This Chrome tool lets a chubby ginger cat take over your screen until you take a break


If you have a scrolling problem, you’ve probably tried every productivity app. App timers, grayscale mode, deleting the apps entirely, only to reinstall them twenty minutes later. None of it works because willpower alone is a terrible strategy.

Cat Gatekeeper has a better idea. Instead of guilt-tripping you, it sends a chubby ginger cat to physically take over your screen when you’ve spent too much time on social media, and I love it.

How does it work?

The setup is simple. Install the Chrome extension, set your usage limit, and set your break time. Once you hit your limit on social media apps like X, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, the cat appears and takes over your screen.

猫ちゃんの強制休憩アプリを作りました!
SNSをやりすぎると猫ちゃんがあらわれて画面を占領します🫪🐈 pic.twitter.com/Jt56HVF1OT

— ぞくぞく@個人開発 (@konekone2026) April 26, 2026

Developed by an X user, konekone2026, the concept is not novel, but the execution is. I have tried several website-blocking services, but Cat Gatekeeper has instantly become my favorite. The way the cat saunters onto the scene and simply plops down with its big fat tummy heaving with each breath is just magical.

I like that the timer only counts down when the social media tab is actually active. Switch to another tab or app, and it pauses. This applies to both your usage and break time countdowns. It ensures that you are not unfairly punished, or able to skip the break timer by simply switching to something else.

Is it actually effective?

Honestly, it won’t stop you from scrolling, but it does provide a gentle reminder to take a break. The cat is genuinely adorable, which makes taking the break feel less like punishment and more like a reward.

You get a forced break, a cute cat, and a fresh timer ready to go when you’re done. What more could you want?

It’s free, has no ads, and according to the developer, the extension doesn’t collect any data. You can install Cat Gatekeeper from the Chrome Web Store. Give it a try and let me know if the cat actually made you take a break.

Get AirPods 4 for $99 and AirPods Max 2 for $529.99 on Amazon


Amazon today has the AirPods 4 available for $99.00, down from $129.00. This remains one of the best deals on the AirPods 4 so far in 2026, and it’s accompanied by a solid deal on the AirPods Max 2.

airpods max 2 bright pinkNote: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Apple’s new AirPods Max 2 launched earlier this month, and Amazon is still one of the only retailers offering a discount on the headphones. You can get the Midnight and Starlight color options for $529.99 on Amazon, down from $549.00.

Although this is only a $19 discount on the AirPods Max 2, it’s the best markdown you’ll find online if you’re looking to order the new headphones. Free delivery has the AirPods Max 2 arriving around April 30, but they can be delivered as soon as tomorrow with Prime shipping.

If you’re on the hunt for more discounts, be sure to visit our Apple Deals roundup where we recap the best Apple-related bargains of the past week.


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Why are top university websites serving porn? It comes down to shoddy housekeeping.


Websites for some of the world’s most prestigious universities are serving explicit porn and malicious content after scammers exploited the shoddy record-keeping of the site administrators, a researcher found recently.

The sites included berkeley.edu, columbia.edu, and washu.edu, the official domains for the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University, and Washington University in St. Louis. Subdomains such as hXXps://causal.stat.berkeley.edu/ymy/video/xxx-porn-girl-and-boy-ej5210.html, hXXps://conversion-dev.svc.cul.columbia[.]edu/brazzers-gym-porn, and hXXps://provost.washu.edu/app/uploads/formidable/6/dmkcsex-10.pdf. All deliver explicit pornography and, in at least one case, a scam site falsely claiming a visitor’s computer is infected and advising the visitor to pay a fee for the non-existent malware to be removed. In all, researcher Alex Shakhov said, hundreds of subdomains for at least 34 universities are being abused. Search results returned by Google list thousands of hijacked pages.



A handful of hijacked columbia.edu subdomains listed by Google

A handful of hijacked columbia.edu subdomains listed by Google



One of the sites redirected by a UC Berkeley subdomain.

One of the sites redirected by a UC Berkeley subdomain.

Hijacking a university’s good name

Shakhov, founder of SH Consulting, said that the scammers—which a separate researcher has linked to a known group tracked as Hazy Hawk—are seizing on what amounts to a clerical error by site administrators of the affected universities. When they commission a subdomain such as provost.washu.edu, they create a CNAME record, which assignes a subdomain to a “canonical” domain. When the subdomain is eventually decommissioned—something that happens frequently for various reasons—the record is never removed. Scammers like Hazy Hawk then swoop in by hijacking the old record.

With that, they have now hijacked that university’s subdomain. Given the reputations universities have, search queries then flow to the top of Google’s results.

Open Source Developer Brings Linux to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME


Microsoft released the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” in 2016, adding an optional Linux environment into every operating system since Windows 10. But now an open source developer has brought Linux to Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me, reports the blog It’s FOSS, “with Linux kernel 6.19 running alongside the Windows 9x kernel, letting both operate on the same machine at the same time.”

A virtual device driver handles initialization, loads the kernel off disk and manages the event loop for page faults and syscalls. Since Win9x lacks the right interrupt table support for the standard Linux syscall interrupt, WSL9x reroutes those calls through the fault handler instead. Rounding it all out is wsl.com, a small 16-bit DOS program that pipes the terminal output from Linux back to whatever MS-DOS prompt window you ran it from.

The end result is that WSL9x requires no hardware virtualization, and can run on hardware as old as the i486, the article points out. On Mastodon the developer says they “really got this one in right under the wire, before they start removing 486 support from Linux.”

The source code for WSL9x is released under the GPL-3 license, and was “proudly written without AI.”

Every Samsung user needs this


Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 with plant and coffe mug

Adam Birney / Android Authority

Earlier this year, I completed my Samsung ecosystem with a Galaxy Book 4 Edge — and one of the things I loved most about the experience was the features Samsung had added on top of Windows 11. Specifically, all of the deep integrations it offered with my Samsung phone.

Having tested this new version of Galaxy Connect myself, I couldn’t be happier with it.

Are you going to download Galaxy Connect?

2 votes

Galaxy Connect’s two best features

Windows Galaxy Connect (3)

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

Once you’ve downloaded Galaxy Connect onto your PC, you’ll see four features contained within: Continue on other devices, Storage Share, Multi Control, and Second Screen. The first two are included with the initial Galaxy Connect download, whereas Multi Control and Second Screen require additional downloads to use.

Of the features Galaxy Connect brings to Windows, Multi Control and Second Screen are by far my favorites. Multi Control is similar to Apple’s Universal Control. You can connect to your Samsung phone or tablet and position it as you would a secondary monitor. The difference is that instead of mirroring Windows to the device, your phone will continue to show Android. When you move your mouse from your main display, it will appear on the phone’s screen and let you control it with your mouse and keyboard as if they were connected directly to the phone.

There are a ton of things you could use this for, but I’ve narrowed it down to two things I do every day. I always listen to music while working, and instead of faffing around with pairing my earbuds to my PC, I keep them connected to my Fold 7. I have YouTube Music and Telegram in split-screen so I can control my music and message my wife without either app taking up space on my monitors. It’s also a convenient way to use apps that are better on mobile. I prefer the Android version of Google Keep versus the website, and now I can use my mouse and keyboard to quickly make notes while still using the mobile app.

Windows Galaxy Connect (7)

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

Second Screen lets you use a Galaxy tablet as a wireless display for your Windows computer. This isn’t technically new (you’ve been able to do this via the Windows+K menu for years now), but the Second Screen app fixes one of the biggest annoyances with it: lag. When you connect to your tablet via this app, you’ll get a prompt on the computer that says, “Disconnect tablet Wi-Fi to reduce latency.” Clicking this disconnects the tablet from your Wi-Fi and connects it directly to your PC, eliminating the lag issues that prevented me from using it in the past. Now I can use my Galaxy Tab S10 Plus as a secondary monitor and use the S Pen with my PC without infuriating latency.

Share files and sync your clipboard

Windows Galaxy Connect (5)

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

The other two features are undoubtedly useful, but I don’t use them as often.

Storage Share, as the name suggests, lets you access all the files on your Samsung phone or tablet from File Explorer on your PC. If you want to access your photos or anything else stored on your device and can’t be bothered to mess around with cables, this is a great solution. You can drag and drop files into a folder on your PC, or drag them directly into the app you need. The screenshots from my Fold 7 that were used earlier in this post were dragged from the phone’s storage right into our site’s media library.

Continue on other devices syncs your clipboard. One area where this has been handy is using two-factor authentication. I use the Google Authenticator app, which isn’t available on Windows. Usually, I have to manually enter my 2FA code after reading it from my phone screen. Now I can just tap the code to copy it to my phone’s clipboard, then paste it into the relevant field on my PC without waiting. It’s a small thing, but it can save a lot of time. If you use Samsung Internet, you can sync tabs across your devices as well, but I prefer Chrome, so I haven’t tried it myself.

Windows Galaxy Connect (4)

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

Things aren’t perfect. ARM-based PCs are left out, which is weird given that my Galaxy Book 4 Edge is ARM-based and has all these features built in. Likewise, some users whose computers don’t have Intel network adapters report that Galaxy Connect doesn’t work at all.

Aside from those strange limitations, this is one of my favorite things Samsung has done in a long time. Multi Control and Second Screen have made working from my desktop better than ever, especially now that I can use the same workflows as I have on my Galaxy Book.

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Palantir is reportedly helping the IRS investigate financial crimes


Palantir has helped the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations office probe a variety of financial crimes in the U.S. for much of the last decade, The Intercept reported.

The IRS has paid the firm $130 million since 2018 to use its data analysis software to pore over financial records for investigative purposes, the outlet reported, citing public records detailing Palantir’s IRS contract that were obtained by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight.

It was previously known the IRS was using Palantir’s products, and that the agency sees the software as a way to automate and modernize audits. Last summer, it was also reported that Palantir was assisting DOGE, the “government efficiency” initiative launched by President Trump’s executive order with a project designed to access IRS records. However, the extent of the agency’s use of the company’s tools had not been previously reported.

The software, Palantir’s Lead and Case Analytics platform, is being used to aggregate and analyze data across a variety of federal agencies. The software can find “connections from millions of records with thousands of links” between various databases, and the tool is particularly good at mapping human relationships and communications, according to the outlet. 

Earlier this week, American Oversight sued the Trump administration for public records related to numerous federal agencies’ use of Palantir tools, including the IRS. TechCrunch has reached out to Palantir for more information and will update the article if the company responds.

‘Widow’s Bay’ review: Your new favorite TV town awaits in this tremendous horror comedy


Cross the local bureaucratic comedy of Parks and Recreation with the small-town strangeness of Twin Peaks, and you’ll get a sense of the singular tone of Apple TV‘s new genre gem Widow’s Bay.

Created by Katie Dippold, herself a writer for Parks and Recreation, the series artfully blends horror and comedy to create an enthralling portrait of a town you’ll want to get lost in… even if some of its locals would advise you to run the hell away.

What’s Widow’s Bay about?

Matthew Rhys in "Widow's Bay."

Matthew Rhys in “Widow’s Bay.”
Credit: Apple TV

A charming island 40 miles off the coast of New England, Widow’s Bay has a lot going for it. It boasts picturesque coastal views, invigorating ocean breezes, and atmospheric fog banks that have absolutely nothing hiding in them, do you hear me?

At least, that’s what Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) has to say. He’s trying to turn Widow’s Bay into the next Martha’s Vineyard, a quest that locals like former fisherman Wyck (Stephen Root) threaten to derail with their claims that Widow’s Bay is cursed.

Tom initially brushes Wyck and his allies off in favor of bringing in tourists. It’s a page straight from the playbook of Mayor Vaughn from Jaws, which Widow’s Bay pays loving homage to throughout. However, when haunts start knocking at his door, Tom has to face the truth: There’s something truly sinister at work on the island, and it’s only getting worse.

Widow’s Bay is a wonderfully frightening watch.

Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root in "Widow's Bay."

Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root in “Widow’s Bay.”
Credit: Apple TV

To pull off its many scares, Widow’s Bay draws inspiration from a wide range of horror iconography. Stephen King‘s influence hangs over the series like the town’s unshakeable mist, present in everything from the New England setting to the show’s title font, a clear nod to the style of his earlier covers.

The aforementioned Jaws plays a huge role, too, and not just because of Tom’s role as a skeptical, tourism-hungry mayor. (To Tom’s credit, he’s far less willing to put people in danger for the sake of money than Mayor Vaughn.) Root’s salty veteran sailor Wyck bears shades of Jaws‘ Quint, and an episode devoted to a cursed ocean outing recalls Jaws’ third act. But the biggest lesson Widow’s Bay takes from Stephen Spielberg’s horror classic is the fear of the unknown. Just as Jaws generates suspense by holding off on showing us its biggest threat until later in the runtime, so too does Widow’s Bay keep its viewers in the dark about its many frights.

And what darkness it is! Visually, Widow’s Bay thrives in rich, inky black tones where you can crucially still make out every little detail, a rarity in TV nowadays and a testament to the show’s production team and crew. Series directors Hiro Murai (Atlanta), Sam Donovan (Severance), Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), and Ti West (the X trilogy) weaponize this darkness — along with fog and ocean depths — to its fullest obscuring extent. That expert build-up of tension made the subsequent reveals hit all the harder, to the point that I couldn’t get through an episode without screaming or cackling. (Or, most often, some mix of both.)

Widow’s Bay nails the balance between scares and laughs.

Kate O'Flynn in "Widow's Bay."

Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay.”
Credit: Apple TV

Widow’s Bay‘s scares pull from sailor superstitions, classic slashers, and more, but they never feel cheap. That’s because the series roots them firmly in its characters’ anxieties, like Tom’s worries about tourism, or town hall staffer Patricia’s (Kate O’Flynn) desperate need to be liked. (She’s so desperate, in fact, that she may have falsely claimed to be the sole survivor of a serial killer who murdered some of her high school classmates.)

The latter produces a series highlight, an episode where a frantic Patricia attempts to host the perfect party. The social isolation she faces from her disdainful former classmates is just as wince-worthy as the uncanny events surrounding the event, resulting in a one-two punch of cringe comedy and horror.

Widow’s Bay often operates in that sweet spot between horror and comedy, which tends more toward the dry and bizarre than Dippold’s previous work on sitcoms like Parks and Recreation or comedy films like Ghostbusters (2016). Instead of cracking jokes at a mile per minute, Widow’s Bay finds the funny in the eerie. Think historical wax figures, a cursed party game called “Teeth,” and sight gags about cannibalism.

Widow’s Bay‘s central trio of Rhys, Root, and O’Flynn play these occurrences as straight as they can, adding further to the show’s brand of offbeat strangeness. Rhys and Root are tremendous foils as a skeptic and believer forced to work together. And O’Flynn proves an absolute scene stealer as Patricia, marrying her hilarious scorn for others with the genuine pain of being scorned right back.

The rest of Widow’s Bay‘s ensemble, which includes Somebody Somewhere‘s Emmy-winning Jeff Hiller, Dale Dickey, and several surprising guest stars, further builds out the town of Widow’s Bay. Their efforts, as well as the weatherbeaten production design by Steve Arnold (Midnight Mass, another superb cursed island series), turn Widow’s Bay into a real town. You can almost taste the salt air (or hear the screams of cursed souls in the distance) just by watching.

In the end, the town of Widow’s Bay is as deliciously odd as the show itself. What begins with a bit of a haunt-of-the-week structure soon evolves into a deeper unraveling of Widow’s Bay’s darkest secrets, as well as the choices that kept them in place. While I’d love for the show to return to its haunt-of-the-week mode occasionally, I also adore what it became. That it can pull off this transformation is proof of its sheer uniqueness. Forget being the next Martha’s Vineyard: Widow’s Bay sets a new, wonderfully weird course all by itself.

The first two episodes of Widow’s Bay premiere April 29, with new episodes every Wednesday.

US Special Forces Soldier Arrested for Polymarket Bets on Maduro Raid


The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an enlisted member of the US Army’s special forces, for allegedly using “classified, nonpublic” information about the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to notch more than $400,000 in profits on Polymarket trades. A grand jury indicted him on five counts, including multiple violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Van Dyke is the first person to be charged with insider trading on a prediction market in the United States. Lawmakers have been voicing concerns for months about the high likelihood that politicians and public servants could use nonpublic information to profit from trades on leading industry platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, which have exploded in popularity over the past year.

The arrest comes just weeks after Department of Justice prosecutors met with Polymarket about potential insider tradition violations. In February, Israeli authorities arrested two citizens, an army reservist and a civilian, for allegedly leaking classified information by making wagers on Polymarket related to military operations. Kalshi, Polymarket’s primary rival in the United States, recently fined three politicians for breaking its insider trading rules, but it did not flag the violations for further enforcement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency that oversees prediction markets.

After Van Dyke’s arrest was made public, Polymarket posted a statement to social media noting that it had “identified a user trading on classified government information” and “referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation.” The company declined to comment further.

According to court documents, Van Dyke has been an active duty US soldier since September 2008 and rose to the level of master sergeant in 2023. At the time of the alleged trading activity, he was stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and assigned to the Army’s Special Operations Command Western Hemisphere Operations.

“I have been crystal clear that anyone who engages in fraud, manipulation, or insider trading in any of our markets will face the full force of the law,” CFTC chair Michael Selig said in a statement. “The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about US operations and yet took action that endangered US national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way.”

The complaint alleges that Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Maduro’s arrest and that he was aware that he wasn’t authorized to share nonpublic information about US military operations. The complaint says that Van Dyke signed a nondisclosure agreement that forbade him from revealing sensitive or classified government information “by writing, word, conduct, or otherwise.” The complaint also alleges Van Dyke saved a screenshot to his Google account “displaying the results of an artificial intelligence query” outlining how the US Special Forces maintains many classified files including “operational details that are not available to the public.”

On December 26, Van Dyke allegedly opened an account on Polymarket and took out around $35,000 from his bank account before transferring it to a cryptocurrency exchange.

The following day, Van Dyke allegedly made his first Venezuela-related trade on Polymarket, putting a little less than $100 on a “YES” contract that US forces would be in Venezuela by January 31, 2026. Prosecutors accuse him of ultimately making 13 Venezuela-related transactions on the platform, seven of those—totaling hundreds of thousands of shares—on a “YES” contract for “Maduro out by … January 31, 2026.” In other words, Van Dyke allegedly stood to make an enormous profit if the Venezuelan leader wound up out of power by the end of the month.

The Creator and Director of ‘Widow’s Bay’ on Crafting Their Quirky, Spooky New Series


Cursed islands are a well-worn horror trope, but you’ve never been to one quite like the setting of Apple TV’s new series Widow’s Bay. The locals know there’s a darkness hanging over them—it’s just another part of life in this quaint village located 40 miles off the coast of New England.

Here, there’s no wi-fi, but there are plenty of strange creatures, odd weather patterns, and legends that hew far closer to actual history than to folklore. That becomes a problem when the town’s ambitious mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), launches his plan to turn Widow’s Bay into a bougie tourist destination at the exact moment the island starts “waking up” in all sorts of supernatural ways.

Across 10 episodes, Widow’s Bay mixes offbeat humor with freaky scares. Ahead of the show’s premiere next week, io9 talked to creator, showrunner, and executive producer Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation, The Heat, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and director and executive producer Hiro Murai (Atlanta, Station Eleven) to learn more.

This interview has been slightly edited and condensed.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: Apple TV is such a destination for sci-fi, but we haven’t seen it do too many horror shows. What does it mean to you to be one of the first horror shows on the streamer?

Katie Dippold: It’s exciting. I mean, I have to give Apple credit. In the pitch, we didn’t necessarily say “horror show,” but we said we wanted to do both horror and comedy and that we didn’t really have a direct [comparison] for it. And so to Apple’s credit—that’s nerve-wracking for a studio to hear.

Hiro Murai: Yeah, they really didn’t flinch.

Widows Bay Sheriff
Kevin Carroll in Widow’s Bay. © Apple TV

io9: Widow’s Bay has some obvious influences—including John Carpenter’s The Fog and Halloween, Jaws, and H.P. Lovecraft. What was the genesis of the Widow’s Bay story, and how did you decide to incorporate those inspirations?

Dippold: I would say the inspiration was trying to capture a certain feeling that I’ve always wanted. As a kid in New Jersey in the ‘80s, there was a haunted house that I would always go to with my family. It’s terrifying. I was way too young for it. But I loved that I would go, and it was terrifying, and I would scream, but we would also laugh, and it’s very communal. And so I’ve wanted to capture that feeling. And I’ve always wanted a place like this to actually exist. Like, I want to go to this island. I want to go to the weird inn, and I want to go to the Salty Whale. Just to feel like there’s these nooks and crannies you can discover is very exciting to me.

[As for the inspirations], you’re absolutely correct. We especially talked about Jaws a lot, and I think it was important for us to feel like [we weren’t doing] a parody of it or doing it exactly—but just [feeling] the spirit of it.

Murai: I also think this island [is] remote and it’s kind of disconnected from time, and they don’t have modern technology, and there’s something kind of inherently nostalgic about it. I think when we’re touching on things like Jaws and The Fog, to us it was conjuring the nostalgia of being kids and watching those movies at the same time. That was something that we were trying to harness, the feeling of watching those movies more than the movies themselves maybe.

io9: Widow’s Bay has an offbeat tone that shifts between deadpan humor and dark horror. How did you go about getting that balance just right?

Dippold: We tried to make sure the horror never felt too bleak. The show goes to dark places, but I think the balancing act of horror and comedy—it kind of wants to feel in the same spirit of joy, even if it’s just truly scary. Another important thing is that the scary thing isn’t usually funny. That was important to us, to really take it seriously and not let the comedy undercut the horror. So to be honest, we were constantly molding and finding things and discovering things that worked and didn’t work. And it was a very organic, creative journey.

Murai: Yeah. Sometimes we would film things, we’d do a take, and then we’d just look at each other like, “That didn’t feel good. And we don’t know why.” And so we would change the way it was staged or the performances. It was very much a discovery process.

Widows Bay Matthewrhys
Matthew Rhys in Widow’s Bay. © Apple TV

io9: The character of Tom has to be a guy you root for even as he’s doing things he knows he shouldn’t. How did you know Matthew Rhys was the right choice?

Dippold: Not until we met him, because we had been thinking about it for a long time. Casting was one of the hardest parts, because it’s like—there’s so many people that are so funny that would be a dream to work with, but then it just doesn’t feel right for the tone of the show, and you wouldn’t necessarily buy them living on this island. And then if that’s the case, then you wouldn’t really feel the tension. Matthew [is] an amazing dramatic actor; we were both big fans. We met with him on Zoom, and he was just so funny and just so lovely, and we just had a great meeting. When Hiro and I got on the phone afterwards, [we were] like, “This feels good!”

io9: The lore of the island is so detailed. Did you come up with a huge list beforehand of stuff you wanted to include, or did it come up organically while the episodes were being written?

Dippold: It was a lot of trial and error. There were so many different things that I just wanted to see and just wanted to do, and sometimes we know we would brainstorm that in [the writers’] room, and it just didn’t feel right for the show, and then some stuff did feel right for the show. Also, a key component was making sure we’re using the horror tropes to also explore the characters. A lot of the horrors of being a human being are really the most important, and just using that sort of as a way to explore it.

io9: I loved the weirdly sinister board games that Tom finds at the inn. It’s definitely a “pause and look twice” moment.

Dippold: One of the things I love about the way that [Hiro] shot it is, like, just [moving the camera past a game called] She Shouldn’t Have Said That. And it’s never explained, which is my favorite kind of humor, where you’re not saying, “Here is the joke.” I think Hiro is especially awesome at [that]: “Oh, did you catch it? Okay. Well, maybe not, but keep moving.” And so that did tickle me.

Widows Bay Kate
Kate O’Flynn in Widow’s Bay. © Apple TV

io9: Without spoiling any plot points, when we get to the end of the season, it feels like there could be additional chapters to this story. Did you envision it as a contained, single season, or is there a possibility to do more?

Dippold: I like a season ending where you feel satisfied but also could continue. So there’s definitely much more that could be done.

Widow’s Bay stars Matthew Rhys (who’s also an executive producer) along with Kate O’Flynn, Stephen Root, Kingston Rumi Southwick, Kevin Carroll, Dale Dickey, K Callan, and Jeff Hiller. It premieres April 29 on Apple TV.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for April 23


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


Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I was cruising along until 8-Across, which stumped me. Once I figured out 6-Down, though, it filled in. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

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

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

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

completed-nyt-mini-crossword-puzzle-for-april-23-2026.png

The completed NYT Mini Crossword puzzle for April 23, 2026.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Reason to edit a text message
Answer: TYPO

5A clue: ___ Wiseman, commander on NASA’s Artemis II mission
Answer: REID

6A clue: Artificial hair extension
Answer: WEAVE

7A clue: Batman or Superman
Answer: HERO

8A clue: Manager’s helper: Abbr.
Answer: ASST

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Things that families and forests both have
Answer: TREES

2D clue: 1,000 make up a millennium
Answer: YEARS

3D clue: Quickly change the topic
Answer: PIVOT

4D clue: Laudatory poem
Answer: ODE

6D clue: “Huh …?”
Answer: WHA