Tech Boys

It’s not every day that we get to see a glimpse of what a mysterious space plane is up to in orbit. This week, the US Space Force shared a picture it says was snapped last year by the X-37B, showing Earth in the distance and a bit of the craft itself. X-37B launched on its seventh mission at the end of 2023, though not much is known about what that mission entails. Its previous flight, which wrapped up in 2022, set a new endurance record for the space plane, logging 908 days in orbit. There isn't too much information to glean from the photo, but it does offer a rare look at X-37B in space. “An X-37B onboard camera, used to ensure the health and safety of the vehicle, captures an image of Earth while conducting experiments in HEO in 2024,” the Space Force wrote on X . US Space Force One thing we have been told about the current mission is that it marks the first time the Boeing-made X-37B has tried out a maneuver known as aerobraking, or a more fuel-efficient method of changi...

Do you have a computer or smartphone that's easy to repair? Or, when your laptop or phone needs service, will you be forced to buy a whole new device? A new report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund takes a look at just how repairable laptops and smartphones are from some of the biggest computer companies in the world and graded them with a repairability score. One notable stat from the report is that while most smartphones have become easier to repair compared to last year's report, laptops have moved in the opposite direction. HP laptops, for example, are harder to repair than they were in previous years. Asus tops the laptop repairability list Only one computer company received a grade in the A's for laptop repairability and that's Asus with an A- score.  Acer was close behind with a B+, followed by Dell, Microsoft, and Samsung, with each receiving a grade of B-. HP received a C, followed by Apple with a C-. SEE ALSO: Take $300 off the Asus ProArt PZ13 laptop...

Samwise Gamgee said, "It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish." But then, he hadn't been exposed to the world of video game development. Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game , a cozy take on the most idyllic pocket of Middle Earth, has been delayed. The new launch date is July 29. According to a post from the devs at Wētā Workshop Game Studio, this delay is about ensuring that all the project's supported platforms "can enjoy the same cozy experience." It is currently slated to launch on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Steam and Xbox Series X. 📢 Tales of the Shire needs a bit more simmering... Now coming July 29th, 2025. Thank you for your support and patience.🍽️🥧 #TalesOfTheShire #LOTR #cozygaming pic.twitter.com/8afaLnGfFL — Tales of the Shire (@talesoftheshire) February 20, 2025 This project has taken a couple tough hits over the past several months. The release date had already been pushed back in Sep...

ChatGPT has surpassed 400 million weekly active users. "We feel very fortunate to serve 5 percent of the world every week," OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said on X about the new audience stat. This figure is twice the weekly active user count reported by the company in August 2024 , which was double the figure it posted in November 2023. The latest milestone for the AI assistant comes after a huge uproar over new rival platform DeepSeek earlier in the year, which raised questions about whether the current crop of leading AI tools was about to be dethroned. OpenAI is on the verge of a move to simplify its ChatGPT offerings so that users won't have to select which reasoning model will respond to an input, and it will make its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 models available soon in the chat and API clients. With GPT-5 being made available to OpenAI's free users, ChatGPT seems primed to continue expanding its audience base in the coming months. This article originally appeared on Enga...

Meta announced some new policies for Facebook live broadcasts and it's going to lead to a lot of deleted videos. On Tuesday, the company announced in a blog post that all Facebook live broadcasts will only stay on Facebook Pages or profiles for 30 days, after which they'll be deleted and removed from Facebook. The new policy goes into effect starting on Wednesday, Feb. 19. All user's live videos older than 30 days won't immediately be deleted and removed from Facebook but users will need to act fast if they want to keep them. "Before your archival live videos are deleted, you will be notified by email and in the app, and from then you'll have 90 days to download or transfer your content," the blog post read, noting that the platform is "launching new tools to make downloading your previous live videos easier." SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on Meta's submission to Trump If you'd like to keep your live videos, you have...

The fallout continues from the recent WhatsApp hacking campaign (by a still-unconfirmed entity) that targeted nearly 100 journalists and activists . Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that a collection of Italian media groups has filed a criminal complaint with the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office. They hope to discover who installed the zero-click spyware, which was made by the Israeli-founded Paragon Solutions. According to Bloomberg , the complaint describes the spyware as an "intolerable intrusion into the personal and professional dimension of journalists," exposing them and their sources "to enormous and still persistent risks for their individual safety." It alleges that those responsible violated Italy's laws banning the "illicit installation" of eavesdropping equipment. WhatsApp said it reached out privately to notify the victims of the hack, which reportedly took place in December and targeted users across Europe. Three Italian victims h...

Osgood Perkins's upcoming horror film The Monkey is full of gruesome deaths, from splatter-heavy lawnmower encounters to pool electrocutions. But could these out-there death scenes freak out a pair of professional morticians? SEE ALSO: 'The Monkey' review: Osgood Perkins' take on Stephen King is a hell of a good time The Longlegs director and The Monkey star Theo James try to find out in the video above, in which they show morticians Matt and Heather clips from The Monkey . Matt and Heather are total pros, evaluating each death based on plausibility and even giving us some inside scoops on the mortician trade, like whether corpses fart (they do) and how to reconstruct a mangled body. But some of the movie's deaths and jump scares leave Matt and Heather shaken. To find out which ones, watch the full video above. And if all that blood and gore leaves you wanting more, check out The Monkey — which Mashable's Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko called ...

If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands , the New York Times ' elevated word-search game. Strands 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,...

South Korea is the latest governing body to restrict the Chinese company DeepSeek based on the company's data policies . South Korean officials on Saturday announced a temporary suspension of downloading the DeepSeek app until it complies with local data protection laws under the country's Personal Information Protection Act. SEE ALSO: Could Trump ban DeepSeek? What the TikTok ban saga tells us. After analyzing the app's policies, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) "identified some shortcomings in communication functions and personal information processing policies with third-party service providers," according to a press release translated from Korean to English. The PIPC said it will unblock downloads on local app stores once DeepSeek "meets the requirements of domestic protection laws." DeepSeeks burst onto the AI scene in January with an advanced reasoning chatbot that was free, open-source, and made for a fraction of th...

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: 8NYT Connections today: Hints and answers for February 17 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 . ...