Physical media has a certain amount of durability associated with it, a quality which is naturally determined by the way that they’re stored. Generally this does not involve being abandoned on the porch of a delipidated, abandoned house where the elements and any passing critter can have their way with it.

Exactly how playable would these VHS tapes and CDs still be? Whether it was out of a sense of burning curiosity, or for a similar reason that [Brady Brandwood] has a habit of adopting former seafood critters like lobsters as adorable pets, these items got recently collected and put to the test.

Normally VHS tapes are kept safely in a little sleeve or box in a dry, cool place, similar to CDs and DVDs. These particular items had however been left for at least a decade out in the open amidst the ransacked remains of abandoned homes. This meant that the VHS tapes were full of dirt and debris, and at least in one case with a spider nest that jammed up the thrift-store VHS/DVD combo player.

The CDs were cleaned and tried in a G5 iMac, with the obvious results there being that as long as the shiny layer with the data was intact, they worked fine. While a damaged disc tried to play somewhat, even the amazing audio CD error-correcting algorithms can not compensate for see-through gashes.

Perhaps the real surprise came from the VHS tapes, none of which had any protection from the elements other than the little plastic flap that keeps human paws from touching the tape directly. Although one tape looked somewhat moldy, after evicting a spider nest and some general clean-up, it played mostly fine.

One tape apparently it had a copy of The Land Before Time movie on it, while others contained various recordings, including of a concert with [Jerry Lee Lewis] and a recording of a Cartoon Network episode. Although the VCR’s head needed to be cleaned once during this whole test to remove some black gunk, none of the tapes seemed to show any signs of sticking, delaminating or any other issue commonly associated with degraded tapes.

This difference in physical durability between CDs and VHS tapes ought to not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever dropped a CD and saw the Scratch of Death™ on its shiny surface, yet the fact that the tapes survived what must have been years of Appalachian seasons is definitely somewhat impressive.

It’s about to cost more to ship packages through the United States Postal Service. The USPS said Wednesday that it will implement a temporary 8% surcharge beginning in April “to better align its costs of transportation with the market.” Like everyone, the post office is facing higher fuel costs driven by ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.

The proposed increase will affect Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage and Parcel Select, but not first-class stamps and other products and services.

If the Postal Regulatory Commission approves the measure, the price change will begin on April 26 at midnight Central Time and expire on Jan. 17, 2027, at midnight Central Time. At that time, the USPS will assess if the surcharge will continue.

Last week, Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress that the USPS will run out of money by next February. He requested that Congress lift regulatory restrictions so that the postal service can raise prices on products and services. 

The Postal Service has been financially underwater for nearly two decades. The Government Accountability Office added the agency to its High Risk List in 2009. Since 2007, it has incurred over $100 billion in financial losses. 

Much of the reason for these losses is the company’s mandate to deliver to over 170 million addresses during a six-day work week. According to The Wall Street Journal, which originally broke this story, that mandate has led to “71% of delivery routes being financially underwater.” That math roughly translates to three in five post offices being unable to cover their operating costs. 

Shipping competitors, such as FedEx and United Parcel Service, have had fuel surcharges in place for years. Due to the ongoing oil crisis and rise in gas prices, they have increased these fees in recent weeks.

A jury in Los Angeles has found that Meta and YouTube were negligent in a closely-watched trial over social media addiction. The companies were ordered to pay $6 million in damages to the woman who said she was harmed by their addictive features as a child.

The case was brought by a 20-year-old woman, named in court documents as “K.G.M,” who sued Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, saying that she had been harmed by the platforms as a child due to addictive features. TikTok and Snap reached a settlement ahead of the trial.

According to NBC News, Meta was ordered to pay 70 percent of the $3 million in compensatory damages with YouTube taking on the remaining portion. The jury awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages. “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal.,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement. “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”

The weeks-long trial has been closely watched because it’s the first of many court cases in which plaintiffs have argued that social media platforms harmed minors due to how they were designed. Meta’s lawyers and executives have disputed the idea that social media should be considered an “addiction.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that the company wants Instagram to be “useful,” and repeatedly accused the plaintiff’s lawyer of “mischaracterizing” his past statements.

“This is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children,” Joseph VanZandt, one of K.G.M.’s lawyers, said in a statement to The New York Times,

For Meta, it’s the second legal setback in as many days. The verdict comes one day after a jury in New Mexico ruled against Meta in a trial over child safety issues. The company was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties; the company said it would appeal.

Update, March 25, 2026, 11:22AM PT: Added a statement from Google.

Update. March 25, 2026, 2:05PM PT: Added details about punitive damages.

I was a late convert to air fryers, in part because I worried about versatility: Just how many wings and nuggets and fries does anyone need? (Don’t answer. The answer will incriminate you.)

The Typhur Dome 2 is the air fryer that obliterated this worry, by adding pizza, browned meats, grilled asparagus, and toasted bread to this list—not to mention perfect crispy bacon. It’s an innovative device that takes over most of the functions of a classic auxiliary oven, but with far more powerful convection.

After testing more than 30 air fryers over the past year, the Dome 2 is the one I far and away recommend as the most powerful, versatile, accurate, and fast air fryer I know. I’ve evangelized for this thing ever since I first tried it last year. But the one big caveat is always the price: It’s listed at $500 and rarely dips much below $400.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the Dome 2 dip to $340 for Amazon’s Spring Sale, the lowest I’ve seen it since Black Friday. If you’ve been hunting for an upgrade to your old basket air fryer, this is probably a good time. The sale lasts until March 31.

Fast, Versatile, App-Controlled Cooks

So why’s the Dome 2 my favorite air fryer? Typhur, a tech-forward company based in San Francisco but with engineering and manufacturing ties to China, reimagined the shape and function of the classic basket fryer by creating a broader and shallower basket, with individually controllable dual heating elements.

This means the Dome 2 has room for a freezer pizza, and can apply direct heat from the bottom to add actual char-speckle and crispness to the crust, kind of like a combination grill-oven. The Dome’s shallow basket also lets you spread out ingredients in a single layer for excellent airflow, while heating from both sides. I can crisp two dozen wings in just 14 minutes (or 17 minutes if I fry hard). The Dome also toasts bread evenly, and crisps bacon without smelling up the house—in part because it has a helpful self-clean function.

Temp accuracy is within 5 or 10 degrees of target, and the fan can adjust its speed depending on the cooking mode. And the smart app is actually useful, with about 50 recipes ranging from asparagus to eclair to a flank steak London broil that can be synced with a button-press. But note that some functions, such as baking, need the app to work, and the device is more of a counter hog than taller basket fryers.

Typhur’s Probe-Assisted Oven Also on Sale

The Dome 2’s basket is a bit shallow for a whole bird or a large roast, however. If you want a convection device for larger meats, I often recommend the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, which is among my favorite convection toaster ovens. This is a (very) smart oven and air fryer that doesn’t crisp up wings and fries quite as well as basket fryers, but is more versatile for roasting big proteins like a whole chicken. The Breville is also on a nice sale right now, dropping by 20 percent.

Breville

the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

Threat actors are evading phishing detection in campaigns targeting Microsoft accounts by abusing the no-code app-building platform Bubble to generate and host malicious web apps.

Because the web app is hosted on a legitimate platform, email security solutions do not flag the link as a potential threat, allowing users to access the page.

Security researchers at Kaspersky say that threat actors are using the new method to redirect users to the actual phishing page, which is often mimicking a Microsoft login portal that is sometimes hidden behind a Cloudflare check.

Any credentials entered on these fake web pages are siphoned to the phishing actor, who may then use them to access email, calendar, and other sensitive data associated with Microsoft 365 accounts.

Bubble is a no-code AI-powered platform where users describe the app they want to build and then the platform automatically generates the backend logic and frontend.

The resulting apps are hosted on Bubble’s infrastructure under *.bubble.io, which is a trusted domain unlikely to trigger security warnings from email security solutions.

Phishing actors take advantage of this by creating Bubble apps that consist of large, complex JavaScript bundles and Shadow DOM-heavy structures, which are not flagged as redirection scripts or classified as malicious by static and automated analysis tools.

“The code generated by this no-code platform is a massive jumble of JavaScript and isolated Shadow DOM (Document Object Model) structures,” explains Kaspersky.

“Even for an expert, it’s difficult to grasp what’s happening at first glance; you really have to dig through it to understand how it all works and what the purpose is.”

“Automated web-code analysis algorithms are even more likely to get tripped up, frequently reaching the verdict that this is just a functional, useful site.”

The researchers warn that the tactic of abusing AI-powered app builders for evasion in phishing campaigns is very likely to be adopted by phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platforms and integrated into phishing kits that are widely used by lower-tier cybercriminals.

These platforms already provide session cookie theft, adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) layers that bypass two-factor authentication (2FA), geo-fencing, anti-analysis tricks, and AI-generated email content, so the abuse of legitimate platforms will only increase the stealth of these attacks.

BleepingComputer has contacted Bubble for a comment about Kaspersky’s findings and any plans to strengthen anti-abuse protections, but we have not received a response by publishing time.

Malware is getting smarter. The Red Report 2026 reveals how new threats use math to detect sandboxes and hide in plain sight.

Download our analysis of 1.1 million malicious samples to uncover the top 10 techniques and see if your security stack is blinded.

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Today marks the start of the 2026 baseball season and in what has sort of become an annual tradition, T-Mobile is once again offering a free subscription to MLB.TV.

In order to take advantage of the deal, T-Mobile customers simply need to log into the T Life app, navigate to the Benefits tab and then hit Redeem after clicking the banner for a free season of MLB.TV. From there, you just need to download the latest version of the MLB app to your mobile device and sign in or create an account. That said, this is a time-limited offer, so if you want the ability to stream regular season baseball for free, you’ll need claim the deal prior to March 31 at 4:59 AM ET. For anyone on a different carrier, this may be enough time to switch providers and still get in on the savings.

Unfortunately, MLB.TV is subject to blackouts and market restrictions, so depending on where you live and where your favorite team is playing that day, you may not be able to catch every game. Sadly, this includes tonight’s 8:05 PM ET matchup between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, which is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Even so, with a one-year subscription to MLB.TV currently going for $150, this is one of the best perks available from any of the big cellular carriers.

In addition to full season of games, an MLB.TV subscription also includes access to a collection of baseball documentaries, game streams from previous years, World Series films, highlights, news and more. And with over 1.25 million customers having redeemed last year’s offer, this is potentially one of T-Mobile’s biggest offers of the year, with the company claiming to have delivered more than $1 billion in savings since it first started running the promotion 10 years ago in 2016.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: “___ want for Christmas …”
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his “Alas, poor Yorick!” speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after “match” or “mischief”
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Version 1 says it has chosen its new Dublin HQ for its ‘state-of-the-art AI Studio’ and will add 250 roles locally.

The new HQ at Four Park Place in Dublin will see it become neighbours to Apple when they officially open their new Dublin offices later this year, and sees the Irish technology provider reach a headcount of some 3,700 globally.

The Dublin jobs news follows an announcement earlier this month at the UK-Ireland Summit that it would create 1,000 jobs across the UK and Northern Ireland, as part of its plans to invest £40m into the UK market over the next few years.

Version 1 was founded in Dublin in 1996 and offers a range of technology services to global organisations. It has other key hubs in London, Edinburgh and Belfast, but has chosen Dublin for its AI studio as it focuses in on AI. At the summit, it said the majority of the 1,000 UK roles would also be AI-focused, and around 400 of the roles would be in Northern Ireland.

“This is more than an office opening. It is a statement of intent,” said Roop Singh, CEO of Version 1. “30 years ago, Version 1 was founded in Dublin with a commitment to making technology deliver extraordinary business outcomes and citizen welfare. That commitment has not changed, but the scale and ambition have.

“Our principal belief is that AI enhances human capability, it does not replace it. This studio is where we will prove that, working alongside our customers and communities to build AI solutions that are practical, governed and grounded in real business outcomes.”

“Version 1’s continued growth and investment in Ireland is a powerful example of an Irish company winning on the global stage,” said Kevin Sherry, executive director at Enterprise Ireland, which has worked closely with Version 1 to support international growth. “The opening of this AI Studio positions Ireland as a serious centre for AI innovation and reinforces our ability to develop and retain world-class technology talent.

“Ambitious companies like Version 1 embody Enterprise Ireland’s mission that Irish-owned, globally-focused companies will be the primary driver of our economy,” he added.

Version 1 says the AI Studio has been designed as a space to “harness the power of technology by co-creating solutions to complex problems alongside customers from all sectors”, and added that it will be available to schools, universities and community groups in an effort to “democratise” technology. Version 1 says AI must “carry a social licence and be developed responsibly”.

The opening was attended by Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD who described Version 1 as “a blueprint for how Ireland creates, retains and scales world-class technology companies”.

“This new headquarters represents significant inward investment in Ireland’s economy and talent base and cements our position as a premier hub for AI and business transformation services at a time when nations are competing for AI leadership,” he said.

Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation Niamh Smyth, TD also attended the launch and said it was Ireland’s ambition to be “at the forefront of responsible AI adoption”.

“Version 1’s new AI Studio demonstrates what is possible when Irish enterprise combines deep technical expertise with a genuine commitment to community partnership and skills development,” she said.

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