IT General

The mechanic is overcharging you for these 5 things anybody can do at home

How-To Geek - 2 hours 15 min ago

Don't assume the multi-point inspection of your car helps you in a real way that isn't for the dealer. Sometimes they're just looking for easy ways to sell you more services you can do at home for much less. You pay a bit more upfront for the equipment, but you don't need to be a professional to take care of your vehicle. You can do plenty at home for cheap.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Microsoft update on Outlook outage: Gradual recovery to mail flow

Mashable - 2 hours 46 min ago

Microsoft told users on Monday evening that it was working on a fix for Outlook, Exchange Online, and other Microsoft 365 business services that were down for much of Aug. 31.

"We're continuing to deploy our mitigation across the affected environment and users should begin to see gradual recovery to mail flow," the official Microsoft 365 status account wrote on X. "In parallel, we're restarting targeted sections of the affected infrastructure to aid the recovery of the downstream scenarios."

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"The gradual recovery to mail flow" didn't satisfy some Microsoft customers, who responded to the X update by asking for more specifics on timing.

"What is the estimated time for full recovery? Admin Center shows vague information too," wrote one user. Another X user noted that some of their email was starting to roll in "slowly."

Problems began at the start of the workday on Monday, when many Microsoft users complained on sites like Downdetector that they could not access their Outlook email. Other app-related problems and login issues were also noted, along with issues with Microsoft Exchange Online, "a cloud based messaging platform that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks."

Developing...

Categories: IT General, Technology

Microsoft Outlook outage reported by thousands of users on Monday

Mashable - 3 hours 2 min ago

Updated at 7:09 p.m. CT: Microsoft had an update on Monday evening, saying a "gradual recovery to mail flow" was in the works.

"We're continuing to deploy our mitigation across the affected environment and users should begin to see gradual recovery to mail flow. In parallel, we're restarting targeted sections of the affected infrastructure to aid the recovery of the downstream scenarios. For more information, please see EX1464935 and MO1465074 in the admin center."

Updated at 4:53 p.m. CT: In a statement provided to Mashable through email, a Microsoft spokesperson issued the following statement:

"We're aware of an issue affecting access to Exchange Online and some other services. We know this is disruptive for customers and we appreciate their patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible."

Updated at 4:19 p.m. CT: Microsoft has offered a more specific explanation for what's driving the ongoing disruption. In its latest update, the company said its investigation suggests a "misconfiguration issue" is stopping authentication components from deploying correctly to part of its infrastructure.

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In plain terms, it means an internal change to Microsoft's authentication system caused parts of it to fail to perform properly. Now, engineers at Microsoft are retracing those changes to pinpoint the cause.

Updated at 3:47 p.m. CT — Starting on Monday morning and continuing into the afternoon, thousands of Microsoft business users reported problems with Microsoft Exchange Online (the issues were first reported as an Outlook outage). Now, Microsoft's official service health status page has been updated to reflect what users have been saying for hours: this outage extends well beyond Microsoft Exchange Online.

At the time of writing, Microsoft's status page now lists a broader "service degradation" affecting Microsoft 365 for both Business and Enterprise customers. The updated list of impacted services includes OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, and both Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender XDR.

The company says it's continuing to test its mitigation strategy to ensure the planned fix doesn't introduce new problems, while also exploring other ways to reduce the impact in the meantime. Admins and enterprise customers can find more information by looking up EX1464935 and MO1465074 in the admin center.

Previously, the status page showed these services as operating normally, even as Microsoft acknowledged a problem on X. Meanwhile, users took to social media and Reddit to complain of widespread login failures, missing emails, and inaccessible files. Microsoft Azure and consumer-facing Microsoft products appear to be unaffected at this time.

Microsoft Outlook appears to be down for a significant number of users as of Monday late morning. According to Downdetector, reports of Outlook problems spiked sharply just before 11:16 a.m. ET, jumping from around 37 reports to over 6,000 in a short window.

Credit: DownDetector

Of the issues users are reporting, the largest share involves receiving messages, followed by app-related problems and login issues, per Downdetector's tracking. While most users are complaining about Outlook problems, Microsoft acknowledged a problem with Microsoft Exchange Online on its Microsoft 365 Status account on X. Exchange Online is "a cloud based messaging platform that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks."

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The company stated it was investigating reports of Exchange Online issues, pointing users to incident EX1464935 in the admin center for updates.

About an hour later, Microsoft followed up to confirm the scope of the problem, saying it had verified that users may be experiencing degraded functionality across various Exchange Online features. The company said it was reviewing service telemetry and diagnostic data to pin down the root cause.

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At the time of this writing, Microsoft's status account posted a more specific update, stating it had identified an issue with an authentication component that contributed to the disruption. According to the post, Microsoft has “developed a remediation strategy” and is testing it to confirm it resolves the impact before rolling it out more broadly. However, as of this writing, Microsoft's Service Health Status page says that all its products are "currently operational."

The outage has stirred up plenty of frustration online. On X, users have pushed back on Microsoft's "degraded functionality" language, with one commenter calling it "one way to say 'none of our shit works.'"

Others reported the disruption stretching on for hours, with entire offices and thousands of employees affected worldwide, according to posts under Microsoft's status updates.

A parallel Reddit thread in r/Outlook saw a similar flood of confirmations from users locked out of the service, with dozens simply chiming in with variations of "down for me" and "yep, whole company having issues."

This is a developing story...

Categories: IT General, Technology

Windows has been hiding these 4 powerful features in plain sight this whole time

How-To Geek - 3 hours 15 min ago

Windows sometimes feels like it's lacking advanced features when compared to other operating systems, but the truth is that Windows has a lot of fancy power tools at its disposal.

Categories: IT General, Technology

My Pixel Watch now shows my stress level like a mood ring—and I built it in minutes

How-To Geek - 3 hours 45 min ago

Stress is something that's easy to feel, but not necessarily as easy to see. That's part of the utility of wearing a smartwatch like the Pixel Watch—you can see many of your vitals right on your wrist. Numbers are cool, but what if your watch face were a mood ring?

Categories: IT General, Technology

I fried two solar portable power stations, don't make the same mistake

How-To Geek - 4 hours 28 min ago

This is a story of user error. I am the user who made the error, and I'm putting this out there so that you don't make the same mistake. Here's how I killed not one, but two small portable power stations before I charged a single device.

Categories: IT General, Technology

3 great Paramount+ movies to watch this week (August 31 - September 6)

How-To Geek - 4 hours 45 min ago

As we fast approach September 1 tomorrow, Paramount+ is getting ready to back the dump truck up and roll a pile of catalog movies to the service for U.S. subscribers to enjoy—120 of them, to be exact. The movie chart for the service currently has the demonic road-trip horror Passenger in the top spot, and the Wayans brothers return on September 3 with a brand new Scary Movie installment.

Categories: IT General, Technology

FTC and 22 states sue Amazon for allegedly inflating ad prices for 1.2 million advertisers

Mashable - 4 hours 50 min ago

For businesses selling on Amazon, winning an advertising auction may have come with a hidden price.

The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sued Amazon on Aug. 31, accusing the retail giant of quietly manipulating its ad auctions, secretly inflating ad prices, and collecting more than $20 billion in improper charges.

The case involves about 1.2 million advertisers, including hundreds of thousands of small and midsize businesses. Regulators say many paid more than expected without realizing it.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington, the FTC complaint states:

Since 2019, Amazon.com, Inc. ('Amazon') has secretly and systematically overcharged its approximately 1.2 million advertising customers by manipulating the 'auctions' that it uses to set the price of ads on its platform. Amazon represents, and advertisers believe, that competitive auctions set the prices for advertising on its leading e-commerce website. But, in reality, Amazon overrides and replaces the actual auction results with higher prices set by Amazon to increase its profits. For years, Amazon has secretly inflated the auction prices for three of its advertising products: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display.

Amazon allegedly told advertisers it generally used a "second-price" auction. Under that system, the winner pays slightly more than the second-highest bid — not the full amount it offered.

But regulators say that isn’t always what happened. According to the lawsuit, Amazon began changing the process in 2018. Instead of setting the price based on the runner-up’s bid, the company often charged winners according to their own, higher bids. The FTC says that difference amounted to a hidden surcharge.

Internal discussions cited in the complaint suggest Amazon knew advertisers believed they were participating in true second-price auctions. In one 2023 document, employees reportedly noted that some advertisers submitted bids as high as $100 or $1,000 because they trusted Amazon not to charge the full amount.

Regulators also allege that Amazon carefully tested how advertisers reacted to higher prices. The company reportedly introduced the changes slowly to avoid raising concerns, then monitored whether advertisers lowered their bids or budgets. After seeing little change, Amazon expanded the increases. One manager described the strategy as moving away from a second-price auction while "hoping that advertisers don’t notice and decrease bids or ad spend."

The FTC says the practice continued for seven years and brought in tens of billions of dollars for Amazon, and the costs may not have stopped with advertisers — they believe businesses passed at least some of the added expense on to shoppers through higher product prices.

Amazon tells a different story. The company denies the allegations and calls the lawsuit "misguided."

"Advertisers adjust bids based on real-world performance, not descriptions of auction mechanics," Amazon said in its response.

The company argues that its system considers how relevant an ad is to a shopper rather than automatically choosing the highest bidder. Amazon estimates that this approach saved advertisers more than $8 billion from 2021 through 2025. It also emphasized that "in no scenario does an advertiser pay more than their bid."

Additionally, the company points to lower ad prices. It says average winning bids for sponsored-product ads fell by half between 2019 and 2025, while sales produced by ad clicks increased.

"Advertisers paid the same or less for advertising that delivered increasingly better results," the company said. Amazon says it shared its data and explanation of the auction system with the FTC several times.

Regulators are seeking an end to the alleged practices, along with penalties, damages, and restitution for advertisers. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The outcome of the suit could reshape how Amazon runs its massive advertising business. For sellers, the question is simple: Did they know what they were agreeing to pay, or was Amazon changing the rules? That’s now up to a court to decide.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Microsoft responds to Microsoft 365 problems affecting email, Teams, and OneDrive

Mashable - 5 hours 27 sec ago

Thousands of Microsoft enterprise customers reported problems accessing their email as they returned from the weekend, and on Monday afternoon, Microsoft acknowledged widespread problems affecting Exchange Online and other Microsoft 365 business services.

Initially, users took to social media and platforms like DownDetector to report problems with Microsoft Outlook, the widely used email service. However, the issue appears to be much more widespread. In a statement shared to X at 12:01 p.m. ET, Microsoft confirmed that service to Exchange Online had been disrupted. (Exchange Online is a cloud-based enterprise service "that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks.")

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In addition, a Microsoft spokesperson provided the following statement to Mashable via email: "We're aware of an issue affecting access to Exchange Online and some other services. We know this is disruptive for customers and we appreciate their patience while we work to restore services as quickly as possible."

On its official status page, Microsoft elaborated on what other services were impacted by the outage. The status page reported "Service degradation" for Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise, with the problems affecting services such as:

  • OneDrive for Business

  • SharePoint Online

  • Exchange Online

  • Microsoft Teams

  • Microsoft Purview

  • Microsoft Defender XDR

  • Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Microsoft says the root cause of the outage is an "issue within a core authentication configuration used by multiple Microsoft 365 services," and the company is actively testing a remediation strategy.

Microsoft 365 admins can see MO1465074 and/or EX1464935 for the latest updates on the disruption — if they can access the Admin Center.

Microsoft provided its most recent update on the situation at 6:01 p.m. ET, writing that it's "continuing to review recent changes to the service to definitively confirm the source of the problem."

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Categories: IT General, Technology

5 networking upgrades under $30 to try before replacing your router

How-To Geek - 5 hours 15 min ago

Some network upgrades aren't worth your money. In fact, many are. But do you know what one of those unnecessary upgrades is? A new router you absolutely didn't need to buy yet.

Categories: IT General, Technology

This is your final chance to win an Apple Watch in our Big Guessing Game

Mashable - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 23:31

The Mashable Big Guessing Game is back again for our third (and final) round, and this is your last call to enter for a chance to win a new Apple Watch. In the first round, we tried to guess the new name of macOS 27 (only one person correctly predicted "Golden Gate"), and in the second round, we tried to predict whether a foldable iPhone or touchscreen Mac is coming this year (we still don't know).

Credit: Mashable

So, if you think you know what Apple has in store for the Sept. 9 "Surprise and Shine" keynote event, this is your last chance to enter. Every correct answer earns you another chance to win the new Apple Watch. To enter, just click "Get Started."

What is the Mashable Big Guessing Game: Apple Edition?

In advance of WWDC and the fall iPhone event, we've asked Mashable readers to guess what Apple has in store. Every correct guess earns you another chance to win an Apple Watch, and it only takes a minute to play. The final round of the Big Guessing Game ends soon, so don't miss out!

In our last round of the contest, we're focusing on the expected Apple event in September, where we expect to see a full new lineup of iPhone models, including the highly anticipated foldable iPhone, plus new AirPods and Apple Watches. Will new CEO John Ternus appear on the roof of Apple Park? How much will the latest and greatest version of the iPhone Pro Max cost? If there is a foldable iPhone, what will Apple name it?

Make your predictions for the September "Surprise and Shine" event on Sept. 9 by guessing the answers to five questions, then sit back and watch the event to see how many you get right. Each correct guess earns you an additional chance of winning the grand prize, the latest edition of the new Apple Watch.

This final round of contest questions will run until 11:59 p.m. PT on Sept. 1.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY to enter or win the "CNET Group Big Guessing Game" Giveaway. Open to legal U.S. residents in the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18+ yrs of age. Other restrictions apply. Begins May 19, 2026 at 12:01 pm ET and ends Sept. 1, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET. Void where prohibited. Subject to Official Rules: https://www.mashable.com/article/mashable-big-guessing-game-apple-edition-official-contest-rules/. Sponsor: Ziff Davis, LLC.

Apple is not a sponsor of, affiliated with, or endorser of this sweepstakes. Apple Watch is a trademark of Apple Inc.

Categories: IT General, Technology

I let Claude configure my NAS—here's what it couldn't do alone

How-To Geek - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 23:30

Normally, I never let AI do anything in my homelab without strict safeguards—I've seen far too many horror stories on the internet to fully trust that an AI won't break something. However, I decided to run a small experiment to see just how much Claude could do if I gave it free access to a Pi with two storage drives attached and sudo access.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Armored Mewtwo returns to Pokémon Go after six years

Mashable - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 23:20

For millennials of a certain disposition, Mewtwo is indisputably the coolest Pokémon in the world. If you count yourself among that crowd and you've still got Pokémon Go on your phone, we have good news.

Pokémon Go developer Scopely posted a quick notice on the game's website alerting players that Armored Mewtwo, a special variant of the Psychic-type Pokémon that comes from the 2019 film Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution. That movie is actually a remake of the 1998 stone-cold classic Pokémon: The First Movie, in which Mewtwo was a central part of the plot. The original movie was kind of load bearing for anyone around my age, and we recently saw Mewtwo make an appearance in the Lego Smart Play Pokémon sets and new SanDisk drives.

SEE ALSO: The Fitbit Air just got a Pokémon band to go with the Pokémon Sleep app. Here's how to preorder.

But we're not here to talk about movies, Legos, or hard drives.

If you want to catch Mewtwo in his sick armor in your Pokémon Go collection, it will appear in five-star raids from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. local time on Sept. 5 and 6, coinciding with the end of Pokémon Go Fest. This will be the first time Armored Mewtwo has been available since shortly before COVID hit the United States, so if you want one, consider that it might be a while before you get another chance.

It's also worth mentioning that the shiny variant of Armored Mewtwo will not be available as part of this deal. Still, a non-shiny Armored Mewtwo is better than no Armored Mewtwo.

Categories: IT General, Technology

A PlayStation State of Play stream is happening this week, with a look at Final Fantasy VII Revelation

Mashable - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 23:01

There's a metaphorical truckload of video game releases arriving over the next couple of months, including Grand Theft Auto VI, but PlayStation still has some more announcements in store this week.

Sony’s gaming arm announced a pair of State of Play streams that will air back-to-back on Thursday, Sept. 3, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. PlayStation didn’t specify how long the streams will run, but we at least have some idea of what to expect.

The first will feature "updates and announcements from PlayStation Studios and our third-party partners" and conclude with an extended look at Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, which is set to launch in spring 2027.

SEE ALSO: Could GTA 6 teach Gen Z how to be in a relationship?

The second stream will focus entirely on games from Japan and Asia, though most — if not all — will probably be released in the West as well. Altogether, we could be looking at at least an hour of new game announcements and trailers on Thursday morning.

There are worse ways to start a day.

Categories: IT General, Technology

How I turned my Galaxy phone into a pocket toolbox for measuring, leveling, scanning, and more

How-To Geek - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 23:00

Whether it's your main phone or not, statistically speaking, there's a good chance you have access to a Samsung Galaxy phone—one that can be the ideal multi-tool for your inner DIYer. Even if you don't, any other Android phone will work just as well.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Funko reveals first Over the Garden Wall Pop! figures just in time for fall

Mashable - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 22:45

While it may still be hot and steamy outside, the crisp autumn breeze isn't too far away. That means Over the Garden Wall season is creeping up on us.

It's been a dozen years since the beloved Cartoon Network miniseries from Patrick McHale made its debut, but every spooky season, we make our return to The Unknown like clockwork. And it seems we're not alone, as Funko has decided it's the perfect time to unveil its brand new line of adorable Pop! figures inspired by fan favorites from Over the Garden Wall. Mashable has the exclusive first look at the brand's first-ever batch of these curious characters.

Let's take a look at the "transformative, dark elements of the fall season come to life" in the five-figure Over The Garden Wall Funko Pop! Animation collection.

Half-brothers Wirt and Gregory The Wirt figurine features his signature hat and cloak, as well as Beatrice the bluebird. Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable Greg's adorable figurine can be seen with his tea-kettle hat, carrying his frog and a rock (of course). Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable

First up in the collection, of course, is Over The Garden Wall's lead duo: Wirt and his little half-brother Gregory. The Wirt figurine stands around 5.2 inches tall, and he wears his navy blue cloak and signature Pilgrim's hat. Perched on his left hand, of course, is Beatrice the no-nonsense bluebird.

As for plump young Gregory, he stands just 4.6 inches tall and is depicted in his tea-kettle hat with a brown satchel. In his left hand, you'll find his beloved frog of many names; in his right, you'll find a rock (of course).

The Woodsman Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable

Much cuter than the actual character, The Woodsman Funko Pop! figure stands just 5.4 inches tall and captures his serious and reserved nature. He wears a gray hat and trench coat and wields an axe in his right hand for chopping down Edelwood trees. In his left hand, he holds the Dark Lantern.

A glow-in-the-dark Beast with two variants The miniature figurine of The Beast is much cuter than the real thing. Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable

The mysterious Beast, aka He Who Haunts the Woods, is a shadowy, tree-like monster who haunts The Unknown. So, naturally, he's a little spooky — even in adorable Funko Pop! form. It comes in two variants: the typical dark, silhouette figurine and the chase variant. Chase variants will be shipped at random, but there's about a one in six chance you'll receive one. Both variants stand 5.4 inches tall and feature white eyes that glow bright blue in the dark.

The pumpkin-headed Enoch Credit: Joseph Maldonado / Mashable

Perhaps the most adorable of the bunch, the pumpkin-headed Enoch Pop! figurine stands 5.5 inches tall and features a round smile and green ribbon-clad body. He's undoubtedly the perfect addition to your Halloween decor this coming spooky season.

Few animated projects balance whimsy with a menacing darkness quite like Over the Garden Wall. And Funko's new collection does an excellent job of depicting those paradoxical traits. Of course, in true Funko Pop! nature, the figurines are much cuter than their corresponding animated characters. Each of the five figurines, including the special Beast variant, retails for $14.99 a pop.

Opens in a new window Credit: Funko Shop the entire 'Over the Garden Wall' Funko Pop! collection   Shop Now
Categories: IT General, Technology

Your motherboard's forgotten slot just became useful for less than $25

How-To Geek - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 22:00

How much attention are you paying to your motherboard? My guess is not very much, and that's fine.

Categories: IT General, Technology

What is pheromone-maxxing? The no-shower trend, explained.

Mashable - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 21:42

Getting ready for a date usually comes with a fairly predictable checklist: Take a shower, apply deodorant, and find a shirt that has recently been through the washing machine. But one corner of the internet would like men to reconsider all three.

Meet "pheromone-maxxing," the latest "maxxing" trend circulating among some young men online. The idea is to skip showers, avoid deodorant, or wear dirty clothes in hopes of amplifying their natural pheromones and making themselves more attractive to potential partners.

Pheromones are chemical signals released by an organism that can affect the behavior or physiology of another member of the same species. They are well documented in many animals, but scientists have not conclusively identified a human sex pheromone. Still, pheromone-maxxers believe their natural scent will increase the pheromones they emit and, in turn, make them more attractive.

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It is certainly one way to make a first impression. But the pitch takes a real phenomenon — the role scent can play in attraction — and stretches it much further than the science currently supports.

Pheromone-maxxing has emerged alongside the broader rise of looksmaxxing, an online culture in which boys and young men try to optimize their appearance through skincare, exercise, cosmetic procedures, and sometimes risky DIY practices, all in pursuit of becoming more attractive.

SEE ALSO: The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet's most unhinged subculture

The most basic version of pheromone-maxxing involves giving up products that mask a person's natural scent, including cologne and deodorant. Some stop washing their hair, while others avoid showering for days at a time.

"Stopped washing my hair at all and now I unironically get more compliments on how it smells and looks (from women)," one TikTok user wrote. "Pheromone maxxing is key."

Another creator claimed that men cannot "pull baddies" because they wear cologne and deodorant. One adolescent described going three days without showering, then bathing and putting the same shirt back on to create what he called a "halo effect of pheromones."

Not everyone stops there. More extreme accounts promote wearing unwashed clothing for long stretches or even drinking urine in an attempt to "sweat out toxins." Those appear to be fringe extensions of the idea rather than a standard pheromone-maxxing routine, and neither is supported by scientific evidence.

It is also difficult to tell how many people are seriously following any version of the practice. Some creators appear sincere, while others may be joking, rage-baiting, or borrowing looksmaxxing language to attract attention. Social media commenters insist that almost nobody is actually doing it. Still, enough people appear to be taking the idea seriously that it is worth examining whether the supposed strategy can actually work.

Can "pheromone-maxxing" work? This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Pheromones are chemical signals released by an organism that can trigger a behavioral or physiological response in another member of the same species. They are well documented in many animals, including insects, where they can communicate everything from danger and food locations to readiness to mate.

Whether humans produce and respond to pheromones in the same way is much less clear. Evolutionary biologist Tristram Wyatt wrote in a 2015 scientific review that humans may well have pheromones because we are mammals, but scientists have yet to conclusively identify a human sex pheromone or demonstrate that one reliably produces a romantic response.

That does not mean our individual body odors have no effect on how other people perceive us: In the 1995 "sweaty T-shirt study", women smelled shirts worn by men and generally preferred the scents of those whose major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, genes differed from their own. These genes play an important role in the immune system and may also influence a person’s body odor.

Yet, subsequent research is mixed. For example, a 2020 meta-analysis found no overall evidence that people choose partners with different MHC genes, nor a consistent preference for the body odor of genetically dissimilar people.

Unfortunately for those jumping on this trend, what builds up when you stop showering isn't a proven supply of pheromones. Sweat itself is odorless — body odor only develops when sweat mixes with bacteria living on your skin, according to the Cleveland Clinic. As dermatologist Dr. Shereen Teymour told USA Today, "For the most part, [this trend is] bacteria-maxxing." Skip basic hygiene for too long and you're also risking inflamed hair follicles, irritation in skin folds, and skin infections. Definitely not attractive.

How did we get here?

The larger "looksmaxxing" trend comes from an online self-improvement subculture that first developed in incel ("involuntarily celibate,") forums. Those communities frequently promoted the "black pill," a fatalistic belief that appearance and genetics largely determine a man’s romantic and social future.

Within that worldview, looksmaxxing offered users a way to improve their odds. Members rank facial features, calculate their supposed "sexual market value," and share strategies for "ascending," or becoming attractive enough to move higher in the community’s rigid hierarchy.

SEE ALSO: The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet's most unhinged subculture

That can include advice most people would recognize as ordinary grooming. "Softmaxxing" covers practices such as exercising, improving a skincare routine, getting a flattering haircut, dressing well, and taking care of one’s teeth. It can also include "mewing," the disputed practice of holding the tongue against the roof of the mouth in hopes of creating a sharper jawline.

Beyond basic grooming, however, the methods can become far more invasive. "Hardmaxxing" may involve cosmetic surgery, anabolic steroids, unapproved peptides, and extreme diets. The most notorious example is "bonesmashing," in which people repeatedly strike their faces, hoping their bones will heal into a more chiseled shape. Medical professionals have warned that this practice can instead cause fractures, nerve damage, and permanent disfigurement.

Researchers have also raised concerns about how easily looksmaxxing can blur the line between ordinary grooming tips and the ideology of the forums where it originated. A 2025 peer-reviewed study argued that the language of science and self-improvement helps ideas from incel communities reach younger users who may initially encounter them as innocent fitness or beauty content.

The movement from niche forums into mainstream youth culture is getting clearer. Consider 20-year-old looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters. He built his following by discussing extreme methods, including steroids, cosmetic procedures, bonesmashing, and, by his own account, using methamphetamine to suppress his appetite.

Now, Clavicular is on a 10-stop college tour with events near Penn State, Syracuse, Binghamton, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, and Texas A&M — all schools packed with fans in his target demographic. It has been a hit. 700 people were listed as planning to attend his Syracuse stop. Before his Binghamton appearance, one participating bar told students to "Start bone smashing and get that jawline in check because this is going to be a college core memory!"

All of this isn't to say young men are abandoning soap en masse. But its emergence shows how easily the looksmaxxing framework can turn an ordinary choice — even something as basic as whether to use deodorant — into another supposed (and smelly) path toward self-improvement.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Sony just gave Roku, Pluto, and Tubi a new free live TV streaming competitor

How-To Geek - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 21:12

You now have a major streaming alternative to The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi if you can't get enough free TV—provided you have the right console. Sony has launched Live TV on PS5 in the U.S., promising ad-supported movies and shows so long as you're signed in to your PlayStation account.

Categories: IT General, Technology

This is why your Android phone doesn't treat every USB-C cable the same

How-To Geek - Mon, 08/31/2026 - 21:00

USB-C is often touted as the universal standard for a wide range of devices, and while there's certainly more compatibility than there used to be, the reality is a lot more complicated.

Categories: IT General, Technology
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