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Xbox announces Partner Showcase: When is it, how to watch

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 14:08

It's been a rough, unsteady console generation for Xbox, but the company has a product showcase for our perusal later this week.

Microsoft's gaming brand announced a new Partner Showcase livestream on this morning, slated to take place on Thursday, March 26 at 1 p.m. ET. You can watch the stream on YouTube or Twitch at that time.

Xbox was very clear to point out that first-party Xbox Game Studios productions will not be the focus here, as it will instead center around upcoming third-party releases. These include RGG Studio's Stranger Than Heaven, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, and something new for the already-released Stalker 2.

SEE ALSO: Former Xbox President Sarah Bond breaks silence after surprise exit This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

While it's normal for game companies to periodically show us their wares in this fashion, the timing is a big part of why this Xbox partner stream is interesting. Just last month, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer and president Sarah Bond both simultaneously left the company. Spencer's exit wasn't terribly surprising, given the tough position Xbox found itself in under his leadership, but Bond hitting the ejector seat rather than stepping into Spencer's shoes was a big deal. Instead, Microsoft put former AI executive Asha Sharma in charge of Xbox.

Those leadership changes came after a years-long spiral that has resulted in Xbox being in a pretty tough place, financially and in terms of reputation. Big acquisitions of brands like Bethesda and Activision Blizzard have not resulted in a higher output of quality first-party games as some hoped they would, while Xbox Series hardware has lagged behind the competition. There's also the matter of Xbox being a priority target for the BDS movement thanks to Microsoft's work with the Israeli military; speaking anecdotally, many people I know have stopped playing Xbox games because of this. Xbox has unveiled some very vague plans about its next console, but that hasn't stopped the bleeding on its own.

If nothing else, it will be interesting to see if Xbox's marketing changes at all under the new leadership team. We can all find out together on Thursday afternoon.

The internet made BTS. Arirang asks what comes next.

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 13:16

The first thing BTS ask for on Arirang, the group's long-awaited fifth studio album, is simple: "Put your phone down."

It sounds almost cliché in an era of screen fatigue, but coming from BTS, it lands with a strange kind of dissonance. This is, after all, a group that didn't just benefit from social media but helped define how K-pop stars are expected to exist within it.

For over a decade, BTS have lived not just on the internet, but through it, building a global audience by turning screens into something intimate. Their practice room videos and late-night livestreams didn't just document their rise — they changed what proximity between artist and fan could feel like. It didn't matter that BTS were thousands of miles away or spoke Korean; the screen bridged the distance. It made every post, every update, feel immediate, like a digital exchange between friends.

Credit: BIG HIT MUSIC

Their fandom moved with that same fluency. Fans didn't just watch. They organized, amplified, and pushed BTS into spaces that had long felt inaccessible, bringing the group to historic heights on the U.S. music charts.

So what does it mean for BTS to ask listeners to step away from the very device that made them global? That connected them to millions of fans at once?

On its surface, Arirang reads as a reflection, maybe even a correction to the glossy, outward-facing pop of "Dynamite," "Butter," and "Permission to Dance" — a recalibration after years spent scaling themselves for a global audience. In the lead-up to the album, BTS promised a return to their roots. The framing makes that expectation almost inevitable. Arirang takes its name from a defining Korean folk song, a cultural touchstone long associated with longing and return. On paper, it signals a homecoming: a project that re-centers BTS within a specifically Korean tradition after years of global expansion.

SEE ALSO: 'BTS: The Return' review: The world's biggest boy band, without a clear direction

But the return isn't quite that literal. If Arirang moves back toward anything, it's not just heritage but foundation — a renewed emphasis on the hip-hop sensibilities that first defined BTS's sound and sharp lyricism. That grounding shapes the album's early stretch, before it opens into something more overtly pop.

Long before they were filling stadiums, their music and presence were built on forging direct, emotional links with listeners across language, geography, and vastly different lived experiences. BTS offered a version of digital intimacy that felt genuine, even revolutionary. Their early Twitter posts and V Lives didn't carry the polish that now defines idol content. They felt loose. Personal. At times, almost accidental. The internet made that connection scalable. It allowed BTS to collapse distance in a way that felt unprecedented.

But on Arirang, that connection takes a different form. It no longer has to be engineered or maintained. Instead, it's embedded in the music itself, no longer needing to be mediated to feel real.

On the bouncy, frenetic "Body To Body," where RM first delivers that opening line, closeness is framed as something immediate. "Put your phone down, let's get all the fun," he insists, pushing against a concert culture where even live moments are filtered through screens, optimized for capture and circulation. In K-pop, especially, where the clip economy drives visibility, presence is often secondary to documentation. The song resists that instinct. The moment only exists if you're in it.

In K-pop, especially, where the clip economy drives visibility, presence is often secondary to documentation.

But Arirang doesn't romanticize disconnection. It reframes the internet as something sharper, more volatile, a space where connection and harm coexist at the same speed. Suga makes that explicit: "Guns, knives, keyboards, put all that away." The keyboard is not metaphorical. It's a recognition of how language travels now — instantly, globally, and often without care for what it lands on.

That duality defines much of the album. On "Normal," BTS give language to the instability of constant visibility: "Show me hate, show me love, make me bulletproof / Yeah, we call this shit normal." Fame here isn't a fixed state; it's a condition of perpetual exposure, where affirmation and critique arrive simultaneously and with equal force. The song doesn't resolve that tension so much as sit inside it.

Credit: BIGHIT Music / Netflix

Elsewhere, Arirang turns its attention to the systems that produce that visibility. On the frenetic "FYA," the language of the dance floor collapses into the language of the feed: "Club go psycho / Might take you viral." For BTS, virality is no longer an outcome; it's an atmosphere. Every space they move through is already primed for capture, flattened into something that can be looped, shared, and consumed in fragments.

BTS are not rejecting the internet, nor are they fully embracing it. They are negotiating with it, acknowledging both its role in their ascent and its limitations as a space for sustaining something real.

You can hear that negotiation in the album's structure. Since BTS's hiatus, short-form video has reshaped not just how music is promoted, but how it's made. Songs are shorter, hooks arrive faster, moments are engineered for virality. TikTok has become central to the lifecycle of a song, creating an ecosystem that favors loops over progression.

BTS are acutely aware of this change. They've spoken about the "Shorts generation," about songs becoming shorter, more immediate. "People don't listen to long songs anymore," Jimin told Bloomberg in March 2026. In that same interview, RM noted that after returning to Korea from their Los Angeles sessions, tracks were trimmed by "maybe 15, 20 seconds" in final production.

You can hear it in the album's pacing, its sharp transitions, and the way certain sections feel designed to land quickly. Its opening stretch is restless, pulled in multiple directions — hip-hop, club beats, tonal pivots that never quite settle. It mirrors the churn of the feed: constant motion, constant escalation, nothing held in place for long.

Then, abruptly, it stops.

"No. 29" arrives as a single, resonant toll. The Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok rings out, unaccompanied, uninterrupted. No build. No transition. Just sound, sustained until the reverberation stills into silence. It refuses optimization. It can't be clipped into a trend or condensed into a loop. It simply exists, asking you to sit with it.

What follows shifts the album's center of gravity. If the first half contends with external forces, the second turns inward. "Swim," the lead single, arrives like the tide, not in crashing waves but in a slow, steady pull. The repetition of “swim” on the hook feels less like motion than suspension, like treading water in a vast, open ocean. "Under here, we don’t chase the time," j-hope sings, as the track settles into something slower, drifting into focus rather than announcing itself.

And yet, time lingers as a quiet pressure. On "Merry-Go-Round," Suga names the feeling directly: "Every day the same routine, merry-go-round or hamster wheel." It's a striking image for a group returning at full scale, one that frames success not as forward motion, but as repetition. Even growth loops back on itself. Even momentum feels cyclical.

The internet that once made BTS feel close is no longer the same one they're returning to.

On "Like Animals," the album's standout track, distance gives way to instinct. The production turns hazy, grunge-leaning, less polished, more atmospheric. Connection is no longer abstract or symbolic. It's physical, carnal. "None of us are tameable," j-hope reminds the listener. The line lands as release, stripping away the layers of performance and translation that define so much of digital interaction. "There's beauty outside control," RM sings.

That kind of freedom feels harder to come by now. The internet that once made BTS feel close is no longer the same one they're returning to.

Intimacy now registers as expectation. The access that fueled BTS's rise has hardened into something more transactional in the years since their last group release. Visibility becomes currency. Presence starts to look like performance. Even authenticity begins to feel orchestrated.

At times, Arirang pushes against the noise, searching for clarity beneath it. But it never fully steps outside the system it's questioning. It moves through the same cycles of virality and discourse that helped elevate BTS in the first place. Asking listeners to "put your phone down" becomes its own paradox, a message designed to spread as widely as possible online.

BTS are not stepping outside the system that made them global. They're trying to understand what it has become.

In the four years since their last release as a group, the digital ecosystem that amplified BTS into a global phenomenon has fractured into something faster, noisier, and harder to hold onto. Songs arrive as snippets before they're heard in full. Moments peak and disappear in the same breath. Fandom disperses across platforms and timelines that rarely overlap. What once felt shared now feels scattered.

There was a time when BTS existed at the center of a kind of digital monoculture, when discourse around the group moved in waves, unified and overwhelming. Praise and criticism alike traveled at scale. To express dissent meant risking being swallowed by it. The internet seemed, if not singular, then at least synchronized.

That coherence has thinned. The slow dissolution of platforms like Twitter (now X under Elon Musk's ownership) as a central "town square" has fractured conversation into smaller, more insulated spaces. What used to play out in public now disperses across group chats, private communities, and algorithmically sorted feeds. You are now more likely to exist in a version of the internet that reflects you back to yourself.

The online response to Arirang reflects that change. BTS releases have typically been met with near-total consensus — whether celebratory or defensive — in which dissent was often drowned out or met with swift, overwhelming pushback from fans. The conversation around this album feels more varied, more open, and even more critical. Not quieter, but less unified. The intensity hasn't disappeared; it's just been redistributed.

And crucially, BTS no longer seem to need that consensus.

They return not as artists trying to be seen, but as the biggest band in the world. Attention is already guaranteed. The question now is what that attention means and how they choose to move forward under its glare.

They return not as artists trying to be seen, but as the biggest band in the world.

The tension never fully resolves. Instead, Arirang begins to imagine a different relationship to it — one less defined by acceleration, more by duration. Not connection as something broadcast outwardly, but something held in place.

That instinct traces back to the album's title. "Arirang," a beloved Korean folk song, endures not because it spread quickly, but because it has been carried across generations, borders, and time.

BTS have long been positioned as a bridge between Korea and the global pop landscape, between tradition and reinvention. But that role has historically required a constant expansion toward new audiences. Arirang feels like a re-evaluation of that impulse. Not a retreat from the world, but a shift in how they move through it. What once felt like expansion now feels like proximity.

Credit: BIGHIT Music / Netflix

That becomes most tangible on stage, where BTS have long described concerts as the center of what they do. After years apart, performance becomes the place where connection is shared in real-time, carried between bodies, and not just transmitted through screens. Their live comeback concert was broadcast on Netflix, but its meaning was rooted in the physical. In central Seoul, BTS shut down streets and performed in front of Gwanghwamun Gate, turning a historic public square into a site of shared experience for tens of thousands of fans. Not just something to watch, but something to be inside, together.

In that context, Arirang reads less like a resolution and more like preparation. A way of reorienting, not away from the internet, but beyond its limits. It turns toward a form of connection built to be felt rather than consumed.

Or, as j-hope puts it on "Body To Body," drawing a line between experience and mediation: "You could see about it, or you read about it." For BTS, that distinction feels newly urgent.

In an internet that flattens everything into moments, Arirang reaches for something else. Not what travels across timelines, but what lingers. Not what's seen, but what's actually there.

Best Buy’s Tech Fest is officially over, but these leftover deals are still worth your money

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 13:01

Best Buy spring deals 2026: Best TV deal 65-inch Samsung Class S84F OLED 4K UHD Vision AI Smart Tizen TV $899.99 (save $1,100) Get Deal Best laptop deal 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook 315 (Intel Celeron N4500, 4GB LPDDR4X, 64GB eMMC) + Protective Sleeve $149 (save $150) Get Deal Best Apple Watch deal Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm) $299 (save $100) Get Deal

The Amazon Big Spring Sale is all anyone can talk about right now (which, fair, it's basically a pre-game for July's Prime Day event). But Amazon isn't the only retailer dropping prices this week.

In a completely unsurprising move to steal some of that spotlight, Best Buy threw its own Tech Fest sale over the weekend. The official event technically wrapped up on Sunday, but a ton of those discounts are still live on the site today, including markdowns on big-ticket items like OLED TVs, noise-canceling headphones, and Apple products.

SEE ALSO: Amazon's Big Spring Sale is back: The best deals already live on Apple, robot vacuums, headphones, and more

So before you blow your entire shopping budget at Amazon, here are the best leftover Best Buy deals you can add to your cart right now.

Best deal overall Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung 65-inch Samsung Class S84F OLED 4K UHD Vision AI Smart Tizen TV $899.99 at Best Buy
$1,999.99 Save $1,100   Get Deal Why we like it

There are literally hundreds of leftover deals still floating around Best Buy's site right now, and we'll be updating this piece as we dig through more of them. But if we had to single out a discount to jump on right this second, it's this one. Scoring a 65-inch Samsung OLED for under $900 is basically unheard of outside of Black Friday. If you've been waiting for an excuse to finally upgrade your living room setup, saving over a grand on a premium display beats paying full price for whatever shiny new model drops next month.

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Judge Hears State Challenge to Trump’s Tech Deal Settlement

NYT Technology - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:58
Democratic state attorneys general are fighting the Justice Department’s clearance of a $14 billion deal by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, arguing it was ineffective and corrupt.

Hair and skincare tech deals are trickling in ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:41

Best beauty deals ahead of Amazon's Big Spring Sale Best hair care deal Shark FlexStyle $299.99 (save $100) Get Deal Best skincare tech deal Therabody TheraFace Depuffing Wand $129.99 (save $40) Get Deal

Amazon's Big Spring Sale is just two days away, but the mega-retailer isn't waiting to share its beauty deals.

Already, deals on the Shark FlexStyle, Therabody's TheraFace line, and one of the best Dyson Supersonic dupes, the Laifen Swift, are live ahead of the weeklong sale's kick off on March 25.

As Mashable's beauty expert, I combed the available markdowns to choose nine of the best deals live so far — but I'm anticipating we'll see more deals on beauty tech, skincare, and haircare as we head into the sale, so to be sure to check back.

Best beauty deal Shark FlexStyle $299.99 at Amazon
$399.99 Save $100   Get Deal at Amazon Why we like it

It's not that I'm a Dyson Airwrap hater, it's just that I know you can get essentially the same experience for less than half the price with the Shark FlexStyle. Though options for multi-stylers and Airwrap alternatives have expanded over the past few years, Shark remains one of the best, offering a great selection of attachments, versatility (especially with the twistable base), and innovation. This Black Cherry model is still $50 away from its record low pricing of $249.99, but it doesn't go on sale often, making this still a great price to nab it at.

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Desperate times: Reddit considers adding ID verification to fight flood of AI bots

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:37

Reddit has a real bot problem on its hands.

And, in order to deal with this problem, Reddit is considering turning to the latest go-to solution for the tech industry: ID verification.

On the tech show TBPN, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman spoke about how AI has caused issues for the platform and discussed potential solutions.

Hoffman explained how the solutions would look to answer the question "Is there actually a human using Reddit right now?"

"Reddit is for humans," Hoffman said, before discussing various verification processes that the company is looking at. 

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"The most lightweight way is something like face ID or touch ID or broadly the family of technology that's called passkeys," Hoffman continued. "Every platform wants to know 'is this is a person?' Now Reddit's version is 'is this a person but we don't want to know which person this is.'"

That's a pretty important distinction for Reddit, which has based its platform on users' ability to maintain anonymity. Hoffman explained that there are "heavier versions" of ID verification, like "ID checking services," which the company already complies with where required by government regulations. However, it doesn't sound like they are looking to implement something like this more broadly to fight the platform's bot problem.

Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit who resigned from the company's board in 2020, posted a message of support for trying to solve the bot problem, but also pointed out how tricky it will be to do so without alienating Reddit users.

"RDDT requiring Face ID was not something I had on my bingo card but something has got to be done about all the fake / botted content — I just don't know how to sell face-scanning to redditors or even lurkers," Ohanian said.

In his TBPN interview, Hoffman expressed support for real AI use cases on the site, such as auto-translation bots. However, Hoffman said that even with good AI bots on the platform, the company needs to be sure a real human is behind the bot.

Reddit has long had issues with automated accounts and content farms submitting posts and gaming the upvote system. However, with the rise in AI, Reddit has become inundated with AI bots attempting to mimic real users and replying to real user posts and comments with spam.

Since 2024, Google has drastically increased Reddit's visibility in search results. As a result, spammers have flocked to Reddit as a search engine optimization (SEO) technique.

It'll be interesting to see which ID verification method is chosen by Reddit. Regardless of what it is, it'll very likely receive blowback from the platform's very opinionated and privacy-oriented user base. 

iPhone Fold leaks, rumors, and renders: Everything we know

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:23

The long-awaited foldable iPhone — rumored to be called the iPhone Fold — should arrive in 2026. So far, Apple has kept a very tight lid on its first-ever foldable phone, but all signs point to a fall or winter 2026 release.

Early adopters already love foldables — and they have plenty of options — but Apple's been notably absent from the genre. However, don't count Apple out. The company has a history of showing up late to the party and then absolutely cornering the market, as the AirPods and iPhone did with MP3 players and smartphones.

So, as we await official details, here's everything we know about the future addition to the iPhone lineup, including the latest rumors, possible specifications, release date, and pricing information.

When will the iPhone Fold be released?

We initially thought that the iPhone Fold would be coming in fall 2026 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Numerous rumors pointed to this over the last year. However, while Apple traditionally releases all of its new iPhones in September, the Fold might not be ready by then.

A tech analyst named Tim Long recently claimed that shipments of the iPhone Fold will begin in December of this year, not September, so it might be a winter device instead of a fall one. Of course, Apple could still announce it in September, but it may not be available right away like the iPhone 18 lineup.

For now, Long is the only one reporting that the iPhone Fold (or is it the iFold?) will come after September, so it could still be on store shelves sooner. Given the global memory shortage, last-minute delays are also possible, so we'll have to wait and see.

SEE ALSO: Apple's iPhone Fold is on track, but it might be pricier than we thought How much will the iPhone Fold cost, and will people buy it? A hypothetical rendering of the rumored iPhone Fold. Credit: Zain bin Awais / Mashable

The iPhone Fold is likely to be expensive. An early estimate from research analyst Arthur Liao suggested the price tag for the Fold — gulp — could come in around $2,399. That's in line with expectations in a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC). Last year, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the iPhone Fold is likely to retail between $2,000 and $2,500.

Despite the sizable cost (the flagship Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is priced at $1,999.99), sales expectations remain high. The IDC report estimated Apple would siphon one-third of the spending in the foldable market in 2026.

"But the real game-changer for the category comes at year-end when Apple enters the foldable space, projected to capture over 22% unit share and a staggering 34% of the foldables market value in its first year, thanks to an expected average price point of $2,400,” read the report.

In March, Mark Gurman claimed that Apple could classify the iPhone Fold as an "Ultra" product, putting it in a higher price tier than other devices in its portfolio alongside other high-end machines like the Apple Watch Ultra. If the phone ends up costing at least $2,000 as expected, this would make sense.

The latest iPhone Fold leaks The most recent leaks point to two rear cameras, not three. Credit: Zain bin Awais / Mashable

In December 2025, we saw lots of alleged iPhone Fold renders circulating on social media, which all share a similar design. We'd take these with a grain of salt, of course.

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In February, a leaker known as Instant Digital posted some alleged renders of the iPhone to the Chinese social media site Weibo. Like most leaks, especially the ones pertaining to Apple, we can't confirm their authenticity. However, they line up with earlier reports of the overall look of the phone.

More recently, Apple leaker Sonny Dickson shared another potential iPhone Fold render in March 2026.

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Instant Digital makes some interesting claims. Most notably, the report says the iPhone Fold will have the largest-ever iPhone battery. (For reference, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is estimated to have a roughly 5,088 mAh battery.)

"The volume buttons are not on the left side," reads a translation of the post. "Instead, they are placed directly on the top of the right-side frame (similar to the volume button layout on the top of the iPad mini). This may take some getting used to for users’ typical phone habits."

The post also stated, "The rear dual camera + right-side microphone + flash are arranged horizontally. The camera module appears to be fully black and does not match the body color. Currently, the only confirmed color is white, but it is expected that Apple will launch two color options."

Beyond physical design, another recent report suggested you'll be able to run multiple apps side-by-side when the phone is unfolded, sort of like multitasking on iPadOS 26. However, by all accounts, this device will run iOS, not iPadOS, so you won't exactly get a full iPad experience from the iPhone Fold. (Apps that are designed to run natively in iPadOS, for example, would not be compatible.)

What will the iPhone Fold specs look like? What would you want to see in a foldable iPhone design? Let us know in the comments. Credit: Zain bin Awais / Mashable

The iPhone Fold remains a mystery to some extent, of course, but we do have a very rough idea of what it could offer. Based on all the rumors, the iPhone Fold could look something like this:

  • Displays: 7.8-inch inner OLED display, 5.5-inch outer OLED display

  • Thickness: 9.5mm unfolded, 4.5mm when folded

  • Security: Touch ID

  • Processor: A20 processor

  • Cameras: Dual rear cameras (48MP), dual inner/outer front cameras

  • Price: $2,399

  • Battery: At least 5,088 mAh

A report from Chinese news outlet United Daily News noted the iPhone Fold could be creaseless, which means you wouldn't see that awkward line when it's folded open.

Since then, we've seen several reports claiming that Apple is committed to making the iPhone Fold's display the best it can possibly be. It should be very durable, super thin, and yes, without a visible crease. Samsung Display is reportedly producing the OLED displays for the iPhone Fold, as Samsung's got the best flexible display tech in the game. There's a reason Samsung released the Galaxy TriFold while the world is still waiting on the first foldable iPhone.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also posted several reports on the iPhone Fold recently, including laying out the basic specs for the device. He said that the foldable iPhone would be a book-style foldable with four cameras — two on the back, one on the inside, and one front selfie camera. Gurman also predicted it would use Touch ID like the iPad Air and Pro, even though iPhones typically use Face ID.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported earlier this year that the iPhone Fold would have a 7.8-inch inner display, a 5.5-inch outer display, and measure in at just 9 to 9.5mm of thickness. We heard another rumor in September 2025, which claimed the iPhone Fold would look like two iPhone Airs put together, with a similar thickness of 5.6mm. Why the discrepancy between the two reports? It could be the difference between the device's thickness when folded and unfolded.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Z Trifold vs Apple foldable iPhone: Specs and rumors

There's also talk about Apple using innovative tech to make the iPhone Fold lighter and more durable than most foldables. These rumors include a report that the company is using liquid metal for the phone's hinge, which should improve durability.

Mashable's Alex Perry also compared the potential specs of the iPhone Fold with the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, which we know a lot more about. Obviously, the Samsung trifold will be larger and thicker than the iPhone Fold. Otherwise, we're still waiting on official details. But if recent rumors prove true, the wait shouldn't be too much longer.

Finally, even though the iPhone Fold is still in the realm of fantasy, there are already rumors about a follow-up, clamshell-style foldable from Apple, potentially called the iPhone Flip. That one probably isn't coming until next year, though.

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Save $80 on the Kindle Colorsoft ahead of the Big Spring Sale — shop now

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:00
Best Kindle Deals Best Kindle deal Amazon Kindle Colorsoft $169.99 (Save $80) Get Deal Best Kids Kindle Deal Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Kids $189.99 (Save $80) Get Deal

Amazon's Big Spring Sale is quickly approaching. The seasonal sale runs March 25 through 31, marking down everything you need to get ready for warmer weather. If you're planning on heading out on some spring and summer adventures, but still trying to hit your reading goals, it's time to get an e-reader.

With Amazon's sale, the retailers very own Kindles are already on sale. The savings aren't quite plentiful yet. Going into the Big Spring Sale, there are only two Kindle devices on sale, the Kindle Colorsoft and the Kindle Colorsoft Kids. But nonethless, we're still seeing the lowest price ever on the Kindle Colorsoft.

So if you're ready for a color e-reader that can fit thousands of books on it and is waterproof for your beach and poolside reading, there are the best Kindle deals to shop ahead of the Amazon Big Spring Sale.

Best Kindle Deals Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Kindle Colorsoft $169.99 at Amazon
$249.99 Save $80   Get Deal

Usually, the Kindle Colorsoft is way too expensive for our liking, but once it goes on sale, all is forgiven. Ahead of Amazon's Big Spring Sale, the Kindle Colorsoft is already marked down. Right now, you can grab the Kindle Colorsoft for just $169.99. That saves you $80 off its $249.99 list price. That means right now, it's cheaper than even the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.

The big draw of the Kindle Colorsoft is its color displays. The e-reader has a color resolution of 150 ppi and a black and white resolution of 300 ppi. Even with the addition of color to the Kindle Colorsoft, it remains a speedy device. Plus, it comes with no ads. Temper your expectations around color with the Colorsoft, the hues tend to be more muted than what you get on a TV or tablet. Plus, it should be mentioned the Kindle Colorsoft is waterproof, so you can take it to the pool or beach. If you're looking for a color e-reader, this is a deal to snatch up ahead of Amazon's Big Spring Sale.

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Paradise Season 2 drops a huge bombshell about Link and Sinatra

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 12:00

Paradise Season 2 has committed itself to breaking my brain with all its insinuations of time travel and quantum shenanigans.

SEE ALSO: 'Paradise' Season 2 review: Great things lie beyond the bunker

Season 2, episode 7, titled "The Final Countdown," is no different, dropping the biggest bombshell of the season so far. Somehow, Link (Thomas Doherty) is Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond's (Julianne Nicholson) late son Dylan.

How do we know this, and more importantly, how is this possible? Let's break it down.

A key Star Wars reference hints that Link is Sinatra's son.

In "The Final Countdown," Link negotiates with Sinatra about what his massive band of survivors wants with the bunker. Their showdown takes place on Air Force One, and as Link enters the plane, he marvels at the situation.

"This is like Star Wars, huh?" he tells Sinatra. "All these people and troops and pomp and circumstance. But, I mean, you know, it all comes down to Luke and Vader in the end."

SEE ALSO: Wait, is 'Paradise' Season 2 doing time travel?

Link likens Sinatra to Darth Vader because they're both "evil." However, there's more to Luke and Vader's relationship than the fight between good and evil. They're also possibly the most iconic parent-child duo in film history. Paradise wouldn't make that connection lightly, suggesting that it might have an "I am your mother" reveal up its sleeve.

Link's real name is Dylan, just like Sinatra's son.

Sinatra and Link reach an impasse over the survivors' desire to take control of Alex, Sinatra's top secret project. As she and Link share one last tense exchange at the exit to the bunker, his companion Geiger (Michael McGrady) calls out to him that they need to leave. Only he doesn't call him by his code name, Link. He calls him by his real name, Dylan.

The name immediately sets off alarm bells in Sinatra's head. That's the same name as her young son who passed away in a Season 1 flashback, and whose death motivated her entire quest to save her family from any potential apocalypse. Knowing Paradise, nothing is coincidence, not even the extremely common name "Dylan." Plus, Link/Dylan appears to have the same birthday as Sinatra's son, and he seems to be as old as Dylan would be had he lived.

How is Dylan alive in Paradise?

All these clues suggest that Link is, in fact, Sinatra's son Dylan. But how in the world is that possible?

It all comes back to Alex, Sinatra's mysterious side quest that still hasn't been fully revealed. Based on flashbacks in the third episode, we know that Sinatra's project involves the use of technology developed by late quantum mechanics professor Henry Miller (Patrick Fischler) and his protégé, Link. We also know that the project has to do with buying more time for Earth, as it's the one resource Sinatra doesn't have enough of.

Because of this need for more time, it's possible that Henry's technology — likely nicknamed Alex after Henry's late wife (Gwen Holloway) — could have ties to time travel, the multiverse, or some combination of the two. Perhaps while testing Alex out, Sinatra tried to see if she could save Dylan in the past. Or maybe Link is another universe's version of Dylan. Whatever the truth, Sinatra and Link's final interaction cues nosebleeds for both of them, this season's portent of strange, Alex-related activity.

Sinatra is also incredibly happy after crossing paths with Link/Dylan, cryptically telling her husband Tim (Tuc Watkins) upon returning from negotiations that "it worked." "It" likely being Alex, right? Because those negotiations certainly did not work.

Tim goes on to ask Sinatra if she's okay, and she says yes. She also says, "I can't explain it, but I think Dylan is too."

That's yet another confirmation that Link is Sinatra's son, and that his presence is tied to Sinatra's secret project. But to both Paradise and Sinatra, I'm going to need a concrete explanation of this whole thing by the end of next week's finale!

Paradise is now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Monday.

OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky dies at 43

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 11:50

Leonid Radvinsky, the owner of adult creator platform OnlyFans, has died at the age of 43.

Radvinsky, a Ukrainian-American billionaire, acquired the company that owns and operates OnlyFans, Fenix International Limited, in 2018, the company told Mashable. He was a director and majority shareholder of Fenix.

SEE ALSO: OnlyFans 'baits and switches' customers with false promises, lawsuit claims

"We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky. Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer," an OnlyFans spokesperson told Mashable. "His family have requested privacy at this difficult time."

In Jan., Mashable reported that OnlyFans was in talks to sell the majority of the company to a San Francisco-based investment firm, Architect Capital, with the platform's evaluation at $5.5 billion. This came months after the New York Post reported that Radvinsky wanted to sell OnlyFans but couldn't find a buyer.

SEE ALSO: Adult Friend Finder app: Where to download the AFF app and how secure is it?

As Reuters reported, it's now unclear who will own OnlyFans.

15+ deals under $50 that are already live ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 11:47
Best deals under $50 ahead of Amazon's Big Spring Sale Best Amazon device deal Amazon Echo Spot $49.99 at Amazon (save $30) Get Deal Best earbuds deal Soundcore by Anker Space A40 $49.99 at Amazon (save $30) Get Deal Best home deal Dreo TurboPoly Table Fan 315 $49.95 (save $6) Get Deal

It's gonna be a great week if you like deals. Starting on Wednesday, Amazon is hosting the first major sale event of 2026. The Amazon Big Spring Sale kicks off at as soon as the clock ticks over to Wednesday on the West Coast and spans almost the entire week, ending Tuesday, March 31.

Like all Amazon sales, deals are rolling in early, and that's especially true if you're searching for items that fall into the category of under $50. Maybe you're searching for the perfect birthday gift, thinking ahead to Mother's Day (May 10 this year, FYI), or simply don't want to spend a ton, an under $50 budget allows for plenty of buying power, even before the sale has begun.

We've compiled a list of our favorite deals under $50 to shop ahead Amazon's Big Spring Sale. Check back as we continue to update this article throughout the week.

Best Amazon device deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Spot $49.99 at Amazon
$79.99 Save $30.00   Get Deal Why we like it

Amazon sales are notoriously one of the best opportunities to snag Amazon devices. From Kindles to Fire TV sticks, Amazon loves to put its own products on huge discounts. If you could use a new bedroom smart speaker and clock, the Amazon Echo Spot is already seeing a sale price of $49.99, down from the standard price of $79.99. With a quick glance, you'll be able to check the time, weather, and more without having to check your phone. Plus, you can set it to play your favorite wake-up playlist each morning.

More Amazon devices on saleBest earbuds deal Opens in a new window Credit: Soundcore by Anker Soundcore by Anker Space A40 (select colorways) $49.99 at Amazon
$79.99 Save $30.00   Get Deal Why we like it

The Soundcore by Anker Space A40 earbuds usually come with a price of $79.99, but as long as you're cool with navy, black, or white, they can be yours for only $49.99. The Space A40 earbuds are designed to reduce noise by up to 98% and they come with a massive 50 hours of playback time with the included case. Amazon's Big Spring Sale could be the best opportunity to replace earbuds before we head into the summer.

More earbuds dealsBest home deal Opens in a new window Credit: Dreo Dreo TurboPoly Table Fan 315 $49.95 at Amazon
$55.99 Save $6.04   Get Deal Why we like it

It's about to get hot. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon enough, we'll be back in sweltering season. This year, head into the warmth with the Dreo TurboPoly Table Fan. Not only does it look great, it has four speeds, an 8-hour timer, and big oscillation power. Dreo says the fan is powerful enough to blow air up to 60 feet, so it'll be ideal for a bedroom or office. Plus, it's a quiet 28 decibels so there's no issue with sleeping with the fan on.

More home deals

The incel glossary decoded: Alpha males, body counts and the manosphere’s key terms

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 11:42

If you've spent any time consuming dating content lately, you've almost certainly encountered the vocabulary: high value, alpha, body count, Chad. Terms that, not long ago, were esoterically confined to misogynistic, racist incel ("involuntarily celibate") forums and have now migrated wholesale into mainstream culture — repackaged as self-improvement content, dating advice, and meme language for Twitter-poisoned 20-somethings. The far right "manosphere," as we've reported multiple times before, is no longer a fringe phenomenon. It's in your For You Page.

Incel communities first took root in the early 2000s on 4chan and Reddit, largely invisible to anyone outside their orbit. They gained their first brush of mainstream notoriety in the mid-2010s — when Reddit banned r/incels in 2017, and a string of high-profile domestic terror attacks carried out by self-identified incels forced the broader public to reckon with what had been quietly festering online. When "incel" entered the popular lexicon, its accompanying vocabulary was considered icky at best and flatly dehumanizing at worst.

SEE ALSO: Who is Clavicular, and why is he everywhere right now?

But the language never went away. Chad, alpha male, high-value man, Stacy — these terms didn't disappear when the subreddits got banned. They dispersed, seeping into fitness content, dating advice, meme pages, and self-help guides.

Studies from the University of Portsmouth and reporting from The Guardian show how gaming and social media content focused on dating advice, hustle culture, and gym tips can often serve as a gateway to exposing young boys to incel and right-wing content.

So, just like our Looksmaxxing glossary, consider this your field guide to the terms, communities, and ideologies infiltrating the way a generation talks about dating — and themselves.

80/20 rule

In the context of dating, incels believe that 80 percent of women are only romantically available to the top 20 percent of men — leaving the remaining 80 percent of men to compete for whatever's left.

The theory is borrowed from the Pareto Principle, a power law originally used in business management, which states that roughly 80 percent of outcomes stem from 20 percent of causes.

Alpha Male

A domineering, aggressive man who is perceived to sit atop the male social hierarchy. The concept draws on animal behavioral science — specifically, studies of captive wolf packs — as a framework for understanding male dominance. The term is borrowed from the Greek alphabet, where alpha (α) denotes the first and highest rank.

The researchers behind that original work have long since walked it back, calling it an oversimplification that doesn't hold up to scrutiny, let alone translate cleanly to human behavior.

AWALT ("All Women Are Like That")

An acronym for "All Women Are Like That." The assumption that "all women" are driven by the same hypergamous, self-serving instincts.

In red pill and incel spaces, AWALT is a thought-terminating cliché to preemptively dismiss any evidence that complicates their worldview, and that any woman who appears otherwise is either an exception to the rule (like moms or sisters) or simply hasn't been tested yet.

Becky

The general population of women who are below the status of Stacy's — highly attractive, hyperfeminine women who have sex with Chads. Whereas a Stacy is seen as unattainable to an incel, the community feels owed sex and attention from Becky's for their perceived lower status in the SMV (see below).

Beta Male

Unremarkable men who are subservient to alphas. Believed to lack the physical presence, charisma, and confidence of the Alpha male.

Beta Orbiter

A man who circles a woman he's attracted to — attending to her emotionally, defending her online, laughing at all her jokes — in the hopes of getting into a romantic relationship. Incels use the term as a pejorative to describe a man so deep in the "friendzone" that he's essentially providing all the benefits of a relationship for none of the rewards.

Betabux

A derogatory term for men in relationships with women who have settled and seek financial stability. Also known as a "beta provider," the term expresses the belief that women have their fun with Chads in their prime, and now that she's hit "the Wall" (see below), she's traded down to a financially stable but romantically unexciting beta to foot the bill.

The term itself is 4chan leetspeak (internet slang originating in early hacker and gaming communities that substitutes numbers and symbols for letters) — a compression of "beta" and "bucks," distilled from the phrase "alpha fux, beta bux." Meaning women sleep with Chads and spend a beta's money.

Black Pill

Blackpilling is a nihilistic offshoot of incel ideology and the manosphere that believes that, in the heterosexual dating market, physical attractiveness is the only thing that matters.

This worldview is propped up by pseudoscientific frameworks and cherry-picked data. It's the ideological bedrock from which practices like looksmaxxing grow. To "take the black pill" is to accept this as truth.

Blue Pill

A willful refusal to acknowledge what incels believe is the observable reality — that modern society is structurally rigged against men. Borrowed from the famous choice in The Matrix, "swallowing the blue pill" means choosing comfortable ignorance over the hard truth.

Body Count

A person's total number of sexual partners. Incels use this as a measure of a woman's long-term relationship viability — the higher the number, the lower her perceived value.

Briffault's Law

Credited to French surgeon and social anthropologist Robert Briffault, it states: "The female, not the male, determines all the conditions of the animal family. Where the female can derive no benefit from association with the male, no such association takes place."

In the view of incels, they use Briffault's Law to assert that women are selfish and only use men for their own personal gain.

Chad

Incel slang for typically white, physically attractive, and sexually successful men. Chads represent the top 1 percent of men that women seek in the dating marketplace. Chads are often depicted in memes as a strong-jawed, blonde Übermensch. Incels have racist variations of Chad, including Tyrone (Black), Chaddam (Arab), Chang (East Asian), and Chadpreet (Indian).

Chadlite is used to describe men who are above average in looks, but not to the level of a Chad.

Cuck

In incel spaces, a cuck is any man perceived to have surrendered his masculine authority. It's a shortening of cuckold — historically, a man who derives sexual pleasure from watching his partner sleep with someone else.

ELO Score

A ranking algorithm developed for competitive chess to measure and compare player skill levels. Dating apps like Tinder have used a variation of it in the past to do essentially the same thing.

Femcel

A portmanteau of "female" and "incel" — women who claim to experience involuntary celibacy on the same terms as their male counterparts. The male-dominated incel community is largely dismissive of the category altogether.

Femoid

A portmanteau of "female" and "humanoid" (or "female humanoid organism," according to the UN), this is one of many pejorative terms incels use to refer to women. Sometimes shortened to Foid.

Friendzone

A metaphorical relationship purgatory in which a man pursues romantic interest in a woman who wants to keep things strictly platonic.

The concept broke into mainstream culture largely through shows like Friends and has since become a fixture of how people talk about unrequited attraction. For incels, the term expresses the belief that women are exploiting emotionally available men for attention while reserving genuine interest exclusively for Chads.

Game

A term for techniques used by Pick Up Artists to hit on women. These techniques include negging (backhanded compliments to undermine a woman's confidence), peacocking (dressing loudly to invite attention), and push-pull (alternating interest and withdrawal to manufacture tension).

High Value Man

A man deemed desirable by society at large and, more specifically, by women. These values range from some combination of wealth, status, physical dominance, and social clout.

High Value Woman

The female counterpart to the High Value Man (see above), though the criteria are considerably narrower. Where a man's value is assessed across wealth, status, physique, and social clout, a woman's value in manosphere spaces is evaluated almost exclusively on physical attractiveness, hyperfemininity, youth, and sexual history.

Hypergamy

The belief that women are hardwired to date and marry up — gravitating toward men of higher status, wealth, and physical dominance than themselves.

Incel

Short for "involuntarily celibate," the incel community has its origins in a niche blog created in the late 1990s. Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project began as a genuine support group for people of all genders struggling to find romantic connections.

Over time, the male incel community grew more extreme, placing the blame for their struggles squarely on women. These groups migrated to 4chan and Reddit — first to r/incels, then to r/Braincels after the former was banned in 2017. In the 2020s, the ideology was associated with various terror attacks carried out by self-described incels.

Looksmatch

To date someone at a perceived level of equal attractiveness.

Manlet

A pejorative for a short man — typically any male under 5'10", though the cutoff shifts depending on who you ask.

Manosphere

A loosely connected ecosystem of online communities, forums, podcasts, blogs, and influencers united by a shared pro-male, anti-feminist, and misogynistic ideology. The through line is a belief that men are the aggrieved party in modern society, and that feminism, dating culture, and mainstream institutions have been rigged against them.

MRA

Short for Men's Rights Activists. A subset of the manosphere focused on advocating for issues they believe disproportionately harm men, like custody battles, military conscription, and male suicide rates. MRA spaces frequently devolve into anti-feminist grievance politics, treating any advancement of women's rights as a direct attack on men.

Nice Guy

Nice Guy or "Nice Guy Syndrome" is a label for a man who believes basic acts of kindness and decency entitle him to a romantic partner.

Normie

Average-looking, boring person. One who doesn't participate in the incel community or interact with the manosphere.

NPC

Short for Non-Player Character. Used in the context of video games to refer to background characters encountered in the game that are not controlled by the player.

Used by incels to describe someone who is devoid of any original thought or individuality. The term is now popular as Gen Z/Alpha internet slang to refer to inoffensive, mindless trend followers.

Pink and Blue roles

The association of pink and blue with traditional heteronormative gender roles in a relationship. Pink for domestic and emotionally supportive roles like cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Blue for provider roles like financial support, physical protection, and household maintenance.

Proximity principle

A psychological theory suggesting that people in close physical proximity are more likely to form interpersonal relationships. The principle has a more cynical standing in incel circles as it's reframed as relationships made out of convenience.

PSL rating

A pseudoscientific attractiveness ranking system built by the looksmaxxing community to put an empirical number on your face. The acronym is an amalgamation of three defunct incel forums — PUAhate, SlutHate, and Lookism.

The scale runs from 0.25 to 8 (some versions go from 1 to 8), though in practice, no one actually scores an 8. It measures facial features like eye shape, canthal tilt ("the angle or slant of the outer corners of the eyes"), nose angles, jaw size, and lip thickness. Proponents of the scale can be found on sites like Looksmax.org and on Reddit, in r/rateme and r/truerateme.

PUA

"Pick Up Artist." The ecosystem and community of grifters and self-appointed coaches who sell self-help content to sexually inexperienced young men. Originally, the term was a self-applied label for members who treated seducing women as a learnable skill set.

At its peak in the mid-2000s, the PUA community built a cottage industry of boot camps, forums, and bestselling books.

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Purple Pill

Used derogatorily by incels for those who have a neutral stance towards "the truth" of gender relations.

r/MGTOW

MGTOW stands for "Men Going Their Own Way." r/MGTOW is a now-banned subreddit and broader online subsection of the manosphere built around the philosophy of male self-prioritization in what its members view as an inherently "gynocentric" — the belief that society is structurally organized around female interests at the direct expense of men. In practice, that philosophy manifests as a deliberate withdrawal from romantic relationships, marriage, and fatherhood altogether.

Red Pill

The central ideological pillar of the manosphere. To "swallow the red pill" is to reject the mainstream social narrative and accept that modern society is structurally discriminatory toward men.

Roastie

A derogatory term for sexually active women.

Sexual Market Value

An individual's measure of sexual attractiveness is scored on a decile scale of 1 to 10. The formula shifts depending on gender. For women, SMV is almost entirely physical. For men, the calculus is broader: physique, income, career status, social clout, and personality can all push the number up or down.

Sigma

Introverted, solitary alpha males. The term borrows from the lowercase Greek letter σ, used in mathematics and statistics to denote standard deviation — a measure of how far something falls outside the norm.

The concept is taken seriously in some corners of the manosphere, though it has been so thoroughly absorbed by meme culture that it's become nearly impossible to deploy without irony.

Simp

A man who performs excessive deference toward a woman in hopes of romantic return. In incel spaces, any visible effort is enough to earn the label.

Soyboy

A pejorative for men perceived as soft, effeminate, or insufficiently masculine. Typically applied to liberal, progressive, or emotionally expressive men. The "soy" refers to a debunked theory that soy products lower testosterone levels.

Stacy

The female equivalent of a Chad (i.e., physically attractive, sexually successful men). A Stacy is hyperfeminine, attractive, socially popular, and — crucially, to the incels — sexually active.

The term carries an implicit resentment: Stacy's represent everything incels want and, by their own logic, everything they'll never have access to.

The Wall

The age (usually 25 to 27) at which a woman's physical attractiveness is believed to peak and then begin to decline. In incel spaces, hitting the Wall is when women supposedly lose access to high-value men and begin settling for betabux (see above).

Trad Wife

Short for traditional wife. A woman who embraces conventional domestic gender roles — homemaking, childcare, deference to a male partner — either by personal conviction or ideological alignment with the manosphere's preferred social order.

SEE ALSO: 'We're all sinners': the Conservative tradwife who does OnlyFans White Knighting

The act of defending a woman (or women's rights) online or in-person typically attributed to ulterior romantic motives rather than genuine principle. Viewed by incels as simps in armor.

SNL UK roasts Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor during first ever Weekend Update

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 09:31

SNL UK pulled out all the stops for its first ever episode, with Tina Fey as guest host (supported in her monologue by a few household names) and a cold open that somehow managed to get shared by Donald Trump.

In the first ever Weekend Update feature above, anchors Ania Magliano and Paddy Young run through a big headlines — with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being an inevitable target.

"Renovations to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's new home, Marsh Farm, have been taking place for the past month, including the installation of Sky TV," says Magliano. "So, if you're watching Andrew: Hello! You're not going to like this next bit. Also, I'm older than I look."

Elsewhere there's also an entertainingly silly joke about helium.

Elon Musk announces plans to build Terafab, the worlds largest chip factory

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 08:42

Elon Musk announced plans to build Terafab, the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility ever.

A joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, Terafab was announced via a livestream on Saturday as "the next step towards becoming a galactic civilization." Yes, Musk's plans for this one extend beyond Earth, and it will cost $20 to $25 billion to build.

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Initially, the Terafab will be a massive chip manufacturing plant located next to Tesla's Giga Texas in Austin. Musk said they will be able to make a chip, test it, improve it, and keep iterating like that in a single building, something which "does not exist anywhere else in the world." There's lot of ramping up to do, but the goal (per Musk's comments at the Tesla shareholder meeting in November last year) is for Terafab to eventually be capable of producing 1 million chip wafers per month using a 2-nanometer process tech.

For reference, the largest semiconductor manufacturing company in the world right now is Taiwan's TSMC, and that company plans to reach a monthly output of 140,000 2-nanometer chip wafers per month by the end of 2026.

In terms of actual chips, Musk expects Terafab to produce between 100 and 200 billion AI and memory chips per year, which will mostly be used by Tesla itself, powering its cars and robots. According to Musk, Tesla needs the chips, and its current suppliers, including Samsung, TSMC, Micron, and others, have "a maximum rate at which they’re comfortable expanding."

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's X teases new dislike button on replies

"That rate is much less than we would like. And so, we either build the Terafab, or we don't have the chips,” he said during the presentation.

It's a lofty goal for a company (well, three companies) that never manufactured semiconductors before, but it gets even more ambitious.

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At full capacity, it will produce an annual 100 to 200 gigawatts of computing power on Earth, as well as 1 terawatt of computing power in Space (this means that the chips produced at Terafab will ultimately draw that much power when deployed).

For reference, Musk said that the U.S. electricity demand is 0.5 terawatts. This is why, Musk argued, 80% of Terafab's compute output will actually reside in space, on SpaceX's solar-powered AI satellites. Solar irradiance (the amount of power received from the Sun per unit area) is 5x higher in space than on Earth, while the heat rejection in the vacuum in space makes it easier to cool all those chips.

Again, for reference, the amount of compute running in Earth's low orbit right now is negligible, and is mainly limited to onboard processing on satellites.

What Musk is describing does exist, with China's "Three-Body Computing Constellation" being the most prominent example. It's a 12-satellite constellation running AI models via chips capable of total computing capacity of 5 peta operations per second (POPS), with plans to expand to 2,800 satellites capable of 1,000 POPS. While I couldn't find the total power consumption for that particular project, it is likely in the kilowatts – orders of magnitude lower than what Musk is planning.

Even for Musk's standards, these goals are incredibly ambitious. TSMC is the primary reason why there's so much political strife around Taiwan; if it were easy to build advanced foundries that produce chip wafers at the scale TSMC does, the U.S. wouldn't be so worried about China controlling Taiwan. Building a massive data center in space is an equally complex problem, though here SpaceX is uniquely positioned as the most advanced aerospace company in the world.

It doesn't end there, as Musk ultimately plans to one day build an "incredibly epic" "mass driver" on the moon which will push compute output from terawatts to petawatts, though details on how this happens are incredibly vague at this point.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk found liable for defrauding Twitter investors

Musk's timeline for all and any this is unclear. The company's next-gen AI chip, the AI5, should reach volume production in 2027, but that certainly won't be built at the Terafab, which will likely take years to build. For a reality check, it's worth recalling Musk's ambitious goals promises at Tesla Battery Day in 2020, almost none of which are true now, long after the original timelines have passed.

Ryan Gosling breaks down his best Project Hail Mary looks

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 08:23

Going into Project Hail Mary, I was expecting Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) to be many things: a dorky middle school teacher, an astute biologist, a reluctant astronaut. But nothing could have prepared me for who Grace truly is at heart, which is a fashion icon.

SEE ALSO: Ryan Gosling improvised one of 'Project Hail Mary's best moments

Between his nerdy graphic tees, a Cats shirt, and a fabulous fox sweater, Grace brings a unique sense of style to the farthest reaches of the universe. In a series of video interviews, Gosling, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and screenwriter Drew Goddard broke down Grace's style inspirations, beginning with those science-themed t-shirts.

"A lot of the silly science tees are based on t-shirts that my son, a science nerd, wears on a daily basis," Miller said. "So he took pictures of his t-shirt collection and sent them to the costume department."

These shirts included the "I wear this shirt periodically" tee, which comes with an image of the periodic table, as well as the t-shirt that labels "Ah!" as "the element of surprise."

"The scientific t-shirts remind me so much of scientists I grew up with, because there always is this sort of scientific humor that delights me," Goddard said.

Another standout from the Ryland Grace spring collection? A knit sweater with two foxes on the front, inspired by a vintage sweater sporting a similar wolf pattern.

Gosling and stylist Mark Avery repurposed that design with foxes. "The fox thing was a little Easter egg for my kids," Gosling said.

On top of being delightful to take in, Grace's tees are also plot-relevant. He has amnesia upon waking from his coma in space, so any reminder of his past life, including clothing, is useful to him.

"He was trying to glean a sense of his own personality, but just always being thrown curveballs," Gosling said. "Like, I love Cats. I guess that's who I am. I'm the guy who loves Cats and 'I had potential' shirts."

Project Hail Mary is now in theaters.

The OLED Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor is down to its lowest-ever price on Amazon — save $500

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 07:10

TL;DR: The 49-inch Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 gaming monitor is down to $799.99 at Amazon, matching the lowest price we’ve seen and saving you $500 on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9 Curved Gaming Monitor $799.99 at Amazon
$1,299.99 Save $500 Get Deal

OLED gaming monitors still have a bad habit of costing as much as a full PC build, especially once you get into the giant ultrawide category. That is exactly why this Samsung deal feels worth considering, since Amazon has dropped the Odyssey OLED G9 back under $800 for a limited time.

As of March 23, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 (G91SD) is available for $799.99 at Amazon, down from $1,299.99. That puts this massive curved display back at the same low price we saw earlier in the year, returning ahead of the Amazon Spring Sale.

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To put its sheer scale down to specifics, you’re getting a 49-inch curved QD-OLED panel with Dual QHD resolution at 5120 x 1440, which is basically the same concept as having two 27-inch QHD monitors side by side without a bezel cutting through the center. That makes it great for playing shooters like Fortnite or MOBAs like League of Legends — with space for monitoring a stream on Twitch or handling other admin tasks.

Samsung also backs that huge screen up with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a near-instant 0.03ms response time, so it is not just big for the sake of being big. On top of that, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, G-Sync compatibility, Picture-in-Picture multitasking, an ergonomic stand, and a three-year warranty help round out the package.

For an even lower price tag, you can also get the Samsung 27-inch Odyssey OLED G6 series gaming monitor at $200 off on Amazon. From other brands, you can grab the 32-inch 4K LG UltraGear gaming monitor for under $800.

Dont wait for Amazons Big Spring Sale — the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is at its best-ever price right now

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 07:07

SAVE $300: As of March 23, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is on sale for $499 at Amazon. That's a 38% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Watch Ultra 2 $499 at Amazon
$799 Save $300   Get Deal

Amazon's Big Spring Sale kicks off this week (March 25), but for the eager shoppers among us, there are already some early deals dropping.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is down to its best-ever price. As of March 23, this impressive smartwatch is down from $799 to $499, giving you a saving of $300 on list price. This deal is for the 49mm watch that has both cellular and GPS connectivity.

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This watch is truly designed for endurance sports, combining all the great lifestyle features of the Apple Watch with impressive stats for fitness tracking. It can track a range of activities including running, cycling, swimming, hiking, and diving. And for each, you'll get advanced workout metrics like heart rate zones and training load. There's even sport-specific features like running form analysis, cycling metrics with Bluetooth accessory support, and offline maps for hiking.

This watch also features water resistance up to 100 meters, so it'll support swim tracking with stats like stroke detection and lap count. You'll also get dive capabilities, including depth and temperature sensing (we weren't kidding when we said it was advanced).

It also comes with cellular connectivity, so it can handle calls, texts, and even music streaming without needing to have your phone nearby.

Amazon's Big Spring Sale kicks off later this week, but you can find this deal at Amazon right now.

Tina Feys first ever SNL UK monologue features some big surprise guests

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 07:01

SNL UK kicked off with its first ever episode on Saturday, hosted by SNL veteran Tina Fey herself — but some people, including Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, had questions about why an American was hosting.

"That is a valid question," says Fey in the monologue above. "Why an American host? And the way it was explained to me was that, for this first episode anyway, how do I put this politely: none of you fuckers would do it."

Coughlan isn't the only audience member to chime in, either. There's also Michael Cera and Graham Norton, with the latter joining Fey on stage to ask her a few cue card questions.

"Let me help you," whispers Norton. "I have a gift for making American celebrities likeable to a British audience."

Elsewhere, you can also watch the first ever cold open mocking UK prime minister Keir Starmer — which was later shared by Donald Trump.

NYT Mini crossword answers, hints for March 23, 2026

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 06:35

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.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: How to play Pips, the newest NYT game

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Monday, March 23, 2026:

AcrossOften-skipped parts of podcasts
  • The answer is Ads.

Netherlands city that's home to the International Court of Justice, with "The"
  • The answer is Hague.

Stopped sleeping
  • The answer is Awoke.

Contents of a bear-shaped bottle
  • The answer is Honey.

___ Liu, gold medal-winning figure skater at the 2026 Olympics
  • The answer is Alysa.

DownSheer torment
  • The answer is Agony.

"The ___ of Hazzard"
  • The answer is Dukes.

"Catch you later!"
  • The answer is See Ya.

Text reaction button between "👎" and "‼️"
  • The answer is Haha.

Nowhere to be found, for short
  • The answer is Awol.

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.

The Apple Watch Series 10 has hit a record-low price ahead of Amazons Big Spring Sale — save $300

Mashable - Mon, 03/23/2026 - 06:24

SAVE $300: As of March 23, the Apple Watch Series 10 is on sale for $499 at Amazon. That's a 38% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Watch Series 10 $499 at Amazon
$799 Save $300   Get Deal

Amazon's upcoming Big Spring Sale is a great way to save big on Apple products. And the good news is there's already some impressive early deals showing up, so you don't need to wait until it officially goes live.

The sale kicks off on March 25, but deals like this one on the Apple Watch Series 10 are already impressing. Down from $799 to $499, this smartwatch is currently at its lowest-ever price. This price is for the 42mm watch with both cellular and GPS connectivity, and it comes in the gold titanium case with the gold milanese loop.

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The Apple Watch Series 10 is a perfect all-rounder smartwatch: it's a great fitness tracker, has lifestyle stats, and can even monitor safety. As a fitness tracker, it covers a variety of activities from running to swimming, giving you advanced workout metrics and training load. For swimming, it has added support stats like depth and water temperature.

Safety features are an added bonus, and include Fall Detection, Crash Detection, Emergency SOS, and Check In notifications. And it doesn't end there, this watch also has a whole range of health tracking features, including ECG, blood oxygen monitoring, heart rate notifications, sleep tracking, as well as menstrual cycle tracking.

This deal is available at Amazon now for its best-ever price.

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