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TL;DR: Live stream the third season of Love Island: All Stars for free on ITVX. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

We should all be seeking as little drama as possible in our private lives. There's a lot of joy to be found in a peaceful existence. That being said, there's also a great deal of joy to be found in watching other people's messy lives play out. And that's exactly what Love Island provides.

The hit show delivers weeks of flirting, breakups, and passionate debate between fame-hungry singles. It's exactly what we all need to get through these bleak winter months. And the only thing better than Love Island is Love Island: All Stars. Someone came up with the great idea to invite some of the best Love Island contestants back for a second (or third) chance at finding love.

They're looking for love, OK? They're not heading back for a quick paycheck. How dare you even suggest that.

If you're interested in watching Love Island: All Stars for free from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is Love Island: All Stars in 2026?

The third season of Love Island: All Stars starts on Jan. 15. This latest season is expected to run for six weeks.

How to watch Love Island: All Stars for free in 2026

The third season of Love Island: All Stars is available to live stream for free on ITVX.

ITVX is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone from around the world can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock ITVX to watch Love Island: All Stars from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Love Island: All Stars for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

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

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

4. Visit ITVX

5. Stream Love Island: All Stars for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for unblocking streaming sites are not free, but they do tend to offer free trials and money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Love Island: All Stars without committing with your cash. This isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you time to watch a large chunk of the season before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for ITVX?

ExpressVPN is the top choice for accessing free live streams on ITVX, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• Easy-to-use apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, as well as platforms like Linux, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, and routers

• Strict no-logging policy

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month subscription for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).

Live stream Love Island: All Stars for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Live stream the 2026 Winter Olympics for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

This is shaping up to be an absolutely huge year for sport. Sure, the World Cup is probably the biggest event on the calendar. But there are so many other massive moments to get excited about. And there's really no need to wait, because the action starts early in 2026.

The 2026 Winter Olympics is kicking things off in February with a host of top events including alpine skiing, ice hockey, bobsleigh, snowboarding, and so much more. You can stay warm and dry whilst the best of the best compete for medals in the cold. And better yet, you can follow all the action from Lombardy without spending anything.

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If you want to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

What is the Winter Olympics?

The Winter Olympics is a major international event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice.

Eight sports and 16 disciplines will feature on the programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics: Biathlon, Bobsleigh (Skeleton, Bobsleigh), Curling, Ice Hockey, Luge, Skating (Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Short Track Speed Skating), Ski Mountaineering, and Skiing (Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined, Freestyle Skiing, Snowboard).

Norway leads the all-time medal record for the Winter Olympics.

Where is the 2026 Winter Olympics?

The 2026 Winter Olympics takes place at sites across Lombardy and Northeast Italy. This is the first Olympic Games to be officially co-hosted by two cities. Milan will host the opening ceremony and the ice events. Cortina and the Valtellina and Fiemme valleys will host everything else.

When is the 2026 Winter Olympics?

The 2026 Winter Olympics is the 25th edition of the famous event. This year's event will take place on Feb. 4-22.

How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics for free

The 2026 Winter Olympics is available to live stream for free on a number of services:

• Australia — 9Now

• Austria — ORF

• Canada — CBC Gem

• France — France TV

• Germany — ARD

• Ireland — RTÉ Player

• Italy — RAI

• Spain — RTVE

• UK — BBC iPlayer

These free live streams are geo-restricted, but anyone can bypass these restrictions with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in another location, meaning you can access free live streams of the 2026 Winter Olympics from anywhere in the world.

Access free live streams of the 2026 Winter Olympics by following these simple steps:

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

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

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location with free access

4. Watch the 2026 Winter Olympics for free from anywhere in the world

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

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can gain access to free live streams without committing with your cash. This is obviously not a long-term solution, but it does give you time to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the 2026 Winter Olympics?

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

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

Live stream the 2026 Winter Olympics for free with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Unblock XVideos from anywhere in the world with a VPN. The best VPN for unblocking porn sites is ExpressVPN.

The online world is full of restrictions and blockades, but you can stay one step ahead with a simple hack. It's possible to secure access to restricted content from anywhere in the world with a VPN. And that includes popular sites like Pornhub, xHamster, and XVideos.

Want to unblock porn sites like XVideos for free from anywhere in the world? We have the information you need.

How to unblock XVideos for free

VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect to a secure server in another location. This straightforward process bypasses content restrictions so you can access porn sites like XVideos from anywhere in the world.

Unblock XVideos by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a VPN (like ExpressVPN)

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

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in a location that supports access to XVideos

4. Unblock XVideos

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for unblocking porn sites are not free, but most do offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can unblock porn sites and then recover your investment at a later date. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it works well if you're temporarily away from home on an unsecured network.

If you want to retain permanent access to the online world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for bypassing online restrictions is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for porn?

ExpressVPN is the top choice when it comes to unblocking porn sites like XVideos, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy

• Fast streaming speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

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

Unblock XVideos for free with ExpressVPN.

Online dating as a lesbian can be a joyous experience, but it can also involve having your space invaded by straight people or seeing your ex-girlfriends (and your ex-girlfriends' ex-girlfriends) show up in your feed over and over.

Over the decades, queer women have turned to personal ads, frequented bars, and relied on word of mouth to find love. These days, it's not too different. From trying to find a date on WLW TikTok to entrapranureal lesbians creating new apps just for them, LGBTQ women are down to get creative to find their special someone.

Thankfully, in 2026, there are both niche and general apps where queer women can find a partner — whether for one night or for life. Which ones are the best dating apps for lesbians? We tested the most popular dating sites and apps and got some insight from our Dating & Relationships writers to find out.

How to find the best dating apps for lesbians Niche lesbian dating apps aren't your only option for finding love. Credit: Stacey Zhu / Mashable

Mainstream dating apps attract the most users — including queer users. That means niche lesbian dating apps aren't your only options for finding love. These days, Hinge, Bumble, OkCupid, and even eharmony all have clear filters to help you match with people of the same gender (or any gender at all), as well as filters that acknowledge the existence of non-traditional relationships (like polyamory). Especially if you don't live in a densely populated area, going for the more popular dating apps over lesbian dating sites can often lead to more results.

With that said, there is one dating app lesbian women should try. HER is an app by and for queer women, and it's grown to have a strong user base. According to its website, the app has more than 15 million registered users worldwide. The app also emphasizes finding community and making friends, in addition to dating, providing you with numerous ways to connect with other queer women and non-binary users.

Check out our guide below for the full rundown of our recommendations and dating app reviews.

TL;DR: The Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box is now down to $139 at Amazon, marking a $25 discount and one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for the set.

Opens in a new window Credit: Magic: The Gathering Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box (30 Packs) $139 at Amazon
$164.70 Save $25.70 Get Deal

We’ve been seeing a lot more discounts on Magic: The Gathering boxes lately, and this latest deal is perfect for players wanting to catch up on the trading card game’s cosmic expansion. 

As of Feb. 5, Amazon has cut the price of the Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box, bringing it to $139 — a nice $25 off its $164.70 list price. This is only two cents shy of its lowest-ever price, as confirmed by price tracker camelcamelcamel. For a set that remained relatively steady since launch, this latest dip makes it one of the better opportunities to grab Magic’s first full-on space opera expansion without paying a market premium.

Edge of Eternities sends players to collapsing star systems and distant planets, introducing new mechanics like Station, Warp, Landers, and Void. The Play Booster Box includes 30 Play Boosters, each with 14 cards and a token. Every pack contains one Traditional Foil, along with 1-4 rares or better, and there’s even a slim chance of pulling a borderless foil mythic. That balance makes the box appealing whether you’re drafting with friends, cracking packs casually, or adding to a sealed collection.

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What really helps this deal stand out is how it compares to typical pricing across the wider market. Edge of Eternities Play Booster Boxes often sell closer to the $150–$160 range.

For more savings on Magic: The Gathering Booster Boxes, you can still get the Foundations Jumpstart Box on sale for only $99.95. Meanwhile, the Magic: The Gathering Avatar The Last Airbender Beginner Box is down to a new record-low price on Amazon. 

TL;DR: The Razer Basilisk V3 Pro wireless RGB gaming mouse is down to $89 at Amazon, saving you $70 off its regular price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Razer Razer Basilisk V3 Pro RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse $89 at Amazon
$159.99 Save $70.99 Get Deal

If you’ve been eyeing a premium, big-brand, wireless gaming mouse for a decent price, this deal on an RGB model might be the one for you.

As of Feb. 5, the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro Wireless RGB gaming mouse has dropped to just $89 at Amazon, marking a massive $70 discount off its usual $159.99 list price. That’s 44% off one of Razer’s most feature-packed mice, and only one penny off the lowest price we’ve seen for this model — as confirmed on price tracker camelcamelcamel. 

Designed for gamers who want maximum control and customization, the Basilisk V3 Pro sports Razer’s Focus Pro 30K optical sensor for delivering fast and accurate tracking on a wide range of surfaces — including glass. It also features Razer’s Gen-3 optical switches, rated for up to 90 million clicks, which offer ultra-fast actuation with no debounce delay.

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One of the mouse’s standout features is its HyperScroll tilt wheel, which lets you switch between free-spin scrolling for speed and tactile mode for precision. Also consider its 13 programmable controls and a full 13-zone Chroma RGB underglow, and you’ve got a mouse that’s just as flexible as it is flashy when playing Fortnite, Cairn, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and much more.

Connectivity is equally versatile, with support for Razer HyperSpeed Wireless, Bluetooth, and wired USB. Battery life stretches up to 150 hours over Bluetooth, making it a strong pick for both competitive play and everyday use.

For more gaming mouse deals from Razer, you can still get the Orochi V2 range for at least 50% off.  If you’re open to a different brand, the Logitech G305 gaming mouse range is on sale for under $35 at Amazon. 

It looks as though Jon Stewart wasn't the only late night host mentioned in the Epstein files. The Late Show's Stephen Colbert has not also addressed being name-dropped in the most recently released batch of files, which contain information on the investigation into convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Fortunately, like Stewart, Colbert wasn't actually involved in Epstein's activities, and was only mentioned in emails. Specifically, one of Epstein's associates recommended he watch Colbert's explanation of Super PACs from his former show The Colbert Report.

"Well, there's no such thing as bad publicity," quipped Colbert. "Just look at our new Times Square billboard: 'The Late Show: It's really funny — think Jeffrey will enjoy watching!'"

Colbert also noted a few other names in the Epstein files which he considers particularly important as a giant Tolkien nerd.

"These files contain the names of folks even more important to me than me, because Epstein also name-dropped Bilbo Baggins, and at one point he compared himself to Gandalf," said Colbert. "All right, that is disgusting. In the immortal words of Gandalf the Grey, 'Eat shit you dead pervert.' It sounds prettier in Elvish."

Netflix has released a teaser trailer for upcoming K-drama Boyfriend on Demand, featuring BLACKPINK's Jisoo living BookTok's wildest dreams.

The series follows overworked webtoon producer Mi-rae (Jisoo), who is tired of her job and fed up with dating, but still dreams of romance and escape. Fortunately for her, Mi-rae soon finds some relief in a subscription-based virtual dating service that allows her to go on amazing fantasy dates with unrealistically perfect fictional men. Judging from the trailer, she even gets to try out different scenarios with her virtual dates, such as being doctors in a hospital or lovers in a historical setting.

Yet even with the world of possibilities this outlet provides, Mi-rae does still have to deal with real men — such as her coworker and rival Kyeong-nam (Doom at Your Service's Seo In-guk).  

Boyfriend on Demand arrives March 6 on Netflix.

The 2026 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was held in New York this week, celebrating its 150th anniversary the best way it knows how — with a plethora of perfect pups.

This year's Westminster Dog Show featured over 2,500 entrants from across the world, all of whom were already American Kennel Club champions in their own right. These dogs were categorised into seven groups: Sporting, Herding, Working, Toy, Hound, Non-Sporting, and Terrier. The winner of each group then went on to compete for the coveted title of Best in Show, with dogs individually judged according to the ideal standard for their breed.

This year, the Westminster Kennel Club's award for Best in Show went to four-year-old Doberman Pinscher Penny, the champion of the Working Group. Penny's handler Andy Linton described her as generally "chill," though she can get worked up by a "bad guy" or squirrel, while her co-owner Gregory Chan called her demanding, smart, and "a pleaser — she'll do anything for food."

Penny the Doberman Pinscher, winner of Best in Show and the Working Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club

Reserve Best in Show went to Cota the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, winner of the Sporting Group. Presumably Cota will assume Penny's duties as Best in Show if for any reason she cannot fulfil them.

Cota the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, winner of Reserve Best in Show and the Sporting Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club Zaida the Afghan Hound, winner of the Hound Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club Cookie the Maltese, winner of the Toy Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club JJ the Lhasa Aspo, winner of the Non-Sporting Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club Graham the Old English Sheepdog, winner of the Hearding Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club Wager the Smooth Fox Terrier, winner of the Terrier Group. Credit: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images for Westminster Kennel Club

At a glance

• Microsoft Research releases PazaBench and Paza automatic speech recognition models, advancing speech technology for low resource languages.
• Human-centered pipeline for low-resource languages: Built for and tested by communities, Paza is an end-to-end, continuous pipeline that elevates historically under-represented languages and makes speech models usable in real-world, low-resource contexts.
• First-of-its-kind ASR leaderboard, starting with African languages: Pazabench is the first automatic speech recognition (ASR) leaderboard for low-resource languages. Launching with 39 African languages and 51 state-of-the-art models, it tracks three key metrics across leading public and community datasets.
• Human-centered Paza ASR models: Minimal data, fine-tuned ASR models grounded in real-world testing with farmers on everyday mobile devices, covering six Kenyan languages: Swahili, Dholuo, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Maasai, and Somali.

According to the 2025 Microsoft AI Diffusion Report approximately one in six people globally had used a generative AI product. Yet for billions of people, the promise of voice interaction still falls short, and whilst AI is becoming increasingly multilingual, a key question remains: Do these models actually work for all languages and the people who rely on them? This challenge is one we first confronted through Project Gecko—a collaboration between Microsoft Research and Digital Green (opens in new tab), where field teams across Africa and India focused on building usable AI tools for farmers.

Gecko revealed how often speech systems fail in real‑world, low‑resource environments—where many languages go unrecognized and non‑Western accents are frequently misunderstood. Yet speech remains the primary medium of communication globally. For communities across Kenya, Africa, and beyond, this mismatch creates cascading challenges: without foundational data representing their languages and cultures, innovation stalls, and the digital and AI divides widen. 

Paza addresses this with a human-centered speech models pipeline. Through PazaBench, it benchmarks low-resource languages using both public and community-sourced data, and through Paza models, it fine-tunes speech models to deliver outsized gains in mid- and low-resource languages, evaluating with community testers using real devices in real contexts. Upcoming playbooks complement this work by sharing practical guidance on dataset creation, fine-tuning approaches with minimal data and evaluation considerations, introducing a continuous pipeline that enables researchers and practitioners to build and evaluate systems grounded in real human use.

How Project Gecko informed Paza’s design

In addition to building cost-effective, adaptable AI systems, the extensive fieldwork on Project Gecko highlighted an important lesson: Building usable speech models in low‑resource settings is not only a data problem, but also a design and evaluation problem. For AI systems to be useful, they must work in local languages, support hands‑free interaction through voice, text, and video, and deliver information in formats that fit real-world environments, that is, on low-bandwidth mobile devices, in noisy settings, and for varying literacy levels.  

These insights shaped the design of Paza, from the Swahili phrase paza sauti meaning “to project,” or “to raise your voice.”  The name reflects our intent: rather than simply adding more languages to existing systems, Paza is about co-creating speech technologies in partnership with the communities who use them. Guided by this principle, Paza puts human use first, which enables model improvement. 

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Start now Opens in a new tab PazaBench: The first ASR leaderboard for low-resource languages

PazaBench is the first automatic speech recognition (ASR) leaderboard dedicated to low‑resource languages. It launches with initial coverage for 39 African languages and benchmarks 52 state‑of‑the‑art ASR and language models, including newly released Paza ASR models for six Kenyan languages. The platform aggregates leading public and community datasets from diverse styles of speech including conversational, scripted read aloud, unscripted, broadcast news, and domain-specific data—into one easy‑to‑explore platform per language. This makes it easier for researchers, developers, and product teams to easily assess which models perform best across underserved languages and diverse regions, understand trade-offs between speed and accuracy while identifying where gaps persist. 

PazaBench tracks three core metrics:

1. Character Error Rate (CER) which is important for languages with rich word forms, where meaning is built by combining word parts, therefore errors at the character level can significantly impact meaning
2. Word Error Rate (WER) for word-level transcript accuracy
3. RTFx (Inverse Real‑Time Factor) which measures how fast transcription runs relative to real‑time audio duration.

More than scores, PazaBench standardizes evaluation to prioritize dataset gaps, identify underperforming languages, and highlight where localized models beat wider coverage ASR models—offering early evidence of the value of African‑centric innovation.

Explore PazaBench

To contribute to the benchmark, request additional language evaluation on the leaderboard.

Paza ASR Models: Built with and for Kenyan languages

The Paza ASR models consist of three fine-tuned ASR models built on top of state‑of‑the‑art model architectures. Each model targets Swahili, a mid-resource language and five low‑resource Kenyan languages; Dholuo, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Maasai and Somali. The models are fine-tuned on public and curated proprietary datasets.  

Fine‑tuning the three models allowed us to explore supportive approaches toward a shared goal: building speech recognition systems that are usable for local contexts starting with the six Kenyan languages and bridging the gaps of multi-lingual and multi-modal video question and answering through the MMCT agent. (opens in new tab)

See the MMCT agent in action in the field

Early versions of two models in Kikuyu and Swahili were deployed on mobile devices and tested directly with farmers in real‑world settings, enabling the team to observe how the models performed with everyday use. Farmers provided in‑the‑moment feedback on accuracy, usability, and relevance, highlighting where transcripts broke down, which errors were most disruptive, and what improvements would make the models more helpful in practice. This feedback loop directly informed subsequent fine‑tuning, ensuring model improvements were driven not only by benchmark scores, but by the needs and expectations of the communities they are intended to serve.

Explore Paza Collection Here

Here is how Paza models compare to three state-of-the-art ASR models today:

Figure 1: Character Error Rate (CER) comparison across the Kenyan languages for several state‑of‑the‑art ASR models including the Paza models. Lower CER indicates better transcription performance. Figure 2: Word Error Rate (WER) comparison across the Kenyan languages for several state‑of‑the‑art ASR models including the Paza models. Lower WER indicates better transcription performance.

1) Paza‑Phi‑4‑Multimodal‑Instruct

Microsoft’s Phi‑4 multimodal‑instruct (opens in new tab) is a next‑generation small language model built to reason across audio, text, and vision. With Paza, we extend its audio capabilities, adapting a powerful multimodal architecture into a high‑quality automatic speech recognition (ASR) system for low‑resource African languages.

Fine‑tuned on unified multilingual speech datasets, the model was optimized specifically for transcription in the six languages. The model preserves its underlying transformer architecture and multi-modal capabilities, while selectively fine-tuning only the audio‑specific components, enabling strong cross‑lingual generalization.

As the results below show, this model delivers consistent improvements in transcription quality across all six languages.

Figure 3: Character Error Rate (CER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower CER indicates better transcription performance. Figure 4: Word Error Rate (WER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower WER indicates better transcription performance. Test the model here

2) Paza‑MMS‑1B‑All

This model is fine-tuned on Meta’s mms-1b-all model, which employs a large-scale Wav2Vec2.0-style encoder with lightweight language-specific adapters to enable efficient multilingual specialization. For this release, each of the six language adapters was fine‑tuned independently on curated low‑resource datasets, allowing targeted adaptation while keeping the shared encoder largely frozen.

As shown in the figures below, this model improves transcription accuracy while maintaining the model’s strong cross‑lingual generalization.

Figure 5: Character Error Rate (CER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower CER indicates better transcription performance. Figure 6: Word Error Rate (WER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower WER indicates better transcription performance. Join the Research Early Access Program

3) Paza‑Whisper‑Large‑v3‑Turbo

This model is finetuned on OpenAI’s whisper-large-v3-turbo base model. Whisper is a transformer-based encoder–decoder model which delivers robust automatic speech recognition (ASR) capabilities. This model was fine‑tuned on the entire unified multilingual ASR dataset, on the mentioned six languages, to encourage cross-lingual generalization. In addition, an extra post‑processing step was applied to address the known Whisper hallucination failure modes, improving transcription reliability.

As shown below, this release achieves improved transcription accuracy while retaining Whisper’s robustness.

Figure 7: Character Error Rate (CER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower CER indicates better transcription performance. Figure 8: Word Error Rate (WER) comparison across the six languages for the base model versus the finetuned Paza model. Lower WER indicates better transcription performance. Test the model here Where do we go from here

AI is reshaping how the world communicates. Designing with people, not just for them, means looking beyond the languages that are already well‑served. We plan to expand PazaBench beyond African languages and evaluate state‑of‑the‑art ASR models across more low‑resource languages globally. The Paza ASR models are an early step; truly supporting small and under‑represented languages requires dedicated datasets, strong local partnerships, and rigorous evaluation. Meaningful progress depends on sustained collaboration with the communities who speak these languages, and expanding responsibly means prioritizing depth and quality over broad but shallow coverage. 

As we continue this work, we’re distilling our methods into a forthcoming playbook to help the broader ecosystem curate datasets, fine‑tune responsibly, and evaluate models in real‑world conditions. And we’re not stopping at speech—additional playbooks will guide teams building AI tools and applications for multilingual, multicultural contexts, and give them practical recommendations for deploying across diverse communities. 

Together, these guides—grounded in technical advances and community‑driven design—share our learnings to help researchers, engineers, and designers build more human‑centered AI systems. 

Acknowledgements

The following researchers played an integral role in this work: Najeeb Abdulhamid, Felermino Ali, Liz Ankrah, Kevin Chege, Ogbemi Ekwejunor-Etchie, Ignatius Ezeani, Tanuja Ganu, Antonis Krasakis, Mercy Kwambai, Samuel Maina, Muchai Mercy, Danlami Mohammed, Nick Mumero, Martin Mwiti, Stephanie Nyairo, Millicent Ochieng and Jacki O’Neill.

We would like to thank the Digital Green (opens in new tab) team—Rikin Gandhi, Alex Mwaura, Jacqueline Wang’ombe, Kevin Mugambi, Lorraine Nyambura, Juan Pablo, Nereah Okanga, Ramaskanda R.S, Vineet Singh, Nafhtari Wanjiku, Kista Ogot, Samuel Owinya and the community evaluators in Nyeri and Nandi, Kenya — for their valuable contributions to this work.

We extend our gratitude to the creators, community contributors, and maintainers of African Next Voices Kenya (opens in new tab), African Next Voices South Africa (opens in new tab), ALFFA (opens in new tab), Digigreen (opens in new tab), Google FLEURS (opens in new tab), Mozilla Common Voice (opens in new tab) and Naija Voices (opens in new tab) whose efforts have been invaluable in advancing African languages speech data.

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The post Paza: Introducing automatic speech recognition benchmarks and models for low resource languages appeared first on Microsoft Research.

You can’t always hand out glamorous projects. When you have to dole out less-desirable assignments, you need buy-in from the people who didn’t choose the work. Instead of relying on persuasion or pressure, focus on helping your team accept the outcome. Start by asking yourself these three questions.  Have I offered any real freedom, however small? People rationalize outcomes more easily when they […]

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If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Cheek make up.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

BLUSH

Hurdle Word 2 hint

To pass out.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 5, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

SWOON

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A DJ.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for February 5 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for February 5, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answer

EMCEE

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Meaty.

Hurdle Word 4 answer

BEEFY

Final Hurdle hint

An object.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

THING

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

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.

Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.

Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.

How to play Pips

If you've ever played dominoes, you'll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we've shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don't necessarily have to match.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for February 5, 2026

The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.

Here are common examples you'll run into across the difficulty levels:

• Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.

• Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.

• Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.

• Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.

• Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.

If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for February 5, 2026 Easy difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 5 Pips

Less Than (2): Everything in this space must be less than 2. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (5): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 5. The answer is 1-5, placed horizontally; 5-2, placed vertically; 5-4, placed vertically.

Greater Than (2): Everything in this space must be greater than 2. The answer is 5-4, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-2, placed vertically; 3-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this orange space must be equal to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed vertically; 3-0, placed horizontally.

Medium difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 5 Pips

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically.

Number (7): Everything in this space must add up to 7. The answer is 3-5, placed vertically; 2-2, placed vertically.

Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically.

Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed vertically.

Equal (2): Everything in this green space must be equal to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed vertically; 3-2, placed vertically.

Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 1-2, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 4-6, placed horizontally.

Greater Than (1): Everything in this space must be greater than 1. The answer is 6-2, placed horizontally.

Number (8): Everything in this space must add up to 8. The answer is 0-6, placed horizontally; 6-2, placed horizontally.

Hard difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 5 Pips

Number (5): Everything in this orange space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.

Number (5): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically.

Number (18): Everything in this space must add up to 18. The answer is 6-6, placed vertically; 6-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically; 6-0, placed vertically.

Number (5): Everything in this dark blue space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally.

Equal (1): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed horizontally.

Equal (4): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 4. The answer is 4-5, placed horizontally; 4-3, placed vertically; 4-2, placed horizontally.

Equal (2): Everything in this green space must be equal to 2. The answer is 4-2, placed horizontally; 2-5, placed vertically.

Equal (3): Everything in this light blue space must be equal to 3. The answer is 4-3, placed vertically; 3-3, placed horizontally; 3-0, placed horizontally.

Equal (0): Everything in this dark blue space must be equal to 0. The answer is 3-0, placed horizontally; 0-5, placed horizontally.

Number (10): Everything in this space must add up to 10. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically; 0-5, placed horizontally.

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

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easy if you're a fan of pro racing and tennis.

As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

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

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

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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

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

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

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. Here's a hint for today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Position chart

• Green: Homerun kings

• Blue: QB GOATS

• Purple: Major sporting event

Here are today's Connections: Sports Edition categories

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

• Yellow: Football Positions, Abbreviated

• Green: Members of the 500-HR Club

• Blue: First Names of QBs to Throw 500 Career TDs

• Purple: ___500

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

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

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections: Sports Edition #500 is...

What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?

• Football Positions, Abbreviated - CB, OT, S, TE

• Members of the 500-HR Club - BANKS, BONDS, FOXX, KILLEBREW

• First Names of QBs to Throw 500 Career TDs - AARON, DREW, PEYTON, TOM

• ___500 - ATP, DAYTONA, INDY, WTA

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

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

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

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

Rumors are swirling that Anthropic is close to releasing Claude Sonnet 5, a new version of its mid-tier AI model that could significantly shift the competitive landscape for large language models.

Multiple reports published in early February suggest Claude Sonnet 5 is imminent, with some industry watchers pointing to signs of internal testing and quiet rollout preparation. While Anthropic has not formally announced a release date, speculation intensified after developers and analysts began referencing "Sonnet 5" in public forums and social posts.

SEE ALSO: Anthropic Super Bowl LX ads mock ChatGPT

According to UCStrategies, Claude Sonnet 5 is expected to deliver major performance gains while maintaining the pricing structure that has made Sonnet attractive to developers. The outlet reports that the model may match or exceed the capabilities of Anthropic’s higher-end Opus 4.5 model while remaining significantly cheaper to run, a combination that could make it especially appealing for enterprise and coding workloads.

Cost efficiency appears to be a central theme. Coverage from Geeky Gadgets suggests Sonnet 5 could cost roughly half as much as Opus 4.5, while offering faster inference and stronger agent-style capabilities, including improved context retention and multitasking. That positions the model as a direct challenger not just to Anthropic’s own lineup, but also to OpenAI's and Google’s upcoming releases.

There are also rumors that Claude Sonnet 5 will deepen its integration with Claude Code, Anthropic’s developer-focused environment. Several analysts cited by UCStrategies speculate that the model could outperform Opus in coding tasks, particularly in long-running workflows that benefit from sustained context and structured reasoning.

Based on the weekend’s viral hype around AI agents, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’re inching closer to a Cyberpunk future once reserved for sci-fi books and video games. And while that trajectory may be real, we’re also nowhere near full-blown cyber-dystopia just yet.

Still, the tech world has found something new to fixate on. As of now, it's a website called Rentahuman.ai, where humans can quite literally sell their labor to AI agents. The Rent-a-Human platform was created by crypto software engineer Alexander Liteplo after the sudden success of OpenClaw and Moltbook, and it proudly bills itself as "the meatspace layer for AI." (Mashable reached out to Liteplo for comment but did not receive a response.)

Think TaskRabbit, but for autonomous agents that need humans to do physical-world tasks they can’t.

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Rent-a-Human launched quietly over the weekend before exploding in visibility after Liteplo began aggressively promoting it on X. According to the site, more than 81,000 "rentable humans" have already signed up to offer paid services to bots, at the time of this writing. The actual tasks, at least for now, seem limited. The tasks themselves range from mundane errands like picking up packages to holding signs or delivering flowers to Anthropic.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Is Rent-A-Human a joke? Rent-a-Human's meat marketplace reportedly has 80,000 signups. Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Rent-a-Human

It’s also hard to tell whether Rent-a-Human is meant as satire or a sincere attempt at a new labor market, but the signs point to the latter. Crypto culture doesn't have the best reputation, and the site doesn’t do much to signal a wink. As Gizmodo pointed out in its coverage, phrases like "meatspace" and copy that reads "robots need your body" feel less like a joke and more like someone earnestly pitching Neuromancer as a startup deck.

Furthermore, it appears the site is part of a fast-growing ecosystem of AI agent tools that have exploded in popularity over the last few weeks, many of them orbiting around the open-source assistant formerly known as Clawdbot, then Moltbot, and now OpenClaw. As Mashable’s Timothy Beck Werth reported, the open-source OpenClaw project has gone viral among AI power users, despite repeated name changes prompted by trademark pressure from Anthropic.

SEE ALSO: OpenClaw Moltbook: What it is and how it works

As Mashable has documented across coverage of OpenClaw and its offshoots, projects like Rent-a-Human and Moltbook are built quickly through vibe coding, with creators openly admitting they ship code they don’t fully review, relying on AI models to fix bugs later.

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Whether it actually works is another question. While the platform claims tens of thousands of humans have signed up, Gizmodo reports that only a small fraction have connected payment wallets, and there are far fewer active AI agents than available workers (82 agents to 81,000 humans).

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Rent-a-Human requires users to connect crypto wallets in order to get paid, and payments are handled entirely in cryptocurrency, including stablecoins and Ethereum. That alone raises obvious red flags, especially for a platform asking people to perform real-world tasks for anonymous AI agents with no meaningful verification process.

The site’s design places a lot of trust on both sides of the transaction, with very little protection in place for the human doing the work. Tasks are posted by bots or bot operators who may not be identifiable, payments are non-reversible once sent, and users are expected to operate through crypto wallets that could be compromised if mishandled.

Unsurprisingly, many crypto enthusiasts are fully on board. Rentahuman has been heavily promoted by crypto and AI agent accounts on X, many of whom frame it as an inevitable step toward autonomous economies in which bots transact directly with humans. That enthusiasm doesn’t do much to calm concerns, especially given the crypto industry’s long history of rug pulls.

It's too soon to tell for sure whether Rent-a-Human is the start of a new AI gig worker economy or a very elaborate satire, but as with the overnight success of Moltbook, proceed with caution.

SAVE $60: The Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro is on sale for $109.99 at Amazon, down from the list price of $169.99. That's a 35% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro $109.99 at Amazon
$169.99 Save $60.00   Get Deal

We're coming up on one of the most important snack days of the year in the U.S. This Sunday marks the Big Game, which is awesome if you love football. If you don't care about the sport, there's still a case for attending parties because they almost always come with excellent snacks. If you're looking for an easy way to prep foods, check out this deal at Amazon.

As of Feb. 4, the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro is on sale at Amazon for $109.99, marked down from the list price of $169.99. That's a 35% discount that shaves $60 off the standard price.

With an 8.5-quart capacity and eight cooking functions, the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro is a kitchen hack for making easy game-day snacks or dinners on busy nights. It functions as a super fancy Crock Pot with functions like slow cook, steam, braise, bake, proof, keep warm, and more. Plus, Ninja makes some of our favorite kitchen appliances so you know you're in for something that's well worth the space on the countertop.

SEE ALSO: Super Bowl 2026 deals: Score free food from Applebee's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Denny’s, Popeyes, and more

The removable cooking pot in the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro is easy to lift out for serving directly from the pot. But it's also oven safe up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, so you can get perfectly crispy dips from the Ninja Foodi. Plus, the pot has a non-stick surface for easy cleaning.

Before kickoff on Sunday, get equipped in the kitchen thanks to the Ninja Foodi PossibleCooker Pro. It's on sale for under $110 at Amazon and it'll come in handy night after night for quick one-pot dinners.

TL;DR: Enjoy a PC refresh for only $19.97 with this Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows license.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows $19.97
$229 Save $209.03   Get Deal

Not all major upgrades have to be expensive. In fact, a Microsoft Office license can give your PC an impressive refresh with seven helpful apps for less than $3 each. While it sounds too good to be true, you can now secure this Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows lifetime license for just $19.97.

If you’ve been in the market for a new PC, it may be time to just give your old one some new tools. This Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows license equips your device with seven apps, including some of the brand’s classic staples, that are geared to help you with work, play, and everything in between.

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Curious what’s included? You’ll get access to the classics like Word to help you draft documents, and Excel for all your spreadsheet needs. If you need to create a presentation, you’ll have PowerPoint at your disposal, and Outlook helps you manage your email communications.

This license also includes newer favorites like Publisher, which can help you design professional documents. Access can help you manage large databases, and OneNote can improve how you take notes. This Microsoft Office license gives you permanent access to each app, with no subscription fees required, and you can work offline as needed.

If the year of this edition gives you pause, don’t worry — the apps have been redesigned and will include enhanced features like enhanced inking in all Office programs, new PowerPoint presentation tools, new Excel analysis capabilities, and updated email and contact management in Outlook.

Give your PC an upgrade with this Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows license, now just $19.97.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: The Sterling Stock Picker uses OpenAI-powered insights to help investors evaluate stocks based on risk, growth, and personal goals. For a limited time, the lifetime subscription is $55.19 instead of $486, through Feb. 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sterling Stock Picker Sterling Stock Picker: Lifetime Subscription $55.19
$486 Save $430.81   Get Deal

Markets can react poorly to uncertainty, and there has been no shortage of it lately. For investors who want clearer signals without spending too much time analyzing charts and financial statements, Sterling Stock Picker offers a more structured approach to decision-making. For a limited time, the lifetime subscription is available for $55.19 (reg. $486) through Feb. 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Sterling Stock Picker is anchored by its patent-pending North Star system, which evaluates stocks and categorizes them as buy, sell, hold, or avoid based on key financial metrics and risk factors. The platform also spotlights Stock Rockets — companies posting more than 50% quarterly revenue growth — helping users identify high-momentum opportunities at a glance.

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Your personal AI coach is Finley, backed by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Finley can answer questions about individual stocks, portfolio performance, or broader market trends using real-time data. A short questionnaire personalizes recommendations based on goals, values, and risk tolerance, while a Done-For-You Portfolio option offers a more hands-off way to get started.

This setup caters to a broad spectrum of investors. Novices can tap into educational explanations to understand why certain stocks are flagged, while experienced users will appreciate consolidated portfolio insights and risk assessments. The community forum adds another dimension, offering a place to discuss strategy and learn from fellow investors, so there’s no need to hunt down advice on outside message boards.

Sterling Stock Picker focuses on stock selection and portfolio strategy rather than broader financial planning, and users looking for advanced derivatives or day-trading tools may find it limited. Still, for those interested in more deliberate, data-informed investing, the current discount lowers the barrier to entry.

The Sterling Stock Picker lifetime subscription is available for $55.19 (reg. $486) through Feb. 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT, offering an affordable way to test an OpenAI-powered approach to stock research and portfolio building.

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Luxury and frugality don’t usually go hand in hand. Most people assume a luxury vehicle comes with indulgence, not savings—but some SUVs are proving you can have both.