During the keynote address at Microsoft BUILD 2015 earlier today, Square Enix gave a demonstration of the power of DirectX 12 on a system running four NVIDIA GeForce TITAN X video cards. Take a look:
Apple Watch Costs Under $85 To Make
It only costs $85 to make an Apple Watch? Makes you wonder how much those $250 watch bands cost to make. 
According to a teardown carried out by IHS Technology the actual hardware costs of the 38mm Apple Watch Sport are only about 24 percent of the manufacturer's suggested retail price, giving it the lowest hardware costs compared to retail price of any Apple product.
The Age of Drone Vandalism Begins
I would laugh at this but you and I both know this was probably just a publicity stunt.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the age of robotic graffiti was born. KATSU, a well-known graffiti artist and vandal, used a hacked Phantom drone to paint a giant red scribble across Kendall Jenner’s face on one of New York City’s largest and most viewed billboards. By all accounts, it is the first time that a drone has been deployed for a major act of public vandalism.
Microsoft Can Guess Your Age Using Facial Recognition
While this may be a work in progress, it isn't impressing me so far. When I tried, nine times out of ten, it couldn't tell I even had a face at all. 
Try it out and see if it can guess your age.
Try it out and see if it can guess your age.
Halo: Spartan Strike Now Available on PC
343 Industries has teamed up with Vanguard Games to bring Halo: Spartan Strike to your PC, iPad and Windows Phone. The sequel to Spartan Assault is available for $5.99 or bundled for $9.99.
Keep Windows 10 Preview Up to Date or Face a Dead PC
Microsoft has a strange way of keeping you up to date if you are running Windows 10 Preview; your PC won’t boot up. A not too subtle hint that the build that you are running isn’t in the best interest of Microsoft and you have to upgrade to the later 2015 Builds, which will also stop booting on October 15th when the Preview program officially ends.
The first three builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview—9841, 9860 and 9879, all released in 2014—will refuse to boot at the end of April, according to a message posted by a Microsoft support engineer on the company’s discussion forum.
BMW recalls more than 91,000 Mini Coopers over air-bag sensor
(CNN)BMW of North America will recall 91,800 Mini Coopers because of a faulty sensor that might not trigger the front-passenger air bag during a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Saturday.
The agency said the sensor in a detection mat might not recognize there is a passenger in the front seat and the air bag wouldn't deploy during an accident.
The affected models are 2005-2006 Mini Cooper and Cooper S vehicles manufactured between January 5, 2005, and November 28, 2006, and 2005-2008 Mini Cooper convertible and Cooper S convertibles manufactured between January 5, 2005 and July 31, 2008.
Google to Pull Chrome Plug on Windows XP at Year's End
If you are one of the holdouts still using Windows XP, your support systems continue to shrink. Google announced this week that it will be pulling support for XP on its Chrome browser at the end of this year.
"Millions of people are still working on XP computers every day [and] we want those people to have the option to use a browser that's up-to-date and as safe as possible on an unsupported operating system."
Linux 4.0 Released
All you alternative OS types out there will be happy to know Linux 4.0 has been released.
So I decided to release 4.0 as per the normal schedule, because therereally weren't any known issues, and while I'll be traveling duringthe end of the upcoming week due to a college visit, I'm hoping thatwon't affect the merge window very much. We'll see.
Microsoft Hires Kurt DelBene To Head Corporate Strategy And Planning
Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced that Kurt DelBene has been named executive vice president of Corporate Strategy and Planning reporting to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella. DelBene is returning to Microsoft, where he was most recently president of the Microsoft Office Division. After leaving Microsoft in 2013, he then served as senior advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services where he was appointed by President Obama to oversee implementation and improvement of Healthcare.gov. He most recently has been a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group, concentrating on investing and advising in early stage, technology-focused startups in the Pacific Northwest.
Hollywood Seeks Net Neutrality Exceptions to Block Pirates
But...but...but...we only want net neutrality exemptions to block pirates. Honest. 
The Motion Picture Association has written to Brazil's Justice Minister seeking exceptions to the country's fledgling "Internet Constitution". In a submission to the government the MPA says that the Marco Civil's current wording on net neutrality deprives courts of the opportunity to order the blocking of 'pirate' sites.
Twitter, YouTube, Instagram Work On Stealth Advertising
How do you feel about companies like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube using stealth advertising?
The quandary for those who run social media networks is how to make money on them without antagonising and thus losing users through distracting ads. The answer, for Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, is to slip in some stealthy ads camouflaged to look like posts from listed contacts.
Texas judge refuses to lift block on Obama immigration plan
A federal judge in Texas has refused to lift a temporary block on a White House immigration plan that would have shielded millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, court documents show.
Twenty-six U.S. states filed a lawsuit alleging Obama had exceeded his powers with executive orders that would let up to 4.7 million illegal immigrants stay in the country without threat of deportation. Obama's orders bypassed Congress, which has not been able to agree on immigration reform.U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, a city along the border with Mexico, rejected a U.S. Justice Department request to remove a ban on the plan he issued in February.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday that the Obama Administration misled the court regarding early implementation of expanded work permits to illegal immigrants.
US aerospace command moving comms gear back to Cold War bunker
Washington (AFP) - The US military command that scans North America's skies for enemy missiles and aircraft plans to move its communications gear to a Cold War-era mountain bunker, officers said.
The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command's sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.
The Pentagon last week announced a $700 million contract with Raytheon Corporation to oversee the work for North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command.
China is right to be alarmed by Japan's new 'helicopter destroyer'
Two weeks ago, Japan commissioned its largest naval vessel since the end of World War II. Sleek and with the clean lines of a ship designed for stealth, JS Izumo pulled into Yokosuka Naval Base, her new home port, and officially joined the Maritime Self Defense Force.
Izumo is a sign of the times, a weapons system that pushes the boundaries of Japan's war-adverse culture and increasing tensions with China.
'Game of Thrones': Touring TV's Most Realistic Sets
The set for Game of Thrones’ Castle Black, the stronghold at the foot of an imaginary 700-foot ice wall that the characters in the show see as the gateway between civilization and barbarity, nestles in the side of a disused quarry about a half hour from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Wander along the raised balconies of Castle Black itself and you’ll see some of the spit-and-sawdust rooms — they’re real rooms, cold, suitably Spartan. This is where we’ve watched Jon Snow and his Night’s Watch men ponder their fate in the face of the wildling threat and the more menacing spectre of the White Walkers. There are clouds of midges, the air is heavy and there’s just the faintest whiff of mildew and must and men. It’s Eau de Thrones, the smell of the biggest show on earth.
North Korea says expels U.S. aid worker for 'anti-state conspiracy'
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Wednesday it was expelling an American aid worker for engaging in what it said was a conspiracy against the state, just weeks after the country ejected a German aid worker.
The North's official KCNA news agency said the U.S. citizen it named as Sandra Suh had "produced pictures and videos with an aversion to the Republic under the disguise of 'humanitarianism' and used them" in a propaganda campaign against the country.
"Sandra Suh admitted ... her criminal activities and apologized, seeking generous forgiveness. Out of generosity, the related agency took into consideration her age and decided to expel her from its territory," KCNA said.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 adds Snapchat Easter eggs, could be teasing Black Ops 3
A recent update to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 adds Snapchat's equivalent of QR codes to a few in-game posters and could be teasing the next game in the series.
As YouTube user Drift0r shows in a video he published this week, the console versions of Black Ops 2 now have Snapchat watermarks in at least a pair of multiplayer maps. Polygon verified that scanning those images in Snapchat adds "callofduty" to your friends list on the social network, as you can see in the image below.
AT&T To Pay $25M To Settle Investigation Into Three Data Breaches
The Federal Communications Commission has entered a $25 million settlement with AT&T Services, Inc. to resolve an investigation into consumer privacy violations at AT&T’s call centers in Mexico, Colombia, and the Philippines. The data breaches involved the unauthorized disclosure of almost 280,000 U.S. customers’ names, full or partial Social Security numbers, and unauthorized access to protected account-related data, known as customer proprietary network information (CPNI). This is the FCC’s largest privacy and data security enforcement action to date.
According to an investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, these data breaches occurred when employees at call centers used by AT&T in Mexico, Colombia, and the Philippines accessed customer records without authorization. These employees accessed CPNI while obtaining other personal information that was used to request handset unlock codes for AT&T mobile phones, and then provided that information to unauthorized third parties who appear to have been trafficking in stolen cell phones or secondary market phones that they wanted to unlock. "As the nation's expert agency on communications networks
The Government Can Download Everything Off Your Computer At Border Crossings
Before you travel out of the country, make sure you take a crusty old virus-ridden WinXP laptop with you....just for funsies. 
The US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Impact Assessment for the Border Searches of Electronic Devices outlines the finer points of border officials’ authority to search the electronic devices of citizens and non-citizens alike crossing the US border. What becomes clear is that this authority has been broadly interpreted to mean that any device brought into or out of the country is subject to the highest level of scrutiny, even when there is no explicit probable cause.
Catch Up for 'Game of Thrones' Season 5: Where the Show Left Off
One of the reasons millions of fans are captivated by HBO’s Game of Thrones is the epic sweep of the series — dozens of characters in locations spanning a whole world.
But that very epicness also makes it difficult to keep up. It’s hard enough week to week, but after a whole year? That’s why we decided to write this “catching up” guide; it’s just as much for us as it is for you!
So, here’s a breakdown, family by family, of where all your favorite characters are, what they were last seen doing, and where they might be headed in Season 5.
London police probe massive '$300 million' jewel heist
London (AFP) - Thieves may have got away with a record haul of diamonds after a brazen heist in London's diamond district netted an estimated £200 million worth (275 million euro, $300 million) of gems, media reported Wednesday.
Burglars broke into a vault at a safe deposit centre in Hatton Garden, where many jewellers had left their stocks over the long Easter weekend, and cracked open 70 secure boxes, the police said.
Earlier reports put the number of boxes raided at 300.
A security guard heard an alarm go off on Friday, a bank holiday when the shops would have been closed, but shut it off when he failed to spot any sign of a disturbance, media reported Wednesday.
Mother charged after daughter falls to her death in Hong Kong
The Filipina mother of a teenager in Hong Kong has been charged with neglect after her daughter plunged to her death from an upmarket apartment block.
Police said there was "no suspicious element" in the 15-year-old girl's fatal fall, but arrested both her parents on suspicion of "ill-treatment or neglect of a child or a young person".
Her father, 58-year-old Nick Cousins, is the managing director of the Hong Kong office of British multinational Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), one of the world's leading insurance brokers.
$250 Stan Lee action figure will kick other action figures' butts
This Stan Lee action figure comes with an extra head.Stan Lee, creator of superheroes, gets a worthy tribute as a posable action figure complete with interchangeable head and hands.
Stan Lee doesn't have metal blades shooting out of his hands or a hammer forged in the heart of a dying star, but he has a wicked grin and wields the all-encompassing power of creation of comic-book heroes. He's a superhero to superheroes. And now he's getting his very own 1:6 scale action figure tribute from Das Toyz.
Computer users face hard choice _ pay ransom or lose files
Pay a ransom or lose your files _ hackers force computer users to make a hard choice
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's a chilling moment: A message appears on a computer screen, saying the files are encrypted and the only way to access them is by paying a ransom.
It happened at Jeff Salter's home health care business last December. The network of nearly 30 computers at Caring Senior Service was infected with ransomware, malicious software that hackers use to try to extort money from people and businesses by preventing them from opening or using documents, pictures, spreadsheets and other files. If computer users don't pay, there's no way they can access their files.
Mercedes dominates the World Car of the Year awards
Company wins three of the five awards
Mercedes has dominated the World Car of the Year awards as the automaker has claimed three of the five honors.
First and foremost, the Mercedes C-Classwas named the 2015 World Car of the Year. It beat out the Ford Mustang and Volkswagen Passat to take the top honor.
Hyundai confirms twin-turbo V6 for Genesis sedan
Hyundai has confirmed plans to downsize the engine in its range-topping Genesis sedan.
Following the industry trend, the company will introduce a new twin-turbocharged V6 engine to replace the current 5.0-liter Tau V8, according to an Automotive News report that quotes Hyundai Motor America CEO Dave Zuchowski.
Toyota details new 1.2L turbo
Toyota has released full details on its latest turbocharged engine. The mill is the second in Toyota's new series of highly-efficient powerplants.
Set to make its world debut in the Japanese-market Auris, the new 1.2L four-cylinder boasts both turbocharging and direct-injection technology, resulting in a maximum output of 114 horsepower and 136 lb-ft of torque. Toyota says the 1.2L will offer about the same performance as a conventional 1.6L engine.
Top Gear Removes Its Three Hosts From Website Banner
Even though neither James May nor Richard Hammond have said anything about their departure 
from the Top Gear show, 
a recent design change on the Top Gear website has left people wondering. Instead of featuring the mugshots of Jeremy Clarkson, who was recently ousted from the BBC, May, Hammond and The Stig, the website’s banner only shows a new version of The Stig.
from the Top Gear show, a recent design change on the Top Gear website has left people wondering. Instead of featuring the mugshots of Jeremy Clarkson, who was recently ousted from the BBC, May, Hammond and The Stig, the website’s banner only shows a new version of The Stig.
Revenge Porn Site Owner Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison
Something tells me this guy is not going to do well in prison.
The owner of a now-offline "revenge porn" website based in California was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison, the San Diego office of the state's attorney general said. Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, had been found guilty in February of six counts of extortion and 21 counts of identity theft. He faced a maximum of 23 years in prison.
City Won’t Show Results Of Comcast Customer Survey To Anyone Except Comcast
What is the point of taking a survey about Comcast if you don't share the results of the survey with anyone but Comcast?
Unfortunately, it looks like some of Philadelphia’s top brass may be dragging its feet on this process — and ignoring the opinions of their constituents — at the same time Comcast tries to acquire Time Warner Cable.
Watching A ‘Swatting’ Slowly Unfold
There you are, minding your own business, when all of the sudden you witness a swatting in person.
The instant a bystander told me what he had heard, I knew this police operation was almost certainly the result of a hoax known as Swatting, which starts with a fake 911 call reporting a non-existent life-threatening situation. It’s become an epidemic of late, targeting celebrities and online gamers, in particular.
Samsung Disputes SquareTrade's Smartphone Durability Test Results
It would seem Samsung is pissed off about SquareTrade's smartphone durability test that showed its product in a bad light. The company has issued a press release expressing its displeasure with the test results and made a video of its own.
SquareTrade test:
Intel Core i3 vs. Core i5 vs. Core i7
The gang over at TechSpot have posted a comparison of the Intel Core i3, Core i5 and the Core i7 to give you an idea of what you get as you spend more on a CPU.
The Core i3 is intended as an entry-level option, the Core i5 is geared for mainstream usage, and the mighty Core i7 is meant for high-end systems and enthusiasts. Many will wonder which one is right for them. Do they need a Core i7 or will the Core i5 be just as fast for their needs? Should they spend less on a Core i3 and allocate the savings elsewhere, or is the Core i5 worth a premium?
Glock Goes Concealed Carry: Could This New Gun Shake Up the Market?
Across the country, worries that President Obama wants to "take our guns" continue to drive sales of firearms.
Obama doesn't want your guns. Regardless, fear springs eternal -- fear of government regulation and fear of bad guys alike. And nowhere are these fears more evident than in the market for "compact" handguns, whose small size makes them ideal for gun owners to "conceal-carry." According to CNN, sales of handguns designed for concealed carry are growing at twice the pace of those of larger, full-size handguns.
And now, Glock wants in on that action.
Introducing the new Glock 43Last month, Austrian arms maker Glock unveiled its latest handgun for the civilian market, and it's tailor-made for concealed carry. Dubbed the "43," Glock describes its new polymer pistol as a "subcompact slimline" and a "single-stack 9mm" -- meaning rounds are loaded into the magazine straight up and down, permitting a narrower grip.
VASIMR Rocket Could Send Humans To Mars In Just 39 Days
A new type of rocket that could send humans to Mars in less than six weeks instead of six months or longer may be one step closer to reality.
NASA has selected Texas-based Ad Astra Rocket Company for a round of funding to help develop the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket, or VASIMR. The new rocket uses plasma and magnets, not to lift spacecraft into orbit but to propel them further and faster once they've escaped the planet's atmosphere.
“It is a rocket like no other rocket that you might have seen in the past. It is a plasma rocket," Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz, a former shuttle astronaut and CEO of Ad Astra said in a video describing the rocket. "The VASIMR engine is not used for launching things into space or landing them back but rather it is used for things already there. We call this ‘in-space propulsion.'"
Tax refunds for many take hit or get bump from health law
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the April 15 tax deadline nears, people who got help paying for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law are seeing the direct effect on their refunds — hundreds of dollars, for better or worse.
That's been a challenge for millions of people.The law offers tax credits so people without access to job-based health insurance can buy private coverage. Because these subsidies are tied to income, consumers must accurately estimate what they will make for the coming year.
John Oliver grills Edward Snowden over potentially harmful NSA leaks
John Oliver sat down with National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” for a wide-ranging interview that was funny and, at times, surprisingly tense.
Oliver, who flew to Moscow to conduct the interview, grilled Snowden on the leaked documents.
“How many of those documents have you actually read?” Oliver asked Snowden.
“I have evaluated all of the documents that are in the archive,” the 31-year-old former CIA systems administrator said. “I do understand what I turned over.”
Jury orders Chrysler to pay $150M in Jeep fire death
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury in Georgia has awarded $150 million to the family of a 4-year-old boy killed when a Jeep Grand Cherokee exploded into flames three years ago after being rear-ended. The jury said Chrysler, the maker of Jeeps, must pay nearly the full amount.
Jurors in Decatur County ruled Thursday that Chrysler acted with reckless disregard for human life in selling the family of Remington "Remi" Walden a 1999 Jeep with a gas tank mounted behind the rear axle.
Walden, of Bainbridge, Georgia, was killed when the Jeep driven by his aunt was hit from behind by a pickup truck in March 2012. The fuel tank leaked, engulfing the Jeep in flames and killing the boy.
The verdict comes nearly two years after Chrysler compromised with a federal safety agency and agreed to a scaled-down recall of some older-model Jeeps with the rear-mounted tanks. The tanks have little structure to protect them if struck from behind, making them susceptible to punctures and fires.
Federal documents show that at least 75 people have died in post-crash fires because of the rear-mounted fuel tanks.
F-35 pilots to wear $400,000 helmets that can see through the plane
We've come a long way from the classic leather aviator helmets and goggles pilots famously wore in WWI.
Pilots who climb into the cockpit of the F-35 stealth fighter to fly the costliest military plane ever built, will be wearing a helmet straight out of a science fiction movie.
"You can look through the jet's eyeballs to see the world as the jet sees the world," a test pilot told the paper.
This guy built an all-electric '68 Mustang that'd put a Tesla Model S in its place
Tesla’s Model S P85D has received quite a bit of attention from both technology and automotive enthusiasts. Few cars can match the ridiculous all-wheel-drive acceleration its powerful electric motors are capable of generating but this story start with an earlier Tesla model.
Muscle car enthusiast Mitch Medford caught an episode of Top Gear years ago in which host Jeremy Clarkson raced a Tesla Roadster against its petrol-powered cousin, the Lotus Elise. The race wasn’t even close and soon, Medford came across a car online known as the White Zombie.
FBI Has Its Own Secret Brand of Malware
Of course the FBI has its own brand of malware. Hell, I'd be more surprised if it DIDN'T have its own brand of malware. 
It’s not only digital criminals who like to secretly infect people’s computers with invasive malware. In fact, the FBI likes malware so much, it created its own special brand. We don’t know much about it, but now that the US Department of Justice is pushing for policy changes that’ll allow the FBI to install spyware on citizens’ computers even more easily, it’s time to take a closer look.
GTA V 60 Frames-Per-Second PC Trailer
Here it is folks, the GTA V 60 frames-per-second PC trailer. The game hits store shelves April 14th.
Microsoft Hits Halo Online Modders With Copyright Complaint
And this is why we can't have nice things.
Halo Online is an upcoming free-to-play version of Halo that will launch exclusively for players in Russia. However, following the leak of the game files a modding team developed its own ideas about who can access the game and when. Fighting back, Microsoft has just hit their Github project with a copyright complaint.
Detective Seen on Video Berating Uber Driver to Be Transferred, NYPD Commissioner Says
A video showing a police detective berating an Uber driver in New York City has gone viral, and the NYPD said the video is under review by the Internal Affairs Bureau and that it will also be investigated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
The officer in the video, identified as NYPD Detective Patrick Cherry, will be transferred out of his post with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Police Commissioner William Bratton said today.
Bratton also offered an apology to the Uber driver and the passengers for the detective's actions during the encounter. "Anger like that is unacceptable in any encounter. Discourtesy like that and language like that is unacceptable. That officer's behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform," Bratton said.In the video, the detective stands at the driver's door, shouting, "Do you understand me? I don't know what [expletive] planet you think you're on right now."
Ben Affleck's 'Batman' Costume: 'It's a Good Thing Bruce Wayne Has a Butler'
It takes more than dedication, a desire for justice and an inherited fortune to become Batman. Apparently, “patience” has to be part of the recipe as well, at least when it comes to putting on the costume.
As revealed in a Fashionista article about the costumes of TV and movie superheroes, it takes roughly 25 minutes for Ben Affleck to get into his Batsuit for next year’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice — and that’s with assistance.
"It does involve multiple costumers," admitted costume designer Michael Wilkinson, adding that turning the actor into the DC Entertainment superhero is "not the sort of thing that I could just sit in Ben’s trailer and he gets into it himself. It’s a six-handed operation."
3D Printing With Easy Cheese
This is NOT the future of 3D printing. Hell, this probably wouldn't even work to put cheese on more than one cracker...but it's funny to watch.
Tesla Announcing New Non-Car Product Next Month
Elon Musk took to Twitter to say his company will be announcing a new product line that is "not a car" on April 30th.
Twitter Is Now Placing Ads Within User Profiles
Twitter has decided that the next great thing is to put ads inside user profiles.
Twitter is bringing promoted tweets, the app’s signature ad unit, to people’s profile pages as part of a new test. That means when you visit the page of another user, you may find a targeted Twitter ad waiting for you a few tweets into that user’s stream.
Uber Files Complaints Against Governments
It sure seems like Uber setting up shop without getting permission from the local government and then filing complaints after they are banned might not be the best way to go about things.
"This is supposed to be a single market," said Mark McGann, Uber's head of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "What we're finding is that we're getting treated in completely different ways in different countries, and even within individual countries."
Google Killing Ad-Injecting Chrome Extensions
It's nice to see Google is finally doing something about this.
The browsers in the screenshots above have been infected with ‘ad injectors’. Ad injectors are programs that insert new ads, or replace existing ones, into the pages you visit while browsing the web. We’ve received more than 100,000 complaints from Chrome users about ad injection since the beginning of 2015—more than network errors, performance problems, or any other issue.
10% Of Americans Have Smartphone But No Broadband
According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, many Americans' only access to the internet is through their phone.
10% of Americans own a smartphone but do not have broadband at home, and 15% own a smartphone but say that they have a limited number of options for going online other than their cell phone.
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