Higa began streaming in 2019, she estimates her platform has generated around $8 million in crowdsourced and other fundraising. She's also watched members of her audience decide to study environmental science or conservation biology and pursue careers dedicated to the planet. That experience has changed how she thinks about the people on the other side of the screen.

"I never say fans," Higa said. "I sometimes say viewers. I almost always say our community."

Some have been watching her since 2019. They've grown up alongside one another. Higa has watched their interests, values, and even career paths change. "It does feel like a movement of these young people that are growing up together," she said.

And that might be the more interesting bet behind YouTube's latest updates to Live. The platform doesn't need to teach viewers how to participate in livestreams. They've been doing that for years. The opportunity is figuring out what creators and their audiences can build once they do.

From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable talks to creators about how they built their platforms, the gear they swear by, and the trends they see coming next. Read more of our creator coverage, sign up for our Trending Now and Top Stories newsletters or get Mashable push alerts to discover the internet's most exciting voices.

SAVE $600: As of Sept. 23, the Apple MacBook Pro (M5 Max, 36GB RAM, 2TB SSD) is on sale at Amazon for $3,499. That's down 15% from its $4,099 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Pro M5 Max $3,499 at Amazon
$4,099 Save $600   Get Deal

When Apple refreshed its MacBook lineup, it delivered massive processing power and higher price tags across the board.

The base 14-inch M5 Max model normally costs an eye-watering $4,099 at full retail, making any steep discount worth grabbing immediately. Amazon just knocked $600 off the flagship 14.2-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip, bringing it down to $3,499.

The standard M5 chip handles daily tasks fine, but the M5 Max is a totally different beast made for heavy lifting. It handles local AI models, complex 3D graphics, and multi-track 8K video editing without breaking a sweat. This setup packs an 18-core CPU and a 32-core GPU with dedicated AI cores built into the graphics chip.

The M5 Max features faster unified memory and upgraded SSD storage that reads and writes up to twice as fast as earlier models. The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display pumps out 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and 1,600 nits peak brightness for editing HDR content, backed by a studio-grade six-speaker setup with Spatial Audio and a 12MP Center Stage webcam.

Apple doubled the starting storage for this generation, giving you 36GB of unified memory and a massive 2TB high-speed SSD out of the box. You also get a bright 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR screen, WiFi 7 support, three Thunderbolt 5 ports, and enough power to run up to four external displays at once.

Even with all that power driving four external monitors at once, macOS keeps everything running smoothly and securely with built-in virus protection, seamless iPhone Mirroring, and all-day battery life, whether plugged in or running on the go.

Grab the M5 Max MacBook Pro for $3,499 on Amazon before the $600 discount disappears.

The best deals this week, hand-picked by our shopping experts

• Apple iPhone 18 Pro — free at T-Mobile 

• Paramount+ — $0.99 for 2 months with code p2mcs26prem

• Apple AirPods Pro 3 — $199 $249 (save $50)

• Apple iPad Pro — $1,899 $2,099 (save $200)

• TCL 85-Inch Class QM8L Series TV — $2,497.99 $3,999.99 (save $1,502)

Netflix has released the trailer for Ray Gunn, the upcoming film from The Incredibles and The Iron Giant director Brad Bird.

SEE ALSO: Brad Bird takes us behind the scenes of 'Ray Gunn's massive sci-fi city

For Bird, the moment is decades in the making, as he's been working to bring Ray Gunn to the big screen since the '90s. The long-gestating passion project is a blend of sci-fi and film noir that transports viewers to the massive city of Metropia, a world of mile-high skyscrapers, flying cars, and aliens and humans alike. It's a world full of intrigue and corruption, and trying to get to the bottom of all that is the city's lone private eye, the down-on-his-luck Ray Gunn (voiced by Sam Rockwell).

(Not to be confused with Australian breakdancer Raygun, who's also found a home on Netflix in the form of a documentary.)

Ray and his alien associate Eyera (voiced by Tom Waits) need a job, fast. Otherwise, their business will go under. Luckily for them, a high-profile case lands in their laps, involving volatile media superstar Venus Nova (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and a grisly murder. But is Venus truly the dangerous femme fatale everyone suspects her to be?

Check out the full trailer above to watch sparks fly between Venus and Ray, as well as some serious flying car chases and blaster action.

Ray Gunn also stars Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Chernus, Kether Donohue, Michelle Rodriguez, Aasif Mandvi, Matt Jones, Kathryn Hunter, John Ratzenberger, Justin Peck, and Patton Oswalt.

Ray Gunn opens in select theaters Dec. 4, and premieres Dec. 18 on Netflix.

TL;DR: As of Sept. 23, the DJI Power 1000 V2 portable power station is available for $419.99 at Amazon. That's a saving of $30 off the regular list price of $449.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Power 1000 V2 $419 at Amazon
$449 Save $30   Get Deal

OK, so there's nothing sexy about a power station. They can be bulky, ugly, and expensive. But they're also one of life's essentials in this increasingly-connected, device-driven world — particularly if you like to take road trips and get into the great outdoors.

The fact that they're expensive is one reason many people put off buying one. It's a whole lot of cash to drop on something this un-sexy — an item that's an essential rather than a luxury — which is why you should always check out the power station deals around a sale like October Prime Day.

Yes, we know it's early — October Prime Day officially runs Oct. 6-7 — but Amazon is already supercharged with early deals, including a discount on the DJI Power 1000 V2 portable power station. As of Sept. 23, the DJI Power 1000 V2 portable power station is available on Amazon for $419.99, a $30 savings from the list price of $449.99.

The DJI Power 1000 V2 is a multi-purpose power station that will power pretty much any device you can throw at it, whether it's a phone or laptop, power tools, a microwave, or even a mini-fridge.

It's quiet, fast-charging (via the grid or solar power), and offers 11 ports, including AC and various USB ports. In addition to that, it's super portable, allowing you to throw it in the trunk and take it anywhere you need power.

Pick up the DJI Power 1000 V2 portable power station while it's discounted at Amazon — now just $419.99.

The first character you meet in Brad Bird's Ray Gunn isn't the titular private eye (voiced by Sam Rockwell). Nor is it his alien colleague, Eyera (voiced by Tom Waits), nor even pop superstar Venus Nova (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Instead, it's the film's setting: the massive, retro-futuristic city of Metropia.

Ray Gunn's opening sequence zips viewers through the canyons between Metropia's mile-high buildings. Flying cars and elevated trains transport hordes of humans and aliens alike, but commuters could just as easily rent a jetpack for quick travel. For them, it's business as usual, but for viewers, it's a rollicking introduction to an astounding city.

SEE ALSO: How 'Ray Gunn's Venus Nova, pop star of the (retro) future, evolved

Bird has been working to make Ray Gunn since the '90s, and he's stressed Metropia's importance from the very beginning. In an introductory note on a script draft from 1996, he wrote that the one character he couldn't adequately capture on the page was Metropia. In this world, he wrote, "Cities are gargantuan jewels that stretch into the heavens."

As Ray Gunn moved from page to screen, how did Bird and his team manage to bring the jewel of Metropia to life? At a press day at Netflix's animation studios, Bird and his collaborators broke down the influences and techniques behind the finished version of Metropia, as well as the importance of getting it right.

"The movie took place almost entirely in that city, and if the city wasn't a character, it would be an empty experience," Bird told Mashable.

According to Ray Gun art director Wendell Luebbe, Bird wanted to combine two different styles for the look of Metropia. One was the work of early 20th century architect Hugh Ferriss, who dreamed up tall, stepped buildings. (Fittingly for Ray Gunn, he also wrote the 1929 book The Metropolis of Tomorrow.) The other was Streamline Moderne, a sleeker take on Art Deco that took off during the 1930s. While Ferriss' work is defined by height and blocky geometry, Streamline Moderne is all about curves and aerodynamics.

Concept art for the city of Metropia. Credit: Netflix / Skydance Animation

"[Bird] wanted to meld those two together into something we've never seen," Luebbe told press. "So we took a lot of the ideas of Streamline Moderne and then grafted them onto the monumental Hugh Ferriss buildings."

As Ray Gunn's team developed Metropia's broader visual style, they also made sure to give its many neighborhoods their own distinct feel. The city's entertainment district is "like Times Square on steroids," Luebbe said. But you can find quieter, Greenwich Village-type areas with smaller clubs as well. Elsewhere, the city's aliens live in the Maze, a labyrinthine space whose organic structures drew inspiration from Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures.

When it came to putting all these ideas on screen, Ray Gunn's VFX team faced a challenge in building Metropia.

"To my team, that was very scary, because it's gigantic," VFX supervisor Adel Abada told Mashable. Rather than building a full digital model and moving the camera around it, they built out parts of the city to match certain sequences. This better allowed the team to follow the needs of the storyboards until they got the right shot composition.

"When you look at it as a whole movie, you would believe it's a city that exists, because that's the goal," Abada told press. "How can you create the illusion of a city that exists without going through the entire process of building it piece by piece?"

Concept art for the city of Metropia. Credit: Netflix / Skydance Animation

Abada and his team knew that the camera movement in Ray Gunn was going to be dynamic, especially in a particularly challenging sequence he described as "a vertical chase." That meant they couldn't rely on digital matte painting to create backgrounds. They needed to actually build out the geometry and depth of the buildings so the animators could know where everything was.

Part of designing Metropia also involved figuring out how it functioned as a city. How does Metropia's sheer height impact how people move around? For example, people using elevators have to strap themselves to the walls, as they move at top speed to ferry people up mile-high buildings.

Inspiration for the latter idea struck Bird as he directed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which features a tense climb up the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. (For reference, it's just over half a mile tall, making the buildings in Ray Gunn twice its size.)

"You press the elevator to go up to the top floors [of the Burj Khalifa], and your ears pop. It takes a few minutes to get up there," Bird recalled. "If you lived in a world where there were a lot of mile-high buildings that were taller than the ones in Dubai, people would not want to spend that much time in an elevator, so the elevators would be made really fast."

The elevators are just one of Ray Gunn's many world-building choices dictated by Metropia's astounding height, but they're far from the only ones. Scenes set in Metropia's airborne traffic lanes burst with rich detail about how inhabitants interact with this streamlined beast of a city.

As Bird told Mashable, "You want to give the audience a visual trip."

Ray Gunn premieres Dec. 18 on Netflix.

Travel costs for the production of this content were paid for by Netflix. The judgments and opinions of Mashable are our own.

In 2025, fictional girl group HUNTR/X took over the world thanks to Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters. Now, the streamer is bringing a new fictional pop star to our screens in director Brad Bird's Ray Gunn. Her name? Venus Nova.

SEE ALSO: Fall movie preview: All the 2026 films you need to know about

Voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Venus is the biggest star in Ray Gunn's sprawling, retro-futuristic city of Metropia, reaching the kind of media ubiquity we'd associate with Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. Even if you wanted to escape her reach, you couldn't: Holographic ads for her next album, Welcome to the Future, top skyscrapers and stand several stories tall.

However, Venus' superstar status comes with a high price. Her public outbursts and tumultuous relationships are catnip to Metropia's frenzied press, and they're enough to land her at the center of private investigator Ray Gunn's (voiced by Sam Rockwell) murder investigation.

Venus Nova welcomes us to the future (and her new album). Credit: Skydance Animation / Netflix

For Venus to be a larger-than-life icon as well as Ray Gunn's second lead, Bird and his team had to construct both her pop persona and her troubled personal life. At a press day at Netflix's animation studios, Bird was joined by art director Wendell Luebbe and VFX supervisor Adel Abada to discuss crafting the latest entry in a long, illustrious line of movie pop stars.

Instead of being inspired by pop stars of today, Venus' look draws on screen legends of the 20th century, emphasizing the "retro" in Ray Gunn's retro-futuristic setting.

"She went through all kinds of permutations, but ended up [with] a Lauren Bacall meets Veronica Lake look," Luebbe told press.

According to Luebbe and Abada, costume designer Neysa Bove designed 23 looks for Venus, including the gown she wears in her introductory performance. As Venus rehearses a tongue-in-cheek number, one of several songs written for the film by singer-songrwriter Kimbra, her gown shifts from angelic white to devilish red, complete with a light-up headpiece that mimics a halo and horns.

Concept art of Venus Nova's looks from "Ray Gunn." Credit: Skydance Animation / Netflix

One of the most challenging elements of the sequence was getting Venus' sequined dress to a blinding, pop star-level of shine. Abada recalled Bird's biggest note being, "Get me the sparkle."

"If it's sparkly enough, it reminds you of Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," Bird said, noting that the sequins on the dress for Venus' stand-in are much less sparkly, to emphasize she's not getting the quality fabrics.

But while Venus' onstage image is undoubtedly glamorous, Ray Gunn emphasizes that life in the spotlight isn't all glitter and rainbows. Metropia's media loves to paint Venus as an uncontrollable diva, but as Ray gets to know her better, he learns that Venus' fame is almost like a cage, and that she's hiding painful secrets of her own.

"What was more interesting to me — that was an idea early on — is the idea of someone who's really talented who is also a train wreck," Bird said of Venus' character.

Bird has been working on Ray Gunn since the '90s, and in the time since then, he and the rest of the world have watched young stars like Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse get devoured by invasive media scrutiny and public ridicule.

"You'd see a picture of [Winehouse] with a bloody nose in front of a pub at 4 a.m. and you'd go, 'Why is this woman looking for trouble?'" Bird said. "Then after she died, I saw the documentary, and I was sitting there feeling terrible, because she was so talented, and it was impossible for her to function with the people who were not looking out for her. So, that became an empathetic point when I was writing the later drafts of this."

These stories of pop stars battling the negative side of fame reverberate today, exacerbated by social media discourse. Look no further than the internet picking apart Ariana Grande's body. Or the fervor over Lola Young's collapse at the All Things Go music festival and her subsequent break from performing. Or relentless speculation about the hiatuses of KATSEYE members Manon Bannerman and Sophia Laforteza. People would just as soon tear a star down as they would build them up, and even though Ray Gunn's Venus doesn't draw direct inspiration from these modern stars, her story still speaks to our warped relationship to celebrity.

"I felt empathy for that character and people put in that position where they're just thrust into the spotlight, whether they're ready or not," Bird said.

Ray Gunn premieres Dec. 18 on Netflix.

Travel costs for the production of this content were paid for by Netflix. The judgments and opinions of Mashable are our own.

TL;DR: As of Sept. 23, Apple AirPods Pro 3 are available for $199 at Amazon. That's a 20% discount from the regular list price of $249.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods Pro 3 $199 at Amazon
$249 Save $50   Get Deal

For Apple-loving bargain hunters, things don't get much better than a major sale event such as Amazon's Prime Day. This is the time when you can find significant discounts on the very best Apple devices.

October Prime Day is very nearly here, with the two-day event set for Oct. 6-7, and we're already seeing some deals worth knowing about.

That includes a generous 20% markdown on the Apple AirPods Pro 3. As of Sept. 23, the Apple AirPods Pro 3 are priced at $199, representing a $50 saving on the list price of $249.

This is a deal not to miss. But what makes them Apple's earbuds? It's not just the sound quality, access to Siri, and synchronicity across Apple devices — it's also the active noise cancellation, some of the very best ANC technology around, and spatial audio. They also have built-in heart rate sensing, which works with Apple Health to track your heart rate and calories burned with up to 50 types of workouts.

With $50 off, they're an absolute must-have for dedicated Apple users. Pick up the Apple AirPods Pro 3 for just £199 as part of the early October Prime Day deals.

Qualcomm announces its most powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip built for aganetic AI computing on mobile phones. See all the highlights and announcements from the annual Snapdragon Summit 2026. 

Read more about Qualcomm chips and Snapdragon laptops: Microsoft unveils new Surface Laptop 8 and Surface Pro 12 with Snapdragon X2 chips
This is the first Snapdragon C laptop ever shown

Timecode chapters
0:00 Introduction and the age of agentic AI
2:34 Introducing Snapdragon 8 Elite and extreme Gen 6
3:33 Xiaomi 18 Pro series announcement
5:08 Qualcomm Oryon CPU and flex cache architecture
6:13 Sensing hub and personal scribe context
7:38 Hexagon NPU and agentic AI acceleration
9:26 AI ISP architecture and intelligent Pixel control
10:53 Adreno neural fusion and mobile gaming tech
12:05 Sanctuary Unreal Engine 5 real-time demo
13:08 Motorola Signature 27 first look

Video credits
Video editor: Stephen Beacham
Thumbnail designer: Stephen Beacham

SAVE $200: As of Sept. 23, the TCL 85-inch QM6K Mini LED QLED 4K TV is down to its lowest-ever price of $897.99 at Amazon. That's $200 off its full price of $1,097.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: TCL TCL 85-Inch Class QM6K Series Mini LED QLED 4K HDR TV $897.99 at Amazon
$1,097.99 Save $200   Get Deal

Ahead of its Prime Big Deal Days sale, Amazon has been dropping some fantastic early TV deals.

If you've been shopping around for an upgrade, this discount on the TCL 85-inch QM6K Mini LED QLED 4K TV is worth checking out. It's currently down to its lowest-ever price. As of Sept. 23, this TCL TV has received a $200 price cut, bringing it down to $897.99.

SEE ALSO: How to sign up for Amazon Prime in time for the next Prime Day

With the colder fall and winter months ahead, this is prime time to grab a new TV for binge-watching shows and movies in the warmth and comfort of your home, and this TCL model looks like an excellent upgrade. In addition to its huge 85-inch screen size, which turns your home into a mini movie theater, the display's 4K resolution and QD-Mini LED technology deliver stunning picture quality with sharp details, vivid colors, and deep contrast.

Pair that with a native 144Hz refresh rate, and the action on screen will look clear and smooth. This is especially nice if you're someone who loves watching live sports or playing games, as it means you won't have to deal with motion blur on screen. Plus, it's a Google TV, so getting back into your favorite shows and movies on streaming services is quick and easy.

Don't wait for Prime Big Deal Days. Score $200 off the TCL 85-inch QM6K Mini LED QLED 4K TV right now at Amazon.

The best deals this week, hand-picked by our shopping experts

• Apple iPhone 18 Pro — free at T-Mobile 

• Paramount+ — $0.99 for 2 months with code p2mcs26prem

• Apple AirPods Pro 3 — $199 $249 (save $50)

• Apple iPad Pro — $1,899 $2,099 (save $200)

• TCL 85-Inch Class QM8L Series TV — $2,497.99 $3,999.99 (save $1,502)

TL;DR: As of Sept. 23, the Apple iPad Pro (M4) 13-inch is available for $1,299 at Amazon. That's a $200 saving on the regular list price of $1,499.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad Pro (M4) 13-inch $1,299 at Amazon
$1,499 Save $200   Get Deal

The future of Apple is the M6 chip, which was recently announced and will now power the latest Apple devices. As part of that exciting news, we're now seeing competitive discounts on previous-gen models, such as M4-powered iPads. And don't forget, just over a year ago, the M4 was the latest and greatest processor Apple had to offer.

It still stands up as the brains behind some very impressive iPads, including the Apple iPad Pro (M4) 13-inch, currently marked down as part of the early October Prime Day deals. As of Sept. 23, the Apple iPad Pro (M4) 13-inch is marked down to $1,299 at Amazon. That’s a $200 saving on the regular list price of $1,499.

Our expert picked out this deal in a roundup of the best Apple deals to drop ahead of October Prime Day.

October Prime Day officially runs Oct. 6-7, with early deals — such as this one — expected to drop between now and then. That doesn't mean you should wait until Prime Day itself to pick this up. We anticipate high demand for these iPads while they're listed at this price.

This iPad has Apple Intelligence and Face ID and offers all the slick fluidity you expect from the Apple user experience — particularly when you pair it with other Apple devices. Its Ultra Retina XDR display looks stunning, and it boasts 512GB of storage, WiFi 6E support, and an all-day battery.

Don't miss the chance to grab the Apple iPad Pro (M4) 13-inch with $200 off — before they all get snapped up.

If you can afford a little more, it's also worth checking out a deal on the Apple iPad Pro (M4) 11-inch, which takes things to the next level with Nano Texture Glass and almost quadruples the storage space. It's also discounted by $200.

TL;DR: As of Sept. 23, the Pokémon 30th Celebration Greninja ex Box is available for $89.49 at Amazon. That's $10.50 off the list price of $99.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Pokémon 30th Celebration Greninja ex Box $89.49 at Amazon
$99.99 Save $10.50   Shop Now

Gotta catch 'em all, as the Pokémon saying goes. That doesn't just mean the Pokémon themselves, but all the Pokémon deals as and when they drop on Amazon. And with Amazon now releasing super-early deals ahead of October Prime Day, there are some trading card deals worth checking out.

As of Sept. 23, the Pokémon 30th Celebration Greninja ex Box is available on Amazon for just $89.49. That's a $10.50 discount from the regular list price of $99.99.

SEE ALSO: The Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Sylveon ex Tin is under market price at Walmart — buy for under $60 while stocks last

This box includes four Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration booster packs, along with a foil Greninja ex promo trading card and an oversize foil version for display.

Each booster contains five foil cards, including one of 30 Pikachu illustrations, and a foil Basic Energy card. You might even find some of the 30th Celebration’s most valuable Pokémon chase cards — including the $170+ SIR Mew ex, $130+ Gengar ex, and $100+ Futuristic Rare Mew ex.

Don't miss the chance to pick up the Pokémon 30th Celebration Greninja ex Box at $89.99 and save $10.50.

TL;DR: The Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Booster Bundle is available to preorder for $99.99 at Walmart, more than $23 below its current market price.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Booster Bundle $99.99 at Walmart
  Pre-order Here

The Pokémon TCG’s 30th Celebration rollout isn’t finished yet, with the Booster Bundle due to join the anniversary range on Oct. 2. Amazon and TCGplayer sellers already have stock lined up, but it’s actually Walmart that’s the place to buy right now.

As of Sept. 23, the Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Booster Bundle is $99.99 at Walmart. The preorder is sold and shipped by marketplace seller Cataclysm Games, with free shipping and an estimated Oct. 10 arrival at the time of writing. Walmart also offers its preorder price guarantee, meaning you’ll pay the lower price if the price drops again before release. 

That is a much better deal than the $135.97 Amazon listings. What’s more, this is $23.04 lower than the estimated market price estimated by trading card selling platform TCGplayer. 

SEE ALSO: Shop the best early Prime Day deals on Pokémon, including 30th Celebration trading cards for under market price

Inside are six Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration booster packs, with six cards in each pack. Every booster contains six holographic cards, including one of 30 different Pikachu rare variations, with other cards in the expansion featuring Pokémon such as Mewtwo ex, Mew ex, Umbreon ex, Salamence ex, and Greninja ex. 

At $99.99, that works out to around $16.67 per pack — saving you $1.26 per pack compared to the lowest legit price currently available on TCGplayer.

In an unsettlingly Orwellian move, the White House has launched what it's calling "Trump TV" amid the president's press ban.

On Monday night, the White House's official YouTube channel added a rebranded livestream with the tagline "The Essentials Station." The government-run stream runs a 24/7 reel of "the Trump Administration's biggest moments all in one place," including Donald Trump's speeches and public addresses during his presidency.

The stream is also embedded in the official White House website and app.

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In an X post, Kaelen Dorr, Trump's deputy assistant and head of digital strategy at the White House, called Trump TV "a 24/7 livestream of the Administration’s greatest hits, unfiltered." It reportedly opened with Trump's speech at Mt. Rushmore on July 3, and at the time of writing, the channel is streaming Trump's May 2025 address to graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

The timing here is crucial. The move comes days after Trump revoked White House access for journalists from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW. On Friday, the president posted on his own Truth Social the ban was a "a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!"

SEE ALSO: Jon Stewart responds to Trump banning CNN from the White House

Press, commentators, and the White House Correspondents' Association have declared the ban a violation of the First Amendment, specifically the freedom of the press. All three outlets have filed a lawsuit against Trump and his administration, demanding White House press access be restored.

Several networks, including FOX News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News, have boycotted coverage of White House events usually covered by the press pool, on grounds of a free press. "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting," a joint statement reads.

Gavin Newsom, Governor of California and potential Democratic 2028 presidential election contender described Trump TV in an X post as "quite literally state-run TV" and "truly autocratic behavior" from Trump.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Stephanie Grisham, Trump's first term White House press secretary after Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also dubbed the White House's livestream "state-run media."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

While Trump TV seems like just another YouTube livestream, the launch certainly speaks to something more alarming within the context of the president's latest attack on the media. A 24/7 online showreel of Trump's "greatest hits" curated by the executive arm of the federal government added days after journalists are banned from the White House for reporting on the president? The writing's on the wall.

Featured Video For You How prediction markets got people betting on nuclear war

TL;DR: Signify has launched the Philips Skylight ceiling panel on Amazon. Designed to mimic natural daylight indoors, it features auto-adjusting circadian tones and an IP44 rating for damp spaces.

Opens in a new window Credit: Signify Philips Skylight $399.99 at Amazon
  Shop Now

Windowless bedrooms, dingy basements, and gloomy home offices finally have a fix. Signify just dropped the Philips Skylight, a flat ceiling panel that mimics the exact look, depth, and color shifts of actual daylight so you can trick your brain into thinking you have a real skylight installed.

It’s officially available on Amazon now, with a wider rollout coming later this fall.

Instead of throwing harsh, artificial glare like an LED panel, the Philips Skylight uses NatureConnect tech to copy how real sunlight behaves from dawn to dusk. The 17.7 x 25.6-inch panel runs an "Auto Day Rhythm" mode that shifts its tone automatically throughout the day. You get bright, energy-boosting blue light in the morning to wake you up, which slowly fades into cozy, warm amber tones by the time you're ready to wind down at night.

Prefer to take control yourself? You can bypass the automatic schedule using the included remote. It lets you cycle through five preset lighting scenes to instantly match whatever you're up to. Signify is rolling out the panel in two different versions:

• Philips Skylight Medium — The standard model

• Philips Skylight VitaUp Medium (available on Home Depot from November) — The upgraded option that adds a built-in UV-B module to help support your body's natural vitamin D production indoors.

Both versions mount flush against your ceiling just like a standard light fixture — so no special tools, complex wiring, or structural drywall cutting is required. They’re also IP44 rated to handle humidity and splashes, so you can safely mount one in a dark kitchen or a windowless bathroom.

You can grab the Philips Skylight Medium on Amazon today. If you want the extra boost from the VitaUp Medium model, it will hit select Home Depot shelves starting in early November.

Conan O'Brien has a strong track record when it comes to slightly chaotic late night appearances, and his latest interview on The Tonight Show is no exception.

In the clip above O'Brien talks to Jimmy Fallon about the host interrupting his conversation with Paul McCartney at a party to do a bit ("Why is it when you're talking to someone of that calibre every comedian comes over and does a bit that they think is really funny, and meanwhile if you're stuck talking to Elon Musk, no-one comes over?!"), before going on to explain his flat hairstyle that made the news a couple of months back.

It's an entertaining 16 minutes, and O'Brien's McCartney impression deserves its own praise.

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TL;DR: Therabody just launched the Theragun Mini Y2K Collection ($229.99), giving its portable Mini 3 massage gun a translucent, jelly-tinted makeover straight out of '99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Theragun Theragun Mini Y2K Collection $229.99 at Theragun
  Shop Now

If you’ve ever looked at a modern muscle massager and thought, “This would look way better in translucent fruit-flavored plastic,” Therabody agrees.

The wellness tech leader is rewinding the clock back to 1999 with its new Theragun Mini Y2K Collection, priced at $229.99. The collection taps Boy Meets World icon Danielle Fishel (aka Topanga Lawrence) to front the ultimate throwback drop.

Therabody’s smallest, lightest massage gun comes with the translucent, candy-colored jelly aesthetic that defined late-’90s tech. It’s the same portable Theragun Mini 3 underneath, but wrapped in a nostalgia-heavy, translucent jelly shell inspired by the classic iMac G3 aesthetic.

Credit: Theragun

The Y2K lineup swaps out boring matte finishes for five translucent colorways inspired directly by the iconic iMac G3 era: blue raspberry, grape blast, orange crush, strawberry splash, and green ppple. Despite looking like a vintage prize from a 1999 arcade, it packs solid power. The Mini 3 delivers three percussive speeds (1,750, 2,100, and 2,400 PPM) with a built-in LED speed indicator to track your intensity.

Credit: Theragun

Designed to increase circulation, ease deep muscle tension, and speed up post-workout recovery, it comes with three scientifically designed attachments. You get a Dampener for tender areas or a gentler full-body treatment, a Standard Ball for overall muscle-group work, and a Thumb attachment for targeting deep-tissue trigger points.

Engineered for life on the move, the ultra-portable frame features USB-C charging, up to 150 minutes of continuous battery life, and a dedicated travel lock to prevent the device from buzzing endlessly inside your gym bag.

Credit: Theragun

It also pairs with the Therabody app to eliminate guesswork in recovery. By connecting directly with wearables like Apple Watch, Garmin, Strava, or Google Health Connect, the app’s AI-driven Coach reads your fitness data in real-time and automatically builds customized, step-by-step recovery routines — telling you precisely which muscle groups to hit, which attachments to click on, and what speed settings to run.

The Theragun Mini Y2K Collection is available to order now exclusively at Therabody, with broader retail availability rolling out soon.

TL;DR: The UEFA Nations League is available to live stream for free on a number of geo-restricted streaming platforms. Access these free livestreams from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

There will be some people out there who desperately need a break from all the football. We've only just made it through a busy summer and jumped straight into domestic campaigns, so we get where they are coming from. But there is another group out there who think very differently.

This band of dedicated football followers quite simply can't get enough, so the UEFA Nations League will be welcomed with open arms.

If you want to watch the UEFA Nations League for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

What is the UEFA Nations League?

The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition played by the senior men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The defending champions are Portugal.

When is the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League?

The 2026–27 UEFA Nations League will be the fifth season of the competition. The league phase of the latest edition will be held from September to November 2026. Nations League Finals will take place in June 2027.

How to watch the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League for free

Fans can live stream the UEFA Nations League for free on these platforms:

• France — L'Equipe / TF1+

• Germany — ARD / ZDF / RTL

• Italy — Rai

• Netherlands — NOS / NPO

• UK — BBC iPlayer / ITVX

These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world.

Access free live streams of the UEFA Nations League 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 a location with free coverage of the UEFA Nations League

4. Visit your favorite free streaming platform

5. Watch the UEFA Nations League for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to free live streams without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it does give you time to watch select UEFA Nations League fixtures before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the UEFA Nations League?

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, 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 always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 80% off for a limited time. This plan 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 $12.99 (with a money-back guarantee).

Live stream the UEFA Nations League for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Donald Trump's allies are always quick to defend him, even when the president is banning press outlets from the White House — but Jimmy Kimmel may have a cure.

"It has become increasingly difficult for these hand-puppets of Trump's to explain the unexplainable — the nonsensical, unconstitutional, knee-jerk reactions he has to everything," says Kimmel in the clip above. "But fortunately the American pharmaceutical industry has been working on this, and help, as they say, is on the way."

Cue a parody commercial for "Lie Vitra", a "once-a-day pill that will keep you lying more than ever before," with "side effects that include depression, self-loathing, and the feeling of your soul leaving your body as you realise just what you've become."

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Donald Trump was inaudible during a White House-livestreamed ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday — and it shouldn't have been a surprise. No press pool? No audio.

The president recently revoked White House access for journalists from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW, with press, commentators, and the White House Correspondents' Association declaring it a violation of the First Amendment, specifically the freedom of the press. All three media outlets have filed a lawsuit against Trump, demanding press access be restored. Now, several networks have boycotted coverage of White House events usually covered by the press pool.

During Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, the host reflected on Trump's silent moment on the White House lawn.

"Apparently he forgot the press pool is also who brings the microphones. If you're going to ban news organisations from the White House, you really need to learn how to project," said Meyers.

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The best early October Prime Day headphones and earbuds deals: Best headphones deal Beats Studio Pro $169.95 (save $130.04) Get Deal Best earbuds deal Apple AirPods Pro 3 $199 (save $50) Get Deal

Just like that, fall is here and so is the holiday shopping season — well, almost.

The unofficial kick-off comes with Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, otherwise known as October Prime Day. The sitewide sale runs from Oct. 6-7, but already, deals on headphones are popping up. While none of the deals so far are exceptional, they are worth checking out, especially if you want to avoid the chaos of the sale or simply can't wait.

SEE ALSO: Amazon announces dates for Prime Big Deal Days, its 48-hour 'October Prime Day' sale

Standouts include Beats markdowns on everything from their Studio Pro headphones (following the release of new over-ear headphones) and their fitness-oriented earbuds, the Powerbeats Pro 2. Prices of AirPods are starting to dip too, with the AirPods Max 2 down $70 and the AirPods Pro 3 down $50.

Below, check out the 12 best headphones and earbuds deals live ahead of October Prime Day, according to someone who tests them.

Best headphones deal Opens in a new window Credit: Beats Beats Studio Pro $169.95 at Amazon
$299.99 Save $130.04   Get Deal Why we like it

While there may be a new pair of Beats over-ear headphones in town, 2023's Studio Pro are still worth a second look, especially at the price of $169.95.

When testing out the best Beats headphones, Mashable contributor Alex Bracetti found the Studio Pro were actually superior in most cases to the far more expensive AirPods Max. They have better battery life, internal engineering more suited to richer sound quality, customizable equalizer options, and ANC that holds its own with Apple's headphones. For under $175, that's not a bad deal.

Read Mashable's full review on the Beats Studio Pro.

More headphones and earbuds deals

• CMF BY Nothing Headphone Pro — $69 $79 (save $10)

• Nothing Ear (3a) — $79 $99 (save $20)

• Nothing Ear (Open) — $89 $99 (save $10)

• Beats Solo 4 — $129.95 $199.95 (save $70)

• Sony ULT headphones — $132.95 $249.99 (save $117.04)

• Beats Powerbeats Fit — $169.95 $199.99 (save $30.04)

• Apple AirPods Pro 3 — $199 $249 (save $50)

• Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 — $199.95 $249.99 (save $50.04)

• Nothing Headphone (1) — $219 $299 (save $80)

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) — $399.99 $449 (save $49.01)

• Apple AirPods Max 2 — $479 $549 (save $70)