If your holiday wish was for a picture-perfect tale about celebrating our individuality while trashing someone’s house with their own red wine and decorations, consider Robin Robin a wish granted.

Created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please through Wallace and Gromit studio Aardman Animations, Robin Robin is a truly wondrous and impressively ambitious stop-motion film made for the holidays — but it’s just as easily enjoyed year round. Premiering at the BFI London Film Festival and coming to Netflix in November, the 30-minute film is one that will likely find itself firmly planted in holiday viewing lineups for folks of all ages.

Having fallen from her nest in the egg, Robin (Bronte Carmichael) has been raised by a family of mice. Led by their loving mouse dad (Adeel Akhtar), the family scurries into houses perfecting the art of stealth, pilfering crumbs of food and paraphernalia — if you loved Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox in this respect, you’ll love this as well. Not quite having the delicate touch of her family members, Robin struggles with her abilities in stealth and questions her place.

As a stop-motion film, Robin Robin is both incredibly beautiful and super playful in the medium. Crafted not of plasticine but of needle felt (a material not known for its malleability), this production is magical in its ambition — from a splattering snowball fight to an explosive fireworks display and a fast moving icy river. Every last frame of Robin Robin is a feast for the eyes, especially when there’s a literal feast being covertly ransacked by animals onscreen.

If you look closely at each scene, you can spot little Easter eggs — for example, the mouse family home, with its tree root bunks and leaf blankets, is filled with tiny bits and pieces humans would throw away, like the Grinch’s house but less brimming with banana peels and general hatred. Plus, it’s all beautifully scored by English duo The Bookshop Band, with a handful of truly memorable songs.

Christopher Robin star Carmichael is delightful voicing Robin, a character so determined to become a “real” mouse like her family that she fashions adorable mouse ears from her feathers. Not content to steal mere crumbs when she could aim for a whole juicy sandwich to prove her worthy of mousehood, Robin tries to infiltrate a house on her own, meeting new characters (both helpful and hungry) along the way — namely voiced by Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant.

Of course, you need a villain somewhere in this sweet tale. Anderson is perfectly chilling as classic bird/mouse nemesis Cat, without being too scary for young’uns. Lurking in her house of doom, she gets a nervously funny song about fitting in…her belly that is. “It’s what’s inside that counts” quite literally for Cat.

But stealing the entire show (and aiming for a certain “magic shiny wishing star”) is Grant as Magpie, collector of all things shiny and newfound friend to Robin. At the first screening of Robin Robin, the room absolutely erupted amid Magpie’s version of Robin’s song about the rules of stealing, grown-ups and kids alike. And Magpie gets his own song about loving THINGS which is reminiscent of Jermaine Clement’s Bowie-like “Shiny” as the villainous crab in Moana, combined with…well…Mr Burns’ “See My Vest” from The Simpsons. You’ll hear it.

Robin Robin is an ambitious, beautiful, technical triumph, a moving story of celebrating our individual strengths and differences, and a delightful tale that should be installed firmly on your holiday viewing rotation for life.

Robin Robin lands on Netflix on Nov. 27.

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che are hardly hurting for targets here. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, R. Kelly and Bill Cosby, Fox News and… well, Fox News is singularly terrible, it doesn’t need a pairing.

But the biggest beneficiary of this Weekend Update’s rapid-fire barrage of one-liners is none other than Mitch McConnell. The U.S. Senate’s obstructionist minority leader gets an extended torching, with Jost scoring two big laughs as he paints an exaggerated picture of the Kentucky Senator’s penchant for evil doings.

Surely you’ve heard by now that Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West are divorcing. So when Kim hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time, a sketch parody of The Bachelorette had to crank up the fun factor to 11.

In this sketch, Kim faces a crew of in-some-cases-questionably eligible bachelors as she selects who’s going to head outside to the hot tub and move on in the competition. There’s just one twist: With the exception of SNL cast member Kyle Mooney, the entire crew of would-be bachelors is a who’s who of very famous, very conventionally attractive, and very rich men.

These aren’t SNL cast members playing roles. That’s actually John Cena, and Chace Crawford, and Jesse Williams, and Chris Rock, and and and. Just a pile of guests. Amy Schumer even sneaks in and has a moment with Kim. The loser of the sketch is never in doubt (sorry to Mooney’s Zeke), but the eye candy-laden journey that gets us there is why you’re watching.

The 2000s yielded some iconic films. Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and the Ice Age franchise all trace their storied histories to the heady first decade of the new millennium. But you surely haven’t forgotten about these movies, nor have you forgotten about My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Training Day, or Miss Congeniality. All are streaming on HBOMax, and none of them belong on this list.

This list is about the 2000s movies that, for one reason or another, haven’t stayed as fresh in our collective consciousness as, say, I Am Legend. Perhaps they were small budget movies that got overshadowed by the Star Wars prequels. Maybe they were middling movies you loved but never watched again, or they would have been award-winners had they not premiered in the same year as Slumdog Millionaire. Whatever the case may be, each of the movies on this list is sure to spark joy as you remember that they exist and, hopefully, that they deserve a rewatch.

1. Matchstick Men (2003)

Nicolas Cage is a Los Angeles con artist whose life gets turned upside down when he finds out he has a 14-year-old daughter. Directed by Ridley Scott, this dark comedy is both funny and thoroughly absorbing. Sam Rockwell is an absolute gem (when is he not?) as Cage’s protégé, and Alison Lohman shines as Cage’s young daughter. Matchstick Men wholeheartedly deserves a rewatch and will certainly charm you as effortlessly as its characters do their marks. You know, there were a surprising amount of con-artist comedies in the early 2000s, including Heartbreakers, Catch Me If You Can, and Matchstick Men. Scamming regular people was obviously a much funnier concept before the 2007 housing market crash!

How to Watch: Matchstick Men is streaming on HBO Max.

2. The Town (2010)

Rebecca Hall and Ben Affleck in 2010’s “The Town.”
Credit: Warner Bros / Kobal / Shutterstock

In 2010, Ben Affleck looked in the mirror and said, “I am going to make a Boston movie that is SO Boston.” Enter The Town, the Affleck-starring, -written, -directed, and -produced crime thriller about a group of Boston-born bank robbers planning to rob Boston’s Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. It may sound comical, but The Town is a surprisingly excellent film loved by critics and audiences alike. Part of its success comes from its impressive ensemble cast: Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper, to name a few. Come for the iconic (and sometimes clichéd) Boston accents, but stay for the tense, well-written plot — your new favorite crime thriller awaits!

How to Watch: The Town is streaming on HBO Max.

3. Blue Crush (2002)

It’s the new millennium, baby! Women can surf now! This fluffy sports flick stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake as female surfers who clean hotel rooms during the day and surf Hawaii’s famous waves at night …even earlier in the day. Bosworth’s character was close to going pro until a harrowing accident halted her progress. Can she regain her confidence in time for an upcoming competition? There’s nothing new about the plot — you’ve seen this movie before — but the surf sequences are fresh and exhilarating. The movie feels like a breezy summer day: warm, bright, and fun. You might also squeal with delight when you see Bosworth’s love interest, Matthew Davis, who you’ll recognize exclusively as Warner Huntington III from Legally Blonde. But this time, he’s a good guy, we promise!

How to Watch: Blue Crush is streaming on HBO Max.

4. Changeling (2008)

For a meaty drama that hasn’t aged a day, look no further than Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie in an uncharacteristically delicate role. This poignant film tells the true story of Christine Collins, a woman in 1920s Los Angeles whose son has gone missing. When the LAPD announces they’ve found the boy, she claims they’ve brought back the wrong kid. Unfortunately, the LAPD disagrees. What follows is the heart-wrenching saga of a mother who will stop at nothing to get her son back, and the powerful forces conspiring to keep her quiet.

Changeling is absolutely astounding, in large part because the events that unfold — the gaslighting, sexism, and emotional abuse Collins endures — actually happened. Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski meticulously included newspaper clippings and court documents with each scene of the screenplay. As a result, Changeling could legally be designated “a true story,” instead of “based on a true story” like so many other historical dramas. Stirring and unforgettable, with a magnetic performance from Jolie, Changeling is a must-watch whose themes still resonate today.

How to Watch: Changeling is streaming on HBO Max.

5. Romeo Must Die (2000)

Romeo Must Die is a kung fu/hip-hop adaptation of Romeo and Juliet starring Jet Li and Aaliyah. We’ll give you a moment to let that sink in. The 2000s were quite a time to be alive! Instead of feuding families, this insane and enthralling movie gives us warring Chinese American and African American gangs in Oakland, California. While the plot can get a bit slow, what we’re really here for are the astounding martial arts sequences paired with an electrifying hip-hop and R&B soundtrack. The juxtaposition, though fairly common now, was downright provocative at the time, cementing Jet Li’s performance as his breakout role for American audiences. Aaliyah also received praise for her work, which was both her acting debut and the only one of her films released in her lifetime.

How to Watch: Romeo Must Die is streaming on HBO Max.

6. The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Heath Ledger and Matt Damon in Terry Gilliam’s comedy “The Brothers Grimm.”
Credit: Dimension / Miramax / Kobal / Shutterstock

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in a middling adventure movie about 18th-century brothers battling supernatural forces? Yes, we’re interested, thank you! The Brothers Grimm positions the titular pair as traveling con artists (!) who perform fake exorcisms for cash — until they come across a very real, and very dangerous fairy tale curse. We cannot call this a good movie, per se, but we’ll happily label it a ridiculous and delightful watch. It’s the perfect encapsulation of early 2000s movie-making, when entertainment was in, deeper meaning was out, and Hollywood would make a movie about literally anything as long as a big name was attached. It’s a solid pick for those nights when you want to turn your brain off and watch something easy and fun. Keep your eye out for a pre-Game of Thrones, pre-fame Lena Headey!

How to Watch: The Brothers Grimm is streaming on HBO Max.

7. Volver (2006)

If you spent the 2000s watching entertaining fluff like the aforementioned Brothers Grimm, you probably weren’t paying attention to powerful foreign films. Let’s right that wrong, shall we? Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Volver tells the story of a fierce family of women living just south of Madrid. A glowing Penélope Cruz anchors the group as Raimunda, a working-class mother who will do anything to protect her daughter, a girl secretly speaking with the ghost of her grandmother. Volver was hugely successful for an international title, garnering critical acclaim as well as BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations. Both a comedy and a drama, this sincere and moving story will make you feel deeply and smile widely, a winning combination.

How to Watch: Volver is now streaming on HBO Max.

8. Robots (2005)

For a throwback watch that will entertain the kiddos, look no further than 2005’s Robots. Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Halle Berry, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, Mel Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, and more — we can’t list names forever! — star in this high-energy animated sci-fi adventure about, you guessed it, robots. Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor) is an idealistic young inventor who becomes a local hero when he uses his skills to repair damaged or outmoded robots. The company that was trying to sell upgrades to these busted robots at a major premium? Well, suffice it to say, they’re pissed. The movie’s strength comes from its imaginative depiction of a robotic world (its transportation system is basically a Rube-Goldberg Machine), making Robots an enchanting pick for family movie night.

How to Watch: Robots is streaming on HBO Max.

9. Love and Basketball (2000)

When Gina Prince-Bythewood set about writing Love and Basketball, she claims she was aiming to create the Black When Harry Met Sally. What she built instead was an enormously successful cultural touchstone that has handily earned its own place in cinema history. Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps are Monica and Quincy, lifelong neighbors, best friends, and basketball fans. The film follows their journey from childhood playmates to lovers to pro-ball players, each facing their own set of obstacles along the way. With powerful performances from its two leads, Love and Basketball is a confident and tender film. It is both a gripping sports drama and a compelling romance — a movie with something for everyone!

How to Watch: Love and Basketball is streaming on HBO Max.

10. Rat Race (2001)

Rowan Atkinson plays a narcoleptic Italian in the 2001 comedy “Rat Race.”
Credit: Suzanne Tenner / Alphaville / Paramount / Seven Arts / Kobal / Shutterstock

Rat Race is a classic farce: Its premise is ridiculous, its jokes are outrageous, and it will likely elicit a few groans — but that doesn’t mean you won’t love it! Based on the ‘60s hit It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Rat Race kicks off with an eccentric billionaire (John Cleese) challenging six teams of people to race from Las Vegas to Silver Springs, New Mexico in hopes of finding the $2 million he’s stashed there in a duffel bag. The ensemble cast here absolutely rises to the occasion, with Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, and Seth Green all fighting tooth and nail to be the first to reach the cash. It’s silly, it’s over-the-top, and a few of the bits are dated, but Rat Race was a beloved comedy in the 2000s — and it can still warm your heart some 20 years later.

How to Watch: Rat Race is streaming on HBO Max.

11. Constantine (2005)

Before he was John Wick, but after he was Neo, Keanu Reeves was Constantine, an exorcist with both a bad attitude and the ability to see half-angels and half-demons living in secret as humans. Seems like the latter might have something to do with the former, huh? Based on the DC Comics series Hellblazer, Constantine is a dark fantasy thriller filled with religious iconography and superhero vibes. Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, and Djimon Hounsou lend their prodigious talents to the film, with Swinton particularly in her element as an androgynous half-angel. Though the movie has suffered from the inevitable comparisons to the superior Matrix trilogy, Constantine is a solid watch for horror lovers and fantasy fans alike.

How to Watch: Constantine is streaming on HBO Max.

12. Insomnia (2002)

Remember that brief period when Robin Williams played against type by taking a few roles as the villain? Enter Insomnia, the Christopher Nolan psychological thriller which pits Al Pacino’s slowly-unraveling detective against Williams’ creepy killer. This riveting film is unpredictable and atmospheric, its foggy, Alaskan backdrop a reflection of the characters’ own moral ambiguity.

Receiving universal praise, Insomnia is the perfect pick for those nights when you want a movie you can really sink your teeth into.

How to Watch: Insomnia is streaming on HBO Max.

SEE ALSO: 10 of the best wireless headphones for watching TV

13. Igby Goes Down (2002)

In the 2000s, most of us were too busy watching Lord of the Rings a thousand times to notice the indie comedy-drama Igby Goes Down. Kieran Culkin is Igby, a disillusioned teen who rebels against his old money, East Coast family and finds himself wrapped up in New York’s artsy underground scene. Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman, and Jared Harris round out the cast, with Susan Sarandon, as Igby’s self-absorbed mother, giving a particularly memorable performance. If you missed this funny and touching film the first go around, don’t wait a second longer. You might also notice something as the film pans across the NYC skyline: Igby Goes Down is one of the last movies to show the World Trade Center towers intact.

How to Watch: Igby Goes Down is streaming on HBO Max.

14. Gigli (2003)

Let’s put our cards on the table: Gigli is an objectively terrible movie. Clumsy, confusing, and downright offensive, Gigli is widely considered to be one of the worst movies of all time. It has a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. 6%!!! A year ago, we would never have even glanced at Gigli as a contender for this list, preferring it to fade into the ether like a bad nightmare, but unfortunately this is the movie where J.Lo and Ben Affleck met. And since we are living in the darkest timeline, and J.Lo and Ben Affleck’s recent reunion is the single shining light propelling us forward toward hope, this awful movie has suddenly become relevant again.

In Gigli, irritatingly pronounced JEE-lee, Affleck and Lopez team up to kidnap the brother of a federal prosecutor. But that’s not why you’d watch this movie! You’d watch this movie to see the very first Bennifer sparks twinkle mischievously into the universe. Alas — you might not even get that: Critics at the time complained about the lack of chemistry between the two leads! It’s truly astounding how bad this movie is! Watch Gigli, or don’t (maybe don’t), but we would not have been doing our journalistic duty if we hadn’t noted its current availability on HBOMax. You’re welcome, and also we’re sorry.

How to Watch: Gigli is streaming on HBO Max.

What if you could fix the fatal flaw in an awesome game, but it would cost you more money?

That’s the situation fans of Marvel’s Avengers are facing as developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix introduce paid boosters that help your heroes level up and improve their gear more quickly. These “pay-to-win” elements let time-strapped players spend money instead to get ahead. But as I’ve been saying all along, it shouldn’t have been like this in the first place.

The big problem I’ve had with Avengers, as the recent “War for Wakanda” free update highlighted, is how it’s built in a way that undermines the central fantasy of commandeering Earth’s mightiest super-team. There’s much more detail in the earlier post, but the short version is that each hero needs to be leveled up fully before you can access all their abilities — but that’s a 20-odd hour process.

There’s a basic (and excellent) story mode in Avengers that makes the first climb to unlocking a character’s suite of powers relatively enjoyable and straightforward. After that, though? It’s an unpleasant treadmill of repeating activities where you’re constantly left feeling less-than-super.

Now, though, as the 2020 release arrives for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, the in-game marketplace has some controversial new items up for sale in a new “Consumables” menu. The priciest of these is a $5 booster that gives players a week of increased experience points (XP) gains, by 1.5x. There are other consumables that last for shorter amounts of time and/or provide a boost to the amount of gear upgrade materials that drop.

This is the new “Consumables” menu in ‘Avengers’ in-game marketplace. The $5 week-long XP boost is highlighted.
Credit: crystal dynamics / Square enix – screenshot by mashable

It’s all bad, but the XP boosters are especially egregious. That 1.5x boost doesn’t even get the pace of Avengers leveling back to where it was when the game first launched. Back in March, Crystal Dynamics slowed down the whole process of leveling up your heroes. The studio claimed players were leveling up too quickly, and it “led to pacing issues, such as skill points…being rewarded too fast, which may be confusing and overwhelming to newer players.”

In fairness to the developer, there’s some truth to the view that players need time and space to learn. Avengers employs a unique role-playing game-style skill tree that allows players to customize the way their abilities perform. At the later stages of leveling up, certain skill tree branches offer either/or propositions where you can choose which one of three ability-altering nodes to activate.

Take Iron Man’s Unibeam attack, the blazing beam of light he shoots out of his chest plate. One branch of the skill tree governing his Unibeam gives players a choice: You can make the beam last a few seconds longer; you can stagger its charge so he can take more shots before the ability is exhausted and needs to cool down; or you can beef up its overall damage.

Every hero’s skill tree works like that. Once you’ve mastered one hero, getting a handle on the rest is more a matter of playing around with them and reading the text of their skill trees than it is progressively unlocking skill points. There’s no need for a lengthy grind through 50 experience levels spanning double-digit hours. In fact, this kind of hurdle is counter-productive. It makes the prospect of playing as other heroes far less appealing.

It was at least a bearable problem when Avengers first launched. Having to level each hero individually wasn’t my favorite decision, but it moved swiftly enough for people who grasp RPG systems quickly while still leaving less experienced players a gentle learning curve. The March update changed all of that, though. Suddenly, leveling up any hero after your first one turned into a miserable chore.

You’re allowed to level up faster, but you need to pay for it.

This became even more clear as new heroes were added to the game, with short story modes of their own that wouldn’t even carry them through half of their respective skill trees. Crystal Dynamics even seems to be aware of that specific issue; when “War for Wakanda” launched, it arrived alongside a temporary month-long boost to XP gains for all players. Even with that boost, the Wakanda story got my Black Panther only as far as level 21, out of 50.

That timed boost sure looked from the outside like an implicit acknowledgment of Avengers‘ deep pacing issues. But when it ended, the game returned to the sorry state it was left in after the March update. And now we see why: You’re allowed to level up faster, but you need to pay for it.

That sucks, in part because it’s a broken promise. Crystal Dynamics has said multiple times in the past that the in-game marketplace is only meant for things like hero skins and emotes — cosmetic items. As a blog posted on the Avengers website in Sept. 2020, the month the game released, reads: “We’ve…committed that content purchasable with real money in Marvel’s Avengers will be aesthetic-only additions, which will ensure we can keep the game fresh for years to come.”

It also sucks because the boosters are essentially Crystal Dynamics asking players to pay to fix pacing issues that the studio itself created. It was bearable enough in Sept. 2020 when Avengers launched that adding XP boosters now could have made sense, broken promises aside. But the March update was a huge step in the wrong direction, as the temporary XP boost timed to Black Panther’s arrival seemed to confirm.

Maybe Avengers hasn’t been as financially successful as Square Enix had hoped, and so selling these boosters is a push to justify the costs of further development. But as someone who’s played extensively since Sept. 2020, I’ve got to say: This ain’t it. It’s time for Crystal Dynamics to embrace transparency, level with its fans, and accept that the game it built perhaps isn’t the game players thought they were signing up to play.

There’s the good kind of attention, and then there’s the bad kind of attention.

Twitch streamer and Yogscast member Lydia Ellery found that out the hard way on Thursday when she says her Instagram account was removed without warning. The apparent cause? Her long-owned handle shared a name with the popular Netflix series, Squid Game.

Yup, she said she’d had the @SquidGame account “for years.” However, as of Oct. 9, a visit to that Instagram page turns up the following message: “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.”

And Ellery is pretty sure she knows what happened.

“Ermm I think so many people have been trying to log into my account or reporting it (squidgame) that instagram have banned me,” she wrote on Oct. 7. “I’ve applied for it to be reviewed and have to wait 24 hours for their decision.”

Tweet may have been deleted

“I was being inundated with messages from fans from the show but now Instagram have completely blocked me from using it,” she added on Oct. 8.

Tweet may have been deleted

It’s not clear if fans of the Netflix show mass reported Ellery’s account in an attempt to get it banned from Instagram, or if Instagram pulled it without fan provocation.

We reached out to Ellery, who uses variations on “Squid Game” for many of her social media and streaming handles, for comment, but received no immediate reply. We also reached out to Facebook-owned Instagram as well as Netflix about the apparent removal, but likewise received no immediate response.

This is not the first time that an Instagram handle with a popular or auspicious name has landed its owner in digital trouble. In 2019, Instagram took a man’s account, apparently without warning, because it suited members of the British Royal family.

SEE ALSO: Facebook strips its name from its own VR platform. Gee, wonder why.

That 2019 incident may have been frustrating, but Ellery’s loss of the @SquidGame Instagram handle represents something larger. It’s painful reminder that the social media platforms streamers rely on to earn a living don’t really belong to them.

For years, singles have tried to game dating apps in their favor or questioned why the apps would serve up potential matches that are so not-their-type.

Dating apps are basically search tools. They use algorithms to make match recommendations using your data, which includes personal info (like location and age) as well as preferences you set and your app activity.

Some say dating apps are poor search tools precisely because of algorithms, since romantic connection is notoriously hard to predict, and that they’re “micromanaging” dating. To get better matches, the thinking goes, you need to figure out how these algorithms function. While that’s not exactly the case, we have been able to glean some helpful information by digging into the algorithms behind your matches across a few services.

So how do the most popular dating apps work? We’ve broken it down by service below.

Tinder

Tinder is ubiquitous at this point, boasting 75 million monthly active users, which means it regularly has users of Reddit and the internet at large wondering why they can’t get more desirable matches. Is the algorithm “really screwed up,” as one Reddit user asked?

The Tinder algorithm used to be based on the Elo rating system, which was originally designed to rank chess players. As revealed in a 2019 blog post, Tinder’s algorithm previously utilized an “Elo score” to gauge how other profiles interacted with yours. In addition to logging your own Likes (right swipes) and Nopes (left swipes), Tinder “scored” you based on how potential matches swiped on you, as well.

Today, however, according to the Tinder blog, “Elo is old news at Tinder” and the score is no longer used. The blog post claims that the most important thing a user can do is…use the app. The more you use Tinder, the more data it has on you, which in theory should help the algorithm get to know your preferences more. The blog post further states that the more time you spend on the app, the more your profile will be seen by potential matches who are also active.

The app’s communications manager, Sophie Sieck, confirmed to Mashable that the blog post is current and that Tinder hasn’t made any algorithm changes during the global COVID-19 pandemic. She reiterated that being active on Tinder is the biggest factor in who shows up in your “stack.”

Tinder’s current system adjusts who you see every time your profile is Liked or Noped, and any changes to the order of potential matches are reflected within a day.

Bumble

Bumble is similar to Tinder in that it uses a swipe model. Where it differs is that only women can message first, and matches can disappear if no one messages within 24 hours.

Bumble declined to comment about its search algorithm. There’s no blog post about it, either. When you search “algorithm” on Bumble’s site, the only post that comes up is about Private Detector, an algorithm that determines if a match sent you a nude photo.

A Bumble spokesperson told Mashable that anyone users see on the app has been active within the last 30 days — so there’s no need to worry about matching with inactive accounts.

Hinge

The dating app “designed to be deleted” doesn’t have swiping, nor does it use the Elo rating system. Logan Ury, Hinge’s director of relationship science, told Vice that Hinge uses the Gale-Shapley algorithm. This Nobel-prize winning algorithm was created to find optimal pairs in “trades” that money can’t buy — like organ donations.

A research paper in Nature lays out how the Gale-Shapley algorithm is used in matching. Say there are 10 single women and 10 single men. How do they get paired up? Well, tell one group (either the men or women) to pick their first choice, and if they get rejected they move on to their second choice. Continue until none of the people left want to get matched anymore.

Ury pointed out — like Tinder did in its blog post — that matching is not just about the profiles you swipe on. It’s also about how potential matches interact with your profile.

“It’s all about pairing people who are likely to mutually like one another,” said Ury. The more you use Hinge — the more you like other users, engage with profiles, tell the app when you’ve met a match in person — the more the app understands who you’re interested in.

OkCupid

OkCupid is an OG dating site that has more robust user profiles than the aforementioned apps. You can list lots of personal info on OkCupid, with over 4,000 questions to choose from. You can display your political opinions with badges — like the latest pro-choice badge — and there are 60 sexual orientation and gender options as well.

Unlike other apps, OkCupid calculates a match percentage with other users to see how compatible you are. OkCupid didn’t respond to Mashable’s request for comment about the algorithm, but it does have a blog post about how its match percentage is calculated.

Basically, if another user has similar search preferences and responses to questions as you, and is looking for the same things relationship-wise, you’ll have a high match percentage. You can see someone’s match percentage with you on their profile.

Grindr

Grindr, a queer dating and hookup app, predates Tinder as one of the first apps to use location data to pair people.

According to a blog post, Grindr only uses algorithms for security purposes, like detecting spam accounts.

Grindr confirmed to Mashable via a spokesperson that it only uses AI and Automated Decision Making (a kind of algorithm) for purposes such as sniffing out spam accounts. (Though, as stated in the blog post, that process isn’t perfect and sometimes spam gets through.)

So how does Grindr serve up matches to meet? When a user searches for people nearby, the post states, the app displays other users who were online that day and applies the user’s preference filters (such as age and relationship status) and sorts everyone by distance.

“Sometimes a little randomness is thrown in to keep results fresh. That’s it,” said Grindr’s blog. “There’s no recommendation algorithm to speak of on Grindr today.”

For proprietary reasons, these apps will likely never reveal all their algorithmic secrets. But while we can’t control an app’s search results, we are always in control of the most important factor in our matches: how we swipe.

The official Pixel 6 full unveiling isn’t until Oct. 19, but thanks to yet another leak fans of the Google smartphone can get a sneak peek at what’s in store now.

First spotted by Evan Blass, it seems that the website Carphone Warehouse mistakenly published — then pulled — pages of info on both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. Thankfully for those eager to get their eyes on the phones, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine exists and someone was kind enough to save both the pages.

The archived Pixel 6 page goes into great detail, bragging about the phone’s “all-day adaptive battery,” “brand new cameras,” and “five years of [security] updates.”

“The brand new 50-megapixel camera has bigger sensors to help you capture more colour, more detail and 150% more light than Pixel 5,” explains the now-deleted page. “And with the ultrawide lens on the back, get even more of your world in the shot.”

There’s also something fun called “Extreme Battery Saver,” which Google says can make your battery “last up to 48 hours.”

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The archived Pixel 6 Pro page likewise has tons of specific detail about the unreleased smartphone. It brags about the “most advanced Pixel camera ever” and lists features like a “50MP wide lens,” a “48MP telephoto lens,” and a “12MP ultrawide lens.”

“The new, larger main sensor captures the most light ever in a Pixel, for finer detail and richer colour, plus faster, more accurate Night Sight photos,” continues the also now-deleted page.

And yes, there’s battery talk.

“Pixel’s battery allocates power to the apps that you use most to last beyond 24 hours, even on 5G,” it promises. “Charges up to 50% in just 30 minutes.”

SEE ALSO: Leaked Pixel 6 Pro video shows what looks like the entire assembly process

So yeah, you may have to wait until Oct. 19 to purchase the latest Pixel, but with the torrent of leaks you definitely don’t need to wait until then to make up your mind about whether or not you should.

Typically, when your iPhone dips below a 20 percent charge, it goes into Low Power Mode. This reduces or at least impacts some features (such as automatic downloads and 5G) in an attempt to save whatever battery life is left.

You can enter Low Power Mode at any time though, and can even turn it on automatically. Here’s how to do it.

First, go to the Shortcuts app and tap Automation in the bottom center. If you’ve never created an automation before, you’ll see this screen:

Automation screen in the Shortcuts app.
Credit: screenshot: apple

If you have made automations before, you’ll see them here. To add a new one, tap the plus sign on the top right.

Tap “Create Personal Automation”. You’ll see a lot of options; scroll to Battery Level and tap it. It’s tempting to think we should choose Low Power Mode, but that would be creating a separate action of what the phone will do when the mode is turned on or off. Instead, we want to create an action of automatically turning on Low Power Mode depending on the phone’s battery level.

Choose Battery Level in Automations.
Credit: screenshot: apple

Next, you’ll be able to choose what battery level you’ll want the iPhone to enter Low Power Mode.

You can choose whatever percentage battery level to automatically turn on Low Power Mode.
Credit: screenshot: apple

Choose a level, say when your phone dips below 50 percent power. Tap Next and you’ll see a button that says Add Action. Click that, then search for “low power mode,” and choose Set Low Power Mode.

You’ll see the action “Turn Low Power Mode On.” Tap Next, and the action should read that your iPhone will set Low Power Mode when battery level falls below 50 percent. Toggle off “Ask Before Running” so it’ll do this automatically:

Automation for setting Low Power Mode when battery level falls below 50 percent.

Credit: screenshot: apple

Remember to toggle off Ask Before Running so this becomes an automatic action.

Credit: screenshot: apple

And that’s it! You’re free to turn on Low Power Mode automatically at any battery level you fancy. Your phone will do this until you change or delete the automation.

These two galaxies are so tight, the stellar formation encompassing them both actually has a name of its own.

Say hello to Arp 91, a pair of spiral galaxies that are situated so close together (in relative terms, space is big) we can actually see their outer arms reaching out and colliding with one another. BFFs on an intergalactic scale.

Say hello to the two galaxies comprising Arp 91.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. DalcantonA

Like a good marriage, these galaxies may share a name but they are their own individuals as well. In the center of the frame is NGC 5953. Just above it and slightly to the right is NGC 5954. They’re both spiral galaxies, but their shapes differ slightly as a result of perspective. Earth is situated more than 100 million light-years away, so it’s not like Hubble can zoom around to catch them at a different angle.

These interacting galaxies are drawn together by the immense inward pull of gravitational force that each one produces. Spiral galaxies are so-named and shaped because of their unique swirling shape around a bright center, which is typically a supermassive black hole.

The description accompanying this particular Hubble image notes that interacting galaxies like Arp 91 are just a glimpse at one stage of galactic evolution. Researchers believe that on a long enough timeline, colliding spiral galaxies eventually merge completely into one elliptical galaxy, populated primarily by older stars and with little of the gas and dust that characterizes the hazy areas of the two galaxies making up Arp 91.

Time and distance are the two major complicating factors when it comes to studying these interactions and determining the role they play (or not) in the ever-evolving landscape that we call outer space. Every elliptical galaxy we’ve observed could have at one point been multiple galaxies in close proximity, just like Arp 91. But it’s all so far away and happening so slowly (in relative terms) that the history of human space study is barely a blip within the big picture.