With the fall equinox on Monday marking the end of summer, it’s time to start setting up your Halloween decorations (if you haven’t already). And this year, Home Depot’s infamous giant skeleton returns with an app that gives the new Ultra Skelly a voice and fresh moves to spook trick-or-treaters.

Make no bones about it: Skelly’s going high-tech this spooky season. The new animatronic version is shorter than the original, at 6.5 feet tall, but you can freak out your whole neighborhood with this skeleton’s rotating upper torso, moving mouth and 18 LCD eye variations (ew).

Skelly can now chat with visitors through five preset recordings and up to 30 seconds of custom recording, plus Bluetooth capabilities that let you interact in real time. And you can modulate your voice to make everything sound extra spooky.

Skelly was originally launched in 2020, when the pandemic forced people to celebrate Halloween at a distance. Perhaps because of its giant stature — it’s easy to spot, even when social distancing — the skeleton became a hit and has been resurrected every year since with upgrades and friends. This year, those friends include dragons, trolls, scarecrows and a Skelly Cat (not to be confused with Smelly Cat).

You can order Skelly and company now on the Home Depot website or app for $279.

Samsung is always a smart move if you look for quality when buying your new tech. You might be more familiar with its phones and TVs, but it also makes some of the best wireless earbuds you can buy. Of the options available right now, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are some of the best, and thanks to a limited-time deal, you can get yours for a song.

Order within the next week and you’ll get the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for just $115. That’s a very solid $135 discount. These are the international version of the earbuds, but that shouldn’t impact anything about how you use them.

Just keep in mind that this deal will come to a close in just a matter of days. It could even end sooner if stocks run dry before then.

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You’ll definitely regret missing out if you’re too late, too. These earbuds have a redesigned fit, which is said to offer a more comfortable listening experience. They’re IPX7 water-resistant, so you can use them when out in the rain and whatnot, and the noise cancellation features make them a perfect companion for loud offices and noisy commutes.

In terms of battery life, Samsung says you can look forward to up to 8 hours, depending on whether you’re using ANC or not, while the included charging case bumps that to 18 hours. Fast-charging tech ensures you can get a battery boost when needed, too. Because of all of this, this is easily one of the best wireless earbuds deals around right now.

Why this deal matters

Getting great features often means spending great sums of money, which is why we’re always keen to share deals like this one. If you’d eyed these wireless earbuds in the past but balked at their $250 price tag, now’s your chance to pick them up for less. Just make sure you do it before Woot calls time on this deal.

Just last week, NASA’s Perseverance rover dropped some major news from Mars that has everyone talking. A tiny rock sample, dramatically named «Sapphire Canyon,» is showing tantalizing hints of what scientists call biosignatures. In plain English? Potential signs that ancient, alien life might have once existed on the Red Planet.

Perseverance snagged this promising sample from a rock in Jezero Crater, which happens to be a dried-up ancient riverbed. The fact that this area was once flush with water is a huge deal, since that’s a key ingredient for life as we know it. While this isn’t a smoking gun for little green men, it’s a massive clue. 

As one NASA scientist put it, finding proof of past life would seriously «increase the possibility that some form of life has survived» underground on Mars today — a pretty wild thought to chew on.

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Life on Mars?

So, does this finally confirm that life once existed on Mars? It’s a very good start, and the most significant lead NASA has found so far. Dr. Rench was clear on this point. «This discovery significantly increases our chances of finding ancient signatures of life at Mars. It suggests the possibility of life on Mars several billion years ago. It does not provide any evidence for life on Mars today.»

The data collected by Perseverance using its onboard instruments (X-ray lithochemistry and NASA’s SHERLOC scanner) was peer-reviewed and appears promising, but it doesn’t absolutely confirm life. More tests and input are needed for that, and the samples could have been generated from a natural chemical process without the presence of life. But scientists are excited about these signs and eager to learn more.

What kind of Mars life are we talking about? It’s not the sort that comes in peace, or goes much of anywhere. The possible biosignatures indicate small, microbial life. Sapphire Canyon showed signs of vivianite and greigite. Vivianite, in particular, is found on Earth’s peat bogs and swamps, while greigite is a byproduct some earth microbes leave behind. Think of this finding like a potential algae or swamp scum.

NASA is working on analyzing the data, running more tests and sharing the results with other scientists around the world to see what more they can learn. There’s a lot to rule out, from accidental sample contamination to the likelihood of nonorganic origins. That’s tough to do from millions of miles away, but NASA is on the case.