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You never know what delays to expect when traveling, and the last thing you need is your phone or laptop running out of power while you're trying to catch up on work or watching content while waiting for your flight. You won't have to worry about this during the holidays with the Baseus 20000mAh USB-C Portable Charger, which offers ample capacity to meet all your charging needs.

Going to a Disney park is supposed to transport you somewhere magical, but for many, the experience requires a very rote part of modern life: staring at your phone.

Disney has separate apps for its resorts in California and Florida, as well as those in France, Japan, and China. Booking Lightning Lane appointments (an extra charge that lets guests jump long lines for rides), nabbing meal reservations, and ordering mobile food items all require checking times on the app. It’s something that Disney guests have to do often if they don’t want to wait hours for Space Mountain or a meal at the Blue Bayou restaurant.

Disney brass even acknowledged that its tech-forward approach has lessened the park experience, with Walt Disney Imagineering President Bruce Vaughn saying last year that reliance on the various apps "breaks the spell" of visiting a Disney resort.

Disney’s first experiment to reduce phone use at its parks was revealed this week. The company just launched the Disney Imagineering Labs app (yes, a new app to reduce smartphone use). The first offering of the app is now available to select Magic Key participants (annual passholders) — Secrets of the Spire in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Described by the Disney Tourist blog as an interactive game within the parks' Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge section, the app offers minigames and challenges. It’s not very clear how this reduces phone usage while at the park, though.

The more promising part of the Imagineering Labs app is the Disneyland Enchanted Guide, which does not yet have a release date but is likely to drop early next year, according to Disney Tourist Blog and the Micky Visit blog.

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The AI-powered app allows text-based and voice-based questions, e.g., "How long is the line at Pirates of the Caribbean?" "Where should we eat at around noon near Tomorrowland?" The most promising aspect of the Enchanted Guide is the ability to set alerts for when a ride or restaurant's wait time drops below a certain time. Rather than constantly checking the app, you can go about your day until you hear that ding from your phone. 

SEE ALSO: Why friction-maxxing could be good for your tech usage

As part of the early app rollout, Disney is soliciting feedback from users in-app. Acknowledging that the Imagineering Labs app isn’t a finished product, Disney is asking park power users to weigh in on what aspects of the app truly improve the park experience.

Time will tell if the new app really reduces phone usage at the park. There has been no word on the Disney blogs that the Imagineering Labs app will replace the various Disney park apps, which means you could get an alert on Lightning Lane availability via the Enchanted Guide app and then have to open the Disneyland app to actually book your Lightning Lane appointment. Hopefully, if successful, the apps will be integrated. 

Adding to the mixed messages is the partnership between the Enchanted Guide app and Meta for the latter's Ray-Ban smart glasses. Users will be able to pair the glasses with the app, where they can ask the AI about things they see in the park. Again, more offerings can be good, but this doesn’t seem to align with the goal of making visiting a Disney park more of an offline, in-the-moment experience.

Every time I've tried to use Google Sheets from my phone, I've ended up frustrated and gone back to my laptop. But I spent a week living in Microsoft's Excel app on Android, and I can't believe a Microsoft app is built better than any other version I've seen. I am normally against Microsoft's ports, but this one is a whole new app when used on a phone.

Full-size desktop towers can take over your desk or the floor beneath it and crowd your workspace. A compact PC like the Lenovo Yoga Mini Desktop fixes that by fitting a Core Ultra 5 system into a 0.65L chassis. As part of Best Buy's early Black Friday sale, you can pick this little PC up for just $600.

I used to think mini PCs were not for me, but that's not the case anymore. In fact, I think that buying a trio of cheap mini PCs might be the better option compared with buying one expensive desktop.

Trends among teenagers are an ever-changing hellscape, and finding the best gifts for teen girls (that they'll actually use for longer than a month) is a coveted skill. Even millennials — people who are not that old, thank you very much — can have trouble keeping up with the world predominantly ruled by TikTok and content creators.

An important reminder: Don't just wing it. Gen Z girls are clearly loyal to a defined handful of brands and have very specific aesthetic goals. Goals that could be torched by the honest mistake of grabbing generic white earbuds instead of the best AirPods or not realizing that Owala has eclipsed Stanley in the hierarchy of trendy water bottles.

SEE ALSO: Claire's is betting Gen Alpha wants creators, not celebrities

But you know who does know what teenage girls want this year? Other teenage girls. I'm regularly tracking viral TikTok products and compiling the most popular stuff with items that the high schoolers in my own life have mentioned. So even if you don't know what terms like whimsymaxxing mean, you're definitely in the right place to find a gift that a teenager thinks is cool. Whether it's for a birthday, holiday, high school graduation, or just because, here are 35+ unique gifts for teenage girls in 2026.

Reddit is full of posts from people who have designed yet another launcher for their rooted TV. There's so much more that's possible, however. I decided to bring back a TV feature from the good old days before the internet was even a thing, and it's become a genuinely useful part of our lives.

Finding a file on Windows is far too slow for its own good. I have waited minutes only to never find the file I was looking for. I tried the popular fix, and it worked well enough that I kept it around for a long time. Then I found something that did the same job without making me feel like I needed a manual.

Back in the day, before Android had support for gesture navigation, custom launchers were on a level playing field with the stock launcher your phone comes with. But starting with Android 9 Pie, when Google introduced gesture navigation to Android, something changed.

Adapting a video game into a movie is more than a little tricky, as plenty of studios have discovered over the years. From the 1980s to today, we've had our fair share of really poor video game movies, some so bad that they've gone down in history among the worst movies of all time. It isn't all doom and gloom, though. While it definitely feels like there have been more bad adaptations than good ones, occasionally we get a gem that reminds us just how good a video game movie can feel when it is done right.

The more software you install on your computer, the longer it may seem to take to start up Windows. Many programs add themselves to the list of programs started when you boot your computer, and that list can get long. Here's how you can disable startup programs in Windows to speed up your boot time and free up system resources.

Going home for the holidays? Or simply traveling for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year's?

Firefox and its built-in VPN has your privacy covered — at not cost to you.

Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, has announced that it will be providing free unlimited data for its built-in VPN to all of its users from Nov. 10, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027. That's now up until the end of January.

Firefox advertises its VPN first and foremost as a privacy feature. A VPN hides a user's real IP address, thus masking exactly what location that user is browsing from. 

For example, Firefox says its VPN will help hide the sites you visit from shared WiFi networks in public spaces or at a relative's home.

However, Firefox knows that many VPN users also utilize the feature to change their location in order to access region-locked websites and platforms. And, according to its announcement, Firefox is cool with that too.

How to try the Firefox VPN

Firefox's free built-in VPN is available for Firefox on both desktop and Android. Mozilla says the feature is coming to iOS devices soon too.

In order to take advantage of Firefox's offer of unlimited data use via their VPN, simply sign up for a Mozilla account. Then, in the Firefox web browser, select the VPN icon in the toolbar on desktop. On Android, tap on the three-dot menu and select Settings followed by VPN. From there, follow the setup process and turn the VPN on.

Mozilla explicitly reminded users in its announcement that VPNs do not make users anonymous or hide on-device browsing history. As Mozilla points out, websites can still identify users through cookies or when signed into an account.

In addition, Firefox's built-in VPN only works with browsing within Firefox. Users cannot utilize the VPN when surfing the internet via another web browser or using a mobile app. Mozilla has a separate paid subscription-based product, called Mozilla VPN, for users looking for a VPN that works across apps.

Mozilla has been heavily investing in Firefox, promoting its privacy features and AI controls for users who aren't fans of AI taking over every facet of other web browsers. The company recently launched an ad campaign for Firefox that went viral, uniting some of the web's earliest internet-famous stars.

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Windows Search is one of the features I use most in Windows 11. Most of the time, I'm looking for something simple: an app, a file, or a setting. That's why I've never been particularly keen on Search trying to do other jobs at the same time.

Phone brands aren't playing when it comes to pricing these days, and you can easily spend over $1,000 on current flagships. Samsung's Galaxy S26 FE offers some respite with premium features and performance for a fraction of the price.

The biggest story out of VisionQuest's finale wasn't the long-awaited reunion between twins Tommy and Billy Maximoff (Ruaridh Mollica and Joe Locke). Nor was it Vision (Paul Bettany) and Ultron's (James Spader) touching heart-to-heart about grief. Instead, it was the resurrection of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) at the hands of Dr. Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), which occurs during the second of VisionQuest's two mid-credits scenes.

SEE ALSO: 'VisionQuest' could have done anything, and it just did this

In theory, the return of Scarlet Witch is an exciting one, as she's one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU. Now that she's apparently under Dr. Doom's thrall, that will spell major trouble for the Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday. Powers aside, Wanda is also one of the MCU's most compelling characters, with Olsen's grief-stricken turn in WandaVision earning her an Emmy nomination.

Yet the reality of Wanda's return is that it, like much of the MCU post-Avengers: Endgame, is downright exhausting.

Wanda's return is proof that the MCU has no stakes anymore.

Wanda is the latest MCU mainstay to return from the dead. In addition to the return of everyone who got blipped by Thanos, characters like Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) both stuck around after their deaths in Avengers: Infinity War thanks to some timeline meddling. Vision's complicated return also resulted in three MCU spin-off shows.

For Doomsday, Marvel is also bringing back characters and performers who received fitting send-offs in Avengers: Endgame. Chris Evans is returning as Steve Rogers, again likely due to timeline meddling, while Robert Downey Jr. is back, this time as Dr. Doom.

SEE ALSO: 'VisionQuest's game-changing mid-credit scenes, explained

While I'm often excited to see these characters, Wanda included, the trend of constantly bringing everyone back is a tiring one. It's proof that the MCU has lost all sense of stakes: No one can be killed. Anyone can come back to be smashed together in a massive crossover event like Doomsday.

These constant returns also retroactively cheapen the most impressive feat in the MCU: Tony Stark's (Downey Jr.) mass resurrection of everyone who's been blipped. When half the universe, including some of Marvel's most beloved heroes, turned to ash at the end of Infinity War, it marked Marvel's heaviest moment to date. To reverse it would require a similarly heavy sacrifice, leading to Tony's death. Now, though, Marvel is bringing everyone back with the ease of a Dr. Doom spell, or some timey-wimey hand-waving. Next thing you know, Tony will be back. At this point, why not?

Bringing Scarlet Witch back in a credits scene highlights Marvel's homework problem.

Keeping up with all the intricacies of the MCU has always been a daunting task, but it truly became a chore after Endgame. Now, instead of just watching Marvel's films, viewers also had to keep up with each TV show in order to understand what the hell was going on.

VisionQuest was already a fairly egregious example of this, as audiences had to have a solid understanding of WandaVision and Agatha All Along prior to watching, not to mention 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. It exacerbates the problem with its mid-credits scene, which treats Wanda's resurrection — one of the biggest MCU moments in recent years — as a simple teaser, instead of a pivotal story beat that deserves more fleshing out. Will Doomsday dive deeper into Dr. Doom's journey to resurrect Wanda, or will it just skip over it entirely and carry on with her being alive as if nothing's happened?

If so, that will be extra confusing for the casual Doomsday viewer who might not be aware of Wanda's return. Then again, they might have forgotten about her death, because there have been 10 other movies to keep track of in the four years between Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Doomsday.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness certainly did Wanda dirty with her villain arc and choice to sacrifice herself, so a part of me is ready to embrace what could be a new, more fulfilling arc for her. Yet a larger part of me is simply ambivalent, as I have been for much of Marvel's Phase Four and beyond. If you can't trust your own dramatic choices to stick, how can you expect me to care?

VisionQuest is now streaming on Disney+. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters Dec. 18.

SAVE $200: As of Nov. 11, get the Segway Navimow i215 Robot Lawn Mower for $1,399 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,599. That's a discount of 13%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Segway Navimow i215 Robot Lawn Mower $1,399 at Amazon
$1,599 Save $200   Get Deal at Amazon

Mowing the lawn is a somewhat thankless task that no one really wants to tackle. Luckily, in 2026, you don't have to spend time pushing around a lawnmower when a robot is more than happy to handle that for you. As part of the wave of early Black Friday deals on offer, we found a great deal on a robot lawn mower that can help you achieve a perfectly-manicured lawn in the blink of an eye.

As of Nov. 11, get the Segway Navimow i215 Robot Lawn Mower for $1,399 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $1,599. That's $200 off and a discount of 13%.

SEE ALSO: We found 45 early Black Friday deals already live: Get $250 off MacBooks, 53% off Bose headphones

This model is simple to start up straight out of the box, so it can hit the lawn running, so to speak. It doesn't require antennas or boundary wires, and it uses one-tap auto mapping to help figure out where any potential obstacles are as well as the size and shape of your yard. That way you can turn it on and let it get to work without complicated setup.

The robot lawn mower relies on solid state LiDAR and onboard vision sensors to navigate from there, which can work in both day and night so it can handle yard work without the need for you supervising it in the sun. It can detect over 200 obstacle types, and you can further adjust its mowing area in its accompanying app with up to 20 mowing zones on an interactive map.

All this, powered by a 100W mower with a 6-blade disc to help it get up close and personal with out-of-control grass. If you're tired of manually mowing the lawn and want to outsource this responsibility, don't hesitate with this early Black Friday deal.

GET A KINDLE PAPERWHITE FOR $89.99: Woot has refurbished Kindle Paperwhites (11th Gen, 16GB) on sale for $89.99. You can also get a larger 32GB model for $109.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Refurbished Kindle Paperwhite (11th Gen, 16GB) $89.99 at Woot
  Get Deal at Woot

We're all aware that everything is too expensive these days. From tech to food to airplane tickets, prices are shocking. Earlier this year, Amazon hiked prices on Kindles, and if you're not into that move, Woot has a great solution.

As of Nov. 11, a refurbished 11th Gen 16GB Kindle Paperwhite is on sale at Woot for $89.99. If you download the Woot app, you can stack an extra 20% off that price today only. The latest Kindle Paperwhite with 16GB storage sells at Amazon for $199.99.

I'm a frugal shopper, and I also love reading. Those combined lead me to score a used Kindle on Woot last year. I bought the 11th Gen Kindle Paperwhite refurbished from Woot. I wasn't totally sure what condition a refurbished Kindle would come in, but I can safely say I had no idea it was used.

SEE ALSO: Amazon launches all-new Kindle e-readers, introducing new designs and colors — and we got to try them

My refurbished Kindle has zero signs of wear. Of course, I can't guarantee yours will come in the same condition, but it's reassuring to know that you might get a pristine model and save a ton of money while doing so compared to buying new.

Early Black Friday sales are already live at Amazon and we have a handful of Kindle deals, but none come anywhere close to this offer for $89.99. Keep in mind since the 11th Gen Kindle is from 2021, it will not be compatible with the new Kindle Click remote (sad).

Please keep in mind Woot deals vanish quickly. If you're considering hopping on this deal, I recommend you add to your Woot cart and check out right away. Be sure to head to the Woot app to score that extra 20% off.

Sure, the 11th Gen is an older model, but the 2021 Kindle Paperwhite is still a fantastic e-reader, especially given today's sale price. In addition to grabbing one for yourself, consider if anyone on your list would love a Kindle Paperwhite as a Christmas gift.

When you think of synthesizers, a $50 USB-C rechargeable slab of plastic isn’t what normally springs to mind. But that’s exactly what has set the internet alight at the tail end of 2026, and it’s having big implications for an established market of music hardware manufacturers.

Let's face it, major PC upgrades are kind of a no-go this year. The RAM-pocalypse has made sure of that in every way possible. Fortunately, there are still ways to give your PC a boost, even to the extent of gaming at 1440p, without spending $7,000-$10,000 on an RTX 5090. (Yes, those price brackets are very much real.)

TL;DR: Instacart is giving away up to 50,000 free turkeys this Thanksgiving from Nov. 18 through Nov. 22 when you spend a minimum of $50 on your Thanksgiving basket. A fresh batch of 10,000 turkeys drops every day at 12 p.m. ET.

Opens in a new window Credit: Instacart Instacart: claim your free turkey (Nov. 18 - 22) (up to $40 off) Get Deal

Grocery shopping the week ahead of Thanksgiving is a nightmare. And then there's the blow to your bank account on top of it.

Instacart is helping on both fronts this season. The grocery delivery app is giving away up to 50,000 free turkeys this Thanksgiving, with up to 10,000 dropping each day between Nov. 18 and Nov. 22. So, you won't have to step foot in the grocery store and a good chunk of your Thanksgiving dinner will be paid for. Win-win.

Here's how it works. From Wednesday, Nov. 18 through Sunday, Nov. 22, customers can score up to $40 off an eligible whole turkey, fresh or frozen, from select retailers on Instacart. That's enough to cover an entire bird in most cases. Just head to the Instacart Thanksgiving landing page and fill up your basket, including your turkey, to reach at least $50 (alcohol is excluded from the minimum spend requirement). Then click to redeem the promo on the Thanksgiving landing page. You're limited to one redemption per person while supplies last. A fresh batch of up to 10,000 turkeys drops every day at 12 p.m. ET, with up to 50,000 total. If you miss out on one day, be sure to return the next day at noon to redeem yours.

If you forget something essential, Instacart is also offering $0 delivery on Thanksgiving grocery orders of $10 or more between Nov. 23 and Nov. 25. The day before Thanksgiving is widely known as the busiest day of the year for grocery stores. Let Instacart battle the crowds for you while you prep your home for guests. Just note that service and other fees may apply.

Before your start shopping Black Friday deals, make sure your Thanksgiving dinner is taken care of.