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Malcolm in the Middle: Lifes Still Unfair review: I didnt know how much I needed this
The Conners. And Just Like That. Fuller House. That ’90s Show. As a millennial and an entertainment critic, I thought I’d grown numb to reboots of adored shows from my youth. Too often, these reboots lack the heart or the edge of the original, peddling nostalgia over anything substantial. Or else, I’ve just moved on and can’t be bothered with what Carrie Bradshaw is doing anymore.
Occasionally, however, a reboot breaks through my jaded walls by being a sensational recapturing of the original show’s magic and providing fresh fun. King of the Hill managed this last year by letting animated characters Hank, Peggy, and Bobby Hill grow up. And now Disney+ has managed it with the truly spectacular Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair.
To be totally honest, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this reboot. Sure, I loved the original series, which launched in 2000. Malcolm in the Middle was a show I adored for its intense verve and wacky antics. Rejecting the laugh track and the feel-good family harmony, it broke the mold of family sitcoms, and for seven seasons, critics and audiences cheered it for that. But before Malcolm went off to college in the series finale, I was deep into my college years, and lost track of weekly TV.
Over the years, I hadn’t thought much about Malcolm until Bryan Cranston — who I knew chiefly as the very hairy, happy-go-lucky dad Hal — became the renowned dramatic leading man of Breaking Bad. Which is all to say, I couldn’t have predicted how much it would mean to me to see Hal, Lois, Malcolm, and the whole gang back again.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is more than a reunion or a reboot. This four-part miniseries is a joyful celebration of a great show, and terrific proof of concept that now is its time…again.
What do you need to remember about Malcolm in the Middle to watch Life’s Still Unfair?
Credit: Disney+
Malcolm’s family is made up of his domineering mother Lois (the epic Jane Kaczmarek), his daffy dad (Cranston), his trouble-addicted older brothers Francis (Christopher Masterson) and Reese (Justin Berfield), his oddball younger brother Dewey (Caleb Ellsworth-Clark taking over for Erik Per Sullivan), and baby brother Jamie, along with Malcolm himself. Then, in the season finale, as Malcolm prepped to go off to Harvard, Lois found out she was pregnant again.
Set a little less than 20 years after the Season 7 finale “Graduation,” Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair picks up with Malcolm as a single dad with a teen daughter named Leah (Keeley Karsten), a promising girlfriend (Fear Street‘s Kiana Madeira), a career dedicated to giving back, and a large geographical distance between him and his oft-hysterical family. But with Hal and Lois’ 40th wedding anniversary around the corner, the whole family is getting together — and Malcolm won’t be able to stay away.
Along with seeing where Frances, Dewey, Reese, and Jamie have wound up, Life’s Still Unfair also introduces their nonbinary teen sibling Kelly (Vaughan Murrae), who follows after their brother Malcolm when it comes to insight and outwitting their siblings. And just like that, we’re off and running.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is instantly addictive.
Credit: Disney+
Malcolm and the Middle was about high energy from the moment “Boss of Me Now” — the banger of a theme song by They Might Be Giants — blared at the start of every episode. Life’s Still Unfair brings in a cover of this track, but the vibes are still the same. Right away, Malcolm is talking with a manic precision direct to camera, catching us up on all he’s got going on. Then, in the blink of an eye, his daughter Leah takes up the torch and the direct-address narration.
From there, Reese will zip in with stinging accusations. Lois will snarl with comedic sharpness. And Hal will throw himself, naked and full-bodied, into any physical comedy gag creator/showrunner Linwood Boomer comes up with. Sure, it’ll begin with a classic callback to Lois shaving Hal’s back in the middle of the kitchen (while a horrified Dewey is unwilling witness via a video call). But by episode three, Cranston is not just nude, not just silly, but writhing on dirty linoleum, recreating Hal’s birth, using his own hands as a makeshift labia. And that’s not even the wildest moment of this reboot.
It’s been 20 years, but this ensemble hasn’t missed a step. Muniz seems to effortlessly slide back into the rapid-fire dialogue. Kaczmarek is on fire as the blue-collared mother whose ferocity is her love language. Masterson and Berfield smoothly reconnect to the frantic energy of their troublemaker characters, while Ellsworth-Clark is so skilled at recreating Dewey’s comically outraged reactions that I didn’t realize the series had recast. (Don’t cry for Per Sullivan. Per Cranston, he’s studying for his master’s at Harvard and glad the reboot’s happening but not interested in coming back.)
As to the youngest sibling, props to Murrae, who joins the mayhem with a terrific confidence from the moment they shout for some decorum (or at least less nutsack visibility) in the kitchen. Karsten and Madeira likewise find the rabid rhythm of the show, giving Muniz new funny frictions to play against. But there’s also a jaw-dropping amount of familiar faces, including Francis’ wife Paima (Emy Coligado) and Malcolm’s short-of-breath bestie Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor). There’s more, but I hate to spoil the thrill of recognition as these goofballs rise.
Frankie Muniz and Jane Kaczmarek are back at it, and good as ever.
Credit: Disney+
The main plot line of Life’s Still Unfair is one that will likely hit home for a lot of millennials. Having realized how his parents’ behavior and pressures have impacted his mental health, Malcolm has kept them at a geographical and emotional distance. He avoids any argument, because he can’t handle being face-to-face with any of them — especially his mom. (If you remember Lois’ big finale speech, you’ll probably get why!)
The women in Malcom’s life urge him to reconnect with his mom. And as was often the case on the series, there’s a confrontation that is silly, heart-wrenching, and heartwarming. There’s an electricity when Muniz and Kaczmarek face off, because as intense as they get, the thrum underneath their volume is a resounding love for each other. Malcolm wants to make her proud; Lois wants him to be the best he can be. And — just like it meant a lot to me to see how Bobby Hill turned out on King of the Hill‘s reboot — seeing Malcolm grown up, and not all figured out, shook me to my core. Because yeah, me too.
For all its pratfalls and gross-out gags, Malcolm in the Middle always explored this blue-collar family with a deep awareness of their humanity and hope. Seeing Boomer bring that back, as radiant as ever, felt like slipping into a beloved old coat, warm and familiar. But the edge is still there. In the finale of this miniseries, there’s a confrontation between the mother-son duo that had me clenching a pillow — and my partner’s hand — for emotional support. Because while I haven’t thought about them in years, these two still live in my heart, and could tear it apart with too harsh a word. Thankfully, Boomer hasn’t lost his touch.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair had me laughing, gasping, and crying. It’s just sensational. But there’s one more thing we need to address.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair should earn Bryan Cranston a comedy Emmy.
Credit: Disney+
Muniz and Kaczmarek are excellent scene partners. Cranston and Kaczmarek are absolutely divine. As was true of the original series, they have a mesmerizing chemistry that makes Hal and Lois seem logical despite their absolute opposite energies. With a short season that focuses on their planning an anniversary party, there’s plenty of opportunity for the two to play together, and sweetness and silliness abounds — like when Hal offers a saucy flash mob to show his love. But Cranston just goes above and beyond.
Yes, I mentioned, he gets nude. But it’s not just that. It’s the freedom within the nudity, allowing the angles of his body to be posed for modesty in the most ludicrous ways. It’s that a psychedelic drug trip for his character gives Cranston the opportunity to show his range as Hal faces various versions of himself. Cranston could teach a master class on how to mug. His physical comedy is so committed that I marveled across a montage of mishaps, his pill-bugging over bad news, an internal battle turned external smackdown, and a dance number that is a glittering, glorious disaster.
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It’s not that it’s a surprise Cranston can deliver such comedy. He’s been Emmy-nominated three times before for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in this role, and he won an Emmy in 2025 for his guest spot in The Studio. He’s shown us how hard he can go into drama with Breaking Bad (where he won most of his seven total Emmys). But to return to this familiar space after 20 years and give a show-stopping performance ep after ep? Give the man the trophy for his range, his commitment, and the cake.
Without giving it away, there’s a scene involving birthday cake. In it, Cranston is sublimely silly, performing Hal as a living cartoon character. But also, he allows us through no words, just that mug, to take in the metaphor of the cake. What it means and how Hal feels about it is one of the most joyful moments of television we’re likely to get in 2026. It made me laugh and cry like a damned emoji, because few shows can be this ludicrous and truly poignant at the same time.
Which is all to say, you should not miss Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Where last week I lamented how nostalgia can be callously employed by companies to turn audiences into consumers, this week, I’m teary-eyed over the drug-addled, high-stress antics of a dysfunctional family I hadn’t thought about in years. Boomer and his awesome ensemble didn’t come back for a cash-grab reunion. They came back committed to reigniting the fire of a great show to craft together a marvelous new chapter, alive with humor, heart, and fart jokes.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair debuts on April 10 on Disney+ and Hulu.
The Bluetti Elite 300 is $1,200 off at Amazon ahead of RV season
SAVE $1,200.01: The Bluetti Elite 300 portable power station is on sale at Amazon for $1,098.99, down from the list price at Bluetti of $2,299. That’s a 52% discount.
A portable power station is the perfect item to pack along on a camping or RV trip. If you’re heading off-grid, boondocking, or overlanding, you understand the headache of keeping essential tech powered up. Thankfully, a portable power station is ready to help out, and it becomes even more useful when paired with a solar panel. If you could use an upgraded power station, check out today’s deal at Amazon.
As of April 9, the Bluetti Elite 300 portable power station is on sale at Amazon for $1,098.99, marked down from the list price at Bluetti of $2,299. That’s a major 52% discount that takes $1,200.01 off the price.
With a compact size, the Bluetti Elite 300 packs in 3,014Wh of battery capacity. In real-life scenarios, that works out to recharging a laptop over 30 times, powering an induction cooktop for over two hours, or keeping inside RV lights on for over 65 hours.
Bluetti focused on user-friendliness with this model, and you’ll get four AC outlets, one 2,400W TT-30 plug, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports. When it’s time to recharge the Bluetti Elite 300, standard wall charging for 1.8 hours will get you back to 100 percent power. You can also utilize up to 1,200W of solar, which will take about four hours to recharge the Elite 300.
Keep in mind a 3,014Wh battery is heavy and this model comes in at about 58 pounds. The two side handles make it easier to transport, but this isn’t a lightweight model. However, its overall dimensions are impressively small given its power capacity. Plus, there’s the option of pass-through charging and a 10 millisecond UPS time.
Before you head out on the next RV adventure, pack along the Bluetti Elite 300 while it’s on sale for a major 52% discount. It’ll also come in handy at home during the next power outage.
Home Depots Spring Black Friday Sale is live: Heres what to expect and buy
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 8-Tool Combo Kit
(save $160)
DeWalt 4000 PSI 3.5 GPM Gas Pressure Washer
(save $190)
Weber Spirit E-210 2-Burner Liquid Propane Gas Grill
(save $50)
Spring has officially sprung, and Home Depot is welcoming the start of the season with a 14-day Spring Black Friday sale. (“Black Friday” isn’t going to mean a thing if we keep getting spring iterations, Prime Days 1 and 2, and early access events, but we love a good deal, so we’ll let it slide.)
While the OG Black Friday is great for snagging affordable TVs, laptops, and other electronics, Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday sale is for anyone who wants to transform their flowerbeds or backyard from the sad, brown mess winter left behind into a personal getaway you can actually enjoy after work.
When is the Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday Sale?
The Home Depot sale officially kicks off on Thursday, April 9, and runs through April 22, 2026. The retailer been following a similar timeline since the early 2010s with an annual spring kickoff sale event.
What to expect during Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday Sale
We’re going to be updating this page with all of the best markdowns throughout the sale, but here’s a sneak peek at the categories Home Depot says will be highlighted.
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Lawn and garden: It’s time to prep the yard. Expect price cuts on outdoor power equipment, plants, flowers, mulch, and weed and grass killer.
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Backyard hosting: Everything you need for summer parties will be on sale, including patio furniture, dining sets, composite decking, and grills.
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Home upgrades: If you’ve been holding out on a renovation, look for deals on paint, faucets, flooring, toilets, fencing, and major appliances (including refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, and washers/dryers).
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Storage solutions: Get your garage organized with discounted tool bags, storage shelves, and boxes. Pros can also expect bulk price savings on essentials like tools, pipes, and water heaters.
What brands will be discounted during the Spring Black Friday Sale?
As for brands, the Home Depot isn’t holding back. We’re expecting major price drops from popular heavy hitters, including DeWalt, Milwaukee, Ryobi, Traeger, Weber, Nexgrill, Trex, Rigid, GE Appliances, Samsung, LG, Whirlpool, Vissani, Frigidaire, and StyleWell.
The best deals to shop in the Home Depot Spring Black Friday Sale
The sale is now live in stores and online, so grab your spring shopping list and get ready to dive in. We’ve rounded up some of the best deals we’ve seen so far and will keep an eye out throughout the next two weeks for any new deals you should know about. So be sure to check back!
Psst: Home Depot will also price-match its products to other retailers, so keep your head on a swivel if you find the same product for cheaper elsewhere.
The best cordless power tool deal
Why we like it
Ryobi is known for its affordable, beginner-friendly power tools, but this deal really takes things to the next level. For only $369 (30% off its usual cost), you’ll get eight cordless power tools, three batteries, a charger, and two tool bags. Among those tools is a drill/driver, impact driver, reciprocating saw, circular saw, and more. I personally own the Ryobi ONE+ drill and can confirm that it’s incredibly user-friendly for DIY projects and more — and I’m a complete power tool novice.
More deals on cordless power tools
DeWalt
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DeWalt 20V MAX Cordless Drill/Impact 2-Tool Combo Kit with 2 20V 1.3Ah Batteries — $139
$239(save $100) -
DeWalt FLEXVOLT 20V/60V MAX Lithium-Ion 6.0Ah Battery Pack (2 Pack) — $199
$299(save $100) -
DeWalt 20V Lithium-Ion Cordless 5-Tool Combo Kit with 2 5.0 Ah Battery Packs — $599
$949(save $350)
Milwaukee
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Milwaukee M18 FUEL 18V Brushless Cordless Hammer Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit — $409
$609(save $200) -
Milwaukee M18 18V Lithium-Ion Cordless 9-Tool Combo Kit — $649
$1,099(save $450) -
Get a free Milwaukee M18 18V Litihum-Ion 6.0 Ah Battery with select M18 tools
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Buy More, Save More on select Milwaukee products — (spend $350, save $80; spend $600, save $180; spend $800, save $280; spend $1,000, save $400)
Ryobi
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Ryobi ONE+ 18V Compression Drive Cordless 3/8 in. Crown Stapler — $69.97
$89(save $29.03) -
Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Hybrid Whisper Series 7-1/2 in. Fan Kit — $89
$139(save $50) -
Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Lithium-Ion 6.0 Ah Battery (2-Pack) — $139
$278(save $139) -
Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless Cordless 1/2 in. Hammer Drill Kit — $149
$179(save $30) -
Ryobi ONE+ 18V 18-Gauge Cordless AirStrike Brad Nailer — $149
$238(save $89) + get free ONE+ 18V 2.0 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery
The best outdoor equipment deal
Why we like it
Anyone looking to spring clean the outside of their home and beyond — from the siding to the deck to the dock — should check out this deal on a DeWalt pressure washer. Typically close to $1,000, this Spring Black Friday deal drops it to just $759. It packs 4000 PSI for professional-grade cleaning, includes a 50-foot hose, a triplex pump, five QX nozzles, and a heavy-duty welded steel frame.
More deals on outdoor equipment
DeWalt
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DeWalt 20V MAX 8in. Brushless Cordless Pole Saw — $169
$199(save $30) -
DeWalt 20V MAX Brushless Cordless Blower Kit — $189
$239(save $50)
Milwaukee
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Milwaukee M18 18V Brushless Cordless String Trimmer and M18 Brushless 120 MPH 450 CFM Blower — $299
$378(save $79) -
Milwaukee M18 FUEL 18V 16-inch Brushless Cordless Quik-Lok String Trimmer with Edger attachment — $349
$499(save $150) -
Milwaukee M18 FUEL 21-inch Self-Propelled Dual Battery Mower Kit — $999
$1,199(save $200)
Ryobi
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Ryobi 2100 PSI 1.2 GPM Cold Water Electric Pressure Washer — $199
$228.97(save $29.97) + free 12-inch Surface Cleaner -
Ryobi ONE+ HP 18V Brushless 15 in. String Trimmer with Brush-Cutter attachment — $219
$298(save $79) -
Ryoybi 40V HP Brushless 16 in. Battery Chainsaw — $239
$299(save $60) -
Ryobi 3000 PSI 1.1 GPM Cold Water Electric Pressure Washer — $429
$508.97(save $79.97) + free 12-inch Surface Cleaner
The best grill deals
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Nexgrill 4-Burner Propane Gas Grill — $199
$249(save $50) -
Coleman RoadTrip 285-Standup Portable Propane Gas Grill with Grill Plus Griddle Bundle — $289
$324.99(save $35.99) -
Nexgrill Daytona 4-Burner Propane Gas Griddle — $299
$349(save $50) -
Weber Spirit E-210 2-Burner Liquid Propane Gas Grill — $399
$449(save $50) -
Weber Spirit E-325 3-Burner Propane Gas Grill — $499
$549(save $50) -
Weber Genesis E-315 3-Burner Liquid Propane Gas Grill — $799
$899(save $100)
More Home Depot Spring Black Friday deals
Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold is getting a restock April 10. How to get yours before its gone.
Just a few months ago, Samsung launched a really huge foldable phone. Now, it seems like this Friday might be your last chance to get one.
The Samsung TriFold, which made waves when it launched in Asia late last year before making its western debut at CES 2026. The phone sold out almost instantly upon its U.S. release on Jan. 30 before disappearing from store shelves in March.
Samsung is committing to one more restock on April 10, both online via Samsung’s website and at a smattering of retail Samsung stores across the U.S. As before, we fully expect the online restock to sell out very quickly, so your best bet might be to make it to one of the physical locations, if you can.
In a note to press, Samsung mentioned these Samsung stores as places where you can expect TriFold restocks:
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Los Cerritos Center (Cerritos, CA)
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Mall of America (Minneapolis, MN)
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Queens Center (Elmhurst, NY)
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Roosevelt Field (Garden City, NY)
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The Americana at Brand (Glendale, CA)
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The Galleria (Houston, TX)
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Stonebriar Center (Frisco, TX)
Obviously, there are huge chunks of the U.S. that are not especially close to any of those locations, so grabbing the TriFold online will be the only option for many. In person or online, it won’t be easy to get your hands on the $2,899 TriFold, as Samsung has only produced the phone in very limited numbers.
Samsung hasn’t said one way or another if this will be the final restock, but given that the phone was already discontinued in Korea, customers probably shouldn’t bet on any more restocks in the future. Rumor has it the company has been selling the TriFold at a loss.
Given its high price and experimental form factor, this doesn’t necessarily mean the phone was a failure. It could just mean that Samsung never intended to make the TriFold widely available for a long time.
In other words, if you want one, you better find a way to make it happen on Friday.
What is OnlyFans?
The creator platform OnlyFans has changed the adult industry since its inception a decade ago. What started as a tip jar for bloggers has become an extreme moneymaker for some porn performers, making six figures a year or even in a single month. But do you have to post sexually explicit work on OnlyFans? Are you required to message back and forth with strangers? Can you actually make money on the platform? What is OnlyFans, anyway?
We’re here to answer your questions.
What is OnlyFans?
OnlyFans was started in 2016 by British entrepreneur Tim Stokely. Its main goal is to help content creators and artists “monetize their content while developing authentic relationships with their fanbase.” This basically means the platform was created to let users post content behind a paywall, which fans have to subscribe to for access. Fans can also pay more to message back and forth with creators and “tip” to get content created on demand that’s specifically tailored to their interests and tastes.
If you look back at OnlyFans promotional materials from 2016, you’ll notice that it was geared towards “safe for work” creators, like bloggers and YouTubers. This changed in 2018, when the majority of its parent company, Fenix International Limited, was sold to Ukrainian-American entrepreneur Leonid Radvinsky. Radvinsky, who died in March 2026 at the age of 43, previously founded the porn site MyFreeCams. OnlyFans pivoted to porn after 2018 (despite any type of creator still allowed on the platform), and it exploded in usage and name recognition during the COVID lockdowns.
While creators don’t have to post explicit content on the platform (and in fact, Mashable interviewed a creator who makes six figures from OnlyFans without nudity), it’s what the platform is known for at this point. In 2021, OnlyFans announced it would ban explicit content, only to reverse the decision days later due to backlash.
How much money can creators make on it?
It depends on the kind of content you’re producing, how much reach you have, and a whole host of other variables, but creators can make anywhere from a few hundred dollars a month to a few thousand. In 2023, the average OnlyFans creator made just $1,300 a year from the platform, but Mashable has interviewed creators who’ve made millions from it. Last year, current OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair shared that the platform paid out $25 billion to creators since 2016.
But if you think OnlyFans is “easy money,” think again. Last year, Mashable interviewed different creators about the work that goes into building a successful OnlyFans, including investing in camera equipment, hiring help, and marketing yourself.
How do you subscribe to creators?
You don’t have to be a creator to use the platform — in fact, it’s fueled by users who don’t post on the platform. In order to subscribe to creators, you simply have to create an OnlyFans account, go to the Home page, and find someone you’re interested in following. Check out their subscription tiers, and decide what kind of bundle or offer you’re interested in paying for. You can also tip a creator any amount you want, or pay for messages and individualized content with pay-per-view messages that range anywhere from a couple dollars to more than $100, depending on the creator.
And if you have a friend who’s started posting on OnlyFans and you want to support them, there are ways to do that, too, from subscribing to their pages to offering emotional support.
This article was originally published in 2021 and updated in 2026.
Home Depots Spring Black Friday sale is packed with free cordless tools — find the best BOGO deals on DeWalt, Ryobi, and Milwaukee
Milwaukee Cordless Hammer Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit
(free tool with purchase)
DeWalt FLEXVOLT 60V MAX Cordless Brushless Circular Saw
(free tool with purchase)
Makita Plunge Circular Saw Kit
(free tool with purchase)
Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless 8-Tool Combo Kit
(save $160)
Black Friday in April? Sure, why not. This year, Home Depot is celebrating the season by offering steep discounts on everything we need for spring yard work, getting those DIY projects underway, and preparing for outdoor summer fun. It’s a great time to save on plants, mulch, a new lawn mower, patio furniture, pizza ovens, barbecues, and even major home appliances like refrigerators.
But of course, Home Depot is always a go-to if you’re in need of fresh cordless tools. Whether you’ll use them for home or on the job site, shopping the Home Depot Spring Sale for deals is a smart move. We’re seeing nice BOGO offers from big hitters like DeWalt, Milwaukee, and Makita that’ll offer a free extra bonus with purchase. In addition to the BOGO deals, we have nice offers from Ryobi and Ridgid.
While the spring sale at Home Depot only started on April 9, we’re already seeing some BOGO deals that have sold out way ahead of the sale’s official end date of April 22. If this trend continues, it might be worth shopping soon to get the best selection. Here are some standout offers.
Best Milwaukee BOGO deal
at Home Depot
Why we like it
Milwaukee is one of the standout cordless tool brands, and they have deals abound during the Home Depot Spring Black Friday sale. One of the most attractive is snagging the Milwaukee M18 FUEL 18V Lithium-Ion Brushless Cordless Hammer Drill and Impact Driver Combo Kit for $399 and getting the Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion High Output Battery Pack 6.0Ah for free. That works out to a saving of $199.
Home Depot mentions the compact hammer drill is the most powerful in its class with the quickest driving speed. Milwaukee also added an auto-stop feature that eliminates over-rotation. Plus, the three LED lights that surround the bit and fastener are ideal for getting a clear view.
Best DeWalt BOGO deal
at Home Depot
Why we like it
This BOGO deal offers a serious value. Snag the DeWalt FlexVolt 60V MAX Cordless Brushless 7-1/4 inch Circular Saw for $299 from Home Depot and get the DeWalt FlexVolt 20V/60V MAX Lithium-Ion 6.0Ah Battery Pack with 6 Amp Output Charger for free, which ordinarily costs $249. That makes this one of the best BOGO values in the Home Depot spring sale.
The DeWalt FlexVolt family features over 180 tools with the Circular Saw offering 2,456 unit watts out. There’s an electric brake, integrated LED lights, and even rafter hooks for easy storage.
Best Ryobi deal
Why we like it
While this deal isn’t part of Home Depot’s BOGO offers, it’s still an excellent buy. The Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless 8-Tool Combo Kit is 30% off and serves as a great DIY combo kit for all sorts of home projects. There’s a driver/drill, impact driver, reciprocating saw, circular saw, multi-tool, and more. To keep things neat and organized, the Ryobi kit comes with two tool bags.
Tesla is developing a smaller, cheaper SUV, report says
Tesla is working on a new car, and it’s going to be exactly what many are hoping for: a smaller, cheaper electric SUV.
This is according to Reuters, which spoke with four people familiar with the matter. According to the report, the new car will be an entirely new model, and not a variant of the Model 3 or Model Y (Tesla recently discontinued its larger sedan and SUV, the Model S and the Model X).
The new Tesla SUV would be about 14 feet long, making it considerably shorter than the Model Y, which is 15.7 feet long. It would also be “substantially” cheaper than the Model 3, which is currently the most affordable Tesla you can get, starting at $37,000 in the U.S.
The new SUV, which Tesla plans to manufacture in China, might also be offered with a smaller battery and just a single motor instead of two (both the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y can come with either with one or two motors). This would make the car lighter than other Tesla models, but the smaller battery might also mean it’ll have less range than existing models.
There are no details on when Tesla plans to launch the new car, and the report says that the project is still in an “early development stage,” meaning it might not happen at all.
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The fact that Tesla is working on something isn’t a secret; just a few weeks ago the company CEO Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla is working on something “way cooler than a minivan.”
Figuring out exactly what Tesla’s exact plans are is another matter. The company is working on an autonomous vehicle called the Cybercab (or the Robovan; the name doesn’t seem to be set in stone yet). And Tesla was reportedly working on a cheaper model for years before scrapping it, seemingly in favor of offering cheaper variants of existing models.
Notably, when Reuters reported on Tesla giving up on launching a cheaper model in 2024, Musk tweeted that the news agency was “lying”. The fact is, the company never did launch a cheaper model; we’ll see if things turn out differently this time.
New Congressional scam alert issued for IRS fraud ahead of Tax Day
Tax Day is nearly here, and with it comes tax scams. The U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee has issued a scam alert, with less than a week to go until the tax filing deadline. The warning is, unfortunately, needed, given that nearly one in four Americans have reported being victimized by tax season scams, according to March 2026 research by McAfee.
The alert, seen by Mashable, has other alarming findings: During fiscal year 2025, the IRS reported more than 600 social media impersonators of the agency. Spam blocker app Nomorobo found a 400 percent increase in fraudulent calls claiming to be from the IRS between Jan. and Feb. this year. Fake tax websites are also on the rise, with McAfee identifying 43 new ones every day between Sept. 2025 and Feb. 2026.
“Criminal enterprises are exploiting tax season to target Americans, including seniors,” said Joint Economic Committee Chairman and Arizona Rep. David Schweikert in a press release shared with Mashable. Adults 70 years old and older lost more money to fraud than younger adults, according to the median of data collected by the Federal Trade Commission in 2024: $1,650 for seniors 80 and older and $1,000 for 70-79 year-olds, compared to $189-691 for younger groups.
Schweikert is issuing the alert, along with Ranking Member New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, Vice Chairman Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, and Senior House Democrat Virginia Rep. Don Beyer.
“As Americans file their taxes this month, scammers are deploying an onslaught of attacks — often enhanced by artificial intelligence — designed to steal people’s money,” Hassan stated in the release. “I encourage all taxpayers to review the tips in this bipartisan scams alert so that they can stay vigilant and protect their identities and accounts.”
Here are tips the Joint Economic Committee lays out to avoid common IRS impersonation scams:
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Be wary of phone calls, emails, or social media outreach. The IRS will never message you on social media! The agency will almost always initiate contact by mail, according to the committee.
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Watch out for urgent requests or threats. The IRS will never threaten to call law enforcement or request to see your driver’s license. On that note, the agency will never ask for payment via nontraditional methods such as gift cards.
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You can verify any communications with the IRS directly on the official IRS.gov website.
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You can share an IRS-issued identity protection PIN instead of your Social Security Number.
The committee also urges precaution when dealing with third-party tax services. Here are some tips for identifying non-IRS tax scams:
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Research firms by searching them on sites like the Better Business Bureau. If an offer seems too good to be true, it often is.
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Go to IRS.gov and verify the service’s Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). If the service doesn’t provide this, avoid it.
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Scammers may pretend to be legitimate third-party tax preparation companies or employees. Verify the provider by visiting the official website and calling the listed phone number.
If you believe you’re a victim of a tax scam, you can report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Have a story to share about a scam or security breach that impacted you? Tell us about it. Email submissions@mashable.com with the subject line “Safety Net” or use this form. Someone from Mashable will get in touch.
Dyson just launched its first-ever portable fan for $99
Dyson announced its first portable handheld fan on Wednesday, and it’s now available for purchase.
The new HushJet Mini Cool retails for $99, which makes it pricey for a portable fan but more accessible than Dyson’s other luxe gadgets. Perhaps most impressively, the HushJet is much cheaper than the Shark ChillPill, a new portable fan released earlier this spring by one of Dyson’s biggest rivals.
The HushJet Mini Cool weighs only 7.5 ounces, or just under half a pound, and measures 38 millimeters (1.5 inches) in diameter — making it just as big around as Dyson’s skinny Supersonic hair dryer and PencilVac stick vacuum. The fan offers five airflow speeds and a “Boost” mode for an extra blast of air. It lasts up to six hours on the lowest speed setting and charges to full battery in about three hours.
The HushJet Mini Cool’s brushless DC motor spins at up to 65,000 revolutions per minute (RPM), producing airflow speeds of up to a whopping 80 feet per second or 55 miles per hour. For reference, other portable fans vetted by Mashable staff peak at 3,000 to 7,500 RPM. The HushJet is compact yet super powerful.
Credit: Dyson
In its press release about the HushJet Mini Cool, Dyson stated that “Acoustics are as important as power.” The company said it designed the fan’s nozzle so that it doesn’t whine or make a high-pitched whir. Its spec sheet notes that it runs at 52dBA (A-weighted decibels) on the first speed setting, or about as loud as the hum of a fridge. It maxes out at 72.5dBA in Boost mode, or slightly quieter than the 77dBA Supersonic hair dryer.
Chief Engineer Jake Dyson said the company has been “obsessed with airflow” since 2009, the year it launched its first bladeless fan. “The HushJet Mini Cool fan is the culmination of that journey,” he explained in a statement: “powerful airflow, engineered for life on the move by bringing elite cooling technology from every home to your hand.”
Credit: Dyson
The HushJet Mini Cool also tees up a new chapter in the Dyson vs. Shark rivalry. Shark’s stick vacuums and hair tools are regarded as some of the best affordable alternatives to Dyson’s expensive counterparts.
Shark launched a 3-in-1 bladeless portable fan called the ChillPill in March. It’s 64 percent heavier than the HushJet and can only move up to 25 feet of airflow per second, but it has a longer battery life, 10 speed settings, and interchangeable heads with misting and cooling functions. It’s priced at $149.99.
Credit: Dyson
For its part, the $99 HushJet Mini Cool will come with a charging stand, a USB-C charging cable, a travel pouch, and a lanyard for wearing around one’s neck. Dyson said it will drop additional sold-separately HushJet accessories this summer, including a universal mount that attaches it to strollers and other items.
The HushJet Mini Cool is available in one mother-of-pearl-inspired stone/blush finish at launch this week. Additional carnelian/sky and ink/cobalt colorways will arrive in May and June, respectively, just in time for the start of wedding and music festival season.
How to watch NBA live streams online for free
TL;DR: Live stream the NBA for free with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime. Live stream the NBA for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The NBA is a unique sport. There’s nothing else in which incredibly tall athletes can be made to look absolutely tiny by aliens who can dunk without leaving the ground. And almost all of these shockingly tall athletes display a skillset that mere mortals can’t even fathom.
The NBA could make a legitimate argument that it hosts the very best athletes in the world. Sure, the NFL might disagree. And rugby definitely attracts some special specimens. But the NBA has a bunch of seven footers dunking on each other. That’s tough to beat.
If you are interested in watching the NBA for free from anywhere in the world, we’ve got all the information you need.
What is the NBA?
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America made up of 30 teams (29 from the United States and one from Canada). The defending champions are the Oklahoma City Thunder.
When is the NBA?
The 2025–26 NBA season is the 80th edition of the competition. The regular season runs from Oct. 21 to April 12. The play-in tournament is scheduled to be played on April 14-17, followed by the playoffs on the next day, and concluding with the NBA Finals from June 4 to June 21.
The in-season NBA Cup will take place from Oct. 31 to Dec. 16.
How to watch the NBA for free
Select NBA games are available to live stream for free with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.
86 regular-season games, the Emirates Cup Championship, the play-in tournament, one third of first and second round games of the Playoffs, a Conference Finals series, and the NBA Finals are available to Prime members in the UK. The full schedule can be found here.
These free live streams are geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can secure access 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 access free live streams of the NBA from anywhere in the world.
Live stream the NBA for free by following these simple steps:
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Sign up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime (if you’re not already a member)
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Subscribe to a VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
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Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK
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Watch the NBA from anywhere in the world on Prime Video
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer money-back guarantees or free trials. By leveraging these offers, you can watch NBA live streams without actually spending anything. This isn’t a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch select NBA games before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for Prime Video?
ExpressVPN is the best service for accessing live streams on platforms like Prime Video, for a number of reasons:
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Servers in 105 countries including the U.S. and UK
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Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
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Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
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Fast connection speeds free from throttling
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Up to 10 simultaneous connections
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30-day money-back guarantee
A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also 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).
Watch the NBA for free with ExpressVPN.
Apple iPhone 17e review: Ticks every box but one
Apple‘s first “e” model iPhone, the iPhone 16e, wasn’t just a review unit for me; I actually lived with it as my main phone for over six months. And while I still stand by what I wrote in my review last year — it was surprisingly powerful for a “cheap” phone, with excellent battery life — the one thing I couldn’t stand was its camera.
On paper, the camera was the same as the main camera on the iPhone 16. In reality, it was similar, but it produced way worse photos in low light. Photos of my kids dancing in the living room in the evening, or friends chatting over dinner, or a band playing in a small club? Most of those turned out pretty bad.
With the iPhone 17e, which came out in March, Apple fixed most of the other annoyances that plagued the original model. The camera is a little better, but is it enough?
Same look, but now with MagSafe
Focusing on said previous grievances, the iPhone 17e supports MagSafe, Apple’s magnetic, wireless charging tech that makes it easy to slap various accessories onto the phone.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
Apple sent me an iPhone 17e unit for review, and I was happily able to use my Apple Wallet and magnetic chargers with it. Apple also sent me a Clear Case with MagSafe, and while it may not be my favorite case in terms of design, it was a relief to be able to charge the phone magnetically without removing the case.
The ability to use MagSafe chargers and accessories is just about the only physical difference between the iPhone 17e and 16e, though. The iPhone 17e looks exactly the same as its predecessor, with the only difference being the new color, Soft Pink. The unit Apple sent me was in this color, and I can tell you that it is a very nice, but indeed a very soft pink.
On the front, there’s still no Dynamic Island; the Face ID sensors and the selfie camera are still hidden inside a notch on the top of the display. The dimensions have remained exactly the same (your old iPhone 16e case will work), and the weight is virtually the same (169 grams for the new model, 167 grams for the old one).
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
The display is still a 6.1-inch OLED that maxes out at 60Hz, and that’s very apparent if you switch from a 120Hz phone; the transitions and animations aren’t nearly as smooth on the iPhone 17e.
New chip, more storage
The biggest improvements on the iPhone 17e are inside the phone. It has a new chip, Apple’s powerful A19, which can power the latest AI shenanigans. Apple’s C1X modem has replaced the old C1 modem, though it’s hard to tell what sort of improvements this has brought.
Perhaps most importantly, the iPhone 17e starts at 256GB, compared to the iPhone 16e’s 128GB starting storage. Given that the iPhone 17e’s starting price remains unchanged at $599, this is a pretty big deal. You can also configure the iPhone 17e with 512GB of storage, but that takes the price to $799.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
The combination of having Apple’s latest chip and a decent amount of storage means this phone will be relevant for at least four to five years. In fact, this makes it extremely similar to the $799 iPhone 17, though the A19 chip on the iPhone 17e has one less GPU core, meaning it’ll be slightly worse for gaming. If you don’t care about having the flashiest phone, and just need something that gets the work done, the iPhone 17e is a compelling choice.
When I reviewed the iPhone 16e, I was pleased with battery life and how powerful it was. But having used the phone over several months, I came away disappointed with the camera. The phone has a singular, 48-megapixel rear camera with similar specs to the iPhone 16’s. But it just wasn’t the same; it was alright in daytime, but night shots, or even shots taken in the relative dimness of my living room, just weren’t good enough.
About that camera
The bad news is that the iPhone 17e has the same camera specs as the iPhone 16e. And yes, that means no dedicated telephoto or ultra-wide camera; just a single, 48-megapixel main camera on the back. Apple says that the new A19 chips will unlock better shots, and some new camera features are indeed here, including next-gen portraits with Focus and Depth Control. But is it better where it truly matters, which is low light shots?
Here’s why insist on low light camera performance. New iPhones, especially those from the Pro line, as well as top Android phones, have spoiled the heck out of me (and probably most of you, dear readers).
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
It’s easy to forget just how hard it was to get a decent low light shot on a smartphone just a few years ago. These days, however, I’m used to being able of taking a photo in a dim pub, or during an evening stroll, and have the phone automagically increase brightness and exposure while accommodating for the movements of my shaky hand. It’s hard to go back to a phone that doesn’t do that well.
So yeah, the iPhone 17e takes decent photos in broad daylight. All modern phones do. Selfies are alright, too, though nothing to write home about.
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
If you want to zoom in with the iPhone 17e, you can do that, but it’s purely digital: You’ll simply get a smaller cutout of what the camera sensor has captured, and while the shot quality will remain the same, the resolution will be lower.
The zoomed imag is just a digital cutout, but it can yield decent results.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Indoors, and in the evening, is where the camera’s weaknesses show. Sometimes, Apple’s Night Mode will kick in and save the day, producing a decent shot (while still not as good as the main camera on my iPhone 17 Pro Max). But sometimes you’ll just get a smudgy, blurry shot, or the tones will be overly yellow.
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable
The good news is that it does seem that the iPhone 17e’s camera is a little better than the one on the iPhone 16e when it comes to low-light shots.
The biggest issue, perhaps, lies in expectations. Check Apple’s official tech specs for the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17, and iPhone 17e, and they’re all listed as having a “48MP Fusion Main” camera, which might lead you to believe they cameras are the same. They’re not, so just have that in mind when you’re shopping for a new iPhone.
A pretty good entry-level iPhone
Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable
All things considered, the iPhone 17e is a decent upgrade over its predecessor, and a good choice if you want the cheapest new iPhone you can get. It’s got MagSafe, more storage, and Apple’s powerful A19 cheap. But if you need a better, more versatile camera, the iPhone 17 is a better choice.
This text is an expanded version of the hands-on iPhone 17e article which you can read on Mashable.
Get the Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box for under $110 — under market price at TCGplayer
TL;DR: TCGplayer has the Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Display listed from $109.49 with shipping included. That puts it $1.63 below TCGplayer’s current $111.12 market price, while also undercutting Amazon’s $119.95 listing.
Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box
Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Box
Booster box prices for newer Magic: The Gathering sets can slide around after launch, and Lorwyn Eclipsed has now dipped to one of its most tempting prices since release.
As of April 9, TCGplayer has the Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster Display listed from $109.49 shipped. TCGplayer’s own current market price sits at $111.12, while its listed median is still far higher at $144.99. Amazon, meanwhile, has the same box priced at $119.95, so TCGplayer is currently the better buy by a pretty comfortable margin.
This display box includes 30 Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Boosters, with each pack containing 14 Magic trading cards. Every booster includes one traditional foil card, plus 1 to 4 cards of rare or higher rarity, alongside uncommons, commons, and a land. That makes this box a strong fit whether you’re buying for Limited nights, cracking packs for collection value, or just trying to get into the set without paying inflated early pricing.
Lorwyn Eclipsed is also a fairly easy sell for longtime fans. The set heads back to the split worlds of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, bringing back creature types like Kithkin, boggarts, merrow, and Elves while leaning into the contrast between eternal day and perpetual night.
Among the other newer MTG expansions, the Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities Play Booster Box is also still available for around $140. Meanwhile, you can grab the MTG Avatar The Last Airbender Play Booster Box for under $125.
NYT Pips hints, answers for April 9, 2026
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.
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:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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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.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for April 9 Pips
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be less than 4. The answer is 2-3 placed horizontally.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 5–5, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically; 5-1, placed horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for April 9 Pips
Number (5): Everything in this purple space must add up to 5. The answer is 4-5, placed vertically; 1-1, placed vertically.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this red space must be less than 4. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 6-5, placed horizontally; 4-5, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this purple space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 3-2, placed horizontally; 2-6, placed vertically.
Number (10): Everything in this purple space must add up to 10. The answer is 5-5, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 2-6, placed vertically.
Equal (0): Everything in this space must be equal to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically; 0-4, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this purple space must add up to 4. The answer is 0-4, placed horizontally.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for April 9 Pips
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically; 2-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this red space must be greater than 3. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 3. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 3-6, placed horizontally; 6-0, placed vertically.
Equal (5): Everything in this space must be equal to 5. The answer is 2-5, placed vertically; 5-0, placed vertically.
Equal (3): Everything in this space must be equal to 3. The answer is 3-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this purple space must add up to 3. The answer is 6-0, placed vertically; 3-1, placed vertically.
Number (3): Everything in this red space must add up to 3. The answer is 5-0, placed vertically; 3-4, placed vertically.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this space must be greater than 3. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 5-1, placed horizontally; 3-1, placed vertically; 1-0, placed vertically.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this dark blue space must be greater than 3. The answer is 3-4, placed vertically.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this green space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (3): Everything in this purple space must be greater than 3. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
Less Than (3): Everything in this space must be less than 3. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this light blue space must add up to 3. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 1-0, placed vertically.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
What happens if you go without screens for a year?
Between “friction-maxxing” and the discussions regarding “social media addiction,” it’s safe to say that we’re ambivalent about our lives online. We’d love to “touch grass,” yet the bright colors of Instagram Reels lure us into remaining on our phones.
Some people, though, are making concerted efforts to decrease their screentime. But musician Leith Ross is taking it a step further: They’re not looking at screens for a full year.
Not literally — they will go see a movie in the theater or borrow their partner’s laptop for a Zoom interview, which is how Mashable spoke to Ross. But they no longer use a smartphone or a laptop themselves. They use an alarm clock, write by hand, and only play physical games.
The Canadian singer-songwriter still films videos for YouTube — but they record on a camcorder, and someone else uploads them to their channel with over 46,000 subscribers.
Mashable interviewed Ross about their “year without screens,” why they’re doing it, and how it’s changing their life.
Why go screen-free?
“It was a long time coming,” Ross said. They explained that they believe they’re addicted to screens and that their compulsive behavior around screens of all kinds was impacting them negatively.
Whether one can truly be addicted to screens or social media is, as of now, contested, much like sex addiction. But the World Health Organization has noted an increase in problematic social media use, such as a lack of control and experiencing negative consequences. “But it felt like everyone was dealing with the same thing,” Ross said. They didn’t have the motivation to try to do anything about it.
One day, though, their phone was dead. Their TV wasn’t working, either, or something like that kept them off screens.
Then, they wrote a song they really liked, and they had an epiphany: There are probably hundreds of songs they could’ve written that never came to be because they were never bored.
There are probably hundreds of songs they could’ve written that never came to be because they were never bored.
“I felt a lot of grief in that moment, because writing music is what I love to do, and…and it feels like something I was supposed to do with my life,” they said. “And I had just not been doing it as much as I could have.”
That thought spiraled into thinking about how many books they wanted to read, too, which led them to wanting to do this project. Cutting things one bit at a time wasn’t going to work, as it hadn’t worked for them before. So they made a plan. It took several months to implement, but since Jan. 6, 2026, Ross has been living (by and large) screen-free.
“My year of no screens”
In a seven-page document, Ross outlines the rules for their year with no screens as well as a mission statement. No smartphones, no TV, no laptop or desktop computer, and no gaming systems, with limited exceptions. For instance, they can use a library computer for essentials, such as booking flights. Their family also requests FaceTimes, which are done on a friend’s or their partner’s phone and supervised.
Ross has uploaded two YouTube updates since starting their year with no screens, one at the end of Jan. (that has over 100,000 views) and another in Feb. Since then, they (or rather, their team) have also posted a song demo and vlogs from the European leg of their I Can See The Future Tour, a string of shows to support the release of their second album of the same name.
Compulsive screen use and information overload
What problematic screen use looked like in Ross’s life was a constant need to be online or looking at a screen, an extreme anxiety or bad feeling in their body when they didn’t have access, and a muscle memory of always reaching for a device.
Many people believe they’re addicted to social media these days, and their screentime is in the double-digit daily hours. But Ross admitted that they may be a more extreme case, saying they couldn’t physically stop themself from being online or scrolling or even watching TV.
“If I was having an anxious night, I would just be on TikTok until four in the morning or later, because as soon as I put it down, I felt that like horrible, overwhelming anxiety,” they said. “It was just like my constant, constant, constant coping mechanism for everything.”
But they hesitate to support social media bans for children, such as the mandate enacted in Australia last Dec.
“Our aim should be less on making policy that affects the population and more on making policy that affects the tech companies that are f*cking us over,” they said, “for lack of a better term.” They brought up social media algorithms that amplify hate speech and disturbing content, and that there should be a moral standard for what is shared and pushed by algorithms.
Social media gives us the illusion of being connected, they said, but we’re bombarded with information in an unhelpful way that shuts us down. We don’t see uplifting content like liberation work — at least, that’s not what Ross was seeing during their last couple of months online.
When they used social media, they also hyperfixated on how others perceived them — a common complaint. For example, last time they toured, they’d immediately go online after a show to see what they and their bandmates looked like, what they sounded like, and what people thought. But during their most recent tour, which ended weeks ago, they “couldn’t lean on anybody else’s experience at all.”
“I just had to take it at face value for what happened to me,” they said, “and it sounds so funny, because isn’t that just the human experience?”
Not seeing the concert through other people’s eyes was strange, but it made Ross happier. They weren’t overanalyzing themself, how they looked on stage, or their behavior. “There was nothing that I could cling to and be hard on myself about in that way,” they said.
“I was really forced into the moment, the present, which is a great feeling,” Ross said.
How relationships change post-social media
Besides their relationship with themself, their relationships with other people have changed since they began their year of no screens — for good and bad.
For the friends they see often, their relationship has improved. Since they can’t keep up with friends on social media, when they see or talk with them, they’re excited to hear about what’s been going on.
“It’s not like I wasn’t excited to hear about my friends before, but I felt like I already knew,” they said.
On the flip side, they said, “I now am not really allowed any illusion of being close to a person that I’m not actually close to.” There are people Ross considered close friends before the project started, and while they still do, they don’t really connect as much. Before, they felt an intimacy with people just replying to their Instagram stories.
“And I’m not saying that that’s unimportant,” they said. “But I am realizing that…I don’t actually see them very much or at all, and…that we didn’t have an ability to connect often and well outside of being online.”
“It feels a bit lonely at times,” they said, “but it’s also inspiring me to strengthen those relationships in real, tangible ways that I can control.”
They’ve also set up a P.O. Box and receive letters from fans and viewers. “Getting a handwritten letter is like a joy that I haven’t experienced since I was very young, and it’s so fun,” they said. They used to be affirmed by kind DMs, now — similar to catching up with friends — receiving these positive messages now “feels like that much more rare and special and unique,” especially because of the effort required to write and send a physical letter.
Should I do a year with no screens?
Ross recommends that anyone do this to the amount that they feel capable of — and not for the reasons you might think.
Beyond getting your attention span back, wanting to read more books, and be more creative, Ross believes there’s a larger existential threat that makes them want to encourage others to lessen their screentime.
They believe that an emotional distance has been created between people and their community due to capitalism, individualism, and social media. We’re not tangible to each other, and we have less desire to sacrifice for others and do the hard things that make the world better, they said. Living a less digital life and being a part of a physical community may help with that.
“I feel like we need to find a very concrete way back to each other, so that when push comes to shove, we will have real, physical communities in our lives that can take care of us and who we can take care of,” they said.
They won’t stop at a year, but when the year is up, they’ll likely be less strict, they said. One of the main things they don’t anticipate, though, is ever getting a smartphone again. The number one thing that has brought them back to their body and self is not having a computer on them at all times, they said.
For now, they seem to be frictionmaxxing to the extreme — not that they’ve seen the meme online before Mashable told them about it.
“It’s nice to hear from the other side of the veil [that] I’m relating to an online trend,” they joked.
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for April 9, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition will be easy if you know basketball player nicknames.
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.
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.
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:
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Yellow: High performers
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Green: Combat lingo
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Blue: Also known as
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Purple: Same first word
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: A team’s best player
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Green: MMA terms
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Blue: Nicknames of former NBA players, with “the”
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Purple: Mr. ____
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 #563 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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A team’s best player – CENTERPIECE, HEADLINER, LEAD, STAR
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MMA terms – ARMBAR, CHOKE, CLINCH, SUBMISSION
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Nicknames of former NBA players, with “the” – ANSWER, BIG DIPPER, MATRIX, TRUTH
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Mr. ___ – 3000, HOCKEY, MET, OCTOBER
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.
NYT Mini crossword answers, hints for April 9, 2026
The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times‘ revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.
With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.
So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player’s flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.
Here are the clues and answers to NYT’s The Mini for Thursday, April 9, 2026:
Across
Slip-on shoe … or something you don’t want in your bathtub
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The answer is Clog.
Ancient artifact
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The answer is Relic.
In a most unusual way
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The answer is Oddly.
Springs in a mattress
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The answer is Coils.
Raven’s haven
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The answer is Nest.
Down
Slip-on shoe .. or something you really don’t want in your bathtub
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The answer is Croc.
Strung along
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The answer is Led on.
Boomer’s bop, nowadays
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The answer is Oldie.
Breathing organs for fish
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The answer is Gills.
Fluid-filled lump
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The answer is Cyst.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Mini Crossword.
Track Artemis II live as Orion returns to Earth
Orion is in space, the Artemis II crew is returning from the moon, and you can follow their journey without leaving Earth.
NASA‘s Artemis Real-time Orbit Website, or AROW, allows the public to track the moonship. During the roughly 10-day test flight, anyone with a phone or computer can see how far the crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are from Earth.
The tracker turns a complex deep space mission into something easier to understand at a glance. With data from sensors on the spacecraft, AROW takes information already flowing to mission control in Houston and interprets it into simple visuals for the layperson. Instead of trying to picture where the crew might be, you can actually see their path, distances, and major milestones as they happen.
People can download the NASA app or go to the website to give the tracker a spin.
AROW began updating about a minute after liftoff on Wednesday, April 1, and will keep feeding live information until Orion dives back into Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown at the end of the mission. Online, users can see where the spacecraft sits in space and trace its figure-eight route.
Credit: NASA / AROW screenshot
NASA designed the website to show more than a dot on a map. It highlights key moments in the mission and points out features on the moon, including landing sites from the Apollo program. That lets viewers connect what they’re seeing today through Artemis — named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology — with the first era of human exploration on the lunar surface.
The NASA app includes similar features, plus an augmented reality tracker. After calibration, the app uses phone sensors to tell you how to move your device so on‑screen markers line up with where Orion is relative to your position on Earth.
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For people who love to pore through the numbers, AROW also shares precise data describing Orion’s location and motion.
Don’t miss out on our latest stories: Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google.
Since launch, the crew has been in a high-Earth orbit, allowing them time to check out the systems aboard the spacecraft before pushing into a moon-bound trajectory.
Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission in the Artemis campaign and a major step toward landing on the moon and learning how to live there. By sending astronauts around the moon and bringing them home safely, NASA is attempting to prove the systems needed for future lunar landings — and, perhaps down the road, the first human mission to Mars.
The Roborock Q10 S5+ robot vacuum and mop is on sale at Amazon — save over $200
SAVE OVER $200: As of April 9, the Roborock Q10 S5+ robot vacuum and mop is on sale for $279.99 at Amazon. That’s $220 off its list price of $499.99.
For those days when you just don’t want to vacuum, a robot vacuum is nice to have on hand. If you’ve been thinking about investing, there are thankfully some great deals still available post-Spring sales. Among them is the Roborock Q10 S5+ robot vacuum and mop, which is discounted right now at Amazon.
As of April 9, the Roborock Q10 S5+ is marked down to $279.99. Normally it’s listed for $499.99, so this is a great opportunity to save $220. It’s a model that earned a spot on our list of the best robot vacuums as the quietest pick.
The Roborock Q10 S5+ can tackle a variety of messes, as it boasts features for both vacuuming and mopping. It has 10,000 Pa suction for clearing up carpets. It even comes with a JawScrapers Comb main brush and an anti-tangle side brush that help keep hair from getting caught up inside the rollers. And as for mopping, it scrubs up to 3,000 times per minute to get out annoying stains on harder surfaces.
It also works quietly, which is what landed it on our list of the best robot vacuums. Mashable’s Leah Stodart said it, “has reliably completed all missions in my apartment for weeks, and isn’t nearly as obnoxious when self-emptying as most other robot vacuums I’ve tested — it barely reaches 70 decibels, which isn’t much louder than competitors while they’re just cleaning.”
On top of that, its base comes with a 2.7 liter dust bag that can hold up to 70 days worth of dirt, dust, hair, and more. If it sounds like the kind of robot vacuum you’ve been looking for, don’t miss out on this chance to save on the Roborock Q10 S5+ at Amazon.
Stephen Colbert has thoughts on Trumps double-sided ceasefire
Following days of threats, including a Truth Social post declaring that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Donald Trump has announced a “double-sided ceasefire” with Iran, a two-week period in which the contested Strait of Hormuz will allow shipping traffic.
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert questioned the president’s Wednesday social media post and his use of the term “double-sided.”
“But aren’t all peace deals double-sided? I believe there’s a word for a single-sided ceasefire, and it’s murder,” the host said.
Trump also said on Truth Social that he agreed to the ceasefire because “we have already met and exceeded all military objectives” in the U.S/Israel war with Iran.
“It’s true, this war reached all of its objectives,” reacted Colbert. “It’s been weeks since anyone mentioned the Epstein files.”
Want more of the best of late night? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter.
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 9
The Moon is nearing a new lunar phase, the Third Quarter. This occurs half of the Moon’s surface appears illuminated, with the visible portion continuing to shrink each night as we move towards the New Moon.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Thursday, April 9, the Moon phase is Waning Gibbous. Tonight, 59% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
There’s plenty for you to see on the surface of the Moon tonight, even if you don’t have any visual aids. Just looking up with your eyes, you should be able to see the Mare Imbrium, Tycho Crater, and the Kepler Crater. With binoculars, you’ll also be able to see the Gassendi Crater, Alps Mountains, and the Apennine Mountains. Finally, if you have a telescope, expect to see features like the Apollo 12 landing spot, the Schiller Crater, and the Rima Ariadaeus.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
According to NASA, it takes the Moon roughly 29.5 days to orbit Earth, passing through eight distinct stages during that time. While the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of sunlight hitting it changes as it moves, which is why it can look full, partly lit, or just a slim crescent. These shifting appearances are known as the lunar phases, and there are eight in total:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
The Mova Z60 robot vacuum has dropped to its lowest-ever price at Amazon — save $600
SAVE $600: As of April 9, the Mova Z60 robot vacuum is on sale for $899 at Amazon. That’s a 40% discount on the list price.
Robot vacuums are arguably one of the best smart home devices money can buy. They keep your floors clean, perhaps one of life’s most arduous tasks, so you don’t have to. Amazon regularly has great deals on top models, but as of April 9, this new deal on the Mova Z60 robot vacuum caught our eye. Not only is it reduced by $600, but it’s dropped down to its lowest-ever price of $899 (from $1,499).
This vacuum is designed for powerful yet low-maintenance cleaning. It combines 28,000Pa suction with a HydroForce mopping system that sprays clean water while removing dirty water at the same time, so your floors are dust free and sparkly clean at all times.
It has a TroboWave DuoBrush that helps prevent hair tangles, and AutoShield technology that detects carpets and lifts the mop to prevent it from getting damp. The all-in-one docking station also takes care of tasks like dust emptying, hot water mop washing, refilling, and hot air drying, so there’s next to no manual upkeep.
There’s even specific pet hair-focused features such as targeted cleaning around high-traffic areas and dual solution tanks for both cleaning and odor control.
You can find this robot vacuum deal at Amazon now.
The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni robot vacuum is down to its lowest-ever price — save over $600 at Amazon
SAVE $620: As of April 9, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni is on sale for $679 at Amazon. That’s a 48% discount on the list price.
If you’ve been waiting for the right time to purchase a new robot vacuum, now might be that time. As of April 9, the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni has dropped down to its lowest-ever price. With over $600 off the list price, you can take it home now for $679.
This vacuum is built for a serious clean. It combines BLAST technology with a 16,600Pa suction and enhanced airflow to pick up fine dust and pet hair. Its Triple Lift System automatically raises the mop, side brush, and main brush when moving between different surfaces, helping you keep carpets dry while still keeping your hard floors sparkly clean.
This unit is almost completely self maintained, too. The OZMO Roller continuously self-washes during use to keep the mop fresh, and the ZeroTangle 2.0 helps to prevent hair from wrapping around the brush. The OMNI Station handles the rest of the maintenance by washing and drying the mop with hot water, refilling water, and emptying dust. It can even store dirt for up to 150 days before you need to empty manually.
And you don’t even need to direct it around your home. This vacuum uses AIVI 3D 3.0 with LiDAR to recognise objects and map out your rooms, so it can navigate on its own.
This robot vacuum deal is available at Amazon now.
The Sony Bravia 5 65-inch TV is over $400 off at Amazon — act fast to upgrade for less
SAVE OVER $400: As of April 9, the Sony Bravia 5 65-inch TV is on sale for $1,098 at Amazon. That’s a 27% discount on the list price.
The Sony Bravia 5 65-inch TV is back on sale at Amazon, and if you’ve been looking for a new TV for movie night, this is a deal you won’t want to skip. As of April 9, the price has dropped from $1,499.99 to $1,098. That’s a discount of over $400 ($401.99, to be exact).
There’s so much going for this TV. It’s powered by the XR Processor with AI, so it can enhance scenes in real time by improving things like the clarity, contrast, and colour. It also upscales lower-resolution content to give you a sharper picture.
For streaming, it runs on Google TV, so you’ll have access to streaming apps in one place, along with voice control via Google Assistant and support for Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast. And to make movie nights even more impressive, it supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, IMAX Enhanced, and DTS:X, with studio-calibrated modes designed for services like Netflix and Prime Video.
It’s also a great choice for gamers. Certain features are tailored for the PS5, such as Auto HDR Tone Mapping and Auto Genre Picture Mode. It also has motion handling designed to keep fast-moving scenes smooth and clear.
This Sony TV deal is available at Amazon now (but only for a limited time).
The Samsung Galaxy S26 is under $100 at T-Mobile — how to claim this limited-time deal
SAVE $800: As of April 9, score the Samsung Galaxy S26 for under $100 at T-Mobile without a trade-in by adding a new line on the Experience More plan.
If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, check out this latest deal at T-Mobile: You could get your hands on the Samsung Galaxy S26 for under $100.
As of April 9, you can qualify for this low price without a trade-in by adding a new line on the Experience More plan (or three lines on the Better Value plan). The discount of up to $800 is applied as monthly bill credits over 24 months. The 256GB phone is usually priced at $899.99, so this $800 discount would bring the price down to just $99.99.
You’ll still need to pay taxes and a $35 connection fee, but that’s always the case with these mobile carrier offers.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 range is still fresh, so this T-Mobile deal is a steal. The Samsung Galaxy S26 a great choice for Android fans, with its Armor Aluminium and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 casing boosting durability. It’s also packed with Samsung’s Galaxy AI tools, including Photo Assist.
It runs fast and smooth thanks to its customized processor. This is also supported by an upgraded cooling system that helps keep the temperature down during demanding usage.
Head to T-Mobile to grab this latest Samsung deal while it’s still live.
After splashdown, brutal obstacle course awaits the Artemis II crew
After a grueling descent through Earth’s atmosphere, NASA will strap the Artemis II astronauts into bulky spacesuits for an obstacle course.
Within mere hours of the Orion spacecraft‘s splashdown on Friday, April 10, the crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen — won’t be afforded much time to rest and relax. Instead, the four will be bounced around from one research group to the next before they’ve fully acclimated to Earth gravity.
One of those studies will include putting their “right stuff” to the test. The gauntlet, far less flashy than an episode of American Gladiators, will unfold back at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. There, a giant robotic crane and a heavy test suit will help a small team answer a crucial question: After 10 days of weightlessness in space, how soon can humans safely get back to work in another world?
The experiment grows out of a longer‑running study with astronauts returning from six‑month missions on the International Space Station. Those crews spend about as long in orbit as a trip to Mars might take — and they come home pallid and wobbly.
Scientists worry that in a weakened state, astronauts might not be ready for moonwalks or Marswalks, which require strength and agility.
“We don’t want to put the astronauts in a position where they’re going to be stranded in a spacesuit, asking them to do tasks that are probably above what their physiologic capabilities are going to be in,” said Jason Norcross, a senior scientist leading the effort. “This helps us really with planning, more than anything else.”
Without gravity, muscles atrophy and aerobic fitness fades. The brain and inner ear systems that tell us which way is up and help us stay balanced also need time to readjust.
To investigate that, Norcross’ team has used the Active Response Gravity Offload System, or ARGOS, at Johnson. Picture a crane that holds part of a person’s weight. By lifting just the right amount, ARGOS lets a suited astronaut feel as if he or she is in a different gravity environment.
For space station astronauts, ARGOS is tuned to Martian gravity, and the obstacle course is framed with that in mind: Can someone who has spent six months in orbit step into a 400‑pound suit and, within about a day of landing, safely make their way through a mock Mars spacewalk?
Faking lunar gravity
For Artemis II, the team will reuse the same basic setup but dial ARGOS to lunar gravity instead — one‑sixth Earth’s pull — and tweak the tasks to echo the type of work astronauts will need to do on the moon.
Within one to four hours of landing, the Artemis II astronauts will first tackle a capsule escape drill using a mock spacecraft. Lying on their backs, they’ll have to sit up, deploy a ladder, climb up and over it, shoulder a pack, and walk a set distance. This exercise seeks to understand whether a crew can open a hatch if a landing goes awry.
That’s a question shared by many space physiologists, said Marie Mortreux, an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island. She studies how muscles and bones cope with different levels of gravity.
“When they come back home from space, you’re familiar with those images,” said Mortreux, who isn’t involved in the Artemis II EVA simulations. “They can’t walk … and I’m like, ‘What’s going to happen if they can’t make it out?'”
Credit: NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
Mortreux’s research in rodents suggests that lower-body, weight‑bearing muscles take the biggest hit in space. Arm muscles — the ones people need for latches and handles — hold up better because astronauts use them constantly to pull themselves around in weightlessness. That’s reassuring, she told Mashable, but it’s not a reason to be complacent, underscoring the need for more research like this.
Despite being tired and uncomfortable, all space station astronauts who have been subjected to the experiments so far have managed to complete them.
Inside the spacesuit challenge
The test will continue with a simulated lunar EVA in moonlike gravity the next day. Each of the four crewmates will change into liquid cooling garments, close‑fitting layers threaded with thin water tubes to keep them from overheating. Then, they’ll climb into heavy-duty EVA spacesuits that require entering through a back hatch. Just getting into them is physically taxing.
Once the astronauts stand up, the team will connect their suits to ARGOS. From that point forward, the test compresses the most challenging parts of a moonwalk into a 30 to 40‑minute obstacle course: down a ladder on a mock lander platform, across unstable ground, through geology drills, and onto a steep treadmill hike. The ladder is deceptively difficult: Any task that forces crew to turn their heads, look down, or rely on their inner sense of orientation, could trigger vertigo.
“You’ll often see [returning astronauts] keep their head in line with their body,” Norcross said, “which is why, when we’ve designed a lot of our tasks, we’ve designed them with a lot of turning, a lot of head movement up and down.”
Credit: NASA / Robert Markowitz
Next, the astronauts will have to bend and squat through tasks meant to rehearse making electrical and fluid connections. In a real mission, that kind of work might power up a lander or connect life‑support lines — unglamorous but essential chores.
From there, the experiment will shift to the most punishing part. In a trailer filled with sand and rocks, the astronauts will carry several 30‑pound bags back and forth over uneven footing. The ground tends to shift, visibility is limited by the helmet, and the suit resists every stride.
“Most treadmills don’t even go up to 20 percent.”
Then, for the science activity: The astronauts will have to hold a tool steady for about a minute to mimic using an instrument, swing a hammer to chip off a rock fragment, and dig a trench with a scoop. Those moves echo what future crews might need to do to collect samples on the lunar surface.
The test will finish on a treadmill. Still attached to the crane, the astronauts will walk roughly half a mile over slopes, including a steep uphill climb.
“Most treadmills don’t even go up to 20 percent,” Norcross said, explaining how high they’ll set the inclination, “and sometimes it requires them to slow down pretty significantly. But they still put one foot in front of the other.”
Credit: NASA / Helen Arase Vargas
A safety check for future moonwalks
Each Artemis II astronaut will endure the obstacle course, which will take about 1.5 hours to complete, one at a time. Norcross’ team will track how long each task takes, how much energy the astronauts use, and how their heart rates respond. The whole experiment repeats three days later to measure how their performance changes over time.
From the space station study, Norcross already sees a pattern: Astronauts look and feel far better by the fourth day after landing, and close to normal within a week, even after half a year in orbit.
Because Artemis II was short, these tests give NASA a cautious baseline. The data should help mission planners decide how aggressive to make the first lunar excursions, how far to let astronauts roam, and which jobs to push to later days after their bodies have had time to adapt.
So even though the Wiseman, Koch, Glover, and Hansen didn’t set foot on the moon, they’re going to at least feel like they did.
“For this Artemis II crew, it’ll be, ‘Congratulations, you’ve done your lunar EVA,'” Norcross said.
This $60 Chromebook can be your low-stress backup
TL;DR: A durable, travel-friendly, like-new Chromebook is on sale for $59.99 (reg. $199.99).
Not every laptop needs to be like your main laptop. Oftentimes, you just need something simple, something you can toss in your bag, bring on a trip, or hand off without worrying about every little scratch.
And that’s what this Grade A refurbished Lenovo 100e Chromebook Gen 2 offers.
At $59.50, it’s the kind of device that makes sense as a backup or travel companion. It’s compact, lightweight, and built with durability in mind, including a spill-resistant keyboard and reinforced design that can handle everyday bumps. This means you don’t have to baby it.
Performance-wise, it covers the basics well. The AMD A4 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage are more than enough for browsing, email, Google Docs, streaming, and light multitasking. ChromeOS keeps things fast and simple, with quick boot times and built-in security, plus access to Google apps and the Play Store.
The 11.6-inch HD display keeps things portable without feeling cramped, and with all-day battery life, it’s easy to grab and go without packing a charger everywhere. And since it’s Grade A refurbished, it arrives in near-mint condition—so you’re getting something that looks and feels close to new, without paying new-device prices.
If you’ve been thinking about a low-cost backup laptop—or just something you don’t have to worry about—this one makes a strong case for keeping things simple. Get this near-mint Lenovo 100e Chromebook Gen 2 for just $59.99 (reg. $199.99) while stock lasts.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
How to watch the 2026 Masters Tournament online for free
TL;DR: Live stream the 2026 Masters Tournament for free on Masters.com. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The wait for the first major golf championship of the year is over.
The Masters is here to deliver top-quality action from the Augusta National Golf Club. Expect the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Rory McIlroy to be battling it out for the green jacket at the end of the weekend. It’s always a special occasion with a number of incredible storylines to follow.
If you want to watch the 2026 Masters Tournament for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
What is the Masters?
The Masters is one of the four men’s major championships in professional golf. The tournament takes place in the first full week in April, making the Masters the first major golf tournament of the year.
The Masters is always held at the Augusta National Golf Club, a private course in the city of Augusta, Georgia.
When is the 2026 Masters Tournament?
The 2026 Masters Tournament will take place from April 9-12. Practice rounds began on April 6.
How to watch the 2026 Masters Tournament for free
The 2026 Masters Tournament is available to live stream for free on Masters.com.
This free live stream is geo-restricted to the U.S., but anyone can access for free with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock this free live stream from anywhere in the world.
Access free Masters live streams by following these simple steps:
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Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
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Open up the app and connect to a server in the U.S.
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Visit Masters.com
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Live stream the 2026 Masters Tournament for free from anywhere in the world
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 Masters before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to the best free streaming platforms from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for live sport?
ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:
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Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.
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Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
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Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure
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Fast connection speeds
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Up to 10 simultaneous connections
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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).
Watch the 2026 Masters Tournament for free with ExpressVPN.
Using ChatGPT Health? Read this first.
Step aside, WebMD — health advice has become the most common way people use ChatGPT.
The chatbot’s parent company, OpenAI, reported that 40 million people query ChatGPT daily to decode convoluted medical bills, appeal unfair insurance claims, or manage their own treatment. According to a February Gallup poll, nearly 16 percent of U.S. adults already use AI or social media to find medical information.
Meanwhile, Americans owe over $220 billion in medical debt, according to 2024 figures. The country’s health workforce currently faces widespread shortages, with high turnover rates for first-year nurses and a need for 114,000 more physicians by 2028 to meet demand. Around half of Americans reported struggling to afford healthcare last year, as the federal government narrowed Affordable Care Act subsidies.
In the eyes of many, the healthcare system has broken.
Meanwhile, widespread AI adoption has been touted as a solution for an overburdened medical system. Narrowly-designed, clinical-grade AI, trained for specific tasks, could potentially revolutionize imaging, patient charting, and insurance processing. But AI developers aren’t stopping there — they want AI in the patient’s hands, too.
In January, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the company’s free, consumer-facing solution for those seeking health guidance — and anyone willing to upload their medical histories for the chatbot to digest.
Digital doctor or privacy nightmare?
ChatGPT Health, which incentivizes users to upload their personal medical records for tailored medical assistance, was announced on Jan. 7, promising to “securely” link your health information with ChatGPT’s brain. In the months since, other tech companies have followed suit, including the recently announced Amazon Health AI assistant and Microsoft Copilot Health.
Not everyone sees Health GPTs and other AI-related health tools as a net positive.
“Generative AI chatbot products starting to spin off into these healthcare-adjacent submarkets is deeply concerning,” Melodi Dinçer, senior staff attorney for the Tech Justice Law Project, told Mashable.
In the hours following ChatGPT Health’s launch, Dinçer published a scathing statement characterizing OpenAI’s release as a strategic business move to access more personal data while jeopardizing the privacy of struggling Americans. The Tech Justice Law Project is currently representing individuals suing OpenAI over mental health concerns with ChatGPT.
You’re creating a larger ecosystem in this non-HIPAA covered space.
Other privacy watchdogs said their alarm bells went off, too.
“We don’t have a comprehensive federal privacy law in the United States,” explained Andrew Crawford, senior policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology‘s Data and Privacy Project. At least, he said, none that puts real limits on how companies handle consumer data, especially sensitive data sets.
Tech companies, including Meta and OpenAI, have lobbied to keep robust privacy laws off the books, and government officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio have pushed for less regulation of American tech companies.
In the absence of federal regulation on data, Americans are provided a patchwork of state-level laws and industry-specific regulations, including protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
A new Mashable series, AI + Health, will examine how artificial intelligence is changing the medical and health landscape. We’ll explore how to use AI to decipher your blood work, effectively prompting chatbots when it comes to health questions, and learn how two women are using AI to detect a dangerous form of heart disease, and much more.
Passed in 1996, HIPAA established a federal standard for protecting patient medical data and related identifying information in cases where data is shared with or without patient consent. Its Privacy Rule has also become a benchmark for assessing a medical product’s privacy standards.
HIPAA, however, isn’t a failsafe. Its protections aren’t attached to data itself, explained Crawford, but to the institutions that process and store it. Consumer data is shielded only when it’s in the hands of an institution bound by HIPAA laws, not when it exists in other marketplaces or is stored elsewhere online.
Institutions bound by HIPAA laws are known as covered entities. This includes health insurance companies, HMOs, company health plans, and other coverage providers like Medicaid and Medicare; most (but not all) care providers like doctors, dentists, psychologists, nursing homes, and even chiropractors; and, finally, clearinghouses, or businesses that process and transmit health data. Anyone that does business with one of those entities, like a lawyer or billing company, is also under HIPAA’s oversight.
Oura, Apple, Strava: Personal wellness apps and ChatGPT Health
Most popular health apps are not covered by HIPAA, according to the HIPAA Journal. Not your Oura ring, Apple Health app, or running buddy Strava. When you share your data with something like ChatGPT Health, even if you use it to inform your conversations with a covered entity later, that information is not legally bound by anything outside of the company’s privacy policy.
But many, like OpenAI, promise that data is being treated carefully.
We are buying into this idea that something so complex as health can be reduced to numbers on a screen.
Covered entities are blocked by law from using your data for things like targeted advertising or user behavioral profiles, without authorization. But any other companies that get a hold of your medical information can do whatever they please, in accordance with their own privacy policies, Crawford says.
Lily Li, a data privacy and AI risk management attorney and founder of Metaverse Law, explained company privacy policies often include reasonable security protocols and opt-out features, but aren’t required to include HIPAA oversights like specific authorization, time limitations on storing data, or disclosure obligations.
Take the case of DNA processing site 23andMe, which, upon filing for bankruptcy, announced it would be selling itself and its library of DNA samples to a company that users hadn’t consented to consult with. Medical information, Dinçer explained, is one of the most valuable markets for data brokers online.
Many AI companies have erected walls between versions of their product that are compliant with laws like HIPAA and those that aren’t, including the “enterprise level” products touted by OpenAI and its competitors. These aren’t the same products being marketed for use by the general public. For example, OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Healthcare, a HIPAA compliant version for health professionals not to be confused with ChatGPT Health, one day later. That same week, Anthropic announced HIPAA-compliant Claude for Healthcare.
Much like ChatGPT Health, Microsoft’s Copilot Health is not HIPAA compliant but guided by internal privacy policies. The company explains, “data in Copilot Health is protected with industry leading safeguards, including encryption at rest and in transit, strict access controls, and the ability to manage and delete your information when you choose.”
Amazon Health AI, on the other hand, is automatically looped into HIPAA compliance as an offering underneath Amazon One Medical.
The situation starts to get real confusing, real fast for the average consumer.
This muddled privacy grey area is where fitness and wellness apps have thrived, hinging their marketplace clearance on the distinction between a product that seeks to provide treatment versus one that operates merely as a health “assistant.” It’s why you will almost always see a note emblazoned across the app: Consult with your doctor.
Now enter LLM products, which not only gather data from users’ chats, but also emphatically encourage uploading your personal medical records and linking third-party apps — like MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, or Apple Health and its wearables — to get the “best” results from your chatbot. Many of these fitness apps have previously come under fire for tracking users without consent and illegally collecting data.
Copilot Health, for example, is compatible with more than 50 wearable wellness devices, Microsoft says, including Oura rings and Fitbit watches. Amazon initially incentivized Amazon One Medical users to upload their personal medical information by offering early Health AI access to those who consented. “You do not have to allow One Medical to access your health records to use Health AI. However, to ensure the best experience, we are prioritizing early access to Health AI to those who do,” wrote Amazon in early versions of the product’s FAQ.
“You’re creating a larger ecosystem in this non-HIPAA covered space, where health data is being shared and used by lots of companies,” Crawford said. “That’s going to create large troves of sensitive health data that all these companies will be in possession of.”
Opting Out vs. Opting in
Dinçer also flagged that ChatGPT Health isn’t being piloted to people in the European Union or the UK — places with more robust consumer data privacy laws and, specifically, requirements that data collection is opt-in.
Most U.S. law is an opt-out system, Dinçer explained, which places the onus on users to be aware of privacy laws and pay attention to the minutiae of a non-HIPAA product’s terms of service. Often U.S. consumers are up against intentionally deceptive design, like confusing language and complicated interfaces referred to as dark patterns, that make rules on data storage difficult to parse.
“We see these endemic, horrible practices around actually safeguarding our personal information when in the hands of these kinds of companies,” Dinçer said. “There’s no indication to me that that’s suddenly going to change just because the technology looks a little different or you’re disclosing it to something that feels like an intelligent conversation partner.”
Over the years, state laws have started to catch up, Li said. California recently expanded its Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA), outlining unlawful uses of sensitive data and requiring a patient’s written authorization to disclose medical information. Washington state passed the My Health My Data Act in 2023, considered one of the strongest consumer data privacy laws in the country.
Even so, there are exceptions across state and federal laws.
One day before ChatGPT Health launched, the FDA announced it would be limiting its regulation of wearable technology and associated software designed to foster “healthy lifestyles.” These technologies and others like fitness trackers are considered “low-risk non-medical devices,” and as long as they don’t make any diagnoses or treatment claims, they fall out of the FDA’s strict oversight.
Two weeks after the ChatGPT Health announcement, OpenAI announced it was in the early design stages of its first AI wearable device.
Medical “partners” in the era of AI
A recent report by healthcare research nonprofit ECRI argued that AI chatbots are the “most significant health technology hazard” heading into 2026, citing risks of AI models perpetuating bias and exacerbating existing health disparities.
Similarly, many experts warn that LLMs aren’t yet robust enough to effectively curb misinformation. A recent Guardian investigation found that Google’s AI overviews often spat out inaccurate, gender-biased medical answers and could pose a public health risk. A study published in Nature Medicine in February found that ChatGPT Health failed to effectively triage medical emergencies and make appropriate care recommendations when compared to real-world physicians.
And the expansion of tech companies into the medical sphere poses additional concerns about the law. Will companies like OpenAI be subject to further inquiry from law enforcement requesting personal health or chat log data? What would that mean for people with stigmatized health conditions or precarious legal statuses, including people seeking reproductive healthcare, abortions, and gender-affirming care?
“We’re already conditioned to think it’s OK or normal to go to the internet with our health inquiries, sharing really intimate information online and with commercial products,” Dinçer said. “We are buying into this idea that something so complex as health can be reduced to numbers on a screen.”
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health propeovider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Meet the women using AI to detect hidden heart disease
Australian startup Sonorus is developing an AI algorithm that can identify signs of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) within minutes, simply by analysing heart sounds. Showcased at the recent SXSW Sydney Tech and Innovation Showcase, Sonorus’ AI is trained on cardiovascular audio to pick up signs of heart disease that might otherwise go undetected.
“It’s a low cost, portable mass screening and triaging tool, where, rather than waiting for someone to develop signs that they have something wrong with their heart, we use it as a preventative check for susceptible communities that may be at risk of it,” Sonorus CTO Leah Martínez told Mashable. “We screen them early, catch it early, and get them the treatment they need before they even need to potentially think about getting an echocardiogram.”
The goal is to make RHD easily detectable via a simple, routine check — one that’s quick, accessible, affordable, and may not even require a doctor.
Starting Sonorus
Credit: Zooey Liao / Masahble / Getty Images / Sonorus
Sonorus began as an idea from Martínez’s friend and co-founder, CEO Dr. Julie Dao, in 2022. The two had been in university at the time, with Dao completing her PhD in cardiovascular health while Martínez studied engineering. Having previously worked on a separate project together, Dao approached Martínez to contribute her technical expertise to her new “crazy idea.”
“Her background is that she’s from Vietnam, and so rheumatic heart disease is something that’s really rampant over there,” said Martínez. “It was just the two of us inside my two bedroom apartment, in the study, just figuring out how to make a circuit work…. When we started this project at that time, I was in the middle of my engineering degree, and I was still learning and picking up new things. And we built a very, very simple proof of concept, just enough to say that you can record heart sounds with some simple, low cost technology.”
Martínez is now nearing the end of her engineering degree, as well as holding down a day job and working at Sonorus. Boosted by accelerator programs from supporters such as Monash University, Sonorus now has a fully working prototype, and is taking steps to collect further heart audio data internationally as it continues to develop its AI algorithm.
“We want to develop the world’s largest data set of clinically viable heart sounds,” said Martínez. “We’re going beyond that idea that heart sounds are just what we are able to hear and perceive as humans, and actually look at it from a [perspective of], What more new information can we extract that no one’s looked at before?“
What is rheumatic heart disease?
RHD is permanent damage to the heart valves caused by inflammation, which can cause blood to flow in the wrong direction. The disease starts from a Strep A infection, which develops into acute rheumatic fever (ARF), according to John Hopkins Medicine. This fever then causes inflammation which damages the heart valves.
Affecting around 55 million people worldwide, RHD kills approximately 360,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization. It is most prevalent in lower socioeconomic communities where healthcare is more difficult to access, disproportionately impacting Indigenous populations in the U.S. and Australia, as well as people in countries across Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia, and Oceania.
RHD currently can’t be completely cured, however it can be managed with shots of penicillin every three to four weeks. Unfortunately, patients are unlikely to seek a diagnosis until after they’re already experiencing symptoms, which may include chest pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Left untreated, RHD can significantly impact a patient’s quality of life, increase their risk of stroke, and lead to heart failure.
As such, Sonorus hopes its AI will catch RHD before major damage to the valve occurs, allowing swift intervention to prevent further degradation. Early detection can significantly reduce the treatment required, costs involved, and impact on the patient.
“The risk [posed by RHD] grows exponentially the longer you leave it,” said Martínez. “You can treat it with a $5 shot of penicillin [if you catch it early enough], but if you catch it too late, you’re looking at open heart surgery.”
Using AI to diagnose heart disease
Credit: Zooey Liao / Masahble / Getty Images / Sonorus
Echocardiograms are the current gold standard for detecting and diagnosing RHD, using ultrasound to create images of the heart that doctors can examine. However, while echocardiograms are an undeniably useful diagnostic tool, they do have limitations.
By the time a patient is sent for an echocardiogram, issues with their heart are typically already apparent, with damage severe enough that a doctor can detect it with a stethoscope. Sonorus aims to detect RHD before it gets to that point, utilising AI to identify characteristics in heart audio that may indicate issues but aren’t identifiable to the human ear.
“[If you do] an ultrasound, you can see physically where the damage is,” Martínez explained. “But what we found is there’s a couple of precursory markers before you even get to that point, just by listening to the heart and listening to how it operates after you’ve caught that disease.”
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A new Mashable series, AI + Health, will examine how artificial intelligence is changing the medical and health landscape. We’ll explore how to keep your health data safe, using AI to decipher your blood work, prompting chatbots effectively when it comes to health questions, and much more. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Echocardiograms are also expensive, time-consuming tests which require specialist training to administer, making them unideal for screenings of large groups of people. Sonorus’ founders claim that their portable device can carry out such screenings instead, helping to identify patients most in need of further examination.
“When you’re thinking about the cost of an ultrasound machine just by itself, it’s about maybe 10 to 20 grand, then you have to think about the cost of an operator, cardiologist, technicians, admin staff, that sort of thing,” said Martínez. “And it just runs you up really fast.”
Ensuring that Sonorus’ devices are cost effective is one of the company’s primary aspirations. While they’re still a long way from going to market, Martínez speculates that their devices may ultimately cost under $AU1000 (around $700), or perhaps even half this amount.
“We want it so that it’s so affordable that it can be scaled and deployed out as fast as possible to so many different people,” said Martínez.
Sonorus’ AI aims to assist doctors, not replace them
Credit: Zooey Liao / Masahble / Getty Images / Sonorus
Sonorus isn’t the only organisation working to detect heart disease via AI sound analysis. Studies on AI-enabled stethoscopes have found that such tools could significantly improve doctors’ ability to detect heart issues, more than doubling identification of some conditions when compared to analogue tools.
However, Sonorus distinguishes itself by being designed for use by the public rather than healthcare professionals. As such, ease of use is a high priority in Sonorus’ development process to enable widespread deployment. Still, Sonorus is intended to be an assistive tool and first step toward diagnosis, not a replacement for a doctor’s professional assessment.
“We’re not creating a crutch for doctors and saying, ‘this is the new way to diagnose it, and you have to take this as the Bible, and now you don’t have to do any of your due diligence,'” said Martínez. “What we’re actually doing instead is a [screening] process… so [doctors] can focus on the cases that they actually need to get to.”
Challenges: Collecting data, consulting with communities
Credit: Zooey Liao / Masahble / Getty Images / Sonorus
For Martínez, gathering the data necessary to train Sonorus’ algorithm has been their biggest hurdle so far. While Sonorus did use open source data in a preliminary validation of its algorithm, Martínez explained that it wasn’t of the quality they wanted. The company is now working to gather its own data, and hopes to have a database containing hundreds of thousands of data points within the next few years.
“Everyone that works in AI, they always say that your algorithm is only as good as your data is,” said Martínez. “We’re trying to collect data straight from the [the communities Sonorus is designed to serve], and making sure that it’s high quality and what we need.”
Sonorus is building its systems in consultation with leaders in the communities it seeks to serve, so that its targeted users are involved in the development process. By doing this, it aims to ensure that the types of solutions it offers are ones that the community will trust, find simple to operate, and want to use. For example, Martínez noted that autonomy regarding health is important to Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander communities. Including them in Sonorus’ development helps to address this need, building understanding and integration into the community.
“We don’t want to just be like, ‘here, we’re going to design a solution, here you go, go ahead and use it,'” said Martínez. “Because we know a lot of the time that healthcare is partly about the solution, but it’s also partly about the care in the relationship that you build with the people that are going to use it.”
The future of cardiovascular diagnosis?
Credit: Zooey Liao / Masahble / Getty Images / Sonorus
Martínez believes that the untapped potential for medical use is one of the biggest blind spots regarding audio and AI research right now.
“A lot of AI [concerning sound] right now is really used for audio processing, speech to text generation, but no one’s really using it for clinical applications, and so we’re filling in that gap,” Martínez said.
Though Sonorus is currently developing its AI solely to detect RHD, Martínez believes the technology could be applied to other medical conditions as well. The hope is that, in the future, Sonorus will be able to screen for multiple different cardiovascular conditions with just one simple test.
“Honestly, that would be the goal,” Martínez said. “We’re starting with rheumatic heart disease, so we want to make sure that we get this one right, and make sure that the solution works. And then from there, because AI algorithms are so easily scalable and applicable to different things… we want to move to other valvular diseases as well.”
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health propeovider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
AI is changing health: Heres what you should know
A growing number of medical professionals and consumers alike are now leaning on AI to manage health in new ways, and tech companies are competing to meet the demand.
AI health products can generate patient visit notes for physicians and help consumers learn insights about their health at home. Even with all the possible upsides, experts recommend caution, particularly for consumers who share sensitive medical and personal information with an AI-powered device or chatbot, or buy into AI health offerings that haven’t yet been proven as effective or safe.
With the January launch of ChatGPT Health, a sister experience to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the public has a new option for seeking medical guidance. ChatGPT Health, like Claude for Healthcare and Microsoft Copilot Health, allows users to upload medical records and data from wellness apps to AI assistants, ostensibly providing more accurate guidance.
The fact that ChatGPT Health is free (for now) may prove enticing to some of the 25 million uninsured Americans or those worried about medical debt — Americans currently owe over $220 billion to healthcare providers.
And many are already turning to AI-powered sources. A KFF health tracking poll released this month found that a third of U.S. adults used AI for information or advice about their physical health in the last year. Those numbers are on par with those seeking health advice from social media, according to KFF.
Health AI: Reducing costs, growing access
Health-centered AI may be a good option for those anxious about healthcare expenses because it has the potential to reduce costs through early diagnosis, according to Harvard’s School of Public Health.
While the majority of people polled by KFF said they turned to AI because it provided quick, immediate answers, about a fifth cited not having access to a provider or being unable to afford an appointment as motivations. Health-trained chatbots could help patients better understand their bodies and provide helpful insight before they visit their doctor, according to companies like Amazon, which recently launched its Amazon Health AI.
Carri Chan is Faculty Director, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program at Columbia Business School, and also leads Columbia’s AI+Healthcare initiative. Chan has many reservations about patients substituting human-centered care for AI. Still, she believes that AI tools, including a correctly executed, specially trained AI chatbot, could help reduce costs and increase access to care.
“The fact that [tech companies] are curating and at least training a model specifically for [health], thank goodness,” Chan says. “That’s what we really need. We don’t want something that’s been trained on all the data on the internet where we know there’s a lot of misinformation and just, like, garbage information.” In other words, the data needs to be high-quality and validated.
Chan generally sees the greatest promise coming from AI tools specifically designed to improve healthcare delivery.
Credit: KFF
A new Mashable series, AI + Health, will examine how artificial intelligence is changing the medical and health landscape. We’ll explore how to keep your health data safe, using AI to decipher your blood work, prompting chatbots effectively when it comes to health questions, how two women are using AI to detect a dangerous form of heart disease, and more.
AI privacy, hallucination concerns in healthcare
Many health industry experts advise proceeding with caution when using health-centered AI, especially if you’re uploading medical documents or private health information. Privacy watchdogs are particularly worried about chatbot products entering the world of healthcare without federal regulation, Mashable learned.
Aside from privacy concerns, there is the possibility that AI hallucinations could steer patients down rabbit holes of misinformation, or that AI could further reinforce medical biases. Recent studies on health-related AI queries showed that chatbots sometimes dispense unreliable information, with ChatGPT Health under-triaging slightly more than half of the cases presented to it.
AI health tools: Proceeding — with caution
Experts suggest that anyone using health-related AI products test the models with known inaccuracies first, frame questions carefully, and check where chatbots get their answers, ensuring they come from reliable sources like medical organizations — not Reddit.
While there is much to be skeptical about when it comes to AI’s role in health, experts including Dr. Robert Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, are optimistic about the role health-centered AI can play in bettering people’s lives. Wachter views products like ChatGPT Health as a significant improvement over a Google search when it comes to investigating symptoms or deciphering medical jargon.
And Wachter thinks the chatbots will only get better and more accurate with time. For now, Wachter stresses prompting the AI as clearly as possible, fact-checking the responses, and then taking that information to a human medical professional — and skipping right over AI and heading to a hospital when experiencing a potentially life-threatening emergency like severe chest pain.
“You put something into [Chat]GPT or Gemini, and what you get back is better than what you would have gotten back in Google,” Wachter says. “The downside is the tools are imperfect and can do everything from giving you really smart answers to answers that are just downright wrong.”
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
End of today’s Mashable roundup.
