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Want to get yourself verified on Bluesky? The company just made a verification form available to the public, and you can use it to submit a request to get yourself a shiny blue check mark. This comes about a month after Bluesky first launched its verification program, which focused primarily on verification from third-parties and Bluesky itself. This latest change, however, allows you to apply for verification directly with Bluesky.The different types of Bluesky verificationUnlike X and Instagram, Bluesky doesn't charge you for verification. However, there are three different kinds of verification on the service and it can get a bit confusing. The first and easiest type of verification is self-verification on Bluesky. This is open to anyone who owns a domain name. You can easily link your ...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Illustration by Ian Moore and product image courtesy of Amazon. The latest iPad mini 7 was released in Oct. of 2024, bringing a smaller and more compact design with Apple Intelligence features to the already smallest iPad on the market. Today, the iPad Mini is nearly $100 off. You can get it for $399.99 (originally $499), $0.99 off the lowest price it has ever been, according to price-tracking tools. The iPad mini 7 comes with the A17 Pro chip, the same chip found in the iPhone 15 Pro, and one A-seri...

Artificial intelligence continues to be the thing in tech—whether consumers are interested or not. What strikes me most about generative AI isn't its features or potential to make my life easier (a potential I have yet to realize); rather, I'm focused these days on the many threats that seem to be rising from this technology. There's misinformation, for sure—new AI video models, for example, are creating realistic clips complete with lip-synced audio. But there's also the classic AI threat, that the technology becomes both more intelligent than us and self-aware, and chooses to use that general intelligence in a way that does not benefit humanity. Even as he pours resources into his own AI company (not to mention the current administration, as well) Elon Musk sees a 10 to 20% chance that A...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Credit: Product image courtesy of Amazon. You've been hard at work all week, as have I—as Lifehacker's tech deals writer, I've been hunting down the best deals on TVs, speakers, laptops, and other tech all week. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's highlights, all of which I've vetted using my favorite price tracking tools.This week was the start of retailers launching their Memorial Day sales. You can find deals on Pixel phones, Sonos speakers, Sleep Number beds, OLED TVs, smart watches, and much more....

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. If you’ve been eyeing workout-friendly earbuds that don’t flinch at sweat or bounce, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are a great way to go. Originally released in February as a long-awaited follow-up to the first-gen Powerbeats Pro, these earbuds normally cost $249.99, but right now you can get a near-mint, refurbished pair on sale for $174.99 through StackSocial. They ship in “Grade A” condition, which means they may have barely-there scuffs and should look and work pretty much like new.These are workout-first earbuds. The new nickel-titanium alloy hooks are flexible, lighter, and less clunky ...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Sony might be better known for its headphones, but it also makes decent speakers. Its latest portable speaker is the ULT Field 3, which launched along with the ULT Field t and ULT Tower 9 this spring, all made to be portable and rugged. Right now, you can get the smallest one of the lineup for $148 (originally $199.99), the lowest price it has been, according to price tracking tools. The ULT Field 3 is a bass-heavy portable speaker that works for those who value long battery life and portability, as you can read in Mashable's review. It comes with a seven-band EQ, an actual woofer (which i...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Mac mini has always been about packing a surprising amount of power into a tiny shell, and the Early 2023 Apple Mac mini M2 sticks to that idea. Right now, you can grab the refurbished 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD model on sale for $459.99 at StackSocial (down from $599), or the 256GB SSD version for $359.99. Both are rated “Grade A,” meaning they show little to no cosmetic wear and ship free across the contiguous U.S. Powered by Apple’s M2 chip, this mini desktop quietly handles everything from daily multitasking to heavy-duty tasks like 8K video editing. Its 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 16-cor...

Google has a new image generation model to show you. Credit: Google The pace of AI progress is showing no signs of slacking. Following ChatGPT's big image upgrade a few weeks ago, it's now Google's turn to show off new models for generating videos and pictures from text prompts: We've got Veo 3 (for video) and Imagen 4 (for pictures), announced during Google I/O 2025, and they come with some significant improvements.Starting with Veo 3, it's the next step up from the Veo 2 model that was recently pushed out to paying Gemini subscribers last month. Google says Veo 3 brings with it notable improvements in real-world physics (something AI video often struggles with) and details such as lip-synci...

It should have been obvious that Google I/O 2025 would be jammed-packed, considering the company felt the need to hold a separate event to cover all of its Android news. But color me shocked that Google pulled off a nearly two hour-long presentation, full of announcements and reveals, mostly about AI. Not all AI announcements are equal, of course. Some of the news was geared towards enterprise users, and some towards developers. But many of the features discussed are on their way to consumers' devices too, some as soon as today. These are the updates I'm going to focus on here—you can expect to try out these features today, in the coming weeks, or at some point in the near future.Gemini Live is coming to the iPhoneEarlier this year, Google rolled out Gemini Live for all Android users vi...

We may earn a commission from links on this page. If you're looking for a Garmin watch at a great price, the recent drops of the Forerunner 570 and 970 is excellent news—not because you should pick up those models (they're fine, I guess) but because the older generations of Forerunner, which remain excellent watches, are now going for ludicrously low prices. The previous models, the 265 and 965, are great, but you can go back one more generation to the 255 and 955—released in 2022—and save hundreds of dollars without sacrificing any major functionality. I truly can't think of any fitness watch that is a better deal right now, given the prices we're seeing on these two: currently $247 for the Forerunner 255, and $373 for the Forerunner 955,...