Tech Boys

Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a Poké Ball virtual pet toy so you can fulfill your dreams of carrying your favorite Pokémon around with you everywhere. I don't know how this one slid under my radar when it was announced at the end of August (perhaps because all my attention has been on Tamagotchi Paradise ) but now that I've seen it, I must have it. While it appears to be a Japan-only release, the product page shows it will have an English language option in the menu. Pre-orders are open (though currently sold out on Amazon Japan ), and the device will ship on October 11, according to Essential Japan . The toy costs ¥7,480 or about $51 — but I shudder to think how much that number will jump with tariffs factored in. Per the listing, there are seven partner Pokémon you can care for: Pikachu, Eevee, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Lucario and Sylveon. And if you pet the device, they'll react. There are also 150 other Pokémon to interact with, though it's unclear...

Before Hamlet, there was Hamnet. He was the young son of William Shakespeare who died in his youth, inspiring the playwright to spin the timeless tragedy of a doomed Danish prince. Hamnet explores that true story through a mystical and matriarchal lens of Maggie O'Farrell's heralded novel of the same name, adapted by the Academy Award–winning director of Nomadland , Chloé Zhao, and her Academy-nominated actors, Paul Mescal ( Aftersun ) and Jessie Buckley ( The Lost Daughter ).  This period drama seems primed to be a contender this award season. But Oscar buzz tends to mold the expectations of dramas — especially those even loosely biographical — into one box: star-stuffed theatrics festooned with tears, a soaring emotional score, and pretty scenes of pain, perfect for an award ceremony sizzle reel. To expect such a thing from Zhao, Mescal, and Buckley would be to ignore what's brought them acclaim to begin with.  This trio has separately won praise for their nuanced...

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle , then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown. An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle. If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered. SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint Top-tier. SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook...

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 ...