Technology news

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is not exactly known for being an emotionally expressive guy. 
Musk, when he appears in public, has a pretty laid-back demeanor, but that calm exterior goes out the window in a newly released clip from National Geographic. The nearly four minute video shows Musk watching the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket land back in Florida. 
SEE ALSO: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to fly again for first time since explosion
The landing, which happened almost exactly one year a

After Overwatch revealed that its star character, Tracer, is gay in a digital comic, the internet was aflutter with support and happiness flowing in from fans of the game.
Not everyone was happy with the reveal about Tracer's sexuality though — including the Russian government.The new Overwatch comic is banned in Russia and unavailable in the language because of homophobic laws against "gay propaganda." pic.twitter.com/u1vfCHXulG
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 20, 2016The c

It wouldn't be the holidays without a new pair of kicks. But the digital shoe emporium Zappos is having technical difficulties Tuesday, making any footwear purchases difficult. Six hours into the issue and it looks unresolved.Live look at our tech team fixing our site and app. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience! We'll keep you updated. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/vgnpvqX3AJ
— Zappos (@zappos) December 20, 2016All day, would-be shoe shoppers were writing to the c

Amnesty International wants you to do something for Edward Snowden before you detach from work for the holidays. 
The group recently launched a campaign designed to get employees, wherever they may be, to "donate" their out of office messages to the campaign to pardon Snowden. 
SEE ALSO: Edward Snowden rethinks that tweet about voting third party
Snowden, an NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower, became famous in 2013 after he leaked a trove of information about United States government

Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first novel in the James Bond series, and it gave readers a whole lot of gambling and spying while also grappling with Britain’s place in the world. The 2006 film adaptation was a box office success—while remaining very faithful to the novel.
Our CineFix series, What's the Difference, throws down its hand to see if we can't spy all the little differences between the book and the film.
Subscribe to CineFix for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/cinef

The holidays are less than a week away, which means it's officially crunch time.
As people frantically try to complete their last-minute shopping, they'll likely encounter a major problem — many of this year's hottest tech toys are selling out fast.
A truly terrifying reality.
SEE ALSO: The best tech of 2016
If you find the toy stores and Best Buys of the world have empty shelves this close to the holidays, here are some alternative methods to get those must-have gifts of 2016. 
Hatch

There's nothing more unsettling than having your smartphone stolen from you. 
Your conduit to the connected world is severed, sure, but that's just the immediate problem. Your phone probably holds more information about you than any other device — photos, contacts, messages and notes — all of which are now in the hands of someone who might try to exploit you. It's not a happy thought.  
After having an iPhone stolen, Dutch film student Anthony van der Meer needed to know mo

Lena Dunham made some comments this week that have people all riled up —again. 
The actress is currently under fire for remarks made on her podcast, Woman of the Hour. 
In a recent episode, Dunham spoke about a conversation she had while visiting a Planned Parenthood in Texas. A young woman opened up about her decision to have an abortion and before launching into that narrative, Dunham herself said she wished she had an abortion, too. 
Yikes.
SEE ALSO: Get your first look a

What will Apple do in 2017? 
The TL;DR version is: pretty much what they did in 2016. Update popular hardware, expand services, steer clear of new product categories and make a boatload of money.
SEE ALSO: Apple might finally start manufacturing iPhones in India
However, buried inside those pat and rather obvious observations is a company that may be in search of its mojo. There is nothing wrong with Apple or its offerings, but the company that reinvented and reinvigorated numerous product

The first 60 seconds of this interview are some very sportsy sports-talk. The final 20 seconds are pure feels. 
Patrick Maroon of the Edmonton Oilers scored a crucial game-tying goal against the St. Louis Blues on Monday night, setting his team up for an overtime win. Canada's Sportsnet TV network interviewed Maroon after the game — then hit the Oilers hero with some surprise footage that left him choking back tears. 
SEE ALSO: How college football's biggest stars are changing t

In the six months since the Pokémon Go mobile game dropped, players have been putting in some serious effort. 
Everyone seemed to drop everything when the game was released in July and all that searching for Pokémon has paid off — users have collectively walked 8.7 billion kilometers, or 5.4 billion miles, according to Niantic Labs (the company behind the game) in a blog post Tuesday.
SEE ALSO: So much complaining: 'Super Mario Run' will destroy your data and drain your

Cam Newton took a blow to the head on Monday night, but he got flagged.
Yes, you read that correctly. The Carolina Panthers quarterback, clearly ticked off when Washington linebacker Trent Murphy took a cheap shot at his helmet, tossed the ball in Murphy's direction, which earned Newton a flag for taunting. Murphy walked away from the play unscathed and flag-less. 
SEE ALSO: Someone found a way to make Odell Beckham's 'Beat It' touchdown dance even more amazing
Unfortunately for Newton, thi

The Obama administration announced a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling in most of the country's Arctic waters and parts of the Atlantic Ocean, a move made a few weeks before the pro-drilling Trump administration takes over. 
The announcement was made in conjunction with Canada, which also is putting a five-year moratorium on new oil and gas leases in its Arctic waters.
"These actions, and Canada’s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other

The first IMAX virtual reality theater, originally slated to open by the end of the year, is now expected in 2017. The IMAX VR Center in Manchester was supposed to be the first of a half-dozen such theaters to launch in 2016, offering VR experiences that exceeded what was possible with home VR headsets. But the schedule has been pushed back. “IMAX anticipates opening the VR pilot center in Manchester in early 2017,” a spokesperson told The Verge, when asked about the project’s

While last week Facebook built on Live’s video chops with the introduction of 360-degree video, this time around it’s paring down on the tech a bit with something a bit more old school: live audio. Relive the glory days of live radio! In all seriousness, there are plenty of situations where audio-only streams are welcome or even preferable. Plenty of people listen in on podcasts, after all; it’s not hard to imagine podcasters and authors using live audio to engage with th

Overwatch has always had a diverse cast of characters that bring life and color to the otherwise monochrome and monotonous first-person shooter genre. It was only a matter of time before one of its lovable characters was revealed to be queer.
Tracer, the speedy, time-shifting gunner who is always a nuisance to enemies, has a story in the latest digital Overwatch comic, "Reflections," which shows the hero kissing another woman — Emily. 
The Overwatch comics don't technically have any b

"Sometimes I fear our technological progress will slowly take over. We meet people through texts and screens. Is it setting us free? Or are we slowly wrapping ourselves in, depending too much on it? The fall is bigger when our hopes are not realistic, not human. What has no heart can't give us love and true happiness."To answer this question, Norwegian pop star Aurora teamed up with YouTube and Carnegie Mellon for a music video starring the most heartless of backup dancers: drones. The quadcopte

Facebook executives have said the social network could be all video and no text within the next five years.
But what about sound? 
SEE ALSO: Facebook is super thirsty for your Facebook Lives
Facebook announced Tuesday a new option called Live Audio that will let publishers more easily go live with audio only on the network. Similar to the live video experience on Facebook, users can comment and leave reactions. 
Facebook users could also listen passively. "We know that people often lik

Earth's most mysterious and creepiest creatures remain mostly untouched in the deep ocean.
If you're into weird, strange and downright scary species normal humans rarely get to see, you should definitely consider following Russian fisherman Roman Fedortsov on Twitter. 
According to his profile and the Moscow Times, Fedortsov works on a fishing trawler that operates out of Murmansk, Russia, and he frequently shares some of the oddities he finds in the net while out fishing in the deep sea.&n

The year had many casualties, and some of them were jobs. 
The site CareerCast came out with a new report on the jobs that, as of this month, aren't quite dead but definitely endangered. 
It's a mix of the jobs you would expect (typists, mail carriers) and those that may surprise (DJs, computer programmers). 
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk thinks universal income is answer to automation taking human jobs
Cashiers don't make the list, but Amazon Go hasn't opened its first store yet. 
The

As Facebook faces intense scrutiny from high-ranking German officials over how the platform handles hate speech, a German newspaper has shared what it's reporting to be internal documents that show a detailed yet confusing blueprint for how Facebook handles hate speech on its site.
SEE ALSO: This country is waging a war against Facebook
The documents were obtained and published by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the newspaper that originated the reporting on the infamous "Panama Paper

A year into its expensive investment into live video, Facebook is adding an audio option. The company said today that the feature, which is first being made available to publishers, is designed to complement video streams with a lower-bandwidth option. Initial partners include Britain’s LBC radio, the BBC World Service, Harper Collins, and authors Adam Grant and Britt Bennett. It will be made available to everyone next year, Facebook said.
Listening to live streams on iOS will require that

As Britain grapples with a depreciating pound sterling in a post-Brexit era and India continues to grow rapidly since its economic liberalization in 1991, the two have swapped spots in the rankings of world economies. 
For the first time in 150 years, India has surpassed its erstwhile colonial master in terms of GDP, which is now the fifth largest in the world after the U.S., China, Japan and Germany.   
SEE ALSO: Brexit just got a whole lot more interesting
India’s Minister

We live in an age of reboots and cinematic universes. And yet I had no idea that Hollywood was rebooting The Mummy until this morning, when the IMAX YouTube channel uploaded a Mummy trailer in which the sound was hilariously butchered. It was a pretty fantastic goof.Instead of riding the gift of a spontaneous publicity wave for an unnecessary reboot, Universal Pictures is now doing The Dumb Thing and issuing DMCA takedown notices to stop the trailer from spreading. But the folks at Universal Pic

Today, AT&T introduced a new service for automated blocking of fraud or spam calls. Dubbed AT&T Call Protect, the system identifies specific numbers believed to be sources of fraud, and will either deliver those calls with a warning or block them outright. Users can whitelist specific numbers, although temporary blocks require downloading a separate Call Protect app. The feature is only available on postpaid iOS and Android devices, and can be activated through the MyAT&T system.
Pho

Dish’s Sling TV website has (perhaps prematurely) unveiled a new set-top box, the AirTV Player. The device will let Sling TV subscribers stream live cable channels on their television — just like you can do right now with Sling TV on an Apple TV, Roku, or other streaming devices. But where the AirTV Player is different is that it will also integrate live, over-the-air network programming into that same interface with the help of an antenna (sold separately).So you’ll be able to

When the specs of the newly redesigned MacBook Pro were announced, Apple fans felt relegated to a new, dark dongle hell with the removal of all the ports laptop users had known and loved in favor of USB-C (aka Thunderbolt 3) connections. 
Apple mercifully lowered the prices of a whole range of USB-C accessories in response to criticism over the shift with a promotion through the end of 2016. But if you go to buy one of the items now, you'll see that the special prices have been extended int

Pantsuit Nation, a secret pro-Hillary Clinton Facebook group with nearly 4 million members, has landed a book deal. Or rather, its organizer Libby Chamberlain has.Chamberlain’s book will be published by Flatiron Press on May 9th — the quick turnaround thanks to her hiring of literary agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh shortly after the election, The New York Times reports.In a post on the public Pantsuit Nation community page this morning, Chamberlain described the book as a “permane

There is no sexy origin story for the Assassin's Creed movie, to hear Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot tell it.
He speaks of bringing down customer acquisition costs and finding ways to offset the investment needs of AAA game development. It's all part of the philosophy Ubisoft Motion Pictures was founded upon when the division was established in 2011.
SEE ALSO: Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard get philosophical about 'Assassin's Creed'
"It came from the fact that I saw competitors doing movies

Family members of three people killed during the June attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub are suing Facebook, Twitter, and Google, arguing that the three companies allowed the spread of ISIS internet propaganda that radicalized shooter Omar Mateen.
Suit argues the companies let ISIS propaganda spread
“For years, Defendants have knowingly and recklessly provided the terrorist group ISIS with accounts to use its social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising fund

Coming off the heels of yesterday's post detailing a project to build his own home AI, Mark Zuckerberg is back today with a goofy proof-of-concept video showing off an idealized version of how his Jarvis system actually works.After a year of coding, here's Jarvis.Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, December 20, 2016
The video showcases some of the actual tasks that Jarvis can theoretically perform, but the whole thing comes off as a fancy version of Amazon Echo, albeit with a healthy dose of M

Leave it to The Daily Show to turn the Yule Log Fireplace into a political statement.
The Comedy Central show on Monday uploaded a 5-hour video called "Donald Trump's Christmas (NOT HOLIDAY) Yule Log," which shows a burning United States Constitution.
SEE ALSO: 'The Daily Show' tears into the media's coverage of Kanye and Trump
The background music is mostly carols, frequently interrupted by some interesting sound clips, including Trump saying, "If I become president, we’re going to be sa

Two months before he died of cancer, the legendary NBA broadcaster Craig Sager gave his final television interview. His hair was gone and his face was emaciated.
But the luminous spirit that made him so beloved would not be dimmed. 
SEE ALSO: This 'moment of joy' was a touching alternative to the moment of silence
Sager's final interview, which CBS Sunday Morning just posted to YouTube, is painful and beautiful to watch. It's hard to see someone known for his verve for life so physically de

A new Facebook developer tool can potentially make it quicker to sign into other apps on Android. Earlier today, TechCrunch reported on a new feature in the Facebook Login Account Kit, a developer platform that was first announced in April. Called Instant Verification, the feature is designed to avoid making users go through SMS-based authentication — an extra security step that can hamstring users in places without stable cell service.
Facebook’s Account Kit is separate from the Fac

Art filter app Prisma received an update today that finally removed one of the app's biggest limitations: the 1080 x 1080 pixel square resolution limit on Prisma photos. Users can now freely crop photos in the app, and filtered images now have twice the resolution as before, allowing for better-quality images and more freedom in composing shots.
Additionally, Prisma is adding a new location-based photo feed that algorithmically displays nearby photos from other Prisma users. The more likes a pic

The maiden voyage of Facebook’s internet-beaming drone prototype, Aquila, ended with a 20-foot section of the wing snapping off as it came in for a landing. Facebook says the structural failure happened after an unexpectedly powerful gust of wind that hit Aquila on its approach. But aviation experts interviewed by The Verge said Facebook’s engineers were reckless in flying the plane longer than planned and in attempting to land after wind conditions had grown unsafe.
A National Trans

Samsung Galaxy Note7 owners are being forced to give up their phones — that doesn't mean they're all going to go quietly into the night, though. 
Just because some devoted Note7 owners have been told their phones are too dangerous to own, are banned from airlines forever, and will be crippled by software updates doesn't mean they're all simply heeding the global recall. But what recourse do these (either unwaveringly brave, or incredibly reckless and stupid) phone owners have? What ca

Fans of SpaceX are intimately familiar with the company’s first Falcon 9 rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida a year ago, since SpaceX released numerous images and video showcasing the event in amazing detail. But one thing that we didn’t get to see was how SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reacted to the event.
National Geographic was there to document the whirlwind of emotions that Musk went through
Fortunately, National Geographic was there to document the whirlwind of emotions that Musk

The first season of Street Fighter V has come to a close and developer Capcom is ushering in Season 2 with a host of changes and new content.
Tuesday's Season 2 patch includes a new character, a bunch of character updates and balances, new penalties for rage quitters (on top of the old penalties), better controller support for PC players and the release of some purely aesthetic holiday DLC.
SEE ALSO: Best esports plays of the week: : 1 shot, 2 kills from 'CS:GO' pro
Akuma enters the fray
The 23r

LONDON — You could spend a lifetime trying to keep up with the latest lifestyle trends. Each time you master one, another comes along. 
SEE ALSO: Living like the Queen for a day is harder than it looks
This year the Scandinavian trend 'hygge' invaded the UK.  It was in every article we read, every shop we entered, every party we attended. It was all around us and we had a choice: we could either embrace it, or rail against it.
So what is Hygge?
Hygge (pronounced HUE-gah) is a Dan

What if this 1996 Academy award-winning dark comedic film was just another holiday movie? Well, we'd still watch it. Happy Holidays!
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Maker Studios is undergoing yet another shake-up at its new Disney home.
The digital entertainment company is merging with parent company Disney's Content & Media department, which is part of its consumer products and interactive media division, Mashable has confirmed.
Courtney Holt, Maker Studios' top exec, will move to new corporate role at Disney as EVP of media and strategy.
"Merging Maker Studios with Content & Media allows DCPI to continue to expand audiences — across both ph

Lenovo’s new Zuk Edge smartphone is built with nearly every feature I would look for in a phone in the year 2016. It has a 5.5-inch curved, Full HD display, a Snapdragon 821 processor, a 3,100mAh battery, and a USB-C port. Of course, it has a fingerprint sensor embedded under the display, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, and an eight-megapixel front-facing camera. Oh, and it also runs Android Nougat and has teeny tiny bezels. This phone is the most 2016.It hints at what I hope will be th

Following a judge's order, a court has released the FBI search warrant tied to an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Documents are considerably redacted
The warrant was requested two days after FBI Director James Comey sent an unprecedented letter to Congress in late October, suggesting new information had come to light in Clinton's long-running classified email scandal. Comey's letter, which came the week before the presidential election, has been cred

The Emoji Movie, the movie about emoji that you never actually wanted, will make its debut next summer. That means we’re due for some trailers that apparently endeavor to convey just how unexcited the movie feels about itself. See? It understands! Here, a Meh emoji announces that it’s almost time for its first movie. “Yay,” it says. “It’s almost too thrilling for words.” The self-aware disdain this thing has for itself almost made me want to see where it