The OnePlus One: A Luxury Android Phone for Half the Price — if You Can Get It

Don’t look now, but the smartphone may finally be fully baked.

Smartphones as a category are reaching maturity. Every new iPhone and every new Samsung phone comes out with only minor tweaks.

And maybe that’s OK. Nobody complains about the lack of innovation in desktop PCs, right? Or GPS units. Or flashlights. They are what they are. They’ve fulfilled their destiny. There are no more radical improvements to be discovered. 

Well, maybe not in shape, size, or features. But there are certainly other aspects of smartphones that are ripe for radical rethinking, and a Chinese startup called OnePlus has just found one: price.

Brazilian Government Hit By Cyberattack

I could have sworn the hackers actually told everyone ahead of time they were going to do this. So much for taking threats seriously.

According to the Ministry, this was a phishing attack, which would have reached not only staff emails, but also Intradocs, an internal communications system used by diplomats, but has not reached a separate platform that carries classified correspondence between embassies and other diplomatic posts abroad and the ministry in Brasília.

Scientists Discover Why Rechargeable Batteries Go Bad

Now all we need is for scientists to discover how to make rechargeable batteries that never go bad. 

"We discovered surprising and never-before-seen evolution and degradation patterns in two key battery materials," said Huolin Xin, a materials scientist at Brookhaven Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) and coauthor on both studies. "Contrary to large-scale observation, the lithium-ion reactions actually erode the materials non-uniformly, seizing upon intrinsic vulnerabilities in atomic structure in the same way that rust creeps unevenly across stainless steel."

The FCC May Consider A Stricter Definition Of Broadband

It is high time for the government's definition of broadband to change. Even the suggested 10Mbps is borderline but it is way better than the current 4Mbps.

The FCC soon intends to solicit public comments on whether broadband should be redefined as 10 Mbps and up, or even as high as 25 Mbps and up, according to an agency official who asked not to be named because the draft request was not yet public. The new threshold would likely increase the number of people in the United States that statistically lack broadband, which in 2012 amounted to 6 percent of the population.

Five revelations from the 'twisted world' of a 'kissless virgin'

(CNN) -- Elliott Rodger left behind a 107,000-word "story" of what the shooting suspect called his "twisted world." While he e-mailed it to his parents and a therapist the day he allegedly went on a terror rampage, investigators and journalists soon found it.
The central theme of "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger" is his intractable virginity, which he blamed on "the cruelness of women."
Here are five revelations from this disturbing document:

1. 'A bitter form of envy' 
 Elliott Rodger grew up on the edges of Hollywood but was not quite a part of it.
His father, Peter Rodger, aspired to make films, but he mostly directed commercials. His mother "dated George Lucas for a short time" and was a friend of Steven Spielberg, he wrote. His stepmother, Soumaya Akaaboune, acted in a few movies to her credit and was a regular on the French version of "Real Housewives" produced in Los Angeles.

Student Stripper Makes $180K a Year & Will Graduate Debt-Free

Plenty of students work so they canpay their way through college, or at least reduce the amount they have to borrow. But some jobs are more lucrative than others. Stripping, for example, falls into that category.

A University of Maryland student covers her tuition costs (and then some) by taking a train to New York every other weekend to work as an exotic dancer, according to a story from WMAR Baltimore. She makes about $180,000 a year. (Payscale says the typical annual income range for an exotic dancer is anywhere from $20,000 to $142,000.)

Six figures for working every other weekend? That’s pretty fantastic. This might not be the job choice for everyone — including some of the roughly 20 million college students in the U.S — but Maggie (who didn’t give the TV station her last name), seems more than happy with her choice. She has to have plenty of spending money, too: Tuition at the University of Maryland was $23,581 this year for state residents. It was $42,767 for out-of-state students.

Open Source Hardware Empowers Amateur Inventors

The smartphone in your pocket is covered under hundreds of patents. Your refrigerator, car, and even your hairdryer get the same treatment. Running afoul of patent laws can land even amateur hardware designers in lots of trouble, sometimes without them realizing it, and it’s a system that many feel is in need of massive reform.

Enter Ayah Bdeir. Bdeir is not only a driving force behind the movement to open up electronic design in a way that allows creative individuals to flourish, she’s also the creator and CEO of littleBits, a system of open-source, interchangeable hardware components that give even the most amateur inventors the power to build impressive gadgets.

But the craziest thing about Bdeir’s career path is that she didn’t necessarily set out to do any of these things. “I didn’t plan to start a company,” she says. “I just became obsessed with solving a problem.” That problem was how to make electronics accessible for anyone who wants to try building a great gadget.

US deploys first advanced drones to Japan

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has deployed two of its most advanced long-distance surveillance drones to a base in northern Japan over the past week, enhancing its ability to monitor nuclear activities in North Korea and Chinese naval operations.

The deployment of the two unarmed Global Hawk drones to Japan, a key U.S. ally, is intended to demonstrate Washington's commitment to security in Asia as part of its rebalancing of forces to the Pacific. But it will likely rankle with China and North Korea, which have been working to improve their own unmanned aircraft fleets.

Motorola is shutting down its U.S. smartphone factory

Motorola can’t afford to build its smartphones in the United States any longer. The Wall Street Journal reports that Motorola will be shuttering its factory in Fort Worth, Texas by the end of 2014. The factory opened last year, despite the odds being stacked heavily against its success. Now, just four months after Google announced it would be selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, that factory is closing — a decision independent from the sale, according to Motorola President Rick Osterloh. According to the report, over 700 workers are currently employed at that factory.

Famous Car Collector Ron Pratte Auctioning off Entire Collection

If you spend enough time following classic car auctions and watching them on TV, there are a few names that become very relevant to the hobby. Ron Pratte is one of those names. He is the man in the front row that drops big money on some of the rarest and most collectable classic cars. And he is now selling off his entire massive collection.

As the founder and former CEO of Pratte Development company, Ron Pratte has an estimated net worth of $350 million. Every guy needs a hobby, and the very wealth Pratte has taken to collecting cars. Occasionally, he has sold cars like these three which rolled across the block in 2012:

Blowing Up A Mac Pro With 10lbs Of C4

Using ten pounds of C4 to blow up a new Mac Pro definitely makes this the "must see video of the day. 

Find Out If Your ISP Plays YouTube In HD

Want to know if your ISP can consistently deliver HD video without buffering or interruptions? Hit this link.

Starting today, if you’re in the U.S., you can use the Google Video Quality Report to see the level of video quality your Internet service provider can play YouTube. If you’re regularly seeing videos buffer, this report can give you a better idea of why, as well as tips to make YouTube play better. You can also see the video quality other ISPs in your area are delivering.

Batman v Superman Batmobile: New Photos

A new Batman means, well, many things. It's time for a new actor to don a hopefully iconic suit, while a new director helms the course of a beloved franchise. It also means that it's time for us to get a brand new Batmobile. Although this is extremely debatable, it seems that each successive Batmobile is better than the one before it. The most recent example is, of course, the Tumbler.

China to take 6 million older vehicles off roads

BEIJING (AP) — China's government plans to take 6 million older, polluting vehicles off the road this year in an effort to revive stalled progress toward cleaning up smog-choked cities.

The plan also calls for filling stations in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities to switch to selling only the cleanest grades of gasoline and diesel, according to a Cabinet statement issued Monday.

China's Ready to Rumble

Over the past two months, as China’s maritime disputes with Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam have escalated, most foreign observers and American officials, though worried, have shown little concern that the conflicts would explode into a full-scale war. After all, for more than three decades China has profited enormously from being part of the global economic system. Its military, though growing, remains far less technologically advanced than American armed forces. And for 30 years, predictions that China one day would try to dominate its region by force have always been proven wrong.

Indian teen girls gang-raped and hanged from a tree: police

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indian police have arrested one man and are looking for four other suspects after two teenage girls were gang-raped and then hanged from a tree in a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday.

The two cousins, who were from a low-caste Dalit community and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their village home in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district when they went out to go to the toilet on Tuesday evening.

The following morning, villagers found the bodies of the two teenagers hanging from a mango tree in a nearby orchard.

Japan & Australia consider submarine deal that could rattle China

TOKYO/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Japan will get the chance to pursue an unprecedented military export deal when its defense and foreign ministers meet their Australian counterparts in Tokyo next month.

Japan is considering selling submarine technology to Australia – perhaps even a fleet of fully engineered, stealthy vessels, according to Japanese officials. Sources on both sides say the discussions so far have encouraged a willingness to speed up talks.

Any agreement would take months to negotiate and remains far from certain, but even a deal for Japan to supply technology would likely run to billions of dollars and represent a major portion of Australia's overall $37 billion submarine program.

It would also be bound to turn heads in China.

California couple's buried gold coins go for sale

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The man handling the sale of rare, 19th century gold coins discovered by a California couple out walking their dog estimates they had fetched about $2 million as of noon on Wednesday.

Don Kagin said about half of the 1,400 coins had sold. They were put up for sale the previous night on Amazon.com and his website, Kagins.com.

Where You Live May Increase Your Odds of Certain Cancers

Your chances of developing certain types of cancer may depend on how affluent your neighborhood is, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Cancer. Scientists found that specific cancers are more prevalent among the poor and others among the wealthy.

Researchers used U.S. census information to analyze the poverty rate of each neighborhood (defined as a living space containing 4,000 people) in 16 states and Los Angeles County, which collectively accounted for 42 percent of the U.S. population. Income status was based on the percentage of households in each area that lived below the poverty level. 

Oil tanker listing off Japan after huge explosion

Tokyo (AFP) - A 998-tonne oil tanker was listing off the Japanese coast on Thursday after a large explosion and subsequent fire that sent towering columns of acrid smoke into the sky.

The 64-year-old captain of the ship was still unaccounted for hours after the accident, while four of his crew were in hospital being treated for severe burns, according to coastguards.

The tanker had unloaded its cargo of crude oil last week and was stationary close to the coast of Hyogo prefecture, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Tokyo, when the explosion happened.

'Jurassic World' director confirms leaked story details

'Jurassic Park 4' takes place 22 years after the first movie

Spoiler warning: the following story contains details about Jurassic World'ssetting, characters, and plot.

Jurassic World is set to be released next summer, but director Colin Trevorrow has kept largely quiet about plot details, taking to Twitter only to confirm that  the fourth film in theJurassic Park franchise would fly in the face of science by including featherless dinosaurs. But after a report published last week purported to include a wealth of plot details, Trevorrow has changed his approach, describing Jurassic World's setting, structure, and characters in a spoiler-packed interview with SlashFilm.

A dangerous dance: China, Vietnam posture in the South China Sea

Vietnamese Coast Guard 8003, South China Sea (CNN) -- It takes a long time to get to the middle of nowhere. For a contingent of almost 40 reporters, hours of waiting both on land and then at sea preceded a trip to one of the world's most hotly contested areas of maritime real estate.
The Vietnamese government had been at pains to keep this media trip under wraps, keeping print, online and broadcast journalists from Asia and the United States guessing as to the day and time of departure.

Rampage victim's dad learned of daughter's death by tracing cell phone

(CNN) -- As a California university mourns the deaths of six students, grieving parents are bracing to do the unimaginable -- bury their children. A former stay-at-home dad who worked at home, Bob Weiss had an especially close relationship with his 19-year-old daughter, Veronika. He knew something was amiss Friday night when Veronika, who frequently checked in, didn't call her family.

B-52 Bomber Gets Its First New Communications System Since the 1960s

The B-52 bomber, one of the great stalwarts of America’s military arsenal, is getting its first major communications system upgrade since the Kennedy administration.

Yes, the high-flying, long-distance bomber is finally ditching its old-school cathode ray tube, green-on-black screens for full-color LCDs, and it’s getting a suite of upgrades that will make it an even more formidable weapon in the skies.

The Boeing B-52 has been the United States’ preeminent strategic bomber since it entered service in 1955. The B-2 Spirit, introduced in 1997, may have stealth on its side, but it can’t match the B-52’s 8,800-mile range or 70,000-pound payload capacity. In the earliest years of the Cold War, there usually was at least one B-52 airborne at all times. Later, the plane flew missions over Vietnam and during the Gulf War. They bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 and, more recently, flew sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq. And as old as it is, the Air Force expects the venerable plane to remain in service for at least another 35 years.

Wicked Cadillac concept is so sick we're pretty sure it's a Decepticon

Designed by Ondrej Jirec, this is the two-seater Cadillac Estill, and it's a decepicon. At least, we think it is. Jirec says he was inspired by Cadillac's racing heritage, merging classic style with futuristic lines. He sure has that right, but the only reason we can see that he had to move the passenger seat back and tilt it to the side like he did is that the car's beating robot heart is located beneath the glove box.

South Korea offers half-a-million dollar reward for ferry operator owner

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea has hiked to nearly half a million dollars its reward for information leading to the capture of Yoo Byung-un, the head of the family that owns the operator of a ferry that capsized and sank last month, killing more than 300 people.

"This is the largest amount ever offered by an investigative authority as reward," said a prosecution official involved in the case.The figure of 500 million won ($490,000) being offered by authorities after a week of futile searching for Yoo is a tenfold increase from the 50 million set initially, and is the maximum allowed by criminal law as a reward for fugitives.

Why Online Games Make Players Act Like Psychopaths

It's the same reason that games like Pac-Man turned us all into pill popping ghost chasers and Mario made us turtle crushing plumbers? Oh...wait. 

That’s when I realized that my moral code in this virtual world was highly situational. When I was safe, clothed, and armed, my instinct was to help the girl that JB shot. When I was naked and alone, I felt no qualms about butchering a guy with a rock if I thought it would help me survive. What did I have to lose? It’s a lot harder to maintain one’s morals when you’re at the bottom of the food chain. I wondered if that rule would also apply if I were to lose everything in real life.

Crushing Blow for Copyright Trolls

It's always nice to see copyright trolls get what they have coming.

"Once a troll gets the names it's looking for, then it already has what it needs to put its shakedown scheme in motion," EFF Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz said. "For the defendants, it will come down to risking being named in a lawsuit over a pornographic movie, or settling for less than the cost of hiring an attorney. As a matter of law and basic fairness, a copyright plaintiff needs to show that its case is on solid ground before putting hundreds of Internet users into that kind of bind."

Hacker-Turned-Informant to Be Freed After Helping Feds

Seven months? How many years was this guy facing when he initially plead guilty? Wow.

Monsegur helped the FBI "disrupt or prevent at least 300 hacks" against the military, Congress and "several private companies," prosecutors wrote, adding that "Monsegur’s actions prevented at least millions of dollars in loss to these victims." Monsegur was sentenced by Judge Loretta Preska to time already served – some seven months.

Human waste is raising a stink in Ellis County

ELLIS COUNTY — Welcome to the rolling hills of Ellis County, just south of Midlothian.

Where the regal Red Tail circles lazily above breathtaking vistas.

Where the farmland provides harbor to refugees from the city.

And where Craig Monk settled 10 years ago, hoping to inherit the wind.

It turned out to be a wind that often leaves him breathless.

"You know, there is no other smell like this. I put it just short of a dead person," he said with a laugh, adding: "I'm serious."

Monk's neighbor Cole Turner agrees.

"It's horrible," he said. "It's gotten in our cars so when someone gets in your car to ride with you they say, 'Man, what's that smell?'"

Complaints grow against use of human waste as fertilizer - Tampoons, Toilet paper, other nasties

PARKER COUNTY –– The use of human waste as fertilizer is becoming a major concern for a growing number of Texas communities. Tuesday they take their fight to Austin. On Monday, it was Parker County.

"And I have never in my life smelled anything like what we've been smelling here the last three weeks," exclaimed one man at an emergency meeting of County Commissioners.  They met outside in Springtown near treated fields. 

But not too near.

"I don't know why we expect anyone to have to put up with that," said a clearly frustrated County Judge Mark Riley.

He got a snoot full from angry citizens like Julie Lambert. "So my property value, my worth, has it all gone to zero?" she asked. She said the smell chases her indoors for days at a time.

In Austin Tuesday, Judge Riley will ask the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to ban the practice in Parker County.  Residents in Ellis, Wise, Johnson and other counties also want protection for their quality of life and property values. 

U.S. Military's 'Iron Man' Suit Prototype Debuts This Month

Move over, Tony Stark — the military could soon have its own "Iron Man" suit, a robotic exoskeleton designed to augment human abilities on the battlefield.

A prototype of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS, will be available later this month, and a more complete version should be ready between 2016 and 2018, according to Battelle, a science and technology research institute headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

"How do you protect against direct action engagement?" said John Folkerts, vice president for the special operations market group at Battelle. To protect troops in combat, soldiers must have access to better armor, better protection and better communication, Folkerts told Live Science. [Humanoid Robots to Flying Cars: 10 Coolest DARPA Projects]

American Giant - World's best hoodie is proud to be American made

American Giant, a direct-to-consumer apparel company, makes what Slate called“The Greatest Hoodie Ever Made” -- among other bold reviews. But with a one-time backorder of more than six months and a celebrity following that includes Stephen King, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Fred Armisen, founder/CEO Bayard Winthrop might just be proving the moniker true.

“It’s the fabric, the hardware, the fit, the construction: when you feel it, you just instantly know it’s quality,” he says, describing the $89 hooded sweatshirt. Anne Palmer, Bayard’s first employee (who quit and joined her former co-worker’s start-up when it launched in 2012, Jerry McGuire-style), adds, “We call it the ‘thud factor.’ It’s this moment when you’re like, this is serious fleece.”

American Giant’s true success, however, lies in its overhead-slashing, word of mouth, direct-to-consumer approach: no retail stores, no marketing budgets, no full-page ads or TV commercials.

Viral dance video turns into successful start-up

Karen Cheng is a woman of many talents. But when a video she made of herselflearning how to dance over the course of a year went viral in July of 2013 -- attracting over 4 million YouTube views – she knew she’d created something others could relate to.

“Give It 100 is like Vine or Youtube, but for bettering yourself,” says Cheng. “It’s a website for choosing a goal to get better at, and then practicing that goal for 100 days…Because if you work towards something everyday, you will get better at it.”

So Cheng began filming herself in order to play back and watch her own moves but soon she realized that “I could put all these videos together to show my progress – and that others might want to see how far I’ve come, too.”

The Threat Facing Online Comments

Are we heading towards an internet that bans online comments? Click the comments link below to share your thoughts on the subject....while you still can. 

While comment threads can provide a snapshot of a range of opinions and a place where readers can contribute to a collective conversation, it is also clear they can be dysfunctional places where the weird meet the weird and get weirder. The borderless nature of the web means it can be hard to avoid the ranting bigots and creeps we would ordinarily shun in the real world.

Dodge Ram pickups face NHTSA investigation after fatal accident

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into older Dodge Ram pickups equipped with manual transmissions.

Survivors tell of terror after China market attack

URUMQI, China (AP) — The assailants tossed explosives from two SUVs as they sped through a packed vegetable market, mowing through customers and wares. Mrs. Li was working the public scale to weigh produce when one of the cars knocked her off her feet.

"It was so fast, it was like a plane flying," Li, 70, said Friday at a hospital where she was being treated for a broken hip.

The assailants set off more fiery blasts, and all together 43 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in Thursday's attack, the latest — and bloodiest — violence in China's far northwestern Xinjiang region in recent months.

A day after the attack in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, survivors told of their terror and said they no longer feel insulated from a long-simmering insurgency against Chinese rule, which has struck their city twice in recent weeks.

Obama has put Pakistan drone war on hold

(CNN) -- A year ago, President Obama delivered a speech at the National Defense University in Washington in which he made the case that it was time to wind down the "boundless global war on terror " and "perpetual wartime footing" that has been a feature of American life since 9/11.

Indeed, the CIA drone program in Pakistan has stopped completely since the beginning of this year. This is a noteworthy development given the fact that there have been 370 drone strikes in Pakistan over the past decade that have killed somewhere between 2,080 to 3,428 people; most of whom were suspected militants, but also a smaller number of civilians.

Game Jam

You guys really should set aside a few minutes today to watch SUPER GAME JAM. This documentary series is about five pairs of indie developers tasked with creating a video game in 48 hours. Here's the trailer:

Microsoft To Fix Critical IE Bug

Microsoft says it plans to fix a six month old bug in Internet Explorer 8 that allows attackers to hijack your rig just by visiting a compromised site.

First of all, what was published is an advisory, not an exploit. The advisory contains *some* details about the bug, but rest assured, it won’t be easy reproduce the vulnerability based on the advisory alone. In other words, what has been disclosed is the fact that there’s a bug in IE and that it has not been patched (yet) after 180 days.

Respawn Restores CTF To Titanfall PC

All you fans of Titanfall out there will be happy to know that Respawn Entertainment has restored Capture The Flag to the game.

Last week we made some changes to the Titanfall playlists on PC and since then many members of the community have expressed their disappointment with our decision. Capture the Flag has been a specific point of contention considering we had just made a significant change to how the mode worked (Titans cannot carry flags after the last patch).

eBay Hacked, Requests All Users Change Passwords

Statements like this, coming from the company that has just been hacked, are kind of funny because they always say the same thing.

eBay says that it has been able to narrow down the attack to "a small number of employee login credentials" stolen by cyberattackers. That provided the attackers access to eBay users' names, encrypted passwords, e-mail addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth.

Police Still Using Windows XP On Fingerprint Scanner

Hey, at least it wasn't a pirated version of Windows XP.

Now I realize the machine might very well be not connected to the Internet or any national or international fingerprint database. Sneakernet could be in effect here for transporting prints. And I know it could be on its own VLAN and not linked to the nearby Windows 7 machine used for booking.

How the NSA Is Transforming Law Enforcement

This article by the Electronic Frontier Foundation is definitely good reading. You should check it out when you get a minute. 

Everything we now know about the NSA paints a picture of an agency that has grown wildly outside the bounds of its purpose—to protect national security. The national security justifications for dragnet surveillance ring hollow. It’s time to take Congress and the President to task for this, and call for an end to the unchecked actions of our dangerous spy agencies­—the NSA and the FBI.

Intel: Conflict Minerals - Why Consumers Should Care

Change happens when people demand it. Conflict minerals, which can be found in everything from phones to cars to jewelry, are often tied to armed conflict and human rights abuses, meaning consumers could be funding these activities and not even know it. Intel and organizations like the Enough Project have taken steps to educate consumers, in an effort to create change. Check out this video directed by filmmaker Paul Freedman to learn more about this important issue.

AMD Announces The 2nd Generation AMD Embedded R-Series

AMD today announced the 2nd generation AMD Embedded R-series accelerated processing unit (APU) and CPU family (previously codenamed "Bald Eagle") for embedded applications. The new solutions are targeted at gaming machines, medical imaging, digital signage, industrial control and automation (IC&A), communications and networking infrastructure that require industry-leading compute and graphics processing technology.

Black Hawk Drone: Army’s Iconic Helicopter Goes Pilotless

The Army’s most iconic helicopter is about to go pilotless.
The U.S. Army and defense contractor Sikorsky Aircraft demonstrated hover and flight capability in an “optionally piloted” version of the Black Hawk helicopter last month. It’s part of the Army’s effort to reduce troops and costs, in this case by letting the five-ton helicopter carry out autonomous expeditionary and resupply operations.
Sikorsky has been working on the project since 2007 and convinced the Army’s research department to bankroll further development last year.

Chinese army officials indicted for hacking U.S. companies

Five members of China's armed forces have been formally charged by the U.S. government with "conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse." The attacks took place over the last eight years and targeted a number of U.S.-based corporations such as Westinghouse, U.S. Steel and Alcoa. Trade secrets concerning everything from nuclear energy to solar power were reportedly stolen during the operation. In light of the NSA's recent track record, the indictment of Chinese officials for similar practices seems a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

MIT's glasses-free 3D projector paves way for holographic TV

If you watched this year's Billboard Music Awards, maybe you were impressed (and just a little creeped out) by the hologram Michael Jackson's performance. Unfortunately, getting that sort of effect at home would cost a pretty penny, but MIT researchers have created a cheaper alternative: a 3D projector made from off-the-shelf parts that doesn’t require glasses.

UFOs Crash In China; Villagers Shocked By 'Huge Ball Of Fire'

Residents of villages in the Heilongjiang province of China reported three UFOs fell from the sky on Friday morning, according to the China News Service.
The circular, metallic objects crashed to the ground of two counties after "villagers heard...a huge piercing sound, and then some villagers saw a big fireball" that eventually fell in a vegetable garden owned by one of the residents.
"I saw a huge ball of fire, I thought it was a meteorite," one villager said, Chinatopix.com reported. "I hid inside my house and waited until the object...landed."

US Official: China cited in cyber-espionage case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is preparing to announce first-of-its-kind criminal charges Monday against Chinese military officials in an international cyberspying case, a government official said.

Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal law enforcement officials were expected to reveal the new indictments later Monday, the official told The Associated Press.

The indictments will accuse individuals of participating in cyber-espionage on behalf of a foreign government, said the official, who revealed this information only on grounds of anonymity because this person wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the case in advance of the official announcement.

The official described the prosecution as unprecedented.

The official said Chinese government officials are being charged in the United States with hacking into private-sector companies to gain trade secrets, adding that Holder and other top-level law enforcement officials were poised to announce charges that include economic espionage and trade-secret theft.

GoPro Files For An IPO

According to Engadget, GoPro is going public.

The company just filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so you can expect to see the ticker symbol GPRO on NASDAQ in due course. There's no shortage of financial types digging through the document as we type (bits to note: the company managed to turn a pretty profit last year, and it shipped a net total of nearly 4 million cameras in 2013), but the story is clear -- GoPro is a big deal, and it's going to get even bigger.

Walmart Is Falling Apart Before Our Eyes

For most of the past five decades, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) has been the retailer competitors feared most and as a result it made for a phenomenal investment for its shareholders. But Wal-Mart has begun to lose its cache with consumers and major holes are starting to form in its business.
Interestingly, Wal-Mart has hidden its financial problems from the headlines because challenges are different around the world, masking themselves in the overall picture. But when you dig between the headlines you can see a company in serious trouble and could be the latest in a long line of leading retailers to go from boom to bust in the blink of an eye.

Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. aren't nearly as popular as they used to be. Source: Wal-Mart.

U.S. shoppers are abandoning Wal-Mart
The most alarming statistic at home in the U.S. comes from falling same-store sales. This measures how sales are growing location by location and any healthy retailer is looking to grow same-store sales at or faster than consumer spending grows because that shows increased market share locally. Overall sales can be increased by increasing store count, but if same-store sales are falling then the return on each store will drop, something well see in a minute.

Graphene May Be Next Area of Innovation for Apple and Samsung

In a world where mobile devices are becoming thinner and thinner and in some cases being worn on the wrist or other parts of the body, graphene may be the wonder material of the future, with properties that make it stronger than steel, more flexible than rubber and more conductive than most metals. As a result, the material could initiate a new wave of innovation in hardware design and manufacturing that may lead to incredibly thin and flexible devices. According to Bloomberg, it also may become the next battlefield for Apple and Samsung. 

Graphene is graphite, the material in pencils, arranged in a layer that is one atom thick. The arrangement of the carbon molecules makes the material stronger than steel and even diamonds. It also is flexible, conductive and so transparent that is nearly invisible to the naked eye. It can be applied to other materials, potentially allowing for the creation of flexible displays and bendable devices. 

James Cameron mourns wrecked robot sub: ‘I feel like I’ve lost a friend’

James Cameron may be "king of the world," but Hollywood's most successful director is in mourning after it was reported that the deep-sea robot submarine Nereus was lost at sea.

"I feel like I've lost a friend," Cameron said on Tuesday. "Nereus was an amazing, groundbreaking robot and the only currently active vehicle in the world that could reach the extreme depths of the ocean trenches."

The Nereus suffered a catastrophic implosion from underwater pressure during an exploration mission in the Kermadec Trench, located off the coast of northern New Zealand. The submarine assisted Cameron on his history-making 2012 dive in the Mariana Trench.

Chinese general tours U.S. carrier as maritime tensions fester

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Chinese general toured an American aircraft carrier on Tuesday at the start of a U.S. visit expected to expose tensions over territorial disputes between Beijing and U.S. allies in the South and East China Seas.

General Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, visited the nuclear-powered Ronald Reagan in San Diego, California, escorted by the head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear.

Fang was expected to visit the National Defense University in Washington On Wednesday, and meet the top U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, at the Pentagon on Thursday.

11 Things We Learned About Travel From Jack Bauer

(Courtesy: Fox)

Jack Bauer is back—and this time, danger has a British accent! Fox’s “24” reboot, “24: Live Another Day,” takes Kiefer Sutherland’s super agent out of his native Los Angeles and drops him in London. Jack’s hop across the Pond has us thinking about how his journeys over the previous eight seasons have featured a lot of useful lessons about travel. Sure, most of us don’t battle evil plots on vacation (unless you count airline frequent-flier programs). But in our own travels, we can glean some valuable tips by simply asking ourselves “WWJD?”

Continental Readying Tire Tread-Depth Monitor

As hard as I am on (rear) tires, this thing would be bitching at me constantly. 

The company's new system uses the an updated pressure monitoring system with new software to better understand each tire's rolling characteristics as it wears. The programming compares driving data to known information about how they should behave. Once the readings deviate too far, the system warns the driver to check the tread depth because it could be too low.

Sony to Make Film of Edward Snowden Story

Does anyone really care about movies like this? That Julian Assange movie was a huge bomb and now they want to make this movie? Hollywood will never learn.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired the rights to the new book by journalist Glenn Greenwald about fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the studio said Wednesday.

Elder Scrolls Online Overrun By Bots?

Are any of you guys big Elder Scrolls Online players? Is the issue of bots as bad as this article makes it sound?

An Elder Scrolls Online player who asked to remain anonymous sent Kotaku three videos of his in-game footage showing how bots coalesce around NPCs to keep collecting completion rewards or even clog up dungeon passages to such an extent that human players have trouble passing through them.

Philips Seeking Ban On Wii U

Is sure seems like Nintendo just can't catch a break these days. Patent infringement suits everywhere, sales of the Wii U are terrible, what else could go wrong? 

The Dutch company sued Nintendo in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on Wednesday, alleging that it infringes on patents that cover an interactive remote control system, according to the complaint.

Windows XP PCs No Longer Receiving Updates

Dear Windows XP Users,

I know we've said this before, but this time we are serious. No really. No more support, no more patches, no more zero day exploit fixes. Well, maybe that last fix. But that will definitely be the last one.

-Microsoft

With today’s Update Tuesday, if you are still on Windows XP you will not receive any security or non-security updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Update. Because support has ended for Windows XP, we are no longer releasing updates to the general public for Windows XP going forward. If you continue to use Windows XP without support, your computer will still likely work but will become vulnerable to security risks and over time its performance will be affected.

Retail Pricing For Radeon R9 Back To Normal

According to Forbes, retail pricing for Radeon R9 cards is back to normal and AMD is promising these prices will remain stable.

Some very reassuring news just crossed my desk and it should introduce a welcome — and hopefully permanent — respite for gamers who’ve been holding off buying newer Radeon graphics cards due to wildly fluctuating and inflated prices. AMD has indicated that their entire lineup of R9 GPUs is available and in stock at retailers worldwide, and street prices have returned to normal.

Intel 'Make It Wearable' Challenge Enters Second Phase

The Development Track of the Intel "Make It Wearable" challenge is now open and accepting submissions for new wearable concepts that will be judged on technical and business criteria. Aiming to inspire ideas and fuel innovation that will evolve personal computing in exciting new ways, the challenge is open to the smartest and most creative minds in 27 countries. Awarding over US$1.3 million, Intel will recognize ideas for their potential to shift universal perspective and improve the world in a meaningful way.