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Have you ever noticed a small key icon suddenly appear in your Android phone’s status bar and wondered what it means? While it might look like a warning or suggest a problem with your device, you usually don't need to worry. The little key symbol has a specific purpose, and it isn't to let you know that something is wrong.

Move-in day usually settles one thing fast: whatever laptop you bring to campus is going everywhere with you for the next four years. It rides in a backpack between buildings, sits open through back-to-back lectures, gets propped up in a dorm room for a video call home, and somehow still needs enough battery left over for a late study session in the library. That is a demanding, unglamorous job, and it is exactly the job the Dell XPS 13 was designed to accomplish.

Before generative artificial intelligence took off, the process of jailbreaking a video game console was a slow, tedious ordeal. That's not the case anymore.

Within the PS5 homebrew scene on Reddit, the forums have been lit up with posts about PS5SX2, an app that lets jailbroken PS5s play PlayStation 2 games. It's a big deal, given that Sony removed backward compatibility from its consoles starting with the release of the PS4 in 2013.

PS5SX2 is part of a larger wave of PS5 jailbreaks, which are coming at a furious pace in 2026.

SEE ALSO: Leaker claims the PlayStation 6 costs Sony $960 to manufacture

Version 1.00 of PS5SX2 had plenty of early bugs, with commenters trading fixes for crashes and missing-game errors. Within roughly two weeks, a 2.00 update had added frame generation and multi-disc support. Another post in the jailbreak community claimed that PS3 games can now run on jailbroken PS5s as well.

Additionally, there's another public jailbreak called Relapse. Released in late September, the exploit chain was published by developer Nathan Fargo and works on firmware versions 7.00 through 13.60. The previous public jailbreak topped out at 12.70, so Relapse covers a big chunk of recent consoles. It works on any PS5 that hasn’t been updated to firmware 14.00, which Sony released on Sept. 16.

For decades, console jailbreaking moved slowly for a reason. As reported by Gizmodo, it’s both legally risky and technically demanding. In the U.S., circumventing a console’s copyright protection runs afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Librarian of Congress grants exemptions every three years for devices like smartphones and smart TVs, but consoles aren’t among them.

Finding an exploit has also required deep knowledge of a console’s firmware, which historically limited the work to a small group of skilled hackers. So normally, hackers will find an exploit, release a jailbreak, Sony patches it, and hackers start back at the beginning.

But that cycle is speeding up, and AI coding assistants may be part of the reason why. There’s no confirmation that the Relapse developers used AI, but it fits a broader pattern that has exploded over the past few weeks.

The AI decompilation boom

Decompilation is huge in the homebrew gaming scene at the moment. Decompiling means working backward from a game’s compiled code to rebuild readable source code that produces the same game. It’s how fans have created unofficial PC ports of classics like Super Mario 64, and it traditionally took volunteers years of tedious work.

From a technical standpoint, it's a grueling process. In the context of video games, those are shipped in compiled code that consoles can run, but humans can't easily read. However, AI is speeding up the tedious grunt work of doing so.

Hundreds of vibe-coded, AI-decompiled emulators and games have appeared in just the past couple of weeks, crediting Anthropic’s latest model, Claude Opus 5.5. That includes browser-based ports of games like Halo: Combat Evolved, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Skate 3, some of which Kotaku said run surprisingly well.

The results have also produced some truly unhinged mashups. One of the first to go viral added skateboarding from Skate to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, letting players kickflip across the shooter’s maps. Others have put Minecraft inside Elden Ring (and Grand Theft Auto V) and Mario Kart vehicles into Call of Duty Zombies.

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While fun stuff to be sure, not everyone is a fan. The developers behind the fan-made Zelda: Recompiled and Banjo: Recompiled projects have publicly rejected AI and called AI-generated knockoffs of their work disrespectful. Other critics say many of these AI ports come from amateurs with little programming experience, leaving behind a pile of buggy, broken releases.

Altogether, a faster jailbreak cycle isn’t much of a surprise. If AI tools can rebuild entire games from compiled code overnight, digging through console firmware for exploits starts to look a lot more approachable. It helps that AI agents like Claude thrive on verifiable loops, ie, being able to write, test, and repeat ad nauseam until it gets it right with no fatigue involved.

Gizmodo writes that this could be Sony's Napster moment — an existential crisis for the gaming industry just like the music business faced in the early 2000s. It's one thing to sue a bunch of hackers, but Sony doesn't have much goodwill with the public at the moment. It helps, though, that jailbreaking a console requires having it in the first place, and that jailbreaking any console risks bricking it.

Given that RAMageddon is causing a GPU shortage, one might exercise caution, as a second-hand PS5 Pro could cost $1,300 or more.

Since August, someone (or perhaps a group of people) called Cyberleek has been very busy sharing various gameplay clips of Grand Theft Auto 6. On Aug. 20, Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of GTA-maker Rockstar Games, filed subpoenas against Microsoft and Discord to try to unmask the leaker, followed soon after by subpoenas against Google and X Corp. Those filings specifically cited "stolen content," confirming that the Cyberleek videos are legitimate.

Prior to the August "Extended Look" on Netflix, the GTA 6 leaks represented the first real glimpse of gameplay from the hotly anticipated title. After the Netflix trailer, Cyberleek stopped posting for more than a month before suddenly reappearing in October with a 24-minute gameplay video and some other decidedly NSFW clips. We're not going to embed or link to any of these clips; however, they're easy enough to find on X or Reddit if you look hard enough.

SEE ALSO: What is Cyberleek? Everything we know about the alleged GTA 6 leakers. Every GTA 6 leak from Cyberleek so far

At the time of publication, more than a dozen gameplay clips and map screenshots have been posted by Cyberleek that show different aspects of GTA 6, including glimpses of cutscenes. The leaker did post some minor story spoilers in the most recent release, so be careful if you want to avoid them.

Here are the GTA 6 leaks Cyberleek has shared so far:

• Map sneak peek 1: A small, cropped portion of the in-game world map, showing a location called Dalton Island.

• Map sneak peek 2: Another cropped portion of the map showing locations called Tequesta Retreat, Gloriana Key, and Catalan Key.

• Basketball video: A clip of protagonist Jason Duval throwing a basketball into a hoop in a mini-game.

• Full map: An alleged view of the entire in-game map.

• Random video 1: A clip of Jason driving around for a little bit before beating up a truck driver.

• Taser video: A clip of Jason driving at night, stealing a security guard's taser, and using it on him. Jason then repeatedly kicks the guard while he is on the ground.

• Junkies video: A clip that appears to show a healing drug called Zombix. A tooltip indicates that Zombix's effects will weaken over time if the player uses it too much.

• Plane video: A clip of Jason flying a plane over Vice City, with much of the game world visible below. At the end, whoever is playing the game in the clip shoots the word "LEEK" into a wall with bullets, suggesting the leaker has a playable build of the game.

• Hypercar part 1: A clip of Jason driving a high-end sports car around Vice City.

• Hypercar part 2: A clip of Jason driving the sports car some more, before committing armed robbery.

• Strip club: Jason wanders around a strip club, then a short clip of an in-game cutscene is shown.

• Gas station: Jason causes trouble at a gas station, steals a truck with a bed full of gasoline, and crashes and dies; more of the previous cutscene is shown.

• Plane video 2: Jason flies a plane over Vice City at night.

• Nudist colony: Jason explores a nudist hangout spot (where the NPCs are, obviously, nude) and attacks NPCs.

• Nightclub: A pretty uneventful video of Jason walking around the interior of a nightclub.

• Beach cycling: Jason riding a bicycle on a beach full of NPCs.

• Video game store: Jason walking around a video game store with shelves full of fake video game boxes.

• How does Cyberleek drive? Jason steals a hot rod and evades the police; the clip ends with a cutscene showing Lucia Caminos, the game's second playable character, for the first time. Caminos talks about someone who "drives like a bitch."

• Lucia prologue: A four-and-a-half-minute video of a prologue introducing Caminos; the clip includes minor story spoilers.

• 24-minute extended leak: A long video featuring multiple vehicular races, car customization, first-person gameplay, and both protagonists rendered in the nude.

• Nude Lucia videos: Several videos of Lucia performing various in-game activities, such as walking around, driving, and parachuting, while completely nude.

What could Cyberleek release next?

The big 24-minute Cyberleek video in October ended with an allusion to some sort of long-term "project," the likes of which we know nothing about. However, the leaker has now threatened to release a "Full 200+GB playable build" of the game, played from beginning to end, if the Cyberleek memecoin reaches $30 million in market value. At the time of publication, the coin's value is at about $2.5 million, a far cry from that goal.

In addition, as of Oct. 12, websites associated with Cyberleek are hosting a poll, which is titled, "Lucia closeup 4k video." In the past, Cyberleek has hosted polls asking followers what clips to release next, with users voting using the leaker's memecoin. This strongly suggests new GTA 6 leaks featuring Lucia are coming soon.

The leaker is also once again calling on Rockstar and Take-Two to release the new Grand Theft Auto on a physical disc, part of a long list of grievances.

SEE ALSO: Who is CyberLeek? Everything we know about the alleged GTA 6 leakers. You can see the game officially now

Speaking of the Netflix trailer, it's now on YouTube in all of its 26-minute glory. There were plenty of little details that Cyberleek never showed, such as gameplay footage of Lucia, among many other things. If you want a real idea of how GTA 6 works, you're probably better off watching the Netflix video than anything Cyberleek posted at this point.

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Updated on Monday, Oct. 12 at 11:40 a.m. ET — We've updated the story to reflect the latest leaked videos, as well as the threat to release a full build of the game.

Updated on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 2:15 p.m. ET — We've updated the story to reflect the latest Cyberleek leaks.

Updated on Friday, Aug. 28 at 1:30 p.m. ET — We've updated this story with additional details.

Updated on Wednesday, Aug. 26 at 3:20 p.m. ET — We've updated this story with details on Rockstar's statement and additional GTA 6 leaks.

Updated on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 11:40 a.m. ET — We've updated this story to reflect the latest Cyberleek videos.

Updated on Monday, Aug. 24 at 1:30 p.m. ET — We've updated this story to reflect the latest Cyberleek leaks.

Updated on Friday, Aug. 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET — Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the parent company of Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstar Games, has filed two subpoenas naming Microsoft and Discord as it hunts the leaker known as Cyberleek. The legal filings specifically cite "stolen content," seemingly confirming that the leaks are legitimate. Take-Two is also requesting the removal of leaked material that violates its copyrights, as well as information that could unmask the leakers. Read more about the Microsoft and Discord subpoenas.

Linux has never been short on alternatives, but some Windows programs simply don’t have a true replacement. Or you might just want the actual Windows version—that's fine too. If you pick the right method, though, you can run almost anything. Here's a nice rundown of some apps you might have been missing from Windows.

Walking into Home Depot usually gives you the feeling that you've seen every cordless tool Ryobi makes. Ryobi has a deal to only sell its tools at Home Depot in the United States, so it's hard to find them anywhere else. The thing is that other regions get heavy yard equipment that never touches domestic shelves, and some of it is amazing and worth the money.

At a glance

• StudentSim is a research system for evaluating and improving AI tutors before they are tested with real learners; it is not a product, is not deployed in classrooms, and is not intended to replace teachers
• AI tutoring tools need feedback from students to improve, but collecting that feedback through human studies is slow, costly, and difficult to scale 
• StudentSim trains personalized AI student simulators from publicly available, de-identified learner records, with one simulator adapted to each student 
• The work evaluates simulators along two education-grounded dimensions: whether they respond like a specific student, and whether they update after tutor guidance 
• Across chess, second-language English writing, and mathematics, StudentSim outperforms leading baselines and provides a useful feedback signal for training an AI tutor 

In research settings, teams are exploring how AI-powered tutoring systems can help explain a math problem, suggest an edit to a writing assignment, or guide a learner through a chess position. Yet the quality of teaching cannot be measured only from the tutor’s answer. A tutor needs to know what happens after the guidance reaches a student. Did the student correct the original mistake? Did the hint help them reason toward the answer, or did it give away too much? Would a different student need a different kind of support? In today’s AI tutor research, answering these questions often requires real learner studies. Those studies are valuable, but they are slow and costly to run, which makes it hard to use student feedback during fast model iteration.

StudentSim is an AI system that creates personalized simulators of individual students, modeling how they answer questions and how their answers change after receiving a tutor’s guidance. The goal is to make student feedback more available during AI tutor development. This research also introduces StudentSimEval, a benchmark and evaluation protocol spanning chess, second-language English writing, and mathematics. 

Importantly, the goal is not to replace teachers or classroom learning. Instead, StudentSim helps researchers evaluate and improve AI tutoring systems during the research and development process before testing them with real learners. The research uses only publicly available learner datasets released for research use with de-identified records; no personally identifying information is used at any stage. 

Figure 1: AI tutors need feedback from students to improve. Student simulators can approximate part of that feedback during research-stage training and evaluation. They provide an early-stage research signal, not a replacement for testing with real learners. Measuring what a student simulator needs to do

A simple way to build a student simulator is to ask a large language model to role-play a learner. For example, a prompt might say, “You are an elementary-school student who struggles with math.” The model can change its tone and express uncertainty. The harder part is preserving the learner’s actual ability boundary. A model may speak in a young student’s voice while still relying on knowledge and reasoning far beyond that student’s level. For training an AI tutor, this can produce misleading feedback: the tutor may appear effective because the simulated student is too capable.

Traditional student modeling approaches face a different limitation. Knowledge tracing and behavior prediction models are grounded in real learning records and can estimate a student’s current knowledge, skills, and learning habits. Many of these models, however, were not designed to take natural-language tutor guidance as input. They can help describe what a student has done, but they do not always tell us how a student would respond to a particular explanation, hint, or Socratic question.

StudentSim defines the target through two dimensions inspired by education research. Educators often distinguish what a learner can do independently from what they can do with support. Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development captures this gap between current independent performance and performance with guidance. StudentSim turns this idea into two evaluation goals. Behavioral fidelity measures whether a simulator matches a specific student’s recorded responses on held-out problems. Guidance responsiveness measures whether the simulator updates its response after reading tutor guidance.

Figure 2: StudentSimEval evaluates whether a simulator matches a student’s independent behavior and whether it responds to guidance. 

These two goals are complementary. A simulator that only matches past student behavior may be useful for prediction, but it does not show whether a teaching intervention helped. A simulator that always follows the tutor may respond fluently, but it may fail to represent a particular student’s strengths, weaknesses, and likely mistakes. AI tutor training needs both signals: the learner’s starting point and how guidance affects the learner’s performance. 

Training personalized simulators from sparse student records

StudentSimEval is built entirely from publicly available learner datasets that are released for research use with de-identified records. The records carry no personally identifying information, and each personalized simulator is trained only on the de-identified records of the student it represents.

Real student data is often sparse at the individual level. A learner may contribute only a small number of essays, answers, or interactions. Training a separate simulator from scratch for each student would risk overfitting and would require each model to relearn common patterns in the domain.  

StudentSim uses a two-stage training pipeline. In the first stage, the model trains on records pooled across many students in the same domain. This stage learns common response formats, common errors, and common ways students revise after guidance. In the second stage, the model is specialized on one student’s own records, producing a personalized simulator for that student. 

Figure 3: StudentSim first learns shared student behavior from pooled records, then adapts to each student’s own data. 

The evaluation covers three domains with different response types. In chess, the simulator predicts a player’s next move and how that player may revise after coaching. In second-language English writing, it generates essays with error patterns matching a learner and predicts corrections after teacher feedback. In mathematics, it predicts a student’s multiple-choice answer and whether the student updates after an explanation. Across these domains, StudentSimEval uses the same principle: compare all methods on the same per-student training records and the same held-out evaluation records. 

StudentSim outperforms leading baselines across the three domains. In chess, for example, StudentSim reaches behavioral fidelity of 0.5150 and guidance responsiveness of 0.9067. GPT-5.4 reaches 0.2316 and 0.7186, respectively. Maia2, a chess-specific human move prediction model, reaches 0.4535 and 0.2721. The comparison illustrates the difference between the baseline families: GPT-5.4 can respond to guidance but does not reliably match a specific student’s behavior, while Maia2 predicts human chess moves more closely but lacks a natural-language guidance pathway.

Figure 4: In chess, StudentSim improves both behavioral fidelity and guidance responsiveness compared with leading baselines. Using simulated feedback to improve AI tutors

The research also tests whether a trained student simulator can provide feedback for tutor optimization. In a chess tutor reinforcement learning study, the tutor receives a position and a real student’s previous wrong move, then generates guidance. The student simulator’s own parameters are held fixed during this process, and it reads the guidance and produces a revised move. The reward is based on the improvement in move quality from the student’s previous move to the simulator’s revised move, using Stockfish as an independent chess engine signal.  

Figure 5: StudentSim can provide feedback during AI tutor reinforcement learning by estimating how a student response changes after guidance.

The study compares three conditions: a supervised fine-tuned tutor with no reinforcement learning, a tutor trained with GPT-5.4 as the simulated student reward source, and a tutor trained with StudentSim as the reward source. All conditions use the same tutor policy, supervised starting point, and reinforcement learning setup. Human chess experts then evaluate the tutor responses blind to condition. 

The StudentSim reward produces the highest-rated tutor on all reported dimensions. The tutor trained with StudentSim reaches 90.5% accuracy, compared with 75.7% for the no-RL baseline and 71.6% for the GPT-5.4 reward condition. It also receives higher ratings for guidance quality and personalization. The result is a proof of concept that student simulators trained on real learner data can provide useful feedback for improving AI tutors. 

Looking ahead

StudentSim does not remove the need for real learners in education research. Human studies remain essential for measuring learning outcomes, safety, usability, and classroom fit. The role of student simulators is earlier in the development process: they can help researchers test tutor strategies, compare models, and refine training signals before moving to more expensive studies with real students. 

The broader direction is to build AI tutor systems that learn from student reactions, not only from expert-written explanations or static correctness labels. StudentSim shows one path: use real learning records to train personalized simulators, evaluate those simulators on both independent behavior and response to guidance, and use them as scalable feedback sources for tutor training. Future work can extend this approach to longer learning trajectories, additional subjects, richer student profiles, and studies that connect simulated feedback with real learning outcomes. 

The paper and the StudentSim training and evaluation code, including the StudentSimEval protocol, are publicly available.

Sources Paper Code

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The post Simulating student learning for better AI tutoring appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Major cable providers often broadcast a second network from an ISP-provided router, and you might not even realize it's happening. These secondary networks might not detract from a home's primary network, but they can definitely give your phone a bad connection. Here's what's going on and how you can fix it.

SAVE $762: As of Oct. 12, the Sunseeker X3 Plus robot lawn mower is on sale for $836.98 instead of its usual $1,598.99. That's nearly 50% in savings and its best price on record.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sunseeker Sunseeker X3 Plus robot lawn mower $836.98 at Amazon
$1,598.99 Save $762.01   Get Deal

Lawn-mowing season might be wrapping up, but if you're looking to invest in a robot mower for next year, the Sunseeker X3 Plus is nearly half off its usual cost.

As of Oct. 12, the Sunseeker X3 Plus robot lawn mower is down to just $836.98 instead of $1,598.99. That's $762 or 48% in savings, marking its lowest price on record.

Mashable's sister site CNET tested the Sunseeker X3 Plus and specifically recommended buying it if you can score it on sale. Well, today's your lucky day — but only if you act fast. It's already selling out at Amazon.

It's designed for small to medium-sized residential lawns up to 0.3 acres and requires little to no setup. No buried perimeter wires or digging is necessary; just use the app to map out your yard and create virtual boundaries. The Sunseeker X3 Plus will handle the rest.

An on-board camera with dual AI vision and ultrasonic sensors can detect potential objects in the Sunseeker's path and it'll adjust its route accordingly. Of course, if there's certain spots you want it to avoid altogether, you can also set up a custom path in the app. The app also allows you to manage schedules, adjust cutting height, and monitor mowing progress.

If you're ready to hand off your most annoying chore and gain hours of your time back next summer, grab the Sunseeker X3 Plus while it's half price (and while it's still in stock!).

Notorious Grand Theft Auto VI leaker Cyberleek is back with a vengeance, it seems.

The anonymous video poster went dark after the big Netflix trailer in late August, but returned last week with a big, chunky 24-minute clip that featured story cutscenes, auto races, and the male protagonist Jason fully nude. Over the weekend and into Monday morning, Cyberleek shared some more clips that we won't link to, but can be easily found on social media. The new clips largely revolve around the female protagonist Lucia, and also show her completely nude, doing things like walking around Vice City or parachuting off a tall building.

SEE ALSO: 'GTA 6' official merch is live, and it's already selling out: Where to buy

In addition, Cyberleek posted a warning on their website claiming that if their memecoin reached a market cap of $30 million, they would release a video showing a full playthrough of the game's story prior to release. The same post also included a demand for publisher Take-Two to apologize for not releasing the game on disc and to rectify that issue. It is extremely unlikely the company could fire up disc manufacturing for GTA 6 in a timely fashion, even if the publisher wanted to negotiate with the leaker. At this point, there is no sign of that happening.

Just like in the videos featuring a nude Jason, the nude Lucia videos seem a little fishy in the sense that NPCs don't react to their nudity at all. Given that recent Rockstar games are built entirely around believable NPC interactions, that would suggest the nudity is not a regularly accessible feature in the final game and is being achieved through the use of developer tools.

It's only about a month until the game is in all our hands, and we won't have to worry about GTA 6 leaks spoiling the story anymore.

If you like original direct-to-streaming movies, then this week's list is for you. Four of the five movies on this list are streaming releases. Prime Video occupies two spots on the list: a crime caper starring Stanley Tucci and a romantic drama starring Margaret Qualley.

SAVE $201.99: The Sony XM5 headphones are on sale at Amazon for $198, down from the list price of $399.99. That's a 50% discount that matches the lowest ever.

Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Sony WH-1000XM5 $198
$399.99 Save $201.99   Get Deal

I'm not saying a pair of headphones can change your life, but I will stand by the notion that headphones can make a major difference in daily life quality. If you've been getting by with a pair that's not super comfortable, check out this deal.

As of Oct. 12, the Sony XM5 headphones are on sale at Amazon for $198, down from the list price of $399.99. That's a 50% discount that takes $201.99 off the price. It also matches the lowest we've ever seen at Amazon.

SEE ALSO: Budget-friendly Sony headphones are under $100 at Amazon — shop Sony WH-CH720N for $88

On Mashable's list of the best headphones, the Sony XM5 earn an honorable mention as a Mashable Choice product. While they're an older model, the ANC still stands up as some of the best around, and the call quality is an added bonus. Since the new XM6 headphones come with a price of $458, going with the sale $198 XM5 is a budget option that doesn't drop you into sacrificing on quality.

Since this is the lowest price we've seen, make the upgrade to the Sony XM5 headphones for under $200. They'll be perfect for fall walks in crunch leaves.

SAVE $100: As of Oct. 12, you can get the DJI Mini 5 Pro for $679, down from $759, at Amazon. That's an 11% discount, or $80 in savings.

Opens in a new window Credit: DJI DJI Mini 5 Pro $679 at Amazon
$759 Save $80   Get Deal

If you were hoping to buy a drone during Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days event but couldn't make it in time, a few legit drone deals are still lingering on the site — including some DJI models.

Right now, you can get the DJI Mini 5 Pro for $679, down from $779, at Amazon. Not only is that a full $80 off, but it actually beats the drone's previous all-time low of $683 by $4. The Mini 5 Pro isn't available on the DJI website, so this is the best way to get this model on sale.

SEE ALSO: The October Prime Day drone deals are flying: Get $90 off the DJI Flip before the sale ends

OK, so let's talk specs. If you already own the Mini 4 Pro, an upgrade actually makes a lot of sense this time around. But if you're new to droning and want something lightweight and easy to fly, the Mini 5 Pro is a really solid option.

It features a 50MP 1-inch image sensor (a noticeable step up from the 1/1.3-inch sensor on the 4 Pro) with 4K/60fps HDR video. The gimbal rotates 225 degrees for full-sensor vertical video and photos (you know, for the Gram), and it includes up to 42GB of internal storage and 36 minutes of battery life out of the box.

That said, there are a few drawbacks. While it is lightweight, manufacturing variances mean some units may weigh 251 grams with the standard battery. (Keep in mind that the FAA measures weight at takeoff, not the box specification!) It doesn't go any faster than 40 mph and has less wind resistance than larger models, like the DJI Air 3S. And Redditors are currently complaining about a firmware bug that makes the Mini 5 Pro detect distant clouds as obstacles, which will abruptly halt your waypoint flights.

Many pet owners know the feeling of panic that sets in when they realize their dog or cat has slipped out of the house or backyard. Now you’re faced with the daunting task of tracking down a pet that could be anywhere.

Life360, the app families use to stay connected through location sharing, now includes pet safety with Life360 Pet GPS. You can see your pet’s location on the same map as the rest of your household. And if they go missing, you can call on the Life360 community to help with the search. 

How does Life360 Pet GPS work? Opens in a new window Credit: Life360 Life360 Pet GPS $99
Includes one-year Silver membership Shop Now

Life360 Pet GPS attaches to your pet's collar and uses GPS and LTE connectivity to show their location in real time. Instead of wondering where your dog went, you can open the app and see for yourself. 

You can also set a geofence around your home, and anytime your pet crosses it, your family receives an escape alert, so you know to start looking immediately. This is a good option for anyone who shares pet-caring responsibilities with a roommate, partner, or other family members.

For new users, the $99 Pet GPS bundle includes the device and a year of Life360 Silver membership. That means your first year of tracking costs less than $100 since the subscription is already included. 

Battery backup when you need it

Pet GPS includes up to 14 days of battery life per charge, plus a reserve designed for those times when the battery gets low. Once the battery drops below 6%, the tracker enters Reserve Mode. 

This switches from real-time GPS to Bluetooth tracking through the Tile network, allowing occasional location updates when a nearby phone detects the device. That reserve can last up to six months. 

Additional ways to find your pet

If your pet goes missing, Life360’s Pet Finder Network draws on its global community of more than 100 million members. Sending a Lost Pet Alert shares your pet’s photo and details with nearby members who may be able to help you. 

Life360 also offers Pet Tag, a scannable ID that attaches to your pet’s collar. If someone finds your pet, they can scan the tag with their smartphone to contact you, and there’s no app to download on their end. You’ll manage your pet’s information on the Life360 app, so you can update your contact information without replacing the tag.

You can start with a free Pet Profile and access to the finder network, add Pet Tag for identification, or choose Pet GPS for real-time location tracking with a membership. Whichever option works for your household, Life360 Pet GPS gives you multiple ways to find your pets. 

Google is giving you a reason to pay attention to fitness trackers again. Today, the company has announced the Fitbit Edge, a new wearable that sits between the screen-free Fitbit Air and the Pixel Watch lineup. The timing is interesting as Google has spent recent months expanding its health-focused features and wearables. The Fitbit Edge also arrives after a lengthy gap in the brand’s conventional fitness tracker lineup as the successor to the Fitbit Charge 6 that debuted in 2023.

PREORDER TO SAVE $30: The Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 and Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro are $30 off with preorders. The Sleep 4 earbuds are set to launch in October and the Sleep 4 Pro later in November.

Opens in a new window Credit: Anker Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 $199.99 at Anker
$229.99 Save $30   Pre-order Here Opens in a new window Credit: Anker Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro $319.99 at Anker
$349.99 Save $30   Get Deal

As much as we try to fight it, sleep is essential for life. For so many reasons, it can be a struggle to get good sleep. If you're not sleeping well because the environment is too noisy, there's help to be had. Sleep earbuds are designed to be comfortable enough for wearing all night while helping to mask noise that'll keep you awake. In more good news, there are two new Anker models coming soon and preorders get a special discount.

Sign up to reserve either the new Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 or the Anker Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro with a $1 deposit and save $30. That means you can get the Sleep 4 earbuds for $199.99, down from the normal price of $229.99 or the Sleep 4 Pro earbuds for $319.99, down from the list price of $349.99.

In Mashable's review of the best sleep earbuds, the Anker Sleep 30A Special earn the top spot. While Anker went in a new direction with naming, the new Sleep 4 Series will take over as the newest models. Both models come with an upgraded design for more comfort and smaller inner wingtips.

SEE ALSO: The fan-favorite Owala FreeSip Twist water bottle is down to $19.99 on Amazon — beating its Prime Day price

Both models also come with a built-in alarm, Bluetooth 6.0, and a Find Me feature from the app should you misplace an earbud under the bed. Anker rates noise reduction on both models as three to five decibels better than the previous Sleep A30 Special model when it comes to masking noise. Adding to their functionality, both support wireless charging.

The Sleep Earbuds 4 Plus come with some elevated features compared to the standard Sleep Earbuds 4. One of the most obvious is the AMOLED touch case. This'll give users instant access to sleep tracking metrics without looking at a phone. You can also set alarms and adjust the audio from the touchscreen. The Pro models also supports in-ear sleep tracking and insights.

As of the time of writing, Anker doesn't have firm launch dates set. The brand says the Sleep Earbuds 4 are coming in October and the advanced Sleep Earbuds 4 Pro will come in November. Whichever model you're eyeing, better sleep is just a few clicks away.

Are you finally getting around to building your personal portfolio website? Wondering which AI coding tool you should trust with the job? I was in the same boat a few days ago, so I tested Claude Code and Codex CLI to see which one did a better job. As it turns out, neither was perfect, but one built a noticeably better portfolio landing page than the other.

SAVE $650: As of Oct. 12, the Hisense 50-inch S7 Canvas Hi-QLED 4K TV is still on sale for its October Prime Day price of $649.99 at Amazon. That's 50% off its list price of $1,299.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 50-inch S7 Canvas Hi-QLED 4K TV $649.99 at Amazon
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If you want an aesthetic TV that works double duty as artwork on your wall, but you don't quite have the budget for The Frame, Hisense's Canvas TV is our favorite dupe. And it's currently sitting at half off its usual price at Amazon.

As of Oct. 12, the Hisense 50-inch S7 Canvas Hi-QLED 4K TV is still on sale for its October Prime Day price of $649.99. That's 50% or $650 off its usual cost of $1,299.99. That's its second-best price of 2026.

The Canvas TV isn't quite as bright as Samsung's The Frame, but aside from that, it's a better value in a lot of ways. It has a higher refresh rate at 144Hz (versus 120Hz), two HDMI 2.1 ports, the intuitive Google TV interface, and free access to its gallery with over 1,000 works of art and immersive screensavers. On The Frame models, you have to pay a monthly fee to gain access to the artwork.

The Canvas TV comes with an anti-glare, hi-matte finish, a teakwood magnetic frame (more options sold separately) and an ulta-slim wall mount that lies flush to make the TV look as close as possible to framed artwork. "The TV itself looks stupid good in a gallery wall and really does blend in with other artwork and wall hangings, especially in art mode," Deputy Shopping Editor Miller Kern writes.

If you're in the market for a new TV and want something that'll enhance your living room aesthetic, the Hisense Canvas TV is one of the best picks — especially while it's half its usual cost.

Whether you’re a homeowner, home improvement specialist, or a commercial contractor, drills help get jobs done, no matter the task or project. Anyone can grab a drill and start using it, but understanding its capabilities and how it works is essential if you want it to last.

Did you think that the chaos around limited-edition Starbucks drinkware was over? You fool! It has only just begun.

Last year’s viral Bearista glass cup sold out in a flash. For the 2026 holiday season, the bear is making a comeback. And this time, it’s teaming up with one of Mashable's favorite brands — Owala.

When does the Starbucks Bearista Owala drop?

Mark your calendar, clear your schedule, and mentally prepare for Nov. 5. The Bearista collection officially hits Starbucks stores nationwide with the return of the seasonal holiday menu. It's important to note that, unlike some of these viral drops, this collection will also be available online via the Starbucks Shop. That could be an absolute game-changer.

How to buy the Starbucks Bearista Owala

Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee success against scalpers. There are, however, some things you can do to maximize your chances on launch morning.

The most obvious recommendation we can make is to check the Starbucks Shop while waiting in line at your local coffeehouse. You could save yourself a lot of time and effort by simply shopping online if the stock exists. If that doesn't work out for you, make sure you're well-positioned in the queue by arriving at least 30 minutes before doors open.

Lastly, the sensible move is to call your local store before Nov. 5 to check whether they have received any stock and how many Owala units were allocated. That way, you can get an idea of whether or not it's worth standing out in the rain.

How much will the Starbucks Bearista Owala cost?

Starbucks has not yet confirmed the price of the Bearista Owala. A standard Owala FreeSip bottle typically retails for $29.99 (although deals are live). Last year's Bearista glass cup sold for $29.95. Expect pricing to land somewhere around those figures (if not a little more).

What's all the fuss? At the end of the day, this is a stainless steel water bottle with a cute bear print. If you just want a leak-proof, insulated tumbler with a built-in straw, a standard 24-oz Owala FreeSip on Amazon delivers the exact same experience without forcing you to wake up at dawn or deal with line-cutters. But if you are an avid Starbucks collector or looking for the ultimate holiday gift for an Owala fan, Nov. 5 is your day to shine.