Tech Boys

Sesame Street creator Sesame Workshop and YouTube have announced a new "extended partnership" that will bring episodes of the iconic children's show to the platform and a series of workshops for creators on "how to create content that is entertaining while also promoting learning." This new YouTube partnership joins an existing Netflix deal to stream new episodes of Sesame Street starting in November. According to YouTube, it'll now have a catalog of "hundreds of full episodes" of the show, on top of "content created especially for the YouTube audience" featuring beloved Sesame Street characters. The fact that Sesame Workshop will help train the next generation of kid-friendly entertainers as part of the deal is also a direct acknowledgment that some children know Ms. Rachel before Big Bird. Of course, Sesame Street becoming even more of a presence on the platform fits larger trends. YouTube has firmly established itself as a home ...

In 2022's The Black Phone , Ethan Hawke terrified audiences as the masked kidnapper known as "the Grabber." Now, he's back to do it all over again in Blumhouse's Black Phone 2 . Viewers of the first Black Phone know that the film ended with — spoiler alert! — the Grabber's death. But horror fans should know better by now that no horror antagonist is ever truly dead. Especially not when that antagonist is at the center of a box office hit like The Black Phone . SEE ALSO: 2025 fall movie preview: Every upcoming film you ought to know about So how does the Grabber come back in Black Phone 2 ? Apparently, by emulating another horror icon: Nightmare on Elm Street 's Freddy Krueger. Just like dear old Freddy, the Grabber can now attack kids in their dreams. His target is Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), the younger sister of The Black Phone 's protagonist Finney ( Mason Thames ). Gwen receives disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at Alpine Lake w...

While Interview with the Vampire fans anxiously await the show's third season (now titled The Vampire Lestat ), AMC has another spooky treat in store for us: Talamasca: The Secret Order . The series joins Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches in AMC's Immortal Universe, based on the works of author Anne Rice. SEE ALSO: Fall TV preview: 25 TV shows you need to know, and where to stream them Talamasca 's titular secret society devotes itself to keeping tabs on the supernatural, from vampires and witches to ghosts and ghouls. Interview with the Vampire already gave viewers a hint of what to expect from the society in its second season, when it introduced Talamasca agent Raglan James (Justin Kirk) . However, Talamasca promises a much deeper dive into the society's inner workings. The series centers on NYU law school graduate Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton), who meets the mysterious Helen (Elizabeth McGovern). She recognizes that he has a rare talent: He ...

Roblox announced that it aims to roll out age estimation technology to all of its users by the end of 2025. Users on the gaming and social network will have to confirm their age in order to access communication features within the platform under the new policy. Roblox initially rolled out an age verification option to teen accounts in July as part of an effort to keep users younger than 13 from accessing select chat features. In addition to confirming ages for individual accounts, Roblox also said it plans to adopt new systems that will limit communication between adults and minors unless they already know each other offline. Age verification can be completed by providing a selfie that Roblox and its partner will analyze or by submitting an accepted form of identification. Roblox has drawn criticism for what many claim are failures to adequately protect younger users from bad actors, including facing lawsuits . The platform started rolling out more stringent policies aimed at chil...

After six seasons, five Christmas specials, and three feature films, Downton Abbey finally ends where it all began: with the illusion of change. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for longtime fans of the upstairs-downstairs drama, which debuted in 2010. Downton has always tried to have its cake and eat it too, with stories that nominally challenge the early 20th-century British aristocracy while also luxuriating in the premise. In its final act — a two-hour theatrical release by Simon Curtis, appropriately titled Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — it brings more of the same to the table, but peppers it with just enough hints of nostalgia (and narrative finality) to make this umpteenth ending feel definitive. SEE ALSO: 'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' trailer includes heartfelt tribute to Dame Maggie Smith It's no secret that the series has long outstayed its welcome, having now played past the onscreen death of its most electric character: the witty, cantankerou...

With more than 1.6 billion global visits across its 80 domain names over the last year, Streameast was easily the world's most popular illegal sports streaming platform. On Wednesday, however — just in time for the NFL season — Streameast suddenly shut down , just as the anti-piracy group Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced that Streameast was no more. “Today, ACE scored a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy: by taking down the largest illegal live sports platform anywhere,” ACE Chairman Charles Rivki said in a statement . “With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide—and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.” This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. According to ACE, the group wor...

Google is breathing a big sigh of relief today. Why? A judge has ruled that the company  will not be forced to sell Chrome or Android , two suggestions that were being pushed by the U.S. Department of Justice as a result of the search giant losing a major antitrust case last August brought against it by the government. On Tuesday, Sept. 2, District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington rejected the DOJ's push to break up Google. Instead, Judge Mehta ruled that Google can no longer take part in exclusive deals regarding its search engine, such as the one that saw Google pay billions of dollars to Apple in order to maintain its search dominance on iOS devices. In addition, the judge ruled that Google must also share some of its search data with competitors. SEE ALSO: Google just lost a big antitrust case for running illegal ad tech monopoly The judge's decision marks a judgment in just one of Google's antitrust cases, which spanned from President Donald Trump's firs...

The Federal Trade Commission announced that Disney will pay $10 million to settle allegations that the entertainment giant allowed data collection on YouTube videos meant for children. Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, also known as COPPA , companies are required to notify parents and obtain parental consent if they collection information from minors. According to the FTC complaint, Disney failed to properly label some YouTube videos as "Made for Kids," which allowed the company to collect data and deliver targeted ads to viewers younger than 13. The proposed order from the FTC would also require Disney to create a review process for determining when and how videos are correctly designated with YouTube's Made for Kids label. YouTube rolled out the Made for Kids tags following a $170 million settlement in 2019 on charges that the video platform had violated COPPA. Google faced an additional settlement of $30 million last month from a similar clas...

The Apple iPhone 17 event is now just one week away. On Tuesday, September 9, we'll finally get to see the new iPhone 17 lineup , and — assuming Apple sticks to tradition — we should be able to install iOS 26 around a week or so after the event. But you don't have to wait to test out the new features because you can download and install the newly released public beta 6 (or iOS 26 developer beta 9 for developers). You can see a more complete view of the new features in our preview of the iOS 26 public beta release , which shows off the fresh home and lock screen redesign. Called Liquid Glass , the translucent look will extend across all of Apple's upcoming operating systems. The overhaul is one of several big changes coming to iOS, macOS , iPadOS and the rest of Apple's software suite, all of which were showcased during the company's WWDC keynote on June 9. After overpromising on AI plans last year, Apple kept its iOS roadmap focused more on basic quality of l...