IT General

It's been a great time for Netflix documentaries in November. So far this month, Netflix has released Taken: Natalee Holloway, a true crime series about a missing person's case, and Avedon, an informative movie about a legendary photographer. And if those don't pique your interest, here are three more documentaries to consider.

AMD's AM4 platform is now a decade old, but it remains a popular choice among budget PC builders. New AM4 CPUs are still readily available, and since AM5 motherboards and DDR5 memory have now become prohibitively expensive, sticking with the older platform is now the only way to build a PC on a budget.

The Linux 7.5 source tree will introduce a new tool called hwpoison-panic that deliberately induces certain memory issues in your computer to cause a crash. Developers can use the tool to test the Linux kernel and ensure it crashes when expected

You probably have a Google Drive account, an Adobe Acrobat subscription, and a growing collection of files scattered across different cloud services. It's convenient until you're paying monthly fees for storage, PDF editing, and features you only occasionally use. But what if you could take control of your files instead?

Gemini has evolved from a general-purpose chatbot to a more personal AI assistant by integrating with services like Gmail, Google Photos, YouTube, and Search to give it more context about users’ lives. Now, Google is adding personal finance to the picture.

As Microsoft continues to try to fix a huge service outage that has disrupted software services globally, a new report dropped, possibly confirming something most of us could have guessed.

Ookla and DownDetector published a report on Friday afternoon claiming that the Microsoft outage was, by a significant margin, the largest such outage of 2026, based on the number of users who reported problems on DownDetector. Going by that metric, Microsoft's outage was reported 7.4 million times, compared to just 2.8 million reports for a YouTube outage in February that ranked second among all outages in 2026.

During the Microsoft outage, DownDetector said that it received a peak of 19,650 user error reports for Microsoft's services per minute, which is more than 1,500 times the normal level. Nearly 24 hours later, users are still reporting errors for Microsoft

SEE ALSO: Microsoft Outlook outage cause seemingly revealed

Aside from the sheer number of reports, the length of the outage was also noteworthy. Outlook and other Microsoft enterprise software services were out for more than 24 hours, compared to a recent 11-hour outage in August, as Mashable reported at the time.

There is one major caveat to all of this: DownDetector relies on user reports rather than anything more verifiable. This has caused companies to sometimes dispute the site's data, which is exactly what Amazon Web Services did (rather passively aggressively) after DownDetector incorrectly showed that AWS was experiencing problems at the same time that Outlook was on Thursday. Mashable reached out to Microsoft, but the company declined to comment on the Ookla report.

As of late Friday afternoon, Microsoft's outage appears to be subsiding, though the company has yet to publish an ETA for full recovery.

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Streaming services are beginning to ramp up their libraries ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. New movies hitting streaming this week include Heartland on Netflix and Being Heumann on Apple TV. Both services also have new shows premiering this week. Netflix's offering is a Y2K-inspired psychological thriller, while Apple TV's is a heist series.

The GTPlayer Gaming Chair is amazing for players who want ultimate comfort during marathon sessions. It's also ideal for office workers or anyone who sits at a desk all day, who'll appreciate the ample support and plush padding that keep them feeling refreshed. Get this gaming chair at 41% off on Amazon and enjoy better posture and all-day comfort.

Would you trust an AI agent to make purchases online on your behalf? AI companies are hoping you will.

However, many e-commerce and financial service companies are skeptical of the technology and have blocked AI agents from using their platforms.

On Friday, OpenAI launched a new product called ChatGPT Wallet that appears to be an attempt to address that skepticism.

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Wallet will let AI agents make purchases for users without sharing their credit card information each time. In addition, "security checks" are required for every purchase an AI agent makes. This entails a human user manually reviewing and approving every purchase.

SEE ALSO: Visa is connecting with ChatGPT to let AI agents automatically make purchases

"Users add a card once, then approve each purchase without re-entering their payment details," according to ChatGPT. "Before each purchase, the user reviews the items, total, and selected card, then approves it with a security check such as Face ID or a fingerprint scan."

Instead of revealing credit card information to vendors, ChatGPT said it will purchase items using a payment token that serves as a substitute for the actual card's details.

Additionally, ChatGPT Wallet users can still take advantage of card rewards programs and purchase dispute protections while utilizing ChatGPT Wallet.

Most notably, OpenAI says that ChatGPT partnered with the big three credit card companies — American Express, Mastercard, and Visa.

Rolling out AI shoppers has been a bumpy process

E-commerce giant Amazon notably blocked AI agents, such as Meta's Muse, from accessing its platform in September due to security concerns. Banks like JPMorgan Chase followed suit and also blocked Muse and other AI agents. And, just this week, United Airlines blocked AI agents from booking flights due to similar security concerns.

In addition to launching ChatGPT Wallet with major credit card company partnerships, OpenAI is releasing "tools and guidance" for businesses to encourage support for shopping AI agents.

OpenAI seems to want to build trust among retailers and financial institutions first, as the company says it plans to allow users to delegate purchases entirely to their AI agents while adhering to a set list of rules and parameters.

ChatGPT Wallet rolls out today in dots, OpenAI's AI agent platform, for users with a ChatGPT Pro subscription in the U.S.

However, as OpenAI notes, ChatGPT Wallet is very much in a trial stage as it analyzes how businesses respond to AI agents making purchases. In addition, ChatGPT Wallet will not work with websites that block AI agents.

Google Pixel, like many other brands, focuses on customization, personalization, and uniqueness. Each company wants to stand out in its own way, hoping to grab new customers with the latest and greatest features.

Google Maps could be the perfect navigation app if only Google would leave things alone. Whether it's surprise changes, disruptive questions, or default settings that don't apply to you, some of the design choices are a genuine pain. Fortunately, to do away with those frustrations, you just need to know where to look.

SAVE $38.50: The Osprey Daylite Expandable Travel Pack 26+6 is on sale for just $71.50 on Amazon as of Nov. 13. That's a 35% discount on its $110 MSRP and its lowest price ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: Osprey Osprey Daylite Expandable Travel Pack 26+6 $71.50 at Amazon
$110 Save $38.50   Get Deal at Amazon

Heads up, holiday travelers: Amazon just dropped an early Black Friday deal on a top-rated travel backpack. And according to our research, it's never been cheaper before.

Normally $110, Osprey's Daylite Expandable Travel Pack 26+6 is now on sale for just $71.50 — a 35% savings. Amazon has it labeled as an official "Early Black Friday Deal," so it's highly unlikely to see any further discounts as we head deeper into the holiday season. (Amazon's Black Friday Week sale technically starts on Nov. 19.)

The backback has a 26-liter capacity. Credit: Osprey But it can be expanded an additional six liters (or two inches). Credit: Osprey

The Daylite Expandable Travel Pack 26+6 has a huge main pocket with a wrap-around zipper that lets it open wide like a piece of luggage. It has a 26-liter capacity by default, but it can expand by two inches for six extra liters of packing room (hence the numbers at the end of its name). There are two zippered pockets on the front of it and two water bottle sleeves on its sides.

Of note, Amazon customers who have purchased the Daylite Expandable Travel Pack 26+6 have rated it highly for its compact yet roomy design and lightweight but durable construction.

Amazon's offer only applies to its exclusive "tunnel vision grey" colorway, by the way. A couple other variants of the Daylite Expandable Travel Pack were also on sale at the time of writing, but none were nearly as cheap.

Earbuds that seal off your ears or have active noise cancellation get risky when you need to hear traffic on a run or someone walking up to you in a gym. Open-ear earbuds, like the SHOKZ OpenFit 2+, are built to keep your surroundings audible while you listen. Right now, you can get them for half off at Amazon as part of an early Black Friday deal.

Ryobi is one of the most popular power tool brands, and while that's mostly due to a large selection of affordable tools, a big part of its success is its hundreds of products and accessories that all run off the same battery. If you own a few Ryobi 40V tools, there are many other ways to put those big battery packs to use.

I've been using Android phones for a very long time. While phones have become increasingly capable and Android has gotten much better at managing system resources, I haven't exactly evolved with it. I just can't seem to break one particular habit I picked up in the early days: swiping away apps when I'm done with them.

TL;DR: Watch Argentina vs. Uruguay in an International Friendly for free on Telefe. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Messi era is over for Argentina. What a wild ride it has been, but the world keeps turning.

It's now time for the next generation of Argentinian players to rise to the top, and that starts with a tricky contest against Uruguay. Yes, this is officially an International Friendly, but there's nothing particularly friendly between these sides. It's going to be a real battle, as always.

If you're interested in watching Argentina vs. Uruguay in an International Friendly from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is Argentina vs. Uruguay?

Argentina vs. Uruguay in an International Friendly kicks off at 6 p.m. ET on Nov. 13. This fixture takes place at the Estadio Alberto José Armando.

How to watch Argentina vs. Uruguay for free

Argentina vs. Uruguay in an International Friendly is available to live stream for free on Telefe.

Telefe is geo-restricted to Argentina, but anyone can secure access with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Argentina, meaning you can live stream Argentina vs. Uruguay for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Argentina vs. Uruguay for free by following these simple steps:

1. Sign up for a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Argentina

4. Visit Telefe

5. Watch Argentina vs. Uruguay for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer generous money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Argentina vs. Uruguay without committing your cash. This is obviously not a long-term strategy, but it gives you enough time to stream this fixture before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for Telefe?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on Telefe, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries, including Argentina

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices, including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and usually offers a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99.

Live stream Argentina vs. Uruguay for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Uber is notifying thousands of drivers that their personal information and driver's licenses were stolen in a recent data breach.

The rideshare giant confirmed the breach in filings submitted to nationwide attorneys general this month. One of the company's third-party service providers, confirmed by TechCrunch to be Fireworks AI, notified Uber of the hack, which compromised several of its clients' databases.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft outage: Does Microsoft owe you money? What to know.

The hackers accessed billing data and some private AI datasets from a small percentage of Fireworks AI's thousands of clients, according to initial breach notices involving the productivity software Notion. Fireworks AI explained that unnamed cybercriminals, allegedly motivated by a desire to steal and then sell LLM tokens, breached its cloud provider to access its development system. They then used internal credentials to access client data.

Notion confirmed the actors obtained anonymized chat transcripts of Notion AI customers.

Uber requires all drivers to upload proof of a valid driver's license, insurance, and residency, as well as bank statements and payment information. In June, Uber announced additional background checks and expanded policies for reviewing and banning drivers based on public records.

Uber has not confirmed the total number of drivers directly impacted by the breach, but has said it will notify all affected workers. Uber currently operates a fleet of more than 10 million drivers and couriers, according to third-party estimates. As of now, the company has alerted almost 8,000 compromised driver accounts spanning three states: Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Rhode Island.

I've been building PCs for 20 years, and I've dealt with a lot of PCs in that time. I stand by the opinion (to me, it's almost a fact) that a PC you build yourself is always better than a prebuilt. (I still bought a prebuilt this year, though, but that's a reflection on the state of the market.)

Updated on Friday, Nov. 13 at 2:11 p.m. ET — Microsoft has reported "broad recovery and stability" across its services and published an apology on X. We've updated this story to reflect the latest updates from the company.

Updated on Friday, Nov. 13 at 1:08 a.m. ET — Microsoft is still looking into the cause of the outage, but states that at present it is "not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident."

Updated on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 10:58 p.m. ET — Unfortunately, Microsoft's efforts to bring servers back online aren't going as planned. "We've monitored the status of the changes applied to improve serviceability and confirmed they're not taking as expected," Microsoft wrote in an update on X.

Updated on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 8:07 p.m. ET — Microsoft has revised its list of features and services impacted by this outage to include Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint Online, Teams, Copilot AI, and Microsoft 365, though Azure appears to be operational.

Updated on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7:53 p.m. ET — Microsoft has issued a new update stating that the servers they've brought back online may become unresponsive again when they receive traffic. The company is currently investigating the issue and limiting the types of traffic going to these servers in some locations.

Updated on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 6:23 p.m. ET — Microsoft states that it is bringing some servers back online, and "they remain stable so far." Users should expect a "gradual recovery."

Updated on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 5:26 p.m. ET — Microsoft services remained down on Thursday evening, as Microsoft acknowledged ongoing problems in an update posted to X.

If Outlook wouldn't load for you on Thursday (or on Friday morning), Microsoft now has a theory about what went wrong.

In its initial update about the outage, Microsoft stated that Microsoft Exchange Online was at the root of the problem. Many users were unable to access Microsoft 365 services related to Exchange Online, including Outlook, Teams, SharePoint Online, Copilot, Defender XDR, and more. Exchange Online is the back-end, cloud-based tool that provides data updates for front-end, user-facing tools like Microsoft Outlook.

In updates posted to X and on its Service Health Status Page, Microsoft stated that some of its servers became "unexpectedly unavailable" on Thursday. With parts of its infrastructure under a heavier-than-usual load across multiple regions, the company said the extra strain was likely contributing to connection problems.

The company also stated in an X post that the failures may have been caused by a "specific component that's responsible for processing server health," and that servers were going offline after failing automated health checks.

When Microsoft found that the initial fixes weren't having the desired effects, the company also tried rolling back recent changes to its servers, while continuing to balance traffic across its network. The company is also investigating why the health checks failed in the first place.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft outage: Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, Copilot all impacted

At first, Microsoft stated that it hadn't found a recent change that coincided with the start of the outage.

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However, in a Friday morning statement posted to X, the company attributed the outage to a recent network update. "The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions."

While Microsoft has now provided a partial explanation of what caused the global Microsoft outage, the picture remains incomplete.

Microsoft pledged to provide a "full post-incident report" detailing what went wrong. The company also issued a formal apology to its customers.

"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," the company wrote on X. "We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Microsoft rules out a cyberattack or rogue AI agents as cause of Outlook outage

As the widespread Microsoft outage continued into a second day, Microsoft issued several updates addressing rumors that a cyberattack or AI agents were responsible for the outage.

In an update posted on its Service Health Status page, the company wrote, "This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents."

In an earlier statement, the company wrote that it was "not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident."

A brief timeline of the Microsoft outage

On Thursday, a Microsoft outage affected Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 services, starting around 12:30 p.m. ET.

By 1 p.m. ET, nearly 130,000 user error reports were submitted to Downdetector, and users reported trouble loading their inboxes and sending or receiving emails. Copilot users also reported problems.

Microsoft initially flagged trouble accessing Exchange Online mailboxes in the Americas. Exchange Online is the service that stores and delivers email for many Outlook users.

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The company later warned that the issue "may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region."

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The outage dragged out into the evening, and eventually Friday morning, before Microsoft's mitigations began to take effect. By 7:09 a.m. ET, the company announced on X that it was finally seeing gradual recovery.

"We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure. Some users may still experience intermittent issues as recovery actions continue."

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In response to Mashable's questions about the outage, Charles Lamanna, EVP, Copilot, Agents and Platform at Microsoft, provided the following statement:

 "We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected infrastructure. We know our customers rely on our services to get important work done every day, and regret the impact these outages had on those who depend on us. Our teams are reviewing what happened and how we can prevent similar issues going forward."

This is a developing story...

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Netflix has a lot to offer on your watch list this month, including a collection of acclaimed movies with performances and storytelling that prove why they made the cut. This week's roster of winners includes a light comedy-drama, a supernatural romance, and a drama with a twist.