IT General

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

A sore.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

ULCER

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Hairy.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

FURRY

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Strength.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 4 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 4, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

VIGOR

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Separate.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for August 4 Hurdle Word 4 answer

APART

Final Hurdle hint

To stoop down.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

DEIGN

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

The moon looks almost full tonight, but it's not quite there. We've even got a few more days before we hit that part of the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

So, what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 5?

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Tuesday, Aug. 5, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA's Daily Moon Observation, the moon will be 85% lit up tonight, the 12th day of the lunar cycle.

With each night we progress through the lunar cycle, there is more visibility for us on Earth. With your unaided eye, you'll be able to spot many things tonight, but most notably the Mare Vaporum, the Mare Tranquillitatis, and the Tycho Crater.

Pull out the binoculars to add the Mare Humorum, the Apennine Mountains, and the Archimedes Crater, which, according to NASA, is about 3/4 the size of Washington, DC. And with a telescope, enjoy glimpses of the Schiller Crater, the Descartes Highlands, and the Gruithuisen Domes, something NASA calls a "geologic mystery." One mile tall, these volcanic mountains are steeper than normal lunar volcanoes, despite missing water and plate tectonics that help volcanoes form on Earth.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on August 9. The last full moon was on July 10.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

We get it — buying a new mattress kinda sucks. It’s a decision that relies on dozens of prior discussions, like memory foam or hybrid, and a budget analysis. This also gets compounded by the question of, “Does a higher price make for a better bed?” Plus, there’s the knowledge that you’ll be sleeping on this thing every night for the next 10-ish years. The stakes are high for making the right choice.

The DreamCloud lineup of mattresses promises a lot in terms of comfort and support, and they claim to be made from high-quality materials. But they’re priced at a much more affordable level than many competitors that offer a similar product. Since I’m always on the lookout for a good deal, I knew I needed to test out the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid. It’s the brand's most popular mattress, and when on sale, you can snag a queen-size for about $950. That’s significantly more affordable than many luxury hybrid options, so I was curious to see how it felt.

SEE ALSO: I tested sleep earbuds for over a month: Here are the 3 I'd buy

In good news for everyone, I absolutely loved every night of rest I got on the DreamCloud Premier during my month of testing. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to recreating a luxury hotel-like experience at home. 

First impressions

Shockingly, mattresses come with instructions. As someone who’s researched, tested, and written about mattresses for over half a dozen years, I can tell you that often, these instructions are buried in an impossible-to-find corner on the manufacturer’s website. So when DreamCloud sent me an instruction email days before the mattress arrived, I had a good feeling.

The email told me not to get rid of my old mattress yet (makes you question why this needs to be stated), but the email also told me I’d need someone to help me haul the mattress inside once it’s delivered on account of the weight (yeah, it’s about 90 pounds). It also said the bed would come with a brochure that told me how to unbox and care for my new bed. 

Unboxing the hybrid bed-in-a-box was a breeze, and with one slight cut into the plastic, the mattress expanded with a mesmerizing quickness.

Online, DreamCloud says the Premier Hybrid measures 13 inches in height, which seems like a nice medium level these days. It’s not so high that I’ll need to do a little hop to get on, but it’s not so low that I'd feel like a college student with my mattress on the floor. Within minutes of cutting the plastic away from the mattress, it had expanded to almost 13 inches.

A slight but noticeable smell

DreamCloud says you can sleep on the mattress that same night, but I left it to air out in another room. This is not the recommended strategy since it involves hauling the fully expanded mattress into the bedroom eventually, and that’s not the easiest task. But this did afford me insight into how the mattress off-gassed. 

It took a few days for my DreamCloud Premier to get rid of a slight chemical smell. It wasn’t offensive, but it was present, and it might be bothersome for people who are especially sensitive to smells. But after three days, when I finally lugged the mattress onto my bed frame, the scent was gone.

So many layers of support with the DreamCloud Premier

The DreamCloud Premier is a hybrid mattress, which means it uses both memory foam and innerspring coils. If we break down the layers, the mattress first uses a quilted Euro Top that includes cooling fibers.

A quilted, cushioned cover with cooling fibers. Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable

Below this are two layers of foam. The upper layer is memory foam and is designed to help with pressure relief, while the lower layer is adaptive foam that’s supposed to help with ergonomic support. Then, an eight-inch layer of individually wrapped innerspring coils forms the bed’s solid support system. The entire perimeter of this layer is reinforced to help with stronger edge support. Lastly, there’s a layer of dense foam that helps with the bed’s stability.

In total, you’re getting four layers of support below a quilted cover. 

How does the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid feel?

For starters, I adore this bed’s quilted cover. It both feels and looks expensive. It gives the bed a comfortable initial layer of pressure relief without making it feel like it’s swallowing its occupants. It’s a cushioned sleeping-on-top-of-the-bed feel that I prefer with mattresses. 

I’m a multi-position sleeper, switching from my stomach to my side and occasionally sleeping on my back. This isn’t a great combination for finding a suitable mattress because I need it to be both firm for when I sleep on my stomach and soft for when I’m on my side. Magically, the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid was comfortable in all positions. I always felt supported, never noticed any pressure points, and didn’t wake up with a sore neck or back.

SEE ALSO: Optimize your REM sleep with the best sleep tracker of 2025

Unfortunately for me and my partner, I’m a light sleeper and I wake up easily. This is one of the reasons I’ve always opted for an all-foam bed, assuming foam can absorb motion better than coils. But the DreamCloud Premier proved me wrong. It did a better job at isolating motion than my cheap all-foam bed. I stopped noticing when my partner got up before me or came to bed after me. I think this feature alone could make this bed perfect for couples who are easily disrupted by a partner’s movement or who have differing sleep/wake schedules.

Stable edge support around the entire perimiter means you can put on socks without falling off. Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable Medium-firm but maybe not

DreamCloud says the Premier Hybrid is a medium-firm bed. They place it at a 6.5 on the mattress firmness scale of one to 10, with 10 sitting as the firmest option. Politely, I disagree. The mattress felt a lot more like a medium to my firm-mattress-loving self. However, I’m not mad about the firmness level here. In fact, I love it and it’s made me wonder if I really do prefer firm mattresses. The medium/medium-firm level on this bed felt great to me. I could have gone for firmer, but I never felt stuck in the bed and always felt like I was on top of the mattress but comfortably supported. If you think medium-firm sounds too firm for you, I wouldn’t count this mattress out. 

Does the DreamCloud Premier live up to its premier name?

Since the mattress has “premier” in the name, it’s only fair that we assess it as a premium product. For the most part, the mattress lives up to its name. The memory foam paired with the quilted cover is impressive when it comes to gentle pressure relief without feeling like the bed is losing its stability. The motion isolation is superior to even some all-foam beds. Plus, the flame barrier DreamCloud uses does not contain fiberglass, which is a big plus for most of us who are pretty grossed out by thinking about sleeping on fiberglass.

In terms of cooling, the DreamCloud Premier slept temperature-neutral for me. I sleep hot. I’ve showered at 3 a.m. on account of waking up far too sweaty to find being in my bed acceptable. But I never once woke up sweaty on the DreamCloud Premier. I’ve slept on cooler mattresses, like the Brooklyn Bedding CopperFlex Pro, but the DreamCloud did an adequate job of preventing my sweat tendency. I woke up feeling hot and took a layer of bedding off a few times, but I didn’t break a sweat. Come morning, I was never mad about the temperature of last night’s sleep, especially when I thought about the serious level of comfort.

SEE ALSO: The cult-favorite Loftie alarm helped me kick my nighttime phone habit

I tested the DreamCloud Premier with cooling percale sheets from Naturepedic and my absolute favorite pillow, the Purple Harmony Pillow, and it felt like I had unlocked some kind of magical recipe for superior sleep. It was a five-star hotel-like experience each night, which felt like an incredible treat given that the mattress leans on the budget-friendly side.

Supportive while asleep and awake

Every sleep expert says we’re only supposed to use the bed for sleep and sex. And yeah, we’re all looking to get better sleep, but everyone except Bryan Johnson and those sleep doctors do other things in bed. A strong case in point is that The White Lotus season 3 aired while I tested the DreamCloud, so of course I tuned in every Sunday night to watch the new episode, and I did this while sitting in bed, naturally.

Because the DreamCloud Premier is a medium to medium-firm hybrid mattress, it’s a nice bed for sitting in to watch a show or type out some emails at midnight. The reinforced edge support also comes into play here, offering a stable surface along the sides and the foot of the bed.

A warning if you move often

I didn’t expect six layers of support in a premium hybrid mattress to be lightweight, but this mattress is a beast of a bed, weighing about 90 pounds in a queen size. That means I absolutely needed help with moving it from the driveway into the house. That’s a lot heavier than many all-foam beds. For some people, the weight of the mattress won’t be much of an issue since you’ll lug it into the bedroom once and then likely won’t move it out until it’s time for a new bed. But if you move apartments often, this mattress might be a pain. 

Two handles on each side make for easier moving, but it still weighs 86 pounds. Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable

A nod to DreamCloud though because the Premier Hybrid has two handles on each side, which can make moving the mattress a bit easier. Those are also great for rotating the mattress, which DreamCloud says you should do every six months to help with both comfort and longevity.

A loveable 365-night sleep trial

I loved the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid, but will you? Mattress preferences are subjective, and it’s totally fair if you’re not convinced you’ll love the bed as much as I did. But that’s where DreamCloud’s generous sleep trial comes into play. You get 365 nights to try out the mattress at home while still remaining eligible for a return with a full refund. DreamCloud covers the return shipping fee.

Sleep on the mattress during August to make sure it sleeps cool enough for your preferences, and sleep on it during half-marathon training in the spring to make sure your bad hip gets enough support. The year-long sleep trial allows you to try the bed during all seasons and phases of life that come your way within that year. That’s reassurance I can’t offer from my personal perspective, but a major benefit that comes from opting for a DreamCloud mattress.

Is the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid mattress worth it?

Considering many luxury hybrid mattresses cost $1,500 or more for a queen size, the much more affordable DreamCloud Premier Hybrid is a really fantastic deal. At the time of writing this in mid-2025, the mattress was consistently on sale for $950. If you keep this mattress for 10 years, the $950 price works out to about $8 per month. For sleep that’s both comfortable and supportive, we’d pay way more. And honestly, the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid feels like it costs much more than $950.

Unless you’re outfitting a guest room or looking for something that’s under $500, the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid offers an incredible value for the construction, material, and overall feel of the mattress.

DreamCloud Premier Hybrid mattress $999 at Amazon
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The Nothing Phone (3) was recently launched as Nothing's closest attempt to an actual flagship to date. And while it gets close, it still misses the mark on some key issues. One of the aspects where it misses the mark by a lot is repairability, so make sure your screen never breaks.

SAVE $60: The DJI Mini 3 drone is on sale at Amazon for $359, down from the normal price of $419. That's a 14% discount.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Mini 3 drone $359 at Amazon
$419 Save $60 Get Deal

If you're in the market for a drone but haven't been ready to commit, you might want to ditch those cold feet and go for it. Come December, who knows what'll happen to drone sales in the U.S., and so to avoid any disappointment, it's best to get one soon. Thankfully, Amazon has a DJI model in stock today and it's even on sale.

As of Aug. 4, the DJI Mini 3 drone is on sale at Amazon for $359, marked down from the standard price of $419. That works out to a savings of $60 from a 14% discount.

The DJI Mini 3 means business when it comes to being small, weighing under 249 grams or about half a pound. The compact size and weight mean this is a great option for taking on adventures, out on creator projects, or packing along on a camping trip. Of course, the foldable design only further lends itself to the portability.

SEE ALSO: The DJI Power 2000 portable power station means business, and it’s great for DJI drone owners

In terms of performance, DJI upgraded the battery life on the Mini 3 drone so you'll be able to get 38 minutes of standard intelligent flight battery or 51 minutes of intelligent flight battery plus. The gimbal design means you can capture true vertical footage while shooting in 4K HDR. All-in-all, the DJI Mini 3 features and functionality are awesome for beginners or advanced drone operators who want something super portable.

Keep in mind this sale is offered from a third-party seller. Mashable typically discourages buying from third-party sellers on Amazon, but given recent stock issues with DJI drones, this might be an option. The seller has a 76 percent positive rating over the last year, and most unhappy reviews are related to slow shipping.

Before it goes out of stock, snag the DJI Mini 3 from Amazon while saving $60. Since there's no telling what tomorrow holds in terms of tariffs or security regulations, it's best too snag the DJI today and rest assured those issues won't bother your holiday shopping list.

While nothing can beat the big screen and surround sound experience that comes with going to the movies, there's no denying that it's a costly experience nowadays. That's why it makes sense to maximize your Netflix subscription by watching as much as possible.

Some people argue against 4K monitors, but I personally think that if your hardware can run it, it's kind of unnecessary, but why not? If you've been in the market for one lately, this Alienware monitor is a great choice, and it recently went from ultra-expensive to somewhat decently priced. It's still expensive, but it's at a way better price now.

Until recently, the Internet Archive has been my go-to wayback machine for accessing websites, documents, and files that are no longer available on their original sites. But lately, I've discovered some other sites that let you dig up old stuff in totally new ways. These are some of the best Internet Archive alternatives out there.

Over the weekend, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI released Grok Imagine, a new generative AI tool for generating images and videos. Grok Imagine is available now to paid xAI subscribers in the Grok iOS and Android apps.

Musk has been hyping up the project on X, sharing photos and videos from Grok users. This includes some mildly NSFW content, which the Grok app labels as "Spicy."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

AI video is an exciting — and frankly terrifying — new frontier for the AI industry. To proponents, this technology gives artists a new medium for creativity and could reduce the costs of animation and filmmaking. To critics, AI video poses serious risks for sexual deepfakes and misinformation.

Putting aside that debate for the moment, I wanted to see how well Grok Imagine compares to xAI's biggest rivals. As I've written previously, Google's Veo 3 AI video model currently leads with field with surprisingly lifelike video. Then there's Sora, from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. Additionally, the popular AI image generator Midjourney recently introduced its own generative AI video tool.

So, how does Grok Imagine compare to its competitors? To be blunt, I'm not impressed.

Yes, Grok Imagine is brand new, and Musk recently said on X that it "should get better every day." However, as of this writing, it seems to lag far behind its rivals.

Let me show my work.

Comparing Grok Imagine AI video to the competition

Mashable recently wrote about a viral AI video trend — security camera footage of animals jumping on trampolines and engaging in similar antics. So, I used a simple prompt to test Grok Imagine, Veo 3, Sora, and Midjourney: "Security camera footage of rabbits jumping on a trampoline at night." Simple enough, right?

First, I should note that there's a big difference between Veo 3 and Grok Imagine. Google's Veo 3 model can generate videos based on a text prompt. Simply describe the video you want, and Veo 3 will do the rest. However, tools like Midjourney and Grok Imagine only offer text-to-image generation. After generating or uploading an image, users can then animate it, transforming it into a short video clip. In this sense, Grok Imagine is already on the back foot compared to OpenAI and Google.

With those caveats, let's dive into the results, which I've also shared on X.

I put my test prompt into Grok, and it returned these disappointing images.

Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Grok / Timothy Beck Werth Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Grok / Timothy Beck Werth

I selected the least bad of these images and created this short video:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

It's...fine? Kind of mid, or meh, as the kids say.

But it also suffers in comparison to other AI video tools.

As the video shows, Google Veo 3 and Sora did much better with the same prompt:

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Finally, Midjourney, which animates images similar to xAI, was able to produce better images and videos, though it took two attempts. The image and video it produced have the grainy look of surveillance footage.

AI-generated image. Credit: Timothy Beck Werth / Midjourney This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Audio is also a major disadvantage with Grok Imagine. While Veo 3 can produce sound effects and coherent dialogue in sync with the video, the audio I've found on Grok Imagine videos is limited to rough sound effects and gibberish.

Musk compared Grok Imagine to a modern-day Vine app, writing on X, "Grok Imagine is optimized for most fun and shareable content."

And in my initial tests, Grok Imagine seems optimized for creating two types of images and videos: memes and anime. If you want to animate memes — or create sexually suggestive videos of anime girls — then Grok Imagine will do the trick, I guess. But beyond that, I can't say I'm impressed.

There is one area where Grok Imagine does shine, and that's in terms of speed. So far, I've found it produces both images and videos significantly faster than its rivals.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Mashable reached out to xAI, and we'll update this story if we receive a response.

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

Microsoft Clipchamp, Feedback Hub, and Maps are just a few of the many apps that come preinstalled on Windows 11. Since these apps are rarely used, wouldn’t it be better if Windows 11 didn’t include them? Fortunately, it’s possible to install Windows 11 without any bloatware so you can enjoy a clean experience from the moment you set up your system.

Unraid, the popular operating system for self-hosted servers and NAS boxes, just released Unraid OS 7.2 as a public beta. It has support for more file systems, an updated web interface, and much more.π

If you bought a Nintendo Switch 2 console, you've probably noticed how the console can get a bit toasty if you use it outside during the summer. It's not just you, though—Nintendo Switch 2 consoles are overheating left and right.

I used to feel trapped by Spotify Premium. I thought that if I quit, I'd have to choose between listening to insufferable ads and shelling out hundreds every month for downloads and physical media. When I finally did quit Spotify, I learned you can actually listen to quite a bit of ad-free music without breaking the bank.

ChatGPT is getting a health upgrade, this time for users themselves.

In a new blog post ahead of the company's reported GPT-5 announcement, OpenAI unveiled it would be refreshing its generative AI chatbot with new features designed to foster healthier, more stable relationships between user and bot. Users who have spent prolonged periods of time in a single conversation, for example, will now be prompted to log off with a gentle nudge. The company is also doubling down on fixes to the bot's sycophancy problem, and building out its models to recognize mental and emotional distress.

SEE ALSO: An Illinois bill banning AI therapy has been signed into law

ChatGPT will respond differently to more "high stakes" personal questions, the company explains, guiding users through careful decision-making, weighing pros and cons, and responding to feedback rather than providing answers to potentially life-changing queries. This mirror's OpenAI's recently announced Study Mode for ChatGPT, which scraps the AI assistant's direct, lengthy responses in favor of guided Socratic lessons intended to encourage greater critical thinking.

"We don’t always get it right. Earlier this year, an update made the model too agreeable, sometimes saying what sounded nice instead of what was actually helpful. We rolled it back, changed how we use feedback, and are improving how we measure real-world usefulness over the long term, not just whether you liked the answer in the moment," OpenAI wrote in the announcement. "We also know that AI can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals experiencing mental or emotional distress."

Broadly, OpenAI has been updating its models in response to claims that its generative AI products, specifically ChatGPT, are exacerbating unhealthy social relationships and worsening mental illnesses, especially among teenagers. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that many users were forming delusional relationships with the AI assistant, worsening existing psychiatric disorders, including paranoia and derealization. Lawmakers, in response, have shifted their focus to more intensely regulate chatbot use, as well as their advertisement as emotional partners or replacements for therapy.

OpenAI has recognized this criticism, acknowledging that its previous 4o model "fell short" in addressing concerning behavior from users. The company hopes that these new features and system prompts may step up to do the work its previous versions failed at.

"Our goal isn’t to hold your attention, but to help you use it well," the company writes. "We hold ourselves to one test: if someone we love turned to ChatGPT for support, would we feel reassured? Getting to an unequivocal 'yes' is our work."

Were you tricked by the video of a bunch of bunnies jumping on a trampoline on TikTok? Well, nearly 230 million people were — and plenty of those viewers had no idea that it was actually AI. In response, the creator who brought us the Punxsutawney Phil musical, Oliver Richman (or @olivesongs11), wrote and recorded a 30-second song about the AI video, also for TikTok. He wrote the song on day 576 of an ongoing project, where he writes a new song each day.

"That project has changed my life in so many ways," Richman told Mashable, adding that it brought him "back to the joy of creating." He scrolled across the viral video of the bunnies jumping on the trampoline and said he was "certainly fooled" and "thought they were real."

"So when I learned that they weren't, I was like, 'Oh, I think this is today's song."

The unknowing bunny song on TikTok now has over 3.8 million views, 600,000 likes, and hundreds of comments like, "Bo Burnham! At The Disco" and "Wait until you see the bear on a trampoline. Spoiler: also AI."

The song goes like this:

There were bunnies that were jumping on a trampoline

And I just learned that they weren't real

If a bot can inhabit

An unknowing rabbit

It might manufacture the way you make me feel

How do I know that the sky's really sunny?

Sometimes it feels like your love is as real as

An unknowing bunny

The video has inspired covers and renditions, stop-motion videos, reactions, and a variety of other really cool human-made art. As one creator wrote on a TikTok video using the sound, "The fact that this song written about AI is going viral is incredibly healing. Especially because us as artists and songwriters are being threatened of our livelihoods due to the use of AI. And AI could never create something this unique with this much feeling."

Richman said the response to his video has been "the most surreal thing ever."

"Every piece of art that I've seen, I like get emotional," he said. "It certainly made me feel connected to the beauty of the messiness of being a human. And the imperfections that AI tends to delete or perfect — seeing all of this human art has just been a very emotional and cool experience."

As Mashable's Tim Marcin recently wrote about the influx of faux surveillance footage of animals, it "seems to be a new genre of AI slop." But give the internet slop, and creators might make porridge (is that a saying?).

In the face of all the AI slop we see online, creators like Richman are staying positive. "Art is so cool. Human art is so cool, and that really excites me."

Updated on Aug. 4 at 3:00 p.m. ET — This story has been updated to include an interview with creator Oliver Richman. Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

Plug-in hybrid SUVs are still flying under the radar, but that won’t last much longer. As automakers rethink their rush to go fully electric, PHEVs are stepping in as the smart, flexible middle ground.

A few weeks ago, my Windows 11 PC started lagging badly. Upon checking, I found that OneDrive had occupied a huge amount of storage on my PC. Luckily, I made all my OneDrive files cloud-only, and here’s how you can do that, too.

Macs older than this century should not be used by anyone as a daily driver, but many are pieces of computing history that a lot of people want to keep alive and, occasionally, play around with. Someone managed to backport Universal Control, a very modern Mac feature, to the Macintosh Classic, released 35 years ago. Well, kind of.

Verizon customers reportedly got double bad news this week: the phone carrier is raising fees and removing loyalty discounts.

According to users on the Verizon subreddit, several customers reported receiving an email from Verizon informing them their account discounts are ending. "We are writing to let you know that a discount on your account will soon end," the email said, according a redditor. "This discount will be removed no sooner than September 1, 2025." Several other redditors chimed in on the thread, saying they had a received the same email about losing loyalty perks offered to longstanding customers. Mashable has reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this story with a response.

Reddit

A few days earlier, Verizon confirmed to Tom's Guide that the company is increasing fees for activations, phone lines, and tablet plans by Sept. 1.

SEE ALSO: The fastest mobile services have been ranked, and there’s a clear winner

Verizon customers are understandably unhappy about the changes. Some commented that they might change phone carriers to T-Mobile or AT&T as a result. "They just keep finding ways to crap on loyal customers," commented one redditor, underscoring the general sentiment of the thread that loyal customers are being penalized for their loyalty.

According to Tom's Guide, Verizon is reportedly trying to persuade customers on older plans to switch to its newer myPlan subscription. "We want to ensure you get the best value and experience from Verizon and encourage you to check out our myPlan options for the plan that works best for you," the email to customers reportedly said.

Cutting loyalty discounts and upping fees is a bold way to do that, since it seems to be alienating customers even more.

MAME has just dropped its 0.279 update, bringing many improvements to some classic arcade games. This latest release focuses heavily on graphical fidelity and accuracy of many older game consoles, so they'll feel like the originals.