Incredible video shows how Space X plans to land largest rocket in the world

You know what's cooler than a gigantic rocket? A gigantic rocket that can land itself. Elon Musk's Space X released a new video this week demonstrating just what it plans to do with its upcoming Falcon Heavy rocket, which is set to launch for the first time later this year.

In essence, the rocket is three of the company's current Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. The result is a rocket that can carry over 115,000 pounds (53,000 kg) — the equivalent of a fully-loaded Boeing 737 passenger jet — to low-earth orbit. When it flies later this year, the Falcon Heavy will be the world's most powerful rocket. Only the Saturn V rocket, which was retired in 1973 after sending Apollo missions to the moon, was more powerful.

Powerful enough to...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1znJqwM

BLANK YOU VERY MUCH

The Griffins’ second three-in-three of the season, coupled with an illness-plagued roster, contributed to a 4-0 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday at Van Andel Arena.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/1LxGJO0

MONSTER CHANGES

The Detroit Red Wings on Saturday assigned goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to the Griffins for conditioning. In addition, the Wings assigned defenseman Brian Lashoff to their AHL affiliate and reassigned right wing Martin Frk from the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye to the Griffins. Grand Rapids also recalled center Alden Hirschfeld from Toledo.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/1ylnIW5

Gorillaz announces its return with new artwork on Instagram

The Weekender: on Kegels, Comcast, and Super Bowl Sunday

Hello fellow weekend-goers, and welcome back to The Weekender. The week's big news sent to Sundance and into space on NASA's nickel — and we'll certainly be catching you up on anything you might've missed — but we'll also be setting you up for a stellar weekend back on this terrestrial plane. So sit back and take a journey with us. We promise you can film the whole thing on an iPhone 5S.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1vkKEsY

Doctor Who and other BBC shows are vanishing from Prime in Amazon's fight for exclusivity

Amazon's streaming war with Netflix is about to claim a new victim: Doctor Who. The Verge has learned that the program, along with the majority of BBC programming, will be vanishing from Prime Instant Video starting February 15th. According to sources familiar with the matter, the issue is exclusivity. Amazon's licensing deal with the BBC allows other subscription services like Netflix to carry the same shows at the same time. That doesn't align with Amazon's current strategic goals, so we've learned the company is choosing to not renew the agreement.

It's a bit of hardball that could frustrate Amazon's customers in the short term, but demonstrates just how serious the company is about Prime. Amazon has been on a tear over the past two...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1vjh5YM

GRIFFINS WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT

Jared Coreau recorded a shutout for the second straight night as the Griffins beat Milwaukee 3-0 Friday.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/1yhvctg

This is what's happening inside your camera at 10,000 frames per second

The "D" in DSLR does not stand for dark magic. In fact, that snap of the shutter you hear when taking a picture is a wonderful symphony of mechanical engineering at work, and happens so fast that you can't really enjoy it all with the naked eye. Luckily, the Slow Mo Guys have painstakingly chronicled what's happening with the mechanical shutter of a Canon 7D using a very fast (and expensive) Phantom Flex camera, recording various shutter speeds at a mind-boggling 10,000 frames per second.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yPfUuI

Dropcam CEO leaves Nest; founding VP of technology goes to Twitter

Two high-level employees at Nest have departed the company this week, The Verge has learned. Sources say that Nest's vice president of technology Yoky Matsuoka, as well as Greg Duffy who co-founded Dropcam, are no longer with the company. Matsuoka was previously the head of innovation at Google, as well as a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. She's leaving to join Twitter. Duffy joined Nest when Dropcam was acquired for $555 million last June, though the product's future has seemed uncertain.

Nest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Developing...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1wKzG9X

Notes: Babcock likes Mrazek's moxie

DETROIT – Moxie is a noun that defines someone’s courage, determination, skill and know-how. It’s also an idiom to coach Mike Babcock has used recently in characterizing Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek, who is in an unyielding position as a 22-yea...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1yNJII8

Finding the real Kurt Cobain: a conversation with documentary director Brett Morgen

The Sundance documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is far from a traditional biopic. Directed by Brett Morgen, the filmmaker behind movies like The Kid Stays in the Picture and the Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane, it eschews conventional narrative in an attempt to bring audiences inside the mind of Cobain through his paintings, personal recordings, journals, and some disturbing home video footage. I saw a lot of documentaries at Sundance this year, and Montage of Heck was my favorite by far.

I sat down with Morgen during the festival to talk about the origins of the project, the absence of Dave Grohl (he appears only in archival footage), and a striking animated sequence which uses Cobain’s recorded recollection of...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yNCt2R

Watch the trailer for Game of Thrones Season 5

You may have seen this earlier today in much blurrier form, but now HBO is giving it a proper release. The first trailer for Season 5 of Game of Thrones has just been put up to stream on the show's Facebook page, and you can watch it in the embedded box below. The series returns on April 12th.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1vhcPJq

Tom Hanks, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt are bringing a Lewis and Clark miniseries to HBO

HBO has officially greenlit Lewis and Clark, a six-hour miniseries that will chronicle the pair's exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Starring Casey Affleck as Meriwether Lewis and Matthias Schoenaerts as William Clark, Lewis and Clark has even bigger names serving as executive producers. Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton are among seven people backing the miniseries. It's based on the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, who also wrote Band of Brothers — another project Hanks famously helped bring to HBO in collaboration with Steven Spielberg.

Production is scheduled to start sometime this summer, but there's no word yet on when it will begin airing on the network. Late last year, it was reported that HBO was putting...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1wJYm2x

Tonight’s “Duel in the D” game sold-out between Michigan and Michigan State at Joe Louis Arena

DETROIT – Olympia Entertainment has announced that tonight’s “Duel in the D” between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University at Joe Louis Arena is sold out. College hockey fans can catch all the action of tonight’s game between th...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/164toMg

You can now watch Philae's historic descent to comet 67P in GIF form

The Philae lander had quite the exciting end to its 10-year journey to Comet 67P last fall. Now the ESA has just released this GIF of the lander tumbling towards the comet as it left its resting place aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. The 19 images that make up the GIF were taken over the span of four hours on November 12th. Philae disappears from view just hours before the lander's harpoons failed to fire, which sent it skipping across the comet's surface.

Back in November, the ESA released this low-res GIF of Philae's initial impact.

It's unclear why the images are being released now, but the ESA has been slow to release hi-res imagery from the Rosetta mission since the landing. That reticence has stirred a broader debate in the...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yVe9Rw

GRIFFINS TO HOST RYAN FISCHER LEGACY SCHOLARSHIP HOCKEY CLASSIC

The Griffins will host the Ryan Fischer Legacy Scholarship Hockey Classic between the Grandville Bulldogs and Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks at Van Andel Arena on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/15Q8dxD

DEFENSE SWAP

The Detroit Red Wings on Friday recalled defenseman Alexey Marchenko from the Griffins and assigned defenseman Xavier Ouellet to their AHL affiliate.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/15Q8dhh

White House unveils $215 million plan to develop patient-specific medical treatments

The White House unveiled a "Precision Medicine Initiative" today — a $215 million investment that will go toward building a database containing genetic information and medical records belonging to millions of Americans, reports Science . The investment, one that’s part of President Obama’s 2016 budget proposal, will also go toward pioneering new models for patient-specific medical research — research that caters to a specific patient’s needs based on their genetics instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all treatment approach.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yUXgWX

The Vergecast 138: Dressed as a pirate

It's a very special episode of The Vergecast. This is David Pierce's final day at The Verge, and as such, we have dressed him as a pirate and forced him to discuss technology, film, and the merits of Snapchat. Nilay Patel wrangles the troops, Sam Sheffer brings the swag, and Emily Yoshida is back from Park City to reflect on Sundance.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yMiVMh

Vine just released a version of its app made just for kids

Vine's looping videos can be an effective way of keeping kids entertained, but giving young ones unbridled access to the regular app probably isn't a great idea. So with that in mind, the company is today releasing Vine Kids, a version of the Vine experience that's tailored for young children — both in terms of design and content. Instead of greeting users with the regular, scrollable feed of videos, Vine Kids has a cast of "adorable animated characters" to help guide its junior target audience through using the app.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1A7hmzf

Verizon will allow users to opt out of its 'permacookie'

There may be a way around Verizon's "permacookie" after all. The New York Times is reporting that the company will soon give users the chance to opt out of the tracking method, as part of the companies larger opt-out features. Users will still have to actively turn off the recently revealed tracking code, and Verizon won't stop using the method entirely, but providing an opt-out gives privacy-conscious users an important way to avoid what many had seen as an unnecessarily intrusive measure. "We listen to our customers and provide them the ability to opt out of our advertising programs," a Verizon representative said in a statement. "We have begun working to expand the opt-out to include the identifier referred to as the UIDH, and expect...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1CHIAM7

GRIFFINS UNVEIL 20TH ANNIVERSARY LOGO FOR 2015-16 SEASON

The Griffins will take to the ice for their 20th season in 2015-16, and on Friday they introduced a 20th anniversary logo that will be at the forefront of their year-long celebration.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/162DRHX

New trailers: Fantastic Four, Terminator Genisys, Insurgent, and more

This week, there are new trailers out for films big and small — from huge franchises to short pictures, all of which are worth checking out for one reason or another. You can see the biggest and best of this week's releases below.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zedhYs

Our favorite films from the 2015 Sundance Film Festival

Best dramatic films

Tangerine

Casey Newton: Sean Baker’s buzzy comedy is notable for having been filmed almost entirely on an iPhone 5S. But the film itself sticks in your mind: a shaggy, draggy story about Sin-Dee and Alexandra, two trans women of color working as prostitutes on Christmas Eve and hell-bent on "finding the fish" — the biological female who slept with Sin-Dee’s man. The caper’s resolution is somewhat unsatisfying, but the journey is one to remember: dialogue comes fast and furious, and we expect to hear it quoted on Ru-Paul’s Drag Race for years to come.

The Witch

Bryan Bishop: Writer/director Robert Eggers and his team painstakingly recreate 1600s-era New England in this drama about a family that is slowly...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zdUbBL

AOL is shutting down its Apple blog TUAW

There goes another one. AOL is shutting down The Unofficial Apple Weblog, better known as TUAW , sources familiar with the situation tell The Verge. The company — which is also shutting down its gaming site Joystiq — is in the midst of a major reorganization, and is cutting back on media properties it deems as underperforming. TUAW’s run comes to an end on February 2nd.

TUAW comes to an end on February 2nd

Founded just over 10 years ago in December 2004, TUAW was acquired by AOL in 2005 when it purchased Weblogs, Inc., alongside other influential sites including Autoblog, Joystiq, and Engadget. TUAW currently has 11 editorial staffers, according to its about page. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong forecasted these changes during an earnings call...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1JTJdoc

PULKKINEN DRIVES IOWA WILD WITH HAT TRICK

Teemu Pulkkinen became the second player in team history to score three power play goals in a game to lead the Griffins to a 6-0 win over Iowa.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/1vcP994

Once again, unvaccinated people experience a measles outbreak

The Disneyland measles outbreak is directly attributable to vaccine-denier movements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today in a conference call with reporters.

From January 1 to 28, 84 people in 14 states have been reported as having measles, said Anne Schuchat, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Most of these cases — 56 people — are linked to the outbreak at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, where five employees are sick as well. The remainder were infected abroad and brought the disease back.

last year, the cdc reported 644 measles cases Measels was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, but they've been creeping back. From 2000 to 2010, there were usually about 60 cases a...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1ESCCHU

Spotify reportedly raising another $500 million to expand its streaming music empire

Spotify is reportedly in the process of raising $500 million in funding, a move that could open up new avenues for expansion, though delay its plans to go public. Citing sources, both The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times say that the streaming music company has hired Goldman Sachs to help it raise the funds, which would value it at around $7 billion. The round would be Spotify's biggest yet, following the $250 million it raised in November 2013 led by venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1CEEfJA

Hard work continues to pay for Glendening

TAMPA, Fla. – Familiarity with his teammates and the system, along with the support of coach Mike Babcock, has made all the difference in the world for Luke Glendening in his second NHL season. Glendening continues to show tremendous improveme...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1zaJ5gY

Everyday life can make an awesome video game

More video games should be set in mundane places.

I've spent a lot of time saving the world from monsters and engaging in intergalactic warfare, but there are few games that let me experience the drama and excitement of everyday life. Life is Strange does just that. It stars a high school girl in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, and many of the key moments of the first episode deal with typical teenage dilemmas: drugs, relationships, figuring out who you are as a person. It's incredibly refreshing to play a game that's so fixated on everyday, modern life. And it's even more amazing considering it's also a game about time travel.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1uGW7NJ

FTC bans notorious revenge porn operator from posting nude photos without consent

The Federal Trade Commission is banning Craig Brittain, founder of the notorious revenge porn site IsAnybodyDown, from publishing any more nude photos or videos of people without first receiving their explicit consent. As part of a settlement with the commission, Brittain will also have to destroy all images and personal information that he collected during the course of operating IsAnybodyDown.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Ci0K8J

Lego made a 2,996-piece set of Avengers' SHIELD Helicarrier

Avengers fans have to wait until May for Age of Ultron to hit theaters, but Lego just announced something that might help pass the time. The Wall Street Journal has an exclusive look at the new set based on the Helicarrier from the first Avengers movie, and it's massive. The main attraction here is the two-foot-long Helicarrier itself, but the full set also includes two Quinjets and various fighter jets and ground vehicles. A few characters are also included — namely Hawkeye, Maria Hill, Captain America (with Cap's vibranium shield!), Nick Fury, and Black Widow, alongside a few generic SHIELD microfigures.

The 2,996-piece set will debut at the Toy Fair in New York City next month and will cost $349 when it hits retail shelves in...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1z9KZhZ

Fiery star deaths may look different than we thought

Supernovae are the funeral pyres of very massive stars. They forge most of the basic elements we know, including the ones that make up our bodies. But we still don't know exactly how they happen. It's getting a little clearer though, and a new study published today in Science could address part of the mystery.

Researchers looked at supernova remnant Cassiopeia A in a unique way — one that allowed them to map its interior in three dimensions. The story told by that map reveals large-scale structures in the interior of the remnant, a previously undiscovered trait that suggests stars might explode differently than astronomers had imagined, says study author Dan Milisavljevic, a postdoctoral fellow with the Smithsonian Astrophysical...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1tzoSAv

Jurco ready to return to Wings' lineup

TAMPA, Fla. – After missing eight games with spasms in his lower back, Tomas Jurco is ready to return to the Red Wings lineup tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “I was getting better every day and I think I’m ready tonight. I’m excited to...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1JOORI9

Can Wings, Lightning rivalry be far off?

TAMPA, Fla. – In the NHL, rivalries are born and nurtured in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning have never met in the postseason, but that won’t strip the luster from tonight’s Atlantic Division showdown between th...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1JOORbi

Facebook Place Tips will try to put useful info about your location right into the News Feed

Facebook is in the middle of an ongoing battle to make sure it always surfaces useful, relevant content in your news feed — which is what makes a new feature the company is piloting a bit of a risk. As of today, Facebook users in New York City will be able to test out a new feature called Place Tips. Assuming you have location services enabled, the Facebook app will try to guess when you’re in a popular or interesting location and surface relevant tips, photos, and posts from the place in question.

"News Feed today is a pretty good tool at connecting you to friends and news," says product manager Mike LeBeau, "but if we’re Facebook and our job is to connect the world, what else do we want to connect you to?" The answer to that question...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1z8Hjgj

Cloud photo service Picturelife is being acquired, but insists this isn't the end

The options for backing up and preserving your photos outside of Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox, Flickr, and other big companies are starting to dwindle. Picturelife — one of our previous favorites — has announced it's been acquired by StreamNation. The company is quick to note that it's not going anywhere and says the deal ensures "your photos a safe and secure future." Picturelife says it started thinking about its long-term prospects late last year, concerned about "not being able to keep our customers happy, or making them leave our service because we could no longer support our business."

The company notes that it never managed to reach a profitable state; apparently not enough users were paying for unlimited storage...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1A30WYu

The FCC has changed the definition of broadband

As part of its 2015 Broadband Progress Report, the Federal Communications Commission has voted to change the definition of broadband by raising the minimum download speeds needed from 4Mbps to 25Mbps, and the minimum upload speed from 1Mbps to 3Mbps, which effectively triples the number of US households without broadband access. Currently, 6.3 percent of US households don’t have access to broadband under the previous 4Mpbs/1Mbps threshold, while another 13.1 percent don't have access to broadband under the new 25Mbps downstream threshold.

FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler was vehement in his support for the new broadband standard. "When 80 percent of Americans can access 25-3, that's a standard. We have a problem that 20 percent can't. We...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yEqkNQ

Steam users have earned more than $50 million selling in-game hats and maps

Since Valve launched its community content marketplace Steam Workshop in 2011, creators have earned more than $57 million. According to the company, that money was made by more than 1,500 creators spread out across 75 countries.

That makes for an average of about $38,000 per user, though of course we have no idea how that money is actually spread out — chances are that, much like on YouTube, there are a few creators who have made a lot, and a whole bunch who have earned very little. You probably shouldn't quit your job to make Team Fortress hats, but it's still a nice chunk of change.

"We expected that it would grow, but not that it would grow this much."

Steam Workshop is essentially a market where you can buy user-made items for...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1uFjVl4

Internal email: We need to change our official photos immediately

Staff:

It's come to my attention that official staff photos haven't been taken since the founding of The Verge dot com. I understand how something like staff photos can be bumped further and further down our corporate to do list. We're a growing company, and our time is often better served crashing drones and using electric skateboards in nefarious ways. That said, I do believe the moment has come again for staff photos to be taken — and taken seriously. Fortunately, I have found a model from which we can base these photos.

You may have seen this official photograph of astronaut and dog lover Leland D. Melvin. An inspirational figure for us all, Leland spent much of his career with NASA traveling across the country, teaching citizens...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/15VU6qp

Nintendo is finally sharing ad revenue with YouTube users

Nintendo has just launched a beta for what it's calling its "Creators Program," an affiliate program for sharing advertising money with YouTube content creators. Essentially, anyone who is part of the program can create YouTube videos featuring footage of Nintendo games and split the advertising money with Nintendo — users will get 60 percent of the revenue on individual videos, but can also register dedicated Nintendo channels to earn 70 percent. (Nintendo notes that "this rate may be changed arbitrarily.")

This is a strong departure for Nintendo, which in 2013 controversially claimed all ad revenue on YouTube videos that featured copyright images and footage from its games. It was a move that angered multiple YouTube gaming...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1HjMnUk

Samsung's profits continue to slip

Samsung made an operating profit of 5.29 trillion won ($4.87 billion) off the back of 52.73 trillion won ($48.6 billion) in revenue last quarter. These are big numbers by almost anyone's standards, but the problem is that they don't meet the company's own; last year operating profit was 8.31 trillion won from 59.28 trillion won revenue, meaning that these latest results reveal respective dips of 36 and 11 percent.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1K6Wwjj

My First Sundance Diary Day 5-6: Advantageous and the Sundance sci-fi problem

I'm leaving the Sundance Film Festival feeling a little conflicted. The good news: I found a movie that felt close to being "mine", in that I felt that kind of heart-tugging urgency one feels after encountering a work of art that finds some little click of affinity inside you. It's a wild, slightly manic, not unpleasant feeling: you find yourself wandering in a loopy, Family Circus-esque trajectory as you leave the venue; you nearly text several people about your excitement before thinking better of it; you feel the need both to talk to someone immediately and to greedily horde the experience for yourself; you feel an inexplicable longing to live inside the good thing you just saw, or better yet, to somehow become it.

Philosophical...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zCjzD0

Samsung is probably ditching Qualcomm for the Galaxy S6

Dominant mobile chipmaker Qualcomm revealed today that its new flagship Snapdragon 810 processor won't be in a major smartphone launching this year. Specifically, the company said its "Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer's flagship device" and it therefore cut revenue expectations for the second half of the year in its most recent financial report. Qualcomm did not say which of its partners was electing to drop the processor, but earlier reports have said that Samsung was not planning to use the 810 in its upcoming Galaxy S6 due to thermal issues. LG has already announced that its G Flex 2 will use the 810, and HTC is expected to put the processor in its upcoming M9 flagship, due to be...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Hfa00k

Notes: Miller gets rare shorthanded goal

TAMPA, Fla. – For a penalty killer there’s nothing better. Rarely rewarded on the scoresheet for their diligence while the team is shorthanded, penalty killers cherish every special-teams goal they can score. “You don’t get many of them, so ...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1JJ0noy

An experimental Ebola vaccine looks promising in a human trial

An Ebola vaccine produced using a chimpanzee common cold virus appears to be safe to use on humans, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine . Three different doses of vaccine were tested on healthy humans in the UK, and it was well-tolerated; it triggered high levels of antibody formation without also triggering serious side effects. But until the vaccine is tested in an area where an Ebola risk actually exists, it’s efficacy against the disease will remain a mystery.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yOuozG

Hit mobile game Badland is headed to consoles

After launching on iOS to much acclaim in 2013, the dark and wonderful Badland has since made its way to all the major mobile platforms — you can even pick it up for your BlackBerry. Two years later, the game is expanding to even more devices, and soon you'll be able to play it on your big screen as Badland makes its way to just about every console out there.

"We always wanted to bring Badland on to the consoles, but that required more resources," says Frogmind COO Teemu Mäki-Patola. "Thanks to its success on tablets we can finally make that dream a reality."

No specific release date has been announced — you can expect to see the game on consoles this spring — but it's coming to a huge range of platforms. That includes the PS3, PS4,...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/15QZwTx

Finally, proof that the Kool-Aid man could actually break through a wall

Brands spend a lot of time desperately grasping for our attention, but sometimes they leave us with burning questions without even trying. "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?" "Are there really 1,000 chips in every bag?" Now, an answer is finally being posited for one of the biggest unsolved mysteries: could the Kool-Aid Man actually break through a brick wall?

Jake Roper, a contributor to the YouTube channel VSauce, says that, oh yeah — he can. Roper estimates that if the Kool-Aid Man were brought up to the scale represented in the iconic ads, he would measure about 6 feet tall, have a dry weight of almost 6,000 pounds (11,000 pounds when filled with Kool-Aid), and his glass frame would...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zBeLhf

Climate change could mean massive ocean dead zones

In 2002, fishermen off the Oregon coast pulled up their traps to find them full of dead crabs. Baby octopuses were climbing up their lines, seemingly struggling to get out of the deep. "In 30 years of crabbing, I'd never seen anything like it before," a fisherman told the Los Angeles Times . "It's spooky, this dead-zone thing."

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1y6uH5c

This skull may provide a new link between Neanderthals and modern humans

It's history frozen in time: an expansive cave in Northern Israel where early humans lived for thousands of years, locked away and preserved after its entrance collapsed some 30,000 years ago. It's in this time capsule of human evolution that researchers say they've found a partial skull that serves as a "connecting link" between ancient and modern humans — "the first direct fossil evidence that modern humans inhabited the Levantine corridor" about 55,000 years ago.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1JHYubN

Apple's crazy iPhone sales prove that hardware still matters

A tech company just broke the record for highest quarterly profit ever recorded, and it did it by selling a supposed commodity product: a smartphone. Apple’s $18 billion profit over the last three months of 2014 was driven primarily by growing iPhone sales, which accounted for more than two-thirds of the company’s $74.6 billion in revenue. At a time when smartphones are being dismissed as undifferentiated slabs of composite materials, Apple’s making more money from the hardware it sells than it ever has before, and the average price of every iPhone sold has actually risen.

With iPads and Macs counted alongside the iPhone, Apple sold 101 million devices in the last quarter, and once you factor in iPods, the Apple TV, and peripherals like...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1trKBKB

Catfish meets the Arab Spring: talking with the makers of The Amina Profile

In early 2011, Montreal resident Sandra Bagaria began an online relationship with Amina Arraf, a pretty, American-born Syrian woman who was passionate, outspoken, and gay in a country where homosexual activity is illegal. As the revolution intensified in Syria and neighboring countries, so did their relationship, and Amina's blog — A Gay Girl In Damascus — gained international attention.

But then Amina goes missing and Sandra — and the rest of the world — begin to learn the truth of her identity. The Amina Profile, a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Sophie Deraspe premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival, follows that investigation. Deraspe's film uses the sheer bizarreness of the story as a means to talk about sensationalism,...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zcnXWe

Seven future uses for Microsoft's HoloLens that will make someone disgustingly rich

Since Microsoft announced HoloLens, I’ve been fantasizing about how it could inspire new business, improve old businesses, and generally make our lives better. Because I have neither the means nor the business acumen to make these fantasies into realities, I present them to you, brilliant readers, who can do with them what you will. Just remember me, when you’re rolling in your swimming pool full of augmented reality gold.

Pardon me, need to add another item to this list: "A simulator that turns your bathroom into the intro credits for DuckTales." What am I doing writing these moneymakers on a public website?

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1BoL4uI

Vision Gran Turismo: the coolest concept cars come to PlayStation

Gran Turismo 6 may have come out in 2013, but its most interesting cars have been steadily been coming out over the past year — and they're still coming. As part of the Vision Gran Turismo project, developer Polyphony Digital has been partnering with the biggest names in automotive to bring exciting concept cars into the game so you can actually drive them.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1LhxMIO

Windows 10: a closer look at the future of Microsoft's vision for PCs

Microsoft's latest Windows 10 preview offers up a good look at what the company is planning for the future of laptops and PCs. While Windows 8 was never received well by consumers or businesses, Windows 10 aims to make things a lot more familiar. We saw the new Start Menu when Microsoft released its first Windows 10 preview back in October, but things are changing rapidly. There's more built-in apps, user interface changes, and a whole new touch mode designed for 2-in-1 laptops and tablets.

Windows 10 is still a work in progress, but Microsoft is soliciting feedback and changing parts of its operating system before it ships later this year. While the company demonstrated a number of new features and apps during its Windows 10 event last...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1y5j5PH

HTC allegedly launching two new phones on March 1st

HTC has already revealed that it will be making a major product announcement on March 1st at the Mobile World Congress trade show. Many expect the company to announce the M9, a successor to last year's One M8. But a new image posted by Evan Blass to his Twitter account points to two phones being announced at the company's press event.

The image shows two new, never-before-seen HTC smartphones that have similar design traits to other recent phones from the company. They appear to have metal chassis, center-mounted front cameras, and HTC's signature front-facing BoomSound speakers in a similar configuration to last year's mid-range Desire Eye. The only visible difference between the two phones is what appears to be a...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1y5j5zh

Wanted: a better Twitter filter to mute the echo chamber

Yesterday's weather forecast for my Twitter feed called for a 50 percent chance of moaning New Yorkers. It’s my own fault, my chosen profession requires that I follow the media elite, many of whom reside in Gotham. Still, I could have probably whittled those annoyances back to about 20 percent of my feed if only Twitter allowed for some temporary keyword filtering on topics like "snow," "Juno," and "blizzard."

New York is disappearing into the blizzard http://t.co/vgvumIElxx

— David Pierce (@piercedavid) January 26, 2015

If I follow you on Twitter it’s because I’m genuinely interested in what you — person or #brand — have to say. I don’t follow accounts out of professional or even friendly courtesy, and certainly not as an...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1v4apxy

Inside the studio where ESPN is betting billions on the future of sports

All sports everything

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1BosaUQ

How one of the best films at Sundance was shot using an iPhone 5S

Tangerine , a breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is full of surprises. There’s the subject matter: transgender prostitutes working in a not-so glamorous part of Hollywood. And there are the characters: flinty, funny, nobody’s victim. But the story behind the camera is as surprising as what’s in front of it. Particularly because the camera used to shoot Tangerine was the iPhone 5S.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Hc4D1W

Nintendo cuts forecasts but still expects a return to profit

Nintendo had a pretty good Christmas. The Kyoto video games giant posted an operating profit of ¥31.4 billion ($266 million) for its third fiscal quarter, selling 1.91 million Wii U consoles and 4.99 million 3DS portables. Net profit was ¥45.2 billion ($383 million), and revenue was ¥271,521 billion ($2.3 billion).

The solid holiday sales won't be enough for Nintendo to meet its forecast of ¥40 billion yen in operating profit for the financial year, however — the company has slashed that target in half, now expecting to make ¥20 billion. Since its account for the nine months so far stands at ¥31.6 billion, Nintendo is predicting it will lose more than ¥10 billion over the next three months.

The earnings release makes no mention...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1LgjOXx

This is the main cast of the new Steve Jobs movie

Filming is already underway for the next Steve Jobs biopic, though today Universal detailed its casting choices for the main characters of the film, which are (of course) based on real people. The studio also confirmed, via SlashFilm , what writer Aaron Sorkin had previously detailed from his screenplay (which is based on Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Jobs), saying the film will take place at "three iconic product launches," culminating in the debut of the first iMac in 1998.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1K0T9ud

Cleary embraces role with Red Wings

SUNRISE, Fla. – Daniel Cleary knew last summer that this was going to be a season of adjustments for the 14-season NHL veteran. With the arrival of so many young players from Grand Rapids, playing time would be difficult to come by. But while t...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1tmNe0j

This spider combs its tiny silk threads to make them extra sticky

There's a spider in Britain that's a tad unusual. Instead of spinning "thick" silk threads (in this case, thick means several micrometers), the garden center spider can spin tiny nano-scale threads that are also extremely sticky. This is particularly useful when catching prey, but until recently researchers didn't now how the spider managed to make such sticky silk. Now, researchers say they've figured it out: the garden center spider's silk is sticky because the spider combs and pulls at the tiny threads to charge the fibers. In other words, this spider appears to have figured out how electrostatic interactions work.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1ztC4cR

Wings ready for second-half push

SUNRISE, Fla. – Now comes the sprint to the finish. With 35 games left on the regular season – 20 on the road beginning tonight in Florida – the Red Wings are well rested and ready for the drive to a 24th consecutive playoff appearance. “It’...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1CwDbaP

China is the biggest driver of Apple's insane earnings growth

Apple announced staggering earnings today, posting $18 billion in profit on $74.6 billion in revenue, driven by the sale of 74.5 million iPhones. That's a record for a corporate profit in a single three-month period. Those sales figures are global, but there is one part of the world that is far and away the biggest driver of Apple's growth: China. Revenue in Greater China was up 157 percent over last quarter and 70 percent year over year, more than double the acceleration seen anywhere else and more than three time the sales growth in Asia or the Americas.

Apple has a strange identity in China. iPhones are seen as a status symbol by the rising middle class, who have been snapping up the devices faster than anyone else. The company...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/15GMTe6

Tim Cook says Apple Watch is coming in April

Apple CEO Tim Cook just announced that the Apple Watch will begin shipping in April.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1D5zoiC

Apple Q1 2015 earnings: bigger iPhones equal bigger sales

Apple just posted its first quarter results, and as expected, it was a big one. Led once again by record sales of new iPhones and holiday sales of iPads and Macs, Apple posted earnings of $18 billion on $74.6 billion in revenue, far above what it forecasted back in October.

By product, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, 21.4 million iPads, and 5.52 million Macs.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1JCAxCD

GRIFFINS SQUARE OFF AGAINST WILD, ADMIRALS DURING THREE-IN-THREE

Three game in three nights, that's the schedule ahead for the Griffins from Thursday to Saturday. Click here to see what's in store for the team as they prepare to take on the Iowa Wild and Milwaukee Admirals.



via griffinshockey.com - News Releases http://ift.tt/1zstawh

We need to stop treating weather scientists like oracles

It's mid-afternoon on Tuesday, and much of New York City is probably still smarting after the so-called snowstorm of the century turned out to be just a snowy day. Wherever you stand on the I'm-Barely-Snowed-In-And-Kinda-Annoyed scale, that our preparedness blitz — the alerts, the stockpiling, the breathless headlines — came to face a disappointing reality exposes a huge problem with how we think about weather. As a people, we’re really bad at handling the inherent doubt in weather science.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1Bvh1Ed

Watch this: Great horned owls try to steal a bald eagle nest

Bald eagles in Decorah, Iowa, are fighting off some interlopers hoping to steal their nest: great horned owls. Here's a tangle between the two predators, as seen by nest cameras. The action starts around the 16:00 mark.

In the footage, a male great horned owl lands in one of the nests used by Decorah's bald eagles. The owl hoots, and off camera, an eagle responds. Then a male bald eagle lands on the nest, chasing the owl off. All seems well — until a streak flies across the camera. It's a female great horned owl who knocks the eagle out of the nest.

Great horned owls are "the tigers of the air"It's not the first clash between the ferocious birds of prey, and it's unlikely to be the last, Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1uy1RJv

Apple releases iOS 8.1.3, reduces amount of free space needed for updates

Apple has just released an update for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch that addresses a number of bugs and adds a couple of new features to the platform. Available for download now, the biggest thing that iOS 8.1.3 addresses is the amount of free space needed to install updates over the air. Prior to this, most updates required gigabytes of free space available to be installed, which many lower cost iOS devices did not have. As a result, adoption of iOS 8 (which needed as much as 4.7GB free to install) has been slower than with other updates to the platform. Apple doesn't say how much the required space was reduced, but we were able to install it on a 16GB iPad mini that only had 445MB of space available. Earlier updates required using...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1H723dz

FCC Commissioner says Marriott shouldn't be able to block your Wi-Fi hotspot

You should be able to use your own Wi-Fi hotspot at a hotel without the hotel trying to block you, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel says. Speaking this morning at the State of the Net conference, Rosenworcel said that she'd like the FCC to quickly dismiss a petition from Marriott asking that the commission give it an expanded ability to "manage" its Wi-Fi network, effectively allowing it to block personal hotspots under the guise of network security. "There are other ways to address legitimate network security concerns, but this is a bad idea," Rosenworcel said.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/15JvnW7

Moment's new case gives your phone a real shutter button

Taking photos with your smartphone is quick, convenient, and, more often than not, pretty fun. But even the most die-hard smartphone shooters would admit that taking photos with your phone isn't quite the same as using a traditional camera. Moment is looking to bridge the gap between smartphones and traditional cameras with its new Moment Case, launching on Kickstarter today.

The Moment Case has an integrated mount for Moment's wide-angle and telephoto lenses released last year, as well as mounting points for neck or wrist straps. It can even determine which of Moment's lenses are attached, sending that information to Moment's app for improved image processing. But the most interesting part of the Moment Case is its two stage shutter...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1BkcJNA

White House wants to nearly double funding to fight antibiotic resistance

President Obama's fiscal 2016 budget request will include a proposal to nearly double federal funding dedicated to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria — a health issue that causes approximately 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths a year in the US. The increase would bring the total amount devoted to antibiotic resistance to $1.2 billion.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1D3MMDZ

Vergecast Special Edition: adventures at the Sundance Film Festival

Put on your snow boots, gang — it's time to visit Park City, Utah, for this special Sundance Film Festival edition of the Vergecast. Emily Yoshida, Bryan Bishop, and Casey Newton are on hand to run down all the highlights of the festival, from Jason Segel's impressive performance as David Foster Wallace in End of the Tour to hot celeb gossip about what Adam Scott ordered at a Park City coffeeshop. Check it out!

Films discussed in the podcast:

• True Story


• A Walk in the Woods


• The End of the Tour


• Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief


• Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck


• The Amina Profile


• Tangerine


• Me, Earl and the Dying Girl


• Lost (Oculus short film)


• What Happened, Miss Simone?


• Larry Kramer: In Love and Anger


• The Visit

...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1CcE61x

This is Swyp, the latest card that wants to store all your other credit cards

Every startup has an origin story, sometimes original but often manufactured to make a company seem more exciting. Ash Dhodapkar’s is about as mundane as they come. While on vacation he managed to lose his wallet and, with it, all his credit cards. It’s something that’s happened to many of us. But not all of us have a PhD in electrical and computer engineering, experience with hardware design, and friends who are experts in electromagnets. After figuring out what cards were missing and calling to make cancellations, he thought it would be pretty great to design something that would both consolidate his credit cards and, more importantly, lock itself down if lost.

After a year and a half of development (and with some more yet to go),...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1uYwsWr

A crowdfunded startup explains why crowdfunding can be a complete disaster

Like so many ambitious young hardware startups these days, Lockitron used crowdfunding to sell people a product before they built it. The company promised users a keyless door lock that paired with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and NFC, allowing customers to unlock it remotely or with a simple proximity sensor. Lockitron ran its own crowdfunding campaign and managed to collect more than $2.2 million in pre-orders for around 14,000 units; it aimed to start shipping in March of 2013. The success of that campaign and press attention on the company drove another 70,000 pre-orders through its website.

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/18p9oWw

You can now post videos and send group messages on Twitter

Twitter is rolling out long-awaited features for its core apps designed to boost the time people spend on the service. As of this morning, you can begin shooting and post 30-second video clips to Twitter from the iOS and Android apps. And direct messages are expanding to let you message groups of up to 20 people, creating a place for more private conversations on Twitter (and doing grave damage to the time-honored practice of subtweeting in the process.)

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1yqwxwF

Grim Fandango Remastered might be the perfect video game remake

There wasn't anything like Grim Fandango when it first came out in 1998. Nearly two decades later, there's still nothing that comes close.

The adventure game tells the story of Manny, a salesman for the Department of Death who helps lost souls find better travel packages to the land of the dead. It's an epic and hilarious story that spans years, combining elements from Mexican folklore and film noir to create a truly unique and wonderful world that you just want to walk around in and explore. Half the fun in the game comes from just talking to other characters.

Grim was also arguably the last great adventure game to come out of Lucasarts, the studio that brought us classics like Monkey Island and Sam & Max, and it was the first...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1BtIara

Howard starts skating, feels optimistic

TAYLOR, Mich. – For the first time since slightly tearing a groin muscle on Jan. 10, Jimmy Howard returned to the ice, albeit for a short time Monday afternoon under the watchful eye of goaltending coach Jim Bedard at the Taylor Sportsplex. “It...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1uV2Dpz

Glendening excited for sixth outdoor game

TAYLOR, Mich. – Seems Luke Glendening will keep a headlock on outdoor games next season. With the NHL’s announcement that the Colorado Avalanche will host the Red Wings in an outdoor game at Coors Field – the home of Major League Baseball’s Col...



via Red Wings Recent Headlines http://ift.tt/1JvM2Ma

SpaceX and Boeing are on their way to launching US astronauts, NASA says

New details about NASA's Commercial Crew Program were revealed today during a press conference held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Both SpaceX and Boeing have completed the first milestones in their plans to send humans into space from US soil for the first time in years.

SpaceX has completed the first certification milestone in its CCP commitment, and will spend much of 2015 testing abort solutions for its formerly cargo-only Dragon capsule. (Abort procedures are more critical in crewed missions.) A launchpad abort will be tested in the next two months at Cape Canaveral, and an in-flight abort test will follow "later this year," according to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell. Uncrewed missions to the ISS with the new...

Continue reading…

via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1C8CK7N