TL;DR: As of Dec. 24, you can get a pair of Open Ear Induction Headphones for just $33.99 instead of $109.95 — that’s a savings of 69%.

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Winter is here, and for many, that means snow and a whole lot of cold. If you want to comfortably listen to music through the snowy season, you might want to try headphones that aren’t at risk of dying from a bit of water. These Open Ear Induction Headphones are waterproof, and they’re on sale for $33.99 (reg. $109). 

Waterproof headphones for winter 

Induction headphones are a different kind of listening experience. They transmit the sound directly to your eardrum, so you can keep playing your music, even in a loud area. 

It may look pretty, but snow is basically one big long-lasting puddle. Drop a pair of earbuds in that, and they might break if they aren’t waterproof. These induction headphones are IPX6 waterproof, so they can withstand strong jets of water. A little snow likely won’t bother them. 

There are a few unique benefits to open-ear headphones. Earmuffs may not be comfortable with earbuds in, but these open-ear headphones might work just fine. If you’re walking in a busy area, it might be a good idea to keep your situational awareness. Open-ear headphones let you listen to music without blocking the sounds around you.

On a single charge, these headphones could last for up to six hours of continuous listening. They may not come with a charging case like wireless earbuds, but that’s still a long battery life, and the charging cable is included with your purchase. 

Save on a pair of induction headphones

Enjoy the snow without worrying about getting your headphones wet or not being able to hear your surroundings at all. For a limited time, get a pair of Open Ear Induction Stereo Wireless Headphones for $33.99 (reg. $109). 

Prices subject to change.

TL;DR: As of Dec. 24, you can snag a refurbished 9.7-inch iPad (sixth generation) for just $279.99 rather than $459. That’s 39% in savings.

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The new year might be the right time for an upgrade. Whether you work from home or just need a new device to stream on, a nice iPad could be an excellent tablet to have around. A new iPad might bust your budget, but buying refurbished is a great way to mix quality with affordability. This 6th generation iPad has only superficial signs that it has been used, and it’s on sale for $279.99 (Reg. $459). 

Save on a refurbished iPad 

This iPad is 4G-unlocked, so all you need is a SIM card and a plan from AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Straight Talk, Boost Mobile, US Cellular, and T-Mobile carriers to use the internet anywhere you can get a signal. If you’re a remote worker, that could make it easier to have a leisurely work day at a coffee shop instead of staying glued to your desk at home. 

Snap a few photos with the 8MP rear-facing iSight camera or join a web call with the 1.2MP front-facing FaceTime camera. Get a stand and a Bluetooth keyboard, and this tablet might even be a lighter, more portable stand-in for a laptop. 

Keep your iPad safe with the included snap-on black case. The screen already has a tempered glass protector installed on it. Your order also comes with a Lightning cable and AC adapter. The only thing you’ll have to decide is what apps to load it up with. You’ve got 32GB of local storage and 2GB RAM to put to work, and there’s a lot this iPad can do. 

An affordable tablet for work or fun

As tech prices climb, buying refurbished might become a more common way of upgrading your devices. It’s certainly better for the environment. For a limited time, get a refurbished 6th-generation iPad on sale for $279.99 (reg. $459). 

Prices subject to change. 

Space explosions aren’t the end. They’re often the beginning.

The explosions of massive stars, for example, spread essential elements around the universe. That includes iron, which helps our cells carry blood, and the oxygen we breathe. The violent blasts themselves manufacture heavier elements. You are made of stars, too. And when stars explode, they can form colossal regions of gas and dust, called nebulae, where bounties of new stars can form in the roiling clouds.

In 2022, astronomers detected a number of violent explosions and crashes in space — including one intentionally created by humans. Below are the particularly momentous events, in our solar system and beyond.

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A massive, exploding star

On Oct. 9, astronomers observed an extraordinarily colossal boom. NASA’s Swift Observatory, which is specifically designed to spot the most powerful known explosions in the universe today — called gamma-ray bursts — detected an extremely strong such burst. Something wildly potent must produce these jets of energy that travel through space, and scientists say they’re caused by the collapse and explosion of enormous stars, events called supernovae.

For a star to go supernova, it must be quite massive — at least eight times the size of the sun. But for a supernova to produce the strongest type of gamma-ray burst, the star must be some 30 to 40 times the size of the sun. This new powerful detection, so rare that we’ll likely only observe something of this magnitude around once a decade, came from such a mighty star.

“It’s a very unique event,” Yvette Cendes, an astronomer and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Mashable.

Importantly, you need not worry. This terrific explosion happened in a galaxy 2 billion light-years away. At such a distance, its energy, which has been traveling and spreading through space for eons, poses no danger to us. But we can easily, with satellites, detect it.

“It’s the equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show,” Cendes explained.

You can read the full story on Mashable.

Huge, mysterious blast detected in deep space

Scientists recently observed a giant blast some 130 million light-years from Earth. Previously, they detected a colossal collision here from a well-known merger between two neutron stars — collapsed stars that are perhaps the densest objects in the universe. But that dramatic event, which produced a potent stream of energy, began to fade. Around three and a half years later, something else, something new, has created another curious blast or release of energy.

“There’s something else happening now,” Edo Berger, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, and one of the scientists who detected this new cosmic event, told Mashable.

The burst of energy, picked up by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (which detects emissions from extremely hot places in the universe), was intense. Astronomers liken it to the sonic boom made when a speeding plane breaks the sound barrier.

In new research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers propose two possible scenarios that might explain the event, neither of which has ever been observed before, explained Aprajita Hajela, an astronomer who led the research. Hajela is a PhD student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University.

1. A “kilonova glow”: A what? In the explanation currently considered likeliest, when two neutron stars (bodies so incredibly dense that a teaspoon of neutron star weighs around a whopping 1 billion tons) collided, they created an extremely bright blast, called a kilonova. Kilonovas may be of great importance to the universe, and our lives: Astronomers suspect important elements and metals are forged in these blasts, like gold and platinum. “It is one of the proposed predominant sites for the heavier elements in the universe,” explained Hajela.

   But after this immense kilonova explosion, astronomers propose that debris expanded out into space, generating a shock wave, or blast. The blast heated up anything around like gases or stardust. This is the kilonova glow or afterglow we can detect from millions of light-years away.

2. Black hole: Another possibility is the dramatic neutron star merger created a black hole — an “object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it,” explains NASA — and now matter from the collision is falling into the black hole. When debris falls in, it releases bounties of energy as it spirals around the powerful, dark object. This could be the source of this newly detected energy from distant space.

You can read the full story on Mashable.

Amazed scientists watched a giant star explode for the first time

Until recently, astronomers had never directly witnessed the explosion of a massive, aging star. But in 2020, astronomers atop a mountain in Maui used a powerful telescope to detect an unusually active red supergiant, much more distant than Betelgeuse (at some 120 million light-years away). They watched it closely for 130 days, giving themselves an invaluable view of the grand finale. The resulting stellar explosion is called “supernova 2020tlf.”

“We actually saw the star violently erupt,” Wynn Jacobson-Galán, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley who led the research, told Mashable. “It’s been something we wanted to find.”

The research was published this year in The Astrophysical Journal.

The explosion of this star happened well beyond our Milky Way in the galaxy NGC 5731, so there’s no “close-up” footage. (Any stars well beyond our galaxy usually appear as dots seen through our telescopes.) But the astronomers, sensing the explosion was imminent, employed specialized imaging equipment at the W.M. Keck Observatory, atop the lofty Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, to observe the climatic “powerful flash” and intense release of energy.

The blast was conspicuous, even in a distant galaxy filled with luminous stars. “It takes just one supernova to outshine all the other stars in the galaxy,” explained Jacobson-Galán.

You can read the full story on Mashable.

Boom! NASA slammed into an asteroid and filmed the crash

NASA’s mission to move an asteroid was a great success.

Called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, the endeavor was humanity’s first-ever attempt to purposefully nudge a cosmic object. The rocky target, Dimorphos, is not a threat to Earth, but the mission was an experiment to see how civilization could alter the path of a menacing asteroid, should one ever be on a collision course with our planet. 

The aim wasn’t to destroy Dimorphos, which at time of impact was some 6.8 million miles from Earth. Rather, the intention was to just smack the stadium-sized asteroid with a spacecraft the size of a vending machine. Scientists slightly nudged the asteroid, ultimately demonstrating proof of the ability to alter an asteroid’s trajectory.

The impact, which blasted some 2 million tons of rock into space, created a tail tens of thousands of miles long. Critically, the impact significantly slowed Dimorphos’ orbit around its parent asteroid, Didymos, proving that the experiment worked.

“What we can learn from the DART mission is all part of […] NASA’s overarching work to understand asteroids and other small bodies in our Solar System,” Tom Statler, the program scientist for DART at NASA, said in a statement. “Impacting the asteroid was just the start. Now we use the observations to study what these bodies are made of and how they were formed – as well as how to defend our planet should there ever be an asteroid headed our way.”

You can read the full story on Mashable.

A rocket slammed into the moon. NASA got a picture.

The moon has a strange, new crater. But this one’s not natural.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began mapping the moon in 2009, spotted the impact site of a recent rocket crash on the far side of the moon, which occurred in early March. The space agency published imagery of the explosive impact in June which actually resulted in a double crater: a 19.5-yard crater overlapping with a 17.5-yard crater.

Astronomers expected a wayward rocket booster to slam into the moon, making it the first known time that space debris unintentionally impacted our natural satellite. What NASA didn’t expect, however, was a double crater.

“The double crater was unexpected and may indicate that the rocket body had large masses at each end,” NASA wrote in a description of the image. “Typically a spent rocket has mass concentrated at the motor end; the rest of the rocket stage mainly consists of an empty fuel tank. Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity.”

You can read the full story on Mashable.

A colossal meteorite struck Mars. Then NASA made an even bigger discovery.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has zipped around the red desert planet for a decade and a half, snapped a stunning Martian image this year: It’s of a new crater nearly 500 feet across and some 70 feet deep.

“It’s unprecedented to find a fresh impact of this size,” Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, who leads NASA InSight’s Impact Science Working Group, said in a statement. “It’s an exciting moment in geologic history, and we got to witness it.”

NASA’s geologic sleuth InSight lander, which detects Marsquakes, picked up the event in late 2021. Then, the 2022 image revealed valuable resources hidden in the Martian subsurface. As Mashable’s Elisha Sauers reported:

But what’s thrilled scientists perhaps as much as or more than the recorded seismic activity is what the meteor uncovered when it slammed into Mars — huge, boulder-size chunks of ice blasted out of the crater. Up until now, underground ice hadn’t been found in this region, the warmest part of the planet.

“This is really an exciting result,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s director of planetary science, during a news conference. “We know, of course, that there’s water ice near the poles on Mars. But in planning for future human exploration of Mars, we’d want to land the astronauts as near to the equator as possible, and having access to ice at these lower latitudes, that ice can be converted into water, oxygen, or hydrogen. That could be really useful.”

You can read the full story on Mashable.

Stayed tuned for more momentous space explosions next year. And the year after. And, well, you get the idea.

Amidst its many, many plot twists, one of the biggest surprises of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is that the film tackles COVID-19.

In the movie’s very first scene, a delivery person brings a box to politician Claire Debella’s (Kathryn Hahn) house. Seeing that they’re masked, Claire haphazardly covers her own mouth before bringing the box inside. A helpful title card informs us that the film is taking place in May of 2020, a particularly stressful time during the worldwide COVID pandemic.

At first, it seems like a strange choice to set a fun whodunnit in the middle of a global health crisis. However, director Rian Johnson uses his characters’ reactions to the pandemic as a way to flesh them out, as well as provide social commentary on how the ultra-rich have weathered the pandemic. From face masks to ill-advised parties, here are all the ways Glass Onion addresses COVID-19.

Pay attention to the face masks everyone is wearing.

Costuming is a key way to learn more about a character, and Glass Onion‘s pandemic setting gives us one more costume element to keep an eye out for: face masks.

The kinds of masks Glass Onion‘s characters wear — or whether they’re even wearing any in the first place — are the perfect way to learn more about who they are. Benoit Blanc’s (Daniel Craig) stylish silk mask scores well on both fashion and function, emphasizing his smart desire to follow COVID safety protocols. Contrast this with wild card right-wing streamer Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) and his girlfriend Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), who forego masks entirely.

But the award for the wildest mask — if we can even call it that — goes to the glamorous and gonzo Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), who swans into Greece wearing a bedazzled mesh mask that certainly isn’t protecting anyone from the spread of an airborne virus. It looks fabulous but is completely useless: proof that Birdie is more interested in her image than she is in doing the bare minimum.

“I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island.”

Remember when Kim Kardashian flaunted her private island birthday celebration mid-COVID and instantly became a meme? That’s essentially the plot of Glass Onion: rich people partying on a private island in the middle of a global health crisis.

Murder mystery party host Miles Bron (Edward Norton) even calls his guests his “closest inner circle” in their invitations, wording that can only be a direct nod to Kardashian’s infamous tweet.

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The parallels are too on point to be a coincidence, but more importantly, they add to Glass Onion‘s commentary on how some of the absurdly affluent view the pandemic as more of an inconvenience than a serious health problem.

While characters like tech billionaire Miles and fashion model Birdie lament not being able to party and gather like they used to, hundreds of thousands of people are dying, and the rest of the world is struggling to keep it together. Nowhere is this clearer than with schoolteacher Helen (Janelle Monáe), who tells Benoit about the difficulties of educating her young students in virtual classrooms.

How do Glass Onion‘s characters handle pandemic isolation?

Before our cast of possible criminals go to Greece for Miles’s murder mystery party, we get glimpses into their home lives, and how they were impacted by COVID.

Claire is running a campaign work-from-home-style, resulting in Zoom interviews in her home office where she rattles off clearly well-rehearsed quips amid familial chaos. Scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.) takes virtual conference calls in a massive, yet totally empty office. And then there’s Birdie, who’s hosting a lavish party full of people she claims are in her pod — including famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma!

At least she’s playing a press conference with Dr. Anthony Fauci in the background. That’s got to count for something, right? Eh, probably not.

Glass Onion pokes fun at pandemic hobbies.

When we first see Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion, he’s not solving some incredible case but rather lying in his bathtub, absolutely failing at the popular betrayal game Among Us. He’s playing with a star-studded crew of legends, including Stephen Sondheim and Natasha Lyonne, none of whom can believe that a world-class detective could be this bad at a game where you are solving murder mysteries.

In a movie about uber-rich people blithely gathering on a private island, this nod to pandemic gaming is an incredibly relatable moment. I certainly used games like Among Us and Quiplash to connect with friends from afar. Genius detectives, they’re just like us!

Later in the film, we get another subtle shout-out to a hobby many took up during the first months of the COVID pandemic: baking. When Benoit’s partner Philip (Hugh Grant) answers the door to their apartment, he’s wearing an apron and covered in flour. Sure, Philip could have already loved baking, but maybe he picked up a sourdough habit while isolated with newly minted gamer Benoit. Given the film’s intentional references to COVID throughout, I’m tempted to go for the latter.

The pandemic boosted Birdie Jay’s image.

When she’s not wearing mesh masks or throwing mega-spreader parties, Birdie is a fashion entrepreneur. The former model started her own line of sweatpants, and it quickly rose to popularity once scads of people began working from home. Business on the top, Birdie’s sweatpants on the bottom. Even Benoit admits he practically lives in his pair!

Just don’t ask how they’re made — the human rights violations are off the charts.

So did Miles have a COVID cure this whole time?

What kinds of health precautions do Miles’s guests have to take before arriving on his island? Do they have to self-quarantine and get tested? No! They just have to get mysterious liquid sprayed in their mouths courtesy of Ethan Hawke (one of Glass Onion‘s many cameos), who tells them that after that they’re all taken care of, COVID-wise.

Now hold on just a minute here — is this spray some kind of magical cure for COVID?

And if so, why is Miles hoarding it? Miles claims to want to make the world a better place. That seems to be why he’s pushing for the launch of Klear, his form of clean energy that also happens to be incredibly volatile. But in practice, Miles is a self-obsessed idiot, who only wants to “break the system” in order to be remembered forever. Still, you’d think that having a miracle COVID cure would achieve that. But clearly, a murder mystery party takes precedence over everything.

Knives Out is now streaming on Netflix.

Redditors are providing an online public service by recommending extremely helpful iOS apps that are absolutely free. There are adventure apps, sleep apps, education apps, sleep apps, mental health apps, food apps, sleeeep apppppps. Yeah, you get the point.

Check out our compilation of the best free iPhone apps that Redditors love. And if you want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech, sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories and Deals newsletters today.

1. AllTrails

AllTrails is a handy guide for adventurers looking for running, hiking, and biking trails. It offers details about the trails — more than 100,000 all over the world! — including difficulty level, elevation, and length, according to Redditor Wookiepuke. App users can also post pictures of trails and leave comments and reviews for other users. And, yes, it tells you if the trails are dog or kid-friendly, too.

2. Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization that provides free online educational tools to help students learn. Being a “student” doesn’t mean you have to be in school, however. In this case, being a student just means you have something you’d like to learn more about. The app, suggested by Redditor Colgate_and_OJ, has information and learning tools on a variety of subjects, from art history to astronomy, at multiple learning levels.

3. Mealime

Mealime is a recipe app that, as Redditor theblartist states in their post, lets the user enter information about their tastes and diet goals before recommending recipes that correspond to said information. Thanks to its ability to streamline recipes to a user’s preferences, the app should save plenty of time on deciding what to eat.

4. Tunity

How many times have you been trying to watch something on TV but the sound is either muted, or background noise makes it impossible to hear? Tunity allows users to simply scan the TV screen, and the app streams the TV audio straight to your device so you can listen with headphones. Redditor mike-mag adds that it’s ideal in loud, crowded bars where maybe instead of chatting it up with the guy next to you who won’t stop talking, you’re actually trying to watch the game.

5. Libby

Libby, recommended by Redditor awkwardlyonfire, essentially functions as an e-library. As long as you have a library card, you can access and borrow your library’s collection of ebooks and audio books for free. The app allows you to link your library card and then browse your local library’s collection. Simply download a book if you want to read it. All of your “loans” are automatically returned on their due dates. No late fees! It’s the library without having to actually get up and go there. Perfect for global-pandemic-like conditions.

6. AirDroid

It’s file sharing made easy with AirDroid, which allows users to “share photos, videos, audios, or any files with your friends and across screens.”

Let’s say you want to share photos from your phone to your computer. As long as the devices are on same Wi-Fi network, your AirDroid account on your computer should be able to recognize the account on your phone. From there, your computer will recognize your phone’s photos/videos, and you can pick and choose which files to transfer. No USBs necessary, no wires, and no data cost. You can check out more specifics on the app here. Suggested by Redditor RODjij

7. Insight Timer

For meditators everywhere, Insight Timer provides guided meditations at various lengths instructed by “the world’s top meditation and mindfulness experts, neuroscientists, psychologists, and teachers from Stanford, Harvard, the University of Oxford, and more,” according to the app description. The Redditor’s post remains online with almost 400 points, although their account seems to have been deleted. We thank them, nonetheless.

8. Clue Period & Cycle Tracker

Clue allows users to track their menstrual cycles and log information about their symptoms to learn more about their menstrual health. Clue also uses that information to make predictions about the user’s period cycle — when it will hit, along with likely symptoms and their severity. Redditor annabear used Clue to plan their Valentine’s weekend vacation so they wouldn’t be on their period while they were away. According to their post, it worked like a charm.

In 2022, you’ll want to take a moment to learn about the data collected by period tracking apps and how it could be used in a post-Roe world.

9. Shazam

Shazam is pretty popular and has been for some time now, but it’s always worth a mention when we’re talking about useful free apps. Shazam users can open the app while a song is playing on the radio, in a store, or pretty much anywhere, and Shazam will provide the name of the song as well as the artist who sings it. It’s essentially the answer to the age-old question: “The hell is the name of this song playing?” Thanks to Redditor DunkyChameleon for the assist.

10. Photomath

Listen, math is really freaking hard, okay? Sometimes you’ll be stuck on a single problem for an hour with no idea what to do. Photomath is a study tool that allows the user to take a picture of that problem. The app will scan it, and the problem then gets put into the app’s algorithm, which provides step-by-step instructions on how to solve it. And, boy, would I love to have known this existed before today. Suggested by Redditor Mattiusdagrub8.

11. DuoLingo

Another handy educational app, DuoLingo offers free quick lessons to help users learn new languages. Choose from more than 35 languages, from Spanish to Japanese, to learn. You’ll get an array of mini games and small lessons to further your vocabulary and understanding. Suggested by Redditor icollectcorpses, th – *pauses, suspiciously squints at username*… The app gives you the space to learn a new language without the added pressure of grades and the dreaded threat of failure!

12. SkyView Lite

Listen up, aspiring astronomers and those even vaguely interested in stars and planets and stuff. Redditor evilive is making us aware of SkyView Lite, a stargazing app that allows you to simply point your phone at the sky and have it tell you what’s up there. It’ll show you individual stars, constellations, planets, and even satellites! It’s more than the Big Dipper up there, and now you know it.

13. Waze

Redditor Cazmae’s recommendation is short and sweet, but a worthy inclusion nevertheless. If you haven’t heard of it already, Waze is a navigation app that calculates routes, gives directions, and encourages its users to report accidents and obstacles so as to enhance everyone’s experience.

14. iNaturalist

iNaturalist, recommended by Redditor mmmmwhu, lets users take pictures of plants and animals, providing suggestions as to what species they are by using “visually similar suggestions and verification by dedicated contributors,” according to the app description.

15. Radio Garden Live

Rotate the globe, tap a location, and get access to radio stations in that area? Sounds easy enough. Radio Garden gives users the chance to listen to different radio stations around the world. Thanks, Redditor karlotomic!

16. Too Good To Go

As Redditor JohnTheBaptiste1 points out, Too Good To Go is potentially a great money saver while doing a bit of social good, as well. The app allows participating restaurants and stores to sell food (that would otherwise go to waste) at a cheap price for users to purchase. The app allows you to find participating stores/restaurants in your area and place orders for pickup.

17. Google Arts & Culture

Like a virtual museum, Google Arts & Culture “puts the treasures, stories and knowledge of over 2,000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips,” the app description says. Redditor yokayla highlights its value for art/history buffs, as it gives users access to exhibits and information they’d otherwise have to spend a lot of money (and perhaps travel great distances) to get in person. Google and its partners team up with cultural institutions to help them “digitize, manage and publish their collections online, all for free.” (You can also find out which famous artwork you most resemble.)

18. A Soft Murmur

Just what you need: A background noise app that lets you combine different sounds and control the volume of each. Thunder, rain, wind, and more are at your disposal to use for whatever reason. Some like background noise for studying. Some like it for working. We’d probably use it the same way Redditor Jay_Diddly does: sleep.

19. Sleep Cycle – Sleep Tracker

Speaking of sleep, Sleep Cycle gives its users insight into their sleeping patterns. It learns your sleep cycle, detects snoring and other sounds, and uses its “smart” alarm clock to wake you when your body is in its lightest sleep stage. Using your body’s natural circadian rhythm to, as Redditor Happypepik says, make mornings easier? We’re down for sure.

20. Alarmy

If Sleep Cycle is the friend who tells you what you want to hear, Alarmy is the friend who tells you what you need to hear, even if it royally pisses you off. As nice as waking up naturally from a period of light sleep is, that style just doesn’t cut it for some of us. Alarmy gets you out of bed with loud noises and “missions” that make you get up and do something to turn the alarm off. Thank you for the lovely suggestion, Redditor Dahhhkness… we guess.

21. Apollo for Reddit

If you’re looking for an alternative to the official Reddit app, try Apollo for Reddit. With nearly 150,000 reviews and a score of 4.8 out of 5 in the App Store, this free app creates a more customized Reddit experience for casual and power users alike. Redditor Akashiarys described it as a “game changer.”

22. Finch

Do you like the idea of taking care of a pet bird but don’t have the emotional energy to commit to cleaning out a bird cage? Finch might be just the free iPhone app you need. Part self care, part virtual companionship (and plenty of cute bird illustrations), the app has been commended by Reddit users for helping to deal with anxiety. The app uses personalized self-care exercises to help you take care of your bird and yourself.

23. Apple Maps

Stay with us. You might think of Apple Maps as the far worse version of Google Maps or Waze, but according to several Redditors it has gotten way better over the years. “There’s a stigma from like 8 years ago that Apple Maps is still terrible. But it’s honestly the most pin-point accurate map app (for me, at least). They’ve added every main feature you could possibly want by now,” said Redditor Awsaim. “Apple maps has reached the point where it’s just as good, if not better, than google maps. It also looks a lot cleaner than google maps imo,” echoed Redditor TP_blitz. In fact, Apple Maps popped up several times in a post about the best designed iOS apps in r/iPhone. That’s pretty convincing stuff from a community that know its iOS apps.

This story was originally published in 2020 and updated in 2022.

Tesla once proudly boasted about a $35,000 fully electric sedan. Those days are long gone. Now the cheapest Tesla is the standard range Model 3, which starts at $43,990.

Last weekend, most Tesla models bumped up in price by $2,000. (The Model 3 standard range used to be $41,990.) And, on Wednesday, Tesla prices also went up in Germany and China.

That doesn’t mean affordable EVs are out of reach. Beyond Tesla, EVs from Chevy to Nissan can be had for under $40,000, and they offer plenty of range, power, and other features — even if there’s no Dog or Sentry Mode available.

Here are the EVs a more budget-friendly driver might consider.

1. The Nissan Leaf is among the cheapest electric cars

Range: 150 or 226 miles

Starting price: $27,400

The OG electric sedan, the Leaf is a solid EV choice. Plus, it still qualifies for the federal tax credit, which Tesla lost access to even before the pandemic. (At the time of publication, all cars listed here except the Bolt EV and EUV still qualified.)

2. The Mini SE Hardtop is one of the most affordable EVs

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Range: 110 miles

Starting price: $29,900

It’s a super-cute electric version of the classic Mini, but be forewarned: This two-door EV barely goes 100 miles on a single charge.

SEE ALSO: Best back-up cameras for your car

3. The Chevy Bolt EV is another affordable EV

Range: 259 miles

Starting price: $31,995

The Bolt used to be Tesla’s main competitor, at least budget-wise. But battery-fire recalls on every single Bolt ever sold has put a damper on sales and public perception.

4. Another of the cheapest electric cars is the Chevy Bolt EUV

Range: 247 miles

Starting price: $33,995

The EUV is a bigger version of the original Bolt, with Super Cruise hands-free driving built into the drive system. It just came out earlier this year, but fire risk literally blew up the EUV’s appeal.

5. The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is one of the more affordable electric vehicles

Range: 170 miles

Starting price: $34,250

Hyundai has since spun out its Ioniq line for all its electric vehicles.

6. The Hyundai Kona Electric is an EV you can afford

Range: 258 miles

Starting price: $35,225

This one’s another compact SUV from Hyundai that offers higher range than than the Ioniq — and, still, a lower price than a Tesla.

7. The Kia Niro EV is another electric car for less than $40,000

Range: 239 miles

Starting price: $39,990

The Niro EV just makes it under $40,000 as Kia’s fully electric version in its Niro lineup, which also has a hybrid and plug-in hybrid.

Note: This article was originally published October 30, 2021.

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TikTok is entering a world of pain right now, having just released a damning report about its own employees obtaining the data of U.S. users. Since this report comes at a time when a key cohort of Americans wants to ban the app altogether, you should expect TikTok to become a major political talking point as the 2024 election cycle ramps up.

On Thursday, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, released the results of an internal investigation. Yes, ByteDance confirmed, four of its employees in China scooped up the data of two TikTok accounts belonging to U.S. journalists. And TikTok really, really wasn’t supposed to do that. 

The report is emboldening high-profile enemies of TikTok like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, whose bill to ban TikTok on U.S. government devices passed in the Senate a little over a week ago. That bill still needs to pass in the House of Representatives to become law, but statewide bans of TikTok on government devices are already the law in Texas, North Dakota, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Utah, West Virginia, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Nebraska, and Montana.

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Crucially, the report doesn’t contain similarly damning details about what was done with the data. It likely wasn’t printed out, clipped into a dossier, and handed to Xi Jinping himself, if that’s what you’re imagining. It seems instead, a handful of ByteDance employees who were on the lookout for internal leakers managed to find the user data and IP addresses of U.S. reporters in an ultimately thwarted — but demonically clever — effort to see if ByteDance employees suspected of leaking were ever physically near the journalists. That didn’t end up happening, and everyone involved in this effort was fired, supposedly.

But Hawley and his ilk have made it clear that they imagine TikTok is being used as something much scarier: a spying apparatus for the Chinese Communist Party, as spelled out in (to cite one random example) a tweet from Hawley’s fellow Republican Senator Ted Cruz, in which he notes that TikTok tends to “dodge” questions about the communists and says “it’s clear they’re spying on users.”

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It may be a stretch at this point to say there’s any evidence TikTok is part of China’s master plan to, I guess, turn Americans communist. But is simply obtaining the data a legitimate scandal in its own right? Absolutely.  

That’s because in 2019 — when TikTok was an emerging internet phenomenon, and news coverage about it consistently contained passages that raised concerns about its associations with the Chinese government  — its U.S. team rolled out some sweeping claims about data security. The most important of those claims is that U.S. user data is kept in the United States and doesn’t go to ByteDance headquarters in China. The U.S. team may have thought that when they produced that statement, but with Thursday’s revelation, the company now admits it wasn’t true. 

And prior reports have intimated that ByteDance cooperates with Chinese propaganda efforts. At least one of these reports — and for the record, ByteDance denies it — is by Emily Baker-White, one of the two journalists ByteDance now admits to having spied on.

Another luminary of the anti-TikTok crowd in the Senate is Marco Rubio, who has introduced a bill just before this latest report came out that would ban TikTok nationwide (something former president Donald Trump tried to do unilaterally in 2020, but was stopped by the courts). In his press release about the bill, Rubio is pretty over the top. “We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company.”

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Rubio glancingly alludes in his tweet about TikTok to similar practices by U.S.-based platforms. Indeed, U.S.-based social media platforms do cooperate with U.S. intelligence and help spread positive U.S. messages abroad. Moreover, U.S. intelligence gatherers — in particular, FBI agents — have openly attempted to “instantly search and monitor” social media posts, and used elaborate data-mining schemes to gather intelligence about users. And at least one study of user behavior on Facebook in particular shows that knowledge of this spying affects users’ ability to feel like they can speak freely, a phenomenon called the “spiral of silence.” If this sounds familiar, that might be because of its similarity to the well-documented self-censorship practiced by members of the Chinese media.

“Banning” TikTok, by the way, is very unlikely to result in TikTok simply disappearing. Instead, it would most likely result in ByteDance recouping its loss by selling it to an American ally like Microsoft, as almost happened in 2020.

In other words, yes, TikTok is doing sketchy things with some U.S. user data, and it may have the power to do a lot more. But banning TikTok — or selling it to the likes of Microsoft, a company with a history of cooperating with spies — would not stop any social media user from being spied on, or influenced, by intelligence agencies.

With a huge winter storm making life difficult for a good portion of North America just as the holidays begin, there may be a better than average chance you could face delays.

Thousands of flights have either been delayed or canceled due to the storm already, and even if conditions improve, airlines will still be dealing with getting passengers where they need to go.

It’s good to be prepared for whatever delays happen, whether it’s prior to your trip, or in the middle of it. Fortunately, there are plenty of apps out there to help you stay informed and ease some of the frustrations of travel delays.

FlightAware, FlightStats to check your flight status

Many major airlines have their own apps, of course, where you can check the status of your upcoming flights, including delays and cancellations. But there are also independent apps which come in very handy, especially for smaller airlines.

FlightAware tracks all flights arriving and leaving an airport, even cargo carriers like UPS or private jet charters like NetJets, so you could get an idea of how things are going overall even if your particular flight is OK right now.

FlightStats is similar, although with less frills, while FlightRadar24 is built more for checking out the at-the-moment skies and what’s landing and taking off.

Flighty is more like a personal assistant for passengers, with options such as “where’s my plane” alerts, connection information and even baggage claim details. Currently, Flighty is offering a complimentary flight for first-time users, and the annual fee is $49.99.

Stuck in an airport for a while? May as well look around

Though missing your connection due to a delayed flight is bad – real bad, as in call-your-airline bad – being stuck in a strange airport isn’t fun either. But if you do find yourself with time on your hands at an airport, there are several airport map apps out there. 

Trippie breaks down airports by where you can find food near you, along with airport maps, by accessing the airport’s websites. It also has flight tracking, and a way to check how long those pesky lines are at the TSA checkpoints.

How to check your airport lounge options

OK, you’ve got a few hours to kill, it turns out. Why not hit up one of those airport lounges your more travel-savvy friends talk about?

With LoungeBuddy, you can track down which lounges are in that airport and where they are, along with how much they cost. They also give you details about what they offer – from wifi to food and beverages. 

You can then book a pass to that lounge through the app (although eligibility requirements will apply in some cases, like if you’re a member of a frequent-flier club or a credit-card holder).

Hungry? No need to wait in line with Grab

There’s also the point when you’re about to arrive at an airport, hungry and in a rush because your layover is too short. While, yes, trail mix at an airport store is an option, is it? Really? 

At a number of airports, an app called Grab has a solution – order ahead. Using the app, you can order food, and it’ll be waiting for you by the time you arrive.

The Grab app tells you what’s available for ordering, where the restaurant is, and how long it’ll take for your food to get ready. 

Check to see if the airport you’re flying into or out of uses the Grab app. Some airports use independent ordering services, so it’s good to check ahead.

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Want more? Be sure to check out our guide to the best Boxing Day sales deals we’ve spotted online this year, here.

What is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas (December 26), and is a public holiday in Australia. Boxing Day Sales have been a thing in Australia since the 1980s. It was a chance for retailers to quickly sell off their excess inventory from the Christmas season, and traditionally involved a trip into the city, hours of queuing and navigating big crowds. Thankfully, these days you can save yourself a trip and snag a great Boxing Day deal online. 

When is Boxing Day in 2022?

Boxing Day falls on Monday, December 26, the day after Christmas (December 25). However, early deals begin to pop up throughout this week leading up to Christmas, and stay online the week following. For example, Amazon Australia’s early Boxing Day deals have already kicked off.

What are the best items to buy on Boxing Day?

The Boxing Day Sales are a great time to score sizable discounts on big-ticket items like laptops, Hi-Fi, consoles and TVs. Online tech retailers will getting rid of stock to make space for the 2023 season, so keep an eye on stores like Amazon, The Good Guys, Bing Lee and Ebay. It’s also worth keeping an eye out specifically for the following products: 

• Robot vacuums: If you’re here, now, then you’re clearly on the hunt for a good robot vac. The eyewatering deals above are some of the best we’ve seen on robot vacuums all year – especially on two top brands: Ecovacs and iRobot. You won’t find lower prices on these top devices until at least next Black Friday, so if you want robotically cleaned floors this year, it’s worth picking one up now!

But Boxing Day is also a great time to pick up a range of tech and general consumer goods for cheap. We’ve outlined some of the top items to buy below, but also be sure to check out our guide to the best Boxing Day deals we’ve spotted so far.

• Appliances: Expect tech and white good retailers like The Good Guys and Bing Lee to go big this Boxing Day, dropping prices on pretty much all stock. This means it’s a great time to find good deals on big items like fridges, freezers, washing machines, as well as the small ones like kettles, toasters and more. 

• Games consoles: Console availability in Australia has been a challenge over the past few years, but things have definitely improved the last few months with PS5s and Xbox Series Xs readily available on Amazon and in gaming retailers. Boxing Day will no doubt bring some great prices on console accessories and games, and even on consoles if we’re lucky! 

• Smartphones: Amazon offers some pretty impressive deals on smartphones the whole year around, and some of these prices should be even lower for Boxing Day.

• Toys: While many of the in-demand toys will be sold out from Christmas, any left over will be up for grabs! We recommend checking out Amazon for the best deals on Lego, especially for the massively popular Star Wars and Harry Potter sets.

• TVs: We expect all of the leading retailers to offer some hefty deals on remaining TV stock from top brands like Samsung, Hisense, Sony, LG and Panasonic. It’s worth shopping around for the best TV deals, but you’ll likely have the best chances on The Good Guys, Bing Lee or Kogan.

• Security and VPNs: Off the back of the recent Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, security companies will again be dropping their prices for Boxing Day – especially to Australians. If you need to renew your cybersecurity or VPN for the upcoming year, now is a great time.

It was Christmas Day night and I couldn’t sleep. Not through excitement for continued Twixmas celebrations, but because I knew I had a difficult and almost certainly heartbreaking conversation ahead of me.

My self-esteem was at an all time low and a situationship of mine had developed into an emotionally torturous interaction. Sex with a good friend meant catching unreciprocated feelings. Despite the friendship, he’d gone quiet and ghosted me during a winter lockdown. It felt terrible. Rotating all possibilities, my mind searched for answers during this period of silence. My inner critic used the situation as a stick to beat me with, evidence of all my shortcomings, proof that I was deficient in other people’s eyes (not just my own).

When he got back in touch to search for guilt absolution, to make sure his reputation remained unscathed in our friendship group, I was confused by his intentions and, I’ll admit, I hoped he’d had a change of heart. Things came to a long overdue head as I sat next to my parents’ Christmas tree sipping a gin and tonic — I knew I needed to end my misery and ask him what he wanted from me. Deep down, I realised the answer possibly wasn’t going to be what my heart wanted, but I needed to be set free from this waiting room of sorrow. My anxiety was mounting to unbearable levels and I knew I couldn’t put off the conversation any longer. So, on Boxing Day morning, I rolled over in bed and awoke to a message from him, apologising yet again for his behaviour. I sighed in recognition of what I needed to do.

After I’d sent the dreaded message, I sat in silence waiting for the inevitable. When his message arrived, the contents weren’t surprising to me — but that didn’t make it any less painful. And though I was free from the turmoil, that’s when anxiety gave way to heartbreak, a feeling that wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to be dealing with over Christmas, a time of year I usually love. A neverending stream of tears rolled down my face as I sat watching my favourite films with my family. My mum looked at me with pity and concern, as I muffled tragic sniffs on the sofa. It was, as you can imagine, not a great time. And no amount of pigs in blankets or Terry’s Chocolate Oranges would make me feel better (though you can’t say I didn’t try!).

Heartbreak, sadly, doesn’t take a day off when it’s a special occasion.

Heartbreak, sadly, doesn’t take a day off when it’s a special occasion. And the holidays can be particularly difficult when you’re in the throes of a breakup, or the ending of a situationship. As writer Annie Lord, author of Notes On Heartbreak, tells me, “It’s pretty horrible because everyone’s so loved up during Christmas.”

“There are couples everywhere, holding hands at the Christmas markets, looking for rings in shops, and when you turn on the TV they’re still there, kissing in cozy cottages in The Holiday, declaring their love in Love Actually. I think the coldness makes people want to cozy up with someone they love,” she says.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you have to put up with it, though. Mashable spoke to psychotherapists for tips on coping with heartbreak during the holidays.

Limit your time on social media

If there’s anything guaranteed to make you want to throw your phone at the wall, it’s seeing endless pics of engagement rings with the caption “so, this happened!” You simply don’t need to see it right now.

Fiona Yassin, family psychotherapist and founder and clinical director of The Wave Clinic, says it’s a good idea to limit your social media use so you’re not bombarded with what your friends and internet pals are up to during this period. “When we see others having fun on social media and we feel we are not, it can trigger negative emotions like loneliness and isolation,” says Yassin.

Here are some tips on how to limit your Instagram usage and TikTok usage.

Give yourself time to grieve

The holidays are a time that champions joy. And that can be particularly challenging when you feel, well, pretty rotten. Giving yourself permission to feel sad is important in validating the difficult emotions you’ll be (understandably!) feeling during this time.

“Don’t feel like you’re ruining other people’s good time.”

Dr. Elena Touroni, a consultant psychologist and co-founder of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic, says, “A big break up is comparable to grief, particularly if that person was very embedded in your life. Instead of rushing out to date again and trying to ‘get over it,’ be gentle with yourself and give yourself time and space to process the loss.”

Also, don’t feel bad for feeling sad. “Don’t feel like you’re ruining other people’s good time,” author Lord says. “You are not a burden. It’s an honour to be able to be there for people when they need it.”

If you’ve been ghosted, Mashable has some tips on how to move on.

Surround yourself with people you love

Heartbreak is a universal emotion and chances are, everyone around you right now will have gone through it at some point in their life. Opening up to others about what you’re going through can make you feel less alone.

“Speak to your parents or any older members of your family. Most of the time they have been through this before and they survived, knowing this can give you hope,” says Lord. “Christmas means you’re often surrounded by your family and friends. Celebrate the love you get from them, a love that is often less intense or glamorous, but a lot more enduring than romantic love.”

Going home or to safe spaces can sometimes give you an opportunity to reconnect with your younger self. “Going home can be quite grounding,” she adds. “You’re surrounded by all this stuff from when you were younger which can put things into perspective. I remember finding an old diary of mine where I was crying over a guy and though I was now upset about another one, I could still see that I was dealing with it in a much better way.”

Not everyone has access to a support network at this time of year. If your heartbreak is impacting your mental health or if you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody.

You can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988; the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you’re based in the UK, contact the Samaritans (116 123). If you don’t like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat at crisischat.org. Here is a list of international resources.

Try some grounding techniques

As a practical daily means to cope with heartbreak, Yassin recommends equipping yourself with some grounding techniques, which can be helpful for people to manage and work through emotions they wish they weren’t feeling. Grounding techniques are exercises or activities that help you refocus on what’s happening in the present moment, distracting yourself from triggers, anxious feelings, or difficult emotions.

“By using grounding techniques, we are not saying that we will not deal with or process the emotions and sensations, but we are saying that right now, at this moment, this is not going to intrude in what I’m doing,” says Yassin. “Walking can be really good to bring you back into the moment. When we walk and put one foot in front of the other we are actually stimulating both sides of the brain in a process called Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) which can feel soothing for some.” Here are six free grounding meditations to help you get started.

Repetitive activities like cross-stitch or crochet can have a soothing effect for some, while others like to keep themselves in motion. “Journaling or watching a good movie can also be effective grounding techniques,” says Yassin. Touroni also recommends journaling as it “helps get difficult thoughts and feelings down on paper so you can gain greater clarity and a new perspective.” Check out Mashable’s non-intimidating guide to journaling to get started.

Look after your physical needs

When you’re feeling low, it can be difficult to muster the energy to look after ourselves. Taking care of your immediate physical needs can be a way of making yourself feel a little better, despite not being able to shift the difficult emotions that come with heartbreak. Make sure you’re hydrated, eating, and getting plenty of rest.

“Make sure you’re doing activities that keep you both physically and mentally healthy e.g. regular exercise, eating healthy, nutritious meals etc.,” Touroni says. “Avoid turning to substances to numb any difficult thoughts and feelings. They might provide relief in the short-term but are likely to make things harder in the long run.”

Can’t sleep? Here are some tips on tangible things you can do to help you drift off.

Don’t rush into another relationship

Heartbreak can also be accompanied with feelings of panic, especially if you have been contending with anxious thoughts about “running out of time.” If you can resist some of these feelings and try to reassure that anxious voice in your head, know that you are allowed to take time to heal, and that you are enough on your own.

Yassir advises against rushing into another relationship straight away— often referred to as a “rebound”. “People that rebound tend to be those who are already struggling around interpersonal relations and relationships. Build a relationship with yourself before having a relationship with someone else. It’s unlikely a rebound relationship will be healthy if you don’t give yourself the time and space to be able to work out what you’re feeling.”

Don’t read into their texts

As the queen of reading-into-text-messages, I feel highly qualified in saying that it’s completely natural to want to search for signs of hope in any contact you might have had from the heartbreak-inflicter. But this habit can also prolong your agony and make it difficult to accept what’s really happening.

“If they message you ‘Happy Christmas’ don’t start thinking it signals anything.”

“If they message you ‘Happy Christmas’ don’t start thinking it signals anything,” says Lord. “They’re probably just trying to be polite. At the same time if you’re the one who ended the relationship don’t send a text, it will confuse your ex.”

A good rule of thumb is to assume that there is never a hidden meaning to their messages. If a person wants something badly enough, they’ll find a way to make sure their meaning and intention are fully understood. Tell yourself that if they want to communicate something important, they will likely do so in an explicit manner.

Cut yourself some slack

When you’re feeling sad, the last thing you need is another voice inside your head telling you what a misery you are. Your inner critic can rear their annoying head during this time to convince you that you’re bringing down the vibe, but most people understand that heartbreak truly is the worst.

“Be really kind to yourself,” advises Lord. “Don’t get annoyed if you don’t get off the sofa for the entire day, that’s what Christmas is for and everyone’s doing it too. It might feel like in doing these things you’re going backward, but you’re not you’re getting somewhere because stewing and feeling miserable is all part of the process.”

Talk to someone

If you’re really struggling, don’t suffer in silence. Speak to a mental health professional if you can. Shout is a 24/7 free mental health service in the UK (Text SHOUT to 85258). If you’re in the U.S., text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741.

“If you find yourself stuck in the same recurring relationship patterns, it could be a sign to dig a little deeper,” Touroni advises. “Negative early life experiences can sometimes impact the types of relationships we form — and choose —in later life. If you suspect there are things in your past that you haven’t dealt with, therapy is a great place to start this process.”

Lean on your support network and don’t bottle up your feelings. “If you’re struggling, reach out to friends and family,” Touroni adds. “These are the moments when we need their support the most, and the right people will want to be there for you.”

If you’re nursing a bruised or shattered heart this Christmas, know that you’re not alone. And know that it won’t be forever. Take care of yourself.