Entertainment
Top items bought by Mashable readers on Cyber Weekend — find some still on sale
Table of Contents
We can curate a list of the best Black Friday-into-Cyber Monday deals as carefully as we want, but the number of items on sale is going to be overwhelming regardless.
Though Mashable shopping reporters have hands-on experience with nearly every single top pick in the most popular categories, knowing what other people actually spent their money on is always helpful insight.
So we’ve narrowed down that intel for you, too. Of the hundreds of Cyber deals we’ve been tracking, here are the seven most popular items from core product categories like Apple devices, robot vacuums, and Kindles.
If you’d like to be influenced even more, we also have a list of the deals Mashable shopping reporters would actually spend their money on.
1. Most popular MacBook deal
Why people like it
Our favorite MacBook for most people in 2024 was also the favorite MacBook of Mashable readers this Black Friday and Cyber Monday season.
“A few weeks ago, the M3 MacBook Air got a quiet RAM upgrade without a price hike. That makes this new record-low price on the base configuration with 256GB of storage an even sweeter deal. (What’s more, it’s now a sub-$100 bump from the older, also-on-sale M2 version.) For reference, this is our favorite MacBook for most people in 2024: It’s fast enough to handle light creative work, its keyboard and speakers are both fantastic, and it can support two external displays — so long as you close its lid first.” — Bethany Allard, Lead Shopping Reporter
The 256GB M3 Air has sold out at Amazon, but the same model is still on sale in some colors at Best Buy as of Dec 2. Otherwise, several other Cyber Monday MacBook deals are still around.
2. Most popular earbuds deal
Why people like it
You can’t expect Apple to not snatch this crown when it continuously beats its own record-low prices from the last big shopping holiday. The second generation AirPods Pro, which have consistently been a favorite purchase of Mashable readers, are Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard’s favorite noise-cancelling earbuds for Apple users. They simply seal out ambient noise better than many truly wireless earbuds and can be charged directly from an iPhone 15.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 2, and many more Cyber Monday earbuds deals are still around.
3. Most popular robot vacuum deal
Why people like it
This is the first Black Friday that robot vacuum and mop combos that also wash and dry their own mopping pads have really popped off. When they first became a big thing at the beginning of 2024, it was rare to find one under $1,000 let alone under $500.
Of the full Roborock Qrevo lineup, the Qrevo S falls nicely in the middle of the pricing spectrum. Senior Shopping Reporter and resident robot vacuum expert Leah Stodart thinks of it as the diet version of her favorite self-emptying robot vacuum right now, the Qrevo Master. The Qrevo S skips the livestream pet camera and has slightly less powerful suction, but is still a beast that can also recognize small obstacles like phone chargers.
This deal has sold out as of Dec. 2. However, many other Cyber Monday robot vacuum deals are still around, including the most popular vacuum from Prime Day, the Eufy X10 Pro Omni.
4. Most popular Kindle deal
Why people like it
Black Friday 2024 was the first real time the newest Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition had a chance to go on sale after just being released in late October, missing Prime Day in early October. Our readers opted for this slightly more often than the regular Paperwhite, though Shopping Reporter Samantha Mangino actually prefers the regular Paperwhite. It’s possible that extreme bookworms were looking for the 32GB of storage that only the Signature Edition can supply.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 2, and a few other Cyber Monday Kindle deals are still around.
5. Most popular TV deal
Why people like it
Hisense has offered several excellent TV deals this Black Friday and Cyber Monday season, but readers were particularly sold on this 65-inch Mini LED model. This certainly isn’t Hisense’s cheapest QLED TV, but it’s still a steal compared to the premium counterparts from LG, Samsung, and Sony. We’ll take a wild guess that most of the readers who took the bait on the U8 were gamers — it’s a beloved choice for gaming with a 144Hz native refresh rate and little lag.
Fun fact: Mashable readers also opted for Hisense’s Samsung The Frame dupe over the actual Frame.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 2, and many other Cyber Monday TV deals still around.
6. Most popular iPad deal
Why people like it
Yep, the most affordable iPad had a slight edge over even the newest iPad Mini and Air. The 10th generation iPad is likely the best option for most folks, with the A14 Bionic chip offering plenty of power for streaming and note-taking, without creeping anywhere near M1 or higher prices. The biggest downside of the tablet is that it isn’t compatible with the second-gen Apple Pencil or new Apple Pencil Pro, but it is compatible with the newer USB-C Apple Pencil.
This deal is sold out at Walmart as of Dec. 2, and also sold out at its slightly-pricier sale price of $279 at Amazon. However, multiple other iPad deals are still around.
Mashable Deals
7. Most popular over-ear headphones deal
Why people like it
Readers who aren’t earbuds people were more likely to opt for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra over both the AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM5, and we don’t blame them — the QuietComfort Ultras are our overall favorite noise-cancelling headphones. Shopping reporter Samantha Mangino asserts they’re the most comfortable pair of headphones you can buy right now, and their all-day battery life keeps pace with their all-day wearability.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 2, and many other Cyber Monday noise-canceling headphones deals are still around.
8. Most popular fitness deal
Why people like it
As far as fitness trackers go, Fitbit Charge 6 has it all. It features over 40 exercise modes alongside a heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, and a built-in GPS. On top of that, it’s also water resistant up to 50 meters and has a massive seven-day-long battery life. With its slim design that fits nicely on a wrist, it’s an activity tracker that’s built to keep up with your daily activities.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 3, and many other Cyber Monday fitness tracker deals are still around.
9. Most popular kitchen deal
Why people like it
If you love good coffee but don’t want an overly complicated process, this is the machine for you. The coffee comes from high-quality pods to make anything from americanos to rich espressos. It even recognizes the pod you inserted, and adjusts brewing settings accordingly. You get a perfect cup every time, with no fuss.
This deal is still live as of Dec. 3, and many other Cyber Monday espresso machine deals are still around.
10. Most popular gaming deal
Why people like it
Bundle deals are usually where it’s at over the Black Friday shopping period, and this year was no different. Gamers could get the Meta Quest 3S (128GB), Batman: Arkham Shadow, and a three-month trial of Meta Quest+ for $299 at Amazon. This Black Friday bundle included $75 of free digital credit with the code QUEST75.
This deal is no longer live, but many other Cyber Monday gaming deals are still around.
Topics
Black Friday
Cyber Monday
Entertainment
Event Horizon Ties Into Another Sci-Fi Universe Nobody Expected
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published

Fan theories can range from the plausible and very likely, such as the “Pixar connected universe,” or “Elsa and Anna’s brother is Tarzan,” to the unbelievable, “Snowpiercer’s Wilford is Wily Wonka,” or “Jar Jar Binks is a Sith,” but there’s one that’s so perfect, it has to be true: Event Horizon is set in the Warhammer 40k universe.
This theory makes sense from the very beginning, when the titular spaceship activates its gravity engine and travels through a nightmarish dimension that’s full of demons and cosmic horrors. That’s exactly how ships travel in the world of Warhammer 40k, and it’s only the start of the connections.
Event Horizon Traveled Through The Warp

Event Horizon takes place after the ship mysteriously reappears after it was missing for years, with the entire crew dead, and as the Captain’s log reveals, it was the crew themselves that turned violent and killed each other. The Captain, having ripped out his own eyeballs, issues a warning, in Latin of course, to “Save yourself from Hell.” It’s a gruesome, bloody sequence filled with rapid flashes of violence that make it hard to focus, and the first time seeing the film, it’s hard to comprehend what you’re even seeing.
The rescue crew ends up giving into the spreading madness themselves, or rather, Dr. Weir (Sam Neill, the perfect star for a film about cosmic horror), the designer of the Event Horizon, goes mad and has to be put down by the rescue ship’s Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne). And he is, but after he’s sucked into space, Weir comes back having embraced the strange and bizarre Hell-like dimension, and he taunts Miller by showing him visions from the Hell dimension. It’s a dark and disturbing moment, but it’s also an amazing live-scene depiction of Warhammer 40ks The Warp, a strange dimension in which time and space have no meaning, that happens to be filled with Daemons and, in Games Workshop’s universe, is used by humanity as an intergalactic superhighway.
The Influence Of Chaos

The Warp is a dangerous dimension that exists outside of four-dimensional space, but it’s also able to be navigated by psychic humans called Navigators who use the Astronomican, a massive psychic beacon waypoint that you think of as a transdimensional lighthouse, to remain safe while traveling through. In Event Horizon, set in the year 2048, it’s the experimental gravity engine that pulls the ship out of our reality and into The Warp, making it humanity’s first experience with Chaos Deamons and the horrors that lurk outside our universe. Those dangers include the Chaos Gods, Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh, and amazingly, Paul W.S. Anderson’s sci-fi horror even implies the influence of these beings on the ship’s original crew.
While the rescue crew from the Lewis and Clark is watching the original Captain’s video, it’s clear that the crew is killing each other (that would be Khorne, the Blood God, encouraging slaughter and destruction), but at the same time, it’s clear that Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, is involved since some of the crew to be “enjoying” themselves. The other two, Tzeentch and Nurgle, may be sitting this one out, but Event Horizon includes one other story beat that touches on the technology of Warhammer 40k. Weir implies during the back half of the film that the ship itself has become possessed by a Deamonic spirit, and of course, that’s a huge part of the Warhammer 40k setting where humanity believes machine spirits power all machines. ]
The Machine Spirits

In the grim darkness of the far future in Warhammer 40k, technology is incredibly advanced but also oddly primitive, with Tech Priests rubbing ointments and saying prayers over military vehicles before they go to war to embolden the machine spirits within. The denizens of The Warp are able to possess technology and infect with their own Daemonic spirits, giving players the option to use twisted versions of the Imperium of Man’s own weapons against them. If that sounds like exactly what happens to the ship in Event Horizon, well, that’s another reason why this is secretly a Warhammer 40k film.
The Event Horizon fan theory may not even be a fan theory, and is instead confirmed thanks to screenwriter Philip Eisner commenting on Twitter in 207 that “I played the sh*t out of 40K, so it was definitely an influence, conscious or otherwise.” Writers who went on to work at Games Workshop to help shape the universe returned the favor, with an attempt to name-drop the ship in one of the game’s official codexes, but the U.K.-based company stopped it from seeing print. Still, it’s a comment straight from the twisted mind behind the film that the classic tabletop miniatures game’s gothic setting had an impact on the film.
Event Horizon Is A Gateway To Warhammer 40k

When Henry Cavill and Amazon bring Warhammer 40k to life, it won’t look like Event Horizon, but there’s no doubt that, intentionally or not, the 1997 sci-fi horror is the perfect companion piece to the grimdark future franchise. If you enjoy the movie, there are multiple Black Library novels out there that you should check out, starting with Xenos by Dan Abnett, the first of the Eisenhorn novels, which isn’t nearly as bloody and gruesome as the movie, but it nails the dark, ominous feeling of something being very, very wrong that first half of the movie does so well.
The Event Horizon/Warhammer 40k fan theory has existed since the film first hit theaters, over a decade after Games Workshop released Rogue Trader, the first game set in the world of 40k. It’s been an enduring fan theory because it honors both the film and the gaming franchise, and it doesn’t demand either one of them, and simply says, “Hey, this would be really cool.” The best fan theories are just that, they’re fun, but this time around, the Sam Neill horror film is also a perfect introduction to how crazy the Warhammer 40k setting can get, and given the cost of running a well-painted 3,000-point competitive army, that might be the most horrifying part of the movie.
Entertainment
Last chance to score the latest Visual Studio Pro for just $43
TL;DR: Visual Studio 2026 brings AI-assisted coding, real-time collaboration, and cross-platform development into one powerful IDE, and it’s on sale only through today.
$42.97
$499.99
Save $457.02
Modern development demands more than just a code editor — it calls for a smarter, faster, and more collaborative environment. And Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is designed to simplify things in a very real way.
This latest version leans heavily into what modern developers actually need: speed, flexibility, and smarter tooling. Built as a fully 64-bit IDE, it handles large solutions and complex workloads without the usual slowdowns, which is especially noticeable when you’re working across multiple projects or environments.
Mashable Deals
One of the biggest upgrades here is how seamlessly AI is integrated into your workflow. Instead of feeling like an add-on, features like IntelliCode actively learn from your codebase to suggest entire lines or blocks of code, help refactor on the fly, and reduce repetitive tasks. It’s less about replacing your workflow and more about quietly speeding it up.
On the cross-platform side, Visual Studio 2026 keeps things flexible. You can build everything from .NET MAUI mobile apps to web apps with Blazor, and even target Linux or container-based environments — all without jumping between tools. Add in hot reload, and you can make changes in real time without breaking your flow.
Collaboration also gets an upgrade. With Live Share, teammates can jump into your session, edit, debug, and test code together without needing to clone repos or configure their entire setup. It’s a small shift that can make a big difference in how quickly teams move.
Then there’s CodeLens, which surfaces insights like test status, commit history, and code references directly in your editor, so you’re not constantly context-switching just to understand what’s going on.
Don’t miss this 2026 upgrade while it’s on sale. Get Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 while it’s just $42.97 (reg. $499.99) through April 19.
Mashable Deals
Grabbing this offer? Once your cart hits $100+, add Microsoft Office 2021 and apply GWP4MAC (for Mac) or GWP4WIND (for Windows) at checkout to get a lifetime license for free. Ends April 19.
Gift with $100+ purchase promo ends April 19, 2026. Exclusions apply. Only one promo code applicable per order. Prices subject to change.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Get 56% off this 8-in-1 portable keyring
TL;DR: Charge On the go with 56% off this 8-in-1 keyring cable when you get the GoCable 8-in-1 EDC 100W Cable for just $21.99 (Reg. $49.99).
$21.99
$49.99
Save $28.00
Whether you’re an experienced adventurer or a newbie to the outdoors, there are certain tools you need, including (but not limited to) adequate hydration, proper gear, and backup power options for your phone. With the GoCable, 8 features are combined into one portable tool that might optimize your outdoor experiences.
Despite its tiny and discreet design, the eight features included in this versatile cable include:
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Portable charging: 100W fast charging to speed up how long it takes to juice up your devices.
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Universal compatibility: Type-C to Type-C + Apple Lightning connectivity.
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LED display: Track your charging status with real-time visibility
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Magnetic cable consolidation: Manage your cables with a discreet design and magnets that prevent tangles.
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Bottle opener: Conveniently placed bottle opener for opening drinks on the go.
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Hidden cutter: Sleek and sharp cutting tool, tucked away for safety.
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Carabiner clip: Secure attachment with a clip-on carabiner.
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Fast transferring and processing: High-speed file transfer capability.
This portable keychain is just as at home on your backpack or on your desk. Unify all of your charging tools with this one streamlined tool, which doesn’t sacrifice charging speed for efficiency.
Whether you need to charge a device quickly while transferring files or you need an extra boost of charge on the go, this portable charger and keyring consolidates your convenience devices and your tech tools.
And with the carabiner, you can clip this keychain onto anywhere — from your clothes to your bags.
Get the GoCable 8-in-1 EDC 100W Cable for just $21.99 (Reg. $49.99).
Mashable Deals
Grabbing this offer? Once your cart hits $100+, add Microsoft Office 2021 and apply GWP4MAC (for Mac) or GWP4WIND (for Windows) at checkout to get a lifetime license for free. Ends April 19.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
