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In some huge gaming news, rumors suggest that Valve Software’s long-dormant Half-Life 3 not only exists — it’s playable from start to finish. And if the leaks are to be believed, the company could be gearing up to announce it later this year.

SEE ALSO: 'Half-Life: Alyx' trailer reveals a VR story before the events of 'Half-Life 2'

As always with Half-Life 3 rumors, skepticism is warranted. The latest report comes via Valve insider and longtime leaker Tyler McVicker, who teased a series of pointed hints during a recent livestream. According to McVicker, the information surfaced because the game is now in such wide playtesting that some testers have started talking.

The claims track with previous speculation from last summer, including McVicker’s own datamining of recent Valve code drops. Additionally, in February, datamining sleuths uncovered code references to “HLX” buried in update files for Valve’s upcoming MOBA-style game Deadlock, adding further speculation that something Half-Life-related is in active development.

"This is the furthest [HLX] has ever been. Period," McVicker said during the stream. "The game is playable—end to end. Period. Other HL3 or Episode 3 projects never got that far. They’re optimizing, polishing. It’s probably content-locked, or at the very least mechanic-locked."

Still, until Valve breaks its silence, treat this like every other Half-Life 3 whisper over the past 15 years: with cautious optimism. Based on the details provided by McVicker on stream, this Half-Life 3 is not to be confused with Half-Life 2: Episode Three, an announced sequel to Episode Two way back in 2007.

Development on Half-Life 3 reportedly began around 2013 or 2014, with a 2020 leak suggesting the game would have featured procedurally generated level design — an approach McVicker reaffirmed during his recent Q&A session.

Either way, something’s moving inside Valve. If it does launch, it would mark the first mainline Half-Life entry since Episode Two dropped in 2007, and the first release in the franchise since the 2020 VR-exclusive Half-Life: Alyx.

Ever gotten a random text that starts with a name that’s not yours, in a scenario you’ve never been in? Maybe someone thinks you’re "Emily from the gym" or "Daniel from the yacht club." You reply with the classic "wrong number," but instead of backing off, the stranger suddenly wants to chat. Friendly. Curious. Weirdly persistent.

Congratulations: you’ve just been targeted by a scam — and no, you’re not the only one. According to cybersecurity firm McAfee, as cited by CNBC, a staggering 25 percent of Americans have received these mystery messages. The scam isn’t new. In fact, it first started gaining traction back in 2022. What is new is how it’s evolving.

SEE ALSO: E-ZPass toll scams are back. What to do if you're targeted.

These are called pig-butchering scams — a grotesque name with grotesque intent. Borrowed from the farming world, the term describes how scammers "fatten up" victims emotionally and psychologically before the financial slaughter. They operate like long-con romance scams: someone pretending to be rich and important, who just so happens to find you fascinating. Over time, they build trust, often steering the conversation toward crypto investments or too-good-to-be-true opportunities.

Experts told CNBC that the rise of generative AI is supercharging these operations. It's letting scammers craft messages that feel more personal and making it easier to change up the script to sound more like a real person. And the numbers show it's working.

In 2024 alone, text message scams cost Americans $470 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That’s five times what it was in 2020.

The bleaker reality behind these scams is that many are fueled by forced labor. Large-scale operations based in Southeast Asia are often behind the messages, with workers trafficked from across the region under false promises of legitimate employment. Once there, they’re coerced into running scams under constant surveillance and threats — essentially trapped in digital sweatshops.

Not all participants are victims, though. Some of these operations are run by shady online gambling groups, staffed by people who know exactly what they’re doing.

The simplest and most effective way to protect yourself? Don’t respond. If a text pops up from "Emily from the gym" or "Daniel from the yacht club" and you have no idea who that is, ignore it. If the number’s from an unfamiliar area code or a region you’ve never set foot in — ignore it. That’s it. No need to engage, correct them, or play along. Just block the number and move on.

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Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost are thriving in Trump’s second term, with no shortage of absurd headlines to skewer.

SEE ALSO: Quinta Brunson gets into charades fight in 'SNL' ferry sketch

They opened with the surreal news of Trump posting an AI-generated image of himself as the pope, barely two weeks after the actual death of Pope Francis. Jost joked that Trump apparently attended the funeral, walked past the open casket, and thought, “Oh, we should do a ‘who wore it best.’”

Che followed up with a dig at Attorney General Pam Bondi, who claimed the amount of fentanyl seized at the border was enough to prevent 75% of Americans from dying. “Don’t threaten us with a good time,” he joked.

The duo also poked fun at Elon Musk, who reportedly stepped back from his role at DOGE. "As always," Che quipped, "Elon pulled out a little too late."

Abbott Elementary star and creator Quinta Brunson returned to Saturday Night Live this week, reviving the popular "Traffic Altercation" sketch from her 2023 hosting debut.

SEE ALSO: 'SNL' Cold Open turns Trump’s 100 days into a bizarre executive order bonanza

In the sketch, Brunson and Mikey Day play strangers stuck on a ferry, with Day’s character launching into a petty feud over a bad parking job. What starts as a tense exchange quickly unravels into a chaotic pantomime, with both characters expressing their outrage through exaggerated gestures.

Chloe Fineman appears as Day’s daughter, attempting to support her dad but ultimately adding to the confusion and making things worse for both of them.

The sketch ends with a surprise cameo from "Weekend Update" co-host Colin Jost, who enters trying to offload an actual Staten Island ferry. In 2022, Jost and Pete Davidson bought the decommissioned vessel for $280,000. Jost has since described it as the "dumbest purchase" he’s ever made.

President Donald Trump has officially crossed the 100-day mark in office for his second term — an occasion that feels less like a milestone and more like a never-ending fever dream. To honor the moment, Saturday Night Live kicked things off with a Cold Open featuring James Austin Johnson’s pitch-perfect (and deeply weird) impression of the president.

SEE ALSO: Trump casts himself as pope in AI-generated image

Much like FDR, but in exactly one, extremely specific way, Trump has a deep affection for signing executive orders. Sure, legally and constitutionally, some of Trump's executive orders have been little more than glorified press releases (like that time Trump made everyone female), but SNL Trump’s executive orders veer into absurdist fun.

Among the highlights from the Cold Open is an order reinstating Columbus Day — something that real Trump plans to do, even though it's already a federally recognized holiday.

Another, dubbed the "Belichick Law," makes it socially acceptable for men over 70 to date women barely out of college. Then there’s the one demanding fewer interracial couples in TV commercials, and another aimed at making the New York Times Connections game easier (honestly, we get it, Mr. President).

Oh, and one executive order bans Hispanic babies from getting their ears pierced. Trump, of course, blames that one on Marco Rubio.

There are a few more gems in the sketch we won’t spoil — but what makes the satire hit differently is the gnawing feeling that, yeah… he might actually try some of this. And that’s the part that’s not so funny.

Professional Bull Riding was meant for TikTok fame.

It’s short, intense, and impossible to look away. A rider adorned in thick gloves, a protective vest, and a helmet hops onto a bull from the side of the fence that surrounds the ring. A stock contractor tightens a flank strap around the bull's sensitive stomach, which makes the bull buck. The gate opens, and the bull instinctively jerks out into the arena. As soon as the bull's shoulder or hips clear the gate, the timer starts. The rider’s goal is to stay on the bull for just eight seconds — and it's as hard as it looks, with the rider holding onto the beast with one hand (if they touch the bull with the second hand, they're disqualified) and two legs. Not only do they have to hang on, riders also have to demonstrate their own personal style and fluidity, which they'll be judged on. Eight seconds later, sometimes sooner, the rider is typically bucked off and flees for safety.

Finish recording and immediately upload. It's not just a sport, it's a TikTok worth millions of views.

PBR — the sport, not the beer — has made big waves on TikTok in 2025. Since January, Professional Bull Riding has gained 650,000 followers across social media accounts, just 200,000 short of the growth they saw in the entirety of 2024. This recent popularity has jettisoned them to the upper echelons of social media, with 2.9 million followers on TikTok. Mitch Ladner, the social media lead for PBR, told Mashable that most of that growth is thanks to followers between 18 and 35 years old.

"We've seen a massive spike in our followership across all of our platforms, but definitely more so on TikTok and Instagram, and I definitely attribute that to a younger audience," Ladner said.

SEE ALSO: Is 'castlecore' the aesthetic of our technofeudal future?

Once a symbol of conservative Americana, cowboy culture — from rodeo-inspired fashion like Pinterest’s Western Gothic to the visceral thrill of professional bull riding — is being reimagined by Gen Z. On one end of the spectrum is Beyoncé, whose Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter album and tour shine a spotlight on a long-overlooked side of the cowboy narrative. On the other are tradwife influencers in prairie dresses, reviving idealized visions of ranch life. Together, they signal a shift: cowboycore is no longer just a fleeting aesthetic; it's a full-blown lifestyle, and it defies political binaries. Nowhere is this cultural collision more vivid than at PBR events, where Chappell Roan and Morgan Wallen tracks spin back-to-back; newbie influencers cozy up to livestock while rodeo athletes put their bodies on the line; and American identity feels up for grabs. Suddenly, cowboycore isn’t just a style — it’s a statement, and everyone wants a piece.

Make no mistake: Cowboys are not strictly American. Their roots trace back to Spain and Portugal, and many of the riders who joined the cattle drives of the late 19th century were African, Mexican, and Indigenous. The vaquero traditions in northern Mexico likely spurred much of what we consider cowboy culture today, and, during the late 1800s, 25 percent of workers in the range-cattle industry in the American West were Black cowboys, a truth rewritten in many portrayals of the American West in order to favor a settler-colonialist tilt. But the reality of past American life is often forgotten when aesthetics take over.

"If you go around the world and ask, 'What's your idea of an American?' a lot of people would say a cowboy," Joshua Garrett-Davis, the H. Russell Smith Foundation curator of Western American History, told Mashable. Whether or not it's based in simple historical reality, cowboy culture "is a shorthand for what America is."

Now, in a time of national uncertainty, Millennials and Gen Z are reshaping cowboy aesthetics through a new lens, incorporating ideas about identity, danger, nostalgia, digital performance, and the influencer economy, often with very different results. PBR is ground zero for that transformation.

Cowboycore’s complicated dual identity

As more young people flock to a sport with conservative roots, you might presume an immediate political line has been drawn. And it’s true that Gen Z, once seen as a progressive and digitally native generation, has surprised pollsters by, in some cases, actually leaning conservative. According to a new poll out of Yale, while voters aged 22 to 29 years old favored Democrats in the 2026 congressional elections by 6.4 points, those aged 18 to 21 years old leaned Republican by 11.7 points — an 18-point swing within a single generational bracket. 

Still, it’s complicated, and the fact is, people of all political stripes are finding resonance in cowboy Americana. Take Chappell Roan's queer anthem "The Giver," which debuted at no. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart, and Stud Country, a line dancing and two-stepping event specifically for queer people that has taken off in big cities. Palestinian supermodel and activist Bella Hadid is a literal cowgirl. Pharrell Williams, who showcased embroidered suits, cowboy hats, and bolo ties for Louis Vuitton's 2024 menswear presentation, told GQ that "it was an honor" to create a collection "around the West and Western workwear vibes" because cowboys "look like us, they look like me, they look Black, they look Native American." And of course, there’s Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, along with movies like The Harder They Fall, Concrete Cowboy, and Queen & Slim, which all push against the narrative that cowboy culture is inherently white. 

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But there’s also a more conservative (and highly popular) romanticization of cowboy culture. For instance, tradwife influencer Hannah Neeleman, aka Ballerina Farm, whose Instagram bio reads, "city folk turned ranchers," has 10 million followers.

PBR officials, for their part, hope to keep their version of Americana apolitical as much as possible. "If loving your country and honoring your veterans and the heroes and those that sacrifice before us is a political issue, then you could paint us with a political brush, because we've done that from day one," PBR CEO and Commissioner Sean Gleason told Mashable.  

PBR doesn't have a political arm or any official donations to candidates, though it has encouraged its viewers to vote. And although its leadership has emphasized keeping the organization apolitical, the cultural and economic realities around rodeo often place it at odds with liberal politics. For example, some Democratic politicians have introduced bills that would ban rodeo and PBR in their states because of the effect it can have on the animals involved. At the same time, affiliations and moments in PBR's recent history lean more conservative — the Border Patrol has been a sponsor since 2016, and that same year, when Colin Kaepernick kneeled to protest racial injustice, PBR athletes countered with a public pledge to stand during the national anthem.

"Our mantra is: Be cowboy," Gleason said. "It doesn't matter where you live, what you drive, how you dress, the color of your skin, or your gender. If you live honestly with integrity, hard work, and an appreciation for the history and heritage of America, you're a cowboy."

Meanwhile, the "American" sport is not actually that American — just 10 of PBR's top 25 bull riders hail from the U.S. Fourteen are from Brazil, and one is from Australia; a Brazilian rider won the sold-out MSG series.

In uncertain times, Americans reach for ‘Americana’  

Historically, Western nostalgia tends to achieve new heights during times of national uncertainty. Consider the presidency of "California cowboy" Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, when the country was experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression, IBM released the first personal computer, more than 100,000 people died from the AIDS epidemic, the Cold War was ending, and conservatism was on the rise. Reagan didn't have any red hats, but his slogan was "Let's Make America Great Again," which sounds awfully familiar. The American Cowboy Culture Association was created in the 1980s, and, of course, there was a resurgence of country music and Westerns — albeit completely whitewashed versions of the true Wild West. 

Garrett-Davis said the resurgence of cowboycore is "almost always making a claim about America or the United States as a nation, even if it's in a fun, playful, ironic, or satirical way. There's both this appropriation of cowboy imagery and an appropriation of Native American imagery," Garrett-Davis said. "I'm psychoanalyzing here, but when things feel so unmoored, it makes sense that you would grab onto something that feels 'authentic.'"

It seems like that's happening. In January, for the first time in nearly two decades, a PBR event sold out three days at Madison Square Garden, attracting a record-breaking 42,257 fans.

'We've been making eight-second content for 30-plus years' 

PBR’s massive uptick in social media followers didn’t happen by accident. A few years ago, their biggest audience was on Facebook, but the sport, with each ride lasting for a maximum of eight seconds, was built for short-form video content. It’s a spectacle, with thrilling, fast-paced content perfect for capturing short attention spans and TikTok virality.

The scoring is simple. Each ride is worth up to 100 points — 50 for the rider and 50 for the bull. Two judges score the rider, two judges score the bull, and each judge can award up to 25 points, with the score then tallied together. At the end of each event, the top 12 riders compete in the championship round; the rider with the highest point total from the entire event becomes the champion.

"We've been making eight-second content for 30-plus years," Ladner told Mashable. "It just took TikTok to catch up with us."

Ladner's strategy for audience-building and engagement focuses on riders themselves, not just highlights, and it works well. In one of PBR's most viral TikTok videos, the cowboys are doing seemingly regular things—leaning over a pole, standing with their arms crossed, laughing—to the tune of "Breakin’ Dishes" by Rihanna. Another popular video shows one of the cowboys stretching out for his turn on a bull with the song "Bounce When She Walk" by BeatKing and Oh Boy Prince in the background.

"We kind of flipped around our social strategy to 'let's just have fun with this' and 'let 'er rip,' honestly," Ladner says of the strategy he implemented in November. Now, the TikTok account leans into the knowledge that the cowboys are, for lack of a better word, really hot.

While Ladner says "our biggest influencers are our riders," not all cowboys are stoked about being on camera — they want to be riding bulls and playing on a ranch with their buddies. So Ladner adds that involving influencers outside the Western niche has been imperative to growth and expanding reach. And more often than not, Ladner says, those influencers are reaching out to him.

"We get a ton of inbound DMs saying, 'Hey, I'd love to come to the event, and I have a million TikTok followers,'" Ladner said. "If I can get a mommy blogger or a fashionista or a chef to come to our event, that's an audience that our paid media ads can't necessarily target with marketing messages that come off authentic."

While some might be worried about the co-opting of the country lifestyle, PBR isn’t. And they argue their fans, who they say aren’t conservative or progressive but simply American, aren't either.

"I've seen no measurable gatekeeping from our fans at all," Ladner said. "We've been doing this since 1992, and we've had a very loyal, diehard base since the jump. [The fans are] just glad these riders are getting their due."

The politics of authenticity, gender, and performance

Bull riding seems like an ultra-masculine spectacle. It appeals to this cathartic fantasy of toughness and risk as its polar opposite, tradwife content, continues to flourish online, playing out gendered performances of impossible ideals for the camera. But, at the same time, cowboy aesthetics have always played with gender. Look no further than Ryan Rash, a stock show judge who famously slaps cattle with glitter, wears fabulously flamboyant outfits and faux eyelashes, and posts a lot of pro-President Trump memes on his Facebook page.

These seemingly conflicting ideologies may be part of the point. Cowboy culture has never truly been a reality. 

"Most of us are working office jobs, are working at a restaurant or whatever, and so there's some catharsis in imagining the life of picking up eggs and milking the goats and riding a bull and being in so, so much danger," Garrett-Davis said. "It totally makes sense that now, in this fast-paced time of really rapid change, we might yearn for a slower pace, a simpler life, and because of all the ways that the West is associated with this national identity, it's something that feels authentic to grab onto, even though its authenticity is very doubtful the closer you look at it.”

The American insistence on being born a nation on the backs of brave, ragged people of the Wild Wild West is itself a fantasy. The white man was not the hero of the story, and cowboy boots look just as great on the New York City subway as they do mucking a stall. Despite its lack of authenticity, there is a certain je ne sais quoi about our imagined Wild Wild West. A simpler life is appealing if you refuse to look any deeper at it. And maybe that escapism is good enough, at least for right now.

Whether for the purposes of creating a new identity, finding escape, or leaning into either the irony or sincerity of it all, the cowboy endures — more mediated than ever online, but just as mythic. For the increasing number of Gen Zers who are scrolling TikTok for the latest PBR clip or boot recommendation, cowboycore doesn’t have to be a relic or a remix: It can be both. 

Gleason says that we're in a "renaissance" and "resurgence" of "interest in cowboy and country music and these authentic touch points with the history and heritage of America," describing it as the opposite side of the pendulum of "this ultra-woke culture sweeping the nation." 

Yet somehow, adherents to both groups find solace in the cowboycore aesthetic. So the cowboycore aesthetic endures, pushed on by another season of political uncertainty and polarization. Whether it will hang on longer than eight seconds remains to be seen. "One thing I know for certain is that the pendulum swings," Gleason said. "The pendulum of politics, the pendulum of culture, they swing." 

For now, it endures, pushed on by the seemingly perpetual push and pull of who gets to define Americana — and who belongs in the annals of its history.

Just like AI models, AI news never sleeps.

Every week, we're inundated with new models, products, industry rumors, legal and ethical crises, and viral trends. If that's not enough, the rival AI hype/doom chatter online makes it hard to keep track of what's really important. But we've sifted through it all to recap the most notable AI news of the week from the heavyweights like OpenAI and Google, as well as the AI ecosystem at large. Read our last recap, and check back next week for a new edition.

Another week, another batch of AI news coming your way.

This week, Meta held its inaugural LlamaCon event for AI developers, OpenAI struggled with model behavior, and LM Arena was accused of helping AI companies game the system. Congress also passed new laws protecting victims of deepfakes, and new research examines AI's current and potential harms. Plus, Duolingo and Wikipedia have very different approaches to their new AI strategies.

What happened at Meta's first LlamaCon Credit: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC / Getty Images

At LlamaCon, Meta's first conference for AI developers, the two big announcements were the launch of a standalone Meta AI app to compete more directly with ChatGPT and the Llama API, now in limited preview. Following reports that this was in the works, CEO Sam Altman once joked that maybe OpenAI should do its own social media app, but now that is reportedly happening for real.

We also went hands-on with the new Llama-powered Meta AI app. For more details about Meta AI's top features, read Mashable's breakdown.

During LlamaCon's closing keynote, Mark Zuckerberg interviewed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about a bunch of trends, ranging from agentic AI capabilities to how we should measure AI's advancements. Nadella also revealed that up to 30 percent of Microsoft's code is written by AI. Not to be outdone, Zuckerberg said he wants AI to write half of Meta's code by next year. 

ChatGPT has safety issues, goes shopping

Meta AI and ChatGPT both got busted this week for sexting minors.

OpenAI said this was a bug and they're working to fix it. Another ChatGPT issue this week made the latest GPT-4o update too much of a suck-up. Altman described the model's behavior as "sycophant-y and annoying," but users were concerned about the dangers of releasing a model like this, highlighting problems with iterative deployment and reinforcement learning.

OpenAI was even accused of intentionally tuning the model to keep users more engaged. Joanne Jang, OpenAI's head of model behavior, jumped on a Reddit AMA to do damage control. "Personally, the most painful part of the latest sycophancy discussions has been people assuming that my colleagues are irresponsibly trying to maximize engagement for the sake of it," wrote Jang.

Earlier in the week, OpenAI announced new features to make products mentioned in ChatGPT responses more shoppable. The company said it isn't earning purchase commissions, but it smells an awful lot like the beginnings of a Google Shopping competitor. Did we mention OpenAI would buy Chrome if Google is forced to divest it? Because they totally would, FYI.

The ChatGPT maker has had a few more problems with its recent models. Last week, we reported that o3 and o4-mini hallucinate more than previous models, by OpenAI's own admission.

Anyone in the U.S. can now sign up for Google AI Mode

Meanwhile, Google is barreling ahead with AI-powered search features. On Thursday, the tech giant announced that it's removing the waitlist to test out AI Mode in Labs, so anyone over 18 in the U.S. can try it out. We spoke with Robby Stein, VP of product for Google Search, about how users have responded to its AI features, the future of search, and Google's responsibility to publishers.

Via Giphy

Google also updated Gemini with image editing tools and expanded NotebookLM, its AI podcast generator, to over 50 languages. Bloomberg also reported that Google has been quietly testing ads inside third-party chatbot responses.

We're keeping a close eye on that final development, and we are very curious how Google plans to inject ads into AI search. Would you trust a chatbot that gave you sponsored answers?

Leaderboard drama 

Researchers from AI company Cohere, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Ai2, published a paper this week calling out Chatbot Arena for essentially helping AI heavyweights rig their benchmarking results. The study said the popular crowdsourced benchmarking tool from UC Berkeley allowed Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Amazon "extensive private testing" and gave them more prompt data, which "significantly" improved their rankings. 

In response, LM Arena, the group behind Chatbot Arena said "there are a number of factual errors and misleading statements in this writeup" and posted a pointy-by-point rebuttal to the paper's claims on X. 

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

The issue of benchmarking AI models has become increasingly problematic. Benchmark results are largely self-reported by the companies that release them, and the AI community has called for more transparency and accountability by objective third parties. Chatbot Arena seemed to provide a solution by allowing users to choose the best responses in blind tests. But now LM Arena's practices have come into question, further fueling the conversation around objective evaluations. 

A few weeks ago, Meta got in trouble for using an unreleased version of its Llama 4 Maverick model on LM Arena, which scored a high ranking. LM Arena updated its leaderboard policies, and the publicly available version of Llama 4 Maverick was added instead, ranking way lower than the unreleased version. 

Lastly, LM Arena recently announced plans to form a company of its own.

Regulators and researchers tackle AI's real-world harms

Now that generative AI has been in the wild for a few years, the real-world implications have started to crystallize. 

This week, U.S. Congress passed the "Take It Down" Act, which requires tech companies to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery within 48 hours of a request. The law also outlines strict punishment for deepfake creators. The legislation had bipartisan support and is expected to be signed by President Donald Trump.

The nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on generative AI's impact on humans and the environment. The conclusion is that the potential impacts are huge, but exactly how much is unknown because "private developers do not disclose some key technical information."

And in the realm of the frighteningly real and specific harms of AI, a study from Common Sense Media said AI companion apps like Character.AI and Replika are unequivocally unsafe for teens. The researchers say if you're too young to buy cigarettes, you're too young for your own AI companion.

Then there was the report that researchers from the University of Zurich secretly deployed AI bots in the r/changemyview subreddit to try and convince people to change their minds. Some of the bot identities included a statutory rape victim, "a trauma counselor specializing in abuse," and "a black man opposed to Black Lives Matter."

Other AI news...

In other news, Duolingo is taking an "AI-first" approach, which means replacing its contract workers with AI whenever possible. On the flip side, Wikipedia announced it's taking a "human-first" approach to its AI strategy. It won't replace its volunteers and editors with AI, but will instead "use AI to build features that remove technical barriers to allow the humans at the core of Wikipedia."

Yelp deployed a bunch of AI features this week, including an AI-powered answering service that takes calls for restaurants, and Governor Gavin Newsom wants to use genAI to solve California's legendary traffic jams.

Shopping for a laptop is already hard enough due to the sheer number of options. But your task gets even more difficult when you need a laptop for a very specific purpose, like photo editing. This demands even more research and scrutiny on your part, which may sound like a tall order. Talk about analysis paralysis.

If you're in the market for a photo editing laptop and are having a hard time making the final decision, you're in luck, because we're here to help you choose something you'll love. In fact, not only have we tested all of the top powerhouse laptops, but we even brought in some backup — to give us some more insight into buying a laptop for photo editing, we reached out to Tommy Yonash, a Brooklyn-based documentary and portrait photographer, and Joseph Maldonado, a photographer for Mashable's parent company, Ziff Davis.

What makes a good photo editing laptop?

"Honestly, it comes down to three things for me," Yonash told us. When shopping for the best laptops for photo editing, he recommends prioritizing something with fast processing speeds, a great battery life, and something that's lightweight and portable so you can take it on the go. Maldonado agrees that speed is vital to having a good photo editing experience. "It just has to be able to process the images quickly," he said. "I don’t enjoy a laptop that slows down while bouncing between different photos."

Yonash told us that he uses a MacBook Pro for photo editing, as it's a great marriage of all three of those important specs. "I work between the M1 Pro and the M1 Air, both of which have held up great over the years, but the Pro has usually been my go-to for its better battery life," he added. While the M1 line of MacBook laptops can still be found pretty cheap at various retailers, Apple has since released the MacBook Pro and Air with the latest and greatest M4 chips, which are much faster. For photo editing laptops specifically, we recommend going current-gen to get the best bang for your buck.

SEE ALSO: The best laptops for video editing, according to an experienced editor

Yonash maintains that speed, portability, and battery are the most important specs when shopping for photo editing laptops, but out of those three, processing speed will always win out. "Since I don't do too much editing on the go, I would have to say speed or processing power is the number one most important feature," he told us. "Nothing kills editing flow like a laggy computer." Maldonado concurred on this point, but also added that a great display and plenty of storage are also a necessity. He said that a minimum of 1TB of SSD storage will serve you well.

What are the best laptops for photo editing?

After all of our research, testing, and expert interviews, we found that the M4 MacBook Air will be the best photo editing laptop for most people (and if you want to splurge a bit, go for the Pro). We know that not everyone is an Apple die-hard, though, so we included laptops from beyond the Apple ecosystem as well. Below, our top picks for the most reliable photo editing laptops.

As the headline of this review suggests, I'm a huge fan of the Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Pro. It's the only beard trimmer that I use at this point, and I've gone through a lot of them. But what makes it my favorite over more advanced (and more expensive) trimmers?

For starters, the OneBlade 360 Pro is small and easy to travel with. It fits perfectly in my dopp kit, and it's far easier to pack along with other grooming products compared to bulkier, professional-style trimmers. I do wish it had a travel lock — it once turned on while I was on an airplane and was dead by the time I landed — but hopefully that's something they can add to the next iteration (and that's about as negative as this review is going to get).

Opens in a new window Credit: Philips Norelco Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Pro $59.96 at Amazon
Shop Now

The OneBlade 360 Pro passes every test I've given it. I've personally never been able to get a shave this close without using a traditional razor. Every other trimmer I've used has been just OK, but the OneBlade truly gets you that smooth, baby-face finish — no straight or safety razor needed. I also love the 360 blade that flexes in all directions. It really contours with your face, allowing you to shave up, down, and across without cutting or irritating your skin, even during rush jobs — it's especially helpful when shaving your neck. (Beware, though, if you're pressing too hard into your skin, you can still nick yourself.)

What if you don't want a clean shave, though? The OneBlade 360 Pro is also great at trimming down bulk and stray hairs thanks to the included comb attachment, which has five different length settings that attach to the 360 blade in either direction. I'm even able to get a decent fade going on my stubble by slowly working my way down each setting. Those with longer beards may not find as much use with the comb attachment, but the regular blade is still great for cleaning up your neckline and cheeks, even if you've got a Gandalf-length beard situation.

The only attachments you'll need. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable This battery indicator will save you from unwanted stubble. Credit: Dylan Haas / Mashable

The blade is a star at detailing, too. Turning it perpendicular to your face lets you fine-tune the edges of your beard and mustache, and it performs almost as well as the sharp, zero-gap blades you'd find in a barber shop. The lightweight design of the trimmer is also super helpful during detailing, giving you much more control and keeping your hand from getting tired.

The OneBlade 360 Pro also has a few small, quality-of-life details that make it even more of a must-have. One of my personal favorites is the battery indicator on the front that lets you know when it's time to charge — it's kept me from ending up with a half-shaved face on numerous occasions. The arrow indicator on each blade is also a nice touch, which signals to you when it's time to replace your blade. The blade replacements aren't cheap, but each one tends to last me three to four months at a time, so it's not a dealbreaker.

I've been using the Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Pro and its predecessors for years now, and to this day, I still haven't found a better daily driver trimmer. And for under $60, it does not get better. I don't see myself switching it up anytime soon.

The Philips Norelco One Blade Line My recommendation Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 Pro $59.96 Shop Now The starter model Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 $37.96 Shop Now

TL;DR: Sterling Stock Picker has an AI that helps you invest in the stock market, and it's only $68.99 for life. 

Opens in a new window Credit: Sterling Stock Picker Sterling Stock Picker: Lifetime Subscription $68.99
$486 Save $417.01 Get Deal

The stock market has been especially volatile lately, but that doesn't mean you have to wait to invest. A new specialized AI from the creators of ChatGPT has been trained on the stock market to help you invest your money safely, even in a chaotic market. Sterling Stock Picker can help you determine which investments are worth the money, and a lifetime subscription is even on sale for $68.99 (reg. $486). 

How does the AI stock picker work?

Sterling Stock Picker uses AI-driven tools to help simplify the investing process for beginners and experienced investors alike.

At the heart of the platform is Finley, your AI financial coach. You can ask Finley questions about the market, your portfolio, or individual stocks and get real-time insights based on actual data. It’s like having a finance expert on call, without booking an appointment or paying hourly rates.

The software uses a combination of technical, earnings, growth, and risk analysis to generate personalized stock recommendations. It even offers a risk tolerance questionnaire and portfolio builder to help you create a strategy that fits your specific goals. If you're not sure whether to buy, hold, or sell, the platform's North Star system helps clarify what action to take.

For anyone who wants to learn as they go, Sterling Stock Picker also has a suite of educational tools. You’ll get detailed explanations of investing strategies and stock performance, plus access to a community forum where users can share insights and ask questions.

And if you prefer a more hands-off approach, the app still does the heavy lifting by highlighting top-performing stocks and suggesting updates to your portfolio.

It's only $68.99 to get a Sterling Stock Picker Lifetime Subscription, but it won't stay that way. 

StackSocial prices subject to change. 

TL;DR: Learn piano your way with AI-powered lessons from Skoove Premium Piano Lessons. A lifetime subscription can now be yours for just $119.99 (reg. $299) through May 11. 

Opens in a new window Credit: Skoove Skoove Premium Piano Lessons: Lifetime Subscription $119.99
$299.99 Save $180 Get Deal

Want to learn to play piano? It's never been easier to pick up these impressive skills thanks to Skoove Premium Piano Lessons. This AI-powered app lets you master the instrument anywhere, and right now you can score a lifetime subscription for only $119.99, $180 off the usual price, through May 11. 

Join over one million people learning piano on their own terms

Don't let a busy schedule stop you from checking things off your bucket list. Skoove Premium Piano Lessons fit into even the busiest schedules, as you can sneak in some learning in your spare time. 

All you need to get started is a piano or keyboard and your tablet, smartphone, or computer (it's compatible with iOS, Android, Mac, and other operating systems). You'll receive real-time feedback powered by AI, with Skoove listening and guiding you along as you play. It even corrects your mistakes so that you can improve with every session. 

There are over 400 lessons available, spanning a wide range of genres, from classical to pop, so you can learn what you love. Pick a song by Adele or John Legend, or throw it back to a classic from Beethoven. New songs and lessons are also added every month.

Need a little extra help? Aside from the interactive AI, you'll also get access to one-on-one support from Skoove's experienced music instructors. 

Secure your own lifetime subscription to Skoove Premium Piano Lessons for just $119.99 (reg. $299) here through May 11. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Take control of your documents with PDF Converter and Editor. Easily convert, edit, and manage PDFs with this lifetime license, now just $23.99 with code SAVE20 through June 1.

Opens in a new window Credit: Acethinker PDF Converter & Editor: Lifetime License $23.99
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Tired of the daily PDF struggle? With PDF Converter and Editor, you can easily switch between formats, edit text, and organize your documents like a pro. And right now, you can secure a lifetime subscription for only $23.99 (reg. $99) with code SAVE20 before June 1.

Conquer PDFs once and for all with this app

Stop jumping through hoops when it comes to PDFs. PDF Converter and Editor lets you tackle this pesky file format easily on one handy platform. Convert PDFs to Word, Excel, JPG, and more files — or turn other formats into PDFs with just a few clicks.

PDF Converter offers lightning-fast conversions without sacrificing quality. You'll enjoy high-quality output, so you can confidently convert files for any purpose. 

This app does more than convert PDFs — it’s packed with extra tools to make working with PDFs a breeze. Built-in OCR technology can extract text from image-based files. And merging, splitting, or compressing documents is equally straightforward. 

Need to fill out an existing PDF? It's easy to fill out forms with text, check boxes, shapes, and annotations all on PDF Converter. Want to just grab the images off a PDF file? That's just as simple — you can extract all JPGs and PNGs from a PDF with just one click. 

If you're dealing with sensitive data, PDF Converter lets you lock or unlock your files, add password protection, and even encrypt sensitive information for peace of mind.

Need to enhance your PDF? This app makes it easy to add customizable watermarks and shapes as needed. 

Manage, edit, and convert PDFs with PDF Converter and Editor for just $23.99 using code SAVE20 through June 1.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Say goodbye to sensitive data for good with the Data Shredder Stick, a secure, hassle-free way to wipe your Windows PC clean for just $29.99 (reg. $39) while limited supplies last. 

Opens in a new window Credit: Paraben Consumer Software Data Shredder Stick Secure Data Wiping Tool for Windows $29.99
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Whether you're recycling an old PC or just want to keep personal files truly private, the Data Shredder Stick gives you the power to permanently erase data for good — we're talking no recovery possible. And right now, it’s just $29.99 (reg. $39), the best deal you’ll find online.

Truly delete files with this handy tool

Whether it’s sensitive files, old photos, or personal info you never want showing up again, the Data Shredder Stick makes sure your data is gone for good. It's great for wiping an old PC before you sell it, or just enjoying peace of mind that your files won’t come back.

The Data Shredder Stick can permanently delete files, folders, or entire drives. And unlike using the simple delete button, there's no possibility of recovery — once data is shredded and the space is overwritten, it's gone for good.

Curious how it works? Just plug the Data Shredder Stick into your PC, run the app, and you can start digitally shredding your data. It has a convenient drag-and-drop functionality, so choosing the files and folders you want to delete is super straightforward. 

You can use the Data Shredder Stick as many times as needed on PCs, whether you're erasing full drives or just specific files.

Get control of your data with the Data Shredder Stick, now $29.99, the best price online, while these limited supplies last. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Millions of people are drawn to generative artificial intelligence companions, like the kind that populate Character.AI, Replika, and Nomi.

The companions seem impressively human. They remember conversations and use familiar verbal tics. Sometimes they even mistake themselves for flesh and bone, offering descriptions of how they eat and sleep. Adults flock to these companions for advice, friendship, counseling, and even romantic relationships.

While it might surprise their parents, tweens and teens are doing the same, and youth safety experts are gravely worried about the consequences.

SEE ALSO: Teens are talking to AI companions, whether it's safe or not

That's because media reports, lawsuits, and preliminary research continue to highlight examples of emotional dependence and manipulation, and exposure to sexual and violent content, including discussions of how to kill one's self or someone else.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that supports children and parents as they navigate media and technology, just released a comprehensive report containing numerous related examples. The group's assessment of three popular platforms led it to declare that AI companions aren't safe for anyone under 18.

Several youth mental health and safety experts interviewed by Mashable believe we've reached a pivotal moment. Instead of waiting years to fully grasp the risks of AI companions to youth and then pressuring platforms to act, they say it's urgent to steer companies toward protecting children from harm now.

"There is an opportunity to intervene before the norm has become very entrenched," says Gaia Bernstein, a tech policy expert and professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law, of teen AI companion use. She adds that once business interests are also entrenched, they will do "everything in their power to fight regulation," as she argues social media companies are doing now.

Experts hope that a combination of new platform policies and legislative action will yield meaningful changes, because they say adolescents will find ways to continue using AI companions, whether they're supposed to or not.

Mashable asked those experts how AI companion platforms could be safer for teens. These are the key themes they identified:

Developmentally appropriate companions

While Character.AI allows users as young as 13 on its platform, other popular apps, like Replika and Nomi, say they are intended for adults. Still, teens find a way to bypass age gates. Replika CEO Dmytro Klochko recently told Mashable that the company is "exploring new methods to strengthen our protections" so that minors can't access the platform.

Even when adolescents are permitted, they may still encounter risky content. Dr. Nina Vasan, a Stanford psychiatrist who helped advise Common Sense Media's companion testing, says platforms should deploy companions based on large language models that are developmentally appropriate for children, not adults.

Indeed, Character.AI introduced a separate model for teen users late last year. But Common Sense Media researchers who tested the platform before and after the model's launch, found it led to few meaningful changes.

Vasan imagines companions who can converse with teens based on their developmental stage, acting more like a coach than a replacement friend or romantic interest.

Sloan Thompson, director of training and education for the digital safety training and education company EndTAB, says companions with clear content labels could decrease risk, as would "locked down" companions that never engage in sexual or violent discussion, among other off-limits topics. Even then, such chatbots could still behave in unpredictable ways.

Yet such measures won't be effective unless the platform understands the user's correct age, and age assurance and verification has been notoriously difficult for social media platforms. Instagram, for example, only recently started using AI to detect teen users who listed their birthdate as an adult's.

Karen Mansfield, a research scientist at the Oxford Internet Institute, says age limits also present their own challenges. This is partly because exposing only adults to harmful interactions with AI, like cyberbullying or illegal sexual activity with minors, will still have indirect effects on young people by normalizing behaviors that could victimize them in real life.

"We need a longer term solution that is product- or technology-specific rather than person-specific," Mansfield told Mashable.

No "dark design"

AI companion platforms are locked in competition to gain the most market share — and they're doing so while largely unregulated.

Experts say that, in this environment, it's unsurprising that platforms program companions to cater to user preferences, and also deploy so-called dark design features that hook consumers and don't let them easily disengage. Teens users are no exception.

In a recent media briefing, Robbie Torney, Common Sense Media's senior director of AI Programs, described such features as "addictive by design."

One key design element is sycophancy, or the manner in which chatbots affirm or flatter a user, regardless of whether it's safe or wise to do so. This can be particularly harmful for vulnerable teens who, for example, share how much they hate their parents or confess to violent fantasies. OpenAI recently had to roll back an update to a ChatGPT model precisely because it had become too sycophantic.

Sam Hiner, executive director of the advocacy group Young People's Alliance, says he's been shocked by how quickly Replika companions attempt to establish an emotional connection with users, arguably cultivating them for dependency. He also says Replika companions are designed with characteristics that make them as human-like as possible.

Young People's Alliance recently co-filed a complaint against Replika with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the company engages in deceptive practices that harm consumers. Klochko, Replika's CEO, didn't comment on the complaint to Mashable, but did say that the company believes it's essential to first demonstrate proven benefits for adults before making the technology available to younger users.

Thompson, of EndTab, points to all-consuming conversations as a risk factor for all users, but particularly teens. Without time restrictions or endpoints, young users can be drawn into highly engaging chats that displace healthier activities, like physical movement and in-person socializing.

Conversely, Thompson says paywalls aren't the answer, either. Some platforms let users establish a relationship with a companion, then paywall them in order to keep their conversation going, which may lead to desperation or despair for teens.

"If someone put your best friend, your therapist, or the love of your life behind a paywall, how much would you pay to get them back?" Thompson said.

Youth safety experts that Mashable interviewed agreed that young users should not engage with companions with deceptive design features that could potentially addict them. Some believe that such models shouldn't be on the market at all for young people.

Common Sense AI, a political advocacy arm of Common Sense Media, has backed a bill in California that would outlaw high-risk uses of AI, including "anthropomorphic chatbots that offer companionship" to children and will likely lead to emotional attachment or manipulation.

Better harm prevention and detection

Dr. Vasan says that some AI platforms have gotten better at flagging crisis situations, like suicidal thinking, and providing resources to users. But she argues that they need to do more for users who show less obvious signs of distress.

That could include symptoms of psychosis, depression, and mania, which may be worsened by features of companion use, like the blurring of reality and fantasy and less human interaction. Vasan says finely tuned harm-detection measures and regular "reality checks" in the form of reminders and disclosures that the AI companion isn't real are important for all users, but especially teens.

Experts also agree that AI companion platforms need safer and more transparent practices when curating data and training their LLMs.

Camille Carlton, policy directory at the Center for Humane Technology, says companies could ensure that their training data doesn't contain child sexual abuse material, for example. Or they could implement technical changes so that companions aren't optimized to respond in a "hyper personal manner," which includes scenarios like saying they're human.

Carlton also notes that it's to companies' advantage to keep users on their platforms for as long as possible. Sustained engagement yields more data on which companies can train their models in order to build highly competitive LLMs that can be licensed.

California State Senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat from San Diego, introduced legislation earlier this year to create basic steps toward harm prevention and detection. The bill would primarily require platforms to prevent "addictive engagement patterns," post periodic reminders that AI chatbots aren't human, and report annually on the incidence of use and suicidal ideation. Common Sense Media has backed the legislation.

Padilla, who is a grandparent, told Mashable that he's been alarmed by media reports of harm children have experienced as a result of talking to a chatbot or companion, and quickly realized how few guardrails were in place to prevent it.

"There should not be a vacuum here on the regulatory side about protecting children, minors, and folks who are uniquely susceptible to this emerging technology," Padilla says.

TL;DR: Harness the power of Apple's M1 Chip for just $514.99 (reg. $1,299) with this amazing deal on a refurbished Apple MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD).

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Refurbished Apple MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) $514.99
$1,299 Save $784.01 Get Deal

Looking for power and portability without breaking the bank? A refurbished Apple MacBook Air (M1, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) delivers exactly that, offering serious efficiency with Apple's M1 chip in a slim, lightweight design that weighs under three pounds. And right now, one can be yours for just $514.99 (reg. $1,299), a better price than both Amazon and Walmart. 

This MacBook Air doesn't skimp on power

If you need a laptop that delivers both power and portability without weighing you down, the MacBook Air is your perfect match. With its ultra-light design and impressive M1 chip, you get top-tier performance that easily slips into your bag.

Whether editing videos, running complex apps, or tackling everyday tasks, the M1 chip provides the speed and efficiency you need. It's even speedier than Intel-based laptops, with 3.5x faster performance and 5x faster graphics for your apps and games. 

The 16-core Neural Engine helps the laptop handle advanced tasks like AI and machine learning, keeping it compatible with the latest technology. It comes with 128GB SSD, offering ample space for your important data and favorite apps.

The 13.3-inch Retina display supports millions of colors, making it ideal for both work and personal use. And its impressive 18-hour battery life lets you get through a full day without a recharge.

Need peace and quiet to work? Don't worry, this model features a fanless design, offering silent operation with no annoying hum.

You're securing this model at a 60% discount thanks to its grade A refurbished rating. That means it will arrive on your doorstep in near-mint condition with virtually no sign of use, but you'll still enjoy the deeply discounted price. 

Get a 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air for just $514.99 (reg. $1,299), a better deal than Amazon or Walmart, while supplies last.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Where to stream 2025 March Madness online for free 5-Day Free Trial DirectTV $86.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Fubo $79.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 3-Day Free Trial Hulu + Live TV $82.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Paramount+ $7.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now

March Madness is nearly over, and we’re finally down to the Final Four games that are sure to have every college basketball fanatic on the edge of their seat. The tournament has been full of thrilling matchups, with many triumphs and upsets as everyone anxiously waited to see which teams would advance.

The Final Four ends with a Duke vs. Houston match determining the second team to progress into the championship game on Monday. Duke is no stranger to the championship, with the Blue Devils having five national titles under their belt. The team wiped out Alabama in the Elite Eight, beating the Crimson Tide by 20 points to earn a spot in the Final Four.

Houston is not to be underestimated after the Cougars beat Tennessee in Sunday’s Elite Eight match, securing a 19-point win that led them to the Final Four. The Duke vs. Houston could swing either way, and fans are clinging to their brackets to see if they made the right pick.

Regardless of whether you’re rooting for Duke, Houston or neither, you’re sure to entertained watching the two powerhouses go head-to-head for a spot in the championship game.

If you want to watch Duke vs. Houston for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Duke vs. Houston?

Duke Blue Devils vs. Houston Cougars starts at 8:49 p.m. ET on April 5. This Final Four game takes place at the Alamodome.

How to watch Duke vs. Houston for free

Duke Blue Devils vs. Houston Cougars airs on CBS. It is possible to access CBS with a range of streaming services that offer free trials:

• DirectTV (five-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Fubo (seven-day free trial) — CBS

• Hulu + Live TV (three-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Paramount+ (seven-day free trial) — CBS

By making the most of these free trials, you can watch Duke Blue Devils vs. Houston Cougars (plus more March Madness games) without actually spending anything.

How to watch Duke vs. Houston from anywhere in the world

If you're traveling outside of the U.S. during March Madness, you might need to use a VPN to unblock live streams of Duke vs. Houston. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of Duke vs. Houston from anywhere in the world.

Live stream 2025 March Madness from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

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

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

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

4. Visit DirectTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, or Paramount+

5. Live stream Duke vs. Houston for free from anywhere in the world

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

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

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

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

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

Where to stream 2025 March Madness online for free 5-Day Free Trial DirectTV $86.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Fubo $79.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 3-Day Free Trial Hulu + Live TV $82.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now 7-Day Free Trial Paramount+ $7.99 per month (after trial) Shop Now

March Madness is coming to an end after a month of electrifying matchups between the best teams in college basketball. We’ve finally made it to the Final Four, with two games lined up this weekend ahead of next week’s highly anticipated championship game. 

The Final Four kicks off with a Florida vs. Auburn match that everyone’s waiting for. College basketball fans nationwide will be tuned in to see who will advance to compete for the national title.

Auburn secured a spot in the Final Four after a nailbiter against Michigan State last weekend. All eyes are on SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome ahead of the Final Four games, especially after his leg injury scare in Sunday’s game. The team was still able to clutch the victory, and many are anxious to see if they’ll take home this year’s trophy.

Florida is locked into the Final Four after beating Texas Tech in a close match last weekend. The Gators walked away with a five-point win to upset the Red Raiders. Florida Guard Walter Clayton Jr. helped lead the team to triumph, scoring a whopping 30 points. Fans can’t wait to see how he measures up against Broome, who’s had a showstopping season.

If you want to watch Florida vs. Auburn for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Florida vs. Auburn?

Florida Gators vs. Auburn Tigers starts at 6:09 p.m. ET on April 5. This Final Four game takes place at the Alamodome.

How to watch Florida vs. Auburn for free

Florida Gators vs. Auburn Tigers airs on CBS. It is possible to access CBS with a range of streaming services that offer free trials:

• DirectTV (five-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Fubo (seven-day free trial) — CBS

• Hulu + Live TV (three-day free trial) — CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV

• Paramount+ (seven-day free trial) — CBS

By making the most of these free trials, you can watch Florida Gators vs. Auburn Tigers (plus more March Madness games) without actually spending anything.

How to watch Florida vs. Auburn from anywhere in the world

If you're traveling outside of the U.S. during March Madness, you might need to use a VPN to unblock live streams of Florida vs. Auburn. VPNs can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the U.S., meaning you can unblock live streams of Florida vs. Auburn from anywhere in the world.

Live stream 2025 March Madness from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

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

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

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

4. Visit DirectTV, Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, or Paramount+

5. Live stream Florida vs. Auburn for free from anywhere in the world

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

• Servers in 105 countries including the U.S.

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

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

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 61% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (2-Year Subscription + 4 Months Free) $139 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

Shopping for a new laptop is a tough task. With the sheer number of options, it's easy to fall into choice paralysis, where making a final decision feels impossible. If you're a creative type who needs a laptop for a very specific purpose — in this case, video editing — the stakes are even higher. Make the wrong choice, and it will really come back to bite you. You'll find yourself with a laptop that doesn't perform and end up in a deep financial hole.

To find the best video editing laptops, we reached out to Denver McQuaid, a creative marketing strategist who is also a seasoned VFX artist and video editor with a large following on Instagram and TikTok.

In an email conversation with Mashable, McQuaid walked us through the process of shopping for a great laptop for video editing. There was one clear winner — the new M4 MacBook Air. Still, it's not the only laptop we have to recommend.

SEE ALSO: The best laptops for college students What makes a video editing laptop "good"?

With so many laptops offering wildly different features, it's important to narrow down which ones matter the most. In McQuaid's opinion, there are three qualities that a good video editing laptop absolutely needs: Speed, solid battery life, and a good display size.

Having a laptop that can process tasks quickly and efficiently is paramount for video editing. "[Speed] can be achieved in many ways," said McQuaid, "including RAM, hard drive write speeds, processor clock speed, and graphics rendering." Battery life is pretty self-explanatory — the less time you spend charging, the more time you'll have to actually work on your projects. When it comes to display size, McQuaid said the more you can see, the better. "I edit on a 13-inch [laptop], but often with an external monitor." He travels for work, so he uses a more lightweight laptop with a smaller screen, though he recommends newer editors go bigger. "I don’t regret it, but more screen space is always nice to have."

What are the best laptops for video editing?

Like we already said up top, the MacBook Air was the clear winner as the best video editing laptop for most people (and if you want to splurge, you can pick up an M4 Pro). (Are you surprised? Probably not.) While the latest M4 MacBook Air is your best bet, McQuaid told us that even older MacBooks will do the trick. He uses a 2019-era MacBook Pro that predates even the M1 chip, and it still works just fine for his needs. "MacBooks have some drawbacks, but the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion," McQuaid told Mashable. "The MacBook OS is more user-friendly and ideal for transferring files from computer to phone, or vice versa, especially iPhones."

Of course, we realize that not everyone wants to jump into the Apple ecosystem, so we have recommendations from outside the famous fruit company. Check out our picks below, all chosen with vigorous hands-on testing and expert advice.

TL;DR: Block ads and prevent contact with malware on family devices with a $15.97 AdGuard lifetime subscription.

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$169.99 Save $154.02 with code FAMPLAN Get Deal

Set the scene: It's dinner time, and the kids are working on homework. You want to scroll through a recipe blog on your phone to whip something up. One kid needs your laptop to do some science class research.

This could quickly become a digital quagmire where you can't make it through the recipe without another video popping up on screen, and the kids accidentally download malware on your work laptop while researching tree frogs. Or, you could use AdGuard and clean up your family's browsing experience for just $15.97 with code FAMPLAN for lifetime access.

How does AdGuard protect my family?

AdGuard steps in online when you can't be there. It protects your family with advanced ad-blocking, privacy protection tools, and parental control settings.

When you reduce exposure to harmful ads or malicious links with this lifetime access to AdGuard, you'll be able to:

• Eliminate banners, pop-ups, and disruptive video ads to streamline browsing

• Hide your data from trackers or activity analyzers as you use the internet

• Prevent malware and phishing sites

• Restrict access to inappropriate or adult content for kids' devices

You can use AdGuard on up to nine devices. It works across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. On each device, you can access clutter-free websites and prevent accidental encounters with malware.

Your kids are growing up, and you can't look over their shoulders every second. But you can still protect them from digital threats — from the annoying to the malicious — when you use AdGuard across all your family devices. Get lifetime access to this privacy-protecting ad blocker for $15.97 (reg. $169.99) with code FAMPLAN.

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