Timef 01/09/2026

X is only allowing “verified” users to create images with Grok. Experts say it represents the “monetization of abuse”—and anyone can still generate images on Grok’s app and website.

Eric and Wendy Schmidt are backing a start-up-like approach to building a giant space telescope and powerful ground observatories.

Elon Musk's AI company has restricted Grok's controversial AI image-generation feature to only paying subscribers on X, after the tool invited heated criticism from across the world for letting users generate sexualized images of women and children.

Idris Elba wanted to watch the Arsenal-Liverpool game during his "Late Night" interview with Seth Meyers.

Spotify says its ICE recruitment ads have been removed from the platform by the company, following backlash and boycotts.

In a blog post published Friday morning, Ben Horowitz writes that "as the American leader in Venture Capital, the fate of new technology in the United States rests partly on our shoulders." It's the kind of statement certain to cause agita at rival firms.

Xreal brought out the big guns for CES 2026. The brand debuted the world's first AR glasses with a 240 Hz refresh rate, plus a new 3D conversion.

CES 2026 unveiled game-changing tech from LG's invisible wallpaper TV to AI-powered home robots and foldable steering wheels for autonomous cars.

As of Jan. 9, the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE are on sale at Amazon for $68.99, 31% off their list price of $99.99.

Seth Meyers has reacted to the Trump administration's response to ICE fatally shooting 37-year-old mother Renee Good.

Normally $49.99, the Silent Hill 2 remake on PS5 has had 45% cut off its price tag, now only $27.39.

“This is a story about how a tool can be used to try to affect politics and in particular to minimize women, denigrate them and push them out of the conversation.”

Alabama passed a 10 percent porn tax last year, as Utah and Pennsylvania eye similar bills. Half the country has enacted age-verification laws to prevent minors from viewing porn.

What the latest tech-marketing buzzword has to say about the future of automotive.

As of Jan. 9, the Apple Watch SE 3 (GPS, 40mm) is on sale at Amazon for $219. This is 12% off its list price of $249.

OnlyFans adult content creator Tiffany Wisconsin tells Mashable what it takes to be a high earner on the platform.

This negative-oxygen-ion-generating purifier claims to create a “forestlike atmosphere” in your bedroom.

Aurora Therapeutics, cofounded by Nobel Prize–winning scientist Jennifer Doudna, plans to use gene editing and a new FDA regulatory pathway to commercialize treatments for rare diseases.

Stephen Colbert has comment on the Trump administration's reaction to ICE fatally shooting Renee Nicole Good.

Save $10 on the Pokémon TCG Phantasmal Flames Booster Bundle at Amazon, now $55.47 with six booster packs included.

We run down the top laptops we saw at CES 2026 from Lenovo, Asus, and Dell.

Find the best Apple Watch deal at Amazon. Save 31% on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 at Amazon.

As of Jan. 9, the Kindle Colorsoft Kids (16GB) is on sale at Amazon for $219.99, 19% off its list price of $269.99.

Find the best Apple deal. Save 24% on the Apple Magic Keyboard at Amazon.

"The Daily Show" host Ronny Chieng reacted to claims by Donald Trump about the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

Connections: Sports Edition is a New York Times word game about finding common sports threads between words. How to solve the day's puzzle.

Get the best water flosser deal at Amazon. Save 20% on the Waterpik Cordless at Amazon.

Find the best power station deal on Amazon. Save 52% on the Jackery Explorer 2000 v2 at Amazon.

Answers to each clue for the January 9, 2026 edition of NYT's The Mini crossword puzzle.

Our headphones expert spent a few weeks with the Marshall Monitor III headphones, and they're some of her new favorite headphones.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered the fastest-spinning large asteroid so far, completing a turn in under two minutes.

Gerard Butler returns to be the dad we need in "Greenland 2: Migration."

How to watch college football for free. Live stream Oregon vs. Indiana in 2026 without cable.

Unlock lifetime access to Imagiyo’s powerful AI image generator for just $34.97 and create anything your imagination can dream up.

The New York Times' latest game, Pips, brings domino fun to your desktop. How to play Pips as well as hints in case you get stuck.

Anthropic announces its first enterprise deal of 2026 which includes building agents and for, and giving Claude code, to Allianz.

We've collected all the truly strange tech we saw this year in Vegas at CES 2026.

CES 2026 is finally here, and Mashable reporters are on the ground looking for the best in show. Get live updates from the showroom floor and behind the scenes.

Jimmy Kimmel addressed the ICE shooting in Minneapolis, criticising the Trump administration's attempts to justify the killing.

For the eighth year in a row, the world’s oceans absorbed a record-breaking amount of heat in 2025. It was equivalent to the energy it would take to boil 2 billion Olympic swimming pools.

Save on Skullcandy audio with 47% off Crusher Evo headphones, 36% off Crusher ANC 2 noise-canceling headphones, and more with top deals.

How to watch T20 World Cup for free. Live stream the 2026 T20 World Cup for free from anywhere in the world.

How to watch Bundesliga for free. Watch Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga for free from anywhere in the world.

Hints and answers to today's Hurdle all in one place.

How to watch AFCON for free. Live stream Cameroon vs. Morocco in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free.

How to watch AFCON for free. Live stream Mali vs. Senegal in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free.

See the Moon phase expected for January 9, 2025 as well as when the next Full Moon is expected.

Jonathan Ross told a federal court in December about his professional background, including “hundreds” of encounters with drivers during enforcement actions, according to testimony obtained by WIRED.

Connections is a New York Times word game that's all about finding the "common threads between words." How to solve the puzzle.

The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.

Here's the answer for "Wordle" #1663 on January 8 as well as a few hints, tips, and clues to help you solve it yourself.

Dr. Robby, Langdon, Dana, Crash, and Louie are back for Season 2 of "The Pitt." What happened in Season 1?

Mashable checked out the Infinity smart handbag at CES 2026.

CES 2026 is in full swing in Las Vegas, with the show floor open to the public after a packed couple of days occupied by press conferences from the likes of Nvidia, Sony, and AMD and previews from Sunday’s Unveiled event. 

The NFL postseason 2026 is here and we've got all of the streaming details you need to watch every game and every round live.

Cyera raised another $400 million just six months after its last huge round.

Make nice with PDFs forever thanks to this lifetime license to PDF Converter and Editor for just $23.99 (reg. $99.99) with code CONVERT until Jan. 11.

The restrictions, signed into law by Gov. Philip D. Murphy on Thursday as one of his final acts in office, will take effect during the 2026-2027 school year.

For the past two weeks, X has been flooded with AI manipulated nude images, created by the Grok AI chatbot — and governments around the world are promising to take action.

The pivot doesn’t look out of place at CES, where Chinese electronics companies are increasingly applying their manufacturing prowess to new industries.

Elon Musk’s chatbot has been used to generate thousands of sexualized images of adults and apparent minors. Apple and Google have removed other “nudify” apps—but continue to host X and Grok.

The sanctioned government narrative of the Minneapolis shooting diverts wildly from video footage of the incident shared online.

Amazon is teasing something on its 'Fallout' website, and we'll all find out what it is in early February.

Building software products has never been easier, so why are so many well-funded startups failing to take off no matter how good their product is? In this season finale episode of Build Mode, our guest has an answer: Startups have focused too much on product development and not enough on distribution excellence. Paul Irving is partner and […]

The infamous spyware maker released a new transparency report claiming to be a responsible spyware maker, without providing insight into how the company dealt with problematic customers in the past.

Get that silky-smooth nitro coffee at home without the wasteful cartridges with EverNitro.

CES is always chock-full of robots, and this year electronics giant LG announced a new bot, dubbed CLOid, that it claims will revolutionize household chores (as in, you won't have to do them anymore).

The Tiiny AI Pocket Lab says it's the world's smallest AI supercomputer. Guinness World Records agrees. It makes its debut at CES.

With top quality noise reduction and advanced spatial audio support, these earbuds might come for your AirPods.

Tech companies are calling AI the next platform. But some developers are reluctant to let AI agents stand between them and their users.

Internet monitoring firms and experts say Iran’s internet has almost completely shut down, as protests spread through major cities.

OpenAI is acquiring the team behind executive coaching AI tool Convogo in an all-stock deal, adding to the firm's M&A spree.

Luckey, who initially made his fortune in VR and now runs the defense contractor Anduril, and Ohanian both seemed to agree: Stuff was better in the old days.

The move comes as Disney launched a personalized vertical video feed in the ESPN app last year.

As of Jan. 8, get the Nothing CMF Watch 3 Pro for $37.40 off at Amazon.

From an AI panda pet to an anime girl hologram for your desk, here are the wildest products at CES 2026.

The Marshall Monitor III headphones are on sale at Amazon for $279.99, down from the list price of $379.99. That's a 26% discount.

The security lapse exposed personal information belonging to residents who received state benefits.

Nvidia is now requiring its customers in China to pay upfront in full for its H200 AI chips even as approval Stateside and from Beijing remains uncertain.

'Heated Rivalry' star Connor Storrie's old YouTube videos are going viral. Instead of erasing them, the actor is embracing his younger self.

Audible's holiday deal is still live through Jan. 21: get three months of Premium Plus for just 99 cents per month.

As of Jan. 8, get the Levoit 2.5L Top Fill Humidifier for under $30. Shop the humidifier at Amazon for 30% off and save $12 while restoring moisture to the dry winter air.

As of Jan. 8, get the Samsung Odyssey G8 QD-OLED gaming monitor for its lowest price yet.

The "Fortnite"/"South Park" crossover will feature themed items, outfits, and five-player playlists called Quints.

Snowflake is bolstering its data stack to make the platform better suited to the sheer volume of data produced by AI agents.

CES 2026 health tech innovations are reshaping wellness with AI-powered mirrors, smart exoskeletons and breakthrough devices for prevention and recovery.

Now that new JBL earbuds have been announced at CES 2026, the last generation Endurance Peak 3 earbuds are $40 cheaper at Amazon.

John Ternus, a low-profile but influential executive at Apple, could be next in line to replace the company’s longtime chief executive, Tim Cook, if he steps aside.

Online detectives are inaccurately claiming to have identified the federal agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman in Minnesota based on AI-manipulated images.

Samsung has to show off its next batch of Galaxy phones soon, but when exactly will that be?

Bluetti just launched the new Charger 2, a bio-based Elite 100 V2 portable power station, and several more at CES 2026.

In the season finale of Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen sits down with Paul Irving, partner and COO of GTMfund, to discuss go-to-market strategies for the AI era. Paul shares specific, actionable advice on how early-stage startups can win even when facing well-funded competitors who iterate at lightning speed. He also explains why distribution has become the final remaining moat when technical advantages disappear in months […]

District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said there was evidence suggesting OpenAI’s leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure would be maintained. The case will go to trial in March.

As of Jan. 8, get a 6-pack of collectible Lego F1 cars for just $15.60, saving you 48% off. That's the pack's lowest price ever, a sweet deal for kids and parents alike.

MrBeast had 30 celebs fight it out for $1 million.

As of Jan. 8, get $100 off the bmani ANC Headphones at Amazon.

There's one country reportedly taking a stand against the scourge of unskippable ads.

Influencer and podcaster Trisha Paytas teased a Congressional run on TikTok. We have some questions.

The Ecovacs Deebot T50 Omni robot vacuum and mop is down to $449 at Amazon. That's over 30% off and its best price on record.

As of Jan. 8, get the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 vlogging camera for just $654. That saves you over $300 on the device, bringing it down to its lowest price ever. Plus, this combo includes a wireless mic.

Gore Verbinski's "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" stars Sam Rockwell as a man on a mission to save the future. Trailer.