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UPDATE: Aug. 23, 2024, 11:20 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with the latest information about Prime Big Deal Days 2024, which has officially been announced for October.

Even though it feels like Amazon Prime Day just ended, it's time to gear up for yet another massive Amazon sale in just over a month. That's right, Prime Big Deal Days is back this October, and while it doesn't share the same name as the retail giant's flagship annual sale, it's still a pretty big deal (see what we did there?).

Here's what you need to know about Prime Big Deal Days 2024 ahead of the big event.

What is Prime Big Deal Days?

Prime Big Deal Days is basically Prime Day Part 2. The now-annual fall sale has been hosted by Amazon since 2022 (back then, it was called the "Prime Early Access Sale"), and is usually the perfect teaser for the storefront's Black Friday festivities. While Prime Day is still Amazon's flagship sale, the two-day Big Deal Days event has quickly become something you really don't want to miss.

SEE ALSO: When is the next Prime Day? Here's how long you have to wait. When is Prime Big Deal Days 2024?

We don't know the exact dates of Prime Big Deal Days 2024, but we can make an educated guess as to when the sale will go live. We know it'll take place this October — the official announcement from Amazon says as much — but we also know that the past two iterations of the sale have taken place during the second week of the month on either Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday, and summer Prime Day typically runs Tuesday through Wednesday. So, with that in mind, our best guess for Prime Big Deals Days 2024 would be Oct. 8 through Oct. 9.

What deals will Prime Big Deal Days 2024 have?

Prime Big Deal Days doesn't always have the same exact deals as Prime Day, but they're usually of a similar flavor. We expect to see fewer summer items and more fall stuff, though — think indoor products like gaming and home gym equipment, in addition to the usual discounts on big tech from Amazon, Apple, and others. Like with the Prime Day sale, we may also see some early deals going live before Big Deal Days, so stay on your toes.

What early deals did we see before Prime Day 2024?

In doling out many of its steepest price drops ahead of Prime Day 2024, Amazon kept things in the family. A slew of Echo devices from Amazon's in-house brand of smart home gadgets got slashed to all-time low prices for Team Prime, including the all-new Echo Spot (44% off), the Echo Show 8 (43% off), the Echo Buds with Active Noise Cancellation (71% off), and the Echo Frames (37% off, plus a free Echo Pop). Prime members could also snag five free months of Amazon Music Unlimited, three free months of Audible Premium Plus, and three free months of Kindle Unlimited if they hadn't subscribed before. Meanwhile, Prime Video rentals and purchases were up to 50% off.

Outside of the Amazon ecosystem, we saw some new all-time lows on big-ticket tech, including Apple devices, robot vacuums, and kitchen appliances. Highlights included an $800 M2 MacBook Air (20% off), a $300 Apple Watch Series 9 (25% off), a $450 Eufy X90 Pro (50% off), and a six-quart Chefman dual-basket air fryer for $70 (42% off). None of them had been labeled by Amazon as official early Prime Day deals, so anyone could take advantage of them — even non-members.

SEE ALSO: Prime Day 2024: 5 must-shop product categories Can you shop Prime Big Deal Days without being a Prime member?

You have to be a Prime member in order to shop Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days. But if you don't want to commit to a monthly or annual paid subscription, you can still participate by scheduling a free 30-day trial of Prime around the sale. Just remember to cancel it as soon as Prime Big Deal Days is over to avoid getting charged.

Who's competing with Prime Big Deal Days?

We don't know of any official sales from other retailers just yet, but they do traditionally hold competing sales during Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days. During this year's Prime Day event, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart all ran their own counter-sales, so we may see that happen again. Watch this space.

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER: As of August 23, you can pre-order Dyson hair tools, like the Dyson Airstrait straightener ($499.99), in the new strawberry bronze and blush pink colorway.

Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson Airstrait straightener (Strawberry Bronze/Blush Pink) at Dyson
Get Deal

If the special edition topaz orange or Prussian blue/rich copper Dyson hair tool colors had you in a chokehold, prepare to go absolutely feral. Not to be totally dramatic, but the hair-styling world is shook – Dyson's new strawberry bronze and blush pink is officially available across its range of hair tools, and you can lock in your own now.

As of August 23, you can preorder some of Dyson's most popular hair tools, like the Dyson Airstrait straightener ($499.99), Dyson Airwrap multi-styler ($599.99), Dyson Supersonic Nural ($499.99), and Dyson Corrale styler straightener ($499.99) in the new strawberry bronze and blush pink colorway.

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Inspired by a "single strawberry and a magnitude of hues," this special edition color sprang forth from Dyson Farming strawberries, according to the company. It's described as a "complex shade of pink, tinged with fresh red." Indeed, the body of each tool is a juicy deep red with soft, baby pink accents with black and blue tinges depending on which tool you buy.

We're right on the precipice of fall, but these juicy pink and red hair tools have us thinking Valentine's Day, or at the very least holiday gifts that fit some of the very specific ~girlypop~ aesthetics we can't stop pinning or saving TikToks to emulate. If you've been looking for a unique color from Dyson before finally grabbing a hair tool, this is your chance to snatch what might very well be one of the best. Get yours now before the preorders sell out.

Apple is rumored to reveal everything about the iPhone 16 in just a few weeks — and this major leak will likely heighten the anticipation.

Apple Insider claims that it has secured the iPhone 16's camera specs on Thursday. There are a few key details to note, especially that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will share the same camera specs this year. However, these leaks offer even more to consider.

SEE ALSO: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: 3 ways it beats the iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 16 camera specs

According to Apple Insider, these are the specs you can expect from the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus:

• 48MP wide camera

• Ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture

The iPhone 16's wide camera, also known as the main lens, appears to have the same specs as the iPhone 15. However, the ultra-wide lens now features a faster aperture, upgraded from f/2.4 to f/2.2. That should improve low-light shooting capabilities. According to Apple Insider, the non-Pro phones will also get macro photography this year. The two lenses are also stacked vertically, rather than diagonally.

These rumors really get juicy when you get to the iPhone 16 Pro models, though. Here are the specs Apple Insider reported for the Pro phones, both of which supposedly have the same specs this year:

• 48MP main lens

• 12MP telephoto lens with 5X optical zoom

• 48MP ultra-wide lens

There are two major things to note here. First, both Pro phones have 5X telephoto zoom this year, as opposed to last year where only the Pro Max had that. Second, the ultra-wide lens has gone all the way up from 12MP to 48MP on the Pro phones this year.

Lastly, Apple Insider reported that the rumored "capture button," a capacitive button specifically for use with camera features, is real and is coming to all four iPhone 16 models. You'll theoretically be able to open the camera app with the press of a button, among other things. You can also slide your finger along the button for other potential actions.

Apple is rumored to announce the iPhone 16 at an event on Sept. 10.

GET $25 WHEN YOU SPEND $250: Don't miss Best Buy's Tech Fest! Get the latest tech deals before the event ends on August 25 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Plus, all members get a $25 bonus reward with any purchase of $250 or more.

Our top picks: Best laptop deal MacBook Air 13-inch laptop (M3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $849 at Best Buy (save $250 ) Get Deal Best gaming deal Xbox Series X, Insignia 42-inch LED 4K smart Fire TV, and extra Xbox controller $599.99 at Best Buy (save $139.98) Get Deal Best headphone deal Sony WH1000XM5 noise-canceling over-ear headphones $299.99 at Best Buy (save $100 ) Get Deal

This year has been filled with sales events. Target Circle Week, Prime Day (round one), and others have been happening throughout the year, and now Best Buy is gifting us with a Tech Fest.

SEE ALSO: M3 MacBook Air vs. M3 MacBook Pro: Which Mac is best for you?

During this special weekend event, you can get discounts on everything from unlocked phones to major appliances. Plus, Best Buy members will get a $25 bonus reward with any purchase of $250 or more.

Here are our top picks:

Best laptop deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Our pick: MacBook Air 13-inch laptop (M3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) $849.00 at Best Buy
$1,099.00 Save $250.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Whether you’re looking for a new laptop for school work, entertainment, or professional tasks, the MacBook Air 13-inch laptop (M3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is a solid choice. This lightweight laptop has an 18-hour battery life, a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, and a powerful M3 chip, making it a good option for productivity, streaming, and more. But if you plan on running multiple apps at a time or having multiple browser tabs open, you might want to splurge for the 16GB RAM option.

Best gaming deal Opens in a new window Credit: Microsoft, Insignia Our pick: Xbox Series X, Insignia 42-inch LED 4K smart Fire TV, and extra Xbox controller $599.99 at Best Buy
$739.97 Save $139.98 Get Deal Why we like it

Best Buy’s also offering a bundle deal on the Xbox Series X (1 TB), which includes an extra Xbox controller and an Insignia 42-inch LED 4K smart Fire TV for just 599.99. That’s a gaming console, an additional controller, and a TV for less than the price of most standalone gaming consoles.

This bundle deal is a pretty good value, especially if you want to upgrade your gaming setup for less than a grand. You can also customize your bundle to include different controllers, like the nocturnal vapor special edition controller, to fit your style.

Best headphone deal Opens in a new window Credit: Sony Our pick: Sony WH1000XM5 noise-canceling over-ear headphones $299.99 at Best Buy
$399.99 Save $100.00 Get Deal Why we like it

The Sony WH1000XM5 noise-cancelling over-ear headphones are $100 off right now at Best Buy. These headphones, a 2022 Mashable Choice award winner, feature active noise cancellation, 30 hours of battery life (you can also get up to three hours of listening time on a quick 3-minute charge), and a Speak to Chat feature that automatically pauses your music when it detects you're talking.

In a news release on Thursday, rideshare giant Uber revealed that a new crop of self-driving cars will be launching on its platform as early as next year.

Uber announced that this is possible thanks to its multiyear partnership with Cruise, a self-driving car company based in San Francisco. In other words, in 2025, you'll have the option to hail a Cruise robotaxi via the Uber app — but only if your region supports it.

How will self-driving Uber rides work?

Once Cruise-based self-driving Uber rides roll out, customers may be presented with two options when they request a ride. Their trip can be at the helm of a traditional human driver, or they can choose to have it completed by a self-driving car.

Uber said that Cruise's autonomous vehicles will be modified Chevy Bolt vehicles.

Is it safe?

It's too early to say whether the Uber-and-Cruise autonomous vehicle launch will be safe. But as DigitalTrends pointed out, Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, suffered a reputation hit when one of its self-driving cars ran over a jay-walking pedestrian in San Francisco in 2024 after she was struck by a hit-and-run human driver.

According to SFChronicle, after the human driver sent the woman into the autonomous vehicle's path, Cruise's robotaxi dragged the woman "about 20 feet" in the October 2023 incident. Fortunately, the woman survived, but as a consequence, California blocked Cruise from operating in the state.

Cruise has been gingerly returning to the market. It began testing its robotaxis again in April 2024, including Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, according to TechCrunch.

In a press release, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claims that the rideshare giant is committed to customers' safety, adding "we believe Uber can play an important role in helping to safely and reliably introduce autonomous technology to consumers and cities around the world."

Cruise CEO Marc Whitten echoed Khosrowshahi's statement: "Cruise is on a mission to leverage driverless technology to create safer streets and redefine urban life."

It's worth noting that Cruise isn't the first autonomous vehicle company that Uber has inked a deal with. The rideshare giant has already partnered with Waymo, which has been available on the Uber app since October 2023.

Stephen Colbert shut down Trump's post about Tim Walz being an "assistant coach" during his live DNC monologue on Thursday.

Kamala Harris is officially on Twitch.

The vice president and Democratic presidential nominee now has her own streaming channel on the platform, as the campaign moves to reach more younger voters.

The account, with the handle kamalaharris, streamed Harris' speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago on Thursday night, with featured clips already posted by the campaign team. Harris currently has 6.6K followers at the time of writing; her opponent Donald Trump has 174K followers.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump posts AI image to attack Kamala Harris

Joe Biden and Trump's campaigns joined Twitch in 2020. Trump was suspended from the platform in 2020 for "hateful conduct," then banned in 2021 after encouraging violent extremists to storm the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. Twitch reinstated Trump's channel in July 2024 after he accepted the Republican presidential nomination. Other major tech platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter have also lifted their bans on Trump.

"We reinstated former President Trump’s Twitch channel," said a Twitch spokesperson in July, via The Verge. "We believe there is value in hearing from Presidential nominees directly, when possible. Trump is now the official Republican nominee for U.S. president."

The Twitch move for Harris comes a month after the vice president officially joined TikTok. Wired reports the Harris-Walz campaign has 175 staffers dedicated to digital strategy including content creation and online ads, and the latest, expansion to platforms like Twitch. The DNC has also wooed influencers at this year's DNC, with the campaign inviting over 200 content creators to cover the event alongside journalists — the first time influencers have been invited to do so.

As Elizabeth de Luna writes for Mashable, "The reality is that Gen Z could be kingmakers in this election. NBC exit polls from the 2020 election suggested that 65 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 — an age group almost entirely made of Gen Zers — voted for President Joe Biden. That was 11 percent more than any other age group. Since then, the support of Gen Z and millennial voters had become consistently elusive to the President."

SEE ALSO: CNN's embarrassing 'Kamala is brat' segment shows why we should take Gen Z and millennial voters seriously

Harris' Twitch account is the latest in the presidential nominee's collection of social media accounts. Here's what the follower numbers look like:

In the midst of a bipartisan push to ban TikTok in the U.S., Harris has 4.6 million followers on TikTok; Trump has 10.5 million. Joe Biden's official campaign TikTok account, @bidenhq, created in February, has been rebranded as @harrishq, an official Harris campaign account, which has 3.8 million followers and hosts both new videos and Biden's previous posts. Wired reports the account's followers "quintupled" in the week Harris became the top Democratic presidential choice, with content posted getting 232 million views and 33 million likes.

On X (formerly Twitter), Trump has 89.9 million followers; Harris has 20.8 million; Biden has 38.5 million.

On Instagram, Harris has 17.7 million followers; Trump has 26.3 million; Biden has 17.3 million.

On YouTube, Trump has 3.1 million subscribers; Harris has 431K; Biden has 896K but The White House account has 2.1 million.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined Lingo Telecom $1 million over January's fake Joe Biden AI robocalls, which used deepfake audio of the president's voice to spread election disinformation in New Hampshire. The telecommunications company initially faced a penalty of $2 million, however this week's settlement agreement cut that figure in half.

While Lingo Telecom wasn't directly involved in creating the Biden AI robocalls, it still fell afoul of the FCC for transmitting the calls and failing to protect against Caller ID spoofing. The robocalls used Caller ID spoofing to deceptively present itself as originating from a phone number belonging to a former New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair.

SEE ALSO: AI-generated deepfake Biden robocalls came from Texas company

As detailed in the FCC's Consent Decree, Lingo Telecom had incorrectly certified that they had "a direct authenticated relationship" and could confirm the caller's identity in almost 4,000 of the Biden AI robocalls. This was due to an internal policy which allowed Lingo Telecom to simply rely on Life Corporation's certification regarding the identities of its customers, taking the latter at its word when it claimed to have verified that the phone numbers being used were associated with said individuals.

"Lingo Telecom took no additional steps… to independently ascertain whether the customers of Life Corporation could legitimately use the telephone number that appeared as the calling party for the New Hampshire presidential primary calls," read the Consent Decree.

In addition to the $1 million civil penalty, Lingo Telecom has also agreed to a compliance plan ensuring it abides by the FCC's STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication rules. These rules require Lingo Telecom to be more thorough when verifying information provided by its customers, aiming to minimise the risk of similar incidents happening again.

"[T]he potential combination of the misuse of generative AI voice-cloning technology and caller ID spoofing over the U.S. communications network presents a significant threat," said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal in a statement. "This settlement sends a strong message that communications service providers are the first line of defense against these threats and will be held accountable to ensure they do their part to protect the American public."

Who was behind the deepfake Biden AI robocalls?

Thousands of people across New Hampshire answered their phones in January to hear a voice which sounded remarkably like President Biden. These AI voice-generated robocalls explicitly discouraged people from voting in the then-upcoming primary election, falsely claiming that people needed to "save" their votes to be used in November's general election.

Of course, this was a blatant lie. Voters are able to cast a ballot in both primary and general elections, and don't have to save them up for strategic use in one or the other.

New Hampshire's Department of Justice subsequently traced the illegal calls to Texas company Life Corporation, which had been hired to create the Biden AI robocalls by political consultant Steve Kramer. Kramer was working for Democratic congressman Dean Phillips' presidential campaign, though he stated that he came up with the AI robocall idea himself. The deepfake audio itself was created by magician Paul Carpenter, who was commissioned by Kramer and has stated he didn't know how the clip would be used. Phillips also distanced himself from the stunt, his campaign stating that Kramer acted of his own volition.

Kramer is now facing numerous criminal charges and a $6 million fine.

Jon Stewart has roasted Fox News reporters for their reaction to the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for August 23 SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Here's the answer hints for August 23

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Friday, August 23, 2024:

AcrossGood ___, bad ___ (classic routine)

• The answer is Cop.

Pick up on, as a sound

• The answer is Hear.

Pick up on, as a vibe

• The answer is Sense.

Actress Ana of "Ugly Betty"

• The answer is Ortiz.

Not as much

• The answer is Less.

DownHomophone of 5-Across

• The answer is Cents .

Fertile area in a desert

• The answer is Oasis.

Biden's title, informally

• The answer is Prez.

Homophone of 4-Across

• The answer is Here.

Do, re, mi, fa, ___ ...

• The answer is Sol.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.

Apple's new desktop operating system, macOS 15 Sequoia, will launch a bit earlier than is typical this year.

This is according to a new report by MacRumors, which claims that Apple plans to launch it alongside iOS 18 in mid-September. Both iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia were initially announced during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Apple typically launches new versions of iOS in September, but the latest macOS typically comes a little later. For example, macOS Sonoma launched on Sept. 26, a week after iOS 17. And its predecessor, macOS Ventura, launched on Oct. 24, more than a month after iOS 16.

SEE ALSO: The best MacBooks: Which Apple laptop should you buy in 2024?

The reason for the unison launch, MacRumors claims, is making sure that cross-platform features, such as iPhone Mirroring, are working as intended at launch.

Apple Intelligence features, on the other hand, reportedly won't be part of iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia at launch. These AI features, which include tools that help you write, AI-enabled image creation and editing, and a smarter Siri, will show up in macOS 15.1 and iOS 18.1, which should launch in October.

We'll get the official word from Apple in the first half of September, when the company typically holds its iPhone launch event. The most likely date this year is Sept. 10, though Apple has historically launched new iPhones both earlier and later than that.

“It’s happening, but people don’t want it public.”

In 2014, BuzzFeed was the viral video behemoth churning out 80 videos a month on YouTube to satisfy social media algorithms. Video producers, who had the skills to create content all on their own, needed to turn out six videos a month to keep their jobs, finding new ways to keep an audience coming back for more daily uploaded content. 

Keith Habersberger, a tall and quirky theater major, and Zach Kornfeld, a zany neurotic with an eye for editing, had just started working at BuzzFeed and were brainstorming what could do well during Facebook's "pivot to video" era. This was a time when Facebook executives pushed that video views were the way to grow in media, and used incorrect and misleading viewer data as a selling point. 

SEE ALSO: Welcome back, MySpace: Instagram adds profile songs

Eventually, they decided to try on ladies' underwear for a video. Most of their colleagues wanted nothing to do with that public humiliation, except for two: the stoic Eugene Lee Yang and wife guy (who later had an extramarital affair with an employee) Ned Fulmer. 

"We couldn't find anyone willing to do it beyond the handful of guys in the video," Kornfeld told Mashable in an interview about the group's 10-year journey. "I remember thinking it was such an obvious viral hit that no one wanted to make it. It seemed too easy."

The video was a smashing success (22.5 million views as of this publication), so the group decided to stick together. They thought it would last for maybe three videos, Kornfeld remembered, as they thought that would be all there was to "mine" from the group. 

But a decade later, the Try Guys are still going strong (though they are down to two original members), evolving into their self-controlled YouTube channel with eight million subscribers. From live shows to their own short-lived Food Network series, the group has survived sharks, algorithmic shifts, and even a cancellation.

Buzzy beginnings for the Try Guys   

The Try Guys almost didn't survive their first few years, however. Their bosses at BuzzFeed were opposed to the idea of the quartet, since having four producers on one video would lower the amount of content they could produce. But the group felt they had obvious chemistry and knew that an audience could grow attached to a recurring cast of faces. So, while still making their necessary deliverables for the company, they worked on Try Guys videos on the side.

"As an employee, your value is directly related to how many viral videos you made and how well those viral videos did," Habersberger said. "There was a culty vibe where you were celebrated if you had a super amazing video." 

A lot of those videos in the first few years of BuzzFeed featured blurred or blocked-out nudity  (making it allowed on YouTube), from trying stripping to laser hair removal. Though most of the lewd content was blocked out in editing (except for a pissing competition where Kornfeld's penis was accidentally shown without his consent — though he did manage to joke about it years later), it still helped garner a mostly female audience that remains to this day. The content they created "was an antidote to the male gaze, or at least the idea of toxic masculinity," Kornfeld said. Their "vulnerability" without their clothes allowed them to share a new side of themselves that had rarely been seen by men in the media. 

One of their most successful videos featured them showing off their bodies to recreate Kim Kardashian's butt-filled 2014 Paper magazine cover, uploaded within 24 hours of the photo hitting the internet. Shooting the video after hours and editing it overnight, Habersberger said they were never "compensated for those extra hours" but they "did it because we knew it would do well." 

"We saw a whole bucket of storytelling that was under-tapped, under-explored, and that we could use our experience and our identity to be a cipher for the audience to explore this part of storytelling that was very primed to be viewed and to be shared," Kornfeld explained. 

As the videos started to perform better (and their bosses started to accept the format), branded opportunities started to roll in. Paid partnerships gave them bigger budgets to smash cars and pretend to be adrift at sea, raising the production value and teaching the members about the more traditional side of media (though they didn't get paid any extra cash). "We went from $300 to $600 a video, to suddenly having $20,000 or more, which allowed us to make something really cool," Habersberger said. 

After four years of making a corporation money with their content, the Guys knew it was time to create something of their own. In 2018, the group negotiated a deal with BuzzFeed where they managed to keep their intellectual property and the name "Try Guys" while BuzzFeed kept getting clicks on their older videos. At the time, former BuzzFeed employees were sharing their negative experiences in "Why I Left BuzzFeed" videos, so having a positive mutual departure was best for everyone's brand. 

"We felt there were more ways that we could build this brand than BuzzFeed was allowing us to do," Habersberger said. "We felt like we could do tours, we could have better merch, we could have other experiences, but that wasn't the agenda of BuzzFeed at that time." 

Branching out and navigating controversy

When striking out on their own, they wanted to "have a variety of programming," Kornfeld said, that "explored the different avenue[s] of ourselves" with a fairly limited budget. One of the first videos they filmed for the new channel was "Candid Competition," a reality show where Kornfeld asked different grocery stores to make him a custom cake. Originally, Kornfeld felt certain "that it had failed and that it was a dud," but after spending some time with an editor, it became one of his "favorite pieces of chaos." 

Now free from the shackles of creating boilerplate content where they just "try" things, they shared their struggles with fatherhood, medical issues, and creating their own company. Repeatable formats like Keith Eats the Menu, where Habersberger tries every dish at a restaurant, and Which Try Guy knows the other the best, allowed them to push out content cheaply and quickly. 

In 2022, as the channel was on the rise with their Food Network show No-Recipe Road Trip set to premiere, a scandal shook the group to its core. Fans on Reddit discovered that Fulmer, whose main characteristic was talking about his wife in videos, was having an affair with a producer. Fulmer, who had a stake in the company, was bought out and removed. The three remaining members released a tense statement on their channel that went so viral Saturday Night Live spoofed it.

When asked about this era of the Try Guys, Habersberger and Kornfeld jokingly played a game of rock, paper, scissors, to see who would answer. 

"Our first goal was to do right by our staff, by each other, and by the audience," Kornfeld said. "We remain very proud of how we navigated a less-than-fortunate situation…Having a shakeup like that gave us the courage to take risks and to imagine a better future for us."

"We spent a year trying to figure out what we should do," Habersberger added. "It was an unfortunate thing that happened, that probably was a necessary change for this business to last as long as possible."

SEE ALSO: This man flew first class on six U.S. airlines to see which offered the best experience

Out of this controversy came what they describe as the "fuck it" era, where the three remaining members created the content that they wanted to make. They had been "playing the algorithm game for 10 years" and wanted "to focus on the audience we've already built and try to make stuff for those people," Habersberger said. That meant doing a livestreamed version of Romeo and Juliet and renting out a movie theater for Kornfeld to screen a short film. These weren't the best "business decisions," they both admit, but it was what they wanted to make. It showed them that the ad-based model of depending on YouTube revenue just wasn't sustainable for them. 

Today's Try Guys

After two years of controversy and ill-advised business decisions behind them, the Try Guys knew they had to evolve to save their growing business and keep their team of editors, producers, and more employed. "Our audience was interested in a depth of connection," Kornfeld said. "That just isn't what YouTube is built for."

That's why in May 2024, the Try Guys announced that the channel would undergo a rebrand. 2nd Try is a subscription service that expands the group to other members and viewpoints. Viewers can spend $5 a month or $50 for the year to get early access to ad-free, uncensored videos to the troupe's catalog. Some viewers found the move controversial, especially since weeks prior, fellow BuzzFeed alums Watcher announced their own streaming service which also ended in a couch apology. At the same time, Yang announced that he would be leaving the group. 

Former BuzzFeed colleagues like Kwesi James and internet darlings like baker Jonny Manganello are part of a rotating roster of faces breathing new blood into the channel. The group is bounding into new territory, like creating their own comic book and trying drugs on camera. 

Turning from post-grads forced to make six videos a week into cultural icons didn't happen overnight. Their decade of work and experimentation is impressive, and it leaves the future wide open to possibility.  

"I think we had to go through that valley to see what was broken in what we were doing, to then imagine a better future," Kornfeld said.

Pachinko Season 2 is worth watching for its updated opening title sequence alone.

SEE ALSO: 'Pachinko' Season 2 trailer teases more sweeping family drama — with the help of BLACKPINK's Rosé

Like Season 1's stirring opener, this sequence features members of the Baek family dancing, carefree, down aisles of pachinko machines. In a new twist, though, these credits are split across two pachinko parlors: A muted, 1940s-era parlor with wood-paneled machines, and a much larger, rainbow-bright parlor from the 1980s. Characters from the show's earlier timeline dance through both sets, a joyful reflection of the ways in which history, both personal and global, layers itself over the present.

These echoes of the past — some joyful, some tragic — persist throughout the main body of Pachinko's second season, which remains a magnificent portrait of a family across generations.

What's Pachinko Season 2 about? Sungkyu Kim, Eunchae Jung, Kang Hoon Kim, Minha Kim, Eunseong Kwon, and Lee Minho in "Pachinko." Credit: Apple TV+

Once again, Pachinko splits its time between the lives of Sunja (Minha Kim) and her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha), both of whom find themselves in periods of extreme transition.

In Osaka in 1945, Sunja struggles to keep her family afloat during World War II. As the American forces close in on Japan, a reunion with her former lover Koh Hansu (Lee Minho) — and father of her eldest son Noa (Kang Hoon Kim) — offers Sunja an escape to the countryside. There, she, Noa, her youngest son Mozasu (Eunseong Kwon), and her sister-in-law Kyunghee (Eunchae Jung) can wait out the end of the conflict.

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While Pachinko continues to focus on Sunja's hard work to ensure her and her loved ones' survival, it also opens up to a coming-of-age story for Noa and Mozasu. The two face anti-Korean prejudice from their Japanese compatriots everywhere from schoolrooms in Osaka to the rolling rice fields of the countryside. Yet they also form new dreams and new friendships. Among them? A bond with Hansu, whose secret connection to Noa looms large over the season.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo in 1989, Solomon is fighting a war of his own against businessman Abe (Yoshio Maki) in retaliation for the loss of his career. Centered around discussions of real estate deals and starting his own fund, his is a struggle that's so far removed from Sunja's own that her older self (Academy Award winner Yuh-Jung Youn) can barely understand it. But of course, it’s in the moments where younger Sunja and Solomon’s stories intersect — or diverge — that Pachinko finds some of its most potent meaning.

Pachinko Season 2 continues to be an exceptional exploration of the past. Jin Ha in "Pachinko." Credit: Apple TV+

Pachinko's earlier timeline stands by itself as a moving tale of perseverance through dark times, full of simple life-affirming moments like family dinners or days spent flying kites. But it also elevates the later timeline by constantly reminding of us of everything that brought Solomon to where he is today. His business ambition has roots in Noa's own drive to study for a university entrance exam. Any time a character in the past mentions wanting to go to America, we recall that Solomon went to Yale.

There are differences, too: In one episode, Noa learns a valuable lesson in forgiveness, while Solomon forgoes any kind of forgiveness in favor of revenge. The lack of Noa in 1989 reverberates through the past as well, making every scene with him a new step on the inevitable march towards his absence.

Throughout it all, Pachinko remains one of the most stunningly crafted shows on TV. Each set, costume, and prop bursts with lived-in texture. Often, the series slows down to detail the everyday processes that make up the Baeks' lives, from days spent working on a rice farm to hours spent making family meals. Each scene is so evocative you can almost feel sweat on the back of your neck in tandem with theirs, or smell the food they pass around their table.

Occasionally, Pachinko Season 2 breaks this carefully conjured realism, for better or worse. In the "better" corner, we have a tense sequence counting down to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki — an inevitability from the very first episode. Mundane activities play out in a Nagasaki factory, rendered in black and white, as if we're watching a newsreel of the moments leading up to the bombing. It's a breathtaking stylistic change, and marks a shift in the rest of the season. Unfortunately, Season 2 does stumble a tad in its final episodes, with love triangles and the occasional "shocking" reveal tending towards soap opera-esque melodrama.

Overall, though, Pachinko Season 2 is a triumphant achievement for one of TV's best shows. Like Pachinko's characters in the 1989 timeline, who can always sense the brush of history at their backs, you'll feel like you can reach out and touch the past just by watching.

Pachinko Season 2 premieres Aug. 23 on Apple TV+, with a new episode every Friday.

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Have you heard the one about how aliens have infiltrated human society in order to take over Earth without us noticing? How they’ve slipped beneath the skin of all sorts of folks, from new mothers to famous politicians, and they are heck-bent on… uncovering the recipe for marmalade? OK, so Secret Invasion this ain’t. The Becomers, a sci-fi rom-com from Little Sister writer/director Zach Clark, feels like what Jim Jarmusch’s deadpan touch could do with a Body Snatchers remake.

Low-key, lovely, and determinedly lo-fi, these aliens’ antics comment on the world they find themselves stumbling through, which just so happens to be the weird and wacky one modern-day Americans inhabit. Along the way, the film buries its sweet and tender romance under a good dollop of gross-out Cronenbergian body horror. There’s something here for everybody!

What's "The Becomers" about? Credit: Yellow Veil Pictures

Basically, it's Body Snatchers told from the point of view of the Snatchers themselves. The Becomers has that 1980s fish-out-of-water vibe in which comedies like Cocoon and Splash traded. These slimy assimilators, once under the skin of their fresh human vessels, have some wacky catching up to do. And we watch them fail and flail as they keep getting it wrong, immersed in situations they weren’t quite expecting. 

Putting the fluid in “gender fluid,” the routine goes like this: The aliens drop down from the skies via their little pink whirligig spacecraft, and they liquefy whatever unlucky person they cross paths with, quickly adopting their visage through, you know, science or whatever. The movie really doesn’t get too hung up on the particulars, and neither should you. Some very brief backstory lays out the dying planet that they’ve come from, but The Becomers is more concerned with the directly here and right now — with the weirdness of these weirdos continually finding themselves to be the least weird ones in the room.

So, after landing their spacecraft in the woods just off the highway, our primary alien (names aren’t really a thing in this story) first slips into the road worker who saw their ship land. But he’s no good; the alien needs a vehicle to be mobile. And what luck, there’s a young woman pulled over on the side of the road just ahead. The fact that she’s pulled over because she’s actively giving birth is only a brief distraction the alien doesn’t seem too concerned with. They’ve got places to be, and babies can be dispatched easily enough. 

The problem is that every human being that the alien takes over also had places to be. They had lives they were in the middle of leading when they were so rudely interrupted by all this extraterrestrial chicanery. And aye, that’ll be the rub, as our alien steps into each person’s shoes for however long they’re in there, trying to pass as human. Clark mines great tension and even greater humor from each too-close-for-comfort encounter, as the alien is forced to find out what kind of person they’re inhabiting, and what kind of terrible skeletons they've got in their closets... or basements.

There's a dark but giddy humor as the alien tries on fresh bodies like the shopping spree scene from Pretty Woman. The Becomers becomes episodic as its space invaders strive to find that perfect fit, skin by skin. We never realized how lucky Julia Roberts was that she didn’t have to vomit acid onto every Louboutin that was too big or small in order to dissolve its carcass. Not until now, anyway! That would’ve been a very different movie. It would have been this one, in fact.

Acid baths aside, every night, no matter how outrageous the circumstances they find themselves in, the alien goes outdoors and calls out a strange sound into the darkness. A sort of music, which we eventually find out is the alien’s version of Daniel Day-Lewis' “I will find you!” speech from The Last of the Mohicans. Because it turns out that the alien’s life partner is also out there somewhere among humanity, in some random human form as well — also wandering, also looking for their partner in return. 

Separated by unimaginable distances and events beyond our pea-brained comprehension, it turns out that all these interstellar lifeforms are looking for is their one true love. Everybody together now: Awww!

The extraterrestrials of "The Becomers" are so extra.

But this is hardly a re-do of the heteronormative Earth Girls Are Easy. Not when gender is utterly meaningless to the members of this species, who insists on retaining a moist, leaking side-hole on their human-seeming exteriors. One where all sorts of gunky sexual shenanigans will go down, eventually gifting us with what might be the weirdest sex scene on-screen since Team America.

Once our literally star-crossed lovers finally do get reunited, the longest passage of the film finds our lead alien taking on the form of Little Sister actress Molly Plunk (a singular delight who profoundly gets the assignment), while her lover is first played by Jacquelyn Haas and then by Mike Lopez (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms) as their bodies betray them through a series of mishaps. But even as the bodies and actors and side-holes keep changing, we keep track of who’s who because one alien’s eyes glow pink while the other’s glow blue — no doubt another sly nod toward the deconstruction of gender constructs always scribbling in the film’s margins.

But as queer as the body snatchers and their acid-barfing escapades are, nothing quite prepares them for the queerness of humanity itself. As the aliens find and lose and find one another over and over again, we become witness to how truly outlandish our own proclivities would seem when viewed from slightly askance. 

Across the last act, as politics and cults and Facebook-radicalized suburbanite Satanists start inching into the frame, it becomes clear that this is a satire of our truly absurd moment as much as the 1956 Body Snatchers movie was a lacerating takedown of McCarthyism. Each generation gets the Body Snatchers it deserves, and 2023 deserves chaos. The Becomers brings it in buckets.

The Becomers will open in select theaters starting on Aug. 23 and will be available via VOD on Sept. 24.

UPDATE: Aug. 20, 2024, 2:48 p.m. EDT "The Becomers" was reviewed out of Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 in this article, originally published on Aug. 2, 2023. This article has been updated to reflect the movie's theatrical and VOD releases.

Change is in the air in Pachinko Season 2.

SEE ALSO: 'Pachinko' Season 2 review: Decades-spanning family drama makes a triumphant return

Created by Soo Hugh, the decades-spanning adaptation of Min Jin Lee's novel of the same name continues to tell the intertwining stories of Sunja Baek (Minha Kim and Yuh-Jung Youn) and her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha). But there are some substantial differences at play. This season heads to new locations, elevates characters like Sunja's sons Noa (Kang Hoon Kim) and Mozasu (Eunseong Kwon) to higher prominence, and reunites Sunja with her former lover Koh Hansu (Lee Minho) after 14 years apart. There's even a new title sequence to usher us into Pachinko's next chapters.

Mashable spoke with Hugh about some of the biggest changes Pachinko viewers can expect in Season 2, including trips to the countryside, Noa and Mozasu's new roles, and what comes next for Sunja and Hansu.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mashable: One big change coming into Pachinko Season 2 is we get a new title sequence with new actors, more pachinko parlors, and a new song, "Wait a Million Years" by The Grass Roots. What was the thought process behind changing up the sequence?

Soo Hugh, showrunner, writer, and producer of Pachinko: It's always the most fun part of the show, filming those title sequences. And we love Season 1's version, but half those actors aren't in the show anymore. We could have recut it, but I think it would have really hurt the flow of the title sequence. Redoing it also gave us an opportunity to bring more of our actors into the piece.

The song we chose, when you listen to its lyrics, you realize it's a love song. They say, "I would wait a million years." And so many of the storylines in Season 2 are about, what does it mean to find someone that really understands and sees you? That just became a bigger part of Season 2.

SEE ALSO: Apple TV+'s 'Pachinko' has an opening title sequence you'll want to watch more than once

In Season 1, you expanded on elements of the original novel, including an episode focused on Koh Hansu's experience in the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923. What was something from the novel you were most excited to expand upon or explore in Season 2?

We really bring up the second generation more in Season 2, so it becomes so much more Noa and Mozasu's story. Pachinko is this generational saga, so it's been nice to start building out their stories and adding their points of view. It makes it a challenge in some ways: There's so many more storylines to balance in Season 2 than we had in Season 1. We had to figure out how to deftly weave in all these stories without making it feel like all of a sudden we have too many things to follow.

Eunseong Kwon and Kang Hoon Kim in "Pachinko." Credit: AppleTV+

With the emphasis on Noa and Mozasu, we get a coming-of-age story in this season, with schoolboy angst and struggles to make friends. I'd love to hear more about that.

We want to try and create this portrait of what it is to be these characters in this time period. Even though we've never seen Solomon in school when he's a kid, when you see what happens to Noa, you understand something similar probably happened to Solomon as well. So there's this doubling — these are shared experiences between the generations.

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At the end of episode 1, we see Sunja and Hansu reunite after being separate for most of Season 1. Tell me about crafting that reunion, and what it was like to bring these two characters back together.

We knew there was so much expectation riding on that scene. Season 1 ends with Hansu first seeing Sunja, and now episode 1 of Season 2 ends with them finally confronting each other. They haven't seen each other in 14 years. If you were in that situation, what would you say to that person? For Sunja, it's such a shock. So it was important to give it that dramatic weight, that emotional weight, and at the same time, making sure that we're not betraying who Sunja is. She's not just going to run into his arms!

Lee Minho and Minha Kim in "Pachinko." Credit: AppleTV+

Exactly. I know there are a lot of people who want to see these characters together, and a lot of people who don't. As Sunja and Hansu's relationship comes to the forefront this season, what is something you hope viewers take away or learn from this aspect of the story?

Something that I think is really important and that we want to emphasize in Season 2 is that these people don't even know each other that well. In Season 1, they were together only a few times before she got pregnant and had to decide that she couldn't live the life that he wanted her to live as a mistress. So Season 2 is actually the season where they get to know each other as people.

What I'm interested in, more than a romance, is we actually see a friendship start to develop between these two people. That's even bigger than a romantic angle: How do these two people understand each other? Because now they're both parents, and their shared love for Noa really brings them together in a stronger way than just lust or romantic love.

We know from the Season 2 trailer that Hansu, Sunja, and Sunja's family end up in the countryside, meaning so much of their chance to reconnect happens in the country as opposed to the city. How will that new setting impact their burgeoning connection?

I love that question, because they fell in love in the Korean countryside when Sunja was a teenager, right? So there's something about the countryside that takes them back to being home, and there's a comfort in that. Hansu always says, in some ways, he's always looking for where home is. He lives in this big mansion with his Japanese father-in-law, and yet the place he feels most comfortable is with Sunja.

Pachinko Season 2 premieres Aug. 23 on Apple TV+, with a new episode every Friday.