IT General

Here we are, facing down the lane of the third week of May. Who's ready to roll a strike with three movies that have come to Netflix this month and that have been knocking down movies on the Netflix Top 10 like bowling pins? If your focus hasn't been locked on Remarkably Bright Creatures or the excellent new Martin Short documentary, then check out the movie selection below.

Google I/O 2026 is just around the corner, and all eyes are on what Google has in store for the year. One of our big expectation for the annual event: some major announcements involving the company's planned smart glasses.

Google has already confirmed it will release a pair of smart glasses, built for the Android XR platform, in 2026. Until we have another name for these unreleased specs,, we've been calling them the Android XR glasses. (Remember: Android XR is also the name of Google's previously launched augmented reality operating system, which powers products like the Galaxy XR headset.)

Just don't call them Google Glass.

What we know about Android XR smart glasses

Google debuted a concept of its upcoming smart glasses at last year's I/O. The AI-powered smart glasses featured a full augmented reality in-glass interface with cameras, microphones, and speakers built in. Google also said it would be working with well-known brands like Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to produce an array of styles. Unfortunately for Google, the live demo during I/O didn't exactly go as planned.

However, since Google first showed off that concept, there have been some new developments with what we're calling Android XR smart glasses — emphasis on glasses.

Google is, in fact, working on more than one Android XR smart glass model.

The first model of Google's Android XR smart glasses has been compared to Meta's Ray-Ban glasses. These smart glasses are equipped with a camera, speakers, and a microphone, and can interact with Google's AI assistant Gemini. There is no display with this model.

SEE ALSO: What to expect from Google I/O 2026: Gemini news, Android XR glasses

The second model notably does have an in-glasses display in order to show the user visual information, such as captions for translations and map directions. Google has generally referred to these glasses as AI glasses, and we got a better look at them in a December 2025 blog post.

Credit: Google

Both smart glass models run on Android XR, Google's smart glass operating system that debuted with the Samsung Galaxy XR headset.

Google previously confirmed that the no-dispay model of Android XR smart glasses will launch this year, so we should get a nice preview of what they will offer at Google I/O. 

The big question is how much more Google will unveil about the Android XR AI glasses with a built-in display. So far, the company has not yet shared a timeframe for the release of that model. Will we find out at Google I/O 2026? 

What else do we know? Not much, but not nothing.

Outside of a few demos, Google hasn't revealed too much about its smart glasses yet.

However, as Mashable's Chance Townsend reported, Google's developer design documentation for Android XR should offer a window into how the company is approaching all things AR, VR, and XR.

"Designing for AI Glasses with Android XR requires a thoughtful approach to user experience, prioritizing comfort and seamless integration with the user's daily life," reads the documentation. "Apps on glasses should feel like a natural extension of the user's perception, providing convenient access to information without being intrusive."

For more insight, our colleagues at CNET have tried on the unreleased Google smart glasses (again, definitely not Google Glass). In addition to Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, Samsung and eyewear brand Kering are also heavily rumored to be building smart glasses for Android XR. As CNET reports, Kering could even bring Gucci smart glasses to market in the near future.

Expect all of these glasses to feature heavy integration with Gemini.

To hopefully find out more, tune into Google I/O 2026 and follow Mashable's live coverage on May 19.

Bluetooth trackers are useful, but for situations where you need precise location tracking—like if you lose your keys inside your home and don’t want to play hide and seek with the tracker’s alert sounds—Ultra Wideband (UWB) comes to the rescue.

For years, Korean cars have struggled to shake off an outdated reputation for questionable reliability. Even as Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis dramatically improved build quality, technology, and refinement, many buyers continued to assume Japanese brands were the safer long-term choice. However, modern reliability data is starting to tell a very different story.

Elon Musk's $150 billion lawsuit against his fellow OpenAI founders died a quick and unceremonious death Monday.

After spending more than three weeks listening to witnesses, including Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the nine-member Oakland jury took just two hours to decide Musk's case had no merit — based entirely on its timing.

Musk was seeking damages over OpenAI's conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit enterprise run by a nonprofit board. He claimed that a $10 billion Microsoft investment in 2023 was when he realized the ChatGPT maker was straying from the original terms of its charitable foundation.

But much of the courtroom drama turned on whether his lawsuit fell within the statute of limitations for such a case. Musk's team strained to prove that he wasn't worried about Microsoft "capturing" OpenAI before 2023 — despite a 2020 tweet from Musk that said exactly that, to take just one example.

Musk's lawyers at the courthouse Monday told reporters they will appeal the verdict.

SEE ALSO: 'Memes on his phone!' Sam Altman's trial testimony takes a turn

In theory, the jury's decision was advisory — meaning federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers could still have ruled in Musk's favor if she disagreed. But Rogers concurred, tossing the lawsuit.

Rogers showed herself to be no great friend to Musk during the trial, reminding the billionaire that he was "not a lawyer" despite him taking Law 101 in college.

Musk also didn't help his case by absconding to China last week, when the judge had required him to stay close in case he needed to testify again. Counsel for Altman and the other co-founders made hay out of this fact in their closing arguments, noting that their clients had actually shown up.

The jury seemed sympathetic to OpenAI's attorney then, and the speed of their verdict has confirmed their sympathies.

OpenAI emerges unscathed. The company will continue its march to a potential $1 trillion IPO — one of the most anticipated public offerings of the decade. Altman has cause to celebrate too, despite Musk's counsel painting him as fundamentally untrustworthy (echoing a recent New Yorker investigation) and causing him to confirm for the first time he does have an equity stake in OpenAI.

Musk hasn't tweeted since the trial verdict came in. Altman, meanwhile, merely congratulated the ChatGPT team on its latest build.

Apple fanatics won't have to wait long to hear more about the next iteration of iOS.

In a newsroom post on Monday afternoon, Apple officially set the schedule for this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC 2026. This is Apple's annual showcase for all things software, usually including reveals for what's coming next in iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and more. However, we're also expecting a long-awaited update on Siri's AI transformation this year.

The big public-facing keynote livestream will happen on June 8 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET), with some other more developer-focused events happening in the days to follow. You'll be able to watch the keynote live on the Apple TV app or on Apple's YouTube channel.

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Coming bright up, huh? Credit: Apple

As usual, this announcement was accompanied by an invite graphic sent to members of the media, including Mashable.

This year's invite has an intriguing dove-like logo with the text "Coming bright up" underneath it, which could honestly mean just about anything. However, the previous WWDC update from Apple was rumored to be a hint at Siri's new look and user interface, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

So, if we had to guess, we expect the new glowing dove symbol has something to do with the new Gemini-powered version of Siri. Could this be the logo for a new standalone Siri app, for example?

At any rate, don't be surprised if Apple spends a lot of time talking about AI and Apple Intelligence.

Hyundai and Kia basically struck gold with two SUVs that families can’t seem to stop buying. The Palisade leans into the more polished, comfortable, almost upscale vibe, while the Telluride has always played the slightly cooler, more aggressive sibling.

Reddit services are disrupted, and the company says it has identified the problem and is working on a fix.

According to Reddit's status page, the platform began investigating elevated site errors and issues accessing media around 1:39 p.m. ET Monday.

By 2:06 p.m. ET, Reddit confirmed it had identified the issue, warning users they may encounter errors and general loading issues across feeds, posts, and search in the meantime. Recently uploaded images and videos are also affected and may not appear as expected. Desktop web, mobile web, and native mobile apps are all showing degraded performance.

The most commonly reported issues are app-related, followed by website problems, and then feed and timeline issues, according to DownDetecto (formerly owned by Mashable's parent company, Ziff Davis).

No timetable has been given for a full resolution. We'll update this story as more information becomes available.

Google I/O 2026 kicks off tomorrow, May 19, and you won't need a ticket to catch any of it. The entire two-day event is livestreamed, and you can register to watch for free at io.google/2026.

How to watch Google I/O 2026

The main Google keynote starts at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m ET on May 19. The focus will be big-picture announcements, product reveals, and whatever CEO Sundar Pichai wants the world to walk away talking about (mostly Gemini, Google's AI product). You can find an embed to the YouTube stream of the keynote below:

In addition, our sister site CNET will be hosting a Google I/O live viewing party, also on YouTube, with live updates from reporters on the ground in Mountain View, California and a pre- and post-show. You can also ask questions and participate in the live chat.

A developer-focused keynote follows the same day at 1:30 p.m. PT / 4:30 p.m ET, which tends to get into the weeds on APIs, tools, and what's actually coming for builders. From there, breakout sessions run through May 20, covering Google AI, Android, Chrome, and cloud infrastructure, including one billed around agent-first workflows.

Based on everything that's leaked and quietly rolled out in the days leading up to the show — new Gemini Live models, a mysterious video generation tool called Gemini Omni, expanded thinking controls, and fresh third-party app integrations — Gemini is going to be at the center of almost everything. The smart glasses situation should get some stage time, too.

Netflix has a new animated champion in Swapped. The body-swap comedy starring Michael B. Jordan set the single-week viewing record for a Netflix animated original with 38.7 million views during the May 4-10 period. While it won't reach the heights of KPop Demon Hunters, Swapped is a win for Netflix and its animated slate.

The worst thing about internet issues is that they can be caused by any number of reasons. That makes troubleshooting so very tedious.

As summer approaches, so does the excitement of watching thrilling movies that are fast-paced, easy to binge, and widely appealing. From pulse-pounding thrillers to emotionally charged dramas, exhilarating high-stakes storytelling thrives on conflict, risk, and consequence, and that’s the sandbox we’re playing in this week.

Craftsman used to have tools that could survive decades of heavy abuse, and you feel that durability the moment you pick them up. If you buy basic modern hand tools from a big box store, you already know they lack that heavy feel. They have shiny finishes and high-tooth ratchets, but the computer designs trim weight to save on manufacturing costs, leading to weak steel that breaks under pressure.

With all due respect to the new movies added on streaming last week, this week's selections blow last week's additions out of the water. Lurker on HBO Max and The Crash on Netflix were definitely highlights. However, this week is so good that those two might not have made the cut.

According to 9to5Google, the Gemini app is already rolling out a new "Thinking level" option for some users, letting them choose between Standard and Extended reasoning modes when using Gemini 3 Flash or Gemini 3.1 Pro.

The Extended setting, the outlet notes, is designed for more complex topics that benefit from additional processing time — a consumer-facing version of the thinking level controls Google AI Studio already offers developers. Gemini is also expanding its roster of third-party apps. GitHub, OpenStax, Spotify, and WhatsApp are already supported, but 9to5Google found support documentation pointing to the additions of Canva, Instacart, and OpenTable.

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SEE ALSO: What to expect from Google I/O 2026: Gemini news, Android XR glasses

The Canva integration would let users generate and edit designs directly through Gemini prompts, while Instacart support would allow users to add ingredients to a shopping cart from a recipe link or a simple list. OpenTable would bring restaurant search, booking, and reservation management into the chat window — including the ability to hand off a confirmed reservation directly to Google Calendar.

None of the three new integrations has rolled out yet, per the report. However, the timing is notable given that Google's I/O developer conference is literally a day away.

Perhaps the rollout marks the start of Google transitioning Gemini AI toward an agentic AI rather than a simple chatbot.

We’ve had multi-gig networking for several years now, but where does it actually make sense? I think that multi-gig internet is a waste of money, as most servers can’t serve you files at those speeds anyway. However, a multi-gig LAN absolutely changed how I use my homelab.

It's Green Lantern but not as fans know it, with a new teaser dropped for Lanterns on Monday. Based on the DC Comics and created by Chris Mundy, Tom King, and Damon Lindelof, the HBO series is one of the TV shows to look forward to this summer.

Aaron Pierre leads as new Lantern Corps recruit John Stewart, who is tasked with solving a strange murder in Nebraska alongside veteran Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). That's right, the Green Lanterns aren't cruising around the galaxy this time, instead brought right down to Earth. But all the same, they're equipped with those all important powerful rings, dubbed by Hal as "the greatest weapon in the universe," along with their signature verdant light sources.

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The cast is massive for this one, with Kelly Macdonald, Nathan Fillion, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Ulrich Thomsen, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, Sherman Augustus, Chris Coy, Paul Ben-Victor, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Cary Christopher, and Jasmine Cephas Jones starring.

Lanterns premieres this August on HBO and HBO Max.

Hinge users may have noticed something subtle next to a potential date's profile: a tiny purple heart next to their name.

Hinge's new Signals feature. Credit: Hinge

Your eyes don't deceive you. This is a new feature called Signals, and it's currently in testing, according to a page on Hinge's Help Center. The badge indicates that the user demonstrates thoughtfulness and follow-through.

SEE ALSO: Hinge's latest feature makes date planning a little easier

Users can't buy a Signals badge. It's based on baseline requirements:

• A complete profile (with photos and prompt responses)

• The user's profile must be in good standing, meaning they follow Hinge's Community Guidelines

• The profile must be over a week old

• Completed selfie verification

If any of these aren't checked off, your profile won't have a Signals heart. Additionally, users must exhibit three of five behaviors Hinge calls "Thoughtful Participation," all of which involve actively engaging with other profiles.

These behaviors include sending comments when Liking, actually sending messages to matches, and confirming a date. Hinge also considers "looking before liking" a thoughtfulness factor: reading prompts, and scrolling past the first photo before sending a Like, suggesting that Hinge can detect all these behaviors. Reviewing one's Likes and matching or skipping (instead of leaving folks in limbo) is another point of thoughtfulness.

Credit: Hinge Credit: Hinge

"With Signals, we are testing a new feature that would make it easier for your small but meaningful actions to stand out to people viewing your profile," Hinge's chief product and technology officer, Ben Celebicic, said in an emailed statement to Mashable. "It's based on the behaviors daters have told us matter to them, like taking time to notice the small details on a profile or keeping the conversation going."

Signals is dynamic and based on activities over the last 30 days on the app. It refreshes daily, but doesn't reflect real-time activity. The Help Center page states that the heart reflects in-app patterns only; it's not a background check or ID verification (other than requiring selfie verification), and it also doesn't guarantee how someone will act with you.

Recent Hinge features typically nudge users towards better behavior, like Date Ideas for actually figuring out what to do on a first date, and Conversation Starters so singles aren't hit with the dreaded "hey" message.

Microsoft Teams is losing a feature that was launched back when many people were working remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Microsoft, the company is saying "goodbye" to Together mode in Microsoft teams and "moving to a simpler layout experience."

For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Teams, it's a cloud-based communication and collaboration platform that many businesses use as its part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Along with messaging and file sharing features, Microsoft Teams also provides Zoom-like video conferencing. 

In the summer of 2020, when remote work was at all-time highs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft rolled out Together mode in order to help users "feel like you're sitting in the same room with everyone else in the meeting or class." The feature basically removed the background for every user on a video meeting and put them in a virtual room. Basically, the feature gave everyone a shared background so it looked like they were in the same space.

An example of Together mode that Microsoft provided when the feature was first introduced in July 2020 can be seen in the image at the top of the article.

Microsoft says it's removing Together mode for a few reasons. The company says it "increases cognitive load for users," "fragments the meeting experience across desktop, web, mobile, and Teams Rooms," and "adds implementation complexity across platforms."

"Today, the core need Together mode was designed to support, namely seeing the people who matter in a meeting, can now be fully met by the modern Gallery view, which can display up to 49 participants at once," Microsoft said in its announcement.

Microsoft Teams will now focus on Gallery mode as the view option in video conferencing. This is the traditional boxed view in video meetings, popularized by Zoom. Microsoft says doing so will "simplify the meeting interface," "deliver higher and more stable video quality across meetings," and "free up service capacity that can be reinvested into foundational video improvements."

Microsoft said it's also removing scenes and custom scenes, including seat assignments, along with Together mode in Microsoft Teams as well.

I love Gemini in Android Auto; there are so many times it is better than the old Assistant. However, there are too many issues Google did not solve before putting it in cars. It's as if the company wanted to put it in cars before making sure everything worked. Some things make me really wish I could go back to Google Assistant, especially when I need a true assistant, and not just a conversation partner. I handle most things from my phone before driving off, so I don't need the extra help on the road.