IT General

SAVE UP TO $52: Anker Soundcore Aerofit 2 open earbuds and the Soundcore C30i open earbuds are both down to their best prices ever at Amazon. The Aerofit 2 are down to $77.99 from $129.99, while the C30i are just $34.99 instead of $69.99. That's 40% and 50% in savings, respectively.

Anker Soundcore open earbuds deals: Best ear hook design Anker Soundcore Aerofit 2 open earbuds $77.99 (save $52) Get Deal Best ear clip design Anker Soundcore C30i earbuds $34.99 (save $35) Get Deal

The most popular earbuds aren't always the best ones for you. Tech is not one-size fits all. If you're someone who wants to actually stay in tune with the world around you and/or finds in-ear designs uncomfortable, open earbuds might be a good pick for you. And it's a good time to try them out, as two of Anker Soundcore's open earbuds are on sale for their best prices ever.

As of Oct. 24, the Anker Soundcore Aerofit 2 open earbuds are on sale for just $77.99 at Amazon. That's 40% off their $129.99 list price. If you'd rather go for an even more budget-friendly pick, the Anker Soundcore C30i open earbuds are also on sale for just $34.99 at Amazon — a 50% discount from their $69.99 list price. Both pairs have hit their lowest prices on record.

Besides the price, these two earbud options vary vastly in design. The Aerofit 2 open earbuds feature an ear hook design with four adjustable angles. Mashable's reviewer Bethany Allard called them "the most comfortable (and snug) open-ear hook buds we've tried so far." The C30i earbuds, on the other hand, feature a clip design more like Bose's Ultra Open earbuds. They attach to the outer edge of your ears like a cuff and stay in place with the help of attachable ear grips.

We've actually tried out the Aerofit 2s and they earned a spot on our list of the best open earbuds. Allard writes, "If you want open earbuds that are excellent for workouts, still great for daily use, and don't cost a ton, you want the Anker Soundcore AeroFit 2 earbuds." At 40% off their list price, they're an incredible value. If you're unsure whether open earbuds are right for you, the C30i might be the better choice, as they'll only set you back $34.99. With either option, you can rest assured you're getting the best possible price.

SAVE $20: As of Oct. 24, get the Renpho Scale for $59.99, down from its usual price of $79.99, at Amazon. That's a discount of 25%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Renpho Scale $59.99 at Amazon
$79.99 Save $20.00   Get Deal

Looking for a quick and easy way to track important health metrics on your fitness journey? A fitness tracker is a good idea, but a smart scale is an even better one. Not only can they help you figure out where you are in terms of getting to where you want to be, but they can help you track all the data you capture when you step on the scale, far beyond your body weight. And you can get an excellent one right now for under $100 at Amazon.

As of Oct. 24, get the Renpho Scale for $59.99, down from its usual price of $79.99, at Amazon. That's $20 off and a discount of 25%.

SEE ALSO: The best smart scales at Amazon will up your health game — and they start at just $20

This scale gives you information about your weight, BMI, and five additional custom biometrics at a glance when you step on. Plus, it will automatically swap between multiple users thanks to its accompanying app so you and your family can use it without getting things confused. It automatically uploads data via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to make sure your app is synced and goes from there.

Additionally, there are 18 total body metrics it can measure including muscle mass, body fat, and more, as well as three pregnancy-related modes that help you figure out data related to when you're expecting. Plus, Athlete Mode takes active lifestyles into account to help you tweak your day-to-day data even further.

If you're serious about making a change to your lifestyle and want to get all the information you possibly can, this smart scale can do it all. Make sure you grab it while it's on sale at this price before it's no longer in stock.

When it comes to Microsoft Windows, there are many versions that are iconic for different reasons. Windows 3.1 liberated the mainstream from the DOS prompt, and Windows 95 felt like the future had arrived when I first tried it, but Windows XP is special for a different reason.

SAVE $29.97: As of Oct. 24, get the Sonicare Protective Clean 5300 electric toothbrush for $79.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $109.96. That's a discount of 27%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Sonicare Protective Clean 5300 $79.99 at Amazon
$109.96 Save $29.97   Get Deal

Keeping your pearly whites clean is important. A good toothbrush can help make the difference between hundreds of dollars spent at the dentist and a clean bill of health. So if you can get a good electric toothbrush at a decent price, you should take the opportunity to do so. Right now, you can get a particularly good one for a significant discount.

As of Oct. 24, get the Sonicare Protective Clean 5300 electric toothbrush for $79.99 at Amazon, down from its usual price of $109.96. That's $29.97 off and a discount of 27%.

SEE ALSO: The best electric toothbrushes for upping your oral hygiene game

This electric toothbrush makes it a mission to help you more efficiently clean your teeth. It has a pressure sensor that alerts you when you're brushing too hard to protect your gums and optimize your clean. Plus, it has multiple modes: Clean, White, and Gum Care. So if one is too rough, you can switch to another.

It comes with two extra brush heads as well. The brush itself will remind you when it's time to replace the one you're using, so you don't have to make a guess at when you should change it out. And with a timer to help you know when you're brushing long enough, you can make sure you're spending the correct amount of time cleaning and trying to prevent cavities.

If it's time to replace your toothbrush, grab this one and overhaul your cleaning routine. You'll be glad you did, especially at a discount like this.

TL;DR: Save $10 when you bundle Microsoft Office 2021 ($49.99) and Windows 11 Pro ($14.97), now $54.97 together (reg. $418.99). Codes are limited in supply.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License + Windows 11 Pro Bundle $54.97
$418.99 Save $364.02   Get Deal

Support for Windows 10 ended on October 14, meaning your PC has been more vulnerable to malware this whole time. This Microsoft bundle is a great time to upgrade and refresh your Office apps — and ditch any recurring Microsoft 365 fees.

Microsoft Office 2021

If you’re tired of paying monthly for Microsoft 365 or running an older version, Microsoft Office 2021 is an excellent one-time upgrade. This lifetime license gives you forever access to the classic apps you use every day without subscriptions or hidden fees.

Here are all of the included apps:

• Word: Create and edit polished documents with advanced formatting tools.

• Excel: Analyze data with powerful formulas, charts, and PivotTables.

• PowerPoint: Design professional-grade presentations with ease.

• Outlook: Manage email, contacts, and calendars in one place.

• OneNote: Organize notes and ideas in one searchable hub.

• Publisher: Design flyers, brochures, and other print materials.

• Access: Build and manage databases with ease.

• Teams (Free version): Stay connected and collaborate easily.

Windows 11 Pro

Windows 11 Pro isn’t just an upgraded operating system; it’s a streamlined, more secure environment built for modern workflows, whether you’re managing a small business, working remotely, or just want a faster, more intuitive interface.

This is what you’ll notice:

• Modern interface: Clean design, improved navigation, and better multitasking with Snap Layouts.

• Enhanced security: TPM 2.0, BitLocker encryption, and Smart App Control help keep your data safe.

• Productivity boost: Virtual desktops, improved search, and seamless integration with Teams.

• AI-ready: Built-in Copilot for faster answers, writing help, and smart suggestions.

Upgrade your PC with Windows 11 Pro and Office 2021 for $54.97 while codes last (reg. $418.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

There's a reason the queer community loves horror. Sure, the spooks and campy thrills are fun, but as a genre, horror has long been a ripe territory for metaphor, and for exploring the dark and fantastical sides of otherness that's so inherent to many queer and trans experiences.

Queerness has been all over the history of horror, even if it hasn't always been loudly represented. From the queer coding of classic monster movies to very obviously gay vampire flicks, from horror sci-fi explorations of gender identity to the openly LGBTQ+ characters of modern slashers, queer and trans audiences have long found themselves reflected — whether intentionally or not — in the horror genre.

This spooky season, whether you're in the mood for a queer cannibal romance, a surreal lesbian vampire tale, a gay cruising thriller, a haunted house comedy, or a trans horror twist on The Little Mermaid, there are plenty of movies to keep you entertained and up at night throughout October.

Jennifer's Body Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

"I go both ways." Name a better, queerer, and funnier line of dialogue from a horror movie monster. Megan Fox's iconic "My tit!" reaction is a close second. Both of those lines from Jennifer's Body highlight the brilliance of Diablo Cody's script, and the perfect balance of tone that director Karyn Kusama strikes throughout the cult horror comedy, a film unfairly lambasted upon release that's found its long-deserved appreciation in recent years.

Back in 2009, Jennifer's Body was slammed by male critics and audiences with a 46 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and a C- Cinemascore. But despite a misleading marketing campaign, this was never a film for men, and it especially wasn't the usual type of horror film cisgender heterosexual men men were used to watching, where female characters are victimized for their viewing pleasure. This is a film about the absolute hell that is growing up as a teenage girl, about male violence towards and the sexualization of femininity, about trauma, and about the monstrous pain of queer repression. Jennifer's Body cleverly uses the tools of its genre — over-the-top gore, suspense, and camp — to subvert expectations and tell a story that, at its tit-covered heart, is funny as hell, and pretty damn gay.

How to watch: Jennifer's Body is streaming on Hulu and available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Cat People (1942)

Lesbians, cats, and witchcraft collide oh-so-perfectly in the fantastic B-horror movie Cat People (not to be confused with Paul Schrader's synth-heavy 1982 remake, which shifted its focus to even more risqué taboos, such as, uh, incest). This eerie, atmospheric film from Jacques Tourneur follows a Serbian woman named Irena (Simone Simon) who becomes fixated on the idea that she may be a descendant of an ancient society of people who morphed into cats. "Crazy!" thinks her new husband, who's also aware of the fact that Irena has yet to kiss him, and who's also spending more and more time with his pretty female coworker. Irena grows jealous of this other woman and begins to stalk her. The rest is best left discovered in this deliciously sinister masterpiece that uses expressionistic noir photography to build suspense and link the ostracization of lesbian desire with monstrosity.

How to watch: Cat People is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Stranger by the Lake Credit: Les Film Du Worso / Arte France Cinema / Prods / Kobal / Shutterstock

Set at a gay cruising beach in the glistening summertime of rural France, 2013's Stranger by the Lake remains one of the most fascinating, haunting, and sexiest erotic thrillers of years. Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) arrives at the popular cruising spot and soon sets his eye on a mysterious stud named Michel (Christophe Paou). The attraction is mutual, as some incredibly hot beachside sex scenes show, but Stranger by the Lake makes a severe pivot when one character witnesses a horrific act. In Alain Guiraudie's film, the horror comes less from what's seen on screen and more from the film's psychological examination of lust and voyeurism — particularly when intimacy and desire become tangled up with acts of violence and aggression. 

How to watch: Stranger by the Lake is streaming for free on Kanopy and available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and VUDU.

Under the Skin Credit: Filmnation / Jw / Kobal / Shutterstock

Jonathan Glazer's sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin is the type of movie that leaves you uncomfortable, transfixed, and possibly unable to move from your seat once the credits roll. Scarlett Johansson, giving what is easily her best and most subtle performance, plays a nameless woman who drives around Scotland at night searching for random men to pick up in her van. The rest is best left unspoiled, but what earns it a spot on this list is how Under the Skin serves as a fascinating exploration of what it feels like to be a trans person in a society dominated by, and oriented around, cisnormative ideas of gender and bodies. It's a haunting tale about otherness, about the paralyzing loneliness and horror of realizing that you — and your body — are not like those around you, that it's alien, even unnatural to some. Under the Skin, almost surely unintentionally on Glazer's part, taps into a specific trans perspective of the interior longing to connect with, to understand, and to feel aligned with the exterior. It's beautiful and tragic and horrifying, and some of the most imaginative sci-fi horror filmmaking the genre's ever seen.

How to watch: Under the Skin is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Bones and All Credit: Yannis Drakoulidis / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

In director Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All, cannibalism serves as a potent metaphor for an unquenchable desire and longing for that which is taboo or even evil by some standards. It's clear to see the queer symbolism across the horror romance starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet, who play a pair of outcast lovers on the run, à la Terrence Malick's Badlands — and there are some explicit queer moments throughout. The two wanderers both suffer from an inescapable hunger to feed on people, a new twist on the age-old horror trope of vampirism as a metaphor for queer desire. Remove the grotesque element of eating people, and you get a story about two teens burdened with shame and alienation simply for the way they yearn for love and connection. But Bones and All also understands how that non-heteronormative longing is viewed as grotesque and monstrous by so much of society. Fans of Guadagnino's other work, like Call Me by Your Name, Suspiria, and I Am Love, will find plenty of thematic parallels here, only instead of Chalamet sensually devouring a peach, it's a bloody corpse.

How to watch: Bones and All is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

SEE ALSO: How Luca Guadagnino's 'Bones and All' is different from the novel Daughters of Darkness Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Vampire films have long been fixtures of sapphic storytelling, from 1936's Dracula's Daughter to the explosion of lesbian vamp films in the '70s, but Daughters of Darkness is easily the GOAT. This 1971 Belgian film takes the folklore of Elizabeth Báthory — a 16th-century Hungarian countess rumored to have drunk the blood of the women she lusted after — and turns it into an erotic psychological horror story. 

French actress Delphine Seyrig plays the Countess, a platinum blonde, red-lipsticked menace who saunters around a vacant seaside hotel in sparkling gowns alongside her quiet secretary/girlfriend. But when a young woman arrives on honeymoon with her husband, the Countess's unquenchable desire sets in, and she'll do anything to have her. Daughters of Darkness is a surreal trip of a movie that's like the stylish and subversive art-house cinema of Rainer Werner Fassbinder cross-pollinated with '70s lesbian erotica.

How to watch: Daughters of Darkness is streaming on Shudder, AMC+ or Shudder via Prime Video, and with ads on VUDU, and is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV.

Bodies Bodies Bodies Credit: Erik Chakeen

Bodies Bodies Bodies is the most Gen Z slasher comedy you could imagine — it's Clue with rich, coked-out twentysomethings stuck in a mansion during a hurricane with nothing but TikTok, liquor, and drama to keep them occupied. When Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) brings her shy new girlfriend, Bee (Maria Bakalova), to her best friend David's (Pete Davidson) lavish house to shelter in/party at during a storm, the vibes are immediately sour. Sophie's friends bristle at her unexpected arrival, her awkward girlfriend, and how she ghosted them after she went to rehab. But it's nothing some shots and pills can't fix. When the group sits down to play the titular murder mystery game, that's when everything goes haywire and an actual dead body winds up in the house. Director Halina Reijn's film is a deliciously fun and gory mix of comedy, suspense, and drama — much of that comedy so perfectly nailed by standout Rachel Sennott — proving that the most deadly weapons aren't candlesticks or lead pipes, but backstabbing bitchy gossip.

How to watch: Bodies Bodies Bodies is streaming on Prime Video and available to rent or purchase on Apple TV.

SEE ALSO: Let's talk about that shocking 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' ending, with director Halina Reijn The Lure

The Lure has been described as a lesbian mermaid horror musical, but somehow even that doesn't come close to capturing what this audacious Polish film is. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's debut feature is the darkest retelling of The Little Mermaid you could imagine, incorporating grisly violence and the sex work industry into that classic fairytale. 

After two young singing mermaids, Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Gold (Michalina Olszańska), are invited onshore, the girls become the newest members of a cabaret-like band where they strip and dance on stage. The girls have legs when out of water but no genitals (much to the male characters' frustration), which becomes a focal point for Silver, who becomes increasingly desperate for an operation to change that. The only catch is, losing her fin also means losing her voice. 

This is where The Lure becomes a trans take on the classic mermaid story. It's a metaphor for medical transition, a grim love story with incisive commentary on transmisogyny, and through the characters of Silver and Gold, the film explores two different trans feminine perspectives on transition, as well as their own queer sexuality. The Lure is a gory, thrilling, and bold spectacle that's unlike anything you've ever seen.

How to watch: The Lure is streaming on The Criterion Channel and Max, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

The Fear Street Trilogy Credit: Netflix

Leigh Janiak's Fear Street trilogy is the queer horror thrill ride of every '90s kid's dreams. Spanning three time periods with two separate casts and a queer couple as the protagonists, the Fear Street movies bring R.L. Stine's book series to the screen with plenty of blood, spooky lore, teen romance drama, and some killer '90s needle drops on the soundtrack. The story centers on a group of friends who try to undo a decades-old curse on their town that's led to it being dubbed the murder capital of the country. Most fun and innovative is how each film in Janiak's trilogy pays homage to a different horror subgenre, from Fear Street Part 1: 1994 evoking the slasher vibes of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Friday the 13th terror of Fear Street Part 2: 1978, and the pagan folk horror of the witchy finale, Fear Street Part 3: 1666.

But these movies aren't just on this list for simply having queer leads. Janiak's trilogy is keenly aware of the history of horror as an avenue to subtextually explore queer identity. Instead of playing into that legacy of coding, she uses the classic tropes of the genre to give us a narrative that is explicitly about queer repression, and in turn, unabashedly celebrates the power of queer love.

How to watch: The Fear Street trilogy is streaming on Netflix.

The Bride of Frankenstein Credit: Universal / Kobal / Shutterstock

Many pre-code classic horror films are gurgling with queerness, and much of that is thanks to the work of openly gay filmmaker James Whale. Everything from Frankenstein to The Old Dark House and The Invisible Man has been dissected by queer film historians, but it's Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein that remains the queerest of them all. This is a movie about the ways gay male relationships are constantly thwarted by society and deemed, well, monstrous. 

Sure, the sequel is about the creation of a female mate for Boris Karloff's Monster, but that preoccupation with heterosexuality is kinda the point — she's the beard. Of course, no one in this movie is overtly gay, but you can read the Monster finding safety with a blind man as him finding a gay companion, or even the Bride's creation scene as two men's attempt to use their power to create life despite their inability to procreate together. From the layers of queer coding and campy humor all over Whale's sequel, it's no doubt Elsa Lanchester's Bride has become cemented as a fixture of drag culture.

How to watch: The Bride of Frankenstein is streaming on Prime Video, and is available to rent or purchase on Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Blackening Credit: Glen Wilson

"Name a horror movie where the Black character survives" is the first trivia question to kick off the twisted murder game at the center of The Blackening. Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) are stumped, and understandably so, given the genre's exploitation and tokenizing of Black characters (although just in case you also find yourself in a similar game of life-or-death trivia, there are a handful of films where Black folks do indeed live). 

A clever slasher comedy that uses the genre to comment on the history of Black stereotypes across horror and Hollywood overall finds a group of friends reuniting at a remote cabin in the woods on Juneteenth. The group gets forced into playing a racist board game while being hunted by a masked killer, all while relationship tensions and drama pull the friends apart. Dewayne Perkins, who co-wrote the film with Tracy Oliver, also stars as the group's token gay guy, which adds another layer of playful and refreshing commentary on both the Bury Your Gays trope and on gay masculinity in Black culture. 

How to watch: The Blackening is streaming on Netflix, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Hunger Credit: Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock

Few things are hotter than the image of Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie as cool-as-hell ancient vampires sauntering around an underground nightclub as they cruise for their next meal. But Tony Scott's cult favorite The Hunger is memorable for more than its good-looking and fashionable leads; it's also one of the sharpest examples of the vampire story as a metaphor for queerness. 

In the world of these vampires, love, desire, and companionship goes beyond gender, and while Deneuve and Bowie's Miriam and John Blaylock have been lovers for centuries, Miriam begins to set her sights on a new companion once John becomes ill: Susan Sarandon's doctor Sarah. Beyond the lesbian love story, Scott's 1983 film can also be read as a commentary on the AIDS crisis through John's sudden onset of an incurable illness that his doctors mindlessly dismiss. There's also a pervading sense of grief and loneliness across the film that feels true to the experiences of many LGBTQ+ folks who survived the AIDS epidemic — a haunting sadness that Miriam, the most ancient of vampires, is condemned to throughout her immortality, as she's forced to forever grieve the lovers she outlasts.

How to watch: The Hunger is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Hitcher Credit: Silver Screen / Hbo / Tri Star / Kobal / Shutterstock

In The Hitcher, a young guy driving across the country to his dream destination of California stops in the middle of a rainy night in who-knows-where to pick up a hitchhiker. Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) can hardly keep his eyes open, so hopefully this stranger will help him stay awake. The stranger who calls himself John Ryder, played by a terrifying and near emotionless Rutger Hauer, is the exact type of hitchhiker your mother warned you about picking up — a maniacal killer. 

On the surface, The Hitcher could be read as a classic road horror movie about a deranged psychopath who taunts and terrorizes with no motive. But queer coding is all over this '80s film — so much so that Hauer doesn't exactly make John's advances on Jim subtle — and the film could easily be viewed as a horror thriller about a gay man hell-bent on unleashing his rage on heteronormative society, and perhaps seeking a partner to go on that killing spree with him. It's a hair-raising chiller with some shocking moments of violence and plenty of suspense.

How to watch: The Hitcher is streaming on DIRECTV and Cinemax via Prime Video or via Hulu.

Hereditary Credit: Palmstar Media / Kobal / Shutterstock

Bet you never considered how Hereditary is a horror movie about transmasculinity. On the surface, Ari Aster's gory nightmare is about a family discovering a long-kept secret tied to the women of their ancestry. But when it is read through a trans lens, it's also a story about the agonizing experience of dysphoria as a transmasc person in a body deemed female by society, and the subsequent demonic attempt to change that. Without spoiling too much for those unacquainted, Hereditary is littered with small exchanges of dialogue — Charlie saying of her late grandmother, "She wanted me to be a boy" — and imagery that several trans folks, myself included on first viewing, have spotted. In a fantastic piece examining the transition allegory of Hereditary, writer Sasha Geffen analyzes the way Aster's film "understands just how deep gender goes" in society, and in a very heightened anti-trans political period, filled with moral panic around transmasculine identity. Seen through that lens, Aster's film takes on a whole new meaning.

How to watch: Hereditary is streaming on Max and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

Thelma Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

In Thelma, Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier takes the queer subtext of Brian De Palma's Carrie and brings it right to the surface. In this 2017 psychological horror thriller, the titular Thelma (Eili Harboe) is a shy and repressed young woman who leaves her sheltered, conservative Christian home for the first time to go off to college. There, she discovers queer desire when she meets and becomes infatuated with Anja (Kaya Wilkins), along with a sudden onset of violent seizures that cause a series of strange happenings. Thelma's powers, like Carrie's, emerge as an outward manifestation of a suppressed woman's desire for agency and control. What makes Trier's film so visceral is how he uses the trappings of horror and supernatural storytelling to tell a very queer coming-of-age tale as Thelma grapples with expressing her rage and identity all at once.

How to watch: Thelma is streaming for free on Kanopy, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

Wendell & Wild Credit: Netflix

Wendell & Wild, the latest stop-motion horror fantasy from Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline), follows the titular pair of demonic brothers desperate to escape the clutches of the underworld and their overlord father. The duo, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, come up with a scheme to dupe a young orphan into inviting them into the free world of the living. Kat is a green-haired 13-year-old girl who blasts punk music through the halls of her new, all-girls Catholic school. 

As much as the demon brothers and their satanic home may seem like the main bad guys of this story, the real villain of Wendell & Wild is pretty surprising: It's the prison industrial complex. The true evil in Kat's town is led by the Klaxons, a private prison corporation that's been buying up all the local businesses. Through a series of spooky resurrections, Kat and her new friend Raúl, a young trans boy voiced by trans actor Sam Zelaya, attempt to defeat the Klaxons and get her deceased parents back.

How to watch: Wendell & Wild is streaming on Netflix.

The Craft Credit: Columbia / Kobal / Shutterstock

Subtextual queerness in movies doesn't only mean unspoken nods to sexuality, but it also reflects the inherent otherness of growing up as a queer person — this is especially true for the horror genre. In the case of The Craft, queerness comes through in the form of four teenage girls whose goth aesthetic, rejection of the status quo, and witchy doings can be seen as a stand-in for the abnormality and derogatory difference that's long been associated with being queer. In The Craft, it's the weirdos, the freaks, the outcasts who turn to the supernatural to wield some sense of control over the strait-laced hetero world that rejects them so readily. What's gayer than a bunch of girls exploring their power over their own bodies with a little "Light As a Feather, Stiff As a Board" sleepover seance anyway?

How to watch: The Craft is streaming on Paramount+, Prime Video, and on Tubi with ads, and is available for rent or purchase on Apple TV and VUDU.

Seconds Credit: Paramount / Kobal / Shutterstock

In John Frankenheimer's masterful sci-fi film Seconds, a middle-aged man who lives an unfulfilled life as a banker discovers a company that gives people alternate identities via plastic surgery. Arthur Hamilton (played by John Randolph) decides to undergo the procedure that turns him into the man of everyone's dreams circa 1966: Rock Hudson. Arthur is now Tony Wilson (played by Hudson), a hot young artist with a beachside villa. But the transition into a new life, and keeping the secret of his old one, begins to torture Tony.

Seconds is a fascinating psychological horror sci-fi hybrid that speaks to trans and queer identity on multiple levels. An entire essay could be written about the trans themes of its narrative, from the emotional and psychological process of medical and social transition to the societal pressures to assimilate into a cis and hetero-centric life. Separately, Seconds also plays like an explicit commentary on Hudson's own closeted life. Hudson's performance as Tony, easily the most unnerving of his career, feels like a looking glass into what many assume was his own experience as a major star forced to keep a secret and live a double life in early Hollywood.

How to watch: Seconds is streaming for free on Kanopy and on Pluto TV with ads, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

Scream Credit: Miramax / Kobal / Shutterstock

All gays know Scream is queer. It's canon (no, literally). The iconic slasher franchise has queerness all over it — and the writers finally gave us an overt queer character in the latest installments, with Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy. But it's the reveal of the killers behind the Ghostface mask at the end of the first Scream that really solidified things. Skeet Ulrich's Billy and Matthew Lillard's Stu were so obviously gay, so much so that even the first Scary Movie said it right out loud. Even Scream writer Kevin Williamson has revealed in recent years that the two characters were based on famed gay killers Leopold and Loeb. None of that confirmation was necessary though — the camp of Drew Barrymore making Jiffy Pop and fondling a knife in her cream knit sweater while gabbing on the phone with a murder? Gay as hell.

How to watch: Scream is streaming on Paramount+ and AMC+ via Prime Video, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

Interview with the Vampire

Ah yes, the film that gave us Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as a gay vampire couple. While the curse of being a blood-sucking creature of the night has long been associated with queer identity, it has more often favored lesbian storytelling; however, Interview with the Vampire finally gave us two queer men bonded in their blood lust. Of course, the 1994 Neil Jordan film never made that gay relationship explicit, but there's no doubt that when Cruise's ancient vampire Lestat turns the young Louis (Pitt) into one of his kind, the two begin a life reminiscent of any closeted gay couple. They even turn and raise a young girl (Kirsten Dunst) as a child of their own. After venturing abroad, the little vampire family is threatened by the allure of another very hot, very gay vampire in Antonio Banderas's Armand. While the recent AMC series made Louis and Lestat's romance incredibly explicit (and incredibly sexual), we'll always have the hush-hush gay desire of two of the '90s biggest leading men sucking each other's necks.

How to watch: Interview with the Vampire is streaming on HBO Max and Tubi with ads, and is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

SEE ALSO: "Interview with the Vampire" is a brilliant gay fever dream We're All Going to the World's Fair

We're All Going to the World's Fair is a horror film for and about anyone who grew up with the internet. This micro-budget indie from filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun is essentially Creepypasta the Movie. Casey (Anna Cobb) is a lonely teen who joins an online role playing game and begins to grow paranoid that something strange is happening to her mind and body. Schoenbrun's film isn't scary in the traditional sense, except for some freaky creepypasta-esque imagery, but more so a film that aims to show the psychology of extreme loneliness, depression, and alienation — all intense, scary things that many queer folks who grew up online experienced.

While the film isn't explicitly queer, it's been hailed as a trans horror film by several critics, and it's not hard to see why. Schoenbrun, who is nonbinary, has made a film that evokes the constant unease, terror, and anxiety of gender dysphoria before you may even know what that is, and the urge to escape into another reality (i.e., the internet) to find yourself. In one scene, Casey buoyantly dances in her room to a pop song before suddenly stopping, as if to realize she's been possessed. She lets out a horrifying shriek, then goes right back to giddily dancing. It's haunting in an indescribable way, and speaks to a constant masking and toggling between identities that's all too familiar to the experience of dysphoria.

How to watch: We're All Going to the World's Fair is streaming on Shudder and Kanopy, and is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

Rocky Horror might not be a movie that'll give you nightmares — unless you're afraid of kinky, horny queers going bananas at a deranged house party, and if so, get outta here! Nevertheless, the wacky cult classic is a spooky season staple. A riff on B-movie sci-fi and monster movies of the past, the musical horror comedy takes us, along with Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick's square-as-can-be couple, on a wild trip to Transsexual Transylvania. There's Time-Warping and Tim Curry's Frankenstein-esque monster-making, there's ax-hunting and laser guns and seduction and dancing — so much dancing! Rocky Horror is a joyously bizarro classic that belongs to the weirdo queers and us alone.

How to watch: The Rocky Horror Picture Show is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Haunting Credit: Mgm / Kobal / Shutterstock

The Haunting is a classic horror film about a classic type of horror story: a haunted house. You won't find any cheap jump scares or acts of violence in this 1963 film, though. Instead, director Robert Wise and cinematographer Davis Boulton use a mix of innovative visual techniques and camera tricks, from gliding tracking shots and anamorphic lenses, to create an atmosphere of total paranoia and unease that's genuinely unnerving to watch.

The film, based on the Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House, follows a group of strangers who arrived at a haunted mansion to prove the existence of ghosts, including the timid Eleanor (Julie Harris) and the bold Theo (Claire Bloom) — yes, the same queer Theo from Netflix's Hill House series. Theo is the rare example of an explicitly lesbian character in classic horror, much less classic cinema overall, and most notably, her queerness is never treated with disdain or mockery. While her sexuality isn't overtly stated, it's a fascinating element of a story about women choosing to experience the evils of a haunted house to escape the real-world anxieties and trauma of their daily lives.

How to watch: The Haunting is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

Border

An underseen gem, 2018's Border is a Swedish body-horror romance about otherness that will speak to anyone who knows what it feels like to finally find someone like you. Tina (Eva Melander) is a customs officer with an ability to smell guilt, making her especially good at catching contraband at her job. Tina also believes she has some type of developmental disorder, describing herself as an "ugly, strange human with a chromosome flaw," which leads to an isolated and lonely life. But one day a man with similar bodily features to Tina's appears at her work, and it's a powerful moment of recognizing that maybe she isn't alone, and maybe she's finally found her person.

Border is a wild, highly original tale full of unsettling twists that's also super trans. Amid its dark fantasy and suspense, this Cannes Film Festival winner is a transfixing and emotional story about spending a lifetime thinking something is wrong with you, the rage and pain that can fester from it, and to finally feel seen as you are for the first time.

How to watch: Border is streaming on DIRECTV and Tubi with ads, and is available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV and VUDU.

The Lost Boys Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock

In The Lost Boys, we get vampires in the form of a biker gang, and honestly, there's nothing gayer than that. When brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move to a beachside town in Northern California with their mother (Dianne Wiest, who, by law, makes every film campier, gayer, and better), eldest brother Michael soon falls in with a local motorcycle crew who also happen to be blood-suckers. While it's a girl who first catches Michael's eye, there's no denying the big queer energy that soon evolves when he's initiated into the vampire group. Kiefer Sutherland as David Powers, the platinum blonde leather-clad leader of the gang, oozes homoerotic desire towards Michael, whose vampiric transformation can be read as a coming-out of sorts. Even Haim’s Sam can be read as queer through small but unmissable character details, like a very suggestive Rob Lowe poster hanging on his bedroom wall. The Joel Schumacher film brings campy, queer goodness to a genre storytelling staple that was foundational for many young queers. 

How to watch: The Lost Boys is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Picture of Dorian Gray Credit: MGM / Kobal / Shutterstock

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a big, gay, gothic horror story about two rich older queens obsessed with the radiant beauty of a young closeted dandy, and how that young dandy sells his soul to stay forever gorgeous and young. Sure, the Oscar Wilde novel that Albert Lewin's 1945 film is based on is about vanity and the superficial desires of a group of aristocratic white men, but it's also about living with the unbearable torture of queer repression and internalized homophobia. 

When the 22-year-old Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) gazes upon his luminous portrait and wishes to never age a day, something magical happens — Dorian's dashing looks remain fixed, and the portrait ages instead. It also begins to reflect the sins of Dorian's behavior. It's impossible to not read Dorian Gray through a queer lens, given Wilde's personal life, as well as the flamboyant performances and attitudes expressed by the film's three male characters. This is a story about doing absolutely everything in your power to suppress your true self to the outside world, and that no matter how hard you try, you'll be forced to look at the wretched toll it takes on your soul.

How to watch: The Picture of Dorian Gray is streaming on HBO Max, and is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

The Shape of Water Credit: K Hayes / 20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

No one blends fantasy and romance with horror and suspense quite like Guillermo del Toro. The 2018 Best Picture winner is a movie where the most otherized characters — a woman who uses ASL to communicate (Sally Hawkins's Elisa), a closeted gay man (Richard Jenkins's Giles), a Black woman (Octavia Spencer's Zelda), and a giant fish-man (Doug Jones) — are targeted and labeled as the monsters threatening society. Del Toro takes the classic monster movie horror theatrics of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and reshapes it into a moving, heroic tale about those on the fringes of society fighting back and liberating themselves from the real monsters — in this case, Michael Shannon's terrifying colonel set on hunting down Jones's creature to exploit for the 1960s space race.

But The Shape of Water is also a love story that queers traditional hetero narratives through a swooning romance between Elisa and the fish-man. In del Toro’s fantastical world, two lonely and ostracized characters finally get to experience love, acceptance, and pleasure together — and that pleasure is incredibly sexual, as the filmmaker intended. With stunning visuals, an incredible blend of practical and CGI effects, some grisly gore, and lush romance, The Shape of Water pretty much has it all. 

How to watch: The Shape of Water is streaming on DIRECTV, and is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and VUDU.

Rebecca Credit: Selznick / United Artists / Kobal / Shutterstock

Many classic Hitchcock films are brimming with queer undercurrents, from the transfeminine villany of Psycho to the gay murderous couple of Rope, but Rebecca offers a different kind of queer story. In the 1940 psychological thriller, Joan Fontaine's second Mrs. de Winter and her new husband, Maxim (Laurence Olivier), arrive at the gothic mansion that is to be her new home, only to discover that that home is deeply haunted by echoes of the first Mrs. de Winter. It's Maxim's late wife, the never-seen Rebecca, who consumes our otherwise-unnamed protagonist with jealousy and self-doubt. 

Where the queerness arrives most notably is in the form of the icy housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who reveals her not-so-subtle obsession with the late Rebecca. In one famously analyzed scene, Mrs. Danvers gives a tour of Rebecca's old bedroom, caressing her dressing gown, displaying her underwear drawer as if it were treasure, and speaking of Rebecca as if she were a longtime secret lover. This suggestion of a lesbian affair between the women isn't merely speculation, either. Rebecca author Daphne du Maurier was said to have been bi, and even during the 1940 film's production, the Hays Code sent threatening letters to producer David O. Selznick to remove the queer subtext. Yet, gay Rebecca persisted.

How to watch: Rebecca is streaming on Roku.

UPDATE: Oct. 22, 2025, 5:23 p.m. This list was first published on Oct. 1, 2023. It has been updated to reflect streaming options.

It can be a full-time job trying to find something good to watch on TV (actually, it is!). And while I watch a ton of shows and movies and endlessly scroll through new and old releases on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, and more, Rotten Tomatoes is a go-to tool for quickly cutting through the chaff for titles that have been vetted by top industry critics.

Are you looking for a fun weekend project with your Raspberry Pi? I recently picked up a few extra Pis for my homelab, and instantly started spinning up new things just for the fun of it. Here are three projects that you can have up and running before Monday arrives.

You can use two Windows machines at once with a single keyboard and mouse without any special hardware. I had an extra laptop lying around that now connects with the same keyboard and mouse as my PC. It gives me the extra screen real estate of a double-monitor setup and the extra processing power of the laptop. Here’s how you can quickly and easily set it up yourself too.

The latest version of Apple iOS has been out for more than a month, but plenty of folks are probably still undecided as to whether or not to install the upgrade.

iOS 26 features the biggest design overhaul to Apple's mobile OS in a decade, bringing the new Liquid Glass aesthetic to iPhones. But in the weeks since iOS 26 launched, users have shared as many opinions about it as there are apps in the App Store. Its new translucent visual style, user complaints about battery drain, and other quirks have led some users to conclude that they don't need to download it just yet. After all, once you download iOS 26 and switch to Liquid Glass, there's no going back.

However, there are positives to iOS 26, as well. Here are just a handful of reasons why you should (or shouldn't) download iOS 26 on your iPhone.

SEE ALSO: Why are some cosmic orange iPhones turning pink? Pro: Some of the new features are great

Every new version of iOS comes with new feature drops, of course. Some years bring very little, while other years bring a lot. There are at least a couple of new features in iOS 26 that put this year's update in the latter category.

For starters, it's got Live Translation in Messages, FaceTime, and phone calls. Two people who speak different languages being able to mutually understand each other over the phone is probably the best application yet of Apple Intelligence. Sure, it might be a little awkward having to wait to listen to a translation of what was just said to you before responding, but not as awkward as not understanding what was said at all.

That's genuinely kind of transformative, but there are other standouts, as well. Being able to make polls and set custom backgrounds in group chats in Messages seem small, but they could inject a lot of personality into spaces where you commune with your loved ones and friends. That's not nothing, and you can only do it on iOS 26.

Pro: You might like Liquid Glass Credit: Apple

Liquid Glass didn't just come to the iPhone. Thanks to macOS Tahoe 26, iPadOS 26, and other OS updates, it's also changing the look of MacBooks, iPads, and Apple Watches. Mashable's tech editor gave iPadOS 26 a positive review, thanks in part to the new Liquid Glass design. Many users like the translucent glass effect.

To quote our review:

Per Apple, Liquid Glass "combines the optical qualities of glass with a fluidity only Apple can achieve." What does that mean? Core elements of the user interface are now translucent and expressive, so when objects overlap or interact, new liquid-like animations cause a transparent light effect, as if you're looking through glass or water...I haven't experienced any lag with the subtle animations that occur when different widgets or icons meet at the edges. Liquid Glass also makes the simplest interactions a lot more satisfactory. In the updated camera app, switching between Photo, Video, Pano, and other settings causes the text to bend and refract.

Liquid Glass also comes with new custom lock screens, which allow you to add a touch of personalization to your iPhone.

Con: You might not like Liquid Glass A custom lock screen in iOS 26. Credit: Apple

Again, the most noteworthy change Apple made with iOS 26 is Liquid Glass, and the new design language permeates the entire UI on your iPhone after you install the update. It makes everything look, well, like liquid glass, with lots of transparency effects and dynamic animations that make everything flow very nicely — when it works.

There's just one problem: Not everyone likes Liquid Glass. While you have some control over how it looks, the added effects and transparency don't work for everyone. You also can't really turn it off. One of the latest iOS 26 beta builds has a new "tinted glass" mode that lets you exert a little more control over how Liquid Glass looks, but it still falls short of just allowing users to retain the old UI, and it's just a beta feature. I don't personally mind Liquid Glass (although I did tweak it a bit to make a little less glassy), but if you absolutely hate it, you might want to hold back on installing iOS 26.

Pro: Crucial app redesigns Why wasn't it always like this?! Credit: Screenshot: Apple

Aside from new features and a new design language, iOS 26 also introduced at least one vitally important app redesign. Of course, I'm talking about the Photos app.

On previous versions of iOS, Photos had become a jumbled mess with multiple confusingly laid out tabs. It was harder than it should be to just find your library or your Favorites folder, for example, at least until you got used to it. On iOS 26, Photos has been streamlined so there are just two tabs, Library and Collections, at the bottom of the screen. One of them shows you everything on your phone, while the other shows you everything you've put into folders.

It's so simple that it makes you wonder why it wasn't always this way.

Con: Your battery might suffer

Last but certainly not least, there have been numerous user complaints that iOS 26 is affecting — or even outright ruining — the battery life on their iPhones. To be perfectly clear, this has not affected everyone or even a majority of iOS 26 users, but that doesn't mean it isn't real.

There are some potential explanations for this. Apple itself says that this is a temporary setback as your phone gets used to the new update (my words, not theirs). Some have claimed that updating all your apps and power cycling the device helps. Low Power Mode (and the new Adaptive Power setting) could alleviate this, at least, potentially. It's also possible that none of those will work, at which point you might need to make an appointment with Apple support.

I personally don't have anything against iOS 26, having used it since it launched, but there are good reasons not to upgrade.

For some scammers, phishing is an art. As people catch up on schemes, they need to come up with new and fresh ways to get people to fall into their schemes. This latest one, targeting LastPass users for the most part, is actually pretty clever.

ChatGPT is already deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem thanks to a partnership between OpenAI and Apple to use ChatGPT models to power some Apple Intelligence features.

Now, OpenAI has taken the initiative to tread even further into Apple's territory.

On Thursday, OpenAI announced that it acquired Software Applications Incorporated, the developer of an AI interface for Mac called Sky.

Sky is an AI-powered natural language interface that provides AI functions for a user directly on their computer. It appears to work like AI assistant web browsers; however, in Sky's case, the functionality is running directly on Mac instead of through the browser.

"We’re building a future where ChatGPT doesn’t just respond to your prompts, it helps you get things done," said VP and Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley, who led the acquisition deal, in a blog post. "Sky’s deep integration with the Mac accelerates our vision of bringing AI directly into the tools people use every day."

There is a demo video released back in May showcasing what Sky can do on Mac. However, Sky has yet to be released to the public.

The Sky demo showcases the Mac AI assistant adding dinner plans made by text message to a user's calendar, researching nearby bars to go to beforehand, and responding back to the text message with the pre-dinner plan suggestion.

"We’ve always wanted computers to be more empowering, customizable, and intuitive," said Software Applications Incorporated CEO and co-founder Ari Weinstein said in an announcement blog. "With LLMs, we can finally put the pieces together. That’s why we built Sky, an AI experience that floats over your desktop to help you think and create. We’re thrilled to join OpenAI to bring that vision to hundreds of millions of people.”

Sky looks to work like most other agentic AI systems. The AI assistant requires numerous permissions, including the ability to view and record a user's screen, in order to take actions based on what the user is looking to do. Cybersecurity experts and privacy advocates have already shared concerns regarding this.

Perhaps, with Sky being a native-based application instead of an AI agent built into a web browser with its own security concerns, OpenAI is hoping this software will alleviate those fears among consumers.

But we won't really know much about that or Sky itself until it's officially released to the public.

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

Apple's announcement of a new M5-powered version of the company's Vision Pro headset was followed shortly by the reveal of Samsung's Galaxy XR. The Samsung headset is competitive with the Vision Pro on paper, and much less expensive, yet still comes with an eye-watering price tag.

If you've been on TikTok lately, you've likely seen the Group 7 meme, and you'd be forgiven if you don't quite understand what's going on with it. The whole thing connects back to a single source and, strangely enough, it's actually a remarkably well-conceived bit of promotional posting.

And don't worry, it's not too difficult to understand.

We covered Group 7 as it first broke onto the online scene, but it has since grown even more popular. As Mashable's Chance Townsend wrote earlier this week, the trend stems from singer Sophia James promoting her song "So Unfair" on TikTok. James posted seven separate videos promoting the single that put people in "groups" based on which video showed up on your algorithm, and, for whatever reason, the final TikTok labeling "Group 7" went viral. It's now racked up some 63 million views.

SEE ALSO: The Group 7 TikTok trend explained

So why did it go viral? Simply put, it became an inside joke — the thing to be because TikTok collectively decided it was. Everyone suddenly wanted to be in Group 7. The lore unfolded in the comments: Group 7 was elite. Top replies on James' original post read, "I didn’t choose Group 7, Group 7 chose me!" and "Group 7 is a group full of baddies that always win, just saying." It’s kind of like the 6-7 meme — meaningless on the surface, but rich with meaning because we, as a collective, decided it mattered.

"I was just trying to promote my song. That's all it was," James told Mashable over email earlier this week. "But the reason I make and perform music in the first place is to foster community and connect with people, so the way this thing is bringing people together is literally a dream come true."

And the trend has brought an (albeit strange) sense of community to TikTokkers. People really want to be a part of Group 7.

User @popsamcam explained how that fact is a bit of marketing genius.

As user @not.bethel explained, TikTok loves to just run with something. Once it reaches a certain point, there's no stopping the momentum.

Soon enough, it spread to the real world — workers asking their colleagues if they're Group 7, for example. It's an inside joke for millions of people on the app.

With time, everything became attached to the Group 7 meme. This TikTok about bringing back the word "grody" from @wesleyryann racked up nearly 200,000 views and, yes, mentioned Group 7 at the end.

Soon enough, what was once niche had the relatively stodgy PGA Tour (yes, the golf league) posting about it. Once the Normie brands arrived, the trend ballooned to a massive size.

It's wild, but exceptionally like TikTok, to take such a benign thing and blow it up. We all learned this week that Group 7 is forever — or at least until the next big thing takes off.

From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable covers the creators shaping digital culture today. Meet The Mashable 101, our list of the internet’s most exciting voices; and explore our other series, on how creators are building their platforms; on the gear they swear by; and on the trends of today and tomorrow.

File systems in Linux and Unix-like operating systems like macOS can be mounted, unmounted, and remounted using the terminal. This is a powerful and versatile tool—here's everything you need to know.

GET A FREE TOOL: As of Oct. 24, when you buy the Bosch 18V 2-Pack (4 Ah 4 Ah Battery Kit) for $179 (that's $40 off its usual price) at Lowe's, you'll get a bonus tool at no extra cost.

Opens in a new window Credit: Bosch Bosch 18V 2-Pack (4 Ah 4 Ah Battery Kit) $179 at Lowe's
$219 Save $40   Get Deal

Whether you're finally tackling that home renovation project you've been putting off or just trying to build up a decent toolkit, you know that good power tools aren't cheap. Luckily, Lowe's has a deal running right now that makes adding a high-quality tool to your collection a lot easier.

As of Oct. 24, when you buy the Bosch 18V 2-Pack (4 Ah 4 Ah Battery Kit) for $179 (that's $40 off its usual price) at Lowe's, you'll get an additional Bosch 18V power tool on the house.

SEE ALSO: The Home Depot's 12-foot skeleton is on sale for the first time ever, but there's a catch

The kit you're buying includes two Bosch Core 18V batteries and a fast charger (it takes about 65 minutes to get to a full charge). These batteries are designed to be lightweight and use Bosch's "CoolPack 2.0" tech to prevent overheating, which should help them last longer.

Once you add the battery kit to your cart, you can choose your freebie: a 1/2-inch hammer drill, an oscillating multi-tool, a reciprocating saw, or a 4.5-inch angle grinder. These are all cordless tools that run on the 18V batteries you just bought. Depending on which tool you choose, you're getting a free item worth up to $159. Plus, the tools come with a five-year warranty.

Lowe's says this deal runs through Jan. 7, 2026, so you could definitely snag this as a holiday gift for the handy person in your life.

Close enough: Welcome back, Clippy.

Microsoft Copilot announced it has updated its AI companion to bolster its personality and appearance — and it has given it a name. Say hello to Mico.

In a blog announcing Mico and its Copilot fall release, Microsoft wrote that it was looking to build an AI companion that made life easier for people. The central idea is that "technology should work in service of people," wrote Mustafa Suleyman , the head of Microsoft AI.

Wrote Suleyman in the note:

"Copilot now connects you to yourself, to others, and to the tools you use every day. It’s there for you, helps you stay organized, and even supports your health. It brings people together in shared chats, helps you learn with voice and visuals, and shows up with warmth, personality and even an appearance: Mico."

That's all well and good, but come on, we're all going to compare Mico to Clippy, the (beloved?) paperclip that helped us navigate Microsoft programs back in the day. As Mashable's Timothy Beck Werth wrote about Mico back when it was an experiment, the "marshmallow, emoji-like face" cannot help but give "major Clippy vibes."

Microsoft's blog stated that Mico should feel like a personalized experience and that the AI companion will speak to users conversationally. The updates to Copilot, including Mico, went live in the U.S. and should roll out elsewhere soon.

Sedans come in all flavors, and the practical route is easy to justify. Buy a new Toyota Camry and you get rock-solid reliability, great mileage, and a car that won’t cause headaches.

SAVE 40%: As of Oct. 24, the 3i G10+ Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo is on sale for $269.99, down from $449.99, at Amazon. That's a 40% discount and $180 in savings.

3i G10+ Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo $269.99 at Amazon
$449.99 Save $180   Get Deal at Amazon

Trying to pick a robot vacuum these days is overwhelming. There are tons of brands, and figuring out which features actually work (and which are just hype) is tough, especially on a budget. So, when Mashable Senior Shopping Reporter Leah Stodart tested the relatively unknown 3i G10+ and called it the "most impressive robot vacuum under $500," we paid attention. And right now, it's on sale for even less.

As of Oct. 24, the 3i G10+ Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo is on sale for $269.99, down from $449.99, at Amazon. That's a 40% discount, $180 in savings, and the lowest price we've seen since launch.

SEE ALSO: I found the best robot vacuums for every floor, budget, and level of laziness

What makes this one stand out, especially for the price, is how it handles dirt disposal. Instead of needing one of those giant self-empty towers, the G10+ actually compacts the debris inside its own dustbin. This means you might only need to empty it every couple of months, plus the charging dock is small enough to hide under furniture. Stodart also found its mapping really smart — it uses LiDAR and could even tell which rooms were bedrooms or bathrooms based on furniture.

It's got strong suction (18,000 Pa), uses AI to spot dirtier areas and adjust cleaning, handles carpets well, and avoids most obstacles. "The only time I really saw debris left behind was when I intentionally spilled a giant pile of rice on the kitchen floor, and the G10+ cleared about 90 percent of it in two passes," Stodart writes in her review.

Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The mopping function isn't super fancy, but it does have a little spinning edge mop that Stodart says detailed the wall where her bathroom floor and shower meet "quite well."

It also has a livestream camera, which is rare for vacuums at this price point. "I've never seen one of these on a robot vacuum that costs less than $1,000, let alone $500," she writes. "It sounds ridiculously unnecessary at first, but I know pet parents understand the appeal of being able to remotely check on their pets."

SAVE $79.01: As of Oct. 24, get the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for $169.99, down from their usual price of $249 at Amazon. That's a discount of 32%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Apple AirPods Pro 2 $169.99 at Amazon
$249 Save $79.01   Get Deal

Looking to lock in a new pair of earbuds? There are tons of options on sale at any given time, but when a pair of Apple AirPods are discounted, it's time to sit up and take notice. That's happening right now: you can score a pair of Apple AirPods Pro 2 for their Prime Day price once more.

As of Oct. 24, get the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for $169.99, down from their usual price of $249 at Amazon. That's $79.01 off and a discount of 32%.

SEE ALSO: Apple AirPods Pro 3 vs. Sony WF-1000xM5: Which noise-canceling earbuds are better?

Though Apple has released a brand new pair of buds with the AirPods Pro 3, their previous iteration are every bit as worthy of picking up. They've been labeled as our favorite earbuds for Apple users multiple times in a row, taking the top spot in our best headphones lists many times as well.

They get those top honors for their noise cancellation ability, great sound, and excellent battery life. They continue to prove themselves a great pick in terms of earbuds as well, even with the newer AirPods Pro 3 out in the wild. Their svelte profile, the way they fit into your ears comfortably, and even their usage as a status symbol for some make them an excellent candidate for your next pair of buds.

If you want to score these AirPods Pro 2 for their most recent Prime Day price, though, you'll want to act fast. They likely won't last long while they're discounted again.