Tech Boys

AI bubbles this, AI bubbles that — companies apparently need to cash in on their generative AI investments, and fast. It's why many people online feel they are being inundated with new AI tools and features day in and day out. The latest example? A new TikTok setting, known as remixes, that automatically opts you in to being turned into a digital meme. TikTok creators first spotted "Remixes" content earlier this week, buried in their account settings. With remixes on, any public content can be used by its viewers to create digitally generated images, text-based memes, and more. The reveal and lack of notification stirred widespread concern about privacy and consent . Many wondered where the setting came from — and how to turn it off ASAP. SEE ALSO: See Spotify's most-streamed artists, songs, and albums of the past 20 years Days later, the platform confirmed to CNET that the feature was real and still in an "experimental" stage. Remixes are availab...

Last year, Ecco the Dolphin creator Ed Annunizata teased plans to remaster the first two games in the series and create an entirely new sequel. Ecco the Dolphin: Complete , announced by Annunziata's studio A&R Atelier , appears to be the result of that work. The game doesn't have a release date yet, but A&R Atelier says it combines the planned remasters and third title into "the complete, definitive Ecco the Dolphin experience, created by the people who made the originals." Complete includes "all versions of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time ," according to the developer, alongside "a brand-new contemporary Ecco game." Besides graphical improvements, A&E Atelier says the game will introduce "built-in speedrunning support, achievements and leaderboards," and things like the ability to create custom courses from existing levels. And while A&R Atelier's announcement doesn't include footage of the new g...

In 2025, content creator Gigi Bello ( @okaycoolgigi ) took her audience on a journey. She was determined to fix the “landlord special” — a peephole on the door of her New York City apartment that had long been painted shut. The video (and its subsequent follow-ups) went viral, landing the 28-year-old CPA a feature in People and a slew of new followers. “Content creation kind of happened by accident after a few videos went viral, but I fell in love with it,” Bello says. Please use these two blurbs in the weeks ahead, thank you! Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today Bello's account has otherwise been dedicated to her adventures in sourdough breadmaking and her beloved starter, Eloise. But Bello says the peephole video made her realize that "no matter what I post, if I actually care about it, other people will too." Bello adds, "Sometimes I feel like I don't want to be stuck making sourdough all the time (so sorry Eloise, I love you...

NASA's next eye into the cosmos is due to leave our planet later this year. The agency says it's targeting an early September launch for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Roman (for short) has a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble's. The September date is the earliest possible launch for Roman. NASA says it will go up (aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket ) no later than May 2027. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after NASA's first chief astronomer and "mother" of Hubble , was introduced in 2016. (Back then, it was known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST .) The telescope's mirror is roughly the same size as Hubble's, but it can capture sections of the sky at least 100 times larger than its predecessor. NASA "Roman will work in tandem with NASA observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory , which are designed to zoom in on rare transient objects once they'...

The modular PC maker Framework unveiled a slew of new products during its jam-packed [Next Gen] Event livestream Tuesday — including the new Laptop 13 Pro, its take on a repairable MacBook Pro. The Laptop 13 Pro is Framework's fourth laptop since its founding in 2020, when it launched the original Laptop 13 . And, "In many ways, this product has been six years in the making," company founder Nirav Patel wrote in a blog post . "We’ve taken all of the feedback you’ve given us on the first seven generations of Framework Laptop 13 to make this the ultimate portable developer and power user machine," he said. Laptop 13 Pro preorders are now open on Framework's website , starting at $1,199 for the build-your-own "DIY Edition" and $1,499 for pre-built configurations, including options that are pre-loaded with Ubuntu for Linux users. The first wave of shipments will go out in June. Opens in a new window Credit: Framework Framework Laptop ...

If it seems like products are usually cheaper on Amazon than at retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, and Chewy, that's no accident. According to a bombshell filing in an ongoing antitrust lawsuit from the state of California on Monday, each of those companies was a victim of Amazon's illegal price fixing. Amazon, which topped Walmart to become the U.S.'s largest retailer in 2025, got there in part with a pattern of bullying and colluding, the filing says. In some cases it outlines in detail, merchants such as Levi Strauss and Allergan were told by Amazon to make products (such as khaki pants and eye drops) more expensive at Walmart. SEE ALSO: Tired of Amazon Prime? Best Buy's annual membership is on sale for just $25 In other cases, Amazon leaned on rivals directly, as when it allegedly forced Home Depot to raise its fertilizer prices so Amazon would be cheaper. And in all cases, California appears to have brought receipts in the form of emails. "The compa...

Mastodon seems to be recovering after a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that took down its primary mastodon.social instance. As TechCrunch notes , the platform began reporting issues early Monday morning as much of the Mastodon-operated server became inaccessible.  It's not clear who might be behind the attack, but Mastodon's head of communications Andy Piper described it as a "major" incident. A couple hours later, Mastodon shared on a status page that it had implemented countermeasures and that users should be able to access mastodon.social once again. Piper said that "some ongoing instability is a possibility" as the site recovered. It's unclear if any other instances of the service were also targeted; mastodon.social is run directly by the nonprofit and is the largest server on the federated platform.  Mastodon is the second decentralized platform to be targeted with a DDoS in recent days. Last week, Bluesky also dealt with a signifi...

Apple's first foldable iPhone, unofficially dubbed the iPhone Fold , is expected to debut in September. Now new leaks show how the phone will likely differ from the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup. Apple is several years late to the foldable smartphone market, but don't count Apple out based on speed. After all, the company was late to MP3 players and smartphones — and the iPod and iPhone were the results. Leakers with decent track records are showing dummy cases for the iPhone Fold on X. And that gives us a clear sense of how this foldable will set itself apart from the competition. Don’t miss out on our latest stories:  Add Mashable as a trusted news source in Google . iPhone Fold vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Design differences Most flagship foldables have roughly the same width and length as a regular smartphone when folded, but earlier leaks suggest Apple has adopted a wider design. You can see that in the latest photos of alleged iPhone Fold dummy units an...