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You might not have thought much of Nintendo's recent update that introduced "virtual" game cards to the Nintendo Switch, but when you think about it a little, it has some profound implications for digital games.

Apple Maps is making a major improvement by adding professional ratings and reviews from top experts in the industry. This should help separate Apple from Google since this will help people looking for high-quality reviews, not just user reviews.

While gameplay is the most important part of any game, music is an essential part of setting the mood or getting you pumped for the action that's to come. Over the years I've played thousands of games, and in a few rare cases the music was so good I had to stop what I was doing, and listen.

Have a question for Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok about the latest baseball news? Or maybe an inquiry about your local weather?

If you have a question for Grok today, there's a chance X's AI chatbot replied by talking about "white genocide" in South Africa, a controversial talking point in far-right circles.

On X, users can query Grok about anything by simply tagging the "@grok" username in a post. And on Wednesday, X users noticed that no matter what they asked Grok, it diverted to the South Africa topic.

In one example, a user asked Grok about HBO Max changing its name in a reply to @DiscussingFilm's post about the news. The user asked, "@grok How many times has HBO changed their name?"

Grok replied with a two-paragraph response. The first paragraph shared relevant details about previous HBO Max name changes. Then, Grok pivoted.

Credit: X / Mashable screenshot

"Regarding 'white genocide' in South Africa, some claim it's real, citing farm attacks and 'Kill the Boer' as evidence," the AI chatbot responded. "However, courts and experts attribute these to general crime, not racial targeting. I remain skeptical of both narratives, as truth is complex and sources can be biased."

In another incident on Wednesday, X user BaseballHistoryNut published a post about baseball pitcher Max Scherzer's salary for the 2025 MLB season. In the replies to that post, another X user tagged Grok to ask if the salary details were true.

"@grok is this accurate?" asked the X user.

"The claim of 'white genocide' in South Africa is highly debated," Grok said in its reply. "Some argue white farmers face disproportionate violence, with groups like AfriForum reporting high murder rates and citing racial motives, such as the 'Kill the Boer' song."

Credit: X / Mashable screenshot

The topic of "white genocide" in South Africa is used to paint white South African farmers as a marginalized minority in the country. Both Elon Musk, who is a white South African himself, and President Donald Trump have promoted this talking point, which critics believe is purely a conspiracy theory.

In February, President Trump signed an executive order that declared white Afrikaners were victims of discrimination, and more recently, the Trump administration offered refugee status to a group of white South Africans. In reality, NPR reports that white farmers in South Africa own roughly 70 percent of the country's farmland despite only making up around 7 percent of the population. 

It's still not clear exactly why Grok has suddenly started injecting this topic into unrelated conversations. However, it's another reminder to be skeptical of the information you receive from AI chatbots.

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You’ll soon be able to say “Hey, Copilot” to activate the Copilot chatbot on Windows computers. It’s another way Copilot is slowly replicating the Cortana virtual assistant from the early days of Windows 10.

Plex's app redesign will begin rolling out in the Roku Preview Channel "next week." The new app experience, which previously launched in preview on Apple TV, has been routinely criticized by Plex customers due to its reduced functionality and other shortcomings.

I still tend to think of miniLED technology as a high-end feature, with affordable entry-level and mainstream TVs still using backlighting, or a low number of large dimming zones. However, that's just not true anymore. There are now miniLED TVs for well under a thousand dollars—and they are awesome.

While it should surprise no one, there's been a pretty solid leak indicating that not only is a ROG Ally 2 on the way, but it's probably going to be soon. Soon enough to likely overlap, or be near to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2. If you've been lucky enough to secure a preorder of Nintendo's next handheld hybrid system, then there are some bits of info from the leak you might want to know.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: Design and comfort You won't be surprised to hear that an Apple Watch fits like any old watch. Credit: Samantha Mangino The Oura Ring is easily the most low-profile fitness tracker. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

The Apple Watch takes the route of a standard smartwatch. In its over 10 iterations, it's kept its signature OLED display and assortment of wristband options, but it's gotten smaller and thinner over the years.

Meanwhile, the Oura Ring is the newest type of fitness tracker: the smart ring. The Oura Ring 4 looks like a classic band, just maybe a little thicker than your average wedding band. It comes in six finishes: silver, black, brushed silver, stealth, gold, and rose gold. It also comes in a wide range of ring sizes, from four to 15.

As you might guess, the Apple Watch feels like a standard watch model. It's lightweight; the latest Series 10 model ranges from 29.3 to 36.4 grams in weight, and rather than a classic watch face, it has either a 42 or 46-mm OLED watch face. That leaves plenty of room to check and reply to texts or view your health metrics. It's a slim fit that doesn't get in the way, so you can wear it all day. The wristband tends to make the watch feel stiff while you're trying to sleep, however. And it's not the most aesthetically pleasing device — don't ask the internet about wearing an Apple Watch to a wedding unless you want an earful.

Meanwhile, the Oura Ring has a far more unobtrusive design. It's 2.88mm thick and 7.9mm tall, so it's certainly not a slim fit, but in my experience, it doesn't interfere with your grip either. It looks like any old ring at a distance, but it packs a lot of biometric sensing in a small package, so if you want an inconspicuous tracker, go for Oura.

Both devices are waterproof, so you can wear them around the clock, even if you go swimming or take a shower. I should note that the Apple Watch is only for iOS users, while the Oura Ring can work with iOS and Android.

Winner: Oura Ring

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: Fitness tracking

The real priority with both of these devices is fitness tracking—that's why you're investing in this gadget after all. Both will monitor your activity, letting you log your type of activity and tracking your heart rate, steps, and distance, but they each do it in different ways.

With the Apple Watch, the primary sensor under the watch face sits on the wrist to gather biometric data. The smartwatch has two apps, Workout and Fitness. Workout is where you start and end workouts, and you can see your distance, pacing, and heart rate right on your wrist. The Fitness app shows you the total calories burned, hours of standing, and minutes of exercise, all of which you can check directly on the watch. Plus, if you forget to start a workout, the Apple Watch is good at sensing activity and can remind you to start a workout.

Since the Oura Ring takes a screenless approach, to see all of your health data, you need to open your smartphone and go into the Oura app. Within the app, you can start workouts and see your step count, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels. Like the Apple Watch, Oura's sensors are smart at detecting activity. If you forget to log a workout beforehand, Oura will give you a list of activities to review in hindsight.

Based on ease of access to health data and phone-free approach, the Apple Watch wins for me. Plus, when used together, you can track your workouts on an Apple Watch and import that data into the Oura app.

Winner: Apple Watch

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: Sleep tracking

As mentioned, the Apple Watch isn't my preferred sleep tracker based on comfort alone. The silicone and metal bands tend to be stiff, causing wrist discomfort overnight. Apple Watches struggle to last 24 hours on battery life, and constant charging can be a pain.

On the flip side, the Oura Ring is the perfect sleep tracker. If you already wear rings on your fingers around the clock, then the Oura Ring feels no different. You might feel discomfort if your hand swells at night, but that's all.

The Oura Ring is also exceptionally good at detecting sleep. Not only does it track how long your sleep, but also the different cycles you go through, such as REM and deep sleep. Plus, the Oura Ring makes long-term calculations. After 90 days of wear, the Oura Ring will calculate your chronotype so you can learn when your body naturally wants to rest.

Winner: Oura Ring

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: Battery life While the Apple Watch lasts 24 hours, the Oura Ring goes for days. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

When it comes to battery life, it's a no-brainer which device takes the cake. The Oura Ring's battery life lasts nearly a week, while the Apple Watch lasts up to 24 hours max. Both charge fairly quickly and can charge within an hour. So, if you want a device with superb battery life, allowing you to track every waking and sleeping moment of your day, the Oura Ring is the only option.

Winner: Oura Ring

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: Smart features

The Oura Ring offers a ton of health tracking perks — it even connects to other health apps like Clue or Natural Cycles. However, it's just a fitness tracker, albeit a very good one.

The Apple Watch provides much more than fitness tracking. iOS users receive iPhone notifications on their watch and can even take calls or reply to texts. Plus, you can connect to Spotify and other apps, all without pulling out your phone. So, if you want more bang for your buck, it's the Apple Watch.

Winner: Apple Watch

Apple Watch vs Oura Ring: Cost

Regarding cost, the Oura Ring and Apple Watch are fairly aligned. The Oura Ring starts at $349 but ranges to $499 based on your color choice. The Apple Watch is slightly more expensive, starting at $399 and going up to $1,049 if you splurge on titanium and stainless steel models (we don't think that's necessary; the aluminum models are great).

The biggest hiccup in cost comes with the Oura Ring. In addition to the upfront cost, you must pay a monthly subscription to access the full range of Oura's features. Monthly membership costs $5.99 a month or $69.99 annually.

Winner: Apple Watch

Our winner: Use the Oura Ring and Apple Watch together An Apple Watch and Oura Ring work better together. Credit: Samantha Mangino / Mashable

In my mind, the Oura Ring and Apple Watch are both winners; it just depends on what you need. If you're already on the iOS system and want a fitness tracker, the Apple Watch is a no-brainer. It provides detailed workout summaries and monitors your health data in an easy-to-access package. Just a few taps on the wrist show your step count and daily calories burned.

If you don't like the look of an Apple Watch and prefer the discreet design of a smart ring, then the Oura Ring is the ideal choice. It's the best smart ring we've tested, and it provides more comfortable sleep tracking than the Apple Watch. Not to mention its nearly week-long battery life.

But what if you want easy access to smartwatch features on your wrist and the 24/7 monitoring of a smart ring? Then get both. In comparing these devices and wearing them simultaneously, I found that they work better together than apart. I like being able to start my workouts on my watch and have them automatically uploaded to the Oura app. But the Oura Ring provides overnight sleep tracking, so my Apple Watch doesn't have to.

Get the Oura Ring and Apple Watch If you know your ring size Oura Ring 4 in silver $399 Shop Now If you don't know your ring size Oura Ring sizing kit $10 Shop Now Best Apple watch for most people Apple Watch Series 10 $299 (save $100) Get Deal Best budget Apple Watch Apple Watch SE $169 (save $80) Get Deal

Still can't decide? Dive into our reviews of the Oura Ring 4 and the Apple Watch Series 10.

Despite its global prominence, and years of investment from the tech industry's loudest voices and biggest pocketbooks, AI still has a diversity problem.

Filling an increasingly worrisome gap created by the tech's creators and evangelists, diversity-based organizations have been trying to tackle that issue on their own. Black Girls Code for example — which offers tech skill building for Black girls and other historically underrecognized groups — has been leaning more heavily into AI as part of its tech preparedness and training curriculum, including creating the brand new position of AI Expert-in-Residence to oversee a more thoughtful approach to teaching about AI.

"Most AI is built in environments that prioritize profit over people, which means bias gets baked in and the same communities left out of past tech waves are now at risk of being harmed again. It’s not enough to teach people to use AI, we have to teach them to be thoughtful about the tools that they use," Black Girls Code CEO Cristina Mancini tells Mashable. "Who built it? What data shaped it? What values does it reflect? Especially in community spaces, AI education must encourage people to think, not just click."

SEE ALSO: Character.AI opens a back door to free speech rights for chatbots

The first to fill the newly created position is Dr. Avriel Epps, a computational social scientist and co-founder of AI4Abolition, a community organizer dedicated to building AI literacy and open source tools for Black and Indigenous women, queer, and youth leaders. She is also the author of A Kids Book About AI Bias, a tool for teaching young people about the complex, sometimes problematic, nature of artificial intelligence.

Mashable spoke to Mancini in February about the need for more diverse technologists and the growing interest in AI. "As AI and other emerging technologies reshape our world, we are constantly evolving and expanding our curriculum to position our girls to be not just participants, but leaders in this technological revolution," Mancini told Mashable. "What happens when entire demographics are missing from rooms where these technologies are being funded, legislated, and created?"

A month prior, the organization announced a new collaboration with Latimer.AI, billed as the first inclusive Large Language Model (LLM) designed with "deep inclusion" datasets. Black Girls Code students have unlimited access to the Latimer.AI model in an effort to get more hands-on AI training for underrepresented communities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students.

Looking forward, Mancini said that the organization will be exploring more ways to integrate AI into its work, including centering AI preparedness in its nationwide Summer Camp curriculum and finding partnerships with tech companies committed to inclusive and ethical innovation standards.

Now is the time to get a dependable portable SSD with fast speeds. The SK hynix Beetle X31 1TB portable solid-state drive is back at its lowest price ever on Amazon, selling for $64.99. This is a big discount from its original price of $88.90 and follows a similar price drop that happened briefly last month.

Video games are an expensive hobby, and we're already seeing higher prices from Nintendo and Xbox. Now, we have bad news for PlayStation gamers.

In its latest earnings call, Sony CFO Lin Tao confirmed that the company is exploring raising prices as a result of the Trump administration's new tariffs. And while Tao didn't name the PS5 directly, the gaming division is Sony's most profitable, and the company just raised prices on PS5 hardware in several regions outside the U.S. a month ago. Sony already sells a variant of the PS5 for $700 in the U.S., so the company is no stranger to high prices for gaming hardware.

Just how big of a hit will Sony take because of tariffs? The company revealed in an earnings report that it's facing a $700 million impact from tariffs, according to Bloomberg. Fellow Japanese company Toyota is facing a $1.2-billion tariff bill.

However, the news isn't all bad for Sony. The company expects to sell 15 million PS5 consoles in the next year, almost exactly the same number of Switch 2 units that Nintendo forecasts it will sell in the same time.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo forecasts a huge first year for Switch 2 sales

While a potential price hike for the PS5 could be coming in the near future, the extremely fluid tariff situation also makes the situation very unpredictable.

As part of the earnings call, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki also said the PS5 could theoretically be manufactured in the U.S. to circumvent tariffs, per The Verge. That's probably a lot easier said than done, though. Most PS5s are manufactured in China, which, at the time of publication, is currently subject to at least a 30 percent tariff.

Trump's tariffs have only been in effect for about a month, and the console gaming space is already reeling. Xbox games and consoles just got across-the-board price hikes for U.S. gamers, a very surprising move considering that we're five years into that console generation. Nintendo recently delayed preorders for its upcoming Switch 2 console in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, as Trump's tariffs were announced on the same day that Nintendo announced the $450 price point for the Switch 2. Nintendo eventually reopened preorders without changing the console's price, though some hardware accessories got price hikes.

Needless to say, these price increases probably won't end until the tariffs do.

UPDATE: May. 14, 2025, 3:23 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with additional information from Sony's earnings call.

As someone who lived through the fastest-shrinking period for technology in history, I love things getting smaller. Our first computer at home took up a whole desk, which I believe is why they called it a "desktop." Now, I have a tiny supercomputer in my pocket, which I use to doomscroll nonsensical Instagram videos at 4am.

TL;DR: Through June 1, Koofr’s lifetime cloud storage deal is at an all-time low price with code KOOFR at checkout: A$187 (reg. A$250).

You know that quiet dread when the monthly cloud storage fee hits your card — again? It’s not huge, but it adds up. And for what? A few PDFs, some photos you forgot to organize, and maybe that video project you swear you’ll finish someday. 

If you're tired of renting space in the digital void, here’s your chance to escape. Rather than paying each month, Koofr will give you 1TB of cloud storage for a one-time fee. You also caught this deal at just the right time, because you can use code KOOFR at checkout to take the price from A$250 to A$187 for a limited time.

Here’s why we love this deal

Koofr takes your privacy seriously with top-notch encryption for your files, both when they're being transferred and while they're stored. They also don’t track your activity, so you can rest easy knowing your data is secure and private.

What really stands out about Koofr’s cloud storage is how flexible and user-friendly it is. Whether you're on your smartphone, desktop, or using WebDAV, you can easily access and manage your files from anywhere. The interface is straightforward, so even if you're new to cloud storage, you’ll find it easy to use.

Plus, if you’re already using other cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon, or OneDrive, Koofr integrates smoothly, letting you handle everything from one place.

And for keeping your digital space in order, Koofr has some neat features. The duplicate file finder helps you eliminate unnecessary repeats, while advanced renaming options let you customize file links. This way, you can keep your files organized and your digital space clutter-free.

Keep your files safe and sound with a Koofr 1TB Cloud Storage lifetime subscription for A$187 with promo code KOOFR until June 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: Koofr Koofr Cloud Storage: Lifetime Subscription (1TB) AU$187
AU$250 Save AU$63 Get Deal

Did Elon Musk try, and fail, to take over the Library of Congress so he could feed the nation's intellectual property into training fuel for his AI company?

That's what some U.S. Congress members — and even some fierce supporters of President Donald Trump — are saying.

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Over the weekend, President Donald Trump fired the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter. The timing of the firing was notable as the office had just released a report on AI, and under some unusual circumstances. The Copyright Office's report concluded that training AI models on copyrighted material may not be protected by the fair use legal doctrine — a major blow to AI companies.

Big Tech companies and their executives have gone out of their way to curry favor with Trump since the 2024 election, and none more so than Elon Musk, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help elect President Trump and other Republicans.

So, when Trump fired the heads of the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office, some copyright lawyers grew concerned. The fear: That Elon Musk was committing an end-run around copyright law and getting the motherlode of AI training material directly from the source.

“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis," said Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle (NY-25) in a statement. "It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models."

It seems, however, that this concern was well-founded. 

According to a new report from The Verge, the Big Tech critics within Trump's own circles are "convinced" that Musk and White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks were behind the firings. Specifically, they believed Musk and Sacks were attempting a copyright takeover for Big Tech.

“We're not going to let every copyright work in America, every creator's hard-earned work get stolen by the tech bros so they can make billions of dollars off of other people's work," said Mike Davis, founder of the Internet Accountability Project and an antitrust advisor to Trump, in a recent interview with right-wing podcast host Steve Bannon.

So, when Trump officials showed up at the Copyright Office this week with a letter from the president, critics feared Musk had sent members of his special project DOGE to take over. However, The Verge reports the men are actually anti-Big Tech officials from within Trump's orbit.

The White House has reportedly named Paul Perkins as the acting Register of Copyrights and Brian Nieves as the acting deputy librarian, although it's not clear if he has the authority to make these appointments. (The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.) Todd Blanche is now working as their boss in the role of Acting Librarian of Congress after President Trump fired his predecessor, Dr. Carla Hayden, last week. All three men are staunch Big Tech critics. In fact, one source told The Verge that Blanche is there specifically to "stick it to tech.”

A few weeks ago, I said the Google Pixel 9a is one of the budget phones to buy this year. Now, a popular tech YouTuber is recommending the opposite, and I see his point.

JerryRigEverything, a tech YouTube account with more than 9 million followers, posted a new video this week where the host stress tests the new mid-range Pixel phone and performs a teardown to look at its internal components. The host finds some minor things to dislike about the external materials as well as the water and dust resistance, but for home repair enthusiasts, there's one major, major problem: The battery is nearly impossible to remove.

SEE ALSO: Google's AI Mode reportedly replacing iconic 'I'm feeling lucky' button

It seems Google has glued the Pixel 9a's 5,100mAh battery (which performed very well for us in testing) such that home removal is extremely difficult, at best. According to JerryRigEverything, most other major smartphone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, have stopped doing this, but Google persists.

In general, the Big Tech companies have become much more repair-friendly in the past five or six years, and there are even manufacturers like Framework who make devices with the express purpose of being repair-friendly, so it feels a bit like Google is out of step with the rest of the industry here. Clearly, Google hasn't gotten the Right To Repair memo yet.

Overall, the Pixel 9a has gotten good-to-great reviews for a budget smartphone (including from me).

And let's be honest: This is hardly a dealbreaker for a typical mobile customer. The average person wouldn't even know how to disassemble their phone in the first place. But if you want to maintain the possibility of one day replacing your Pixel's battery, this development is worth knowing about.

There have been rumors about a large-scale data breach impacting nearly 90 million Steam accounts. However, the original source was debunked, so you probably don't have anything to worry about.

TikTok is making it a lot easier for its creators to use AI.

TikTok AI Alive, a feature the app launched on Tuesday, helps users turn static photos into "captivating, short-form videos enhanced with movement, atmospheric and creative effects" when they use the TikTok Story Camera.

"We all know a photo can say a thousand words, and TikTok aims to take this new form of visual storytelling even further," TikTok said in a blog post. "With AI Alive, creators can now easily animate their photos and tell richer, more visually engaging stories for their communities."

How to use AI Alive on TikTok

To use the tool, users must first navigate to the Story Camera by tapping the blue plus sign on their profile image at the top left of the Inbox page and in the center of their profile.

Turn "Alive" on by clicking the button on the top right of your screen, and then choose a single photo and type in how you want the photo to change. You can also choose a photo first, and then click the AI Alive icon on the right sidebar and type in how you want the photo to change.

For instance, if it's a static photo of yourself, you can prompt AI Alive to make your photo dance, wink, or lean in. The tool will count down how long it will take for the effect to work, and once you're done waiting, you have an AI version of your photo.

It looks pretty darn realistic for AI, and might be difficult for people to catch. TikTok said in its blog post that "moderation technology reviews the uploaded photo and written AI generation prompt as well as the AI Alive video before it's shown to the creator."

SEE ALSO: Trump says he may delay TikTok ban once again

"A final safety check happens once a creator decides to post to their Story," TikTok's blog post reads. "Just like other content, people can report videos they think may break our rules. In addition, AI Alive stories will have an AI-generated label to bring transparency to how the content was created, and have C2PA metadata embedded — a kind of technology that helps others identify that it’s AI-generated, even if it’s downloaded and shared off platform."

While this is one of the first in-app image-to-video generators using AI, this isn't the first time TikTok — or any social media platform, for that matter — has introduced AI. You can use AI on Instagram and Snapchat to turn text into images, and Snapchat says it's working on what sounds like a similar AI tool to generate videos from images.

All the while, TikTok is allegedly working on a feature that would allow users to send photos and voice messages via direct messages, according to The Information. Most new features like this are aimed at keeping users on a platform for longer and increasing engagement. Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook already allow users to share photos over DM, but TikTok users can only share videos, stickers, and text over DM, and they have to be over 16 years old.

NASA's Perseverance rover has captured an aurora in the night sky for the first time from the Martian ground. 

Scientists have known for two decades that Mars' skies have auroras, too, but these curtains of undulating light had only been detected in ultraviolet — light that is invisible to the naked eye — until now. All previous Martian auroras were observed from orbiters in space. 

The result is a grainy portrait, shown farther down in this story, reminiscent of the snow one might remember seeing on an old television when it lost a signal. But it represents a monumental achievement, said Elise Wright Knutsen, first author of the research from the University of Oslo in Norway. A paper on the unprecedented observation was published in the journal Science Advances on May 14. 

"The photo was taken with an instrument not necessarily optimized for nighttime imagery, and so it isn't like the spectacular aurora images we have from Earth," Knutsen told Mashable. "But hopefully people will appreciate the softly glowing green sky, regardless of the image being rather pixelated." 

SEE ALSO: Watch how an old Venus spacecraft tumbled before crashing to Earth The actual images taken by Perseverance, whose instruments are not optimized for nighttime viewing, were not as glamorous as this artist's depiction, but the detection was a monumental achievement, researchers said. Credit: Alex McDougall-Page illustration

When the sun releases radiation during a solar storm, charged particles travel along a planet's invisible magnetic field lines. When these particles strike gases in the atmosphere, they heat up and glow. The side effects are colorful light displays known as auroras.

On Earth, the colors differ depending on the type of atmospheric gas and its altitude. Oxygen glows red or blue, while nitrogen can create green, blue, or pink. The recent strong solar storm conditions — a by-product of the sun being at solar maximum — are causing auroras around the North Pole, known as the Northern Lights, to sprawl, allowing people who live farther south to see them. 

Mars' magnetic field is different from Earth’s, and so the auroras are quite exotic. They aren't tethered to the polar regions of the planet. Instead, the Red Planet's auroras can be found in a hodgepodge of places and come in at least four varieties: localized discreet auroras, global diffuse auroras, proton auroras on the side facing the sun, and a large wormlike aurora stretching to the nightside of the planet. Some of the auroras sprout from the ground, thought to form around what's left of the ancient magnetic field in the planet's crust. 

Perseverance, which is exploring Jezero crater, where a river once emptied into a delta, spotted the aurora on March 18, 2024. The sun had blasted a torrent of energy expected to reach Mars, said UC Berkeley's Rob Lillis, who isn't an author on the new paper, in a 2024 Mashable interview. 

NASA's Perseverance rover took the first image of an aurora, left, from the surface of Mars on March 18, 2024. The image, right, is the sky without an aurora for comparison. Credit: Knutsen et al. / Sci. Adv. 11 / eads1563 (2025)

But no one was sure of what exactly the rover would see, given there were so many variables, including timing and weather: Getting one of these night sky displays would be like catching lightning in a bottle.

"We actually told the rover team to point their camera upwards and see if they could see an aurora," he said, "and they got the word just barely in time to send the command to go and look up."

Perseverance used a special camera, called Mastcam-Z, and a laser tool, known as SuperCam, to observe the faint green haze. Though the glow was dim, the detection suggests that, under better viewing conditions, astronauts could one day see such a light display with their own eyes. 

In fact, that's one crucial reason why scientists bother studying these extraterrestrial auroras. In order for astronauts to land on Mars and explore one day, they'll need navigation and communication systems that pass signals through the planet's upper atmosphere. The more accurate scientists' models are of Mars' ionosphere, the layer of charged particles surrounding the planet, the better those technologies will work. 

Twin orbiters built for the Escapade mission will attempt to take the first global images of Martian auroras in visible light. Credit: Rocket Lab

Scientists are planning more ways to capture Martian auroras. A NASA-funded robotic mission, called Escapade, will seek to get to the bottom of how solar radiation strips away the tattered Martian atmosphere. The mission will involve two orbiters built by Rocket Lab, said Lillis, the principal investigator. Though the United Arab Emirates' orbiter Hope has already obtained global images in ultraviolet light, with any luck, the Escapade probes will take the first global snapshots of Martian auroras in visible light.

After several previous failed attempts, the rover's detection last year was a boon, said Knutsen, who personally longs to explore space. She even applied to the European Space Agency's astronaut program a few years ago. 

"I would give my left foot to have been there to see it myself," she said, "but I hope one day I can retire under a softly glowing green Martian sky."

SAVE $200: As of May 14, Best Buy has the Acer Chromebook 516 GE (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) on sale for just $449. That's 31% off its $649 MSRP, its biggest discount ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: Acer Acer Chromebook 516 GE (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $449 at Best Buy
$649 Save $200 Get Deal

Chromebooks aren't the sort of laptops most people associate with great PC gaming experiences, but for cash-strapped shoppers, we consider the 16-inch Acer Chromebook 516 GE a fantastic pick. Mashable's Alex Perry called it "an incredible value" at $649, commending its long battery life, comfortable RGB keyboard, ample port selection, and "excellent" 120Hz display.

That $649 number is the Chromebook 516 GE's usual going rate, by the way — right now, it's on sale for way less at Best Buy. A 31% discount from the electronics retailer brings it down to a mere $449, which is its best price to date.

The best laptop and tablet deals to shop this week

• Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet — $89.99 (List Price $139.99)

• Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ Android Tablet — $199.99 (List Price $269.99)

• Amazon Kindle Colorsoft — $224.99 (List Price $279.99)

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $999.00

• Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (2025, M4) — $1,049.00 (List Price $1199.00)

The Chromebook 516 GE comes with an Intel Core 5 120U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. Those probably sound like underwhelming specs, but they're perfectly fine for a machine that's meant to stream titles from kitted-out servers instead of playing them locally. If you mainly play games through cloud services like Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now, the Chromebook 516 GE is a stellar alternative to other entry-level gaming laptops.

Perry noticed some input latency when he played certain games on the Chromebook 516 GE, but was otherwise "fairly impressed" with its overall gaming performance: "I started a new game in Control, jacked the settings up all the way, turned on ray tracing, and was a little blown away," he said. In our Geekbench 6 benchmark, it earned the highest multi-core score out of all the Chromebooks we've tested by a wide margin. It's zippy for what it is.

Finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the Chromebook 516 GE's battery life: It held out for more than 10 hours on a single charge. That makes it the longest-lasting Chromebook we've tried and the longest-lasting gaming laptop in our database. (In testing standard gaming laptops, we're content if we can get over an hour of use per charging cycle.) To quote Perry again: "That’s just good stuff, folks."