Select Page
How to Back Up Your Emails in Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud

How to Back Up Your Emails in Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud

Backing up your emails, no matter what provider you use, is important because access to your digital collection of messages is less permanent than you might initially think. There are multiple points of failure to consider—what happens if something in the cloud breaks, or your connection to the internet does? What if your account gets banned or closed for whatever reason, and all of your email gets zapped with it?

Those are only a few of the potential problems. You might accidentally delete a bunch of emails you didn’t mean to; someone else could access your account and wipe everything they find; or your email provider might suddenly decide to lock you out, permanently.

With all of that in mind, access to your email doesn’t seem so assured. It might not matter for all those random newsletters, questionable deals, and politicians begging for cash that clog up your inbox, but what about emails and documents you really need access to? It’s helpful to have at least some of your emails backed up in another location so that you can always get at them, offline or otherwise.

Forward Emails to a Backup Account

Image may contain Text Page and Document

Forwarding emails is one way of backing them up.

Apple via David Nield

The simplest way to get all of your emails sent to another account is to forward them, either manually one by one or automatically as they come in. From iCloud Mail, for example, you can click the cog icon (top left), then choose Settings and Mail Forwarding: Tick the box next to Forward my email to and enter another email address.

If you open up Gmail on the web, click the cog icon (top right), then See all settings. Under Forwarding and POP/IMAP, tick the box labeled Forward a copy of incoming mail to and enter your secondary email address. Gmail actually lets you create a filter for forwarded emails (messages from a specific contact, for example), so you don’t get everything forwarded—click creating a filter under Forwarding to do this. It’s worth noting that the forwarding option may not be available for your work account.

Finally, for the Outlook web client, click the cog icon (top right), then Mail, then Forwarding. Choose the Enable forwarding option, enter the secondary email address you want to use, and all of the messages that arrive in your Outlook inbox will be sent on to the other account too. In this section, you’ll also need to choose whether you want to save a copy of the forwarded emails. If something happens to your primary account, you can still at least reference your messages.

Forwarding emails is a quick and simple way of getting your messages in two places, but it’s not 100 percent reliable. When you’re forwarding your emails to another cloud account, you can still lose access to both copies if you’re ever unable to get online.

Use POP and IMAP (Remember Those?)

Image may contain Text Page and Document

Both POP and IMAP can be used to back up emails.

Microsoft via David Nield

POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are the two main ways of getting emails in multiple places at once, and both standards are supported by most email providers. Choosing which to use for the purpose of backing up emails is a bit tricky, as they tend to be implemented in slightly different ways depending on the programs you’re using.

How to Back Up Your Digital Life (2023): Hard Drives, Cloud-Based Tools, and Tips

How to Back Up Your Digital Life (2023): Hard Drives, Cloud-Based Tools, and Tips

To get started, click Add backup, and Duplicati will take you through the process of setting up an account at a cloud storage provider and entering your login credentials. Then you pick which files you want to back up. A word of caution about something that bit me once during testing: When Duplicati can’t find a file—for example, if you’re having it back up data that’s on an external drive you sometimes don’t plug in—it will halt the entire backup until that drive is available. You can change this behavior in the settings, but by default, this is how it works.

If Duplicati isn’t quite what you want, another option is MSP360 (formerly Cloudberry). It’s $30, but there is a free version with limited features. MSP360 worked well in my testing, but I did not find anything about it that convinced me it was better than Duplicati. Another possibility is Arq, which will set you back $50 and then $25 a year for updates. Again, Arq worked well in my testing—in fact, I used Arq to make backups for years and never had any problems with it—but it’s hard to justify the price when Duplicati is free.

Mobile Backups

Mobile backups are a different beast from your laptop or PC. You can’t just plug a drive into your phone and back it up. Not easily anyway. To help you out we have an entirely separate guide to backing up your Android device and another to back up your iPhone.

Tips and Suggestions

One important caveat is that you can’t really trust any backup system until you’ve actually restored from it. It sounds silly, but I strongly suggest you practice restoring your data before you actually need to. If there are any problems in your system, you want to find them before disaster strikes. I recently saved myself from disaster doing just this. I didn’t quite understand what a piece of software was doing—I thought it was doing one thing, turned out it was not. If I hadn’t tried restoring before I needed to, I would have been out of luck when I did (and it wasn’t the software’s fault).

The last thing to consider when putting your backup system together is what you want to back up. For most of us, that’s a mix of personal data—photos of the kids, videos, important documents—as well as less personal things, like downloaded media and all the system files that keep our PCs running the way we want them to.

There are other folders worth considering, depending on your habits. For example, I never used to back up my Downloads folder because I’m probably going to move downloaded files somewhere else. However, when my drive recently died, this was exactly what I lost: my Downloads folder. Fortunately, there was only one document in it that really mattered, but I’ve added Downloads to my backup system to make sure nothing slips through the cracks again.

That’s really the most important part of making backups—ensuring you have a system that works the way you do. For that reason, I suggest experimenting with several of the options above until you find what’s right for you. With hard drives and online storage space so cheap these days, there’s really no excuse for not having at least two backups of your data.

8 Best Heart Rate Monitors (2023): Chest Straps, EKG, Watches

8 Best Heart Rate Monitors (2023): Chest Straps, EKG, Watches

Those days of getting a heart rate reading only when you visit your physician are truly a thing of the past. You don’t even have to spend big money or leave your home to get a sense of your heart rate during exercise or at rest.

The rise of optical and EKG (electrocardiogram) sensors that can now reliably deliver that information from your wrist, chest, or arm means you can better understand how hard you hit it in that boot camp class and get a window into the most stressful periods of your day.

Updated December 2023: We’ve added the Coros and Viiiiva heart rate monitors, plus the Fitbit Charge 6 tracker.

For more sports and fitness guides, check out the Best Fitbits, Best Fitness Trackers and Watches, Best Running Gear, and the Best Wireless Earbuds for Working Out.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

The 30 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right Now

The 30 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right Now

While Netflix is busy pumping out more shows than any one person could watch (probably), Amazon Prime Video has remained the place to go for a few of the best shows around. Trouble is, navigating the service’s labyrinthine menus can make finding the right series a pain. We’re here to help. Below are our favorite Amazon series—all included with your Prime subscription.

For more viewing picks, read WIRED’s guide to the best movies on Amazon Prime, the best movies on HBO’s Max, and the best movies on Netflix.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.

Reacher

Amazon has a way with action thrillers focused on military tough guys who answer to “Jack R”—see Jack Ryan, also making this guide—and this sharp adaptation of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels continues the trend. Alan Ritchson (Titans, Fast X) stars as Reacher, a former military policeman now drifting from town to town, trying to live a quiet life but unable to avoid conflict. Season one finds him accused of a murder he didn’t commit, while the newly arrived second sees Reacher drawn into a vast conspiracy when someone starts picking off the members of his old army unit of special investigators. It’s pulpy at times, but bombastic action and surprisingly sharp dialogue help this punch above its weight.

Invincible

When Mark Grayson inherits the incredible powers and abilities of his father, Omni-Man, he sets out to follow in his footsteps as new costumed superhero Invincible. Things do not go according to plan. After a shocking twist left the first season on a major cliffhanger—save for for the rather brilliant Invincible: Atom Eve one-shot plugging the gap and revealing the origins of a key character—this long-awaited return finds Mark’s world upended. Now, he’s trying to escape his father’s shadow rather than live up to his legacy. Luckily, he’s not on his own, with a new generation of heroes rising to help guard the globe. A brilliantly animated adaptation of the hit Image comic book by writer Robert Kirkman and artists Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, Invincible’s more mature take on superheroes allows it to do something Marvel’s and DC’s characters rarely do: grow up.

The Wheel of Time

Based on Robert Jordan’s sprawling novel series—one so vast it makes Game of Thrones look concise—this is one of Amazon’s most ambitious, and expensive, series to date. The eight-episode first season follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a powerful weaver of an ancient form of magic, as she gathers five unassuming young people, one of whom is destined to either save the world—or destroy it. The recently released second season ups the stakes, with ancient evils returning and new terrors rising—right as the only ones who can stop them are scattered around the world. A visually stunning series that blends sumptuous location shoots with cinematic effects work, this is an epic fantasy that’s improving with every episode.

The Greatest Show Never Made

Back in 2002, it seemed everyone wanted to achieve the kind of celebrity that only comes from a breakout role on a reality TV show. It was the kind of social obsession that was all too easy for unscrupulous producers to abuse, as a host of young British fame-seekers found out when they threw their lives away for a show that was apparently never real. They quit jobs, abandoned homes, and severed relationships in pursuit of a promised cash prize. Decades later, this three-part documentary follows the people who were drawn into the web of “producer” Nikita Russian (an obvious pseudonym that should have been their first clue something was off) to explore what went wrong. Created with a mix of archive footage and bizarrely shot recreations, there’s an air of unreality to the whole affair, proving once more that nothing is as strange as “reality” TV.

Gen V

Spinning out of Amazon’s hit The Boys, Gen V follows the next generation of supes, training their abilities at the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting. In keeping with its twisted parent show, this educational establishment is less Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and more The Hunger Games with superpowers, as students battle for glory and a chance to join premier super-team The Seven. Lead Jaz Sinclair (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) impresses as freshman Marie Moreau, a haemokinetic with lofty ambitions who uncovers dark secrets at the college that challenge her entire world view. Factor in all the poor life choices college students are famed for and some extremely creative (if often disgusting) superpowers, then allow for The Boys’ trademark ultraviolence, and one thing’s for sure—the kids of Gen V are most definitely not alright.

Jack Ryan

There’s no shortage of screen adaptations of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books, but John Krasinski’s turn as the CIA desk jockey turned field agent gets far more room to breathe than its predecessors. The prestige political thriller charts Ryan’s rise from analyst to operative—and beyond—over four perfectly crafted seasons. The recently released final season caps Ryan’s career with his biggest challenge yet, investigating the convergence of a drug cartel and a terrorist organization set to create an unstoppable criminal enterprise, all while juggling the CIA’s possible involvement in a political assassination in Nigeria. While the show hasn’t been without controversies—season two attracted condemnation from Venezuela’s government for supposedly condoning a US invasion of the country; big yikes there—its sharp writing, incredible performances, and cinematic action make it compelling viewing.

I’m a Virgo

A surrealist comedy with the sharp political and social edge viewers have come to expect from creator and director Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You), I’m a Virgo follows Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a regular 19-year-old who just happens to be 13 feet tall. Raised in secrecy by Aunt Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo) and Uncle Martisse (Mike Epps), Cootie is thrust into the limelight when his larger-than-life existence is inevitably discovered. Experiencing friendships and the outside world for the first time, gentle giant Cootie has to navigate everything from romance to the public’s reaction to a giant Black man wandering around Oakland. Oh, and did we mention Cootie’s idol, The Hero, a real-life superhero with an authoritarian streak that would put some of the worst offenders on The Boys to shame? Told you this was surreal. Do yourself a favor and watch the behind-the-scenes episodes too, tucked under Prime Video’s “Explore” tab, for Riley’s insight into each episode.

Carnival Row

There’s an element of “what might have been” about Carnival Row. Its strong first season showed huge potential, framing deeper themes of class, immigration, and race within a fantasy world where dominant humans and refugee fae live in uneasy lockstep. Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic massively delayed its second—and ultimately final—season. But there’s still a neat package of 18 beautifully produced episodes to enjoy for a relatively concise binge. The first season introduces human police inspector Rycroft “Philo” Philostrate (Orlando Bloom) and his former lover, fae Vignette “Vini” Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne), as a string of murders rocks the gaslit city of The Burgue. In the second, tensions erupt as the oppressed fae make a stand for their freedom—putting Philo and Vini on opposing sides. With its quasi-Victoriana aesthetic and a preference for ornate character makeup and prosthetics, Carnival Row is also one of the most distinctive-looking series in recent years—just make sure your TV can handle deep, dark contrast levels, as it’s also one of the most literally dark shows.

The Power

You know how it is with teenagers. They feel a tingle, then suddenly sparks are flying—but this isn’t about first loves or misdirected crushes, but a rather more literal electricity, as young women around the world awaken to the power to generate and discharge lightning. Soon, it proves to be a gender-wide ability, with women old and young gaining The Power, a shift that soon changes social dynamics and power structures on a global scale. With a powerhouse cast fronted by Toni Collette as Seattle mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez, and Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh as Tunde Ojo, a photojournalist documenting the situation as it unfolds, The Power explores the seismic shift of such a change playing out everywhere from the US to Nigeria.

Daisy Jones & the Six

Spanning a decade, Daisy Jones & the Six follows the formation, stratospheric success, and crushing breakup of the greatest band the 1970s never saw. In the late ’60s, talented but listless ingenue Daisy (Riley Keough) meets aspiring rocker Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) and his group, eventually joining the band herself. Soon, her soulful vocals and insightful songwriting help propel The Six to the top of the charts—but at the height of their careers, everything comes tumbling down, undone by years of wandering hearts, illicit sex, battles with sobriety, and the rigors of rock ‘n’ roll. If it all sounds a bit Fleetwood Mac, that should come as no surprise—the author of the book the series is based on, Taylor Jenkins Reid, has said the legendary folk-rock band was an inspiration. Yet with its fantastic cast, period-perfect tone, and phenomenal soundtrack—released as the album Aurora by the series’ eponymous band—Daisy Jones & the Six takes on a life of its own.

The Legend of Vox Machina

Bawdy, gory, and absolutely not for kids, The Legend of Vox Machina began life as the hit Critical Role, in which a group of the biggest English-language voice actors in animation and gaming livestreamed their Dungeons & Dragons sessions before it evolved into its own beast. In the first season of this exquisitely animated fantasy, the show follows the eponymous Vox Machina guild—a motley crew of usually drunk adventurers consisting of gunslingers, druids, and the requisite horny bard—as they battle to reclaim the city of Whitestone from the monstrous Lord and Lady Briarwood. The recently added second season ups the ante with “the worst team ever assembled” fighting four apocalyptically powerful dragons. Fully accessible to long-time fans of the source material and newcomers alike, this series manages to be a love letter to D&D while poking plenty of fun at the classic RPG and transcending its origins to become one of the most original adult animated shows on Amazon.

The Rig

Supernatural thriller The Rig doesn’t even aspire to subtlety when it comes to ecological metaphors. In fact, they’re often downright clumsy, as when one character says “if you keep punching holes in the earth, eventually the earth’s going to punch back.” But if you can look past such clunkiness, this is an engaging piece of television. When the crew of the isolated Kinloch Bravo oil rig is cut off from civilization by a strange fog, the inexplicable deaths and equipment failures soon make it clear that this is no mere weather pattern. And as the tension and fear mount, being trapped in a glorified tin can in the North Sea drives the survivors to paranoid extremes. It’s all brilliantly shot to make use of both the claustrophobic setting and the terrifying expanse of ocean around it, and the material is elevated by a phenomenal cast of Game of Thrones and Line of Duty veterans, making The Rig more than the guilty pleasure it might otherwise be.

Tales From the Loop

Despite being a couple of years old, Tales From the Loop remains one of the most mesmerizing shows on Prime Video. Loosely based on the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, the series blurs the line between ongoing narrative and anthology as it follows the residents of Mercer, Ohio, exploring how their intersecting lives are impacted by “the Loop,” an underground facility exploring experimental physics and making the impossible possible. Expect tales of frozen time, traded lives, and parallel worlds, all brought to life by a fantastic cast and directors—including Andrew Stanton and Jodie Foster. But it’s the visuals that really elevate this show, which captures the sublime aesthetic of Stålenhag’s work and juxtaposes neofuturism and rural communities for a world that looks and feels like almost nothing else. At only eight episodes, a visit to Mercer is brief but unforgettable.

The Devil’s Hour

When Peter Capaldi, here playing mysterious criminal Gideon Shepherd, says “my perception of time is better than anyone’s,” it’s clear that The Devil’s Hour creator Tom Moran is having a little fourth-wall-breaking fun with his former Time Lord leading man. That’s about as close as this gritty six-part drama gets to Doctor Who, though. Instead, this is a mix of murder mystery and thriller, topped off with a dash of the supernatural. The focus is on Lucy (Jessica Raine), an over-burdened social worker with an increasingly distant and troubled young son. Lucy wakes at exactly 3:33 am every morning, plagued by horrific visions, and her nightmares draw her into the orbit of police detective Ravi Dhillon’s (Nikesh Patel) investigations of a bloody murder and a child’s abduction. As she tries to figure out how the two are entangled, Lucy comes face to face with Shepherd. Raine is a phenomenally commanding lead throughout, while Capaldi’s sinister performance is one of the most chilling you’ll see on screen.

Them

This horror anthology series, created by Little Marvin and executive-produced by Queen & Slim’s Lena Waithe, sets its first season in 1950s Los Angeles and follows the Emory family as they move into an all-white neighborhood. It all goes about as well as you might expect, with Livia (Deborah Ayorinde) soon penned into their new home by the Stepford-like housewives of the area who make her life a living hell, led by ringleader Betty (Alison Pill). Outside the home, husband Henry (Ashley Thomas) faces physical assaults and harassment at work. Ayorinde and Thomas are phenomenal throughout, brilliantly portraying the mental, physical, and emotional turmoil of living under relentless threat. While the show’s portrayal of the period is tense and horrifying in its own right, the layering of some truly unsettling supernatural threats make this a frequently terrifying watch.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Tapping into The Lord of the Rings creator J. R. R. Tolkien’s sprawling history of Middle-earth, The Rings of Power is set millennia before the events of the core books (or films, which is really where the visual language of this adaptation comes from), detailing the major events of Tolkien’s Second Age. Much of the focus is on Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) as she searches for Sauron, servant of Morgoth, but this ambitious fantasy series explores a range of events and themes, such as the fall of the island of Númenor; the fractious politics between man, elves, and dwarves; and the forging of those perilous rings. While there’s been no shortage of debate around Rings of Power, there’s also no denying that Amazon got what it paid for with the most expensive TV show ever made—this is one of the most beautiful series you’ll ever lay eyes on. Whether the ongoing story nails the landing remains to be seen, but for sheer high fantasy spectacle, there’s nothing better at the moment.

The Boys

Superheroes are meant to represent hope and optimism—the best of us, given outsize form. In The Boys, adapted from the darkly satirical comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, they’re a reflection of humanity’s worst—greed and unrestrained power marketed to a gullible public by vested corporate interests, operating without restraint and leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Enter Billy Butcher and his “associates,” gleefully dispatching “Supes” who’ve gone too far, often in extraordinarily violent ways. In the newly dropped third season, the team is forced to go legit and work for the US government while struggling to topple the sadistic, psychotic Homelander, leader of The Seven—the world’s premier superheroes, brought to you by Vought International. To complicate matters, Butcher is wrestling with becoming the thing he hates most: a Supe. Possibly Amazon’s goriest show, The Boys stands as a pertinent examination of the abuses of power, all wrapped in superhero drag.

The Underground Railroad

Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Colson Whitehead, this limited series from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins sticks pretty closely to the premise of the book. It’s a work of historical fiction that takes the idea of the Underground Railroad—the network of smugglers who helped escaped slaves flee the South—and reimagines it as an actual subway system with trains and secretive station agents.

Fleabag

You’re not supposed to like Fleabag. She’s selfish, self-destructive, and morally bankrupt. Her family is loathsome, her lifestyle is ridiculous, and her job is a joke. Yet after watching this 12-episode series, we defy you not to love her a little. This magnificent sitcom about a Londoner (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) grappling with the death of her best friend has no filter: You’ll hear her thoughts on feminism, familial tension, love, and sodomy. The first time Waller-Bridge interrupts her own dialog to shoot a disarming, conspiratorial glance to the screen, you’re hooked. Season one is a smutty yet wonderful crescendo of self-destruction driven by a cast of characters that includes Fleabag’s intensely awkward sister Claire (Sian Clifford), her selfish and pretentious stepmother (Olivia Colman), and her clueless father (Bill Paterson). The second season cheerfully bounds into blasphemy as she grapples with inappropriate (and reciprocated) feelings for a Catholic priest (Andrew Scott). It’s shocking and immensely watchable—and one of the rare cases when a series truly is as good as people say.

The Man in the High Castle

This adaptation of sci-fi master Philip K. Dick’s novel about a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War was one of Amazon’s first forays into original content. The world-building is stunningly done—a divided, alternate-reality 1960s America never seemed so plausible—but be warned: There might be just a touch too much present-day resonance for some viewers.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

What is a New York lady to do when she finds out her husband is having an affair with his dim-witted secretary? If Mrs. Maisel is anything to go by, the answer is to head to a dingy watering hole in your nightgown, do a little standup comedy, and get hauled away by the police after flashing the entire audience. Set in the 1950s, this fast-talking fashionista hides her new life as a comedian from her family and ex while battling sexism, bad crowds, and big competition. Rachel Brosnahan stars as Midge Maisel in this subtle nod to Joan Rivers’ career. With four seasons and a host of awards and nominations to its name, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is one of Amazon’s sharpest comedies.

The Expanse

Humanity now lives among the stars—well, the rest of the solar system, at least. A group of antiheroes are linked by the disappearance of a wealthy political activist, and between them they must unravel what happened to her. Adding to the complexity are the political tensions between Earth, Mars, and the Belt, a group of loosely affiliated colonies between the two planets. That’s just season one—there are six available on Prime, and each is packed with enough daring missions, space fights, and Martian politics to keep fans of hard science fiction hooked.

Good Omens

Feeling battered and emotionally bruised by bleak TV dystopias and even bleaker world news? Good Omens is your shelter in the storm, and inside it’s cozy, camp, and kind. Neil Gaiman has adapted his own 1990 book, cowritten with Terry Pratchett, which follows an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) as they try to stop Armageddon. The six-part event series gives fans exactly what they dreamed of from such a team. Silly stuff with Cold War overtones, extreme whimsy, and gruff British wit.

Good Omens 2

Four years is a long wait between seasons, but the dynamic between angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and demon Crowley (David Tennant) in 2019’s original Good Omens (also on this list) was so perfectly charming that barely a day has gone by without fans clamoring for more. Thankfully, the hotly anticipated second season doesn’t disappoint, with the dastardly divine odd couple weaving their magic once again as they attempt to stave off yet another apocalypse. When the archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) goes missing from Heaven, only to show up amnesiac (and naked) at Aziraphale’s homely bookshop in London, it kicks off a battle between “upstairs” and “downstairs.” But while Gabriel’s half-remembered warnings of something terrible looming frame the season, it’s the exploration of the central duo’s past that really delights. With plenty of flashbacks showing more of Aziraphale and Crowley’s history—and more than a bit of fanservice playing to the nature of their millennia-long relationship—Sheen and Tennant’s chemistry gets to shine so bright it dazzles. An overdue but incredibly welcome return.

Forever

You’ll know within the first episode whether you’re into this slow, a stylized miniseries from Parks & Recreation and Master of None alums Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard. It’s part high-concept TV and part uncomfortable marriage drama, with a side helping of shtick from the two outrageously talented leads, Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen. It might make you impatient at times, but Forever will stick with you if you hang on until the finale.

Sneaky Pete

Just released from prison, Marius (Giovanni Ribisi) steals the identity of former cellmate Pete Murphy in order to hide from the dangers of his old life. On the run from a vicious debtor played by Bryan Cranston (who also jointly created the show), Marius nestles in with Pete’s motley crew of estranged family, who are delighted to be reunited with their long-lost relative–and enters waters just as shark-infested as those from which he’s come. Over the course of three seasons, Sneaky Pete proves itself one of the finest dramas Amazon has produced yet.

Mozart in the Jungle

A comedy-drama documenting the world of professional orchestra musicians in New York, Mozart in the Jungle is a strange beast. The series follows Hailey Rutledge (Lola Kirke), an aspiring oboist trying to build a career with the New York Symphony, and her conflicted relationship with eccentric conductor Rodrigo De Souza (Gael García Bernal). With a strong creative team and real-world source material in the form of professional oboist Blair Tindall’s memoir Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, the compelling and frequently hilarious show has picked up Golden Globes and Emmy Awards and proven itself one of Amazon’s best exclusives.

Red Oaks

In the mid-’80s, college student and struggling filmmaker David Myers (Craig Roberts) wants one last, great summer before facing adulthood. Unfortunately, he’s stuck working at a pretentious country club and struggling to gain momentum in his life. Big dreams of making it in the film industry meet crushing reality as David navigates the demands of the club’s eccentric guests—from taking awkward wedding shoots to filming sex tapes for swingers clubs—while also struggling to maintain his relationship with girlfriend Skye. All three seasons of this delightful period comedy are available now.

Vikings

Inspired by the real-life Viking hero and ruler Ragnar Lodbrok, Vikings is a family saga exploring the lives, epic adventures, and cultural politics of the raiders and explorers of the Dark Ages. Six seasons of the historically inspired action series are available on Amazon Prime Video, with WWE wrestler Adam “Edge” Copeland joining the cast in season five as the story expands to a civil war in Norway, battles in England against the Nordic invaders, and exploration of northern Africa.

Lore

Entertaining well past Halloween, this anthology series presents “the frightening and often disturbing tales based on real people and events that have led to our modern-day myths and legends.” Based on the award-winning podcast of the same name, it offers two six-episode seasons of real-world horror stories guaranteed to chill your bones.

Best Slow Cookers (2023) for Soups, Stews and Casseroles

Best Slow Cookers (2023) for Soups, Stews and Casseroles

Slow, low-heat cooking is perfect for delicious one-pot dishes and getting the best flavor from cheaper cuts of meat such as lamb shoulder or chicken thighs. With intuitive control panels, the best appliances allow you to throw all the ingredients into the pot, turn it on, and get on with your day while your food simmers along nicely. Prep your recipe in the morning and the keep-warm setting will ensure you have a home-cooked evening meal that’s piping hot and ready to serve come nightfall. Then all you need to do is dish up praise for your efforts from everyone at the dinner table.

In our edit of the latest and greatest slow cookers, we’ve picked out designs that not only look attractive but have convenient and clever functionality. We’ve included appliances to suit both classic and modern kitchen countertops. We’ve opted for slow cookers that have easy-to-navigate control panels and a model that can be controlled via an app on your smartphone. While not all the designs we’ve featured are dedicated to slow cooking, they do have prominent slow-cook settings as part of the overall offering.

To see how well each slow-cook mode performs, we used the cookers to prepare both a slow-cooked spaghetti bolognese sauce and a one-pot dish with braising steak and potatoes. Read on to discover our top picks for 2024.

For more of WIRED’s kitchen guides, check out our Best Stand Mixers, Best Blenders, Best Air Fryers, Best Electric Kettles, and the Best Gear for Small Kitchens.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com and our print magazine (if you’d like). Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

Brazilian Gamers Aren’t Waiting for Hollywood. They’re Building Their Own Cons

Brazilian Gamers Aren’t Waiting for Hollywood. They’re Building Their Own Cons

In 2022, I interviewed journalist Mariana Ayrez, who opened my eyes to the relevance of Perifacon. She reiterated that “while other events promote pop culture and bring together artists and the public, they have a lot of incentive from private business players. Meanwhile, Perifacon delivers geek culture, love, and fun to all involved independent of their budget. Their main goal is accessibility.”

Delgado believes that while Perifacon calls attention to social inequality, it also promotes artists from those marginalized communities and showcases their products to a public that wants them and can’t get them in any other way. Favela influence is everywhere in Brazilian art, culture, and sports.

“The favela is the powerhouse that people already know. However, brands and enterprises are still after the same profile of people that already have access to everything. We know this because of the lack of support to unfavored areas,” Ayrez explains.

Meanwhile, for the young people growing up in the favelas, the convention is an event to look forward to. “Perifacon is everything that the 12-year-old Eduardo dreamed of being part of, as he grew up being bullied for liking ‘weird’ things,” says Marques.

“My experiences outside the hood with people from other social classes showed me how prejudice operates in a systematic way, he says. “The simple fact that I come from the favela and I like comics fascinated the rich kids. My experiences as a nerd were marked by a series of contradictions, stereotypes, and conflicting images. However, at the same time, it is an honor to be able to affirm myself as a hood nerd even with those setbacks.”

Delgado and her colleagues have plans to keep Perifacon going, and to expand access to tech and gaming in the future to the communities that need it the most. “My dream is to take Perifacon to other Brazilian states and that we’ll be invited by the local authorities to work toward it. I’d take Perifacon to any place in Brazil.”

Meanwhile, Ayrez expects the event will grow to the point that the brands and private sector actors will compete to see who can support it. “I hope that they keep this amazing work that discovers talents in each edition, that brings joy to many people who for many reasons can’t go to the mainstream events.”

Ramos cites the work of Hong Kong philosopher Yuk Hui and his concept of technodiversity as one way of thinking about what the team wants to do with Perifacon. “I think that Perifacon is part of a movement of a non-colonized innovation that, in the future, may become part of the overall cultural industry,” she says. The convention will ultimately become a product on its own, but one that shows the world that “besides gaming and nerd culture, the favela has untapped talent in fashion, cuisine, and so on.”