IT General

So, you dropped big money on a gaming mouse but find that you're just as bad with it as with that $20 rodent from your local Walmart. I hear you. Turns out, what really makes a gaming mouse great isn't the price tag—it's how well it fits you. Allow me to explain.

Google is a company that’s not exactly known for sticking with products for the long haul. However, it doesn’t always put the final nail in the coffin. There are a few Google apps still kicking around that could really use some love and attention.

In the race for best gas mileage without a hybrid badge, three major brands are in the spotlight, Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai. Each has made efficiency a priority, consistently coming out ahead when it comes to traditional gasoline vehicles.

Gemini just got easier to access in Google's mobile web browser.

Chrome users on both iOS and Android can now activate "AI Mode" from the page that opens when you try to open a new tab, per 9to5Google. Previously, this page had a Google search bar and icons for some frequently visited websites, but now it has a big old AI Mode button right underneath the search bar.

There's also a button to launch an incognito tab right next to it, which might be more useful to you, depending on how you live your life.

SEE ALSO: How to use Google Meet's new AI makeup tool There it is. Credit: Screenshot: Google/Alex Perry

This gives users a much quicker way to launch into the Gemini-powered search capabilities of AI mode. To be clear, you could always use AI mode on mobile, but now there's a convenient shortcut for it that negates the need to remember the URL or set a bookmark.

For those who don't like AI-powered search, regular old Google search is right there on top of the shortcut.

Before buying a product or trying out a new service, you probably check online reviews first. What most of us don’t realize, though, is that some companies pay for fake reviews to sway buyers away from competitors. Thankfully, with a bit of attention, you can tell genuine reviews apart from fake ones.

I first discovered Waze back in 2014 when traveling to a tech event in Colorado. I flew into Denver and had a 120-mile journey to my destination. It seemed like a simple trip, most of my time would be spent on a single interstate, and the resort was only a few short miles from the exit. About an hour into the trip, Waze suddenly told me to get off the highway at the upcoming exit. I knew I had just over an hour left on this highway, but needing a pit stop, I followed the directions.

Are you ready to ditch Google Photos and self-host your own photo server? There are a number of ways to go about doing that, allowing you to store your pictures without giving Google the rights to crawl through them all.

Every homeowner or trade worker has their preferred power tool brand, and whether you're team Ryobi, love everything Milwaukee, or something else, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the nearly identical options at big-box retail stores. Each brand makes a few unique items catering to certain professions or tasks, and here are five useful Ryobi tools that Milwaukee doesn't make.

This was another big week in tech news, with the long-awaited release of Samsung and Google's XR headset, some exciting updates in the Linux ecosystem, a disappointing change to Windows Paint, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

During the early hours of Tuesday, Oct. 21, AWS went down. You'd think that would simply mean we couldn't shop on Amazon or Woot in the middle of the night, but this is highly incorrect, as we all now know. The AWS outage took down what felt like half of the internet. WhatsApp, Snapchat, Venmo, Slack, banks, airlines, shipping networks, and trading platforms like Robinhood all went offline on a global scale.

Some folks were impacted by the AWS outage to the point of losing sleep. Yes, the spendy Eight Sleep Pod system operates via a WiFi connection only, and the brand uses Amazon's cloud network to make that happen. Once AWS crashed, the Eight Sleep Pods lost connection to the mothership.

I'm in the process of testing the Eight Sleep Pod 5 for Mashable, the latest version of the Eight Sleep system. My full review isn't out yet, but I was certainly one of the sad people who slept poorly due to the outage. While the experience was much better than other nights I've had (like sleeping on an airport floor), it wasn't a great night, and getting my bed back online once AWS was back online took me hours.

The Eight Sleep Pod's (former?) WiFi addiction

The Eight Sleep Pod is a pricey smart bed with several components. First, there's the Eight Sleep Pod's cover, which slips over your mattress like a fitted sheet. This cover contains small water channels that connect to the Pod's Hub, or the brains of the bed. The Hub connects to the Eight Sleep Pod app, and from there, users can set temperature preferences, schedules, and a wake-up alarm.

Should users add the Eight Sleep Pod Blanket to the Cover, the Hub can also control it. The Blanket essentially works in the same way as the Cover. It's laced with small water channels that either cool or heat the sleeper to their preferred settings. The Eight Sleep Pod also uses AI with an automatic mode that makes small temperature adjustments throughout the night to optimize sleep.

People are paying big money to equip their mattress with the Eight Sleep Pod system. In a queen-size, the current model, the Eight Sleep Pod 5 with Hub and Cover, is selling for $3,348. Add the blanket to this setup, and you're at a total of $4,348. For those who want to further upgrade the sleep experience, Eight Sleep also sells an adjustable base with fancy features like a built-in speaker, the ability to set an alarm with vibration, and snoring mitigation. Add the base to the setup and it's a grand total of $6,398.

Credit: Eight Sleep Pod

Every element of the Eight Sleep Pod requires a WiFi connection to work, so when AWS crashed, so did the Sleep Pod. The temperature regulation stopped working, the base's elevation and vibration functions went offline, alarms went dead, and the app did not function except to give an error message after a few minutes.

Some sleepers were stuck in a real pickle

My bedroom is chilly by design. I love a cold room with a warm, cozy bed. I keep the Eight Sleep Pod's Cover and Blanket, keeping me toasty but not sweating. I woke up sometime around 1 a.m. PT on Oct. 21 to a cold bed. Since the water in the cover and blanket was no longer warming, and my bedroom was probably about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, my bed was cold to the touch. The water had more or less taken on the ambient temperature in my room.

I dove into the app to fix my chills, and while waiting for it to load (it was not loading), I noticed I was lying totally flat, not the standard sleep position with head and legs slightly elevated the base typically adjusts to at night.

It took me maybe an hour to figure out my bed was offline because of the AWS outage. I found out by reinstalling X on my phone and then locating the EightSleepApp account, which had posted about the outage to its 38 followers. At the time, the outage information wasn't posted to the brand's main X account, EightSleepPod.

I put on warmer pajamas and socks and added more blankets to my bed, and eventually, my body heat seemed to heat up the water chambers well enough that I could sleep again.

Other users were not so lucky and took to the internet to explain they were way too cold or sweating thanks to a hot bed. Others said their bases were stuck in an elevated position. Since the app wouldn't load, there was no way to make temperature or elevation adjustments. People also said they didn't wake up on time since the alarm function on the Eight Sleep Pod was also offline.

Changes coming to the Eight Sleep Pod

Eight Sleep has since acknowledged the bed's reliance on WiFi, and the AWS is not ideal. The brand's CEO, Matteo Franceschetti, announced Backup Mode on Oct. 22 via his X account. This new function allows users to alter the Pod's temperature and elevation when either the WiFi is out or the cloud network is down. Features vary slightly depending on which outage users are battling with, but the main problem of having no control over the temperature could be solved with this upgrade. Eight Sleep says the rollout is "gradual," and doesn't mention when all users will be in line for this new Bluetooth support.

This upgrade is great news for Eight Sleep Pod users who were left concerned about the expensive Pod's functionality during future outages. This is especially relevant as we head into stormy winter weather, which could turn WiFi routers off, unless you use a portable power station.

When all is said and done, we all gained a bit more knowledge this week. We now know AWS is one powerful beast that can legitimately ruin your slumber.

Oh, how the seasons are flying by! Can you believe the year is almost over? There has been a metric ton of killer shows and movies that have gone to and from Netflix over the past 10 months, and November is no different, with the streaming giant releasing the month's newest recruits.

Back when physical keyboards were common on smartphones, most companies had settled on slide-out designs. Motorola, however, had a different idea. What if the keyboard swiveled out? And what if the phone was a square instead of a rectangle?

TL;DR: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on Oct. 24-26. Spook Your Kindle, hosted by Dark Romance Team, is offering free dark romance books for your e-reader.

Opens in a new window Credit: Dark Romance Team Spook Your Kindle (Oct. 24-26)   Learn More

The Stuff Your Kindle Day schedule has lost all sense of reason. Fresh from the Stuff Your Kindle: Crime Edition and Cozy Mystery eBook Blast, we've got another event running through the weekend. And this isn't even the last event in October. We've got another two events lined up before the end of the month. This is great news for bookworms but terrible news for anyone who writes about the events.

Spook Your Kindle, hosted by Dark Romance Team, is offering you the chance to download free dark romance books on Oct. 24-26. And better yet, the books that you download are yours to keep forever. Lusting after dark romance? This is your chance to stock up and save big.

SEE ALSO: The best Kindle accessories for reading in luxury

Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We've lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.

When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

Spook Your Kindle takes place on Oct. 24-26. Recent events have taken place over a single day, which puts a lot of pressure on participants to find exactly what they want and download before time is up. This event is a little more generous and takes place over a few days. So relax, take your time, and peruse your options.

Who can take part in Stuff Your Kindle Day?

Arguably the best thing about Stuff Your Kindle Day (besides the free books, obviously) is that anyone can participate. Kindle, Kobo, and Nook readers can download these books for free. You can even download these books on your preferred app and read them directly from your phone. Everyone is invited.

Which e-books are free?

Dark Romance Team are hosting the Spook Your Kindle event. They state that "not all books are discounted for the entire length of the event, and we have noted that for each book based on our most recent update from the author." You can find every available title by following the link on the hub page to a helpful document. In that document, the author, book title, genre, tropes, and social links are all listed out so you can find something that ticks all your boxes.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep forever, and there's no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don't count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time. There's no reason to hold back.

The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite + Kindle Unlimited (3-Month Plan)   Get Deal Why we like it

These popular e-readers help you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle Paperwhite. Prices start at $159.99, but you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase.

Samsung's Galaxy XR Headset is official! Plus, the OnePlus 15 is going to have a massive 7,300 mAh battery, Google Maps on Android Auto gets an important safety upgrade, and the classic Pebble app is back for old Pebble watches. And much more!

Ed Gein’s name is on the tip of everyone’s tongue right now, thanks to Netflix’s newest installment of its hit crime anthology series Monster, which I warn you is a squeamish watch that will, at times, have you peering through your fingers.

In this episode of How To Do It All, learn how to easily create AI-generated videos using Sora by OpenAI. From downloading the app on iOS to crafting your own prompts and appearances, we cover everything you need to know to start making your own AI generated content today.

It’s been 45 years since The Shining came out, we’ve had countless horror movies since with insanely high kill counts and absolutely shocking imagery, I should be numb to a story where  — spoilers for a cinematic classic — only two people die, and one because the doofus couldn’t find his way out of a hedge maze. And yet this movie is frightening in a way that’s really hard to pin down…how did Stanley Kubrick manage to make shots of a hallway creepy? Well, by making those hallways feel not just scary, but more specifically, Uncanny.

These days, “Uncanny” is a concept used most often in discourse about robots and computer animation. The Uncanny Valley, I know you’ve heard of it, or at least you know the feeling it evokes — The abject horror of this kid from The Polar Express, good god, get him off the screen. The Uncanny — capital T, Capital U, speaks to the fear of something that isn’t fully unknown…it’s unfamiliar, while retaining the elements of familiarity, and that tension causes a deep sense of unease. Returning to the Valley, think of those robots that move in a way that’s slightly wrong, and suddenly, you feel unsafe, in danger, but you’re not even sure exactly why. And this isn’t confined to robots and animation, of course, lots of stuff can be described as Uncanny, including ghosts, doppelgängers and mirrors, and can even be used to describe a human face.

Breaking it down, there’s a throughline, here — we’re being confronted with human or humanoid bodies not quite lining up with what we’re expecting, pulling at fears of loss of identity, fears about mortality, fears of childhood nightmares suddenly becoming true…but let’s take one step further, over the threshold from uncanny bodies to uncanny places. For example, have you ever been in a dead mall before? There should be people there. It’s built for foot traffic and to allow noise to carry, but it’s empty, silent, falling apart. There’s nothing dangerous there, but it feels terrible to be there, it feels off.

Kubrick leaned all the way in on this feeling with The Shining, which is set in a hotel that’s closed for the season. The halls and sitting rooms are empty — too empty. It’s disquieting from the jump because this just isn’t what a hotel is supposed to look like, to feel like. But sure, lots of movies are set in creepy old houses, but The Overlook Hotel isn’t creepy, at least on its face. There aren’t cobwebs and creaky floorboards and disjointed architecture that distinguish the classic haunted house. Instead, Kubrick decided to make the Overlook as real as possible, by sending out photographers to capture hundreds of pictures of real hotel halls and rooms and elevators, then picking the ones he found most interesting or evocative to build his sets from, replicating them down to the inch. Literally, they photographed the spaces with rulers in frame to make sure they were fully to scale. The Red Bathroom where Jack meets Grady: that was a real bathroom, created one-to-one on a soundstage in England. The fact that all of these spaces are clean, mundane, and downright normal just makes the discomfort all the more pronounced, because they feel like spaces we are familiar with. But something is clearly wrong in this hotel, and we just can’t put our finger on what that wrongness is.

It’s been 45 years, but the vibes of The Overlook are still a phenomenon. So sure, the lady in the tub is pretty scary, as are the twins. But at least for us, the most memorable bits of this movie are the long shots tracking through the hallways, the echoing emptiness of the Colorado Lounge, the unshakeable feeling of wrongness that The Overlook Hotel brings by simply being normal, and not, all at once.

What do you think? Does The Shining still give you nightmares, or has it gotten dated, at least as an entry in the horror genre? Let us know in the comments!

If you're new to Linux and the terminal, I can appreciate how difficult it is to learn. Learning Linux was not an easy task. Fortunately, I have three tools for you that will make learning and using the Linux terminal long-term significantly easier.

Looking to reset your Netflix watch list after a spooky run for Halloween? The streaming platform has a string of exclusive releases slated for the upcoming month that you don't want to miss out on.

While the iPhone 16 Pro launched with 25W wireless charging capabilities, it took manufacturers an entire year to climb aboard that new standard. The Ugreen MagFlow 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger is one such offering that finally realizes this potential, though it’s also a slightly poor fit for newer Apple kits.