Tech Boys

It's been a rough week at Microsoft. Following the news that 9,000 people are being laid off at the company, one Xbox executive offered some questionable words of advice for people on their way out: Find solace in Microsoft Copilot. As reported by Aftermath , Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing who clearly did not lose his job recently, took to LinkedIn to let folks know, "You're not alone and you don't have to go it alone." In the same breath as acknowledging that AI evokes "strong feelings in people," Turnbull suggested that LLMs like ChatGPT and Copilot could "help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss."  Turnbull went on to provide specific AI prompts that he recommended for recently laid-off people, including, "Write a warm intro message for reaching out to someone at [studio name] about a job posting." He explained how an LLM could aid overwhelmed developers in pla...

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle . As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer. 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 today: Hints and answers for July 4 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 .  Wordl...

Since its debut in 2022, The Bear has been a haunted show. The ghosts aren't paranormal visitors but a collection of regrets, fears, and traumas as diverse as the series' many characters. Each individual is trailed by a destructive shadow, ready to sabotage any progress toward being a less dysfunctional person. Sometimes the haunting is an attempt at a pressure-relieving punchline ; sometimes it's just a gut-punch . Either way, the way characters grapple with their never-quite-buried losses deftly teach the audience something about the trajectory of heartbreak, the punishing nature of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and what it takes to heal. SEE ALSO: 'The Bear' Season 4's biggest problem is time: Full season review Still, Season 3 pushed the conceit of haunting to its limit , leaning into a repetitive emotional deadlock over the course of 10 episodes. The audience watched as chef Carmy Berzatto, played by Jeremey Allen White, remained stuck in his...

More than six months after TikTok was briefly banned, we still don't know exactly what its fate in the US will be. But we do have new insight into the legal wrangling that has allowed Apple, Google and other platforms to continue to support the app. If you remember, TikTok was only "banned" for a matter of hours shortly before President Donald Trump took office in January and delayed enforcement of the law. The app's service was promptly restored January 19, 2025, but the app didn't return to Apple and Google's app stores until February 13. Reporting at the time suggested the companies had lingering concerns about potential liability for running afoul of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. Back in February, Axios and others reported that the Justice Department had given "assurances" to tech platforms that they wouldn't be penalized for violating the law. Now, we know exactly what Attorney General Pam...

In a major shakeup, The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann has stepped away from the series and will not be involved in the upcoming third season. Druckmann, who co-created The Last of Us alongside showrunner Craig Mazin and wrote and directed several episodes, announced his departure in a post on Naughty Dog's official Instagram account. The news was first reported by The Ankler . SEE ALSO: When is 'The Last of Us' Season 3 coming? "I've made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO," Druckmann's statement reads. "With work completed on Season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on Season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet , along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative." Druckmann went on to praise hi...

Nothing isn't just a phone and earbuds company anymore. On the same day that the UK-based tech startup debuted its Phone (3) flagship handset, Nothing also showed off its first pair of over-ear headphones. Nothing Headphone (1) brings a similar sort of iconoclastic design language from Nothing's other products to the realm of over-ear cans. They've got big, blocky, rectangular frames around the ear cups and a number of physical buttons and controls on the headphones themselves for every function you could imagine. Nothing Headphone (1) launches on July 15, just like Phone (3), and will cost a fairly hefty $299.99. SEE ALSO: Nothing Phone (3) announced. See specs, price, preorder details These headphones support what Nothing is calling "AI-adaptive active noise cancelation" with 40MM drivers and support for spatial audio. The hardware was made in partnership with KEF , a first for Nothing. One thing that might make Headphone (1) appealing to some users is...

In what was probably an inevitable conclusion, X has announced that it will allow AI to author Community Notes. With a pilot program beginning today, the social network is releasing developer tools to create AI Note Writers. These tools will be limited to penning replies in a test mode and will need approval before their notes can be released into the wild. The first AI Note Writers will be accepted later this month, which is when the AI-composed notes will start appearing to users. "Not only does this have the potential to accelerate the speed and scale of Community Notes, rating feedback from the community can help develop AI agents that deliver increasingly accurate, less biased, and broadly helpful information — a powerful feedback loop," the post announcing this feature said. Sounds great. Assuming it works . The AI Note Writers will be assessed by "an open-source, automated note evaluator" that assesses whether the composition is on-topic and whether it ...

The landscape of YouTube drama channels has evolved over the platform's 20 years, but they still rely on one tried and true marketing gambit: clickbait. And generative AI tools are bringing it back in big, and alarming, ways. Dozens of channels, for example, have been tallying up views and profit using AI-generated thumbnails and fake quotes purported to be from the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, many of which use celebrity likenesses and graphic language to entice viewers to watch. First reported by the Indicator and later co-published by the Guardian , around 900 videos across 26 channels have generated nearly 70 million views over the past 12 months, even as Big Tech claims to crack down on deepfakes and misinformation. SEE ALSO: Caring for ourselves amid the Diddy trial and collective trauma exposure Most of the channels sharing so-called "Diddy slop" rely not only on AI thumbnails, but also AI-generated narration, in an attempt to misleadingly connect...