Tech Boys

Even the most devoted comedy nerd may not realize how many truly iconic comedies of past and present might never have existed if it weren't for a single theatrical production. Everything from Only Murders in the Building and Schitt's Creek to SCTV and Saturday Night Live can be linked back to a 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, which boasted such not-yet-famous performers as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Jayne Eastwood, and Paul Shaffer.  Incredibly, over its much raved about (and protested) 14-month run, not a soul thought to video record this production for posterity. So, 53 years later, documentarian Nick Davis aims to bring us back to this pivotal time and place with the preposterously and perfectly titled You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution , Spread Love & Overalls , and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way).  For the sake of brevit...

Lenovo loves to get a little freaky with laptop form factors, and its latest concept has a screen that can rotate. Unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin a week after it leaked on X , the ThinkBook VertiFlex Concept is a 14-inch Windows PC with a "rotation display system" that lets it swivel into portrait mode — it's the perfect laptop for people who really love TikTok . From a design standpoint, it's similar to Samsung's Sero TVs, which also rotate from landscape to portrait. So far, the Sero has failed to move past its novelty act reputation. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. SEE ALSO: The biggest announcements from IFA 2025: Smart home upgrades, a new robot vacuum, and a tennis partner The ThinkBook VertiFlex Concept is still just a concept, as its name implies, so it's unclear whether it will ever come to market. At big trade shows like CES and IFA, companies sometimes debut vaporware — futuri...

The 2025 NFL season is officially underway, and some fans have already identified a new TV commercial they never want to see again. Thursday night's game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles was, in many ways, an all-time goofy kickoff game. One of the Eagles' best players was ejected before the first play because he spit on the Cowboys quarterback, and then there was a lengthy lightning-related weather delay in the third quarter, which meant the game ended well after midnight on the East Coast. However, some fans online were much more annoyed by an official NFL commercial celebrating the new season, which aired once during the game. (You can also watch the ad on the NFL YouTube channel .) The "Ride the Float" commercial riled up some fans online (and, I can confirm, the people I watched the game with) because major parts of it really looked like they were made with generative AI. There are lots of real celebrity cameos, including Druski and The ...

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...