The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you're familiar with the theater.Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media. SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for August 17, 2026 Here's a hint for today's Connections categoriesWant a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:Yellow: PremiereGreen: Not pajamasBlue: Orange but not the fruitPurple: Courageously persistentWant more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.Here are today's Connections categoriesNeed a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:Yellow: Seen at a Movie PremiereGreen: PJsBlue: Things That Are OrangePurple: Things That Are GrittyLooking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.Drumroll, please!The solution to today's Connections #1164 is...What is the answer to Connections todaySeen at a Movie Premiere: LIMOUSINE, PAPARAZZI, RED CARPET, VELVET ROPEPJs: PETROLEUM JELLY, POETIC JUSTICE, PRACTICAL JOKE, PRIVATE JETThings That Are Orange: BASKETBALL, ORAGUTAN, SWEET POTATO, TRAFFIC CONEThings That Are Gritty: COWBOY COFFEE, FILM NOIR, FLYERS MASCOT, SANDPAPER SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for August 13, 2026 Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today's puzzle.Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet todayIf you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Connections.

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you steal things. If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for August 17, 2026 Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.What's the best Wordle starting word?The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.What happened to the Wordle archive?The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers. Is Wordle getting harder?It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though. SEE ALSO: NYT Pips hints, answers for August 18, 2026 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:Removal of clothing.Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?There are no recurring letters.Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...Today's Wordle starts with the letter S. SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.Drumroll please!The solution to today's Wordle is...STRIPDon't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet todayIf you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you know a bit of trivia.Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically. SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace. SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for August 18, 2026 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Fool me once...The words are related to being treated like a fool.Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThese words describe being at the end of a prank or joke.NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical.Want more tech and digital culture news delivered to your inbox daily or sent straight to your device? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter or get Mashable push alerts today.NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Charlatan.NYT Strands word list for August 18BamboozleDupeHoodwinkMisleadBilkDeceiveMeet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet todayLooking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

True-crime fandom no longer wants to watch from the sidelines; it increasingly wants in on the case.Consider the recent lineup: TikTok helped pull the Menendez brothers back into the national conversation decades after their convictions. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation trial became daily social media programming. Luigi Mangione developed an intense internet fandom before his case even reached trial. Increasingly, audiences aren’t satisfied with following a case. They want to investigate it, influence it, and sometimes insert themselves into it.Most of this activity unfolds outside the courtroom, where it shapes public opinion without becoming part of the official case. But that boundary is now being tested in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with murdering her three young children in Jan. 2023.Clancy’s defense acknowledges that she killed them but argues that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible for her actions. Online, however, some viewers have rejected both sides' accounts and begun conducting their own parallel investigation.But it wasn’t one of their conspiracy theories that found its way into the legal proceedings. Instead, Clancy’s attorneys became interested in a video from Emily Thorndike that has amassed over 5 million views. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. The licensed independent clinical social worker had spent more than seven years working on the same short-term McLean Hospital unit where Clancy was later treated. Thorndike left McLean roughly a year before Clancy’s stay and had no firsthand knowledge of her treatment. After watching the trial, however, she posted a video challenging how prosecutors portrayed the hospital’s staffing, resources, and available care — particularly during weekends and holidays. She accused witnesses of spreading "lies and misrepresentations" about McLean.On Aug. 11, Clancy’s defense asked the judge to add Thorndike to its witness list. The request flipped the familiar courtroom-to-TikTok pipeline on its head. 'I hardly know what TikTok is'Veteran defense attorney Kevin Reddington did not discover Thorndike while scrolling himself. According to his account during the Aug. 11 hearing, someone active in the trial’s TikTok community emailed him her video and urged him to watch it. "I hardly know what TikTok is," Reddington acknowledged.After watching the nine-minute, 58-second video, Reddington believed Thorndike’s experience could challenge the prosecution’s claim that Clancy had access to extensive treatment at McLean but chose not to fully participate in it. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. First, Reddington had to find Thorndike. Because her account did not use her full name, his office initially struggled to identify her. His private investigator, Bob Jones, called and left messages, then waited outside her home after she did not respond for three days. Thorndike later explained that she had assumed the outreach was fake: "I thought you guys were all AI!"Once they connected, Reddington said that Thorndike agreed to testify about the staffing and programs she had observed during her time at McLean, including as a supervisor. But that experience came with a major limitation: She left in Dec. 2021 and could not speak to the conditions Clancy personally encountered a year later.Prosecutors objected to the late notice, noting that Thorndike was not an expert witness and had watched the trial while publicly criticizing testimony. Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham argued that her broader criticism of McLean might belong in the "court of public opinion," but not "inside the walls of this courtroom."Judge William Sullivan agreed that Thorndike could not simply give jurors her personal rating of the hospital. "This is not TripAdvisor," he said. Still, he called the narrower question of McLean’s holiday staffing and programming a "closer call." He suggested that hospital records or someone who worked there during Clancy’s stay could provide the same information, and took the motion under advisement.Whether or not Thorndike testifies, the episode makes one thing clear: Lawyers are no longer merely the subjects of true-crime TikTok...they’re watching it, too.The Lindsay Clancy trial has become 'forensic fandom'Clancy, now 36, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan. Prosecutors argue that she deliberately sent her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, out of the house before carrying out a premeditated plan. Her defense says she was experiencing postpartum psychosis after being improperly treated with a rapidly changing combination of psychiatric medications.On Aug. 17, prosecutors rested their case after calling dozens of witnesses over nearly four weeks. The defense then began presenting testimony about Clancy’s worsening mental health in the months before the killings.Meanwhile, TikTok users have been conducting their own parallel trial. They have dissected courtroom footage, analyzed a disputed hot-mic moment, and even made thirst-trap edits of Reddington.Others have promoted unsupported theories that Patrick killed the children and framed his then-wife. 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. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Videos have dissected his clothing, body language, and purported inconsistencies in his testimony, while creators have treated his subsequent remarriage and move to New York as suspicious. Some have even claimed that a body double appeared at CVS in his place or suggested that he deliberately created conditions that would make Lindsay appear psychotic. None of those theories is supported by investigators’ evidence. Patrick has not been charged, and prosecutors have not indicated that he played any role in the killings. CVS surveillance footage and phone records corroborate his account that he was at the store when the killings occurred.Katy Coduto, an assistant professor of media science at Boston University, calls this sort of online behavior "forensic fandom": People become so invested in a case that following it is no longer enough — they begin to believe they can solve it. 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. That feeling is encouraged by the sheer amount of material available. Court livestreams provide hours of footage to parse, while TikTok rewards creators for finding the supposedly overlooked clue or inconsistency that will transform the entire story.What can true-crime fandom actually change?Thorndike’s potential entry into the Clancy trial may be unusual, but she is hardly the first online figure to approach the boundary between following a case and becoming part of it. Just look at the Karen Read trials.Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, spent years arguing that Read had been framed in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. By 2026, he had published more than 550 blog posts in his "Canton Cover-Up" series, along with hundreds of livestreams accusing witnesses and law enforcement officials of participating in a conspiracy. His coverage and "Free Karen Read" rallies helped turn Read’s claim of innocence into a grassroots movement that spread across Massachusetts and beyond.Kearney was then charged with witness intimidation over his alleged treatment of people connected to the investigation — charges he denied. A judge required him to leave the courtroom during testimony from certain witnesses. Prosecutors later received permission to examine his communications with Read as possible evidence. Kearney was also placed on a potential witness list and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned before Read’s second trial. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Read was ultimately acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in June 2025, though she was convicted of drunken driving. There’s no way to know how much the online movement influenced that outcome. But it undeniably changed everything surrounding the trial — including Kearney’s place in it.High-profile trials have always been spectaclesMost creators don’t get quite that close to the action. More often, they act as an unofficial press corps for audiences following cases from their phones. During Sean "Diddy" Combs’ federal criminal trial, cameras were prohibited inside the courtroom, so TikTokers, YouTubers, and livestreamers stationed outside the courthouse stepped in with daily recaps of testimony and legal arguments. Some, including credentialed journalist Mona Kosar Abdi, reported directly from the courtroom and attracted millions of views. Their videos weren’t evidence, but for viewers following through social media, they became their version of the trial.Online participation can sometimes produce something investigators can actually use. During the search for Gabby Petito in 2021, travel vloggers Jenn and Kyle Bethune reviewed footage from their road trip after seeing calls for information and spotted Petito’s van near Grand Teton National Park. They sent the footage to the FBI, helping investigators narrow the search area where her remains were found.But online speculation can just as easily outrun the facts. After the remains of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were discovered in a Tesla parked in Los Angeles and registered to musician D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, internet users combed through his digital history. They circulated photographs, purported social media posts, song lyrics, and images of a tattoo that appeared to connect Burke and Rivas, although much of the material had not been independently verified at the time. Credit: TikTok’s “Top” results for a search of “D4vd” Some of the material raised legitimate questions about their relationship; other users treated rumors and coincidences as proof. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell later criticized some of the theories as wildly removed from investigators’ evidence. Burke was arrested in April 2026 and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and related charges. By then, though, online sleuths had already spent months shaping the public’s perception of his guilt and surfacing what appeared to be legitimate leads — and they continue to do so.Sometimes, the target isn’t even a suspect. During the University of Idaho murder investigation, TikTok creator Ashley Guillard used tarot readings to accuse professor Rebecca Scofield of orchestrating the killings. Scofield had no connection to the crimes, but Guillard repeated the allegations across more than 100 videos, even after police cleared the professor and she received cease-and-desist letters. Scofield sued for defamation, and a jury awarded her $10 million in 2026 — years after the false claims had reached Guillard’s followers. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Of course, renewed attention does not always work against a defendant. The Menendez brothers were already experiencing a TikTok revival when Netflix’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and a companion documentary brought the case back into the mainstream in fall 2024. The releases sent viewers searching for old trial clips and had some reconsidering whether the brothers’ sexual abuse allegations had been taken seriously in the 1990s. TikTok and Netflix did not legally reopen the case — their attorneys had filed a habeas petition based on purported new evidence in 2023 — but they gave that effort an enormous new audience. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. High-profile trials have always been spectacles — the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, Charles Manson, O.J. Simpson. What has changed is how easily the people watching can become active participants.As Harvard Law professor Ron Sullivan warned in 2025, constant coverage gives jurors more opportunities to encounter inadmissible evidence and arguments. But the influence runs both ways: Attorneys can find witnesses through TikTok, prosecutors can subpoena creators’ messages as evidence, and online movements can pressure officials to reopen cases — even as unfounded theories harm victims, their families, and witnesses.Courts still decide what becomes evidence, but they can no longer pretend the parallel proceedings unfolding online don’t affect them. Reddington may barely know what TikTok is, but the legal system no longer has that luxury.

SAVE 10%: As of Aug. 17, you can get the Dreame L60 Ultra robot vacuum and mop for $1,169.99, down from $1,299.99, at Amazon. That's a 10% discount, or $130 in savings. Dreame L60 Ultra Robot Vacuum and Mop With Dock $1,169.99 at Amazon $1,299.99 Save $130   Get Deal at Amazon Not to sound too cringey, but I'm a Dreame superfan. My floor-cleaning arsenal (aka the Dreame Team) includes the Dreame L60 Pro Ultra, Dreame N20 Steam Portable Carpet Cleaner, and the Aero Pro Steam. Each one is phenomenal in its own way, so whenever there's a sale, I'm definitely the first one to let people know. SEE ALSO: Dreame's newest vacuum mop basically pressure-washes your floors As of Aug. 17, you can get the Dreame L60 Ultra robot vacuum and mop for $1,169.99, down from $1,299.99, at Amazon. That's a 10% discount, or $130 in savings. That may not sound like much, but I can tell you from experience that these little robot vacuum-mops are worth every penny. Although I have the upgraded version, the L60 Ultra still has some pretty impressive stats. You'll get 35,000Pa of suction, a detangling brush (great for pet parents), and an all-in-one PowerDock that auto-empties the dustbin (you'll get up to 100 days' worth of debris in one bag) and washes the mop pads with 212-degree hot water. You can control everything through the app, and other than emptying the dirty water bin every now and again, this is a hands-off cleaning machine. (I've had my Ultra Pro for over two months and still haven't had to replace the bag.)

TL;DR: Pay $14.99 for the Borderlands 2 GOTY Steam key, including the base game, nine add-ons, six Vault Hunters, and 100+ hours of content. Opens in a new window Credit: Steam Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition (Steam Key) $14.99 $39.99 Save $25   Get Deal Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition sends players to Pandora for revenge, treasure, and a frankly unreasonable number of procedurally generated weapons. The Steam key is $14.99 instead of $39.99 for a limited time.The story follows six playable Vault Hunters — Axton, Maya, Salvador, Zer0, Gaige, and Krieg — as they take on Handsome Jack and Hyperion. Each character has unique abilities and three skill trees, allowing players to shape different combat styles and experiment with new builds. Mashable Deals Be the first to know! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Get editor selected deals texted right to your phone! Loading... Sign Me Up By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Thanks for signing up! Weapons come in millions of possible combinations, with different manufacturers, parts, statistics, and elemental effects. Loadouts also include shields, grenade mods, relics, and class mods. Incendiary, corrosive, shock, slag, and explosive damage provide tactical options against different enemy defenses.Pandora spans frozen tundras, deserts, grasslands, corrosive caverns, and other environments populated by robots, bandits, Stalkers, Bullymongs, and Hyperion forces.The campaign can be played solo or through four-player online co-op with drop-in and drop-out support. LAN multiplayer is also included, and character progress and equipment remain available between sessions. Local split-screen works on supported systems.This Game of the Year Edition adds nine content packs to the base game. That includes four campaign expansions, Gaige and Krieg, the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack, Creature Slaughter Dome, and Collector’s Edition bonus content.Across the main story, expansions, side quests, and higher-difficulty playthroughs, it offers more than 100 hours of gameplay. Steam Workshop support adds community-created mods, while official updates provide patches, fixes, and balance improvements.Get the Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition Steam key for $14.99 (reg. $39.99).Check out the other gaming codes and offers available.StackSocial prices subject to change.

On Aug. 4, a Nike customization trailer pulled up outside Gamma Phi Beta at the University of Alabama. Inside were sneakers, fleeces, and other gear that members could personalize with sorority details. Outside, three videographers waited to capture the results.The event brought 150 women through the trailer, according to Campus Launch, the sorority-marketing agency that organized it. Soon, clips of members showing off their new Nike outfits began circulating online — including on my own For You Page.Nike’s Alabama activation is just one of many examples of how brands are capitalizing on RushTok, one of the best times of the year for TikTok. In 2026, bands are more deeply embedded in the Greek spectacle than ever. The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Brands gain visibility among young consumers and the chronically online, while members receive free products and experiences, and chapters get the status boost of landing a major corporate partner. SEE ALSO: TikTok shoppers spent $50 billion in six months on the platform At 'Bama, that status can help a sorority compete for attention before recruitment formally begins. The university has called its recruitment the largest Panhellenic recruitment in the country, and more than 2,500 women registered in 2026 to consider 19 chapters through a mutual selection process. Potential new members are trying to impress sororities, but the chapters are also making a case for why those women should want to join them. A Nike trailer parked outside the house with free, customized merch certainly helps make that case.RushTok has become appointment viewingSorority recruitment had circulated on social media before 2021, but that year’s University of Alabama videos turned it into a national fixation. Potential new members posted outfit breakdowns, explained each stage of the process, and updated viewers as they advanced through recruitment. Strangers picked favorites, debated dresses, and waited for Bid Day reveals.It was reality television produced by college students and released one short video at a time. Before long, the commercial value of that attention became difficult to miss. Credit: Mashable/ TikTok / Ellette, sockbunstudio, kylan_darnell At first, brands often benefited by accident. A woman would mention where she bought her dress or earrings, viewers would search for the item, and the retailer would suddenly find itself at the center of an unofficial campaign. Pants Store, a Tuscaloosa retailer frequently mentioned in early Bama Rush videos, said its online and local sales increased by more than 200 percent after RushTok took off in 2021.Companies soon stopped leaving that exposure to chance. In 2022, Tarte sent mascara and lip balm to 30,000 prospective members at eight universities after reaching out to more than 90 sororities — sales through its student-discount program jumped 1,300 percent afterward. Hair coloring company Hally Hair brought a branded bus to the University of Alabama during 2023 recruitment and invited sorority members to help launch a product. The 2024 trip generated 500,000 impressions and boosted applications to its ambassador program by 200 percent within 12 hours. That same year, Bubble Skincare used its Bubble on Campus ambassador program to partner with 25 chapters across 15 universities, distributing more than 5,000 products to 10 Alabama sororities alone.RushTok can promote the women in the videos just as much as the products they’re selling. Take Kylan Darnell, who became one of the phenomenon’s biggest breakout stars after posting an outfit video on the first day of Alabama recruitment in 2022. The video racked up 6 million views by the end of the day, and Darnell went on to amass 1.3 million TikTok followers and build a six-figure influencer career, working with more than 50 brands over four years.Blythe Beardsley, a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Arizona, is another example. After a viral video of her dancing with her sorority sisters attracted more than 38 million TikTok views, Beardsley started receiving offers from fashion companies. Within weeks, Showpo paid for her and her mother to attend New York Fashion Week and supplied her with clothing in exchange for social media content."I felt imposter syndrome at first," she told the Arizona Sonoran News in 2025. "I’ve never had a big social media presence. I used to delete the apps to protect my mental health." The video now has over 45 millions views. Most women who appear on RushTok won't turn a viral video into a trip to Fashion Week, let alone a six-figure career. Still, those success stories reveal another reason brands are eager to get inside sorority houses: The women promoting a campaign today could become the influencers companies pay tomorrow.Meeting Gen Z 'where they are'As competition for attention has intensified, handing out free products no longer cuts it. Recruitment dances — like the one that launched Beardsley onto millions of screens — have become one of RushTok’s most favorited formats. Members perform choreographed routines in coordinated outfits, often racking up thousands or even millions of views on their chapters’ accounts.Nike has started sponsoring those performances, too. "Shoutout to Nike for helping us strut into this recruitment season," Arizona State University's Delta Zeta chapter captioned one video. Within a week, two videos from the partnership, also brokered by Campus Launch, had each pulled in over 2 million views. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. ASU Delta Zeta also partnered with Love Island USA Season 8 contestant Kayda Bosse, where she posed with members, sampled Poppi, and became the chapter’s honorary "bombshell for the day." Bosse brought an Instagram audience of 2 million with her. Delta Zeta declared it the "best day ever" and thanked Poppi for arranging the visit. 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. Other companies have found their own ways into RushTok. Energy drink brand Gorgie used drones to drop cans into the backyard of Oklahoma Pi Beta Phi. The Coconut Cult developed a Princess Cake yogurt flavor for rush and dispatched two trucks to distribute it to sorority houses nationwide. Khloé Kardashian’s protein snack brand Khloud appeared in Alpha Delta Pi’s candy-colored "Life Is Sweet" campaign at Alabama. Dunkin’ distributed samples of its new drinks in holographic cups at Alabama’s Delta Gamma house. Fashion retailer Edikted supplied Gamma Phi Beta members with clothing for recruitment.Sephora at Kohl’s has also capitalized on sorority rush. Last year, they launched beauty pop-ups on three campuses during recruitment. Students could get their hair and makeup done, sample products, and collect discounts. Thousands attended, demonstrating what Kohl’s chief marketing officer Christie Raymond described as an opportunity to meet Gen Z "where they’re already engaging."This year, the company partnership returned this year with a traveling "Beauty Bodega" featuring free touch-ups, product giveaways, sweets, and a fragrance fridge. The pop-up supplies students with genuinely useful services during recruitment, when many are spending hours outside and changing their appearance between events. Sorority rush has always required a certain amount of theater. At the University of Michigan, where I participated in sorority rush back in 2017, we had costumes, choreography, rehearsals, and enough synchronized clapping to qualify as an endurance sport. TikTok did not invent the performance; but it did place it in front of millions of spectators.Now brands are the ones supplying the wardrobe, building the set, and waiting for the cameras to roll.

Your YouTube videos are about to get a lot more views. At least, that's what it'll appear like on the YouTube video view count.On Monday, YouTube announced that it was changing how it counts video views on the platform. According to YouTube, starting on Aug. 24, the platform will start counting a view on a video from the moment it starts to play – or as YouTube puts it, "from the very first frame."The company says the change will bring the way it counts views on long-form videos in line with its method for YouTube Shorts. Since March 2025, YouTube has counted a Shorts view from the moment the video begins playing. (YouTube Shorts are videos up to three minutes long that use a vertical or square format.) This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This is a big change from how YouTube previously counted a view on a long-form video. Until Aug. 24, a view on long-form content will be counted only if a viewer watches at least 30 seconds of the video. Viewers who watch less than that won't be included in the video's view counter. That threshold, however, has provided creators with useful data about how many people were actually watching their videos. While the view count change will mean videos will look like they're receiving more views from before, YouTube appears to recognize that its previous metric remains useful to creators. The company announced it will continue counting the original view metric as "Engaged views" in creators' YouTube Analytics under Advanced Mode.YouTube was the last of the major tech platforms to quantify video views as a viewer actually consuming a substantial amount of the content. Typically, platforms better known for short-form content like TikTok or Elon Musk's X all count views from the moment a video plays, even if the video autoplays and a user immediately scrolls past it or swipes to the next clip.According to YouTube, this change won't affect the monetization requirements for creators' channels. YouTube just changed the YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements for YouTubers earlier this month. Those changes will make it more difficult for creators to monetize their channels by requiring more watch hours or YouTube Shorts views than before.In addition to the new view metric, YouTube says it will now refer to the "valid public Shorts views" and "valid public watch hours" monetization requirements as "qualified Shorts views" and "qualified watch hours," respectively. 

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.

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.

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 searchedGo 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 searchedHave 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.

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.

Shop the best deals of Best Buy's 60th Anniversary Sale at a glance: Best Apple deal Apple iPhone Air (256GB, Unlocked) $839.99 (save $160) Get Deal Best laptop deal ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X2 Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $999.99 (save $350) Get Deal Best TV deal Hisense 65-inch U6 Pro Mini LED QLED 4K TV $598.99 (save $501) Get Deal Best Buy's 60th Anniversary Sale has officially kicked off, which is great news for anyone who's missed out on the loads of tech deals we've seen so far this summer. The sale runs through Sunday, Aug. 23, both online and in stores, so there's plenty of time to browse and add the best deals to your cart. According to Best Buy, you can expect even more deals to drop this weekend. Although, TBH, the discounts we've seen so far are pretty darn good, including RGB and OLED TVs, Apple gadgets, and Windows laptops. We've done a little digging and gathered up some of our favorite deals so far, but check back later this week if you don't see what you're looking for just yet. The 60th Anniversary Sale has only just begun. Go nuts.Best Apple deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPhone Air (256GB, Unlocked) $839.99 at Best Buy $999.99 Save $160   Get Deal Why we like itIt's not every day that you can score a discount on an iPhone with no strings attached. But during Best Buy's 60th Anniversary Sale, you can nab an unlocked iPhone Air with any storage capacity for $160 off. That means you can bring it to any provider without having to navigate a trade-in. Mashable's reviewer called the iPhone Air the "sexiest iPhone" he's ever tested. It's incredibly thin and light, has a gorgeous OLED display, and its camera performs better than you'd expect. It may not be the phone for everyone, but it's the iPhone with the best value.More Apple dealsAirPodsAirPods 4 without ANC — $99.99 $129.99 (save $30)AirPods 4 with ANC — $149.99 $179.99 (save $30)AirPods Pro 3 — $189.99 $249.99 (save $60)AirPods Max — $429 $549 (save $120)AirtagsApple AirTag, 4-pack (2nd gen) — $89 $99 (save $10)iPadsApple A16 iPad, 11-inch (WiFi, 128GB) — $399 $449 (save $50)Apple M4 iPad Air, 11-inch (WiFi, 256GB) — $749 $849 (save $100)Apple M5 iPad Pro, 13-inch (WiFi, 512GB) — $1,599 $1,699 (save $100)iPhonesApple iPhone 16e (128GB, unlocked) — $489.99 $599.99 (save $110)Apple iPhone Air (512GB, unlocked) — $1,039.99 $1,199.99 (save $160)Apple iPhone Air (1TB, unlocked) — $1,239.99 $1,399.99 (save $160)MacBooksGet a free $25 Starbucks gift card with purchase of Apple MacBook Neo — starting at $699Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,499 $1,599 (save $100)Apple MacBook Pro, 14-inch (M5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,849 $1,999 (save $150)Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Pro, 48GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $2,499 $2,899 (save $400)Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Max, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,999 $3,399 (save $400)Apple MacBook Pro, 16-inch (M4 Max, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $3,399 $3,899 (save $500)Best TV deal Opens in a new window Credit: Hisense Hisense 65-inch U6 Pro Mini LED QLED 4K TV $598.99 at Best Buy $1,099.99 Save $501   Get Deal Why we like itWe can't stop raving about the Hisense U6 Pro. We named it our favorite budget TV of 2026, as it lands perfectly in the sweet spot of performance and value. And during Best Buy's Anniversary Sale, it's even more of a steal; the 65-inch model is down to a record-low $598.99. That's cheaper than it was on Prime Day. While it's not an OLED display, it does offer an impressive full-array local dimming setup, vibrant quantum-dot color, and deep black levels, an anti-glare coating for minimal reflections, and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. It also packs a native 144Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and two HDMI 2.1 ports for gamers. Every size is currently discounted, but the 65-inch model is what we'd recommend for most people.More TV deals60-inch and underHisense 58-inch QD50 Hi-QLED 4K TV — $189.99 $399.99 (save $210)Insignia 55-inch F50 LED 4K TV — $199.99 $349.99 (save $150)Hisense 43-inch QD6 QLED 4K Fire TV — $209.99 $299.99 (save $90)Samsung 55-inch M70H Mini LED 4K TV — $349.99 $449.99 (save $100)LG 55-inch 75B QNED 4K TV — $379.99 $599.99 (save $220)Hisense 55-inch S7 Canvas QLED 4K Art TV — $799.99 $1,499.99 (save $700)Hisense 55-inch UR8 RGB Mini LED 4K TV — $999.99 $1,499.99 (save $500)Sony 55-inch Bravia 7 II RGB 4K TV — $1,499.99 $2,099.99 (save $600)65-inch TVs LG 65-inch 75B QNED 4K TV — $479.99 $699.99 (save $220)TCL 65-inch QM6K QD-Mini LED 4K TV — $699.99 $999.99 (save $300)Hisense 65-inch S7N Canvas QLED 4K Art TV — $800.99 $1,299.99 (save $499)Hisense 65-inch U7 Mini LED QLED 4K TV — $899.99 $1,499.99 (save $600)Samsung 65-inch S90F OLED 4K TV — $1,399.99 $2,499.99 (save $1,100)TCL 65-inch QM8L SQD-Mini LED 4K TV — $1,399.99 $2,499.99 (save $1,100)Hisense 65-inch UR8 RGB Mini LED 4K TV — $1,499.99 $1,999.99 (save $500)LG 65-inch C5 OLED 4K TV — $1,499.99 $2,699.99 (save $1,200)LG 65-inch B6 OLED 4K TV — $1,699.99 $1,999.99 (save $300)Samsung 65-inch S85H OLED 4K TV — $1,699.99 $1,999.99 (save $300)LG 65-inch C6 OLED 4K TV — $1,799.99 $2,699.99 (save $900)Sony 65-inch Bravia 7 II RGB 4K TV — $1,799.99 $2,599.99 (save $800)75-inch to 77-inch TVsSamsung 75-inch U7900 LED 4K TV — $399.99 $649.99 (save $250)LG 75-inch 75B QNED 4K TV — $649.99 $999.99 (save $350)Hisense 75-inch U7 Mini LED 4K TV — $1,199.99 $1,999.99 (save $800)TCL 75-inch QM7L SQD-Mini LED 4K TV — $1,299.99 $1,999.99 (save $700)LG 77-inch B5 OLED 4K TV — $1,399.99 $2,999.99 (save $1,600)Hisense 75-inch UR8 RGB Mini LED 4K TV — $1,899.99 $2,499.99 (save $600)Samsung 77-inch S90F OLED 4K TV — $1,999.99 $3,499.99 (save $1,500)LG 77-inch C5 OLED 4K TV — $1,899.99 $3,699.99 (save $1,800)Samsung 75-inch R85H Micro RGB 4K TV — $1,999.99 $2,799.99 (save $800)85-inch TVsInsignia 85-inch Class F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $599.99 $899.99 (save $300)Insignia 85-inch QF QLED 4K TV — $659.99 $1,099.99 (save $440)Hisense 85-inch UR9 RGB Mini LED 4K TV — $3,999.99 $4,499.99 (save $500)Best laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: ASUS ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X2 Elite, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) $999.99 at Best Buy $1,349.99 Save $350   Get Deal Why we like itMashable's laptop expert named the ASUS Zenbook A14 the "best Windows laptop for most people" in 2026 for a few reasons. It's ultraportable, packs an amazing battery life of over 27 hours(!), a stunning OLED display, a lightweight build, and impressive performance that rivals the MacBook Air. While the 2026 version got a price bump, this discount at Best Buy knocks it back down below $1,000.More laptop dealsHP 14-inch Laptop (Intel N150, 4GB RAM, 128GB UFS) — $199.99 $349.99 (save $150)HP Omnibook 3 16 (AMD Ryzen 5 40, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $399.99 $779.99 (save $380)Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i (Intel Core i5-1335U, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $499.99 $899.99 (save $400)HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $749.99 $1,199.99 (save $450)Microsoft Surface Pro, 12-inch (Snapdragon X Plus, 8GB RAM, 256GB UFS) — $749.99 $849.99 (save $100)Acer Swift Go 16 (Intel Core Ultra 7 355, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,199.99 $1,549.99 (save $350)Microsoft Surface Laptop 13 (Snapdragon X2 Elite, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,599.99 $1,999.99 (save $400)ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (AMD Ryzen AI Max+, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $2,099.99 $2,999.99 (save $900)

SAVE $470: The Bluetti Elite 100 V2 portable power station with a 100W solar panel is on sale for $629 at Amazon, down from the list price of $1,099. That's a 43% discount. Opens in a new window Credit: Bluetti Bluetti Elite 100 V2 portable power station with a 100W solar panel $629 at Amazon $1,099 Save $470   Get Deal August is coming to a close and that means the perfect camping weather is coming up. Summer used to the the ideal camping season, but now that summer feels like a sauna, fall is a great alterative. If you'll be heading to the campsite in September, October, or even November, check out this deal on a portable power station at Amazon.As of Aug. 17, the Bluetti Elite 100 V2 portable power station with a 100W solar panel is on sale for $629 at Amazon, marked down from the list price of $1,099. That's a 43% discount that takes a major $470 off the price. If you're using a portable power station at the campground, pairing it with a solar panel is a pro move. The Bluetti Elite 100 V2 is an excellent model to pack along, coming with 1,024Wh of capacity and plenty of ports. There's four AC ports, two high-powered USB-C, and two USB-A ports. Bluetti says the solar generator can keep a 10W light on for almost 52 hours or keep a mini speaker going for almost 40 hours. SEE ALSO: Mammotion's Luba 3 robot lawn mower is down to its best-ever price at Amazon — save over $800 The included 100W solar panel is travel-friendly, weighing under 10 pounds. The dual kickstands allow for easy maneuvering to find the ideal sun angle while the ETFE coating ensures the solar panel is UV-resistant while allowing 95% of light to be transmitted to the panels.For even more versatility, the Bluetti Elite 100 V2 is great to use during a power outage at home. When outputting under 600W, Bluetti says this model will only reach 30 decibels, making it quiet enough to keep in the room while sleeping.Since we're heading into peak camping season, consider the benefits of snagging the Bluetti Elite 100 V2 with a 100W solar panel. As long as you have access to sunlight, you could get unlimited power while camping off-grid.

TL;DR: Starbucks' iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) officially returns on Tuesday, Aug. 25, along with an expanded lineup of new drinks like the Iced Banana Bread Latte and Chaider.If you've been in any department store lately, you've probably noticed pumpkins, faux leaves, and Halloween decorations are already stocked on the shelves. SEE ALSO: Starbucks is bringing back the Unicorn Frappuccino (but only for one weekend) Now, Starbucks is joining the madness. The coffee giant just announced that it's bringing its iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) back to the menu on Aug. 25, along with an expanded lineup of brand-new seasonal drinks. (I could honestly go the rest of my life without tasting another pumpkin spice anything, but to each their own.) Of course, if you can't wait until late August, the pumpkin creamers are already in grocery aisles at Target and other retailers.Here's what you can expect to see on Starbucks' 2026 fall menu: Pumpkin faves: You can get the PSL hot, iced, or blended, or order one of Starbucks' other pumpkin-inspired drinks like the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai, or the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. New additions to its pumpkin lineup include the Iced Pumpkin Cream Shaken Espresso, Pumpkin Spice Chai, and the Iced Pumpkin Cream Matcha. Pecan is back: Returning favorites include the Pecan Cortado, Iced Pecan Crunch Latte, and the Pecan Crunch Latte. Banana bread is making a cameo: Starbucks is introducing the Iced Banana Bread Latte and Iced Banana Bread Chai to its menu.Chaider is the new cider: The Chaider is a cider-inspired twist on chai. It's supposed to taste like autumn in a cup.Food and sweet treats: The food menu will also include a Chicken Bacon Protein Pocket, Hedgehog Cake Pop, and, of course, the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffin. According to new data compiled by Yelp, PSL season has kicked off earlier than ever this year. Apparently, internet searches for "pumpkin spice latte" and "pumpkin latte" increased by 301 percent and 256 percent, respectively, in July. July! (I credit all the Gilmore girlies and my sister for these stats.) This is ridiculous. I wrote about this in 2016 — premature pumpkin spicing should be a crime. But now we've got silly little "pre" holidays like "Summerween" and "Augtober." Call me old-fashioned, but I cannot stand it when marketing teams try to rush my seasons through. I like to enjoy each season as the universe intended: late August is for squeezing out the last drops of summer, not sweating into a wool sweater while sipping liquid nutmeg.