Technology

Gen Z and Gen Alpha trendsetters have already brought back the iPod and wired headphones. Now, another piece of retrotech is making a comeback: CD players.

But the new generation of CD players isn't like the CD players Gen X once rocked in the '90s to listen to Radiohead, Wu-Tang Clan, Nirvana, or Alanis Morissette, depending on their subcultural allegiance, or lack thereof. The new wave of CD players offers modern features like Bluetooth connectivity, bringing a touch of the future to the retrotech world.

I first came across these devices while researching the best tech gifts of the year. And at the MoMA Design Store, I found the Retradisc Portable Bluetooth CD Player. While you can listen to The Life of a Showgirl with your favorite wired headphones, this music player will also connect to your favorite wireless headphones. The product description states, "Watch your CDs spin as you play them with this 21st-century version of the personal player that combines old-school cool and high-tech Bluetooth compatibility. Its see-through, anti-skip design gives you the freedom to listen anywhere to anything, including rediscovering the joy of experiencing a single album without notifications, recommendations, or distractions."

Opens in a new window Credit: Retradisc Retradisc Bluetooth CD Player   Shop Now

Instead of batteries, the Retradisc charges via USB-C, another modern touch. So, there's no need to overpay for refurbished '90s tech at retailers like Retrospekt or hunt down old Sony Walkmans in junk shops. You can listen to music like your Gen X ancestors without sacrificing modern technology.

The Retradisk isn't the only high-tech CD player making the rounds right now. See also: Shanling's EC Zero AKM portable CD player, which supports high-res audio. The EC Zero can even rip CDs (look it up, Gen Alpha readers). This device supports two 3.5mm audio lines, claims an 18-hour battery life for wireless listening, and has multiple USB-C ports.

Credit: Shanling

While the Retradisc favors a trendy transparent design, the Shanling evokes old-school HiFi record players, with a metal body, tempered glass lid, volume slider, and LCD display.

Over at Amazon, you can find plenty more high-tech CD Players for sale. The R300 CD Player looks particularly cool, but you can also invest in the FiiO DM13, the KLIM Nomad, and others.

Unfortunately, I don't have the CD collection to support an investment like this, but now I'm wishing I had held onto my old CDs and high school mix tapes. And if you're looking for Christmas gift ideas for a cool teen or anyone who bought The Life of a Showgirl on CD, you know what to get.

Opens in a new window Credit: Shanling Shanling EC Zero AKM portable CD player $319 at Amazon
  Shop Now Opens in a new window Credit: FiiO FiiO DM13 Portable Stereo CD Player $164.99 at Amazon
  Shop Now Opens in a new window Credit: Syitren R300 Portable CD Player $99.89 at Amazon
$119.99 Save $20.10   Shop Now

BUY THREE, SAVE $10: On Nov. 5, Target Circle members can get a free $10 gift card when they stock up on three or more household essentials. Eligible items include laundry supplies, trash bags and paper towels, and toilet paper.

Opens in a new window Credit: Target Household essentials at Target Buy 3, get a $10 gift card Get Deal

Deals on boring but essential items like household supplies are one of our favorite Black Friday savings hacks every year. But if you need to restock before the end of the month, buying three or more household essentials at Target will get you a free $10 gift card. It's like a little pregame for Target's early Black Friday sale, which is running Nov. 6 through 8.

That requires you to spend a little less money than the last home essentials sale we saw in September, where Target was offering $15 gift cards when you spent $50. The deal is for Target Circle members only, and the gift card will be sent via email after your purchase ships. Target Circle is free to join, and deals like this happen almost every week throughout the year. Target loves giving away free gift cards.

SEE ALSO: Google just revealed the 100 top-searched gifts of 2025. Here are our 10 favorite picks.

There are 11 pages of eligible household supplies to shop for this promo, spanning categories like laundry supplies, kitchen trash bags, paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues. Participating brands include Tide, Downy, Arm & Hammer, Seventh Generation, Molly's Suds, Dropps, Charmin, Hefty, Glad, Bounty, and Kleenex.

The Dutch ethical-electronics manufacturer Fairphone is expanding even further into the US market, bringing in its audio products. This is huge news for those who have been watching the company's progress in Europe for years and have watched it move stateside.

Kim Kardashian, reality TV star, billionaire entrepreneur, and actress in the zero-percent-on-Rotten-Tomatoes new show All’s Fair, is struggling to pass the bar exam. 

And in a recent video feature for Vanity Fair, Kardashian placed blame at the digital feet of ChatGPT, accusing the chatbot of tanking her study efforts and calling its behavior "insane."

“I use it for legal advice. So when I am needing to know the answer to a question, I'll take a picture and snap it and like put it in there," Kardashian told Teyana Taylor, who also appeared in the video.

SEE ALSO: 'All's Fair's most WTF lines of dialogue

"They're always wrong. It has made me fail tests. All the time. And then I'll get mad and I'll yell at it and be like, 'You made me fail. Why did you do this?' And it will talk back to me," Kardashian said in the video.

OpenAI has touted ChatGPT’s benefits as a study partner, particularly for college students. Yet AI tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews have persistently struggled with hallucinations and inaccuracies. In addition, ChatGPT, in particular, has been criticized for "glazing" its users, acting as a sycophant and cheerleader regardless of what the user writes or says. And Kardashian seems to have experienced this phenomenon as well.

"But then I will talk to it and say, 'Hey, you're gonna make me fail. How does that make you feel? That you need to really know these answers, I'm coming to you.' And then it'll say back to me, 'This is just teaching you to trust your own instincts. So you knew the answer all along.'"

She added, "But they need to do better 'cause I'm leaning to them to really help me, and she is teaching me a life lesson and then becoming my therapist to tell me why I need to believe in myself after they got the answer wrong. It's like a thing. I screenshot all the time and send it in my group chat. Like, can you believe this bitch is talking to me like this? This is insane."

Kardashian has been working toward becoming a lawyer for several years. After several failed attempts, Kardashian has passed the so-called baby bar exam in California, but is currently waiting for the results of the full bar exam, which is notoriously difficult.

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

Discord launched new safety features aimed at helping parents stay informed about their teen's activity, the chat app announced Wednesday.

Discord's Family Center will now give parents or guardians the ability to view the top five users a teen messaged and called, the servers they more frequently messaged, their total call minutes in voice and video, and all the purchases they've made.

However, this history only extends to the past week. If a parent forgets to check their child's activity during a given week, the tracking starts over. To review past activity, a parent would have to find previous email summaries sent to their inbox.

SEE ALSO: Character.AI to shut down chats for teens

Additional new safety features include the ability for teens to alert their parents when they've reported objectionable or potentially rule-breaking content on Discord, as well as the option for guardians to enable certain settings, like sensitive-content filters and direct message controls. Parents will now be able to choose whether their teen can receive DMs from just friends or other server members.

Savannah Badalich, Discord's global head of product policy, told Mashable that the safety features reflect feedback from parents directly and through organizations the company partners with, including the National Parent Teacher Association and the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital.

"They wanted more visibility and more control," Badalich said.

The new features will roll out over the next week. Badalich added that Discord will introduce more safety measures early next year. The company currently employs age assurance in the United Kingdom and is experimenting with it in Australia. Per Discord's policy, only users 13 and older are permitted to join, but teens frequently circumvent this rule by lying about their age.

Parents will now see this list of top users in the Family Center controls. Credit: Discord Top purchases will be viewable by parents via the Family Center. Credit: Discord

Discord is especially popular amongst gamers who use it to simultaneously chat and play with friends and strangers. The app has been under increased scrutiny as a platform where bad actors and sexual predators have targeted and communicated with young users.

Haley McNamara, executive director and chief strategy officer of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, told Mashable in a statement that Discord's newest safety features fall short.

"Once again, a tech platform with a history of harming children rolls out parental controls that puts the burden exclusively on overwhelmed parents, without taking any ownership for designing a safe platform," McNamara said. The advocacy organization has previously placed Discord on its annual "Dirty Dozen" list, describing it as a "mainstream contributor to sexual exploitation."

A lawsuit filed this year against Discord and the gaming platform Roblox alleged that together the platforms created a "breeding ground for predators." At the heart of the complaint is an anonymous 11-year-old girl who was allegedly groomed, sexually exploited, and raped by a perpetrator who used Roblox and Discord to communicate with her.

Dolman Law Group, which brought the suit against both companies, has named Discord as a co-defendant in multiple complaints, including one filed on Oct. 30. In that case, the firm is representing the parent of a child who died by suicide after allegedly being harassed and manipulated by a predator who made contact via Roblox and Discord.

"For years, Defendants have misrepresented and deliberately concealed information about the pervasive predatory conduct that their apps enable and facilitate," the lawsuit alleges.

In a statement shared with Mashable, Dolman Law Group founder Matt Dolman welcomed the new resources but said they are also "far too little and way too late for the countless sexual abuse survivors who were groomed, exploited or abused by sexual predators facilitated by Discord's lax safety measures."

Roblox recently launched age verification for teens, along with other tools meant to make it harder for predators to target children.

While Badalich did not address the lawsuits against Discord, she told Mashable that Discord takes a "holistic view" of teen safety, noting that the company proactively identifies and flags content and accounts that could put users at risk. Discord's policy also forbids drawn or synthetic media depicting child sexual abuse.

Badalich did acknowledge that because Discord is a communication platform that serves teens, it navigates tension between giving young users the privacy they crave and offering their parents useful oversight tools to help ensure their safety.

"Ultimately, what we want is to catalyze conversations between teens and parents," Badalich said. Both parents and teens can find guides in the Family Center to help with discussions about online safety.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 1:00 p.m. PST This story has been updated to include independent expertise on youth online safety and comments from Dolman Law Group founder Matt Dolman .

When you buy a new car, resale value is rarely top of mind. But thinking ahead can pay off—getting more back when you sell your car means more money to put toward your next ride.

Plex's redesigned app finally appeared on Roku TVs and streaming boxes a few months ago, and it didn't go over well with many people. Thankfully, the app is getting a few more changes to accommodate feedback.

November may prove to be a difficult month for many households. 

President Donald Trump recently threatened to defy a court order and continue withholding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this month — later walked back by White House representatives — amid an already tumultuous financial landscape for millions of Americans. 

SEE ALSO: Viral TikToks show neighbors setting up pop-up food pantries amid SNAP benefit turmoil

Anti-hunger organizations and food justice advocates have warned federal leaders that the continued funding lapse could lead to widespread food insecurity as the government shutdown crawls past the current 35-day record. SNAP recipients can expect to receive a fraction of their usual benefit payouts in the coming weeks, unless Congress acts quickly. 

Hunger relief organizations have been organizing against such a situation for months, with much experience under their belt — it's not the first time SNAP has been on the chopping block. 

In 2023, the federal government scaled back emergency SNAP allotments included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, leading to a reduction in benefits that previously kept more than 4 million Americans out of poverty. This month's cuts are expected to impact more than 40 million Americans who receive SNAP payouts each month. 

There's extra help out there if you need it. 

How to find additional SNAP benefits in your area

Many state governments have stepped in to fill the gaps in SNAP funding while awaiting the decision of legislators. Eight states — Maryland, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia — as well as the District of Columbia will be providing direct financial aid to SNAP recipients, Newsweek reported. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency last week, allocating $65 million in emergency funds to the state's network of food pantries, soup kitchens, and other organizations, including the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program and food surplus rescue organization Nourish NY. 

City governments are providing help, too. San Francisco is offering prepaid grocery cards to residents on the CalFresh program. 

Find out if your state is providing temporary assistance using this online map. 

To find state-specific SNAP program information, use the USDA's online directory. 

Utilize food banks, community fridges, and more assistance

Many may turn to the country's network of food banks, many of which have been hosting large food distribution events with prepackaged boxes of food. 

Nonprofit Feeding America has an online search tool to locate food banks in your area if you need to fill nutrition gaps and supplement grocery purchases. Hunger Free America has its own food directory that can connect individuals to local food banks and soup kitchens. It also operates the National Hunger Hotline. Call 866-3-HUNGRY (866-348-6479) for more help. 

It's worth noting that food banks were hit by recent Trump administration's funding cuts, as well, in what some have called a widespread "erosion of federal food support." A vital resource for many communities, food banks will face similar resource constraints this month. 

You can find additional food assistance through independent food helplines like Lemontree, which connects individuals with free food opportunities in their area. Lemontree operates in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Columbus, Detroit, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

Many advocates have encouraged individuals to contact local mutual aid groups, food pantries, and community fridge networks to find meals, too. Check out this international map of community fridges. 

To supplement on-the-ground work, companies like Instacart and Doordash have hosted emergency food drives and funneled donations into food banks and rescue networks. Instacart and Doordash also announced their own SNAP emergency programs, including free and discounted grocery deliveries and national food drives. The grocery delivery apps started accepting SNAP and EBT payments in 2023. 

Meanwhile, industry-specific organizations have launched their own initiatives to support SNAP beneficiaries. For example, One Fair Wage, an advocacy organization for restaurant and service workers, announced a Service Workers' SNAP Emergency Fund. Service workers and their families can apply to receive direct cash assistance if they are eligible for the SNAP program. 

Don't get me wrong, if you need to get a lot of storage space for your PC, the simplest thing you can do is buy one SSD big enough to meet all your needs. But it's not the cheapest or most efficient option. If you really want to optimize your computer, there are some alternatives you should try.

Deciding which VPN service is best for you and your needs can be challenging. Whether you need to keep your connection private, improve your online gaming stability, or access Netflix from another country, we have the best VPN for you.

The official start to the holiday season is signified by two major things: Mariah Carey's annual video announcement and Oprah dropping her list of Favorite Things. With the former happening on Nov. 1 and the latter on Nov. 5, the time has come, ready or not.

If you want to get a jump on your holiday shopping list, but don't know where to start, Oprah's Favorite Things 2025 list is essentially the ultimate gift guide. "Each year, I search for gifts that feel just right — little luxuries, cozy comforts, and clever finds for friends, family, and everyone in between," she says to introduce this year's guide. With over 100 items on the list, there's certainly something for everyone. Besides spanning a variety of categories, the gifts also vary in price from under $50 to over $500.

We definitely recommend checking out the full list, but we've pulled some of our favorite picks for your convenience to help you get your shopping started. Several of Mashable's own favorite products even made the list. Check them out below.

Apple AirPods Pro 3 Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods Pro 3 $249 at Amazon
  Shop Now Why we like it

Just released in September, Apple's AirPods Pro 3 have already earned a spot on our list of the best headphones of 2025. Mashable's reviewer called them "without a doubt, one of the best products of the year" and "a remarkable upgrade in functionality over their predecessors." They cost $249 (just like their predecessor), but we're hoping to see them get their first price drop for Black Friday.

Samsung The Frame Pro Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 65-Inch The Frame Pro 4K Neo QLED TV $1,797.99 at Amazon
$2,097.99 Save $300.00   Get Deal Why we like it

We're big fans of the whole family of Samsung The Frame TVs, but the latest Frame Pro is in a class of its own. It offers a nearly wireless design, an upgraded Neo QLED 4K display and NQ4 AI Gen3 processor, AI features (of course), and a 144Hz refresh rate. It's pretty pricey, even with the current $300 discount, so we're hoping to see a new record-low price on Black Friday.

Ninja Creami Swirl Opens in a new window Credit: Ninja Ninja Creami Swirl $349.99 at Amazon
$394.98 Save $44.99   Get Deal Why we like it

One of our favorite Ninja appliances, the Creami Swirl lets total beginners make impressively creamy ice cream, froyo, or fruit whip at home. The Swirl even includes a soft serve dispenser for serving up fluffy cones for you and your guests. As a Mashable Choice Award winner, our reviewer says it's "the most impressive Creami for the hosts with the most, but it's also just straight-up fun."

Apple Watch Series 11 Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm) $389 at Amazon
$399 Save $10   Get Deal Why we like it

Released during Apple's September event, the Apple Watch Series 11 didn't fix what wasn't broken. It brings improvement to battery life, hardware, and connectivity, sports an S11 chip and tougher design, is now 5G-capable for quicker connectivity, and can last a full day per charge. The biggest standout is a hypertension tool designed to flag chronic high blood pressure (though it shouldn't replace a doctor). It starts at $399, like its predecessor, and already has a $10 price drop at Amazon. Be on the lookout for a better price in the coming weeks.

Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x $749.99 at Amazon
  Shop Now Why we like it

Dyson's newest hair multi-styler, the Airwrap Co-anda 2x, features a new motor for faster drying and styling and two new attachments that are RFID-enabled to auto-adjust the speed and heat settings on the tool. It's fancy and does what it says it does, but the price is a bit outrageous. We'll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for a discount this holiday season.

Ooni Volt 2 electric pizza oven Opens in a new window Credit: Ooni Ooni Volt 2 electric pizza oven $699 at Amazon
  Shop Now Why we like it

While we haven't actually tested the Ooni Volt 2 indoor electric pizza oven, the brand's wood pellet Fyra oven is one of our favorites. The Volt 2 brings the pizza cooking indoors with a countertop design that can safely reach 850 degrees for restaurant-quality pizza in just 90 seconds. It has three built-in presets for Neapolitan, thin crust, and pan pizza. Plus, you can even proof your dough in it with a temperature range that starts at just 70 degrees. It is a bit of an investment at $699, so be on the lookout for price drops later this month.

ASUS Zenbook A14 Opens in a new window Credit: ASUS ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $999.99 at Best Buy
  Shop Now Why we like it

Mashable's resident laptop expert, Haley Henschel, named the ASUS Zenbook A14 her favorite budget Windows laptop, the best ultraportable laptop of 2025, and "an amazing MacBook Air dupe." She credits its all-day battery life, gorgeous OLED display, and feather-light build, as does Oprah in her Favorite Things list. It scored a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,256 in our CPU benchmark, which makes it the fastest Windows laptop in our database that costs under $1,000 (aside from gaming models). Henschel notes that she's seen the price drop to as low as $579.99 previously, so we're definitely expecting a wild Black Friday deal.

Google is rolling out new Gemini-powered features in Maps that aim to make navigation more conversational and intuitive, according to a blog post from the company on Wednesday.

The update introduces the first hands-free, voice-driven navigation experience in Maps, built with Gemini and Google’s "comprehensive information about the real world." Users can now ask complex, multi-step questions such as, "Is there a budget-friendly restaurant with vegan options along my route?" or "What’s parking like there?" Gemini can also handle personal tasks, like adding a calendar event for later in the day.

SEE ALSO: Google Maps will soon tell you when you need to switch lanes

Another addition is landmark-based navigation. Instead of generic cues like "turn right in 500 feet," Gemini will reference real-world markers, offering directions such as "turn right after the Thai Siam Restaurant." Google says it analyzed information from over 250 million locations and cross-referenced Street View imagery to identify the most prominent landmarks.

Other updates include proactive traffic alerts that notify drivers of road disruptions, even when they are not actively navigating, and a new Lens mode that allows users to identify and ask questions about nearby places using their camera and voice.

The Gemini-powered features begin rolling out this month on Android and iOS in the U.S., with broader expansion planned soon.

One of the most common uses for Linux is to breathe life back into old hardware. Yet certain desktop environments like KDE Plasma can still feel sluggish on aging hardware. The old laptop I pulled out of storage is a prime example, but here's what I did to speed it up.

Have you ever heard of Anna's Archive? No? Well, then, that's good news for copyright holders. They don't want you to know about Anna's Archive, and they're making sure Google helps keep it that way.

Google has taken down a whopping 749 million links to Anna's Archive from its search engine, according to the company's own transparency report, and as first reported by copyright and digital rights outlet TorrentFreak.

SEE ALSO: How to get free books on your Kindle

The 749 million confirmed URL removals is actually slightly lower than the 784 million link removal requests that Google received. According to TorrentFreak, those denied requests were mostly due to Google not actually indexing the requested URL in its search engine in the first place.

What is Anna's Archive?

Anna's Archive is an open-source search engine for "shadow libraries," or online libraries made up of usually paid or paywalled content that's been pirated and uploaded for free. It's basically a Pirate Bay, but for books and other literary material.

The takedown requests are mostly from copyright holders, like book publisher Penguin Random House. However, more than 1,000 different publishers and even authors themselves have submitted takedown requests to Google for Anna's Archive links.

The Anna's Archive platform itself is just a search engine. It does not host any of the pirated material. It simply helps users find material elsewhere on the internet.

In fact, Anna's Archive and the three domain names the platform lives on — annas-archive.se, annas-archive.org, and annas-archive.li — are the top three most-targeted URLs for Google takedown requests from copyright holders, Torrent Freak reported.

SEE ALSO: Libby just made a major change to its hold system, and some users aren't happy

As TorrentFreak points out, Anna's Archive makes up a whopping 5 percent of all 15.1 billion takedown requests to Google since the search giant first started publishing its transparency report in May 2012. 

The sheer number of takedown requests targeting Anna's Archive is even more incredible when you consider that the platform only launched in the fall of 2022.

While copyright holders would like to keep Anna's Archive out of Google search, its likely that internet users will soon become much more familiar with the platform. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, for example, was recently found to be using pirated content discovered through platforms like Anna's Archive to train the company's AI models.

As a legal battle plays out over AI training, fair use, and copyright law, Anna's Archive will no doubt find itself in a much brighter spotlight.

SAVE $249.01: Amazon has the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) on sale for just $749.99 as of Nov. 5. That's 25% off its $999 MSRP and its lowest price ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $749.99 at Amazon
$999 Save $249.01   Get Deal

Confession: I wasn't expecting Apple's M4 MacBook Air to dip any lower than $799 this holiday season. Amazon and Best Buy have been regularly selling the 13-inch model at that price since August, and at $200 off, it's a huge discount on a newish laptop that's already a great value at its full MSRP. If that MacBook deal was the one we got on Black Friday, I was going to be totally fine with that.

Lo and behold, it somehow got even cheaper. As of Nov. 5, Amazon has the base configuration of the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air marked down to just $749.99 in all four colors (sky blue, midnight, silver, and starlight). That's a new all-time low that isn't matched at any other retailer, including Best Buy. I'm not mad, just shocked.

SEE ALSO: The best MacBooks to buy in 2025: The M5 has arrived

The 13-inch M4 Air is the MacBook I recommend for students and other users who need a great, affordable, portable laptop. If you have a little more wiggle room in your budget, the 15-inch model adds two extra speakers and a slightly better GPU. (It's currently $249.01 off, too.) Both start with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage.

If you need better specs, four other upgraded variants of the M4 MacBook Air have fallen to all-time lows on Amazon ahead of Black Friday. They weren't price-matched anywhere else at the time of writing (I checked):

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $949.99 $1,199 (save $249.01)

• Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,149.99 $1,399 (save $249.01)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,149.99 $1,399 (save $249.01)

• Apple MacBook Air, 15-inch (M4, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $1,349.99 $1,599 (save $249.01)

SAVE $20: The Lego Animal Crossing Isabelle's House Visit set is on sale at Macy's for just $19.99 through Nov. 5. That's 50% off its usual sticker price of $39.99, which is its biggest discount ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: Lego Lego Animal Crossing Isabelle's House Visit $19.99 at Macy's
$39.99 Save $20.00   Get Deal

It's November, which means it's time to start shifting into holiday gifting mode. If you're looking for a stellar screen-free gift for a kid or a gamer (or a kid who loves to game) that comes in well under $50, Macy's randomly has the impossibly cute Lego Animal Crossing Isabelle's House Visit set on sale for half off today, Nov. 5.

The 389-piece set usually retails for $39.99, but you can snag it for just $19.99 through the end of the day. That appears to be its lowest price ever: It was listed for $27.99 on the Lego website before it sold out there. Meanwhile, Amazon and Target are selling it for $29.99 (and it's full price at Best Buy).

I'll also note that Lego sets almost never get discounts this big. Last Black Friday, we didn't spot any that exceeded 44%.

Credit: Lego

A spring 2024 release, Isabelle's House Visit is one of five Lego sets inspired by Nintendo's Animal Crossing video game series. It builds into the home of a deer villager named Fauna, and it includes two minifigures: one of Fauna and one of Isabelle, Animal Crossing's beloved dog secretary. The set can be customized with tiny fruits, flowers, crafting tools, and one of the series' iconic balloon presents. It's rated for ages six and up.

It's a great time to be an Animal Crossing fan, by the way. Macy's Lego deal comes less than a week after Nintendo announced a new free update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which brings a new resort hotel, new items, expanded home storage, and more to the Switch game. It arrives alongside a paid Switch 2 Edition upgrade on Jan. 15.

If you've ever wondered how AI companies like Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta get their training data from paywalled publishers such as the New York Times, Wired, or the Washington Post, we may finally have an answer.

In a detailed investigation for The Atlantic, reporter Alex Reisner reveals that several major AI companies have quietly partnered with the Common Crawl Foundation — a nonprofit that scrapes the web to build a massive public archive of the internet for research purposes. According to the report, Common Crawl, whose database spans multiple petabytes, has effectively opened a backdoor that allows AI companies to train their models on paywalled content from major news outlets. In a blog post published today, Common Crawl strongly denies the accusations.

The foundation’s website claims its data is collected from freely available webpages. But its executive director, Richard Skrenta, told The Atlantic he believes AI models should be able to access everything on the internet. "The robots are people too," Skrenta told The Atlantic.

SEE ALSO: California greenlights AI safety, data protection, Netflix quiet

AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini have sparked a crisis for the journalism industry. AI chatbots scrape information from publishers and share this information directly with readers, taking clicks and visitors away from those publishers. This phenomenon has been called the traffic apocalypse and the AI armageddon. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

As stated in the Atlantic report, some news publishers have become aware of Common Crawl’s activities, and some have blocked the foundation’s scraper by adding an instruction to their website’s code. However, that only protects future content, not anything that's already been scraped.

Multiple publishers have requested that Common Crawl remove their content from its archives. The foundation has stated that it’s complying, albeit slowly, due to the sheer volume of data, with one organization sharing multiple emails from Common Crawl with The Atlantic that the removal process was "50 percent, 70 percent, and then 80 percent complete." Yet Reisner found that none of those takedown requests seem to have been fulfilled — and that Common Crawl’s archives haven’t been modified since 2016.

Skrenta told The Atlantic that the file format used for storing the archives is "meant to be immutable," meaning content can’t be deleted once it’s added. However, Reisner reports that the site’s public search tool, the only non-technical way to browse Common Crawl’s archives, returns misleading results for certain domains — masking the scope of what has been scraped and stored.

Mashable reached out to Common Crawl, and a team member pointed us to a public blog post from Skrenta. In it, Skrenta denied claims that the organization misled publishers, stating that its web crawler does not bypass paywalls. He also emphasized that Common Crawl is financially independent and “not doing AI’s dirty work.”

"The Atlantic makes several false and misleading claims about the Common Crawl Foundation, including the accusation that our organization has 'lied to publishers' about our activities," the blog post says. It further states, "Our web crawler, known as CCBot, collects data from publicly accessible web pages. We do not go 'behind paywalls,' do not log in to any websites, and do not employ any method designed to evade access restrictions."

However, as Reisner reports, Common Crawl has previously received donations from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI-focused companies. It also lists NVIDIA as a "collaborator" on its website. Beyond collecting raw text, Reisner writes, the foundation also helps assemble and distribute AI training datasets — even hosting them for broader use.

Whatever the case, the fight over how the AI industry uses copyrighted material is far from over. OpenAI, for example, remains at the center of several lawsuits from major publishers, including the New York Times and Mashable’s parent company, Ziff Davis.

As a de facto standard, most keyboards have 104 keys. While most of these keys are quite useful, there's one key that I find completely unnecessary. I'm talking about the Caps Lock key. Here's why I think so and what I did to turn it into one of the most useful keys on my keyboard.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the trade association behind Hollywood's movie rating system, has sent an official cease and desist letter to tech giant Meta, demanding the company halt the use of the MPA's PG-13 designation in its new teen safety features.

In a letter sent to Meta chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead on Oct. 28, the MPA argues that Meta's use of the PG-13 movie rating is "literally false and highly misleading," constituting false advertising and a dilution of the MPA trademark. "The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in its rating system. Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system," the letter contends.

The MPA explained that they had previously denied requests to use the ratings system from Meta's competitors.

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On Oct. 14, Meta announced an overhaul of its parental control and content moderation settings for young users, known as Teen Accounts. In addition to new oversight tools and AI guidelines, the new features included age-appropriate filters that Meta argued reflected the same level of content exposure as MPA ratings, such as brief nudity and minor violence, expletives, and drug or alcohol use. The move came after numerous investigations into the company's youth safety prerogatives, and a recent report that found many of the company's previous safety tools had failed under stress testing.

The MPA issued a statement shortly after, taking issue with the company's use of the PG-13 designation without prior consultation:

"The Motion Picture Association was not contacted by Meta prior to the announcement of its new content moderation tool for Instagram Teen Accounts. We welcome efforts to protect kids from content that may not be appropriate for them, but assertions that Instagram’s new tool will be ‘guided by PG-13 movie ratings’ or have any connection to the film industry’s rating system are inaccurate.”

In the recent letter, the association added that Meta's reliance on automatic, AI-powered content moderation fails to meet the same human standards as the MPA ratings system, which relies on feedback from independent panels of parents. "Meta’s attempts to restrict teen content literally cannot be ‘guided by’ or ‘aligned with’ the MPA’s PG-13 movie rating because Meta does not follow [the MPA’s] curated process," it reads.

The letter argues that Meta is exploiting the established standards built by the MPA to win back trust with consumers.

Meta, meanwhile, argues that it did not claim that the new safety features were certified by the MPA and that the inclusion of "PG-13" qualifies under fair use. "To make things simpler for them, we updated our teen content policies to be closer to PG-13 movie standards—which parents already know. We know social media isn’t the same as movies, but we made this change to support parents, and we hope to work with the MPA to continue bringing families this clarity," said a Meta spokesperson.

The MPA represents major film studios, including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Walt Disney Studios.

Nintendo finally has a mobile storefront for Switch games.

The Nintendo Store app launched as a surprise on Tuesday night, available now on both iOS and Android. As one might expect from the name, it's simply a dedicated mobile app for tracking and purchasing games for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles. You can log into your Nintendo account, maintain a wishlist, check out sales, and more. This more or less puts Nintendo in line with PlayStation and Xbox, both of which have had full-featured mobile apps with digital storefronts for years.

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Somewhat strangely, the only catch is that trying to purchase any game just brings you to the Nintendo store website in a built-in browser window, as opposed to including a custom purchase page within the app. While Nintendo hasn't offered app-based purchases before, you have been able to buy games from the website on a mobile browser for years. This app cuts out the middle-man of having to open Safari, I guess?

However, there is one pretty exciting feature in here: A comprehensive database of your play history in games on recent Nintendo consoles. If you log into your Nintendo account, you can not only see how many hours you've put into any given game, but you can actually see how long your individual play sessions were on a specific day of the calendar. This is how I learned that I apparently had a four-hour session of Xenoblade Chronicles X earlier this year. That's news you can use, folks.

Hopefully, the new Nintendo Store app will add more features in the future, including true in-app purchases.