Blogroll

Ryobi is one of the most popular and recognizable names in power tools, especially with the DIY crowd, but the tools themselves are only half the story. Sometimes, it's the accessories we use with our tools that make all the difference. And for me, that's a cheap DeWALT accessory I use constantly with my Ryobi drill and impact driver.

The Windows Settings app has gone through extensive overhaul and modernization. While that's a big win in many cases, including the UI, there are still so many things missing from it that rely on the Control Panel. Even in 2026, as of writing this, we still use the Windows Control Panel for a lot of advanced tinkering.

Last week, the King of Pop topped the list of new movies to watch on streaming as Michael hit Starz. This week, music plays a big part in the list, but this time, it's centered around a pop star played by Anne Hathaway.

Sonos' two-year quest to rescue its app now includes a feature that some speaker owners have been missing for much longer. The company has finally returned lock screen music playback controls to the iPhone, albeit in a different way.

Online AI services are a great way to search through and parse long documents, but they come with some drawbacks. Your data is held by someone else, you use up tokens or require a subscription to get access, and you need internet access for it to work. By switching to a local-only approach, I can ensure that no sensitive documents can be leaked accidentally, and I don't have to worry about whether my private data is being used to train cloud models.

The subcompact SUV segment is packed with affordable options, but most of them make some pretty obvious compromises to keep their prices down. One Japanese crossover takes a different approach, pairing a relatively attainable price with an upscale cabin, strong standard equipment, and driving dynamics that feel far more sophisticated than you'd expect from something this small. It isn't the roomiest choice in the class, but it makes a compelling case for buyers who care more about quality and driving enjoyment than sheer practicality.

Elon Musk-owned SpaceXAI is set to defend its artificial intelligence bot Grok in federal court, following a scandal that alleges the AI assistant was used to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

In March, three Tennessee teenagers filed a federal lawsuit against the company for its alleged role in producing millions of sexually explicit images of minors, claiming malicious actors used the AI tool to generate inappropriate images of them when they were children. Last month, the lawsuit expanded as two additional plaintiffs joined the case, detailing startling stories of online sexual abuse enabled by Grok's image-generating features.

The lawsuit also added a second defendant: Stability AI, the makers of the popular text-to-image model Stable Diffusion.

SEE ALSO: D23 2026: Every movie and series announced and shown at this year's fan event

"Limitless access to these tools is spreading so quickly. It is taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse," said one of the two new plaintiffs. She is referred to in the case as Jane Doe 4.

Under U.S. law, companies are required to report suspected cases of child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). In 2025, Meta, Amazon AI Services, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, X.AI, Grindr, and Roblox submitted a combined 17 million tips to NCMEC, which accounted for 80 percent of all tips. But, according to NCMEC, many of these reports left out key information, including disclosures regarding the presence of child sex abuse material (CSAM) in AI training data and specific details that could aid law enforcement in locating suspects.

According to information submitted as part of the expanded lawsuit, X sent in only one tip regarding Jane Doe 4's case and failed to provide additional information to law enforcement when asked. The perpetrator used Grok to produce more than 7,000 sexually explicit images and videos of Jane Dane 4 using a single childhood photo, police records show.

In addition to its alleged role in producing CSAM, the plaintiffs also argue SpaceXAI (formerly xAI) benefited from sex trafficking ventures via Grok's AI features. The case also argues the company has created a public nuisance through its "negligence" and "defective product design."

Annika Martin, the plaintiffs' attorney, told NPR that Grok is a "scourge on society."

If you have had intimate images shared without your consent, call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s 24/7 hotline at 844-878-2274 for free, confidential support. The CCRI website also includes helpful information as well as a list of international resources.

Despite what most tech companies will tell you, not everything needs to be smart, designed around an AI assistant, or turned into an app. Sometimes, the old bits of tech you have lurking in your closet are still the best choice.

Going on a vacation means switching off from the outside world, and in more ways than one. Your devices can be the biggest distractions when you are traveling and taking time off, especially if you are someone who drowns in a sea of notifications and alerts from your work or personal life.

SAVE $400: The Antigravity A1 360 drone bundle is on sale at Amazon for $1,199, down from the normal price of $1,599. That's a 25% discount and the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Antigravity Antigravity A1 360 drone standard bundle $1,199 at Amazon
$1,599 Save $400   Get Deal

For so many reasons, owning a top-tier drone and being proficient in flying it is a great skill. Checking out the neighborhood, getting real-estate footage, or content for TikTok are just a few of the reasons why someone would want a drone. If you've been shopping for a drone other than a DJI, check out this Amazon deal.

As of Aug. 17, the Antigravity A1 360 drone bundle is on sale at Amazon for $1,199, down from the normal price of $1,599. That's a 25% discount and the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.

You know you're in good hands with an Antigravity drone since the brand is an offshoot of Insta360, one of the premier 360-degree camera companies. Adam Doud reviewed the Antigravity A1 drone for Mashable and noted the high price point as one of the only negatives. Otherwise, he wrote, "While most drones are cameras that you can fly, the Antigravity A1 is a 360-degree camera that you can fly."

Doud also mentions the immersive googles are a big benefit with this Antigravity model, as is the remote control. Unlike most drones, the Antigravity eliminates the need to both fly the drone and point the camera in the direction of the footage you'd like to capture. Since the Antigravity A1 films in 360-degrees, you get to pick your content later.

SEE ALSO: Best Buy is turning 60: Celebrate with massive weeklong deals on iPads, laptops, and TVs

On that note, Doud explained, "As a content creator, all you have to focus on is putting the drone near the event you want to capture, and it takes care of the rest."

Since it's sitting at the lowest price we've seen at Amazon, now might be a great time to upgrade to the Antigravity A1 360 drone bundle. There's still plenty of nice fall weather to spend becoming an expert on this drone.

SAVE 24%: As of Aug. 17, you can get the DJI Mini 3 for $319, down from $419, at Amazon. That's a 24% discount, or $100 in savings.

DJI Mini 3 $319 at Amazon
$419 Save $100   Get Deal at Amazon Get Deal at Best Buy

Becoming a drone enthusiast is an admirable, albeit expensive, hobby. But that doesn't mean you should put your dream of piloting on the shelf. Sometimes, you can find a really good deal on drones at Amazon (granted, you have to be careful about who you buy from — beware of third-party sellers!).

SEE ALSO: The FCC banned foreign routers, drones, robots: What it means for you

Right now, DJI has its Mini 3 drone on sale for $319, down from $419, at Amazon. That's a 24% discount, or $100 in savings. It's not the lowest we've seen for this model, but we can't really expect holiday-level prices in August. So, this is the best deal you're going to get on this drone right now.

The DJI Mini 3 is ideal for first-time fliers. It's so light (under 249 grams) that you don't have to register it with the FAA or use a Remote ID if you're just flying it for recreational purposes. It also has a 3-axis gimbal, captures 4K HDR video, and offers 38 minutes of battery life. Add in its Level 5 wind resistance and up to 10km of HD video transmission, and this little guy is ready to go on just about any adventure you have planned.

Windows gets blamed a lot for high RAM usage, and sometimes that's fair. However, if you've ever watched Task Manager fill up with processes from Slack, Discord, and VS Code all running at the same time, the operating system isn't really the culprit. Those are Electron apps, and each one quietly loads an entire browser engine into memory just to run a chat window or a code editor and eats up RAM.

In the battle of the giant Halloween animatronics, Lowe's comes out on top this year.

The home improvement retailer's 2026 Halloween collection includes a new $429 Talking Lighted Skeleton Watcher hoisting its skull 15 feet in the air, complete with LED eyes, side-to-side movements, and spooky voice lines. It's the biggest Halloween prop on the market this season, standing even taller than "Skelly," the Home Depot's viral 12-foot skeleton. (The Home Depot previously sold a 15-foot Worricrow and Galli-Crow for $399 each, but didn't revive them for 2026.)

As of Aug. 17, the Lowe's full Halloween collection of animatronics, inflatables, and decorations is now live. A company rep told Mashable that most of the collection will be available both in stores and online. Each item's product page shows its availability based on the shopper's location, they said.

Shop Lowe's 2026 Halloween collection: Haunted Living 15-ft Talking Lighted Skeleton Watcher Motion Activated Animatronic $429 Shop Now Haunted Living 7-ft Lighted Reaper Band Singer Motion Activated Animatronic $299 Shop Now Haunted Living 6-ft Motion Activated Ice Scream Skeleton Animatronic $269 Shop Now Haunted Living 6-ft Motion Activated Talking Lighted Witch Animatronic $129 Shop Now Haunted Living 5.9-ft Lighted Motion Activated Rotton Candy Girl Halloween Animatronic $299 Shop Now Haunted Living 5.7-ft Motion Activated Bluetooth DJ Lighted Skeleton Animatronic $299 Shop Now Haunted Living 4-ft Motion Activated Howling Lighted Dragon Halloween Animatronic $199 Shop Now Disney 4-ft Motion Activated Minnie Mouse Mummy Halloween Animatronic $199 Shop Now Disney 3-ft The Haunted Mansion Big Jake Dog Blow Mold Tombstone $69.98 Shop Now Bluey 3-ft Lighted Bluey Witch Halloween Inflatable $34.98 Shop Now

Other additions to this year's Lowe's Halloween lineup include a Bluey Witch inflatable, a 5.7-foot skeleton DJ, a rockin'-out reaper band, a four-foot Howling Lighted Dragon, and several creepy clowns. There's also a new Disney collection featuring talking animatronics of movie characters, like Monsters, Inc.'s Mike Wazowski, plus replicas of tombstones from Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride. Prices start around $30.

Like the Home Depot's rivaling props, Lowe's Halloween offerings will probably sell out quickly. At the time of writing, only 111 Watchers were left in stock for shipping. One Haunted Mansion tombstone, a nine-foot Gaslight Ghoul animatronic, and a three-foot Growling Lighted Werewolf animatronic were already out of stock online.

For its part, Home Depot launched its own Halloween collection in mid-July. Summer Halloween drops might sound premature, but research shows that consumers have a healthy appetite for early shopping. According to the National Retail Federation's 2025 Halloween spending survey, almost half of Halloween shoppers began buying décor and costumes before October last year. Respondents cited their excitement for fall, love of the holiday, FOMO, and desire "to avoid the stress of last-minute shopping" as the reasons for their proactivity, said the NRF.

People aren’t exactly thrilled about Flock’s growing surveillance network. Communities are canceling contracts, protesters are taking down cameras in increasingly creative ways, and activists have built a crowdsourced map showing where the devices are hiding in plain sight. Even Flock has announced new privacy restrictions as the backlash grows.

Now, drivers can search some of those records for themselves.

A website called Have I Been Flocked? lets you enter your license plate number and check whether it appears in publicly released records of searches conducted through Flock Safety’s system. As of Aug. 17, the website had compiled nearly 242 million searches involving more than 4.6 million plates.

The need for that kind of transparency isn’t hypothetical. A recent Washington Post investigation found that at least 50 law enforcement officers had been charged with or accused of misusing license plate readers, including to stalk women without their knowledge or consent.

The concerns extend beyond individual officers. Public records reviewed by 404 Media documented more than 4,000 Flock searches conducted by local and state police at the request of federal officials, as informal favors, or for potentially immigration-related purposes. Flock says ICE cannot directly access its system, but the records show how local agencies can search the network on the federal government’s behalf.

Have I Been Flocked? won’t reveal everything Flock knows about your car, and finding a match doesn’t necessarily mean you were investigated. Nevertheless, here's how to run a search — and understand what the results actually mean.

How to check whether your license plate was searched

Go to HaveIBeenFlocked.com, enter your license plate number in the search box, and click “Search.”

If your plate appears in the database, the results may include when it was searched, the agency associated with the query, the person who conducted it, and the reason provided for looking up the plate. Some of that information may be incomplete or redacted.

The website is part of Footnote4a, an independent editorial project focused on mass surveillance and government contracts. Its database is built from Flock audit logs released by local governments through transparency portals or obtained through public records requests.

Those audit logs document searches made within Flock’s system. According to the website's FAQ, the license plate and stated reason shown in the results are information that a Flock operator manually entered.

What does it mean if your plate appears?

A match means a Flock user queried the company’s database for that license plate. It does not necessarily mean that your car was stopped, that you were suspected of committing a crime, or that you were formally investigated.

The person conducting the search may have been a police officer, but the website notes that not every Flock user is a member of law enforcement. Businesses, schools, homeowners associations, and other private organizations also use Flock’s technology.

The reason listed alongside a result may provide more context. An operator could say the search was related to a stolen vehicle, traffic stop, missing person, or another investigation. However, because users supply those explanations themselves, they should not be treated as an independent account of what happened.

The website also does not show whether the search produced a match inside Flock’s system or reveal exactly what the operator saw.

No result doesn’t mean you haven’t been searched

Have I Been Flocked? has collected hundreds of millions of records, but its database is still incomplete.

The project depends on public records released by individual government agencies, and relatively few make their complete Flock audit logs easily available. The records that are released can also be heavily redacted or out of date.

"There can be a significant delay — months or even years — between when a search occurs and when it appears on this website," the project explains on its site.

That means an empty result does not prove that nobody has ever searched for your plate; it only means the number does not appear in the website's current records.

Operator names can also be incomplete. Flock’s audit logs often shorten an operator’s name to a first initial and the first three letters of a surname — turning a name such as Kevin Zachary into "K. Zac" (an example provided by HaveIBeenFlocked.com). That can make it difficult to determine exactly who performed a search. The website compares these partial names with public police rosters and employment records to identify a likely match, but warns that the results are not definitive.

Have I Been Flocked? also attempts to match those partial names with public employment records, but warns that its identifications are probabilistic and should be independently verified.

If you find a search that concerns you, the project recommends filing a public records request with the agency linked to it. It also advises anyone who believes they were subjected to improper surveillance to speak with an attorney.

The plate lookup is only one part of the website — visitors can also browse searches by agency and explore reports involving immigration enforcement, First Amendment activity, low-level offenses, noncriminal activity, and searches apparently intended to "develop probable cause." After years of drivers being kept in the dark, the website makes at least some of Flock’s surveillance visible.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today.

Apps such as Apple's Find My and Google's Find Hub make it easy for friends and family to track your real-time location. The problem is that if you use these apps, your location is exposed every second of the day. I decided to ditch always-on location sharing and use NFC tags to share my location when I wanted to.

Things are heating up on Furious as the FBI is closer than ever before to Catherine (Lola Petticrew). In episode 6, agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) is in the same shelter as the serial killer, and her colleagues have taken Catherine's fiancé Alden (Steve Way) in for questioning. And amid life-or-death stakes and a nerve-shredding police corruption subplot, it's Way who makes this episode consistently laugh-out-loud funny.

Far from being intimidated by FBI agent Frank Choi (Rob Yang), Alden taunts him repeatedly. He makes jokes about his mobility issues to fluster the agent. He uses his wheelchair for physical comedy that makes Choi the punchline, and he flagrantly chants, "Fuck the police," while NYPD detective Danny Kelly (Scoot McNairy) looks on. 

SEE ALSO: How 'Furious' delves into a world of sex and violence without being exploitative

Fans of Ramy will recognize Way. But it wasn't his work on that comedy series that caught the eye of Furious creator Elizabeth Meriwether, who also co-created the critically praised tragicomedy series Dying for Sex. In an interview with Mashable, she shared how she first met Way, and how that shaped Furious in a major way. 

Steve Way's role on Furious was written with him in mind.  Steve Way plays Alden on "Furious." Credit: Hulu

Sitting down with Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko, Meriwether said, "So, Dying for Sex was coming out as I was in the writers' room for Furious. And we were research[ing] female serials as caretakers. Catherine kind of became a nurse, and then [I] was like, 'Okay, who is she nursing?' And we were going through a lot of different ideas. [Then, because of Dying For Sex,] I did a panel about showing caretaking in TV. And Steve was on the panel."

The panel, titled "Storytelling About Gender, Work, Family, and Care in Uncertain Times," was held by the SAG-AFTRA foundation on May 5, 2025. It is available on YouTube. 

"The entire panel," Meriwether recalled, "I was just cracking up; he was so funny.  His running bit in the panel was that he needed work for health insurance. And I was  just like, 'He needs work. I need this character.' The next day, I walked into the writers' room, and I was like, 'It's this guy, Steve Way. We're building this whole character around him.'" 

She continued, "I felt so privileged to get to work with him and collaborate with him. I learned so much. We would do the table read, and then he would like stay after and talk to me for like an hour at a time, and just go through and add specifics. He's doing great physical comedy [in the show], and a lot of that came from his specific ideas about how his wheelchair moved, and like what people don't know about wheelchairs and things like that."

Meriwether noted the humor Way brings is "an important part of the show," adding that he creates a release to help balance "a lot of heavy subjects" that Furious tackles. 

Way also becomes an unexpected source of wisdom, delivering a message about love that speaks to the show as a whole. 

Did Catherine kill Alden's mom?   Scoot McNairy, Rob Yang, and Steve Way co-star in "Furious." Credit: Hulu

In a separate interview with Petticrew, Puchko asked about a big episode 6 moment, in which Danny tries to get information about Catherine out of Alden by arguing the love between them isn't real. 

First, Danny points out that Catherine went by Vanessa when she worked with Alden. "You two are in love, and you don't even know her name?" Danny pushes.

 "Oh, that's the best love," Alden counters, noting that whatever her name, she sees him as he is, and not his wheelchair. "She doesn't pity me."

"You don't think she fucking used you?" Danny presses. 

"I don't fucking care. I don't care. My entire life I've been told I'm never going find someone. I'm not worthy of love. And the one time I find it, you want to take it from me," Alden argues, adding, "You think love is only when people do everything you want them to do. That's fucked up." 

Finally, Danny tries one more time to turn Alden, by suggesting that Catherine killed Alden's mom, then used her fentanyl to kill others. To this, Alden replies, "No one's perfect."

Lola Petticrew is Catherine/Vanessa in 'Furious.' Credit: Hulu

Petticrew has previously shared their thoughts on why Catherine killed Becky but spared Mira. So, do they believe their character murdered Alden's mom before kicking off her vengeance-seeking killing spree? 

"I don't think she did," Petticrew said, "I mean, just me, as a viewer… I think I would watch it and think that she didn't. I don't think that she would have a reason to. I think she has a pretty clear ethical/moral code." 

But for Petticrew, whether Catherine killed Alden's mom is not as important as his response to the possibility of it. 

Petticrew said of Alden's response, "I think it's a very wonderful Liz Meriwether way of getting to the heart of the entire piece. So often, we are forced into presenting perfect victims. It happens in film and TV, and certainly in life, and when people seek justice for things, you have to play the role of a perfect victim. You're not allowed to be in any way gray or complicated. And that is just not life, and that is just not true [to life].

"These women in this show," Petticrew continued, "are allowed to be gray and hard and difficult and complicated, because everybody is. And if you have to be a perfect victim in order to deserve any pity or justice or help, what you're saying is there are some people who deserve this to happen to them, and I certainly don't believe that that's true." 

Asked what it was like working with Way, Petticrew gushed, "Steve is phenomenal. Getting him as a scene partner for those moments was just unreal. Getting to go in and work with him every day, he constantly surprised me and pulled things out of Catherine. I think that relationship is so important in the show. I think that Alden is someone that — while, in a way, he's almost completely reliant on her — he actually doesn't expect anything from her at all, or want anything from her at all. And I think that that is really beautiful. And I think that she really appreciates that and feels safe. To have a space in this world, in this show, where she feels that was just like a sigh of relief. And I think casting Steve was one of the best decisions they made in the show, because he just has an ability to break your heart and make you laugh side by side. And he's also an awesome human being who it was a delight to go to work with every day. So, how lucky am I?"

Furious is now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Monday through Aug. 31. 

Anthropic has begun building a watermark into text generated by future Claude models, a change the company says is meant to help identify whether a given piece of writing was likely produced by its AI. This new feature, implemented to comply with EU rules, is meant to be indistinguishable to the human eye, without changing Claude's normal writing output.

The company laid out the mechanics and rationale behind the feature in a post published to its website.

How does the watermark work?

According to Anthropic, the watermark exploits the countless small, low-stakes decisions a language model makes as it generates text. Rather than using a truly arbitrary random number to make that pick, the watermarked version of Claude bases the decision on a cryptographic key combined with the preceding text.

SEE ALSO: Researchers watched OpenAI, Anthropic models take extreme measures in hacking test

The result, Anthropic says, is a subtle statistical pattern spread across a response that's invisible to a human reader but detectable to anyone with the matching key, which allows them to estimate the probability that Claude generated the text.

Does it cost more or slow Claude down?

Anthropic was clear in that the change carries no cost to output quality. The company said internal testing turned up no measurable difference in the creativity, accuracy, or readability of watermarked versus unwatermarked responses, and pointed to findings from Google DeepMind's original research on the underlying technique — the method Claude's watermark is based on.

SEE ALSO: Claude Code’s auto mode will be on by default, Anthropic confirms

The company also said that its researched showed no statistically significant shift in user satisfaction when a similar watermark was tested on live traffic. Anthropic also said the feature adds no extra tokens, meaning it doesn't slow Claude down or make it more expensive to use.

Where does the watermark break down?

Like with all tools, the watermark has limits. Anthropic explained that it only works when a model is choosing among several equally valid options, so text with little room for variation, such as hard factual statements, precise code, or math answers, carries a much weaker or nonexistent signal.

Detection also grows less reliable on very short passages, since there's simply less pattern to analyze. So you'll get a much clearer read on Claude's likely involvement in longer-form text. And because the watermark tracks only the words Claude itself selects, lightly edited or proofread human writing may carry little to no detectable trace, since most of the original wording remains unchanged.

SEE ALSO: Why is OpenAI losing so many executives?

A sufficiently heavy rewrite, the company noted, can remove the watermark entirely. At that point, per Anthropic, it becomes debatable whether the resulting text is still meaningfully AI-generated.

Can the watermark identify my organization or me?

Anthropic stressed that the watermark can't be traced back to a specific user, account, or conversation, and that it doesn't establish authorship or ownership over content. All it can tell you is the likelihood that Claude was involved in producing or editing it at some point.

The company also distinguished the approach from third-party AI-detection tools, which typically rely on spotting stylistic patterns in AI writing rather than checking for an embedded signal tied to a private key.

Why is Anthropic doing this?

The rollout is tied to regulation rather than a purely voluntary move: Anthropic said it signed the European Union's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content in July 2026 alongside roughly 190 other signatories, following an EU AI Act requirement, effective Aug. 2, that AI providers mark generated text.

Because the company doesn't yet have a reliable way to apply the watermark only within the EU, Anthropic said it's rolling out the feature globally and plans to extend it to older Claude models over the coming months.

The company also said it will soon offer a separate API allowing anyone to check whether a piece of text carries Claude's watermark.

Want to learn more about getting the best out of your tech? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories and Deals newsletters or get Mashable push alerts today.

Samsung might borrow a good Apple feature soon.

And you might not even need new hardware to use it. Leaker Fahad Ali Javed (via AndroidAuthority) posted screenshots of the upcoming One UI 9.5 update, which included several new features for Samsung devices. Perhaps the most noteworthy one, though, is the seeming addition of app mirroring. This feature allows iPhone users to receive notifications and otherwise control their phones using a linked Mac computer.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 month-long review: is it worth it? This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Javed's post suggests that this will be possible soon between a Samsung phone and a linked laptop, as long as you're logged into the same Samsung account on both devices. Any iPhone/MacBook owner can tell you this is a great, time-saving feature that people in other device ecosystems should want.

Less significantly, it also looks like One UI 9.5 might bring over the horizontal app bar found on Samsung foldable phones, complete with an always-visible search bar. That works well on phones with bigger displays, but it remains to be seen how it will adapt to regular phones.

Regardless, app mirroring would be a very nice feature for Samsung owners.

Mac users, if you haven't updated your MacBook or desktop Mac computer in the last week or so, install that latest update now.

The most recent Mac update from Apple includes a patch for a major vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take over a targeted Mac.

The exploit involves an authentication bug in Mac's Screen Share functionality, Ars Technica reported. An unauthorized party can exploit the bug to take control of a user's keyboard and mouse when screen sharing is enabled.

The vulnerability is being tracked as CVE-2026-65400. Apple's own explanation of the security update warns users that this security issue could allow an attacker on the network to access a Mac without valid credentials.

The Netherlands National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned about the vulnerability last week after the exploit was initially made public.

Cybersecurity firm Calif recently shared how they reverse-engineered Apple's recent macOS patch as it "piqued our curiosity." As Calif explained in a blog post, "Apple does not ship an update out of band unless something is critical."

From there, Calif researchers uncovered the Screen Share vulnerability. The firm posted a video demonstrating the attack.

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

According to the NCSC report on the vulnerability, the exploit results from "insufficient state management during the authentication process." If Screen Share is activated on a Mac, the macOS firewall exposes port 5900 to third parties over the internet. In turn, unauthorized access can occur via authentication attempts that wouldn't usually be accepted.

The NCSC reports that it has received notice that the exploit has been observed in the wild. The vulnerability has reportedly been used to obtain root access on an affected system. In this case, a Monero crypto miner was installed by the unauthorized user.

The first researcher to discover the exploit found roughly 40,000 Macs with Screen Share enabled and reachable from the internet, which gives a sense of just how many potential targets were out there at any given time.

Apple released the patch last week for macOS Tahoe, Sequoia, and Sonoma. Mac users are urged to install the latest security update.

PC monitoring usually means staring at performance graphs, percentages, and numbers. A Reddit user gave their computer an old-school way to show what’s happening under the hood. They saved a pair of analog gauges from heading to the e-waste bin and turned them into a real-time PC monitoring system. The secret to this is an ESP32 development board doing the heavy lifting between a modern PC and decades-old analog hardware.