Entertainment
How to watch Drop: Catch the Blumhouse popcorn thriller at home
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One of the most anticipated movies out of SXSW this spring, Drop is the latest from filmmaker Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) and Blumhouse (M3GAN, Five Nights at Freddy’s). Dubbed “solidly fun” and “a great date night movie” by Mashable’s Film Editor, it’s a popcorn thriller with some depth. It features The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy as its leading lady, alongside Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us), who are “a demented pleasure to watch.”
If you missed it in theaters, you can now get in on the action at home. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch Drop.
What is Drop about?
Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, Drop follows widowed mother Violet (Fahy) as she gets back on the dating scene. On her first date in years, she starts receiving anonymous airdropped threats on her phone that put her son (Jacob Robinson) and babysitting sister (Violett Beane) at risk. As it turns out, a masked intruder is in her house and monitoring her every move. The only way she can save her family is by killing her date.
Check out the official trailer:
Is Drop worth watching?
Despite a less-than-excellent opening weekend, debuting in fifth place at the box office — behind A Minecraft Movie, The King of Kings, The Amateur, and Warfare — Drop has already earned more than double its $11 million budget since its release. Earning $27.7 million worldwide to date, that’s a pretty good sign for a low-budget horror. Critics and audiences both have been loving it to boot. Drop currently holds an 84 percent critic rating and 79 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes — a pretty impressive feat for a popcorn thriller.
“Jacobs and Roach’s script is so full of twists that while you may see some coming, others will undoubtedly catch you by sweet surprise. Whether relishing in the situational comedy of an awkward first date or combatting mysterious and malevolent forces, Drop‘s characters are a demented pleasure to watch,” Puchko writes in her review. “All of these successes mean that Drop is charming enough to make up for its biggest flaw. In the climax, when the plot takes a big swing with a dubious but pivotal kill, you might well eye-roll over the unlikelihood of such a demise, but you won’t get the ick.“
How to watch Drop at home
Credit: Universal Pictures
It’s time for audiences to show up for Drop from their couches. There are a couple ways to watch at the time of writing — and the streaming debut will expand your options at a later date. See the details below.
Buy or rent it on digital
Drop made its at-home debut on major digital platforms (Prime Video, Apple TV, etc.) on April 29, 2025. The film is available to buy for $24.99 or rent for $19.99. While it’s certainly tempting to save a few bucks and opt for the rental option, just be aware that you’ll only get 30 days to watch the film and just 48 hours to finish it once you start. If you choose to buy it instead, then it’s yours to keep.
Here are some quick links to rent or purchase Drop:
Stream it on Peacock
While Universal has yet to announce when Drop will make its streaming debut, we know that as a Universal Pictures film, it’ll premiere on Peacock. Based on the digital-to-streaming trajectory of previous Universal movies, it will most likely hit Peacock between the end of June and the end of July. Blumhouse’s other recent horror flick, Wolf Man, and fellow Universal horror hit, Abigail, started streaming about two months after their digital debut, while other Universal films like Fall Guy and Twisters had a longer window of three months or so.
Don’t have a Peacock subscription? You can sign up for as low as $7.99 per month with ads or $13.99 per month without. But before you get ahead of yourself, be sure to check out the best ways to save some money on a subscription below.
The best Peacock streaming deals
Best Peacock deal: Save 17% on an annual subscription
The best Peacock deal on any given day is the annual subscription deal. You’ll get 12 months of streaming for the price of 10 if you pay for a year upfront. The annual Peacock subscriptions cost just $79.99 per year with ads (which breaks down to about $6.67 per month) or $139.99 per year without ads (which breaks down to about $11.67 per month). That’s about 17% in total savings.
Best Peacock deal for Xfinity customers: free Peacock Premium for eligible accounts
Are you an Xfinity customer? Be sure to check the eligibility details below, as you might be able to score a Peacock Premium subscription for free. Here’s a breakdown of who is eligible for the deal or you can head to Xfinity.com for more details.
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Xfinity Internet users on the Gigabit or Gigabit+ plans can get Peacock Premium (with ads) for two years (offer ends June 25, 2025) for free.
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Xfinity Internet customers who are Diamond or Platinum Xfinity Rewards members can get Peacock Premium for free by redeeming a reward for it. Sign in at xfinity.com/rewards and choose Peacock as a reward. Then, wait for your email (it may take a few hours) with instructions on activating the offer.
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NOW TV customers can also receive Peacock Premium as part of their service.
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New customers with Xfinity Internet and an X1 TV Box, Flex streaming TV Box, or a Xumo Stream Box from Xfinity can get Peacock Premium for free for six months.
Best Peacock deal for students: Save $5/month for one year
Students can get an entire year of Peacock Premium at a discounted rate of $2.99 per month instead of $7.99. That’s a total of just $35.88 for the year. You’ll have to verify your student status via SheerID to get the unique promo code that will unlock the savings. Just note that it can only be used once, and after the promo year is up, you’ll be charged full price again.
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Best Peacock deal for first responders: Save $4/month
First responders and medical professionals are also able to score a Peacock Premium subscription at a discounted rate. Just verify your first responder or medical professional status via SheerID, and you’ll get a unique promo code that will drop the cost of a subscription from $7.99 per month to just $3.99. If you continue to meet verification qualifications, you can renew the deal each year — although you may have to go through the verification process each time and receive a new promo code. Learn more about eligibility terms and requirements.
Best for active military and veterans: Save $4/month
Active duty U.S. military service members, Reservists, National Guard members, veterans, or U.S. military retirees can also score a Peacock Premium subscription for a discounted rate of $3.99 per month instead of the usual $7.99 per month. You’ll have to prove your military status using SheerID and retrieve a promotional code to activate the offer. Eligible military personnel who continue to meet requirements can redeem the deal annually.
Best for teachers: Save $4/month for one year
Teachers can get in on the savings as well. For one year, educators who can verify their status on SheerID can get Peacock Premium for just $3.99 per month. However, once the promotional period ends, you’ll be charged full price. Be sure to cancel before the year ends.
Best for Instacart users: free Peacock Premium for Instacart+ subscribers
If you sign up for Instacart+ for $99.99 per year, you’ll unlock a free Peacock Premium subscription. And that’s on top of free grocery delivery, lower fees, and credit back on eligible pickup orders. That’s a $79.99 per year value tacked on to your Instacart+ subscription for free. Not to mention, if you’re new to Instacart+, you’ll get a free two-week trial to test the waters. If you wait until the streaming release of Drop, you could even watch it for free during the trial period.
Best for JetBlue members: free Peacock Premium for one year for Mosaic status members
If you’re a JetBlue TrueBlue Mosaic status member, you can get your first year of Peacock Premium for free through July 2025 (a $79.99 value). If you don’t have Mosaic status, you can earn 1,000 free TrueBlue points when you sign up for Peacock. Learn more about eligibility and terms over on Peacock’s special offer page.
Entertainment
NYT Pips hints, answers for March 1, 2026
Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.
Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.
Currently, if you’re stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through each difficulty level.
How to play Pips
If you’ve ever played dominoes, you’ll have a passing familiarity for how Pips is played. As we’ve shared in our previous hints stories for Pips, the tiles, like dominoes, are placed vertically or horizontally and connect with each other. The main difference between a traditional game of dominoes and Pips is the color-coded conditions you have to address. The touching tiles don’t necessarily have to match.
The conditions you have to meet are specific to the color-coded spaces. For example, if it provides a single number, every side of a tile in that space must add up to the number provided. It is possible – and common – for only half a tile to be within a color-coded space.
Here are common examples you’ll run into across the difficulty levels:
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Number: All the pips in this space must add up to the number.
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Equal: Every domino half in this space must be the same number of pips.
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Not Equal: Every domino half in this space must have a completely different number of pips.
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Less than: Every domino half in this space must add up to less than the number.
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Greater than: Every domino half in this space must add up to more than the number.
If an area does not have any color coding, it means there are no conditions on the portions of dominoes within those spaces.
Easy difficulty hints, answers for March 28 Pips
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed vertically.
Equal (2): Everything in this space must be equal to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed vertically; 2-5, placed vertically; 6-2, placed vertically.
Equal (6): Everything in this space must be equal to 6. The answer is 6-2, placed vertically; 6-3, placed horizontally.
Number (3): Everything in this space must add up to 3. The answer is 6-3, placed horizontally.
Medium difficulty hints, answers for March 28 Pips
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-6, placed horizontally; 2-4, placed vertically.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 4-1, placed horizontally.
Equal (4): Everything in this space must be equal to 4. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically; 4-1, placed horizontally; 4-0, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 4-0, placed vertically.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 5-4, placed horizontally.
Number (9): Everything in this space must add up to 9. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally; 6-3, placed vertically.
Less Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally.
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Equal (3): Everything in this purple space must be equal to 3. The answer is 6-3, placed vertically; 3-0, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 3-0, placed vertically; 1-6, placed horizontally.
Greater Than (4): Everything in this space must be greater than 4. The answer is 1-6, placed horizontally.
Hard difficulty hints, answers for Feb. 28 Pips
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-3, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 2-1, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 4-4, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-0, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 2-0, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-3, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 2-4, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-3, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 1-0, placed horizontally.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-0, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 0-4, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.
Number (0): Everything in this space must add up to 0. The answer is 0-3, placed horizontally.
Number (4): Everything in this space must add up to 4. The answer is 1-4, placed vertically.
Number (1): Everything in this space must add up to 1. The answer is 1-1, placed vertically.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
Number (2): Everything in this space must add up to 2. The answer is 2-2, placed horizontally.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Why Minnesota lawmakers are trying to ban crypto ATMs
In a joint effort between Minnesota lawmakers, local law enforcement, and the Department of Commerce, legislation has been introduced to ban crypto ATMs across the state in response to widespread fraud and financial abuse, particularly of the elderly.
Bill HF3642, sponsored by Rep. Erin Koegel, would prohibit the use of virtual currency kiosks or “crypto ATMs,” that also accept cash and debit cards, in response to 70 official complaints of financial fraud totalling over $540,000 in 2025.
The catalyst for the legislation was a single incident in which police officers responded to a call about a senior citizen who appeared confused at a gas station cryptocurrency kiosk. Upon further investigation, police discovered that she had been giving 50 percent of her monthly income to scammers, leaving her on the verge of having to live out of her car.
According to law enforcement, the scammers often target the elderly, using false identities and emotional stories to gain power over them and coerce them into parting with their pensions or retirement savings.
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For scammers, the appeal of cryptocurrency is obvious, since converting digital currency into cryptocurrency makes it all but impossible for law enforcement to trace the money and make an arrest. But cryptocurrency platforms are opposing the ban, arguing that they’re being unfairly punished.
Larry Lipka, in-house counsel at digital currency platform CoinFlip, acknowledges the problem but opposes the proposed legislation.
“The scammers are vigilant. They’re terrible, and they’re stealing from Americans,” he told Gizmodo before arguing that their existing safety protocols, which include transaction limits and a holding period, were sufficient protection. “I know that these tools work because we’ve got 8,000 customers in the state, we have 12,000 transactions that happened in the last year and less than 1% of those were refundable by customers.”
The Commerce Department, however, disagrees. Sam Smith, government relations director at the Department of Commerce, points to the fact that just 48% of consumer complaints resulted in a refund, while those refunds averaged just 16% of the total fraud amount, as evidence that additional legislation is necessary.
As of now, approximately 350 licensed cryptocurrency kiosks operate in Minnesota, but digital currency companies across the United States could be affected by the legal precedent this bill sets.
Topics
Cryptocurrency
Scams
Entertainment
Skate developer Full Circle announces layoffs ahead of new game release
Full Circle, the gaming studio behind the new iteration of Skate, has recently announced a restructuring involving layoffs at its headquarters in Burnaby, British Columbia. Founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, Full Circle is just the latest in a series of AAA gaming studios to be hit by layoffs, with Ubisoft Toronto laying off 40 employees last week.
In their public-facing announcement, entitled “skate.’s Next Chapter,” the company lamented that the people affected by layoffs “are talented colleagues and friends who helped build the foundation of skate,” while shouting out the “tens of millions” of people who have explored the Early Access version of skate. released last September. “To our departing teammates: thank you. skate. exists because of your hard work and dedication to the craft.”
The original Skate games were released in the late 2000s for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and marketed as more realistic skateboarding games compared to the rival Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Fans responded well to the tight controls, inventive city settings, and fun soundtrack, which won the first Skate game the “Sports Game of the Year” award at the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and resulted in commercial success, but the series had been on indefinite hold until the announcement of skate. (known among fans as Skate 4), which was to be a live-service game built around a sandbox-style multiplayer experience, a move that didn’t sit well with many long-time fans of the series.
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While the latest Skate game has not yet had a final release, the Early Access version has been available to fans for almost half a year now, and early reviews are mixed. Critics have pointed to the inclusion of microtransactions ($25 clothing for your digital character), the online-only gameplay restriction, and the homogenized character design, while others have praised the free-to-play accessibility.
We don’t yet know how many employees lost their jobs at Full Circle, as the company was not forthcoming, but the parent company, EA, lost approximately 5% of its workforce in 2024, during its last round of layoffs. As for the fate of skate. after these layoffs, much is still unknown and the game still doesn’t have a final release date.
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