Tech Boys

Web crawlers deployed by Perplexity to scrape websites are allegedly skirting restrictions, according to a new report from Cloudflare . Specifically, the report claims that the company's bots appear to be "stealth crawling" sites by disguising their identity to get around robots.txt files and firewalls. Robots.txt is a simple file websites host that lets web crawlers know if they can scrape a websites' content or not. Perplexity's official web crawling bots are "PerplexityBot" and "Perplexity-User." In Cloudflare's tests, Perplexity was still able to display the content of a new, unindexed website, even when those specific bots were blocked by robots.txt. The behavior extended to websites with specific Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules that restricted web crawlers, as well. Cloudflare Cloudflare believes that Perplexity is getting around those obstacles by using "a generic browser intended to impersonate Google Chrome on macO...

Verizon customers reportedly got double bad news this week: the phone carrier is raising fees and removing loyalty discounts. According to users on the Verizon subreddit, several customers reported receiving an email from Verizon informing them their account discounts are ending. "We are writing to let you know that a discount on your account will soon end," the email said, according a redditor. "This discount will be removed no sooner than September 1, 2025." Several other redditors chimed in on the thread, saying they had a received the same email about losing loyalty perks offered to longstanding customers. Mashable has reached out to Verizon for comment and will update this story with a response. Reddit A few days earlier, Verizon confirmed to Tom's Guide that the company is increasing fees for activations, phone lines, and tablet plans by Sept. 1. SEE ALSO: The fastest mobile services have been ranked, and there’s a clear winner Verizon cust...

Over the weekend, xAI released an updated version of the Grok iOS app with a new tool called Grok Imagine, which lets users quickly create AI images and videos. On X, excited Grok users are eagerly sharing their creations, and xAI founder Elon Musk is retweeting user posts. Grok Imagine is available now to Heavy and Premium+ subscribers on the Grok iOS app, and to Heavy users on the Android app. Grok Imagine features generative AI with text-to-image capabilities as well as the ability to turn images into short video clips with sound. In this way, it's similar to the new Midjourney AI video tool . Rival AI companies have AI tools that allow users to generate original videos based solely on text prompts, such as Veo 3 from Google and Sora from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI . Musk praised Grok Imagine on X, calling it a "meme motherlode." He also teased the NSFW capabilities of the model and said Grok Imagine "should get better almost every day." This Tweet is current...

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 August 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 .  Wor...

The official Pokémon TV YouTube channel is continuing its summer movie watch party with another classic: Pokémon the Movie 2000 . The entire movie is available to watch now for free, for a limited time. It follows Pokémon: The First Movie , which was temporarily released on the channel in July, and next up will be Pokémon 3: The Movie. I have distinct memories of seeing these movies in theaters, so the nostalgia is hitting pretty hard right about now. In case you need a little refresher on where the second Pokémon movie picks up: In the Orange Islands, far south of Kanto, a Trainer named Lawrence is on a sinister quest: catching Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, the three Legendary bird Pokémon, in an attempt to awaken Lugia, guardian of the sea! When Ash and friends arrive, the islanders ask him to gather three elemental orbs from different islands—and when the weather across the world goes out of control, this task takes on a new importance, as the capture of the Legendary trio ...

We're nearly five years out from the release of the original PlayStation 5 and rumors of Sony's next-gen console are starting to bubble up to the surface. In a YouTube video from Moore's Law is Dead , the leaker shares extensive information about the PlayStation 6's possible specs, starting price and release timing. It's always important to take these early leaks with a large grain of salt and Moore's Law is Dead even adds a disclaimer in the video that the info was sourced from a leaked AMD presentation to Sony back in 2023, adding that some of these specs may have changed by now. While Sony hasn't confirmed anything, the leaks show the company may be prioritizing lower power output and keeping costs in line with previous generations for the upcoming PS6. The video claims the next-gen console will have three times the rasterization, or 3D rendering, performance compared to the base PS5 and roughly two times what's offered by the PS5 Pro . The YouTu...

When an Apple product reaches a certain age, Apple renders it either “vintage” or “obsolete.” For people still toting around a second-gen Apple Watch, your time has come. Apple put the Series 1 models on its obsolete list , which means the company has run out of parts and the watch is no longer serviceable.  SEE ALSO: Apple Watch dealbreaker: Why I’m sticking with Garmin until they fix this frustrating issue It joins the Series 2 , the other half of the second generation of Apple Watches, which was added to the obsolete list last year.  It can be a bit confusing. The Apple Watch Series 1 and the Apple Watch Series 2 are both considered the same generation. Back in the good old days, the original Apple Watch didn’t have an official Series designation. Thus, when the Series 1 launched in 2016, the original Apple Watch was retroactively referred to as Series 0. The Series 2 was also launched in 2016 alongside the Series 1, so both are considered second-generation produc...

Darksiders 4 is officially coming. During the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase on Friday, we got a glimpse at the next game in the hack and slash action-adventure franchise, alongside trailers for roughly a dozen other games that are in the works, including Reanimal and The Eternal Life of Goldman . It's been a while since we've seen a new mainline Darksiders title from developer Gunfire Games, and while the fourth entry follows 2019's prequel, Darksiders Genesis , the announcement says it will "continue where the original Darksiders game left off." Darksiders 4 features all four Horsemen, and you'll get to choose which one to play as. It features "combat, traversal and puzzle solving in a lore rich post apocalyptic world." The teaser doesn't give us much information beyond that and there's no release date just yet, but we do know it'll be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. If you missed the showcase, you can catch up...

Lovense is well-known for its selection of remote-controlled vibrators. It’s slightly less known for a massive security issue that exposed user emails and allowed accounts to be wholly taken over by a hacker without even needing a password. Fortunately, both issues have been fixed, but it didn’t happen without some drama.  As the story goes , security researcher BobDaHacker (with some help) accidentally found out that you could uncover a user’s email address pretty easily by muting someone in the app. From there, they were able to figure out that you could do this with any user account, effectively exposing every Lovense user’s email without much effort.  SEE ALSO: Discord user data leak resurfaces on hacker forum as third-party service disputes breach With the email in hand, it was then possible to generate a valid gtoken without a password, giving a hacker total access to a person’s Lovense account with no password necessary. The researchers told Lovense of the issue...

As a lesbian, you may know all about dating apps . Lesbian Americans (along with bisexual and gay Americans) are far more likely to have ever used dating apps than straight Americans: 51 percent to 28 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. There are a few reasons why LGBTQ people might turn to online dating quicker than hetero folks. For one, you might live in an area without a thriving LGBTQ community, and in-person dating may be hard. If you don't know other lesbians to begin with, how can you meet more IRL to date? (Sometimes, lesbian spaces can also be co-opted by The Straights.) And, unfortunately, in-person dating may also be less safe depending on where you live.  Thankfully, we live in a time where we can find people like us with a few swipes. Lesbians are welcome on major dating apps, and there are also niche ones specifically for lesbians and other queer women and people. But which one to choose? How to find the best dating apps for lesbians Niche lesbian...