Tesla's Powerwall home battery comes in these lickable colors

Tonight Elon Musk finally unveiled Tesla Energy, the new battery initiative that is designed to handle power needs for homes, business, and even public utilities. The product that's aimed at the average homeowner is the Powerwall, and just like all of Tesla's products there's some real style in its design. Musk compared it to a piece of sculpture that would hang on your wall, and in addition to the base model pictured above, it comes in an assortment of different colors.

Go ahead. Take a look. What Powerwall really speaks to you?

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Tesla's Powerwall home battery comes in these lickable colors

Elon Musk just gave the best tech keynote I've ever seen

I've watched a lot of handsomely paid CEOs get on stages for keynote presentations over the past decade, and none were as good as the one I saw Elon Musk give Thursday night in California as he introduced Tesla's new battery system. I'm sure many people will disagree — I mean, how can you compete with Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007 — but ultimately Jobs was selling a better smartphone. Musk is selling a better future.

I'm not saying Musk is going to succeed, or that you should go buy Tesla's battery. There are lots of ways to save the world and cut down on fossil fuels and Tesla's plan isn't the first. I'm just happy to see a presentation that was genuinely exciting and inspiring — a sales pitch for a tech product that's...

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Elon Musk just gave the best tech keynote I've ever seen

Tesla Energy is Elon Musk's battery system that can power homes, businesses, and the world

Tesla has finally taken the wraps off Tesla Energy, its ambitious battery system that can work for homes, businesses, and even utilities. The system breaks down into two separate products: the Powerwall is a home battery system, that comes in a 10 kWh version for $3,500, or a 7 kWh model for $3,000. The unit is about three feet by four feet in size and six inches thick, and comes with integrated heat management and  can fit either on the inside or outside of the wall of your home. The system is connected to the internet — Elon Musk said that the system can be used to create "smart microgrids" — and can be uses as a redundancy system, or potentially allow a home to go completely off the power grid entirely. "The whole thing is a system...

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Tesla Energy is Elon Musk's battery system that can power homes, businesses, and the world

See Sansa Stark as a psychic mutant in X-Men: Apocalypse

Sophie Turner — the British actress who portrays Game of Thrones' Sansa Stark — is swapping medieval-style fantasy for mutant sci-fi. Turner is set to play powerful psychic Jean Grey in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse, appearing for the first time alongside fellow mutant Jubilee, played by Lana Condor, in a picture shared on director Bryan Singer's Instagram account.

It's been reported that the new movie, which follows X-Men: First Class and last year's Days of Future Past, is at least partially set in 1983, and Singer looks keen to evoke the fashion of the era. The first pictures of teleporting mutant Nightcrawler appeared earlier this week, showing the blue-skinned mutant sporting a clothing combo that Michael J. Fox's Teen Wolf might...

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See Sansa Stark as a psychic mutant in X-Men: Apocalypse

Grooveshark is dead

The writing has been on the wall for controversial music-sharing service Grooveshark for a long time, and now the service is gone for good. In a message posted to the official site, Grooveshark has expressed contrition over the way it conducted its business, says it's settled with major record companies, and recommends users go to other services like Spotify or Beats Music.

The company's full statement is below:

Dear music fans,

Today we are shutting down Grooveshark.

We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.

That was wrong. We...

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Grooveshark is dead

Leica's black-and-white M Monochrom camera now shoots video too

The most interesting thing about Leica's M Monochrom camera thus far hasn't been what you can do with it, but what you can't. When Leica introduced it three years ago, some people turned their heads sideways in confusion because it cost $7,950, yet could only shoot in black and white. In return, Leica promised tack-sharp photos that more closely emulated the look and feel of what you'd get from film cameras.

The idea panned out because Leica has returned with a new model of the Monochrom, dubbed the Type 246. It improves on a handful of features that were lacking in the first model, while adding high definition video recording and a live view preview of what's being captured. That extends the camera beyond taking very nice stills, and...

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Leica's black-and-white M Monochrom camera now shoots video too

Up close with Microsoft's HoloLens headset

Microsoft isn't letting the media take pictures of the HoloLens experience itself, but we just arrived at the company's demo station here at Build and there's a unit under glass. It looks identical to the press photos we've seen before, with a futuristic looking visor and the transparent glass that lets you see your environment while holograms project around you. We're about to take a closer look at HoloLens, so stay tuned for further impressions.

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Up close with Microsoft's HoloLens headset

A Facebook bug is stopping users from posting anything with a link

A new Facebook bug is causing major problems for users, with posts disappearing and new links apparently blocked from posting. The issue has been disastrous for organizations that rely on the Facebook to communicate with the public. Media brands, which have come to rely on Facebook for an increasing share of traffic, have been particularly quick to voice their displeasure.

The problems began last night with issues in the image-scraping system, which automatically pulls pictures from posted links. The issue was reported in Facebook's developer forums and Facebook's ops team promised a fix — but the resulting fix seems to have broken the system entirely. A number of posts containing links seem to have vanished, including dozens from The...

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A Facebook bug is stopping users from posting anything with a link

Cortana on Windows 10 is about to get more powerful

When Cortana first arrived in Windows 10 preview builds, it was rough. Features, general usability, and the look and feel was really early, but Microsoft has been steadily improving things ever since. The software giant is now testing out even better ways of bringing some of the popular features of Cortana from the phone over to the PC. During a media event at Microsoft Build today I got a closer look at some of the changes coming over the next few weeks. Microsoft is heavily tweaking the Cortana user interface and more closely integrating it into the Start Menu and general Windows 10 experience.

Some small, but noticeable, changes include new Cortana animations as you activate the digital assistant. If you use the "hey Cortana" command...

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Cortana on Windows 10 is about to get more powerful

Windows 10 won't launch on phones this summer

While Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 10 on PCs this summer, the phone part of the operating system will debut at a later date. Speaking at a media event at Build in San Francisco today, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore explained the company's plans for the launch of Windows 10. “Our phone builds have not been as far as long as our PC builds," explained Belfiore. “We’re adapting the phone experiences later than we’re adding the PC experiences.”

That slower progress means Windows 10 on phones will show up after the PC launch this summer. "There are devices and features that will come not on launch date, but following it," says Belfiore. "From the device view, our main focus is to kick off the Windows 10 launch wave with a great launch on...

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Windows 10 won't launch on phones this summer

It looks like Star Wars is coming to Disney Infinity

In news that should surprise no one, it appears that Star Wars characters will soon be a part of the toys-to-life series Disney Infinity. Disney hasn't made the long-anticipated news official just yet, but a retailer has leaked what looks to be the starter set for the new game.

Just like Skylanders, Disney Infinity is a game that lets you scan real toys into a video game. The first version mashed together characters from Disney movies, while version 2.0 added Marvel characters. Star Wars has long been expected to be the latest addition, and designer Jeff Bunker even hinted at it, telling The Verge that "I think we have a style that accommodates anything that comes our way." The 3.0 set leaked by retailer Saturn shows a set that includes...

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It looks like Star Wars is coming to Disney Infinity

Streaming Xbox One games to a Windows 10 PC is awesome

Ever since Microsoft announced its plans to bring Xbox One game streaming to Windows 10 back in January, I've been dying to try it. While the Xbox One dashboard has been updated to support the new feature, the Xbox one app for Windows 10 isn't quite ready yet. At its Build developers conference in San Francisco this week, Microsoft is demonstrating Xbox One game streaming to Windows 10 PCs to the public for the first time. I got a chance to try it, and it's as awesome as I had hoped.

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Streaming Xbox One games to a Windows 10 PC is awesome

Someone is remaking Cube, a movie about killer cubes

Imagine that you're trapped inside a cube. Now imagine that on every wall is the entrance to another cube. Now imagine that most of those cubes are trying to kill you. That's the amazing premise of the 1997 sci-fi film Cube, which Lionsgate now plans to remake under the title Cubed, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Someone is remaking Cube, a movie about killer cubes

The center of our galaxy might be full of dying vampire stars

A special space telescope has helped scientists gain a much better grasp on what's happening at the crowded center of our galaxy, according to findings published in Nature yesterday.

Earth is stuck near the edge of the Milky Way, tucked in a quiet spot just off of one of the galaxy's spiral arms. The center of our galaxy, on the other hand, is an extremely busy place. If we're in the suburbs, the galactic center is Times Square; it's packed full of stars that are dead or dying, giant gas clouds, and of course, one supermassive black hole. And while astronomers learn a lot about our galaxy by looking at its cosmic doppelgängers, there's still much to be gained by studying the busiest parts of our own.

If we're in the suburbs, the...

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The center of our galaxy might be full of dying vampire stars

The Vergecast will be live today at 4:15PM ET!

Hello hello hello. So Dieter Bohn is on vacation. Chris Plante is in the process of moving. And Chris Ziegler is... somewhere. But fret not: Nilay Patel is here. As is Sam Sheffer (me). So we're going to do a show. This week was a big one: Microsoft held its annual Build developers conference; Facebook, Apple, and many others reported their quarterly earnings; LG announced its new flagship phone, the G4; and Secret shut down.

We'll be live a bit earlier today — 4:15PM ET / 1:15PM PT / 8:15PM GMT via the Livestream embed above. And if you miss the live show, you can always watch the replay (using the embed above) or download the audio version on iTunes. And speaking of iTunes, be sure to rate us five stars if you enjoyed the show. We'll...

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The Vergecast will be live today at 4:15PM ET!

Watch the history of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in 13 minutes

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the biggest and easily the most lucrative film franchise of our time. Marvel Studios hit a home run in 2008 with Iron Man, and has followed that up each year with bigger and bigger tentpoles. Avengers, or the One Where Everybody Teams Up and Things Explode, set an even higher bar in 2012, and Marvel has only to keep topping itself while the rest of the industry catches up.

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Watch the history of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in 13 minutes

Watch the trailer for Tangerine, a Sundance favorite shot on an iPhone 5S

Tangerine got a ton of attention at Sundance this year for its lively attitude and its uncommon subject matter: two trans women who do sex work in Hollywood and are trying to hunt down a cheating boyfriend. But one of the other reasons for the film's attention was how it was shot. Tangerine was filmed almost entirely on an iPhone 5S, which is a pretty impressive feat. It took a few add-ons and apps (and plenty of prior filmmaking knowledge), but the crew behind it was able to make a film that looks unique and vibrant.

A trailer for Tangerine was just released, and you can see that it doesn't quite look like anything you've pulled out of your camera roll. You may not have even noticed the atypical camera style if you weren't looking for...

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Watch the trailer for Tangerine, a Sundance favorite shot on an iPhone 5S

Microsoft offers a closer look at its HoloLens headset

Microsoft has been showing off HoloLens at its Build developers conference this week on stage, with impressive demonstrations of some of its capabilities. While we’re aware of most of what HoloLens enables, the software maker has kept the details of its hardware headset rather secret. Today, Microsoft is offering up a few new details about what exactly is buried inside its futuristic headset.

Unlike most VR headsets, Microsoft is using see through lenses to allow you to see the rest of a room or the environment you’re interacting with, in a similar way to Google’s Glass headset. To assist with this, HoloLens uses a combination of spatial sound and sensors in the headset to capture information about the environment you’re in. Spatial...

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Microsoft offers a closer look at its HoloLens headset

Play this weird, low-fi peasant simulator from the designer of Threes

It's the classic rags to riches story: start out as a lowly peasant, but work your way up to take the throne through a combination of hard work and cunning. But just like in real life, in Royals — a new game from Asher Vollmer, the designer of Threes — it's never really clear what choices you should make, and how things will play out. A single wrong turn could lead to death.

Royals is a low-fi simulation game that looks like something you might've played on a Commodore 64. The game's site describes it as "an old forgotten game from your youth... you can't find the manual." You start out on a small map, filled with mountains, houses, and lakes, and from there you make decisions in a quest to become a king or queen. You can ransack homes...

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Play this weird, low-fi peasant simulator from the designer of Threes

T-Mobile is again giving customers free MLB At Bat subscription worth $20

T-Mobile customers are yet again benefitting from the Uncarrier's close relationship with Major League Baseball. Starting tomorrow, if you download the At Bat app while on T-Mobile's network, the company will throw a free Premium subscription your way — something that costs the rest of us $19.99. (Apparently it won't work if you try to sign up over Wi-Fi.) The terms of the deal don't spell out any restrictions around postpaid or prepaid accounts, so it appears this is open to all of T-Mobile's paying customers. According to the carrier, this season-long Premium pass allows users to:

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T-Mobile is again giving customers free MLB At Bat subscription worth $20

One in six species could soon be at risk for extinction because of climate change

One in six species on the planet will be at risk for extinction because of climate change if humans don’t curb their carbon emissions soon, according to a study published in Science today. Buildings, powerlines, antennas, and wind farms are also causing millions of animal deaths each year, according to a second study published in Science today. Overall, humanity’s effect on animal species isn’t looking very good.

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One in six species could soon be at risk for extinction because of climate change

See how old Microsoft thinks you are

How old am I? How old are any of us? It's a number you inherently know, and now Microsoft has created a terribly powerful machine that will judge your age using algorithms. You give it a picture, and it gives you almost instantaneous judgement, complete with gender assignment.

Behind the scenes, Microsoft is using machine learning to better churn through the untold number of photos on the internet. That is not an easy job, and one just about every search company is trying to get just right. So what's the point of this? Microsoft says it's for "obtaining real time insights" on the data it's gathering about people's gender and age. It also means you can give it countless photos of your friends, family, celebrities, and mythological...

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See how old Microsoft thinks you are

Rand Paul is erasing Paul Rand

Paul Rand is one of the most influential graphic designers of the 20th century, creator of iconic logos for IBM and UPS, among others. He pioneered the logo as corporate identity, defined by simple shapes and primary colors. He has been dead for 18 years.

Rand Paul is the junior senator from Kentucky, elected in 2010 and currently in the running for the Republican candidacy for president. He has taken outspoken positions against the War on Terror and the criminalization of drugs, and is one of the leading proponents of libertarianism within the US government.

Rand Paul is erasing Paul Rand.

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Rand Paul is erasing Paul Rand

Beyond Unfriended: Timur Bekmambetov's wild plan to make desktop movies mainstream

“Chariots. Endless chariots.”

I’m Skyping with director Timur Bekmambetov, who’s just come off a day shooting Ben-Hur in Rome. It’s the kind of production that will give the Russian-born filmmaker behind Wanted and Night Watch an enormous canvas for his kinetic brand of action filmmaking. It also means, he tells me, a whole lot of horses.

But today we’re not talking about races or epics. We’re talking about computer screens.

Bekmambetov was a producer and the initial creative force behind Unfriended, the horror film that debuted earlier this month about a bunch of friends who find themselves stalked by a dead classmate. The stylistic conceit of Unfriended is that the entire movie takes place on a computer screen as the lead character...

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Beyond Unfriended: Timur Bekmambetov's wild plan to make desktop movies mainstream

See how bat biology could lead to better aircraft

Report says top US psychologists collaborated with torture program architects

Members of the American Psychological Association, the largest association of psychologists in the United States, "secretly coordinated" with the George W. Bush administration on the CIA's torture program, according to a new report and emails released today. The report, written by a group of health workers and human rights activists, suggests the APA worked with top government officials to establish ethical guidelines that would allow the program to continue while shielding its architects from legal fallout.

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Report says top US psychologists collaborated with torture program architects

Most women don't need to be screened for cervical cancer annually

Most women only need to be screened for cervical cancer once every three years, according to a new set of practice guidelines that the American College of Physicians, a national organization of doctors, released today. Women under the age of 21 shouldn't undergo testing at all — regardless of their sexual health history — because many will receive abnormal test results without ever developing cervical cancer.

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Most women don't need to be screened for cervical cancer annually

China is rewriting the rules of the mobile game, and Apple is still winning

If you’re a producer of personal electronics without a China strategy, then you might as well not have a growth strategy. The rising influence of the world’s most populous nation has been described as the only geopolitical constant of the past 30 years, and recent times have seen it growing in economic influence as well. China is now the world’s largest smartphone market and continues surging forward as its economy and people ramp up their consumption of things to match their already vast production.

China’s Lenovo now owns two of the United States’ (and, by extension, the world’s) best-known technology brands: ThinkPad and Motorola. Like the successful companies that have risen out of the neighbouring Taiwan and South Korea, Chinese...

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China is rewriting the rules of the mobile game, and Apple is still winning

Uber's SOS button will send live GPS updates to police in India

Uber added an "SOS" button to its app in India following the alleged rape of a passenger last year, and today Uber has announced plans to start improving that button in a significant way. Starting in the city Kolkata and potentially rolling out elsewhere, activating the SOS button will now send live GPS updates to local police, provide police with information on the driver, and send details on the passenger reporting the issue, in addition to initiating a phone call with the police as it initially did. That information, which should enable police to track an Uber vehicle, will appear on a display that Uber installs for the local police.

Uber says that it's been testing the service in Kolkata and is now in "advanced discussions" with...

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Uber's SOS button will send live GPS updates to police in India

This is the clearest look at Ben Affleck's Batman yet

The more we see Ben Affleck's Batman, the more menacing and completely void of joy he looks. We've caught glimpses of him in previous teaser photos and the trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but this is probably the best, most straight-on look at Affleck as the Caped Crusader yet. It's basically an unmodified version of the heavily stylized posters that were tweeted by director Zack Snyder last week.

This Batman poster hasn't yet been released through official channels, but according to Polygon it's been floating around various forums and looks to be genuine enough. Affleck's got some legitimate chin stubble going on, a look that previous actors who donned the batsuit never explored. But it's a perfect match for the bleak,...

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This is the clearest look at Ben Affleck's Batman yet

The best keyboard for Android

Survey the vast landscape of Android phones you can buy, and you'll find devices of all sizes, designs, and prices. Many of them have giant screens, which are great for all the cool stuff you can do with a smartphone, like browsing the web, playing games, and making video calls. But what you won't find are phones with physical keyboards, and it can be pretty hard to type on a phone with a nearly 6-inch screen, especially with one hand.

Fortunately, for years Android has let you customize the keyboard you use, and there are countless options in the Google Play Store. You can get keyboards that let you trace, keyboards with non-standard layouts, keyboards that shrink down to tiny sizes, and keyboards that let you drop in images and emoji...

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The best keyboard for Android

The best keyboard for the iPhone

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are by far the biggest smartphones Apple has ever made. Those big screens are great for everything from browsing the web, to watching video, to playing games. But aside from being more difficult to put in your pocket, it can be hard to type on these larger phones, especially with one hand. Banging out a quick message or email with an iPhone 6 Plus in one hand and a piping hot coffee in the other can be quite a chore.

Let's face it, Apple is never going to add a physical keyboard to the iPhone to make typing easier. But iOS 8 does let you install third-party keyboard apps that can make your thumbs happier. Since iOS 8's release last fall, there have been countless keyboards added to the App Store,...

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The best keyboard for the iPhone

Europe stays on the offensive with new probe into US tech giants

The European Union is preparing to carry out a wide-ranging probe into US tech companies such as Amazon and Google, reports the Financial Times. This "comprehensive assessment" is part of a draft plan to establish the EU's single digital market — a unified set of regulations for the digital world, that would cover everything from streaming services to telecoms. While the FT reports that a probe into US companies is currently part of this plan, the draft itself has yet to be approved by the European Commission, which will examine the proposals next week.

While this probe would be separate to the antitrust investigation leveled at Google earlier this month, it appears to cover similar ground —  including, for example, an investigation...

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Europe stays on the offensive with new probe into US tech giants

Apple and IBM are making iPad apps for Japanese seniors

Apple, IBM and Japan Post are teaming up for an ambitious project aimed at connecting Japanese seniors through customized iPad software. The project will employ iPad apps written by IBM and integrated into Japan Post's existing services, helping seniors coordinate services like household maintenance, medical services and caregiving. Japan Post is the country's largest postal delivery services, and also handles many basic caregiving services for seniors. The new apps will also integrate with existing Apple services like FaceTime. Japan Post CEO Taizo Nishimuro described the goal as "designing experiences that are easy to use for seniors, the kind of intuitive experience the iPad is famous for."

The project was announced at IBM's new...

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Apple and IBM are making iPad apps for Japanese seniors

Watch the secret first test flight of Jeff Bezos' rocket

If you didn't hear that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' secretive rocket company Blue Origin tested a rocket yesterday, you can be forgiven: unlike many launches, the first test flight of New Shepard wasn't streamed live. But the company has now released a video showing the successful launch from a base in Texas.

Blue Origin's goal is to create a cheap means of private space flight, and earlier this month, the company's president announced that it was prepared for test flights of its New Shepard rocket this year. "The engine is ready for flight... and ready for other commercial users," company president Rob Meyerson said. He didn't offer a timetable, but it appears the craft was closer to launch than most expected.

"Any astronauts on board...

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Watch the secret first test flight of Jeff Bezos' rocket

This man has $220 million and a plan to take down Amazon

Marc Lore does not remain still. During a recent lunch he fidgeted in his chair, stood up, stretched, then took a seat, and resumed eating. "We have an open office. I stand all day, I never sit," he explains. "This feels uncomfortable."

Lore has been very busy of late building Jet, an ambitious e-commerce startup trying to take the shopping club model pioneered by Costco and reimagine it for an online world. Today the company is launching in private beta to its first 10,000 customers, a slice of the 360,000 people who signed up for early access. The goal is to offer better prices than even the largest web retailer, Amazon. That’s an ambitious battle to fight, and for Lore, it’s also personal.

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This man has $220 million and a plan to take down Amazon

You can now embed classic games in your tweets

The Internet Archive has done an amazing job of preserving classic games by making them playable in your browser; the group's efforts have covered everything from MS-DOS games to titles from the arcades. And now you don't even have to leave Twitter to play some of them.

The feature only appears to work for MS-DOS games right now, which are also embeddable on websites. But that still means you can play thousands of classic games on Twitter. That includes everything from the original Street Fighter and Metal Gear games to beloved classics like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and The Oregon Trail. Not every game is well suited to the platform — turns out it's hard to pull off a hadoken in a tweet — but it's an impressive feat...

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You can now embed classic games in your tweets

Steam's virtual reality just got a boost from the maker of Unreal Tournament

Microsoft just grabbed support from a big game engine for its augmented reality headset, and now Valve and HTC are getting support from an even bigger one for their VR headset. That support comes from Epic Games, which is today adding tools for SteamVR in Unreal Engine 4 — the latest in a line of engines that have powered major 3D games like Unreal Tournament and Gears of War.

SteamVR is Valve's virtual reality platform, which is initially being made available through HTC's Vive headset this spring. As a platform focused on gaming, SteamVR very much needs to get major game engines on board. Unreal is one of the more powerful options around — it's also free, albeit with a 5 percent royalty for games that make over $3,000 — which should...

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Steam's virtual reality just got a boost from the maker of Unreal Tournament

This beautiful speaker does wireless three ways

If you're looking at a wireless speaker to use in your home, chances are you're making a choice between Bluetooth or AirPlay. Wren's new V5US doesn't force you to make that choice: it supports AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Play-Fi, so you can connect iOS devices, Android devices, or any smartphone with Bluetooth to it to play your tunes wirelessly. It also looks pretty great.

The V5US is kind of like a combination of three earlier V5 models, which separately supported AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Play-Fi. It retains the same wave design, wooden enclosure, and great sound of the earlier models, while supporting more wireless connectivity options.

Wren's speakers have been praised for great sound and the V5US is no exception. It has large,...

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This beautiful speaker does wireless three ways

Amazon Instant Video for iOS finally lets you stream movies and TV in HD

Amazon's finally getting around to a much needed update for its Instant Video app on iOS today. Version 3.0 adds the ability to stream movies and TV shows in HD. Yes, everything's been standard def until now. The update also allows you to watch content using your cellular data; previously, Instant Video simply wouldn't work unless you were on Wi-Fi. Obviously people should be mindful of their monthly data limits while doing this, and thankfully Amazon has also introduced some quality settings that determine how good video will look — but also how much data you'll suck down while watching Transparent or Mozart in the Jungle.

The "Best" setting should probably be reserved for those of you with unlimited data plans; Amazon says streaming...

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Amazon Instant Video for iOS finally lets you stream movies and TV in HD

First Click: Microsoft rips a page from the BlackBerry playbook

Yesterday’s news that Microsoft will support iOS and Android apps sure was exciting. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

“Developers wanting to bring their new and existing apps to the highly anticipated [Windows 10 OS] will soon have additional tools and options to enhance and expand their commercial opportunities. [Microsoft] today announced plans to greatly expand the application ecosystem for [Windows 10].”

“[Windows 10] is an amazing [OS]. The power that we have embedded creates one of the most compelling app experiences available in a mobile computing device today,” said [Satya Nadella]. “The upcoming addition of [iOS] and Android apps for the [Windows 10 OS] on the [Windows Store] will provide our users with an even...

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First Click: Microsoft rips a page from the BlackBerry playbook

The elephant ivory trade is alive and well on Craigslist, advocates say

Products made from elephant ivory and skins are still being sold on Craigslist sites in the US, conservationist groups say, reviving longstanding concerns over the online market for illegal wildlife items. In a report published this week, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) flagged 522 posts selling elephant ivory and other wildlife products, including tusks, jewelry, and furniture. The posts, identified across 28 US cities between March 16th and 20th of this year, encompassed 615 items with a combined list value of nearly $1.5 million.

The elephant ivory trade remains a lucrative business for poachers, buoyed by high prices and strong demand. A 2014 report found that poachers killed...

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The elephant ivory trade is alive and well on Craigslist, advocates say

Penguins use poo to melt snow

Call it landscaping the penguin way: time-lapse footage from a colony of Antarctic Gentoo penguins appears to show the birds using their feces to melt snow in their breeding grounds. The images — captured by the University of Oxford's Penguin Watch initiative — show the snow piling up before the penguins arrive, ready to breed. They quickly blanket the area with what looks like mud (here's a clue: it's not mud) and lo, the snow begins to melt.

whatever's going on, the penguins aren't doing it on purpose

Scientists studying the footage say it's possible that the darker color of the poo is helping to melt the snow by absorbing extra heat — a process known as the albedo effect. "This is something we're testing at the moment," says Dr Tom...

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Penguins use poo to melt snow

This lens turns your Leica into Lomography's best camera

You’d think that Leica and Lomography would occupy opposite ends of the photographic spectrum, but the latter’s latest product brings the two together. The Lomo LC-A Minitar-1 Art Lens takes the glass from the Lomo LC-A, the iconic camera that launched Lomography, and puts it in a new lens compatible with Leica M-mount digital and film rangefinder cameras.

The LC-A Minitar-1 is fairly wide and fast at 32mm f/2.8, making it a good fit for street photography. Along with the optics, it uses the same zone focusing system as the LC-A, meaning you can focus quickly by flipping a four-way switch. Unlike the LC-A, though, this lens also gives you rangefinder coupling and manual aperture control. It’s extremely compact and is available in black...

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This lens turns your Leica into Lomography's best camera

Help an old man shoot flying pandas in Namco Bandai's weird Galaga/Tekken crossover game

A key benefit of spaceships: they operate predominantly in zero-gravity environments, so they don't have to be particularly aerodynamic. Remind yourself of that as you control a ship in the shape of a 60-year-old man wearing a karate gi in Namco Bandai's new Galaga: Tekken 20th Anniversary crossover game. The mobile game, available on Android and iOS for free right now, replaces venerable arcade classic Galaga's spaceships and enemies with characters from the fighting game series.

The old man is the surprisingly fearsome Heihachi, a mainstay for the Tekken series since its inception. He's joined — in pixelated spaceship form — by spoiled heiress Lili and the dashing Claudio Serafino, a new character for Tekken 7. In terms of crossovers,...

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Help an old man shoot flying pandas in Namco Bandai's weird Galaga/Tekken crossover game

Google makes Chrome's bleeding edge developer version available on Android

Google is letting hardcore Android users get their hands on the roughest, rawest, most advanced version of Chrome available, making the Dev channel for Chrome on Android available to download via the Play Store. This lets experienced users and developers try out the browser's newest features on Google's mobile OS before they hit the mainstream. Casual users should be warned however, this is the equivalent of riding in a supercar before the manufacturers have checked the brakes: it might look fun, but you're going to crash. Although the Dev channel is already available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS, this is the first time it's been released for Android as well.

the different versions of chrome give users access to new features

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Google makes Chrome's bleeding edge developer version available on Android

Sony should probably stop making phones

Sony has reported earnings for its 2014 fiscal year along with forecasts for the next, and the numbers don’t give much reason for the company to stick with certain struggling products. Sony made an operating profit of ¥68.5 billion ($571 million) off ¥8.22 trillion ($68.5 billion) revenue in the year ending March 31st 2015, but lost ¥126 billion overall mainly due to various restructuring charges.

Although Sony predicts a 3.8 percent drop in revenue over the next year, it expects to make ¥320 billion in operating profit and ¥140 billion in net profit. But it’s worth looking at where that money will come from. Sony is expecting its Devices division, which includes its successful image sensor unit that produces components for the iPhone...

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Sony should probably stop making phones

NBC copies Netflix by making David Duchovny's new show available to binge-watch on day one

As Netflix becomes more like traditional TV networks by commissioning its own shows, traditional TV networks are taking cues from Netflix. NBC today announced that it is making all 13 episodes of its new 1960s-set police drama Aquarius available to watch online after the show's premiere on May 28th, aping the binge-watch-friendly model the streaming service has used for shows such as Arrested Development and Orange Is The New Black.

The entire season of the show — which features X-Files star David Duchovny as a detective looking into the activities of the Manson family in 1967 — will become available on NBC.com and via the network's app, in addition to cable VOD platforms, shortly after the first episode airs on TV. NBC has only opened...

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NBC copies Netflix by making David Duchovny's new show available to binge-watch on day one

Netflix is adapting Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham it will produce

A new Netflix series has appeared, but this one is a little weird. The streaming service has a plan to adapt Green Eggs and Ham — Dr. Seuss' famous creation, made into TV animation. 13 episodes will make the show, the release date of which, we don't yet know. Netflix's new project is the latest of several — most recently there was Daredevil — as the company increasingly competes, with cable TV and its repeats.

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Netflix is adapting Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham it will produce

Internet Explorer is cracking down on misleading ads before it dies

Even as it readies to effectively kill the brand, Microsoft is trying to make Internet Explorer a more palatable browsing option, today detailing plans to crack down on misleading ads. As of June 1st, the browser will notify users with a warning when a site features an ad that contains malicious code, content that pretends to be part of the site itself, or directs them towards misleading downloads. In a blog post, Microsoft detailed its new unwanted software evaluation criteria, explaining how it determined whether ads were designed with the intention to mislead or deceive users.

Internet Explorer has suffered from the increasing proliferation of ads that purport to offer Flash, Java, or PC cleaner downloads. Internet Explorer users can...

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Internet Explorer is cracking down on misleading ads before it dies

YouTube is dominating TV networks with mobile alone

Just how big is YouTube? At an event for advertisers in New York City this evening, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said that YouTube is now reaching more people in the oh-so-coveted 18-49 year old age demographic on mobile than any TV network is period. That's a big followup from the stat YouTube announced last year, that it was beating out TV networks on reach in general — not with mobile alone. "Let me tell you from running a service," Wojcicki said, "that is not easy to achieve." That said, it's worth remembering that this is a measure of how many people YouTube is reaching, not necessarily hours watched, and YouTube has the advantage of being a global service.

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YouTube is dominating TV networks with mobile alone

Watch Microsoft's three-hour Build keynote in just nine minutes

Microsoft had a lot on the docket for its Build developer conference today, so much that it ran just a hair under three hours. A lot of that was code demos, some third-party code demos, and even more demos that happened to involve code. But there were also some pretty exciting moments too. Things like augmented reality robots, new browsers that are not named Internet Explorer, and Microsoft giving us a look at how developers can bring over their software from Android and iOS. We've condensed these things and more into just nine minutes. If time was money and you were being paid the minimum wage, that's less than a cup of coffee in most places. And you're getting Satya Nadella to boot. Does your sad little Keurig latte offer that? Didn't...

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Watch Microsoft's three-hour Build keynote in just nine minutes

How a baseball game played for no one symbolizes what's wrong with America

The Baltimore Orioles played against the Chicago White Sox in an empty stadium today. The Orioles won, but no one was there to cheer.

The head of Major League Baseball decided Robert D. Manfred decided this week that it would be safer for fans that the game proceed without spectators in the stands, and the game made history for being the first ever closed to the public.

How did we get here? What does a baseball game say about the status quo in America?

On April 12th, 25-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police, allegedly for possession of a switchblade. He was handcuffed and put in the back of a police van. Within the next 45-minutes, his spine was almost completely severed at the neck, leaving him in a coma. He died a...

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How a baseball game played for no one symbolizes what's wrong with America