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Everything about Eli Roth's Borderlands feels at least a decade out of time. From a sense of humor plucked straight out of Reddit circa 2011 to a cast made up of actors who are inexplicably decades older than the characters they portray, every second left me — a fan of the first two games in this franchise — wondering how and why the hell it exists in 2024.

With an ensemble cast featuring Academy Award–winners Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, along with comedy stars Kevin Hart and Jack Black, plus a director whose name is recognizable (if nothing else), Borderlands theoretically brings a level of prestige that many other video game adaptations haven't had. But theory and practice are two different things, and when it comes to the latter, Borderlands is an adaptation that's equal parts miserable and unnecessary.

SEE ALSO: No thanks, Chris Pratt. The perfect 'Super Mario Bros.' movie already exists.

Put a different way: Sometimes a video game should stay a video game.

What is Borderlands about? We saw you from across the bar, etc. Credit: Lionsgate

Our journey begins with the generic, straight-man soldier Roland (Hart) joining forces with the unstable juggernaut Krieg (Florian Munteanu, a German boxer who I just learned also goes by "Big Nasty") to rescue a very special young woman named Tina (Barbie's Ariana Greenblatt) from a prison cell on an exploding space station. The trio makes their way down to the rough desert planet of Pandora, known for its lawless wastes full of would-be treasure hunters searching for a rumored ancient alien vault that has a special connection to Tina.

It turns out that Tina is the daughter of the villainous corporate overlord Atlas (Édgar Ramírez), whose elite Crimson Lance paramilitary squad previously employed Roland. Atlas employs the merciless bounty hunter Lilith (Blanchett) to track down Tina and bring her back into his clutches. But maybe 15 minutes of screen time later, Lilith teams up with Roland, Krieg, and Tina to find the vault, hoping to use what is inside to stop Atlas' plan for dominance.

Oh, and Jack Black is here lending his voice as Claptrap, the "lovable" robot who more or less acts as the franchise's mascot. He is very annoying, which is accurate to the games, I suppose.

Please just shut up for two minutes. I don't really understand why she wears rabbit ears, either. Credit: Lionsgate

Narratively speaking, Borderlands is a bit of an odd amalgamation of the first two games. Roland and Lilith hail from the first game, while Krieg and Tina debuted in its sequel. Atlas is an original character for the film who sort of fills the same "evil murder CEO" role as Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2, but with all the charisma of a guy hosting an airline safety video. I'd estimate that he's on screen for a total of 10 minutes, at most.

The measly bits of plot and character development that do exist in Borderlands are only in service of justifying aggravating, banter-filled exchanges in between action sequences. In this respect, Borderlands is accurate to the source material; the big joke among every gamer I know is that you should play the games with the dialogue muted. 

Its mercifully short 102-minute runtime somehow puts Borderlands at a disadvantage, because absolutely nothing is given time to breathe. Nearly every joke consists of hastily farted-out one-liners that are shockingly easy to miss at times, though I would argue you're not really missing anything. One of the only gags that’s given any time to shine is an uncomfortably long shot of Claptrap pooping bullets.

This is a movie that thinks "badonkadonk," a term that has been in the pop culture lexicon for at least 22 years, is a really funny thing to say in 2024. According to Borderlands, the most hilarious and twisted thing in the world is a teenage girl who uses curse words and shoots people with guns. That was kind of funny when I was 14 and Kick-Ass was in theaters, but not anymore.

I can tell you that I chuckled precisely once during the entire film, when the nearly mute Krieg belts out a spirited "THANK YOU!" after being called handsome. It's one of the only lines delivered with sincere enthusiasm, and I appreciated that.

Borderlands suffers, above all else, from an extreme lack of silence. Every moment of it is jacked up to 11 without so much as a brief pause, almost as if Roth knew that letting audiences think for a second or two about what they just heard might prompt them to get up and do anything else with their lives. By the end, I badly wished everyone would just shut the hell up.

I didn't know Cate Blanchett could be bad. Cate, no. Credit: Lionsgate

It's not easy for any actor to save a script that might qualify as a war crime, but nobody in Borderlands is trying that hard to do so. Hart is strangely cast as a comedy straight man, only rarely doing the exuberant, exasperated fast-talking that has long been his signature. Curtis, to her credit, brings enjoyable quirky aunt vibes as the crew's archaeologist Tannis, but her character is such an afterthought that it doesn't really matter.

Black's high-pitched wailing as Claptrap is at least faithful to the games, if not very fun to listen to. Munteanu doesn't have to do much other than be burly and occasionally grunt out monosyllabic words as Krieg, who is honestly my favorite character because he barely talks.

Blanchett's turn as Lilith deserves special mention here, though, because it's the first time I've ever seen her phone in such a terrible performance. She probably has the most dialogue in the movie, and almost none of it is delivered in a convincing manner. Acting is more than just line delivery, of course, but all of her reads are so wooden and stilted that it's genuinely distracting from the start.

I get it. If I were an accomplished thespian, I wouldn't feel excited about this material either. It doesn't make for a great viewing experience though. While this doesn’t necessarily impact their performances, I'll also point out that Blanchett, Hart, and especially Curtis are all substantially older than the characters they're playing are in the games. Everyone feels out of place.

The moment when I realized what I was in for was when Borderlands made it clear that Greenblatt's Tiny Tina is the most important character in the story. If you don’t know, Tiny Tina is famously one of the most obnoxious characters in video game history. Her whole schtick in the games is "little girl who loves explosives and speaks in AAVE," and that's kept largely intact here.

To be fair, it isn't really Greenblatt's fault that Tiny Tina is as exasperating as she is. The material demands that she be really brash and abrasive, while also delivering lines that would make Shakespeare regret his contributions to this English language. I don’t hold Tiny Tina's presence in this movie against Greenblatt, but rather against the people who created the character in 2012 in the first place.

Furio-sucks This is a stupendously bad car chase scene. Credit: Lionsgate

The Borderlands games are primarily about shooting guns, so naturally, the Borderlands movie has a bunch of action sequences in it. None of them are the slightest bit novel or interesting. Not one.

Maddeningly, the film is rated PG-13 despite the games very much warranting an R rating. This means any opportunities for the kinds of fun, nonsensical violence you see in the games are neutered before they can even begin. Every gunfight consists of shots of our heroes trying to look cool while shooting guns, interspersed with shots of literally faceless and nameless bandits just sorta bloodlessly falling over.

There's no physicality or kineticism to these scenes, as you might see in a competent action movie like John Wick. The movie's few pathetic attempts at interesting fight choreography are obscured by poor lighting or frantic cuts. There is one single moment where it seems like Lilith might kill a bad guy in the way that would get people to jump out of their seats in a better movie, but you can't actually see it because it's in the middle of a flashing strobe light sequence, for no apparent reason.

Possibly the most confusing decision Roth made was completely leaving out the weird guns that permeate the Borderlands games. One of the big selling points from the first game onward was that you can find guns that turn into throwable grenades when they run out of ammo, or release a human scream when you fire, or coat enemies in acid, or a million other fun variables. Some of the guns in the film look unusual, but they all just fire regular bullets. Come on!

Borderlands' greatest sin as an action movie might be the fact that its setting is extremely reminiscent of Mad Max, and its late-summer release is just a couple of months after the tremendous Furiosa's Cannes premiere. Tossing aside the fact that Furiosa is a prodigious and elegiac meditation on actual themes, it's also a highly accomplished car chase movie that was directed with a deft hand by genre master George Miller.

SEE ALSO: Chris Hemsworth's Dementus is the real scene-stealer in 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga'

Eli Roth is not George Miller, and Borderlands is not Furiosa. There's one major car chase scene in the first half of the film that is so embarrassing in comparison to Furiosa (or Fury Road, or any other Mad Max movie) that I would not have let it see the light of day were I Eli Roth. It's a mess of genuinely awful-looking CGI vomit, with green-screen shots so obviously fake that you could almost convince me they were a bit, if only they appeared in a more clever movie. 

There's no sense of danger in these sequences. Plus, it’s impossible to tell where any vehicles are in relation to other vehicles, and the whole thing ends with the heroes being covered in worm piss. In that moment, the audience can relate.

The lesson here is that if George Miller is about to release another masterpiece, maybe get your own crappy desert action movie well out of the way so nobody thinks to compare the two.

A Borderlands movie came 10 years too late.

While developer Gearbox has continued making Borderlands games over the last decade (with great financial success), I and many of my gaming cohorts have long felt that its time to shine ended somewhere around 2014. 

In 2009, the first game stood out because it melded role-playing mechanics with first-person shooting that felt good — something that hadn't really been done before at that scale. It also had a unique art style and a sense of humor, both of which went a long way in an era dominated by bland Call of Duty knock-offs. The 2012 sequel was more of the same, but the formula was still worthwhile, and I had a fun time with it. However, my sense of humor evolved well past the dated pop culture and internet meme references that plagued those games. And plenty of other RPG/shooter hybrids came out in the last decade that negated the uniqueness of Borderlands. 

It's unbelievably vexing, then, that anyone decided to make Borderlands into a movie in the 2020s. Game adaptations always, by necessity, lose the kinds of player-driven interactivity that make video games, well, video games. Sometimes the game in question has enough going for it to cover for that, but Borderlands does not. It is a series that made sense at a specific point in time entirely due to the circumstances surrounding it. 

When you remove the fun co-op gunplay and build the whole thing out of irritating jokes, you get one of the worst movies I've seen in years. Congratulations to all involved for somehow making a movie that feels way too much like Borderlands without being very much like Borderlands in any of the ways that matter at all.

Borderlands is now in theaters.

Delta's problems following the CrowdStrike outage that temporarily bricked millions of Windows PCs around the world just became more of a headache.

Some customers who had their Delta flights canceled due to the outage have filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, per CNN. The lawsuit, filed by Sauder Schelkopf and Webb, Klase & Lemond, accused Delta of failing to properly compensate customers for their troubles, either by refusing refunds outright or making customers sign a waiver to only get a partial refund.

SEE ALSO: 'False, misleading and damaging': Microsoft slams Delta for CrowdStrike outage blame

While many airlines around the world were impacted by the CrowdStrike outage, Delta had a particularly difficult time recovering from it. By the time the next business week started, and most other airlines had sorted the problems out, Delta was still canceling flights. As CNN noted, many customers had to pay out of pocket for expensive flights home on other airlines, not to mention accommodations for those stranded overnight. According to customers, Delta didn't provide vouchers for that either.

Microsoft and Delta have been going back and forth, publicly blaming each other as the primary culprit for what happened. While Microsoft hasn’t faced a lawsuit as for this writing, Delta now has — so put that on the scoreboard.

Next time you watch a TikTok of someone gushing about their favorite TV show, there might be a link in the bottom left corner directing you to even more information.

SEE ALSO: Internet Princess Rayne Fisher-Quann left TikTok in search of something beyond the algorithm

Called TikTok Spotlight, the tool will aid entertainment studios in turning social media hype into streaming numbers and ticket sales. Whether it's a new release or newly discovered, the feature identifies brand-friendly TikToks and adds a link to the landing page of information about the movie or TV show. The hub will feature details about the show or movie, including the plot, cast, official accounts, and other creator content. TikTok Spotlight explicitly turns organic fandom into marketing material.

TikTok previously partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to promote Dune: Part Two utilizing the same hub approach.

TikTok Spotlight will provide analytics to studios where they "can glean valuable insights into their fandoms, so they can know exactly what their fans want and how to most effectively activate around their title."

The new feature further entrenches TikTok in the ticketing game as users will be directed to both streaming platforms and to purchase movie tickets from TikTok Spotlight. The social media platform recently partnered with Eventbrite to directly link tickets in videos. It first moved into the ticketing space with a nearly identical partnership with Ticketmaster in 2022.

All these partnerships aim to keep you on the app. If all the information about a film or television show is now available in the app, users won't have to leave until they go to watch a show, but even then, in TikTok's ideal world, it plays in the background while you scroll on your phone.

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media will dissolve after Mr. Musk accused the group of orchestrating a boycott.

Elliot Page is joined by Ritu Arya, Robery Sheehan, Justin H. Min, Aidan Gallagher, Tom Hopper and David Castañeda to discuss their characters' relationships to 'sacrifice' in the final season of 'The Umbrella Academy'.

Elon Musk has often touted that X is a place for news since acquiring the company then known as Twitter. Regardless of studies and reports showing misinformation on his social media platform are running rampant, Musk has repeatedly claimed that X is the best online destination for truth.

On Thursday, Musk seemingly fell for a photoshopped fake news headline from a far-right user on X — and shared it with his more than 293 million followers.

Tweet may have been deleted Musk's tweet-and-delete post

"Detainment camps…" Musk posted alongside a quoted post from X user Ashlea Simon, who posted a fake image that was created to look like a headline from The Daily Telegraph's website. The fake headline read "Keir Starmer considering building 'emergency detainment camps' on the Falkland Islands." 

Simon is one of the leaders of the far-right UK party known as Britain First. The fake headline was referencing the far-right's anti-immigration riots that have been unfolding throughout the UK and appeared to claim that the UK Prime Minister and Labor Party leader was building "detainment camps" to hold the arrested rioters.

Musk appeared to have deleted his post roughly 30 minutes after publishing it. It received more than two million impressions on the platform before Musk removed it. Musk has yet to acknowledge its deletion or issue a correction for his followers who were deceived by the fake news.

As previously mentioned, Musk has pushed hard for X to be seen as a news media application — not just a social media platform. However, Musk and X have repeatedly posted fake news. In fact, at times, the platform itself has created fake news. 

Earlier this year, the platform's own AI chatbot Grok created a fake news story falsely claiming that Iran was striking Tel Aviv with missiles. X then promoted Grok's story to users via the Explore feature on the website.

Just a few weeks ago, Musk shared a manipulated political campaign video featuring a deepfake, AI-generated voice impersonating U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. While the original poster of the video labeled the clip as a parody, Musk removed any reference to the video being a parody and shared it without any context to his hundreds of millions of followers.

Goodbye photo dumps, hello Facebook albums. Instagram is no longer restricting carousels to 10 photos or videos. Now, you can post up to 20.

SEE ALSO: Instagram now lets you create an AI version of yourself

The art of an Instagram post has gone through many phases. What began as heavily filtered low-stakes shots morphed into pristine "aesthetic" photos and finally into the highly curated photo dump that started out fun and turned into a series of seemingly mandatory life updates — Mashable's Christianna Silva even called them cringe back in March. Now, with 20-slide posts, photo dumps might go the way of the Facebook album, which is extinct. Social media is nothing if not cyclical.

Instagram feeds are overwhelmed with sponsored posts and creators, making them practically un-scrollable. Instead of fixing the fact that you don't see the people you know's posts anymore and making the platform more usable, it's still chasing after TikTok's success.

SEE ALSO: Is posting a photo dump on Instagram cringe now?

The update makes carousel posts on Instagram even more closely resemble TikTok's photo mode, which allows users to post up to 35 photos in a slideshow set to music. Last year, Instagram added the option for users to soundtrack their dumps, and now the length of dumps is more in line with photo mode.

What will Instagram's next nail in the coffin be?

We already know that the more advanced Apple Intelligence features might come with a price. Now Apple analysts are predicting what that price might be.

Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC that premium AI features could cost between $10 and $20 for a monthly subscription. "Software and services makes it more lucrative for Apple to pass it on with the Apple One subscription model," Shah told the outlet.

SEE ALSO: Apple Intelligence: A ‘pep talk’ is given to the AI to prevent hallucination, according to secret code

So certain Apple Intelligence access could be bundled into the Apple One subscription as a higher subscription tier. Apple One starts at $19.95 a month and includes Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+, which are premium versions of free Apple services. From this standpoint, a paid Apple Intelligence subscription would fit the freemium model it uses with others. "Apple is one of the few connected devices companies that has successfully monetized the value-added services it offers," told CCS Insight chief researcher Ben Wood to CNBC.

According to previous reports, Apple is exploring Apple Intelligence+ in order to get a cut of subscription revenue with its AI partners like OpenAI. It would also be a way to offset the costs of AI investment, which isn't cheap.

The timing of this is uncertain. Even some of the Apple Intelligence features announced at this year's WWDC won't be available until next year. That includes features related to Siri's AI revamp like understanding personal context and on-screen awareness.

However, there are some Apple Intelligence features you can try now through the iOS 18.1 developer beta. Writing Tools, Call Recording, and some new AI-powered Siri features are available to test out. And they're free — for now.

SAVE 33%: The Philips Sonicare for Kids (pet design) is on sale for just $19.99 at Amazon, down from the list price of $29.99. That's a $10 discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Philips Philips Sonicare for Kids (pet design) $19.99 at Amazon
$29.99 Save $10.00 Get Deal

The start of a fresh school year is already here. As kids pack up their backpacks, meet a new teacher, and reunite with friends, the beginning of the school year is also a great time to start new with healthy habits. Help kids get into a good oral-hygiene routine with today's deal at Amazon on a fun electric toothbrush.

As of Aug. 8, the Philips Sonicare for Kids (pet design) is just $19.99, marked down from the usual price of $29.99. That's a 33% discount or a savings of $10.

An electric toothbrush can be the best way to get thoroughly cleaned teeth and the Philips Sonicare for Kids adds some fun to the task. The pet edition comes with reusable stickers so kids can make their own individual design. This can also be great for siblings as a way to distinguish which toothbrush belongs to whom.

Kids can choose between one of two settings — gentle or extra gentle — to find what works best for their comfort. The Philips Sonicare for Kids also takes the guesswork out of brushing for two minutes, with 30-second timers. The included brush head is designed for kids ages 3 and up.

Philips says the Sonicare for Kids can get up to 14 days of use before it needs to recharge, so it can be great for taking on weekend get-aways, knowing it'll stay charged up. There's an included USB-A charging stand for when it's time to recharge the toothbrush.

Start the school year off with healthy habits, including dental care, with the Philips Sonicare for Kids. Thanks to today's deal, the electric toothbrush is 33% off, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than extra trips to the dentist.

SAVE 19%: Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones live up to their name and for a limited time, they're back to their Prime Day price of $349. Shop now for $80 off and 19% savings.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones $349.00 at Amazon
$429.00 Save $80.00 Get Deal

We've tested a lot of headphones. Like a lot. So when we declare a pair of headphones to be the most comfortable, we mean it. When I tested the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones, I wasn't thrilled about the price, but I was enthralled with the all-day comfort. Now the headphones are back down to their Prime Day price, providing a sweet $80 discount.

Bose makes exceptional headphones — we're big fans of their QuietComfort Ultra and Ultra Open earbuds, too. However, that quality means steep price tags. Normally, priced at $429, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones aren't cheap by any means.

Having tested them myself, the price is worth it in some ways. The headphones deliver rich audio and active noise cancellation to block out the world around you. Three different listening modes — quiet, aware, and immersive — let you listen exactly how you want. But above all, these headphones are comfortable. Having worn them for 8 hours with glasses and earrings on, I was perfectly comfortable with no sore ears at the end of the day.

While I do think their comfort earns the price tag, spending over $400 on headphones hurts the wallet. Luckily, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are back down to their Prime Day price of $349 on Amazon. This is just $10 short of their lowest price ever, but still delivers 19% off for $80 in savings.

SAVE $20: As of August 8, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is $39.99 at Amazon. That's a 33% discount and the lowest price we've tracked.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max $39.99 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $20.00 Get Deal

You've got plenty of options when it comes to streaming devices. But if you want one of the best that's also flexible and easy to use, you'd do well to opt for something from Amazon. A Fire TV Stick is an affordable pick that works with multiple platforms and a variety of apps. And right now, you can get one of the best Amazon has to offer for a great discount, just in time for the kids to go back to school – and for you to finish watching A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

As of August 8, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for $39.99. That's $20 off its normal price of $59.99, and a 33% discount. It's also the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: The best deals under $50 on Amazon this week: Score a Ninja blender, Roku Streaming Stick, Soundcore headphones, and more

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is rife with features, improving on its predecessor in several ways. First, as its name implies, it offers 4K Ultra HD streaming with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and HDR10+ compatibility. It also supports WiFi 6E for smoother, faster streaming and includes a new Ambient mode that lets you use your TV to display artwork and photos when not in use. The unit comes with 16GB of storage to keep all your photos and artwork handy.

You can also use this Fire TV Stick to play your favorite Xbox games without a console. Just connect with the Xbox app and play games via your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. There's a lot to choose from, and plenty of other streaming apps beyond that, too. Now's the time to lock in one of these devices so you can kick back and relax while fall sidles on in. You'll definitely have plenty to entertain yourself with.

We love our TVs, we need our TVs. But for the aesthetically-minded among us, incorporating a TV into our home décor can be...a challenge. Samsung answered this dilemma with The Frame TV. The brand's line seamlessly turns TVs into works of art when turned off, plus, this spring, Samsung launched a Frame speaker that looks just another picture frame on your gallery wall.

Until this year, Samsung didn't have much competition since it launched The Frame in 2017. Back in 2022, Amazon embraced aesthetic multitasking with its line of Omni Fire TVs. Now, TV leaders Hisense and TCL are entering the field with new lifestyle TVs.

Credit: Hisense Meet the HiSense CanvasTV

Launched in July 2024, the Hisense CanvasTV offers an immersive Art Mode. Right on par with The Frame, Art Mode on the CanvasTV shows a collection of pre-loaded artwork as well as personalized photographs when not in use. So rather than the boring black screen you're used to, the CanvasTV shows beautiful images of your choosing.

While the immersive Art Mode is the big draw of The Frame-style TVs, they're also really good at their main function. The CanvasTV is 4K QLED and features Hisense's Hi-Matte tech for anti-glare viewing. Plus, it's loaded with surround sound — no extra sound system needed. It's a Google TV as well, providing access to your favorite streaming apps.

It's available in both 55- and 65-inch models. The CanvasTV comes with a teak frame, with additional frames available for purchase. The best part of the Hisense CanvasTV is that it is significantly cheaper than Samsung's The Frame. The 65-inch Hisense CanvasTV costs just $1,299.99, while Samsung's same-sized model is $1,999.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 65-inch CanvasTV QLED 4K TV $1,299.99 at Amazon
Shop Now Credit: TCL The latest competitor — the TCL NXTFRAME TV

And just this week, TCL announced its NXTFRAME TV. Like The Frame and the CanvasTV, it's all about merging décor with the functionality of a TV. The NXTFRAME TV boasts an exceptionally thin design (apparently the thinnest TV ever), just 1.1-inch deep (1.2-inches on the 85-inch model). It mounts flush to the wall to blend into your gallery and comes with a curated Art Library. It also features a personal photo gallery mode and has AI Art capabilities, an interesting choice considering how controversial AI art has been.

TCL has also entered a licensing partnership with Bang & Olufsen, giving NXTFRAME TV Pro models audio by Bang & Olufsen. Like the other art TVs available, it's 4K QLED with a matte anti-glare screen. It comes in four sizes: 55-, 65-, 75-, and 85-inches. Like Samsung and Hisense's TVs, it comes with a swappable wooden frame.

The 55-inch and 65-inch NXTFRAME TVs are supposed to be available now but still listed as coming soon on TCL's website. The 75- and 85-inch models are coming in September. Models start at $1,499.99 for the 55-inch model, the exact same price as Samsung's 55-inch The Frame. However, TCL's NXTFRAME TVs are cheaper than Samsung's as the models increase in size, saving you several hundred dollars.

Opens in a new window Credit: TCL TCL 55-inch NXTFRAME QLED 4K TV $1,499.99 at TCL
Shop Now

Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Willem Dafoe, and more star in Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night," about SNL's first-ever live show.

SAVE 20%: As of August 8, save up to 20% off select Owala tumblers during the Owala Back to School Sale.

Opens in a new window Credit: Owala Owala Back to School Sale Save up to 20% off select Owala tumblers Get Deal

If you're trying to drink more water, a nice tumbler can definitely help you reach that goal. But believe it or not, there's a world beyond Stanley cups. In fact, there are tons of great options to choose from out there. One in particular is Owala, which makes a variety of colorful cups and tumblers that come with versatile form factors, lids, and other useful features. Like Stanley cups, however, they can be a bit pricey. But that's where Owala's latest discount comes in.

As of August 8, save up to 20% on select Owala tumblers as part of the Owala Back to School Sale. Visit the sale page to choose from discounted tumblers, though you won't see discounts applied until you add them to your cart.

You can choose from classics like the Owala 40oz Tumbler (which comes in several different colors), which is normally $37.99. It's discounted to just $30.40 as part of the sale. There's also the stainless steel 24oz version if you need something a little smaller. It's discounted to $22.40 from $27.99.

It's a great time to make sure you're staying hydrated, or if you need to get the kids something fun to encourage them to drink more water, too. And if bright colors help do that, well, more power to you. There are some pretty interesting color combinations still available now, too. The sale is on for a limited time, so snatch up your Owala tumblers while you still can.

The Umbrella Academy is over, friends. And in the very last moments of Season 4, we got to briefly reunite with some of the series' characters beyond the core Hargreeves.

In the final scene of the series forever, we find ourselves in a utopian park, listening to the sounds of Tommy James and the Shondells' original 1967 version of "I Think We're Alone Now" — a perfect final song for The Umbrella Academy. We see a family blowing bubbles, a group of blonde men playing frisbee, and two people playing backgammon while being sketched. It's all very lovely and meant to show the results of the Hargreeves' final act.

SEE ALSO: 'The Umbrella Academy' Season 4 ending, explained

"We wanted to make the final moment really special and say that in this final timeline, things have all come back to normal. All the other timelines don’t exist and it’s just a normal life," series creator Steve Blackman told Netflix's Tudum blog. "So we brought back in as many of the returning cast as we could."

But who was that guy? And why do I remember that face? We're here to help identify every familiar face in the final scene, and there's some spoilers in here so beware.

The family on the lawn

Blowing bubbles and having tea parties on the lawn, Lila (Ritu Arya) and Diego's (David Castañeda) family have made it, including Lila's parents (Geet Arora and Shiva Safari), Uncle Inny (Sylvan Valladares), Aunt Banu (Gurbir Bal), Cousin Ronnie (Devanshu Narang), and their daughter Grace (Ciara Rose Feeney). They're joined by Allison's daughter Claire (Millie Davis). They were all put on a time-travelling subway train by Lila to ensure their safety before the Hargreeves made their final sacrifice — so, it worked.

The three guys playing frisbee

Remember the Swedes? The assassins from Season 2? They're not dead, nor will they be as they don't foolishly try to kill the Hargreeves siblings in the future! Triplets Otto (Jason Bryden), Axel (Kris Holden-Ried), and Oscar (Tom Sinclair) were assigned to kill the Umbrella Academy members by the Handler of the Temps Commission, and they all died instead.

The two people walking their bikes

That's Griddy's Doughnuts owner Agnes Rofa (Sheila McCarthy) and time-travelling assassin Hazel (Cameron Britton) who fell in love in Season 1.

The lady pushing the pram

No longer a Kugelblitz worshipping android, the Hargreeves' robot mother Grace (Jordan Claire Robbins) pushes a pram holding a baby presumably without powers.

The jogger

Stopping to stretch, that jogger is The Handler (Kate Walsh), Lila's adoptive mother and a big cheese at the Temps Commission in Season 2. She's the main villain in that season, so it's nice to see her more centred.

The sketcher

That's none other that The Umbrella Academy's comic book co-creator, illustrator by Gabriel Bá. "I hope people scream a little if they catch me there because it was fun for me," Bá told Tudum.

The backgammon players

Being sketched by Bá is Herb (Ken Hall) and Dot (Patrice Goodman) from the Temps Commission. Hall also did the motion capture for chimpanzee caretaker Pogo in earlier seasons.

Can you see more characters in the scene? Blackman told Tudum that Five's beloved mannequin, Dolores, from Season 1 is somewhere in there, but I can't see her. Maybe you'll have more luck.

The Umbrella Academy Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.

SAVE $2,300: For August 8 only, the 2022 85-inch Samsung The Frame QLED TV is on sale for $1,499.99 as the Best Buy Drop of the day. That's more than 50% in savings and can only be accessed through the Best Buy mobile app.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 85-inch The Frame QLED 4K TV $1,499.99 at Best Buy
$3,799.99 Save $2,300.00 Get Deal

High profile items are the name of the game with Best Buy Drops, and there's no higher profile TV than Samsung's The Frame. The gigantic 85-inch version of The Frame is the Best Buy Drop of the day for August 8, where you can snag it for $1,499.99 — a jaw-dropping $2,300 price cut that's way more intense than what we expected.

The fine print is that you'll only get access to that price if you click on it through the Drops tab in the Best Buy mobile app, which is the only version of Best Buy where Drops exists. Once you find the TV in Drops, be sure to peek at the status bar showing how many items are left — Drops items are released in limited quantities, so when they're gone, they're gone.

SEE ALSO: The best time to buy a TV: A guide to the times of year that you'll find the best TV deals

To be clear, the model featured as the Drop is the 2022 version of The Frame. Several sizes of the 2024 version are also on sale at Best Buy, but obviously, aren't nearly as heavily discounted. For reference, you could almost buy three 2022 85-inch Frames at this price before hitting the $4,299.99 price tag of the 2024 85-inch Frame.

Of the good TV deals popping up in early August, The Frame is definitely one of our favorites. If you clicked on this story, you probably already know why The Frame has such name recognition. If not, let's quickly unpack the overarching question asked by Google users when "the frame" is searched: What does Samsung's The Frame actually do?

When it's on and being watched, The Frame is just a solid QLED TV: It has stellar peak brightness and punchy quantum dot-fueled colors that make it great for watching sports in bright rooms. (This Drop happens to be right before football season gets into full swing. Coincidence? Doubt it.) The matte screen does quite well with reflection handling as well, though the whole "matte" thing comes way more into play when the TV's not being watched.

SEE ALSO: The 20 best action movies on Netflix right now

When it's off and just chilling on your wall, The Frame uses ambient light sensors to dim itself and sort of melt into the wall. The non-shiny screen can display the fine art of your choice, photos of loved ones you've uploaded, or photos you've uploaded of the wall around the TV to mimic the design and fully blend in. The concept is seriously cool for folks who aren't psyched on the idea of this giant hunk of technology cramping the style of their carefully-curated accent wall.

Check out the best deal at Amazon this week that cost under $50.

Our top picks: Best tech deal under $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K $34 at Amazon (save $15.99) Get Deal Best headphones and earbuds deal under $50 Soundcore Anker Life Q20 $39.90 at Amazon (save $20.09) Get Deal Best kitchen deal under $50 Ninja Blast Portable Blender $49.99 at Amazon (save $10) Get Deal Best travel deal under $50 Tile Mate (3-pack) $49.99 at Amazon (save $20) Get Deal

Since it can feel like everything is too expensive these days, we love shopping for great deals that work well for those on a strict budget. Whether you're saving for a down payment, a winter vacation, or are simply trying to spend less, we've gathered some of the best deals at Amazon during the week of Aug. 8 that cost less than $50. You can snag a new blender, some solid noise-cancelling headphones, or a new streaming stick at an affordable price this week.

Below are some of our favorites:

Best tech deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Roku Our pick: Roku Streaming Stick 4K $34.00 at Amazon
$49.99 Save $15.99 Get Deal Why we like it

Streaming shows and movies has become a way of life for most of us. Instead of waiting for Saturday night to tune into whatever movie the local TV channels play, we use streaming sticks to watch the selection at Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more.

Thanks to today's sale price at Amazon, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K is just $34, down from the usual price of $49.99, which means you're getting a 32% discount. The Roku stick comes with a remote with quick access to your favorite streaming platforms, and you can use voice control.

Mashable reporter Samantha Mangino found out that not all streaming sticks are created equal. In her review of the Roku Streaming Stick vs. the Amazon Fire TV Stick, she found the Roku to be an all-around winner, with snappier performance and a user-friendly design, so today's sale price makes this a great deal on one of the best models around.

More tech deals under $50 at Amazon:

• Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K — $29.99 $49.99 (save $20)

• Samsung 15W Wireless Charger — $34.96 $59.99 (save $25.03)

• Anker Nano II USB C Charger (65W) — $39.99 $55.99 (save $16)

• TP-Link Deco Whole Home Mesh WiFi System — $49.49 $59.99 (save $10.50)

• Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) with Sengled Smart Color Bulb — $49.99 $69.98 (save $19.99)

Best headphones and earbuds deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Anker Our pick: Soundcore Anker Life Q20 $39.90 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $20.09 Get Deal Why we like it

Everyone deserves serenity in their lives. If you're feeling like the outside world is salting your vibe, it might be time to use some noise-cancelling headphones. As of Aug. 8, the Soundcore Anker Life Q20 hybrid noise-cancelling headphones are on sale for just $39.90 at Amazon, down from the usual price of $59.99. Thanks to this sale price, you'll be saving 33%.

The Soundcore Anker Life Q20 headphones earned Mashable's choice as the best budget-friendly noise-cancelling headphones for flying. With 60 hours of playtime, it's no surprise they work great for travel days. The memory foam ear cups also mean they're comfortable for all-day wear, whether you're sitting on a plane or at your desk.

More headphones and earbuds deals under $50 at Amazon:

• Soundcore P30i earbuds — $29.99 $49.99 (save $20)

• Soundcore V20i earbuds — $34.99 $49.99 (save $15)

• Soundcore Life P3i earbuds — $39.99 $49.99 (save $10)

Best kitchen deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Our pick: Ninja Blast Portable Blender $49.99 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $10.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Kitchen appliances have come a long way in the last decade. Some people have even ditched the traditional oven for a countertop air fryer. But one thing is certain — there's no more kitchen space for another appliance. However, the Ninja Blast Portable Blender is compact without sacrificing function, so we still think it's worthy of kitchen space. It's currently on sale for just $49.99, a $10 discount off its typical price of $59.99.

One of the coolest aspects of the Ninja Blast is its portability with a rechargeable power base, meaning you can take it with you anywhere. The 18-ounce vessel is dishwasher safe, and so is the leak-proof lid, so cleaning is a breeze.

More kitchen deals under $50 at Amazon:

• Chefman XL Electric Griddle (10 x 20 inch) — $34.99 $39.99 (save $5)

• Dash Tasti-Crisp Electric Air Fryer Oven (2.6-quart) — $34.99 $49.99 (save $15)

• Chemex Pour-Over Glass Coffeemaker — $38.33 $45.09 (save $6.67)

• KitchenAid Variable Speed Corded Hand Blender — $49.99 $59.09 (save $10)

Best travel deal under $50 Opens in a new window Credit: Tile Our pick: Tile Mate (3-pack) $49.99 at Amazon
$69.99 Save $20.00 Get Deal Why we like it

If you're hoping to have a stress-free vacation, you'll want to utilize the reassurance that comes from Bluetooth trackers. These small devices slip into your luggage and allow you to keep tabs on their location 24/7. That means if you fly from Chicago to Amsterdam and notice your suitcase is in Paris, you'll be able to let the airline know ASAP. Thanks to today's deal at Amazon, a 3-pack of the reliable Tile Mate Bluetooth trackers are on sale for just $49.99. That's a 29% discount off the usual price of $69.99.

The 3-pack means you can stash one in your checked luggage and keep one in your carry-on, or slip one into your travel tote bag for when you're out exploring a new destination. The Tile Mate trackers are iOS and Android compatible, so you can use them regardless of which smartphone operating system you prefer.

More travel deals under $50 at Amazon:

• Anker European Travel Plug — $9.99 $19.99 (save $10)

• Anker Nano Power Bank — $17.99 $25.99 (save $8)

• Tile Sticker Bluetooth Tracker — $19.99 $29.99 (save $10)

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UP TO 40% OFF: As of August 8, save up to 40% when you book select flight and hotel packages with the Priceline Solo Explorer Sale.

Opens in a new window Credit: Priceline Priceline Solo Explorer Sale Save up to 40% off flight and hotel packages to select destinations Get Deal

Looking to travel the world on your own for a bit? There's nothing wrong with hopping into a plane and flying solo. In fact, companies like Priceline are encouraging you to get out there and take that trip you've been thinking about with deals like the Solo Explorer Sale, which discounts a variety of flights to destinations as well as hotels to exotic locales around the world. It's time to rip off that solo travel Band-Aid and do the thing with the savings you can take advantage of.

As of August 8, you can save up to 40% off when you book select flight and hotel packages during the Priceline Solo Explorer Sale. Choose from locations like Kyoto, Sedona, Kauai, and other locales, and you'll be given a sample itinerary of your visit. Then book your flight with one of the package deals offered through the Solo Explorer Sale landing page and you'll receive your booking discount. You must book before August 11 to take advantage of the sale.

This is a great option if you've been bitten by the travel bug, but aren't quite sure where to go. Or if you've been wanting to go globetrotting, but haven't yet found anyone who wants to go with you. You can take care of two birds here and snatch a more affordable trip with hotel included, plus you get to do things on your own terms. And the best part is, you can have your entire vacation planned out for you. Just be sure and book soon, because you only have a few days left to make a decision. No pressure, it's just the trip of a lifetime, right?