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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands 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 Mashable

By 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 preferrined pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 8 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for May 8 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Well, fancy that!

The words are wealth-related.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words are used to describe luxurious things.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Ooh Shiny

Featured Video For You Strands 101: How to win NYT’s latest word game NYT Strands word list for May 8

• Lavish

• Deluxe

• Ornate

• Snazzy

• Ooh Shiny

• Extravagant

• Gaudy

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.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

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 today: Hints and answers for May 8 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.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for May 8, 2025 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

Warm weather.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no recurring letters.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter B.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. 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...

BALMY.

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.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for May 8

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

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.

Now operating in cities like L.A., San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta, the robotaxis of Waymo have driven nearly 57 million miles, according to the autonomous vehicle company. With all those miles under its (timing) belt, the Alphabet-owned operation recently released a research paper highlighting some impressive data.

Waymo's report centered on incidents between its vehicles and "vulnerable road users." Compared to human drivers, Waymo's self-driving, electric Jaguars encountered 92 percent fewer crashes with pedestrians that resulted in injuries, 82 percent fewer crashes with cyclists involving injuries, and 82 percent fewer crashes with injuries that involved motorcyclists. There was also good news for car-to-car crashes, with 96 percent fewer injury-involving intersection crashes among Waymos, compared to human drivers, and 85 percent fewer crashes with suspected serious or worse injuries.

"It’s encouraging to see real-world data showing Waymo outperforming human drivers when it comes to safety," Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer at the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Administration, said in Waymo's press release. "Fewer crashes and fewer injuries — especially for people walking and biking — is exactly the kind of progress we want to see from autonomous vehicles."

With Waymo planning additional service in Washington, D.C., Miami, and Tokyo, can we expect further progress in road safety in the cities Waymo operates in? Possibly, says David Kidd, the Senior Research Scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. While Waymo has demonstrated its individual cars are often safer than human drivers, the company's service is not ubiquitous enough to show that it makes a city's entire road network safer, Kidd tells Mashable. Waymo's effective technology and positive safety record are good signs that we may get there one day, Kidd adds.

SEE ALSO: Smooth, silent, strange: What it's really like to hail a robotaxi What are your takeaways from Waymo's recent safety report?

Kidd: Waymo has done several of these reports, and they have been diligent about being very transparent about the methods they used to get the data they have. They’ve built on and expanded on previous [reports]. This is ... the most comprehensive look of the safety of their AVs to date, and the results are really encouraging.

Compared to other AV efforts from Tesla and General Motors' Cruise, Waymo seems to be finding the most success. Why?

I can’t speak to Waymo's strategy and philosophy and the differences between Waymo and Cruise and other AV companies, but certainly what stands out is Waymo is making a concerted effort to do research demonstrating the safety of the vehicles on real roads and being public about it. So they publish the research, and they also are now putting information about crashes and exposure, or millions driven in different deployment areas, on their website so anyone can go and replicate what they’ve done or do their own analyses. No other company is doing that right now, and it’s something we would hope other companies would follow Waymo’s lead in and be transparent.

The number of pedestrians and cyclists killed by cars has been steadily climbing for years. Can Waymo make the argument that they can help reduce those numbers?

Crashes with pedestrians have been increasing since 2009; I think there's been an 83 percent increase in fatal pedestrian crashes since that year (Kidd is referencing a report from 2022, showing a 40-year high for pedestrians killed by cars). And it certainly is the case that these automated vehicles are really good at keeping themselves from getting into conflicts with pedestrians, as this study provides evidence for; it’s going to help with the issue. The caveat is that AVs are not deployed everywhere, they’re certainly not in everyone’s driveway and not accessible to everyone so if we’re really going to tackle that pedestrian crash problem, it’s going to take multiple types of counter measures and solutions ranging from the technology in cars we can buy today like pedestrian automatic braking, changes in infrastructure that reduces conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles, as well as changing things that can make drivers more aware, as well as pedestrians aware, of their surroundings and pay more attention to distracted driving and distracted walking.

SEE ALSO: Robot, take the wheel: What you need to know about autonomous vehicles rolling out across the U.S. Since consumers cannot buy their own AVs yet, will we see significant decreases in crash deaths when automated cars are only available on a rideshare basis?

The natural extension of what Waymo has done is to better understand how the deploying of their vehicles inside of a city or inside a transportation network affects the overall safety of that network. They’ve done a good job of showing several times that their vehicles crash less often and are involved in fewer crashes than humans in that same deployment area. What they need to show is, if they have 100 Waymo vehicles or 1,000 Waymo vehicles, then is the transportation system in that area safer for everyone? That’s kind of the next piece — do we get shared safety benefits?

Waymo really demonstrated they can develop a technology and algorithms that take sensor information and make the vehicle operate safely. Can we take some of those learnings and improvements and apply them to the technology in vehicles you and I can buy? There’s a rumor they are potentially collaborating with Toyota; hopefully that’s one thing that comes out of it — Waymo takes their gains and algorithms and software and what they’ve done in the self-driving arena and apply it and translate it into the safety technology that Toyota and other automakers put into the vehicles that are sold to consumers today. That’s where I think you’ll see more rapid advances where the AVs advance conventional vehicles.

Tell us more about how AV technology can help all cars be safer.

Some of the more proactive things are when you’re approaching an intersection and the vehicle is able to see that there are other cars coming and make a prediction that some other vehicles are going to cross your path and not going to stop — it’ll slow you down to avoid the conflict.

AVs can illustrate the potential and some reasons why human drivers slip in terms of behavior and the way they operate vehicles and why they get in crashes. It’s not anything that’s unknown to us right now. The biggest contributor to crash deaths, and have been perpetual really, is speeding, impairment, like alcohol impairment, distractions is another component, but really speeding and impairment are huge and automated vehicles follow laws; they don’t speed and they’re not impaired. That alone is going to eliminate a lot of deaths.

The U.S. Justice Department is suing Google (or Alphabet Inc., if you prefer), and in testimony today, Apple Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue dropped a bombshell in the courtroom: Apple is now "actively looking" at focusing its Safari web browser on AI search instead of Google Search.

As Bloomberg reported, the revelation marks a "seismic shift for the industry."

The default search tool used by a web browser with only 18% market share might not seem like a seismic announcement, but it's further proof that a massive shift is underway. And that shift threatens one of the foundations of the internet as we know it: Google Search.

As of this writing, Alphabet stock is down 7.5 percent for the day, a sharp drop.

Why AI search matters

Increasingly, some users are relying on AI chatbots like ChatGPT for their web searches. Just today, the AI company Anthropic announced a new API that would expand the search capabilities of its Claude AI models. ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has also been encroaching on Google Search's territory, first with the introduction of ChatGPT Search in October 2024 and more recently with new shopping features.

Now, even Apple is signaling a shift toward AI search — and away from Google. Due to the dominance of Apple iPhones, Apple's approach to search will have much wider impacts across the web.

Apple also stands to lose significant revenue as a result of the Justice Department's lawsuit, which highlighted the payments Google makes to Apple to use Google as the default search engine on Safari.

In his testimony, Cue seemed to defend the relationship, which nets Apple $20 billion a year. By highlighting the inevitable shift toward AI search, Cue suggested that Google's search monopoly is naturally coming to an end.

The news isn't all bleak for Google, however.

The company's Gemini AI model has surged to the top of some AI leaderboards, largely due to the truly mind-boggling amount of data Google has at its disposal. And Google itself is diving headfirst into AI search, first with the introduction of AI overviews, and then with the beta for AI Mode, a new chatbot-style search tool.

If the trend wasn't clear before, it is now: the era of Google Search is ending, and the era of AI search is nigh.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

We're just a handful of days away from the next big Samsung announcement.

The Korean tech giant sent an invite to members of the media for a new Unpacked event, set to take place on Monday, May 12 at 8 p.m. ET. You can watch it live on Samsung's website or its YouTube channel, too.

SEE ALSO: Our favorite expert-tested TV brands include LG, TCL, Hisense, and Samsung Beyond slim, huh? Credit: Samsung

The two-tone graphic is very simple, in that the only thing on it besides the date of the stream is the phrase "Beyond slim." That sorta gives the game away. While we expect Samsung to launch new foldable phones this year, most rumors and leaks point to an imminent announcement of the ultra-thin Galaxy S25 Edge in all its glory. Barring a huge surprise, we expect to learn more at the upcoming Unpacked stream.

The new thin Galaxy phone has been leaked to death at this point, with all available information pointing to it being Samsung's thinnest non-foldable phone ever.

We'll all find out together on Monday.

Is this really what ChatGPT thinks of me?

An angry, beardless man with nothing in his life but a roommate and a fake pumpkin on a shelf?

The original... Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Mashable ...and the final result. (AI-generated image) Credit: ChatGPT

You may have seen the latest viral ChatGPT image trend: "Create an exact replica of this image, don't change a thing." Users then redo that process 99 more times, with the image shifting slightly in each iteration. People have been plugging in their own photos to test out the results, and a mutating image of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has also gone viral on Reddit and X. When you make a copy of a copy of a copy, the results naturally degrade over time. And after 100 iterations through ChatGPT, the results can get truly strange.

To quote a famous Rick & Morty episode, "And far enough down the line...there be monsters."

To AI critics, this trend is proof that when AI models train on their own output, the end result is infinite slop — an artificial intelligence ouroboros. But is that really what's going on here?

I decided to try the trend myself, and in doing so, realized this trend isn't all it's cracked up to be. I tried plugging this prompt into ChatGPT using the 4o model, and it repeatedly refused to replicate my photo without changes. "I can’t make an exact copy of the image, but I can generate a new, highly similar version using AI based on its content," the AI chatbot said. And when I pressed, it still refused, saying, "I understand your request, but I can’t create an exact replica of a photo."

I was finally able to get the chatbot to do my bidding by using the OpenAI API and the prompt I mentioned earlier. And the results are typical of similar experiments.

I asked OpenAI about this trend, and I'll update this post if I hear back. But based on my attempts to replicate the replication trend outside of the API, it seems clear to me that ChatGPT isn't actually trying to create an exact replica of users' photos in the first place.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

“In times of tyranny and injustice when law oppresses the people, the outlaw takes his place in history,” reads text shown in the very opening scene of director Ridley Scott's 2010 film Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe. At least, it's supposed to.

However, over the past few days, this now 15-year-old take on the classic story has gone viral on internet forums and social media.

Why? Because viewers noticed that the usual text in the movie's intro had been seemingly removed from the streaming version of the film on Amazon Prime Video.

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

"Apparently Amazon/Bezos has edited out the opening exposition text from Robin Hood (2010)," read one post with more than 1 million views on X.

Dozens of other X posts on the topic also went viral with hundreds of thousands of views.

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

It wasn't just on X either. On Reddit, users posted about the removal of the Robin Hood text, with one viral post on the subreddit r/movies receiving nearly 4,000 upvotes. Amazon users even took to the official Amazon forums to complain about the issue.

This may seem like a trivial online conspiracy, but viewers weren't wrong about the missing intro. Users took screenshots and screen recordings to show how the Ridley Scott film's intro was supposed to look and then compared it to the Prime Video version.

In these conspiratorial times, viewers were quick to blame Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who founded Amazon. In February, Bezos decided to get involved with editorial decisions at The Washington Post, which he owns, in order to revamp the editorial section with a libertarian bent. Furthermore, Bezos was also one of the big tech founders to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund earlier this year.

Some online wondered: With the removal of Robin Hood's blatant anti-authoritarian message, was this a sign of censorship to come?

Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case. A source at Amazon tells Mashable that viewers reporting the missing text were likely watching the Ultra High Definition version of the movie on Prime Video. When the film distributor provided Amazon with the movie in 2020, it apparently sent a version of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood that did not include the opening quote. The source told Mashable that Amazon has since requested the correct version of the movie with the intro text intact.

As of this writing, it appears that Amazon has now fixed the issue, and the correct version of Robin Hood with the opening message is now streaming on Prime Video.

The best streaming deals to watch 'Drop' at a glance: WATCH NOW Buy or rent 'Drop' on Prime Video $24.99 or $19.99 Get Deal WATCH NOW Buy or rent "Drop" on Apple TV buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99 Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium yearly subscription $79.99/year (save 17%) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium for Students $2.99/month for 12 months (save $5/month) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium for First Responders and Medical Professionals $3.99/month (save $4/month) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium for Active Military and Veterans $3.99/month (save $4/month) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium for Teachers $3.99/month for 12 months (save $4/month) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium annual subscription Free for Instacart+ subscribers (save $79.99/year) Get Deal WATCH LATER Peacock Premium Free for one year for JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic status members (save $79.99/year) Get Deal

One of the most anticipated movies out of SXSW this spring, Drop is the latest from filmmaker Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) and Blumhouse (M3GAN, Five Nights at Freddy's). Dubbed "solidly fun" and "a great date night movie" by Mashable's Film Editor, it's a popcorn thriller with some depth. It features The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy as its leading lady, alongside Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us), who are "a demented pleasure to watch."

If you missed it in theaters, you can now get in on the action at home. Here's everything you need to know about how to watch Drop.

What is Drop about?

Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, Drop follows widowed mother Violet (Fahy) as she gets back on the dating scene. On her first date in years, she starts receiving anonymous airdropped threats on her phone that put her son (Jacob Robinson) and babysitting sister (Violett Beane) at risk. As it turns out, a masked intruder is in her house and monitoring her every move. The only way she can save her family is by killing her date.

Check out the official trailer:

Is Drop worth watching?

Despite a less-than-excellent opening weekend, debuting in fifth place at the box office — behind A Minecraft Movie, The King of Kings, The Amateur, and Warfare — Drop has already earned more than double its $11 million budget since its release. Earning $27.7 million worldwide to date, that's a pretty good sign for a low-budget horror. Critics and audiences both have been loving it to boot. Drop currently holds an 84 percent critic rating and 79 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes — a pretty impressive feat for a popcorn thriller.

"Jacobs and Roach's script is so full of twists that while you may see some coming, others will undoubtedly catch you by sweet surprise. Whether relishing in the situational comedy of an awkward first date or combatting mysterious and malevolent forces, Drop's characters are a demented pleasure to watch," Puchko writes in her review. "All of these successes mean that Drop is charming enough to make up for its biggest flaw. In the climax, when the plot takes a big swing with a dubious but pivotal kill, you might well eye-roll over the unlikelihood of such a demise, but you won't get the ick."

Read our full review of Drop.

How to watch Drop at home Credit: Universal Pictures

It's time for audiences to show up for Drop from their couches. There are a couple ways to watch at the time of writing — and the streaming debut will expand your options at a later date. See the details below.

Buy or rent it on digital

Drop made its at-home debut on major digital platforms (Prime Video, Apple TV, etc.) on April 29, 2025. The film is available to buy for $24.99 or rent for $19.99. While it's certainly tempting to save a few bucks and opt for the rental option, just be aware that you'll only get 30 days to watch the film and just 48 hours to finish it once you start. If you choose to buy it instead, then it's yours to keep.

Here are some quick links to rent or purchase Drop:

• Prime Video — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• Apple TV — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• Fandango at Home — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

• Google Play — buy for $24.99, rent for $19.99

Stream it on Peacock

While Universal has yet to announce when Drop will make its streaming debut, we know that as a Universal Pictures film, it'll premiere on Peacock. Based on the digital-to-streaming trajectory of previous Universal movies, it will most likely hit Peacock between the end of June and the end of July. Blumhouse's other recent horror flick, Wolf Man, and fellow Universal horror hit, Abigail, started streaming about two months after their digital debut, while other Universal films like Fall Guy and Twisters had a longer window of three months or so.

Don't have a Peacock subscription? You can sign up for as low as $7.99 per month with ads or $13.99 per month without. But before you get ahead of yourself, be sure to check out the best ways to save some money on a subscription below.

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The best Peacock deal on any given day is the annual subscription deal. You'll get 12 months of streaming for the price of 10 if you pay for a year upfront. The annual Peacock subscriptions cost just $79.99 per year with ads (which breaks down to about $6.67 per month) or $139.99 per year without ads (which breaks down to about $11.67 per month). That's about 17% in total savings.

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Are you an Xfinity customer? Be sure to check the eligibility details below, as you might be able to score a Peacock Premium subscription for free. Here's a breakdown of who is eligible for the deal or you can head to Xfinity.com for more details.

• Xfinity Internet users on the Gigabit or Gigabit+ plans can get Peacock Premium (with ads) for two years (offer ends June 25, 2025) for free.

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Students can get an entire year of Peacock Premium at a discounted rate of $2.99 per month instead of $7.99. That's a total of just $35.88 for the year. You'll have to verify your student status via SheerID to get the unique promo code that will unlock the savings. Just note that it can only be used once, and after the promo year is up, you'll be charged full price again.

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First responders and medical professionals are also able to score a Peacock Premium subscription at a discounted rate. Just verify your first responder or medical professional status via SheerID, and you'll get a unique promo code that will drop the cost of a subscription from $7.99 per month to just $3.99. If you continue to meet verification qualifications, you can renew the deal each year — although you may have to go through the verification process each time and receive a new promo code. Learn more about eligibility terms and requirements.

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Active duty U.S. military service members, Reservists, National Guard members, veterans, or U.S. military retirees can also score a Peacock Premium subscription for a discounted rate of $3.99 per month instead of the usual $7.99 per month. You'll have to prove your military status using SheerID and retrieve a promotional code to activate the offer. Eligible military personnel who continue to meet requirements can redeem the deal annually.

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Teachers can get in on the savings as well. For one year, educators who can verify their status on SheerID can get Peacock Premium for just $3.99 per month. However, once the promotional period ends, you'll be charged full price. Be sure to cancel before the year ends.

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If you sign up for Instacart+ for $99.99 per year, you'll unlock a free Peacock Premium subscription. And that's on top of free grocery delivery, lower fees, and credit back on eligible pickup orders. That's a $79.99 per year value tacked on to your Instacart+ subscription for free. Not to mention, if you're new to Instacart+, you'll get a free two-week trial to test the waters. If you wait until the streaming release of Drop, you could even watch it for free during the trial period.

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If you're a JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic status member, you can get your first year of Peacock Premium for free through July 2025 (a $79.99 value). If you don't have Mosaic status, you can earn 1,000 free TrueBlue points when you sign up for Peacock. Learn more about eligibility and terms over on Peacock's special offer page.

Big Mouth is about to say farewell with its eighth and final series, one of the big TV moments coming this summer. And in the trailer, things are as awkward as puberty can get.

As Maury the Hormone Monster (Nick Kroll) says, "It's the end of a very gross era."

In Season 8, the Bridgeton teens (Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, and more) tackle another round of adolescence with their supernatural aides, and judging by the video above, they've still got some horrendous, wondrous, perpetually terrifying growing up ahead of them.

Luckily, there's a host of guest voice stars to enjoy along the way, including Cynthia Erivo, Holly Hunter, Keke Palmer, Steve Buscemi, Quinta Brunson, Kristen Wiig, Ali Wong, Billy Porter, Natasha Lyonne, Nathan Fillion, Thandiwe Newton, Aidy Bryant, Stephanie Beatriz, Chelsea Peretti, Rosie Perez, Lena Waithe, and more.

Big Mouth Season 8 premieres May 23 on Netflix.

I come to you bearing horrible news: Netflix is coming for your short-form content-trained brain.

Netflix unveiled a whole host of changes coming to its platform in a blog post on May 7, and among them is "a new way to discover," aka a vertical video feed much like TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts. One more place to doomscroll.

"In the coming weeks, we’ll be testing a vertical feed filled with clips of Netflix shows and movies to make discovery easy and fun. You'll be able to tap to watch the whole show or movie immediately, add it to My List, or share with friends," Netflix said in its blog post. The vertical video change is only affecting the mobile version of the Netflix app.

SEE ALSO: All the changes coming to Netflix: New homepage, AI search

Of course, it'll be interesting to see how this actually works. Most — if not all — of the content available on Netflix is shot horizontally, which isn't ideal for vertical viewing. But this isn't a particularly surprising move from Netflix. Short-form video content is king, and people are already watching whole movies on their TikTok For You Page. And, as TechCrunch points out, this comes at a time in which competition among platforms for viewer attention is at an all-time high, with audiences looking for quick entertainment over long-form viewing.

Put simply: Our attention spans are short, and Netflix is trying to keep up.

Another preview of the vertical video feed from Netflix. Credit: Netflix

"We know that swiping through a vertical feed on social media apps is an easy way to browse video content," Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim said in a press briefing, according to The Verge. "And we also know that our members love to browse our clips and trailers to find their next obsession."

Not all users are sold on the change. The preview image of the new vertical feed nods to the Netflix series Nobody Wants This, which feels a bit literal. In a Reddit thread about the move, one user posted sarcastically: "LETS GOOOOO AI AND TIKTOK. Movies as TikTok feeds, chat gpt, grok, maybe we can get some bitcoin in there too?" Another user said, "Enshittification comes for us all." "why does everything keep getting worse," another user commented.

Netflix also announced that it is going to redesign its entire homepage, bring generative AI to search and discovery, and update its recommendations.

SAVE $40: The Kindle Paperwhite Kids is on sale at Amazon for $139.99, down from the list price of $179.99. That's a 22% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids $139.99 at Amazon
$179.99 Save $40 Get Deal

We're well into May which means summer vacation is just a few weeks away. If the kids have reading on their summer vacation agenda, Amazon has a great deal in store today that will double as the perfect end-of-school gift.

As of May 7, the Kindle Paperwhite Kids is on sale for $139.99, marked down from the normal price of $179.99. That's a savings of $40, or a 22% discount. It also matches the lowest price we've ever seen Amazon offer.

Amazon's family of Kindle e-readers is extensive these days, and the Kindle Paperwhite Kids comes packed with features for young readers. For starters, it comes with no extra apps or games, which minimizes distractions. But it also comes with Kindle's Paperwhite display technology, which is as close as it gets to reading an actual physical book. This model comes with 16GB of storage, so kids will be able to download plenty of books to read on this summer's road trip. The kid-friendly cover is also great for keeping the device safe.

SEE ALSO: JetBlue has one-way summer flights to Europe on sale for as low as $199

The display measures seven inches, and the glare-free screen is ideal for reading in the sun or bright rooms. Amazon is also tossing in a free six months of access to Amazon Kids+, which is full of kid-friendly books.

If you're hoping to keep kids on track with reading this summer, the Kindle Paperwhite Kids is currently on sale for $139.99, which is the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon. It'll be the perfect summer break companion, and it makes for a thoughtful gift to celebrate the end of the school year.

Not since Fleabag's Hot Priest stirred collective longing has the internet shown such fervor for priestly proceedings.

As 133 cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on Wednesday to begin a first round of voting for a new pope, the internet erupted with memes, speculation, and a surprising amount of enthusiasm for Vatican procedure. The mood online is equal parts solemn liturgy and stan culture, as people anoint their preferred successors, share edits of their favorite cardinals, and dissect centuries-old rituals like they’re scenes from Edward Berger's Conclave.

And it's not just Catholics watching with fascination. The internet has turned the Church’s succession protocols into a kind of fandom. Think March Madness brackets, but for princes of the Church. Think thirst posts about cardinal vestments and Latin chants set to Brat-style club-pop.

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And at the center of it all is @PopeCrave, a fan account dedicated to the Conclave movie, and by extension, to the spectacle of the real-life papal succession.

With posts that blur the line between cinephilia and church gossip, Pope Crave has become a hub for papal content, complete with fancams, liturgical drip analysis, and side-by-side cassock comparisons. The account now boasts self-appointed "correspondents" on the ground in Vatican City, live-tweeting cardinal arrivals, crowd reactions, and even the color of the smoke with the breathless energy of red carpet coverage. It’s reverent, ridiculous, and deeply online, capturing the surreal moment when centuries-old Church ritual becomes fandom spectacle.

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So why is the internet, an ecosystem not exactly known for its deep liturgical literacy, so obsessed with the papal conclave?

Part of it is the drama. The conclave has all the hallmarks of prestige TV (or an Oscar-nominated film): secret meetings, ancient rituals, power struggles, and a world-historical decision made behind locked doors. Add centuries of tradition, elaborate costumes, and the closely watched chimney of the Sistine Chapel, and you've got a plot that writes itself. It’s Succession meets Game of Thrones (maybe a dash of Mean Girls, too), but with incense.

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It also helps that the whole thing moves fast. Unlike so many real-world political processes, the conclave historically wraps up in days, sometimes even hours. There’s an urgency to it, a beginning, middle, and end that fits perfectly within a TikTok-sized attention span. You don’t need to track a months-long primary season; you just need to know what color the smoke is.

And then, of course, there’s irony. Online fascination often starts with a single meme or fandom joke and quickly spirals into sincere investment. What begins as cosplay for canon law suddenly becomes a full-on obsession, complete with favorites, feuds, and fan theories. It’s not that the internet has found religion; it’s that it’s found a storyline with stakes, spectacle, and a very stylish supporting cast.

Whether the fascination fades with the smoke or lingers long after a new pontiff is announced, the conclave’s moment in the algorithmic spotlight says something about what captivates us now. In an age of fractured attention and constant scrolling, it turns out that even the most ancient of rituals can go viral.

President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency $TRUMP has been called a "conflict of interest," a "constitutional crisis," and blatant "corruption."

However, for 58 cryptocurrency wallets, Trump's memecoin has been quite profitable, according to CNBC.

This week, CNBC shared data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which states that 58 cryptocurrency wallets have made more than $10 million from investing in the $TRUMP coin. In total, these wallets have made $1.1 billion in gains. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of crypto wallets have lost money on the Trump memecoin.

It should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that 58 people have made millions off of Trump's cryptocurrency, as one individual can hold multiple crypto wallets. It's unclear who holds these crypto wallets. 

A recent analysis from Bloomberg found that 19 of the top 25 $TRUMP memcoin holders who registered on the $TRUMP website leaderboard have their holdings in foreign exchanges that prohibit U.S. customers. Of the top 220 $TRUMP holders on the leaderboard, 76 percent of them used similar foreign exchanges.

Earlier this year, a report found that Trump and his companies had already made around $100 million from $TRUMP off of trading fees alone. Now, Axios puts that number at $320 million.

Of course, not everyone is making money off of $TRUMP.

The Chainalysis report found that 764,000 out of around 2 million crypto wallets that have held the memeocoin lost money on $TRUMP. A report from The New York Times in February found that $TRUMP holders had lost around $2 billion total at the time.

Trump and his companies, which control most of the $TRUMP supply, launched their memecoin the Friday before his presidential inauguration in January. $TRUMP quickly skyrocketed overnight and reached highs of more than $70 the next day. However, the value of $TRUMP has plummeted since then. $TRUMP currently sits at around $10.

Last month, in an attempt to seemingly boost the value of the memecoin, Trump announced that the top 200 $TRUMP holders would be invited to a dinner with the president. Around $100 million $TRUMP tokens were bought on crypto exchanges following the dinner announcement, according to The Washington Post. As a result, Trump's crypto companies further profited off of the subsequent boost in trading fees due to the surge of activity.

Mashable reached out to Chainalysis to confirm the accuracy of the $TRUMP report; we'll update this story if we hear back.

TL;DR: Put all your AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro, and Leonardo.AI in one place with a lifetime subscription to 1minAI, an all-in-one AI app, on sale for just A$62 (reg. A$366). 

The free version of some AI models like ChatGPT can get the job done, but if you want the good stuff, you should consider opting for a paid subscription.  

1minAI consolidates many of the most popular AI models — like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta AI — into one platform where you can use them all seamlessly, whether you need to generate text, images, or even full videos. A lifetime subscription to 1minAI usually costs A$366, but you can get one on sale now for A$62. 

What can you do with 1minAI

1minAI gives you one platform where you can access AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, Mistral AI, and more. You don't just get the baseline version, either — 1minAI users can chat with GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, Gemini Pro 1.5, and Llama 2 or Llama 3. 

Like a ton of other AI platforms, 1minAI has a limit to how much you can generate every month. Unlike other platforms, the limit is incredibly high. Here's what your lifetime subscription gets you every month.

First, you get a baseline of 1,000,000 credits per month. Then, every day you log in, you get an additional 15,000 free credits. These will roll over if you don't use them all, too. 

In practice, those huge numbers mean you could generate up to 362,500 words, research nearly 2,000 SEO keywords, generate 386 images, upscale 241 images, remove 24 backgrounds, convert text to speech for over 120,000 characters, and generate up to 12 videos. 

Your AI Swiss Army Knife

Put all your go-to AI tools in one place. Get a lifetime subscription to 1minAI for A$62. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: 1minAI 1min.AI: Lifetime Subscription AU$62
AU$366 Save AU$304 Get Deal

Apple Watch sales have been dropping continually for the last couple of years, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

The market research firm released a new report on Tuesday, May 8, including data from its Global Smartwatch Shipment Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2024. Put simply, Apple suffered a 19 percent decline in Apple Watch shipments year-over-year in 2024. That followed a 10 percent drop in 2023. While there were declines across most regions (aside from India), the North American market in particular recorded significant declines in Apple Watch shipments last year. Given that more than half of all Apple Watch shipments go to this continent, that's not great for Apple.

Counterpoint's report also includes this nugget: Apple Watch sales fell despite the launch of the new Series 10 model in September 2024. As Counterpoint writes, "Q3 2024 was the first time Apple witnessed a YoY shipment decline in a quarter in which a new smartwatch series was also launched."

So, what's going on here?

SEE ALSO: Apple is planning a new iPhone launch schedule, report claims

The one big reason that Counterpoint puts forward to explain all of this has less to do with pricing or device quality than a simple lack of available upgrades for customers. In particular, the lack of a new budget SE model.

Apple didn't release a new Ultra or SE model alongside the Series 10 model last year. And as a pricier flagship, the Ultra only accounts for a small portion of total Apple Watch sales, less than 10 percent. There hasn't been a new Ultra since late 2023, and there hasn't been a new SE since late 2022. For comparison, the new Ultra Watch 2 costs $769 and the Series 10 $399, while the latest SE costs only $249, though it's usually on sale for under $200.

There's no guarantee in today's economically challenging world that simply releasing new Apple Watch SE and Ultra models would totally fix this trend for Apple, but a fresh budget offering couldn't hurt. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported earlier this year that Apple will indeed refresh both of those product lines later this year, so there's that, at least.

Whether you love the two-season Rogue One prequel Andor (we do) or hate it, one thing has so far distinguished it from all other Star Wars filmed entertainment. Not one single Force user is present in this increasingly dark story of the Dark Times. The Empire is ascendant, the Rebellion is threadbare, and years after the Emperor's Order 66 wiped out the Jedi, Force users are a myth. Right?

Wrong, as we discovered in Andor season 2, episode 7, "Messenger." After another BBY time jump, we find Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his girlfriend Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) on the planet Yavin 4, where Rebel forces are assembling and organizing for the events of Rogue One and the original Star Wars. Cassian has a nasty wound on his back, so Bix takes him to see a "Force healer" who works as a cook in the kitchens.

Cassian is highly skeptical, but not only does the unnamed Force healer (Josie Walker) fix his wound, she sees his future. Nothing precise, no looming Death Star or the plans for it that Cassian will help transmit just before his death, but a clear sense of his destiny — that he's a "messenger" who has "some place he needs to be." The healer is knocked back by the experience, the clearest vision of the Force she's seen in years.

How much is the Force with Andor?

The Force "is not pervasive" at this point in the galaxy's history, creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy told Mashable. He discovered as much when he asked Lucasfilm Story Group, the keepers of Star Wars canon, a series of questions on the topic. "How many beings are aware of the Force? Almost none. It's such a rarified, small segment, but I would have felt wrong if I didn't have it, and it fit.

"As I rolled into the second season, I realized that destiny was really such a huge part of what made Cassian special, and the idea of reluctant destiny is always fascinating, right? I mean, we have some religions based on that."

Gilroy confirmed the Force healer is no Jedi, and that she means everything she says: "She has no game." He compared her character to the character played by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1990 Patrick Swayze movie Ghost — a "flim-flam psychic" who suddenly has a genuine experience of Swayze's character in the beyond.

That idea made the scene "palatable to me," Gilroy said. "She thanks him because she hasn't felt it in a long time... That made it real, that makes it more powerful."

The meeting with the healer did one more thing for Andor — it took Bix off the board. We know she isn't in Rogue One, and many fans feared that meant she would die during the show. "Maybe you're the place he needs to be," the healer tells Bix. The next day, Bix takes off for another world, leaving a message for Cassian implying that they'll be together when his vital work for the growing Rebellion is over.

We know they won't be, heartbreakingly. But at least we do know why mystical phrases such as "may the Force be with you" — first uttered by the background character General Dodonna in the Yavin 4 briefing room in Star Wars — started to take root within the Rebellion.

Andor Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes every Tuesday.

Coming soon: A totally revamped look for Netflix. And that'll include more AI.

The streaming giant announced its new "TV experience" in a blog post on Wednesday. Simply put, that means the Netflix app on your TV will soon have a new design and AI-powered features. It's unclear when exactly the changes will take effect. The blog post noted that users should see the new homepage rollout in "the coming weeks and months."

"Our redesigned TV homepage is simpler, more intuitive, and better represents the breadth of entertainment on Netflix today," Netflix's Chief Product Officer Eunice Kim told reporters in a press briefing. "And it’s better at the most important thing, which is helping our members easily find shows, movies, live events, and games that they’ll love."

What are the big changes for Netflix's TV app?

We don't have all the details on what will change with Netflix, but the streamer did share some of the updates. Here are some of the new features listed that'll affect the homepage and the app overall:

• Improved discoverability: There will be more info about the show before you click it, including specific call-outs such as "Emmy Award Winner" or "#1 in TV Shows." There will also be groupings for shows with labels like "Your Next Watch," "Today’s Top Picks For You," or "Only on Netflix."

• Easier shortcuts: Search and My List will move to the center of the homepage.

• Better recommendations: Netflix wrote that it is "making the recommendations on the homepage more responsive to your moods and interests in the moment."

• New design: In short, it'll look different. Like pretty much any other redesign for any other platform, Netflix called it "clean and modern."

Here's a preview of how it will look.

It looks different, but also kind of the same. Credit: Netflix What are the new AI features for Netflix?

It's 2025, and nearly every platform is incorporating AI. Netflix is no exception. The streamer said it is experimenting with AI-powered search in the hopes that it'll be able to dole out better recommendations for users. The feature will be available only to iPhone users at first.

Netflix wrote: "We’re also exploring ways to bring Generative AI to our members’ discovery experience, starting with a search feature on iOS that is a small opt-in beta. This will allow members to search for shows and movies using natural, conversational phrases like 'I want something funny and upbeat.'" 

It'll look something like this.

Credit: Netflix TikTok but make it Netflix

Have you ever wanted Netflix to be more like TikTok? No? Well, that's too bad because it's coming. The steamer wrote that it's planning to roll out a vertical video feed filled with clips from its show. The idea is that you can then tap in to watch the show or save it to My List.

It'll look like this.

TikTok but make it Netflix Credit: Netflix

So ready or not, your Netflix is about to get big changes.

BUY ONE, GET ONE 50% OFF: Through May 11, Target is running a book sale where Circle members can buy one book and get another for half price, including popular BookTok books and new releases. Target Circle is free to join.

Opens in a new window Credit: Penguin Publishing / Random House / Scholastic BOGO 50% off select books Get Deal

Looking for your next read? How about your next two?

While e-book and audiobook deals are dominating our content lately, physical books still hold a special untouchable place in our hearts. If physical page turning is what gives you that dopamine hit, Target's current book sale could help you add to your TBR list without breaking the bank.

SEE ALSO: E-ZPass and toll scam texts are everywhere. What to do if you're targeted.

Through May 11, Target is running a buy one, get one 50% off sale on select books exclusively for Target Circle members. And that's on top of most books already being discounted. If you're not already a Circle member, you can join for free by simply filling out your name, email address, phone number, and creating a password. Then you'll be able to take advantage of the BOGO 50 book sale and plenty of other Circle-exclusive offers.

There are tons of bestsellers, new releases, and BookTok favorites included in the sale, including Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, Funny Story by Emily Henry, Wild Love by Elsie Silver, and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. And since most eligible books are already discounted significantly, you could definitely do some damage during the sale. For instance, hardcover copies of Sunrise on the Reaping and Funny Story would normally run you $56.99. Through May 11, however, Circle members can score both for just $30.39.

Want to get verified on Bluesky and add that sweet, sweet checkmark to your account? Well, you might have to wait for that, but there's a workaround until applications open.

In April 2025, the social media platform added a way to verify authentic accounts and demonstrate it through blue ticks on profiles. It's a feature Twitter used to have before Elon Musk came along and made the blue checks buyable.

SEE ALSO: Bluesky adds blue checks for verification, like the Twitter of old

So, can you get verified on Bluesky? Well, we have some bad news — it might not happen for you yet. According to a Bluesky blog post, "During this initial phase, Bluesky is not accepting direct applications for verification. As this feature stabilizes, we’ll launch a request form for notable and authentic accounts interested in becoming verified or becoming trusted verifiers."

Bluesky did say the company "will proactively verify authentic and notable accounts and display a blue check next to their names," so that part is kind of out of users' hands for now.

There is, however, some good news. You can try "self-verifying" on Bluesky if you have your own domain name (that's your own website). Bluesky launched this feature in 2023 as a first step. So, if you have a website of your own, give these steps a try.

How to self-verify on Bluesky Total Time

• 5 min

What You Need

• Bluesky account
• domain name

Step 1: Open Bluesky on desktop or mobile app.

Step 2: Set your website as your username.

OK, this will be tricky for n00bs like me, but we're in this together. All Bluesky usernames end with "bsky.social" but you're going to want to change your handle to your website (you will need a domain you own and manage for this). Open the left side menu of Bluesky, then tap "Settings." Then tap "Account" and then "Handle". Then, select "I have my own domain" and drop the website you want to use in the box.

Credit: Mashable screenshot

Step 3: Add the DNS record to your domain.

Bluesky will generate a DNS (Domain Name System) record for you, which you need to copy and add to your own domain. These steps might change depending on which platform you use. If you use Squarespace (which I do), go to "Dashboard" on there then click "Domains," then select the domain you want to use. On the left side menu of Squarespace, click "DNS" and then scroll down to the "Add record" box on the right. Copy and paste the info Bluesky generated for you into each box then hit "Save."

Credit: Mashable screenshot

Step 4: Go back to Bluesky and click "Verify DNS record."

If everything's good to go, you'll get a "Domain verified" message onscreen.

Step 5: Click the button that reads "update to".

If everything worked, you should see a successful message saying your handle has been updated. Bluesky says on its blog that "DNS propagation might take some time," so be patient your new website handle doesn't appear straight away.

None of this means you're guaranteed a blue check on Bluesky, as the company itself is in charge of "verify[ing] authentic and notable accounts." But it's a first step before Bluesky opens applications down the track, and it's a good idea in the meantime.

If you want a more detailed guide on all of the above, Bluesky has a more technical breakdown.

Bluesky also lets some organizations act as "Trusted Verifiers" that can directly issue blue checks to their employees.

"For example, the New York Times can now issue blue checks to its journalists directly in the app. Bluesky’s moderation team reviews each verification to ensure authenticity," Bluesky's blog post reads.

The accounts allowed to do this are identifiable by scalloped blue checks, and when you tap on a verified account's blue check, you'll be able to see who approved it.

If you've been verified in either circumstance (lucky duck), and you don't want your blue check to appear, you can always switch it off. Just go to Settings, then tap Moderation, then Verification Settings, where you can toggle it off.

What's the opposite of ASMR? We might have found it.

On the Reddit /aivideo subreddit, a video titled "You Are What You Eat" is going viral, and we can't look away. The AI-generated video depicts people made of food eating said food, i.e., a sushi man eating a sushi roll, or a man made of yogurt chomping down on a yogurt bowl.

The exact video going viral on Reddit is also worth watching in its entirety, though you may find it deeply unsettling:

You Are What You Eat 3
byu/ZashManson inaivideo

The video is a compilation of clips from abstract visual artist Bennett Waisbren, who shares his creations on Instagram and YouTube. Waisbren told Mashable in an email that the nightmare-inducing videos are inspired by mukbang videos.

"The series grew out of my fascination with viral mukbang culture and ASMR. I love pairing hyper-real visuals with rich sound design, so blending the two felt natural," Waisbren said.

AI video tools like Sora from OpenAI and Character.AI are getting more sophisticated, but the use of artificial intelligence in the arts remains highly controversial.

"These pieces darkly riff on the adage 'you are what you eat,' adding a visceral, almost body-horror twist that spotlights the modern pull of gluttony. My goal is to create visuals that hit instantly and force viewers to confront their own complicated relationship with food," Waisbren said.

You can find additional "You Are What You Eat" videos on YouTube, though turn the sound on at your own risk.