Technology

Amazon just announced the dates of its extra-long Black Friday Week sale: Everything we know so far

Mashable - 1 hour 46 min ago

Amazon has nailed down its holiday plans. Today, the retail giant announced that it will host an extended Black Friday Week & Cyber Monday sale from Nov. 19 to Nov. 30 — 12 straight days of deals.

This will be the fourth year in a row that Amazon starts its Black Friday sale at least a week early. (The actual holiday falls on Friday, Nov. 27 this year.)

Amazon is hardly the only major retailer that draws out its Black Friday festivities. Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Kohl's are also offering Black Friday deals throughout the month of November — a win for early birds who are worried about popular gifts selling out as the holiday shopping season revs up. Here's what you need to know before you start filling your cart.

When does Amazon's Black Friday sale start?

Amazon's Black Friday Week sale will begin at 3 a.m. ET (12 a.m. PT) on Thursday, Nov. 19, a week before Thanksgiving Day.

What to expect during Amazon's Black Friday sale

Amazon will likely offer some of its most competitive deals of the year during its 2026 Black Friday sale. However, its prices may not be as low as they've been on Black Fridays past. That's because myriad products have seen price increases in 2026 due to factors like higher fuel costs, tariffs, and the ongoing memory shortage, aka "RAMageddon."

The latter is the reason why Amazon raised the prices of its Kindle e-readers, Fire TV Sticks, and most Echo smart speakers in August.

Do you need to be a Prime member to shop Amazon's Black Friday sale?

Amazon's Black Friday sale is not exclusive to members of its Prime program; anyone can shop its holiday deals. This is one of the main things that separates it from other Amazon events like Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days.

Categories: IT General, Technology

NYT Connections hints today: Meanings for each word for Nov. 10, 2026

Mashable - 4 hours 46 min ago

Looking for spoiler-free NYT Connections hints or just wondering why Connections is trending today? We've got what you need to understand the clues for today's puzzle without spoiling any of the answers.

Of course, Mashable has also provided daily hints and answers for Connections, Wordle, and Strands for years, so we can help you if that's also what you need.

While we are focused more on meanings than hints in this story, sometimes learning that many of the words have completely unrelated meanings is a clue in and of itself. Connections frequently includes clues that involve words within words and other visual clues.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 10, 2026 Abracadabra meaning

Magic words.

Onomatopoeia meaning

The description of sound phonetically.

Apothecary meaning

A place to obtain medicine.

Foofaraw meaning

Making a fuss over a small matter.

Oxymoron meaning

A figure of speech that puts contradictory words together.

Protozoology meaning

The study of protozoa.

Haberdasher meaning

A person who sells men's clothing.

Beekeeper meaning

Someone who raises bees, likely to harvest honey and wax.

Scrivener meaning

A clerk who drafts official documents.

Hyperbole meaning

A large exageration.

Brouhaha meaning

A dispute, often physical in nature.

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Wainwright meaning

A person who makes and repairs wagons or carts.

Kerfuffle meaning

A dispute of some kind.

Invisibility meaning

Unable to be seen by the human eye.

Metonymy meaning

Referring to something by the name of something associated with it.

Hullabaloo meaning

A dispute or celebration.

Have you learned the meanings and still want the things? Check out the hints and answers for today's NYT Connections puzzle.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Categories: IT General, Technology

NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 10, 2026

Mashable - 4 hours 46 min ago

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you talk a good game.

Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

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

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for November 10, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

  • Yellow: Happenings

  • Green: Writing tools

  • Blue: Bygone professions

  • Purple: Lots of repeated letters

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Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

  • Yellow: Hubbub

  • Green: Literary devices

  • Blue: Old-timey occupations

  • Purple: Words with five of one vowel

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #1248 is...

What is the answer to Connections today
  • Hubbub: BROUHAHA, FOOFARAW, HULLABALOO, KERFUFFLE

  • Literary devices: HYPERBOLE, METONYMY, ONOMATOPOEIA, OXYMORON

  • Old-timey occupations: APOTHECARY, HABERDASHER, SCRIVENER, WAINWRIGHT

  • Words with five of one vowel: ABRACADABRA, BEEKEEPER, INVISIBILITY, PROTOZOOLOGY

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Categories: IT General, Technology

NYT Strands hints, answers for November 10, 2026

Mashable - 4 hours 46 min ago

Today's NYT Strands hints will be easy if you're a chatterbox.

Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 10, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Influentially online

The words are highly online.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words involve online content.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

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NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is Content creator.

NYT Strands word list for November 10
  • Content creator

  • Vlog

  • Reaction

  • Review

  • Skit

  • Tutorial

  • Demo

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 10, 2026

Mashable - 4 hours 46 min ago

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you prefer peace.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 10, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A cessation of hostilities.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

No letters appear twice.

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Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter T.

The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

TRUCE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

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

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

Categories: IT General, Technology

What is Muse Ember? Meet Meta’s new low-cost AI model

Mashable - 6 hours 3 min ago

Booking a vacation sounds like one thing to hand off to an AI assistant, right up until it has to check the calendar, open a dozen tabs, and figure out whether the cheapest flight is still the cheapest once a carry-on is involved. Every one of those steps takes work, and when an AI agent is doing it, the cost can add up.

Meta has a new model built for that part of the job.

On Nov. 9, Meta's Superintelligence Labs introduced Muse Ember, which the company calls its smallest and most cost-efficient AI model yet. It's designed for the steps an agent might repeat dozens of times in a single assignment, like pulling details out of a document, calling another tool, or running a test after changing a line of code.

Muse is the app with the cute little avatar — named Jolly — that Meta has been promoting since September. The AI assistant can work across (some) apps with a user's permission. The app passed 5 million downloads in 22 days, and has already had many updates; last week, Meta started rolling out voice conversations and animated avatars for the assistant in the U.S.

Meta also uses the Muse name for a family of AI models. The company positions Muse Wonder as the model for its toughest problems and Muse Spark as a model for coding and other work that involves using tools. Ember is the cheaper option for repeatable tasks. Meta's pitch is that developers can use Wonder to plan a complicated job and hand off the individual steps to Ember. For now, Meta lists Ember as available through its Muse Code tool and developer API.

SEE ALSO: Meta launches Muse Wonder, catching OpenAI and Anthropic at the frontier What Muse looks like in action

In early testing shared by Meta, cloud storage company Box said it used Ember to check contracts clause by clause against a company’s negotiation rules and assign an overall risk rating. Meta says the model can take in up to a million tokens at once, enough to work through large sets of documents, and can handle images, audio, and video alongside text. That gives developers room to build an agent that can read a scanned contract or pull details from a meeting recording.

The price is what makes Ember interesting. On Artificial Analysis's benchmark, Ember and Anthropic's Claude Haiku 5.5 both rounded to a score of 36 at their highest reasoning settings. Ember cost about 14 cents per benchmark task, compared with 41 cents for Haiku, even though the two have the same standard rates of 10 cents per million input tokens and 50 cents per million output tokens. OpenAI's GPT-6 Luna scored 28 and cost about 15 cents per task at its highest setting.

In Meta's published results, Ember beat Haiku on a terminal coding test, while Haiku did better on a test that judged whether code changes were ready to merge. Meta added that it already has even cheaper models in training.

As the company continues to bet that AI assistants will take on more everyday tasks, developers will need an affordable way to handle all the little steps behind the scenes. A flight search, for example, can mean sorting through dozens of fares, each with its own rules. If Meta wants people to hand off that kind of chore every day, it has to make checking the carry-on policy cheap on its end, too.

Categories: IT General, Technology

6 Linux boot options that can save you from a broken system

How-To Geek - 6 hours 46 min ago

If your Linux system breaks after an update, refuses to show the login screen, or throws another error during startup, you don't have to reinstall your entire distro. Linux provides several boot options that can help you recover a broken installation, troubleshoot startup problems, and get back into your system.

Categories: IT General, Technology

5 Android app subscriptions I'm actually happy to pay for

How-To Geek - 7 hours 46 min ago

I'm usually the first person to look for a free alternative before paying for an app. Why spend money when the Play Store is full of apps that promise to do the same thing without charging a dime? But I've also learned that free doesn't always mean better. Sometimes, I end up dealing with annoying limitations or missing features that make a simple task unnecessarily complicated.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Which Leatherman has the most tools, and why it’s worth buying

How-To Geek - 8 hours 16 min ago

If you're looking for raw utility that takes up the least space in your pocket, you'll want to buy a good multi-tool. And while there are plenty of excellent options these days, Leatherman remains one of the best. The company has over 20 models available this year with a variety of capabilities, and if you're wondering which Leatherman has the most tools, we have you covered.

Categories: IT General, Technology

USB-A and USB-B were invented at the same time. Here's why they're different shapes

How-To Geek - 8 hours 16 min ago

USB ports are a fact of life, as ubiquitous as power outlets and water faucets. Before USB-C, there was the bigger USB port we’re all familiar with that technically goes by the name of USB-A. In between the two, there’s USB-B — and I won’t blame you for never giving it any thought. No one ever says “plug this into your laptop’s USB-B port.”

Categories: IT General, Technology

Mediums new app tries to save the platform from irrelevance

Mashable - 8 hours 35 min ago

A personal essay, a tutorial, or an argument that's been knocking around in someone's head for weeks can all find a home on Medium. Now the platform wants to be part of what happens before those pieces are ready to publish — when a writer is still sorting through notes or sending an early draft to a friend.

On Nov. 9, Medium launched TK, a free writing and note-taking app for people with a Medium account. TK has an AI assistant built into the editor that can answer questions or give feedback as writers draft. It also lets writers share work in small groups where others can leave comments, swap notes, or contribute writing of their own.

It's goal, according to CEO of Medium Tony Stubblebine, is to "craft writing that compounds into deep thinking, which creates influence across your entire world. What shape is that influence? We’re still figuring that out, but we know it starts with humans writing more."

"We’ve designed TK for three goals: Easy to write. Easy to think. Easy to feel like your writing matters," he added.

The launch comes as the internet has changed. Medium relies on Google to send readers to its articles (44 percent of their traffic, specifically), and Stubblebine said those referrals declined "When Google started taking away all the traffic." He warned the company in an interview with The Verge that "this hurts us, but it also hurts you." Though Medium is profitable since 2024, iterating must be done to compete with both other publishing platforms (like Substack) and social media.

Stubblebine's response is to give writers a way to reach readers without relying on Google. With TK, they can share drafts directly with people in private groups. 'We’re just going to take everything underground," he told The Verge.

Beyond Medium, in an analysis of March 2025 browsing data, Pew Research Center found that users clicked a traditional search result on 8 percent of Google visits with an AI summary, compared with 15 percent of visits without one.

SEE ALSO: AI 'writers' are mostly worthless right now. But that won't last.

For those who don't see the letters everyday (like me), "TK" is used by writers and editors to mark something in their work that's still to come, like a date that needs checking or a quote that needs dropping in. In Medium’s app, typing @TK calls up an assistant that can answer a quick question or find a paragraph the writer saved the day before. Medium says the assistant can also give headline and editorial feedback, compare drafts with Medium publications' style guides, and pull related notes into summaries that link back to the originals. Writers can import their Medium archives or bring over notes from Bear and Obsidian. An optional Claude integration lets an outside agent work with the notebook, too.

The human version of that feedback happens in what TK calls Libraries. A Library can be a space for a few friends to share work in progress, and Medium is also opening groups for journaling, getting feedback on drafts, and working toward a self-published book. A draft can stay private, go to a handful of readers, or eventually make its way to Medium's publishing platform. According to Stubblebine, "TK is the gym and Medium is the stage."

That division makes for an awkward question: The company wants people to do more of their own writing while putting AI a few keystrokes away from every unfinished sentence. Looking up a date is one thing, but asking AI for feedback on a paragraph can get a lot closer to outsourcing writing abilities. Medium adds that TK lets writers disclose which material came from AI and show the prompts and source material behind it, and maintains the service is not anti-AI, but pro-human:

"Much of the AI industry is betting that machines will do our thinking for us, and some of its leaders talk as if writing no longer matters. We’re betting the other way. We’re not anti-AI, we’re pro-human—and that’s why we built TK" - Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine wrote in the announcement.

Other publishing platforms are finding uses for AI, too. Substack can turn a podcast recording into an editable transcript or suggest short clips from a video for creators to share on Notes or Instagram. And as Mashable reported in July, Substack also gives readers "Scan for AI text" option. The tool, powered by Pangram, estimates how much of a published post was written by a human, generated by AI, or written with AI assistance.

The app comes in a literary world that has been inundated with AI. In a 2026 survey Medium conducted with The Harris Poll, 71 percent of writers said they'd used AI in their writing process in the previous three months, yet 69 percent said they distrusted AI-assisted writing from others. TK brings AI closer into the writing process than ever before. Having an assistant a few keystrokes away could make it easier to churn out more AI slop...or the app could do what Stubblebine hopes and get writers sharing rough drafts and working through ideas together. As someone who reads a lot of AI slop these days, I'll be hoping for the latter.

Categories: IT General, Technology

4 staggering Paramount+ movies to watch this week (November 9-15)

How-To Geek - 8 hours 46 min ago

If you're looking for a mix of classics and modern blockbusters, there are few platforms with a catalog quite as strong as Paramount+. There are some really solid new movies to choose from alongside some brilliant genre-defining films that are well worth revisiting. The list of choices keeps growing every month too, with November bringing things like Gone Girl and Twister to your TV screen.

Categories: IT General, Technology

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless Headphones are $200 right now

How-To Geek - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:58

The market for wireless over-ear headphones is crowded, but the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 wireless headphones remain a standout for listeners who prioritize sound quality. Right now, Amazon's got these headphones on sale for $200, down from their standard $300 price tag.

Categories: IT General, Technology

A transitioning Congress finds itself in a pickle on AI data centers

Mashable - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:47

As Congress returns to Washington this week, the massive power demands of the AI boom have forced a reckoning over data center infrastructure.

The Senate is preparing for a pivotal procedural vote on legislation that would speed approvals for energy projects while requiring large data centers to shoulder more of the costs they impose on the power grid. The bipartisan bill would add much-needed regulations on data centers, but, as some politicians believe, may also encourage more data center construction.

Silicon Valley vs. a changed D.C.

In the sweeping and history-making midterm elections last week, voters didn't just elect a new generation of Democratic lawmakers. They also sent a pretty unmistakable message to Big Tech, particularly the artificial intelligence industry: Enough with the data centers already. Or, more bluntly, "get out of town."

Across the country, local communities are pushing to stop, restrict, or impose conditions on data center development. The election results reinforced that message, making clear that the AI gold rush is facing growing resistance.

For the last two years, Silicon Valley has busied itself building more, building bigger and doing it ASAP. If a tech giant wanted to drop a warehouse-sized data center into a community, local governments often offered tax breaks and other incentives, then told residents it was harmless and would mean more jobs.

Voters increasingly aren't buying it.

Democrats now find themselves in a pickle. Many campaigned on restricting data center development, responding to voters concerned about electricity costs, water consumption, and the impact these enormous facilities have on their communities. 

Now, the aforementioned pending legislation forces a stark about-face — since, as Reuters reports, some Democrats believe provisions in the proposed bill could encourage the creation of more data centers. If that comes to pass, incoming lawmakers would need to explain why those campaign promises to halt data center construction no longer apply. 

Can data centers be built responsibly?

There's a risk, too, in the new Democratic Congress pushing too forcefully for restrictions on AI, specifically on data centers. My well-seasoned brain believes AI companies will respond to restrictions not simply by complaining about the cost of doing business, but by slowing down the rollout of new technology.

Some of that slowdown will be unavoidable. Without enough data centers, electricity, and computing capacity, companies cannot expand indefinitely. But some of it could be strategic.

I suspect the message from Silicon Valley will be slightly PR-ish: If you don't want us building data centers, don't expect your ChatGPT, Claude, or Siri to keep getting faster, smarter, and more capable. That "hurry up and now" diagnosis for your sore knee might take a little longer.

SEE ALSO: Is this the only U.S. town to vote 'yes' on data centers?

Picture AI as something other than a magical cloud floating above our heads. Every time you ask an AI assistant to write an email, generate an image, or summarize a document, powerful chips in actual buildings are cranking away, consuming tremendous amounts of electricity and water and pressuring local power grids. 

And all that power costs mega cash. Utility rates, grid upgrades, and higher electricity bills have turned an abstract technology debate into something much more personal.

I don't blame communities for pushing back. Why should residents subsidize a multibillion-dollar technology company's expansion while wondering whether their electric bills will keep climbing? They're already fed up with rising gas and grocery prices and the cost of a new home.

But there's another side to this costly coin that Democrats shouldn't ignore. Data centers can bring economic benefits, too, provided technology companies invest in the communities that host them.

While data centers rarely employ local, low-skill workers directly, AI companies can bridge this gap by funding local infrastructure projects that immediately put the existing workforce to work. Furthermore, the resulting influx of permanent, high-salaried technicians injects new tax revenue into the community, triggering a powerful economic ripple effect for local restaurants and shops.

Communities shouldn't have to choose between protecting residents and benefiting from technological investment. Companies that want to build in these towns should contribute meaningfully to their economic well-being.

The risks of slowing down the AI gold rush

Government intervention, even when well-intentioned, can also produce unintended consequences that ultimately hurt consumers.

Just look at Europe. In 2024, Apple said it would hold back Apple Intelligence and other new features from EU customers, citing "regulatory uncertainties" tied to the Digital Markets Act. Regulators were trying to rein in Big Tech and protect competition. Whether you buy Apple's explanation or see it as a pressure tactic, European customers were left waiting while others got the shiny new toys.

This doesn't mean all regulation is bad. It's a reminder that lawmakers cannot promise to put a tight leash on an industry without potentially creating bottlenecks in the products and services it provides. That's precisely the dilemma Democrats now face.

If they make it too difficult or expensive to build data centers, AI companies will have fewer places to house the computing power necessary to expand their products. New features could take longer to arrive. More sophisticated applications could cost more.

And I wouldn't be surprised if the industry makes sure consumers understand exactly who's responsible. They'll be smug about it: "OK, you wanted restrictions. You got them. Now don't lose it when your AI assistant takes longer to answer. Or, we might have you paying a monthly fee."

It's a convenient argument for Big Tech, shifting attention away from an industry that hasn't always sought communities' permission or given much thought to ordinary consumers.

That's why Democrats need to be thoughtful about what comes next. Protecting communities, keeping electricity affordable, and demanding that tech companies pay their fair share are entirely reasonable goals. But a political victory over data centers could become a consumer defeat if lawmakers don't consider the consequences.

This article represents the opinions of its writer.

John Casey is a columnist at Raw Story, the Advocate, Daily Beast, and Outsports. He's also the author of Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Your gaming PC has a second GPU, and it's probably switched off in the BIOS

How-To Geek - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:30

Even if you’ve never used it before, there’s a very good chance that your CPU actually has a GPU built into it. This extra hardware often goes unused because of dedicated graphics cards, but there are quite a few reasons why you might want to put that integrated GPU to work, like offloading your Plex transcodes or speeding up your video editor’s timeline.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Govee's smart pendant light is $40 off, and it's a rare discount

How-To Geek - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:13

Smart lighting often promises more than it delivers, usually resulting in a dim bulb that barely illuminates your room while demanding a dozen apps to function. Govee’s Pendant Lights break that pattern by offering genuine utility alongside millions of color options. It currently sits at $110 on Amazon, which is a $40 discount off its regular $150 price.

Categories: IT General, Technology

iPhone Duo: The most fun iPhone in years

How-To Geek - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:11

The iPhone Duo is an expensive grab-bag of compromises that definitely is not for everyone. But it's also the most fun iPhone I've used in years

Categories: IT General, Technology

This Excel workflow turned my PowerPoint presentation into a live report

How-To Geek - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:01

Every week, I'd receive another Excel report that eventually had to make its way into a PowerPoint presentation. Then came the repetitive part: combining the latest figures with previous data, updating my charts, and making sure the slides reflected the changes. None of those tasks were particularly difficult, but they were easy to forget and tedious to repeat.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Track your Google rankings and AI visibility in one place for life for $69

Mashable - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:00

TL;DR: Get your website noticed on Google and AI search with this lifetime subscription to SEOAgent, now only $69 (reg. $999).

Opens in a new window Credit: SEOAgent SEOAgent: Lifetime Subscription (Tier 1) $69
$999 Save $930   Get Deal

These days, getting your website noticed online takes more than sprinkling a few popular keywords into your content. You’ve also got to be on top of what people are searching for, which terms you can rank for, and whether your brand is showing up in AI answers. SEOAgent helps you keep track of all this info in one convenient spot.

Right now, you can lock in a lifetime subscription to SEOAgent Tier 1 for just $69.

It’s 2026 — you can’t just try to optimize your website to pop up on Google and call it a day. You’ve got to take a different approach, and SEOAgent can help. This SEO platform actually reads your website and finds Google searches it can realistically rank for, while also tracking how you’re showing up in search and AI answers.

Instead of wasting time on high-volume keywords you don’t have a chance of winning with, get queries that could actually help your site thrive.

With SEOAgent, you connect Google Search Console, GA4, PostHog, and Bing to see traffic right next to your rankings. You can run an audit of your site and even see whether the big AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews are naming or citing your brand.

Unlike other tools, SEOAgent focuses on winnability. Your 5 keyword research runs will help you find searches your site can realistically rank for, without just focusing on volume. You can also follow your Google positions for the searches that matter most for your site via 50 tracked keywords. It can even find technical SEO issues that might be holding your site back in the rankings.

This lifetime subscription to Tier 1 works for one website and includes 1,000 credits per month, 50 tracked keywords, 5 keyword research runs, and 4 AI visibility questions.

Get your own lifetime subscription to SEOAgent Tier 1 for just $69 today.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Categories: IT General, Technology

Skip another Microsoft 365 bill and get a lifetime Office 2019 license for $15.98 with code

Mashable - Mon, 11/09/2026 - 23:00

TL;DR: Get a lifetime Office 2019 license for one Windows PC for $15.98 with code DEAL20 through Nov. 15, including the full app suite with no recurring fees.

Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows $15.98
$229 Save $213.02   Get Deal

This is your chance to get a lifetime Office 2019 license for one Windows PC for $15.98. Simply use the code DEAL20 through Nov. 15 to qualify.

Here's how the deal breaks down:

  • Lifetime license to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access

  • One-time purchase for one Windows 10 or 11 PC — device-based activation

  • Improved inking, new Excel analysis tools, upgraded PowerPoint features

  • Outlook refinements for email and contact management

  • Instant email with download link and license key — redeem within 7 days

  • All languages supported, updates included for the 2019 version

If your to-do list needs serious tools without a serious bill, this is the easy win — install once, get to work, and keep moving.

Grab a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 for Windows for $15.98 with coupon code DEAL20 (retails at $229) until Nov. 15.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Categories: IT General, Technology
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