All the Samsung Galaxy S25 Rumors We Know so Far (Including a Potential Launch Date)

We're getting close to a year since the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, which means it's almost time for the Galaxy S25 series to break cover—and there have been plenty of leaks and rumors about what to expect. Nothing is confirmed yet, but here you'll find all of that speculation collected and cross-referenced.

It looks as though we're going to get four models next year: The usual trio of the standard Galaxy S25, the Galaxy S25 Plus, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and then the added bonus of a new Galaxy S25 'Slim' model that goes for a thinner form factor (and may or may not end up replacing the Galaxy S24 FE).

Samsung Galaxy S25: launch date and pricing

Considering the Galaxy S24 phones were launched on January 17, 2024, it's a safe bet that we'll see the Galaxy S25 replacements around a year later. Most well-placed sources, including South Korean outlet Financial News, are predicting an Unpacked event on Wednesday, January 22, 2025—with a possible on-sale date of February 7.

There's some debate about whether or not the Galaxy S25 Slim will appear at the same time as the other three models, or come out later in the year: It's possible we might get a January tease before a full launch several months down the line. Some tipsters have specified Q2 2025 for this handset (April, May, or June).

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A promotional poster for Galaxy Unpacked January 2025 has leaked online, which makes reference to the January 22 date. It also looks like we can see the corners of four different phones there, backing up the idea that the Slim model is going to be showcased at this event even if it doesn't go on sale immediately.

As for pricing, most of the leaks so far are predicting some kind of bump over the launch prices attached to the Galaxy S24 models (which started at $799 for the base model). This has been attributed to the cost of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, but there may be variations between countries.

Samsung Galaxy S25: four different models

The Galaxy S25 series will start with the standard S25 model: While it will have that faster Snapdragon chip on the inside, on the outside, it doesn't look like much will change. The same 6.2-inch screen is expected, and there might be some tweaks to the camera lens design. Speaking of cameras, several sources say the Galaxy S25 will match the Galaxy S24 with a triple-lens 50MP+10MP+12MP rear camera setup with 3x optical zoom.

It's much the same story with the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus—there won't be much in the way of upgrades over the Galaxy S24 Plus, apart from the faster silicon inside and a potential bump to 12GB of RAM. The general consensus is that the screen size will stay the same at 6.7 inches, while the rear camera will match the standard S25. We have seen some hands-on images for this handset leaked too.

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There's a bit more changing with the Galaxy 25 Ultra, apparently. It's rumored to have more rounded corners, tiny bezels, and an upgrade to the ultrawide camera that's part of the triple-lens setup on the back (from 12MP to 50MP). The screen size will remain the same at 6.8 inches, but we might see a 16GB option for the RAM, alongside the upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

As for the new Galaxy S25 Slim model, based on the leaks that have emerged to date, we're looking at a phone that could be thinner than the rest with a high-end camera setup on the back that beats the standard Galaxy S25. It's not clear what else this handset is going to bring with it, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite should be the processor inside it.

Samsung Galaxy S25: other specs and features

It doesn't look like the Galaxy S25 phones are going to be drastically different from the Galaxy S24 equivalents in a lot of areas: The rather slow charging speeds are apparently going to be the same again, while battery capacities might not be upgraded either (though internal optimizations may lead to better battery life).

There have been some rumors spreading about the colors that are coming with the new phones—and it's mostly what we've seen before, plus some potential new additions. Blues, whites, and grays dominate, though it's not clear exactly what the differences will be from the Galaxy S24 series until we actually see them (the same color could be used but with a new name, for example).

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It looks very probable that the final version of One UI 7.0 (Samsung's take on Android 15) will be pushed out alongside the Galaxy 25 phones. The software is currently in beta testing, and—unsurprisingly—comes with a bunch of new AI features (including call transcriptions) as well as some tweaks to the interface design.

All told, we already have a good idea of what's coming from Samsung with the Galaxy S25 series, although of course, nothing is confirmed until it actually is. While there aren't any dramatic upgrades in the pipeline, it would seem there are a few well-chosen tweaks on the way—as well as, perhaps, a fourth model.

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You Can Search With 'Natural Language' on Apple TV and Music Now

You can now use "natural language" to search in both Apple Music and Apple TV. The subtle change is part of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, tvOS 18.12, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, all of which came out this week. The feature "lets you describe what you’re looking for using any combination of categories like genres, moods, actors, decades, and more," according to Apple.

This sounds great in theory, but how does it work in real life? I'd say it's probably not going to change your life but is fine overall. One tip before I jump in: the auto-populated results that show up as you type don't use this feature, meaning you need to actually hit the Search button on your device

For example: I asked for an "unsettling office drama," basically setting Apple up to recommend its show Severance(which is amazing). And it kind of worked: there was a British drama that's not set in an office followed by Severance. The results also included The Morning Show, which... I guess kind of fits.

Credit: Justin Pot

Maybe more hilariously: I typed "sitcoms like The Office" and was recommended the (original) British version of the show, which makes sense. That's followed by Friends, which is pretty different, if similarly bingeable, and Parks and Recreation, which is different in tone but has some writers and the mockumentary format in common. Results also included The Big Bang Theory, which is inexcusable, and Mythic Quest, which honestly should be higher.

So, yeah, a mixed bag for abstract questions—it kind of works but has questionable taste. It works a lot more accurately if you search for movies by a specific director or shows featuring a certain actor.

The feature also works in Apple Music. I searched for artists "similar to Billie Eilish" and the top recommendation was Olivia Rodrigo, which I'd question a little bit, but Eilish's brother and collaborator FINEAS also showed up which is fair enough.

Credit: Justin Pot

I also searched for "Indie Christmas Albums" and got Sufjan Steven's classic Songs For Christmas, which make sense, and Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas, which does not. So, as with TV, the results are mixed. It's nothing if not interesting, though. Give it a shot if you have a TV or Music subscription.

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Why I Love My Travel Drawer (and What I Put In It)

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I first heard of a “travel drawer” right here on Lifehacker, where Kristin Wong wrote about the idea in 2016. I mentally rolled my eyes. Setting aside a whole drawer just for things you only use on a trip? But now I have one, I love it, and I’ll tell you all about what I keep in it and how it’s changed my life.

What is a travel drawer, and why would you want one? 

A travel drawer is a permanent drawer (or similar location) in your home where you keep all the items you only use when traveling. As Kristin Wong wrote in that fateful article: “Packing typically means rounding up all the junk you’re going to take with you on your trip: your passport, travel adapters, chargers, toiletries, and so on. You can save a lot of time keeping all of that junk in one area.”

My travel “drawer” is a rolling plastic tote that lives under my bed. My passport lives elsewhere, but otherwise I use it exactly as she described. My beloved hanging toiletry bag? It’s in there. Adapters I only use in hotel rooms? Of course. A selection of packing cubes? You know it. And not only does it make packing easier, it makes unpacking easier as well. I come home, dump my dirty clothes in the laundry, and put my travel items right back in their drawer. Five minutes and I’m 80% unpacked.

Sterilite 66 Quart Stadium Blue Ultra Storage Box

$19.98 at Walmart

$16.86 Save 0.00

$19.98 at Walmart

$16.86 Save 0.00

In theory, you could use your suitcase as the travel drawer, but I find a suitcase is one of the least convenient places to keep travel things. Because when you travel, you don’t usually want all of your travel items. (Some are for flying, some are for road trips, some are seasonal…you get the idea.) You’ll bring this item, but not that one, and then what happens to the rest? You just have a big pile. If you go this route, at least have your travel things in a bag or box inside the suitcase.

What I keep in my travel drawer

Besides the waste of a drawer, the other reason I was skeptical at first was that I didn’t imagine I had that many travel-specific items. But not only did I turn out to have more than I thought (once I collected them together), I found that having a designated space for travel items allowed me to assemble a thoughtful collection of travel items. No more “where will this toiletry case live in the bathroom?” or “is it worth buying this mug if it’s going to get lost amongst all my other mugs?” 

So here, below, are the most game-changing travel items I keep in my travel drawer. I’ll also shout out my colleague Allie Reinmann’s list of travel essentials, which you should peruse as well. 

Packing cubes

I am not kidding when I say packing cubes changed my life. I have a large collection of them in this drawer, because I need enough for my whole family. (I travel probably half a dozen times a year. The rest of the family, usually just once. That’s why the travel drawer is mine, but I share.) I have different sizes and different types, including regular, compression, and my new fave, the clean/dirty packing cube. There’s a divider that lets you put dirty clothes in one side and clean in the other, so you don’t need a separate laundry bag for the trip home.

A pop-up laundry hamper

For the laundry situation while you’re in the hotel, though, it’s super handy to have a pop-up hamper. Toss your dirty clothes in there at the end of the night, instead of stuffing them into a drawer or leaving them in a pile on the floor. Any basic pop-up hamper will do; pick one up from the dorm supplies section during any back-to-school sale.

An organizer for all my chargers

You can organize your cables and adapters any way you like. I’m partial to this roll-up organizer. For my phone, I have a magnetic charging puck that can plug into any USB-C cable, which saves me from having to pack a dedicated magnetic charger or a lightning cable. 

Sleep shorts

You know what I’m always forgetting to pack? Pajamas. Even when they’re on my packing list, I’ll hem and haw about which ones to bring, because I like a nice cozy pair of sweatpants at home, but sweatpants take up a lot of space in the suitcase. On one trip where I had forgotten any sleeping clothes (again), I bought a pair of thin, soft sleep shorts. Not only do they pack up small, I’ve designated them my Travel Pajamas (they can be paired with any of the T-shirts I always pack) and they live in the travel drawer. I never forget my pajamas anymore.

A good toiletry bag with all your mini toiletries

I like a hanging toiletry bag, since it doesn’t really need to be packed or unpacked. My favorite is this little one from Travelon. Pro tip: Bring a single shower curtain hook so that you can hang it anywhere, even if the hotel doesn’t have a spot that fits the little built-in hook.

Inside the toiletry bag, most of the contents are predictable, and I won’t bore you with them. For example, I have a collapsible toothbrush and a mini toothpaste tube. (I don’t usually bring shampoo or soap; a hotel or a local drugstore will provide.) But there are two specific items I’d like to call out, since they save so much space, time and trouble. The first is a little razor that comes in its own compact case. Mine is the Venus Mini, which seems to be discontinued, but here’s an off-brand with the same form factor.

Travel Razors for Women Include 1 Handle and 5 Cartridges, Extra Smooth 5-Blade Mini Razor with Travel Case, Portable Travel Size Toiletries for Women, Orange

$14.99 at Amazon

$14.99 at Amazon

The other, which also fits in my little toiletry bag, is what some product listings call a “pocket pharmacy.” It’s a pill case, but instead of being organized according to what meds you take each day of the week, it’s just a little selection of things you may or may not need. I have ibuprofen in there in case I have sore muscles after a weightlifting meet (a lot of my travel is for weightlifting meets). I have Claritin in case I encounter something I’m allergic to. I have melatonin tablets in case I need help sleeping. The best pocket pharmacies come with little stickers to label all the compartments.

Pill Organizer with 161 Medicine Labels Travel Daily Pill Container Mini Medication Organizer Storage Pill Organizer Pill Case 7 Day Pill Organizer (Grey)

$4.99 at Amazon

$4.99 at Amazon

This strangely versatile 50-cent tumbler

When I picked up a 50-cent plastic cup at a Walmart while traveling, I never imagined it would become such a staple for me. Not only is it handy as a water glass, it’s also microwaveable, so it works as a mug if you want to warm up a hot drink. And it’s big enough you can eat a decent sized portion of cereal or oatmeal out of it with a spoon (or a mini travel spork). I got four more of them for our family vacation, and the kids got into the habit of saving a little bottle of milk from breakfast and then making themselves hot cocoa in the evening. Get a different color for each family member, and do yourself a favor and rinse out the milk immediately after using it, OK? 

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Four-Packs of AirTags Are $30 Off Right Now

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Apple's AirTags use the Find My network to track just about anything you can put them on, like car keys, luggage, or even a dog's collar. Right now, Amazon has a four-pack on sale for $69.99 (originally $99), matching the record-low price, according to price-checking tools. If you're a Prime Member, you'll be getting them before Christmas.

Keep track of and find your items alongside friends and devices in the Find My app

Apple AirTag 4 pack

$69.99 at Amazon

$99.00 Save $29.01

$69.99 at Amazon

$99.00 Save $29.01

AirTags are useful gadgets, and their usefulness extends to your creativity. They are mostly marketed for purses, keys, and travel bags, but there are examples of people using them much more creatively (the author of this Reddit post used it on their dog collar and trained it to come back whenever they pressed the "play sound" feature). It works by using Apple's network of iOS devices to create a Bluetooth network. Essentially, every person with an iPhone (or iPad) is part of this iOS network, and as long as one of these people is within Bluetooth range of your AirTag, it will show up on your Find My app.

As you can see on PCMag's "excellent" review of the AirTag, the Find My app has a screen that points you in the direction of your AirTag like a compass, including the distance away it is from you. There is also an option to play a sound, which is perfect for, say, finding a remote that's buried under the couch.

Once you are more than 30 feet from your phone, the network of iOS users will kick in. When the AirTag is below that range, it uses your own Bluetooth. There are security measures in place set by Apple, including end-to-end encryption so nobody (not even Apple) knows where your AirTag is except for you. The batteries last about a year and are replaceable. There is also no monthly charge for these, unlike competitors like Tile for Android users.

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The Best TV Series to Stream This Week

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If you're looking for a new show to watch this week, the vast landscape of streaming networks will provide. There aren't a ton of new series-of-note this week (it's the holidays) but you can check out the streaming debut of Beast Games, a competition reality show from YouTube sensation Mr. Beast. There's also Peacock's Laid, a rom-com with a dark, intriguing premise that stars the amazing Stephanie Hsu.

Beast Games

YouTube’s most famous creator, Mr. Beast, makes a bid for crossover success with this competition reality show where 1,000 competitors compete for a grand prize of $5 million. If you’re in the market for a real-life version of Squid Game, or you find mindless spectacle TV an engaging time-waste, you’ll want to check out Beast Games.

Where to stream: Prime

Laid

Peacock describes Laid as "a f*cked up rom com" and it's not wrong; the title refers to both getting laid and being laid to rest. Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) plays Ruby, a perpetually single woman whose body count becomes a body count when everyone she has ever had sex with starts dying. Along with warning past lovers and trying to figure out what's going on, Ruby has to navigate dating knowing that having sex with anyone could result in their demise.

Where to stream: Peacock

Dream Productions

Set in the world of Pixar's Inside Out franchise, Dream Productions takes us inside Riley's unconscious mind and shows us how the production studio that creates her dreams works. Paula Pell voices dream director Paula Persimmon whose constant struggle to produce hit dreams on time and under budget is complicated when Xeni, voiced by the great Richard Ayoade, shows up. He's a smug daydream director trying to break into the big time world of sleeping dreams.

Where to stream: Disney+

Last week's picks

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Based on the masterpiece of magical realism by Nobel-Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the epic story of generations of the cursed Buendía family, condemned to solitude for 100 years. José Arcadio Buendía (Marco González) and Úrsula Iguarán (Susana Morales) are cousins and lovers who set out to build a perfect town called Macondo, but the result is not the Utopia they'd envisioned.

Where to stream: Netflix

No Good Deed

Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow star in this black comedy about the cutthroat world of real estate in Los Angeles. No Good Deed follows three families competing to buy the same 1920s Spanish-style villa in Los Feliz, each convinced the house will make their dreams come true. But it's actually all a bigger nightmare than trying to buy a real house in Los Angeles. The all-star cast also includes Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, Teyonah Parris, and Denis Leary.

Where to stream: Netflix

The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga

Wanna hear something weird? Last week I was reading about a ricin attack on President Obama that the FBI traced back to Tupelo, Mississippi and a feud between a karate instructor and an Elvis impersonator. I thought, "I need a documentary series about this right away, so I can learn more about the eccentrics involved and the place that gave birth to them." Then Netflix announced The Kings of Tupelo. Maybe I should have wished for world peace, but this show is a more-than-adequate consolation prize.

Where to stream: Netflix

Paris & Nicole: The Encore

Want to feel old? Me neither. But it doesn't change the fact that it's been 20 years since Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie starred on pioneering reality show The Simple Life. This three-part series reunites the pair. No longer carefree party girls, Hilton and Richie are getting serious, kind of. The Encore sees the pair trying to turn their "famous song" "Sanasa, Sanasa" into an opera. It's a stupid premise, but so was putting them on a farm; they're still entertaining to watch.

Where to stream: Peacock

Queer Eye, Season 9

It's time for more Queer Eye, the reality show where a pack of gay men change the lives of good-hearted, regular people who need new clothes, new furniture, and new lives. Even though this series has been running for approximately 83 years and each episode is pretty much the same, it's not boring at all. Every great story is about transformation, and watching caterpillars morph into butterflies never gets old. I've cried when I've watched this show, not gonna lie.

Starts streaming December 11.

Secret Level

Secret Level is an animated anthology series featuring stories set in the universe of various video game franchises. From the team behind the excellent sci-fi series Love Death + Robots, Secret Level features episodes set in the worlds of Pac-Man, Warhammer 40,000, Mega Man, Unreal Tournament, and many others—it's the perfect show for gamers.

Where to stream: Prime

Dexter: Original Sin

Cable TV's most famous serial killer returns in this prequel series. Dexter: Original Sin stars Patrick Gibson as a young, bright-eyed Dexter Morgan, interning with the Miami PD/CSI. But Morgan is plagued by an overwhelming need to murder. Luckily, Dexter has a role model—his father, played by Christian Slater. Pops Morgan is all too ready to teach his son how to pick the right victims and how to not be caught. If you like murder and father-and-son relationships, this is the show for you.

Where to Stream: Paramount+

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The Best New Movies to Stream This Week

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Looking to settle in with a good movie? Me too. That's why I've pored over release schedules to bring you the best original and new-to-streaming movies you can watch on Netflix, Prime, Max, Hulu, and other streaming platforms this week.

Things are a bit sleepy in terms of the quantity of new releases this week, but the quality is there, particularly in Clint Eastwood legal drama Juror #2, a courtroom potboiler you should not miss.

Juror #2

Directed by 94-year-old icon Clint Eastwood and starring Tony Collette, J.K Simmons, Chris Messina, Kiefer Sutherland, and Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2 is a legal drama exploring justice and personal responsibility. Hoult plays Justin Kemp, an everyman serving on the jury of high-profile murder case. When Kemp realizes he might have personal knowledge of the crime, he must decide whether he'll try to sway the rest of the jury. This movie is getting extremely good reviews from critics.

Where to stream: Max

Blink

Directed by Oscar winners Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, Blink is a family-friendly documentary about the Lemay-Pelletier family of Montreal. After three of their four children are diagnosed with incurable, degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, their parents take them on a trip around the world to see the most beautiful and majestic things on Earth before their vision disappears forever.

Where to stream: Hulu

The Six Triple Eight

Tyler Perry gets historical in The Six Triple Eight, a movie detailing World War II's only Women’s Army Corps unit of color, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. Their job during the war was sorting through a backlog of millions of pieces of mail addressed to American soldiers. Kerry Washington plays Captain Charity Adams who heads up a division of 855 women who help defeat Hitler by making sure letters get to their intended recipients. Because you can't win a war with low morale.

Where to stream: Netflix

Last week's picks

Conclave (2024)

Set in Vatican City, critically acclaimed thriller Conclave begins with the announcement that the Pope is dead, and proceeds to take us inside the complicated rituals and politicking that lead to the selection of a new Holy Father. Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, is the man in charge of the election, and his already difficult task becomes monumental when he uncovers dark secrets that could bring down the church. Joining Fiennes is a dream cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Don't miss this one.

Where to stream: Peacock

Carry-On

This Christmas-themed thriller is set in at Los Angeles International Airport on Christmas Eve, where a TSA agent who couldn't get the holiday off matches wits with a terrorist mastermind. Taron Egerton plays everyman TSA dude Ethan Kopek who receives a phone call from a mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) threatening to kill his girlfriend if he doesn't allow a dangerous package onto a Christmas Eve flight. This is, I think you'll agree, a great set-up for a single-location thriller.

Where to stream: Netflix

A Sudden Case of Christmas

Danny Devito, Andie MacDowell, and Wilmer Valderrama stars in this holiday trifle set in The Dolomites, Italy. In it, a young girl named Claire, played by Antonella Rose, learns that her parents are splitting up. But she wants one last Christmas together with the family, and even though it's August, everyone agrees. Hulu describes this original Christmas flick as a "fun, warm, touching family comedy," and I won't argue.

Where to stream: Hulu

Beau Is Afraid (2023)

A harrowing look at mental illness from Ari Aster, Beau Is Afraid isn’t like any other movie. It’s a terrifying, surreal, and often inscrutable journey into the psyche of the main character, played by a fully committed Joaquin Phoenix. Beau's routine trip to visit his mother turns into an epic personal journey in which reality and delusion merge.

Where to stream: Prime

Sugarcane

This critically acclaimed documentary from National Geographic aims to uncover what happened at St. Joseph's mission, a Catholic native residential school in Canada. Evidence of unmarked graves was found on the grounds in 2021, leading to an investigation that uncovered long-buried secrets and revealed the troubling history of Canada's boarding schools for Native people.

Where to stream: Hulu

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Through interviews with family and friends, this documentary tells the story of the rise of the actor the world would come to know as Superman, the near-fatal accident that left him paralyzed, and his activism in its aftermath. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story isn't a hagiography; Reeves was a complex man, and this movie isn't afraid to delve into his frustration over being typecast as Superman and battles with his own demons.

Where to stream: Max

Nature of the Crime

In Nature of the Crime, we follow three incarcerated men as they get ready for parole hearings after decades in prison. These men were convicted in their teens; now middle-aged, they face a board of citizens who must weigh the protection of society against the rehabilitation of longtime convicts.

Where to stream: Max

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What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: The New Jersey Drone Invasion

No one wants it to be aliens more than me. Even if they’re planning to force us to work in outer space diamond mines, I’d still welcome alien overlords. But it's never aliens. The “drones” everyone is seeing are not aliens. They aren’t foreign invaders, or part of a secret government project, or anything else cool either. No one can say with 100% certainty, but I’d bet my collection of solid gold backscratchers that the recent wave of reports of unidentified flying objects is because people are very bad at identifying objects. 

Here’s a brief recap if you’ve been under a rock: in mid-November, dozens of people across 10 counties in New Jersey reported seeing drones (or something) in the nighttime sky. According to authorities in New Jersey, drones were seen in the sky above critical infrastructure like water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments and military installations. After the initial media coverage, more reported sightings came in. People posted pictures and videos or lights and blobs in the sky. Congressmen called for transparency and vigilance. The Department of Defense reassured no one by saying that they don’t know what the objects are, but they aren’t from a foreign source and they aren’t dangerous. Credulous online types shared theories, blurry photographic evidence, and their feelings about the alien visitation/foreign invasion/secret project/mass psyop to distract us from the real threat: vampires. And that’s where we are now: sifting through a growing trove of over 5,000 citizen reports of UFOs or UAPS, theorizing, and waiting for an official explanation or a visitation from the mothership. 

I could see how someone might think drone-mania seems like the beginning of an alien invasion—this Pentagon briefing would fit in perfectly in act one of a Michael Bay movie, for instance—but we don’t really know what an alien or high tech enemy invasion of the U.S. would look like because it hasn’t happened before. We do know what mass hysteria (or Mass Sociogenic Technophobia) looks like, and it turns out it looks exactly like this. And it's not just me who thinks so; the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, FAA, and Department of Defense are also like, "there's nothing here."

A few of the many, many things in the sky that people may be mistaking for UFOs or mystery drones

As reports of drone sightings over New Jersey and the rest of the country have spread, presumably more people are looking up into the sky, and it turns out there are a ton of things up there that can be difficult to immediately identify. Like:

Airplanes and helicopters

Many reported drone sightings are along the known paths of manned airplanes or helicopters and are almost definitely planes or helicopters. As drone expert Dr. Will Austin explains, “After analyzing numerous videos shared by concerned citizens, I’m inclined to believe that many of the reported ‘large drones’ were actually manned aircraft mistakenly identified as drones.” 

A giveaway of a plane or helicopter are the red and green lights. The FAA requires those on aircrafts flying at night, so be highly suspicious of drone photos in those colors. If you can find out the time and location of a sighting, you can check whether it’s a commercial aircraft too. 

Moving objects in the sky can appear stationary, depending on your movement relative to them, so it would be easy to mistake a moving airplane as a hovering drone. Check out this video to see what I mean: 

Venus, Jupiter, and other celestial bodies

People mistake mundane celestial bodies for UFOs all the time. For instance, Larry Hogan, the governor of Maryland seems to think the constellation Orion is “dozens of large drones.”

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Mundane American drones

You gotta figure that anyone with a drone on the East coast is trying to get a better look at whatever is supposed to be up there at night, and each new drone could potentially be mistaken for something mysterious. Along with hobby drones, there are commercial and governments drones used for everything from firefighting to photography. Unlike airplanes, you can’t check the flightpaths for these. 

Lens flares, bokeh, and other camera artifacts

Check out this trippy “alien orb” filmed by ABC news:

View this post on Instagram

It’s actually a zoomed in, out-of-focus point of light. Probably a star. Like these:

Balloons, plastic bags, etc.

As a frequent lurker on Reddit’s r/UFO, I’m amazed at the number of people who can’t tell a mylar balloon from a flying saucer. Really anything can look like a UFO, from a weird cloud to a kite to a bug that gets close to the camera lens. 

Intentional hoaxes

Anyone interested in hoaxing people must be having a field day. It’s not terribly difficult to do, even when we’re not in the middle of a UFO craze, see?

Satellites and space junk

The International space station, Elon Musk’s StarLink satellites, and thousands of other things we shot into space are orbiting Earth. A lot of them are visible from Earth and could make you think “foreign drone!” Or “UFO!”

Secret aircraft

Now we’re getting into the more fun area of UFOs sighting: experimental aircraft. The U.S. government has a history of flying airplanes no one knows about, and many people catching sight of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Northrop Grumman B-2 mistook them for UFOs before they were announced. A stealth plane even crashed in Bakersfield resulting in a scene straight out of E.T. So it’s possible people are seeing secret drones, but it seems unlikely: testing an unknown drone in a heavily populated area seems like a bad way to keep it secret, especially if there are lights on it. But it’s possible. 

...Something unknown, like an object that's flying

Known flying objects likely account for almost all sightings reported, and if they had enough time and energy, I'm confident someone could figure out what each one actually was. But that doesn’t accounts for all UFOs and/or UAPs. There are a handful of examples of UFO sightings where multiple credible witnesses report seeing something mysterious in the sky, often backed up with hard evidence. For instance, the USS Nimitz Tic Tac was seen by multiple experienced military pilots whose accounts were backed up with footage from infrared cameras and RADAR. 

While these cases can’t be dismissed as nothing, they can’t be confirmed as something either. Right now, these kinds of sightings are in the “we don’t know what that is” file. They may be explained in the future, but for now, they’re annoying mysteries. There haven’t been any sightings in the recent wave that come close to the level of evidence needed to think there might be something “real” there, at least none I'm aware of.

That time aliens broke everyone’s windshields

If you want a prediction for how this all ends, the “Seattle windshield pitting epidemic” provides a possible outcome. This incident began in April 1954, when a handful of residents of Bellingham, WA, reported mysterious dings, chips, and pitting in their car windows that they said had been fine the previous day.

Newspapers reported on the mystery. The police at first suspected that a local gang of juvenile delinquents (I assume dressed in leather jackets and wielding switchblades) were committing vandalism, but that theory was ruled out when reports came in from all over the Pacific Northwest. Some people said they’d watched bubbles forming in the glass in real time, and it was said that car lots were hit particularly hard.

No one had any idea what was behind the phenomenon, but theories ranged from sand fleas burrowing in the glass to fallout from offshore H-Bomb tests to damage caused by radio waves. Before long, police were deluged with thousands of reports of windshield damage from as far away as Vancouver and Ontario. Seattle mayor Allan Pomeroy asked for help from the governor and from President Eisenhower, the police examined over 14,000 windshields. But Seattle's police crime laboratory cracked the case. They issued a report a few weeks into the panic and concluded the culprit was literally nothing. Pits in windshields are a normal byproduct of driving, and the newspaper stories caused people to look at their windshields—instead of through their windshields—for the first time. Wouldn't you know it, there were pits there.

It was a classic case of mass delusion, which is what I strongly suspect is happening in New Jersey, but instead of mistaken a pitted windshield for radiation damage, people are mistaking airplanes for mystery drones. 

Just as the theories about windshield pitting were caused by uneasiness over the then new hydrogen bomb, I suspect our current mass delusion has its roots in an uneasiness about all the new things in the sky—there are over a million drones registered with the FAA, for instance.  Back in the 1950s, people seemed to have either accepted the scientific and logical explanation, or at least stopped talking about it, and the windshield pitting epidemic faded into history.

I’d like to think something like that will happen with the drones, but these are different times, when expertise and science are not as respected, and people seem eager to find their own explanations. I'd bet a solid gold back-scratcher we'll be talking about fake UFOs and mystery drones for a long time.

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Follow This End-of-Year Financial Checklist Before 2025

I'm a sucker for New Year's resolutions, but before you can properly look forward and set new goals, you need to look back and assess where you are in this moment. The end of the year is always a good time to reflect, and your personal finances are no exception. With only a few days left of this year, you still have time to make the most of 2024 and set yourself up for financial success in 2025.

Don’t lose out on flexible spending dollars

If you have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), time is running out to use up your remaining balance. Check in with your employer’s rules regarding any balance remaining on Dec. 31 this year so you aren’t left forfeiting your hard-earned funds.

If you’re unlikely to pack out the rest of your year with doctor’s appointments—either because everywhere is booked months in advance or because that sounds dreadful—fear not. You can spend your remaining FSA funds on other qualifying healthcare costs. You can use FSA funds to upgrade your prescription eyeglasses or buy more contact lenses. You could also hit your local pharmacy and stock up on certain FSA-eligible over-the-counter products, like first aid supplies, popular cold medicines, and even sunscreen. You can find a complete list at the FSA store here.

The employee health FSA contribution limits are increasing from $3,200 to $3,300 in 2025.

Max out your retirement contributions

If you have the means, you should set yourself up now to max out your retirement contributions. For 2025, 401(k) participants are able to contribute as much as $23,500. For IRAs—traditional and Roth—you can max out at $7,000. If you are 50 or older, you can make an additional $1,000 contribution totaling $8,000. These contribution limits apply to the grand total contributions you make each year to all your traditional and Roth IRAs.

Also starting in 2025, employees aged 60 to 63 will be able to make larger catch-up contributions to their 401(k) plans, with new limits set at either $10,000 annually or 150% of the standard catch-up contribution limit—whichever amount is greater.

Remember, the most effective retirement strategy is to contribute consistently and let your investments grow undisturbed over time.

Review your tax withholdings

Sure, Tax Day isn’t for a few more months. Still, now is a good time to review your tax withholdings and payments. If you had a major life event in 2024—like a marriage, divorce, or child—you probably want to adjust your withholding. Check out the Tax Withholding Estimator from the IRS to effectively tailor how much income tax to withhold.

Update your beneficiaries

Like I mention above, if you had a major life change, you’ll want to update the beneficiaries of your finances accordingly. Write down the names of everyone included in the beneficiary portion of your bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and annuities. The end of the year is a prime time to take stock of anyone who may have entered or exited your life and needs to be covered (or perhaps removed).

Reassess your budget

A budget is a living document. If you fell off 2024's resolutions back in the spring, it's never too late to get back on track.

A good place to start is with the 50/15/5 guideline, where 50% of your after-tax income should go towards essential expenses (e.g., rent, utilities, groceries, etc.), at least 15% of pretax income goes towards retirement and 5% should go towards an emergency savings fund. The other 30% is for discretionary spending like travel and dining out. You can use this budget calculator to see how your savings and spending stack up.

Set new financial goals

No matter the current state of your finances, it’s important to be honest with yourself. Sit down and physically write out where you could boost the health of your personal finances. You might even set a values-based budget. Think: Do you have a plan to pay off your debt? Does your spending need to reined in? Are you saving where you could be investing, or vice versa?

My number one tip: Be specific. Figure out what goals you’re trying to reach, when you want to reach them, and how much you want to save. For example, if you’re saving for an upcoming trip, set aside a predetermined amount of money each month to reach your goal. Set plans in motion to accomplish the goals using tactics like budgets, high-yield savings accounts, automated savings contributions, etc.

Think about your priorities going into the new year. You might consider investing in a financial professional to use as a sounding board, as their perspective could be the nudge you need to create (and achieve) your short- and long-term financial goals.

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What a ‘Fart Walk’ Is, and Why You Should Take One Tonight

The humble after-dinner walk has a new name, thanks to a TikToker (mairlynthequeenoffiber) who spoke frankly to the camera about how taking a “fart walk” will help you “age wonderfully.” Her voiceover has been added to dozens of videos, some funny, some sincere. But most importantly: the fart walk really is a health hack, so maybe you should try it—whether you call it that or not. 

What is a fart walk? 

A fart walk is a walk that you take after a meal. It gets its name for the obvious reason: after a meal, your intestines start moving things around, which can sometimes feel like an uncomfortable level of bloating. But exercise like walking helps to relieve that feeling, while also bringing some benefits to your metabolic health, and adding to your daily and weekly exercise quota.

Fart walks may help with the feeling of bloating

Exercise does seem to help relieve bloating. That’s been anecdotally known for a long time, but to really prove that point, researchers infused gas into people’s intestines(!) and then had them lie on their backs, pedaling their legs bicycle style. This pedaling helped to relieve the bloating when compared to just resting. They concluded: “Mild physical activity enhances intestinal gas clearance and reduces symptoms in patients complaining of abdominal bloating.”

Fart walks may help glucose control

After we eat, our digestive system releases glucose (blood sugar) into our bloodstream. That’s normal and good, and the hormone insulin is then supposed to signal the cells of our body to store and use that blood sugar. Exercise helps with glucose control, and so all types of exercise—from walking to weight training—have long been recommended to prevent diabetes and manage symptoms if you already have it.

Exercise after meals might be especially helpful. A 2018 systematic review found that after-meal exercise helped people with type 2 diabetes improve their glucose control. The authors concluded with a recommendation that people with this condition try to get at least 45 minutes of moderate intensity exercise (like walking) after their largest meal of the day. 

That said, the literature is not totally clear on whether exercise really needs to be after a meal to be beneficial, though. The authors of a 2017 study on exercise timing and glucose control concluded that it’s better to get little bits of exercise throughout the day rather than to exercise just once, whether that’s after a meal or otherwise.

It’s nice to get some exercise and talk a walk, farts or no

Besides the benefits to gut health and metabolism, you may just find that you enjoy taking a walk after dinner. A 30-minute walk, at least five times a week, fulfills the minimum exercise guidelines that we should all be meeting (but don’t forget to do a little strength training on the side). 

Or to look at it another way, when you take a walk in the evening, you’re engaging in an Italian tradition called la passeggiata. As Becca Lewis writes there, “it’s about taking the time to enjoy some quiet time with your own mind (if you're walking alone), and to connect with others (if you're walking with a partner or a group). It's not a brisk walk for the purpose of raising your heart rate, but about taking in the sights, and maybe stopping to enjoy a beverage.” You don’t even have to tell anyone that you think of it as your fart walk.

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TikTok Influencers Are Wrong About Hackers Stealing Credit Card Information Over AirDrop

Before I get started: No, people can’t steal your credit card information using AirDrop. AirDrop doesn’t even know what your credit card number is.

In a hoax that’s been spreading around TikTok as of late (the source of the rumor is unclear), viral videos are now saying that hackers can use the iPhone’s AirDrop feature to steal your credit card information from your Apple Wallet. The news was first reported on by The Daily Dot, which to its credit, quickly called it out for the nonsense it is.

What the rumors say

In videos that have been spotted over the embattled social media app the past few weeks, popular users including @vanessaromito13 and @the_journey76 urged their audiences to be cautious of Apple’s AirDrop feature following a “recent update,” claiming hackers can now steal your credit card information just by walking by you with an iPhone in their pocket. Specifically, the latter says hackers can “walk past you now and from one iPhone to another using that AirDrop setting, they can get all the cards in your wallet. In your Apple Wallet.” The former, meanwhile, attempts to offer a solution, encouraging followers to disable the “search with other iPhones” setting.

Fortunately, neither are correct.

Can people steal information through AirDrop?

Whatever sparked these concerns, there’s nothing in the most recent iPhone update (iOS 18.2) that would have done it. Despite the worries over AirDrop, last week’s update made no changes to either AirDrop or Apple Wallet, instead focusing the bulk of its attention on Apple Intelligence.

Instead, the rumors seem to be a repackaging of earlier concerns over the iPhone’s NameDrop functionality, which allows two iPhones to share contact information just by coming into close proximity. Even law enforcement got in on the fearmongering here, but tech experts were quick to point out that the feature requires extremely close physical proximity and consent on both ends. In actuality, most concluded that it doesn’t pose much of a risk.

Saying that people can use AirDrop to steal your credit cards just by walking past you with their iPhone nearby preys on a similar fear, but doesn’t even reference a feature that exists.

First, there is no “search with other iPhones” setting to disable. Speaking generously, the influencer might be referring to the “Bringing Devices Together” setting that got added with NameDrop, or the ability to set your AirDrop permissions to receive requests from everyone for 10 minutes.

Regardless, neither work in the way described. “Bringing Devices Together” is a NameDrop only function, while accepting requests from everyone just means other users can offer to send you files, which you’ll still need to accept before they make their way over to your phone. For them to get files off your phone, you would need to send them over yourself. And regardless, your settings will revert to “Contacts Only” after 10 minutes, with no always-on option to share with everyone available.

Second, AirDrop can’t interact with Apple Wallet. The feature can only share files accessible via the iPhone’s file browser, which isn’t where Apple Wallet stores information. And even if it were, Apple Wallet doesn’t actually have your credit card information—it uses a “Device Account Number” generated by your bank or card provider, which gets encrypted along with everything else in your wallet and is very hard to do anything with unless you have the iPhone it's tied to. According to Apple, “your card number is never stored on your device or on Apple servers.”

In short, the most risk you have of someone nearby stealing your credit card number through Apple Wallet is if they see the last four digits of your card by physically looking at your screen. And even so, there’s not much they can do with that.

Can people steal your Apple Pay transactions through tap-to-pay?

So, yes, this recent warning is a hoax. AirDrop can’t do anything with your payment information, and it’ll take a hacker a bit more diligence to take money from your Apple Pay than just walking by you with an iPhone in their pocket. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn't be vigilant.

Right now, there are two known ways for people to steal from you using Apple Pay, although neither will give them permanent access to your financial information.

The first is to take advantage of stressed-out buyers by overcharging them. As also reported by The Daily Dot, if you’ve already approved a transaction by double tapping into your Apple wallet and authenticating the payment (via FaceID, TouchID, or your PIN), but haven’t yet seen the seller’s screen, they could charge you whatever they like by simply tapping their phone to yours without confirming the sale with you first. In one case, a woman was charged $975 for what she thought would be a $10 box of chocolates because she was already preparing to use Apple Pay before seeing the scammer’s seller screen and how much they were actually going to charge her. Always ensure you see a charge before activating Apple Pay, rather than relying on whatever the seller says the charge will be.

The second is a bit harder to avoid. While hackers can’t use AirDrop to steal your payment information, they can use their own software to steal transactions over-the-air from nearby payment terminals. This is a bit harder to avoid, and is usually employed at particularly busy vendors, such as those at music festivals. In this case, you’ll only be out on whatever you were intending to pay the vendor, but if you’re planning to be in a crowded area with lots of sales going on at once, pay attention to others near you while you’re using Apple Pay— they’ll have to be close by to steal a transaction using NFC. In the case that they do pull it off, though, you can at least rest assured that all information sent to the terminal will have been encrypted.

Again, there are legitimate threats to watch out for here, and it’s a good idea to exercise caution. But allowing panic-spreading social media posts to whip you into a worried frenzy just makes it harder to keep track of the real risks out there, and may make you miss out on the real benefits that come with encryption-focused payment methods like tap-to-pay.

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