Great news, everyone: The TV adaptation of Fallout is finally here, and it rocks. It’s so good, actually, that it has us yearning to play the games that inspired it once again (or, maybe in your case, for the first time), and we’re assuming that you may have the same feeling. The thing is, there are quite a few Fallout games, and buying every single one might not be the most cost-effective way to start playing. Lucky for you, every single one of them is included in Xbox Game Pass’ library, and even luckier, Walmart is offering a can’t-miss deal that’ll get you two free months of the gaming subscription service.

As of the time of this writing, signing up for Walmart+ will allow you to redeem those two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, along with a bunch of other great perks like unlimited free delivery, fast shipping, trials to Apple Music and YouTube Premium, and lots more. Better yet, you can take up the offer while you’re on the free 30-day trial of Walmart+, which is basically a Game Pass cheat code. After the trial, you’ll pay $98 annually, or $12.95 monthly, for Walmart+ unless you cancel. After your Game Pass trial ends, you’ll have to pay $16.99 per month (it’s worth it, though).

You get a robot butler in ‘Fallout 4,’ in case you needed another reason to play.
Credit: Bethesda Game Studios

Once you’re signed up for Walmart+ and Game Pass, you’ll be able to play any Fallout game that you want, including Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 76. Beyond that, you’ll also have unlimited access to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate library, which allows you to download and play any of its games at your leisure. That includes new Xbox-exclusive games on release day, which almost sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. You’ll also have the ability to play games online with friends, and get bonus deals and discounts in the Xbox storefront. To us, it’s still one of the best deals in gaming to this day.

If watching Fallout has put you in the mood to play the games like us, sign up for Walmart+ ASAP and pick them up in the Xbox Game Pass library. See you out in the Wasteland, Vault Dweller.

Amazon deals of the day at a glance:

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OUR TOP PICK

Sony WF-1000XM5 noise-cancelling earbuds

$229.95 at Amazon
(save $70.04)

Get Deal

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BEST INDOOR SECURITY CAMERA DEAL

Blink Mini 2

$29.99 at Amazon
(save $10)

Get Deal

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BEST OUDOOR SECURITY CAMERA DEAL

Blink Outdoor 4 (4th gen)

$59.99 at Amazon
(save $40)

Get Deal

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BEST SMART SPEAKER DEAL

Echo Pop

$22.99 at Amazon
(save $17)

Get Deal

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BEST POWER BANK DEAL

Anker Nano Power Bank

$31.99 at Amazon
(save $13)

Get Deal

As we patiently await the next big shopping holiday or savings event, we’ve got our eyes peeled for any grand deal that may pop up. And lucky for you, we’ve found a few really good ones at Amazon to kick off the week of April 15. After all, there are always deals to be found at Amazon — you just need to sort through all the noise to find them.

We’ve done the hard part for you and hand-picked a few of the best Amazon deals of the day. And don’t miss out on our picks from Friday, April 12, as those deals are still live.

Our top pick

Looking for a solid pair of noise-cancelling earbuds to accompany you on your upcoming trips? Check out the Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, which are on sale at Amazon for just $229.95 as of April 15. That’s 23% off their usual retail price and the lowest price on record. They previously dropped to $249.99 following October’s Prime Day 2023, but this deal beats that one by about $20. While we haven’t had a chance to review these earbuds for ourselves, our friends over at PCMag (which is owned by Mashable’s publisher, Ziff Davis) tested them out and were really wowed by them. The reviewer noted that they “offer superb sound quality, excellent noise cancellation, and a dizzying array of high-end features,” and ultimately gave them the PCMag Editor’s Choice badge of honor.

Released last month, the Blink Mini 2 just got its first real discount (and it’s a good one!). As of April 15, you can snag it on sale for just $29.99 instead of $39.99 — that’s a savings of 25%. The new Blink Mini 2 offers an enhanced image quality with better performance in low light settings, a wider field of view, and a built-in LED spotlight for night view in color. Plus, its weather-resistant design can now be used both indoors and outdoors with the purchase of the new Blink weather resistant power adapter (sold separately or bundled for an extra $10).

If you’re looking for the least expensive way to add Alexa to your home, look no further than the Echo Pop. Named after the fun pop of color it adds to your home, the Echo Pop is essentially like a pared down Echo Dot. “For people who like to keep music playing, and who also use Alexa as a home assistant, the Echo Pop is a perfect addition to any room in the house,” Mashable’s reviewer wrote. It’s currently sitting at $22.99 at Amazon — that’s a savings of 43%. While not its lowest price ever — that honor would go to the $17.99 Black Friday season deal from 2023 — it’s still a pretty sweet discount.

Another Amazon-owned security camera is down to its lowest price on record. The Blink Outdoor 4 (4th gen) is on sale for just $59.99 instead of the usual $99.99 as of April 15. That’s 40% in savings on one of our top overall picks for a security camera. Given that the camera is made by Amazon, the Blink Outdoor 4 works seamlessly with other Alexa-enabled devices. Plus, it comes with customizable motion zones without the need for a subscription (although, a Blink subscription will unlock even more features), and has a battery life that can’t be beat. Just pop in some AAs and you won’t have to worry about changing them for two whole years.

Just released in the latter half of 2023, the Anker Nano Power Bank is a small and stylish PD fast-charging solution for Apple devices. Its lightweight (just 7.6 ounces), fits in the palm of your hand, and comes equipped with a built-in USB-C cable to streamline your charging experience. The 30W output and 10,000mAh battery pack can charge most phones up to two times and bring an iPad from dead to nearly 60 percent on a single charge. It typically goes for $44.99, but as of April 15, you can grab it on sale for $31.99 — that’s 29% off and its lowest price since its debut.

None of these deals catching your eye? Check out Amazon’s daily deals for even more savings.

In great news for classic film fans, movie ticketing company Fandango has teamed up with the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network to add 30 iconic Hollywood titles from its revered catalogue to the Fandango At Home streaming service.

Previously known as Vudu, Fandango is owned by NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. TCM will have its own dedicated hub on Fandango’s platform, much like it’s had on its sister company Max (though that’s become a little harder to find post-Warner Bros Discovery merge).

From April to May, there’ll be one classic TCM film per week available to watch for free on Fandango at Home, including James Dean’s iconic 1955 drama Rebel Without a Cause, Robert Aldrich’s 1967 war epic The Dirty Dozen, and the 1967 Paul Newman-George Kennedy prison drama Cool Hand Luke.

All these films have been screened at the annual TCM Classic Film Festival in LA over the last 15 years and hail from the TCM library — which includes a trove of films from Warner Bros, MGM, and RKO, some from as early as the 1920s, many of which have been lovingly preserved and restored. As part of this new partnership, Fandago at Home is the presenting sponsor for this year’s festival, which runs April 18 to 21.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Turner Classic Movies to provide fans access to beloved classic films, some for Free for the first time,” said Cameron Douglas, SVP of OTT/Streaming for Fandango, in a press statement.

“Through this new relationship, we aim to celebrate the rich cinematic history represented by TCM’s extensive film library and offer our dedicated users special deals and offers.”

Amid all this good streaming news, it’s been a pretty tumultuous time at TCM, with high profile layoffs last year, reportedly part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting moves, leading to backlash from Hollywood heavyweights and film enthusiasts alike.

TCM does let you stream movies from its catalogue from its own website and mobile app, but you need to punch in your account information from your cable or satellite provider.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for April 15’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Impromtu

• Green: Baby things

• Blue: A person lacking depth

• Purple: Types of effects

Here are today’s Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Invent As You Go

• Green: Things Babies Do

• Blue: Superficial

• Purple: ___Effect

Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to Connections #309 is…

What is the answer to Connections today

• Invent As You Go: AD-LIB, FREESTYLE, IMPROV, MAKE UP

• Things Babies Do: BABBLE, COO, CRAWL, NURSE

• Superficial: COSMETIC, EXTERNAL, SHALLOW, SURFACE

• __Effect: BUTTERFLY, DOMINO, PLACEBO, SIDE

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday’s Connections.

Game emulators are now available on the iOS App Store, just a week after Apple changed its guidelines.

According to AppleInsider, emulators like Emu 64 XL for Commodore 64 and iGBA for Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Color have popped up on the App Store. They are available to download for iPhone and iPad users — both emulators are free to download and have no in-app purchases.

Last week, Apple changed its App Store policy, saying “retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games.” Apple users have had FOMO for years about not being able to download retro game emulators that are widely available on Android. The tech giant previously banned emulators on the App Store, but its relationship with third-party developers has been accused of being anti-competitive. Emulators are a bit legally murky because the developers don’t own the games, companies like Nintendo do.

But Apple was recently fined billions of euros in Europe and is facing an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. This means Apple’s policy change was likely trying to get ahead of its legal issues. Recently, Apple also allowed third-party video game streaming apps like Xbox and Nvidia, a welcome change for gamers frustrated by clunky workarounds due to its stringent policies.

Emu 64 XL is designed for iPads but also runs on iPhones and Macs with iOS 11 and macOS 11 or higher. The emulator iGBA also works iPhones iPads (iOS 12 and iPadOS 12 or higher) and M1 Macs.

NCAA women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark has three points for SNL Weekend Update host Michael Che: “Be. Funnier. Dumbass.”

Even people who don’t watch women’s college basketball know who Caitlin Clark is and how she’s elevated the game. That’s why when Che made a joke about Clark switching her retired jersey number for an apron, it didn’t land so well.

That’s when Clark showed up to take on Che and dusted him like her opponents on the court.

The segment started with Clark calling out Che for making a lot of jokes about women’s sports. When he denied it, co-anchor Colin Jost backed up Clark with a supercut of receipts. Well, Clark decided to write some new jokes for Che, and it turns out she’s pretty good at that too. Che was forced to read out jokes essentially roasting himself about giving women at Purdue “Indiana Fever” and his comedy special on Netflix being harder to watch than Andrew Scott’s new series Ripley.

As if it couldn’t get any worse for Che, Clark got the last laugh by giving him an autographed apron. The segment ends with Clark paying tribute to her women’s basketball heroes who “kicked down the door, so [Clark] could walk inside.”

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times‘ revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player’s flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

Here are the clues and answers to NYT’s The Mini for Sunday, April 14, 2024:

Across

Ensnare

• The answer is Trap.

___ Millions (lottery)

• The answer is Mega.

Gets the wrinkles out of

• The answer is Irons.

Edit menu option after a “Whoops!”

• The answer is Undo.

2023 biopic for which Annette Bening and Jodie Foster received Oscar nominations

• The answer is Nyad.

Down

“Eww, spare me the details!”

The answer is TMI.

Any episode of “Seinfeld” or “Friends,” nowadays

• The answer is Rerun.

Extreme suffering

• The answer is Agony.

Animal that “eats, shoots & leaves” in a book about punctuation

• The answer is Panda.

Grass in a landscaper’s roll

• The answer is Sod.

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If you drive an older car, truck, or SUV, you might be missing out on some of the more modern vehicle features. One such feature is having a big-screen hub at your disposal. This 6.8-inch foldable touchscreen car display is a more affordable option than getting a whole new car, and it’s price-dropped to just $74.97 (reg. $159) through April 14.

This 1024×600 HD 6.8-inch screen has touchscreen capabilities and any-angle viewability. It could be an asset while you navigate via your preferred GPS apps, make and take calls, play music, and more. It also features Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support to easily sync up with your device, and can be used to mirror your phone’s screen so you can utilize it on the larger viewing field.

The easy-control voice command option is a safety feature designed to be activated with the push of a button, letting you use your trusted Siri or Google Assistant to do many things for you without having to take your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road. You can drive with peace of mind, knowing that your focus is always on the road.

This foldable digital dash hub offers multiple ways to connect, including a built-in FM transmitter, a Bluetooth option, or an AUX jack. In addition, the TF card support allows you to play movies if the passenger or the kiddos get bored on a long trip.

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StackSocial prices subject to change.

HBO’s The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, greets us with an epigraph. It reads, “All wars are fought twice. The first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.”

It’s fitting, then, that memory becomes its own kind of battlefield throughout the limited series. Our narrator, simply known as “the Captain” (Hoa Xuande), struggles under duress to recall the events of his life as clearly as possible. The purpose of this recollection? A confession he’s writing in a Vietnamese reeducation camp, where any lapse in memory or particularly clear detail could mean the difference between life and death.

The Sympathizer‘s co-creators Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave, Oldboy) and Don McKellar (Last Night) make a meal out of the Captain’s memories — and the act of remembering itself. In an ever-present voiceover, the Captain will rewind his own thoughts to give us further context for information he’s already provided, apologize for missing any details, and even question (then promptly explain) why he’s narrating certain scenes. It’s a bold tactic, one that captures the slippery, interjection-filled style of Nguyen’s novel. It’s a fun tactic, too, introducing us to the Captain’s contemplative, often darkly funny inner monologue and affording the series major opportunities for stylistic flair.

Still, given the confession’s context, The Sympathizer is never far from a brutal reminder of the stakes at play. Tragedy haunts its blend of satire and espionage thriller throughout, resulting in challenging, can’t-miss TV magic.

What’s The Sympathizer about?

Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer.”
Credit: Hopper Stone / HBO

Before the Captain was stuck in a reeducation camp, he was a valuable member of the American-backed South Vietnamese secret police — and a mole for the Communist North Vietnamese forces. The double life of a spy is just one of many contradictions the Captain claims make him “a man with two faces.” He’s the child of a Vietnamese mother and a French father, and therefore feels constantly torn between two worlds, two cultures, two identities. The Captain is even torn between his childhood best friends: communist revolutionary Man (Duy Nguyen), who doubles as his handler; and staunch Southern supporter Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan), who doesn’t suspect the secret dealings of either of his fellow self-proclaimed “Three Musketeers.”

In the days leading up to the fall of Saigon, the three make plans to escape to America with the Captain’s employer, the influential General (Toan Le). Of course, Man really plans on staying behind and enjoying Northern Vietnam’s victory. So does the Captain, until Man reveals his next mission: Go to America and continue to report on the General’s activities.

One harrowing escape later, the Captain and Bon are refugees living in America. For the Captain, this journey marks a return, as he studied there in his youth. Yet the United States presents new challenges for his revolutionary activities, including the simple question of whether he’s equipped to balance his dual lives much longer.

The Sympathizer explores the impact of the Vietnam War through a specifically Vietnamese lens.

Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, and Duy Nguyen in “The Sympathizer.”
Credit: Hopper Stone / HBO

Another challenge the Captain faces in America is the greater amount of American influence on him — something he’s clearly been feeling all his life but which escalates now thanks to his arrival back on American soil. The forces of colonialism he encounters are many, but they all share one face: that of Robert Downey Jr. Fresh off his Oppenheimer Oscar win, Downey Jr. plays four figures intertwined with the American establishment: a CIA agent, a professor of “Oriental Studies,” a congressman, and a movie director.

Said director is working on an Apocalypse Now-esque film titled The Hamlet. The Captain agrees to be the film’s cultural consultant, fighting behind the camera to create an onscreen version of Vietnam that isn’t so Americanized and flattened. While his own attempts are not always successful, The Sympathizer‘s are decidedly more so. The series centers Vietnam throughout, reminding us in that same opening epigraph about memory that while Americans call the conflict in Vietnam the “Vietnam War,” the Vietnamese call it the “American War.”

Given that we’re in the Captain’s head for the entire series, it’s his perspective that defines The Sympathizer most. We see him question how “Vietnamese” he is — and how Vietnamese other people think he is. We see him devote his life to the communist cause, yet still find common ground with friends like Bon, who is ostensibly his enemy. What we don’t see is him giving any grace to the Americans who treat him as a pawn, or who spout racist rhetoric disguised as academic discussion at him.

Robert Downey Jr. goes big in The Sympathizer, but Hoa Xuande steals the show.

Robert Downey Jr. and Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer.”
Credit: Hopper Stone / HBO

Downey Jr.’s work in this space often borders on the cartoonish side, with his professor character falling fully into caricature. The heightened performances do occasionally break the immersion of the show, and I often swung between loathing them and loving them. However, this over-the-top-ness fully discredits anything these Americans throw at the Captain, in keeping with the show’s Vietnamese focus.

Xuande’s work is marvelously grounded in the face of this gallery of buffoons: While he may play along with them, there’s always a hint of disgust, or horror, bubbling just below the surface. Some of the show’s best scenes are those in which the Captain finds a way to snipe back at Downey Jr.’s quartet, or when he gets to poke fun at them when they’re not around. One such standout comes when he discusses the professor of Oriental Studies along with the department’s secretary, Ms. Mori (a sharp, if underutilized, Sandra Oh). What starts as a takedown of the professor’s fetishization of Mori’s Japanese heritage morphs into a frank conversation about everything from masturbation to murder. The scene and Xuande’s performance run the gamut from hilarious to serious to seductive in the blink of an eye — an excellent snapshot of his range and of the show’s tonal variety.

Park Chan-wook makes The Sympathizer the most stylized show on TV.

Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer.”
Credit: Hopper Stone / HBO

The Sympathizer dances from hilarious satire to pulse-pounding thriller at the drop of the hat, and nothing captures that quite like Park’s direction of the show’s first three episodes. There is an inescapable dynamism to each beat of these episodes, thanks to sharp zooms, whip pans, and transitions that can really only be described as bangers. (Just wait until you see what Park does with a hard-boiled egg, or a hubcap.)

The Sympathizer does lose some of that dynamism once Park leaves the director’s chair, but the remaining four episodes aren’t without their fair share of inventive (and occasionally surreal) filmmaking decisions from Marc Munden and Fernando Meirelles. And the more The Sympathizer embraces its surrealism, the more we feel drawn into the Captain’s memories, where we’re lucky enough to witness the horrors and wonders of life on that strange, funny, and terrifying battlefield.

The Sympathizer premieres April 14 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.

TL;DR: Through April 16, get a better handle on your investments with a premium lifetime subscription to Tykr Stock Screener, with an extra 20% off the sale price by using code ENJOY20. You won’t find this exclusive deal anywhere else. 

The world of stocks, investments, and trading is an ever-evolving beast. This lifetime subscription to Tykr Stock Screener’s Premium Plan offers you a tool to help navigate your financial journey with a sense of control.

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StackSocial prices subject to change.