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January 2026’s ten most-streamed TV series are a balanced group, including six reality-based dramas and four fantasy/sci-fi hits. One the side of realism, we’ve got medical drama vérité The Pitt, a pair of spy shows (The Night Manager and Ponies), and a gay hockey romance in Heated Rivalry. The fantasy side includes the post-apocalyptic black humor of Fallout, the suburban supernatural series Stranger Things, and a trip back to Westeros with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

A more important running theme this month: These shows are all critical darlings, including a couple perfect Rotten Tomatoes 100% winners (The Night Manager and Pluribus) and five other shows above 95% (The Pitt, Fallout, Heated Rivalry, Ponies, and A Knight of Seven Kingdoms). Even the “worst” of the bunch, Landman, is sitting at a solid 78%. Good job watching good shows, America!

Here’s the full list of the top 10 most-streamed shows of January 2026 across all major streaming services, as compiled by JustWatch.

The Night Manager

If you’re into high-stake international espionage, you have to check the most-streamed series this week. The Night Manager is based on John le Carre’s best-selling novel and stars Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, an MI-6 agent whose mission is to infiltrate the inner circle of dangerous arms trader Richard “Dickie” Onslow Roper, played by Hugh Laurie. It has been ten long years since the show first premiered, but both seasons of this BBC-made series are available in full as of Feb. 1, so binge it up, man. Stream The Night Manager on Prime Video.

The Night Manager

at Amazon

at Amazon

The Pitt

HBO’s gritty, hyper-realistic medical drama has earned acclaim from critics and audiences for its relentless pace, following a single 15-hour shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Starring Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael Robinavitch, The Pitt ditches the “disease-of-the-week” format of many medical shows in favor of a study of the toll the modern medical system places on everyone involved. Season one earned five Emmy awards, and judging from the first few episodes, season two might win more. Stream The Pitt on HBO Max.

The Pitt

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Fallout

Post-apocalyptic action-comedy Fallout is like nothing that’s been on TV before. Staying true to the gritty, gruesome, and irreverent spirit of the video games upon which it is based, it follows naive former vault dweller Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) as she leaves her protected bunker to track down her father in the irradiated Wasteland. The show’s standout characters include Lucy’s duplicitous pop (Kyle MacLachlan), conflicted mech-warrior Maximus (Aaron Moten), and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), the walking, talking, noseless, undead remains of a pre-apocalypse Hollywood cowboy. Season one earned a staggering 17 Emmy nominations in 2024, and the just-finished season two earned even greater critical acclaim for its expansion into the iconic ruins of New Vegas. Stream Fallout on Prime Video.

Fallout – Season 1

at Amazon

at Amazon

Heated Rivalry

If you want explicit hockey player-on-hockey player action with a 98% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, HBO’s Heated Rivalry is a must-watch. Set against the hyper-masculine, hyper-homophobic world of professional sports, the series brings emotional depth to the story of a years-long secret romance between Canadian “golden boy” Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Russian bad boy Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Stream Heated Rivalry on HBO Max.

Heated Rivalry

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes fans back to Westeros, 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, the series is less about world-spanning politics and more about smaller, character driven moments in the lives of humble, towering knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his diminutive, mysterious squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). It’s shorter, lighter, and funnier than its forebears (but not too light—this is still Westeros, after all). Stream Knights of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Stranger Things

A veritable streaming institution, Stranger Things reached its end with season five. Set in November 1987, the final chapter follows the Hawkins gang in a mission to find and kill Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) while navigating a town under strict military quarantine. From Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) evading a new government threat to Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) unlocking his psychic potential to protect his friends, the series remains an emotional masterclass in supernatural sci-fi horror—despite a divisive finale. Stream Stranger Things on Netflix.

Stranger Things

at Netflix

at Netflix

Pluribus

Creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan takes a hard turn from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul with Pluribus, a slow-burn post-apocalyptic sci-fi series starring Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a stubborn and irascible novelist in Albuquerque who finds herself one of the last 13 individuals on Earth in the wake of viral outbreak that has turned the rest of the species into a hive mind. “They” aren’t (isn’t?) exactly evil, but they are extremely persistent about trying to get the mysteriously immune Carol to join their ranks (as nicely but firmly as possible). Stream Pluribus on Apple TV+.

Pluribus

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

Landman

Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan’s Landman is is a gritty modern Western set in the oil fields of West Texas. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Tommy Norris, a “crisis executive” for an oil company who must navigate a law-light landscape of roughnecks, billionaires, and dangerous drug cartels in order to make sure fuel keeps getting dug out of the ground. Stream Landman on Paramount+.

Landman

at Paramount+

at Paramount+

His & Hers

Based on the 2020 novel by Alice Feeney, His & Hers is a twisty mystery thriller series that stars Tessa Thompson as Anna Andrews, a disgraced Atlanta journalist who returns to her small Georgia hometown to cover a brutal murder, only to find her estranged husband, Detective Jack Harper (Jon Bernthal), leading the investigation. As the former couple competes to solve the case, each grows more suspicious that the other is the killer. The six-episode run makes it a great series if you’re longing for an engaging drama with a definite conclusion. Stream His & Hers on Netflix.

His & Hers

at Netflix

at Netflix

Ponies

In international espionage parlance, “ponies” are “persons of no interest.” In this case, that Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), two American women in Cold War Moscow whose “normal” lives are upended when their CIA agent husbands die in a mysterious plane crash. The pair convince the U.S. government to let them try to infiltrate the KGB and find out the truth of what happened, using their ordinariness as the ultimate cover. Boasting a 96% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the eight-episode season balances steamy romance with intense espionage. Stream Ponies on Peacock.

Ponies

at Peacock

at Peacock

Meta is developing a standalone app for Vibes, its feed of AI-generated videos, according to reports from TechCrunch and Platformer. Vibes was introduced as a feature in the Meta AI app in September 2025. Similar to OpenAI’s Sora app, Vibes lets users prompt Meta AI to create TikTok-style vertical videos.

“Following the strong early traction of Vibes within Meta AI, we are testing a standalone app to build on that momentum,” Meta said in a statement. “We’ve seen that users are increasingly leaning into the format to create, discover, and share AI-generated video with friends. This standalone app provides a dedicated home for that experience, offering people a more focused and immersive environment. We will look to expand the app further based on what we learn from the community.”

Meta has yet to share specific numbers for how many people actually use Vibes, but the company does claim that Meta AI usage has continued to grow since Vibes launched. Breaking the feature out into its own app could allow Meta to add more functionality without cluttering the existing Meta AI app. The company believes AI-generated content will be the next big source of engagement on platforms, and said in an October 2025 earnings call that it planned to push more AI images and videos into its recommendation algorithm. A dedicated app for creating videos like Vibes could be one way Meta hopes to do that.

As Meta’s main competitor in the burgeoning field of AI-first social media, OpenAI has continued to iterate on its Sora app, adding ways for characters and pets to cameo in videos, and signing a deal with Disney to allow users to generate content with Disney characters. Considering the company has licensed celebrity likenesses in the past, it doesn’t seem impossible that Meta could pursue similar deals. Whatever happens, AI-generated videos appear like they’ll be increasingly inescapable.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-giving-its-ai-slop-feed-an-app-of-its-own-192208200.html?src=rss

The upcoming science fiction film Project Hail Mary is getting a LEGO set. This is fascinating because LEGO typically makes sets based on long-standing franchises like Star Wars and Harry Potter. Project Hail Mary doesn’t even hit theaters until March 20.

It’s not an entirely new IP. The movie is based on a 2021 book written by Andy Weir, the same author behind The Martian. It’s cool to see a LEGO set based on something more contemporary than its usual fare.

The 830-piece set looks pretty nifty. It includes a replica of The Hail Mary spaceship in all of its glory, complete with minifigures of teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace and his ultra-cute alien buddy that the whole world will likely fall in love with once the film hits.

LEGO

The set also comes with a functional display stand and a crank that moves the components around to simulate centrifugal gravity. The minifigures can even be arranged to recreate an iconic scene from the book and, likely, the movie.

LEGO’s Project Hail Mary set is available for preorder right now and costs $100. It ships on March 1, giving fans around 20 days to build it before the movie hits theaters.

The film involves a reluctant astronaut attempting to solve a mystery as to why the sun is dying. It stars Ryan Gosling and is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind the Spiderverse films and, incidentally, The LEGO Movie.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/project-hail-mary-is-getting-its-own-lego-set-191106809.html?src=rss

Little kids hosting make-believe tea parties is a fixture of childhood playtime and long presumed to be exclusively a human ability. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University presented evidence in a new paper published in the journal Science that a bonobo named Kanzi was also able to participate in pretending to hold a tea party. For the authors, this suggests that apes are capable of using their imagination just like human toddlers.

“It really is game-changing that their mental lives go beyond the here and now,” said co-author Christopher Krupenye. “Imagination has long been seen as a critical element of what it is to be human, but the idea that it may not be exclusive to our species is really transformative. Jane Goodall discovered that chimps make tools, and that led to a change in the definition of what it means to be human, and this, too, really invites us to reconsider what makes us special and what mental life is out there among other creatures.”

Per Krupenye et al., by the age of two, human children are able to navigate imaginary scenarios like a tea party, pretending there is real tea present even if the teapot and cups are actually empty. Cognitively speaking, it’s an example of secondary representation, because it involves decoupling an imagined or simulated state (pretending there is actual tea in the cup) with the reality (the cup is empty).

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I’ve always said there’s no good reason to buy an older model Whoop band, since the company will give you the latest model for free when you subscribe. But on Reddit, some people who already own Whoop 5.0 bands are buying up old 4.0 bands to get a bargain on the subscription price. 

There have been a few posts on this, but perhaps the master of this hack is Redditor u/thelifeofcb, who found Whoop 4.0 bands, new in box, at a T. J. Maxx store for $39 each, and bought several. This allowed them to extend their existing subscription—they wear a Whoop 5.0—for several years at essentially a $200/year discount.

How the discount Whoop hack works

When new Whoop bands are sold through retailers, they come packaged with a one-year subscription. The idea is that you’ll create an account on the app, pair the band you bought through the app, and get credit for a 12-month subscription—since that was the main thing you paid for when you bought the band at full price.

Back in the Whoop 4.0 days, there was only one tier of membership. When tiers were introduced, those subscriptions rolled over to a Peak subscription, the one that currently goes for $239/year. That means a 4.0 device—however much you pay for it—can give you a year-long Peak subscription.

Redditors have found that pairing one of these new Whoop 4.0 devices added a year’s subscription to their accounts, whether they were a new customer or not. That means you can buy a few discount bands, pair them all, and enjoy several years’ worth of discounted membership. That $39 band is thus a $200 discount on each year’s membership. Some say that they received an offer to upgrade to a Whoop 5.0 band if they added two years’ worth of membership (paired two bands).

That $39 price is an unusually good one, but you can still get a significant discount anywhere new Whoop 4.0 devices are sold. For example, Amazon has 4.0 devices right now for $124, which is still about half the price of a Peak subscription. You can find them cheaper on eBay, but I’d be wary of buying a box that may have been opened. I’ll explain that below. 

Scoring a cheap Whoop won’t always work, though

While Redditors say this works—and it does fit with my understanding of how subscriptions are paid for and claimed in the app—there are a few pitfalls to beware of. 

The first is that this applies to new-in-box devices that (1) are sold with a subscription, and (2) have never been paired. The hack would not work with a hand-me-down device that has already been used, nor with a new one that has already been paired and its subscription claimed. For example, you can’t pass the same band to a friend and expect it to give both of you a subscription. 

This means you have to be sure the band you buy has not been opened. If a store accepts returns of opened items, they may not realize that the valuable item here—the digital subscription—has already been claimed. If they put it back on the shelf, and you buy it, you’re out the purchase price and you still don’t have a subscription. 

The other issue is just the e-waste that this causes. You’re buying a device just to throw it in the trash. But I’d argue that’s Whoop’s fault, not yours—those devices are obsolete and headed for the landfill (or responsible electronics recycling program, if you can find one) regardless of what you do. 

Automattic and the Internet Archive have released a free, open-source WordPress plugin that automatically detects broken outbound links on a site and redirects visitors to archived Wayback Machine copies instead of serving them a 404 error.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer, which launched last fall and is available on WordPress.org, runs in the background scanning posts for dead links, checking for existing archived versions, and requesting new snapshots when none exist. It also archives a site’s own posts whenever they are updated. If the original link comes back online, the plugin stops redirecting.

Pew Research has found that 38% of the web has disappeared over the past decade, and WordPress powers more than 40% of websites online.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A poor night’s sleep might leave you feeling like your eyelids have filled with lead—and keeping them open is the ultimate dead lift. But for some, bad sleep brings on eyelids so droopy and floppy that they can do curl ups on their own.

That was the unfortunate case for a 39-year-old woman who sought care at an ophthalmology clinic in Brooklyn, New York. She told the doctors that for six weeks she felt like she had something in her eyes, and they were watery. By the time of her appointment, her eyelids had rolled up, flipping inside-out on their own—and were staying that way. In the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors report her eye-opening case—and its unexpected solution.

(You can see images of her eyelids—flipped and recovered—here. The images may seem graphic to some, but they are not much worse than that kid in elementary school who would flip their eyelids just to freak everyone out for laughs. You know the one.)

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The US Central Intelligence Agency is ending one of its popular services, The World Factbook. Over the decades, this reference has provided readers with information about different countries and communities around the world. The post from the CIA announcing the news didn’t provide any information about why it will stop offering The World Factbook. The agency was subject to the same buyouts and job cuts that decimated much of the federal workforce in 2025, so maybe this type of public-facing tool is no longer a priority. 

This reference guide was first published in 1962 as The National Basic Intelligence Factbook. That original tome was classified, but as other government departments began using it, an unclassified version for the public was released in 1971. It became a digital resource on the CIA website in 1997.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-cia-stops-publishing-the-world-factbook-184419024.html?src=rss

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If you’re a competitive gamer, OLED displays are widely recommended for their speedy pixel response times, which virtually eliminate motion blur and ghosting. The result is smoother, sharper visuals with better contrast, so you don’t have to deal with the dreaded slow-motion lag when you’re in the zone. LG’s UltraGear monitors are known for leading the charge in this area, and right now, the highly rated 27-inch LG 27GX700A-B Ultragear OLED monitor is 41% off at $473.99 (originally $799.99), taking more than $300 off the price tag. 

LG 27GX700A-B Ultragear OLED Monitor

$473.99
at Amazon

$799.99
Save $326.00

$473.99
at Amazon

$799.99
Save $326.00

This QHD OLED monitor delivers deep blacks and infinite contrast with vibrant colors and 1300 nit brightness (very high for an OLED, though the tradeoff may be some color accuracy), as well as a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03 response time for smoother gameplay. Dark scenes are enhanced by DisplayHDR True Black 400 plus OLED per-pixel lighting, while FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync keep frames steady and eliminate tearing. It’s also UL-certified as anti-glare with a matte screen compared to similar models from competitors with a TrueBlack Glossy coating—and it’s flicker-free with low blue light emission.

For serious gamers looking to upgrade to crisp OLED visuals with maximum brightness, better motion clarity thanks to a high refresh rate and best-in-class contrast, the LG 27GX700A-B Ultragear OLED monitor takes blurry guesswork out of the equation. While it doesn’t have 4K detail or the immersive scale of a larger curved monitor, at a rare 41% discount, you’ll be hard-pressed to find comparable quality at a sub-$500 price point. 

Nintendo capped off today’s partner-focused Nintendo Direct with a flurry of Bethesda-related announcements, but arguably the most interesting game of the showcase appeared right at the start.

First announced at the beginning of the year, Orbitals is a two-player puzzle adventure game in which you and your co-op partner play as the intergalactic explorers Maki and Omura, on a mission to save their home in the stars from an incoming cosmic storm. Gameplay-wise, Orbitals looks like it’s at least partly inspired by the likes of It Takes Two and Split Fiction, but really what really stands out here is the 90s anime-inspired visuals.

The game is absolutely dripping in style, and somehow looks just as good in motion as it does in cutscenes. Describing it as a playable Saturday morning cartoon is getting into cliche territory, but Orbitals really nails its aesthetic.

It will be a tall order for any game like this to clear the impossibly high bar for creative co-op gameplay that Josef Fares’ Hazelight Studios has set in recent years, but Orbitals looks like it could be worth experiencing for its visuals alone.

Nintendo has managed to nab this one as a Switch 2 exclusive, which you can either play locally or online, and thanks to the console’s GameShare feature, only one person needs to own the game for the latter.   

Orbitals arrives at some point during summer 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-switch-2-exclusive-co-op-adventure-orbitals-launches-this-summer-180657892.html?src=rss

There is very little functional difference between iOS and Android these days. The systems could integrate quite well if it weren’t for the way companies prioritize lock-in over compatibility. At least in the realm of file sharing, Google is working to fix that. After adding basic AirDrop support to Pixel 10 devices last year, the company says we can look forward to seeing it on many more phones this year.

At present, the only Android phones that can initiate an AirDrop session with Apple devices are Google’s latest Pixel 10 devices. When Google announced this upgrade, it vaguely suggested that more developments would come, and it now looks like we’ll see more AirDrop support soon.

According to Android Authority, Google is planning a big AirDrop expansion in 2026. During an event at the company’s Taipei office, Eric Kay, Google’s VP of engineering for Android, laid out the path ahead.

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