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You probably won't find many people who chose a Pixel phone for privacy reasons. Reputation aside, Pixel phones actually do have some great privacy features. However, you have to take the good with the bad.

Fall is the perfect time for DIY projects. It's not too hot, but not too cold, and as long as you have the right tool for the job, you'll be able to power through those hard tasks easier than ever. Whether you're new to the Ryobi ecosystem or have been buying for years, here are some of the best tools you'll need to level up your DIY game.

If you took last week's Paramount+ movie recommendations for a spin, you might be interested to know that Tuner and The Get Out are still holding at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on Paramount+ for U.S. subscribers. But, sitting in the top spot during this last week of September is a ridiculously hilarious gang of idiots who've made a long career out of doing really, really dumb stuff. Jackass: Best and Last is their swan song, and it's my top pick this week.

TL;DR: Join Costco as a new Gold Star Member for $65 per year and enroll in auto-renewal to receive a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card by email.

Opens in a new window Credit: Costco Costco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + $20 Digital Costco Shop Card $65
  Get Deal

If you’ve been thinking about joining Costco, a promotion with StackSocial adds a little extra to your first year. Sign up for a one-year Costco Gold Star Membership ($65), enroll in auto-renewal, and receive a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card to put toward your first warehouse run.

A Gold Star Membership gets you into more than 500 Costco warehouses across the U.S., where you can stock up on bulk groceries, household basics, and Kirkland Signature products. Members can also fill up at the Costco Gas Station and have tires installed at the Costco Tire Center while they shop. If you want to stretch your grocery and gas budget further, that access may help reduce regular household costs. Each membership also includes one Household Card for an individual age 18 or older living at your address.

Here’s how to sign up:

1. Buy the one-year Costco Gold Star Membership voucher from StackSocial.

2. Follow the instructions in your confirmation email to activate your membership online. Use a valid email address and enroll in auto-renewal.

3. Pick up your membership card at your local Costco warehouse, and bring a valid photo identification.

Your Digital Costco Shop Card should arrive by email within two weeks of successful sign-up and auto-renewal enrollment. Use it at the warehouse on groceries and household items you already planned to buy. Just note that the Costco Food Court doesn’t accept it.

Join Costco as a new Gold Star Member for $65 and receive a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card for a limited time.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

If you want to catch every Avengers: Doomsday teaser in Avengers: Endgame Encore, be warned. Not every theater is showing all four extra scenes.

SEE ALSO: 'Avengers: Endgame Encore' sets up 'Doomsday' with 4 new scenes. Here's what happens.

Instead, only IMAX screenings of Avengers: Endgame Encore are showing all of the extra scenes, along with Infinity Vision theaters. Infinity Vision is not a new film format, but rather a certification program created by Disney to tell audiences which Premium Large Format theaters have met their criteria for an "exceptional" moviegoing experience.

Audiences were disappointed by the fact that IMAX and Infinity Vision screenings of Avengers: Endgame Encore got exclusive content, especially since the missing scene amounts to a good chunk of the extra four minutes tacked on to Avengers: Endgame. In an Aug. 25 press release, Disney did make note of the difference between screenings, writing, "An additional sneak peek at [Avengers: Doomsday] will also be available to audiences who see Avengers: Endgame Encore on IMAX and Infinity Vision-certified screens."

What happens in the exclusive Avengers: Endgame Encore scene?

The exclusive Avengers: Endgame Encore scene takes place in the headquarters of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), first introduced in Season 1 of Loki. There, the TVA's Mobius (Owen Wilson), Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), and Casey (Eugene Cordero) observe a troubling incursion. Two alternate Earths are about to collide, and they're firing missiles at one another.

From there, the number of incursions multiples. It's not long before thousands of universes are colliding, and the TVA is out of its depth.

"The multiverse is collapsing," Ouroboros says.

It's a foreboding set up for Avengers: Doomsday, one that could explain how the main MCU crosses over with the Fantastic Four's universe and the universe containing Fox's X-Men.

Avengers: Endgame Encore is now in theaters. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters Dec. 18.

I've spent the past few weeks using the Asustor Lockerstor 2 Gen2+ NAS, and it is definitely a different experience than I'm used to. Focusing more on security and enterprise-grade features, this NAS is a great fit for small/medium businesses or enthusiasts, but it might not be the right choice for someone just starting out with homelabbing or self-hosting.

After two years, it appears we're getting a new Kindle. The news comes from leaked photos posted by Roland Quandt on WinFuture, showcasing 25 new photos of a new Kindle. In the photos, there appears to be a redesigned 12th generation of Kindle, an update to its 2024 predecessor.

From the photos, it appears the new Kindle e-reader will come in three different shades: black, light blue, and purple. It also appears that the device received an overall redesign. The most exciting change is something I'd hoped would come to a new batch of Kindles — a redesigned power button.

Here's your first look at the 12th Gen #Amazon #Kindle (s?). New colors, new design, Power button is now on the side. I know there are visual differences in the pics re the display and it's rounded corners. So this might be more than one new device. Official pics: winfuture.de/news,161586....

[image or embed]

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt.bsky.social) September 28, 2026 at 8:24 AM

In the leaked photos, the power button appears to be on the right side of the device, moved from its former position at the bottom. In my review of the 11th generation Kindle, one of my biggest complaints was its power button design, so a change is greatly appreciated. The 12th generation of Kindle also seems to have a more recessed screen that's flush to the edge, now more closely resembling the Kindle Paperwhite.

In addition to the 12th generation Kindle, we also appear to be getting a new Kindle Kids. While it looks like a standard Kindle, it includes a case and an extended warranty.

All the information we have about the new Kindles is inferred from the leaked photos, as there's been no other information provided with them. We're still waiting to learn more about the device's size, front light, storage space, and waterproof rating, or if any other Kindle devices are getting an update. At this time, we also have no details on the timeline and release of this device.

We suspect the new Kindle will cost $149.99, the recently raised price of the 11th generation of Kindle, but are waiting for Amazon to confirm.

Shop current Kindle models Amazon Kindle $149.99 at Amazon Shop Now Kindle Paperwhite $199.99 at Amazon Shop Now Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition $199.99 at Amazon Shop Now Kindle Colorsoft $289.99 at Amazon Shop Now Kindle Scribe $549.99 at Amazon Shop Now

Excel tables don't exactly sound exciting. You select some data, press Ctrl+T, and Excel gives you a nicely formatted block with distinct headers and banded rows. Very professional; very Excel. If that's all you think tables are for, I wouldn't blame you. I've been using Excel for decades, and even I sometimes take tables for granted. But the real benefit is what happens next.

TL;DR: Encrypt and privately share Windows files with an EncryptPro Personal Plan lifetime subscription for $39.99 (reg. $139).

Opens in a new window Credit: EncyptPro EncryptPro Personal Plan for Windows: Lifetime Subscription $39.99
$139 Save $99.01   Get Deal

Most file encryption tools make you build a locked vault, then wait while large files are decrypted before you can open them. EncryptPro encrypts files right on your PC and shares them through private PGP connections, and a lifetime subscription is on sale for $39.99 (reg. $139).

EncryptPro works fast and reliably to keep your files private. In testing on a standard machine, EncryptPro encrypted a 10.6GB file in just 35 seconds. Streaming decryption opens large files in seconds, so a 10GB video starts playing right away instead of waiting for the whole file to unlock. Every file and folder gets AES-256 encryption, and the app overwrites each original with zeros and then random data across multiple passes, so no readable copy gets left behind in the Recycle Bin.

SEE ALSO: 15 early October Prime Day tech deals, hand-picked by our gadget experts

Unlike other security software, you don’t need to open a separate window to use EncryptPro. Right-click any file or folder in Windows Explorer to lock or unlock it. Then just double-click an encrypted file to open it in its usual app. Encrypted folders are still browsable, and custom icons show each file’s group and lock state even when EncryptPro isn’t running.

EncryptPro uses a zero-knowledge setup, so the company can’t access your files, and you can verify that yourself with tools like Wireshark and Glasswire. Nothing gets uploaded or synced to a cloud server. Your encrypted files work from USB drives and external drives, and you can open them offline on any PC.

The Personal Plan adds PGP file sharing with no passwords to email, 5 password-protected Security Groups, and up to 10 one-to-one connections with 2 members each. Upgrade Lock rotates a connection’s keys whenever you want, cutting off anyone who doesn’t get the new password. One master password opens any group, so a forgotten group password won’t lock you out.

Your license works on three devices at once running 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, and future updates are included.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

On July 24, 2025, Microsoft Research Asia – Singapore (MSRA – Singapore) opened its doors as Microsoft’s first research lab in Southeast Asia. The launch built on more than two decades of collaboration between Microsoft Research Asia and Singapore’s universities, research institutes, and government agencies. It marked a shift to a closer, more integrated relationship aimed at supporting Singapore’s innovation ecosystem and advancing the development and beneficial use of AI.

“When we established Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore one year ago, our vision was not simply to open another research lab. It was to build a bridge connecting Microsoft’s frontier AI research with Singapore’s world-class universities, forward-thinking government agencies, and dynamic industry ecosystem. One year in, what gives me the greatest confidence is not just the research we have produced, but the depth of partnership we have built. That is the foundation on which lasting impact is built.”

— Dr. Lidong Zhou, corporate vice president at Microsoft and managing director of Microsoft Research Asia

Established in 1998, MSRA has a presence in Beijing, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Tokyo, along with Singapore. The Singapore lab strengthens the collaboration with local partners and extends the scientific and societal impact of Microsoft’s global research community. 

Over the past year, the Singapore lab has grown its team, deepened partnerships, and explored how frontier AI research can create real-world value. Guided by its mission to advance frontier AI for humanity, its work spans four pillars: next-generation AI models and agentic systems, domain-specific AI for real-world impact, AI-native research practices, and ecosystem and talent development.

From frontier research to real-world impact – and back

Research has its greatest impact when it moves beyond the laboratory into practice: in health and medicine, enterprises, and the daily operations of organizations solving real problems. MSRA – Singapore aims to do just that through a two-way exchange: partners bring domain expertise, real-world data, and operational challenges, while the lab contributes frontier research and engineering capabilities. Together, they translate fundamental advances into practical solutions, while surfacing new questions that feed back into research in a kind of research-to-impact flywheel. Advances in AI foundations enable more capable models and agentic systems that can reason, plan, use tools, and collaborate with people. These capabilities create new opportunities for AI-native innovation. In turn, real-world applications reveal limitations and generate new questions, feeding insights back into foundational research and sustaining a continuous cycle of discovery, application, and learning.

Healthcare offers an early example of the lab’s research-to-impact model. Research on multimodal healthcare AI and self-evolving diagnostic agents is deployed and extended through partnerships across Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem. The lab is collaborating on multimodal and agentic AI approaches to support clinical decision-making, unlock insights from complex medical data, and advance research in disease diagnosis, risk assessment, and personalized care, with the longer-term goal of enabling meaningful real-world use.

Beyond healthcare, the lab is working with organizations across financial services, education, and technology to explore how frontier AI can address sector-specific needs and operational challenges.

“Over the past year, the lab has become an integral part of both Microsoft’s local ecosystem and Singapore’s broader innovation community. Its progress demonstrates the value of establishing a sustained research presence in Singapore.”

— Wee Luen Chia, managing director, Microsoft Singapore

Singapore has made AI a national priority through its National AI Strategy 2.0 (opens in new tab), which focuses on deploying industry-transforming AI, advancing frontier research in AI foundations, and developing responsible, socially beneficial applications. These priorities span areas including healthcare, education, finance, and Smart Nation (opens in new tab) services. MSRA – Singapore’s research portfolio aligns with these priorities, with a particular focus on building AI systems that are reliable and trustworthy across Southeast Asian contexts. 

The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) has been a foundational partner. It supported the lab’s establishment and continues to support joint PhD training through the Industrial Postgraduate Programme (IPP). The relationship has since grown into strategic collaboration. In February 2026, EDB co-hosted an Executive Roundtable on AI in Logistics and Transportation, bringing together more than ten regional industry leaders to explore sectoral challenges.

“Singapore is building deep research capabilities to push the boundaries of AI and other frontier technologies. Microsoft Research Asia – Singapore is an important partner in this effort. Since its launch in 2025, the lab has brought Microsoft’s global research expertise closer to our ecosystem, partnering academia, industry, and government to advance frontier AI research and translate it into real-world applications in areas such as healthcare. MSRA is also developing the next generation of AI research talent who can create meaningful impact for our economy and society.”

— Low Jin Yong, senior vice president and co-head, Digital Industry Singapore

Government engagement extends beyond EDB. In July 2025, IMDA (opens in new tab) co-hosted Microsoft Research Asia Singapore Day (opens in new tab) — Advancing Industrial AI, a full-day event spanning healthcare AI, interactive world simulators, AI agents, and societal AI. MSRA – Singapore has also engaged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Health. 

From enduring partnerships to shared discovery

In addition to its deep ties with government agencies, MSRA has built strong connections with Singapore’s academic community, supporting more than 75 research projects with Singapore institutions since 2004. The opening of the Singapore lab has brought new engagements, with nine new projects in its first year with National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) across healthcare AI, robotics, AI systems, and multi-agent systems. 

A landmark example is the five-year Framework Research Agreement (opens in new tab) with NUS, announced in 2025, which provides a platform for joint AI research, talent development, and academic exchange. It defines shared research priorities in healthcare, societal AI, spatial intelligence, and data-intensive computing alongside an annual NUS–MSRA Academic Symposium that brings researchers from both organizations together to shape the collaboration agenda. 

“This partnership creates new opportunities for frontier research, talent development, and knowledge exchange, strengthening connections across academia, industry, and the broader innovation ecosystem.”

— Professor Liu Bin, deputy president (Research and Technology), National University of Singapore

The collaboration is already producing concrete research across several frontier areas. NUS Assistant Professor Mike Shou and MSRA’s Xinxing Xu are developing unified multimodal AI for healthcare. NUS assistant professor Yang You and MSRA distinguished scientist Furu Wei are studying systems foundations for diffusion-based language models. NUS assistant professor Jialin Li is working with MSRA on rigorous distributed agreement in multi-agent systems and verifiable machine learning systems.

“Whether during my visit to the Systems Research Group in Beijing or through our ongoing collaborations, I have been impressed by how deeply MSRA researchers engage with difficult problems and how openly they exchange ideas. For young faculty and students, it is a rare environment to explore ambitious ideas.“

— Jialin Li, Sung Kah Kay Assistant Professor, School of Computing, National University of Singapore, MSRA StarTrack Scholar

The NUS–Microsoft Research Asia AI Summer School has reached more than 300 students since its launch in 2025, attracting participants from Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Through three days of lectures, hands-on workshops, and small-group discussions, the program creates a forum for researchers and students to engage with emerging AI questions and scholars shaping the field. The 2025 program featured a keynote by Doug Burger, technical fellow and corporate vice president of Microsoft, on the AI revolution. Ahead of the 2026 Summer School, Lidong Zhou delivered a lecture on system intelligence, helping frame the conversations that followed. 

“I have seen the NUS–MSRA partnership grow through sustained collaboration in AI research and talent development. What makes this partnership especially meaningful is the opportunity to bring together researchers and students from both communities to learn from one another, pursue new ideas, and create lasting impact together.”

— Tulika Mitra, dean, NUS School of Computing

Beyond NUS, Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore has built connections across Singapore’s research community, including with NTU, Singapore Management University (SMU) (opens in new tab), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and other institutions. Research arising from these partnerships has already been published at leading venues, including the International Conference on Learning Representations (opens in new tab) (ICLR) and the Conference on Language Modeling (opens in new tab) (COLM). 

From early exposure to research leadership: Cultivating Singapore’s next generation of AI talent

For Microsoft Research Asia, talent development is not a standalone program but a long-term investment in Singapore’s research and innovation capacity, supporting a comprehensive talent pipeline spanning internships, joint PhD supervision, visiting scholar programs, and fellowship initiatives. Through these opportunities, students and early-career researchers gain access to world-class mentorship, a curiosity-driven culture, frontier research challenges, and a global network connecting academia, industry, and real-world applications.

What makes this model distinctive is its continuity. Students may engage with Microsoft Research Asia through workshops or summer schools, gain hands-on experience through its flagship research initiative, Microsoft Research Asia Stars of Tomorrow Internship Program, or pursue doctoral research through joint PhD programs. Some participants later return as faculty collaborators, mentors, or research leaders. Together, these programs form a connected pathway that supports researchers at successive stages of development. 

The IPP represents a sustained form of collaboration, enabling PhD students to conduct long-term research under joint mentorship from academia and industry. Qiming Huang, the first IPP student at MSRA — Singapore, is co-supervised by NUS professor Mike Shou and MSRA researcher Xinxing Xu. Through the program, Huang worked closely with researchers from both institutions, gaining exposure to academic rigor and industry-driven research. At CVPR 2026 (opens in new tab), one of the world’s leading conferences in AI and computer vision, Qiming Huang’s paper on RobotSeg – a foundation model for robot segmentation in image and video – was selected for an oral presentation.  

“Working alongside researchers from both Microsoft Research Asia and NUS changed how I approach AI research. Beyond technical guidance, I learned to frame ambitious questions, collaborate across disciplines, and think about the real-world impact of research

— Qiming Huang, IPP student from National University of Singapore

NTU assistant professor Jianfei Yang, embodies the continuous collaborative opportunities enabled by Microsoft Research Asia. As a student, Yang’s team won the Beauty of Programming competition, an experience that inspired him to pursue a PhD and begin an academic career. Over the years, he watched many of his classmates and close friends grow into outstanding researchers through MSRA programs. Today, he collaborates with MSRA researchers in robotics and jointly supervises students through the IPP, creating for the next generation the same opportunities that inspired his own journey.

“Although I never interned at Microsoft Research Asia myself, it always felt close. Having the opportunity to work alongside a research lab that inspired so many researchers of my generation, and now to co-mentor students together, is both meaningful and rewarding.”

— Jianfei Yang, assistant professor, director of Multimodal embodied AI and Robotic Systems (MARS) Lab, Nanyang Technological University

NTU associate professor Ziwei Liu, himself a former MSRA intern, recently saw one of his students become the only Asia-based recipient of the Microsoft Research global Fellowship award for 2025–2026. 

“As a former intern, I have seen how an environment that brings together world-class researchers, open scientific exchange, and ambitious young talent can shape the next generation of researchers. It is especially meaningful to see my own students now benefit from these opportunities.”

— Ziwei Liu, associate professor, College of Computing and Data Science, Nanyang Technological University

The Stars of Tomorrow Internship Program has engaged more than 90 students from Singapore-based institutions over the years. For many students, these internships serve as a gateway to frontier research and help bridge the gap between academic study and real-world innovation.

For exceptional doctoral students, the Microsoft Research Asia Fellowship provides another pathway for growth, recognition, mentorship, and access to Microsoft’s global research community. Since the program began, 13 students from Singapore-based universities have received the fellowship, many of whom have gone on to become professors, industry research leaders, and technology entrepreneurs around the world.

The next phase: Scaling what works

As Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore enters its second year, the focus is shifting from building foundations to scaling the strongest models of collaboration and demonstrating their impact more broadly.

One year ago, the lab opened with a mission to advance frontier AI in close partnership with the ecosystem around it. That mission is already taking shape through joint research, talent development, and the first partnerships connecting lab work to real-world challenges.

The year ahead is about scaling what works. By deepening these connections, Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore can bring more frontier research into practice and create meaningful value for Singapore, the wider region, industry, and society. 

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The post One year in: How Microsoft Research Asia – Singapore is advancing research, partnership and talent for real-world impact appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Samsung Galaxy phones are packed with exclusive features, controls, and a slew of pre-installed apps. So many, in fact, that they're sometimes all categorized as bloatware. It's easy to ignore the dozens of apps on your phone right out of the box, but many of Samsung's apps are great alternatives to Google's.

If you have multiple PCs or consoles at home or host LAN gaming parties like me, LanCache might be the magical setup you didn’t know you needed. I’ve recommended LanCache to small offices, gaming cafés, and even to friends who gave each of their kids a separate Xbox.

Keeping your home or dwelling safe and protected is easier than ever with the massive popularity of smart doorbells and indoor cameras. Ring continues to be one of the industry leaders and as tech and AI evolve, these units are becoming more and more affordable, and right now, you can pick up one of the brand's bestselling bundles from Best Buy for some insane savings—and its $80 off, too.

Plex is simple to install and use, and it performs marvelously. One thing that drives new users crazy though, is trying to access media on external USB drives. Here’s the easy way.

Anthropic just released Claude Sonnet 5.5, the second model in its Claude 5.5 family. It arrives less than a week after the company launched Claude Opus 5.5.

According to Anthropic's announcement, Sonnet 5.5 runs more than 30 percent faster than Sonnet 5 and costs up to 30 percent less for most work. The company describes it as a lower-cost complement to Opus 5.5, and that Sonnet 5.5 is best suited to well-scoped everyday tasks, such as fixing bugs and producing documents, slides, and spreadsheets. Anthropic said Claude Haiku 5.5 will arrive in the coming weeks.

SEE ALSO: Judge allows most of Reddit's lawsuit against Anthropic to proceed Anthropic benchmarks show big gains over Sonnet 5

Anthropic reported that Sonnet 5.5's top score edges out Opus 5.5's, though Opus 5.5 scored higher at every other effort level the company charted. On GDPval-AA v2.1, which measures real-world work across 44 occupations, Sonnet 5.5 scored 1,844. That is two points behind Opus 5.5 and about 400 points ahead of Sonnet 5. The company also said it is the first Sonnet model to beat Pokémon Red, working only from screenshots.

Credit: Anthropic / Mashable screenshot

Anthropic cautioned that benchmarks capture only part of a model's abilities. The company said its own testing and outside testing both found Opus 5.5 still clearly stronger at complex, open-ended work.

Early testers cited efficiency gains. In the press release, Slack principal engineer Curtis Allen said Sonnet 5.5 beat Sonnet 5 on nearly all of Slack's offline Slackbot evaluations, finishing "in fewer steps and with about 14% fewer output tokens."

Pricing and availability

Pricing is the same as Sonnet 5:

• $2 per million input tokens

• $10 per million output tokens

• $0.20 per million tokens for cache reads

The input and output rates are half of Opus 5.5's. Anthropic says the lower per-task cost stems from the model requiring fewer tokens to complete the same work.

Sonnet 5.5 is available now on all of Anthropic's platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Developers can access it via the API as claude-sonnet-5-5, with zero data retention. Developers who run Sonnet with thinking off must switch to a new between_tools setting before migrating.

New safeguards

Anthropic said Sonnet 5.5's cybersecurity capabilities are comparable to Opus 5's. For that reason, it is the first Sonnet model to ship with cyber safeguards similar to those on Opus 5.5. Higher-risk cybersecurity requests will visibly fall back to Sonnet 5, while routine bug-fixing is unaffected. Biology safeguards are unchanged from Sonnet 5. Organizations can apply to the Life Sciences Verification Program for broader access. Sonnet 5.5 is also the first Sonnet model to launch with classifiers designed to block distillation attacks, in which bad actors extract a model's capabilities at scale.

On Anthropic's automated behavioral audit of roughly 1,850 scenarios, Sonnet 5.5 matched or improved on Sonnet 5 on most alignment measures. Opus 5.5 still performed slightly better overall. The company acknowledged that no set of evaluations catches every failure.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley is avoiding the public. Last week, as individuals testified to Flock's flaws in front of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Langley stayed home. He sent a letter in his stead.

But a group of ignited internet users believes the CEO, who runs an $8 billion surveillance technology company advertised as a security solution, should be put on display — and perhaps given a metaphorical swirly.

Using a previously circulated address that reportedly belonged to Langley and was shared online in an effort to doxx the CEO, a new group of anti-Flock users allegedly labeled his home as a public toilet. The reported listing is still unverified.

Others called on each other to share Langley's personal information en masse, including the unconfirmed address, to show what "endless surveillance for no good reason feels like."

SEE ALSO: Three takeaways from the Senate hearing on Flock's camera network

"This internet backlash against the Flock CEO hiding his own house while selling surveillance to everyone else is honestly poetic justice. why do tech executives think privacy rules only apply to them," wrote one user on X.

People on social media also noticed images of the address on Google Maps' Street View had been blurred from public view. A privacy feature offered at a homeowner's request, many found the anonymity ironic and began circulating unverified images of the home in response.

"Shame if he gets egged and TP'd on halloween," wrote a different X prankster.

In response to the purported doxxing, a recent thread on the r/AskConservatives subreddit asked, "Does the Flock CEO deserve privacy?"

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

Flock is now synonymous with a nationwide surveillance apparatus enabled by the proliferation of Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), used by law enforcement to document, profile, and track drivers regardless of their participation in actual crimes. The anti-ALPR movement has grown exponentially in the last year, culminating in a new bipartisan effort to cancel Flock contracts, regulate their use, or even ban them outright.

Legislators are largely responding to an online movement that has united communities to force Flock out of their towns, often turning to public protest and guerilla tactics to physically remove Flock devices. Over the weekend, for example, the DeFlock America Facebook group — an online gathering place for surveillance opponents — reached a milestone of more than 820,000 members.

Samsung Galaxy Watches are pretty capable devices with good hardware. With Wear OS, they also have solid software support. Google Play Store access makes customization and functionality virtually limitless. Samsung has done a good job giving users plenty of solid apps by default, but if you are like me, you won’t settle for the default offerings.

The allegations detailed in a former Cornell University student's lawsuit are horrifying. The student, identified in the suit as Jane Doe, alleges that seven fraternity members drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2024, ultimately prompting her to leave the university. Since she filed the lawsuit, students at Cornell and others beyond the campus have spoken out.

Among them is actress Florence Pugh, who had a message for men in particular:

"This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us. You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behavior as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it’s 'not all men' when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?... Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world. You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won’t be harmed in return. I’m no longer tired — I'm enraged by schools protecting boys, in fear of their futures being wrecked..."

But after Pugh shared the message with her 10.7 million Instagram followers, some of her anger shifted toward the platform carrying it.

According to Pugh, Instagram placed a "sensitive-content" warning over the post, preventing some followers from swiping through the carousel to read it. In other words, Pugh says Instagram restricted access to the very post she was using to call attention to the allegations.

Screenshot of Florence Pugh's Instagram profile grid, where you can see the grey grid post flagged as sensitive content. Credit: Screenshot: Instagram/@florencepugh

"Am I being censored for talking about rape?" she asked. When she tried sharing her statement again, Pugh said Instagram was "blocking me from reaching people."

Meta confirmed to TMZ that Instagram initially placed a sensitive-content label on Pugh's post. "We removed this label upon further review after we determined that it qualified for a newsworthy allowance," a spokesperson said. The post is now visible to adults without restrictions. It is, however, considered "age-restricted content" on the platform.

Instagram does have recommendation rules that can limit how widely certain content is recommended to people who don't already follow an account, even when that content is allowed to remain on the platform. But Meta did not say whether those rules affected the reach of Pugh's post.

Pugh, for her part, had already drawn her own conclusion: "Instagram, at least we can see what side you're on."

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So why did the post receive a warning in the first place? Meta hasn't explained exactly what triggered it. The company's sexual exploitation policy allows victims to share their experiences, while prohibiting content that "depicts, threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation." In Pugh's case, Instagram ultimately determined that the post could remain unrestricted under its newsworthy allowance.

SEE ALSO: How to filter sensitive content on Instagram

And while the Instagram warning has drawn attention of its own, Pugh's original post was about what happened at Cornell and how the university responded.

The lawsuit alleges that some of the accused students received disciplinary measures that included writing essays. Cornell has pushed back on the suggestion that essays were anyone's sole punishment, saying it expelled and suspended students and barred the fraternity from campus.

The allegations are now getting another look beyond the university. After the former student filed her lawsuit, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the criminal investigation and said he intends to present the case to a grand jury. No criminal charges have been filed.

Pugh isn't the first person to question what happens when Meta's moderation rules get between users and conversations about safety and health, particularly those involving women and marginalized communities. Last year, The Guardian reported that more than 50 organizations focused on abortion access, reproductive health, and LGBTQ+ issues had experienced restrictions or account removals across Meta's platforms.

Fatma Ibrahim of Sex Talk Arabic, for example, said Instagram repeatedly told the organization that posts about sexual health violated its rules and that its page would no longer be recommended to other users. Meta denied targeting the groups because of their advocacy and said it had reinstated more than half of the accounts flagged by campaigners.

People who report sexual assault can already face significant barriers to being heard. As attention around the Cornell allegations continues to grow, Pugh's experience raises a broader question about how Instagram handles those conversations and what its moderation systems deem too sensitive to show.

I knew this day would come, but my GPU is finally struggling to run new games within its 8GB of VRAM, even at lower settings and resolutions. This is not inherently a problem, things do move on after all. But, it couldn't have happened at a worse time.

October is barreling toward us and will arrive at the end of the week, and with it comes a brand new swath of catalog movies on October 1, including all five Twilight movies, three Psycho films, The Devil Wears Prada, and a couple of great ones I'll fill you in on below, so keep reading.