Technologies

How to Watch His Dark Materials Season 3

Lyra and Will are back to close out with a bang.

His Dark Materials season three — the conclusion to the HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy — debuts Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. ET. There are several places online where you can stream the excitement, depending on which country you’re watching from — and whether you’ve got a reliable virtual private network.

Here are the most up-to-date streaming services where you can watch the final season of Lyra and Will’s adventures, along with ways to get around geo-blocks and streaming glitches by using a VPN.

Where to watch His Dark Materials season 3

If you want to stream His Dark Materials online from inside the US, you’ll find it exclusively on HBO Max. The season’s eight episodes will arrive weekly at 9 p.m. EST, starting Dec. 5.

HBO Max also offers a free, 7-day trial if you’re interested in test-driving the service before committing to a monthly cost.

How to watch His Dark Materials, season 3, for free

US viewers who would like to take HBO Max up on its free, 7-day trial offer will be able to stream His Dark Material, season 3, for free as part of that trial. But that only helps you watch the first two episodes of the show’s eight-episode final season, unless you wait for all eight episodes to be released before starting your trial.

Viewers in the UK, Canada and Australia have similar options to get started — but only Canadian viewers will be able to watch the premiere on Dec. 5. Viewers in Canada can watch the debut on Crave’s on-demand streaming platform. The service costs CA$20 monthly but it offers a free, 7-day trial if you’re a new subscriber.

Viewers in Australia will be able to watch the season 3 debut on Tuesday, Dec. 6 on Binge. The streaming platform costs just AU$10 monthly. Its free trial period is more generous, with a full 14 days available to new subscribers.

Finally, UK viewers won’t get to watch the season 3 premiere until Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. GMT, when it finally arrives on BBC iPlayer. However, the iPlayer is free to use with a valid UK television license.

We don’t recommend seeking out the TV series on fly-by-night illegal streaming or torrenting sites, but if you’re determined to do so, we strongly advise you to make sure your antivirus is up to date and your VPN is installed before you navigate to them. And remember: Never give those kinds of sites your credit card information.

Read more: Best VPN for Your Smart TV

How to watch His Dark Materials with a VPN

A well-tested, high-performing VPN can make viewing your favorite streaming platforms much easier. Even if you subscribe to a video streaming service where His Dark Materials is available, you may have problems accessing it in the catalog of movies available to you. If you’re internet service provider has issued you an IP address that’s wrong for the video library, or if you’re traveling while trying to watch your home country’s catalog, you may end up only being able to access movies and TV shows outside your normal viewing area.

Here’s how to quickly use a VPN to get access to the correct media libraries, to stream His Dark Materials when it premiers.

Read more: How We Test VPNs

1. Choose the right VPN for your needs.

If you’re choosing a VPN to stream video, you’ll want one with a few key criteria: top-notch speed test performance, a strong ability to disguise its traffic as normal traffic (a feature called obfuscation) and a network of servers that are optimized for media experiences so that your streams aren’t dropping in and out.

If you’re in a country where streaming certain content may be illegal according to local censorship laws, you’ll want to make sure your VPN provider offers well-tested security, and that you are only using the VPN on your laptop or home router — not your mobile phone. You’ll also want to make sure you’ve carefully followed any additional instructions from your VPN provider on configuring your VPN set-up for maximum privacy.

However, if you’re looking for an option that’s friendlier on your budget, we recommend a range of affordable VPNs, like Surfshark, that have also passed our security tests with flying colors.

Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.

2. Connect to the correct country in your VPN.

Once you’ve installed your VPN, you’ll want to open the VPN app up and select the country where His Dark Materials is currently available for streaming on your platform of choice when season 3 premiers. In this case, HBO Max users would select and connect to a US server in your VPN’s list. Crave users would connect to Canadian servers.

After Dec. 6, Binge users would connect to Australian servers to watch the series. And, after Dec. 18, BBC iPlayer watchers would select a UK-based server when connecting.

Remember: It’s important to connect to your VPN before you log into — or create a new account for — your streaming subscription service.

3. Log into your streaming service.

You’ve installed your VPN, powered it on, and connected to the correct country. You’re nearly done!

Now all you have to do is log into your streaming media provider as normal. So navigate to HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, Crave or Binge — and then log in as you typically would. Once you’re in, you can use the platforms search bar to find His Dark Materials.

You’re ready to stream!

If you find that your streaming service still doesn’t work with your VPN running, make sure you’ve followed your VPN providers instructions and installed any browser-based plug-ins your VPN may need. If you’ve followed the directions and your settings are correct — then try closing all windows, restarting your machine, and first connecting to your VPN before doing anything else. That will ensure that your device is securely connected to your VPN and reduce the chances that your non-VPN IP address is interfering with your connection process.

Technologies

I Didn’t Expect a Refund From Amazon After All These Years, but It Happened

Amazon’s internal review led to a surprise deposit in my bank account.

Did you get a random refund from Amazon recently? You aren’t alone. Several customers have reported they received a variety of amounts of money from products they ordered months or even years ago, with one customer on LinkedIn saying he received a refund of $1,800 for a smart TV bought seven years ago. Others made similar comments about products bought long ago.

According to Bloomberg, it all ties back to an internal review Amazon did, possibly in response to a 2023 lawsuit. That suit claimed Amazon had quietly reversed legit return-related refunds for some shoppers. Now, it looks like Amazon’s making good — and if you’ve ever had a return go sideways, you might see a little money show up too.

A representative for Amazon told CNET that only a small number of customers would be affected.

«Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued,» an Amazon representative said. «There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue.»

In its latest earnings call, Amazon reported a one-time expense of $1 billion connected to refunds that the company had not yet sent out. These earmarked funds could be responsible for the sudden updates that shoppers are now seeing regarding purchases as far back as 2018.

Read more: I’ve Been Tracking Tariff Price Impacts Every Day and Here’s What I’ve Found So Far

If you receive an email about a surprise refund from Amazon orders, it may be related to these changes Amazon has made behind the scenes. You may still want to confirm it’s not fraud by logging into your Amazon account or making a quick service call, especially if it’s a larger amount like a payment for a TV. Scammers may be taking advantage of this news, too, so be wary of any notification that asks you for financial information, which Amazon should already have.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, May 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 25.

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.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword isn’t too tough. I was stumped right away though, with 1-Across, but when I read it to my teen daughter, she knew it immediately. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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 at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Good for a bike route, bad for a bike tire
Answer: FLAT

5A clue: Rolling in it
Answer: RICH

6A clue: Internet company with a purple logo
Answer: YAHOO

8A clue: McIlroy who won the 2025 Masters
Answer: RORY

9A clue: Mumford & ___ (rock band)
Answer: SONS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Food item dipped in ketchup
Answer: FRY

2D clue: Apt rhyme of «falsifiers»
Answer: LIARS

3D clue: Sneezing sound
Answer: ACHOO

4D clue: Plant’s defense against herbivores, perhaps
Answer: THORN

7D clue: Yiddish exclamations of woe
Answer: OYS

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 25, #244

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 244, for May 25.

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

The purple category in Connections: Sports Edition today is about the biggest sports event of the day. You probably know what it is. Hint: Get behind the wheel in the Hoosier State. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Get your racket.

Green group hint: Pac Northwest player.

Blue group hint: Blow that fastball past the hitter.

Purple group hint: Gentlemen, start your engines.