Best Wireless Home Security Cameras for 2022 - CNET

These developers solved the power problem for their outdoor cameras. Toss the wires and install one of these wireless smart security cams.

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'The Batman' reviews are in. Here's what critics think.

Before The Batman swoops into theaters, get to know what critics have to say about Robert Pattinson's take on the Caped Crusader.

This latest Batman film, directed by Matt Reeves, gives us a glimpse into the early years of Bruce Wayne's career as Gotham's Dark Knight. He gets caught up in a web of corruption, vengeance, and murder, courtesy of the Riddler (Paul Dano). The Riddler isn't the only iconic villain Batman will face in this movie: Others include Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), the Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).

Here's what critics think of The Batman.

How is Pattinson?

Mashable, Kristy Puchko

[Reeves's] Batman is less booming with bravado, more brooding and boring. His theme song is a moaning emo track that never rises to a roar or a victorious chorus, and Pattinson's performance is similarly one-note.

The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney

The biggest dividends of Reeves’ approach go to Batman/Bruce himself, with Pattinson playing him as a sorrowful, almost desperate man, indifferent to his astronomical wealth and fully aware that he can do only so much to reverse the course of a society rotten to its core... Pattinson is riveting throughout.

Variety, Peter Debruge

Pattinson is the most sullen of the actors to have played the character, which reads as a kind of daredevil nihilism whenever he’s in costume: He doesn’t seem fearless so much as ambivalent about whether he lives or dies. Once the cowl comes off, however, Pattinson’s interpretation gets more intriguing: Brooding and withdrawn, he’s a damaged loner with unresolved daddy issues, saddled with all kinds of complicated emotional trauma.

A genre-bending superhero film

The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney

With his Planet of the Apes installments, Matt Reeves demonstrated that big studio franchise movies based on iconic screen properties didn’t have to exclude intelligent, emotionally nuanced storytelling. The same applies to The Batman, a brooding genre piece in which the superhero trappings of cape and cowl, Batmobile and cool gadgetry are folded into the grimy noir textures of an intricately plotted detective story.

IndieWire, David Ehrlich

The better part of this Batman belongs to another genre altogether, as Reeves stubbornly eschews the usual razzmatazz in favor of a hard-boiled murder-mystery in which The World’s Greatest Detective just happens to be a (very) tortured billionaire with an unexplained hard-on for bats.

The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw

Intriguingly at first, The Batman feels like a serial killer chiller such as Saw. For a time it promises a mystery plot relating to the theme of municipal corruption which is so important to the Batman franchise, and holds out hope of an unmasking with a satisfying narrative resolution. But not really.

Slashfilm, Chris Evangelista

Reeves and company have crafted a sprawling, ominous, dreamy epic; a mash-up of action-adventure, mystery, horror, noir, and even a little romance thrown in for good measure. There were multiple moments here where I had to stop and ask myself, "Wow, is this the best Batman movie?" It just might be.

The problem with PG-13

Mashable, Kristy Puchko

Without the freedom an R-rating allows, this movie — full of menace and murder — feels toothless. 

Imagine if David Fincher made a Batman movie but it was censored to air on televisions at WalMart. That's what Reeves's The Batman feels like.

IndieWire, David Ehrlich

For all of its bruising power, [The Batman] still pulls a number of its punches. It’s possible Reeves’ epic had its wings clipped from the minute it was conceived with a PG-13 in mind. The film’s antiseptic bloodlessness often neutralizes the stench of a city rotting from the inside out, even if the MPA rating doesn’t stop Reeves from creating several of the scariest moments in superhero movie history.

Villains galore

Mashable, Kristy Puchko

Though relegated to a tertiary role, Colin Farrell relishes every moment in the heavy prosthetic make-up that turns him into a scarred and shit-talking wise guy.

The Verge, Charles Pulliam-Moore

Though The Batman introduces Falcone, the Penguin, and Selina as a means of adding some depth and nuance to its story, each of their arcs has a way of derailing the film to varying degrees because of how inelegantly it tries to weave them all together.

The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw

There are unassumingly good performances from Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro, and Zoë Kravitz’s superpower is charisma.

Slashfilm, Chris Evangelista

Dano has played unhinged weirdos before, but he goes all-out here, delivering rambling, disturbing speeches where he modulates his voice from a faint whisper to an ear-blasting shriek without warning. It is a jarring performance, and at times genuinely scary.

The Batman opens in theaters on March 4. 

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Crying? Laughing? These 'Euphoria' Season 2 memes will make you feel it all.

Euphoria's second season ended last night (Feb. 27), and so did an era of memes. 

Season 2 premiered in January,  and for its two-month duration Euphoria discourse has been inescapable on Twitter and TikTok. Twitter reports that as of last Friday (Feb. 25), Season 2 had been tweeted about 30 million times, making it the most tweeted-about television show of the decade so far. Euphoria is talked about so much on social media that you don't even have to watch the show to keep up. While many of these tweets are viewers reacting to the show, the show has also inspired popular memes and TikTok trends, successfully overrunning the internet.

Los Angeles Times television editor Matt Brennan argues that the plethora of memes is a result of Euphoria taking itself "painfully" seriously. And he's right! Much of the online discourse (and meme creation) spurs from the intensity of the show and its signature over-stylized look, which contrasts the mundanity of high school most of us experienced.

Let's take a look back at the season through the memes and internet trends it spawned.

Euphoria High

Following the Season 2 premiere Euphoria fashion fanatics ran to TikTok to show off their "Euphoria High" looks. 

Euphoria's ostentatious outfits and statement make-up has been fueling internet humor since 2019, but it evolved into an inescapable TikTok trend this season. Set to an audio snippet from an episode of Spongebob Squarepants — in which Squidward asks, "And why aren’t you in uniform?" — the trend finds TikTokkers walking into frame wearing an average high school outfit before walking away and reappearing in Euphoria-appropriate attire. The videos usually features text that reads something along the lines of "when you’re leaving for the bus, but you remember you go to Euphoria high." Over 115,000 videos have been made so far. 

Even the phrase "Euphoria High" eclipsed TikTok to become a running joke among fans and onlookers alike. It's the go-to way Euphoria fans refer to East Highland High. 

Maddy banging on the bathroom door

In the premiere of Season 2, Maddy bangs on the bathroom door at a house party where, unbeknownst to her, her best friend Cassie and her abusive ex Nate are hooking up. It's a tense and suspenseful moment, so naturally it became a meme. Screenshots of Maddy pounding her fists against the bathroom door circulated Twitter, the clip gained traction on TikTok, and it didn't take long before Maddy was photoshopped into any imaginable situation. 

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Cassie hiding in the bathtub

The bathroom scene was so iconic that it inspired yet another meme. When Nate exits the bathroom, Cassie is left hiding in the bathtub, looking scared out of her mind. Cassie curls up in the bathtub with her hand over her nose and mouth, and her teary eyes convey the terror at the prospect of being caught by Maddy as she enters the bathroom. 

Users ironically captioned the screenshot of Cassie in the tub with situations where they prefer to conceal themselves, none coming close to the drama of the scene. 

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'For real you pissing me off' 

Maddy and Cassie aren't the only Euphoria characters who became internet sensations this season. Fezco, the show's beloved, soft-spoken drug dealer, was the most talked-about character on Twitter this season thanks to his blossoming relationship with Lexi (according to Twitter, there were over 270,000 tweets about the duo). He also inspired a TikTok trend. 

When Fez confronts Rue after a stressful encounter with a drug dealer, he says, "Why you acting like that shit was fun Rue? For real. You pissing me off, acting dumb as fuck right now. God damn, all this smiling and laughing and shit." The soundbite quickly took off on TikTok, as the soundtrack to people describing annoying situations. Nearly 40,000 videos have been made using the sound. 

'Bitch you better be joking' 

The season's third episode gave us the greatest ensemble scene of the show thus far, and like all of life's greatest moments, it takes place in the girls' bathroom. Cassie is in the desperate throes of trying to get Nate's attention through progressively loud outfit choices. She wears a gingham ensemble, which prompts her friends to ask if she's auditioning for the drama club’s production of Oklahoma. After much confusion, Maddy tells Cassie she's dressed "like a country music star," and Cassie asks, "In a good or bad way?" To which Maddy replies, "Bitch, you better be joking" with her signature blunt delivery and skeptical stare. 

The screenshot of Maddy saying "Bitch, you better be joking" quickly became a meme on Twitter with users editing the text and Maddy and Kat to make it apply to other TV shows, movies, and songs. 

Tweet may have been deleted

'I have never ever been happier'

Like the other bathroom scene, both Maddy and Cassie got the meme treatment. Kat asks, "Are you OK Cass?" and Cassie imagines responding with a hysterical monologue where she admits she's in love with Nate. The monologue climaxes with Cassie cry-yelling, "You can all judge me if you want, but I have never ever been happier!" 

Cassie's meltdown became a TikTok sound before we even knew what a memorable scene it would be. When it was teased in the trailer for Season 2, TikTokker @dcmiegod edited the clip with the song "The Perfect Girl" by Mareux, and it’s been the soundtrack to over 80,000 videos. The sound accompanies users' describing situations where, like Cassie, they were clearly not at their happiest! 

Cassie in HS v. me in HS

A behind-the-scenes bathroom mirror selfie of Sydney Sweeney glammed out in Cassie’s gingham dress became fodder for a meme that, like "Euphoria High," pokes fun at the unrealistic nature of the characters' high school attire. Captioned "Cassie in HS v. me in HS," this meme finds Twitter users posting an image of themselves in high school contrasted with Sweeney's mirror selfie. Twitter reports that this was one of the four most tweeted Euphoria memes. 

People say Euphoria is unrealistic… 

Euphoria's portrayal of high school has long been a subject of internet debate. Many find the show’s high school setting far-fetched and distracting, while others vehemently argue that their high school was just as messy as East Highland High. A TikTok trend emerged that satirizes that discourse. The trend is text-based, and each video begins with "people say Euphoria is unrealistic, but at my high school…" and then they describe the plot of another absurd TV show, book, or movie. 

One example of the trend is @hackedat150k's video that reads, "People say euphoria is unrealistic but at my high school our weird Spanish teacher snuck into the boy’s locker room and heard a football player singing and blackmailed him into joining the glee club. Then he traumatized his students with a rendition of 'gold digger.'" Glee ran so Euphoria could walk. 

Could end Nate Jacobs

In this meme Twitter users suggest characters that could destroy Euphoria's central villain, Nate Jacobs. Or at least put him in his place, since Euphoria's creator/director/writer Sam Levinson seemingly can't. The meme is captioned with something like "get her in a room with Nate Jacobs" or "he could end Nate Jacobs" and are accompanied by a photo of a superior antagonist. Again fans are adding Euphoria to the pantheon of pop culture by putting it in conversation with other iconic TV shows, books, and movies. 

Tweet may have been deleted

'Is this fucking play about us'

In the penultimate episode of the season Lexi debuts her much-anticipated play based on her and her sister Cassie's lives. Lexi boldly portrays Cassie’s entire friend group in her play. The only thing better than Lexi’s play are the character’s reactions to it. Most notably, Maddy turns to Kat and says, "Wait, is this fucking play about us?" solidifying Maddy as the meme muse of Season 2

This line instantly became a trending audio on TikTok. The soundbite has been used in over 84,000 videos, and TikTokkers are using it to describe instances where they related to a piece of media. 

Elliot's (unnecessary) song 

The final noteworthy meme comes from the season finale, in which entire minutes were spent on Elliot (played by real-life singer-songwriter Dominic Fike) singing an extremely repetitive song to Rue. Fans were understandably frustrated, considering how many loose ends were left at the end of the finale — and that frustration resulted in many, many memes. But at least the song itself was written by Zendaya and producer Labrinth, who has composed all of Euphoria's signature (and extremely viral) sounds this season. 

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

Until 2024 I guess!

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NASA Rover Spots Unreal Mars 'Flower' Formation - CNET

There are no coral reefs or fossilized flowers on Mars, but there's a lookalike.

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Elon Musk Says SpaceX Can Keep the ISS Flying if Russia Won't - CNET

Musk's Dragons stand ready to help.

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Snag the JBL Clip 4 portable speaker on sale and take your music anywhere

SAVE 25%: If you want a speaker you can take anywhere, the JBL Clip 4 is right up your alley. As of Feb. 28, it's on sale at Amazon for just $59.95 (original price: $79.95).

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Nothing enhances a main character moment quite like background music. Whether you're hiking through nature alone or having a Gatsby-esque pool party, the right song playing in the background makes the experience so much more cinematic (and fun).

Enter the Bluetooth-powered JBL Clip 4. This nifty little clip-on unit with its integrated carabiner allows you to blast your tunes anywhere you go. It's also waterproof and dust-proof, so it can stand up to the elements, and has an impressive battery life of up to 10 hours on a single charge.

Imagine biking down city streets at night with Labrinth playing from your handlebars. OK, you typically don't want to emulate most characters on Euphoria, but there are some moments that hit different.

The JBL Clip 4 comes in six colors to choose from (aesthetics are important if you're going to attach something to your bag), and is on sale at Amazon for just $59.95.

Explore related content:

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• Sonos Roam is a stylish portable speaker that's perfect for grilling or chilling at home

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GoFundMe launches a donation hub for Ukraine relief efforts

In response to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, GoFundMe has launched a centralized hub for verified fundraisers looking to raise money for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The hub currently hosts fundraisers that range from supporting large aid organizations like Save the Children to raising funds for specific families in Ukraine. All fundraisers hosted on the official hub have been verified by GoFundMe's global Trust & Safety team, which monitors the larger GoFundMe site in order to identify and validate fundraisers made in response to crises.

According to a blog post from GoFundMe, the Trust & Safety team is a large and diverse team that makes up a quarter of the organization, and it works to verify personal information and the identity of recipients in order to make sure that donations are sent to the right place. To do this, GoFundMe says it uses proprietary tools on par with those used by the financial industry that requires "government-issued identification, address details, and other forms of ID."

To be considered verified and therefore hosted on the donation hub, GoFundMe and the Trust & Safety team must know "the identity of the organizer, who they are raising funds for, the organizer’s relationship to the recipient of the funds, and how the funds will be used." The company holds on to "all funds raised until the recipient is added to the fundraiser to withdraw [their money], and their identity has been confirmed."

If a fundraiser hosted on GoFundMe is not on the hub or officially verified, that doesn't necessarily mean the campaign isn't valid; it's also possible that GoFundMe's payment processors have just not yet collected the necessary information, and delays like this may happen more often during a crisis like the one in Ukraine.

• Ukrainians turned to encrypted messaging app Signal as Russians invaded

• Meta sets up special team to deal with rampant misinformation around Ukraine

• Ukraine's official Twitter account: Kick Russia off the platform

• Twitter's telling Ukrainians how to lock down their accounts

In a larger blog post about how to help Ukraine generally, GoFundMe also states that fundraisers not allowed on its platform include "any war effort support, regardless of the country, which can include funding weapons, any supplies to soldiers, and propaganda" and "travel to the location to support military or propaganda efforts."

GoFundMe has created donations hubs like this in the past, in response for crises like the West Coast wildfires, the Covid-19 surge in India, the Atlanta spa shootings, and the Surfside Condo collapse. The site also hosts its own fundraiser, dubbed the "Ukraine Humanitarian Fund," and it will distribute the total amount raised amongst various verified nonprofits working to provide relief in Ukraine.

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Best Places to Buy Replacement Prescription Lenses Online in 2022 - CNET

If you like your frames, lenses are a lot easier to replace than before. And you can order them online without leaving the house.

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Russia's war on social media isn't going well, either

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine unfolds, much of the world continues to watch via social media. In response, Russia has waged its own forces against major social media platforms and services in an attempt to control the narrative coming out of Ukraine.

In what we imagine is much to Russia's chagrin, Ukrainian and Russian civilians seem to have found their ways around such measures, and the major platforms have taken firm stances against Russian state-sponsored messages. Below, here are all the ways the internet is standing up to Russia's attacks.

Many big platforms have restricted Russia’s access in some way

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have proven invaluable in helping spread awareness of what is actually happening in Ukraine. As such, Russia has tried to control them, with little success.

On Feb. 25, Russia's communications regulator accused Facebook of censoring the accounts of four state-sponsored media sites. In response, the country moved to limit access to Facebook for its civilians.

Meta's vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg said in a statement that Russia had asked the company to stop fact-checking and labeling posts from those four accounts, and when Meta refused, Russia chose to restrict access. Meta seems to remain staunch in its efforts to curb misinformation on its sites, and has also chosen to block Russian state media from running any ads on Facebook or to monetize in any way, according to NPR.

Tweet may have been deleted

Google has also paused Russia's ability to profit off of content across its services. YouTube is blocking state-sponsored ads from Russian channels on its platform, and is limiting video recommendations to Russian channels while blocking them entirely in Ukraine, at the request of the Ukrainian government.

On Sunday, Alphabet, Inc. (which owns Google and YouTube) also banned downloads of the RT app in Ukrainian territory at the request of the Ukrainian government, according to Reuters. New users in Ukraine will not be able to download the Russian-owned media outlet's app, while existing users may still be able to access it but won't receive any new updates.

• Ukrainians turned to encrypted messaging app Signal as Russians invaded

• Meta sets up special team to deal with rampant misinformation around Ukraine

• Ukraine's official Twitter account: Kick Russia off the platform

• Twitter's telling Ukrainians how to lock down their accounts

On Twitter, state-controlled ads have been banned since 2019, though state-sponsored media organizations like RT have accounts there. But in response to the conflict, the platform is temporarily pausing all ads in Ukraine and Russia regardless of the source, stating that it wants to "ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it."

Twitter is also being restricted in Russia according to usage metrics from internet watchdog group NetBlocks. When Mashable asked Twitter about the block, a spokesperson pointed us to a tweet stating the company's belief in "free and open access to the internet," but otherwise had no comment.

Tweet may have been deleted

All three major platforms continue to monitor the situation in Eastern Europe and seemingly plan on taking action against any rule-violating activities. Twitter has also taken additional actions to increase security and protect the accounts of high profile journalists, activists, and government officials. According to NPR, Meta has created a special operations center to keep tabs on Russia's activity on its platforms, and YouTube has already "taken down hundreds of channels and thousands of videos in recent days for violating its policies, including rules against 'coordinated deceptive practices.'"

Online fundraising for Ukraine is active, and thriving via crypto

On Feb. 26, Ukraine’s official Twitter account said it would be accepting donations in the form of cryptocurrency. To date, more than $9.9 million has been raised in crypto for Ukraine, according to The Verge.

Tweet may have been deleted

The country is officially accepting donations via Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether, while decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have formed and can accept other forms of crypto donations as well. According to The Verge, Tether is supposed to pegged to the US dollar, but has been in such high demand that it is now trading above the dollar at $1.10.

People in Ukraine have also reported that their Ukrainian credit cards have stopped working, and that crypto has become the most feasible fallback.

Tweet may have been deleted

Major crypto community players have expressed their support for Ukraine, including Russian-born creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin tweeting that the "invasion was a crime against Ukrainian and Russian people." Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian performance art group Pussy Riot, also created UkraineDAO to raise funds, and a collaboration of NFT and web3 artists created RELI3F to act as another hub for crypto donations to Ukraine.

In contrast, Russia has pushed for a total ban on cryptocurrency and continues a "head-in-the-clouds" approach to talking about the conflict on its own official Twitter account. Given that, it's unlikely Russia will be soliciting a similar amount of donations via crypto any time soon.

Ukrainian and Russian civilians have found ways to communicate

Telegram is the most popular messenger in Ukraine, and while many believe it to be protected, rival app Signal's founder Moxie Marlinspike tweeted a thread explaining Telegram's cloud-based nature, detailing the possible threat from Russia.

Tweet may have been deleted

While this doesn't guarantee a mass Ukrainian exodus from the potentially jeopardized app, the thread brings awareness to alternatives, as well as a feature within Telegram called "secret messages," that would provide more privacy and security for those who remain on the service.

Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare also saw a massive spike in Signal usage just after midnight on Feb. 24, approximately the same time that the Russian invasion began. Signal's messaging services promise end to end encryption, and is generally agreed upon by cybersecurity experts to be the most secure private messaging app.

To prepare for potential internet outages, many are also working to get around online censorship in Ukraine or Russia.

Yev Muchnik, a Ukraine-born lawyer who’s lived in the U.S. since 1988, told The Verge that he has been working with developers from PieFi and Ukraine United DAO to combat any attacks on internet access. Their goal is to "create peer-to-peer mesh networks to preserve internet connectivity, even if centralized internet service providers go down." Privacy-preserving internet browsing service Tor also tweeted out an extensive thread detailing how private citizens can protect themselves against surveillance and censorship.

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On-the-ground info continues to spread online, albeit with misinfo concerns

As people across the internet continue to seek out information, other social platforms like TikTok have offered a view of what is actually happening on the ground in Ukraine. Even before the official invasion in the early hours of Feb. 24, TikTok videos had been showing Russian military weapons and vehicles en route to Ukrainian borders, alerting military analysts and civilians alike to the upcoming threat.

As the invasion began in earnest, more social posts have cropped up purporting to highlight the true day-to-day life in Ukraine and Russia right now.

Independent Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov has used Instagram to document photos and videos of his account of Russia's actions in Ukraine. Russian TikTokker Niki Proshin posted a video showing an anti-war protest in Russia. According to The Guardian, Ukrainian influencer Anna Prytula's Instagram (which has now been made private) showed footage of missiles attacking in Ukraine.

But even as Ukrainian and Russian residents are publishing real-time, truthful videos, fake war pages and accounts on platforms like Instagram and TikTok have also taken the opportunity to reel in views and followers.

Instagram has taken action by removing scam war pages for violating its community guidelines regarding inauthentic behavior, while TikTok told Business Insider, "We continue to closely monitor the situation, with increased resources to respond to emerging trends and remove violative content, including harmful misinformation and promotion of violence. We also partner with independent fact-checking organizations to further aid our efforts to help TikTok remain a safe and authentic place."

While the platforms are presumably working to take down blatant misinformation, journalists like those at CNN are also actively fact-checking viral videos in order to ensure that any first person accounts from Russian military action is accurate.

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iOS 15.4 Beta: The Features That Could Be Coming to Your iPhone - CNET

From anti-stalking alerts to gender-neutral Siri, here are the new features you should know about in Apple's next iOS update.

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Check out 2022's two new Pokémon games (and three adorable starters) in this new trailer

It's a blessed 2022 for Pokémon fans.

You already got Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a bit of a new direction for the enduring series that came to Nintendo Switch back in February. It's excellent.

Now, just over a month later, The Pokémon Company is back with some news: Two new Pokémon games are still to come in "late 2022" and the pair takes us back to that traditional Pokémon vibe of releasing two largely identical games that have their own titles and critter lineups. The upcoming pair are called Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet.

The trailer also gives us a peek at the games' new Pokémon starters, from which all players choose their starting pal when they fire up a new game. This trio is as predictably adorable as any other Pokémon starter lineup: There a delighted-looking green kitten-thing, a smiling creature that looks like a cross between a dinosaur and a Shy Guy, and a cute, little duck that's either wearing a vaguely beret-shaped hat or has a swooping teal pompadour.

Pokémon are a riot. Look for Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet when they come to Switch later in 2022.

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Tina Fey, Paul Rudd hilariously welcome John Mulaney to the 'SNL' five-timers club

John Mulaney has officially checked into the Saturday Night Live five-timers club.

As the club's name suggests, SNL five-timers are people who have hosted the show at least five times. Mulaney, who used to be a writer on SNL, is now one of them. He joins an illustrious crew that includes Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Steve Martin, Candace Bergen, Elliott Gould, and a portrait of Drew Barrymore. Also, Conan O'Brien I guess (another legendary former SNL writer!).

These celeb-filled sketches can be hit or miss, but this one's a big time hit.

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Ukraine-Russia War: Impact on Gas, Stocks, Inflation and the US Economy - CNET

Stock prices rebounded Friday, but the invasion of Ukraine could bring about many disruptions to the US economy.

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Water Smarter for Less With Today's Deal on the Highest-Rated Irrigation Controller - CNET

Everyone wants the perfect yard, but who has the time? Bring tech to your turf with the Rachio 3 Pro smart irrigation system controller and save big while supplies last.

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Russia Invades Ukraine: Latest Updates as Russian Forces Meet Determined Resistance - CNET

A look at breaking news on the invasion and the US and international response.

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HBO Max: The 28 Best TV Shows to Watch - CNET

The Warner Bros. streamer is home to hits like Barry, Succession and Euphoria.

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Extremely wild planet hosts metal clouds and raining gems

Over a trillion exoplanets likely orbit distant stars in our humble galaxy. Astronomers suspect one, 855 light-years away, harbors metallic clouds and raining gems.

This peculiar world, WASP-121 b is known as a "hot Jupiter," because it's a gaseous giant that orbits close to its searing star. Crucially, the planet is tidally locked to its star — like the moon is locked to Earth — meaning that one side of WASP-121 b is incessantly seared by its sun, while the other is dark and cooler.

In new research published by the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists demonstrate that airborne metals and gems exist on the planet's cooler side. (The intensely hot, 3,000 degree-Celsius, or over 5,400-degree Fahrenheit, dayside evaporates such clouds.) Using unique observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers measured the temperature of the nightside atmosphere and showed that it was cool enough for various metals to condense, Thomas Mikal-Evans, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and a lead author of the research, told Mashable. The detected metals on WASP-121 b include magnesium, iron, vanadium, chromium, and nickel.

It's currently rare, and challenging, for astronomers to probe the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. In this case, the team used a clever observational method to glimpse the make-up of WASP-121 b's upper atmosphere. Hubble watched the planet orbit its star, and was able to analyze the sunlight that passed through the atmosphere, which ultimately reveals some of the chemicals present.

Even on the "cool" side, temperatures hover at 1,500 degrees Celsius, or some 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. That's much too hot for water clouds, like Earth's. But metals in a gaseous state will condense in such environments. What might such unusual clouds look like?

"I don't think we can say what they'd look like for sure, because cloud formation is complicated and we don't have clouds like these to observe up close in our own solar system," Mikal-Evans said over email.

"I don't know what the clouds would look like for sure, but it's fun to speculate."

But he suspects the metallic clouds could potentially resemble dust storms that form on Earth, as seen in this YouTube video. As for the clouds' color, it's also speculation. But why not speculate? The researchers suspect WASP-121 b contains aluminum, which condenses into the mineral corundum. Ruby and sapphire are made of corundum, along with other trace chemicals (also likely on WASP-121 b) that provide these gems their rich colors. Fine droplets of ruby and sapphire may form clouds. "So perhaps some of the clouds would have red and blue coloration," Mikal-Evans mused.

Other clouds might be beige. Others grey or green. "As I said, I don't know what the clouds would look like for sure, but it's fun to speculate," Mikal Evans said.

Like on Earth, when conditions are right, metallic droplets in the clouds will condense enough to rain, in spectacular form.

"Liquid gems could therefore be raining on the nightside hemisphere of WASP-121 b," the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy noted in a press release.

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• Scientists detect something really unexpected beneath Saturn's 'Death Star' moon

• The mega-comet hurtling through our solar system is 85, yes 85, miles wide

Exoplanet research, already fascinating, is about to be revolutionized.

The James Webb Space Telescope — the most powerful space telescope ever built — successfully launched into space and arrived at its home, nearly 1 million miles from Earth. Its science mission will begin this summer, and considerable time (one-quarter of its first year) will be spent observing the atmospheres of exoplanets. We'll learn unprecedented things. The Webb telescope can see more light than Hubble, and detect molecules that Hubble can't see.

Crucially, Webb will peer at smaller planets, like rocky planets around twice the size of Earth, and see if they contain the ingredients for life (as we know it). This includes water, carbon dioxide, and methane.

"We're going to be able to tell what [the planets] are made of," Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable.

Stay tuned. We already know the galaxy contains wild exoplanets almost certainly hosting otherworldly clouds. What else will we find in distant solar systems?

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HBO Max: 20 of the Best Movies to Watch Tonight - CNET

From stylish comedy The French Dispatch to an examination of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, here are the movies to watch on the streaming service.

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Twitter lets you put content warnings on your tweets. Here's how to do it.

Twitter's 2021 test of user-added content warnings was apparently a success. The feature is now live.

The company confirmed on Friday that Twitter users accessing the social media platform on Android, iOS, and the web can now add content warnings to any photos or videos attached to their tweets. It's a relatively simple process that forces anyone who wants to take a look at your posted media to manually click past a prompt first.

Tweet may have been deleted

It's not a perfect implementation at this point. The content warning doesn't show up when a tweet that has one is embedded. The warnings also aren't visible in third-party Twitter apps — I use Tweetdeck and they're not showing up there.

Still, the process of adding a content warning is easy enough. And the feature should improve over time. Here's how to take advantage.

Create your tweet, attach any media

Yeah, the tweet comes first. Don't post it yet, but create your tweet. Add whatever media you plan to use. Then click or tap the "Edit" button to open up Twitter's built-in editing tools.

Click the content warning icon

Once the Twitter edit tools pop up, look near the top of the window. You should see a few different tabs. The default one is for cropping and resizing, as indicated by the crop icon. The middle one, labeled "ALT," is for alt text, a basic description of the contents of whatever media you're sharing. Alt text is used by screen readers to help those who may not be able to see the media you're sharing know what's there.

In this case, though, the third icon is the one we want. It looks like a little flag.

Select your warning

Clicking or tapping the flag icon opens up the content warning tab. You'll quickly notice there are three options to choose from here: Nudity, Violence, or Sensitive.

Choose whichever one is most appropriate for your media share, this appears to be the user's prerogative. So if you want to, say, stick a spoiler-y movie clip behind a content warning, the lack of a "spoiler" tag doesn't mean any of the others is the "wrong" choice. Your best bet is to go with "sensitive" in any situation where the thing you want to share isn't an easy fit in any of the categories.

You can select multiple warnings if you want. Once you check one of the boxes, the editing tools' preview window shows you what the warning will actually look like once it's live. Once you've got your warning set, click or tap "Save" and you'll be taken back to the original post editor.

Publish your tweet

At this point, you should be done and ready to publish your tweet (unless there's more you want to add). So do that. Anyone who looks at your post on Twitter official, whether it's the app or browser interface, will see a warning in front of your media just like it appeared in the preview.

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Everything you need to know about 'Cyrano'

Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and director Joe Wright give us all the backstory you need to know before diving into the film while also sharing their own experiences with Impostor Syndrome.

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Pokemon Go Deoxys Guide: Counters, Weaknesses and Best Moveset - CNET

The mythical DNA Pokemon has returned to Pokemon Go for a limited time.

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Valve's big swing with Steam Deck is a hit, but it's not a home run

Playing video games on a Steam Deck feels strangely illicit, like you're sneaking a peek at a future of gaming that hasn't really arrived yet. High-end PC gaming, but make it portable? That's been the dream since I haunted my local bodega for the latest Nintendo Power drop.

Nintendo's own Switch console has been a level-up moment for mobile gaming, but its brand-burnishing hits like Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild don't go toe-to-technical-toe with the visual splendor of something like Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn. Switch-like gaming PCs, such as the GPD Win 3 or Aya Neo Pro, can handle a wider array of blockbuster games than Nintendo's more modest hardware specs, but you're spending $1,000 minimum to get either one.

Valve Corporation has a fix for that in the form of the Steam Deck (starting at $399), though it isn't exactly its ideal self as it launches. The up-front menus and features need work and the battery life makes me feel sad things. But it's nonetheless correctly pitched as a best-in-class compromise between performance and affordability.

It's important to take a holistic view of the Steam Deck if you're planning to pick one up (when you can pick one up, of course). There's lots to be said about what's more promise than reality at this point, but it's also true that this thing lets you play stuff like Forza Horizon 5 and Elden Ring anywhere you go. That ain't nothing.

Form, not function

At a glance, the Steam Deck doesn't look all that different from the Switch. You've got a 7-inch touchscreen sporting a sharp-for-its-size 1200x800 resolution stuffed between two banks of gamepad controls, as if someone cut a PlayStation controller in two and then taped each half to the sides of a landscape-oriented iPad Mini.

It's two inches thick, which is a good bit more than the half-inch OLED Switch but not disruptively so. There are also two square touchpads with rounded edges, each situated just below the left and right thumbsticks. Hold a Steam Deck up to Nintendo's hardware, and you'll also see that Valve's machine is a couple inches longer (9.5 inches vs. 11.7 inches, respectively).

It's lightweight and comfortable to hold in your hands, though, at roughly one and a half pounds. During the three-week review period, I played while holding the Steam Deck in a variety of positions: Over my head in bed; out in front of me while lying on my stomach; reclining on a couch; sitting in a car's passenger seat; at my desk; and, of course, on the toilet. Location never mattered — the Steam Deck was always comfy to hold, even during multi-hour sessions.

Control placement counts for a lot here. The Steam Deck's buttons and sticks look more cramped than they actually feel in practice. The thumbsticks are lined up horizontally just like on a PlayStation controller, with the directional pad and face buttons positioned next to each stick — left and right sides, respectively — on the outer edge of the hardware.

The top-mounted shoulder and trigger buttons on each side are also set close to the clustered buttons and sticks. So while it does look at a glance like everything's unceremoniously crammed together, in actual practice the placement is ideal given the Steam Deck's overall size. I sometimes struggled with working the D-pad into my gaming, but it felt more like new muscle memory training than an actual design flaw.

The only part of the control scheme that still doesn't feel right to me are the four buttons on the back of the Steam Deck. They nestle into the natural resting points for your fingers on each hand grip, and I regularly find myself hitting those buttons by accident, particularly when a game gets tense. That said, I'm also not generally a fan of controllers with rear-mounted "paddle" buttons, so your mileage may vary.

It's easy enough to turn those buttons off and, in fact, control flexibility is a particular strength of the Steam Deck and its custom OS. There's an entire settings page where you can reassign each button, trigger, thumbstick, and gyroscopic (motion-sensing) control to whatever button press or controller action you want to be reflected in-game.

It's lightweight and comfortable to hold in your hands at one and a half pounds.

I haven't had much luck using gyro controls specifically so far, however. After enjoying that feature in Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 5, I was excited to see how the Steam Deck's motion-sensing capabilities measured up in Zero Dawn. But the settings menu is filled with switches and sliders bearing layperson-unfriendly labels like "Outer Command Ring" radius, and no amount of fiddling has led to a playable result for me at this point.

The physical shape of the thing is great, though. When I pick up my Steam Deck and wrap my hands around each grip, my fingers just naturally settle into the ideal positioning for using traditional twin-thumbstick game controls. And while the haptics-supported touchpads don't really offer the range of movement you'd expect from a standard mouse in a first-person shooter — the little rumbles behind each one help with pointer precision — they're perfectly usable in mouse-heavy games like Civilization VI.

The top- and rear-mounted exhaust vents also do a good job of keeping the hardware cool during extended play sessions. The internal fans are fairly loud for a device of this size, but they do effectively keep the heat down. And the vents are out of the way enough that you'll really need to reach for one to block even part of it with a finger.

My only serious issue with the form factor is the microSD slot. This bottom-mounted access point is just a slit in the plastic, with no cover to protect whatever card you use or the internal parts it touches. Even a silicone cap would've gone a long way towards better protecting your Steam Deck. Loaded cards sit flush with the hardware, but you can still pop it out with enough generalized pressure. I'd love to see more protection for that microSD port in a theoretical Steam Deck 2.

I also don't love the anti-glare screen that is exclusive to the highest-end Steam Deck model, which is the one I used for review testing. It's like having one of those old, matte plastic screen protectors permanently affixed to the display. The thing is a magnet for smudges and dings that aren't easily removed (if they can be removed at all). It's admittedly much more noticeable when the screen is dark, with visible smudges basically disappearing when the gaming gets started, but it's still not nice to look at.

It's hard to say which of the three Steam Deck models is best, having only had the opportunity to play with one of them. The cheapest $399 option only sports 64GB of storage, and it uses a storage medium (eMMC) that's slower than the higher-priced models. The $529 mid-tier Steam Deck jumps up to 256GB of storage and a speedier NVMe SSD. The high-end $649 model doubles that storage to 512GB and also adds the anti-glare display. All three feature otherwise identical specs, including a microSD card port that ensures you're not limited to just the internal drives.

Function, not form

All the elegant design in the world wouldn't mean anything if the Steam Deck did a crap job of playing games. Thankfully, that's not even close to being the case.

Pretty much every game I threw at this handheld ran better than I expected. Games regularly default to some of their higher graphics settings, and even if you dial those settings down — which I did, to help preserve the battery — you're still getting a visually impressive experience on Steam Deck's 720p screen.

It doesn't just look good, though. The games I was able to get working all played exceptionally well. Steam Verified titles, which have been specifically tested on and updated for the Deck, unsurprisingly fare the best. The ones I tested had speedy load times, often measuring no more than 30 seconds, and they delivered relatively hitch-free gaming. I haven't found a Valve-sourced list of Verified games on the web (though you can see what's Verified in your own library), but they at least get their own section in the SteamOS store.

Playing non-Verified games is more of a mixed bag. While Arkane Studios' 2017 horror action game Prey plays nice with the Steam Deck, reliably loading up save files in less than 30 seconds, the same developer's 2016 release Dishonored 2 is basically unplayable, taking close to five minutes to load a saved game. It's a stark difference for two games released by the same studio one year apart.

It's not all bad news for non-Verified games, though. I tried several newer titles, including Monster Hunter Rise, Elden Ring, and Shadow Warrior 3 — the latter two of which weren't even out during the Steam Deck review period. They all ran smoothly and loaded as swiftly as any Verified title.

In another surprise, storage location doesn't seem to matter all that much. The two higher-end Steam Deck models both pack a speedy type of solid-state drive (SSD) and that storage capacity can be expanded further with a microSD card. In almost every example I tested, load times barely changed between games installed on the SSD versus those installed on the microSD. The Steam Verified Horizon Zero Dawn is one notable exception — load times are about 30 seconds longer on microSD — but that's the only outlier I found.

Some games just struggle with the Steam Deck. Online-oriented titles that use anti-cheat features are one sticking point, but that doesn't mean you can't play them at all. Destiny 2 simply doesn't work, but Elden Ring is completely playable as long as you're fine not having access to its online features.

I also had trouble playing any game that's tied to third-party accounts that live outside of Steam. Ubisoft titles that link to the publisher's Uplay service, for example, are completely nonfunctional for me, seemingly because of the way they need to be loaded via the Uplay interface. But Forza Horizon 5, which ties to Xbox Live account services, works fine. It took a little fiddling on my part up front — the game crashed a couple times during the sign-in process — but it's been bug-free since I got past that one-time hurdle.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Storage space is the only realistic limit on what you can install.

My advice is don't be afraid to experiment. Storage space is the only realistic limit on what you can install. The SteamOS throws up a warning if a game isn't Verified, but it won't actually stop you from installing it. I tried a range of games outside of what's approved, and even non-Verified titles generally work well once they're loaded.

You'll want to stick close to an outlet though, or at least keep a charging brick handy. The battery is the Steam Deck's major glaring weakness. Don't expect to get much more than two hours of play time out of any higher-end game, whether or not it's Verified. You'll get more time out of less demanding games — I spent a night playing Vampire Survivors on a single charge, about four or five hours — but expect to play any Steam Deck game in a race against the clock when you don't have a power source nearby.

If the battery life ranges from roughly two to five hours, expect to come in at the lower end most of the time. That could well change over time, of course. We know there's a battery-saving feature coming to SteamOS after launch, and Valve could have more like that in the works. But there's no reason to assume right now that the Steam Deck's battery woes will be able to improve significantly until there's a Steam Deck 2.0.

The SteamOS factor

I've mentioned SteamOS a few times throughout this review, but what is it, really?

Longtime Valve fans no doubt remember the company's Steam Machines program that aimed to put a console-style tech standard on PC gaming. One piece of that program was Steam Big Picture mode, which was a way to access Valve's digital retail storefront using a controller and/or on a TV. Big Picture Mode is still kicking around, and it's easiest to think of SteamOS as an evolution of that.

The Steam Deck's custom operating system is designed to play nice with the hardware's built-in game controls. You can easily summon up a virtual keyboard for the rare times that typing is required, but you can just as easily navigate the interface, dig into settings, and get games installed then loaded up using nothing more than thumbsticks and buttons.

Technically speaking, SteamOS is a heavily customized Linux operating system. Most people are familiar with Microsoft's Windows and Apple's macOS, both of which are operating systems (OS). Linux is a third kind of OS that has largely been the domain of tech-savvy PC users. But it's open-source, meaning anyone who has the technical skill can use the code foundation to make a custom OS of their own. That's exactly what Valve's engineers did here.

When you turn on your Steam Deck, it takes you directly into the Big Picture-like SteamOS dashboard. But you can also long press the power button at any time to access an array of additional options, including one that takes you to a Windows-style Linux desktop. Where the SteamOS experience is restricted entirely to digital products that are available through the Steam Store — so, primarily games — the Linux desktop is more just... personal computer mode.

You can open up a browser and sign into your streaming video provider of choice, should you get a sudden hankering for the latest Netflix or Disney+ series. If you install Chrome (or a Chromium browser), you can even fire up cloud gaming services like Stadia — though Steam Deck's gamepad controls won't work, so you'll need some kind of external controller. You can also install packages for commonly used PC apps like Discord.

All of this requires some fairly technical knowledge of both the type of Linux platform SteamOS uses and how to actually interact with it. You'll also likely need a keyboard you can attach, at least until Valve gets the SteamOS virtual keyboard working in desktop mode (as of this writing it only works in SteamOS or in the desktop mode's version of Steam). Installing Windows is also an option, but it's one I'm avoiding for now; Steam Deck is so new and purpose-built that I'm not willing to trust a Windows installation to work properly without some platform-specific optimizations of its own.

Here's the crucial point, though: All of these things (and more) are possible. Valve isn't trying to hide any of that. The company's review documentation explicitly includes information about harnessing the capabilities of desktop mode. Windows installations are something the company expects certain users to do. Post-release support docs will include instructions on how to reset back to the original OS, so users can feel comfortable breaking things just to see what happens.

Yes, SteamOS is the ideal way to play with a Steam Deck. That's definitely true at launch, and it's likely to be true for a long time after as well. But can you recall any previous console launch where the hardware manufacturer even discussed the possibility of replacing its custom OS? Valve knows the Steam Deck is going to be a computing project for many people, and the company isn't treating that reality like a topic to be avoided.

Valve is definitely trying to make SteamOS something you don't want to give up, to be sure. There's been a regular pace of updates during the pre-release review window, and there are plans already for more. Steam Deck is as much an ongoing project for Valve as it will be for the tech-savvy buyers who already have an eye on replacing the OS completely. Valve seems to have embraced an attitude of: You can do what you want, but we're just going to keep trying to convince you that our way is the best way.

A whole partial package

Given all that, I think it's important for any prospective Steam Deck buyer to acknowledge up front that this is a work-in-progress. With the things it can do, the results that are delivered generally eclipse anything else that's available in mobile gaming right now. But there's so much more this thing could do, given time and attention from people inside and outside of Valve.

If you're looking for Switch levels of approachability with Steam Deck, you might want to skip the launch and see how things develop. I am endlessly impressed with what this machine can do even as I clearly see all the elements that make it a mixed bag for early adopters, and especially those who aren't particularly tech-savvy.

Being able to turn this on and play traditionally PC- or console-centric games, like Horizon or Elden Ring, on the go hasn't gotten old, and won't get old. But I also look forward to the day that doing basically anything other than playing SteamOS games gets easier. The Steam Deck is a thrilling taste of what's to come for mobile gaming. And all the things it already does well will make the wait for anything that isn't quite there yet that much easier.

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Take Your Cooking to the Next Level With Elite Gourmet Appliances Under $40 - CNET

You can grab a new air fryer, bread maker or food processor with this sale for up to 47% off.

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Air fryer tortilla chips are easy to make but completely below average

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Perhaps I am spoiled. My apartment in Brooklyn is a half a block from a bodega where I can buy tortilla chips 24/7. It hardly justifies my rent price, but still, a perk.

But maybe that's why I can't imagine air frying tortilla chips ever again. There's simply no value added for me.

I tested out this viral TikTok recipe from the account @preppy_airfryer and it was fine — the chips were relatively crispy and tasted decent — but definitely not as good as your basic tortilla. Consider the Tostito Scoop, a perfect little tortilla bowl for salsa. Say what you will about the conglomerate food — how like three companies make everything we eat — but the Scoop kicks ass. Brilliant. Freaking brilliant.

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Normally, if you were to make real tortilla chips at home, you'd fry them in oil. There is massive added value in that — a hot, salty, fried chip is remarkably crisp and tasty. Store-bought doesn't compare. Unfortunately the air fryer doesn't deliver the same result as a pan of oil. Sometimes the less healthy option unquestionably tastes better. Such is life.

Regardless, here are the particulars for air frying tortilla chips, if say, you don't live right by a convenience store.

Ingredients

• Corn tortillas

• Oil or nonstick spray

• Salt

Directions

1. Cut corn tortillas into 6 equal triangles, so they are roughly chip-shaped

2. Spray chips with oil, making sure each is covered completely

3. Liberally salt the chips

4. Air fry at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes, but perhaps less depending on the tortillas you use and your air fryer

The details

There isn't too much to add here. This is really simple stuff. Cut your corn tortillas like a pizza and make your little triangles.

Oil or spray those suckers. I'd recommend using real oil because at high temps, oil spray often burns. But honestly you do you. Just make sure you cover them generously, then salt heavily. While fried tortilla chips are salted post oil-bath, this recipe calls for seasoning the suckers up front. It makes sense, since, unlike frying, there won't be hot oil for the salt to cling to after the cooking process in the air fryer.

From there, just evenly space the chips on you air fryer's basket or tray. If you can, do you best to give each chip room to breathe, but I can't judge — I've been to known to overcrowd my air fryer from time to time.

Crank your air fryer to 400 degrees then cook the chips for eight minutes. Well...maybe eight minutes. In the interest of being thorough, I tested three different corn tortillas in this process. Two were your cheaper grocery store brands — Mission and Buena Vista — while the third was a thicker, more expensive brand called Vista Hermosa. The Mission tortillas were super thin and, frankly, were almost inedibly charred after like four minutes. The Buena Vista chips were fine while the Vista Hermosa were by far the tastiest.

There was a small complication cooking the chips. An air fryer works by rapidly circulating hot air. That air moves quickly, which can blow light tortilla chips around. Worst case scenario you could even see the air blow a tortilla straight into the heating element — an unpleasant experience I've had with popcorn. The hot air in my test definitely displaced my chips, but didn't cause any catastrophes.

Best-case scenario air frying tortillas will result in a crunchy, baked chip. Think more pita chip than salty tortilla. The air-fried tortillas had a nice crunch and were tasty with salsa. It's hard for a chip to be bad.

Still, in my opinion, the air-fried chip not nearly as good bagged chip. It's just not as crisp. But to each their own. And if you don't live by a 24/7 tortilla chip dispensary, I think this could be a handy trick in a pinch. Of course, if you have tortillas, you could just as easily heat up a pan with an inch or so of oil and make a far superior end-product.

Some foods are fantastic in the air fryer. Others are decent imitations roughly 70 percent as good as the original. Tortilla chips, unfortunately, are the latter.

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