Look, I get it. No one likes managing their passwords. It’s so much easier to use the same, simple password for every account, so when you go to sign in, you punch in a familiar phrase from muscle memory, and you’re in.

Now, the lecture: This is horrific from a security perspective. Your password is too easy to guess, which means it’s too easy for hackers to break into your accounts. And if you use the same easy-to-guess password for everything, well, you’re in for a bad time.

The most common passwords are almost all terrible

You don’t have to take my word for it: For the sixth year in a row, NordPass (in collaboration with NordStellar) has released a list of the most common passwords people use on the internet. This list spans the top 200 most common passwords used across 44 countries from around the globe, based on 2.5TB of data, including information sourced from the dark web. NordPass found some of this data from passwords leaked by hackers or stolen via malware. Because most of these were tied to email addresses, NordPass could separate passwords between corporate and personal accounts, although they found this year, there were few differences between the passwords people use for work and the ones they use at home.

Looking at the most common passwords from all 44 countries studied here, many aren’t going to be surprising. The most used password, for example, used over three million times, is “123456.” The second most used, used over 1.6 million times, is “123456789.”) Number four is “password,” while three variations of “qwerty” make it into the top 20.

Some personal favorites scrolling through this list are: “dragon” (#20), “monkey” (#21), “aaaaaa” (#54), “fuckyou” (#60), “computer” #63, “trustno1” (#135), “letmein” (#144), and “cheese” (#200). If you use any of these, kudos on the amusing password. Now change it immediately.

Bad passwords can be broken in minutes (or less)

Many of these are obviously bad passwords. Using something like “password,” “123456,” or “qwerty” is simple for both humans and computers to guess. However, most of these passwords are bad, and not just because they’re commonly used. Many are simply weak passwords, structured in a way that a computer would crack quickly. In fact, most are crackable in under one second. Scrolling through the list, that becomes evident. It might take a human a long time to figure out someone’s password is 123456c, but a computer can break it almost instantaneously.

To be fair, some of these take minutes or hours more, while a few do take quite some time to break: “111222tianya,” number 75, would take one full day to crack, while “g_czechout,” number 157, would take 12 days. But the vast majority of these passwords are almost as bad as not having a password at all.

What makes a strong and unique password?

When it comes to making good passwords, don’t choose something that means anything to you. In fact, you don’t want something that means anything to anyone: The more obscure and/or random the password, the harder it will be for a computer to crack, and it’ll probably be impossible for a human to guess.

But that doesn’t mean you need to start mashing away at the keyboard every time you make a new password. One effective method to creating strong and unique passwords is to string together a few totally random words together. Use this aging but still accurate xkcd comic’s take on the subject as a model: Cartoonist Randall Munroe demonstrates how a password like “Tr0ub4dor&3″ seems strong on the surface (a human would never guess it), but a computer could crack it fairly easily. Plus, it’s hard to remember. Connecting four random words is way harder for computers and humans alike to figure out, and you might have an easier time remembering it (the now infamous “correcthorsebatterystaple.” Change some of the letters to characters, include an underscore or two, and you’ve got a strong password cooking.

Just get a password manager already

You can read more about creating memorable passwords that are strong and unique in our guide here. Honestly though, you really only need to remember one strong and unique password, because the rest of them should be locked away in a password manager. That removes the temptations to make any of these passwords memorable: The manager remembers them, so you don’t have to. They’ll even make the passwords for you!

If you need help finding one, our sister site PCMag has a list of the best password managers they’ve tried in 2024. Of course, you can always use the free password manager that comes with your platform of choice. Apple’s new Passwords app isn’t too bad for managing your passwords across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, although it will be more limited than a dedicated third-party password manager.

Even good passwords don’t make your account secure

Passwords get too much attention anyway. You should also be coupling them with two-factor authentication on any account that supports it, preferably via an authentication app rather than a simple text message. If you have 2FA set up, a compromised password won’t be enough for hackers to break into your account: They’ll also need access to the code on your trusted device.

If companies like Apple and Google get their way, passkeys might replace the whole system altogether. Passkeys combine passwords and 2FA together into one secure system. You don’t come up a password; rather, your secondary device is the password, storing the secure passkey for you and only you to access. As long as you can authenticate yourself, you’re in. It’s a great concept, and could both simplify authentication and enhance its security. But seeing as so many of us are still using “password” for everything, we’re going to be a long time getting there.

Basically every sports app is a bloated nightmare. You just want to check the scores, but these apps want you to do something else entirely (maybe gambling?). Whether I’m using official league apps or one offered by a broadcaster like ESPN, it always takes a few taps to get what I want—and that’s after I’ve waited for it to download ads, videos, and headlines for sports I don’t care about.

That’s why Apple Sports is such a breath of fresh air. This application—launched in early 2024—shows you the scores from the leagues and teams you’ve selected…and literally nothing else. There are no news articles, there are no videos, and there aren’t even any ads. It’s literally just the scores. You can tap any game to see a few more details, like a play-by-play recap or the standings, but the emphasis here is on simplicity.

Even better, the application supports live activities for your favorite sports, meaning the scores show up on your iPhone home screen and your Apple watch as soon as the games start. This sets Sports apart from other apps, which generally require you to open the application and specifically turn the live activity on before it will start working.

Install this app and you can choose which teams and leagues to follow. (Any teams and leagues you’ve followed in Apple News or Apple TV will already be selected, but you can add more.) That setup done, using the app couldn’t be simpler: Just launch it and you’ll see the scores, whether from your favorite leagues or only your favorite teams—it’s up to you. You can also quickly browse leagues you haven’t marked favorite.

This application supports the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, NWSL, and major NCAA sports, along with the major European and Mexican men’s soccer leagues.

Note that, by default, the application shows gambling-related stats. If that’s something you’re into, great. If you, like me, find this to be mostly jargon that kind of ruins the fun of watching sports, the good news is that you can disable this altogether. Open System Settings, scroll down to Apps, then find Sports. You’ll find a “Hide Bettings Odds” toggle there—turn it on to disable all gambling-related jargon in the app.

You don’t have to be Extremely Online to have heard that things are not going great over on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. Since taking the company private, Elon Musk has laid off the vast majority of its employees, ditched legacy verification to promote paid users instead, and tweaked the algorithm to forefront provocative political content and misinformation, and not all users are cool with the changes. According to recent reports, users are deleting their X accounts at a heretofore unseen pace—and a lot of those disgruntled folks seem to be heading for bluer skies.

Bluesky is but one of a host of X alternatives that have wooed some former tweeters over the past two years, and over the past few months, it has started to look like it actually has the opportunity to become the “new Twitter,” thanks in no small part to a rapidly exploding user base—the site has grown from fewer than 10 million users in September to nearly 16 million today, around two million of those since Nov. 6. As of this writing, it’s the number one free app on the iPhone’s U.S. App Store. (X is currently number 25.)

Mastodon might be more tech-forward and egalitarian, but its complexities can be off-putting to newcomers. Threads has a vastly larger user base, but as a subsidiary of Meta, it suffers from many of the drawbacks of Facebook and Instagram (overly aggressive algorithms, owned by Meta). Bluesky, on the other hand, is a decentralized social media network that recreates the feel of “old Twitter” in basically every way—from the layout, to the functionality, to the vibes, I’d swear I was back in 2008.

People are actually using Bluesky now

That wasn’t exactly the case when I joined in mid-2023, when the site was still in its invite-only beta and few people seemed to be using it. I reluctantly remained on the increasingly toxic X because that’s where everyone I followed was posting. But not anymore: Anecdotally, I’ve seen dozens of my once-active Twitter mutuals finally embrace the new network, whether they’re still using or cross-posting to X, or ditching the latter entirely. It’s expanding fast enough that there have been some growing pains (the site was briefly down earlier today, and may go down again.)

It’s not just that I’m following exclusively terminally online weirdos (though I probably am). As an open source network, Bluesky’s metrics are all public, and its recent growth isn’t just about adding users: Following, liking, and posting are exploding too. Turns out social media is more engaging when more people are actually using it.

And then there’s the matter of who is using it. Before it was X, Twitter had a reputation as being a sort of online “town square.” Though it had far fewer active users than Facebook, it was the site where everyone could talk to everyone else—you could follow a celebrity, politician, or newsmaker, and tweet directly at them. They might not respond (or even see it in the flood of their mentions) but it was the place where people who had something to say were saying it to each other.

It’s too early to say that all of those people are going to move over to Bluesky, but a lot of them are. The past week has seen folks from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Dionne Warwick join or reappear on the site. The Guardian announced it was quitting X, and it only seems like a matter of time before the news org starts posting on Bluesky. In short, it feels like something is happening. Momentum exists where it didn’t before, and all it took was a massive political upheaval. Fun!

Speaking of which, is it true that it’s just “liberals fleeing X,” as the Washington Post chose to frame it? Maybe! If that bothers you—whether because you don’t consider yourself liberal or because you have an opinion about “representing the other point of view” or the danger of “online echo chambers”—I’d remind you that no one is obligated to use a service that makes them feel bad.

There’s no algorithm (unless you want one)

The other big benefit of Bluesky is that it has rejected the very thing that made social media so toxic and addictive (in the worst way) over the past decade: Algorithms designed to give you what the site thinks you want, rather than what you might actually want. I’m old enough to remember when both Facebook and Twitter offered simple chronological feeds. You could log on and only see the kind of content you wanted to see, without being tricked into scrolling infinitely or interacting with rage-bait. Those days are long gone.

But not on Bluesky: While the site does offer an algorithmic “Discover” feed based on your interests, it’s entirely optional. The default feed is entirely algorithm-free, offering up only a chronological list of posts and shares from people you’ve chosen to follow.

After years of being unable to quit Facebook and X even after my feeds had filled up with ads, hatred, racism, and AI garbage, simply being able to see only the things I want to see feels quite like stepping out of a boarded-up house filled with putrefying air and into the sunshine of a bright, clear day. (Someone funnier than me describe Bluesky as a lifeboat speeding away from a sinking cruise ship whose remaining passengers all have norovirus.)

The vibes are good

Again, speaking anecdotally, because there’s no algorithm working overtime to make them angry, Bluesky users seem to be having fun—the vibes, as they say, are good. If you’re good about curating who you follow, you’re more likely going to be seeing posts that are interesting or provocative or funny or moving for you. You’ll still see posts from outside your immediate bubble as your follows share others’ content, so things can still very much go viral, but it’ll be on the merits, rather than because the person posting it paid $8 for the privilege.

I think this is a good thing! Not because I’m any more popular on Bluesky (my average post still hovers around two likes), but because using it doesn’t make me feel awful, even when the world is awful (which it usually is).

It’s easy to get started

Perhaps most importantly, the current exponential growth of Bluesky is continuing because its pretty easy to get started using it. There are tools to easily find everyone you followed (or who followed you) on X. People are also sharing user-created “starter packs” of like-minded folks you might want to follow, based on your interests (everything from “Moviesky,” filled with “film Twitter” refugees, to “Blacksky,” home to many Black creators).

You can even use a Chrome extension to import all your old tweets to the new platform, if you are a deeply unwell person like me.

It’s still social media

I’ve just told you all the reasons I have been having fun on Bluesky, but it’s still social media, which means your relationship with the site will only be as healthy (or unhealthy) as you allow it to be. We still live in way-too-interesting times, and it’s easy to fall into doomscrolling or get into nasty arguments with strangers in which you’re each fiercely defending your reactionary viewpoint on a massively complex subject you understand about 5% of (or is that just me?).

While Bluesky has a robust moderation tool—people have dubbed it the “nuclear block”—that allows you to boot bad actors from your mentions and keep them from seeing any of your content, sometimes the best course of action when social media is getting you down is to drop the phone and go touch grass—or look at the actual blue sky.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2024 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA is funding new projects in nearly every state to lower costs, expand access to clean energy and strengthen American farms and small businesses.

Streaming services are finding new ways to make sure we spend more money than ever, like cracking down on password sharing. But not all streaming services charge an arm and a leg for their content. In fact, there’s a decent list of options that are totally free of charge (and legal, at that). Among those is Amazon’s Freevee, a way to watch shows and movies without worrying about your wallet—at least, it used to be.

On Tuesday, we learned Amazon plans to shut down Freevee over the next few weeks, a move that may surprise casual fans, but not others who saw the writing on the wall. The service, as its name implied, offered content to users for free, supported by ad breaks throughout shows and movies. But once Amazon started offering an ad-supported Prime Video plan last year, Freevee started to seem a bit redundant.

Undoubtedly, the platform’s most famous original show was Jury Duty, a Truman Show-like reality series that tricked one man into serving his “jury duty” with a court full of actors surrounding a fake trial. However, there were plenty of other Freevee originals, including Alex Rider, Bosch: Legacy, and Judy Justice (yes, featuring Judge Judy).

Freevee hasn’t always been Freevee, however. The service originated under IMDb (a subsidiary of Amazon), as IMDb Freedrive in 2019. Shortly thereafter, it rebranded to IMDb TV, but in 2022, Amazon changed the name again to Freevee.

Can you still watch Freevee?

The good news is none of Freevee’s content is going away. Amazon is simply folding it under its “Watch for Free” category, which will be available with or without a Prime membership. That means you can boot up Prime, scroll to any “free” content, and watch it with ads. Right now, that requires scrolling through a sea of locked content that requires a Prime membership to find, but perhaps Amazon will make this free content more apparent in the coming weeks.