Kalhan Rosenblatt

When Konrad Pawlikowski finished making his lighthearted horror game, he committed a cardinal sin of game development: He didn’t market it. But as an indie developer who makes games in his spare time, he didn’t think he needed to. Please Stop Crying, a first-person fatherhood simulator, was a passion project. He worked on it while he was juggling parenting his infant daughter and working his full-time job making interactive learning modules for an oil and gas company. In March, after a month o…

The first weekend of the iconic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, has concluded — but social media is still buzzing about all the event’s highs and lows. From a much-hyped No Doubt reunion to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sightings, the influencer-filled festival was full of moments that made headlines. Here’s what you might have missed. No Doubt reunites with a surprise guest It’s been roughly nine years since the members of No Doubt, led by Gwen Stefani, performed…

Instagram said it plans to test a new feature in an effort to curb sextortion on its platform. The “nudity protection” feature, which has several functions, is designed to help prevent users from receiving unwanted sexual images and encourage “people to think twice before sending nude images,” according to a blog post the platform published Thursday. The feature, which will automatically be turned on for users under age 18, will blur images that are detected as containing nudity. There will also…

Some songs that Taylor Swift fans know “All Too Well” returned to TikTok on Thursday months after being removed. The artist’s songs were among the many tracks pulled off of TikTok by Universal Music Group after the label and the platform failed to reach an agreement earlier this year. (UMG has no relationship to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News). Many videos using Swift’s popular hits, like “Anti-Hero” and “Cruel Summer,” remained on the platform but played no music when viewed. But…

The celebrations are rippling through the sports world: Athletes point their index finger in the air while saying the words “What’s up, brother?” In other cases, they clink their fists together before waving their arms in a flapping motion, often adding “Tuesday, Tuesday.” Houston Astros, Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Phillies players have performed the celebrations. ESPN’s Randy Scott recently welcomed viewers to an episode of “SportsCenter” with the hand gestures and catchphrase. But the…

While millions of people recover from the morning wakeup call of a 4.8-magnitude earthquake rocking the East Coast, a small group of people are feeling seriously left out. That’s because some people said they completely missed the earthquake that rocked apartment buildings and shook homes. Posts flooded onto X with people declaring they had earthquake FOMO (fear of missing out). Sara Lind, 41, who lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was in her 17th floor apartment when her boyfriend got a no…

Lara Croft, the iconic lead of the Tomb Raider franchise, sped past Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog to top a new list of most iconic video game characters of all time. More than 4,000 gamers around the world voted for their top character in a recent poll conducted by the British Academy Film Awards ahead of the 20th Games Awards on April 11, according to a news release from BAFTA. Lara Croft, whom the BAFTAs described as a “generation-spanning heroine,” is considered the first lady of video…

At first, the YouTube videos look like scenes from Nickelodeon’s popular “SpongeBob SquarePants” cartoon. SpongeBob, the title cheery yellow character, appears outside his pineapple-shaped home, while Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob’s cranky boss, is at the Krusty Krab restaurant he runs. But unlike in the show, the characters in the videos aren’t singing jolly songs about life in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Instead, they’re rapping about drugs and guns. The mastermind behind the raps is an arti…

Popular video gaming streamer Tyler Blevins, known as Ninja to his millions of fans online, shared on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with skin cancer. In a post on X, Blevins, 32, who is the most followed person on Twitch, said he is “still in a bit of shock” about the news, which he learned during an annual skin/mole check appointment with his dermatologist. “There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that they wanted to remove just to be careful,” he wrote in the post. “It came back as me…

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that will prohibit children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state. Those who are 14 or 15 will need a parent’s consent before they join a platform. The bill, HB3, also directs social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those who are under 14. Companies that fail to do so could be sued on behalf of the child who creates an account on the platform. The minor could be awarded up to $10,000 in damages, according to th…

Far-right commentator Candace Owens and conservative news outlet The Daily Wire have parted ways. “The rumors are true— I am finally free,” Owens wrote Friday on X. “There will be many announcements in the weeks to come.” Her post came shortly after Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing announced the split on X, writing that the “Daily Wire and Candace Owens have ended their relationship.” It’s unclear exactly what led to Owens and The Daily Wire, which was co-founded by Ben Shapiro, ending thei…

The CEO of WW, the weight loss company also known as WeightWatchers, apologized to a body positivity advocate for the company’s role in contributing to “toxic” diet culture in the past. On Wednesday, WW CEO Sima Sistani posted an Instagram story video directly addressing influencer Katie Sturino, author of “Body Talk: How to Embrace Your Body and Start Living Your Best Life” and founder of Megababe Beauty. Sturino, who has built a following of more than 802,000 on Instagram, had posted her “unf…

At first blush, a headline Reba McEntire posted to her Instagram account looked like a salacious tidbit from a gossip magazine. The headline claimed that McEntire, who performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl last month, called Taylor Swift an “entitled brat” for “laughing and drinking” during the performance. After McEntire called out the headline to her 2.6 million Instagram followers and praised Swift, several news outlets published stories saying McEntire had used her post to…

The hottest accessory of the moment isn’t a bag from Prada, Gucci or Louis Vuitton — it’s from Trader Joe’s. Mini Trader Joe’s canvas tote bags have become wildly popular online, likely thanks to interest sparked on TikTok, where videos featuring the bags have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The totes are limited edition and have been available since early February. The tote bags come in four colors — red, yellow, green and blue — and sell in stores for $2.99. Those hoping to scoo…

The battle to ban TikTok is escalating. A bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the popular social media company passed a crucial vote Thursday, as the company sought to rally users to its defense with a call to action that flooded some congressional offices with phone calls. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to pass the bill. On Thursday, TikTok sent push notifications to some of its users to encourage them to call their representatives and ask…

Doritos said Tuesday that it has ended a social media campaign with Samantha Hudson, a transgender influencer in Spain. Right-leaning accounts on social media had called for a boycott, citing past comments Hudson was alleged to have made on social media. Hudson, 24, a singer with 396,000 followers on Instagram, had posted a 50-second branded video on Instagram for a Doritos Spain campaign called “Crunch Talks.” It’s unclear when the video went up; as of Monday afternoon it had been removed from…

Rooster Teeth, a production company that pioneered multiple channels on YouTube and focused on gaming-centric content, announced Wednesday that it will close down. The Austin, Texas-based company, which was founded in 2003 and acquired by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2021, is known for content like “Red vs. Blue,” one of the longest-running web series based on the video game Halo, and “RWBY,” a CGI anime about monster hunters, as well as YouTube channels like the let’s play-style “Funhaus” and “Ac…

Helldivers 2, a hit video game from Arrowhead Game Studios, challenges players to work together as an elite team of soldiers to save Earth by pushing back invading hordes of space bugs, cyborgs and robots. It’s a simple enough premise, a classic good-versus-bad tale — except for one particular wrinkle. As many people have pointed out since its launch, some of the propaganda-style in-game content and the plot of Helldivers 2 bears a striking resemblance to “Starship Troopers,” a 1997 science fict…

PlayStation maker Sony Interactive Entertainment will lay off 900 people from its workforce, according to a news release from the company’s president and CEO, Jim Ryan. The layoffs reduce Sony Interactive Entertainment’s workforce by about 8 percent, according to the release. “The leadership team and I made the incredibly difficult decision to restructure operations, which regrettably includes a reduction in our workforce impacting very talented individuals who have contributed to our success,…