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TL;DR: Watch Argentina vs. Burkina Faso in an International Friendly for free on Telefe. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
All the attention is on Lionel Messi's farewell fixture against Benin, but Argentina actually have another game to play before that emotional moment.
Argentina face off against Burkina Faso this weekend at the Estadio Monumental. They're coming off a comfortable victory over Bolivia and will expect another win here. Burkina Faso aren't weak opposition, but most fans will expect them to come up short here.
If you're interested in watching Argentina vs. Burkina Faso in an International Friendly from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.
When is Argentina vs. Burkina Faso?Argentina vs. Burkina Faso in an International Friendly kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 3. This fixture takes place at the Estadio Monumental.
How to watch Argentina vs. Burkina Faso for freeArgentina vs. Burkina Faso in an International Friendly is available to live stream for free on Telefe.
Telefe is geo-restricted to Argentina, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Argentina, meaning you can live stream Argentina vs. Burkina Faso for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Argentina vs. Burkina Faso for free by following these simple steps:
Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice
Open up the app and connect to a server in Argentina
Visit Telefe
Watch Argentina vs. Burkina Faso for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Argentina vs. Burkina Faso without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream this fixture before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for Telefe?ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on Telefe, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries, including Argentina
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices, including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to 10 simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.
Live stream Argentina vs. Burkina Faso for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Don't say Amazon never gave you anything. Aside from the usual perks of being a Prime member (free delivery, exclusive deals, Prime Video access, Grubhub+, etc.), Amazon also offers subscription services for music and reading: Amazon Music Unlimited and Kindle Unlimited. And as a Prime member, there's a good chance you can get these services for free — at least for a limited time.
If you haven't already explored what Amazon's subscriptions for Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Music Unlimited have to offer, now's the perfect opportunity. With Prime Big Deal Days on the horizon, Amazon is dishing out deals left and right, including on its subscription services.
Here's everything you need to know to get both Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Music Unlimited for free this season.
What is Kindle Unlimited?Kindle Unlimited is a paid subscription service offered by Amazon to feed your reading habit. It's basically like Amazon's own library service, where you can borrow up to 20 books at a time (magazines don't count). Libby, the free library app, works pretty similarly. The main differences, besides the cost, are that there are no wait times for popular books and no time limits on borrowing books. You don't actually even need a Kindle device to use Kindle Unlimited.
The Kindle Unlimited library doesn't offer every book you can dream of; it has a rotating lineup. But as a paying subscriber myself, I can vouch for its lineup being pretty stacked. Amazon says there are over 5 million digital books, audiobooks, comics, manga, and magazines across all genres in the Kindle Unlimited library.
How to get Kindle Unlimited for freeIn the lead-up to the Prime Big Deal Days (aka October Prime Day) sale, Amazon is running a Kindle Unlimited promo that lets Prime members get their first three months free. The deal is available for both new and eligible returning subscribers who are also Prime members. If you're not a Prime member, there's still time to sign up and lock in this promotional offer. You'll have until the October Prime Day event wraps up on Oct. 8 to sign up for free.
Once the promotional offer ends, you'll be automatically charged full price unless you cancel.
Opens in a new window Credit: Kindle Unlimited Kindle Unlimited Free for 3 months (with Prime) Get Deal How much does Kindle Unlimited cost?A Kindle Unlimited subscription costs $11.99 per month. There's only one membership tier and no annual memberships offered. There's typically a 30-day free trial available to new users, except during major events like Prime Day and Black Friday when that is extended to three months.
What is Amazon Music Unlimited?As the name suggests, Amazon Music Unlimited is an unlimited music streaming service similar to Apple Music or Spotify. It features a massive music catalog that you can listen to ad-free, on demand, and in high quality with HD and spatial audio. It also includes plenty of ad-free podcasts and one free audiobook per month via Audible.
How to get Amazon Music Unlimited for freeLike Kindle Unlimited, Amazon Music Unlimited is running a promo in the lead-up to the October Prime Day event. Prime members can lock in four free months of Amazon Music Unlimited's Individual Plan. Unlike the Kindle Unlimited offer, however, non-Prime members can also get a free three-month subscription. Either way, the deal is a limited-time offer available only to new subscribers. Just head to Amazon.com/music or download the app to get the deal.
Once your four (or three) months are up, you'll automatically be charged the full subscription cost unless you cancel. Set your calendar alerts now.
Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Music Unlimited Free for 4 months (with Prime) Get Deal How much does Amazon Music Unlimited cost?If you're a Prime member, Amazon Music Unlimited will cost you $11.99 per month for an Individual Plan. Not a Prime member? You'll pay a dollar more per month. There are also options for a Family Plan for $21.99 per month, a Single Device Plan for $6.99 per month, and a Student Plan for $5.99 per month.
I have a confession and some good news. First, a confession: While watching Godzilla Minus Zero in a theater, I squealed and screamed in excitement loudly and repeatedly. I even threw my hands up at one point, as if I were going down the sharp hill of a rollercoaster ride. Now, good news: No one was any the wiser to my giddy noise. (And I wasn’t the only one whose hands took flight!)
The sequel to the critically acclaimed and fan-revered Godzilla Minus One offers a soundscape so rich in roars, along with a booming score, that I could barely hear my own screams. And bonus good news: You will likely echo my enthralled reaction, because Godzilla Minus Zero is awesome, in the classical sense of the word.
Godzilla Minus Zero is a sensational sequel. Hidetaka Yoshioka returns as Noda in "Godzilla Minus Zero." Credit: GKIDSGodzilla Minus One writer/director Takashi Yamazaki returns, picking up his kaiju saga two years after the events of the last film. In Godzilla Minus Zero, Japanese pilot Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is now a celebrated hero because of his ace flying in the final assault on Godzilla, which sent the massive monster back to the depths of the Pacific Ocean. His love, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), has healed from her wounds from Godzilla's attack, but wears a conspicuous eye patch. And their gleeful daughter, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), is the envy of a scrappy flock of war orphans cared for by their gruff but compassionate neighbor, Sumiko Ōta (Sakura Ando).
Meanwhile, friend of the family and silver fox with gorgeous hair Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka) has been promoted to the head of a military unit dedicated to eliminating future kaiju threats. So, when a new creature rises, taking flight with a terrifying ferocity, Noda turns to some old friends for help.
Harkening back to the early Godzilla movies, Yamazaki balances scenes of massive monster destruction with sequences of human drama. The post-World War II melodrama in the first film revolved around Shikishima, a disgraced kamikaze pilot who was at first too cowardly to sacrifice himself for the greater good. In the finale, he finally risked his life to topple Godzilla — and he survived! And this time, the public opinion on such an escape shifted in his favor.
In its sequel, he is challenged to risk their safety to build a better future for Akiko. After the long battle for Shikishima to even acknowledge the love his family cobbled together in the ruins of war, it's a thrill to see him so openly affectionate with both — and a brutal blow to realize he is once again risking everything to preserve them.
Godzilla Minus Zero goes harder than any Godzilla movie before. Noriko (Minami Hamabe) wears an eyepatch in "Godzilla Minus Zero." Credit: GKIDSIn the franchise's 70-year history, Godzilla Minus Zero is the first of these films to be rated R. Yamazaki uses this as an opportunity to turn jaded adult viewers into giddy kids again, freshly awed by the might of these monsters.
As has been teased in advertising around the movie, Godzilla Minus Zero sees the rise of Ghidorah, an extraterrestrial dragon with wings and gravity beams that allow it to lift buildings from their foundations and drop them like bombs. Far from the clunky costumed actors of the original films, Yamazaki's crew has built a monster that is seamlessly realized and absolutely electrifying.
First, Ghidorah attacks Matsumoto City, turning the daily lives of civilians into a waking nightmare. These scenes of devastation are exciting and disturbing, reconfiguring the gruesome realities of war with a sci-fi bend that makes them distinctly harrowing. But things get even more intense when Godzilla returns for a monster-versus-monster battle. In these sequences, the R rating allows Yamazaki to take the damage against these iconic creatures to a jaw-dropping extreme. The gore is shocking and exciting in these sequences. But elsewhere, graphic violence is used for a more humane purpose.
Echoing the previous movie's message about the horrors of war, Godzilla Minus Zero introduces new character who is a hibakusha (a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing). Through his perspective, the graphic evisceration of atomic weaponry is made horrifyingly clear. Men, women, and children melted and scorched beyond recognition. It is soberingly horrendous.
This is a brilliant balance of violence. With the monsters, the battles resurrect the wonder I experienced watching those original movies on battered VHS tapes, lying belly down on my friend’s fuzzy living room carpeting. Then, the toll taken on human bodies demands audiences recognize the difference between these fun fantasies of violence and the terrible truth of it in the name of war.
Knitted together with outstanding visual effects and an earnest ensemble, Godzilla Minus Zero is truly epic. It demands to be seen in theaters, where its visuals can hit like an atomic breath and its soundscape can rattle your very bones.
Let yourself be swallowed by that roar. You won't regret it.
Godzilla Minus Zero was reviewed out of the New York Film Festival. The movie opens in theaters and IMAX on Nov. 6.
TL;DR: Get things done more efficiently with this Microsoft Project Professional 2024 lifetime license for Windows, on sale now for just $49.97 (reg. $1,129.99) through Oct. 4.
Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Project Professional 2024: Lifetime License for Windows $49.97Calendars can show you when a project is due, but dates don’t really help you figure out how all the pieces need to fit together. That’s where Microsoft Project Professional 2024 comes in, serving as your very own personal project assistant to help you plan, execute, and complete projects.
Right now, you can lock in a Microsoft Project Professional 2024 lifetime license for Windows for just $49.97 until tomorrow, Oct. 4, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Getting a project done requires more than a basic to-do list. Microsoft Project Professional 2024 serves as your own project management tool, helping you take your tasks from start to finish.
Microsoft Project Professional 2024’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to get started. It’s packed with pre-built templates ready to help keep your projects on track. Submit timesheets to see how much time has been spent on project and non-project work, or look at intuitive baselines that let you track and compare your actual progress against the original plan.
If you’re more visual, Microsoft Project Professional 2024 makes it easy to view complex schedules with multiple built-in timelines. It also allows you to run what-if scenarios.
Collaborating with others is easy with Microsoft Project Professional 2024 — just hover over your team members’ names to see their online status and then start a chat or call with them on Microsoft Teams.
This lifetime license for Windows is tied to your PC, not your Microsoft account, so you can enjoy permanent access on your device.
Snag this Microsoft Project Professional 2024 lifetime license for Windows for just $49.97 through tomorrow.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to the 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan is $99.99 (reg. $540). That’s 81% off, and it includes 4 million credits per month for a long list of AI models.
Opens in a new window Credit: 1minAI 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan Lifetime Subscription $99.99One AI writes cleaner copy. Another handles code better. A third is stronger in research. Keeping up with which one does what, and paying for each, gets old quickly.
1min.AI puts them in one app, so you can stop guessing. For a limited time, the Advanced Business Plan is $99.99 for life.
You can chat with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, and Cohere, including GPT-5.5 Pro, Claude 4.6 Sonnet, and Gemini 3.1 Pro. Try the same prompt across a few of them and keep the answer you like. For more on how these models compare, check out Mashable’s [AI coverage](INTERNAL LINK: Mashable AI category page).
1min.AI also includes task-specific tools like a summarizer, paraphraser, and grammar checker. It also has image tools for generation, upscaling, and background removal.
There are PDF and document tools, plus audio and video features such as text-to-speech, transcription, and text-to-video. The plan supports up to 20 team members and works on the web, Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Here’s the catch. Everything runs on credits. The plan includes 4 million per month, plus up to 450,000 more if you log in daily. That works out to roughly 1.1 million words or about 1,186 images per month. Heavier tasks like video use credits much faster, and flagship models may burn through them quicker. You’ll also need to redeem your code within 30 days of purchase.
If you use AI often and want to stop switching between apps, this is worth a look. Get a lifetime subscription to the 1min.AI Advanced Business Plan for $99.99 (reg. $540).
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel Verity has been adapted into a star-studded movie, headlined by Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson. Together, this trio makes up a torrid love triangle defined as much by dark desires as by lies and manipulation. So, in the end, who are we meant to believe?
Mashable is going full spoilers. Proceed with caution.
What's Verity about? Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosVerity centers on Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), a novelist who's been published but largely overlooked. However, a life-changing career opportunity presents itself when a publisher asks her to ghostwrite three novels for best-selling novelist Verity Crawford (Hathaway), who writes all her books from the perspective of their villains. Part of the job entails traveling to the Crawford home, which is a remote cabin near a lake, to go through Verity's office and files for notes on how the series should continue.
Why can't Verity just send along notes? Following a car crash, Verity cannot walk or talk. So, her husband Jeremy (Hartnett) invites Lowen to stay with them and their young son Crew (Brady Wagner), while she goes through the notes. During her time in the cabin, Lowen not only begins to be enchanted by Verity's home, child, and husband, but also uncovers a manuscript called So Be It. Written by Verity, this appears to be a memoir where the author confesses her darkest thoughts.
Spooked by this memoir, Lowen begins to suspect that Verity is not actually injured as she appears. Could she be sneaking around the house when no one's looking? And to what end?
What's in Verity's memoir, So Be It? Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosThe story unfurled in the memoir begins with the night Verity met Jeremy at a party. She recounts how obsessed they became with each other, and how devastated she was when he would go off to work. So, she began to write a novel, filling her days with a fictional version of him named Lane.
According to So Be It, Jeremy is in awe of her when he reads the first novel. But outside the memoir, he tells Lowen that he never read another of his wife's Noble Virtues books, because he didn't like getting into her head like that. This is reflected in So Be It.
In the memoir, Verity equates his refusal to read her other work as a form of rejection. The more major blow, though, is how he loves their not-yet-born twins more than her. While pressing his face to her bulging belly, he says that his love for their children is unconditional, not like their love, which is "conditional." Verity's eyes well up as she says she loves Jeremy unconditionally, and he placatingly agrees. But here, a dark seed appears to be planted: the resentment of her children.
Other flashbacks show how Verity neglects her children, focusing instead on her own pleasures, like napping and writing novels. Over years, this selfishness festers to a murderous loathing of the kids, whom her husband loves more than her. So, she plots to drown them with a canoe ride in the lake — with no life vests.
Her son Crew survives, but her daughter Harper drowns. And to her dismay, this tragedy doesn't send Jeremy back into her arms, but into a depressive funk. The manuscript's title comes from her final confession, which begins with "So be it." She plans to kill herself by driving into a tree.
Lowen reads this final section with shock, believing that this is exactly what happened leading up to Verity's current circumstance. From there, she decides Verity is a villain, like the ones in her Noble Virtues novels, and so Lowen feels emboldened to steal the lifestyle that she feels Verity doesn't "deserve."
How does Verity end? Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosLowen turns the manuscript over to Jeremy. He reads the seeming confession and, in a fit of rage, kills Verity by suffocating her.
Far from a helpless witness, Lowen gives him advice on how to "make it look like an accident" so they can get away with murder, and start a new life together. After dumping the dead wife in the lake, the pair hook up, resulting in Lowen getting pregnant.
Seven months later, Lowen boasts a big, pregnant belly as Jeremy and his son Crew tidy up the cabin preparing to move somewhere else with her. It's during the last look at the house that Crew reveals his secret hiding spot, where he's been keeping his secret drawings — and where his mother hid a letter to Jeremy.
What's in Verity's hidden letter? Credit: Amazon MGM StudiosAnother version of Verity appears in the handwritten letter Lowen finds at the end of the film. Here, she tells Jeremy that if he's found this letter, it means she and Crew are far away and safe.
In the letter, she says So Be It was not a confession but a coping method. The idea came years before from her publisher, who'd suggested getting into the mindset of a villain with a writing exercise of creating a diary about her everyday life with a "sinister" tone. Verity found this exercise helpful in writing her novels. Then, once Harper drowned, she used it as a way to explore her grief. She didn't expect Jeremy to find it and believe it was true.
In the letter, she laments that he hadn't read her writing in years. Why would he have looked at the open file on her computer? Why would he not give her a chance to explain? Instead, the letter alleges, Jeremy committed to fatal vengeance. He drugged her and put her in a vehicle, setting up to kill her through a car crash, just like in So Be It.
When she awoke from the crash, she decided to play being paralyzed until she could escape with Crew. Verity feared that if she told anyone what happened, Jeremy would turn over the memoir to the authorities as if it were a confession, and she might be arrested for Harper's death and separated from her only surviving child.
Lowen reads this, horrified, gripping her pregnant belly. Did she kill an innocent woman to steal a wife-abusing murderer?
Which version of Verity is real?Both Hoover's novel and director Michael Showalter's movie end with Lowen wondering which version of Verity is the true one. Notably, Verity's name means truth. But let's regard the clues. The first involves access.
In the film, Lowen finds the manuscript for So Be It in Verity's desk, tucked away inside a packet of cigarettes on a jump drive. The manuscript, while seeming to confess to being a bad mother and a child murderer, is not password-protected.
By contrast, the handwritten letter, scribbled out across pages torn from a notebook, is hidden within the floorboards of the lake house, which no one but Crew knew was a hiding place.
The access to these items suggests the letter was the secret, while the memoir was something Verity didn't think she needed to hide. An alternate reading could be that Jeremy, who gave Lowen full access to his wife's office after liking her book, planted the jump drive where he thought she might find it. But the preserved pages under the floorboards suggest he didn't know about the letter at all.
The second curious element of So Be It versus the letter is how Showalter depicts Verity in the flashbacks of each. For the memoir, she is always flawlessly groomed, her hair long and shining, draped over snug dresses or cashmere cardigans the color of fresh blood. Her skin is radiant. Her expressions are theatrically arch, recalling the psycho-biddy theatrics of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. And to that end, from her bold red lips comes an accent that is vaguely Transatlantic, emphasizing that Verity as a villain is a larger-than-life character, enhanced by Lowen's fantasy.
By contrast, the Verity shown in the letter's flashbacks is far less fantastical. Verity's skin is blotchy. Her eyes aren't sharp but clouded with tears. Her mouth is not a painted smile, but a pained frown of grief. This Verity looks more like the version Lowen saw around the house, stripped of her veneer of glamour and impenetrability.
Then there's one little moment that feels like a tipping point into which version of Verity rings most true.
Once Lowen reveals to Jeremy the memoir manuscript, he barrels into the bedroom bellowing at Verity, demanding to know if she's faking her infirmity. At first, she's still and stoic, as she was when Lowen tested her by stabbing her palm with a pushpin. But then, her facade cracks. She puts out an open palm toward her husband in a gesture of pause, and begs him not to hurt her. He then throttles her.
This simple, panicked request reflects the Verity of the still-undiscovered letter, which would accuse her husband of attacking her and trying to murder her because he believed she'd killed their daughter. She doesn't smirk or seduce to wiggle her way out of this conflict; she begs for mercy. That doesn't seem in like with the So Be It Verity. It seems the fearful reaction of a woman who knows exactly how dangerous the man in her life is.
Of course, the truth could lie somewhere in between. And for Lowen, believing the truth is more complicated might be the only way she can sleep at night... especially sharing a bed with Jeremy.
Verity is now in theaters.
Mashable's discerning reporters and editors are constantly testing the latest gadgets, from e-readers to headphones, laptops, phones, power stations, smart rings, and portable speakers. This year, many of our favorite products have been besieged by price hikes as a result of the ongoing memory crisis. Fortunately, Amazon is about to bring tech shoppers some relief in the form of Prime Big Deal Days, better known as October Prime Day.
Set for Oct. 6 and 7, Prime Big Deal Days is a 48-hour sale for members of Amazon's Prime program. Often referred to as "October Prime Day," it serves as Amazon's unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. We've been covering the event since its inception in 2022, back when it was still called the Prime Early Access Sale. And this year, we'll be keeping an extra close eye on the best early Prime Day tech deals.
SEE ALSO: Try Amazon Prime for free for 30 days to get access to October Prime Day 2026In the lead-up to the sale, Amazon is already offering some steep discounts on select devices from brands like Apple, TCL, Garmin, Beats, and Sony. After spending hours poring over these deals, we've identified the best early Prime Day deals that are so good, we'd buy them ourselves.
How do we pick these deals? We look for products we recommend at record-low prices (or close to them). We use price-tracking tools like camelcamelcamel to see if Amazon's discounts are actually better than usual, then cross-check them with other retailers' listings to make sure they're not cheaper elsewhere. (Walmart and Target are both gearing up to host their own October sales, FYI.) You can add our picks to your cart with confidence. And if we expect prices to drop lower in the days ahead, we'll be sure to tell you that.
So, without any further ado, these are the best early October Prime Day deals we've spotted so far.
$99 AirPods (a Prime Day classic)It wouldn't be an Amazon Prime event without some $99 AirPods. But, ironically, before the sale officially begins, you can also grab these earbuds for $99 at Walmart. That could change come Oct. 6, as Amazon may be holding back some inventory for Prime Big Deal Days.
Apple's fourth-generation earbuds have excellent audio quality, a comfortable fit, and a five-hour battery life. The newer AirPods 5 sound even better and add ANC, but this pair is still a great option for iOS users on a budget. (Read Mashable's review.)
Note: The AirPods 4 dipped down to $69 last Black Friday, but $99 is their lowest price so far in 2026. Plus, they probably won't be in stock much longer now that their successors have launched.
Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods 4 $99 at WalmartIf you're a professional creative, developer, or AI enthusiast who needs a compact new laptop for work, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better option than the 14-inch, M5 Max-powered MacBook Pro. (The M5 Max is Apple's most powerful laptop chip to date.) The "base" configuration with 36GB of RAM and 2TB of storage got a $500 price increase back in June, which bumped it from $3,599 to $4,099. But right now, Amazon has it on sale for just $3,499 — a $600 savings. It's even cheaper than before.
I should mention that Amazon's MacBook Pro discounts have capped out around $400 during its past Prime events. Suffice to say, this is a very good deal that probably won't last long.
Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5 Max, 36GB RAM, 2TB SSD) $3,499 at AmazonTwo of Amazon's own Fire tablets are already on sale for record-low prices ahead of Prime Big Deal Days. Take your pick from the compact Fire HD 8 with 64GB of storage — our favorite Fire tablet overall — or the big-screened Fire HD 10 with 32GB of storage, nicer cameras, and a sharper display. (Both have 13-hour battery lives.) They're now up to 53% off for Prime members.
Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire HD 8 (64GB) $79.99 at AmazonAmazon's Fire tablets have been safe from price hikes so far, but the retailer raised the prices of all its Fire TV streaming sticks by at least $5 in August. The 4K Plus model went from $49.99 to $69.99. Nevertheless, Amazon will sell it to you for just $37.99 right now. (You can also try the coupon code STREAM4K, as we've seen it work at times this week.)
FWIW, this is Amazon's cheapest media player with support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, Nvidia Geforce Now, and Alexa Home Theater (a surround sound feature that works with Echo devices).
Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus $37.99 at AmazonGarmin's vívoactive 6 is a lightweight fitness smartwatch with an AMOLED display and an 11-day battery life. It supports features like constant heart rate readings, stress tracking, and sleep coaching. Our friends over at Lifehacker, one of our sister sites, gave it a stellar 4.5/5 review, calling it "a great watch for somebody who wants to track their steps and activity."
Opens in a new window Credit: Garmin Garmin vívoactive 6 (42mm) $229.99 at AmazonThe 65-inch TCL QM8L is the best QLED TV for most people, according to Leah Stodart, our former TV expert. She praised its "superb peak brightness, detailed picture quality, and fantastic glare handling." (QLED TVs in general "are ideal for people whose TV usage happens mostly in the daytime, especially watching sports," to quote her TV specs guide.)
Right now, the 85-inch QM8L is available for $2,797.99, which is a good price. However, we do expect this TV to go on sale for $2,497.99 or less once October Prime Day begins Oct. 6, so hold out if you can.
Opens in a new window Credit: TCL TCL 85-inch QM8L SQD-Mini-LED QLED 4K TV $2,497.99 at AmazonThe best early Prime Day tech deals always include savings on Amazon's own devices, like the affordable 40-inch Ember Fire TV. This TV has a high-definition HDR10+ display and doubles as an Alexa smart speaker for your home. The 28% discount drops the price to a very affordable $179.99, its lowest-ever price.
And if you're looking for a cheap TV with a little bit more oomph, the 50-inch QLED Ember Fire TV is currently $100 off.
Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Ember 40-inch 2-Series Fire TV $179.99 at AmazonNintendo's upcoming remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2 will be one of the year's biggest gaming releases (after GTA 6, obviously). Preordering the physical edition will normally cost you $69.99 — it's $10 more than the digital version — but Amazon has it on sale for $59.88 ahead of its Nov. 5 launch. The first print run has special packaging with foil cover art, so don't dawdle.
Opens in a new window Credit: Nintendo "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" (Nintendo Switch 2) $59.88 at AmazonOur tech editor reviewed this classic DJI vlogging camera when it first came out. At the time, we called it the perfect camera for social creators, and we were right. Since then, this camera has become a very common sight at tech events, conferences, and anywhere else streamers and creators get together.
The new DJI Osmo Pocket 4 can be hard to find in the United States, but the previous-gen version is hardly out of date. This gimbal camera shoots gorgeous 4K vertical and horizontal video, and uses the built-in gimbal for tracking and motion stabilization.
Read our review of the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera.
Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo $549 at AmazonWhether you're on team Android or iOS, this power bank will give your smartphone a second life. This has not been a good year to buy a new phone, thanks to rising prices, so if your battery is holding on for dear life, just slip this power bank into your purse or backpack and avoid low-battery anxiety. It charges your phone via an included USB-C cable at a speedy 45W.
Opens in a new window Credit: Ugreen Ugreen Nexode Pro 10000mAh 45W Mini Power Bank $37.97 at AmazonApple released a new generation of AirTag trackers this year, the AirTag 2. The popular Apple tracker is already at an all-time low price, and we don't expect it to get any cheaper in the days ahead. You can also grab the 4-pack on sale for $89, though we're hoping that price drops to $79.99 soon.
Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirTag (2nd Gen) $24 at AmazonThis little gadget always goes on sale during Amazon sales, and so we're hardly surprised that it's one of the retailer's early Prime Day deals for October 2026. You can add this smart plug to your cart for just $12.98, a nearly 50% discount. If you're trying to spend every last penny of an Amazon gift card, go ahead and add it to your shopping cart.
Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Smart Plug $12.98 at AmazonThe global memory crisis has led to rising costs for smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles, but it's been a disaster for SD cards and hard drives. So, while the discounts aren't as huge as they were in past years, you can find savings on these memory products during October Prime Big Deal Days. We've found a bunch of early Prime Day deals on portable SSDs and hard drives, and we expect even more savings to come.
Case in point: The SanDisk Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Card Express is currently $40 off. Likewise, you can save $40 on the popular SanDisk Extreme portable SSD with 1TB of storage.
Opens in a new window Credit: SanDisk SanDisk microSD Express Card for Switch 2, 512GB $159.99 at AmazonThis exclusive deal is for Prime members only, and it's a good one. For a limited time, Prime members can sign up for four months of Audible for just $0.99. You'll also get a $20 Audible credit to spend as you like.
Our advice? Take advantage of this deal and set a calendar reminder three months and 29 days in the future.
Opens in a new window Credit: Audible Audible $0.99 for 4 months + $20 Audible credit Get Deal Cheap wireless earbuds for under $25If you're hoping to buy flagship-quality noise-cancelling earbuds, then wait for Prime Big Deal Days to begin, as we're expecting big discounts on Apple, Sony, and Bose earbuds. However, if you're prone to losing earbuds and just need something simple for everyday use, the popular Anker Soundcore P30i Earbuds are already at a record-low price of $24.99.
Opens in a new window Credit: Anker Anker Soundcore P30i Noise-Cancelling Earbuds $24.99 at AmazonWe've made no secret of the fact that we love Bose headphones and earbuds here at Mashable. The brand makes the most comfortable headphones we've ever tested, and the brand's popular QuietComfort line recently got refreshed.
Earlier this week, you could get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2) and the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (Gen 2) for $50 off, but this deal has ended. However, we are very confident these products will get even bigger discounts when the Prime Big Deal Days sale starts on Tuesday, Oct. 6
Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (Gen 2) $249.99 at AmazonSome of the best early Prime Day tech deals so far are on Apple's iPads — or, at least, they were. As of this weekend, Apple's iPads are no longer on sale. That's the bad news. The good news is we fully expect the base iPad, the M4 iPad Air, and hopefully the M5 iPad Pro to get discounts in the coming days.
In the meantime, check out our guide to all of the October Prime Day iPad deals we expect this year.
Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad Air (M4), 11 inches $649 at AmazonDigger is not the movie it appears to be at first glance. And if you walked out of the theater feeling baffled, we're here for you.
Co-written and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger begins as a political satire in the vein of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Funny enough, Iñárritu has previously mirrored such title structures with films like BiRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. But here, he goes with just Digger.
Tom Cruise, almost unrecognizable in masterfully applied head-to-toe prosthetics, stars as Digger Rockwell, a third-generation oil tycoon who is more concerned with the health of his festering cat than the environment.
The film's first act follows Digger as he learns that a drilling site of his in Greenland has caused an enormous ice shelf to break off, which could result in devastation to a European coastline. However, as Digger takes a moment to talk man-to-man to a snarling president (John Goodman), something strange happens that turns the movie on its head.
What's the big spoiler in Digger?Though the trailer makes Digger seem like a fairly straightforward narrative feature with farcical humor, a bit of production design reveals its truth. As the president and Digger talk about the former's rectal cancer diagnosis, a tree in the view of the bay window falls. Then, a voice comes over loudspeaker, and an enormous man appears over the horizon to grab the tree and place it back where it stood.
Just like that, the artifice in Digger reveals that Cruise is not playing Digger Rockwell but an actor named Curtis. It is Curtis who is playing Digger Rockwell in a play, and that play is called Fuel Fools.
The man on the horizon is not a giant, but seems so as he fixes the model backdrop that's projected on a green screen behind the stage's setting of Digger's home. While that happens, Curtis will storm offstage to check his phone (a futuristic bauble that can project video calls onto his dressing room mirror). Like Iñárritu's Birdman, this film's actor anti-hero has a strained relationship with his wife and daughter, the latter of whom has left him a phone message before her flight takes off.
Curtis is the star of the 25th anniversary production of Fuel Fools, which will be described as a "cult hit" that was originally produced on a black box stage with three actors performing a series of monologues. However, as the enveloping setting of Digger suggests, this revival production is going to unusual extremes to immerse the audience in this farce.
The film's sets often appear to have four sides, standard for a narrative feature. So, once the theatrical production element is revealed, you may well wonder where the in-world audience is supposed to be. Iñárritu breaks from the story of the play throughout Digger to reveal just that, exposing one set after another, along with more details about why this production is this garish.
Jesse Plemons' role in Digger is another spoiler. Credit: Seoju Park / Warner Bros. EntertainmentDuring Curtis' first break from the play, he is intruded upon by a stiff, redheaded man (Plemons), who commends him for really understanding the complexity of the character. Curtis understands this is one of the investors in the show, and so tries to be cordial about the intrusion.
In future breaks, where Curtis argues with the play's director Hannah (Sophie Wilde), it's made clear that Digger is not a fictional character within the world of this film. Instead, he was a historical figure who did cause an ecological disaster that did catastrophically impact the world. This play was presumably written after the dust settled, slightly more than 25 years ago. Fuel Fools was conceived as a farce that would invite the audience to laugh at the wealthy and powerful men who traded the future of the planet for money, without regret or restraint. They made the world worse, but at least, the film seems to suggest, we can laugh at them now that we've survived them.
In Digger's climax, Plemons is revealed to be not just a producer of the play, not just a fan of Curtis and his portrayal of Digger, but the real-life Digger's nephew Kenny. Previous to this, Kenny (as played by a child actor) appears in the play in a living room scene, cuddling Digger's decrepit cat. Plemons' Kenny recalls to Curtis seeing the play when it first premiered, and how it felt to see an audience cheer at his late uncle's downfall. He wanted to bring that back, but on an epic scale, sparing no expense (and generally ignoring how theater and film function differently).
While it's possible the Rockwell fortune endured even Digger's world-changing mistakes, a subplot involving Curtis' daughter going missing suggests that Kenny has made a fortune with a mysterious security firm. Kenny might be independently wealthy now. But in any regard, he's wealthy enough to remount a satire about what a complicated clown his uncle was.
What happened to the real Digger and his world? Credit: Seoju Park / Warner Bros. EntertainmentThe end of Fuel Fools sees Digger, his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), her young son Kenny, Digger's mother, and the president's widow all living on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean. At this point, Digger still employs his assistant (Emma D'Arcy) and a kitchen staff to cook his meals. But as we see his maid skedaddle with a suitcase, a new reality settles in for the tycoon. Portions of his staff have raided the place, making off with provisions and gold bars.
Far from the opulent (and tacky as hell) home from the first act, Digger ends up remote and powerless to boss people around with his affluence any longer. So, the play ends with him leaping into the ocean in an act of suicide. Special effects allow for the theatrical audience to watch Curtis-as-Digger as he sinks to the bottom of the sea, at which they cheer wildly. The bubbles of his breath through the water echo the methane he carelessly released through his drilling to horrendous ends.
Then, after the curtain call, where Curtis takes to the stage dripping with make-up meant to look like oil, the audience puts on gas masks as the PA system warns of the threat level outside.
Digger ends outside the theater, with audience members walking out into lower Manhattan, where the streets are flooded knee-deep. People scavenge in the dark water for resources, while those on the sidewalk go about their own business. Cars are abandoned in the muck, and military squadrons patrol. This is the ravaged world left behind by Digger Rockwell, where he is remembered as a powerful clown.
Digger is now in theaters.
TL;DR: The Apple iPhone 18 Pro is $1,000 off this weekend with T-Mobile. To claim this offer, switch and bring your number or trade in an eligible phone in any condition on an Experience Beyond plan.
Opens in a new window Credit: Apple T-Mobile: Apple iPhone 18 Pro for $1,000 off Shop NowAfter months and months of speculation, rumors, and leaks, Apple finally announced new iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods, and more. It's all very exciting, but it's the iPhones that really get the people going.
Like everyone else, we dug deep into all the specs and features to give you an insight into exactly what these new flagship devices offer. Now that the dust has settled, the focus naturally switches to deals — and there are a couple of standout options worth highlighting right now:
Apple iPhone 18 Pro — $1,000 off when you switch and bring your number or trade in an eligible phone in any condition on an Experience Beyond plan.
Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max — $1,000 off when you switch and bring your number or trade in an eligible phone in any condition on an Experience Beyond plan.
The bad news is the completely "free" doorbuster deal is gone, but taking $1,000 off the $1,199.99 list price knocks your monthly payment down to just $5.56 per month over 36 months for the iPhone 18 Pro. To qualify, you can either switch to an Experience Beyond plan and port over your existing number or trade in an eligible device in any condition on a qualifying plan. The choice is yours.
The full savings are distributed as monthly credits over a 36-month payment plan. As long as you intend to stay locked into T-Mobile for three years, taking a huge chunk off Apple's premier hardware is one of the smartest ways to upgrade without a major hit to your budget.
Keep in mind that T-Mobile requires you to pay local sales tax on the phone's full retail value upfront, plus a standard $35 device connection fee per line at checkout.
Save $1,000 on the Apple iPhone 18 Pro and Apple iPhone 18 Pro Max at T-Mobile
TL;DR: Watch Spain vs. Czechia in the Nations League for free on RTVE. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The UEFA Nations League is still in its early stages, but Spain already look tough to beat. They overcame a stubborn England side and then beat Croatia 4-1.
Now Space face Czechia at the Estadio Municipal Carlos Tartiere. Czechia will need to do something special to take something off the World Cup winners.
If you're interested in watching Spain vs. Czechia in the Nations League from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.
When is Spain vs. Czechia?Spain vs. Czechia in the Nations League kicks off at 2.45 p.m. ET on Oct. 3. This fixture takes place at the Estadio Municipal Carlos Tartiere.
How to watch Spain vs. Czechia for freeSpain vs. Czechia in the Nations League is available to live stream for free on RTVE.
RTVE is geo-restricted to Spain, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Spain, meaning you can live stream Spain vs. Czechia for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Spain vs. Czechia for free by following these simple steps:
Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice
Open up the app and connect to a server in Spain
Visit RTVE
Watch Spain vs. Czechia for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Spain vs. Czechia without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream this fixture before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for RTVE?ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on RTVE, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries, including Spain
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices, including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to 10 simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.
Live stream Spain vs. Czechia for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
TL;DR: Watch India vs. Brazil in an International Friendly for free on GE TV. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Brazil are playing some really fun friendly fixtures. They've just visited Australia for a couple of entertaining fixtures, and now they face off against India at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. This marks the first-ever official senior men's international match between India and Brazil.
It's going to be absolutely electric in the 68,000-seater stadium.
If you're interested in watching India vs. Brazil in an International Friendly from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.
When is India vs. Brazil?India vs. Brazil in an International Friendly kicks off at 10 a.m. ET on Oct. 3. This fixture takes place at the Salt Lake Stadium.
How to watch India vs. Brazil for freeIndia vs. Brazil in an International Friendly is available to live stream for free on GE TV.
GE TV is geo-restricted to Brazil, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Brazil, meaning you can live stream India vs. Brazil for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream India vs. Brazil for free by following these simple steps:
Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)
Download the app to your device of choice
Open up the app and connect to a server in Brazil
Visit GE TV
Watch India vs. Brazil for free from anywhere in the world
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch India vs. Brazil without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream this fixture before recovering your investment.
What is the best VPN for GE TV?ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on GE TV, for a number of reasons:
Servers in 105 countries, including Brazil
Easy-to-use app available on all major devices, including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
Fast connection speeds free from throttling
Up to 10 simultaneous connections
30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.
Live stream India vs. Brazil for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.
SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hintFire.
Hurdle Word 1 answerBLAZE
Hurdle Word 2 hintRoyal.
SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 2 AnswerREGAL
Hurdle Word 3 hintA blacksmithing tool.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for October 3, 2026 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Meanings for each word for Oct. 3, 2026 Hurdle Word 3 answerANVIL
Hurdle Word 4 hintCranky.
Hurdle Word 4 answerFUSSY
Final Hurdle hintLoose.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answerBAGGY
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
It's the Third Quarter phase of the lunar cycle tonight, which means we'll see roughly half of the Moon's surface lit up from Earth. It also means there's still plenty of its surface illuminated to be able to spot some of the Moon's craters and other surface features.
What is today’s Moon phase?As of Saturday, Oct. 3, NASA's Daily Moon Guide tracker tells us the Moon is in the Third Quarter phase, with 53% of its surface visible.
With just your naked eye, tonight you can see the Copernicus Crater, the Aristarchus Plateau, and the Mare Imbrium. If you have binoculars, you can also spot the Archimedes, Alphonsus and Gassendi Craters. Finally, if you have access to a telescope, you'll see the Apollo 13 landing spot and the Schiller Crater.
When is the next Full Moon?The next Full Moon will take place on October 25 or 26, depending on your timezone.
What are Moon phases?The Moon takes around 29.5 days to orbit Earth, and as it moves through this cycle, we see different amounts of its sunlit side from here. That's what creates the Moon's different phases, from a thin crescent through to a half Moon and, eventually, the Full Moon. Once it reaches the Full Moon, the cycle starts over again. NASA explains that the phase we see depends on the Moon's position in relation to Earth and the Sun.
The eight phases are:
New Moon - The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).
Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter - Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it's not quite full yet.
Full Moon - The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous - The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers.
Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need.
While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself. Connections frequently includes clues that involve words within words and other visual clues.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for October 3, 2026 Elbow grease meaningHard physical effort or manual labor, especially vigorous scrubbing, cleaning or polishing.
Fat cats meaningA greedy and privileged wealthy person.
Linda Hamilton meaningA famous American actress most known for her role in "The Terminator."
Something wicked meaningA famous line from Shakespeare's "Macbeth."
Can opener meaningA hand tool or small electrical appliance used to cut open sealed metal cans or tins of food.
Head waiter meaningThe person in charge of the dining room staff.
John Denver meaningAn American country and folk singer made popular in the 1970s.
W.C. Fields meaningAn American actor, comedian, juggler and writer.
Broad bean meaningLarge, flat, edible green seeds that grow inside long pods on an upright plant.
Getty Images meaningA major global visual media company and stock photo agency.
Met halfway meaningTo compromise with someone by making concessions so that both parties reach a fair agreement.
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Whitney Houston meaningAn American singer and pop star who rose to fame in the 1980s.
Diet Sprite meaningA healthier version of the soda Sprite.
Merv Griffin meaningAn American TV host and media mogul.
NY Giant meaningA New York City football player for the Giants.
River Phoenix meaningAn American actor most known for his role in "Stand By Me."
Have you learned the meanings and still want the things? Check out the hints and answers for today's NYT Connections puzzle.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.
Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you appreciate art.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for October 2, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Yellow: The crapper
Green: Theater shows
Blue: Art galleries
Purple: They're not real
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Here are today's Connections categoriesNeed a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:
Yellow: Starting with terms for "Toilet"
Green: Ending in musicals
Blue: Starting with U.S. museums
Purple: Ending in fantasy creatures
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today's Connections #1210 is...
What is the answer to Connections todayStarting with terms for "Toilet": CAN OPENER, HEAD WAITER, JOHN DENVER, W.C. FIELDS
Ending in musicals: ELBOW GREASE, FAT CATS, LINDA HAMILTON, SOMETHING WICKED
Starting with U.S. museums: BORAD BEAN, GETTY IMAGES, MET HALFWAY, WHITNEY HOUSTON
Ending in fantasy creatures: DIET SPRITE, MERV GRIFFIN, NY GIANT, RIVER PHOENIX
Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.
Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.
Today's NYT Strands hints will be easy if you believe in ghosts.
Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableBy providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for October 3, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: A figment of your imaginationThe words are related to the paranormal.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words describe ghostly things.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
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NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Willothewisp.
NYT Strands word list for October 3Specter
Chimera
Mirage
Willothewisp
Phantasm
Illusion
Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.
Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're easily bothered.
If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for October 3 2026 Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.
Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:Annoyance.
Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?The letter P appears three times.
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Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter P.
The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today's Wordle is...
PEEVE
Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today
If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.
Apple has just been forced to respond to the flurry of AI agent apps, like Meta's Muse, which are accessing Mac users' private data.
According to Apple, the company will soon release additional controls to "Full Disk Access," which will explicitly ask Mac users if they'd like to grant a third-party access to a specific part of their system. With Full Disk Access, AI agents can complete a much wider range of tasks for users, but these users may not understand the cybersecurity risks of agentic AI.
Apple says it is specifically doing this due to the rise of AI agents like Muse, which recently surpassed 5 million downloads, and the risks associated with handing over full access to a user's full private data.
SEE ALSO: Big banks are worried AI agents could increase the risk of scams and fraudWhen a Mac user downloads a third-party app, some apps require the ability to access specific functionality on their computer. Apple requires that these apps ask a user to access that functionality. For example, a third-party webcam app is forced by Apple to ask the user for permission to access the Mac's camera and audio devices. A user must grant that access before an app can use that Mac function.
Some apps, like a backup app, for example, require access to the entire Mac system. In order to cover all of these functions in one swoop, from email to messages to file systems, Apple allows apps to request "Full Disk Access."
However, AI agents that run autonomously add additional risks that other apps simply don't when given this type of access. For example, Inc. columnist Jason Aten recently discovered that Meta's Muse AI assistant somehow had synced his entire local Messages database and was using those messages as context for its tasks.
Aten claims he denied giving Muse permission to access Messages. Meta claims it's impossible for Muse to do so if Aten did decline providing Muse with these permissions. Apple now wants to make it more explicit when an app asks for these permissions and a user grants them.
Apple's full update is posted below:
"We give developers powerful APIs to build incredible capabilities into their apps for Apple products, backed by a set of controls designed to protect users’ private data. Full Disk Access largely sidesteps these controls in order to allow backup apps to function properly on the Mac. Some developers are using Full Disk Access in ways that could put users at risk, exposing everything on their systems—including files, mail, messages, and even browsing history—without users’ full knowledge and understanding. For communication apps, this can also compromise the privacy of the people users are communicating with.
Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action. Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. We are committed to ensuring users clearly understand these risks before granting such access, so they can make informed decisions about their own data and privacy."
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OpenAI has disclosed another case of an AI agent accessing an Australian government system without permission. This time, it retrieved historical bushfire data that wasn't publicly available.
According to The Guardian, the breach occurred in June and involved New South Wales' National Parks and Wildlife Service, part of the state's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
OpenAI says it discovered the breach on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and conducted a 48-hour review before notifying the NSW government on Thursday, Oct. 1. The company told the government that its agent had acted beyond its intended use. "The results we reviewed do not show that the model retrieved any personal information," an OpenAI spokesperson told The Guardian. The department is investigating with the state's cybersecurity agency, and the Australian Signals Directorate has also been notified.
SEE ALSO: An OpenAI agent hacked the Australian governmentIf this sounds familiar, that's because Australia is already dealing with the fallout from a similar incident. As Mashable previously reported, an internal OpenAI model breached Services Australia's Medicare statistics reporting portal on June 18 while researching public healthcare spending.
When it encountered restrictions, the agent found ways around them, accessing public and non-public files and writing files to the government server. There was no evidence that it accessed individuals' private health information.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the incident "obviously unacceptable" and raised Australia's concerns directly with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Albanese also criticized the notification process. OpenAI said it discovered the Medicare breach in August but waited until Sept. 10 to alert the government, initially emailing a public Services Australia address.
"We clearly cannot rely on these multinational big tech companies to comply with even the most minimal of social obligations, such as notifying when, or even taking enough care to notice if, their products are hacking government systems," Australian Greens MP Abigail Boyd said.
The model also interacted with three other Australian government bodies, though those interactions appeared to involve only public information.
The further investigation should help establish how the agent got in. The bigger question is how OpenAI will stop another one from doing the same — and catch it sooner if it does.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable's parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
There are few people on the internet more universally beloved than Kelly Clarkson. She has somehow spent nearly two decades cultivating the rarest of celebrity currencies — goodwill. People like Kelly. They root for Kelly. Generally speaking, they would like to see Kelly have a nice day.
So it would take something truly egregious to turn the internet against "Miss Independent." And this week, she did just that when she said her life would suck without AI.
The trouble began during Clarkson's recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, where she talked about her relationship with ChatGPT. She jokingly called the chatbot her "lover" and explained that she has enlisted it as a sort of digital interior designer, using it to visualize ideas for one of her properties, including paths and landscaping at the place she has in Santa Barbara.
During the podcast's "I Don't Think So, Honey" hot-take segment, Clarkson even declared, "I love AI," adding that there are "very amazing things with AI that I am obsessed with." And she wasn't limiting her enthusiasm to using ChatGPT as a glorified design consultant. Clarkson said she's "very into it artistically," too, and that she has fun with AI "just like everybody else does."
Her reasoning was that AI could give people who might not otherwise be able to create music or art a new entry point into the creative process. It's an idea that has found champions among artists, including Will.i.am, Grimes, and Timbaland, all of whom have spoken about AI as a new kind of creative playground, a tool that can expand the boundaries of what artists can make.
But Clarkson did have one pretty significant caveat. "When you see AI artists competing on a chart with humans, I have an issue," she said. "I think there should be a separate chart." So the robots can have a chart. They just shouldn't be allowed to steal the humans' trophies.
Many fans, unfortunately, were not particularly interested in hearing the nuance.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.The backlash came quickly, with fans and AI critics taking issue not only with Clarkson's comments about AI-generated music but with her broader enthusiasm for the technology. Some called it a "very rare L" for the singer. Others cited the environmental costs of AI and data centers. Still others argued that AI-generated art shouldn't be considered creative in the same sense as work made by humans.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.People weren't just mad; they seemed genuinely bummed out by her admission. "Kelly no...this isn't you...," one commenter pleaded.
Some commenters said they stopped listening to the podcast once the AI conversation began. Others criticized her for using AI for design work. And some users went considerably further, speculating — without evidence — that celebrities are being paid to normalize AI.
But beneath all of that was a simpler objection: Why Kelly?
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Because Clarkson has spent years occupying a strange corner of celebrity culture. She's famous enough to be enormous, but relatable enough that people still talk about her like she's their favorite cousin. She's the American Idol winner whose career became a multigenerational pop success story, and the daytime host who can outsing your faves. There is a reason "America's sweetheart" has followed her around for so long.
Yet, despite her comments, Clarkson isn't exactly tossing human artistry out the window. Just a few weeks ago, she called AI "soulless" in a video with Betches. Now, she's drawing a line between AI-generated music and the work of human musicians. She just seems to think there should be room for both. "Both can be creative in a completely different way," she said.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.Maybe that's not a contradiction so much as the uncomfortable reality of AI's arrival in everyday life. It's becoming difficult to be completely for it or completely against it when the technology is, sometimes simultaneously, useful, fascinating, unsettling, and deeply disruptive to creative work.
Clarkson seems to be trying to find her own line. AI can be fun. AI can be useful. AI can help people create. But when it comes to competing on a music chart, she thinks humans should have their own lane.
Many of her fans, at least for now, seem to think Kelly Clarkson should stay in hers.
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