Tech Boys

Amazon will host a press event at the end of the month with some new hardware developments. It's scheduled for September 30 at 10AM ET in New York City. Here's what we think will be discussed at the fall event. In February, Amazon introduced some improvements to its voice assistant, promising that Alexa+ would be more conversational and more helpful thanks to generative AI. It seems likely that the fall event will put hardware for interacting with Alexa+ front and center, so expect to hear about new models or new software updates for the Echo line of smart speakers. It's been a couple years since the Echo Show got an update, and it's been even longer for the standard Echo. Those two products are the most likely to star in the upcoming announcements. Amazon The invite also includes a photo of a Kindle that depicts a color illustration, so there may be more in store for the ereaders. The Kindle Scribe 2 just came out earlier this year, as did the Kindle Colorsoft...

Who says journalism is dead? Less than a week after Bloomberg published a damning report about Tesla's "dangerous doors," the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now looking into it. On Tuesday, the regulator said it opened an investigation into the automaker's electrically powered doors. The problem: They stop working if the vehicle's low-voltage battery fails. The NHTSA's probe will cover the 2021 Model Y , which covers an estimated 174,290 vehicles. But the agency suggested in a document that it could expand its investigation. That makes sense: Every Tesla ever made uses electrically powered door handles. So, this could potentially get very expensive for the otherwise perfectly lovable company . Tesla uses a flush door handle design for its vehicles. A 12-volt battery powers the door's ability to pop the handle and release the latch. It's one of the Apple-like design details that helped the automaker become a househo...

Listen up, iPhone owners! iOS 26 is finally available to download , as well as all of Apple's other new operating systems . The first thing you'll notice after the install is a new clear design language Apple dubs Liquid Glass . The translucent look can be found within apps as well as your lock and home screens. The overhaul is one of several big changes that come with iOS, macOS , iPadOS , watchOS and the rest of Apple's software suite. You'll also see multiple useful additions in the Phone and Messages apps. For instance, the ability to weed out spam texts or unknown senders and an option to hold your spot on a phone call when you've been waiting for a representative to pick up. And for fun, you can now create polls in group texts. Other new improvements coming include a confirmed AirPods live translation feature , and a new bouncy animation on the passcode screen and in the Control Center. If you don't have a compatible phone but plan to upgrade, Apple unv...

Bait-and-switch humor has been around forever: set up an expectation, then flip it on its head. It’s one of comedy's oldest tricks, and right now it’s reviving an old trend on X . Users are cleverly playing with profile banners. The setup usually starts with a post about struggling to crop or format an image. But when you click into their profile to check, the banner reveals something completely different — often a joke that either undercuts the original image or turns it into a punchline. This isn't a brand-new joke, either. According to Know Your Meme , it dates back to at least 2019, when it began with a woman posting side-by-side photos of herself and her boyfriend and asking how to fit both into her header. The gag fizzled for a while but resurfaced in 2023 when users began posting images of trash cans, only for the cropped banner to reveal the person they were calling “trash.” For example, one Lions fan posted about trying to crop a picture of rookie wide receiver Iss...

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Another day, another adorable game that I've become completely obsessed with. I came across Roly-Pony this weekend during a particularly soul-sucking bout of doomscrolling, and it's turned out to be the perfect little temporary respite from the horrors . (Shoutout to Alice Ruppert of The Mane Quest for always keeping us informed about the latest in horse games ). Roly-Pony is a Suika -style game, meaning it involves dropping and stacking round objects in order to create matching pairs that combine to become different, bigger objects. That'll also clear up space on the board in the process, which is important because, similar to Tetris , you can't allow the objects to pile too high. In this case, you start with horse treats and keep building on them until you've unlocked a bunch of different horses. It's very simple and very cute, with peaceful music going in the background and a lot of little details that people who love horses will really appreciate. Th...

The Apple iPhone 17 event last week delivered on all of the rumors we read ahead of the show. The company announced the iPhone 17 lineup, the all-new iPhone Air and several other devices. (Check out Engadget's liveblog of the event for full details.) In addition to finally seeing the new hardware, Apple confirmed after the event that we'll be able to download the final versions of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 on Monday, September 15. (That's when all of Apple's other operating system updates hit, too.) Coming with those OS updates are substantial changes to your iPhone and iPad's software. You may have already heard about " Liquid Glass ," which (intentional or not) is sort of like Apple's take on the old Windows Vista design language. That's the most notable change, but we spent two weeks test-driving many of the other features included in the update — you can check out our hands-on iOS 26 preview for more impressions. Not sure if you want to ...

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A California bill that would require operating system and app store providers to verify users' ages before they can download apps has cleared the Assembly 58-0, and will now move on to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Politico reports. The Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, does not require photo identification for verification, but puts the onus on the platforms to provide tools for parents to indicate the user's age during a device's setup, and use this information steer kids toward age-appropriate content and screen time. It comes after Utah and Texas both adopted app store age verification laws earlier this year that have been criticized as posing potential privacy risks, and faced opposition from the likes of Google and Apple. The California bill has been received more positively by Big Tech, with Google, Meta and others putting out statements in support of it in the leadup to a Senate vote on Friday. Kareem Ghanem, Google's Senio...

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