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The best early Black Friday cordless tool deals Best Early Black Friday Cordless Tool Deal DeWalt 20V Max Cordless Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit $178 (Save $60) Get Deal Best Early Black Friday Cordless Tool Combo Kit Deal Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 4-Tool Combo Kit $199 (Save $50) Get Deal Best Early Black Friday Cordless Ratchet Deal Milwaukee M12 F12V Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Ratchet $299 (Save $100) Get Deal Best Early Black Friday BOGO Cordless Tool Deal Makita 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Drive Impact Wrench Kit $539 (BOGO) Get Deal

If there's a shelf that still needs hanging or a deck repair you've been ignoring since spring, a good cordless tool can make the job a little more palatable. Buying one before the holidays is a great idea, especially since retailers have already started rolling out early Black Friday deals ahead of the actual sale. Cordless tools are one of the categories where prices drop first. There's no reason to wait until the end of November when the discounts are already here, so we've done our homework to bring you some of the best and earliest to choose from.

Some of the best early Black Friday deals we've found so far are on cordless drills, impact drivers, and combo kits from brands like DeWalt, Milwaukee, Makita, and Ryobi, with battery-and-charger bundles among the most heavily marked down.

If you've been waiting for the right moment to build out your garage or workshop setup, this is a good week to start adding things to your cart. Check out some of our top picks below.

Best early Black Friday cordless tool deal Opens in a new window Credit: The Home Depot DeWalt 20V Max Cordless Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit $239 at The Home Depot
  Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

The drill/driver and impact driver in this DeWalt kit are both compact enough to fit between studs and under cabinets, so it can handle a variety of jobs. It has an LED light that illuminates whatever you’re working on as well, so you don't have to struggle with visibility when handling each project. The drill uses a 1/2-inch ratcheting chuck that holds bits tight without a key, while the impact driver’s hex chuck lets you load and swap bits with one hand. You also get two 20V Max batteries, a charger, and a carrying bag to make a complete tool kit that's perfect for DIY jobs or handing over to repair enthusiasts.

Best early Black Friday cordless tool combo kit deal Opens in a new window Credit: The Home Depot Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 4-Tool Combo Kit with Compact Battery $199 at The Home Depot
$249 Save $50   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

Ryobi’s four-tool ONE+ kit pairs a 1/2-inch drill/driver and a 1/4-inch impact driver with a 5-1/2-inch circular saw. It also comes with an LED work light with a pivoting head that should make visibility a bit less of a concern when working in hard-to-reach places. Two 18V batteries come in the bag, a compact one for lighter jobs and a 4.0 Ah pack for longer runtime, and both work with every tool in Ryobi’s ONE+ lineup if you decide to add on later. The battery is a great addition to give you some extra oomph as well.

Best early Black Friday cordless ratchet deal Opens in a new window Credit: The Home Depot Milwaukee M12 F12V Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Ratchet $299 at The Home Depot
$399 Save $100   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

Get in there and get things done with this cordless ratchet. It has a brushless motor that gives you air-ratchet speed without the hose or the compressor, so you can get into an engine bay or under a sink and finish those frustrating jobs. Its slim in-line body is balanced for one-handed use, and an LED near the head lights up fasteners in tight spots. Plus, its onboard fuel gauge shows how much charge is left so you know how much longer you have to work at a glance.

Best early Black Friday BOGO cordless tool deal Opens in a new window Credit: The Home Depot Makita 18V LXT Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Drive Impact Wrench Kit $539 at The Home Depot
Buy One, Get One Free Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

This BOGO deal nets you two tools instead of one. This impact wrench puts out 430 ft-lbs of nut-busting torque from a brushless motor, which is enough to break loose over-tightened lug nuts. A four-speed selector lets you dial the power down for smaller fasteners, and the auto-stop modes cut the motor once a nut comes loose so it doesn’t spin off the socket. The kit comes with two 5.0Ah batteries, a rapid charger, and a bag, and the whole thing weighs about four pounds with a battery attached. Twice is always nice.

More cordless tool deals

• Ryobi ONE+ 18V Starter Kit with 4.0 Ah Battery and Charger — $129 $159 (save $30)

• DeWalt 20V MAX XR Cordless 1/4 in. 3-Speed Impact Driver (Tool Only) — $129 $169 (save $110)

• Milwaukee M18 18V Lith-Ion Cordless Compact Blower w/ 2.0 Ah Battery — $129 $239 (save $40)

• DeWalt 20V MAX Cordless Brushless Screw Gun (Tool Only) — $149 $199 (save $50)

• DeWalt 20V MAX XR Cordless 1/2 in. Impact Wrench (Tool Only) — $199 $279 (save $80)

• DeWalt 20V XR Battery Starter Pack (8.0Ah + 4.0Ah with Charger) — $199 $329 (save $130)

• Milwaukee M12 12V Cordless Green 250 ft. 3-Plane Laser Level Kit — $599 $649 (save $50)

• Milwaukee M18 18V Cordless Combo Kit (8-Tool) with (2) Batteries and Charger — $649 $1,298 (save $649)

Best early Black Friday Dyson deals at a glance: Best Dyson vacuum deal for hard floors Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones $423.99 (save $176) Get Deal Best Dyson vacuum deal for carpet Dyson V16 Piston Animal $799.99 (save $180) Get Deal Best Dyson air purifier deal Dyson HushJet $279.98 (save $70.01) Get Deal Best Dyson haircare deal Dyson Airwrap i.d Multi-Styler $534.49 (save $175.50) Get Deal

It feels like we just finished recovering from October Prime Day, but Black Friday is already around the corner. (It officially lands on Nov. 27 this year, but retailers are clearly jumping the gun to get deals out early.) I'm honestly shocked to see these Dyson discounts hitting Amazon this far ahead of Thanksgiving.

SEE ALSO: Amazon Prime Day vs. Black Friday: When are the deals actually better?

We will obviously be updating this all month long leading up to the main event (and even after), so you can expect this list to grow as we get closer to the big day. But if you want to beat the holiday rush and cross some big-ticket items off your list, here are the best early Dyson deals you can grab right now.

Best Dyson vacuum deal for hard floors Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Cordless Vacuum $449.99 at Best Buy
$599.99 Save $150   Get Deal at Best Buy Get Deal at Dyson Get Deal at Walmart Why we like it

As of Oct. 19, the Mashable Choice Award winner Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones (what a name, right?) is on sale for $423.99, down from $599.99, at Amazon. That's a 29% discount, or $176 in savings. Not only is this the lowest price we've seen on this model in the last 30 days, but it's also a new all-time low, according to our trusty price-history tool CamelCamelCamel. Its previous record-low price was $449.99, which it last hit on March 29, 2026.

In our review, Mashable's Leah Stodart noted that it "weighs nothing and fits everywhere," making it ideal for smaller homes or apartments. The Fluffycones head swivels a full 360 degrees to glide around tight furniture legs, and dual lasers point out every speck of dust in your path. Just keep in mind that its battery life is relatively short (30 minutes), and it has a tiny dustbin — plus, it's built for hard floors and struggles on carpet.

Read our Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones review.

Best Dyson vacuum deal for carpet Dyson V16 Piston Animal $799.99 at Amazon
$979.99 Save $180   Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Best Buy Get Deal at Dyson Why we like it

If your home has thick carpets or shedding pets, the ultra-slim PencilVac won't cut it — you need heavy-duty suction. Meet the Dyson V16 Piston Animal. It's on sale for $799.99, down from $979.99, at Amazon. That's an 18% discount or $180 savings. It's also the best price we've seen on this model to date.

Not to be dramatic, but this is the most powerful Dyson vacuum ever made. It offers 315 Air Watts of suction power, features an anti-tangle All Floor Cones cleaner head that yanks deeply embedded hair right out of rug fibers, and has a newly designed compression dustbin that makes it easier to just set it and forget it.

Read our Dyson V16 Piston Animal review.

More Dyson vacuum deals

• Dyson Ball Animal 3 — $299.99 $449.99 (save $150)

• Dyson Ball Animal 3 Extra — $399.99 $549.99 (save $150)

• Dyson V15 Detect Origin — $589.99 $839.99 (save $250)

Best Dyson air purifier deal Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson HushJet (Black/Teal) $279.98 at Amazon
$349.99 Save $70.01   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

The Dyson HushJet is our official pick for "the perfect lazy person air purifier," mainly because its fully sealed Electrostatic and Activated Carbon filtration system can last for up to five years before you need a replacement. It's designed to purify spaces up to 203 square feet, making it a practical addition to stuffy bedrooms or home offices (it's also helpful for pet parents — I have two beagles, and I love my HushJet).

Right now, you can get it for $279.98, down from $349.99 at Amazon, saving you $70. For a purifier that works this well while running at a whisper-quiet 24 decibels on sleep mode, that's a damn good early Black Friday steal.

Read our Dyson HushJet Compact Air Purifier review.

Best Dyson haircare deal Dyson Airwrap i.d. Multi-Styler and Dryer and Dyson Chitosan Post-Style Serum (Amazon Exclusive) $534.49 at Amazon
$709.99 Save $175.50   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

If you've been waiting for the Airwrap i.d. to get cheaper, now's the time to whip out your wallet. The Amazon-exclusive bundle with the Dyson Chitosan Post-Style Serum is on sale for $534.49, down from its $709.99 list price — saving you $175.50 (25% off).

This deal includes six versatile attachments for curling, smoothing, drying, and adding volume without heat damage, plus the post-style serum to lock in your finished look with all-day hold. Yes, it's still an investment, but getting the multi-styler and full-size product for over $175 off makes it much easier to swallow.

More Dyson haircare and beauty deals

• Dyson Supersonic Nural Hair Dryer — $372.49 $449.99 (save $77.50)

• Dyson Airstrait Straightener — $427.74 $554.99 (save $127.25)

If you’re still on your parents' Spotify Family plan after moving out of the house, keeping your share of the subscription could be getting harder.

Spotify is now asking some Premium Family members to scan a changing QR code on their plan manager’s phone to verify that they live together, according to Spotify's support page. Members have seven days from the date of notification to complete the check. Miss the deadline or fail verification, and they cannot join a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months.

That could put a sizable dent in the savings from sharing. In the U.S., Premium Family costs $21.99 a month for up to six accounts — roughly $3.67 each if everyone splits the bill equally. Premium Individual costs $12.99 a month, more than three times that amount.

SEE ALSO: How much is Spotify Premium in the U.S.? Spotify's household rule goes back years

Despite the name, Spotify's Family subscription doesn't cover relatives living wherever they please.

The company originally introduced its Family plan in October 2014 for five accounts, touting a $4.99 per-month subscription in the U.S. for each additional family member, on top of the main subscriber’s $9.99 subscription. (They expanded to 6 accounts in 2016.)

In a 2019 newsroom post, Spotify announced updates to the Family plan and described it as for family members "living under one roof." They are clearly starting to take that terminology more seriously.

As of an Oct. 19 report by 9to5Google, Family plan members must share an address and allow the company to request verification again to confirm it. Rumors about this feature also predate this week's coverage: A Reddit post from December 2025 describes the same rotating-code verification.

Spotify's support page says it may ask "some" Family members to complete the scan, without specifying how widely the checks are being used.

What members need to do Credit: Screenshot: Spotify Support Page

If Spotify asks you to verify through a QR code, you'll have seven days from the notification to complete the scan with your plan manager — the person who manages and pays for the subscription.

The manager opens Spotify on their phone and taps their profile picture, then Your Premium → Manage. You scan the code with your phone's camera. Spotify says both people must be in the same place and have the latest version of the mobile app installed. The code changes every few seconds, so a screenshot could expire before you use it.

If you're having trouble, Spotify recommends checking the date and time settings on both phones and restarting the app. If you miss the deadline or can’t complete verification, you cannot join a different Family or Duo plan for 12 whole months, but you can still subscribe to another option, such as Premium Individual (which costs $12.99 a month in the U.S.).

SEE ALSO: Spotify hits 300 million Premium subscribers

For members who live together but are temporarily apart, that leaves a practical problem: Your household may qualify, but you still need to coordinate an in-person scan before the clock runs out. Let the panic commence!

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today. 

Early Black Friday Gift Guide deals at a glance Best Walmart deal Apple Airpods Pro 3 $199 (save $50) Get Deal Best Amazon deal Hisense 85-inch E6 Hi-QLED 4K TV $797.97 (save $102.02) Get Deal Best Target deal Tineco Go HammerHead Cordless Wet/Dry Mop & Vacuum $149.99 (save $130) Get Deal Best Ulta deal Conair InfinitiPRO DigitalAIRE Drying Wand $90.99 (save $39) Get Deal Best Home Depot deal Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Combo Kit $649 (save $649) Get Deal

It's not often walk to the mailbox and find something inside we're excited about. Amidst the bills and junk mail, top brands launch their Black Friday gift guides, and some might be landing in your mailbox.

The official Black Friday date is Nov. 27 this year, the day after Thanksgiving. But you don't need to wait for deals to drop then. Amazon, The Home Depot, and Target all have Black Friday sales underway right now.

Browsing the deals is half the fun of shopping during Black Friday. And if you're trending toward Analog life, you can request a free physical copy of some gift guides including Amazon's Holiday Kids Gift Book 2026. But you have plenty of other browsing to do, too.

The Home Depot Black Friday Gift Guide is packed with cordless power tools, holiday decor, and gifts for the gardener in your life. Walmart has conveniently broken down the top 100 gifts including Apple Airpods Pro 3 and the Nintendo Switch 2.

SEE ALSO: Early Black Friday kitchen deals from Ninja, De'Longhi, and Viking are already live

Ulta's Black Friday Gift Guide is the perfect cheat-sheet for buying beauty gifts for your friends, and Costco has excellent deals on artificial Christmas trees and laptops if you're a member. Nordstrom is a great place to grab stocking stuffers and gifts are already up to 40% off.

If toys are on your shopping list, be sure to peek the Target Black Friday Gift Guide, as well as the Meijer Toy Book and the Fleet Farm's Toyland which opened earlier in October. Remember if you're shopping for tech deals, sometimes Target offers better discounts than Amazon's Black Friday offerings.

Below, we've rounded up some of our favorite early Black Friday deals from the top gift guides.

Best Walmart deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Airpods Pro 3 $199 at Walmart
$249 Save $50   Get Deal at Walmart Why we like it

A classic sale on some of the best Airpods, you can already snag them for $199 at Walmart. The Airpods Pro 3 come with great sound, exceptional noise cancellation, good battery life, and even a heart-rate monitor. On Mashable's list of the best earbuds, the Airpods Pro 3 earn the top spot as the best option for Apple users. While the $199 sale price isn't unheard of, they do tend to sell out during busy sale seasons, so shop early to avoid the stress.

Best Amazon deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 85-inch E6 Hi-QLED 4K TV $797.97 at Amazon
$899.99 Save $102.02   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

The holidays are a time for relaxing and what better to do so than with a massive TV to watch romantic Christmas movies? The giant 85-inch Hisense E6 QLED 4K TV is already on sale at Amazon well before Black Friday and it's under $800. Plus, it's the perfect early holiday gift for anyone who's recently moved into a bigger place.

Best Target deal Opens in a new window Credit: Tineco Tineco Go HammerHead Cordless Wet/Dry Mop & Vacuum $149.99 at Target
$279.99 Save $130   Get Deal at Target Why we like it

No one likes to spend the holidays cleaning the house. Keep the task of cleaning the floors as quick and painless as possible with the Tineco Go HammerHead Cordless Mop and Vacuum. All in one go, you'll be able to vacuum and mop, and maneuvering is made easy thanks to Tineco's swivel steering.

Best Ulta deal Opens in a new window Credit: Conair Conair InfinitiPRO DigitalAIRE Drying Wand $90.99 at Ulta
$129.99 Save $39.00   Get Deal at Ulta Why we like it

Black Friday sales is one of the best times of the year to shop for beauty deals. Instead of paying big time for a Dyson hair dryer, Ulta has great deals in store on Conair beauty tech including the InfintiPro Drying Wand, which is on sale for under $100.

Aiming for a faster drying experience, the Conair detangles, smooths, and adds volume. It'll be a staple for getting ready for holiday parties this season.

Download the Ulta app and you'll be in line for special daily savings you won't find online. Today's mobile app deals include saving 20% on CeraVe products, makeup from Smashbox, and free gifts with purchase.

Best Home Depot deal Opens in a new window Credit: Milwaukee Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Combo Kit $649 at The Home Depot
$1,298 Save $649   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

With eight cordless power tools and two batteries, the Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Combo Kit is the ultimate gift for anyone in your life who could use a tool upgrade. Winter is the perfect time for garage and home renovation projects, so this deal couldn't come at a better time.

I have long been intrigued by locally-run AI models, but I've never had the hardware to do it—until now. The Cephalon Lucy Max is a small cube-shaped mini PC and NAS combo that delivers AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip with 128GB of RAM, and it's actually capable of running some pretty impressive local models. So impressive that it almost got me to ditch my cloud AI subscription.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon trading card game, Pokémon is dropping a massive wave of free digital loot for Pokémon TCG Pocket players.

Starting Oct. 20, players who log into the mobile card game can participate in the Pika Pika! Pikachu event, where logging in for just 10 days unlocks a free, exclusive Pikachu ex immersive card designed by Japanese graphic artist YOSHIROTTEN.

How to claim your free Pikachu ex card and event loot

The first step you need to take is to open Pokémon TCG Pocket on iOS or Android on any 10 separate days between Oct. 20 and Oct. 19 of next year. That's not going to be particularly challenging for dedicated players. Logging in during the event awards special Pika Pika! Pikachu booster packs, containing Pikachu cards across various rarities.

The event also includes a guaranteed Pika Pika! Pikachu Pack ex, which promises either a 2-star rarity card or a Shiny Pikachu ex. Players can also unlock matching Pikachu-themed playmats, card sleeves, and digital coins to customize their in-game battle decks.

We want to be very clear that this is a digital card inside a mobile app, not a physical piece of cardboard you can sell for a lot of money on eBay.

It's a refreshingly player-friendly move from Pokémon TCG Pocket, offering a full year-long claim window with zero microtransaction requirements. If you already play Pokémon TCG Pocket during your daily commute, taking 30 seconds to log in for 10 days gets you one of the highest-value digital collectibles in the game for free. That kind of promo doesn't come around too often.

Milwaukee batteries are actually quite versatile. While you might think they can only run power tools, you can actually do a whole lot more with them. Here are six genuinely odd (yet super useful) things that you can definitely power with Milwaukee batteries—and one that you probably shouldn't do.

Microsoft may have borked Outlook for some folks with a new Windows update.

Specifically, a Windows Server security update has caused access issues for Outlook on some Exchange Server systems, according to a Microsoft security note (cited by BleepingComputer). This is specifically affecting systems running Windows Server 2019 and later, per Microsoft. As a result, users may not be able to access Outlook, or sent messages might just remain in the Outlook outbox without actually going anywhere.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft president warns AI is less regulated than milk and washing machines

There is no firm fix for this problem just yet. Microsoft says that the severity of the problem will differ from server to server, with some not encountering any problems at all. In a different post, Microsoft urged users not to uninstall the problematic update, instead offering a workaround:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt on an Exchange Server

2. Enter the following as a command: "reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc" /v EpmapSavedContextCap /t REG_DWORD /d 65536 /f"

3. Reboot the server

That should help alleviate the issue until Microsoft offers a long-term fix for it.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today. 

The best early Black Friday Amazon device deals at a glance: Best Fire TV Stick deal Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K $19.99 (save $40 with on-page coupon) Get Deal Best Echo deal Echo Dot Max $89.99 (save $30) Get Deal Best Fire tablet deal Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet $72.99 (save $82) Get Deal

Amazon's official Black Friday sale technically doesn't kick off until next month, but time means nothing to retailers in 2026. The actual dates of Black Friday have been blurred beyond recognition and deals start popping up in October and last well into December. That's good news for anyone looking to save some cash and spread out their holiday shopping.

If there's an Amazon device on your list, there are already quite a few live deals floating around on Fire tablets, Fire TV Sticks, and Echo devices. Whether they're lingering discounts from October Prime Day or early Black Friday deals doesn't really matter. What matters is you can score an Amazon device for cheaper than usual — especially since many of these devices saw price increases in 2026 (thanks, RAMageddon). Other devices like Kindles, Fire TVs, Blink cameras, and more are still at full price, but we're keeping an eye out for any drops.

We'll be tracking all of the best Amazon device deals leading up to, during, and post-Black Friday below. For early deals beyond Amazon devices, be sure to follow along with all of Mashable's coverage in our Black Friday hub.

Best early Black Friday Fire TV Stick deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K $15.96 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $44.03 with on-page coupon code 'FTV4K' Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

Sadly, the whole lineup of Fire TV Sticks was hit with a price increase back in August. But that doesn't seem to affect how impressive the discounts are. Prime members can grab the brand-new Fire TV Stick 4K, which was released in September, for just $19.99 with the on-page coupon code FTV4K. That's its best price so far on record.

The 4K Select was only released last year, but the 4K has officially replaced it. It features the Vega 2.0 operating system for even speedier navigation and a more robust app store. Amazon listened to customer qualms with the 4K Select and added over 2,000 more apps to the 4K, including Spotify, Xbox, VLC, and a range of VPNs. The all-new 4K also comes with 8GB of storage, a quad-core 1.7GHz processor, support for WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, HDR10+, HLG, and Alexa+. It also features an all-new Fire TV remote.

More Fire TV Stick deals

Fire TV Stick deals

• Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select — $14.99 $49.99 (save $35 with on-page code SELECT4K)

• Amazon Fire TV Stick HD — $17.99 $39.99 (save $22 with on-page code HDFTV)

Best early Black Friday Echo deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Echo Dot Max $89.99 at Amazon
$119.99 Save $30   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

One of Amazon's most popular speakers got a refresh last year specifically with Alexa+ in mind. The Echo Dot Max is a super-powered speaker that's just slightly bigger than the Echo Dot, but features nearly three times the bass and can fill up large spaces with lossless, high-definition audio. It can also adapt to its environment to offer the best sound possible, have more natural conversations via Alexa+, double as a mesh WiFi extender, and seamlessly control all of your smart devices.

The Echo Dot Max got a $20 price increase back in August, so we're glad to see an early Black Friday discount that negates the price hike and then some. While we have seen it cheaper in the past, this is still a pretty solid deal if you don't want to wait.

More Echo deals

• Amazon Echo Show 8 — $149.99 $199.99 (save $50)

• Amazon Echo Show 11 — $199.99 $249.99 (save $50)

Best early Black Friday Fire tablet deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet $72.99 at Amazon
$154.99 Save $82.00   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

Amazon surprise-released a new line of tablets earlier this month, so it only makes sense for its older tablets to see huge discounts. We're certainly not complaining. The Fire HD 10 tablet, while several years old, still serves as a solid pick for anyone who just wants a tablet to stream shows, check emails, and browse socials. It won't wow you like a speedy new iPad, but it'll get the job done without breaking the bank — especially since it's on sale for just $72.99. That's more than 50% off its list price. For what it's worth, I bought this exact tablet for my dad last Christmas and it's well-loved.

More Fire tablet deals

• Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet — $79.99 $129.99 (save $50)

• Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet — $94.99 $169.99 (save $75)

• Harry Potter Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet (limited edition) — $132.99 $189.99 (save $57)

When it comes to Halloween decorating, Arby's just raised the steaks.

The fast-food chain is launching a limited-edition "Meat Sweats" tracksuit ahead of the spooky holiday, but not just any tracksuit: one "made specifically for 12-foot skeletons," according to an email sent to press.

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

That could only refer to "Skelly," the viral giant skeleton animatronic that The Home Depot has sold since 2020; this year, it was updated with app controls. The tracksuit doesn't appear to be an official collaboration between the two brands, though they had an exchange about it on social media this week. (Mashable has reached out to The Home Depot for comment.)

"things get spooky Wednesday," Arby's captioned a picture of the tracksuit on Instagram Monday, adding, "be afraid @homedepot." In the comments, the home improvement retailer replied: "That's one way to beef up your Halloween decor 👀"

View this post on Instagram

The Meat Sweats suit features an all-over print of folded roast beef and an Arby's logo on its chest. Priced at $46.66, it will be available exclusively in Arby's online merch store starting this Wednesday, Oct. 21 at noon ET.

Skelly has built up quite the wardrobe over the years. The Home Depot released Santa, scarecrow, and witch costumes for the oversized animatronic in 2021, and many Skelly owners have DIYed their own outfits for it.

Opens in a new window Credit: Arby's Arby's Skeleton Sweat Set $46.66 at ArbysShop.com
Launches Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 12 p.m. ET. Learn More at ArbysShop.com

The Moon is more than half illuminated, which means we're getting closer to the Full Moon. Each night the Moon will appear bigger in the sky, with lots of opportunity to spot some features on its surface.

What is today's Moon phase?

As of Tuesday, Oct. 20, NASA's Daily Moon Guide tracker tells us the Moon is in the Waxing Gibbous phase, with 65% of its surface visible.

Tonight, you should be able to spot the Mare Crisium, the Tycho Crater, and Mare Fecunditatis without any visual aids. If you have binoculars you'll also see the Endymion Crater, the Alphonsus Crater, and the Appenine Mountains. Plus, if you have a telescope, you'll also see the Apollo 15 and 16 landing spots, plus the Rima Hyginus.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on October 25 or 26, depending on your timezone.

What are Moon phases?

The Moon takes around 29.5 days to travel around Earth, and its appearance changes throughout the month. As it moves around our planet, we see different amounts of its sunlit side, from a slim crescent to the quarter phases and eventually a Full Moon. It then begins the cycle again. As NASA explains, these phases are caused by the Moon's changing position relative to Earth and the Sun.

The eight phases are:

New Moon - The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it's not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

It's now easier to support your favorite podcasts beyond listening to ads. Spotify is launching Memberships, or paid podcast subscriptions, that can provide perks to loyal listeners.

Information wants to be free. But to get the most out of it, you need some sort of organization. Having an Obsidian database full of notes, kanban boards, outlines, and information from unconventional sources is fantastic. But it is kind of useless if you can't find anything. I considered creating a Table of Contents or organizing my tabs better than I already do, but that's kind of a pain. So I built a Dashboard instead, using a few different plugins.

It's just the understood thing that if your Ryobi battery has four flashing lights, it's dead and it's time to buy another. What if I told you that wasn't the case? There are actually a few things to try to bring a "dead" battery back to life—and one basically involves performing surgery on the battery. Here's what the lights actually mean, why it happens, and what you can do before recycling that "dead" battery and buying a new one.

There's so much to want to love in Canadian series Yaga, from its small-town mystery to its hints of folklore and witchcraft. But the biggest draw of all is undoubtedly its cast, which includes Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo, and Heated Rivalry breakout Hudson Williams.

SEE ALSO: 2026 fall TV preview: Every show you should know about

Yaga is Williams' first major project to come out since the runaway success of Heated Rivalry catapulted him and co-star Connor Storrie to stardom. With that comes an opportunity for Williams to further showcase his range beyond his Canadian Screen Award-winning work as Shane Hollander. It's a shame, then, that Yaga gives Williams and his co-stars so little to latch onto, in a dark feminist fable that feels more hollow than revelatory.

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What's Yaga about? Noah Reid and Clark Backo in "Yaga." Credit: Crave / Christopher Lawrence

Based on the play by Kat Sandler, who also serves as showrunner, Yaga invites us to the small town of Whittock, where Henry Park (Williams), heir to a powerful fishery owner, has gone missing. Enter private investigator Rapp (Reid) and local police detective Carson (Backo), who are paired — reluctantly, on Carson's end — to get to the bottom of this mystery.

What begins as a standard missing persons investigation soon becomes something darker and stranger. Chicken carcasses hang menacingly on doors. Bloody symbols mar crime scenes. Through it all, Rapp hears whispers of Baba Yaga, a legendary witch from Slavic folklore known for living in a house on chicken legs and flying around in a mortar and pestle. Could Henry's disappearance be tied to the occult? Given that the whole series opens with images of an unknown figure being burned at the stake, and that each episode opens and closes with a voiceover monologue from a wizened witchy figure, the answer appears to be an unequivocal "yes."

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So the stage is set for a strange, folkloric mystery. Yet Yaga's witchiness never truly sings. Too often, the show resorts to the same style of surreal fakeout dream sequences, where a stream of bloody feathers and foreboding masks blends into a shorthand for horror without truly scaring. The voiceovers, presented as coming from Baba Yaga herself, offer up platitudes about women who have been othered as witches, but they feel familiar to anyone who's ever read a "we are the granddaughters of the witches you couldn't burn" bumper sticker.

Hudson Williams pulls double duty in Yaga. Hudson Williams in "Yaga." Credit: Crave / Christopher Lawrence

At the center of this witchy vortex is Williams' Henry, who mostly haunts Rapp and Carson's investigation in flashbacks, including a steamy podcast recording with him and intriguing professor Katherine (Moss), an expert in all things bone. Henry's not alone: Williams also plays Logan, Henry's roommate, podcasting partner, and doppelganger. (Yaga sticks Williams in a prosthetic nose and fake acne for the Logan role, and the result is a jarring trip to the uncanny valley.)

A dual role should be rich territory for any actor to mine, yet neither Henry nor Logan get enough screen time for Williams' double turn to truly sink in. Henry is primarily a confident, if sleazy, charmer, while Logan is mostly presented as an awkward, almost wooden foil to that charm. Logan was not a character in the original stage play, and it shows in his thinness here.

Yaga introduces a fascinating thread about Logan perhaps wanting to be (or maybe be with) Henry, but it rarely pulls it beyond the occasional unsettling sex scene. While onscreen intimacy can often be a great showcase of character dynamics, here, these scenes are often over too fast or accompanied by a voiceover that explains said dynamics without letting the actual performances breathe.

As Yaga unfurls, Henry and Logan become much more sinister figures. While the thought of Williams taking a villainous turn is an exciting one, his Henry and Logan don't make particularly compelling villains because we know so little of them. Yaga's leads don't tend to fare much better. Moss is slippery fun as Katherine, but too often she remains on the margins. Backo and Reid's buddy cop dynamic is punchy, yet often dragged down by Rapp's incessant flirting. That most of the women in Whittock practically throw themselves at him is one of Yaga's most infuriating features. As it happens again and again and again, these women's advances bypass sexual empowerment and move straight into bewilderment.

Yaga gestures out to interesting concepts, but ultimately, it never dives deep enough. As an examination of witchcraft as a conduit for female rage, it's not angry enough. As an erotic thriller, it's not titillating enough. As a mystery, its twists and turns are intriguing, but never quite captivating. The ingredients for success are there, but they never quite come together to cast the right spell.

The first two episodes of Yaga premiere Oct. 23 on AMC+.

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

The Champions League is back this week with some crucial matchups, including Sabah vs. Dortmund. Both teams are on three points after two games, so a win here would help safeguard their playoff positions.

We're expecting a close game that could go either way, but Dortmund will be confident of gaining the upper hand here. Dortmund are still unbeaten in the Bundesliga and possess the talent to beat any side on their best day.

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

When is Sabah vs. Dortmund?

Sabah vs. Dortmund in the Champions League kicks off at 12:45 p.m. ET on Oct. 20. This fixture takes place at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

How to watch Sabah vs. Dortmund for free

Sabah vs. Dortmund is available to live stream for free on Virgin Media Player.

Virgin Media Player is geo-restricted to Ireland, but anyone can access it for free with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock Virgin Media Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Sabah vs. Dortmund for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)

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

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Ireland

4. Visit Virgin Media Player

5. Watch Sabah vs. Dortmund for free from anywhere in the world

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The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Sabah vs. Dortmund (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Virgin Media Player?

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

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A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.

Live stream Sabah vs. Dortmund in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.

Where to buy PowerA's Pokémon Plantopia collection: Nintendo Switch 2 Advantage Wireless Controller (Pokémon Plantopia) $74.99 at Pokémon Center Shop Now East-West Nintendo Switch 2 Bag (Pokémon Plantopia) $44.99 at Pokémon Center Shop Now Game Card Case for Nintendo Switch 2 (Pokémon Plantopia) $19.99 at Pokémon Center Shop Now

PowerA and Pokémon have come together once again, this time with a new hardware drop celebrating the franchise's 30th anniversary.

The Pokémon Plantopia collection is officially live and available exclusively through the Pokémon Center. The botanical aesthetic features fan favorites like Bulbasaur, Leafeon, Rowlet, and Sprigatito, plus a certain Pikachu.

We like everything in this limited-edition drop, but the star is undoubtedly the Advantage Wireless Controller. PowerA didn't just slap a sticker on a cheap gamepad. This officially licensed controller packs up to 30 hours of battery life, two mappable advanced gaming buttons on the back, and a solid two-year warranty.

There's no pressure to invest in the whole collection, but pairing the controller with matching travel accessories is seriously tempting. The crossbody travel bag is designed to hold your Switch 2 console, cables, and power bank. The Pikachu storage case holds up to 12 Switch game cards with dedicated slots for matching microSD cards.

We're honestly a little surprised to still see stock for this collection. This is one of the cleanest 30th-anniversary drops you can buy directly at retail price without paying inflated reseller rates (for now).

Most homeowners have a power tool or two, and there's a good chance it's made by Milwaukee, Ryobi, Kobalt, or some other company. While many of these brands typically offer the same tools, like drills and impact wrenches, each has a few unique or specialty tools you probably don't know about.

Google has a bit of a problem when it comes to supporting old Pixel phones. They were promised to get five years of support, but the reality of that promise isn't what people expected. Thankfully, GrapheneOS exists as a simple way to extend the life of an old Pixel phone.

My first exposure to a certain type of Final Fantasy fan occurred in 2006, when a friend of mine angrily insisted that a game can't be Final Fantasy if it doesn't have turn-based combat.

This was in response to the hybrid real-time combat of Final Fantasy XII, and series developer Square Enix has been forsaking that kind of guy in the two decades since. There hasn't been a traditionally turn-based mainline Final Fantasy in 25 years, which makes Final Fantasy Resonance exciting. A new title assembled using assets from the mobile title Brave Exvius, Resonance follows in the footsteps of last year's Octopath Traveler 0 in turning a phone game into a console experience that will live after its predecessor's servers are inevitably shut down.

Resonance is not as large or audacious as Octopath was, and its main story relies a bit too much on tropes and concepts from previous Final Fantasy stories to stand on its own. Thanks to pleasurable combat that's wonderfully easy to bust wide open and a solid sense of exploration, this throwback RPG was worth the 40 or so hours it took me to finish.

SEE ALSO: 'Zelda: Ocarina of Time' is my favorite video game ever. After playing the remake, I get the vision. Final Fantasy Resonance is full of ideas you've heard before

The best Final Fantasy games have some of the most emotionally affecting and thought-provoking stories you'll find in any big-budget RPG. I often put Final Fantasy X, in particular, on a pedestal thanks to its compelling combination of gut-wrenching romance and an examination of how theocracy can take hold over a society.

All of that is to say that Resonance doesn't reach those heights. Its story concerns a ragtag group of adventurers traveling around the world to stop some evil dudes in cool armor from destroying elementally attuned crystals, in hopes of preventing a global catastrophe. Resonance occasionally hints at greater storytelling ambitions in some of the areas you travel to, such as the desert nation of Zoldaad, which is embroiled in a tense revolutionary fervor against a despotic king. Generally, though, you don't spend enough time in these areas for their individual plotlines to carry much weight, and the game thematically falls back on basic ideas like "the power of the human spirit" too often.

This over-reliance on well-trodden concepts extends to the primary cast of characters. They're endearing enough thanks to decent English voice acting and some solid character-specific sidequests, but for the most part, they adhere to archetypes you've probably seen before. Rain, the protagonist, is a blonde guy with a big sword. His friend Lasswell is a brooding katana wielder, Nichol is a stern, strategic mage, and Sakura is a centuries-old sorceress who has the appearance of a child.

I don't dislike any of these people, and I'll admit that by the very end, Resonance crossed the low bar of making me care about what happened to them. But all of it goes in the exact "let's go save the world" direction that you think it will, and the final villain was kind of a nothingburger for me.

The combat always kept me guessing, even with awkward menus Expect to see this a lot. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

While Resonance never reaches the narrative heights of its predecessors, the turn-based combat is pretty excellent. It's exactly what you'd want out of an old-school-style Final Fantasy experience: Enemies on the left, party on the right, and every offensive or healing spell can either be cast on a single unit or on multiple units, just like the classics. Enemies have elemental weaknesses, everyone is susceptible to all sorts of negative status effects, and smart use of buffs can win the day for you. It's good stuff.

To its credit, Resonance blends retro-style design with more modern ideas. There's a visible turn order on screen (really stretching the definition of "modern" there), you can optionally adjust the speed of battle, and every enemy has a stagger meter underneath their health bar that, when depleted, paralyzes them for a turn and makes them highly vulnerable to damage. Stagger every enemy onscreen in one turn, and you get a bonus phase where every character gets to act, and you get to unleash a huge, flashy super attack.

The menus are a little overbearing. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

Those super attacks come from "visions," ghostly spirits that you equip to a party member, whom the visions hang out behind during fights. I am a huge fan of the vision system's gameplay ramifications, as it acts as a sort of soft class system. Each vision imbues its attached party member with a new moveset of unique, upgradable moves tied to specific elements, giving each vision a defined role in combat.

And yes, these visions are mostly cameo characters from previous Final Fantasy games. Cloud, Terra, Squall, Tidus, and other assorted protagonists from past titles are all here, with one representative from each mainline game. This is sort of a double-edged sword; I appreciate this system as a clever way to reuse assets from the mobile game, but it also means Resonance occasionally hinges too much of its excitement on making you do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen meme because you saw a guy you recognized from another game.

This guy will show up in anything. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

Square is lucky that Resonance is a pretty good game in its own right, as all these cameos otherwise just remind you of games with better characters and stories.

Even with too much weight placed on references, Resonance consistently whetted my appetite for this style of combat thanks to smart encounter design that encourages regularly switching visions in and out of different situations. The only issue here is that the menu design makes that kind of a chore. It just takes one or two extra button presses to get to a full list of your visions, and figuring out who is best for each situation is a slower process than it should be as a result.

Resonance will do until the next proper FF comes around The cutscenes are excellent. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

We don't know when the seventeenth (!!!) mainline Final Fantasy is coming, nor what form it will take. Until then, Resonance is a satisfying appetizer of sorts.

Aside from the quality combat, Resonance kept me going by giving me an airship relatively early and letting me explore the world as I saw fit. Of course, the story progresses in a linear fashion, and lots of areas are inaccessible until you see a certain cutscene, but there are lots of little islands, caves, and other fun things to discover if you take the time to explore. By the end of the game, my party was overpowered as hell because I had put the effort in to find things that would give me advantages in fights.

That sort of thing was missing from the last mainline title, Final Fantasy XVI, so I appreciate its inclusion here.

Love this stuff. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

Its soundtrack also deserves a shout-out. Composer Noriyasu Agematsu channels the classics reasonably well with battle themes that drive up the adrenaline, overworld themes that set an appropriate mood for each area, and cutscene tracks that make the otherwise middling story developments feel emotional.

As a fun bonus, Resonance also looks and runs great on Switch 2. It's probably the best-looking game in the "HD-2D" style yet, and the cinematic pixel art cutscenes are especially jaw-dropping at times. The frame rate drops a little bit here and there, but not enough to appreciably distract from the experience.

Final Fantasy Resonance often feels more like a really good cover band than a member of the original act, but that's OK. The end result serves as a reminder that Square Enix is still perfectly capable of making games in this style. Hopefully it's a sign of better things to come for the mainline series.