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Tesla threw a flashy party on Thursday to announce the start of its autonomous Cybercab service in Austin, but some of the wind was taken out of the company's sails when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced an investigation into the Cybercabs almost immediately after the launch.

Tesla’s Cybercabs are gold-covered robotaxis that seat two riders; the Cabs offer a luxe, roomy experience thanks to butterfly doors, a large Grok-enabled video screen, and the absence of a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals. The omission of the pedals and wheel is exactly why the NHTSA is looking into the Cybercabs, as the agency requires autonomous vehicles to have those back-up controls. 

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The Department of Transportation is considering dropping that requirement, and recently allowed Amazon-owned Zoox vehicles to operate without a wheel and pedals — but only after years of review and requests for information. Before they began offering rides, both Zoox and Cybercabs self-certified that their driverless cars complied with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

SEE ALSO: Waymo is launching its robotaxi in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa

"In the U.S., NHTSA establishes clear vehicle performance requirements," the agency stated in its investigation announcement. "In order for automakers to access the U.S. market, they must certify that their vehicles meet these standards – subject to oversight from the agency to confirm compliance. When certified vehicles appear to not adhere to these requirements, NHTSA conducts an investigation."

It’s unclear whether the NHTSA’s investigation, which it calls an audit query, will severely slow Cybercabs' expansion into markets beyond Austin. The Trump administration indicated that it is trying to balance a push for more autonomous technology with regular safety concerns. 

"NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles. But as the federal regulator, we need to ensure that all of our laws are followed," NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a statement. "Our approach of balancing innovation with safety oversight will allow the United States to maintain its global leadership in AV innovation."

When someone new comes over, one of the first questions I get is why in the world I have a random laptop plugged into my router. Depending on how tech-savvy they are, my answer usually ranges from "Oh, it’s just for movies" to "This is my home server, and here's what it does." So, here’s why I actually keep a decade-old laptop running next to my router.

Fall 2: Deadpoint is an unusual sequel in that the heroes of the previous film aren't at the center. As thoroughly detailed in our Fall ending explainer, only one of the two besties who climbed a 2,000-foot pole made it back to terra firma alive. And she only makes a brief appearance in the second film. However, Fall 2: Deadpoint does follow closely to the structure of the first film… until it doesn't. 

If you're wondering about that ending, we've got you covered. 

What is Fall 2: Deadpoint about? 

The sequel, written by Fall screenwriters Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank, focuses on Jax (Harriet Slater), the younger sister of the late Shiloh Hunter (Virginia Gardner). 

Jax is spiraling not only from grief but also from the surreal experience of seeing Shiloh (who was most often called Hunter in the first film) become posthumously famous as #fallgirl. But a college friend of her sister's, Luce (Arsema Thomas), has a radical plan for coping with such big emotions: Do a big, risky climb in Shiloh/Hunter's name. 

Why is it called Fall 2: Deadpoint? Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas co-star in "Fall 2: Deadpoint." Credit: Lionsgate Credit: Lionsgate

Well, aside from the macabre tone the sequel's subtitle sets up, "deadpoint" is a climbing term. Paradigm Climbing describes a deadpoint as "the moment a climber's vertical or lateral velocity reaches zero, before reversing direction." 

Where does Fall 2: Deadpoint follow Fall?  Harriet Slater plays Jax in "Fall 2: Deadpoint." Credit: Lionsgate

Both films center on two young women who take on a perilously high climb in an attempt to overcome a past trauma. In Fall, Hunter urges Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) to climb the radio tower to get over the death of her husband (Mason Gooding), who died on her last cliffside climb. In Fall 2: Deadpoint, Jax and Luce climb a plank walk, 4,000 feet above sea level (so, twice as high as Hunter and Becky went). This trek is on the face of Thailand's Mount Kwan, and is said to end before a statue of a death dragon that will "eat your fears." 

Luce gets the idea for this particular adventure from Hunter's "fuck-it list," a scrapbook where she plotted out the stunts and climbs she'd perform for her online followers. This leads her and Jax to a bar in Thailand. There, the codename "Icarus on the rocks" (not a good omen) connects them with a non-native guide named Jon (Tom Brittney), who agrees to take them on the illegal climb for a steep fee that Luce says she'll cover. On top of the dangers of falling, this trek is more dangerous still because of reported rock slides. And then there's the added dangers around drug smugglers and the authorities determined to crack down on them and their mules. 

Much of that is added sequel flare. But Fall 2 hits some very familiar story points. Like Becky and Hunter before them, Jax and Luce see a vulture feeding on carrion in an ominous sign before their climb. They are warned they might suffer from "mountain bends," a version of altitude sickness that Jon says could cause "headaches, hallucinations, nausea, and worse." 

Once trapped on the mountain, they too will be trapped by a crumbling man-made artifice. In this case, a rock slide shatters the planks, leaving Luce and Jax stranded 4,0000 feet up. As for Jon, he goes missing during their scramble to dodge the falling rocks.

Then, like Becky and Hunter, the women will find their backpack of necessary provisions just out of reach. The steps to recover it might well give audiences flashbacks to Hunter's attempt to reclaim a backpack in Fall. And then there's actual flashbacks, giving backstory to Jax and Shiloh's dysfunctional sister bond.

Like her sister did in Fall, Jax will use a video recording device to try to find someone on the ground that can help rescue them. And once more, that won't be what does save them.

But, there will be a big twist, where the person who proposed the trip admits to a brutal betrayal of their companion.

What's the twist in Fall 2: Deadpoint?  Arsema Thomas takes a hard fall in "Fall 2: Deadpoint." Credit: Lionsgate

While Jax is Hunter's sister, it's Luce that follows in her footsteps. She has struggles that recall the events that led to Hunter's fatal fall, including an injury to her upper limbs while trying to recover the backpack. From there, audiences might well anticipate that Jax is having an experience like Becky's, having witnessed her friend's death and hallucinating the fallen friend surviving to get her to the end of the path. But Fall 2: Deadpoint's big twist is not that! 

The personal twist comes when Jax watches old footage from Hunter's video recorder of a group hang with Luce. That's when she (and we) learns the Luce she knows isn't the real Luce. Her name is Billie, and she'd never met Hunter. But after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, she found inspiration in Hunter's videos, which had a carpe diem vivacity. She's a fan.

When Billie saw Jax was selling Hunter's recovered vehicle, she wanted to buy it. But Jax didn't want to sell to a fan, so Jax did some light social media stalking and learned Hunter had a Black friend named Luce. She lied about her identity to buy the car, but then felt genuinely connected to Jax. So, she proposed the trip. 

Like Hunter, Billie was deceitful to her climbing partner. In the first film, Hunter's big reveal was she'd been sleeping with Becky's husband before his death. But Luce is not a hallucination. However, she will fall to her death all the same. 

How does Fall 2: Deadpoint end?  Tom Brittney plays Jon in "Fall 2: Deadpoint." Credit: Lionsgate

With Jon's talk about the necessity for the small oxygen tanks to prevent mountain bends, Mann and Frank set up the potential to retread the hallucination twist. However, ultimately, their script pivots to a more Hollywood action ending.

After attempts to get help have failed, Jax and Billie are surprisingly rescued by Jon, who helps them scurry up to safety. Viewers might well doubt that this is really happening, even as the reunited trio proceeds to the death dragon statue as if this were a happy ending. But then comes a new twist; after they cross a dizzyingly precarious rope bridge, the women learn that Jon was using them as unaware drug mules for fentanyl. 

He'd stored the drugs in the O2 tanks, which each client carried. He said he wasn't carrying one because he was essentially immune to mountain bends. But in truth, he knew the stiff penalties he'd incur should he be caught with drugs on him. Yet the jail time in a Thai prison would be nothing compared to what the dealers would do if Jon failed them again. He shows Jax he's already had two fingers severed for failing in his drug runs. One more failure, he warns, and they'd take his head. This is why he came back — for the drugs, not the girls. Still, he was planning to get them picked up in a helicopter and flown to safety. But he tells Jax that the price of that ride is a package of drugs. 

This lesson comes too late for Billie. She's so outraged by Jon's deception that she hollers at him and pitches her tank off the mountain. He's so incensed by this that he shoves her to her death. From there, Jax and Jon fight, which pitches them back onto that flimsy bridge. And ultimately, he'll fall (too), while Jax will get to the mountaintop, securing a ride home by handing over the drugs. 

Will there be a Fall 3?  Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas co-star in "Fall 2: Deadpoint." Credit: Lionsgate

The ending of Fall 2: Deadpoint suggests so! 

Having survived the "Icarus on the rocks" of it all, Jax turns the page of the fuck-it list to another Hunter-planned adventure. This time, it seems she wants to go with Becky.

In the film's ending, Becky visits to her mailbox to find an invite for a memorial of Hunter. Naturally, it'll be a treacherous location. The music seems ominous, which might lead the audience to wonder: Is Jax looking to bury the hatchet with Becky? Or is she looking to confront her sister's childhood friend about her resentments and how Becky's last trip with Hunter led to the latter's death (and being treated like a DIY phone protector)? 

We'll have to wait and see. 

Fall 2: Deadpoint is now in theaters.

I'm forever creating dashboards in Excel, and while I get a lot of satisfaction from it, that's part of the problem. I end up going down a rabbit hole, adding more charts, and then wondering whether I left anything out. There's no handbook for creating a dashboard in Excel, as every dataset is different. So I decided to let Gemini do the decision-making for me.

Cassettes, CDs, even vinyls (despite their recent resurgence in popularity) — physical media that you can hold and confidently pronounce as yours has unfortunately become a rarity in the modern world. The digital landscape is one of temporary consumption and conditional ownership, and convenience alone can't make up for the downsides.

The team behind Tetris, the classic 1984 puzzle video game, has responded to the White House over a knockoff game that the Trump administration released this week.

The statement from Tetris hits back against Trump's White House over its recently released Tetris clone, "Build the Wall." In its response, Tetris strongly hints that the company will "take copyright infringement very seriously."

"At Tetris, we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them," Tetris said in a statement posted to its official accounts on Instagram and X. "To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community."

The Tetris spoof was one of five games released by the White House on Thursday on a new government website address Arcade.gov. The playable web games are all clones of classic titles overlaid with different themes that promote Trump's policies. For example, "Build the Wall" pushes an anti-immigration agenda, urging players to "protect the border from the coming horde."

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The Tetris team amended their statement graphic with a few postscripts as well.

"P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of 'Build the Wall'," they said. "P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously."

Tetris isn't the first to push back against an association with Trump and float potential legal action. Countless musical artists have issued DMCA takedowns or cease-and-desists to Trump over the years for the use of their songs at his rallies or in campaign media.

Just last year, Pokémon Company International issued a statement distancing itself from a video posted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that used its intellectual property to promote the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

"Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property," the Pokémon Company said at the time.

Do you have a fast internet connection, but your Windows PC often feels slower than it should? Have you already tried switching your DNS providers and other internet speed optimization hacks, but still no luck? Well, I’ve been in the same place you are — and after some digging around, I found that a few background apps and processes were causing the problem. Here’s how to find out if that’s happening on your PC and how to stop it for good.

Your desk is your command station, and no command station is complete without the right equipment. Make yours even better with an ESP32, some extra components, and these easy-to-follow build guides that add fun and useful toys and accessories to your desktop.

Anybody who has set up a new Windows PC for development knows the tedium—spending the first few hours installing tools, muting distractions, changing File Explorer settings, and configuring Linux support. Microsoft’s Project Zenith is designed to make that ritual obsolete. It is a ready-to-code Windows 11 experience that ships pre-configured instead of a blank-slate install.

SSD prices are higher than ever due to the ongoing NAND flash shortage, which makes both your existing NVMes and any future upgrades a serious investment. When you’re spending big money on a 4TB or 8TB drive, the last thing you want is heat quietly shortening its lifespan.

As I occasionally torture myself with checking GPU prices at various retailers, I'm well aware of the fact that GPUs are, indeed, still massively overpriced. Shocker.

Earlier this week, three young men with little climbing experience set out to summit Mt. Shasta, a 14,179-foot peak in California.

Their planned eight-hour ascent ultimately turned into a search-and-rescue operation and drew national attention for one reason: The men used artificial intelligence to help plan their climb.

"We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking," the men reportedly said, according to a detailed account of the failed summit posted on Facebook by the U.S. Forest Service - Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

SEE ALSO: Reminder: Don't use Google Maps for hiking

Still, AI itself didn't doom their trip, National Forest Service lead climbing ranger Nick Meyers told Mashable.

Instead, the hikers' plans were like "Swiss cheese," riddled with holes. That meant challenges compounded along the way until their situation escalated into an emergency. Their reliance on AI, YouTube videos, and the mobile mapping app AllTrails to plan and complete their climb turned their journey into a disaster.

Meyers, who is also the director of the Mt. Shasta Avalanche Center, said AI-related incidents on Mt. Shasta have "started to become a thing" this year as visitors have received incorrect information from AI. However, this is the first incident to involve 911 and a rescue, he noted.

"I think AI can be a great tool," Meyers told Mashable. "But I think when you're talking about entering into a risky environment, especially with nature, talk to a real person, or at least just fact-check the information you might get from AI."

How the hikers' summit plans fell apart

Meyers said AI correctly told the men that the summit should take eight hours. Per AI's guidance, they took enough food and water for that duration. It's unclear if AI suggested bringing additional supplies in case of an emergency.

Meanwhile, AI also recommended they eat simple carbs instead of fats because those "take too long to digest." Mountaineers, meanwhile, know fats can sustain long climbs that burn thousands of calories. Still, Meyers conceded, at least they had food.

What the men didn't account for was their own pace. Their ascent took double the anticipated time: 16 hours.

At two different points on their ascent, the group paused to consider turning back but decided to keep going despite "not feeling great."

Meyers said that their "mountain sense was just sort of lacking."

Navigation failures add up

The hikers also relied on AllTrails to navigate, but the phone battery died by the time they summited at 7 p.m. Their backup battery charger didn't work on the phone with the mapping app, which meant they mostly had to navigate by sight on their descent.

"If I knew I was at the top of a 14,000-foot peak, and I was going to be descending in the dark, you better believe I want to be keeping an eye on my battery so that I can use my map," Meyers said. "That was poor decision making."

Meyers noted that some hikers on Mt. Shasta make questionable choices when affected by exhaustion and altitude.

Rescuing the hikers

By 8 p.m. the hikers called 911 for directions. Soon after, at 11,500 feet, one of the hikers fell and injured his knee. Though he had a headlamp, he wanted to conserve its battery and relied on the light from his friends' headlamps.

At midnight, the group stopped to camp but had no food, water, warm clothes, or an emergency shelter.

Forest Service climbing rangers reached the group the next morning, at 9:30 a.m. Meyers wasn't in that party as he was coordinating a potential helicopter rescue from elsewhere.

In the end, the helicopter couldn't reach the hikers because of strong winds. The hikers, along with the climbing rangers, finally reached basecamp at 3 p.m. Siskiyou Search and Rescue members helped the group reach their trailhead, a trip that took an additional three hours.

Meyers said the Forest Service tries to use "the minimum means necessary" to get people off the mountain: "It's a tremendous amount of effort and resources to respond to a rescue."

'Breaking the unwritten rules' of climbing

Chris Carr, co-owner of Shasta Mountain Guides, said he's been "shocked and surprised" by how many hikers he's recently observed on Mt. Shasta making poor decisions and "breaking the unwritten rules" of climbing. That included people climbing without proper equipment and proceeding to the summit late in the afternoon, guaranteeing a descent in the dark.

He urges prospective climbers to know the "ten essentials" of mountaineering.

"Without a doubt, we are definitely seeing more people less prepared for this activity," Carr told Mashable.

He said perhaps more climbers have developed false confidence. Technology, he added, contributes to that because the "supercomputers in our pocket" can create a false sense of security.

Carr said if people consult AI to plan a trip like summiting Mt. Shasta, they should use it to identify the best resources for more information.

For Mt. Shasta, as an example, that could include calling a local outfitter or contacting the National Forest Service. Climbing rangers will talk to climbers about their trip. The National Forest Service website provides comprehensive information on what to know about climbing Mt. Shasta.

"It's good to feel the power of Mother Nature because it puts you in your place very quickly," Carr said. "I think many of us are removed from that and think that technology and equipment and all these advantages of modern age can get us through, where really we become very small, very vulnerable, very quickly."

Netflix has many award-winning movies hidden in its evolving library. You might find your new favorite watch from the platform's exhaustive collection. This week's picks span musical history, a defining horror, and a thrilling psychological drama.

The best Best Buy Labor Day deals at a glance Best Apple Deal 2025 Apple MacBook Air M5 $1,699 (Save $100) Get Deal Best Amazon Device Deal Amazon Fire TV Stick HD 2nd Gen $17.99 (Save $22) Get Deal Best Laptop Deal Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 2K Touchscreen Laptop $749.99 (Save $370) Get Deal Best Headphone Deal Bose QuietComfort Headphones $229 (Save $130) Get Deal Best Chromebook Deal Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 $579 (save $170) Get Deal Best Gaming Laptop Deal Lenovo LOQ 15 2K Gaming Laptop (Core i7 13650HX, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060) $1,149.99 (save $700) Get Deal

The last long weekend of summer is here, and so is the impulse to squeeze in one more cookout and one more round of shopping with some great discounts before fall truly sets in. Best Buy has already kicked off its Labor Day sale with several picks that you can shop right now through midnight on Sept. 7.

This year, a global memory shortage has pushed prices up across laptops, tablets, and streaming devices, so markdowns are going much further than they did a few months ago. If you're looking to pick up some sale-priced laptops, headphones, or even streaming devices, Best Buy has you covered with some great prices you won't want to miss out on.

To help you save, we've gathered all of the top discounts from the Best Buy Labor Day sale. Our editors' favorite products are marked with a 🔥 emoji.

Best Apple deal Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy 2025 Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M5, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) $1,699 at Best Buy
$1,799 Save $100   Get Deal Why we like it

The 13-inch MacBook Air with M5 is a great choice for most users when it comes to Apple laptops. The configuration Best Buy has discounted comes loaded with a powerful setup to handle just about any task. You get a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 24GB of unified memory, and a 1TB SSD, which is plenty of power for editing video or just keeping a few dozen browser tabs open. Plus, you'll get up to 18 hours of battery life per charge.

More Apple deals

• Apple Pencil (USB-C) — $69.99 $79 (save $9.01)

• Apple AirTag (4-Pack) — $89 $99 (save $10) 🔥

• Apple Pencil Pro — $99 $129 (save $29.01)

• Apple Magic Keyboard Folio for iPad (A16) — $199 $249 (save $50)

• Apple iPad 11-inch (A16, 128GB, WiFi) — $399 $449 (save $50)

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

• Apple iPad Mini (A17 Pro, 128GB, WiFi) — $579 $599 (save $20)

• Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M4, 128GB, WiFi) — $649 $749 (save $100) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Neo (A18 Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $689.99 $699 (save $9.01)

• Apple iPad Pro, 11-inch (M5, 256GB, WiFi) — $1,149 $1,199 (save $50)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,049 $2,199 (save $150) 🔥

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M5 Pro, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,799 $2,999 (save $200)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M5 Max, 48GB RAM, 2TB SSD) — $4,499 $4,999 (save $50)

Best Amazon device deal Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy Amazon Fire TV Stick HD 2nd Gen $17.99 at Best Buy
$39.99 Save $22.00   Get Deal Why we like it

This streaming stick plugs into any open HDMI port to put the current Fire TV interface on your TV so you can stream your favorite shows and movies anytime. It offers AI-powered search to help you figure out what to watch without scrolling endlessly through all your apps, and you get 8GB of storage plus free live TV channels alongside Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+. Most importantly, you can take your streaming apps with you just about wherever you go with this stick.

More Amazon device deals

• Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K — $49.99 $84.99 (save $35)

• Amazon Echo Dot — $54.99 $79.99 (save $25)

• Amazon Echo Spot — $69.99 $109.99 (save $40)

• Amazon Echo Show 5 — $69.99 $99.99 (save $30)

• Amazon Echo Dot Max — $94.99 $119.99 (save $25)

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

• Amazon Echo Show 11 — $189.99 $249.99 (save $60)

• Amazon Fire TV Cube — $109.99 $199.99 (save $90)

• Amazon Echo Show 15 — $269.99 $349.99 (save $80)

Best laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 2K Touchscreen Laptop $749.99 at Best Buy
$1,199.99 Save $450   Get Deal Why we like it

This 16-inch 2K touchscreen laptop has plenty of real estate and power to help you be more productive or just spend time browsing online in comfort. It boasts an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. The hinge also folds all the way back, so you can use it as a laptop, prop it up for watching something, or flatten it down straight for use as a tablet. It's a versatile piece of tech that you can legitimately take with you wherever you go since it can convert to the format you need most.

More laptop deals

• HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 2K OLED Laptop (AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $1,329.99 (save $630)

• Lenovo LOQ 15 2K Gaming Laptop (Core i7 13650HX, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060) — $1,149.99 $1,849.99 (save $700) 🔥

• HP OmniBook Ultra 14 (Snapdragon X2 Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,799.99 $2,249.99 (save $450)

• Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,899.99 $2,199.99 (save $300)

The top Chromebook deals at Best Buy

• HP 14 Chromebook — $179 $399 (save $220)

• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook — $289 $529 (save $240)

• Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (MediaTek Kompanio Ultra, 12GB RAM, 256GB) — $579 $749 (save $170) 🔥

Best headphone deal Opens in a new window Credit: Best Buy Bose QuietComfort Headphones $229 at Best Buy
$359 Save $130   Get Deal Why we like it

If you're looking for great audio as well as overall comfort, these headphones are more than easy to recommend. Comfort is in their name, after all. They excel at noise canceling as well, with both Quiet and Aware modes for switching between full noise cancellation and keeping aware of your surroundings. They also offer 24 hours of battery life and enough earcup padding to stay comfortable through a long flight or lengthy listening sessions. When you're done with them, they fold down into the included case, so they're easy to pack as well.

More headphone deals

• Shokz OpenFit 2+ — $159.99 $199.99 (save $40)

• Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones — $198 $398 (save $200)

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) — $249 $299 (save $50) 🔥

• Beats Studio Pro — $249.99 $349.99 (save $100)

• Sony WH-1000XM6 — $398 $458 (save $60) 🔥

• Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd gen) — $399 $449 (save $50) 🔥

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

Looking for more Labor Day sales?

• The best Labor Day deals already live: Shop mattresses, tools, and TVs

• The best pre-Labor Day deals on Apple products

• The best Labor Day sales on mattresses, bedding, and pillows

• The best Labor Day home improvement deals from The Home Depot

• Shop the Ruggable pre-Labor Day sale on washable rugs

The best Labor Day laptop deals at a glance: Best MacBook deal Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M5, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) $1,699 (save $100) Get Deal Best Windows laptop deal HP OmniBook 3 16 (Snapdragon X, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $599.99 (save $550) Get Deal Best Chromebook deal Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (MediaTek Kompanio Ultra, 12GB RAM, 256GB UFS) $579 (save $170) Get Deal

The ongoing memory crisis means higher prices for the tech we've come to depend on. Laptops have been hit especially hard by "RAMageddon," with PC makers like Dell, Lenovo, and Acer raising prices to reflect rising component costs. Even Apple marked up its MacBooks by at least $100 apiece this summer. (Gone are the days of the $599 MacBook Neo.)

The current state of the market makes shopping sales feel all the more important. Your last big chance to snag a deeply discounted laptop before Black Friday comes with this weekend's Labor Day sales. Below, we've rounded up the best Labor Day laptop deals we could find, including discounts on MacBooks, Windows laptops, and a very nice Chromebook we've tested.

Best MacBook deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M5, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) $1,699 at Amazon and Best Buy
$1,799 Save $100   Get Deal

The 13-inch M5 MacBook Air is our favorite MacBook for college students, as it's super portable and a little cheaper than its 15-inch brother. It's a fabulous ultraportable with a crisp, colorful display, amazing speakers, and blazing-fast performance. This upgraded model, with 24GB of RAM and a terabyte of storage, should last you well past graduation. Amazon and Best Buy currently have it on sale for $1,699, or $100 off.

Heads up: If you have a valid student ID, you'll get $100 off and a free $100 gift card if you buy this MacBook directly through the Apple Store during its Back to School sale (live through Sept. 24). However, it won't ship until late September or early October. If you need it sooner, Amazon (with Prime) and Best Buy were both advertising next- or two-day shipping at the time of writing.

Read Mashable's full review of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M5).

More MacBook deals

• Apple MacBook Neo (A18 Pro, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $689.99 $699 (save $9.01)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849.99 $1,999 (save $149.01)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5 Pro, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,299.99 $2,499 (save $199.01)

• Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M5 Pro, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,759.99 $2,999 (save $239.01)

Best Windows laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP OmniBook 3 16 (Snapdragon X, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $599.99 at Staples
$1,149.99 Save $550   Get Deal

The OmniBook 3 16 is a slim, big-screened laptop with a mind-blowing battery life of over 40 hours per charge. It's the longest-lasting laptop we've ever tested in more than a decade of reviewing laptops. Just note that its Snapdragon X processor is best for everyday productivity tasks, not intensive app usage. This configuration with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage (a good daily driver combo) is 48% off at Staples for Labor Day. For reference, HP's website lists the same model at $90 more.

Read Mashable's full review of the HP OmniBook 3 16.

More Windows laptop deals

• HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 2K OLED Laptop (AMD Ryzen AI 5 430, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $1,329.99 (save $630)

• Lenovo LOQ 15 2K Gaming Laptop (Core i7 13650HX, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060) — $1,149.99 $1,849.99 (save $700)

• HP OmniBook Ultra 14 (Snapdragon X2 Elite, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,799.99 $2,249.99 (save $450)

• Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S (Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,899.99 $2,199.99 (save $300)

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This premium Chromebook boasts an 18-hour battery life and a silky-smooth touchscreen display that can flip around 360 degrees. It makes a great MacBook Neo alternative for ultra-casual users who want a laptop that doubles as a tablet. Ahead of Labor Day, it's significantly cheaper than the Neo: Best Buy has it marked down to $579, or 23% off. That more than erases its $50 price hike from May.

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I use a surprising number of little utilities every day, from cleaning up text and calculating dates to converting file sizes and working out percentages. But I got tired of opening different apps and websites for these simple tasks, so I wanted a single place to keep the tools I actually use.

In less than a week, Apple is holding its big annual September event. You'd think the rumor mill would slow down at some point, but it hasn't.

Everyone expects to see four new iPhones and some other fun stuff as well. Those details are more or less set in stone. There are little things in the margins, though, such as device prices, colors, and specs, that are still leaking out ahead of time. Here are three last-minute rumors to catch up on before the show on Sept. 9.

SEE ALSO: What would really 'surprise' at Apple’s iPhone event Leaked iPhone 18 Pro and Ultra cases, with one device notably missing This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Earlier this week, a handful of third-party phone accessory makers posted renders of cases for the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Ultra phones. While the renders are almost certainly not real photos of the phones, they do give us an idea of what to expect in terms of size and shape, especially for the foldable Ultra. As has been rumored for months, it appears to be a short, wide foldable with two cameras on the rear.

These iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max case leaks included four colors: deep burgundy, light gray, black, and misty blue, all of which have been previously reported as colors for those devices. The only slightly weird thing here is that there are no renders of the base-model iPhone 18. It's becoming more and more expected around the tech world that Apple will wait until next spring to launch the base iPhone 18, giving the Pro and Ultra models more time to shine this fall.

Some possible info on iPhone Ultra prices This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Everyone wants to know how much these phones will cost, especially the iPhone Ultra, as it's the only one without a 2025 model to compare it to directly. Thanks to RAMageddon, it's easy to assume that the Pro and Pro Max models will cost a little bit more than their iPhone 17 counterparts.

We have some new information about the Ultra’s price, courtesy of various retail listings and market research reports. EVDownunder on X (via PhoneArena) got pricing information from Vodafone Australia suggesting that the iPhone Ultra will retail for about $2,600 USD, accounting for currency conversion. That roughly lines up with a new report from the market research firm International Data Corporation, which pegged the phone's price at around $2,550.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg's Apple guru Mark Gurman said in an interview this week that he expects the phone to retail for at least $2,000. At any rate, it would be shocking if the phone's price didn't start with the number 2.

Last-minute iPhone Ultra specs

That Gurman interview also contained some basic specs for the device, which line up with what we've been hearing for a while now. Gurman said to expect a 5.5-inch outer display and a 7.8-inch inner display. He also said the phone will have MagSafe support, which had been a big question mark prior to this interview. He compared the hinge to those found on recent Samsung foldables, which means it likely won't be completely invisible, but close enough to it.

Perhaps most interestingly, Gurman claims the iPhone Ultra won't suffer a major delay. He expects it to be available within weeks of the Sept. 9 event, around the same time the Pro and Pro Max devices launch. There had been some expectation of a delay around the tech world, perhaps due to manufacturing costs, but Gurman says that isn't happening.

Earlier this year, Nintendo officially unveiled a big new remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time for Switch 2. Naturally, everyone's mind is brimming with ideas about what (and what not) to expect from it.

As a lifelong Ocarina lover who generally considers it one of the three or four best video games ever made, trust that I have some thoughts about this remake. I'm not opposed to its existence at all, but there are a handful of conditions I'd like it to meet in order to make sense as a big holiday release for Switch 2.

Given that there is a Nintendo Direct next week where we will surely see gameplay for the first time, here are some things I do and don't want to see from the game.

An Ocarina of Time remake should be different enough to justify its existence Maybe don't go quite as hard as the 'Final Fantasy VII Remake' games do, but they're a decent starting point. Credit: Square Enix/Steam

To start, I should note that you can play the original Ocarina of Time on a Switch or Switch 2 right now via the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. I am of the belief that remakes exist to supplement the original work, not replace them, so it's paramount that Nintendo keep the original playable on modern platforms, and I have no reason to believe the company would remove it from the NSO service.

With that in mind, if this remake is going to a $60+ major holiday release that exists alongside the original, it needs to set itself apart. There are plenty of ways to do that. For starters, it might not hurt to modernize the controls a bit. I love the way the original Ocarina feels, with Link's weighty, substantial movement grounding him in the game's world in a beautiful way. Ocarina's heavy use of context-sensitive actions gave Link a huge number of ways to intuitively interact with said world, which set the game apart from other 3D action-adventure titles at the time.

The iconic title screen needs to stay. Credit: Nintendo

That said, there are a lot of people who don't have three decades of nostalgia for this game baked into their memories. Some folks are younger and may have started their Zelda journeys with newer games like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. For a portion of the modern gaming audience, Ocarina's original control scheme feels clunky and unwieldy.

Even I, a person who loves the original release as much as I can possibly love anything, will admit that lining up jumps or trying to precisely throw bombs can be a chore. It also just doesn't make much sense on anything other than a Nintendo 64 controller, for which Ocarina was hyper-specifically designed.

Whoever is making this rumored remake needs to make it make sense on a Switch 2 controller. It might also help to add new content to Link's seminal 3D adventure, which might please fans of the original. New or reworked side quests, an additional optional dungeon, or even a smaller second adventure with a different playable character (looking at you, Sheik) would each individually do a lot to make players new and old flock to this remake. As long as it all fits naturally into the original game's structure, of course.

But they shouldn't just turn it into Breath of the Wild Great game, but not something the 'Ocarina' remake needs to emulate. Credit: Nintendo

One thing I've seen some fans online suggest that I vehemently disagree with is the notion of turning Ocarina of Time into a full-blown open-world adventure in the same vein as the two big Switch games, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. This is an idea that might sound enticing until you think about it for a few seconds. Let me explain why.

More than anything, that's just not what Ocarina of Time ever was. Hyrule Field felt massive, expansive, and mysterious in 1998, but Ocarina at its core is a pretty linear game where there's typically only ever one authored solution to any problem. It's not about creativity in puzzle-solving like Breath and Tears, it's about using a boomerang to open a door in the exact way the designers want you to.

This may sound stifling to fans of the newer games, and in the arc of the Zelda franchise, that formula was indeed stifling enough to inspire the need for a series overhaul, but it's an apples-and-oranges thing.

New Zelda is a physics sandbox, while old Zelda focused more on the creativity of the designers than the player. In practice, one could very easily argue that the old style produced better pacing, and it allowed each game to have a large arsenal of fun items to use, rather than a small handful of powers like in the newer entries. If you've never used the Hookshot, you don't know what you're missing.

Crucially, you can also finish Ocarina of Time in like 20 hours. Not everything needs to be a 100-hour epic.

The remake needs to have a fresh look

Honestly, for this remake, the most important decision for its developers to make concerns how it will look. I am not an artist, so I don't have much in the way of specific ideas for how it should look. But I don't think a straightforward adaptation of the original game's graphics is the way to go.

If you just do "Ocarina of Time but modern," you run the risk of inviting ungenerous comparisons between the original and the remake. It would also be boring, just as it would be to simply convert Ocarina into the more Studio Ghibli-inspired Breath of the Wild art style. Zelda has reinvented itself visually more times than almost any series, and it's time for that to happen again.

But it also needs to respect the original's distinct vibes

In playing some of the original release recently for research purposes, one thing that stuck out to me is just how weird it often is. I think about NPCs like Grog, the gaunt misanthrope who mostly exists to tell you how much he hates his parents, or the creepy music box guy. At one point, you can play music on your ocarina for the enjoyment of a bunch of cartoon frogs. It's a goofy game with a lot of heart, and I hope that doesn't get lost in translation.

There are lots of other things that I think can be updated without being lost, such as the original game's brilliant soundtrack. That could use a full orchestral re-arrangement. I'm also open to other ideas, but for now, these are the things that have been swimming around my mind the most about this potential remake.

Silo Season 3 delivered answers in a major way, showing viewers the nuclear explosion that sent people underground and revealing what's inside the sinister Silo 1. Of course, in true Silo fashion, its Season 3 finale also left us with some big questions. Most importantly: How in the world is Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) going to bring down the powerful forces within Silo 1?

SEE ALSO: 'Silo' Season 3's twisty ending, explained

Luckily, there's one question we can get answers to right away, and that's the classic post-finale question of, "when can we see more?" That's because Apple TV has already unveiled the exact release date of Silo Season 4.

What is Silo Season 4's release date?

Silo's fourth and final season will premiere on July 9, 2027. That means you have a little under a year to hammer out all your theories for Juliette's upcoming confrontation with Silo 1's Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman), now memory-wiped and referred to as Troy.

Does Silo Season 4 have a trailer?

Apple TV has released a teaser for Season 4, giving us ample material for speculation and analysis in the months to come. Fair warning, though. It's incredibly spoiler-y, so watch and read on with caution.

The first look teases flashbacks to Helen Drew's (Jessica Henwick) first moments in Silo 18, right after the nuclear bomb went off. It also shows that Sheriff Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche) tells the entirety of Silo 18 the truth about the other silos, including how Silo 1 controls them and has led them to believe that the air outside the silos is poisonous.

Most intriguingly, the teaser gives us a flash of trillionaire Per Stensen (Colin Hanks), who's bee missing since the end of episode 9. Of course, the biggest reveal of all is that Juliette and Daniel/Troy will finally meet face to face.

How will all this play out? We'll have to wait until summer 2027 to find out. Start the countdown, and please theorize responsibly.

Silo Season 3 is now streaming on Apple TV. Silo Season 4 premieres July 9, 2027.

Android has no shortage of high-quality apps, but with such a vast selection on the Play Store, finding the best one for a particular task can be surprisingly difficult.