Blogroll

If you enjoy superhero content, you're going to love our list of new shows to watch this weekend. I've been looking forward to the top-ranked show on this list. It's one of the main reasons to keep your HBO Max subscription. The show is part of the DC Universe, but it should appeal to mass audiences.

You'll have to wait a while if you're eager to buy Ford's affordable electric pickup truck. Ford has revealed that Fathom EV production won't start until sometime after March—in part because the automaker just finished the factory overhaul needed to make it.

Paramount+ U.S. subscribers have a pretty great weekend in store, especially if you're looking for something a bit different. While its streaming calendar isn't exactly spilling over with new documentaries at the moment, some serious action kicks in on Saturday when UFC 330 makes its way to the octagon—and the lead-up special that precedes it, to get fans focused and ready, is my top pick this weekend.

Are you still buying those cheap throw-away printers every time you need to print a book report? Yes, they’re cheap, but they end up costing you way more money than you think they do.

Buying a luxury SUV doesn't necessarily mean spending luxury money, especially if you're willing to look at a lightly used model. Depreciation can turn once-expensive premium SUVs into surprisingly affordable alternatives to new mainstream crossovers, but reliability is often the catch. Fortunately, one American luxury SUV bucks that trend, offering a comfortable, well-equipped cabin and a stronger reputation for dependability than you might expect.

When you hear the phrase “home lab,” do you picture a server rack, tons of monitors, and screens/devices everywhere? I don't blame you if you do, but my home lab is nothing like what I just described. It's much, much smaller. However, I still needed to keep an eye on things, so I turned an old phone into an always-on monitor for my work.

In a first for the United States, the White House is looking to build an army of private hackers to combat cyberattacks.

Outlined in a new presidential memoranda issued Aug. 12, the Trump administration will begin contracting out efforts to curb the actions of transnational criminal organizations (or TCOs) to American businesses.

"American businesses’ innovative capabilities have historically been underutilized in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks operating in cyberspace," the order reads. "It is the policy of the United States to use all instruments of national power, including the innovative capabilities of the private sector, to combat cybercrime."

The new program will be overseen by Trump's National Coordination Center (NCC). The center, in coordination with the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, will vet and authorize businesses to conduct cyber surveillance and effects operations, the White House explains.

These "private sector entities" will the enter contractual agreements with the federal government, granting them access to relevant information from federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies to pinpoint threats and propose offensive efforts. The businesses would be on the lookout for TCO networks involved in distributing ransomware, launching phishing attacks, and enabling financial fraud or sextortion.

Prior to the new memoranda, the U.S. government barred private companies from conducting cyber offenses without court approval. Private hacking operations will still need to abide by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act which forbids retaliatory hacking, also known as "hacking back," the White House made clear. Federal agencies will also need to sign off on operations before they can proceed. The NCC has 60 days to establish procedures for the new program.

The notice is an expansion of a March 6 Executive Order titled "Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens," which directed federal agencies and resources to more aggressively intervene in escalating cybercrime attacks against Americans. In the months since, private companies have announced their own cyber offense programs, including a new "disruption unit" out of Google.

Conservative leaders have previously floated reauthorizing “letters of marque" related to cybercriminals. Under old maritime law, letters of marque allowed private mercenaries to attack and capture enemy ships on behalf of the government. Critics of private cyber offensive proposals have worried that such offensives could have rippling legal and diplomatic ramifications.

Instagram has a new logo. Well, sort of.

The familiar gradient camera icon on your phone isn’t going anywhere. Instead, Instagram has redesigned the handwritten wordmark that appears at the top of the app, giving it its first update in a decade.

"The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh," Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on Aug. 13. He described the new version as "cleaner and more modern," while preserving references to Instagram’s original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options, including all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, and literal handwriting, before returning to a script design.

"Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right," Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. "The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram," she adds.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand refresh that includes an updated Instagram Sans typeface and two new fonts: the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono. Users will also eventually see refreshed motion, layouts, and more restrained use of Instagram’s signature gradient. It is rolling out globally now, with the rest of the changes coming throughout 2026 and beyond.

Naturally, the internet had opinions. Some kinder than others.

Others struggled to see much of a difference between the old and new designs, leaving them to question why Instagram felt a refresh was necessary at all.

The new wordmark keeps Instagram’s handwritten style but combines cursive and print lettering, with some letters connected and others floating on their own. But its unusually shaped “s” and “r” have led some online to conclude that it actually says "Instagzam." I can see it.

In the r/logodesign Reddit thread, one user described the wordmark as looking “fan-made,” like a logo created in Canva. Another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive,” while someone else neatly summarized the redesign as a "sidegrade" — or, more accurately, a "zidegrade."

The response wasn’t entirely negative. Some in the subreddit called the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others said it was an improvement over Instagram’s previous wordmark. One commenter argued that Instagram was simply following the minimalist branding trend later than everyone else.

In one day, Instagram now has given us a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and, apparently, an unofficial new pronunciation.

Mid-August has a way of sneaking up on you, and HBO Max has so far done a great job of dangling several delicious carrots in front of its U.S. subscribers with movies like Mortal Kombat II and The Drama creeping up its top 10 chart (not to mention House of the Dragon). As for this weekend, things are about to get awesome, with the premiere of a new action film I'm personally stoked for.

Android Auto does a decent job out of the box, but some of its default settings are clearly designed for the average case instead of your specific situation. That kind of thing is okay at first, but it gets really annoying when the novelty of the apps wears off. None of these are terrible on their own, but together they add up to something more annoying than it needs to be. Luckily, they’re easy to change.

Finding recipes online can be a hassle at best. I don't like outsourcing stuff like that to an LLM and I absolutely don't want someone's life story before getting a recipe. So I tried making a recipe terminal with a modded Fire Tablet, some Python, and my good friend Docker.

A Mercedes-Benz GLC is easy to like. It looks sharp, feels properly upscale, and has the kind of polished driving experience you'd expect from a luxury SUV.

By default, a router's DHCP server assigns IP addresses to devices as they connect to the network. Frankly speaking, this works fine for most households, but when you're into self-hosting and want more control over a network filled with devices, constantly changing IPs are a massive headache. After assigning static IPs to all of my mainstay devices, my life became a lot easier. Here's why.

It seems that we're still trying to crack the code with Gen Z and love, whether finding that they want deeper connections (while using AI), or that they perform during sex — even solo sex. But the Hily dating app has found a new "rule," of sorts: No swimwear, bikini, or shirtless photos on dating profiles after summer ends. Unless you want to appear desperate, that is.

A Hily survey of 5,900 U.S. Gen Z and millennial daters found that 28 percent of Gen Z women and 34 percent of Gen Z men believe these kinds of shots are only acceptable during the summer.

Most young women (72 percent) and men (56 percent) have never posted these kinds of pics on dating apps, and it might be because one in three of Gen Z overall believes it's a sign of desperation. Around one in five Gen Z women and one in ten Gen Z men believe they shouldn't even be on dating apps, and it makes some of them (30 percent of women and 14 percent of men) less likely to "like." The internet undoubtedly shaped Gen Z's relationship to sex and dating, and one suspected impact is the fear of coming off as cringe.

Not everyone thinks this way about swimwear and shirtless pics, though. Around half of Gen Z (47 percent of women and 52 percent of men) think these photos could help them make a better-informed decision on whether they like the person or not. The majority (62 percent of women and 74 percent of men) see them as a sign of confidence. So if you want to, go ahead. You can even wear white if you want.

As the weekend approaches, it's time to take a look at another three homelab projects you should try out! This weekend, I'm focusing on building a private GPS tracking system and some simple-but-useful homelab tools you should definitely be running.

Say "goodbye" to Mico and a handful of AI tools, Microsoft Copilot users.

According to new Microsoft support documents, the tech giant is making major changes to its AI assistant, Copilot.

The biggest change to Copilot is that it will no longer exist as separate apps for consumer and business use. Microsoft will merge both the consumer Copilot app and the business-oriented Microsoft 365 Copilot app into a single application.

During this process, Microsoft is also killing off some lesser-used features, including Mico, its animated Clippy-like Copilot mascot. Mico is a blob-like animated character who currently lives in Copilot as an AI companion. 

According to Microsoft, Mico will be removed as part of a wave of Copilot updates rolling out to users throughout August. While Microsoft is killing Mico off in Copilot, the company says Mico will have a new home on a much less-used Microsoft platform, Learn Live, where the character will work as a tutor for users.

But Mico isn't the only Copilot element that Microsoft is ditching.

Microsoft is also removing Copilot's Group Chat, Podcasts, Deep Research, and experimental Copilot Labs features.

Group Chats are a Copilot feature that allows multiple users to collaborate in a single Copilot AI chat. The Podcast feature enabled users to create AI-generated podcasts based on web interests and documents. Deep Research is a feature Microsoft dubbed a personal research assistant for creating detailed reports. Copilot Labs provided Copilot users with access to early-stage features.

According to Microsoft, these four AI features will sunset on Aug. 18. All related generated content will also be removed. So, if a user has group chats or podcasts that they'd like to save, they need to export the content by that date.

Microsoft says it's making these changes to Copilot to "create a simpler, more cohesive experience for everyone."

However, a report from The Information late last year revealed more pressing problems with Microsoft's suite of AI tools. The company had significantly reduced AI-related sales targets as Copilot increasingly lost market share to AI tools from companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

The vinyl revival is still going strong, with a niche but loyal following of audiophiles and a new younger cohort that are just looking for a more meaningful, tactile alternative to a world where music is only accessed via streaming.

Siri may soon be (finally) able to tell you more about what is happening in the world right now, but Apple could have to pay publishers a lot of money to make that happen.

According to an Aug. 12 report by the Wall Street Journal, Apple has approached several news publishers in recent months about giving its forthcoming Siri AI assistant access to their content. The proposed multiyear deals would help Siri answer questions about current events and other information that changes in real time.

Apple has reportedly discussed setting aside a nine-figure budget for the partnerships. Its proposed payment structure would compensate publishers whenever their reporting is used, according to the Journal. That differs from many existing AI licensing deals, which typically pay publishers a guaranteed fee in exchange for broader access to their content.

It is unclear which publishers Apple has contacted or whether any agreements have been finalized. Apple declined to comment to the Journal.

The negotiations come as Apple prepares to roll out a significantly upgraded version of Siri. Siri AI is expected to enter beta later this year, with new capabilities that allow the assistant to understand personal context, recognize what is on a user’s screen, and complete actions across apps.

Apple already has established relationships with publishers through Apple News+, its paid news subscription service that launched in 2019. The company has also previously paid for access to content through deals that included the right to use publishers’ work for AI training, the Journal reported.

Apple has also already learned how quickly AI-generated news can go wrong. In late 2024, the company began offering AI-generated notification summaries that sometimes rewrote news alerts inaccurately. Apple eventually disabled the feature for news and entertainment apps following complaints from publishers.

The latest talks arrive as news organizations decide how, or whether, to work with the companies building AI products. Publishers, including News Corp and Axel Springer, have signed content deals with OpenAI, while The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the alleged unauthorized use of its reporting.

For publishers, Apple’s proposed pay-per-use system would offer another way to make money from the AI products increasingly answering questions that once sent readers directly to news websites. For Apple, it could help ensure that when users ask Siri what is happening right now, the assistant finally has a useful answer.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Controversial surveillance technology company Flock Safety has unveiled sweeping new privacy "guardrails," seemingly intended to quell growing unrest over its devices' presence across the country.

Days prior, CEO Garrett Langley went on a media run to convince the public that the company was not the latest cog in a dystopian surveillance state, but rather a purveyor of public safety. "We’re not Big Brother," said CEO Garrett Langley. "We’re focused on protecting people."

But many still wonder, if it looks like Big Brother, and it talks like Big Brother...

Under the new policy, Flock will be adjusting its default data retention period from a 30 days to seven. Prior to this, Flock systems were automatically set to store an individual's registration and location information for a full month, but this can still be changed to longer or shorter periods according to state and local policy. The ACLU has previously recommended that data retention defaults be set to 48 hours.

In addition, Flock will now require law enforcement agencies to use a case code that delineates a potential offense before searching the Flock database. Previously, this was an optional setting for Flock clients, and dozens of law enforcement officers have been accused of using the database to stalk and harass individuals. The company's "Audit Assistance" tool, intended to flag inappropriate uses, will become standard on all Flock packages.

Flock is also adding a new feature called "Offense filtering for sharing." The tool will let cities moderate how other agencies access their residents' data by categorizing which types of offenses are searchable.

All of these changes come with exceptions. "Every community will continue to choose the retention period that fits its public safety strategy," according to Flock.

The company also announced a new "Evidence Mode," which allows law enforcement to bypass retention policies and store specific ALPR data if it is deemed evidence in an active investigation. The feature could be a step in the right direction, or it could make everything worse, according to civil rights groups.

"If 'Evidence Mode' only retains hit result data that police determine may be evidence in an active investigation of a specific case, then the change may be a positive one," the ACLU wrote in an analysis of the new policy. "But if 'Evidence Mode' triggers the retention of any ALPR data that is searched, then the new mode could indefinitely retain all the ALPR data Flock collects and shares nationally."

Broadly, many of Flock's new safety features have not been proven to prevent pervasive law enforcement misuse, the ACLU argues: "Transforming an exceptionally dangerous mass surveillance system into one that is fully protective of civil rights and civil liberties is a difficult, if not impossible task."

In the last month, communities have rallied to "deFlock" their neighborhoods, including destroying, blocking, and even stealing Flock cameras installed there. Many city governments, and even fellow tech companies, have canceled contracts with the company, as others debate continued partnerships.

To many, the "eye-in-the-sky" Flock camera has become a looming symbol of tech-enabled state surveillance and unfettered data collection. As of June, the company operates more than 120,000 cameras in 6,000 different neighborhoods, used across a gamut of businesses, law enforcement agencies, and even homeowner associations to monitor anyone who happens to drive by.

For years, privacy experts and civil rights advocates have raised alarms over the escalation of automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems across the country, as well as the covert nature of ALPR surveillance hardware in public spaces. In addition to automatically scanning passing cars to crosscheck their registration against law databases, ALPRs often store personal registration and location data for indefinite periods to later be used by national networks and law enforcement agencies — before you've even committed any crime.

In offering such services to agencies and businesses across the country, activists allege companies like Flock have enabled a mass state-accessible tracking apparatus unbeknownst to citizens. That is, until recently.

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Prime Video might not have as many Emmy-winning hits as Netflix, but it still has a number of critically acclaimed shows that fans continue to revisit. One of the most successful shows in Prime Video history returns for a fourth season. It's bigger, badder, and more action-packed than ever, making it our top selection of the week.