Technology

Netflix’s release slate ensures you never run out of something new to explore each week, and October's schedule is no exception. From foreign titles and originals to classic throwbacks, the streaming platform offers plenty, with some exciting movies landing this week.

Apparently, getting better at something now requires adding "maxxing" to its name. There's sleepmaxxing, proteinmaxxing, looksmaxxing, and even cozymaxxing, because a night on the couch can apparently be optimized, too.

As of Oct 26, "maxxing" is Dictionary.com’s 2026 Word of the Year. The publisher describes it as:

“the practice of pursuing an activity to the fullest or optimizing a certain aspect of your life.”

The shorthand for "maximizing" can describe a serious self-improvement effort or a joke about doing very little. Its versatility has helped it spread across beauty, wellness, work, and everyday internet conversation.

Dictionary.com traces the term’s roots through "min-maxing," a gaming strategy that involves developing a character’s strengths until their weaknesses matter less. Online communities eventually gave "maxxing" another "x" and an expanding list of things to work on.

One of its most recognizable forms is "looksmaxxing," which focuses on improving physical appearance. But the template has spread into workplace conversations about "tokenmaxxing," or using as much AI as possible, and lifestyle trends like "frictionmaxxing," which implores you to "rethink your relationship to your device — and your humanity." Increasingly, Dictionary.com says, people also use "maxxing" as a word on its own.

The dictionary recognition has been building, too. In September, Merriam-Webster added "looksmaxxing" among 1,400 new words and definitions, alongside "vibe-coding" and "cuffing season."

The word's history also goes beyond jokes about optimizing your bedtime. Looksmaxxing grew out of incel forums and sits within the broader manosphere, a network of online communities often associated with misogyny and rigid ideas about masculinity. Mashable has explored the subculture through its looksmaxxing glossary and coverage of its racist beauty standards and dehumanizing language about women.

SEE ALSO: The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet's most unhinged subculture

One of looksmaxxing's most recognizable figures is Braden Peters, better known as Clavicular, who shares appearance-focused (and often misogynistic) advice with millions of followers. While looksmaxxing can involve everyday grooming and skincare, its more extreme forms include crash dieting and "bone smashing" — striking facial bones in the unfounded belief that doing so will create a more defined face. There's also "pheromone-maxxing," which involves skipping showers, avoiding deodorant, or wearing unwashed clothes in the hope that a stronger natural scent will attract potential partners.

The concerns extend beyond physical injury. New Zealand's Classification Office, for example, warns that some looksmaxxing content can encourage disordered eating, obsessive scrutiny of appearance, and feelings of hopelessness, while exposing viewers to misogynistic or extremist messaging. That history matters as the language becomes mainstream, even as people adopt "maxxing" for pursuits far removed from those communities.

What else made the shortlist?

Dictionary.com’s other finalists were "affordability" "data center," "odyssey," and "unc." Its explanations, respectively, pointed to the cost of living, debates over AI infrastructure, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and slang for someone considered older or out of touch.

Together, the choices offer a recognizable portrait of 2026: money worries, AI everywhere, a major movie event, and, yes, slang with roots in incel forums.

If that all sounds exhausting, there's always touching-grass-maxxing.

The Elon Musk-owned X has a new main character — or, this time, two entire countries.

While the platform is no stranger to users from different countries trading barbs with their neighbors (see: the FIFA World Cup), what's happening between France and Japan has gotten a little ugly. As protests in France continue over the rising cost of living and demands for better learning conditions in schools, X users in the country began to fight back against Japanese users who blamed the unrest on Black and Arab people.

At the end of the day, it's ugly internet beef. But to understand why it's these two countries in particular, here's some context.

France's "Act 3" protests

France is in the middle of a major protest movement. It started in mid-September at a high school in Créteil, southeast of Paris, where students and staff were frustrated by a shortage of teachers and resources. Since then, parents and union members have joined high school students, and some demonstrations have ended in clashes with police using tear gas. On Oct. 6 alone, about 56,000 people marched through Paris.

Frustration over rising living costs and struggling public services has fueled the unrest, too. Given that mass movements like these create unruly environments, there has also been rioting and looting in the streets of Paris.

Because the protests are about the state of education in France, the turnout skews toward students — and Gen Z loves anime. As Bloomberg reports, a Sony Group study of anime watchers across 10 countries found that "79 [percent] of anime fans between the ages of 13 and 17" had watched more anime than the year prior, with 68 percent of Gen Z respondents saying the same. At Oct. 17 demonstrations in Paris, Lyon, and Montpellier, students carried the Straw Hat Pirates' flag from One Piece, along with references to Naruto, Dragon Ball, and Jujutsu Kaisen. One slogan going around declared, "The world will be saved by Otakus."

The Straw Hat Jolly Roger is not an uncommon sight at protests these days. In the show itself, the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, and his pirate crew spend much of their adventures fighting corrupt governments and freeing oppressed peoples. The flag, as a symbol of rebellion, has appeared at demonstrations in Indonesia and Nepal.

Ironically, though, some Japanese users on X did not like this. On Oct. 19, the X account Anime Spotlight shared a roundup of Japanese users who were angry that the flag had become associated with violent unrest. It’s unclear how widely that view is shared.

Some Japanese X users then blamed France's unrest on Black and Arab immigrants, often with slurs and images of monkeys or the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Those posts echoed anti-immigration talking points that circulate among right-wing influencers and politicians in Europe and the U.S., even though the protests are about underfunded schools.

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French users hit back, and they weren’t any gentler. Their posts, translated from French, have gone viral — primarily going after Japanese men, playing on stereotypes about brutal work culture, loneliness, and the sexualization of young girls in some anime and manga.

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While the beef started with Japanese users attacking Black people, plenty of the French jokes are racist, too.

Why France and Japan?

What makes the feud strange is that these two countries usually get along famously. Japan has long held a romantic view of France, and France has been one of manga's biggest markets in Europe. Their leaders have even gotten in on the anime fandom: In April, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and French President Emmanuel Macron struck the Dragon Ball Kamehameha pose together at a joint news conference.

In fact, Japan has its own fantasy version of France, so well known that there’s a name for the shock some tourists feel when the real city doesn't match it, called Paris syndrome.

The fantasy of what Paris and France are is part of the reason this feud kicked off. Many Japanese fans love an idealized "Western" version of Paris, not one with tear gas in the streets. Plenty of Westerners hold an equally idealized picture of Japan, largely shaped by anime, in which the country is viewed as polite, safe, quirky, and seemingly problem-free.

The lens through which many in the Western world view Japan is now being shattered, as the feud sheds light on some very real issues in the country.

It's been an open topic for a while now that foreigners can face less-than-stellar treatment in Japan. Nationalist party Sanseito won 14 seats on a "Japanese First" platform. In February, Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide while taking a tougher line on immigration. A Stanford survey found that opposition to bringing in foreign workers rose to about 53 percent in February, roughly 17 percentage points higher than in 2022.

Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister last October and is a staunch conservative. Before taking office, she regularly visited Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 convicted World War II war criminals. Takaichi also considers the late nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a mentor. Japan’s neighbors, especially China and South Korea, see the shrine as a symbol of the country’s wartime aggression.

Another well-documented part of Japanese culture that's being poked at is its work culture. The problem of overwork is serious enough that the government is required by law to report on it to parliament every year, and its 2025 white paper was the 10th such report. The first report, published in 2016, found that 22.7 percent of surveyed companies had employees logging more than 80 hours of overtime a month, the official threshold at which the risk of death from overwork becomes serious.

Relatedly, there is great concern over mental health. Japan recorded 19,097 suicides in 2025, the first time the yearly total fell below 20,000 since records began in 1978. That brought the suicide rate down to 15.4 per 100,000 people. Men accounted for 13,117 of those deaths, compared with 5,980 women. The picture is more complicated than overwork alone, though. Health problems were the most commonly cited factor, followed by economic struggles and family issues. And while overall numbers fell, suicides among children hit a record high in 2025 for the second year in a row, reaching 532.

The bigger picture

As stated, online beef between citizens of two countries is not new. This particular moment in digital culture is a bit different, as it targets the West's mythical image of Japan, shaped by anime, games, and the Japanese government’s own "Cool Japan" soft-power push.

Japan may be propped up as safe, polite, and a bit quirky, but its image, like every country's, has blind spots too. The same Western audiences that idealize Japan can overlook its immigration fights, its overwork crisis, its abusive justice system, or the way its wartime history is still contested at home and across Asia.

Race plays a part in which stories stick, too. Asian American immigrants, particularly from East Asian countries, are often held up in the West as model minorities, a "flattering" stereotype often used to justify continued oppression of Black American and Asian communities.

None of that excuses the racism flying both ways. Many of the posts from French users attacking the Japanese are no better than the posts they’re answering, and stereotypes about either country don’t add up to a fair critique of it. But the feud illustrates why a country’s pop culture exports rarely tell its whole story.

That’s true of Japan seen through anime, and of Paris seen through postcards.

When dealing with data corruption, you're much more likely to blame your SSD than anything else. And even if it's not your SSD, it'll be your OS or maybe even the CPU.

A website usually lives in a browser, where I navigate between pages, open images, and download files individually. On Linux, HTTPDirFS offers another way to access web content by mounting an HTTP server as a filesystem through FUSE. You can then browse the exposed resources through a file manager, much as you would browse files stored on your computer.

New TVs cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, but you'll often struggle to hear dialogue because of the tiny speakers. That's why it's worth spending a bit more on a 5.1 home theater soundbar system, like the LG S6FTR, which will bring a cinematic experience to your living room.

Los Angeles turned on approximately 20 cameras at dangerous intersections around the city on Monday (Oct. 26), intended to catch speeding drivers and, hopefully, save lives.

For the next 60 days, drivers exceeding the speed limit by at least 11 miles per hour will receive written warnings by mail. Following that, tickets will be issued to offenders, with fines ranging from $50 to $500, depending on the driver's speed. By the end of the year, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) plans to activate 125 cameras across the city.

SEE ALSO: This Flock Camera map shows more than 300,000 devices

LA is currently trying to get a handle on vehicular violence, with car crashes in the city claiming about 300 lives annually, a toll that exceeds the annual number of homicides in the city of 4 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The city has placed cameras near high-injury/high-death intersections, near schools, and at spots known for street racing.

LA is years behind other large cities like New York, Oakland, and San Francisco, which have already installed speed cameras. In the latter city, the cameras brought about a dramatic 80 percent drop in speeding.

LADOT expects its cameras to reduce fatal crashes at their locations by 53 to 71 percent. Malibu, a nearby city in Los Angeles County, recently launched a speed camera pilot program on 21 miles of the Pacific Coast Highway. Over the course of nine days last month, the cameras recorded approximately 100,000 speeding violations.

Google Keep is where I dump everything I need to remember. Grocery items, article ideas, errands, and random thoughts all end up in different notes. Finding anything later is a whole other problem.

Apple has a fresh new iOS update for everyone to check out.

Monday marked the official launch of iOS 27.2, which is now available as a software update on all compatible iPhones. To install it, simply open the Settings app, tap General, and then tap Software Update. No need to fiddle with beta software this time — this is the real deal.

As for what's new, iOS 27.2 isn't the most monumental update in the world, but there's plenty to mess around with. For starters, Siri AI is now available in several new languages: French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. It's also been updated for English-language users so it will now be able to recall past conversations you've had with Apple's chatbot. Additionally, the Messages app will offer context-sensitive suggestions to take quick actions in Calendar or Reminders based on what's being said in the text conversation.

SEE ALSO: Apple breaks silence on iPhone Duo cracking reports

Dual Capture now works on FaceTime group calls, meaning you can have both your front and rear cameras active at the same time while talking to more than one other person. For new iPhone Duo owners, iOS 27.2 also adds Apple Pencil support. Meanwhile, the Edge Light feature uses the iPhone Duo's display to light up your face during video calls in low light.

There are plenty of other small changes to check out, too, such as individual profiles in the Apple TV app and a reimagined Up Next view in the Podcasts app. Multiview will also let sports fans watch up to four events simultaneously, though the feature appears to be limited to sporting events on Apple TV.

In total, iOS 27.2 might not be the most seismic update in the world, but there's still a good amount to play with.

Paramount has been one of the biggest names in the movie industry for a long time, and they have utilized that legacy to give us a strong streaming service with a pretty vast library. What I find so appealing about their platform is their catalog of movies, with hits from just about every era and genre ready to satisfy whatever craving I happen to have each week.

After using Bash for years on Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint, when I first came across Zsh on Kali Linux, it was like a new world just opened in front of me. Syntax highlighting, command suggestions, and all the gorgeous colors made me rethink my decision to ignore the command line. I had plenty of reasons to replace Bash with Zsh.

3D printers are a fantastic tool for making basically anything you could want. This weekend, I wanted to make my house a little less annoying. So, I set out to find three things I could fix that would make my everyday life a little better, and it took me under an hour to complete.

Last year, KPop Demon Hunters had us fixated on every HUNTR/X song. By the time Halloween came around, there was a flood of costumed fans dressed as Rumi, Mira, and Zoey.

Now, Netflix has treated fans to the gift that keeps on giving. Need a casual cosplay that requires only a wig and some workout gear? Need a new reason to revisit the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack? Need a new TikTok dance to level up your viewership? Need another reason to look forward to the eventual KPop Demon Hunters 2?

Netflix has released a HUNTR/X dance rehearsal set to "How It’s Done." The new clip shows the K-pop icons working out a new dance routine.

But that's not all. Netflix will be releasing complete official choreography for HUNTR/X's "Golden" and "Takedown" as well as the Saja Boys' "Soda Pop," and "Your Idol."

The race is on to see which fan can nail the choreo first. Be like HUNTR/X and show them how it's done, done, done.

KPop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.

There's nothing worse than a fluctuating network signal when you're trying to work or stream a movie. The solution is a powerful router like TP-Link's BE9700, which delivers wide coverage and fast speeds, so you won't deal with timeouts or buffering.

Driving is my stress-relief activity. I’m the kind of nerd who actually enjoys checking stats and reports, so naturally, I wanted to see what my driving looks like on paper.

After days of viral reports about the iPhone Duo's inner screen, Apple has publicly acknowledged the problem.

In a statement provided to Mashable, the company said it is aware of an issue affecting the inner display on a "small number" of units.

"The response to iPhone Duo from early users has been incredibly positive, and we are seeing exciting things from developers who are rapidly updating their apps to take advantage of its unique form factor,” Apple said. “We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units. If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement."

The statement doesn’t say what’s causing the problem, how many units are affected, or whether Apple plans a broader fix. Apple appears to have sent the same statement to several other outlets covering the reports. Still, it’s the company’s first public acknowledgment of the problem.

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The Duo has drawn plenty of attention as Apple’s first foldable iPhone. It sold out almost immediately when pre-orders opened Oct. 16, with some delivery estimates stretching into January 2027. But early owners have found that it’s very much a first-generation device, and the display reports are just one of several complaints.

Beyond durability, users have flagged a few other issues, as reported by Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder. First, as JerryRigsEverything points out, the protective matte screen on the foldable dulls its color and vibrance, and it picks up heavy glare. The FaceTime camera, as Schroeder notes, is bad for photos, with Apple leaning heavily on AI processing that can leave selfies looking plasticky and smudged. Finally, many apps aren’t yet optimized for the Duo’s inner display, including Apple’s own App Store — though Schroeder reported that he expects app developers to catch up within the next month.

Durability concerns had been building before the display reports went viral. YouTuber Tim Pan ran the Duo through 10,000 folds in a folding machine, plus another 1,000 at -4 degrees Fahrenheit. Before-and-after images from the test spread online, appearing to show a much deeper crease.

Samsung seems to be enjoying this. While the Korean tech giant hasn’t taken any direct shots at the Duo, at least not officially, its Samsung Mobile US account has been playing reply guy under iPhone Duo posts on X. One reply simply read "mogged. respectfully."

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Cringe looks-maxxing speak aside, Samsung is getting plenty of free marketing out of the Duo’s rocky start. The company is now on its eighth-generation Galaxy Z Fold. Although its foldables went through their own early durability problems, Samsung has had years to refine the hinge, crease, and display that Apple is only attempting for the first time. Every viral post about a cracked Duo screen is, in effect, an ad for the competition.

If your Duo’s inner display is showing problems, Apple recommends contacting AppleCare for a replacement.

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NVIDIA wants the RTX Spark to be the laptop chip for running AI agents on your own machine, so I expected my $3,200 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 to run circles around a Snapdragon laptop. Instead, Hermes took one look at the 32GB RTX Spark and said every model I wanted was too big. The Zenbook A16, with 48GB of memory and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, loaded three of them in one click. It was slow, but for local AI agents, the cheaper laptop ended up actually getting the job done.

It may be a cliché, but my kids really do start asking if we're there yet about ten minutes into every road trip. One of the best ways to keep them quiet is to let them watch one of their favorite shows or movies on a tablet. Netflix has some great options that keep my kids entertained for hours.

Save $50: The Sony WH-1000XM4C are $50 off for the first time ever — and at a new record low price — thanks to an on-page coupon at Amazon as of Oct. 26. This brings their price down to $248 from the list price of $299.99, saving you 16% off their total list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WH-1000XM4C $248
$299.99 Save $51.99 save $50 with on-page coupon Get Deal

As a professional headphones reviewer, I've watched as consumer audio prices increased over the years. These days, it's standard for flagship headphones to cost $450.

That's why it's been a breath of fresh air to see more mid-range headphone releases, with Sony's update on the viral WH-1000XM4 being one of the most interesting. The result — the Sony WH-1000XM4C headphones — are some of the best-sounding $300 headphones you can get, and as of Oct. 26, you can pick them up for $248 at Amazon, thanks to an on-page coupon that slashes $50 off the price.

The XM4C are a return to form. Where Sony's newer flagships, the XM5 and XM6, opt for a more varied design, the XM4C stick to the extremely popular look of the XM4 — an unassuming, yet classic pair of headphones. That's not where the similarities between the two generations stop. The XM4C feature the same four microphones and QN1 processor for noise cancellation, meaning you'll get a similar performance to the 2020 release. That said, it holds up enough to be solid in today's headphone landscape. Sound-wise, Sony upgraded the equalizer from a five-band custom EQ on the XM4 to the 10-band EQ on the XM4C. I was impressed by how clear, yet well-rounded and balanced the sound came through.

SEE ALSO: The 9 best budget headphones we've tested under $100

I also recently tested these headphones directly against the other big mid-range release of the year: the second gen Bose QuietComfort headphones. Much as I appreciate the comfort and replaceable ear cushions on the Bose headphones, the better battery life, sound quality, and value on the Sonys (the Boses go for $359 at full price) make them the better buy for most folks. Especially at this price point, these headphones are over $100 cheaper than Bose's mid-range option. I'd be surprised to see a much better deal over Black Friday, so if you're looking to get your headphones shopping done early, the XM4Cs are definitely worth your consideration.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today. 

Most of the time, I open Microsoft Edge to get something done, not to spend half an hour being chased by a giant sea monster. But the browser's built-in Surf game is an easy distraction to get hooked on. With several modes, power-ups, and a kraken on your tail, it offers more variety than Chrome's famous dinosaur game.