How I Choose a Good Sweat-Resistant Sunscreen for My Workouts

After years of working out in the summer sun, I've become a connoisseur of sunscreens. I'll wear this stick for my face, that cream on my hands for shorter runs, this spray for long trail runs—and that's aside from slipping on a sun shirt to provide my primary upper-body protection. The exact formulation of each sunscreen matters, so let me tell you what to look for in order to be a discerning customer.

Before we get into it, I want to make it clear that pretty much any sunscreen is better than no sunscreen, so don't feel like you need to delay your next workout until you have sourced the perfect product. (And no, there are no health concerns about sunscreen that outweigh the very well-documented risks of getting too much sun exposure. Lifehacker's Stephen Johnson has an explainer on that here.)

Pick a texture you don't hate

The best sunscreen is the one you will wear. When I consider my sunscreen options, their effectiveness and sweatproof-ness are only part of the picture. If you find the texture of a certain sunscreen gross, and find excuses not to use it, then it's not protecting you at all.

Before I head out for a run, I use a mineral sunscreen stick on my face. My personal rule is that this is the only sunscreen I'll wear on my forehead. That's because I've had a sweat-sunscreen mixture slide into my eyes too many times, and that stuff stings. (Some people's eyes are sensitive to certain chemical sunscreen ingredients, and I suspect I'm one of those people.) Whether it's the ingredients or the texture, I tend to have a better time when I a mineral sunscreen on my face—I like the pocket-sized stick from Blue Lizard.

BLUE LIZARD Sensitive Mineral Sunscreen Stick with Zinc Oxide, SPF 50+, Water Resistant, UVA UVB Protection Easy to Apply, Fragrance Free, 0.5 Oz

$8.33 at Amazon

$9.99 Save $1.66

$8.33 at Amazon

$9.99 Save $1.66

When it comes to cream sunscreens, you have lots of different texture options. Trader Joe's sells a silicone-based sunscreen that a lot of people like; it's allegedly a dupe of a brand called Supergoop. I prefer the feel of Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch sunscreens, and they come in water-resistant and high-SPF varieties.

Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40 Oil Free Invisible Gel Formula Fragrance Free Water Sweat Resistant, 1.70 Fl Oz (Pack of 1)

$14.59 at Amazon

$17.50 Save $2.91

$14.59 at Amazon

$17.50 Save $2.91

Everything I've noted thus far is on the pricier side for a sunscreen (although the TJ's one is cheaper in person than in the online link). I stretch my dollars by only using the fancy sunscreens on the places I notice the texture most, like my face and hands. I truly do not care what's on my legs when I go for a run, so I'll use whatever spray or cream I got in a family bargain pack. Which, yes, may mean I'm applying three different sunscreens as I get ready for my run. You don't have to be like me. But you could be, if you wanted.

Look for “40 minutes” or “80 minutes” on the label

Technically, no sunscreen is “sweatproof” since anything will wear off eventually with enough exposure to moisture. (In the same vein, the FDA does not allow sunscreens to advertise themselves as “waterproof” or to call themselves “sunblock.”) But water-resistant and thus sweat-resistant sunscreens do exist, and a glance at the label can help you tell the difference.

Sunscreens that can stand up to sweating or swimming will be labeled “water resistant,” and you’ll see those words on the front of the package. Most sunscreens with “sport” in the name are water resistant, but make sure to look for the fine print.

According to the FDA’s labeling guidelines, a sunscreen that calls itself water resistant must also indicate whether it has passed a 40-minute or 80-minute test. For the sunscreens that stand up best to sweat, look for the words “water resistant (80 minutes).”

Make sure it'll last as long as you need (and always reapply)

If you’re about to head out for a few hours, you can’t just slather on sunscreen and then forget about it. Add up the amount of time you expect to be out, and then compare it to what your sunscreen says it can do.

All sunscreens should be reapplied after two hours, even if you haven’t been sweating. During that time you’ve probably touched your face, your sleeves have rubbed against your arms, and so on. There’s no guarantee you have enough sunscreen left to protect yourself, so go ahead and reapply to be safe; and if you towel off at any point, make sure to reapply afterward.

If you’re sweating (or swimming, or otherwise exposed to water), pay attention to that water resistance rating. If you’re heading out for a 90-minute run, wearing 80-minute sunscreen won’t quite get you to the finish line. Chances are, you’ll be stopping for water or snacks at some point, so pack sunscreen and reapply when you get a minute. You can even get little sunscreen packets to make this more convenient.

So consider this when picking out your sunscreen. What's going to be convenient to bring along with you, and not too much of a bear to reapply? I prefer sprays for this reason, even if my initial application at home was a cream or a stick. Spray it on, check my reflection in my car window to see if my skin looks uniformly shiny, and then rub it in if possible.

Look for a high SPF and broad spectrum protection

It used to be a popular fun fact that high SPF sunscreens only provide a tiny bit more protection than lower SPF sunscreens. And technically, mathematically, that is somewhat true. But in real world use, high SPF is absolutely worth using. The higher the SPF, the better insurance you have against late or sloppy re-application. There's a great study on this where skiiers applied SPF 50 on one side of their face and SPF 100 on the other, without knowing which bottle was which. The SPF 50 side was more likely to end up sunburned, even though the skiiers were reapplying throughout the day.

An SPF of 30 should be your minimum, but higher is better, within reason. (Price and texture will also be a factor, of course—but go for the higher number when other factors are equal.) Also look for the words “broad spectrum” to indicate that it blocks UVA rays in addition to UVB.

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Here’s Why Steam Is Banning Adult Games

If you're a fan of adult games, I don't judge, but video game distributers Steam and itch.io have started to. Both platforms have recently pulled down a ton of adult games, a sign of a widespread shift in how games are distributed online and how game distributors handle explicit content.

Whether you're concerned about censorship, wondering where your favorite games went, or trying to understand what counts as “too explicit” these days, I'll break down what's happening, why it’s happening now, and what it means for the future of gaming and free speech.

Why did Steam and itch.io start banning adult games?

The banning began in Australia. On July 11, Collective Shout, a self-described "grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls" posted an open letter regarding Steam, addressed to major online payment processors like PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard.

"We the undersigned are writing to request that you cease processing payments on gaming platforms which host rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games," the letter begins. It went on to name-and-shame No Mercy, a 3D visual novel featuring non-consensual sex, as well as hundreds of other "games featuring rape, incest and child sexual abuse on both Steam and Itch.io."

Collective Shout's letter worked.

What games have been removed from Steam and itch.io?

On July 16, Valve, Steam's parent company, responded to the missive by removing hundreds of games that contained extreme content. Valve has traditionally been moderation-light when it came to hosting adult games, but according to the company, the excised titles "violate the rules and standards set forth by payment processors and card networks, or internet network providers"—so they were yanked.

Valve also updated its onboarding documents to advise would-be game publishers not to submit games with "content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult-only content."

Itch.io upped the ante by removing all games tagged "NSFW" from its its store pages and search results and posting the following "non-exhaustive list of prohibited themes":

• Non-consensual content (real or implied)

• Underage or “barely legal” themes

• Incest or pseudo-incest content

• Bestiality or animal-related

• Rape, coercion, or force-related

• Sex trafficking implications

• Revenge porn/voyeur/hidden cam

• Fetish involving bodily waste or extreme harm (e.g., “scat,” “vomit”)

Itch.io says it's conducting "a comprehensive audit" of the removed content to "ensure we can meet the requirements of our payment processors." Games that pass the credit card company's content tests will presumably be reindexed.

Censorship or commerce?

Whether this counts as censorship depends on how broadly you define the term. The legal status of the removed games hasn't changed; they haven't been outlawed. Instead, two private companies have decided to no longer sell them. The practical result, though, is largely the same as a government cracking down: Thousands of games that were readily available a month ago are much more difficult, if impossible, to obtain today.

The result may be the same, but payment processing companies have very different motivations than governments. There are a number of morally neutral reasons it could be in a financial company's best interest to not process payment for edgy games. Selling adult content often results in more fraud and chargebacks, according to payment processors. "Certain types of products and services ... are just more risky," Gil Tov-Ly, CMO of Appcharge, a direct-to-consumer payment platform for mobile game publishers, told gamesindustry.biz, adding, "risk costs money."

Then there's the confusing maze of laws concerning content. The legal status of pornography and/or obscene content differ from country to country and state to state, potentially making processing the payments for "extreme" games a crime in some places.

There's also the public relations angle. Whatever profit a bank makes from helping people buy adult games is no doubt smaller than the losses that could come with being associated with these games in the public imagination.

How far is too far?

Even if you agree on principle that some video games are just too extreme or problematic to be available for download, how do you determine which ones fit the definition? Games with "sex trafficking implications" include everything from No Mercy to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to Act!, a "Human Trafficking Awareness Game" hosted by End Slavery Now.

The inherent blurriness of imposed censorship is likely to result in self-censorship. "Only publishing a vague rule against certain kinds of adult content leaves every developer of a potentially controversial game hamstrung in the dark," wrote game designer Naomi Clark on Bluesky.

But on the other hand, it's hard to deny that some games cross a line, even if the line is hard to define. Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of hardcore pornography, "I know it when I see it," and it's easy to "see it" with something like No Mercy.

Slippery slope arguments aside, I'm confident that many/most people would prefer to live in a world where No Mercy doesn't exist. That's the end result here, and it was achieved without government censorship or anyone being thrown in jail. In a certain light, it's a win for freedom. Freedom of speech doesn't just apply to video game developers. Australian activist groups are free to post open letters to pressure credit card companies, just as game distribution platforms are free to decide what kind of speech they want to host on the servers they own.

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Don't Fall for This Fake Email About Your Instagram Account

Social media is both a frequent vehicle and target for scammers, who use it for everything from impersonating banks offering fake investment advice to spreading malware through AI-generated videos. A campaign currently circulating targets Instagram users via phishing emails—with a twist.

How the mailto: Instagram scam works

Malwarebytes Labs has identified a phishing scheme that begins with an email appearing to be from Instagram asking users to confirm their identity because someone has just tried to log into their account. The text includes a verification code and a link to "report this user to secure your account" as well as remove your email address.

Campaigns like this often send users to a phishing website, where they are prompted to enter their credentials or other personal identifying information. In some cases, the fake sites have tech support chatbots or list step-by-step instructions to "fix" an issue. No matter the tactic, threat actors are trying to obtain enough information to steal your identity, your money, or both by capitalizing on your fear and sense of urgency to secure your account.

What's different about this Instagram scam is what happens when you click the links in the email. Instead of a fraudulent website, the text is a mailto: link, which opens the default email program on your device with a pre-filled recipient and subject line like “Report this user to secure your account” or “Remove your email address from this account.”

The email addresses in the recipient lines appear relatively trustworthy—though none direct back to Instagram, which is what you'd expect—thanks to a tactic known as typosquatting. Ultimately, though, they connect back to servers run by threat actors, and hitting "send" on your end validates that your email address is active and ripe for further targeting.

Mailto: phishing is more of a long game: scammers don't collect your personal information right away, but they can use the conversation to build trust, as sending an email may seem less risky or obvious to victims than clicking a link to an unfamiliar website and entering information there. Mailto: links may evade email filters more easily than links to malicious domains, and threat actors don't have to set up and maintain multiple sites that may be shut down.

How to avoid mailto: phishing scams

As with all scams, you should be wary of messages that seem urgent and prompt you to take immediate action, especially related to account security. Companies will not request your credentials, bank details, or other sensitive information via communication channels like email, chat, or social media message. Always go directly to the company's app or website to find contact information rather than engaging with someone who contacted you first.

You should generally avoid clicking links in these messages. Always hover over the link to see the destination—mailto: links are no more legitimate than those to phishing sites.

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What to Do When There's an Excessive Heat Warning

Summer weather can be fun for a little bit—I love a 90-degree day to make a cold swimming pool feel refreshing—but a lot of us are seeing serious heat advisories lately. When the temperature and humidity are high enough, the weather can be genuinely dangerous. Here’s what you should know about staying cool and staying safe.

What is an excessive heat warning?

First, let’s talk about the difference between a “warning” and a watch or outlook. A warning is the most serious of the three. As the Normal Fire Department famously explained with a taco analogy, a taco watch means that we have the ingredients to make tacos. A taco warning means you better get ready because we are having tacos right now.

Here’s how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration describes these three levels:

• An excessive heat outlook means that an excessive heat event could occur in the next three to seven days.

• An excessive heat watch means that weather conditions are such that an excessive heat event is likely in the next 24 to 72 hours.

• An excessive heat warning means that a dangerous level of heat is coming in the next 12 to 24 hours. The Red Cross says this means it is time to “take precautions immediately to avoid heat-related illness.”

• A heat advisory means that dangerous heat conditions are already happening.

You can see weather statements like the above for your area by going to weather.gov, which has a big color-coded map on the front page telling you which areas are under a watch or warning, and for what dangers. (Fire, wind, and flood alerts are also included.)

How to stay hydrated in a heat wave

Heat can be dangerous. If you get so hot that you cannot cool down, you’re susceptible to heat illness including heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

So, when it comes to taking care of yourself and checking on others, make sure to:

• Stay hydrated. Drinking enough water allows your body to cool itself through sweating. Drink before you’re thirsty, and drink plenty of water; keep sugary and alcoholic drinks to a minimum.

• Get electrolytes. You lose sodium from your body when you sweat, but normal food intake is usually enough to replace it. Sports drinks and electrolyte tablets are convenient, too.

• Check with your doctor if you have a condition that requires you to keep a close eye on your hydration or electrolytes. They can give you more specific guidance on how much you should be drinking. Also ask if any of your medications can make you more susceptible to extreme heat; some can.

A note for those who sweat a lot, especially athletes and outdoor workers: normally it's OK to just drink when you're thirsty, and your body will make sure you stay hydrated. But in extreme conditions, this may not be enough, since your body can only absorb so much water per hour. If you're sweating water out faster than than your digestive system can bring it in, it's hard to stay properly hydrated. That's why it can be a good idea to start your day, or your workout, extra hydrated.

How to keep cool in a heat wave

First, stay in the air conditioning as much as you can. If you don’t have air conditioning at home, find air conditioned places you can spend time. These might be a friend’s or family member’s house, or public places like a shopping mall or a library. Communities often set up cooling stations for heat relief. If you can’t find one, check with your local health department, with this directory that links directly to local cooling station listings where possible, or call 2-1-1.

When you have to go out, wear light-colored, loose-fitting clothing, and stay in the shade as much as you can. Bring your water. Don’t forget sunscreen if you’ll be in the sun, and remember that not all sunscreen is sweat-proof.

The early morning and late evening will be the least hot times to be outside. Use those times for exercise, outdoor work, or other physical tasks. Plan in time to rest in the shade as needed, for example if you’re going to be walking to the store.

Electric fans are great for cooling you down if it’s mildly hot, but once temperatures are in the high 90s or above, a fan alone can’t keep you cool enough to prevent heat illness. Seek out air conditioning, or take a cold shower or bath.

How to take care of loved ones in a heat wave

The same tips that you use for yourself apply to others as well, including children, pets, and elderly neighbors. Make sure never to leave children or pets in a car in the heat, even for a short time. Double check when you leave the car that everybody has gotten out.

If you know people who don’t have air conditioning, make sure to check on them. An estimated 80% of deaths from extreme heat occur in people who are 60 or older, so definitely check in on the older folks in your life. Find out if they’re able to keep themselves cool or if they need a ride to a cooling station. Check on their pets, too.

The Red Cross advises checking on older adults and people with chronic health conditions at least twice a day, and asking these questions:

• Are they drinking enough water?

• Do they have access to air conditioning?

• Do they know how to keep cool?

• Do they show any signs of heat stress?

Know the signs of heat illness

Heat exhaustion occurs when we can’t cool ourselves down enough. It’s not an emergency yet, but could quickly get worse. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and feeling faint can all occur with heat exhaustion. The skin is usually cold, pale, clammy, and sweaty. If you’re throwing up from the heat or if your symptoms last more than an hour, it’s time to seek medical help.

Heatstroke is the next stage, and it’s an emergency. Call 911 if somebody has a high body temperature (over 103), if they act confused or drunk, if they pass out, or if they have stopped sweating and have hot, reddened skin. The CDC has more information here.

In either case, it’s important to cool the person down. (If you have called 911, do this while you wait for help.) Loosen clothes and consider a cold bath or shower, or place cool wet cloths on the person. You can offer them a sip of water if they have heat exhaustion, but skip this step if they have signs of heatstroke.

If all of this is too much to remember, the Red Cross has a printable fact sheet that includes tips for staying cool and a chart with the symptoms and recommended first aid for heat illness.

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TrainingPeaks New ‘Fueling Insights’ Promise to Help You Estimate Your Calorie Burn (but I Have Some Caveats)

Learning how to properly fuel is crucial for endurance athletes—just ask me about how I use Gu to get through running marathons. However, it took a lot of trial and error (and no small amount of gastric distress) before I understood how and when to fuel during long runs. I would've loved some sort of guidance along my journey, or even some raw data I could've leaned on for insights.

Now, popular fitness app TrainingPeaks has launched a mighty intriguing—and potentially misunderstood—feature that could help serve this purpose: Fueling Insights. Developed with physiologist Dr. Iñigo San Millán, the tool promises to "translate your power meter data into precise estimates of carbohydrate and fat burn" during cycling workouts. It's innovative, scientifically grounded—and likely to be fairly misinterpreted by the very athletes it's designed to help.

The promise and the science

During exercise, your muscles need a lot of fuel. The calories they burn come from two main sources: fats and carbohydrates. Fat is the main source at rest and for low intensity exercise, but the harder you work, the more your body relies on carbs in addition to fat. Your body doesn't have long-term stores of carbohydrates the way it does for fat, so that's why athletes pay attention to carbing up before races, and make sure to consume carbs (in the form of gels, drinks, and sometimes even solid food) during longer rides or runs.

How much carbohydrate you need to eat during those efforts is, of course, tied to how much you burn, so getting accurate estimates can help you to figure out how to fuel. Elite cyclists will do exercise tests in a lab to get estimates of their personal fuel use, but most casual runners and cyclists aren't doing anything of the sort.

TrainingPeaks' concept is genuinely compelling: Instead of relying on generic calorie estimates based on weight and heart rate zones, Fueling Insights draws from over 250 lab-calibrated metabolic tests conducted by San Millán using respiratory exchange rate (RER) equipment. The system categorizes athletes into four metabolic profiles based on performance level and gender, then uses power data to estimate real-time carbohydrate and fat oxidation.

The methodology is sound in principle. San Millán's research revealed consistent patterns: recreational athletes burn fuel differently than elite cyclists, and these differences are predictable enough to serve as the basis for reliable models. The higher your power output, the more your body shifts toward burning carbohydrates instead of fat—a well-established physiological principle that the algorithm attempts to quantify in grams per hour.

When Lifehacker senior health editor Beth Skwarecki completed a VO2max test, her lab data bore this out, revealing when she was burning carbs versus fat, and just how much of each she was burning. Her respiratory exchange rate indicated that her body was using mainly fat during the couple of minutes she was walking for a warmup. When the test ramped up to a jog, she was burning about 2-3 grams of carbs per minute from that point onward, with carbs being 85% or more of the fuel used, and fat 15% or less. In the last few minutes of the test, when things got really intense, carbohydrate use estimates were more like 3-4 grams per minute.

TrainingPeaks highlights how San Millán's work with Tour de France riders helped pioneer the current high-carbohydrate fueling strategies that have become standard in professional cycling. His lab findings directly challenged conventional wisdom and pushed intake recommendations from 35-55 grams per hour to 80-125 grams per hour.

How useful is this data?

Here's where enthusiasm should meet a healthy dose of skepticism. TrainingPeaks is essentially extrapolating from lab data collected during controlled ramp tests to predict fuel use during real-world workouts involving variable intensities, environmental conditions, and individual metabolic states. That's a significant leap to make with confidence.

The company acknowledges some key limitations, though perhaps not prominently enough. The model assumes a "fed state"—meaning it may be less accurate for fasted training. It's currently cycling-only, because running power meters lack the precision and adoption of cycling power meters. And most importantly, the carbohydrate burn numbers it produces represent what your muscles oxidized, not what you need to consume during the ride.

This last point cannot be overstated: When Fueling Insights tells you that you burned 600 grams of carbohydrates during a four-hour ride, that doesn't mean you need to consume 600 grams of carbs during that ride. TrainingPeaks recommends replacing roughly 50% of the carbohydrate burn, accounting for existing glycogen stores and digestive limitations. This doesn't make for half as flashy a headline, but hopefully cyclists will grasp the nuance.

The fat burn numbers also shouldn't be taken as any kind of advice about how much fat should be in your diet. These fueling estimates are all about your body's internal accounting—what calories it draws from where during exercise—not about the balance of macros in your overall diet.

How the data can shape your routines

TrainingPeaks recognizes that its numbers could easily be misinterpreted and has built a helpful FAQ to address the problem. Yet the explanations feel inadequate for the complexity they're introducing into the mix: The average cyclist seeing "800g CHO burned" is likely to either panic about their fueling deficit or attempt to consume impossible amounts of carbohydrates, potentially leading to, well, some gnarly gastrointestinal distress.

I'd add that the choice to separate users into four metabolic profiles add another layer of potential confusion. Athletes must self-select their category, but the distinction between "competitive" and "trained" isn't always clear, and getting this wrong could significantly skew your recommendations.

While Fueling Insights is currently limited to cycling, I'm crossing my fingers that the technology will be used to help runners too. The same basic principle applies: higher power generally means more carbohydrate oxidation. However, running power measurement remains less standardized and accurate than cycling power, so accuracy concerns abound. Plus, if I know runners, I know their fueling strategies are individualized and particular.

The bottom line

The science behind the launch of Fueling Insights is exciting. For coaches working with serious athletes, the tool could provide valuable insights into training stress and fueling strategies over time. But athletes and coaches should consider these numbers as rough estimates rather than precise prescriptions. The tool works best when viewed as part of a broader fueling strategy, not as a replacement for individual experimentation and common sense.

For the time being, maybe the most promising use may be comparative analysis—tracking how fueling demands change across different workouts, identifying particularly carb-intensive sessions, or monitoring trends over a training block. Perhaps some relative insights could even prove more valuable than absolute numbers.

As with any new sports tech, the wise approach is cautious optimism. Consider the insights, but don't let them override years of proven fueling strategies and personal experience. And remember: No algorithm, however sophisticated, can replace the fundamental trial-and-error process of learning what works for you.

Fueling Insights is currently available to TrainingPeaks Premium users for cycling workouts with power meter data.

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I Won't Be Surprised If the Galaxy S25 Ultra Is the End of the S Pen

My Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review was mostly very positive, and it's undoubtedly one of the phones of the year so far, but not everything about the handset quite landed with me. In particular, the S Pen seems somewhat redundant—and I haven't taken the integrated accessory out of its slot since I finished writing my review.

The sleek stylus has been around since 2011, when it made its debut with the Samsung Galaxy Note—back when the "phablet" was a form factor. After the Note series was discontinued with the Note 20 in 2020, the S Pen was supported by the Galaxy S21 Ultra in 2021, before getting its own dedicated slot on the Galaxy S22 Ultra the following year.

The S Pen has also been supported on a range of Samsung tablets, laptops, and foldables down the years. Now though, the accessory seems to be falling out of favor: It's not supported on the latest Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Samsung cut some of its features with the Galaxy S25 Ultra version.

Having used the Galaxy S25 Ultra, I'm not surprised Samsung is scaling back the functionality of the S Pen—and I also wouldn't be surprised if it was missing on the Galaxy S26 Ultra next year.

What are people using this for?

The latest S Pen no longer has Bluetooth support. Credit: Lifehacker

On previous models of the S Pen, with full Bluetooth functionality, you could use it as a remote for snapping photos or advancing slides in a presentation—some of the features Samsung ditched with the latest stylus because less than one percent of phone owners actually used them, apparently.

The ability to open apps and trigger other actions via Bluetooth has gone too, which means Samsung's official list of what you can actually do with the S Pen is mostly about features you no longer get. What's more, you can't use an older S Pen, like the one included with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

There are some benefits: The S Pen itself and the Galaxy S25 Ultra are lighter as a result, and the newest S Pen no longer needs a battery, so there's no need to worry about charging it. Presumably it now costs Samsung less to make, though there was no difference between the launch price of the S24 Ultra and the S25 Ultra.

All that's left is sketching and note taking, plus the basics of selecting buttons, menus, images, and text using the S Pen—something I suspect many people will just use their fingers and thumbs for. Your mileage may vary, but I haven't found myself popping the S Pen in and out of the Galaxy S25 Ultra often.

Sure, being able to take handwritten notes on the lock screen is kind of handy, but surely it's easier and more convenient to simply tap them out instead. That's certainly what I do—even if many of the best note-taking apps out there (including the excellent Google Keep) can accept and recognize handwritten text, and convert it into digital text.

It's good for digital art, at least

The list of S Pen options isn't as long as it used to be. Credit: Lifehacker

The best experiences I've had with the S Pen on my Galaxy S25 Ultra are with sketching out little doodles. Drawing Assist, where you can sketch out something and have the on-board AI turn it into a more complete picture, is fun for about five minutes—although the results I got rarely matched what I was thinking in my mind.

I do like drawing, though, and with the S Pen this is much more enjoyable and accurate than using a finger. Load up a note app or a drawing app on Android, and the S Pen actually starts being useful, whether you want to create a flowchart of ideas, or a mockup of a design, or just a little comic strip.

There are more quality drawing apps on Android than you might realize. There's the likes of Infinite Painter, Sketchbook, and Krita, for example, and Adobe just relaunched Photoshop for Android. These are all capable of creating professional-level artwork, and using them with the S Pen really does elevate the usual experience.

You're probably not going to do a lot of this kind of work on your mobile phone, however, and professional creatives will certainly want to use a bigger canvas—so in that respect it's a shame that S Pen support has been dropped from Samsung's foldables this year. That said, I bet most foldable owners would prefer to have a thinner device and a longer battery life.

No doubt there are people out there who make full use of the S Pen on their Samsung Galaxy phone, but I imagine it's a shrinking fraction of overall users. If removing the S Pen from the Galaxy S26 Ultra means that gains can be made in terms of device design and battery capacity, then I think Samsung will go for it.

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These Noise-Canceling Bose Earbuds Are at Their Lowest Price Ever

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are now going for $155.99 on Woot, the lowest price they’ve ever hit according to price trackers. That’s a big drop from their original $279.99 price tag and still well below Amazon’s current deal at $229.99. This particular listing runs for the next 12 days (or until it sells out), and includes free shipping for Prime members. Non-Prime buyers will have to shell out an extra $6 for shipping. That said, shipping is limited, with no delivery available to Alaska, Hawaii, APO addresses, or PO boxes. Also, these earbuds come with a 90-day Woot limited warranty instead of Bose’s full coverage.

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II

$155.99 at Woot

$279.99 Save $124.00

$155.99 at Woot

$279.99 Save $124.00

The QuietComfort Earbuds II block out both low rumbles and higher-frequency sounds in a way that feels pretty seamless. That performance is what earned them PCMag’s pick for best earphones of 2022. The sound itself is tuned to favor bass and treble, so podcasts stay crisp and music doesn’t lose its punch. Battery life is decent: about six hours on the buds, with another 18 hours from the case. But one tradeoff worth noting is that the case doesn’t support wireless charging, which feels like a miss in this price bracket. Also, there’s no way to fully turn off the ANC—you’re either in full block-out mode or using the “Aware” setting that filters some ambient noise in.

Design-wise, these are true ANC wireless in-ear buds with a water-resistant IPX4 rating (good enough for workouts or light rain). You’ll get Bluetooth 5.3, support for AAC and SBC codecs (but no AptX), and four built-in mics per earbud that help out with ANC and call quality. The touch controls are easy enough to use, and while the companion app lets you play with EQ settings, the options are basic. You can tweak bass, mids, and treble, or draw your own EQ curve, but you can’t save presets, notes this PCMag review.

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What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: Do Celebrities Always Die in Threes?

Death is having a moment. With Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne, and Malcolm Jamal-Warner all dying within days of each other, misinformation about celebrity deaths is having a moment, too. Let's dig into the folklore, superstitions, and conspiracy theories surrounding famous people taking the lightless walk.

In early January 2016, David Bowie, Glenn Frey and Alan Rickman all died within the same week. Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon kicked off over two morbid days in June 2009. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper all died at the same moment in 1959. So what gives? Does the Grim Reaper really save up to create heavenly trios?

I'll bet you've already guessed I'm gonna say "no." The "rule of three" is caused by a combination of our tendency to invent patterns from random information and from a large sample size, all driven by our fear of death.

Since celebrity deaths are spread randomly over time, occasional "clusters" of famous deaths are as inevitable as a gambler hitting a lucky streak if they play long enough. If there were never clusters of celebrity deaths—say, if stars only died on days when no other famous person died— it would be so unusual I'd believe there was an order behind it. But the timing of celebrity death is in keeping with randomness.

Apophenia (finding patterns where there are none) is particularly easy to do with a sample size as large as "all famous people." Notable people die every day, so you can always find two other "stars" to accompany one who kicks off, especially since the time window for a death to "count" as part of a trio is subjective.

There's also the problem of defining who is a celebrity and who isn't. Wait, musician Chuck Mangione died on July 22; does he count? What about Connie Francis, who died on July 16? What about Tom Lehrer, who died on July 26? He's famous to me.

With the addition of Mangione, Leher, and Francis, we're up to six famous people dying within 10 days of each other. "That's two groups of three," you might be saying, but then what about the death of British jazz legend Cleo Laine on July 25? What about "beloved therapy bunny" Alex The Great? You can make the cluster as big as you want, but really, celebrity deaths don't happen in sixes, twelves, or threes; like all deaths, they happen in ones.

Are more celebrities dying?

More celebrities are dying now than died generations ago, but that's because there are more celebrities around to die. Before radio, TV, and the Internet, the number of people "everyone had heard of" were limited to presidents and other notable politicians, a few sports figure, maybe a few stage actors or opera singers—the kind of people who would be written about in a newspaper. Now there are new categories of famous people, like reality TV stars or YouTube celebrities. There's every actor on every TV show you watched when you were 10. And 100% of them are going to die.

Were these deaths caused by the Covid 19 vaccine?

In certain corners of the internet, it's fashionable to ascribe any celebrity death to the COVID-19 vaccine, not matter how ridiculous—Betty White was 99 years old, but that didn't stop people from blaming the vaccine. With this current death trio, Ozzy Osbourne is the focus of "the jab did it" folks. Conspiracy theorist king Alex Jones posted, "The iconic Ozzy Osbourne has died suddenly after years of illness which mysteriously started after getting vaccinated."

But Ozzy's illness didn't start after getting vaccinated. Ozzy told Billboard he was relieved to receive a Covid shot in 2021. In 2020, Osbourne revealed he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, and wrote that he was originally diagnosed in 2003. He said he had suffered from blood clots in his legs in 2019. Oz had a staph infection, was hospitalized with the flu, and recovered from a serious quad-bike accident, all before he was vaccinated. And then there's his self-documented history of substance abuse. If it took the vaccine four years to kill a hard-living 76-year-old man with a range of serious health problems, it's a the worst bioweapon in history.

...or was it was the Deep State?

You can't blame the vaccine for Hogan's demise; he was openly anti-vax. And it seems impossible that Malcolm-Jamal Warner's drowning death could have come from a vaccine. But there has to be something—in conspiracy world, death is never natural, so If the vaccine didn’t do it, maybe the CIA killed Hulkster with a heart attack gun. Never mind that Hogan reported decades of health problems, took steroids, and abused drugs, or that Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowned in a rip current: Someone had to be covering up something. Was there a murder plot? Were all three killed as part of a ritual sacrifice to cover up the Epstein files? Anything is preferable to the uncomfortable truth: People just die.

The chaotic nature of death

Pattern recognition and conspiratorial thinking account for the expression of our folklore around death, but the force behind modern-death folklore is simple and primal: We're terrified of death. We're afraid of its utter disregard for our plans and precautions, its randomness, its inevitability, and its finality. Death doesn't come in threes, it's just coming, so we ward against it. We cling on to any explanation for death except "everyone just dies," even if it means thinking Hulk Hogan's heart giving out is because of a nefarious plot instead of because he abused drugs and steroids, and even if he hadn't, all hearts stop beating eventually, and death comes for all—kings, paupers, and wrestling superstars alike.

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These Beats Solo Earbuds Are Only $42 Right Now

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The Beats Solo Buds are currently down to $41.99 as a "Grade A" refurbished deal on Woot for the next four days or until they sell out, which knocks a decent chunk off the current new price of $59.95 (down from $79.99) on Amazon. You also get free standard shipping if you're a Prime member (non-Prime buyers pay six dollars for shipping). (Woot does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. box addresses.) As a Grade-A refurb, these wireless earbuds have passed a full diagnostic check and show only minimal cosmetic wear. They come with a one-year eReplacements limited warranty, so you’re covered in case anything goes wrong.

Beats Solo Buds

$41.99 at Woot

$79.99 Save $38.00

$41.99 at Woot

$79.99 Save $38.00

The controls are the logo on each earbud that functions as a physical button, which some people prefer, though pressing them too firmly can jam the earbuds further into your ears, notes this PCMag review. You’re also not getting active noise cancellation or a transparency mode, and the charging case doesn’t hold a charge, which means you need to plug it in if you want to recharge the buds. That’s annoying, but the upside is pretty strong battery life. Beats says you’ll get up to 18 hours out of a full charge, which is above average at this price and should be plenty for most daily use.

The sound of the Solo Buds leans bass-heavy with sharp highs, which feels about right for Beats. You also get Apple perks like Audio Sharing, iCloud pairing, and Find My integration, plus Fast Pair and multipoint if you're using Android. But there’s no wireless charging and no IP rating for water or sweat, so you don't want to take these to the gym or out in the rain. Still, for a budget backup (or your main pair if you just want something fuss-free), they hold their own with a solid audio experience and long battery life.

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Someone Is Building an Encrypted Chat for Bluesky, and You Can Sign Up to Try It

Bluesky is a great alternative to platforms like X, especially in 2025. The platform offers most everything you'd expect from a social media site, from serious discussions, to copious memes, to DMs, minus the rage-baiting algorithms. But Bluesky DMs aren't perfect, particularly if you care about your privacy. Despite launching in early 2024, the app has yet to roll out encryption for its messaging services.

And encryption is important, particularly for chat functions—end-to-end encryption (E2EE) ensures that only the accounts and/or devices of the people involved in the conversation can read the messages sent and received. Without E2EE protections, you leave your chats open to interception—consider the recent news of a massive leak involving the viral social media app Tea, which exposed the contents of users' private messages. Right now, Bluesky's DMs are fine for casual conversation—assuming you're okay with the possibility of those conversations being read by a third party—but not for text threads including sensitive or private information. (But please, never use any chat apps to send classified information, encrypted or otherwise.)

While we wait for Bluesky to add its own encryption to DMs, there appears to be a promising option that will let you chat with your Bluesky friends with E2EE. As reported by 404 Media, "Germ" is an E2EE chat app that is currently working on integration with AT Protocol, the open-source standard Bluesky is built on.

How does Germ work with Bluesky?

The idea is this: You download the Germ app separately from Bluesky. You sign in with your Bluesky or AT Protocol handle (your "identity card," as Germ puts it). Once you're set up, you look for a Germ link in someone's Bluesky bio. Tap it, and it takes you to the Germ app, where you can begin an E2EE conversation between your two handles.

The chat doesn't happen within the Bluesky app, but it's also not quite asking people to switch to a new chat app entirely—you might not have any luck getting your iMessage or Messenger friends on Signal, but maybe your Bluesky friends will adopt Germ if it ties into their existing handle.

How to sign up to try Germ when its ready

The thing is, Germ is still a work in progress. Germ for Bluesky/AT Protocol isn't available yet, and there are still holes to patch—such as getting an independent security audit to confirm its safety.

However, you can sign up to be among the first to try out the Germ beta when its ready—at least on iOS. The company hasn't offered a timeline yet, but if you head to their website, you can share your first name and email to be notified when it's available. Once you hit the arrow to confirm, look out for an email from the company—you'll need to click a button within it to secure your place on the waitlist.

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I Cooked Five Different Types of Frozen French Fries in My Air Fryer, and There Was a Clear Winner

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Fries are a delicacy. I'm not even talking about fancy handmade fries, which are wonderful. No, I specifically mean factory-made, flash frozen, packed in a plastic bag, indisputably junk food variety fries. They're in a league of their own.

While restaurants might have the resources to deep fry their French fries, most households are must rely on simpler methods. For me, that’s the air fryer. On a quest to determine which type of French fry fares best in the powerful crisping of an air fryer, I cooked five different types and judged the results. Let it never be said that I won't go above and beyond to discover the truth.

Finding the best air fryer French fry

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

While looking through my grocery store’s freezer section, I quickly realized that this would be no easy task. After some consideration (should I compare brands? Flavors?), I decided to focus on fry shape: Would some shapes cook better in the air fryer than others?

I grabbed bags of straight cut, steak cut, curly, waffle, and crinkle fries to determine which one would be the air fried best. My criteria: texture, flavor, and cooking speed.

For all of the fries tested, I put them in my Instant Vortex air fryer (one of my top air fryer picks of 2025) and cranked the temperature up to 400°F. I consider high heat and a shorter time frame to be the best way to cook fries. Ideally you want to crisp up the outside while leaving the center soft and potato-y. Too low of a temperature or too long of a cooking time and you’ll likely dry out the fries. 

None of the fries were pre-treated with any oil or salt, but added straight from the bag into the basket, unadulterated. I worked with small batches to allow for better air flow. When air frying at home, take care to keep the fries in a single layer—don’t crowd them or the trapped steam will complicate your quest for crispness.

The candidates and how they performed

McCain waffle fries

I was pleasantly surprised by these waffle fries. After just four minutes at 400°F they were ready to be removed from the air fryer. I cooled them on a wire cooling rack (this prevents humidity from getting trapped underneath the fries and making them mushy) and they were perfect. In terms of flavor, they were delightful—not too salty, and a good potato flavor. The texture was also perfect: a crisp exterior, not over-browned, and a soft, fluffy potato interior. 

Red Robin steak cut fries

Of all the fries I tested, these took the longest to cook—about 10 minutes. The steak cut fry is generally a larger piece of tater. It’s sliced in wide, flat strips and may be seasoned or not seasoned. I always assumed that “steak cut” referred to the shape being thicker like a steak, but the ones I tested were actually seasoned in a way that tasted like steak. In theory anyway—the seasoning was fairly subtle and not exactly delicious.

On that note: I found these fries to be fairly bland. And despite the extra cooking time, the exterior was none too crispy, and what little crisp there was disappeared because the interior steam softened it as the fries cooled enough to eat. In short, this shape did not fare well in the air fryer. On the plus side, the center was nice and soft.

Nathan’s crinkle cut fries

High hopes, I had. In my mind, these fries would air fry as golden and flavorful as they do at the Nathan’s counter in Coney Island. Sadly, my hopes were dashed. Like the steak cut fries, these crinkle cuts were thickly cut, and it seem that extra potato interior simply releases too much moisture to crisp the outside before it begins to burn. I had mine in for about six minutes before the crinkled edges began to brown dramatically. They cooked through, but they remained soft. To make matters worse, this brand delivered an unpleasantly bland fry.  

Arby’s curly fries 

Back to the thin shapes we go. The next batch I air-fried were the Arby’s curly fries. I think it’s safe to say in order to qualify as a curly fry, it must have a heavily orange-colored seasoning. These did not disappoint. I popped the Arby's fries into the Instant Vortex for about four or five minutes and they were ready to go. They didn’t take on as much color as the Nathan’s fries, but they managed to be twice as crisp. After cooling slightly, these curly fries had all cooked evenly. Their flavor was excellent—that perfect balance of salt and seasoning that can pair well with anything from a bowl of ramen to a chocolate milkshake.

Ore-Ida straight cut fries

I ended my taste testing with a classic: straight cut fries. I’ve made these many times before, so I knew there would be no difficulty making them into the platonic ideal of the air-fried french fry. They came out crispy, well-seasoned, and irresistibly snackable in the way only straight cut fries can be. In a way, straight cut fries are the control for all air fryer French fries: The texture yields crunch, but there's always a strip of soft potato in the center, and they’re flavorful, but not seasoned per se. The straight cut fry almost seems like it was always made to be air fried.

The best French fries to cook in an air fryer

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

For crunch lovers

Stick to a classic: After air frying, straight cut fries will be your crispiest option, without getting unpleasantly crunchy. Plus, you can always pull them out a little early if you don’t like them to be too crunchy.

For pillowy-soft centers

Steak cut fries are the winner in this category because they’re thickest and despite the added cooking time, the center stays soft and fluffy. 

For the best flavor

Maybe it’s cheating because they are literally dusted in delicious savory seasoning, but the curly fries tasted the best out of the air fryer. They also exuded a little more oil than the others, so that seems to help them strike a balance with flavor and texture. 

The best air fryer fries overall

While the straigt cuts were a close contender, waffle fries win gold as the best air fryer French fry. These fries cooked the quickest, developed both a crisp exterior and soft, fluffy interior, and offered the best unseasoned flavor. As an added bonus, waffle fries are big and weirdly shaped, and their irregularity makes choosing the next fry from your plate a continuous adventure—and a sense of adventure is something I value in a snack. 

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My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The M4 MacBook Air

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Apple's MacBook Air laptops have been offering incredible value since the M1 dropped in price in 2024, and that hasn't changed with the lightweight laptop's most recent generation. Right now, every model of the 2025 M4 MacBook Air lineup is discounted up to $200, according to price-tracking tools. The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air with 256GB SSD is $799 (originally $999), arguably the best option for most people. These MacBooks are an incredible value for your money, especially considering the M2 versions were also $799 less than a year ago.

RAM: 16GB, Storage: 256GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 13-inch (M4, 2025)

$799.00 at Amazon

$999.00 Save $200.00

$799.00 at Amazon

$999.00 Save $200.00

RAM: 16GB, Storage: 512GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 13-inch (M4, 2025)

$999.00 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $200.00

$999.00 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $200.00

RAM: 24GB, Storage: 512GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 13-inch (M4, 2025)

$1,199.00 at Amazon

$1,399.00 Save $200.00

$1,199.00 at Amazon

$1,399.00 Save $200.00

RAM: 16GB, Storage: 256GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 15-inch (M4, 2025)

$999.00 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $200.00

$999.00 at Amazon

$1,199.00 Save $200.00

RAM: 16GB, Storage: 512GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 15-inch (M4, 2025)

$1,199.00 at Amazon

$1,399.00 Save $200.00

$1,199.00 at Amazon

$1,399.00 Save $200.00

RAM: 24GB, Storage: 512GB, Operating System: Mac OS

MacBook Air 15-inch (M4, 2025)

$1,399.00 at Amazon

$1,599.00 Save $200.00

$1,399.00 at Amazon

$1,599.00 Save $200.00

With 16GB of RAM for even the most basic MacBook Air, you'll be able to take on intensive applications and projects now and for many years to come. The most basic MacBook Air comes with a 13.6-inch "Liquid Retina" display, with a resolution of 2,560 by 1,664, a P3 wide color gamut, and a maximum brightness of 500 nits. You'll also get an excellent backlit keyboard with Touch ID, Wi-Fi 6E support, and great speakers and microphones. Apple also decided to bring back MagSafe charging with this laptop.

All of the laptops come with a 12MP camera with Center Stage. You might've first seen this feature on iPads and on the M4 MacBook Pro, which follows your face as you move around the frame during video calls. The two USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 4, meaning you can extend to up to two 6K external monitors if you buy the equipment separately. You can read more about it in PCMag's "excellent" review.

If you're feeling FOMO because you were considering the MacBook Pro, take Senior Tech Editor Jake Peterson's advice and get the MacBook Air instead, since it offers a much better value than the Pro. It's rare to see a flagship product from Apple have a discount like this, and at this price, it really is the best MacBook for most people.

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