Software updates are supposed to introduce new features while improving the stability of the operating system. Occasionally, however, additional bugs and glitches can slip through the cracks. That’s the case with the latest Pixel update: While Google added a number of new features to Android and patched 43 security vulnerabilities, users who have installed it are complaining of strange glitches on their Pixel phones.

March 2025 Pixel drop glitches: Brightness, vibrations, and more

First up, as spotted by 9to5Google, some Pixel users are experiencing brightness variations while using their phones—without touching the brightness settings themselves. The issue seems to be limited to video playback, where the brightness will dip or flicker at random. This user reports it happens in just about every video app they use, including Netflix, Prime Video, VLC, or Google’s built-in player. 9to5Google confirmed the bug on a Pixel 9, though the brightness glitch happened inconsistently.

In addition to this brightness glitch, you may also experience changes with your device’s vibrations. This thread represents a wide range of experiences with the issue: Some users are complaining that haptics are much stronger than they were before the update, with one user describing the change as a “spring instead of a thump.” On the other hand, another user says the vibrations of their Pixel are now weaker than they were before. Regardless, many seem to feel vibrations are “different” following the update.

These are the bugs that have made the most buzz on forums since the Pixel Drop. However, there could be other issues that aren’t quite as widespread. One r/GooglePixel user rounded up the bugs they’ve experienced so far, and, in addition to the brightness bug, they’re also experiencing audio issues, including an issue with EQ settings, and a problem where song volume is much louder than video volume. That last point would make it quite annoying to jump between, say, Spotify and Netflix: Stranger Things will launch too quiet, and will make your brightness go berserk.

How to fix the brightness glitch on Pixel phones

While Google is likely working on patches for the biggest bugs from the latest Pixel drop, there’s currently a workaround for the brightness glitch: drop your phone’s refresh rate. It appears that flickering and dimming problems only occur at this time when watching videos with 120Hz. Drop the refresh rate to 60Hz, and the brightness issues appear to dissipate.

To change the refresh rate, head to Settings > Display, then disable the toggle next to Smooth Display.

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For many years, I’ve depended on my phone to get me out of bed in the morning, and I’ve hated it. I’d easily snooze or catch myself doom scrolling instead of starting my morning routine. That all changed after my brother gifted me perhaps the best Christmas present I’ve received over the last few years: a Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, which you can now get on Walmart or Target for $99.99. It was previously only available on the Nintendo store.

Display: Digital, Power type: Corded Electric, Alarm clock type: Projection Alarm Clocks.

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The Alarmo is a digital alarm clock that needs to be connected to an outlet with a USB cable to be powered on. You no longer need a Switch Online membership to buy (or use it). It comes with many built-in themes you can choose from, including Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4, and Ring Fit Adventure. Nintendo says you can expect to download more in the future for free, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Alarmo uses a motion sensor to detect that you’re getting out of bed to stop the alarm from going off.

I’ve been using the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild theme since I set it up and have been using it for months with great results. Because I need to get up to stop the alarm, and I don’t want the alarm to wake up my fiancée, it’s been effective. I never thought Nintendo would be the one to fix my morning issues and over-dependence on my phone.

Something to note is that although there is no snooze feature, it is designed to temporarily stop the music when you move, essentially snoozing. But it’s not a pleasant snooze since the music will keep on playing, progressively getting louder. You can also easily unplug it to turn it off completely since there’s no battery, but it has been working great for me regardless.

Unpaid parking tickets happen to the best of us—and one of the latest phishing scams is counting on you to believe you’ve missed or forgotten to pay an outstanding fee. This text message scam prompts you to pay overdue parking fines and hand your credit card number and other personal information directly to the scammers to turn around and use.

Scammers are using the threat of unpaid parking fees

The unpaid parking fee scam is one of many relatively unsophisticated text-based phishing attempts that depends on recipients responding to the threat of owing money and giving up personal and financial information in the process. It’s similar to the current unpaid tolls scam text, which may seem just plausible enough that you might be tempted to click the link to settle your supposed fine.

In this instance, scammers are impersonating city governments by sending notices of unpaid parking “invoices,” which will accrue daily late fees until payments are made. The text message includes a web address or link spoofing an official government website, which directs you to enter details from your name and billing address to your credit card number. If you follow through, you obviously hand your credit card over to the scammers.

The Salt Lake City phishing text, for example, reads “This is a notice from Salt Lake city. Your vehicle has an unpaid parking invoice of $4.35. To avoid a late fee of 355, please settle your balance promptly. To avoid late fees, access your file by typing the following link into your browser” with a web address that looks similar to the city’s parking portal but is, in fact, fake.

According to Bleeping Computer, these texts started circulating in December 2024 and have been spotted in numerous cities across the U.S., including major metro areas like Boston, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, New York City, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, San Diego, and San Francisco. In some of the texts, there’s a clickable link that uses an open redirect on Google.com, which avoids an iOS security feature that disables links from unknown senders and suspicious domains.

How to spot a parking fee scam text

Like we’ve said, this scam isn’t especially elaborate, but it does attempt to create just enough doubt about your history of parking tickets in your own city that you’ll engage. The first question you should ask yourself is whether you’ve used paid public parking recently—if not, that’s an obvious giveaway.

Even if you have, though, question whether a city government is likely to text you about unpaid parking fees, and look at the number the text is coming from. While official (legitimate) text messages typically come from five-digit senders, phishing texts often come from full phone numbers, international numbers (with a prefix like “+44”), or even email addresses.

From there, other signs of a scam include directions to copy and paste or type a web address into a browser or to respond to the text itself. Non-hyperlinked URLs are a clear giveaway, but you should also be wary of clicking links in any texts from unknown senders and always go directly to official government websites. In the parking fee scam, there are also signs like misspelled words and missing or misplaced symbols, like the dollar sign coming after the amount.

While a “no-buy month” isn’t anywhere in my future, I do stick to certain minimalist rules to keep my finances on track—specifically, the “one in, one out” method. Lifehacker’s household expert Lindsey Ellefson recently covered this method for decluttering your homes. When you bring in a new shirt, an old one leaves your closet. I’ve found this principle works just as well when applied to personal finances.

The concept is beautifully simple: Whenever I plan to purchase something new, I commit to selling something of equivalent value that I already own. Unlike traditional budgeting methods that focus solely on limiting purchases, this approach acknowledges our natural desire for new things while creating a healthy friction that forces me to ask: “Is this new item worth parting with something I already have?”

How to decide what becomes the “one in”

When I first tried out the “one in, one out” method, I noticed an immediate shift in my purchasing behavior. The extra step of identifying something to sell made me pause and consider each purchase more carefully.

I found myself asking better questions:

• Do I really need this new item?

• Is it worth the effort of selling something else?

• What do I own that no longer serves me well?

This simple mental exercise eliminated most impulse purchases. When I truly want something, I’m willing to part with something else. When I don’t, the barrier of finding something to sell is enough to make me reconsider. In other words, I get all the benefits of a “no-buy” period, but avoid all the strictness that makes that method so tough.

How to make the most of the “one out”

Once you decide something is worth bringing into your life, it’s time to decide what is getting the boot. I’m a huge fan of using online spaces like Facebook Marketplace. Here are some tips for actually making a profit on this hub.

Research before pricing

Before listing anything, I search for similar items to understand the market rate. I often find that items I considered nearly worthless actually hold considerable value to the right buyer.

Quality photography makes a difference

Clear, well-lit photos from multiple angles significantly increase interest and selling price. I always make sure to capture any unique features or details that set my items apart.

Timing matters

Seasonal items sell best in their respective seasons. Exercise equipment sells well in January, outdoor items in spring, and holiday decorations a month before the holiday.

And for higher-value items, patience pays off. I’ve learned not to accept the first offer; waiting a few days often brings better offers from serious buyers

Bundle related items

I’ve found that bundling related items often commands a higher total price than selling individually, while reducing the number of meetups.

The bottom line

This method has also revealed which possessions truly enhance my life. When I’m reluctant to part with something, it signals that item’s importance to me. Conversely, easily identifying items to sell highlights where I’ve made purchasing mistakes in the past.

Like with any new habit, start small—perhaps with a single category like clothing or kitchen gadgets. As you build confidence, expand to other areas of spending. Soon, you’ll find yourself naturally weighing each purchase against what you already own. Each purchase now requires intentionality. When I buy something new, I’ve already created space for it—both physically and financially.

If constantly being mogged by sigmas has you feeling like a fuhuhluhtoogan, and you have no idea what any of that means, you’ve come to the right place. This glossary aims to define and explain popular slang words and phrases of Generation Z (usually defined as people born between 1997 and 2012) and Generation A (anyone born between 2012 and now) so you’ll know what the hell people are talking about.

A word of warning: If you aren’t of those generations, and/or you need an online list to know what slang words mean, you should not say them aloud, unless you’re trying to be embarrassing.

304: Hoe. (Type “304” on a calculator and turn it upside down.)

4+4: Ate. Four plus four is eight, or “ate.” (See “ate.”)

Alpha male: Taken from animal ethology, an alpha male is the dominant member of a group of males, or just a male who is in charge. (See “beta male” and “sigma male.”)

Ate/eat: Done very well, often regarding clothing. e.g.: “You ate that outfit.” See also: “serving.”

Aura: Someone who is mysterious and cool is said to “have aura.”

Aura farming: Depending on the context, “aura farming” can refer to a person who does something cool without trying or someone who is trying too hard to appear cool.

Baddie: A bad/wild girl. Meant as a compliment.

Baka: Japanese word meaning “crazy” or “foolish.” Used mainly in the anime community.

Based: Independent in a cool way.

Bed-rotting: Staying in bed all day. You may know it as “lazing around.” See also: “Hurkle-durkle.”

Beta male: A beta male, or just “beta,” is a weaker, subservient male. (See “alpha male” and “sigma male.”)

Boombayah: A euphemism for “having sex.” It’s used mostly online, often to defeat censorship algorithms.

Bop: A girl who sleeps around. Also: a great song.

Boysober: Someone who has sworn off sex, relationships, and/or dating.

Brain-rot: A description of the overuse of stupid slang. See also: “Skibidi.” Also used to describe the effects of being overly online.

Brat: The contemporary meaning of “brat” is an adjective describing a person who is edgy, imperfect, and confident. It was coined by pop star Charli XCX who defined it as “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown.”

Bruzz: Bros. Part of the -uzz family of slang words. See “Huzz” and “-uzz.”

Bubba truck: A lifted or otherwise modified pick-up truck.

Bussin‘: Very good or excellent.

Cap: A lie. Often used to say “no cap.”

Cake: Butt, especially a nice butt.

Chad: An attractive man; an “alpha male.” See “Giga-Chad.”

Chat: A reference to streamers addressing their chat windows aloud. Saying “chat” in real life is an ironic joke. 

Chud: A physically unappealing person. Sometimes used for a man who holds right-wing views.

Coomer: A man who masturbates too often.

Corn: “Corn” is algo-speak that means “porn.” Used in online spaces where the word might cause your account to be flagged or banned. 

Coworker-core: A catch-all description for things that are unfunny or uninteresting in a way that appeals to older people.

Dead: Past tense of having died laughing. If someone responds to a joke with “dead” or a skull emoji, they find it funny.

Deadass: Seriously. Used like, “I am deadass not lying.”

Delulu: Delusional.

Doomer: A person who is overly negative and/or cynical.

Drip: A fashionable or stylish look.

Edgar: A variation of the Caesar haircut worn especially among Hispanic males. Also refers to the kind of person who wears the haircut. 

Fanum tax: The theft of food between friends. Named for streamer Fanum, known for “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their meals or stealing fries. 

Fax, no printer: Telling the truth, since “fax and “facts” are pronounced the same. It’s a colorful way of saying “facts, no cap.”

Fent-fold: A description of the bent-over posture of people nodding on heavy drugs.

Fit: Short for “outfit.”

Fuhuhluhtoogan: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. Often paired with “Jittleyang.”

Gamer dent: The temporary indentation left on someone’s hair or skin after wearing headphones for too long.

Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs.

Giga-Chad: A Chad among Chads.

Glaze: To overly praise someone, often insincerely, or with the hope of getting something in return.

Gleek: An older slang term that is gaining prominence lately, gleeking describes squirting saliva from under the tongue.

Glizzy: Hot dog. “Glizzy” was originally slang for Glock or gun, but came to mean hot dog based on the hot dog shape of a Glock’s magazine.

Green fn: An interjection one might used when someone does something cool or impressive. Often used ironically. 

Gooning: Extended masturbation without orgasm done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness.

Gyatt or Gyat: Once an interjection used when seeing someone sexy, like “god-DAMN,” “gyatt” has come to mean “attractive booty.”

Hewwo: An overly cute way of saying “hello.” Usually used online, and often ironically.

HGS: Abbreviation for “home girls” used in comment sections.

Hurkle-durkle: Based on an archaic Scottish word, “hurkle-durkle” means to lounge in bed after it is time to get up. See also: “bed-rotting.”

Huzz: -uzz slang for “hoes.” See “bruzz” and “-uzz.”

“It’s giving“: Used to convey that something has a specific vibe. Example: “That dude texts you every 10 minutes; it’s giving desperate.”

“It’s so over”: The situation is hopeless. The opposite of “we’re so back.” See also: “Doomer.”

Jelqing: The use of stretching or weights in an attempt to increase penis size.

Jit: A kid. Used ironically online.

Jittleyang: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. See also: “Fuhuhluhtoogan.”

JOMO: A play on FOMO (fear of missing out) JOMO is an acronym that stands for “joy of missing out.”

“Learn Chinese”: Sports slang directed at failing players. They are in danger of being sent to play in China, so they should “learn Chinese.”

Looksmaxxing: Maximizing one’s physical attractiveness through personal grooming, working out, and dressing stylishly. See also: “-maxxing.”

-maxxing: A suffix used with any word to indicate trying to improve. Seeing your friends could be called “friendmaxxing,” working out could be called “gymmaxxing,” making jokes could be called “jestermaxxing,” etc.

Mid: Average, bland, expected.

Mewing: A facial exercise meant to strengthen the jawline.

Mirror sex: Using a mirror to watch yourself have sex.

Mog: To be more attractive than someone, usually in an intentional or aggressive way. Example: “I was rizzing up this girl, but he walked in and totally mogged me.”

Neurospicy: A different way of saying “neuro-divergent.”

NPC: Non-player character. Originally describing video game characters, NPC is now used on the internet to mean people who don’t think for themselves.

Opp: Short for “opposition.” Someone who is out to get you. An enemy.

Pink cocaine: Also known as “pink snow,” pink cocaine is slang for a powdered drug mixture that usually contains some combination of ketamine, MDMA, meth, opioids, and other substances.

Pole: A gun. See “up pole.”

“Press F for respect:” In 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfighter, the player attends a funeral and a prompt is given that reads “Press F to pay respects.” Now, a singular “F” in a chat window indicates respect. It’s usually ironic.

Regarded: “Regarded” is algo-speak for “retarded.”

“Reheating your own nachos:” This slang phrase comes from cultural critics in online fandom communities. It refers to performers and/or artists whose new works are seen as trying to recapture what was good about their previous artistic output. It’s not always negative; it’s possible to successfully reheat your own nachos.

Rizz: As a noun, “rizz” means charisma. As a verb, “rizz” or “rizz up” means attracting someone with your charisma.

Serve: Wearing a particularly stylish outfit. See also: “ate.”

Serve cunt: To act in a powerfully and unapologetically feminine way; to slay.

Sigma male: An internet-created male classification, a “sigma male” is as dominant as an alpha male, but is outside the male hierarchy, i.e.: a lone wolf. Originally used seriously, the concept was so widely derided it’s now almost always used ironically. (See “Alpha male” and “Beta male.”)

Skibidi: Named after “Skibidi Toilet,” a popular series of YouTube videos, “skibidi” itself has no specific meaning, beyond ridiculing the overuse of slang itself. See “brain-rot.”

Skrt: Onomatopoetic word for the sound of tires squealing upon acceleration.

Snatched: Very attractive and/or flawlessly styled. 

Spawn point: Mother. Based on the spot you start in a video game.

Spoopy: Spooky.

Striker: Stolen/no-title car.

Sweat: A person who tries too hard, usually used in reference to video games. The adjective form is “sweaty.”

SYBAU: An online acronym that stands for “shut your bitch ass up.”

Tradwife: Believer in traditional married gender roles.

Treatler (and Treatlerite): “Treatler” and “Treatlerite” are online insults that combine “treat” and “Hitler” to refer to entitled users of services like Doordash or Uber Eats who regard luxury delivery services as a human right, and don’t consider the hardships of the people who do the work that makes “private taxis for burritos” possible.

TS: TS originally was AAVE shorthand for “this shit,” but it is often used to just mean “this.”

Turnt: Excited or intoxicated, or excitedly intoxicated.

Unc: Short for “uncle,” used to describe slightly older people. Example: “The class of 2024 are unc-status to the class of 2028.” See “yunc.”

-uzz: -uzz slang words use “uzz” at the end of any word, so “bros” becomes “bruzz,” “hoes” becomes “huzz,” “granny” becomes “gruzz,” etc.

Up pole: To raise a gun.

Twelve: Police.

Twin: Best friend.

“We’re so back”: Opposite of “it’s so over.”

Wojack: The name of a style of internet drawings used to quickly stereotype someone. See this post for a full explanation of the Wojak universe.

Yapping: Describes a presentational style often seen on online streams of talking a lot and/or quickly while not saying anything worthwhile.

Yeet: To quickly and/or forcibly eject.

Yunc: Yunc is a variation of “unc.” In AAVE, a “yn” is a “young n-word.” So “yunc” means something like “young uncle,” or a person who may be young but has uncle vibes or unc status.

Zoomer Perm: A curly on top, short on the sides haircut popular among young people. 

Americans spend almost $28 billion on interior decorating every year, and there are good reasons why. Our homes are incredibly personal spaces—they’re where we walk around in our underwear, where we talk to ourselves, where we spend intimate moments with our families. That’s why decorating our homes isn’t frivolous—it’s important that the space we live in feels comfortable, usable, and, maybe most importantly, personal.

Making your home beautiful while reflecting your personality can seem daunting, though. Design shows on TV offer an impossible standard of supposed taste, and it’s easy to believe that you need a professional interior designer or your house will look tacky or cheap. In reality, it’s not that hard to infuse your house with your personality. The key is to remember that you live there, not the interior designers of the world. Here are six practical approaches to making your home decor reflect your personality.

Space for your stuff

The first step toward making a house feel like an intimate space that reflects your personality is making space for the things you love. If you collect something, think about how to display that collection either in a specific place in the home or distributed throughout the space. If you’re an avid reader, for example, instead of concentrating your books in a specific room, consider having books integrated throughout the space. If you collect art, put it on the walls throughout without worrying whether you have an “eye” for it, or if it’s not expensive—display those colorful garage sale, flea-market paintings that bring you joy on display.

The key is to make the things you love visible and part of the space. Not only does it literally bring the visual aspects of your personality into each room, it will make you happy every time you see it.

Be practical

One easy way to make a house feel generic is to approach each room as a neutral space from the very beginning. The spaces in your home can all have specific uses and applications. Some are obvious—kitchens are kitchens, bathrooms are bathrooms—but other spaces can be used in any way you want. Bedrooms can be offices, libraries, crafting rooms, recording studios, or anything else. Landings, hallways, and closets can be used in a variety of creative ways, too. When designing the look and feel of these spaces, start with how you will use the room—not how the real estate agent described it, or how the previous owners used it. Forget about trends and decorate the space based on the function you’ll use it for. That will make it easier to use the space the way you want to, which will make it feel more personal.

Embrace chaos

Many people experience a form of “decision paralysis” when decorating their home because they’re worried about getting it right, or that people will think they have bad taste. This often results in very neutral design decisions—after all, people might be bored by a neutral, safe aesthetic, but they won’t make fun of you for it.

That results in a house that will never feel like you, however—if you want your space to reflect your personality, you have to embrace the chaos and stop worrying about perfection. That means choosing furniture, colors, and accent pieces that you enjoy regardless of whether they “work” in a traditional sense. The key here is to embrace “slow decorating”—focusing on decor that will last and function, as opposed to instant gratification—and take your time. Your space will come together as you edit and refine your choices—and in the meantime, the stuff that gives you energy will be on display and in use, making your house feel personalized.

Go small

Bringing your personality into your home’s decor doesn’t have to give you a panic attack. If you’re not comfortable with painting your walls your favorite colors or leaning into your decidedly oddball taste in vintage furniture, go more neutral with the big stuff and use accents and details to make it personal. This could be an accent wall in a favorite color, a display wall with art or other items that bring you joy, or just thoughtfully placing smaller items throughout that reflect your taste and bring just a hint of your style throughout. You can keep increasing the level of unique details over time, too, moving at a pace you’re comfortable with.

Use your history

We are all the sum of our experiences. Every trip, every relationship, every job and adventure shapes us into the people we are. Lean into that when designing the look of your home. Mementos and souvenirs, photos of your friends and shared experiences, and other bits of your past can be inserted into the overall design of your house to give every room a personal feel.

One easy trick is to bring something along from your prior home that you love. This could be anything—a doorknob or drawer handle you love, a light fixture, or a piece of furniture that has been with you for years. An example from my own life is a cereal bowl from my childhood with a cartoon character on it—when I moved into my first apartment, I used it as a bowl for my keys and spare change, and I’ve brought it with me to every subsequent home. I no longer have a need for it, but just having it in the space makes me feel more at home. Stuff like that will bring a sense of history and continuity to the design that will be all about you and your journey, even if it doesn’t entirely make sense in the design.

Subtle not literal

It’s natural to turn to established themes and design traditions for a starting point when designing your home. Maybe you like a “nautical” theme, or you’re into cottagecore. But if you go too literal with these kinds of themes you’re not really making the place reflect your personality—unless your entire personality is, in fact, nautical in nature.

Instead of decking your space out in the literal visuals—ship’s wheels! sailboat wallpaper! seashells everywhere!—dial it down to a more subtle. If nautical is your thing, use a color palette inspired by that approach, and use only as many literal touches as you like. Keeping it subtle with color let’s you calibrate the theme to your liking instead of drowning your personality in a prefabricated style.

And don’t be afraid to deviate. Just because you find a color palette for your cottagecore dreams doesn’t mean you can’t deviate from it or tweak the specifics. Choosing a color that makes you happy, even if it’s not officially considered correct for the theme you’re working from, is key to making it all feel like yours.

At the end of last month, The Google Pixel 4a got a software update that rendered the device nearly unusable for some people, for seemingly unknown reasons. The update included “battery management features” that left some people with phones that couldn’t hold a charge for more than 30 minutes. Google explained the problems in a support document and offered a few solutions, but again, it didn’t explain the root cause of the issue. But now, there appears to be one possible explanation for the problem—overheating batteries—as mentioned in a Pixel 4a recall issued in Australia, spotted first by Android Authority.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued the recall notice on March 7, saying in a supporting document that some Pixel 4a units are currently at risk of fire due to overheating batteries. The notice clarifies that this doesn’t affect all Pixel 4a units and it goes on to say that if your device is unaffected by this issue, the January software update will have no impact on its battery or performance, implying that Google pushed out the update to reduce the risk of fire on impacted phone.

When Google issued the software update, its support document also mentioned that the software update will only update the battery management in certain devices. The company had additionally cited a potential degradation in lithium-ion batteries as a reason for the update.

If the ACCC’s notice is accurate and overheating batteries are indeed the reason behind the January software update for the Pixel 4a, it could offer a potential explanation of why the update was rushed out so quickly. Usually, Pixel phones receive big software updates as a part of Pixel Drops that are released every few months. Outside of that, Google usually only issues stability and security updates that don’t usually get their own blog posts. In this case, the company rolled out a big update with a detailed support document, possibly because the issue was so potentially serious.

I’ve reached out to Google for a comment and will update the story once the company responds.

Credit: ACCC

But long story short, when faced with a potential fire risk, it looks like Google is choosing to limit the capacity of the battery in affected devices rather than court disaster.

Check if your Pixel 4a is impacted

In case you haven’t done so already, you can check if your Pixel 4a is impacted by going to this Google Support page and following the on-screen steps. If it is, Google offers three options—a free battery replacement, a credit of $100 towards another Pixel phone, or a one-time cash settlement of $50.

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The Apple Watch has a built-in sleep tracker, but it can be hard to find. Here’s how to access it, how to set it up so that it properly records how much sleep you’re getting, and how to understand the results. 

Does my Apple Watch support sleep tracking? 

Sleep tracking was introduced with WatchOS version 7 (released in 2020). That version of WatchOS works on watches from Series 3 and newer, paired with an iPhone 6S or newer, with iOS 14 and newer. 

In other words: The oldest devices that will work are a 2015 phone, a 2017 watch, and 2020 releases of the software that run on them. As long as your Apple Watch isn’t truly ancient, it should support this. (If you’re looking to buy a new Apple Watch, though, we recommend the Series 10 as the best Apple Watch for most people.)

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Where to find the Apple Watch Sleep app

You’ll need to navigate to four different places to access all of the sleep-related features of your Watch and iPhone. (Three of them are on the phone.)

On the Apple Watch

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

On your Watch, look for a bed icon with a greenish-blue background. (Pro tip: You can change this screen to use the names of apps, alphabetized, rather than having to play hide and seek with little icons.) When you open the Sleep app, scroll down to check (or set) your sleep schedule. That’s all you need to do with this app for setup; the Apple Watch will track your sleep automatically even if you never open this app again.

In the Health app

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

On your iPhone, the sleep functions are part of the Health app. (There is no dedicated Sleep app.) Open the Health app, tap Browse, then tap Sleep. From here, you can view data on recent nights of sleep, and set your sleep schedule for the future.

At the bottom of this screen, you can edit your next sleep schedule or your full sleep schedule (the one that repeats daily and weekly). This tells your phone when you’re planning on sleeping. Tap Full Schedule & Options to set that schedule, and scroll down to the bottom for the next step.

In the Watch app

Credit: Beth Skwarecki/Apple

To make sure your watch will track your sleep, you need to configure your Watch-specific sleep settings in the Watch app. The easiest way to access this from the Health app (tap Full Schedule & Options from the Sleep screen), and at the bottom of that screen, there’s a link to Manage Sleep in the Apple Watch App. Tap that, and you’ll go straight to those Watch settings. 

Turn on “Track Sleep with Apple Watch” to enable tracking, and turn on “Charging Reminders” so the Watch can notify you to charge it before bedtime if your battery is low in the evening.

In the Settings app

We’re not quite done. In the Settings app, you can set up your Sleep Focus. This is optional for tracking, but it gives you access to specialized home screens and notification settings that will turn on at bedtime. There is a link from here back to the settings app. (Hey, this may be confusing, but at least it’s easy to navigate from each app to the others.) 

How to set up your Apple Watch to record your sleep

You can fully explore all the sleep-related features through the apps I mentioned above, but here is the short version. Do these things and you’ll have your Watch recording your sleep tonight:

1. Set up a Sleep schedule (Health app > Sleep > Full Schedule & Options).

2. Tap Manage Sleep With Apple Watch at the bottom of that screen. (This sends you to the Watch app.)

3. Turn on Track Sleep with Apple Watch.

4. Wear your Apple Watch to bed. It should be unlocked, and if you have a passcode, you’ll want wrist detection turned on. 

The Apple Watch will use the sleep schedule (or Sleep Focus, which you can turn on manually) to know when you might be sleeping. During this time, it uses your movements and your phone use, to detect whether you’re sleeping, and to estimate when you are in each stage of sleep. 

How to read your results from the Apple Watch sleep app

To see your sleep on your watch, scroll down from the main watch face (using the digital crown, or swipe up with your finger) and you’ll see a card in your Smart Stack with the previous night’s sleep. Tap this to open the Sleep app, which will show you your sleep stages, time asleep, last 14 days’ sleep, and your sleep schedule settings.

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

You can also see this information anytime you visit the Sleep app on your watch, or the Sleep section of the Health app on your phone. (If you wake up before your sleep schedule ends, you may need to wait until your scheduled sleep time is finished before the data becomes available.) 

Your sleep data, on either the watch or phone, will show your sleep stages represented with deep sleep at the bottom in purple, “core” (that is, light) sleep in the middle in blue, REM higher up in lighter blue, and awake in orange at the top. (That said, no wearable is going to be completely accurate when it comes to sleep stages, so don’t read too much into these.)

The app will also show you your heart rate during the night, your sleep trend (mine says “You slept an average of 7 hr 22 min over the last 7 days”), and monthly and yearly highlights showing whether you’re getting more or less sleep than in the past. 

A mysterious bug is affecting numerous older Chromecast devices, as per a lengthy thread on Reddit—specifically, the second-generation Chromecast and the Chromecast Audio, which both launched in September 2015. If you’ve been affected, hold off on trying a factory reset of your device.

The bug has started appearing over the last 24 hours, rendering affected devices pretty much unusable. One of the error messages reported reads as follows: “Untrusted device: [name] couldn’t be verified. This could be caused by outdated device firmware.”

Further investigation from users suggests that this is a server-side problem—so the issue is at Google’s end. It looks as though there have been complications with expired security certifications, so the Chromecast dongles that have been hit are being incorrectly identified as unsafe to connect to.

That means there’s nothing Chromecast owners can do for the time being, other than to sit tight and wait it out, without any streaming audio or video to entertain them in the meantime. Various troubleshooting steps have been taken, including reconnecting to wifi and running a factory reset, but no easy workaround has been found.

In fact, as per the latest information from Google, factory resetting your device is something you shouldn’t do—even if it’s the obvious first fix to try with a problem like this. We’re still not sure exactly what’s happened, but an official Google account has now responded on the original Reddit thread.

What Google says

As per the latest information from Google: “We’re aware of an emerging issue impacting Chromecast 2nd-gen and Chromecast Audio devices and are working on a fix. Do not factory reset your device – we will keep you all updated when the fix rolls out. If you have already factory reset your device, we will provide instructions to set your device back up as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

It’s a bit light on details, but at least the acknowledgement is there. It sounds as though the restoration process is going to be more complicated for those users who have already (and understandably) tried a factory reset, but apparently Google is going to be able to get all of these devices back online eventually.

There is a rather complicated workaround you can try that’s detailed on Reddit, but unless it’s especially urgent for you to get back up and running, I’d recommend sitting tight for now and waiting for Google to issue a fix. While no timeline has been specified for when the issue might be resolved, at least we know this is being worked on.

Given that the bug hasn’t hit more recent Chromecasts, including the Chromecast Ultra, there was some concern that Google might have quietly killed off its older devices, now they’re approaching their 10th birthdays—but that no longer seems to be the case.

The Chromecast device line as a whole has now been discontinued, so we won’t get any more streaming dongles in the future, but Google hasn’t said anything yet about pulling support for existing hardware. Chromecast functionality continues to be available in televisions running Google TV, as well as the Google TV Streamer.

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Midrange TVs have been getting so good over the last few years that it’s getting hard to justify spending two to three times the price for an OLED TV. That has been TCL’s goal, since their business model is essentially to kill off OLED TVs by mastering the QLED tech at a relatively low price. TCL’s QM7 is the best and latest example of that, which I got to review and put to the test. The 55-inch model is just $479.99 (it was $799.99 during its release), an amazing value for its current price. The 65- and 75-inch are also much cheaper than their launch pricees, according to price-tracking tools.

Size: 55-inches, TV OS: Google TV, HDR: Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, Refresh Rate: 120Hz.

TCL 55-Inch QM7 QLED 4K Smart QD-Mini LED TV

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Size: 65-inches, TV OS: Google TV, HDR: Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, Refresh Rate: 120Hz.

TCL 65-Inch QM7 QLED 4K Smart QD-Mini LED TV

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Size: 75-inches, TV OS: Google TV, HDR: Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, Refresh Rate: 120Hz.

TCL 75-Inch QM7 QLED 4K Smart QD-Mini LED TV

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When it comes to midrange TVs right now, QLED technology is the best before crossing over to the much more expensive OLED side. QLED might never reach the picture quality that OLEDs can get to, but for most people, it can get pretty close and be much cheaper. Right now, the Hisense U7N and TCL’s QM7 are the best QLED TVs you can buy right now, and you can’t really go wrong with either.

The keyword most QLED shoppers are looking for is “dimming zones”—the more you have, the better deep blacks will look next to bright highlights. The QM7 has up to 1,240 local dimming zones, which is much more than Hisense U7N’s 384 local dimming zones. It can also get very bright, with up to 2,400 nits at peak brightness. Of course, you get 4K resolution and HDR support (HDR ULTRA with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG). As a gamer, I enjoyed the 120Hz refresh rate and 6 millisecond input lag with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, making my Halo matches go smoothly.

The Google TV OS is icing on the cake, since I love casting to the TV seamlessly from my phone. The QM7 has been my favorite non-OLED TV I’ve ever tried, and for its current price, it’s the best non-OLED TV you can get.

While many X-pats have flocked to alternatives like Bluesky and Threads, there are still plenty of users checking Elon Musk’s infamous platform. If you’re one of them, you might have noticed something odd today: X is down.

Depending on when you see this article, X may be back up and running. But multiple times Monday morning, the platform was unreachable. According to Downdetector, most of the complaints funneled in at three peaks: The first came around 5:41 a.m., the second at 10:11 a.m., and the third around 11:11 a.m., which is when I initially noticed the issues.

There are a large number of reports associated with event, as well. Scanning through the Downdetector graph, it appears as though users have issued over 150,000 reports at the time of this article.

When I tried to access twitter.com (muscle memory and pettiness refuse to let me type x.com into my browser’s address bar) the site tried loading for quite a while, before returning the following error screen:

Credit: Lifehacker

There’s no telling why the site has been having so many technical issues this morning—other than the fact it’s run by a fraction of the staff it used to have—but it’s not the first time the site has gone down under Musk’s watch. Last May, the site had similar issues staying afloat, which the X team resolved in due time. The same will likely occur today, though in the meantime, enjoy your much-deserved break from X.

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Ever since Apple released the latest Apple Watch Series 10 earlier in September, it has been steadily dropping in price; it’s currently sitting at $299 (originally $399) after a $100 drop, the lowest price yet, according to price-tracking tools. This price is for the 42mm case, 130 to 180mm size bands, in black, denim, and rose-gold case colors. The bigger 46mm case is down to $329 (originally $429), also the lowest price yet after a $100 discount.

Memory Storage Capacity: 64 GB, Connectivity Technology: GPS, Screen Size: 42 Millimeters

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Memory Storage Capacity: 64 GB, Connectivity Technology: GPS, Screen Size: 46 Millimeters

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The Apple Watch Series 10 is the best Apple Watch for most people and a great replacement if you’re still wearing the more budget SE, according to Lifehacker associate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt’s review. There are also some key upgrades from the Apple Watch 9, although they’re less noticeable than previous Apple watch upgrades. If you’re curious to know how it compares to other flagship smartwatches, you can check out our head-to-head comparison post here.

Some of the first things you’ll notice on the Series 10 are a thinner case and a bigger OLED screen (either 1.6 inches or 1.8 inches, depending on which size you get). Unlike the Series 9, which could only take calls on the speaker, the Series 10 has audio playback, meaning you can listen to podcasts or Spotify on its speakers. The sleep features were also improved, with a notification that gets triggered by sleep apnea symptoms. There are also new depth and water temperature sensors that automatically turn on when you go underwater, a feature that used to be unique to the more premium Apple Watch Ultra series.

The battery will last you anywhere between 18 and 36 hours, depending on your use. You still get the same fitness features, heart rate monitor, and sleep tracker from previous models—but still no blood oxygen sensor.

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The Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 8 is currently $129.99 on Woot, a massive drop from its usual $499.95 price tag. According to price trackers, this is its lowest price ever—and if you’re a Prime member, you get free shipping (otherwise, it’s $6). This deal is set to last for the next 27 days or until it sells out, but note that you can’t have it shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, or a PO box address.

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The asymmetrical shape of this speaker might make it seem wobbly at first glance, but there are rubber feet to keep it stable. One of the standout features of this speaker is its room calibration technology, which automatically adjusts the sound to your space. Whether you’re in a small apartment or an open loft, the speaker fine-tunes its output for the best possible experience.

The sound profile of the Onyx Studio 8 is well-balanced, particularly in the midrange, making it great for podcasts and general listening. However, if you love deep, thumping bass, this isn’t the speaker for you. It lacks serious low-end punch, so while bass lines are present, they won’t shake the walls. It also doesn’t have an EQ or sound customization options, so what you hear is what you get. Also, its controls are a bit of a mixed bag—they’re simple but suffer from inconsistent tap recognition, which could easily get frustrating when trying to adjust volume or playback. The Bluetooth multipoint pairing feature of this wireless speaker lets you connect two devices at once, but there’s noticeable latency with video playback (so if you’re planning to use this for movies or YouTube, expect some sync issues).

While the Onyx Studio 8 improves in sound quality over its predecessor, the Onyx Studio 6, it drops its water resistance entirely, making it more suited to a safe, dry living room setup. That said, it does come with a one-year manufacturer limited warranty for added peace of mind. Battery life is advertised at eight hours, but real-world use is closer to seven, depending on usage (your mileage may vary). Also, there’s no auto-off function, so if you forget to power it down, you’ll lose battery even when the speaker’s idle.

Saturday, March 8, was International Women’s Day. March is a whole women’s month, even if Google erased it from its calendar. So I’m taking a look at young women—and not in a creepy way. I want to know: what’s up with young women? What are they about? What are their dreams? How are they feeling deep in their hearts? So I’m checking out Reddit’s woman-centric corners, listening to Doechii and “Call her Daddy,” and consulting some “coochie doctors.”

The state of young women in two subreddits

To try to get some insight on young women between the ages of 18 and 25 or so, I took a look at some Reddit communities ostensibly made for, by, and about women.

I started at Reddit’s TwoXChromosomes. at over 13 million subscribers: This is by far Reddit’s largest woman-centric community, and it’s bleak. The top posts of the week are dominated by tales of creepy dudes, sexual violence, violence–violence, and more creepy dudes. There’s an occasional “here’s something funny/cute that happened” to lighten the mood a little, but overall, it’s bad out there: “Growing up is realising how much the world hates you” is how redditor gaycat21 puts it.

For a way less depressing and way more interesting women’s subreddit, check out NSFW meme subreddit R/LetGirlsHaveFun. At only around 100,000 subs, it’s much smaller than TwoX, but it’s proof that crudeness and no-censorship vibe of online culture doesn’t have to be misogynistic, and it’s much funnier that way. According to its creator, Let Girls Have Fun is a place for “girls to post their deranged thoughts, from a girl perspective,” because “Girls can also like edgy and crude humor.” Posts like this, this, or this seem like open rebellion against society’s endless set of rules and expectations for women, expressed in the most explicit way possible.

Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy is the biggest podcast among young women

Almost everyone who listens to the Call Her Daddy podcast is a young woman. According to research firm Edison Research, 70% of CHD’s audience are women, and 70% of them are under 35. A full 93% of its listeners are under 45. The podcast made news when it scored an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris in October, but politics isn’t the show’s usual subject matter. Host Alex Cooper has been described as “Gen Z’s podcast queen” and “the female Howard Stern” by The Hollywood Reporter, tends to focus on sex and relationships when she’s not interviewing celebrities like Miley Cyrus and John Mayer. Like Stern, Cooper is frank, open, and raunchy. In the early days of her show, she focused more on sex, but the subject matter has expanded into topics like female empowerment, self-love, and pop culture. Unlike boy’s top podcaster Joe Rogan, Call Her Daddy‘s host doesn’t regularly fall victim to believing in crap that isn’t true.

AI-generated “coochie doctors” invade TikTok

When someone describes themselves as a “coochie doctor,” it’s probably safe to ignore any medical advice they offer, especially when they’re online and they’re not actually human. For the last few months, weirdos and/or algorithms have been using an app called “Caption” to spam TikTok with hundreds of videos featuring lifelike, AI-generated avatars who call themselves “coochie doctors,” “booty doctors,” “tata surgeons,” “booby doctors,” and “Korean butt doctors” followed by terrible medical advice. These videos generally start with a variation of the phrase, “13 years a coochie doctor and no one believes me when I say this,” followed by some questionable health tips geared toward women like “rubbing fig seeds on your breasts will make them go from saggy to perky” and “sea moss is a great way to cleanse your gut.”

It’s worth noting that these tips are about neither coochies nor butts, so these medical professionals are working outside their area of expertise. These videos generally end with exhorting viewers to search out a specific “wellness” product on Amazon. It’s like all these medical professionals are only offering advice to get money out of the gullible!

“Dating a GM,” and the mystery of what “GM” means

A few weeks ago, TikToker @myak.tt posted the video you see above, a short, random clip with the caption “Dating a GM.” It’s been viewed over 11 million times since then, and sparked an online debate over what a GM is.

My first thought is “game master,” the more inclusive form of “dungeon master,” but I’m a damn nerd, and that’s almost definitely not what Myak.tt meant. Others have suggested “gang member,” “gun man,” or “grand master.” It’s frustrating because the video gives no information, and as of yet, the young woman who posted the video has offered no explanation.

The video has inspired “99% accurate” reenactments like this one:

and this one:

But these give no indication of what a GM is either. Maybe as big a mystery is: Why did this video get popular? Why did the TikTok algorithm choose to share this over the millions of other short, meaningless clips posted all day on the site? I have no answers.

(For a glossary of slang words I’m pretty sure I do know the definition of, check out ‘Mewing,’ ‘Sigma,’ and Other Gen Z and Gen Alpha Slang You Might Need Help Decoding‘)

Viral video of the week: Doechii’s  “Anxiety”

Rapper/singer/songwriter Doechii, born Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, has been blowing up over the past couple months. Aided by a legion of fans using her song “Denial Is a River” on their TikTok videos and a stand-out performance at the Grammy Awards, Doechii has become so popular that her older songs are being dug out of mothballs and getting huge. This week’s viral video, Anxiety (Visualizer), was posted on Doechii’s YouTube with no fanfare, and almost three million people watched it in its first two days online alone. The original video for the song was posted back in 2020, and features COVID-era Doechii rapping in her bedroom over Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” But part of Doechii’s “Anxiety” was also sampled on a track from rapper Sleepy Hallow, for his song called “Anxiety.” You know what: Here’s Doechii explaining the deep lore around this song:

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This is a website about hacks, so you know I’m not going to advocate for a cleaning product unless it really gets the job done. Lifehacker has years’ worth of archives explaining how, for the most part, common things like hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar get the major cleaning jobs taken care of, and all you need is a rag or a sponge to go with them. Still, there are some more specialized products that are worth having on hand. These are what I use to make cleaning easier and faster.

Useful cleaning tools you might not have

First up, you need a little squeegee. In fact, I think you should have a few. The first one should be stored in your shower and, after you finish washing up, you should use it to get the fog, scum, and water off your shower doors and walls. Doing this every time you bathe takes just a few seconds, but drastically reduces how much and how often you need to clean the tile and glass in the shower. Get one with an adhesive holder so it dries straight up and down, then stick it to the shower wall. This one is $9.59.

Second, you should keep one in the kitchen. Use it to scrape wet messes off your countertops or to gather spills on your floor. Why waste a bunch of paper towels or dirty up a rag when you could just push the wet mess off the counter and into a container, then put it in the trash? Pick up a two-pack for $13.99.

We aren’t finished with squeegees, actually. You also need a gigantic one for your floor. This will replace your broom and I’m serious. It’s $29.99 (though you can apply a 30% coupon on Amazon right now) and it solves all the annoying little problems you face with a regular broom. There are no bristles, so hair and dust don’t get caught in anything and there are no gaps for dirt and debris to slip through. To wash it, you just wipe down the silicone. What’s even better is that, unlike a standard broom, you can tackle wet messes with this, dragging all the droplets and rivulets into a more concise puddle that is a lot easier to wipe up.

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Next, consider some soap-dispensing brushes. You may have seen these for dishwashing, which is great, but they’re also perfect for scrubbing floors, tile, and hard-to-reach spots, all without having to fill up a whole container of soapy water and drag it around. Obviously, keep the one you use for household cleaning away from the one you use for the dishes, so get at least two. Better yet, this one for $9.89 comes with detachable heads, so you only need one handle.

Speaking of brushes, it’s time to upgrade to an electric one. Stop getting on your hands and knees, putting too much elbow grease in, or over-exerting yourself when you could outsource the strenuous part of your labor to technology. You can get an electric spin scrubber with a telescopic handle and eight different brush heads for $49.99, then use it as a handheld or long-reach solution when you just don’t want to scrub.

My favorite cleaning solutions and products

The wide array of tools and gadgets available to address needs you didn’t realize you had is great and all, but what about cleaning solutions and products? It might seem like, hey, an all-purpose cleaner is an all-purpose cleaner, but that’s not true. For instance, I recently tested out “double concentrated” solutions from Pine Sol and Fabuloso and found both of them to be way more effective than their standard-concentration predecessors. Did you know floor-cleaning solutions were innovating? Well, now you do.

Another innovation I really like counts as both a tool and a product. Yes, you probably have a melamine sponge, like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, on hand and yes, you probably also have some kind of foaming soap you use around the house. But now they’ve been combined into one product: It’s called the Mr. Clean Ultra Foamy Magic Eraser and I can no longer live without it. You get five for $8.94 and with them, you can clean a lot faster and easier. It takes me far fewer passes of the eraser over any kind of grime to remove it than it does when I use the original version.

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And the last unexpected product that has really changed how I clean is this set of coatings from spotLESS. Three bottles of coating cost $24.99 and you get one for glass and mirrors, one for toilets, and one for sinks and fixtures. I spray these on their respective surfaces after cleaning and have definitely noticed I need to clean those areas again more infrequently. The coating works to keep grime from accumulating and makes it easier to wipe off when it eventually does appear. The glass spritz has proven especially helpful for the glass table I got a few months ago. Again, I didn’t realize I had these problems until I found a product that fixed them. We’re truly living in the future.

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When you watch a piece of media produced in a language you don’t speak, you have a couple of options. You can, of course, turn on subtitles and follow along by reading. But in some cases, you can switch the audio track to whichever language you speak. This is called the “dub,” and it usually requires voice artists to record the lines in this new language—in a way that matches the original tone of the show or movie.

This requires time and money, something studios aren’t always willing to part with. As such, not everything has a dub. But what if it could?

On Wednesday, Amazon announced “AI-aided dubbing” for Prime Video. On select titles, viewers can choose to play an AI-generated dub of the script in either English or Latin American Spanish. Amazon says there are 12 titles that support this feature at this time, but only named three: El Cid: La Leyenda; Mi Mamá Lora; and Long Lost. The company also says “localization professionals” work with AI to “ensure quality control.” It’s not clear what that means, other than there are humans checking these AI dubs to make sure they aren’t mistranslating or making other mistakes due to hallucinations.

I have Prime Video, so I was interested to check out these dubs for myself to see how Amazon’s AI compared to, you know, human beings. In my search, I couldn’t find Mi Mamá Lora, but I could find the other two titles. In order to use the feature, you need to go into the language selector on the compatible title and choose the “AI beta.” Then, you can experience what I experienced.

El Cid: La Leyenda

There are a few titles on Prime Video going by the name of El Cid, but the only one that supports AI dubbing is this specific option: a 63 minute-long documentary about Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, otherwise known as El Cid. I wasn’t watching El Cid: La Layenda to learn more about this ruler from medieval Spain—I wanted to hear how well an AI bot would handle the English dubbing of a movie produced in Spanish.

The results are interesting, to say the least. Most of the speaking in the documentary happens via voiceover, which is extremely hit or miss. (“Hit” may be too generous.) When you know the voice is AI-generated, you pick out the bland or odd inflections. It’s classic AI-generated speech: items in a list are spoken in inconsistent tones; some words are slurred or artificially slowed down, as if the bot has had a drink or two. But in all honesty, I was expecting worse. This isn’t like watching a documentary narrated by the TikTok AI voice. It isn’t great (it’s not even good), but it does offer a bit more emotion than I expected.

The issues extend to the AI dubs of the documentary’s interviewees. In many cases, the voice is quite awkward, stilted, and full of the inconsistencies mentioned above. At times, the voice is completely devoid of any emotion, and does sound more like a voiceover tool from years past, rather than the “high quality” AI voices we’ve come to expect.

To Amazon’s credit, it does sound like the AI uses a different voice for each person it is dubbing. That makes it a bit easier to distinguish between the different speakers, and spares you from having to listen to the same mediocre AI voice for the entire movie.

Long Lost

Long Lost is a little more difficult to judge: The movie, originally produced in English, has an AI dub in Spanish. Since I don’t speak Spanish, it’s not as easy to pick out the robotic quirks your ear picks up on when you know the language.

Still, Long Lost offered a different experience than El Cid, since this is a movie: You get to hear how the AI handles dubbing over actors. Like the AI voiceover in the documentary, these AI actors aren’t as bad as I expected. I was anticipating AI voices delivering their lines totally flat, but there is some emotion here at times. No robot is winning an Oscar here, mind you: In fact, the voices can be quite awkward and lacking, reading the script too loudly, abruptly, or plainly. But, for some lines, I’m not sure I would assume these were AI voices if I didn’t already know ahead of time.

Even in more intense scenes, the AI does “try.” When the character screams, the AI raises its voice. It’s far from perfect, but it’s an interesting experiment to see what the AI can do:

In one scene, two characters compete in a game of “Chubby Bunny,” in which each has to continue adding marshmallows to their mouths while still being able to say “chubby bunny.” At times, the AI actually sounds muffled, and while it isn’t “realistic,” it’s a nice touch. (Perhaps this is where the human intervention comes into play.) At other times, however, the AI sounds totally normal, while the actors’ mouths are clearly full of marshmallow.

Another interesting quirk: One of the characters starts speaking in French, so the AI track cuts out and the original audio comes in. It’s jarring, because you can hear the difference immediately—not just the different languages, of course, but the difference in how the movie’s actual audio sounds when compared to the sterile AI output.

I’d like to try this feature again on a movie produced in Spanish with an AI English dub. I imagine it would be easier for me to pick out the issues, and to know whether more (or all) of the voices would sound totally fake.

Is the future of dubbing AI?

Look, there is no way I would genuinely enjoy watching an entire movie or series with an AI dub. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of human-generated dubs, so I have zero interest in one that, at times, sounds like a robot gunning for the EGOT.

But I have to admit, the tech isn’t terrible. At some points, the voices sound realistic enough for me to get the gist, especially when the voiceover would also be monotone and informative—such as during a documentary. And it’s interesting that these AI dubs can incorporate elements from the show or movie, like muffled speech during a game of Chubby Bunny.

I don’t want to see any voice actors put out of work here. They deserve to get paid for their labor and audiences deserve a high-quality dub on the shows and movies they pay to watch. However, I do think AI dubbing could offer a compromise for the times when no dub is on its way at all: If a studio isn’t going to pay for a dub anyway, it would be helpful to have a dub at all—even if it’s on the robotic side. That would certainly help visually impaired viewers, who might not be able to take advantage of subtitles.

Of course, it’s naive to think studios will only use this tech for those specific uses, rather than eliminate an entire human profession to save some cash. To that end, I’d be happy if the whole AI dubbing practice ends here and now: It’s interesting, but it’s not good, so please don’t replace real voice actors.

While they will never have the name recognition of the Amazon Kindle, e-ink devices from Chinese tech company Onyx International—sold under the slightly silly “Boox” brand name—are gaining a cult following in the U.S. I’ve reviewed three of its e-readers and digital notebooks over the past year, and I’m a huge fan. And if you’re reading this article, you probably are too (or soon will be).

I love Boox devices not only because they’re well built and full-featured (though if you want more of my thoughts there, check out my assessments of the Boox Palma, Note Max, and Note Air 4C). I also can’t get enough of their customizability. Nothing makes me crazier than trying to do something simple with a device, only to be stymied due to locked down software that doesn’t want to let me. From side-loading books onto a Kindle to doing—well, basically anything unsanctioned on an iPad, big companies seem determined to only let me do with my devices what they want me to do.

Boox devices are different: They run on an open version of Android that lets you do pretty much whatever you want. You can download any app in the Google Play Store, so you aren’t tied to one e-reading platform. If you want to sideload apps, feel free: Plug the device into your laptop and it will mount right to the desktop. If you’re truly ambitious, you can even install your own launcher to completely change things up.

While all this freedom is nice, it also means Boox devices have a bit more of a learning curve than, say, a plug-and-read Kindle. So if you are the new owner of one of these fantastic devices—whether an e-reader or a full-fledged digital notebook—here are five settings you should change right away to get the most out of it.

Set a one-touch refresh

Like any e-ink tablet, Boox devices suffer from occasional “ghosting,” or visible afterimages once you’ve turned a page. While the device will automatically refresh itself after a certain number of taps (touching the screen, basically), I like to set up a one-touch refresh that I can trigger whenever I want to. Depending on your device, there are a few ways to do this: a button or a gesture.

Setting a manual refresh on a Boox device with buttons

Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham

If you’ve got a Boox Palma or another device with page turn/volume buttons, you can map one of them to a screen refresh. For the Palma, it makes the most sense to use the Smart Button for this—that’s the button on the left hand side of the device, which can do different things based on whether you press it once, twice, or hold it down. On my own device, I’ve mapped a manual refresh to a single Smart Button press, as it’s the thing I find myself doing most often. However, you can also map a refresh to the volume buttons if you like (though I prefer to use those for page turns).

To remap your Smart Button, open the settings app and tap Smart Button. Tap your preferred option (Short-press Function, Double-click Function, or Long-press Function) and select Full-refresh.

Setting a manual refresh with a gesture

Credit: Screenshot by Joel Cunningham

Not all Boox devices have buttons, so if yours doesn’t, you’ll need to map a manual refresh to a gesture. (Though you can also do this on the Palma, if you like.)

To get started, open Settings and scroll down to System Navigation. Under Bottom Navigation, tap More Settings. Choose the area of the screen you’d like to map the refresh to by swiping between the left, center, or right side options. Tap Custom and then choose Full-refresh from your list of options.

Choose your cloud storage option

Boox devices tend to have generous onboard storage, but you’ll get more out of them by linking your preferred cloud storage service on the system level. This will let you move files on and off the device without the need to plug it in to your computer.

To start, open Settings, then Accounts. Tap Move to Cloud Storage in Library, then select your preferred option from the list. You have a bunch of choices, including Dropbox and Google Drive. Tap the one you want, then log in.

Change your lock screen image and screensaver

Credit: Joel Cunningham

Boox devices have some handsome preset lock screen images, but if you want to make the device your own, you can set your own screensaver and wallpaper. This one is pretty straightforward: Choose Desktop & Screensaver in the Settings app—but if you want a custom image, you’ll first have to get it saved to the right spot.

The easiest way to do this is to find an image you like while browsing the internet using your Boox device. Long press on it and choose Download, which will save it to your downloads folder (naturally). Next, open up the Gallery app, tap your Download folder, and then tap the image you want. In the lower right, tap More and then Set as. You can choose to set it as the Screensaver, the Wallpaper, or the Power-Off image.

Alternately, you can plug the device into a computer and manually add the images to your Pictures folder. And here’s another helpful hint: If you want to create your own wallpaper image in Photoshop or Canva, the dimensions are 824×1648 for the Boox Palma. For the Note Max or Note Air 4C, 1404 x 1872 should serve you well.

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While there is something special about a physical book, e-books are a great alternative for reading on the go (and building a library that doesn’t take up any space). If you want to read on your phone, tablet, or e-reader, there are a number of options for finding millions of titles to borrow or buy.

Your e-reader choice doesn’t necessarily limit where you can get e-books, as some of the best e-readers (Kindle and non-Kindle) support a wide range of document formats, which you can convert back and forth using a service like Calibre and Adobe Acrobat, with some limitations. (If you’re in need of an e-reader, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of some of the most popular options on the market, though you can also access content via various apps for your iOS or Android device.)

On the flip side, where you buy e-books may limit where can you read them. For example, Amazon has eliminated the option to download your Kindle e-books to a computer to convert them from the company’s proprietary .AZW3 format. That means you can read content only on your Kindle or through the Kindle mobile or web app.

In addition to compatibility with your reading device, you should also consider factors like book selection and catalog size, whether you want to pay per book or have a subscription, and whether you want to borrow books or own them long-term.

Here are some of the best e-book services to consider.

Kindle Books

While you might be trying to get away from Amazon’s services, especially if you’re not already a Kindle user, Kindle Books is still one of the top e-book shops out there, with more than 6 million titles to choose from.

You can buy individual books a la carte or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, which allows you to borrow up to 20 eligible e-book or audiobook titles at a time (plus magazine subscriptions) with no due date, for $12 per month after a 30-day trial. Your books and reading progress sync across devices, so you don’t lose your place.

The downside, as outlined above, is that you can only read books on a Kindle device or in the Kindle app, so you won’t be able to transfer content to another e-reader. And while Kindle Unlimited has a huge selection, including popular titles, you may not find everything you want to read is eligible, so you’ll have to purchase some books separately.

OverDrive

OverDrive is the library service that loans titles to anyone with a library card at a participating library system. More than 90% of libraries in North American support OverDrive, and you can check out and read e-books through the Libby app on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices as well as via web. OverDrive is free to use as long as you have a library card, and the Libby app is easy to navigate for browsing, requesting, reading, and returning e-books with features like device syncing and offline access.

However, the selection is dependent on your local library’s catalog, and you may have to wait for popular titles. Plus, like physical books from the library, you have a limited checkout period before your e-book is returned to circulation—and if other users have requested the title, you may not be able to renew it.

If you want to expand your options for library borrowing, you can also use Hoopla, which is similar to OverDrive and allows you to check out e-books to read on your mobile device.

Rakuten Kobo

Kobo is a great alternative to Kindle for both e-readers and e-books. The catalog has more than 5 million titles to choose from, which you can read on any Kobo device or with the Kobo app on iOS, Android, or desktop. You can also download Kobo books in EPUB or PDF format to export to other reading devices, and Kobo integrates with OverDrive/Libby for library borrowing.

Kobo offers a la carte purchases as well as a subscription borrowing service called Kobo Plus, which costs $8 per month for e-books only or $10 a month for both e-books and audiobooks after a 30-day trial. Kobo Plus doesn’t come with access to the full Kobo catalog, though there are 1.5 million e-books and 150,000 audiobooks available to choose from.

Google Play Books

Google has a catalog of more than 4 million books available to buy or rent through Google Play. You can read books on almost any device (except Kindle) using either the Google Play app or by downloading as an EPUB or PDF file and transferring to an e-reader. The Google interface offers helpful recommendations, and the app syncs across devices with the option to read offline. Google doesn’t have its own e-reader, but that makes reading more flexible than content purchased for Kindle.

Bookshop.org

If you want to support your local bookseller with your e-book buys, Bookshop.org is a great alternative to Kindle and Kobo. A portion of all purchases (whether e-book or hard copy) goes to an indie bookstore of your choosing, and you can read e-books through the Bookshop.org app on your iOS or Android device or in a web browser.

The selection from Bookshop.org isn’t as large as some other catalogs, and you’ll pay full price for most titles, as there’s also no subscription option for borrowing. Again, though, you are supporting local businesses with each purchase.

Everand

Everand is the audiobook and e-book arm of Scribd, and a monthly subscription includes access to both content types and a catalog of more than 1.5 million titles. The $12-per-month standard plan unlocks one title per month, or you can pay $17 per month for three unlocks (after a 30-day trial). Both plans include access to community-uploaded documents on Scribd. Everand e-books can be read through the service’s iOS or Android app or on Everand.com.

eBooks.com

eBooks.com is a platform-agnostic shop with more than 2.6 million titles to choose from, making it a good option if you’re not locked into a single device. You can download your books in one of several formats depending on your reading device (note that eBooks.com is not compatible with Kindle except for Kindle Fire). You do have to purchase e-books outright—there’s no subscription option.

Project Gutenberg

If you’re looking for literary classics, Project Gutenberg is one place to find them for free. First launched in 1971, the (now) online library has digitized over 75,000 books in dozens of languages, with a focus on content with expired U.S. copyrights. File formats are compatible with most e-readers and mobile devices, so you can download and transfer books anywhere you want to read them. You won’t find popular titles or current bestsellers here, but it is a great option for books from your English class reading list.

Other e-book services

Of course, there are plenty of other places to get e-books. Those in the Apple ecosystem can purchase individual titles from Apple Books, which you can read on any device with the Apple Books app and share with up to five family members. Barnes & Noble is good choice for Nook users, with more than 4 million titles that can also be accessed in iOS or Android. Or look at platforms that offer discounted or free e-books.

I’ve recently rented a car in two different states. Both times I was asked if I wanted to pay an extra fee per day to avoid worrying about paying tolls—a crucial issue in some states, like Florida, that no longer accept cash on the road and sometimes won’t even allow you to pay online. Both times I declined, and set my Google Maps to “avoid tolls.”

I was reasonably confident Google would keep me safe from an unpaid toll ticket, but my heart still skipped a beat when, a few weeks ago, I got a text message letting me know I had unpaid I-Pass tolls from Illinois. But then I took a closer look at the text.

Missed toll texts are the latest scam

It turns out that texts purporting to be from a tolling administration telling you you have unpaid tolls and you have to pay up, or else face fines or even lose your driver’s license, are the latest in an unending stream of text-based phishing scams trying to get you to give up your personal info (and your money).

Transportation authorities in multiple states have issued warnings about these texts, which seem fairly legit at a glance. Typically they will purport to come from one of the major tolling programs—the E-ZPass in the northeast, FasTrak in California, I-Pass in Illinois. The text will inform you that you have an unpaid toll, provide a looming due date, and outline dire consequences for failing to pay up. Also included will be a handy, official-looking URL where you can make your payment.

Accessing that link will take you to a site that invites you to enter your credit card or banking information to settle your fine. And I’m sure you can imagine what happens from there, because you’ve just given your credit card number to a scammer.

How to spot a scam missed toll text

As scams go, this one isn’t very sophisticated. The scammers aren’t doing anything special to target you—they just have your phone number somehow and are including you in a mass spamming attempt in the hopes you’ll be too distracted to notice the obvious signs the message isn’t legit. So here are a few things to watch out for:

Do you even use this particular tolling service? In the last week, I’ve received half a dozen of these texts. Some of them are for services I’ve used and could conceivably owe money (like I-Pass, which operates in Illinois, one of the states I recently visited). Others, not so much: I didn’t even know California used something called “FasTrak” until I googled it. So take a beat to think: Is there a legitimate reason this tolling agency is asking me for money? I might have a missed E-ZPass toll, but I definitely don’t have a missed FasTrak toll.

Check the sender. One of the most obvious tells is the source of the text. Official automated texts will usually come from a 5-digit number. The texts I get telling me my E-ZPass has topped up, for example, come from “39769.” Scam texts will more likely come from a full phone number, likely an international one, with an unfamiliar country code at the start (I recently got one from a number that began with “+44,” indicating a number based in the U.K.). Another tell: If the sender is an email—especially if it’s from a free email service like Gmail or Outlook (I’ve even gotten a few from Hotmail, which hasn’t existed for years).

Non-hyperlinked URLs. When a message comes from a legitimate sender, any URLs included will likely be clickable. Scam texts will almost always have non-clickable URLs, with weird instructions either telling you to copy and paste the address into your browser, or to respond to the text with a Y, and then close and reopen it. This is an attempt to get around an iPhone security feature. Conveniently (for the scammer), once you’ve responded to a text and then reopened it, the link they sent you before will become clickable, taking you right to the site that will steal your payment info.

Look for other signs of an online scam. Chances are good the payment sites these URLs lead you to will also carry telltale signs of a phishing scam, like poor grammar, misspellings, or weird formatting. Luckily, all the ones I’ve been directed to visit via my most recent scam texts don’t actually work, suggesting that the sites are being taken down as fast as the scammers can put them up. But I keep getting more of them, so they probably aren’t going to stop trying.

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International Women’s Day, in one form or another, has existed since around 1909—placing the holiday’s inception roughly in line with the early days of film. It seems fitting, then, to take a look at movies that examine and celebrate the accomplishments (and trials) of real women in history. This isn’t an exhaustive list of movies about women who’ve changed the world (or at least changed their worlds), and there are plenty of very important women whose lives have never been touched by filmmakers (and others, sadly, with movies that aren’t streaming—I’m looking at you Hypatia of Alexandria and Agora). But, like International Women’s Day itself: It’s a start.

Colette (2018)

Rural village girl Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (played by Keira Knightley) begins an affair with Henry Gauthier-Villars, the author known only, absurdly, as “Willy.” He supplements his income by hiring ghostwriters to produce works to be released under his more bankable name and, when he realizes that Colette isn’t without storytelling talent of her own, he comes to see her as a source of free material for the Willy brand. As her works become increasingly successful, Colette finds herself unwilling to be locked in a closet toiling for her husband, instead coming to assert her own artistic (and sexual) agency as one of the most important French writers of the last couple of centuries. Her ultimate independence and popularity among women readers helped to change the ways in which books are marketed while also broadening the range of topics (including a lot more sex, and not all of it straight) about which women could be seen to discuss in print. You can stream Colette on Prime Video.

Colette (2018)

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Hidden Figures (2016)

There’s nothing easy about orbital mechanics (I’m told—I count on my fingers), and Hidden Figures tells a story of math involving three women: Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). Long neglected by history books, Hidden Figures dramatizes the stories of the Black women who performed complex calculations in an era before computers, and then became expert programmers once machines were introduced. Their calculations put John Glenn into space. You can rent Hidden Figures from Prime Video.

Hidden Figures (2016)

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Norma Rae (1979)

Sally Field (who won an Oscar) plays the title’s Norma Rae Webster, based pretty squarely on real-life union organizer Crystal Lee Sutton. A factory worker in North Carolina is fired for running off a union sign on the company printer, leading to the climactic, indelible moment when she brings the factory to a complete standstill. One of the most memorable moments in American movie history—when Norma Rae stops the factory with her hand-scribbled “union” sign—is straight from history, and it made Sutton a labor icon. You can stream Norma Rae on Watch TCM.

Norma Rae (1979)

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Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)

Sex work is work, and workers in the industry face challenges both universal and unique in fighting for wages or improved conditions. In the late 1990s, the staff at the Lusty Lady, a San Francisco peep show, were faced with arbitrary wage policies, racism, and lacked even the most basic job perks while dealing with problem customers without management support. When the staff threatened a strike, management wouldn’t even concede that what the women did was a real job; as though they were doing it for fun. So they got organized, resulting in a truly groundbreaking moment in labor history, even if sex workers still struggle for recognition. Filmmaker Julia Query actually worked at the club and brings a sharp insider’s perspective to this documentary. You can stream Live Nude Girls Unite! on Kanopy or rent it from Prime Video.

Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000)

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On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who, later in life, became the Supreme Court Justice most likely to appear on a T-shirt. The consequences of the end of Ginsburg’s career are very much present, but the movie takes us back to the very beginning, with the Harvard law-school student caring for her ailing husband and young daughter while studying. Despite graduating at the top of her class, she’s unable to find work until she’s introduced to case involving a man who was denied a tax deduction for nursing care of his aging mother because the law was limited to either a woman or a husband. Ginsburg came to believe that a precedent in a case involving a man facing sex discrimination could be used in later cases involving women; while it didn’t have quite that impact as precedent, it did lead to changes in law and Ginsburg’s success paved the way for other women in American law. You can stream On the Basis of Sex on Netflix or rent it from Prime Video.

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

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Harriet (2019)

A woman aided by the Underground Railroad system, Harriet Tubman (played here by Cynthia Erivo) quickly became one of its most effective conductors, and is now remembered as the most important single name in the entire operation, an unquestioned leader who approached the quest for freedom with a religious (literally) zeal. Later, she lead soldiers in battle during the Civil War before becoming a leader in the suffragist movement. A $20 bill with her face on it seems like the least we can do, but in the meantime, Kasi Lemmons’ thrilling and heartfelt, if occasionally formulaic, biopic will have to do. You can stream Harriet on Hulu or rent it from Prime Video.

Harriet (2019)

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The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s essential historical drama makes as clear a case as any film does for the distinct power of silent cinema, with Renée Jeanne Falconetti offering one of the medium’s most profound performances. Interrogated by the French clerical court relentlessly about her belief in her own mission from God, Joan remains steadfast even as it seems that the very architecture around her is closing in to damn her. In the end, whether she’s right or wrong, it feels as though Joan’s defiant face is the only authentic thing in her increasingly confined world, and her status as a martyr to women in western religion is made secure. You can stream The Passion of Joan of Arc on Max, Tubi, and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video.

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Suffragette (2015)

Blending real-life figures like Emmaline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) and Emily Davison (Natalie Press) with leads more loosely based on actual suffragettes, the film explores the voting rights movement in Britain of the early 20th century through the eyes of 24-year-old laundry worker Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan). Though only reluctantly caught up in the struggle, Maud gradually becomes radicalized when she witnesses the cost that other women are paying for their activism. Helena Bonham Carter, Brendan Gleeson, and Ben Whishaw make up some of the rest of the impressive cast. You can stream Suffragette on Peacock or rent it from Prime Video.

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Madame Curie (1943)

Though there are elements of melodrama here, at least on the surface, this classic Hollywood biopic from director Mervyn LeRoy has a deep appreciation for the hard mental and physical labor involved in scientific breakthroughs. Greer Garson stars as Marie Curie, working alongside her husband, Pierre (Walter Pidgeon) as she begins a study of pitchblende rock that leads her to the discovery of uranium, and that begins a long and intensive process of refining the substance such that its properties can be fully studied. You can rent Madame Curie from Prime Video.

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Little Women (2019)

While decidedly not a biography, this specific adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel does a better job than many biopics at capturing something of the spirit of the author. Played here by Saoirse Ronan, Jo March has always been a bit of a stand-in for the similarly unconventional Alcott, a parallel that director Greta Gerwig takes a step further in the movie’s climax. She deliberately blends the novel’s reality with Alcott’s life story, reminding the viewer that Little Women, while groundbreaking, wasn’t entirely the book that Alcott set out to write. There’s a great biopic about Alcott yet to be made, but, in the meantime, this 2019 adaptation of her most influential work pays tribute to the writer in smart ways. You can rent Little Women from Prime Video.

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Barbie (2023)

Sticking with Greta Gerwig for a moment, and on the subject of movies that come at their subjects sideways, Barbie pays tremendous tribute to the doll’s creator Ruth Handler (played here Rhea Perlman), even as the inventor and magnate only gets limited screen time. Set in matriarchal Barbieland, the film finds Margot Robbie’s Barbie doll escaping into the real world to discover both her own worth as an icon and the limitations placed on her that she’s never understood. After a couple of cameos, Ruth shows up in the final act to put a button on her creation’s journey, both in the movie and in the real world. A full-length biopic about the creation of Mattel (and Handler’s IRS issues) could doubtless be fascinating, but couldn’t possibly do a better job of relaying her cultural impact. You can stream Barbie on Netflix and Max or rent it from Prime Video.

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The Death and Life of Martha P. Johnson (2017)

Using a belated investigation into Johnson’ mysterious death as a framing device, the film follows activist Victoria Cruz’s exploration of the lives of Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and other key figures in the early days of the gay liberation and trans rights movements. While death is the starting point, the movie focuses on the messy and strident vibrancy of Johnson’s life and work, and speaks to the challenges and sacrifices for the progress that’s been made (and sometimes un-made) in LGBTQIA+ equality. You can stream The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson on Netflix.

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Queen of Katwe (2016)

A kid from one of Kampala, Uganda’s biggest slums, forced to drop out of school at age nine, Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga) had the good fortune to meet chess coach Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) at a young age. This smart, feel-good movie charts her real-life progress to the top of the chess rankings first in Uganda, before she competes globally. It might be a bit early to suggest that Mutesi has changed history (her first Candidate title came in 2012), but she’s certainly providing inspiration for Ugandan women across a number of fields. You can stream Queen of Katwe on Disney+ or rent it from Prime Video.

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Frida (2002)

Stepping from the shadow of her, at one time, more famous husband Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), Frida Kahlo became one of Mexico’s most important artists, blending intimate themes with revolutionary ideas and blurring gender lines—as she did in her own life—and chronicling her own disabilities in ways unheard of at the time. She and her art gave voice to a budding Mexican nationalist movement, and her life serves as a reminder that art can move nations at least as powerfully as traditional politics. Salma Hayek stars in this ultra-stylish adaptation from director Julie Taymor, one that earned multiple Academy Award nominations. You can stream Frida on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video.

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Elizabeth (1998)

Cate Blanchett plays Queen Elizabeth I, a woman of whom you might have heard, a wildly unlikely heir to the throne of England who became the modern British monarchy, securing her country militarily in a fraught time while solidifying a religious framework that’s with us to this day. In many ways, it’s a film about choices: We meet Elizabeth first as a young woman with no expectation of rule, but see that, as she gains power, her options contract rather than expand. Given the enormous pressure to select a husband, and the limitations placed on her choice, she ultimately opts for public celibacy as the “Virgin Queen,” reflecting, in a way, the impossible divide modern women must often navigate between career and family. Women in history are often seen working behind the scenes to change the world but, in Elizabeth, we have someone who very much took center stage. You can stream Elizabeth on Starz or rent it from Prime Video.

Elizabeth (1998)

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The Lady (2011)

Aung San Suu Kyi’s legacy has been complicated by failures of leadership (to say the least) during her later role as State Counsellor of Myanmar, but there’s no question that her impact on the history of that country and its halting moves away from military rule has been immense. The daughter of an independence leader, the movie sees her living a comfortable life in England before being drawn into the politics of her homeland, becoming a leader and figurehead for independence and democracy. Michelle Yeoh gives a thoroughly impressive performance as the complex Nobel laureate. You can stream The Lady on Tubi or rent it from Prime Video.

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Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star here as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in the lead-up to the titular “Battle of the Sexes” in 1973. King is a top women’s tennis player, frustrated that the payouts for matches are dramatically lower than anything men would be expected to play for. Riggs, meanwhile, is struggling in his marriage and finances because of a gambling addiction. He hits upon the idea of a flashy, money-making exhibition match with a very reluctant King, reasoning that, even well past his prime, he’s perfectly capable of beating even the best woman player. She’s eventually convinced to join in and the rest is sports (and queer) history. You can rent Battle of the Sexes from Prime Video.

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