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Best early Black Friday deals Best Apple deal Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $749 (Save $150 at Amazon) Get Deal Best headphones deal Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones $299 (Save $500 at Amazon) Get Deal Best robot vacuum deal Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra $799.99 at Amazon (Save $500 at Amazon) Get Deal Best TV deal Hisense 65-inch U6 Mini LED QLED 4K TV $547.99 (Save $300 at Amazon) Get Deal Best kitchen deal Ninja Slushi (88 ounce) $269.99 at Amazon (Save $100 at Amazon) Get Deal Best power station deal Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 $729.00 at Amazon (Save $800 at Amazon) Get Deal Best Kindle deal Like-new Kindle Paperwhite (16GB) $106.99 (Save $37 at Amazon) Get Deal

We're officially back in Black Friday season, folks.

Though Black Friday falls on Nov. 28 this year, retailers are already kicking off sales. Best Buy dropped early deals and doorbusters on Oct. 31, and Target started their first holiday savings event on Nov. 6. Even though retailers like Amazon haven't kicked off any programming yet (you can expect that to start on Nov. 20,) we've spotted plenty of Black Friday-worthy deals that you can shop early to get ahead of your holiday list.

Keep checking back for the best Black Friday deals from Amazon, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and beyond.

Best early Black Friday Apple deal Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $749 at Amazon
$999 Save $250   Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

The 13-inch MacBook Air is down to a record-low price of $749 ahead of Black Friday. This is our favorite laptop for students, thanks to its M4 silicon and slim design. This markdown is so good that even if it does happen to drop lower for Black Friday or Cyber Monday (and we're not counting on it), you still score a great deal without all the chaos of Black Friday shopping.

More Apple deals Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M2, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $699 at Best Buy
$799 Save $100   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $949 at Amazon
$1,199 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods 4 $117 at Amazon
$129 Save $12 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods Pro 2 $139 at Walmart
$239 Save $100 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods Max (USB-C) $479.99 at Amazon
$549 Save $69.01   Get Deal Apple AirTag $17.97 at Amazon
$29 Save $11.03   See It at Amazon See It at Walmart See It at Best Buy Apple Airtags, 4-Pack $64.98 at Amazon
$99 Save $34.02   See It at Amazon See It at Walmart See It at Best Buy Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm, GPS) $349.99 at Amazon
$399 Save $49.01   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm, GPS + cellular) $249 at Walmart
$499 Save $250 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Best early Black Friday headphones deal Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones $299 at Best Buy
$429 Save $130 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal at Best Buy Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Walmart Why we like it

Read our full review of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (Gen 1) headphones.

The Bose QC Ultra headphones have long been some of our favorite noise-cancelling headphones. Even though Bose recently replaced them with a new Gen 2 model, the originals are still an excellent value for your money — especially at the record low price of $299.

More Black Friday headphones and earbuds deals Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WF-C710N Wireless Earbuds $78 at Amazon
$129.99 Save $51.99   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose Ultra Open Earbuds $199 at Bose
$299 Save $100   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2) $249 at Amazon
$299 Save $50 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Beats Fit Pro $149 at Amazon
$199 Save $50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: JBL JBL Tune 670NC On-Ear Headphones $54.95 at Walmart
$109.95 Save $55   Get Deal Best early Black Friday robot vacuum deal Narwal Freo Z10 Ultra $799.99 at Amazon
$1,299.99 Save $500   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart sees Narwal's newest robot vacuum mop combo as a dupe for the $1,599.99 Roborock Saros 10R. Its edge cleaning is comparable to that of the Saros 10R's, thanks to dual spinning mopping pads that flex out from under the vacuum to scrub in corners and along walls. When mopping, the Freo Z10 Ultra ensures that it does a thorough job by taking a before-and-after picture of the spill, going back for another pass if necessary. The livestream pet camera is a bonus for homes with pets.

More robot vacuum and vacuum deals Opens in a new window Credit: Eufy Eufy E20 3-in-1 $349.99 at Amazon
$449.99 Save $100 Editor's pick ✅ Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: iRobot iRobot Roomba 105 $199 at Amazon
$219 Save $20   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson V12 Detect Slim $399.99 at Walmart
$729.99 Save $330 Editor's pick ✅ Get Deal Dyson Big Ball Turbinehead Canister Vacuum $229.99 at Walmart
$349.99 Save $120   Get Deal at Walmart Best early Black Friday TV deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 65-inch U6 Mini LED QLED 4K TV $547.99 at Walmart
$847.99 Save $300 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Why we like it

"If you're not sure what size TV to get, we consider 65 inches to be the sweet spot for most folks. While the Hisense U6 Mini LED QLED TV falls into the budget-friendly category, its specs don't scream "budget" at all. It features a Mini LED backlight system, which essentially means its uses smaller LEDs to deliver a brighter and more detailed picture. Plus, it packs a 144Hz native refresh rate, WiFi 6 connectivity, an ATSC 1.0 tuner under the hood, and support for HDR in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. It uses the same interface as Amazon's own Mini LED Fire TV and is equipped with on-board Alexa. Our friends at PCMag (also owned by Ziff Davis) called it 'easily the brightest and most colorful budget-friendly TV we've tested.' At $547.99, the 65-inch Hisense U6 is already down to its best price ever at Amazon ahead of Black Friday." — Christina Buff, Mashable Contributor

More TV and streaming deals Opens in a new window Credit: TCL TCL 55-inch Class Q6-Series QLED 4K TV $279.99 at Target
$449.99 Save $170   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Roku Roku 65-inch Pro Series Mini LED QLED 4K Smart TV $798.99 at Amazon
$1,199.99 Save $401   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 65-inch Class U6 Mini LED QLED TV $547.99 at Amazon
$847.99 Save $300 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Samsung 55-inch The Frame LS034 4K QLED Smart TV (2025) $897.99 at Amazon
$1,197.99 Save $300 Editor's pick ✅ Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Samsung Get Deal at Best Buy Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense QD6 QLED 4K TV $199.99 at Best Buy
$329.99 Save $130   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 65-inch QN65 QLED 4K TV $448 at Walmart
$599.99 Save $151.99   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select $21.99 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $18.00 Lowest price ever 🔥 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Roku Roku Streaming Stick Plus 4K & HDR (2025) $29 at Amazon
$39.99 Save $10.99   Get Deal Best Black Friday fitness tracker deal Opens in a new window Credit: Whoop Whoop 4.0 $149
$199 Save $50   Get Deal Why we like it

Whoop has teased its Black Friday sale, set to start on Nov. 20. When the sale officially begins, we can expect discounts on the Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG. However, until then, we'll settle for a discount on the Whoop 4.0, which comes with the One membership included. It provides deep insights on sleep, strain, recovery and hormonal cycles. An annual membership is usually $199, and includes the Whoop 4.0 device, but ahead of Black Friday it's down to $149, saving you $50 and 25% off.

More Black Friday fitness tracker deals Opens in a new window Credit: Garmin Garmin Forerunner 265 Running Smartwatch $299.99 at Amazon
$499.99 Save $200   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Fitbit Fitbit Versa 4 Fitness Smartwatch $119.95 at Amazon
$199.95 Save $80.00   Get Deal Best Black Friday kitchen deal Ninja Slushi (88 ounce) $269.99 at Amazon
$369.99 Save $100   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

The Ninja Slushi is a blast in any season — frozen margs in any flavor you want when it's hot, apple cider slush or gingerbread frappé when it's chilly. (Mashable Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart loves her Slushi, and so do all of her friends.) A year after the first Slushi came out, Ninja released two larger capacity versions in a few fun colors. The 88-ounce model on sale for $269.99 at Amazon can make a slightly bigger batch than the original 72-ounce model, which is on sale for $249.99 at Walmart. $20 more for extra beverages and a chic green build? Sold. (If you want the purple one, it's $269.99 at Target.)

More Black Friday kitchen deals Nespresso Festive Vertuo Pop+ Coffee and Espresso Maker $129 at Amazon
$209.95 Save $80.95   Get Deal at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Our Place Our Place Wonder Oven Pro $275 at Our Place
$325 Save $50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja Luxe Café Pro Espresso and Coffee Machine $634.99 at Amazon
$749.99 Save $115   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: All-Clad All-Clad HA1 13-piece Nonstick Cookware Set $489.99 at Amazon
$699.99 Save $210   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Keurig Keurig K-Elite Coffee Maker $139.99 at Target
$209.99 Save $70   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Nutribullet Nutribullet Personal Blender $47.49 at Amazon
$71.99 Save $24.50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja Creami $179.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $20   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: KitchenAid KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-quart Stand Mixer $349.95 at Amazon
$499.99 Save $150.04   Get Deal Best early Black Friday home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Brooklinen Brooklinen's Black Friday Sale Score 25% off on Brooklinen bedding and bath linens. Get Deal Why we like it

The best early Black Friday deal for the home is at Brooklinen. Right now, the brand is offering 25% off across its products. You can find Brooklinen's super-plush Turkish cotton bath towel bundle for just $107, saving you 30% off. All prices are marked, no discount code needed.

More early Black Friday home deals Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark StainForce Portable Stain Remover $149.99 at Amazon
$199.99 Save $50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark NeverChange Air Purifier $139 at Amazon
$179.99 Save $40.99   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Casper Casper Original Pillow $60 at Amazon
$75 Save $15   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Casper Casper Hybrid Snow Pillow $144.90 at Amazon
$179 Save $34.10   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Ugg Ugg Adalee Faux Fur Throw Blanket $84.99 at Amazon
$108 Save $23.01   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Dyson Air Purifier $449.99 at Target
$549.99 Save $100   Get Deal Best early Black Friday power station deals Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 $699 at Amazon
$1,499 Save $800   See It at Amazon Why we like it

"A solid mid-range power station, the small and mighty Explorer 2000 v2 is lightweight enough (under 40 pounds) to carry with you on camping trips, boating, tailgating, and other outdoor adventures. It's also equipped with 2,042Wh capacity, which makes it powerful enough to serve as a home battery backup in emergencies as well. That's enough power to keep your fridge running for over a day, heat up a meal in the microwave, and brew plenty of cups of coffee. It packs three AC outlets, one USB-A port, and two USB-C ports, as well as a built-in light and super-charge emergency mode on board for a variety of needs. With $800 off, it's down to its best price on record ahead of Black Friday." — Christina Buff, Mashable contributor

More Black Friday power station deals EcoFlow River 2 $269 at Amazon
$449 Save $180   Get Deal at Amazon Bluetti Elite 200V2 $1,099 at Amazon
$2,299 Save $1,200   Get Deal at Amazon Early Black Friday deals from Amazon

Even though Amazon's Black Friday sale hasn't officially started (you have to wait until Nov. 20 for that), Amazon devices such as Fire TVs are already marked down in advance of the sale. In addition, you can find plenty of limited-time deals on popular gadgets, power stations, smart home tech, outdoor gear, and Christmas gifts. Amazon is also a great place to stock up on stocking stuffers, as you'll find an abundance of deals under $25.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bissell Bissell Little Green Mini Portable Carpet Cleaner $84.98 at Amazon
$94.99 Save $10.01   Get Deal Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet $94.99 at Amazon
$194.99 Save $100.00 Lowest price ever 🔥 See It at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad, 11 inches (A16 Chip) $299
$349 Save $50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon 55-inch Omni Series 4K QLED Smart Fire TV $349.99 at Amazon
$499.99 Save $150   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Orastone Orastone Electric Hand Warmers $17.99 at Amazon
$29.99 Save $12 Editor's pick ✅ Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: National Tree Company Pre-Lit 6.5-Foot Dunhill Fir Artificial Christmas Tree $199.98 at Amazon
$254.03 Save $54.05 Bonus coupon: Get Echo Pop & Amazon Smart Plug for $15 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Keurig Keurig K-Supreme Single Serve Coffee Maker $99 at Amazon
$189.99 Save $90.99   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Vitamix Vitamix 5200 Professional-Grade Blender $299.95 at Amazon
$549.99 Save $250.04   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Blink Blink Outdoor 4 wireless security cameras (5 cameras + sync module) $119.99 at Amazon
$299.99 Save $180   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Like-new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16GB) $106.99 at Amazon
$143.99 Save $37.00 Refurbished with great reviews Get Deal Amazon Echo Dot (2022 release) $31.99 at Amazon
$49.99 Save $18.00   Get Deal at Amazon Opens in a new window Credit: Meta Meta Quest 3S VR Headset (128 GB) $249.99 at Amazon
$299.99 Save $50   Get Deal Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World Bundle $499 at Walmart
$1,049.66 Save $550.66 Editor's pick ✅ See It at Walmart See It at Amazon See It at Best Buy Early Black Friday deals from Walmart

As in years past, Walmart+ members get early access to the best Black Friday deals, and you can either sign up for a free trial or get 50% off a membership. Until its next official Black Friday sales event (mark your calendars for Nov. 25), the original Everything Store has great early deals on video games, kitchen gadgets, Legos, and even Dyson vacuums.

Opens in a new window Credit: Crock-Pot Crock-Pot Manual 7-Quart Slow Cooker $34 at Walmart
$40.53 Save $6.53   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP 14-inch HD Chromebook (Intel Processor N200, 4GB RAM, 128GB UFS) $119 at Walmart
$329 Save $210   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Alienware Alienware 16-Inch Aurora Gaming Laptop (Intel Core 7-240H, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050) $1,128 at Walmart
$1,249.99 Save $121.99   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Nintendo Nintendo Switch 2 Console + NBA 2K26 $499.99 at Walmart
  Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian Gift Set $45 at Walmart
$62.97 Save $17.97   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Wicked Welcome to Emerald City Building Set $78.99 at Walmart
$99.99 Save $21   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Borderlands 4 $54.97 at Walmart
$69.99 Save $15.02   Get Deal Early Black Friday deals from Best Buy

Best Buy has an interesting Black Friday system: It's been dropping new doorbusters every single Thursday since Halloween. Some of those deals have stuck around, and some are fleeting. You can plan ahead for the official Black Friday sale (kicking off on Nov. 20) with the Best Buy Black Friday ad scan, but here are some deals that are confirmed to be at their Black Friday prices.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 65-inch C5 OLED 4K TV $1,399.99 at Best Buy
$2,699.99 Save $1,300.00   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Asus Asus Vivobook 14 (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $279.99 at Best Buy
$529.99 Save $250   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Met Meta Quest 3S The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners bundle (128GB) $249 at Best Buy
$299 Save $50   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: De'Longhi De'Longhi Classic Espresso Machine $149.95
$229.95 Save $80   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Bambu Lab Bambu Lab A1 Combo 3D printer $379.99 at Best Buy
$499.99 Save $120   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: GoPro GoPro HERO13 Action Camera Bundle $369.99 at Best Buy
$479.99 Save $110   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: SteelSeries SteelSeries Apex 9 Mini 60% Wired Gaming Keyboard $64.99
$129.99 Save $65.00   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 27-inch Odyssey G50D QHD Gaming Monitor $199.99 at Best Buy
$349.99 Save $150   Get Deal Early Black Friday deals from Target

We're scanning Target's weekly ad to find the best early Black Friday deals of 2025, including plenty of products that are cheaper at Target than on Amazon. Strangely, that includes some of Amazon's own products. So, if you're a Target Circle member and you need a new kids' tablet or espresso machine, now's your chance to save.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire 7 Kids Tablet $44.99 at Target
$99.99 Save $55.00 Costs $5 more at Amazon Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: DeLonghi DeLonghi Magnifica Espresso Machine $499.99 at Target
$779.95 Save $279.96 Costs $50 more at Amazon Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hearth & Hand with Magnolia Magnolia Wood Finish Retro Record Player $149.99 at Target
$179.99 Save $30   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Universal Music Group Taylor Swift 'The Life of a Showgirl: Sweat And Vanilla Perfume' Vinyl $29.99 at Target
$34.99 Save $5.00   Get Deal

A platform that promises "spicy AI chatting" left nearly two million images and videos, many of them showing private citizens, exposed to the public, 404 Media reported.

Secret Desires, an erotic chatbot and AI image generator, left cloud storage containers of photos, women's names, and other personal information like workplaces and universities, vulnerable, according to 404 Media.

This "massive leak" is the latest case of people using generative AI tools to turn innocent photos into nonconsensual explicit deepfakes.

SEE ALSO: Is AI porn the next horizon in self-pleasure — and is it ethical?

Some of the photos and videos were taken from real influencers, public figures, and non-famous women. The latter category includes Snapchat screenshots and at least one yearbook photo. Some of the exposed media included user-generated AI images, such as those created with a now-defunct "faceswap" feature, which Secret Desires removed earlier this year.

Like Character.AI or Replika, Secret Desires allows users to create AI personas and chat with them. While pornographic content isn't allowed on Character.AI (and is only allowed for certain Replika users), Secret Desires says it "provides limitless intimacy and connection" on its Quick Start Guide.

As 404 Media found, the AI-generated media found in the vulnerable storage containers were mostly explicit. Some of the file names included terms like "17-year-old."

The company didn't respond to 404 Media's request for comment, but the files became inaccessible around an hour after the publication reached out.

For years, women and girls have been victims of explicit deepfakes, which are AI-generated content. Many deepfakes are women's likenesses "faceswapped" onto pornographic videos. This applies to celebrities like Taylor Swift as well as women who are not famous. This also happens to girls, creating online child sex abuse material.

This year, Congress passed the Take It Down Act to combat deepfake images. The law proved controversial, as several free speech and advocacy groups claim that it can be weaponized against consensual explicit material or political speech.

Alongside his novels, Joe Hill is paid to write a screenplay each year. But he doesn't do it for the money.

Hill, whose new novel King Sorrow published in October, has also found success in the world of film and TV through adaptations of his work. For example, The Black Phone franchise is based on his 2004 short story, and King Sorrow is currently being developed for TV. While news of adaptations of Hill’s work is frequently reported in the trades, his screenwriting hasn't been widely publicized. Sitting down with Mashable recently to speak about everything from Stephen King references in his new novel to AI, though, he confirmed that it's a big part of his professional life.

"I write a screenplay every single year," Hill told Mashable. "And I do it for the healthcare."

SEE ALSO: Joe Hill breaks down the Stephen King references in his new novel

Hill explained that he gets healthcare for his family through the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which is the union that represents screenwriters. In order to be eligible to receive this, you have to meet annual minimum earning requirements. In 2024, Hill's wife Gillian received a cancer diagnosis that required surgery. Having insurance through the WGA saved the family tens of thousands of dollars.

"There were a whole bunch of tests, you know, and consultations in the lead-up to the operation, but the operation alone was $60,000," Hill said. "Because I have Hollywood healthcare that I get for writing screenplays, I only had to pay 700 bucks. So in a very practical way, it's impossible to put a value, to me personally, on the work I do as a screenwriter, because it's so important to have access to that healthcare insurance."

Hill explained that the screenplay he's working on at the moment is a an adaptation of his own work.

"Right now I'm revising a screenplay that I was paid for for 2025," he said. "The script I'm working on now is an adaptation of an unpublished novella that I'd written that will be published eventually."

Featured Video For You Cooper Hoffman and 'The Long Walk' cast compete for ultimate Stephen King film knowledge

Hill said there was a lapse in his healthcare coverage a while back that led to him going round Hollywood to try and drum up some work — and writer/director Scott Derrickson, who directed The Black Phone, wanted to help out.

"He treated it like we were talking about his family healthcare," said Hill. "He's like, 'We're booking you a gig.' And, you know, we talked about possibilities, and then I sent him this novella I had written that hadn't been published, and a pitch for how I'd adapt it, and he got psyched. And he's like, 'We gotta do this.' And so he got me the gig to write the script. Now I'm revising it for Sony Screen Gems."

"it's so important to have access to that healthcare insurance"

Hill's wife has now made a full recovery, but Hill still thinks of screenplay writing as "the best thing I can do for my family." He's going to keep working on one every year, alongside his plans to write a novel each year in his fifties.

"The next two things I've got lined up are adaptations of other people's words," Hill said, "which I'm really excited about."

As Congress looks to maybe, potentially, finally release the Epstein files, an email document dump from Jeffrey Epstein's estate released last week by the House Oversight Committee has already delivered some shocking revelations.

And those emails have already led to at least one high-profile resignation at one of the biggest tech companies in the world. 

Economist Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary under the Clinton administration and a former president of Harvard, has resigned from OpenAI's board, according to statements provided by Summers and the company to Axios. Summers had previously acknowledged he'd be stepping away from all public commitments in light of the Epstein document release.

"In line with my announcement to step away from my public commitments, I have also decided to resign from the board of OpenAI," Summers said in a statement provided to Axios. "I am grateful for the opportunity to have served, excited about the potential of the company and look forward to following their progress."

Despite Summers' statements, he plans to continue teaching at Harvard, where he currently works as a Professor of Economics, Axios also reported.

"Larry has decided to resign from the OpenAI Board of Directors, and we respect his decision," OpenAI's board said in its own statement. "We appreciate his many contributions and the perspective he brought to the Board."

Summers' ties to Epstein have long been known. During Summers' tenure as President of Harvard, Epstein donated tens of millions of dollars to the university. Epstein was even given his own personal office at the school during this time. Flight records released during the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell showed that Summers had previously flown on Epstein's private plane, according to the Harvard Crimson.

However, the newly released email documents revealed that Summers' association with Epstein continued well after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. In emails from 2018 and 2019, Summers reached out to Epstein seeking advice on pursuing a relationship outside of his marriage with a woman he described as a "mentee." In the emails, Epstein referred to himself as Summers' "wing man." In addition to the conversations on romantic relationships, Summers also made numerous sexist comments.

Summers' final correspondence with Epstein in the email documents occurred on July 5, 2019 — just one day before Epstein was arrested and federally charged for the sex trafficking of minors.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Google has officially launched Gemini 3, its newest and most advanced AI model — and the company is calling it its "most intelligent" system yet. The model rolled out across Google products on day one, marking the first time a new Gemini release has gone live in Search at launch.

Gemini 3 represents what Google execs describe as the next major step in their push toward more capable, more context-aware AI. In a note sharing the launch, the company stated that the model incorporates deeper reasoning, stronger multimodal understanding, and enhanced awareness of user intent compared to earlier versions.

What’s new in Gemini 3?

The headline upgrade is reasoning. Google says Gemini 3 is built to understand nuance, break down complex problems, and "grasp depth and context" in ways its predecessors couldn’t. In benchmarking tests, Gemini 3 Pro took the top spot on the LMArena leaderboard with a 1501 Elo score, outperforming both Grok and Gemini 2.5 Pro.

SEE ALSO: Google's Gemini 3 is smarter, better at figuring out what you need

The model also demonstrates significant improvements in academic-style reasoning. On Humanity’s Last Exam, Gemini 3 Pro hit 37.5 percent without any external tools, and on GPQA Diamond, it reached 91.9 percent. It also posted state-of-the-art scores across math and multimodal tasks, including video understanding and factual accuracy.

A new enhanced mode called Gemini 3 Deep Think pushes those capabilities even further. Deep Think improves scores on nearly every benchmark, including a jump to 41 percent on Humanity’s Last Exam and 45.1 percent on the ARC-AGI-2 challenge. It’s designed for the most challenging, long-horizon reasoning tasks.

Where can you use Gemini 3?

Gemini 3 is already live across the Google ecosystem. That includes:

• AI Mode in Search, with more dynamic, generative interfaces and complex reasoning support. (Currently available for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.)

• The Gemini app is getting a redesign, including the My Stuff folder and improved shopping experiences.

• Gemini for developers, available now in AI Studio, Vertex AI, Gemini CLI, and Google’s new agentic development platform Antigravity.

• Gemini Agent, an upgraded system that can complete multi-step tasks like inbox organization, appointment management, and more.

How to try Gemini 3 right now

If you want hands-on time with Gemini 3 immediately, there are a few pathways:

• Use AI Mode in Search (Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription required).

• Open the Gemini app, where Gemini 3 is the default model starting today for most users globally.

• Developers can experiment with AI Studio or Vertex AI, gaining full access to Gemini 3 Pro.

• Enterprise customers can deploy it through Vertex AI and Gemini Enterprise.

Deep Think, the highest-end version, will be rolled out in the coming weeks following additional safety evaluations.

Microsoft keeps injecting AI into Windows, and now even the company itself is admitting that there are safety risks in doing so.

This week, Microsoft added some new agentic AI features to Windows 11 Insider users, which give AI permission to automate things like sending emails and sorting files. These are turned off by default and need to be opted into, but for those who choose to enable them, Microsoft published a security note on its website warning that there are security risks to giving AI access to all of your files:

SEE ALSO: The 8 best tablets of 2025: I compared iPads, the Microsoft Surface Pro, and Amazon Fire

"As these capabilities are introduced, AI models still face functional limitations in terms of how they behave and occasionally may hallucinate and produce unexpected outputs," Microsoft said. "Additionally, agentic AI applications introduce novel security risks, such as cross-prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation."

In other words, it's technically possible for something that's meant to help users to harm them instead. This may very well be a super unlikely hypothetical edge case, but the fact that Microsoft felt compelled to say anything about it at all is a bit alarming. As a possible solution, Microsoft is rolling out an experimental feature called "agent workspace," which limits what the AI agent has access to on the PC. In basic terms, it means the agent can only access things that are available to any user of the machine, while files locked behind specific user profiles are off-limits.

We're still in the relatively early stages of all of this, so it will take some time to see how it shakes out. But just be careful before turning on these features.

OpenAI is making another major investment in AI-powered education, announcing a new teachers-only ChatGPT workspace designed specifically to help educators with their classroom workload.

With the new ChatGPT for Teachers, users get full access to ChatGPT 5.1 Auto with unlimited messages, search, file uploads, connectors, and image generation, as well as educator-specific onboarding, admin controls, and personalized prompts. The features have already rolled out to 150,000 teachers and staff across U.S. school districts, says OpenAI.

SEE ALSO: Want to chat on Roblox? You'll need to verify your age.

Rather than the standard security framework built into ChatGPT, ChatGPT for Teachers is designed with "education-grade privacy, security, and compliance programs," says OpenAI, intended to bring the tech in line with requirements under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Under these guidelines, ChatGPT for Teachers can't retain any student data to be used for model training.

Educators and administrators can also collaborate on projects and custom GPTs within the shared workspace, the company explains, and upload existing files from Google Drive or Microsoft 365 accounts to provide ChatGPT with context for lesson plans, grades, and data analysis.

OpenAI is offering it for free to verified educators and school leaders until June 2027.

According to the AI giant, K-12 teachers are "leading education's AI transformation" and OpenAI has increasingly pushed for its AI tools to enter the early childhood education space as its refashioned EdTech for higher education. "Universities are starting to treat AI as core infrastructure for education, and we also know that students use ChatGPT as a 24/7 learning companion," says Leah Belsky, vice president of education for OpenAI. "In our view, every student today is going to grow up in a world that is shaped by powerful AI and teachers will play a key role and helping both students and parents navigate that change."

OpenAI has placed a huge bet on AI's educational potential, launching a nationwide AI training program with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), signing deals with college systems that give ChatGPT to students for free, and even consulting with the Ministries of Education of foreign governments.

Elon Musk's Tesla Diner — the billionaire's shiny, UFO-shaped restaurant in Los Angeles — may be in the market for a new chef.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that chef and co-operator Eric Greenspan is leaving the project. The chef said that he was leaving to focus on opening his new spot, a Jewish deli, but the paper also noted he faced stark pushback for joining forces with Musk.

"I am leaving the Tesla Diner project to focus on the opening of Mish, my long-desired Jewish deli," Greenspan told the LA Times in a text message. "Projects like Mish and the Tesla Diner require a sharpness of focus and attention, and my focus and attention is now squarely on Mish."

Mashable visited the Tesla Diner back in August, which serves the classics — burgers, fries, shakes, etc. — but with Muskified names. So you get items like "electric sauce," "autopilot avocado toast," a "giga burger," and now-defunct "epic bacon." The food did earn decent reviews from Mashable editor Neal Broverman, even if it felt overpriced for the portion size.

This isn't the first big change at the Tesla Diner. Shortly after the diner's opening, patrons noticed that the menu had been scaled back — thus the goodbye to "epic bacon." The LA Times also reported that the diner was looking to move to a full-service model — for the time being, you order at a tablet and get counter service. And, of course, now the chef has left.

In short: It seems quite unclear what the future holds for Musk's futuristic restaurant.

A Bluetooth speaker is one of those devices that, once you find one you like, you won't be able to imagine how you lived without it. And since both Bluetooth and speakers aren't exactly new technology, you'll find that this is one of the more expansive product categories in the tech world (admittedly, this feels like the case for almost anything you buy these days). Enter: the Mashable tech and shopping teams. We stay on top of the latest Bluetooth speaker releases from brands like Sony, JBL, Bose, and Marshall, while also applying our audio and product testing expertise to determine when old favorites are the better choice. We spend time testing the speakers in our own homes, evaluating the balance in their sound, portability, and of course, their prices.

As of November 2025, our top picks include the near-indestructible JBL Charge 6, the smart home-integrated Sonos Move 2, and the charmingly retro Marshall Emberton III. You'll also find the best small Bluetooth speakers, the most portable speakers, and bass-thumping party speakers.

Recent additions to this guide:

• November 2025: We've selected the Bose SoundLink Micro (2nd Generation) as our best travel speaker, replacing the IKEA Vappeby (our new honorable mention pick).

• November 2025: We've added the JBL PartyBox Stage 320 as the best party speaker, replacing the older Ultimate Ears Hyperboom.

• November 2025: We've added the Sony ULT Field 7 as the best boombox-style speaker.

TL;DR: As of Nov. 19, the 65-inch TCL QM6K QLED TV is on sale for $497.99 at Amazon. That's over $100 off and the lowest-ever price for this model.

Opens in a new window Credit: TCL 65-inch TCL QM6K QLED TV $497.99 at Amazon
$647.99 Save $150   Get Deal

We're keeping a close eye on all the deals that are dropping at this time of year, but we're keeping a particularly keen eye on TV deals. Why? Because shoppers care about low prices on top models. And that's exactly what you're getting with the 65-inch TCL QM6K QLED TV.

As of Nov. 19, the 65-inch TCL QM6K QLED TV is on sale for $497.99 at Amazon. That's over $100 off and the lowest-ever price for this model.

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Mashable's sister site PCMag reviewed this TV, saying "The TCL QM6K is a very good value and a strong performer for the price. While it isn’t the brightest TV available, its mini-LED backlight enables deep black levels for excellent contrast, its colors are wide and accurate, and it's packed with features for streaming and gaming." That's more than enough for us, especially at this record-breaking price.

TCL’s QD-Mini LED technology is designed to outperform traditional QLED and OLED TVs, making the QM6K a top choice for big moments like watching sport or movies with the whole family. If you want a centerpiece TV that could bring everyone together for special moments, this could be the deal for you.

Score the best-ever price on the TCL QM6K QLED TV before Black Friday.

Dating in 2025 isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you're a young adult. Between growing up online and coming of age during COVID lockdowns, Gen Z has a distinct experience finding love compared to any other generation.

The popular dating app Hinge has distilled some of this experience in the app's latest D.A.T.E. (Data, Advice, Trends, and Expertise) Report called Closing the Communication Gap, or the disconnect between the desire for deep conversations young daters have versus their hesitance to initiate them.

SEE ALSO: Hinge users complain it 'isn't the same' app Mamdani met his wife on

For this report, the app's research team, Hinge Labs, surveyed around 30,000 Hinge users globally this year.

Gen Z struggles to open up

Gen Z daters are 36 percent more hesitant than their millennial counterparts to initiate a deep conversation on the first date — meaning, going beyond small talk.

This aligns with previous research from Hinge. In 2024, Hinge found that Gen Z singles were 47 percent more likely to say the pandemic made them nervous to talk to new people, compared to millennials, and 25 percent more likely to say the pandemic made them less confident on a first date.

Now, at the near-end of 2025, 35 percent of all Hinge daters across genders and sexualities say they're holding back from having deeper conversations because they don't know how to start.

There's also a "communication gap" between women and men, specifically. Forty-two percent of heterosexual Gen Z women feel like the men they date don't want to have deep conversations on the first few dates, but 65 percent of heterosexual Gen Z men say they do.

Early dating often locks people into invisible scripts — like who is "passive" and who is "active," Hinge's love and connection expert, Moe Ari Brown, said in the report. "Falling into these kinds of roles can quietly sabotage the connection because, while habits create routines, they can also create monotony or imbalance."

Zooming out, 43 percent of Gen Z women in general wait for the other person to initiate deep conversations, partly because they assume men don't want to have them, and 48 percent of Gen Z men hold back from emotional intimacy because they don't want to seem "too much." Other worries are the fear of rejection and being judged.

SEE ALSO: The best dating apps and sites in August 2025

This also tracks with what Hinge found last year: 95 percent of Gen Z daters worry about rejection, and 56 percent said that worry held them back from pursuing a potential relationship.

Another reason Gen Z is holding back is social media. Half of Gen Z men, 45 percent of Gen Z women, and 39 percent of nonbinary Gen Z daters said that social media has made them more hesitant to be emotionally open, according to the 2025 report.

In a time where nearly every move one makes is posted online (if not every single move), the fear of being cringe is strong. But we have to embrace it to find love. As Hinge's lead relationship scientist, Logan Ury, said in the new report, "authentic connection requires vulnerability and imperfection."

...while also using AI tools to date

Yet, it could be easier than ever to outsource vulnerability with AI, which Gen Z daters are turning to. From flirting to wedding planning, young adults are using AI tools like ChatGPT to shape their relationship experiences.

Of the Gen Z men who turn to AI for dating, over half (58 percent) use it to initiate conversations, and exactly half use it to generate conversation responses. Forty percent of Gen Z women who use AI do so to start chatting, and 57 percent use it for responding to conversations as well.

Meanwhile, only 34 percent of Hinge daters overall are comfortable or neutral about using AI to write messages.

As difficult as it is, you might want to exit out of ChatGPT in order to find your partner in 2026. You're not alone if you're looking for greater emotional intimacy, though: 84 percent of Gen Z Hinge daters want to find new ways to build deeper connections with the people they're dating.

Google has a new contender for the smartest AI in the world.

On Tuesday, the company launched Gemini 3, calling it its "most intelligent model."

The new LLM (large language model) should have improved reasoning, helping it to understand the depth and nuance of the tasks it tackles. But according to Google, it should also be better at figuring out "the context and intent behind your request," which means you should be able to get things done with less prompts.

SEE ALSO: Google Maps introduces conversational navigation with Gemini

Gemini hasn't only been updated on its own. Google said it shipped the LLM at scale across its products, meaning that Gemini 3 is already live in AI mode in Google Search — the first time the company has shipped a new model in Search on launch day (note, however, that it's currently only live for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers). Gemini 3 is now also live in the Gemini app, in AI Studio and Vertex AI, as well as in Google's agentic development platform, Antigravity.

Featured Video For You How to use Gemini AI to plan your trip

As is customary, Google immediately showed off Gemini 3's score in various benchmarks. For example, Gemini 3 Pro is now the leader in LMArena with a score of 1501 Elo, ahead of xAI's Grok, and Gemini 3's predecessor, Gemini 2.5 Pro.

And if you want to push it a little further, you can run Gemini 3 Deep Think, which is even better in reasoning and more suited for the most complex tasks. That model is notably better in certain benchmarks, including the notoriously tough Humanity's Last Exam.

On top of all that, Google also redesigned its Gemini app. One key change is the My Stuff folder, where you can find the various chats and documents you've created with Gemini. The company also improved the shopping experience, and started experimenting with generative interfaces, which are created by the model as you prompt it.

Finally, the Gemini Agent is a feature which can complete multi-step tasks for you, including managing your appointments and reminders, organizing your inbox, or performing research online.

SAVE OVER $1,700: As of Nov. 19, the EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra portable power station is on sale for $1,598.99 for Prime members. This is 52% off its list price of $3,299.

Opens in a new window Credit: EF ECOFLOW EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra Portable Power Station with 400W Solar Panel $1,598.99 at Amazon
$3,299 Save $1,700.01   Get Deal

Amazon's Black Friday sale officially starts on Nov. 20, but the retailer already has some exciting deals to consider. Prime members, in particular, have exclusive offers available to check out right now. Among them is this massive discount on the EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra portable power station with 400W solar panel, 52% off for a limited time.

This Prime-exclusive discount has dropped the price of the EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra portable power station with 400W solar panel from $3,299 to $1,598.99, saving you $1,700.01. According to price tracker camelcamelcamel, it has never hit this low price before, so now is a great time to grab it. However, this deal only lasts through the rest of Nov. 19, so you'll want to be quick.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best deals you can buy online early

The EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra boasts a 3,600W continuous output (7,200W surge) that's ready to power up devices around your home. It features multiple ports as well, including four 120V, 20A AC outputs, one 18W max USB-A port, three 140W max USB-C ports, one 120V, 30A TT-30 RV port, and a 12V, 10A cigarette lighter port.

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It also works quietly, which is a bonus if you're using it in a smaller space. Complete with the 400W solar panel, the EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra is ready for any outdoor adventures you have planned.

If you're a Prime member, now is your chance to scoop up the EF EcoFlow Delta 3 Ultra portable power station with 400W solar panel for 52% off at Amazon. And if you're looking for more great deals available right now ahead of Black Friday, check out our breakdown of 60+ early Black Friday deals.

SAVE $600: As of Nov. 19, the Samsung 75-Inch Neo QLED 4K QN80F TV is on sale for $1,497.99 at Amazon. This is $600 off its list price of $2,097.99 and its lowest-ever price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 75-Inch Class Neo QLED 4K QN80F TV $1,497.99 at Amazon
$2,097.99 Save $600.00   Get Deal

TV deals are regularly some of the best to drop over Black Friday, and we've been lucky enough to find plenty on offer ahead of the official start time. Amazon has quite a few worth checking out right now, including this stellar offer on the Samsung 75-Inch Neo QLED 4K QN80F TV, which has dropped below $1,500 for the first time.

This TV is usually listed for $2,097.99, but the Samsung 75-Inch Neo QLED 4K QN80F TV is down by $600 to $1,497.99. According to price tracker camelcamelcamel, this is its lowest-ever price. Now's a great time to grab it if you've been on the hunt for an upgrade ahead of the holidays.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best early deals you can buy online

This large 75-inch Samsung TV is big enough to make movie nights or binge-watching TV shows over the holiday season feel exciting and immersive. Pair that with a high-quality picture thanks to 4K resolution and a QLED display, and you're in for visuals that pop with vibrant color and detail. On top of that, it even comes with Dolby Atmos spatial audio, which makes it seem as if you are surrounded by the sounds.

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Since this Samsung TV is a smart TV, you'll also have instant access to all of your favorite streaming apps. So no matter what you've deciding to watch over the holidays, flipping between your favorite streamers is nice and easy.

Don't miss out on this excellent deal on the Samsung 75-Inch Neo QLED 4K QN80F TV at Amazon. And if you're looking for more, check out our breakdown of the best early Black Friday TV deals to see other picks that have caught our eye lately.

Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo are well into the Stranger Things Season 5 promo tour, and in the pitstop above they visit BBC Radio 1 for a classic game of "Sit Down, Stand Up" with host Greg James.

The rules are pretty simple: Take turns calling a famous friend, and guess if they're sitting down or standing up when they answer. In the clip they keep things on topic, first calling Joseph Quinn (who's played the game before himself) and then Finn Wolfhard, who somewhat confusingly seems to think Keery and Matarazzo are supposed to be meeting him for a Netflix thing.

It's a fun, chaotic time.

Don't you just love it at this time of year? You're minding your own business, slowly approaching the end of the year, and then Black Friday hits you like a train, delivering huge discounts of MacBooks, Pokémon, Lego, and everything else on your shopping list. It's not exactly a relaxing period, but boy can you save a lot of cash. So buckle up, shoppers. We've got weeks of deals to check out.

The only way to survive and thrive over Black Friday is to do a little planning. We recommend bookmarking our many Black Friday pages so that our professional deal hunters can showcase all the offers that are genuinely worth your consideration. But besides that, we also suggest making the most out of the Black Friday ads released by leading retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

SEE ALSO: The 40+ best early Black Friday deals: We found record prices on Apple gadgets, headphones, TVs, and robot vacuums

Looking for the Amazon Black Friday ad? Aren't we all. Amazon does things a little differently from other Black Friday retailers because it doesn't release a traditional Black Friday ad. Instead, Amazon announces its plans for Black Friday via a press release and then drops a boatload of deals when the time comes.

Amazon's Black Friday sale officially begins on Nov. 20 and runs through Dec. 1, with plenty of deals on offer throughout this bumper event. According to Amazon's official press release, these are the deals we can look forward from Nov. 20:

• Up to 55% off select home products from Shark and kitchen appliances from Ninja

• Up to 50% off Amazon devices like the Echo Dot Max, Fire TV Stick lineup, Fire tablets, and Kindles

• Up to 50% off electronics from JBL and Canon

• Up to 45% off Bose audio

• Up to 40% off kitchen items from Vitamix, Staub, Nespresso, and more

• Up to 40% on select floorcare from Bissell and iRobot

• Up to 40% off home entertainment from Hisense, TCL, and LG

• Up to 40% on toys from Melissa & Doug, Little Tykes, Play-Doh, and Nerf

• Up to 35% on select Samsung and Google products

That's a strong lineup, but it's really only a small sample of what's to come. In fact, we're already seeing record-low prices on hot items like Apple products, Lego sets, and power stations.

Best early Black Friday Apple deals

• Apple AirTag — $17.97 $29 (save $12.03)

• Apple AirTag (4-pack) — $64.98 $99 (save $34.02)

• Apple Watch SE, 3rd Gen (GPS, 40mm) — $199.99 $249.99 (save $50)

• Apple Mac mini (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $499 $599 (save $100)

• Apple iPad Pro (M5, 11 inch) — $926 $999 (save $73)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,448 $1,599 (save $151)

Best early Black Friday Lego deals

• Lego Disney Frozen Advent Calendar 2025 — $30.79 $44.99 (save $14.20)

• Lego Harry Potter Mandrake Figure — $40.99 $69.99 (save $29)

• Lego Star Wars: Millennium Falcon — $67.99 $84.99 (save $17)

• Lego Minecraft The Crafting Table — $71.99 $89.99 (save $18)

Best early Black Friday power station deals

• Jackery Explorer 300 — $159 $279 (save $120)

• Bluetti Elite 100 V2 — $395 $799 (save $404)

• Jackery Explorer 1000 v2 — $349 $799 (save $450)

• Anker Solix EverFrost 2 Cooler — $649 $899.99 (save $250.99)

• Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 — $799 $1,499 (save $700)

Best early Black Friday headphones deals

• Soundcore by Anker Q20i — $39.99 $69.99 (save $30)

• JLab JBuds Lux — $49.99 $79.99 (save $30)

• Sennheiser Accentum Plus — $179.95 $249.95 (save $70)

• Sony WH-1000XM5 — $248 $399.99 (save $151.99)

Best early Black Friday smartwatch deals

• Fitbit Versa 4 — $119.95 $199.95 (save $80)

• Garmin Bounce Kids Smartwatch — $119.99 $149.99 (save $30)

• Garmin fēnix 8 — $849.99 $1,099.99 (save $250)

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're a good leader.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for November 19, 2025 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Sturdy

• Green: To escort

• Blue: Found in popular writings

• Purple: Body parts

Here are today's Connections categories

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

• Yellow: Stocky

• Green: Steer

• Blue: Second words in Poe stories after "The"

• Purple: Organ plus a letter

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

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

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #892 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Stocky: HUSKY, SOLID, SQUAT, THICK

• Steer: DIRECT, GUIDE, LEAD, SHEPHERD

• Second words in Poe stories after "The": CASK, FALL, MASQUE, PIT

• Organ plus a letter: COLONY, HEARTH, LUNGE, SKINK

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

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 19, 2025

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

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

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

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you're spiritual.

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

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

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

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

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 19, 2025 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 19, 2025 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Divinely inspired

The words are related to spirituality.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe things pious people.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Religious Figures.

NYT Strands word list for November 19

• Imam

• Rabbi

• Prophet

• Religious Figures

• Buddha

• Priest

• Monk

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

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

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

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're a designer.

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

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 19, 2025 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for November 19, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A creator.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter M.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

MAKER

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

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 19, 2025

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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

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

One of the distinct joys of art is that sometimes you get to feel like you truly grasp something in a way other people don’t. This is the driving force behind "cult classics," those rare movies or games that get a lukewarm reception at release but turn out to be misunderstood gems. It’s fun to feel like you were right all along, but even more fun to feel like other people were wrong.

Take Kirby Air Ride, a vehicle-based action game starring Nintendo’s spherical pink icon Kirby, originally released for GameCube in 2003. One glance at its Metacritic page tells the whole story: Reviewers didn’t much care for it, but lots of gamers loved it, judging by the user score.

As someone who did play the original and found it kind of forgettable, I went into its Nintendo Switch 2 sequel Kirby Air Riders hoping to be won over. I so badly wanted to believe the critics got it wrong, and expanding the game with more characters, abilities, and modes would give Kirby a triumphant return that proved the haters wrong. 

SEE ALSO: Early preview: 'Kirby Air Riders' is a 'Super Smash'-style racer that triggers all the good brain chemicals

That didn’t happen. Kirby Air Riders may have more going for it than its predecessor, but that’s not saying much. This is still a thin racing action game with one cool mode and a whole lot of "bleh" around it, including a miserable single-player experience.

For Nintendo nerds, it’s cool that Air Riders exists at all Most of the racing tracks look fantastic. Credit: Nintendo

Before I get to all the stuff that bums me out about Air Riders, I want to make one thing clear: I’m happy this game exists, if for no other reason than it’s the first big Kirby game directed by series creator Masahiro Sakurai in more than 20 years. You may or may not know Sakurai from being the public face of the Super Smash Bros. series, but Kirby is his baby, and it makes me happy to know that he got to make something of a passion project for himself before presumably getting back into the Smash mines.

Air Riders also feels like a much-deserved celebration of Kirby in general. It’s full of playable characters who range from basic Kirby enemies to Kirby’s friends or even major villains from throughout the series. The soundtrack mixes great original tracks with fresh re-arrangements of classic Kirby songs, and I would say the music is probably the best thing about Air Riders in general. It’s also a visual feast for the young Switch 2 console, with an exceptionally vibrant color palette, racetracks with awesome-looking setpieces and scenery, and a (from what I can tell) flawless 60 frames per second frame rate holding it all together.

Air Riders looks and sounds great, but then you have to actually play it.

But there’s ultimately almost no meat on the bone here Same, homies. Credit: Nintendo

In case you never played the original Air Ride or missed the marketing or public beta weekends for Air Riders, the key thing to know about it mechanically is that there’s no accelerate button. Unlike most racing or vehicular action games, acceleration happens automatically. There are only two buttons, one that slams the brakes (while also charging up a speed boost that activates once you let go), and another that activates your chosen character’s special ability once a meter is full.

Add in a spin attack that you can do by wiggling the left stick back and forth, and that’s your entire moveset. Air Riders is, to its credit, very easy to learn thanks to its inherent simplicity as well as a series of playable tutorials that make sure none of the nuances (which mostly exist in the form of vehicles that all control and behave pretty differently) get past the player. It is worth going through all of these just because, unlike most driving games, most of the vehicles in Air Riders can fly, which is one of the easiest ways to pick up speed and win races.

The problem is that there just isn’t a whole lot to do once you’ve finished the tutorials. You can compete against CPUs or friends in the racing-based Air Ride mode, the top-down Top Ride mode, and the more open-ended action mode City Trial, or check out Road Trip, which technically counts as a single-player story mode. More on that later.

City Trial was the highlight of the GameCube original, and it’s still the main reason to play its sequel. This mode places up to 16 players in a big city map for exactly five minutes, during which time they have to find vehicles and power them up by collecting items that spawn in a variety of ways. You can destroy boxes to juice up your car, but random challenges like short races or even boss fights will appear from time to time, each coming with the opportunity to collect a lot of power-ups simply by participating in them.

I love this guy. Credit: Nintendo

Once those five minutes are up, players are cordoned off into Stadiums, which are basically just mini-games. Some of them prioritize speed, others prioritize flight or combat ability. City Trial is all about embracing whatever machine you ended up with and whatever stats it has at the end of the match, and just trying your best in whichever Stadium you do. There are technically winners and losers, but really, the joy here is in zooming around a map for five minutes and collecting floating icons that make numbers go up. 

Air Riders is at its best when City Trial is at its most hectic, with meteors raining from the sky or some wacky boss wrecking the place while everyone is just trying to power up their ride. I do find some joy in getting to the point where my vehicle is so fast that it’s barely controllable, but that also makes completing specific challenges not especially fun at times. Still, City Trial (especially online, and especially with people you know) is a good time. 

I wish I felt the same about Air Ride, the racing mode. These races aren’t terrible by any means, but they’re usually exceedingly short and insubstantial. City Trial works as well as it does largely because it’s full of random nonsense that can throw you off your game or work to your benefit. Air Ride races, meanwhile, are kind of the same every time, unless you really get into trying different combinations of characters and vehicles. I appreciate that every character can suck up enemies on the road and copy their powers like Kirby can, but even those abilities only add a tiny bit of variety to the proceedings. 

Top Ride is also barely worth talking about. These mechanics don't translate super well to a top-down perspective, and making turns can be more of a chore than I'd like. It feels like a Mario Party mini-game.

City Trial and (to a lesser extent) Air Ride are where you’ll spend most of your time in Air Riders, as they both support local and online multiplayer. Speaking of online, you can host a bunch of friends in a paddock, which works as a social lobby where you can show off your characters or rides, which can be customized using unlockable parts and decals. It’s fun to jump around and do dumb emotes for a while before a City Trail match.

Road Trip is a bust Imagine doing this for 90 minutes. Credit: Nintendo

Unfortunately, there is also a single-player side of Air Riders. Road Trip is an approximation of a solo adventure mode in which you choose a rider and spend somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes completing challenges, collecting machines, powering up said machines, and occasionally fighting bosses. Most of the challenges are plucked from the other modes; short races on Air Ride tracks or Stadium sessions against CPUs make up the bulk of Road Trip’s runtime. Every now and then, you see an uninteresting cutscene as a reward for your efforts, too.

In theory, I’m sort of into a roguelike mode where, by the end, you have a big roster of souped-up machines. Sadly, Road Trip is immeasurably dull. Challenges quickly become repetitive, as you might find yourself doing the same race on the same slice of the same Air Ride track half a dozen times during one Road Trip. I also found that the challenge level stayed pretty much the same. Challenges only got more difficult near the end of a run for me, and only because my machines were so powered up that they became more difficult to control. I actively disliked the late-game boss fights that required a slight modicum of precision, which is not really what Air Riders is good at.

I just can’t personally see myself playing any more of Road Trip than I had to for the purposes of writing this review. At best, it’s somewhat pleasant and boring. At worst, it’s actively frustrating and, again, felt like a chore. I did, on occasion, get a small dopamine rush from completing in-game achievements to fill out a big checklist, which sometimes rewarded me with new characters to play as or new machines to use. The problem with this is that a huge majority of those achievements reward you with stickers or other cosmetic items instead. 

Kirby Air Riders, in that sense, simultaneously has a lot to do and next to nothing to do. You can theoretically pump hours and hours into this game to unlock everything, but the process of doing that isn’t particularly enjoyable beyond the satisfaction of completing something. Air Riders is overflowing with stuff, but most of it is truly just “stuff,” if you catch my drift. 

Critics in 2003 were right

I was not reviewing video games in 2003 because I was nine years old. Playing Kirby Air Riders in this capacity made me feel some solidarity with reviewers from back then, though, as I think this game is roughly as good in a 2025 context as that one was in a 2003 context. Unfortunately, the 2025 version costs $69, and it's just not worth that much.

Yes, the sequel has more playable characters, machines, ways to customize both of those things, and tons of other crap to unlock. The new and improved City Trial mode is genuinely a lot of fun at times, too, and Air Riders is a gorgeous game both visually and aurally. Longtime Kirby aficionados will also surely enjoy the amount of fan service at work here.

But Air Riders still feels woefully thin to me. If you aren’t playing City Trial online, you might as well just play something else. Air Ride mode wears out its welcome pretty quickly and Road Trip is only marginally more fun than driving across Kansas in real life. 

I just don’t think there’s enough hidden depth here to make even City Trial interesting for more than a couple of weeks. All I wanted out of this game was to be persuaded that the original Air Ride was secretly great, and just needed a second chance to truly shine. Needless to say, I remain unconvinced.

Opens in a new window Credit: Nintendo 'Kirby Air Riders' $69 at Amazon
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