Technology

When your PC starts to lag, it is normal to start searching the web for solutions only to be met with a deluge of apps that promise to "speed up your PC" and "optimize Windows" with a single click.

Marvel's whiplash New York Comic Con announcements have brought fans disappointing cancellation news, sneak previews, and, of course, more secrecy.

Taking to the stage Oct. 8, Marvel execs announced the end of Daredevil: Born Again, which will conclude with its third season next year. The team also gave attendees a taste of the upcoming third season of X-Men '97 and VisionQuest, the last installment of the Scarlet Witch's television saga. But the online buzz is all about its mysterious new show, Zodiac, set to debut in 2028.

SEE ALSO: What's new to streaming this week? (Oct. 9, 2026)

Flashing the new logo on the big screen, Marvel Television head Brad Winderbaum wouldn't say much about the show's plot or characters — perhaps some meta marketing for what is being dubbed a Marvel universe spy drama — but he did hint there was more than meets the eye. "If you're a fan of the comics, there is a lot hidden in that logo," Winderbaum nudged.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is sprawling, and it has long blurred the lines between comic canon and Hollywood fantasy. For comic lovers, the phrase "Zodiac" conjures a myriad of puzzling possibilities. Winderbaum, we may need some help.

What is the 'Zodiac' logo hiding?

Marvel appears to be teasing an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. connection, using part of the counter terrorism and intelligence organization's logo as its "A."

It's the "O" — some kind of mechanical circle that appears to be breaking apart — that's thrown fans or a loop. One Mashable editor likened it to Tony Stark's arc reactor, pre-Iron Man 3. Others online described it as a broken shield or a spinning wheel.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Who is in 'Zodiac'?

The cast has yet to be announced, but some fans have already theorized that it will see the return of familiar favorites, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg).

How does 'Zodiac' appear in the Marvel comics?

The phrase first appears in the original Avengers comic series, referring to a criminal organization made up of villains named after the 12 Zodiac signs. The name was donned by several illicit organizations across the comic universe thereafter, and then revived in its original celestial form, but with a new name, in Jonathan Hickman's "Secret Warriors" and "S.H.I.E.L.D." comics. 

Zodiac has also appeared in Agent Carter as the name of a chemical weapon.

Here are the internet's current running theories on what Zodiac is about:

'Zodiac' is a 'Secret Invasion' do-over

Nick Fury's re-entry into the Marvel universe, Secret Invasion was widely considered a disappointment among fans. But it did feature the same conspiracy-filled, espionage-laced plot lines that Zodiac seems to be teasing, and fans want to see it done right.

So could the new show be another attempt to have Fury lead a team of covert operatives against a global, political threat? In the Hickman comics, Zodiac is refashioned into an organization called "The Great Wheel" and is comprised of the world's top spymasters, including S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra leaders. In this story, the Great Wheel was started by — this is not a joke — a time traveling Leonardo da Vinci.

Maybe Fury's younger brother, the yet-to-be portrayed Jake and his alter ego Scorpio, could finally make an appearance? And instead of time travel, maybe we have some more multiverse tomfoolery ahead of us?

'Zodiac' is Marvel TV's stab at the Secret Avengers

Some on the Mashable team suggest it could be a loose adaptation of the Secret Avengers, a 2010 comic series that convened a black-ops group of Marvel heroes including Moon Knight, Black Widow, Ant Man, and War Machine, as well as X-Men icon Beast. Series writer Nick Spencer asserted it was squarely in the universe of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time, calling out both Nick Fury and Agent Coulson in early promo.

We saw two versions of this plot play out already in the MCU, however, through Steve Rogers' rogue Avengers crew in Captain America: Civil War and the latest rag tag team of villains-turned-heroes in the Thunderbolts.

'Zodiac' is literally about the Zodiac Killer

"Wild prediction: Zodiac (2028) is a spiritual successor to Zodiac (2007) and is set in between Infinity War and Endgame, in which Tony Stark, Bruce Banner and a disguised Quentin Beck team up to find a serial killer," wrote one reddit user.

Ok, so this one may just be for fellow fans of David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece Zodiac, and likely isn't what's going on here. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Zodiac (2007) stars Mark Ruffalo as a seasoned investigator on the hunt for a killer. Maybe Bruce Banner has some spy skills in him?

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

Ryobi's 18V and 40V tools are extremely popular with homeowners and DIYers, and for good reason. I'm a huge fan myself and have been buying Ryobi tools for more than 20 years. However, not every tool is a winner, and there are a few Ryobi tools I regret buying. If you're wandering through Home Depot, here are a few to avoid and what to buy instead.

There’s something ridiculous about how much I trust Google Maps while driving. I’ll be in an unfamiliar part of town, approaching a road I’ve never seen before, and somehow I’m expected to believe a tiny blue arrow knows exactly where I should go. Most of the time, I just follow it and hope I don’t end up making a last-second turn.

According to a new report from the Financial Times, OpenAI has informed investors that the company is expected to make $50 billion in revenue for the year.

That's a lot of money, but it's also a full $20 billion less than earlier projections from just last month, which predicted the company would earn $70 billion in annual revenue.

AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are in the midst of an unprecedented infrastructure spending spree, with the AI industry spending trillions on data centers and other resources. And as CNN noted, the Financial Times' report could "rattle investors" worried that these companies won't be able to turn a profit after all.

Tech stocks took a hit on the market after the revenue shortfall was reported.

According to the Financial Times, the $70 billion figure didn't come from OpenAI itself, but rather from investors comparing OpenAI's revenue with its main competitor, Anthropic. The latter's revenue projections include revenue from cloud providers, whereas OpenAI does not include this in its revenue numbers.

OpenAI raised $122 billion in March at a valuation of $852 billion. OpenAI has recently been seeking an additional $30 billion in funds at a valuation of around $1.4 trillion.

However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced last month that he was delaying the company's IPO and that it would not be coming in 2026. Altman cited concerns regarding AI safety as the reason for the delay.

While Anthropic still plans to go public sometime this year, the OpenAI competitor's prospectus points to some revenue troubles as well. The company lost $42 billion in 2025.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

Samsung's next batch of flagship phones now has a tentative price tag.

A leaker on X going by @phonefuturist (cited by AndroidHeadlines) posted starting prices for the four phones that are currently expected to make up the Galaxy S27 lineup. These would be the base S27, the S27+, the new S27 Pro, and the S27 Ultra, for the uninitiated. The prices are as follows:

• Galaxy S27: $899

• Galaxy S27+: $1,099

• Galaxy S27 Pro: $1,299

• Galaxy S27 Ultra: $1,399

SEE ALSO: Here we go again: Samsung raises Galaxy S26 smartphone prices This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

It should be noted that this information is not coming from Samsung directly and should be taken with a grain of salt. Even if the prices are real at this point in time, they are also subject to change before the phones launch early next year. The global memory crisis is still ongoing, and a lot could change in just a few months.

That said, there are some interesting insights here. First, the S27 and S27+ are said to be $100 cheaper than the S26 equivalents currently cost. Samsung recently jacked up the prices on the 2026 models by $100, so if the leaked prices for the S27 lineup are true, that price increase will not necessarily carry forward to the new phones at launch.

However, the S27 Ultra's reported $1,399 price is consistent with the recent price increase of the S26 Ultra. It seems like the S26 Pro, which is a new device, will slot in between the S27+ and S27 Ultra as a slightly more affordable premium flagship phone. AndroidHeadlines noted that the display specs shared in the X post indicate the S27 and S27+ will not necessarily be true flagships compared to the S27 Pro and Ultra, but we'll have to wait until closer to launch to learn exactly how true that is.

Best Buy is in the middle of its own fall savings event right now, as its Techtober sale is starting off strong. For the gamer, the one product that jumps off the screen is this impressive Acer Nitro Gaming curved monitor—the ideal choice for those looking to up their experience with a bigger screen. With a discount of $280, it's one you'll definitely want to take advantage of before it's too late.

The civil lawsuit claiming that Jane Doe was drugged and raped by seven Chi Phi fraternity members at Cornell University has caused an eruption of content on social media, from the "I am Jane Doe" campaign to help conceal the woman's identity to celebrities like Florence Pugh posting about the allegations.

Now, a coalition of feminist and tech justice organizations claim Meta is censoring content about the case.

SEE ALSO: New York’s ‘voluntary intoxication loophole’: The legal gap at the center of the 'Cornell 7' case.

"We're in the midst of a classic censorship cycle designed to silence survivor voices," said Jenna Sherman, campaign director at women-led gender-justice organization UltraViolet, in a press release shared with Mashable. "First, Cornell tried to cover up this horrific case. Then, legacy media ignored it."

Jane Doe's lawsuit brings several claims against the university, including negligence and negligent supervision. Student journalists at The Cornell Daily Sun are credited with amplifying the story.

"Now, after Jane Doe and brave student journalists finally brought this story to light, Meta appears to be censoring content about the case across its platforms," Sherman continued.

Shortly after Pugh posted a statement in support of Jane Doe, she said Instagram placed a "sensitive-content" warning on her post, which prevented some people from seeing it and scrolling through the carousel. "Am I being censored for talking about rape?" she asked. Meta confirmed to TMZ that it initially placed the warning on the post, but has since lifted it.

But the coalition states that even a second post about the case was covered by the same label. "Pugh is one of many users claiming that their posts are being censored, labeled, or shadowbanned by Instagram, Facebook, and Threads," they wrote.

UltraViolet, as well as other gender justice, tech accountability, and pro-democracy organizations, have launched a joint campaign in response. In a petition with over 29,000 signatures at the time of this writing, they call on Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri to stop censoring posts about the Cornell case.

"Meta has no business making it difficult for users — and particularly women users — to engage in these conversations. Blocking this content sends a dangerous signal that sounding the alarm on rape culture is worse than rape itself," the ActionNetwork petition reads. "It feels blatantly obvious that women’s safety is not actually Meta's priority, but that silencing us is."

A Meta spokesperson told Mashable over email, "To protect victims and survivors, and to give people the choice whether to view content they may find upsetting, our policy is to apply a warning screen to detailed descriptions of sexual assault and limit that content to adults. Because of the newsworthiness of this case, we quickly lifted that warning screen for adults to better allow free discussion."

In addition to UltraViolet, the full coalition includes Democracy for America Advocacy Fund, Kairos Fellowship, National Campaign for Justice, National Organization for Women (NOW), National Women's Defense League (NWDL), Reckoning Action, ReproAction, Repro Uncensored, Safe Horizon, Sexual Violence Prevention Association (SVPA), TakeItBack.Org, The Juggernaut Project, and Women's March.

In addition to signing the petition, the coalition encourages people to report post takedowns and flags to the nonprofit Repro Uncensored (RU), which tracks instances of post and account removal. RU founder and executive director, Martha Dimitratou, said the reports RU is receiving are deeply concerning and expose harms to freedom of speech and democracy.

"These reports reflect a wider pattern documented by Repro Uncensored in thousands of digital censorship cases across more than 50 countries affecting feminist advocacy, reproductive health information, and communities facing discrimination, with critical information removed, accounts disabled and advocates left without clear explanations or meaningful appeals," she said. Mashable reported on these instances in May.

"When social media platforms bury conversations about sexual violence, they don’t just limit speech; they help create the silence in which rape culture thrives," NOW president Kim Villanueva stated in a press release.

UPDATE: Oct. 9, 2026, 5:14 p.m. EDT This article has been updated with a comment from a Meta spokesperson.

Previously, How-To Geek reported that Amazon’s ambitions in low-Earth orbit extended beyond traditional home broadband toward direct-to-device satellite connectivity. While satellite phone connectivity is still far away, Amazon is getting ready to launch its satellite internet service later this year.

Netflix has an extensive collection of award-winning movies, and some of its best picks are also great for a relaxed weekend watch. From a sweeping wartime romance to a hip-hop underdog story, these films offer very different reasons to settle in for your movie night.

Building a comprehensive Obsidian Knowledge Base has become a discipline for me lately. I already use several different methods to build it. Some of them are pretty standard, like using the web importer plugin. Others are a bit more unexpected. And I do a great deal of it without touching the editor for the most part. But I wanted to go further. So I found a few rather unconventional sources to use to continue building my "second brain".

If you’re running out of storage on your Android, there's a good chance Chrome might be the silent culprit. While the app’s base size is roughly 150MB to 275MB, its storage footprint can grow significantly as your browser accumulates Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), offline media caches, and persistent web data over time. In my case, this was the reason for my browser having around 6GB of storage on my phone.

The PC market was already rough, but it just got worse. IDC estimates that PC shipments plunged 20.1% year-over-year in the summer (third quarter) this year, and that the situation isn't likely to get better any time soon.

It's easy to forget that Sony launched a fancy, expensive VR headset for PlayStation 5 just a few years ago. It's seemingly only going to get easier going forward.

That's because Sony just sold 419 VR-and-XR-related patents to Meta, per a report from ZDNet Korea. 43 of those were filed in the United States alone, and they include patents for things like head-mounted displays.

It's unclear what exactly this means for Sony's future VR efforts, but doing this just three and a half years after the launch of PlayStation VR 2 (amidst product shortages, per GamesRadar) suggests that the company isn't especially interested in making another headset anytime soon. It should be noted that PSVR2 has not been officially discontinued, even if it has been difficult to find in stock recently.

SEE ALSO: Meta brings Muse to iPad with new tools for small businesses

This isn't terribly surprising, even if it is a bit of a bummer for those who value high-end console VR experiences. The PSVR2 headset was hailed as an excellent piece of hardware by Mashable and other outlets when it launched in 2023, but a critical lack of software support over the years has made it feel like a dead platform, even if it technically isn't one at the time of publication.

On Meta's side of things, acquiring several hundred VR patents is interesting given the company's recent up-and-down relationship with the technology. Earlier this year, Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from its Reality Labs division and shut down the VR portion of its Horizon Worlds app. However, the company also just announced VR glasses, a new product category, so it seems like Mark Zuckerberg's VR ambitions haven't died just yet. This latest development is another point of evidence in that direction.

Hurricane Isaias is making its way toward landfall on the Gulf Coast late tonight or early Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm strengthened to Category 3 on Friday morning as it continued to push its way toward shore, the National Hurricane Center confirmed.

Spaghetti models predict the storm to make landfall somewhere between Gulf Shores, Alabama and Fort Walton Beach, Florida, according to storm tracking site Cyclocane. Spaghetti models are collections of storm-tracking forecasts that plot the storm's path and are overlaid on a map to provide a rough consensus on its track. It's important to realize that, regardless of where the storm makes landfall, Hurricane Isaias is a large storm with hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles and tropical-storm-force winds extending up to 185 miles, according to the 8 a.m. ET NHC forecast.

As the storm pushes in toward land, Hurricane Isaias' arrival can be watched in real-time via cams along the Gulf Coast. We've gathered a collection of webcams that are livestreaming now.

Pensacola, Florida webcams

The YouTube channel Florida Traffic, which sources its camera feeds from the Florida Department of Transportation, has a livestream showing road conditions in Pensacola as Hurricane Isaias approaches.

Another YouTube channel, the Santa Rosa Island Authority, has three cameras pointed along the beach in Santa Rosa Island, located between Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach.

Fort Walton Beach webcams

The Wyndham Garden Fort Walton Beach hotel's YouTube channel features a view of Okaloosa Island in the Pensacola area as the storm rolls in.

Gulf Shores, Alabama beach webcams

The Beach Club Resort & Spa's YouTube channel offers an elevated live view of Gulf Shores.

Biloxi, Mississippi beach webcams

The City of Biloxi YouTube channel features a webcam from the top of the city's lighthouse. It provides a view of the beach and the road that runs along it.

This story will be updated as more livestreams become available.

You can never have enough storage space on your desktop, and adding an SSD like Lexar's NQ780 can help back up your movie and music collection, as well as important documents like your ID or birth certificate. It can also be a fast, reliable replacement if your current drive starts having issues.

The appeal of Arch is obvious: you get the latest and greatest within days of their release. However, Arch also has a reputation for being difficult to install and requiring constant upkeep.

Other Mommy crept into the public consciousness over the summer with a scary trailer playing ahead of The Odyssey in theaters nationwide.

From the title and the bit of body horror teased in that clip alone, many grown-ups saw similarities to Coraline, in which a little girl battles with a deformed doppelgänger of her own mother. But before you think this means Other Mommy would be a good pick for a spooky season night out with your scary-story-loving kid, let's break down what you might want to know first. 

Light spoilers ahead for Other Mommy. 

What's Other Mommy about?  Credit: Universal Pictures

Based on Josh Malerman's New York Times best-selling novel Incidents Around the House, Other Mommy centers on Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), a 7-year-old girl who has been talking to an entity she calls "other mommy." As you might guess, Other Mommy (Jessica Chastain) looks a lot like Bela's real mommy, Ursula (also Jessica Chastain). This makes for several troubling sequences where Bela isn't sure if she's talking to her mom or the entity. 

When Ursula and Bela's dad, Russ (Jay Duplass), become aware of Other Mommy and her magical ability to kidnap their daughter to far-off locations in the blink of an eye, they try desperately to stop it. But along the way, there will be casualties and lots of jump scares. 

A special warning to families of divorce:  Credit: Universal Pictures

Other Mommy might be especially troubling to your children. Part of the power Other Mommy has in the film comes from Bela's fear that her parents' might split up.

While she's very close with her stay-at-home father, Daddo (as she calls Russ), Bela views her mother with a suspicion that Ursula would rather be anywhere else than in their home. This divide between daughter and mother is how Other Mother becomes such a compelling temptation. She's never too tired to play. She always smiles. She gives Bela whatever she asks for. Of course, what she wants in exchange is a hefty price to pay, as teased in the trailer. 

How scary is Other Mommy?  Credit: Universal Pictures

Fairly scary! For one thing, the jump scare that had Odyssey audiences gagged happens before the film's opening title card!

Director Rob Savage has made a name in horror with two terrific movies (Host, The Boogeyman) that make great use of jump scares. (He also made the abysmal and totally-worth-skipping Dashcam. So, don't let a spooky season marathon lead you there.)

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Savage estimated Other Mommy has "oh, like 50" jump scares in its 93-minute runtime. By my count, that's an exaggeration. However, I am a full-grown adult who did jump and scream loudly multiple times in this movie. It's fun and frightening, no doubt.

Much of the scares are centered around the eponymous entity, who, beyond being able to look like a creepshow version of Jessica Chastain, can shape-shift into other freaky forms too. And when Other Mommy gets mad, the violence she enacts involves some brutal violence, blood, and guts glitter. 

What rating is Other Mommy?

This movie is rated R for cursing (yes, the f-word included), violence, and gore. 

There are also sequences where young Bela is confronted with some hard truths about her parents. 

How does Other Mommy compare to Coraline?  Credit: Universal Pictures

Both focus on a little girl with a sharp bob who develops a relationship with an otherworldly double of her own mother. Each film is grounded in that girl's perspective, regarding the doppelgänger with a mix of awe and terror. In both, doorways possess magic to hide and connect the child and the other maternal figure. Both movies have scary bits where the young heroine is put at risk. Both are pretty scary for adults, and for kids more so. 

For what it's worth, I once asked Coraline director Henry Selick how old he thought someone should be before watching his adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book. He said, "At least 12." 

So, here's what I'll say: If your kid isn't ready for Coraline, they're not ready for Other Mommy.

Even if the swearing doesn't bother you and blood doesn't tend to spook your spawn, Other Mommy takes these scares to a more intense level. Being live-action, there's a greater horror in seeing the grown-ups around Bela be unraveled by Other Mommy, in very graphically violent ways. And beyond that, the idea that an evil entity can look like a parent might well leave your kid spooked by you after the credits roll. 

How old should a kid be to see Other Mommy?  Credit: Universal Pictures

Generally, I'd say in their teens, but with the caveat that you know your kid better than I do.

I will warn, when I was 11 or 12, I would have done whatever I needed to do to see a movie like Other Mommy — and I did. I watched slashers and Tim Curry's IT, and every Child's Play movie I could find when my parents weren't looking. And I suspect curious kids who love horror will make Other Mommy a sleepover staple before long. So, even if you don't choose to take your kid to see this, maybe this article will help you understand why they're so spooked if they found it on their own.

The Other Mother is now in theaters. 

A fourth Avatar animated series is on the way, Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko revealed at New York Comic Con.

The announcement came as part of NYCC's Avatar: Seven Havens panel. The third series in the animated Avatar franchise, Seven Havens follows the adventures of Korra's earthbending successor and has just been renewed for Seasons 3 and 4.

SEE ALSO: 'Avatar: Seven Havens' review: The Avatar apocalypse is a bold, brilliant addition to the franchise

The next Avatar series is titled Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos. Instead of continuing the Avatar cycle after Seven Havens' Pavi (voiced by Saheli Khan), it will head back in time to the waterbender from the Northern Water Tribe who preceded Kyoshi, Roku, and Aang.

Kuruk has previously appeared in prior Avatar series, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Plus, novels about avatars Kysohi and Yangchen reveal details about his life. He's most well-known for clashing with face-stealing spirit Koh, who stole away Kuruk's fiancée, Ummi. However, the series won't follow that story.

Instead, it introduces a rebellious 14-year-old Kuruk. According to the series logline, Kuruk "bucks thousands of years of tradition by choosing to learn the four elements through globetrotting adventures, staying one step ahead of his angry teacher, rowdy pirates, and chaotic spirits — all while helping the world in his own unique ways."

Konietzko serves as showrunner, and Janet Varney, the original voice of Korra, will be the show's voice director.

According Konietzko, the series is "not tragic and violent and dark" as leaks have suggested. Instead, he described it as "our first action comedy."

Check out first looks at art from Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos below, including Kuruk waterbending and surfing, as well as his adorable koalaotter, Nikik.

Credit: Paramount+ Credit: Paramount+ Credit: Paramount+ Credit: Paramount+ Credit: Paramount+ Credit: Paramount+

Rounding out the Avatar: Seven Havens panel were announcements about Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game and podcast Avatar: Braving the Elements. The former will soon incorporate Seven Havens colorways and a stage based on Sonam's temple from Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender. Episodes of the latter will soon feature interviews with the cast and creators of Seven Havens.

Avatar: Seven Havens is now streaming on Paramount+. Avatar Kuruk: Wave of Chaos will premiere at a later date.

UPDATE: Oct. 9, 2026, 12:31 p.m. EDT This story has been updated to include further news out of NYCC.