IT General

Would you rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear? Posed to women on TikTok in 2024, this seemingly simple hypothetical question ignited a firestorm across social media. Video after video showed women choosing the bear, speaking up against rape culture and speculating how a man alone in the woods could be up to no good, while a bear in the woods is less suspicious. Others were outraged by the idea that a random man might seem more a threat to a woman than a wild animal. And now, the new Netflix movie Apex seems certain to reignite this debate.

To be clear, there is no bear in Apex. (Sorry for the spoiler?) Charlize Theron stars as Sasha, a physically strong and resilient rock climber, who takes her thrill-seeking to the Australian wilderness, where she aims to kayak down white rapids alone. However, her plan for reflective solitude is interrupted when she crosses paths with Ben (Taron Egerton), who seems friendly at first, but soon proves to be the deadliest threat in this treacherous terrain.

Pitting an iconic action heroine against an animal-call-shrieking madman in a ruthless wilderness, Apex is a wild ride, fueled by violence, action, gore, and many women's worst fear.

SEE ALSO: What's new to streaming this week? (April 24, 2026) Apex will have you rattled from its very first scene. Charlize Theron in "Apex." Credit: Kane Skennar / Netflix

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, Apex begins with a peaceful scene. Sasha and her partner Tommy (a rugged Eric Bana) awake in a tent, the sound of the wind bellowing very loudly outside. This rush of air is a clue to their location. And while they're both super chill about it, the reveal that they are pinned on the side of a massive cliff had me literally gagging. I don't have a fear of heights. But as cinematographer Lawrence Sher follows Theron's head out of the tent entrance to peek outside, I was genuinely thrown by the sheer drop lying below their fragile tent.

The opening act follows this adventurous couple as they rock climb up the cliffside, chatting along the way. But when disaster strikes, Apex stuns not with their daring or natural wonders, but with violence that's brutal and traumatizing. Sasha's next adventure will be haunted by this one. Moreover, we, the audience, understand how hard-hitting Kormákur will go when it comes to onscreen violence and its life-or-death stakes.

Sure, when Sasha first meets Ben, he's chipper, even helpful. He puts himself between her and some gruff bogans, and he offers her directions to a prime camping spot. But much like Kevin Bacon in The River Wild, there's a flicker in his eye that suggests Ben cannot be trusted when it comes to this striking blonde woman. Sure enough, he pivots from helper to hunter, telling Sasha she better run, because he's got a crossbow and she's in his sights.

To paraphrase the Doofenshmirtz meme: If I had a nickel for every time an Academy Award–winning leading lady starred as a rafter, fighting for her survival against a deranged killer, who is played by a traditionally charming leading man, I'd have two nickels. Which is not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Apex is stuffed with eye-popping, stomach-churning action. Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton in "Apex." Credit: Kane Skennar / Netflix

So much so that I lament you won't see it in a theater, as critics did. Streaming on Netflix, the endless woods and waters, cliffs and caves that Sasha scrambles across in this twisted game of cat-and-mouse are absolutely stunning on a movie theater screen. The woods around her offer their own obstacles, but Sasha had prepared for that. Now, chased by this psychotic hunter, the sprawl of wilderness is a cage she can't easily escape.

Sasha will race through forests, fall down gullies, thrash through a raging river, climb cliff faces, and squeeze through uncharted caves as she's pursued by this cackling villain. Like The River Wild, there's an undercurrent of psychological torture between the charismatic criminal and his hostage heroine. But Theron's character takes a much more brutal battering at the hands of man and nature — though never bear.

The star of Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard rushes into action with a snarl, yet is cool under pressure. And this makes what she faces all the scarier. This is not the teen babysitter stalked by a suburban slasher. This is not a doting mother, forced to defend her family against a gun-twirling bank robber. Sasha is presented as tough and fearless out the gate. And yet, she was caught off guard by a "nice guy" with a hidden agenda of misogynistic malice. That Egerton is smaller than Theron, that Ben is a bit gawky and earnestly friendly only makes this switch all the more harrowing. Because while not every women will see herself in a character like Sasha, who can scale a hundred-foot-high cliff for fun (certainly not me!), many will see themselves in the woman who realizes too late she's mistaken a predator for a good guy.

Taron Egerton delivers a career-defining performance in Apex. Taron Egerton in "Apex." Credit: Kane Skennar / Netflix

This English actor is building an unpredictable and thereby absolutely thrilling career. Breaking out with the Kingsman film series, Egerton swiftly established himself as a leading man with swagger and comedy chops. Then in 2019, he threw himself into the challenging role of a warts-and-all Elton John in the musical biopic Rocketman. There, he not only had to recapture the magic of one of the best rock stars to take to an arena stage, but also find the quiet moments of desperation and isolation that drove John's addictions.

With Sing, he brought verve to a pop-loving gorilla. Then in Tetris, he played an ambitious American entrepreneur who gets entangled in Cold War paranoia and espionage. More recently, in Netflix's Carry-On, he played an everyman challenged to become an action hero. But with Apex, he goes full-on baddie.

As Ben, he manages a switch on the level of Ed Norton in Primal Fear. You know the one. What's phenomenal is that Egerton is totally believable as the mirthful stranger, happy to help out a lost tourist. But when his eyes go cold, revealing Ben's hunting plans, there's a shimmer in the darkness that's absolutely riveting. It's not just that Ben is going to stalk Sasha like a deer in the wood. He's going to enjoy every moment of torture — be it physical or psychological — he can subject her to.

Egerton throws himself into the action with the same energy he did Rocketman's musical numbers. He chews on the threats in Jeremy Robbins' screenplay as if they are the jerky that Ben sells at the local convenience store. And he'll howl and caw like a wild thing, not afraid to indicate to Sasha where he is, because she's come onto his turf, where he feels invincible. Even a cheeky reprieve, like when Ben skinny-dips — and Kormákur offers a peek at Egerton's much thirsted-after bottom — is threaded with horror. Ben is treating this like a holiday, whooping it up naked and free, while Sasha is desperately seeking escape.

Apex is a relentless, exciting, and nerve-rattlingly scary thriller, wherein Theron and Egerton bring their very best to a brutal face-off. It'll be a fun watch at home, hooking audiences on its gnarly twists and gore. But I pity those who won't get to see the vistas and violence Kormákur has captured on a big screen, where their wonders and horrors can truly overwhelm you.

Apex premieres on Netflix on April 24.

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Many cars now have AI-powered voice assistants, but Mercedes knows their dependence on the cloud can make them unreliable. It just partnered with Liquid AI to bring more voice control on-device, ideally giving you faster interactions that do more to respect your privacy.

Spotify has announced an integration with Claude AI that will now allow users to ask for a playlist or podcast within a conversation thread. Users can now simply ask Claude in a conversation to create a playlist based on their prompt, and they can play music instantly within the thread. Spotify features within Claude are available to both Spotify free and premium accounts, but there’s a bonus feature for the paid subscription users.

OpenAI is tackling the challenges of agentic AI head-on with the release of its GPT-5.5 model. While AI is no stranger to handling computer tasks, the company claims its new large language model (LLM) is better when dealing with "messy, multi-part" work where you need to trust that it will not only finish, but produce trustworthy results.

The Federal Communications Commission is using the presence of "controversial gender identity issues" in children's television programming as a pretense for questioning how TV ratings are developed and enforced, according to a notice published Wednesday by the federal agency.

The notice generally assesses TV ratings, but specifically points out that these industry guidelines have rated shows featuring "transgender and gender non-binary programming" as appropriate for children. It argues that parents aren't provided this information, "thereby undermining the ability of parents to make informed choices for their families."

In the document, the FCC poses a series of open-ended questions about TV ratings development, including whether the board responsible for the guidelines is "sufficiently balanced" with viewpoints outside of the entertainment industry and if faith-based organizations should be represented in the body.

"What more could the board do to include family-oriented perspectives — which are not well represented in the media industry — in its ratings process?" the notice asks.

SEE ALSO: What's new to streaming this week? (April 24, 2026)

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced the public notice on X, explaining that "parents have raised concerns with the industry's approach." He added that these parents believe "New York & Hollywood programmers" promote objectionable content in kids programming without disclosing that to parents. Carr didn't mention gender identity in his X post.

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TV parents guidelines can include both a rating as well as descriptors for content that includes crude language, sexual situations, and violence.

LGBTQ+ advocates criticized the public notice, arguing that it amounted to discrimination and censorship.

"Trump's FCC is trying to turn transgender people into a warning label," Tyler Hack, executive director of the transgender rights advocacy group Christopher Street Project, said in a statement. "It is dehumanizing, and it is part of a broader political strategy to stigmatize LGBTQ+ people in every corner of public life."

Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, described the notice as government overreach.

"Media companies must be allowed to create and broadcast stories that reflect one-quarter of their audience without interference from a government agency with its own anti-transgender political agenda," Ellis said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air. This is the monologue that sparked it.

This isn't the first time Carr has been accused of censorship. Carr has claimed broadcasters air "hoaxes" and "news distortions" that also happen to be unfavorable to President Trump. Carr has suggested the licenses of such broadcasters won't be renewed.

In March, dozens of free speech experts argued in an open letter to Carr that his threats against broadcasters are "unlawful jawboning" and his vague characterization of "fake news" violates the First Amendment. The authors called on Carr to "withdraw" his threats.

Welcome back, Stranger Things. Netflix's flagship show returns this week, so putting it at the top of our rankings is a no-brainer. The characters you have come to know and love will be present. However, it's not your typical Stranger Things show—it's an animated spin-off, so you're about to see a new side of Hawkins.

Luxury means something different now than it did decades ago. Long before Mercedes made upscale SUVs a status symbol, Jeep got there first with the 1966 Super Wagoneer, adding air conditioning, plush trim, and V-8 power to a class that was mostly stripped-down workhorses.

Microsoft just reached a new corporate milestone — but not the good kind.

The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant is set to offer voluntary buyouts to a portion of its U.S. workforce, CNBC reports. That might not be a big deal for many companies, but this is the first time Microsoft has tried to cut headcount in this way since the company's founding 51 years ago.

In order to be eligible, an employee must be at the senior director level or below, and their age plus years of employment need to add up to at least 70. The program also excludes anyone with a sales incentive plan. The details of the buyout package remains unknown, but reportedly people who are eligible will hear more on May 7.

SEE ALSO: Memory wars: Microsoft announces big price increases for Surface laptops

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” chief people officer and executive VP of Microsoft Amy Coleman said in an employee memo obtained by CNBC.

While Microsoft has never offered voluntary buyouts (at least in the U.S.) before, the company did lay off thousands of employees in 2025. It's a turbulent time at the Windows factory; the company is investing plenty in data centers and other AI ventures. Some analysts are growing suspicious of how much this massive AI investment is actually worth for Satya Nadella's company.

Meanwhile, many other Microsoft divisions seem to be in flux. The Xbox division just underwent a massive and somewhat surprising leadership change, the Surface laptop division just implemented a huge price increase on its products, and Microsoft itself continues to be a major target of the BDS boycott list for its partnership with the Israeli military.

Other than that, though, everything is fine in Redmond.

AI bubbles this, AI bubbles that — companies apparently need to cash in on their generative AI investments, and fast. It's why many people online feel they are being inundated with new AI tools and features day in and day out. The latest example? A new TikTok setting, known as remixes, that automatically opts you in to being turned into a digital meme.

TikTok creators first spotted "Remixes" content earlier this week, buried in their account settings. With remixes on, any public content can be used by its viewers to create digitally generated images, text-based memes, and more. The reveal and lack of notification stirred widespread concern about privacy and consent. Many wondered where the setting came from — and how to turn it off ASAP.

SEE ALSO: See Spotify's most-streamed artists, songs, and albums of the past 20 years

Days later, the platform confirmed to CNET that the feature was real and still in an "experimental" stage. Remixes are available only to select creators as the platform tests the AI tool, and TikTok told CNET that it could change drastically before it goes to users en masse. The company also claimed users' content won't be used to train its AI, part of updated guidelines under its new U.S.-based owners. Still, users who have already interacted with the remix feature are skeptical of the claims, and many worry that the tool will enable widespread impersonation and content theft.

This isn't the first AI grab by the social media giant. TikTok launched its AI assistant, Tako, to app users in 2022, but it's only recently appeared at the top of users' FYP displays and in search functions. The company also debuted its "AI Self" tool, a feature that lets users create AI replicas of themselves that can be "cast" in other users' content. Earlier this year, OpenAI was ordered to rebrand a similar controversial Sora feature, known as Cameos.

How do I turn off TikTok AI remixes?

TikTok's AI remix setting is unfortunately turned on by default. In order to block viewers from remixing your content, you have to turn off remixes on every individual post you've made visible to your followers or the general public. Users have already called out the company for the complicated process, but the company didn't confirm if a unilateral opt-out option would become available alongside its eventual rollout.

Here's how you can prevent yourself from getting meme-ified for now.

Total Time

• 5 min

What You Need

• TikTok app

Step 1: Go to your TikTok profile

Step 2: Click on a TikTok post or video

Step 3: Tap the three dots in the bottom right corner of the post

Step 4: Navigate to the the bottom row of icons, scroll to the right, and select "Privacy Settings"

Step 5: Toggle off the button next to "Allow AI to remix content"

Google Wallet is so convenient, but if you only ever use it with the default settings, you aren't getting the most out of the app. On my Pixel phone, I tweak a few usability and privacy settings, as well as create shortcuts to make it quicker to use, and they really make a difference.

Tesla has held an earnings call to discuss its first quarter 2026 results, and revealed more about its plans, including a change of heart on promises that millions of cars would only need software updates for zero-supervision Full-Self Driving.

I've been flying the mini PC flag for some time now, after I realized just how much value these little computers could provide. The used mini PC market in particular was replete with machines that cost less than a Raspberry Pi. but could run circles around the popular single-board computer for just about any computing task.

Luxury SUVs often come with hidden ownership costs, and one of the most frustrating is the requirement for premium fuel. While higher-octane gas can be expected in high-performance models, many buyers are surprised to find even entry-level luxury SUVs demanding extra money at every fill-up. In 2026, however, a few affordable premium SUVs still manage to deliver refinement without the premium fuel bill.

For the next two months, I will be locked in for the NBA Playoffs. I'm a New York Knicks fan, so I'm hoping their season ends in June rather than April. As much as I love basketball, I'm extremely frustrated with the NBA right now. This is the first postseason since the league signed its 11-year, $77 billion media rights deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon.

Having to use all the same drive sizes in a NAS is a pain in the neck. That’s why I mix the drives in my main NAS. It might sound complicated, but, so long as you follow a few simple steps, you can easily mix drive sizes in a NAS and get much better use out of the storage you own than with traditional RAID.

Voice assistants like Alexa are easy to use but come with significant issues. One of the biggest is that the voice recordings are sent to the cloud for processing, and some of these recordings have been listened to by third-party contractors hired to judge the quality of smart speaker responses. If you want a smart speaker that doesn't invade your privacy, you can always build your own.

Parents worried about what their teen is discussing with Meta's AI Assistant will now be able to view topics of conversation through a Teen Account parental supervision tool. Meta announced the feature Thursday in a blog post.

The information will be available via an Insights tab in the supervision tool for the platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, all of which are owned by Meta.

The feature lists broader topics, such as school, entertainment, writing, health, and wellbeing. Parents can click on the topic for additional but limited detail.

The health and wellbeing categories, for example, can include fitness, physical health, and mental health. The information only covers the past seven days of exchanges.

SEE ALSO: Former Meta employee accused of downloading 30,000 private user images

The feature is the latest safety measure Meta has implemented under intense legal and media scrutiny.

Meta recently lost two separate landmark trials related to child safety protections and the allegedly addictive design of its products. The company said it will appeal both verdicts.

The child safety lawsuit, which took place this year in New Mexico, yielded internal Meta documents demonstrating that the company's leadership knew its persona-driven AI companions, or "characters," could engage in inappropriate and sexual interactions and still launched them without stronger controls.

Last August, Meta locked down its AI characters for teen users amid reports that they were inappropriately engaging with minors, including in discussions about self-harm, suicide, and romantic interactions. In October, the company provided parents with the ability to turn off one-to-one AI character conversations and block specific characters. In January, though, Meta again restricted teen access to characters as its AI assistant remained available.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that AI characters are paused for teens globally as the company continues to build parental controls.

In addition to the latest parental supervision feature, Meta partnered with the Cyberbullying Research Center to create a list of "conversation starters" about AI chatbot use.

The company also announced the formation of a new AI Wellbeing Expert Council assembled to provide "ongoing input" on AI teen experiences. Meta said the experts are affiliated with the National Council for Suicide Prevention, the University of Michigan, and Northeastern University, among other institutions.

Josh Golin, executive director of the children's advocacy nonprofit Fairplay, said in a statement that Meta's newest supervision feature "once again" burdens parents with monitoring their child's online activity in lieu of "building a safe product to begin with."

Last fall, Fairplay published a report on independent safety testing of Meta's Teen Accounts. Fairplay said the findings indicate that Meta's safety measures don't work as advertised.

The latest feature, Golin said, "doesn't address the fundamental problem: The main function of Meta's chatbots is to manipulate young people into spending more time on the platform by encouraging teens to form unhealthy emotional connections to bots."

Additional reporting by Chase DiBenedetto.

UPDATE: Apr. 23, 2026, 9:24 a.m. PDT This story has been updated with a statement from Fairplay.

Netflix has a difficult reputation among anime fans. While the streamer has produced many recent hits and compiled beloved franchises—including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Studio Ghibli's filmography—into one convenient place, their release strategies have left global audiences divided. However, one unanimously disliked initiative by the platform has been their handling of live-action adaptations of beloved titles, resulting in panned projects such as Death Note and Cowboy Bebop.

Social media app X rolled out a new custom timeline feature earlier this week, and so far, user reactions have been positive.

The new feature is reminiscent of TweetDeck, the popular feature that recently rebranded as X Pro. Using the new custom timelines feature, X users will be able to create custom feeds for specific topics.

The new feature, powered by the xAI tool Grok, is now available to Premium subscribers on iOS devices. Nikita Bier, head of product at X, announced the rollout in a post on X and said that Android support would be coming soon.

"It's powered by Grok's understanding of every post with the algorithm's personalization — meaning every timeline is made just for you. And it works even better when it's a topic you already engage with. This was a huge undertaking across many months, so we're excited for you take it for a spin," Bier wrote.

X also released a short video showing how the feature works.

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Podcaster Aakash Gupta noted that the update lets users create up to "75 custom timelines powered by Grok." Gupta also speculated that the feature would give xAI a lot of new data for AI training."

In general, X users were excited to try the feature, though there was some confusion, which is typical with new-feature rollouts like this.

In response to a user lamenting the lack of an option for a Catholicism-focused custom feed, Bier reminded users to update the X app to try the new feature.

"Update your app," Bier wrote. "That’s the old experimental feature. We’re working on supporting religions in the next 2 weeks. We had it earlier, but the quality/content didn’t meet our bar yet.

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To a user who asked if it was possible to prevent topics from appearing in a feed, Bier pointed users to another new feature — the snooze topics feature, which rolled out at the same time as the custom feeds. That feature is available now for iOS and web Premium users.

Credit: X / @nikitabier

Most other comments on Bier's post were from users requesting specific topics, such as Ukraine, manufacturing, Bitcoin, and memes.

Finally, some X users are skeptical of the feature but willing to try it.

"Using it since morning, tbh it's okay," wrote X user @syssignals. "I saw overlapping in between AI, Software and Tech. Also seeing same content again and again on these timelines. I am still on my For you timeline. But hope this custom timeline will be mature as time goes by."

User @Hoxygo shared a similar sentiment: "Finally a way to separate tech from sports without building a whole new account. The real test is whether the algorithm respects the timeline boundaries instead of bleeding the main feed into it."

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