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Write your next 300K manuscript with AI for just $37

Mashable - 1 hour 56 min ago

TL;DR: Write a 300K-word manuscript for just $37 with this YouBooks AI lifetime subscription.

Opens in a new window Credit: Youbooks Youbooks AI Non-Fiction Book Generator: Lifetime Subscription $36.75
$540 Save $503.25   Get Deal

Writing is just one step in creating a book. Before that comes research, outlining, drafting, and editing. But for only $36.75 (reg. $540), you’ll be able to craft publish-ready 300,000-word manuscripts for life through Aug. 9 with code AUG25. Even the busiest educators, content creators, entrepreneurs, and coaches can get their words out as intended.

The platform is powered by various leading AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama, to help you generate cohesive, expertly crafted, and engaging content. With it, you can use the monthly 250K credits your lifetime subscription provides for source uploads or writing.

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One credit accounts for one word or one uploaded source word; you also have the option to store up to 100 writing style samples and 100 source documents for easy access. What’s more, YouBooks pulls full real-time web searches during the writing composition, so you can rest assured that any facts, stats, and news you use are current, up-to-date, and accurate.

The source uploads don’t have to be from the web either. You can guide the AI or even upload your own memos, transcripts, and documents to foreground your work. Plus, you can also define and curate your own writing style to ensure consistency and a cohesive end project.

As you can see, each book goes through a series of steps to move from ideation to completion. Better yet, you get to retain full ownership of your content—meaning you can look forward to publishing, distributing, or even selling it without restriction.

Whether you’re writing a memoir, educational guide, teaching resource, or simply consolidating your work, YouBooks can assist you at every stage. So, why not try it out?

Get your YouBooks AI Lifetime Subscription for just $36.75 (reg. $540) with code AUG25, only through August 9. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Categories: IT General, Technology

After years with Samsung foldables, Motorola's Razr finally showed me what I was missing

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 21:45

I spent much of the past couple years quite enamored with both the hardware and software of Samsung's book-style foldable phones. That changed with the release of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I've since switched to the Motorola Razr Fold. I'd be lying if I said every aspect of this phone is better, but I'm quite surprised by the extent to which most of it, frankly, actually is.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Flock pitched turning Uber and Lyft drivers into a mobile surveillance network

Mashable - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 21:31

Flock Safety, the company behind a nationwide network of automatic license plate readers, pitched a plan to convert hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers into a mobile extension of its surveillance system, according to a company presentation obtained by 404 Media.

404's Joseph Cox wrote that the document describes equipping driver vehicles with dashcams capable of scanning license plates along their routes, effectively expanding Flock's network beyond its usual fixed cameras mounted on poles.

SEE ALSO: Someone stole every Flock camera in this Minnesota city

The presentation centers on a proposed partnership with Nexar, a dashcam maker whose devices are already marketed to rideshare drivers and commuters. Cox reported that 404 Media had previously uncovered the planned partnership last year through separate sourcing, and that this newly obtained document shows Flock was actively marketing the arrangement to prospective customers around that same period.

The material was shared with 404 Media by a Georgia resident who obtained it through a public records request, after Flock presented it to that state's attorney general's office.

Flock told 404 Media the Nexar deal was never actually put into place. Still, according to Cox's reporting, the presentation demonstrates the scale of the company's ambitions, citing plans to draw on roughly 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and other delivery devices for the network, in addition to existing coverage from businesses and homeowners' associations across Georgia. It remains unclear, Cox noted, whether Uber, Lyft, or their drivers would have known their vehicles were collecting this data.

The report situates the proposal within Flock's broader push into new data sources. Earlier, 404 Media reported on a security breach that exposed a large trove of Nexar customer footage, including footage near sensitive military sites, as well as a separate effort — later abandoned — to build a tool to link license plates to specific individuals using leaked information. Cox also cited the outlet's coverage of a similar arrangement involving BusPatrol, a company that outfits school buses with cameras and shares resulting data with police.

Uber, Lyft, and Nexar did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment, according to Cox's reporting.

Categories: IT General, Technology

This used 48 MPG hybrid sedan makes paying $35,000 for a new SUV seem silly

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 21:00

Family SUVs have become the default choice for buyers who want practicality, comfort, and efficiency, but that convenience often comes at a steep price. With many new compact crossovers now pushing well past $35,000, a growing number of lightly used alternatives deliver the same everyday usability, better fuel economy, and a more refined driving experience while costing thousands less.

Categories: IT General, Technology

5 things I never back up to the cloud

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 20:38

Backing up your files to the cloud is super convenient since you can access them anywhere and on any device. However, there is a chance that your cloud storage could become compromised. If that ever happens, you'll be glad not to have the things on this list stored in it.

Categories: IT General, Technology

6 extreme Netflix movies you only need to watch once

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 20:30

Some movies are not comfort food. Some are the ones you brace for—punishingly realistic war epics that flatten you, thrillers that put your nerves through the shredder, true-crime documentaries that make you check your locks at night. You watch them once, feel all the feels, and then file the experience away for good.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The 5 powerful Android audio features buried so deep most users never find them

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 20:00

If you own a Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phone, you can enable a selection of audio features that will instantly improve the sound quality of your phone's speakers, the earbuds you're using, and more. The only catch is that most of them are hidden away, especially on Samsung phones. Even if you don't own a Pixel or a Galaxy, Android's Developer options menu hides a few handy Bluetooth audio settings every Android phone owner should tinker with.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I switched from NVIDIA to AMD, and one difference surprised me every day

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 19:45

I had used NVIDIA GPUs for about a decade until I replaced my trusty RTX 3070 with an RX 9070 XT in early 2025. The AMD graphics card was, and still is, impressive when it comes to gaming performance, but after making the switch, what surprised me most was the software, not the hardware.

Categories: IT General, Technology

These 3 desk upgrades don't exist on Amazon—so I printed them instead

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 19:30

3D printing is such a fantastic tool for so many reasons. However, one of my favorite things to do with 3D printing has to be creating upgrades for my office that I couldn't get any other way. Here are three office upgrades that I was able to do with 3D printing that gave me a huge quality of life upgrade.

Categories: IT General, Technology

You can build a smart garage door opener for $10—here's an easy process that works

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 19:00

Opening a garage door manually is no fun, but even a basic garage door opener can do the job at the push of a button. Smart garage door openers are even better, allowing you to control your garage door remotely, but they don't always come cheap. You may be able to turn your dumb garage door opener into a smart one for as little as $10.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I automated my Galaxy phone, and it saves me more time than Samsung's last 3 updates combined

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 18:45

Every few months, a new Android update shows up and promises to fix my day. A One UI 8.5 feature added expiry dates to routines. Android 16 rebuilt Do Not Disturb into Modes. Both are good additions. To be fair, Samsung's Modes and Routines already leaves Pixel's Rules far behind. But no update has ever known that my study block starts at 6 PM, or that 20% battery is already too late for me.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Subaru Outback has more utility, but this Mazda feels more expensive

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 18:30

The Subaru Outback has long been the easy recommendation for buyers who want one vehicle to handle commuting, road trips, bad weather, and the occasional dirt road. But if most of your driving happens on pavement, its rugged versatility may matter less than the quality of the experience you get every time you climb behind the wheel.

Categories: IT General, Technology

X retires revenue sharing for new Original Content Rewards program

Mashable - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 18:21

X is overhauling how it pays creators, phasing out its long-running Revenue Sharing program in favor of a new system called the Original Content Rewards Program.

The platform's Creators account announced the change in a post, saying the program is meant to "reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X."

According to the announcement, X stopped accepting new Revenue Sharing enrollments immediately and will wind the program down entirely after Sept. 7. Creators currently enrolled will receive three final payouts — two on the standard schedule in mid- and late August, and a final payment around Sept. 11 covering earnings through the cutoff date. Starting Sept. 8, existing Revenue Sharing members can apply for the new program if they meet its eligibility requirements, the company said.

SEE ALSO: With the launch of X Money, Elon Musk gets one step closer to his 'everything app'

Per X's announcement, the new program ties earnings to "qualified impressions" a creator's original content receives, rather than the advertising-revenue split that defined the old system. Qualified impressions must come from unique, verified Premium subscribers viewing at least half of a post on the Home Timeline; impressions that are duplicated, paid, promoted, or fraudulent don't count.

To qualify, X says creators must be at least 18, live in an eligible country, hold a Personal or Business account in good standing, subscribe to a paid X tier, and have at least 500 verified followers, along with 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users over the prior 90 days. Those requirements must be maintained continuously to keep receiving payouts, according to the announcement.

X's guidelines lean heavily on defining what counts as "original." Per the company's post, content that is copied, reuploaded without authorship, generated through automated means, or reposted with only minor edits — such as captions, watermarks, or basic text overlays — won't qualify. Users can earn from reposting others' material only if they add substantive commentary, analysis, or creative editing. So, simply describing what's already happening in a post doesn't meet the bar.

As noted in Engadget's report on the news, X adjusted its Revenue Sharing formula in March to weight engagement more heavily toward a creator's home region. That shift, they wrote, likely followed revelations that a number of popular accounts posting pro-Trump content and US-focused commentary were not actually based in the United States.

Whether the new Original Content Rewards Program carries over a similar regional weighting is not yet clear.

Categories: IT General, Technology

4 great Paramount+ movies under two hours to watch this weekend

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 18:15

Time is a valuable asset. As someone who writes about entertainment for a living, I spend much of my time watching the latest movies that will dominate conversation in the coming weeks. When I do have a free moment, I try not to waste my time watching poorly reviewed movies or three-hour movies.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I replaced Photoshop's AI background remover with this free open-source alternative

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 18:00

Photoshop's "Remove background" tool is great, but it comes with a pretty steep price. To use it, you need an active subscription.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Rockchip Rock 5 excels in 5 homelab scenarios that a Raspberry Pi just can't handle

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 17:45

The Rock 5 family of single-board computers (SBCs) includes multiple members, four of which are built on the RK3588. The RK3588 is very capable as SBC CPUs go—it has four "performance" cores running at 2.4Ghz, another four efficiency cores running at 1.8GHz, a decent GPU, and a 6 TOPs NPU.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I had Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini build my resume—our recruiter told me this one was the best

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 17:30

I've always found resume writing to be a headache, and it's only gotten worse. There are ATS (Applicant Tracking System) tools scanning for keywords, design conventions I'm no longer up to date on, endless advice about mirroring the language of the job posting—and who knows what else. It's a lot to keep track of for a document I neither enjoy writing nor have much experience creating. I also don't have much incentive to get better at it, since I land most jobs through social outreach or referrals.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Forced Windows updates used to annoy me—now I'm disappointed that they're going away

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 17:15

.Most people celebrated when Microsoft loosened its grip on Windows updates. The forced restarts were annoying, the timing was always wrong, and it felt like your computer was making decisions that belonged to you. I get it, but the more I think about what mandatory updates were actually doing, the harder it is to feel good about losing them.

Categories: IT General, Technology

5 ways I use my $25 jailbroken Kindle with Home Assistant

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 17:00

I've had my Kindle 4 for more than a decade, and for most of that time I used the stock Kindle software. When Amazon announced it was dropping support for this model, I decided to jailbreak it. I wish I'd done it sooner, as the Kindle has become far more useful; I've found several ways that I can use it with Home Assistant, and you can find old Kindles on secondhand marketplaces for as little as $25.

Categories: IT General, Technology

These 5 Good Lock tools completely changed how I use my Galaxy phone

How-To Geek - Sat, 08/08/2026 - 16:45

Samsung is a leader in Android features and UI options, but that hasn't stopped it from continuing to up its customization game. If you're a seasoned Samsung owner, you probably know about the Good Lock app. It's a suite of tools that took me by surprise, especially when it broke Android’s own rules to deliver better experiences. Learning more about these buried apps and their features can drastically alter your device.

Categories: IT General, Technology
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