I’ve been watching wrestling for a long time. Since I was a child, I have been obsessed with the sport and have spent countless hours watching action from around the world in the ring. While I’ve occasionally watched Mexican promotions like Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide and CMLL over the years, I’ve recently started liking the former since they started working with WWE.
Over the past few months, I’ve had a lot of fun watching things like the two Worlds Collide shows and Triplemania XXXIII (pretty much AAA’s version of WrestleMania) and honestly, I’m remembering why I fell so much in love with wrestling in the first place. I don’t know if I’m the only one going through this, but it’s been amazing so far and I can’t wait to see more WWE and AAA events in the future.
(Image credit: AAA)
Watching the worldwide Lucha Libre AAA shows over the last few months has been incredible
Since then, I’ve watched TripleMania XXXIII and Worlds Collide: Las Vegas, both of which streamed for free on WWE YouTube pageand I had a lot of fun. From watching Dominik Mysterio become a two-time champion after defeating EL Hijo del Vikingo for the AAA Mega Championship to seeing the likes of La Parka and Psycho Clown take on WWE superstars, this was a wild experience like no other.
(Image credit: WWE)
Introducing myself to new fighters is making me feel like a kid again
Watching WWE superstars like Dominik Mysterio and El Grande Americano find their grooves in AAA has been something to behold over the past few months, but I’ve also fallen in love with other wrestlers I’ve never watched before or haven’t seen in years. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Vikingo, and Pagano were fun to watch, but there is one man who has conquered the world (and my heart), and that is the Absurdly incredible, Mr. Iguana.
Observing the strange Mr. Iguana and his pet, La Yesca (a hand puppet), face Finn Balor and his puppet friend, Demonitoin 2025 is honestly one of the wildest, most eccentric, yet amazing things I’ve seen all year. It’s hard not to get excited when a company can take something like puppets and make it work.
(Image credit: AAA/WWE)
If you’ve never watched AAA, now is the perfect time to start
You don’t need an ESPN Unlimited subscription or even a Peacock subscription to watch Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide events, as the promotion’s YouTube page constantly posts full matches, shows, and other videos. If you want to get in on the promotion, now is honestly the best time. Like, it’s never been easier to watch great lucha libre action in the ring.
All in all, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide has been amazing and a great reminder of why I fell in love with wrestling years ago. If the last few months have taught me anything, this is just the beginning.
“At first I thought we were digging a deep hole for ourselves as people feel so passionately about this character,” says Angus Gibson, director and co-creator of South Africa’s biggest production of all time, Shaka iLembe.
The character in question is King Shaka, or ShakakaSenzangakhona, the most famous of the Zulu kings who ruled in the pre-colonial era. An extremely important figure in South African Zulu culture, he has often been portrayed in Western media as a brutal warlord, a contrast to the tough military and political leader that most scholars agree he was. The desire behind the production of the series was to correct this error.
Gibson, Desireé Markgraaff and Teboho Mahlatsi – the experienced trio behind Shaka iLembe Bomb production house! Productions – he knew the project would define his career. They wanted to tell a King Shaka story that South Africans considered their own and erase decades of pre-colonial history that they did not recognize.
“This story was deeply important to us because African history has been underutilized in almost every way,” says Markgraaff.“ There is very little television or film that explores the history of this rich and attractive continent – the cradle of humanity. Telling this story felt like the first step in helping to change that: creating something beautiful that Africans everywhere could connect with.”
The founders of Bomba! have built a reputation for creating films and TV shows that put an African lens on storytelling. Gibson co-directed the late Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated biography of Nelson Mandela, Mandela: Son of Africa, Father of a NationTeboho made a short film that won the Silver Lion Portrait of a drowning young man and Markgraaff was co-producer of the award-winning docuseries Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. The trio also did Yizo Yizoa visceral and honest late 1990s drama series from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), set in a Johannesburg city school. Still, facing Shaka would be an entirely different challenge.
Gibson recalls how the original idea was to first create a pre-colonial film or series, covering different narratives about largely obscure figures from across Africa. However, M-Net, the South African pay television channel owned by African content giant MultiChoice, suggested focusing on the Zulu king – by far the most prominent historical figure from South Africa’s pre-colonial era.
Multichoice
There have been previous attempts to tell its story, or at least its role in the history of Western colonizers in Africa. The SABC, then owned by South Africa’s apartheid government, released Shaka Zulu in 1985, but told the story largely based on the writings of British traders who interacted with Shaka and through flashbacks of Henry Francis Fynn, a settler with an important role in South African history who will appear in season 3 of Shaka iLembe.
Outside the US, more recently, a $90 million Showtime series titled King Shakawho told Training day director Antoine Fuqua among its executive producers was fired before its release due to cost-cutting measures. Production in the province of KwaZulu-Natal was shut down 12 days early, a devastating blow to the South African creative community. His unexpected disappearance has made the MultiChoice show, which airs on M-Net’s Msanzi Magic channel, even more critical.
Consulting the king
Initial anxiety about facing Shaka coincided with the start of the pandemic. Having already spent several years in development, the global production freeze allowed for an even deeper period of research. Historians, scholars and family descendants, even the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who gave his blessing, were consulted, and all available paintings and written sources were studied. This led to two results: a TV series that is far more historically accurate in terms of clothing, hairstyles, language, and political dynamics than anything that came before it, and the idea that Shaka iLembe it wouldn’t just be about the man himself, but about the people around him.
Nomzamo Mbatha as Queen Nandi
Multichoice
Once M-Net gave the green light to what is the biggest-budget production in the company’s history, Gibson decided to hire the two people he envisioned playing Shaka and her influential mother, Queen Nandi – relative newcomer Lemogang Tsipa and Nomzamo Mbatha, the actress and activist known internationally for roles in Coming 2 America and Bruce Willis’ last film Assassin. “I had to go the audition route, but I knew who I wanted,” says Gibson. “That was non-negotiable in my mind.”
In addition to portraying the historical figure she always dreamed of playing, Mbatha came on board as an executive producer. “For me, it was important to be part of something that fully told the story of our beginnings,” she says. “Bomb! has always shown an understanding of the television landscape in South Africa and Africa in general. This was a period in history when we were kings, so how did we explore that and bring that to fruition? Both of my roles were daunting tasks, very labor intensive at the best of times.”
The choice was made to tell a story about Shaka’s rise to leader of the Zulu Kingdom and his eventual assassination, addressing the figures that would define his reign. Senzo Radebe has been cast as Shaka’s estranged father King Senzangakhona, with the likes of Thembinkosi Mthembu, Dawn Thandeka King and Sthandiwe Kgoroge playing other lead roles. NtandoZondi is young Shaka.
Season 1, which looks at Shaka’s journey to adulthood and Queen Nandi’s role in her rise, was released in June 2023 and immediately broke viewership records, with 3.6 million viewers in its first week – the highest number ever for a MultiChoice channel. The production created more than 8,000 jobs and attracted more Internet searches than any other TV show in South Africa that year.
Daniel Hadebe and Mpilo Mbatha
Multichoice
Across the continent, Shaka iLembe played on Mzansi Magic and other local M-Net channels, in French-speaking territories on Canal+ – which has just taken over from MultiChoice – and in South Africa on Showmax, the streamer that is backed by NBCUniversal and Sky. MultiChoice called Shaka iLembe a “love letter” to the nature, wildlife and history of the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa.
Shaka iLembe set the record for most wins in the drama category at the South African Film and Television Awards in 2024, and season 2 quickly began filming, with 16,000 jobs created this time around, as Bomb! told the story of how Shaka consolidated his power in early 19th century Africa as the new king and began building one of the continent’s most powerful empires in the KwaNobamba region of what is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
After another hugely successful season ended on August 30 this year, Deadline revealed that MultiChoice has ordered a third and final season, which will air in 2026. The final season will explore Shaka’s enemies trying to undermine his rule and the arrival of Francis Fynn and the British colonists.
“In Season 1, Shaka has to win people over, in Season 2 he travels with them, and in Season 3 he gets in front of them,” says Gibson. “I want you to look back and recognize what a genius he was and recognize his flaws. He was certainly brutal and alienated people, but he was a visionary.”
“Tom Cruise’s marketing bible”
Dawn Thandeka King as Mkabayi in ‘Shaka iLembe’
Multichoice
When we speak to Gibson and Mbatha via a Zoom call, they are filming a big set. Mbatha says the scale is “much, much larger” than before, adding: “The set feels completely new and really speaks to the testament of the vision coming to life.”
Extras and crew often show up on set on non-workdays, she says, as she describes how the leads feel a shared sense of story forming with the magnitude of their performances. Wearing a dazzling Zulu headdress known as isícholoused by married women to signify status, Mbatha laughs as she talks about the stars using “Tom Cruise’s marketing bible” to sell the show, “going to the malls, kissing the babies and hugging the mothers, and understanding the tangibility of it all.”
Multichoice
He adds that for the production and telling of African stories of this magnitude, this level of personal investment is vital, especially when compared to other recent projects about Africa. For example, “Black Panther It was an incredible project that left its mark, but given the African narrative, it’s not something we can really identify with,” she says of Marvel’s success. “Shaka iLembe It’s close to people.”
Gibson understands the matter. “We wanted to completely flip the lens and the recognizable world to be African, so when the colonists arrive in season three, they will be the exotic things, not the other way around,” he says.
He feels Shaka iLembe achieved these lofty goals? “I expected half the audience to love the project and half to think we had it all wrong and had no right to tell the story, but it has been extraordinarily affirming,” says Gibson. “In the context of Africa, there is an expression of deep appreciation for the project and people feel they have seen a representation of their past that they can celebrate.”
Now it’s a question of how far this can go. Gibson recalls how executives at a major U.S. cable network loved seeing the show, but didn’t think a drama filmed almost entirely in the Zulu language would resonate with audiences. “We need some brave broadcasters there,” he says. “We have one here.”
Allu Arjun’s wife Allu Sneha Reddy shared a series of stunning photos with the Pushpa: The Rule star celebrating her birthday in style. The post, captioned “An anniversary night, just us,” showed the couple in stylish, coordinated outfits, capturing a mix of cinematic and candid moments.
In one image, Sneha is seen on the stairs adjusting her heels, while in another, Allu Arjun holds her hand as she gracefully descends. A third photo features a cinematic shot of Sneha walking down the stairs, followed by a retro-themed photo of the couple in the middle of the road. The final image captures a warm moment, with Sneha hugging Allu Arjun as they both share smiles and laughter.
Allu Arjun wishes Sneha Reddy on her birthday
Actor Allu Arjun, known not only for his acting prowess but also for his strong family values, shared vacation photos with Sneha on social media. Posting on his Instagram and X, he wrote, “Happy Birthday Cutie #AlluSnehaReddy.” The couple looked stylishly coordinated in monochromatic ensembles, making their anniversary celebrations more memorable.
Allu Arjun and Sneha Reddy got married on March 6, 2011 in Hyderabad. They are blessed with two children, a son Ayaan and a daughter Arha. Over the years, Allu Arjun has consistently demonstrated his family side, celebrating festivals and special occasions with his loved ones.
Allu Arjun’s recent success and upcoming projects
Allu Arjun recently set new standards with the blockbuster Pushpa 2: The Rule, which grossed around Rs 800 crore in Hindi and Rs 1,800 crore worldwide, according to India Today. The action drama, a sequel to Sukumar’s 2021 hit Pushpa: The Rise, featured Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Jagapathi Babu and others in pivotal roles and was co-produced by Mythri Movie Makers and Sukumar Writings.
Looking at his upcoming projects, Allu Arjun will star in Atlee’s next project, tentatively titled AA22XA6, alongside Deepika Padukone in the lead role. The film reportedly features multiple actresses, making it one of the most anticipated releases in Tollywood.
READ ALSO:Atlee hints at Allu Arjun and Deepika Padukone’s film AA22 x A6, says it will be ‘addictive to watch’
Selena Gomez recently played a mother in a very dramatic way.
She is reprising her role as Alex Russo in Wizards Beyond Waverly Place.
After the dramatic Season 2 finale, she’s opening up about her own hopes for motherhood.
Selena and her husband Benny Blanco want to be parents. But be warned: this discussion involves some WBWP spoilers!
In ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’, Selena Gomez reprized her role as Alex Russo. The season 2 finale hit viewers hard. (Image credit: Disney+)
To set the stage for Selena Gomez to comment on becoming a mother, we need to delve deeper Wizards of Waverly Place and the recent ending of its spinoff.
Selena Gomez played Alex Russo masterfully in the original series. Her deliveries looked like Megan Mullally in Will and Gracewhich is one of our greatest compliments.
The iconic Disney Channel series followed Alex and his two brothers as they learn magic, face danger, while also learning that some absurd magical laws will eventually require them to compete to determine who keeps their magic.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is a modern spinoff that follows Billie, a young witch who must receive training alongside Alex’s two nephews, Milo and Roman.
The secret twist, revealed at the very end of season 2 (which aired this week), is that Billie is Alex’s daughter.
There was more to the big reveal – including, of course, that Alex Russo had to sacrifice himself.
(Is she dead? Not necessarily. Not every narrative surrogate sacrifice involves actual death, and her fate remains ambiguous)
Speaking of ambiguous fates, Disney has not yet renewed the series for a 3rd season.
We live in a world where the companies that produce television are so desperate for the next big thing that they drown most programs in their infancy, rather than giving them time to build an audience and following.
However, one detail that is catching people’s attention is what Selena wrote after the finale aired.
Taking to her Instagram Story, Selena Gomez gushed about her most famous character, Alex Russo, being a mother. (Image credit: Instagram)
After the dramatic Season 2 finale, Selena Gomez took her Instagram Story to share a screenshot of that exciting moment on your screen.
“Alex Russo is a mother,” she acknowledged in her Story post.
“I hope,” wrote Selena, “one day, that will be me.”
She and Janice LeAnn Brown, who plays Billie Russo on the series, discussed the big reveal and what it was like filming it.
“It was very emotional, especially for me and her after the table read,” expressed the young actress.
Selena chimed in: “We were just puddles.”
In previous interviews, Selena has spoken about how she feels playing Alex helped shape her into who she is today.
Not just because her Disney Channel role helped catapult her to fame — but because there’s something of a trade-off when actors play characters for a long time. A bit of the actor becomes part of the character, and sometimes the transfusion goes both ways.
Sitting down for an interview, Selena Gomez and Janice LeAnn Brown discuss the ‘Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’ Season 2 finale. (Image credit: YouTube)
We already knew that Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco want to have children one day.
Obviously, Selena’s health battle over the years — and her treatments — have made this issue complex. Doctors warned her about this.
However, both a gestational carrier (commonly called “surrogacy”) and adoption are on the table.
Selena loves children. She spent much of her life and career entertaining them.
We are sure she will be an incredible mother.
Also, Disney Plus needs to renew Wizards Beyond Waverly Place immediately and show us that Alex is okay. Kids aren’t the only ones who feel invested, you know.
Me wearing the hat with the cable connected to a power bank.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Like many middle-aged men, I have a large solar-powered area on the top of my head: it’s called a bald spot. If I work in the yard for a long time, it turns very red and glows at night. So I wear a hat, but all that beautiful solar energy bouncing off my dome goes to waste — or it did until I tried the $129 hat EcoFlow Power Hat (currently $99 on sale)a new sun hat/solar power source combination.
It has eight solar panels that power two USB ports (one USB-A and one USB-C) in a small box with a small LED under the back edge. While it adequately protected my bald spot, it failed to charge my phone to any significant extent. Plus, it’s just an ugly hat.
Pros
Covers my head, adequately doing the job of a hat
Technically it can charge a phone slowly, so I guess it works
Cons
Very low charging rate with just 5 watts of power
Need a cable running across your back
The design will only appeal to Wicked cosplayers (it’s ugly)
Don’t miss any of our unbiased technical content and lab-based analysis. To add CNET as Google’s preferred font in Chrome.
Design: The least attractive hat I’ve ever worn
There are eight small solar panels on the edge, but unless the sun hits them correctly, you won’t get much power from them.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Let me be clear: this is a really ugly hat. Sunhats aren’t usually elegant, but this thing looks like a melted flower pot or a giant version of one of those horrible flower pot holders made out of vinyl records. I’m not a fashionista, but the Oasis reunion made bucket hats cool again and hats with wider brims like the Tilley TS1 Protect yourself from the sun without looking like you’ve been hit, Wile E. Coyote style, by a falling satellite dish. I’m a big fan of practicality over style, but there are limits, especially since it’s not very practical.
Not easy to clean or use
All the electronics in the hat mean you can’t wash it. When my baseball cap gets dirty, sweaty, and covered in dirt from hard work, I can throw it in the washing machine. Try that with the EcoFlow Power Hat and you’ll destroy it. You also need a cable connecting the hat to the phone, which isn’t very practical when you’re trying to pull weeds. I ended up running a cable through the back of my shirt, which just made the whole thing look even sillier.
Charging: Can’t charge anything worth using
A six-hour gardening session barely moved the needle on charging my devices.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
The problem is how solar energy works. Sunlight hits a solar panel, which converts it into electrical energy. This is called the photoelectric effect, first explained by Albert Einstein, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering it in 1921. The amount of energy depends on the size of the panel and the amount of light that hits it. This, in turn, depends on how the panel is positioned in relation to the sun.
That’s why your roof’s solar panels are angled south to face the sun. The EcoFlow Power hat features eight small solar panels positioned around its large brim. This means that most do not receive much or any direct light unless the sun is directly overhead. The sun has an annoying habit of rising and falling, so most of the time you won’t get a consistent amount of direct sunlight.
What does all this mean in practical terms? That means this sun hat doesn’t work very well. I tested the hat in full midday sun in my backyard near Boston and found that, at best, it generated about 5 watts of power; that’s not much. It generated 5 volts at the USB port, but the current flow never exceeded 1 amp, meaning it still only generated about 5 watts of power. In the morning or afternoon, when the sun was at a certain angle, the current generated dropped to less than 0.3 amps, approximately 2 watts. EcoFlow claims it can generate up to 12 watts, but I’ve never gotten anything close to that.
100 hours to charge an iPhone 17 Pro
To test this further, I conducted an arduous gardening session. Well, okay, I put it on a pole, connected it to a rugged portable power bank and watched from the deck to make sure my local groundhog (we call him Wilbur the Pig Whistle) did not steal it. After six hours of this hard work, the charge level increased by 9%, representing around 225 mAh of stored charge. This is about 5% of the capacity of a so this hat would take about 100 hours to charge the phone. That’s assuming the phone isn’t currently working.
The Power Hat needs 100 hours to charge an iPhone 17 Pro if the phone is turned off.
Richard Baguely/Zooey Liao/CNET
Specifications
Two sizes: Medium-Large (56-58 centimeters) and Large-XL (59-61 centimeters)
Dual USB-A and USB-C ports to charge two devices simultaneously.
It has eight small solar panels on the edge.
SPF 50+, sun and UV protection
Claims 24% thermal to electricity conversion and up to 12 watts of power; tested to only 5 watts
IP65 waterproof and dustproof rating
Buying Advice: Skip, there are better hats and better solar charging options out there
Many of the products I test end up being a case of a great idea but poor execution. The practicalities of manufacturing products and real-world engineering compromises often detract from the product’s intended purpose. However, for the full price of $129 or $99 on sale if you buy direct from EcoFlowEcoFlow Power Hat is one of the rare exceptions that is a bad idea with poor execution.
It’s ugly and has solar panels that are too small to be effective for, well, anything. Maybe it would be better if they went with a flat lid designor a Sahara or hiking hat design with the solar panels on the top or neck flap. It is also an inferior solution to simply getting a fast and compact portable chargerlike the InfinityLab InstaGo 5000 or Anker 523 PowerCore Slim 10K PD. Another alternative is to use a larger portable solar panelwith which you can pair a power station or clip to your backpack while walking to charge your devices, like the Bluetti 2 speakerphone.
All of these options will provide more power than the EcoFlow Solar Hat and will do it better and faster. Therefore, keep solar panels away from your head and stick them on your roof.
Whenever I get the chance to test a Linux PC, I’ll be happy to do so. It’s not just because I can experiment with how third parties approach the operating system, but also because it means there are more possibilities for consumers to purchase Linux systems.
If you’ve heard of Kubuntu, you know it’s a version of Ubuntu that focuses on the KDE Plasma desktop – a shiny desktop interface. Kubuntu Focus, on the other hand, is a company dedicated to selling laptops and desktops equipped with the Kubuntu operating system.
Also:The best Linux laptops
After receiving the Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3unpacking and configuring, I turned on the power and watched Kubuntu load. Within seconds, I was greeted by the onboarding wizard. In stark contrast to any Windows PC I’ve tested, it took me less than two minutes to get the NX Gen3 up and running.
My experience
Reviewing a Linux laptop or PC is always a breath of fresh air for me because I know the operating system very well (so I know exactly what to expect) and it’s almost always a positive experience from start to finish.
The NX Gen3 was no exception.
The model I received housed an Intel Ultra 7 255H CPU/GPU, Arc T140 8 Xe, with 32 GB of RAM and Intel Mesa graphics, which costs around $1,230. You can spec a system with up to 96GB of RAM, a 4TB drive, which increases the price to $2,075.
There are plenty of ventilation openings to keep this PC cool.
Jack Wallen/ZDNET
Of course, it’s KDE Plasma, so the desktop is glorious. And yes, the default is a dark theme, which I customized right away. Once I got that out of the way, I ran the available updates (which took three minutes total) and started doing the one thing I always do when testing a new PC: pushing it to the limit.
As? Nowadays, this is very easy. I installed Ollama, pulled LLM llama3.2 and ran a query. I got used to slow responses to Ollama queries on review machines, and at first I thought the NX Gen3 would give me the same results. After a few seconds, however, Ollama spat out the answer to “What is Linux?” much faster than I thought. In fact, I’ve never seen a small form factor PC respond so quickly to a local AI query.
Impressive.
Also: How do I feed my files to local AI for better, more relevant answers
I then decided to download a larger LLM (gpt-oss:12b, which is 65 GB). Of course, the pull took forever (because of its size, which doesn’t reflect NX Gen3. Once complete, I ran the same query (“What is Linux?”), which was significantly faster than llama3.2 LLM. While gpt-oss:20 responded to the query, I started using other applications, and to my surprise, nothing was harmed by Ollama punching the CPU. The NX Gen3 didn’t even blink.
In addition to the AI portion of my test, I performed real everyday tasks (installing apps, opening and using apps, moving windows, running updates, browsing… you know the drill) and I wasn’t at all surprised as the NX Gen3’s performance was absolutely stellar. I’d put this little machine at about the same level as my System76 Thelio (which is the most powerful desktop PC I’ve ever used).
I would go further and say that the Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3 PC is powerful enough for pretty much everything you need for average use. No, you’re not going to mine massive data or launch a spacecraft to Mars with this computer, but for the average human, the NX Gen3 offers well-above-average performance.
Also: How to Run DeepSeek AI Locally to Protect Your Privacy – 2 Easy Ways
Even with various KDE Plasma window effects running (like Wobbly Windows), I didn’t see any lag, tearing, or pixelation.
No matter what I did with the NX Gen3 PC, I was impressed. This little machine is a powerhouse and would serve anyone well. And yes, KDE Plasma is a suitable desktop environment for those new to Linux. So whether you’re new to the open source operating system or have been using it for years, you can bet that the Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3 PC is up to whatever task you want to tackle.
I didn’t bother running benchmarking tests on this machine because I tend to prefer my reviews to be of value to those who would actually buy such a machine to use every day. Benchmarking is great, but these numbers don’t tend to mean much to the average user.
ZDNT Buying Advice
If you’re in the market for a new PC and want to finally jump on the Linux bandwagon, the Kubuntu Focus NX Gen3 It’s not only a great place to start, but a great place to stay. This small size computer seriously impressed me. It’s powerful, quiet, easy to set up and easy to use.
Also:How to install Steam on any Ubuntu-based Linux distribution so you can play a world of games
If you’re looking at the end of life for your Windows 10 PC and are looking for something better than what’s on the shelves at big box stores, head over to Kubuntu Focus official website and buy an NX Gen3 PC. You won’t regret it.
On almost every hike or camping trip I take in Washington state, there’s a moment on the drive when service drops, music cuts out in the car and texts stop coming in. That’s when I start hoping I remembered to download the trail map.
This disconnection is usually a welcome reprieve. I go off into the mountains partly to get a break from my phone, after all. But on this brisk Sunday morning in the North Cascades, that moment never came. I’d brought along a Starlink Mini in my backpack.
As my friends waited in line for the bathroom at the trailhead, I pulled out the small white square, about the size of a laptop, plugged it into my portable battery and waited for it to communicate with the Starlink satellites zooming invisibly 342 miles above our heads.
This was a slightly unusual way to use the Starlink Mini. The dish comes with Starlink’s Roam plans, which are designed for “high-speed internet on the go,” according to the company. It uses less than half the power of the full-size Starlink dish and weighs a little over 3 pounds, so it’s feasible to bring it along on a backcountry hike or camping trip. But more common use cases are RVs, vans and boats that aren’t tied to one specific location.
To test out the Starlink Mini, I also spent three days connected to it at my apartment in Seattle. I did everything I normally would on my regular old cable internet: chatted on Zoom meetings, streamed live sports and completed crosswords online with a friend.
I’ve written skeptically about Starlink in the past, but as I sat on top of a mountain in the North Cascades watching live NFL games in HD, I couldn’t help but grin. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know to get the most out of a Starlink Mini, and give you a full picture of the kind of performance you can expect from it.
It took about ten minutes for the Starlink Mini to find a connection in the mountains.
Joe Supan/CNET
How to set up the Starlink Mini
Setting up the Starlink Mini is incredibly simple. Here’s everything you’ll get in the box:
Starlink Mini dish (16.92 x 13.14 x 3.11 in)
Kickstand
Pipe adapter and flat mount
Power cable (49.2 feet)
Power supply
Plug
The Starlink Mini was incredibly simple to set up, with only six items in the box.
Joe Supan/CNET
Download the Starlink app
Your first step is to download the Starlink app, which you can access from a QR code on the packaging. This will guide you through the entire setup process, from finding an ideal location to creating a Wi-Fi network.
Check for obstructions
After the app is downloaded, it will prompt you to find a good resting place for the dish. Starlink says you need a “clear view of the sky” away from obstructions like tree branches, telephone poles or roofs. You can use the app to check for obstructions by holding your phone up to the sky.
The Starlink app directs you to hold your phone up to the sky to analyze obstructions in the area before mounting.
I wouldn’t get too bogged down in finding the perfect location. By design, the Starlink Mini probably won’t be staying in one place for too long. If you have a video meeting you want to ensure a stable connection for, you may want to run a quick obstruction check before you hop on. But for most Starlink Mini users, the obstructions surrounding the dish will constantly be in flux.
Plug in the dish
Once you’ve found a suitable spot, you plug one end of the power cable into the supply box and the other end into the dish. The power cable runs 49.2 feet, so you have some room to place the dish far away from the nearest electrical outlet.
Connect to Wi-Fi
Once it’s plugged in, you’ll be prompted to set up a Wi-Fi connection. Remember to follow best Wi-Fi practices to keep your network secure: Use a strong and unique password, create a guest network for visitors and set a time for automatic software updates.
It will take a few minutes for Starlink to communicate with satellites in the sky. Don’t panic if you’re offline or have slow speeds to start. It takes up to 30 minutes to optimize its connection and sometimes you won’t see maximum speeds until it’s been in the same spot for a full day.
Align Starlink
Once your network is set up, you can fine tune the dish’s connection with Starlink’s satellites by tweaking the alignment. You’ll be prompted to rotate the dish until it’s facing the right direction at the ideal angle.
Starlink’s alignment setup guides you to the optimal angle to mount your dish.
Joe Supan/CNET
Mounting
There are many options for mounting your Starlink Mini. Several mounts are available from Starlink and others from third-party manufacturers. The Mini comes with a pipe adapter and flat mount accessory, which is designed to be installed on a pipe or flat surface in a “stationary location.” If you want to use the dish on a vehicle, Starlink sells a mount that’s designed to be removable from a roof rack and another that stays in one place permanently.
Optimizing your Starlink Mini for travel
The Starlink Mini is meant for on-the-go connectivity, but this presents a few challenges that you don’t have with a stationary dish. Here’s everything you’ll need to know to get internet on the road — or the trail, sea or campground.
Powering the Starlink Mini
Since you may not have access to an electrical outlet, you’ll have to find an alternative power source. Starlink says that the Mini dish requires a 100-watt (20V/5A) power source to operate optimally, or a minimum of 65 watts (12-48V). Absent a generator, you have three options for this kind of power: a vehicle, portable power station or power bank.
Using a vehicle to power the Starlink Mini is generally the simplest option. You’ll need to purchase an adapter that can be used with an automotive 12-24V auxiliary power outlet, also known as the car cigarette lighter. Starlink sells a Mini Car Adapter for $45, and there are a number of options available from third-party sellers. One popular combination is UGREEN’s 130W USB-C Car Charger paired with a Starlink Mini USB-C to DC Power Cable.
A portable power station is a good option for camping if you don’t want to worry about draining your vehicle’s battery, but these are more expensive and heavier than most power banks, so they wouldn’t necessarily be a good fit for hiking or backpacking. These generally have AC outlets on them, so you can use the provided power supply without having to purchase a separate adapter.
If you want something more portable or for more intermittent use, a power bank is your best bet. I used the Anker 737 Power Bank to test the Starlink Mini, which gets you 24,000 Milliamp Hours (mAh) capacity and 140-watt output. (Again, Starlink says the minimum you can use is 65 watts, but I’d recommend going with at least 100 watts for any power bank.)
A 24,000mAh Anker 737 Power Bank powered my Starlink Mini for about four hours at a time.
Joe Supan/CNET
The capacity here is the key number. At 24,000 mAh, the Anker 737 is on the higher end of most power banks you’ll see. Starlink says the Mini consumes between 25 and 40 watts on average. Working from home on the Mini, my power draw was just 21 watts on average. That meant my Anker battery could power the Starlink Mini for about 4 hours at a time.
If you go the power bank route, you’ll need to buy a separate cable that uses a USB-C. There are a bunch of these for about $10 on Amazon. I ended up going with a 10 foot cable that had both a USB-C and cigarette lighter plug. That way, I could use the power bank as my primary source but also use my vehicle in a pinch.
Trees: Starlink’s Achilles heel
Starlink isn’t exaggerating when it says you need a clear view of the sky for it to work properly. I tried putting it under a variety of trees around my house, and it failed to establish a connection under any of them. Even where you could see patches of sky through the branches, the Starlink app still returned an “Obstructed” error message.
The Starlink Mini failed to establish a connection in wooded areas.
Joe Supan/CNET
You could potentially move the dish to a clearing, especially if you’re camping near a lake or river, and set up the dish there. I was still getting a pretty strong connection from about 50 feet away from the dish, so you have some leeway in finding an optimal location.
Troubleshooting common issues
If you have a clear view of the sky and the Starlink app is still showing no connection to the internet, the first place you should check is the power. The status light on the back of the Starlink Mini should be blinking slowly. If there’s no light at all, it means there’s a problem with the power source.
If the power is on, but you’re still having trouble establishing a connection with the Starlink Mini, my first recommendation is to wait. When I powered it up on my hike for the first time, I was disappointed at first that I couldn’t get a connection. But after about 10 minutes of the dish searching for satellites, I was online and checking my fantasy football scores.
It took about 10 minutes for the Mini to establish a connection on my hike.
Joe Supan/CNET
After 10 minutes, your Starlink Mini should have established some connection to the internet (and should continue to get stronger over the next 24 hours). If you’re still not getting a signal, Starlink recommends unplugging the Mini from the power source and plugging it back in. If that doesn’t work, you can reset it to factory settings, which will require setting up a new Wi-Fi network.
Starlink in the wild: How did it hold up in the backcountry?
To test out the Starlink Mini on the move, I strapped it to my backpack for the hike down from Cutthroat Pass.
Joe Supan/CNET
To test out the Starlink Mini in the wilderness, I powered it up at various points along the 10-mile hike and took some speed tests. Once I got to the top (and wouldn’t annoy my hiking partners too much), I ran some more real-world tests. The Starlink Mini passed all of them beautifully. I streamed live NFL games, FaceTimed a friend and streamed Game of Thrones in 4K. In every case, the experience felt no different than if I were doing those things on my cable internet connection at home.
That said, the numbers tell a slightly different story. I took 12 speed tests on the 5-hour hike, and the Starlink Mini returned averages of 127Mbps download speed, 17Mbps upload speed and 46 milliseconds latency. That was shockingly close to what Ookla reports as Starlink’s median US performance: 105Mbps download, 15Mbps upload and 45ms latency. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
While those numbers were certainly serviceable for most online tasks, they didn’t come close to my cable internet through Xfinity. Though it’s a slightly unfair comparison. Starlink Mini is meant to keep you connected where broadband infrastructure doesn’t exist, but I think it’s worth putting Starlink’s speeds into context.
I pay $63 per month through Xfinity and got speeds of 422/175Mbps with 20ms latency when I tested my connection over the same period. That’s less than I would pay for Starlink Roam ($80 per month), and I’d only get 50GB of data each month with Starlink.
I use about 90GB of data at home in an average week, and I don’t do any particularly bandwidth-intensive activities, just a few Zoom meetings every day, working in Google Docs and streaming TV for an hour or two. With that diet, I would run out of data with Starlink’s 50GB Roam plan in a few days. Starlink charges $1 for every GB you go over your data cap each month. If you want unlimited data for the Starlink Mini, it’ll cost you $195 monthly.
Starlink’s upload and download speeds were high enough that most small to mid-size households probably wouldn’t experience many limitations. But there is one group that would: online gamers. Starlink’s had an average latency of 45 milliseconds in my tests. I usually say anything below 50ms is good enough for gaming, but there were several spikes above 100ms in my 24 speed tests with Starlink. That’s not a huge deal if you’re just checking emails or streaming Netflix, but it could make an online gaming experience nearly unplayable over the course of a couple of hours.
Starlink Mini: Key benefits and drawbacks
Pros
Internet isn’t tied to one location
Lightweight and portable
Plenty of speed for most online activities
Simple setup and installation
Intuitive and helpful app
Cons
Signal is easily blocked by trees and other obstacles
Uses a significant amount of power
Latency spikes were common
50GB monthly data cap is extremely low for most people
Is the Starlink Mini worth it?
I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say Starlink is a miraculous technology. One user in Alaska described it to me in a previous interview as an absolute game changer where he lives.
“You bring a Starlink dish out there and plug it in. Two minutes later, you’ve got the whole world again in the palm of your hand,” he said.
My experience with the Mini was no different. It was absolutely surreal to be on top of a mountain deep in the backcountry watching a live NFL game in crystal clear HD. But there are only a few specific situations in which I’d recommend the Starlink Mini.
If you’re going to be traveling for a long period of time and won’t have consistent access to an internet connection, the Starlink Mini is essentially your only option for staying connected. But that comes at a significant price. The dish itself retails for $299, though Starlink is currently offering it for free to new customers. And you’ll pay another $165 per month if you want unlimited data, which is essential if you plan on using it like you would a home internet connection.
If you just want to use it periodically, you might be able to get by with the 50GB plan for $50 a month. Starlink used to let you pause service on Roam plans, so you could activate it only for specific trips. As of August, you now have to pay $5 a month for that stop-restart privilege.
I could see how having the peace of mind to check email or look up directions while traveling would be worth the cost for some people. And in those situations, the Starlink Mini performs beautifully. Just don’t expect the same performance you’d get at home.
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We shouldn’t expect any Windows laptop with a powerful discrete GPU to truly replicate what the MacBook Pro does. Yes, there are more powerful systems out there, but efficiency is not the goal of these systems. Even with the improvements Nvidia has made to Advanced Optimus (automatic switching between discrete GPUs when needed), battery life suffers, especially when running heavier applications. In a local video playback test, the Yoga Pro 9i 16 lasted about 12 hours. Despite using the same 84-watt-hour battery, this appears to be a slight improvement over last year’s model, although it’s difficult to make a head-to-head comparison. I know battery life decreases quickly under heavy load, as it died in just 45 minutes while running a benchmark. You’ll want to be connected if you’re doing something very serious.
Regardless of the task, you’ll get twice the battery life in an M4 Max MacBook Pro. Only when we have ARM-based systems with powerful integrated graphics that rival the M4 Pro and M4 Max will there be competition for Apple. The closest thing we’ve seen so far is AMD’s exclusive Ryzen AI Max+ processor, which appeared in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 and used a massive integrated graphics chip to challenge traditional discrete graphics. But we still have a long way to go.
The only other Windows laptop that could be better is the Asus ProArt P16which I haven’t tested yet. Now it even comes with an RTX 5070 or 5090 option, which could make it significantly more powerful than the Yoga Pro 9i. However, it’s also a much more expensive laptop, configured with a 4K OLED display and only high-end GPUs. The Yoga Pro 9i is also hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Dell 16 Premium when configured similarly.
The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 gets a lot of things right—enough to make it worth recommending as a worthy MacBook Pro competitor. Ultimately, it’s the performance, screen, and premium quality that make it a worthy content creation machine, and the Yoga Pro 9i succeeds on all of those fronts, perhaps better than any other Windows machine I’ve tested.
Chris Lehane is one of the best in the business at making bad news disappear. Al Gore’s press secretary during the Clinton years, Airbnb’s chief crisis manager through every regulatory nightmare from here to Brussels – Lehane knows the drill. Now he’s two years into what may be his most impossible job: As vice president of global policy at OpenAI, his job is to convince the world that OpenAI actually cares about the democratization of artificial intelligence, while the company increasingly behaves like, well, every other tech giant that ever claimed to be different.
I spent 20 minutes with him on stage at Elevate conference in Toronto earlier this week – 20 minutes to get past the talking points and get into the real contradictions that erode OpenAI’s carefully constructed image. It was neither easy nor completely successful. Lehane is genuinely good at what he does. He’s friendly. He seems reasonable. He admits uncertainty. He even talks about waking up at 3 a.m. worrying about whether it will actually benefit humanity.
But good intentions don’t mean much when your company is subpoenaing critics, draining water and electricity from economically depressed cities, and bringing dead celebrities back to life to assert its market dominance.
The company’s Sora problem is really at the root of everything else. The video generation tool was launched last week with copyrighted material apparently embedded into it. It was a bold move for a company that was already being sued by the New York Times, the Toronto Star and half the publishing industry. From a commercial and marketing point of view, it was also brilliant. The invite-only app rose to the top of the App Store as people created digital versions of themselves, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; characters like Pikachu and Cartman from “South Park”; and dead celebrities like Tupac Shakur.
Asked what motivated OpenAI’s decision to launch this newest version of Sora with these characters, Lehane responded that Sora is a “general purpose technology” like the printing press, democratizing creativity for people without talent or resources. Even he – who calls himself a creative zero – can make videos now, he said on stage.
What he guessed is that OpenAI initially “let” rights holders opt out of having their work used to train Sora, which is not how copyright use normally works. So, after OpenAI realized that people really liked using copyrighted images, it “evolved” into an opt-in model. This is not iteration. This is testing how much you can get away with. (By the way, although the Motion Picture Association made some noise last week about legal threats, OpenAI appears to have largely escaped.)
Naturally, the situation brings to mind the aggravation of publishers who accuse OpenAI of training their work without sharing the financial spoils. When I pressed Lehane about publishers being priced out of the economy, he invoked fair use, that American legal doctrine that is supposed to balance the rights of the creator with public access to knowledge. He called it the secret weapon of US technological dominance.
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Perhaps. But I recently interviewed Al Gore – Lehane’s old boss – and realized anyone could just ask ChatGPT about this instead of reading my TechCrunch article. “It’s ‘iterative,’” I said, “but it’s also a substitute.”
Lehane listened and abandoned his speech. “We’re all going to need to figure this out,” he said. “It’s very simplistic and easy to sit here on stage and say we need to discover new economic revenue models. But I think we will.” (We’re making it up as we go along, so I hear.)
Then there is the question of infrastructure that no one wants to answer honestly. OpenAI already operates a data center campus in Abilene, Texas, and recently opened a massive data center in Lordstown, Ohio, in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank. Lehane compared the adoption of AI to the advent of electricity – saying that those who accessed it last are still playing catch-up – but OpenAI’s Stargate project appears to be targeting some of those same economically challenged locations to create facilities with their huge appetite for water and electricity.
Asked during our meeting whether these communities will benefit or just pay the bill, Lehane addressed gigawatts and geopolitics. OpenAI needs about a gigawatt of power per week, he noted. China produced 450 gigawatts last year, in addition to 33 nuclear facilities. If democracies want democratic AI, he said, they have to compete. “The optimist in me says this will modernize our energy systems,” he said, painting a picture of a reindustrialized America with transformed electrical grids.
It was inspiring, but it wasn’t an answer to whether people in Lordstown and Abilene will see their utility bills increase as OpenAI generates videos of The Notorious BIG. AI that consumes the most energy outside.
There’s also a human cost, which became clearer the day before our interview, when Zelda Williams took to Instagram to beg strangers to stop sending her AI-generated videos of her late father, Robin Williams. “You are not making art,” she wrote. “You are turning the lives of human beings into disgusting, over-processed hot dogs.”
When I asked how the company reconciles this kind of intimate harm with its mission, Lehane responded by talking about processes, including responsible design, testing frameworks, and government partnerships. “There’s no manual for these things, right?”
Lehane showed vulnerability at times, saying he recognized the “huge responsibilities that come with” everything OpenAI does.
Whether or not these moments were planned for the audience, I believe him. In fact, I left Toronto thinking I had watched a masterclass in political messaging — Lehane threading an impossible needle while dodging questions about company decisions that, as far as I can tell, he doesn’t even agree. Then the news revealed that complicated situation, which was already complicated.
Nathan Calvin, a lawyer who works on AI policy at the non-profit organization Encode AI, revealed that at the same time I was speaking with Lehane in Toronto, OpenAI had sent a sheriff’s deputy at Calvin’s house in Washington, D.C., during dinner to serve him a subpoena. They wanted your private messages with California lawmakers, college students, and former OpenAI employees.
Calvin says the move was part of OpenAI’s scare tactics surrounding a new AI regulation, California’s SB 53. He says the company weaponized its ongoing legal battle with Elon Musk as a pretext to target critics, implying that Encode was secretly funded by Musk. Calvin added that he fought OpenAI’s opposition to California’s SB 53, an AI safety bill, and that when he saw OpenAI claim that it “worked to improve the bill,” he “literally laughed out loud.” In a social media kerfuffle, he went on to specifically call Lehane a “master of the dark political arts.”
In Washington, that might be a compliment. At a company like OpenAI, whose mission is to “build AI that benefits all humanity,” this sounds like an accusation.
But what matters much more is that even the folks at OpenAI are conflicted about what it’s becoming.
As my colleague Max reported last week, several current and former employees took to social media following the release of Sora 2, expressing their doubts. Among them was Boaz Barak, an OpenAI researcher and Harvard professor, who wrote about Sora 2 which is “technically incredible, but it’s premature to congratulate ourselves for avoiding the pitfalls of other social media apps and deepfakes.”
On Friday, Josh Achiam – head of mission alignment at OpenAI – tweeted something even more remarkable about Calvin’s accusation. Prefacing his comments by saying they were “possibly a risk to my entire career,” Achiam went on to write about OpenAI: “We cannot do things that make us a frightening power rather than a virtuous one. We have a duty and a mission to all humanity. The bar for fulfilling that duty is remarkably high.”
It’s worth pausing to think about this. An OpenAI executive publicly questioning whether his company is becoming “a frightening powerhouse rather than a virtuous one” is not on the same level as a competitor taking shots or a reporter asking questions. This is someone who chose to work at OpenAI, who believes in its mission and who now recognizes a crisis of conscience despite the professional risk.
It’s a moment of crystallization, the contradictions of which can only intensify as OpenAI moves towards artificial general intelligence. It also made me think that the real question isn’t whether Chris Lehane can sell OpenAI’s mission. It’s whether others – including, critically, the other people who work there – still believe it.
