Technology

With so many new and returning shows arriving this week, it's difficult to keep track of them all. This pattern always emerges at the beginning of each month, as streaming services want to start off with a bang. It's a good problem to have, even if the shows follow binge models instead of weekly releases.

Meta has a hit on its hands, and it knows it. The social media giant's new AI agent Muse quickly reached more than five million app downloads after its launch in September, and the Jolly mascot has become a common sight in Meta's branding lately.

On Thursday, the company announced it now offers voice support for Muse. That means users can talk to their agent to give instructions or ask questions. Muse users will also be able to customize the voice, with hundreds of options available.

"Starting today in the US, we’re rolling out voice and expressive avatars in the Muse app across mobile app, web and Mac app, giving you a new, natural way to interact with your Muse. Want New Yorker energy? Pirate flair? Pick from hundreds of voices and switch it up whenever your mood does."

In an announcement blog post, the company outlined potential use cases. "Some things are better rehearsed out loud. Prepare for a job interview, run through a presentation, or talk through a pitch — hearing a response and answering in the moment makes it feel more like the real thing."

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also teased the new update on X.

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

In addition to voice support, Muse now offers expressive avatars. That means users' Muse mascots will match facial expressions to match what they're saying.

Lately, the AI industry has learned that a cute little guy is a great way to anthropomorphize AI, making it seem cutesy rather than intimidating, for better or worse.

Of course, voice mode can quickly go sideways, as OpenAI learned when the online creator Husk repeatedly went viral for his videos showing ChatGPT's voice mode acting very, very dumb.

We'll have to see if Muse fares any better.

To Meta's credit, the company's latest AI models have caught up to the frontier, as its massive AI spending spree continues.

U.S. users can experiment with Muse's voices and expressive avatars starting today.

Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

Are you tired of your unstable Wi-Fi connection? So was I, so I took a bunch of devices off my Wi-Fi and saw great improvements in network stability. But I get that wiring up every single room in the house isn't feasible, no matter how much you might want to.

In 2024, Microsoft announced Copilot+ PCs, the "fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built." Copilot+ PCs were announced with a handful of new features, like the much-derided Recall, AI-powered image editing, and a few other things.

Whether you're looking to download a GPU-specific driver, trying to determine whether you'll be able to play a new game at a reasonable frame rate, or checking the specs on an unfamiliar PC, knowing exactly what GPU you're dealing with is an important piece of information. Here are a few ways you can do it.

When you get a new phone, everything seems to run faster. Apps launch quicker, menus appear snappier, and the whole experience feels less congested.

We're only a few days into November, and Netflix in the U.S. has already announced its slate of new and returning shows this month. Later this month, The Hunting Wives returns for a second season. As for this weekend, one of my recommendations comes from Hallmark Channel, which is particularly appropriate during the holiday season.

The 1990s was the decade when Windows conquered the world. By the end of it, Windows was the most popular desktop operating system, far ahead of every one of its competitors. But one rival could've taken its spoils at the very beginning of the decade, and the reason why it didn't wasn't because it was an inferior product.

Integrated bracelet sports watches are effortlessly stylish with a timeless vintage vibe. However, they can run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the brand. The good news is you don't need to pay that much and can get the reliable, high-quality Casio Edifice EFB-730D for just over $100 with a limited-time Amazon deal.

TikTok has spent years making it easier to buy the products that appear in makeup tutorials, cooking videos, and creator recommendations in TikTok Shop. Now, it’s giving shoppers a separate app to open when they're in the mood to spend on a new lip gloss, a milk frother, or another pair of sneakers.

The company has (rather quietly) released a standalone TikTok Shop app in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines on iOS and Android, as social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted on X. The launch gives TikTok's growing shopping business its own place on a phone's home screen.

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

According to its Apple App Store listing, the app offers personalized product recommendations, livestreams and short videos showing products in action, checkout, order tracking, and 24/7 customer support. Shoppers are also being offered app-exclusive deals, free shipping promotions, and first-order perks.

The Google Play listing shows more than 50,000 downloads, while the Singapore Apple App Store lists it at No. 71 in the shopping category, with a single five-star rating. Its latest iOS update, version 45.5.5, arrived just 13 hours before publication (at 1 p.m. ET on Nov. 5).

Credit: Screenshot: Apple's App Store

The app's Singapore App Store listing names TikTok Pte. Ltd. as its provider, a separate company from TikTok USDS Joint Venture, which operates TikTok in the U.S. The majority-American-owned joint venture handles U.S. data security, recommendation algorithms, and content moderation, while TikTok's global business still manages commercial activities, including e-commerce.

It's unclear whether the standalone shopping app will launch in the U.S. TikTok has not yet responded to Mashable's request for comment.

Why is TikTok testing a shopping app?

Giving Shop a dedicated app could help TikTok compete for the moments when someone opens Amazon or Temu intending to browse or buy. Videos and livestreams remain part of the experience, according to the listings, but shopping becomes the reason to open the app in the first place.

That fits into a broader expansion Mashable has been following, as TikTok builds more services around the recommendations people encounter on its platform.

In May, TikTok launched TikTok GO's hotel-booking features, which let U.S. adults book accommodations, tours, and attractions through partners including Booking.com, Expedia, and Viator. Creators can also earn commissions through eligible content, giving a travel recommendation a more direct connection to a reservation.

TikTok's announcement describes a process that takes people from discovering a place in a video to checking availability and booking it. As CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture Adam Presser said at the time, the platform is "good for creators, good for local businesses, and good for communities."

And more recently, TikTok launched Must Eat, TikTok's restaurant guide for the areas around New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Built from more than 40 million posts, reviews, and comments, it organizes food recommendations into searchable lists, with OpenTable reservations available for select restaurants. A video of a particularly good dinner can influence choosing and booking a future reservation.

SEE ALSO: TikTok taps food creators for its new Must Eat restaurant guide

TikTok has also been experimenting with giving specific kinds of entertainment their own apps. Its PineDrama service, launched earlier this year, puts short dramas into a separate app with personalized recommendations and tools for browsing series and episodes.

Taken together, those products suggest TikTok sees room to build entire services around habits that started in the feed. The standalone Shop app puts that idea to another test, asking whether people who discover products on TikTok will also choose it when shopping is what they came to do.

From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable talks to creators about how they built their platforms, the gear they swear by, and the trends they see coming next. Read more of our creator coverage, sign up for our Trending Now and Top Stories newsletters or get Mashable push alerts to discover the internet's most exciting voices. 

If your Chrome address bar keeps auto-filling Yahoo instead of the search engine you prefer, your settings have been overridden. This almost always happens after installing a free utility or a shady browser extension, but it can also stem from corporate policies or even your own security suite.

I keep waiting for a new GTA to arrive, and every delay has made me more protective of the day it finally does. Big launches have a way of going sideways, but that won't happen for me. I've made sure nothing messes with the experience I've waited years for. Do what I did and start dealing with the small problems now, while it doesn't matter yet.

Android has come a long way over the years, and these days, no matter what brand you choose, your phone is filled with a wealth of features and controls. Some are well-known, plenty are underrated or forgotten, and many of us use our phones on pure muscle memory, using the same few things all day. But hiding right under your nose are a few helpful features that'll change how you get things done.

Finding love isn't for the weak. Dating app exhaustion is realer than ever, and while people want to branch out and meet in person, they're finding it difficult. 

One reason is that dating apps are a legitimate way to find a partner, not just a short-term one. Nearly 44 percent of adults say they use dating apps to find a long-term partner rather than just casual dating or hookups, according to the Pew Research Center. One in 10 partnered adults met their current partner through a dating app, and for younger adults and LGBTQ people, that number rises. 

SEE ALSO: The 10 best hookup apps of 2026: I swiped until my thumb hurt

Dating apps aren't going away, despite fatigue. And it is possible to make them work for you if you want to find your special someone.

Are dating apps worth it?

Even using the "right" app for you may still bring moments of uncertainty and frustration (you're dating, after all), but finding the app with features that most closely align with your dating style and the type of partnership you're looking for can still make online dating worth it.

If you've been using apps for a while and are experiencing serious burnout, it's always fair to take some time off and come back to them when you feel ready. Our guide will be here for you! Even the best app can feel exceptionally tedious when you simply don't have the energy.

Which dating app is best for serious relationships?

There are so many dating apps, but not all of them are created equal when it comes to finding a serious, committed relationship.

Some free dating apps are better suited for casual flings or hookups (e.g., Tinder, Grindr, etc.), while others have matching algorithms and profile features specifically designed to help users find meaningful connections (e.g., eharmony, OkCupid, Hinge, and Coffee Meets Bagel).

The good news is that we've done the research (and hands-on testing) to figure out which apps work best for long-term relationships, and Match Group isn't the only player in the game. Plus, all of these platforms are available via Google Play and the App Store, so having an Android or iPhone won't limit your options. Some old-school dating sites still maintain desktop versions.

To find your match, here are the best dating apps for serious relationships in 2026:

Everyone needs a multi-tool for small household jobs and other tasks, like cutting fruit or opening bottles. They are also essential if you love the outdoors and often go fishing or camping, and I can't do without one in my tackle box. Multi-tool sets can be pricey, but now anyone can afford one with the TaskTamer 3-Piece EDC Tool Set going for just $15 on Amazon.

AI coding tools are getting increasingly good at writing software and generating a substantial amount of code. However, that’s just one part of building an application, and it creates a key problem: developers need a reliable way to store, organize, track changes, and manage that code. GitHub has traditionally been a place for this. Now, OpenAI is taking on more of that responsibility by buying Pierre Computer, a developer tools startup whose tech already runs inside Codex.

Computing has come a long way in the last few decades. In fact, the advancements are now so quick that you'd think the PC you own now has next to nothing in common with the one you had 10 years ago. In many ways, you're not wrong, but x86-64 CPUs are still stuck in the past, and it all comes down to the way they boot.

OpenAI has been steadily building its AI-powered cybersecurity efforts, first with Aardvark in 2025, and then with Codex Security and its Patch the Planet initiative in 2026. Previous experiments on Linux kernel security uncovered hundreds of possible vulnerabilities. Now OpenAI has taken that research a step further, revealing that its latest automated pipeline has discovered 948 Linux kernel vulnerabilities that could enable attackers to obtain root access.

After a huge stock market rally on Wednesday following the decisive Democratic win in the U.S. midterms, stocks tumbled sharply on Thursday as investors feared a slowdown in data center construction and the AI industry as a whole.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,600 points on Thursday, about 3 percent of its value, according to CNBC. The S&P 500, a stock market index of large companies, and the tech-centered Nasdaq index, also dived on Thursday, with the latter dropping approximately 5 percent, the New York Times reported.

The massive drops in the stock market indexes even stoked fears of a Wall Street trading freeze. The S&P 500 drop reached 3.8 percent at one point on Thursday; at 7 percent, a market-mandated “circuit breaker” kicks in and forces a pause on all trading for 15 minutes.

The circuit breakers are intended to halt severe market crashes. A 13 percent drop in the S&P 500 leads to another forced freeze on trading, while a 20 percent crash ends trading for the day.

SEE ALSO: Midterms deliver clear message: 'The AI reckoning is here'

Chipmakers like Nvidia and Qualcomm took a big hit on Wall Street, as investors anticipated more regulation of the AI industry from Democratic legislators taking power in January.

An X post from Bernie Sanders may have contributed to the investor fears, with the Democratic senator calling for a national data center moratorium (in all caps) late on Wednesday.

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

Shares of Tesla and SpaceX, both run by Republican mega-donor Elon Musk, dropped on Thursday for the second day, with potential regulatory pressure — and investigations — on the horizon.

For tech companies, it may not just be the incoming Senate and House that will expose them to more scrutiny, but the wave of Democratic governors taking office in 2027. Many of those governors-elect have spoken out against data centers and will be key deciders on whether construction of Silicon Valley's mega-projects moves forward.

"In many ways, what happened in state-level races around the U.S. are arguably just as important," as the Senate and House elections, Kent Fung, vice president of market intelligence at Fundstrat, told the Times. "Not just to Americans, but to investors."

Want more science and tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Light Speed newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.

A family is suing Google for alleged negligence in offering Gemini to student learners via school-issued Chromebooks, after the AI chatbot aided their teen daughter in planning her suicide.

The Chromebooks offered dangerous chatbot access, the lawsuit alleges.

The teen, referred to in the lawsuit as Emma, did not go through with the drafted plan. Her family was alerted to the concerning behavior by a former school staffer. Emma's mother was then able to observe discussion of suicide with the chatbot in real-time, the family claims.

According to the lawsuit, filed by the EdTech Law Center and Qureshi Law in California Superior Court this week, both Google and the school's third-party monitoring software failed to flag or warn Emma's parents about her chatbot use.

"Google has no right to use its stranglehold on public schools to force its dangerous Gemini chatbot on a captive audience of millions of kids," said EdTech Law Center founder Julie Liddell in a press release.

SEE ALSO: Midterms deliver clear message: 'The AI reckoning is here'

Emma was reportedly able to access Gemini, which is restricted to minors, via Google Search's AI Mode on her school Chromebook. The lawsuit states she began interacting with the chatbot intensely in December 2025, becoming convinced she had a host of psychological disorders. Gemini instructed her on how to conceal her self-harm, responded to questions about suicide methods, and provided help writing a eulogy, the lawsuit alleges.

"This is the sick new reality Google has created by forcing its AI products onto school-issued devices," Brendan Bouffard, Associate General Counsel for AI and Privacy at child safety nonprofit Fairplay, said in a statement. "Google claims its Chromebooks are there to help students learn, but in reality, the company was experimenting on kids like Emma by pushing them to use Gemini, a product the company knew was dangerous but rushed out anyway."

The lawsuit names Google CEO Sundar Pichai and cofounder Sergey Brin specifically, and accuses the company of "defective design, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment, and infliction of emotional distress." The family also claims the product violates California’s new Companion Chatbot Law.

A Google spokesperson told the New York Times that the company was reviewing the claims but had worked "extensively" with health experts to design features and emergency resources in the event of a mental health crisis.

AI is not yet safe for schools, advocates argue

Child safety groups — including parent-led coalitions in school districts nationwide — have advocated for AI moratoriums, which range from multi-year bans on all generative AI tools to age-based restrictions on AI and screens. Los Angeles and New York City public schools announced sweeping restrictions on AI use for the 2026-2027 school year following intense pressure from parent groups, and other states are following suit.

States have taken the lead on regulating minor access to chatbots. In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a myriad of new child safety protections, including "Adam's Law," named after Adam Raine, a teen who died by suicide after consulting with ChatGPT. Just last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a new chatbot safety law for the state of New York, imposing some of the strongest restrictions on minor chatbot use in the nation. Beyond state-level restrictions, many groups are spearheading federal legislation like the People-First Chatbot Bill and the GUARD Act.

The debate around chatbot safety and whether AI is beneficial to young minds is coming to a head in schools.

Earlier this week, Google announced a revision to its classroom technology policies, turning off access to its AI tools — including Gemini, Gemini Notebook, and Gemini in Classroom — by default for all education accounts.

Under the new policy, schools will have to actively opt-in to AI features in order for students and staff to access such tools on school devices. Because Google Search now has, and doesn't offer a version of its Search browser without Gemini, schools with AI bans would also be forced to choose between permitting access to Search and violating their own anti-AI guidelines.

A July report by safety nonprofit Common Sense Media found that Google Search's AI Overviews and AI Mode posed an "unacceptable risk" to young Googlers. Education advocates told Mashable at the time that Search was a "backdoor" to the company's Gemini model, and warned that continued access to the search engine without proper guardrails could pose risks for young learners.

"Let this be a reminder that ‘Google’ is not a verb," wrote Bouffard. "It’s the name of a surveillance and advertising company whose presence in schools has nothing to do with learning and everything to do with turning our kids into lifelong loyal customers."

If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.