A pre-teen girl is at a unique moment in her life.

Warner Bros. Pictures releases the first trailer for "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," the Harry Potter prequel that whisks viewers away to a supernatural 1920s-era New York.

From new sneakers for people with disabilities to bindis that deliver iodine to poor women in India, these are our favorite social good innovations of 2015.

The popular YouTube series pits Marvel's wisecracking Merc with a Mouth against the beloved Star Wars bounty hunter.

LOS ANGELES — From YouTube's 10th birthday to the Streamy Awards jumping to television, the digital entertainment industry certainly had a big year. But not everything went vira...

Designer and architect Neri Oxman is leading the search for ways in which digital fabrication technologies can interact with the biological world. Working at the intersection of computational design, additive manufacturing, materials engineering and synthetic biology, her lab is pioneering a new age of symbiosis between microorganisms, our bodies, our products and even our buildings.

In a highly entertaining performance, beatboxer Tom Thum slings beats, comedy and a mouthful of instrumental impersonations into 11 minutes of creativity and fun that will make you smile.

John Martinis, 57, is the perfect person to wrestle a mind-bogglingly complex strand of quantum physics research into a new engineering discipline. Not only can he dive into the esoteric math, but he loves to build things. Operating even a single qubit is a puzzle assembled from deep quantum theory, solid-state physics, materials science, microfabrication, mechanical design, and conventional electronics. Martinis, who is tall with a loud, friendly voice, makes a point of personally mastering the theory and technical implementation of every piece. Giving a tour of his new lab at Google, he is as excited about the new soldering irons and machine tools in the conventional workshop area as he is about the more sophisticated equipment that chills chips and operates them. “To me it’s fun,” he says. “I’ve been able to do experiments no one else could do, because I could build my own electronics.”

Marcus has a very different perspective from many of the computer scientists and mathematicians now at the forefront of artificial intelligence. He has spent decades studying the way the human mind works and how children learn new skills such as language and musicality. This has led him to believe that if researchers want to create truly sophisticated artificial intelligence—something that readily learns about the world—they must take cues from the way toddlers pick up new concepts and generalize. And that’s one of the big inspirations for his new company, which he’s running while on a year’s leave from NYU. With its radical approach to machine learning, Geometric Intelligence aims to create algorithms for use in an AI that can learn in new and better ways.

Downloadable, printable clothing may be coming to a closet near you. What started as designer Danit Peleg's fashion school project turned into a collection of 3D-printed designs that have the strength and flexibility for everyday wear. "Fashion is a very physical thing," she says. "I wonder what our world will look like when our clothes will be digital."

In order to provide our users with a better overall experience, we ask for more information from Facebook when using it to login so that we can learn more about our audience and provide you with the best possible experience. We do not store specific user data and the sharing of it is not required to login with Facebook.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai on Thursday said the Indian education system, which nurtured him, needs to allow students to take risks, and to fail, if it wants to produce more global technology leaders.

You probably didn't consider when you awoke this morning that today is our first in a post- The Force Awakens world. I suspect that if you're here, reading this now, you know that hundreds of humans witnessed the film at last night's premiere. Now no place is safe from celebrities, critics, and fans aching to spoil your anticipation with a single, quick, flippant missive about the movie's ending or some unexpected twist. Fortunately, help is here — at least for your internet browser.

If the web were a person, it wouldn't have trouble renting a car from now on: the world's first website , Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web, went online 25 years ago today. The inaugural page wasn't truly public when it went live at CERN on December 20th, 1990 (that wouldn't happen until August 1991), and it wasn't much more than an explanation of how the hypertext-based project worked. However, it's safe to say that this plain page laid the groundwork for much of the internet as you know it -- even now, you probably know one or two people who still think the web is the internet.

With no screen, camera, microphone or even the ability to make a call, the NoPhone could be the most useless gift since the Pet Rock.

Here’s an example: Back in the 1960s, Dr. Peter Wason conducted experiments where subjects were given a set of three numbers and asked to come up with a rule that they thought the set followed. The numbers were ‘2, 4, 8′ and so the subjects decided on ‘a sequence of even numbers’ as the rule.

Writer and producer was joined by "Doctor Who" star Peter Capaldi this week at a London screening of festive episode "The Husbands of River Song", which will be broadcast on Christmas day. The episode sees Capaldi's Doctor encounter for the first time River Song, played by Alex Kingston, who previously appeared alongside Capaldi's predecessors David Tennant and Matt Smith. Capaldi will then board the time-travelling Tardis for a new season of the long-running BBC sci-fi show at some point in the new year.

The program can infect a device by taking advantage of security flaws in operating systems and other software; Hacking Team either discovers these vulnerabilities itself or pays other companies for knowledge of them. RCS can get onto a computer through a malware-laden e-mail, as in M’s case, or by someone covertly getting physical access to a device. Some customers deploy RCS by installing a device called a Network Injection Appliance at an Internet service provider, which can steer a targeted person’s Web browser to a phony Web page that smuggles RCS onto his or her system. Customers pay Hacking Team for the software and a system of proxies that keep their communications with the software—and their investigations—under wraps. They also get comprehensive technical support. “The value that they’re adding is the training, consultancy, and ease of use that they can offer to any agent who is unfamiliar with computers,” said Edin Omanovic, a research officer at Privacy International, who has tracked the surveillance industry .

What I find incredible is that the article – and the scientists grappling with what constitutes good science – cite Karl Popper's concept of falsifiability as the basis for what constitutes good science – that is – a theory must be testable to the point that if it contains flaws, they will be revealed through tests. Their whole debate is whether they can abandon this seemingly robust basis for current science. Shockingly, what they seem utterly oblivious to, it that Karl Popper's falsifiability has been shown for several decades to be a NOT sufficient basis for what constitutes good science. Why? Because outcomes from test on theories can neither validate nor invalidate theories, when done in isolation. Indeed, Science Philosophy has already replaced falsifiability with a more recent concept called Auxiliary Hypothesis – as in – science actually works when loosely related bunches of theories either support each other over time, or not. A good example being cratering impact rates on the Moon supporting the age of the Earth. So these scientists are utterly out of date in even their premise! Anything after that is pointless.

In the month before the publication's new owner was revealed to be Sands Corp. CEO and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson this week, three of its reporters were handed a cryptic task. Over the protests of editors, they were told by their publisher to drop everything and spend two weeks watching the every move of three county judges.

Everyone is caught up in the buzz about "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." This includes Zuckerberg, who dresses up his newborn daughter as a Jedi. Oh, and his dog gets a costume too.

Narrowing down to just 10 favorite PC games was a struggle, but these are the ones that gave PCWorld’s gaming team—reporter Hayden Dingman and editor Brad Chacos—the biggest smiles in 2015. Note that our focus is limited to the PC as a platform, so you won’t find console exclusives like Bloodborne or Rise of the Tomb Raider here, no matter how delicious they are. And aside from our overall game of the year, these aren’t ranked in any way—they’re all just plain great games.

Launching into space is never exactly relaxing, but tensions must have been particularly high for this set of new crew members. Their mission should have launched in May, but it was delayed while Russia investigated the failure of one of its Progress cargo missions, also powered by a Soyuz rocket. And three weeks ago, SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon 9 rocket exploded less than three minutes into its flight, making it the third failed launch to the ISS in less than a year.

Pay for things. Track runs. Peek at my heart rate. Check weather. Make sure I didn't miss any messages. Answer phone calls, when my phone's out of reach. Get turn by turn directions on my wrist to buzz me while driving, so I can remember whether to exit soon or not. Check whether I set the alarm. Lock my house alarm. Adjust the thermostat. I use smartwatches for a lot of things...and I'm starting to get used to having the extra wrist support when I'm living my life. Smartwatches are starting to become a bit more like wrist remotes and tiny life-scanners than they were a year ago, thanks to some apps. But, I'd rather use a watch to receive things I need to know about than use it to proactively do things which I can't end up easily controlling...like, for instance, sending someone a text message.

The LED revolution is over. To no one’s surprise, LEDs have won. Solid-state lighting is changing how we light the world, successfully displacing traditional illumination sources across every part of the global lighting market. Over the next few years, billions of sockets will be in play.

The studio shared a number of the film's other record-breaking achievements, confirming The Force Awakens had the biggest Thursday preview gross of all time , earning $57 million. It also set a new record high for a Friday opening with $120 million, becoming the first film ever to earn over $100m in a single day.

Because I went with Amazon's cloud storage for music years ago, I can now call out any song, album or artist in my collection, and Echo plays it, right from the cloud, getting it right at least 80 percent of the time. This is on top of the million-plus songs included in Amazon Prime Music for Prime members. The Prime Music collection is ok, more filler than not, but has a lot of good material for jazz fans such as myself.

You won't be able to have a fully autonomous car of your own for at least a few more years, but the race to develop the best technology is already tearing up the asphalt. Google is reportedly interested in  spinning off its self-driving unit as its own self-driving company under the umbrella of Alphabet. And that means it will need to generate revenue, which could mean ride-hailing. And ride-hailing, of course, means Uber.

Technically Incorrect: As it hires a new VP of marketing, Apple is being ever more aggressive in its selling practices.

Strange, expletive-laden tweets were posted on Sunday to Shkreli's account and, as of 7 p.m. ET, were still up. (Though, to some, the tweet, "I am now a god" could very well seemed to have come from Shkreli, who's not exactly known for being humble.)

Change enough diapers and poop becomes something entirely normal to discuss in great detail. But most of us are weirded out by bowel movements — even if we've all had them. This is probably the most challenging among all the bodily stigmas to deconstruct; there isn't a chorus of tweets and viral hashtag on the topic of pooping without judgement.

The fallout from Toshiba's accounting scandal is hitting in force, and it's not pretty. The Japanese company has announced that it will take a $4.5 billion loss and cut 6,800 jobs, or about 30 percent of its total consumer electronics workforce. Although some of the losses can be chalked up to a tight market, Toshiba took a serious hit after admitting it lied about profits for nearly six years. As part of the restructuring, it will sell off its TV and washing machine factories to Hong Kong partner Skyworth. The company recently sold its image sensor business to Sony and stopped building TVs for the US market.

If you had hopes that the FAA's ban on ridesharing flights would be reversed... well, you're in for a disappointment. A Washington, DC court has ruled that pilots need commercial licenses for these services to work. You're a carrier in that case, not just splitting expenses like the plaintiff (Flytenow) claimed -- and that means you need the "experience and credentials" to ferry passengers. If you want to fly cross-country without resorting to big airlines, you'll have to either charter a private flight or hope that a pilot friend will take you.

Relevant for iOS adds more context to its card-based interface

Now, I’m likely checking Wikipedia weekly. Sometimes it’s to learn a thing or two about a historical figure. Other times I’m checking for a distilled list of source information, which comes in handy as I do some deep dives on programming languages — and it saves me a lot of time.

In stores, companies may need new terminals that can accept NFC-based transactions. Some may point to the cost of replacing the hardware as a barrier, but I’d argue it to be splitting hairs. Choosing to replace hardware is probably as expensive as creating and managing your own mobile payment solution in-house.

1/microsoft-windows/microsoft-partners-with-chinese-state-owned-defense-conglomerate-to-promote-sell-windows-10-to-gove.html

The  HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset  is our best-reviewed headset. It comes with a ton of accessories to make it work in all sorts of different ways, and the removable mic turns them into really nice, over-the-ear headphones. To use it with majority of Xbox One controllers, you will be needing an adapter. Hey, but you're in luck...

Sticking to a budget doesn't mean your gift has to be boring. We've found media streamers, fitness trackers, and a few quirky options for the geeks in your life. Some are PCMag Editor's Choice products, while others are fun gizmos you might want to keep for yourself. Grab the credit card and start shopping.

Social networks like Facebook offer an outlet to share both the good and bad times of your life, as you see fit. They also routinely try to present what they think you want to see. In the case of Facebook, the world's largest social network, that includes the "top stories" in your feed, reminders to wish friends a happy birthday and memories you can share of individual posts you made years ago. It's all about getting you to visit Facebook more often and to linger longer when you do.

Facebook this year continued to hold the number one position as the top app installed on U.S. smartphones based on the average number of unique users, according to a new report out this week from Nielsen , but its mobile messaging application clocked in as the fastest-growing app of 2015. Having foreseen the shift from more public social networking to private communications, Facebook forced users to install Messenger in spring 2014 by ripping out chat from its main app. In the months since, the app has soared to the top of the App Store’s charts. Over 2015, Messenger grew more than any other app, the new report says – with a 31 percent increase in users from 2014.

Expecting a new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus for Christmas? Or maybe you have already received your gift a few days early? Thanks to the faster hardware and spacious screen, the gaming experience on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is superb. To help you get the most out of your phone, we have prepared a list of our favorite games for the iPhone.

There's seemingly no better gift than the iPhone itself, but what do you get for someone who already owns one? Everything on this list!

Photography plays a big part in this. Longtime CNET readers will remember that our product reviews used to have a standard set of shots, all against a white background. These served their purpose, but in recent years, we've tried to make our photos even more helpful by showing them out in the real world.

ZDNet editors Larry Dignan, Steve Ranger, Chris Duckett, and Jason Hiner map out four important technology trends to watch, from AI to Apple issues to Chinese vendors to corporate VR.

Data, actually, supports the latter sentiment. At least in the US, sales of physical books have experienced a renewed surge of interest, according to Nielsen BookScan, a data provider that collects data on roughly 85% of the print market.

Fairly high up in my story there is a whopping false statement. After explaining that Theranos’s tests could be performed with a finger-stick, rather than using traditional venipuncture (a syringe in the crook of the arm), I wrote that the company “currently offers 200—and is ramping up to offer more than 1000—of the most commonly ordered blood diagnostic tests, all without the need of a syringe.”

Do you have a penchant for multitasking? That might work well in the fast-paced world of startups, in which most employees wear multiple hats. Or how about an uncanny ability to see the bigger picture in things? Project management may be the role for you. When you figure out what you’re good at, you’ll figure out which skills you need to hone and which you need to learn from scratch.

I'm not entirely convinced my boss would like to see this plan. We normally do the crucial work on Mondays, which is a pain.. but you cannot argue with the boss, can you? This advice does not really help the "managed" kind of people, sorry to say. And those are still treated in the same way as those who manage themselves - the stakes and promotions work more-less the same.. so we remain disadvantaged. I was just looking at this post on getting better at your own time management and its relevance to the parkinson's law - http://kanbantool.com/blog/parkinsons-law-can-work-to-your-benefit - I think this makes sense, and gives a little more universal kind of advice. Hope this helps some guys like myself who bump into here.

Coleco was behind some of the earliest attempts to bring video games to your living room, with mildly successful consoles like the ColecoVision in 1982. Like many game companies at the time, Coleco went bankrupt in the late '80s. However, it was reformed in 2005, and now it's announcing its first new console in decades: the Coleco Chameleon, a modern machine that will play games stored on plastic cartridges.

To celebrate the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Dodge put together a small fleet of Stormtrooper-themed Dodge Chargers.

A few iPhone games had flirted with the endless-runner idea prior to Temple Run — games where you’d move forward until your reflexes failed you — but the 2011 hit succeeded in making it a mobile staple. The top-down view of a person who must escape nightmarish monsters chasing him over every type of twisty, fantastic terrain was very compelling. The game also never did the same thing twice, so players had to keep their reflexes sharp as they dodged left, right, over and under with nimble swipes of their finger. The husband-and-wife team of Imangi Studios went on to even bigger success with its 2013 sequel and has done successful tie-in games with Disney and Olympic athlete Usain Bolt.

You may not see this as a form of entrepreneurship, but as the freelance economy expands, that's precisely what it will come to resemble more and more. When they start out, some freelancers increase their income simply by working more hours. But once they’ve quit their day job and are dedicating 30 or 40 hours a week to their business, there are two ways to start making more money: either by becoming more specialized so they can charge higher rates, or by engaging other freelancers, freeing them up to tackle bigger, higher-level projects themselves. We’ll see more freelancers cultivating specialties and forming teams that let them earn bigger revenues than ever before.

Managers at boutique hotels say they use the platform similarly to the way they use booking services like Expedia and Priceline, which typically charge hotels a 10% to 25% fee per reservation. Airbnb, by contrast, charges hosts a 3% fee. "The commission is so much more attractive," says Stephan Westman, a hotel industry consultant who has listed hotel rooms on Airbnb. "Any hotel that needs to fill rooms, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t need to use it as one of their marketing arms."