Technology

Sonos has acknowledged an issue causing its portable Roam speakers to overheat and melt when plugged in to charge. If you have one, maybe consider unplugging it when it isn't in use.

As spotted by Bloomberg, several Reddit users have reported that their Sonos Roam speakers have been overheating, creating an apparent fire hazard by melting the charging cable and area around the USB-C charging port. The issue appears to primarily impact the first generation Sonos Roam, which was initially released in 2021. (Sonos subsequently launched the updated Roam 2 in 2024, and no longer offers the original model for purchase.)

SEE ALSO: Sonos' big comeback is a streaming box

While not a new issue, the Roam's overheating problem was recently brought to attention by a post on the r/sonos subreddit by user u/jssumm. Sharing three photographs of their speaker's melted and blackened USB-C port and charging cable, u/jssumm noted that the Roam had only been two years old and hadn't been used for at least a month.

"It was plugged in using the included Sonos usb cable and plugged into an Apple usb block in the wall, so there’s no cheap knockoff products to blame here," wrote u/jssumm.

Several other Roam users subsequently chimed in to share that they had also encountered this issue. Previous complaints on r/sonos and the Sonos community forum indicate the problem has persisted for a while, with some posts dating back two or three years.

Responses these users received from Sonos' customer support have reportedly varied, with some given a replacement device while others were offered a discount on their next purchase. At least one customer claimed they were told that there aren't any issues with the Roam, and that the damage was caused by their own user error.

Sonos has now acknowledged the Roam's overheating issue, and has noted that it is taking steps to address it.

"We care deeply about product quality and safety and are extremely proud of our record," Sonos said in a statement to Mashable. "We’ve closely tracked a limited number of reports in which certain USB-C charging cables included with the first-generation Sonos Roam speakers have overheated and caused damage to the charging port.

"While the overall incidence rate is very low, and environmental conditions appear to play a role, we’ve taken several proactive steps to even further reduce the likelihood of this issue, including software updates and accessory improvements."

Sonos has been fighting to regain users' trust after the disastrous launch of its buggy new app last year, which dramatically damaged its reputation for delivering quality audio products. The company has since laid off approximately 300 employees, with former CEO Patrick Spence stepping down in January. 

Though the Roam's overheating issue existed long before the current turmoil, the new spotlight on it will no doubt be an unwelcome obstacle amidst Sonos' efforts to course-correct. Even so, Sonos users appear optimistic about new CEO Tom Conrad taking the helm, particularly as he seems aware that the company has significant work ahead of it to win back consumers.

As much as it would pain Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) to hear me say it, Season 2 of Netflix's Wednesday brought me great cheer.

It's been nearly three years since Wednesday first descended on our Netflix queues like a deliciously woeful storm cloud. And in that time, showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have fine-tuned the show's formula. They've ditched what didn't work (say goodbye to Season 1's much-maligned love triangle) but upped the macabre elements and the involvement of the rest of the Addams Family. These moves, combined with the show's ever-enchanting boarding school setting, set the stage for more grotesque fun.

SEE ALSO: 9 burning questions for 'Wednesday' Season 2, because we can't wait Wednesday Addams has a new mystery to solve in Season 2. Emma Myers and Jenna Ortega in "Wednesday." Credit: Jonathan Hession / Netflix

When Wednesday returns to Nevermore Academy (after a summer break spent hunting a serial killer, as one does), it's to horrible news. She's popular now! The horror!

That's right, the most outcast of all the outcasts is now the talk of Nevermore, all thanks to her heroic Season 1 actions. Wednesday's new legions of adoring fangirls make for a fun twist on the dynamic of Season 1, which saw her more on the outs with her classmates. Of course, all this is a nightmare for Wednesday, who would much prefer notoriety to popularity.

SEE ALSO: 10 burning questions we have for 'Wednesday' Season 2, Part 2

But Wednesday has a far more pressing nightmare to deal with. In honing her psychic powers, she witnesses a terrifying vision: Her roommate and bestie Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) is going to die, and it will be all Wednesday's fault.

Burdened with this terrible knowledge, Wednesday sets out to save her friend, soon finding out that Enid's prophesied doom may connect to other murders in the town of Jericho, and to the literal murder of crows circling Nevermore. Yes, the crows add to the Edgar Allan Poe vibes of Nevermore, but would it be too much for them to stop pecking people to death?

Wednesday Season 2 is still filled with dark delights and high school fun. Jenna Ortega in "Wednesday." Credit: Jonathan Hession / Netflix

The killer crows are just one of the many ways in which Wednesday remains committed to its creepy, kooky roots. Wednesday's visions take a turn for the darker, too, accompanied by black tears that both add to her monochromatic aesthetic and herald that she's pushing her psychic limits to the point of disaster.

This season, Wednesday gets its first zombie: a re-animated Nevermore student known as Slurp. Wednesday renders his backstory in gorgeous black-and-white stop-motion animation, reminiscent of Tim Burton's "Vincent" and Frankenweenie. (Burton directs four of Season 2's eight episodes, just as he did with Season 1.) The brain-guzzling zombie horror proves to be madcap (if, again, murderous) fun, while elsewhere, Wednesday gets extra dark with a storyline involving experiments at Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital.

SEE ALSO: 'Wednesday' Season 2 keeps the Edgar Allan Poe references alive. Here's all of them.

It's not all doom and gloom, though, even if that's what Wednesday herself would prefer. Wednesday Season 2 continues to find fun in high school traditions, from a school bonfire to a prank day. The Nevermore spirit reaches its peak on a school camping trip that pits Outcasts against Normies, delivering the game "capture the flag" as only Wednesday can.

Season 2 also brings new faculty into the fray, each a treat in their own right. Steve Buscemi, rocking his best Poe look, is clearly having a blast as new Nevermore Principal, Barry Dort. Billie Piper intrigues as new head of music, Isadora Capri, someone who may challenge Wednesday in more ways than one. But bringing in Christopher Lloyd, who portrayed Uncle Fester in a pair of Addams Family movies, to play a professor who's just a head in a jar is an inspired choice.

Lady Gaga is also slated to appear as a Nevermore teacher in Wednesday Season 2, Part 2, but Part 1 is tragically Gaga-less.

Wednesday Season 2 is an Addams Family affair. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán in "Wednesday." Credit: Jonathan Hession/Netflix

Just as the new Nevermore faculty get a chance to shine, so to do the other members of the Addams Family.

Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) enrolls at Nevermore and works on honing his lightning powers by practicing some light resurrection. Meanwhile, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) joins the academy's fundraising committee, meaning she and Gomez (Luis Guzmán) move to Nevermore. The pair truly begin to ignite the spark of chemistry established in Season 1. Although their interactions are nowhere near the raging furnace of prior Gomez and Morticia portrayals, it's a thrill to watch their sweet seductiveness truly come into play. (A tango scene paying tribute to Addams Family Values helps too.)

But the most rewarding relationship on display this season is between Morticia and Wednesday, who clash often over the latter's overuse of their psychic abilities. Just your normal teenage rebellion: A daughter wants to use an old family book of spells, while her mother would rather she find a non-volatile psychic guide. It happens to all of us!

Joanna Lumley joins the family as Wednesday's icy Grandmama Hester Frump, and Fred Armisen's wacky Uncle Fester also gets far more screen time. Jury's still out on Cousin Itt, though.

As Wednesday's take on the Addams Family continues to grow, make no mistake: Wednesday remains the star of the show. Ortega remains the cold, dead heart of the series — and I mean that as a compliment in tribute to Wednesday! With one deadly glare and a dry putdown in voiceover, Ortega's Wednesday is still a force to be reckoned with. (Especially now that she's not burdened with a love triangle!) Watching her detective exploits continues to be pure gothic fun, and that's something worth snapping about.

Wednesday Season 2 Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Part 2 premieres Sept. 3.

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Say goodbye to subscriptions — don’t miss this deal and get a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows for $49.97. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: Retail King Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License $49.97
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TL;DR: A wide range of ChatGPT courses are available to take for free on Udemy.

Udemy hosts an absolutely massive bank of online courses covering everything from Python programming to Microsoft Excel. Not yet familiar with this platform? It's time to change that.

And better yet, some of the most popular examples of these online courses are available to take for free. It sounds too good to be true, but it's legit. You can learn about a large selection of useful topics without spending anything, including ChatGPT.

SEE ALSO: Toxic relationship with AI chatbot? ChatGPT now has a fix.

We have checked out everything on Udemy and lined up a selection of standout free ChatGPT courses to get you started. These are the best ChatGPT courses available to take for free this month:

• AI for Business and Personal Productivity: A Practical Guide

• Become an OpenAI ChatGPT Master: Start Earning with AI

• ChatGPT 101: The Complete Beginner's Guide and Masterclass

• ChatGPT for Email Writing: Use AI Tools to Write Like a Pro

• ChatGPT Made Easy: AI Essentials for Beginners

• ChatGPT, Midjourney, Firefly, Bard, DALL-E, AI Crash Course

• ChatGPT Prompt Engineering

• ChatGPT Quick Guide — Prompt Engineering, Plugins, and more

• Master ChatGPT: Build AI Assistants That Know Your Business

• Mastering ChatGPT: Advanced Techniques for Professionals

• Perfect Your Writing with ChatGPT and DeepSeek

• Smart ChatGPT Productivity Hacks for Business Professionals

The only catch is that these free online courses do not offer certificates of completion or direct instructor messaging. You still get unrestricted access to all the video content, so you can start learning at your own pace.

Find the best free ChatGPT courses on Udemy.

Opens in a new window Credit: Udemy ChatGPT Courses Free at Udemy Get Deal

It's hard to believe we're still a few days away from a full moon, especially when it looks almost there tonight. The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon's visibility, and we're still in the phase before a full moon. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

So, what's happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 6?

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Wednesday, Aug. 6, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA's Daily Moon Observation, the moon will be 91% lit up tonight, the 13th day of the lunar cycle.

If you enjoy spotting marks on the moon's surface, this is the time of the lunar cycle to pull out the binoculars. With your unaided eye, you'll be able to spot many things tonight, but most notably the Mare Cirisum, the Mare Tranquillitatis, and the Tycho Crater.

With binoculars, you'll also be able to see the Mare Humorum, the Alps Mountains, and the Clavius Crater.

If you're lucky enough to have a telescope, there are endless geological features to spot, namely the Caucasus Mountains, Apollo 11, and the Descartes Highlands.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on August 9. The last full moon was on July 10.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Depending on your generation, you may have been introduced to the Star Wars extended universe by several different movies — Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode VII: The Force Awakens, or even The Clone Wars TV show. Maybe you don't even remember.

And if you're really lucky, you haven't seen any of these movies yet, and you can dive into Star Wars in all its glory for the first time. Fortunately, all the Star Wars movies and TV shows are streaming in the same place.

How to watch Star Wars: Disney+

The Walt Disney Company spent a casual $4.05 billion in 2012 to buy Lucasfilm from Star Wars creator George Lucas. The House of Mouse has since given the entire franchise a permanent home on the Disney+ streaming service. (That includes all of the films in addition to Star Wars shorts, specials, and canon TV shows like The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian.)

If you'd rather rent or buy individual Star Wars movies instead of forking over $9.99 a month for a Disney+ subscription, you can do so via Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV, YouTube, and Fandango at Home. There's no guarantee they'll always be there, though.

What's the best order to watch Star Wars movies? You have three choices.

From "who shot first?" to "how useful are lightsabers, really?" and "has any character ever sucked more than Jar Jar Binks?" — hot take: yes — there are some debates that hardcore Star Wars fans will never settle. Four decades of intergalactic action will do that to you.

While the Star Wars universe is relatively quiet circa 2025, there's never a bad time to revisit one of the Star Wars fandom's favorite questions: In what order do you watch Star Wars movies?

Fans generally agree that you've got three ways to journey through the series:

• The traditional order based on the movies' release dates

• The chronological order of events within the Star Wars universe

• The lesser-known "Machete Order"

What's the Machete Order? More on that in a sec.

How to watch the Star Wars movies in release order Credit: Lucasfilm

The Star Wars movie series is made up of 11 films: a trilogy of trilogies known as the Skywalker Saga, plus two spin-offs that were released between the three newest films. (Disney considers those to be origin stories, but they're not required viewing to understand the main storyline.)

If this is your maiden voyage into a galaxy far, far away, do yourself an enormous favor and watch the series in order of release date. The original movie, Episode IV: A New Hope, sets up so much of the conflict and characters that'll carry you through the rest of the journey, and you'll spoil some pretty major surprises and twists if you start elsewhere.

Original trilogy (available on Disney+):

• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (May 1977)

• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (May 1980)

• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (May 1983)

Prequel trilogy (available on Disney+):

• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (May 1999)

• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (May 2002)

• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (May 2005)

Sequel trilogy, plus spin-offs (available on Disney+):

• Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (Dec. 2015)

• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec. 2016)

• Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (Dec. 2017)

• Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 2018)

• Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (Dec. 2019)

How to watch the Star Wars movies in chronological order Credit: Lucasfilm

If you've been around Tatooine a few times, so to speak, try binge-watching the Star Wars movies the way George Lucas intended: in chronological order of the series' events. This approach revolves around the Battle of Yavin, also known as the Battle of the Death Star, which took place in Episode IV and marks "year zero" in the Star Wars timeline.

Here's what a chronological watch list looks like for the series:

1. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (set 32 years before the Battle of Yavin)

2. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (set in 22 BBY)

3. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (set in 19 BBY)

4. Solo: A Star Wars Story (set circa 10 BBY)

5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (leads right into the Battle of Yavin)

6. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (set in 0 BBY)

7. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (set three years after the Battle of Yavin)

8. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (set in 4 ABY)

9. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (set in 34 ABY)

10. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (set in 34 ABY)

11. Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (set in 35 ABY)

How to watch the Star Wars movies in Machete Order

One could easily make the argument that The Phantom Menace is just a 136-minute-long reminder of what happens when a movie's entire budget is spent on crappy CGI. That, combined with the fact that its plot has no real effect on the rest of the prequel trilogy, has led many a viewer to ask: Does Star Wars really, truly need it?

Software developer and Star Wars guru Rod Hilton tried to answer that very question about a decade ago when he created the "Machete Order," which slashes Episode I out of the series entirely and puts the other two prequel movies between Episodes V and VI — a viewing sequence that refocuses the story on Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the original trilogy, while preserving the series' biggest reveals. (Also a bonus: way less Jar Jar.) It may not be the "proper" way to watch the Star Wars movies, but it's definitely a fan favorite.

Here's how to go about watching the movies (all available on Disney+) in Machete Order, per Hilton's blog:

1. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

2. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

3. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

4. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

5. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

6. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

7. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

8. Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

If you really want to keep Episode I as part of your Star Wars rotation, Hilton recommends treating it like an anthology film that you pull in after the "book" of the main story is closed. (Same with Rogue One and Solo.)

Where do the Disney+ Star Wars TV shows fit into the franchise? Credit: Lucasfilm

Star Wars has evolved beyond movies. From animated classics like The Clone Wars to recent Disney+ originals such as The Mandalorian and The Acolyte, the extended universe gets a bit more convoluted. So, it's helpful to know where each Star Wars TV series fits in chronologically.

The Acolyte (2024) is the earliest part of the Star Wars timeline, set at the end of the High Republic era, long before the Skywalker Saga begins. The Clone Wars comes in next, taking place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan Kenobi, a mini series from 2022, follows the Jedi a decade after the events of Episode III. Five years before Episode IV: A New Hope, we have Andor (2022), which follows the formation of the Rebel Alliance.

In the gap between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order, there are several different stories: The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Skeleton Crew, and Ahsoka.

Here's our best estimation of the chronological order of the Disney+ Star Wars shows:

• The Acolyte

• The Clone Wars

• The Bad Batch

• Obi-Wan Kenobi

• Andor

• Star Wars Rebels

• The Mandalorian (Seasons 1 & 2)

• The Book of Boba Fett

• The Mandalorian (Season 3)

• Skeleton Crew

• Ahsoka

• Star Wars Resistance

The best Disney+ deals

Not yet a Disney+ subscriber? Subscriptions start at $9.99 after a price hike in summer 2024, but we've rounded up a few of the best ways you can save some money on the streaming service below.

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Last year, Disney+ hiked its price up from $13.99 to $15.99 for those who wish to watch ad-free. With the yearly plan, you'll pay $159.99 per year, which breaks down to $13.33 per month. That saves you about 17%, though you have to pay all at once.

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If you want the most bang for your buck, Disney's bundle deals are the best in the biz. You can bundle Disney+ and Hulu for just $10.99 per month with ads, which basically gets you Disney+ for $1 per month (44% in savings). You can also add HBO Max (with ads) or ESPN+ into the mix for a grand total of $16.99 per month. Going ad free costs an extra $9 per month for Disney+ and Hulu and an extra $13 per month for the trio bundle.

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Verizon customers can score the Disney+ bundle for even cheaper with myPlan. Just add a Disney Bundle to your account through myPlan, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, all with ads. All three would regularly cost you $31.97 per month separately or $16.99 per month through the Disney Bundle deal, but by signing up through this myPlan deal, you'll only pay $10 per month.

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Verizon Total Wireless customers on the $60/month prepaid unlimited plan get Disney+ Premium (no ads) for free. No terms or trial periods. Just keep your account in good standing and you'll get Disney+ access. If you cancel or switch your plan, your subscription will end as well. If you're on the $50/month prepaid unlimited plan, you're also eligible for six free months of Disney+. Want to extend your trial? Just upgrade to the $60/month plan.

If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber and haven't really gotten your use out of its massive Prime Video library of shows and movies, then you really should start checking out what the streaming service has to offer.

uBlock Origin Lite has been a boon for many, but until now, it was only available on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, leaving a lot of Apple users out. Now, though, it's finally available for macOS and iOS Safari users.

PCI Express 5.0 is just becoming ubiquitous since last year, and PCI Express 6.0 should land on consumer devices at some point. But you'd be surprised by how far ahead the PCI-SIG is internally. Work on PCI Express 8.0 is already underway, and it's insane.

I recently traveled to Europe and I foolishly forgot to pack a travel adapter. If you don't want this to happen to you, this Anker travel adapter is a pretty good deal—and it has a nice discount attached to it right now.

When registering a domain name, you're required to provide personal contact information for the WHOIS database, which is a directory showing who is the owner of a domain. While this promotes trust and transparency, it also puts your name, home address, phone number, and email out there for spammers, scammers, and data harvesters to find.

Number formats in Microsoft Excel define how data is displayed in your spreadsheet without changing the underlying values. As well as using number formats to present data as dates, times, percentages, and currencies, you can build a more specific number format using custom number formatting.

While the Control Panel is still around (and probably will be for a long time), you don't need to use it. Microsoft wants you to use the Settings app, and I'm inclined to agree, even if you still tweak some of your settings and preferences in the Control Panel.

Don't know which new film to stream in August? Netflix has a string of new releases slated for your screen this month, from thrilling murder mysteries and summer romances to a hilarious canine story with a unique premise.

Intel is still one of the biggest players in the CPU (and now GPU) segment, but it has struggled to keep up with the new times. As it turns out, it's struggling with yields for its newest technologies and silicon—though if you've followed Intel for a while, you know this is not exactly surprising news.

Over the years, Sony has demonstrated its commitment to coming up with new and ridiculous proprietary things alongside industry-defining products like the original Walkman and PlayStation. Many of these have seen widespread success, like Blu-Ray, or made sense for the time, like the ATRAC audio codec that made the MiniDisc viable; some of Sony’s worst ideas involved hardware connectors.

Even with the Trump administration slashing NASA’s budget and workforce, the space agency is moving ahead with a bold plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, according to Politico.

The report states that Transportation Secretary/Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy will soon announce the effort, with a goal of opening the 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor by 2030. Much of the urgency appears tied to competition from China and Russia. China plans to send astronauts to the moon in 2030, and both China and Russia have discussed a joint operation to build a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface.

SEE ALSO: NASA's carbon tracking satellites are on Trump's chopping block

NASA believes that another nation winning the nuclear race on the moon could inhibit the U.S.’s own lunar ambitions. With lunar night lasting two weeks at a time, nuclear power would be an alternative to solar, powering permanent or semi-permanent lunar bases and missions. Additionally, some of the moon lies in permanent shadow, making solar-powered missions more complicated in those areas. Nuclear power would open up much more of the moon to humans, according to NASA.

How the reactor would be built remains an open question, though Newsweek suggests the power generator could use uranium fuel and be buried under the lunar surface to shield astronauts from radiation.

NASA also has plans to replace the aging International Space Station by 2030, possibly with the help of corporate entities like Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin. The ISS is likely to be decommissioned and crashed into the ocean by then, and if an ISS replacement is not constructed in time, then China would operate the only permanently crewed space station.

Under Trump and Duffy, NASA is also prioritizing human spaceflight, including to Mars, while deemphasizing scientific efforts.

TL;DR: Scan anything, anywhere, with this lifetime subscription to iScanner, now A$38 (reg. A$309) with code SCAN through 7 September.

Opens in a new window Credit: iScanner iScanner App: Lifetime Subscription AU$38
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Raise your hand if you've ever had to rush to the library to print something. If most of us don't have the space for clunky printers, chances are we also don't keep a scanner at home. That's what iScanner is for.

This iOS app transforms your iPhone or iPad into a handy little scanner that works for basically any document type. It's also only A$38 (reg. A$309) for a lifetime subscription with code SCAN. 

No more wasted desk space

Even if you're one of the few with a physical scanner still in your presence, you can now clear some counter space thanks to iScanner. And while you're at it, you can throw away that dusty old filing cabinet, too. 

iScanner is the number one US-based scanning and document management tool, letting you knock items off your to-do list from anywhere. Need to save a receipt for taxes? Do you have a contract you need to digitize? You can scan any document using just the phone on your iOS device. 

Students, entrepreneurs, educators, and stay-at-home moms alike will all find endless uses for a scanner in your pocket. The AI-powered tools ensure your documents' borders are detected and automatically adjusted while also straightening scan pages and ditching curves and skews. 

Thanks to AI, you can also use iScanner to help you solve complicated math problems.  Or put its OCR technology to the test and let it help you decipher text in up to 20 languages.

Once things are scanned, the app becomes a full PDF editor and file manager. Edit your scans, including signing them, adding text, or autofilling them with custom templates. Then, use the file manager's folder via drag and drop to keep them safe and organized. 

Scanning something confidential? You can also protect files and folders by locking them with a PIN. 

Use code SCAN by 7 September at 11:59 p.m. PT to get an iScanner lifetime subscription on sale for A$38. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

For the first time since GPT-2 dropped over five years ago, OpenAI is releasing not one, but two open-weight AI reasoning models — and they’re available to download for free right now on Hugging Face.

Billed as “state-of-the-art,” the new OpenAI open-weight models were announced Tuesday in a company blog post. OpenAI says they "outperform similarly sized open models on reasoning, excel at tool use, and are optimized for efficient deployment on consumer hardware."

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There are two versions:

• gpt-oss-120b, the larger and more powerful model, which can run on a single Nvidia GPU.

• gpt-oss-20b, a lightweight alternative designed to run on consumer laptops with just 16GB of RAM.

To try out the new OpenAI models for yourself, head to the OpenAI gpt-oss page.

What does open-weight mean?

This release is a nod to OpenAI’s early roots, when the company was more publicly committed to open-sourcing its models (hence the company's name). While these aren’t “fully open source” in the strictest sense — the training data isn’t included — they are open weight, meaning the code and model parameters are available for anyone to use, tweak, and build upon.

And no, models like Meta’s LLaMA aren’t truly open source either — at least not by the standards of the open-source community, which requires access to training data as a baseline.

Since the release of GPT-2, OpenAI has steadily shifted toward a more closed and proprietary approach to its LLM development — until now. The recent release of open-weight models marks a notable change in direction, and it’s not happening in a vacuum.

With China’s DeepSeek AI and other labs in the country gaining traction and achieving impressive scores on benchmark tests, the pressure has been mounting for US tech companies to stay competitive in the global AI race. In fact, just last month, the Trump administration urged American AI developers to open source more of their technology in an effort to promote innovation aligned with “American values” and maintain a strategic edge.

Regardless of the motivations behind it, this move represents a significant step forward, not just for OpenAI but for the broader open AI ecosystem.

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.

Rod Stewart never ceases to amaze fans with his weird choices.

At Stewart's show in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 29, he dedicated his song "Forever Young" to longtime friend Ozzy Osbourne and played an AI-generated video featuring the late Osbourne using a selfie stick to take pictures with other famous musicians who have died, including Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Prince, Freddie Mercury, Tupac, Kurt Cobain, XXXTentacion, and Amy Winehouse.

One concert-goer called it a "new low" for AI use. A user on X pointed out that Stewart's use of an AI-generated video is a bit odd since he was friends with Osbourne and has performed with him — he could have simply used that footage instead.

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Now, I know what you might be thinking: "At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own actions." That is something my mom might say to me if I came home from a Stewart concert complaining about him having done something weird.

Stewart is a man with odd takes. For instance, he turned down a multi-million dollar gig in Saudi Arabia in 2023 because of the country's treatment of women and LGBTQ+ people, but, in 2025, publicly voiced support for far-right politician Nigel Farage, who famously has some controversial anti-LBGTQ+ and anti-choice views. Stewart is a man of many contradictions. So when he said in 2023 that AI could be the "destruction of mankind as we know it," we should have calculated that he might use AI for a bizarre tribute in 2025.