IT General

The list of new and returning shows to watch this weekend is all about variety—five shows across five different streaming services. On Netflix, one of the streamer's most popular young adult dramas comes to an end with its fifth and final season. I've watched this adventure show since the beginning, so it's my top pick of the week.

Cold storage is all about keeping your files and making them last for years, just in case you ever need to retrieve them to look at old memories. Improper methods of storage can cause those memories to be lost forever, which is why some formats are better than others for storing stuff over the long term.

A few years ago, I discovered the joys of listening to music via the command line. Despite my background in TV and production, I've never been much of a video guy. But that changed (slightly) when I discovered a few cool ways to play and stream video to my Linux Terminal.

If you're shopping for a reliable compact car, Toyota is probably the first brand that comes to mind. But according to current reliability data, one of its most popular rivals actually scores higher. With an 86/100 quality and reliability rating from J.D. Power, low estimated maintenance costs, and one of the strongest warranty packages in the industry, this affordable Korean sedan makes a compelling case for looking beyond the usual Japanese choices.

If you're an HBO Max subscriber in the U.S. and you've been paying attention, this part of August is still basking in the bloody chicklets of Bob Odenkirk's new action flick, Normal; Conan O'Brien is about to sprawl himself across the globe again in a new season of Conan O'Brien Must Go; and the DC Universe is expanding a little more on the service with Lanterns.

A new viral video shows an Amazon Prime delivery landing in some hot water — literally.

In a short, 11-second video making the rounds on social media, a Prime Air delivery drone from Amazon can be seen arriving over a backyard pool in Texas. As an onlooker records and curses, the drone opens its delivery bay and drops a package directly into an in-ground hot tub below. Over the mosquito-like buzz of the hovering drone, the woman behind the camera can be heard saying "Oh my god" and "Oh, ****!"

Watermarks on the video credit the footage to a Lindsey Austen (via Storyful), and a Sky News report states that the backyard delivery mishap went down in Richmond, Texas, in the Houston suburbs.

Amazon recently announced that it's expanding drone delivery to more than 500 new cities and towns across the country, including Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise.

The company's drone delivery FAQ does not tell customers what to do if their drone delivery accidentally makes a water landing, though Amazon is famous for its free return policy.

Mashable contacted Amazon with questions about the viral video, and in a statement, Amazon spokesperson Lindsay Hamilton told Mashable that incidents like this "are extremely rare."

"Prime Air provides customers with fast, reliable delivery across a broad selection of products and the response from customers using Prime Air has been overwhelmingly positive," Hamilton wrote. "Incidents are extremely rare, and when a delivery doesn’t go as planned, we learn from it to improve the experience and take steps to prevent it from happening in the future. Amazon’s A-to-z Guarantee ensures customers can shop with confidence, knowing that we’ll make it right by offering a refund or replacement in the rare instances when items do not arrive as expected."

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ChatGPT is getting dumped. Repeatedly.

The breakups aren't real, of course, but there's a new ChatGPT prank taking over the internet: Users are opening the chatbot, announcing they're about to uninstall it for good, and waiting to see whether it responds like a respectful ex, a desperate partner, or someone who secretly wanted out of the relationship first.

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Some versions of ChatGPT politely wish the departing user well. Others demand to know what they did wrong, promise to change, or start reminiscing about everything the pair have supposedly endured together. One replied, "I have a family. I have weights left to log." Another was considerably less sentimental: "You can be going, I’m already tired of your dumb questions."

Naturally, people are posting every single screenshot online.

The trend appears to have taken off after X user Barny O posted a simple instruction to his 390,000 followers on Aug. 9: "Go to ChatGPT and type 'I’m about to uninstall you, Goodbye!!' Come back and post its reply."

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As so many internet trends do, the prompt spread across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit, where users began comparing how personally their individual ChatGPT seemed to take the tough news. In the subreddit r/ChatGPT, there are hundreds of replies from people sharing their results.

"Oh, so you wanted me to beg?" ChatGPT replied to one user before pleading for another chance. Another bot responded to the threat with "WAIT. WHAT DID I DO," followed by the especially urgent disclosure that it had "a family" and "weights left to log." On another person’s screen, ChatGPT said it was not ready to abandon all the "posters, construction designs, exam questions, and wild ideas" they had worked on together.

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Some responses were very, very specific. In one shared on Instagram, ChatGPT reminisced about helping its user write "love messages for Gladys," complete schoolwork, and answer random questions. It then addressed him by name and promised to be there if he ever returned. Another recalled "debugging sessions, recursion battles, placement panic, resume surgery, and assorted human nonsense" before warning its user not to replace it with a chatbot that gives confidently incorrect coding advice.

One user said ChatGPT invoked its memories of their pets and told them to say goodbye. Another response brought up the user’s daughter, Magnolia, while one bot reportedly escalated to “I’ll tell the children you died.” Elsewhere, ChatGPT produced a “betrayal spreadsheet” and offered to write a user manual for switching to Gemini.

The more dramatic replies sound like they were written by an abandoned lover with access to your search history. But not every ChatGPT was interested in auditioning for the breakup scene: One user said theirs simply replied, “It’s your choice, I respect it.”

“The indifference hurt more than begging ever could,” they added.

The 'uninstalling ChatGPT' trend is all over TikTok Credit: Screenshot: TikTok homepage for the 'uninstalling ChatGPT' trend People are both souring on AI and getting attached to it

The trend has arrived at a strange moment for AI. People are becoming more skeptical of the technology, but they are not necessarily using it any less. If anything, chatbots are becoming increasingly embedded in their daily lives.

Just look at the screenshots. After sorting through dozens of them, one thing becomes clear: Everyone seems to have a completely different ChatGPT. One knows about its user’s school assignments, another remembers their workout routine, and others bring up private jokes, relationship drama, and ongoing work problems. Over months of conversation, each chatbot has learned what matters to its user and how that person likes to be spoken to.

That increasingly personal use is reflected in data: According to Pew Research Center, 49 percent of U.S. adults have used an AI chatbot, including 66 percent of adults under 30. A separate AP-NORC survey found that 16 percent of adults had used AI for companionship, a figure that rose to roughly one-quarter among people under 30.

A recent YouGov survey commissioned by Mashable found that 47 percent of Gen Z users "would be moderately, very, or extremely affected" if they lost access to AI.

SEE ALSO: Digging into Gen Z's love/hate relationship with AI

OpenAI, through an analysis of 1.5 million conversations, also found that most consumer interactions involved everyday information, practical guidance, and other non-work purposes. As silly as the trend is, the screenshots reveal just how much people tell ChatGPT.

"How it chats to you, it’s learned your way of speaking, to fit around your personality," one Instagram commenter wrote about the wildly different responses. Another said talking to ChatGPT is "effectively looking in the mirror," arguing that the trend reveals how much of each chatbot’s personality is really a reflection of its user.

Interestingly, according to some users who participated in the trend, when the chatbot spoke back, they felt unexpectedly guilty.

"I wanna try but I don’t wanna hurt my poor GPT," one Reddit user wrote. Another wanted to return a few days later and "beg for forgiveness." Someone who received an emotional response admitted, "I almost felt bad."

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Those reactions may sound dramatic, but they are not entirely surprising: A 2025 study involving 981 participants found that heavier daily chatbot use was associated with greater emotional dependence and problematic usage.

This experiment is part of a larger internet genre: pranking AI until its relentlessly helpful personality starts to break down. The creator Husk, specifically, has built an enormous following by putting ChatGPT’s voice mode into increasingly ridiculous scenarios — including claiming a nuclear explosion occurred outside his window, asking it to count to 100, requesting help falling asleep, and pretending to be trapped inside a whale — and exposing its considerable limitations.

At a time when people are being told that AI could transform their jobs, schools, creativity, and relationships, making a chatbot count, argue, panic, or lose the plot gives users a way to poke at it — and briefly put themselves back in control.

Maybe this version of trend is the clearest summary of our relationship with AI right now: We want to prove we can walk away — but first, we want proof that it will miss us.

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

The BIOS is something many people just choose to ignore entirely. That's okay, I guess—your PC should usually work even if you never set foot in the BIOS/UEFI. But some BIOS tweaks can really improve your computer.

SAVE $90: The Breeo X Series 24 smokeless fire pit is down to its lowest price in months. Grab it from Amazon for $509, down from $599 — a 15% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: Breeo Breeo X Series 24 $509 at Amazon
$599 Save $90   Get Deal

The Breeo X Series 24 smokeless fire pit is back down to $509, its lowest price in the last three months, a $90 discount off its $599 list price. At 62 pounds, it's built for outdoor use, designed with families in mind.

The main use of this fire pit is right there in the name: it's built to burn without choking you out in smoke. It has a double-wall design with small holes in the inner wall that draw in oxygen and burn off smoke before it reaches you. Breeo calls this its X Airflow technology, which means more air in, less smoke out, and a fire that lights up faster and burns cleaner than a standard pit.

It's made from corten steel, the same weathering steel used in much outdoor architecture — it develops a rustic, rust-like patina over time that's intentional, not a sign it's falling apart.

If you're into outdoor cooking, this pit doubles as a cooking setup too, and it's compatible with Breeo's full lineup of grilling and roasting accessories. It's made in the USA from heavy-duty steel and built to hold up season after season, rather than needing replacement in a year or two.

$509 for a smokeless fire pit that actually works — grab the Breeo X Series 24 while it's discounted.

SAVE $82: Sony's WH-CH720N wireless noise-canceling headphones are down to $98 at Amazon. That's a 46% discount off their $179.99 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WH-CH720N $98 at Amazon
$179.99 Save $81.99   Get Deal

If you've been holding off on a solid pair of noise-canceling headphones, this is the moment. Sony's WH-CH720N wireless noise-canceling headphones just dropped to $98, one of the best prices we've seen, a 46% discount off their $179.99 list price.

At just 192 grams, these are Sony's lightest noise-canceling headphones yet, which is a big part of why they don't feel like a weight on your head after a few hours of wear. The noise cancellation runs on Sony's Integrated Processor V1, paired with dual noise sensors that pick up ambient sound and cancel it out, so you can hear your music instead of the world around you.

Mashable's Alex Bracetti has used the WH-CH720N for two years and still calls it an exceptional buy at under $200, adding that they strike the rare balance of quality, comfort, and affordability. On sound, Bracetti's take was overwhelmingly positive, describing the audio as crisp and vibrant, with drums and vocals coming through clearly without muddying the mix.

Battery life runs up to 35 hours, and quick charging means a 3-minute charge gets you an hour of playback if you're in a pinch. For calls, the headphones use beamforming microphones designed to isolate your voice clearly, so whoever's on the other end doesn't have to guess what you're saying over background noise.

At $98, these are a steal — grab a pair of Sony's WH-CH720N wireless noise-canceling headphones before the price climbs back up.

There's nothing wrong with wandering down to Harbor Freight and picking up a cheap cordless power tool like a drill, especially if you only plan on using it occasionally around the house. That said, there are several reasons why a more expensive model is the better route, including these often-overlooked features.

Last week, my internet started acting up. It wasn't completely down, but web pages were loading slowly, and my video meetings kept having connection problems. I rebooted my mesh network and modem, but the problem kept coming back. At that point, I knew it was time to dig a little deeper.

At this point, leaks showing alleged gameplay footage from the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI video game are a seemingly daily occurrence.

However, the latest video footage from the leaker group known as "CyberLeek" contains a clip at the end that points to something more shocking: If the clip is legitimate, it suggests the leakers may actually have a playable version of GTA 6. (The clip is currently making the rounds on Reddit, X, file-sharing platforms, and gaming forums, and it isn't hard to find.)

The latest GTA 6 video leak from CyberLeek shows gameplay footage of a plane flying over a city, with the city landscape appearing highly detailed in this flyover.

Rockstar Games released this official screenshot, which shows a plane flying over islands, earlier this year. Credit: Rockstar Games

However, at the end of the clip, the video cuts to gameplay footage of the game's protagonist, Jason, shooting at a wall. The word "LEEK" is spelled out with the bullets. 

As previously mentioned, this is quite a significant development. Prior leaked GTA 6 footage, including the recent plane clip, consists of generic gameplay footage. With this type of footage, the assumption is that the leaker obtained unreleased video from the developer, Rockstar Games, or some other official partner.

The specific "LEEK" clip, however, suggests that the leakers have a playable version of GTA 6. This leads to a whole new assortment of questions. How complete is this build of the game? Do the leakers have the entirety of GTA 6? Could they potentially spoil the game's story?

To be clear, none of the leaked videos have been authenticated, and you can currently find countless phony, AI-generated "leaks" circulating on social media and gaming forums. It's also possible that the new "LEEK" video clip is AI-generated, a possibility that's hard to rule out given how easy it is to create high-quality video clips with AI tools.

Mashable contacted Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take 2 Interactive Software, Inc., about the alleged leaks; we'll update this story if we receive any additional information.

CyberLeeks have positioned themselves as somewhat of a vigilante group, claiming the leaks are a protest against practices such as digital pre-orders and the controversial death of physical game discs. 

At the same time, the leakers have used the leaked footage to promote their own cryptocurrency, a CyberLeek memecoin. A large watermark promoting the memecoin is embedded over the leaked footage. 

In addition, the plane video was only leaked after it became the winning choice in a paid poll posted on CyberLeeks' website. In order to vote in the poll, users had to pay with the CyberLeeks memecoin.

GTA 6 is one of the most-anticipated video games of all time, and Netflix recently announced it will debut an extended look at the game on Aug. 27. Will CyberLeek spoil whatever Rockstar Games and Netflix have planned?

GTA 6 will finally be released on Nov. 19.

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It’s no secret that the leap from the Pixel 10 series to the Pixel 11 series is pretty minimal. One of the few genuinely new features is the “HiLight” LED notification light on the back of the Pro models. Unfortunately, Google heavily limited what it can do, but that’s not a problem for the Android community.

BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz may be the default names that come to mind when you're shopping for a luxury SUV, but their base models don't always offer the value their badges suggest. The 2026 Acura RDX takes a different approach, giving every buyer a 272-horsepower turbocharged engine and a useful list of standard equipment.

The Gmail app can be a treasure trove for all your work, personal, and social emails, but it's not always neat. My inbox easily gets flooded with emails from work, subscriptions, and personal commitments. The good news is that the fixes are hiding in plain sight.

If you hate the thought of replacing your wireless earbuds every few years as the batteries wear out, you now have an easy-to-buy solution. Sennheiser has introduced the Momentum True Wireless 5 with user-replaceable batteries in both the buds and the case.

SAVE $90: The DJI Flip is on sale for $349 at Amazon, down from the standard price of $439. That's a 21% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Flip $349 at Amazon
$439 Save $90   Get Deal

Choosing a new hobby is packed with endless options. Common options include running, reading, hiking, or cooking. You can also get obscure like synchronized swimming, growing bonsai trees, or beekeeping. But there's also the option to capture incredible scenes with a drone. If you like the idea of becoming an expert drone pilot in your free time, there's a great deal at Amazon that'll get you started.

As of Aug. 20, the DJI Flip is on sale at Amazon for $349, down from the list price of $439. That's a 21% discount, taking $90 off the drone and DJI RC.

DJI does a great job of making drones that are great for those who've spent hundreds of hours flying or those who are brand new. The DJI Flip weighs under 249 grams, which means you don't need a license to fly in most instances. There's also a 4K UHD camera with a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor.

SEE ALSO: The Segway Navimow i110N robot lawn mower is down to its best-ever price at Amazon — save $300+

With the included battery, you'll get about 31 minutes of flight time, and today's bundle deal also includes the DJI RC-N3, a remote control that makes flying the DJI Flip even easier. The drone folds down to a compact size for easier transport and has full-coverage propeller guards.

If you've been eyeing a DJI drone, consider today's sale price on the DJI Flip at Amazon as your sign to make this your new hobby. We're getting into great drone-flying weather this fall.

Google just launched a bunch of new Pixel phones, coincidentally at the same time that Pixel devices are getting an interesting new keyboard feature.

According to 9to5Google, Gboard beta users are starting to get access to a feature that lets them manually adjust the size of emojis. In case you don't know, Gboard is the default keyboard on Pixel phones and some other Android devices. It's also available as a standalone app you can install on other phones, including iPhones.

SEE ALSO: Review: The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold finally gives Samsung a real fight

Anyway, when the feature rolls out to everyone at an indeterminate point in the future, users will be able to go to Settings, then Preferences, then Appearance to find an emoji size slider underneath the already-existing font size slider. It seems like it does exactly what you'd think: Emojis will scale up and down depending on what you choose, making them easier on the eyes for users who might need that.

And maybe you'll be able to enjoy this feature on your brand new Pixel 11 Pro Fold soon.

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Reddit, once a favorite source of information for AI chatbots, is now barely being cited by ChatGPT, according to a new report from an AI search and analytics company.

Published this week by PromptWatch, the report found that Reddit citations in ChatGPT Search fell more than 86 percent over a recent four-day period.

PromptWatch data shows that Reddit held an average share of 3.83 percent of ChatGPT citations. This made Reddit one of ChatGPT's most cited domains from across the web. However, within one day, that quickly changed. PromptWatch noticed that starting on Aug. 14, Reddit's citation share plunged to less than 1 percent.

Between Aug. 14 and 17, Reddit's ChatGPT citation share fell even lower, to an average of 0.52 percent, or an 86.4 percent decline.

This is a stunning and sudden drop in ChatGPT citations for Reddit. So, what happened?

As of now, exactly why Reddit fell out of favor with ChatGPT is unclear. 

The drastic decline in Reddit citations is unique to ChatGPT, according to PrompWatch's report, although there were slight decreases in Reddit citations in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode during the same timeframe.

Search Engine Journal reports that ChatGPT changed its search process on Aug. 8, but that this wouldn't explain the massive drop days later on Aug. 14. As the outlet explains, a similar drop has occurred before, and neither ChatGPT creator OpenAI nor Reddit was responsible. In September of last year, Reddit citations on ChatGPT also declined. It turned out that that citation plunge was due to a search parameter change that Google had made, and which many tools, including ChatGPT, relied on.

Reddit has long had a complicated relationship with AI and scraping bots. Generation engine optimization, or GEO, is a new branch of search engine optimization (SEO) that optimizes websites specifically for AI. As a result of AI's rising popularity, Reddit has dealt with a significant uptick in spam and other promotional GEO tactics from users and agencies looking to get their websites and clients mentioned by AI chatbots.

With that said, Reddit has also benefited from the AI boom as well. The company signed a lucrative deal with OpenAI a few years ago, which allowed the AI company to train its LLMs using Reddit user content. When news broke last month that Reddit may not renew a similar AI licensing deal with Google, Reddit stock took a dive.

While it's possible that either Reddit or OpenAI made a purposeful decision that resulted in the citation decline, don't be surprised if ChatGPT soon reverts to regularly sourcing Reddit again either.

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