Tech Boys

The long-promised launch of Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin is scheduled for June 22 , and it sounds like the company's initial offering will be modest at best. The Financial Times writes that Tesla will only have around 10 cars available for rides and that the company plans to make them "avoid the city’s most challenging intersections." If issues arise, remote operators will also reportedly be able to take control of the cars to make sure they reach their final destination. Tesla CEO Elon Musk told CNBC in May that the robotaxi service might launch with less than a dozen cars, so that's not necessarily a surprise, but the actual scope may be even smaller. Analysts The New York Times   spoke to believe rides in Tesla's robotaxi will only be available to "company employees or invited guests." It could take months before the service is made available to the wider public. Musk formally introduced the company's robotaxi service and its self...

VidCon has always been a crash course in internet fame. It's a place where creators trade advice, swap war stories, and figure out how to survive (and thrive) online. And this year, as algorithms shift, platforms evolve, and audiences grow ever more discerning, the creator playbook is being rewritten in real-time. This year's VidCon schedule reveals what it actually takes to make it as a digital creator in 2025. Whether you’re just starting out or already juggling brand deals and burnout, there’s wisdom to be found at every panel, Q&A, and meet-and-greet. SEE ALSO: VidCon 2025 liveblog: All the latest from your favorite creators We’ve rounded up the most useful, surprising, and brutally honest takeaways from today’s VidCon sessions. From niche-building to mental health boundaries to turning content into a long-term career, these are the lessons creators are walking away with — and the tips you’ll want to bookmark, screenshot, and maybe even live by. Curiosity is...

YouTube kicked off VidCon 2025 with a panel breaking down how to engage with the platform's algorithm and busting myths on video engagement. The discussion featured panelists Jenny Hoyos, a creator with 9+ million subscribers on YouTube , Rene Ritchie, creator liaison for YouTube, and Todd Beaupré, senior director of growth and discovery at YouTube. Beaupré, who has a hand in designing YouTube's homepage, said the platform optimized for clicks in the early years, which they discovered was driving superficial engagement. SEE ALSO: VidCon 2025 liveblog: All the latest from your favorite creators Now, the YouTube algorithm uses a system of collaborative filtering that takes everything it knows about a user — both short and long-term history — to rank videos that will appear on suggested feeds. In addition to user data, it pulls from users with similar watch histories to suggest new content. With this information, Beaupré says it's important for content creators to rea...

Adobe launched its own take on how smartphone cameras should work this week with Project Indigo , a new iPhone camera app from some of the team behind the Pixel camera. The project combines the computational photography techniques that engineers Marc Levoy and Florian Kainz popularized at Google, with pro controls and new AI-powered features. In their announcement of the new app, Levoy and Kainz style Project Indigo as the better answer to typical smartphone camera complaints of limited controls and over-processing. Rather than using aggressive tone mapping and sharpening, Project Indigo is supposed to use "only mild tone mapping, boosting of color saturation, and sharpening." That's intentionally not the same as the "zero-processing" approach some third-party apps are taking. "Based on our conversations with photographers, what they really want is not zero-process but a more natural look — more like what an SLR might produce," Levoy and Kainz writ...

Best Buy has announced its plans to host a weeklong "Black Friday in July" sale from July 7 to 13. The event will directly overlap with Amazon 's members-only Prime Day event, which is scheduled for July 8 through 11. A representative for Best Buy told Mashable via email that its Black Friday in July sale will usher in "deals on TVs, laptops, headphones, video games, electric bikes, and more." The retailer will also offer "Doorbusters — some of the hottest deals on top tech" for the first time during the event, cribbing from its Black Friday programming last fall. SEE ALSO: Amazon announces Prime Day 2025 dates, and the 4-day rumors are true Best Buy will drop new Black Friday in July deals every day of the sale, which will be available in stores, on its website, and in the Best Buy mobile app . Mashable has reached out to Best Buy's rep to confirm whether any offers will be exclusive to shoppers who have joined its My Best Buy membership...

Hades II announced its third update today. The sequel to 2020 indie game darling Hades is technically still in early access on PC and Mac, but has been getting some beefy updates ahead of its expected official release later this year. The Unseen Update is a free, automatic update that mostly focuses on new combat development. There's a new Vow of Rivals that allows players to challenge more powerful Guardian foes. All of the main weapons have received hidden aspects that offer new forms and fighting styles. There's also new hexes and blessings, some fresh artwork, and new story events to help grow your relationships with the many members of the ancient Greek pantheon. When Hades II does exit early access with the launch of v1.0 — and developer Supergiant said that it doesn't have a timeline for that yet — the game will follow its predecessor's launch schedule. Switch 2 and Switch will be the first consoles to get the full release alongside PC and Mac, with Pl...

Social media company X has filed a lawsuit against the state of New York over a law governing hate speech. The social network's Global Government Affairs account posted about the suit, claiming the law's required disclosures infringe on First Amendment protections for free speech. The Stop Hiding Hate Act, which is slated to take effect this week, would require social media companies to report on how they define and moderate content including hate speech, misinformation, disinformation, harassment and foreign political influence. X sued California in 2023 about a similar state-level law regarding content moderation. A panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on the lower court's initial ruling in favor of California. While the law did endure, a settlement between the state and the company at the start of 2025 led to the elimination of the provisions that X claimed were unconstitutional. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/B...

Meta's Llama model has memorized Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone so well that it can reproduce verbatim excerpts from 42 percent of the book, according to a new study . Researchers from Stanford, Cornell, and West Virginia University analyzed dozens of books from the now-infamous Books3 dataset , a collection of pirated books used to train Meta's Llama models. Books3 is also at the center of a copyright infringement lawsuit against Meta, Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Inc . The study's authors say their findings could have major implications for AI companies facing similar lawsuits. According to the research paper, the Llama 3.1 model "memorizes some books, like Harry Potter and 1984 , almost entirely." Specifically, the study found that Llama 3.1 has memorized 42 percent of the first Harry Potter book so well that it can reproduce verbatim excerpts at least 50 percent of the time. Overall, Llama 3.1 could reproduce excerpts from 91 percent of the book,...

Netflix looks to take a bite out of Shark Week with its upcoming shark-centric reality competition show, All the Sharks . SEE ALSO: Summer TV preview: All the TV shows you need to know, and where to stream them The series, hosted by Tom "The Blowfish" Hird, pits four teams of shark experts against one another. Their goal? To photograph as many types of shark as they can. We're not just talking about some sharks. We're talking about — say it with me — All the Sharks . Whichever team wins will earn $50,000 for their marine charity of choice. To snap their shark pics, these teams will dive into shark habitats in six stunning locations: the Maldives, the Galápagos Islands, the Bahamas, South Africa, Japan, and Australia. Every shark contestants get on camera earns them points. The rarer the shark, the more points you get. Simple, right? Well, wait until you throw challenging diving conditions and fast-moving currents into the mix. As someone with a crushing fea...

Borderlands 4 , the latest entry in Gearbox Software's popular looter shooter franchise, is available to pre-order now for $70, a good $10 less than many assumed it would cost. The game's price first came into question when its September 12 release date was announced without pre-order details, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford suggested that whether the game came with a $80 price tag was out of his hands. Pitchford put his foot in his mouth in a thread on X sharing a behind-the-scenes video about bringing Borderlands 4 to the Switch 2. A fan replied to the video asking Pitchford to not charge $80 for the game, to which Pitchford responded , "A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen." A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I ...