The Journalist An Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Publicizing Personal Details About Has Responded

The Journalist An Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Publicizing Personal Details About Has Responded

On Monday night, Buzzfeed released a report stating that an Uber executive made some offhand and regrettable remarks in the presence of a journalist without realizing he wasn't off the record. The executive in question is reportedly Emil Michael, Senior Vice President of Business. As Buzzfeed writes, he's accused of suggesting "that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company." The remarks were partly aimed at journalist Sarah Lacy, who has been critical of Uber in the past. Lacey is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily, and a former senior editor at TechCrunch. On Monday night, the website was hosting their "PandoLIVE" program when Buzzfeed posted its story. Lacy was on the program and she, along with her co-host, responded to the article, and had plenty to say about Uber itself. As one might imagine, it's a passionate and angered response. You can hear it all below via Soundcloud, and please note the audio does contain strong language:   Join the conversation about this story »

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This Epic Scene Shows Why 'Video Game High School' Is So Popular

If you think video games are big now, just think how big they would be if virtual reality technology reached the point where playing a video game felt like actually questing through mystical lands, racing sports cars, or fighting with guns. In this hypothetical world, everyone would play video games and pro-gaming leagues would be wildly popular. This vision sets the stage for "Video Game High School," a web series about a kid in the future who is sent off to a fantastic school for gamers. The Kickstarter-backed show is currently being promoted in a big YouTube ad series and has a rabid fanbase, with 12 million people watching the first episode on YouTube. Now in its third season, the show can also be seen at the home of RocketJump Studios as well as Netflix and other paid streaming sites. For a preview, check out our Episode One Spoilers. Sometime in the future, there's a kid named Brian Doheny who doesn't have a lot of friends. In this picture, bullies are about to steal his digital possessions. Brian lives with his single mother who is addicted to video games, living her whole life in some alternate reality. The kid gets his kicks playing first-person shooters, and right now he's hurrying to join a game that started without him. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Digging Up And Publicizing Personal Details Of Female Journalist

An Uber executive made some offhand and regrettable remarks in the presence of a journalist without realizing he wasn't off the record, Buzzfeed reports. Specifically, the accusation is pointed at Emil Michael, Senior Vice President of Business at Uber. "A senior executive at Uber suggested that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company," Buzzfeed's Ben Smith writes. The remarks were made in the presence of a Buzzfeed reporter at a dinner that Michael thought was off the record. Michael has since said that the remarks were "borne out of frustration" and "do not reflect my actual views and have no relation to the company’s views or approach." An Uber spokesperson also said that the company has never considered doing opposition research. The remarks were partly aimed at journalist Sarah Lacy, who has been critical of some of Uber's recent moves. Even if Uber would never actually hire opposition researchers, this is a pretty big lapse of judgment for a company who has looked to improve its image in the wake of reports about its cutthroat business tactics, such as reportedly placing calls for rides to rival Lyft then canceling them at the last minute.  Read the full report over at Buzzfeed. SEE ALSO: Sarah Lacy Responds Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's Video Proof That Satya Nadella Is Creating A New Post-Windows Microsoft (MSFT)

Need proof CEO Satya Nadella is moving Microsoft past a Windows-take-all mentally? Take a look at the YouTube video ad for its new app, Sway. It features a guy using Sway at work ... on an iPad. There's even a close up on the iPad, just to make sure you didn't miss it and think he was using, say, a Surface. Wow, how far Microsoft has come. In the summer of 2013, months before Satya Nadella was named CEO, he allowed a Mac to be used on stage during Microsoft's annual developer conference and shocked the folks in Redmond, sources told us. Today, Microsoft is featuring an iPad in its new product advertisements. Yawn. Looks like the Windows vs. Mac wars are so 2013. SEE ALSO: Meet Sway, Another Important Microsoft Product You've Never Heard Of Join the conversation about this story »

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Microsoft Is Sick Of PowerPoint, Too (MSFT)

We can't even remember the last time we saw someone under 30 fire up a PowerPoint instead of a Prezi when giving a talk. Microsoft hopes to put the kibosh on that with Microsoft Sway, its new presentation app. Sway lets you drag and drop photos, videos, files from your computer, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or cloud storage. It works via a Web browser or an app for your phone and the presentation is stored on the Web. Microsoft announced Sway in October and on Monday offered an update, giving preview invites to various journalists including us. We played around a little with Sway and can confirm that it is remarkably easy to use. It has some nice features like "change my mood" which lets you choose a new layout, background, and fonts. The "remix" button does that for you (a little like the "I feel lucky" button on Google). We didn't see anything in the demo that made us say, "Wow! No one's ever done that before!" But first things first. Prezi says it has over 50 million people use it including 80% of the Fortune 500. That's an awful lot of people who have had their heads turned from PowerPoint. Microsoft needs an easy-to-use alternative to Prezi, and Sway fits that bill. Here's a partial demo from Microsoft's video. Notice this Microsoft ad shows the guy using Sway on an iPad. But, perhaps the most impressive thing about Sway is that it's part of an bunch of new apps that under CEO Satya Nadella's new mission: to "reinvent productivity. " Sway joins ... Skype Translator, a service launched earlier this month that will translate a Skype conversation between two languages in real time. Delve, an Office 365 tool that rolled out in September that is supposed to find all the important stuff buried in your documents, calendars, contacts. Power Q&A, an add-on cloud service for Office 365 customers And Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri, available in the current version of Windows Phone and, sources say, will be available as a desktop app in Windows 10. And here's an example of a Sway presentation. SEE ALSO: Over 8,000 People Already Use Facebook's 'Secret' New Project: Facebook At Work Join the conversation about this story »

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PlayStation Chief Takes A Victory Lap Around The Xbox One (SNE, MSFT)

Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden isn't worried about the other guys, not even mobile and PC games.  In a Q&A with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, Layden touts the PlayStation 4's incredible achievement of trouncing its main competitor on the market, the Xbox One, for 10 months in a row. It could've been 12 months in a row, he says, but they didn't get enough units to market in time. On Friday, Sony revealed all of the PS4's accomplishments on the console's first birthday. In the past year, 13.5 million units have been shipped worldwide, and people have spent 1 billion hours playing online. According to Takahashi's math, the PlayStation 4 "has about a two-to-one advantage over Xbox One," and Layden agrees, saying, "The math seems to look like that." The Xbox One could catch up this holiday season, but Layden says he's "not at all" worried about the Xbox One's planned $50 price cut. "We're going to be fully engaged in that battle."  Layden's view on mobile and PC games is also interesting. The mobile games market is enormous, and will continue to grow. And e-sports online games, such as "League of Legends," are ramping up their space in the market. In fact, the company behind "League of Legends," Riot Games, is on track to becoming a billion-dollar business.  But Layden doesn't seem too worried.  "We coexist," Layden says. "The world is a big place. We totally accept that, even if you’re a hardcore PlayStation gamer, you may wish to have different gaming experiences in different settings. That’s completely reasonable." He says that the key to making it is offering a great player experience. "We want to be successful. I don’t think it’s necessarily a zero-sum game. I don’t have to beat some other game in order for my game to succeed. I just have to make a great game." Still, he's not opposed to finding new business models, perhaps even a free-to-play model, which is how "League of Legends" has found such great success. As he puts it: Free-to-play is an interesting market. It’s quicker to understand how that works on a mobile phone, or on tablet, because the development costs going in to build the application are different. When you bring it to a 75” TV, the development cost of creating that is pretty high. If it’s completely free-to-play, you’re looking at business models where 99 percent of people don’t pay for anything, one percent pay for everything, and that’s how you build it out. It’s tricky. We’re working with a lot of different developers on what’s the best route to market for that. Read the entire Q&A over at VentureBeat>> SEE ALSO: This 22-Year-Old Went From Working At McDonald's To Making $1 Million A Year Playing Video Games Join the conversation about this story »

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We Asked A NASA Astronaut What His Scariest Moment Was

What makes space travel such a remarkable achievement is how absolutely perilous the mission is for human kind. And no one knows the treacherous journey more than the astronauts who trek it. Former NASA astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, spoke with Business Insider at BBC FUTURE's World-Changing Ideas Summit, about what it takes to be an astronaut. Between 1985 and 1996, Hoffman completed five spaceflight missions, flew aboard four of NASA's five space shuttles, and logged over 1,211 hours in space. When asked what his scariest experience was during all those missions, he noted: "I never really got scared," Hoffman said. "There's lots of things that can happen that you can't do anything about, so why worry?" When astronauts climb aboard a spacecraft, they're consciously strapping themselves to, what is in every sense of the word, a rocket. And they know it. "If sitting down on top of a loaded rocket causes you emotional stress, maybe you're not in the right profession," said Hoffman, who retired from NASA in 1997 and is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman rode his first space shuttle, "Discovery," into space in 1985 — the year before the Challenger disaster. According to retired Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, during a TED talk in Vancouver earlier this year, the odds of catastrophic failure in 1979 were 1 in 38. The odds were likely similarly bleak when Hoffman fist entered space. Hadfield, on the other hand, thinks that the few minutes after liftoff were some of the scariest moments he's ever experienced. "The way I approached space flight [is] you know you're strapping yourself on top of 4.5 million pounds of high explosive," Hoffman said. "I was fully confident that if anything happened ... that we were well enough trained to do what had to be done." And so, 560 people have trained as astronauts despite those scary, adrenaline-pumping moments after lift-off. After it's over, they're awarded with a view that is nothing shy of spectacular. SEE ALSO: Astronaut Gives Amazing Speech On How To Conquer Your Biggest Fears IN PICTURES: 11 Breathtaking Images From The Final Space Shuttle Launches Join the conversation about this story »

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This Insider Just Explained The Truth About Today's Music Business

Steve Albini has recorded well over 1,000 rock albums, from famous names like Nirvana and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, to more obscure but beloved bands like Jesus Lizard. He's also played in a few bands that are well known in indie rock and punk circles, like Big Black. But he's equally well known for a 1993 essay that he wrote. The essay, "The Problem With Music," was an essential read for any musician who dreamed of signing a big record company contract. The basic idea was that most of those contracts were one-sided, and ended up making record companies rich while keeping musicians in a state like indentured servitude. The essay was shared and reprinted and published all over the internet. Fast forward 21 years. This weekend, Albini gave a speech at an Australian music conference in which he basically said that the internet hasn't broken the music business at all  — at least not as far as fans and 99% of musicians are concerned. Fans have easier access to more music than they ever could have dreamed of 20 years ago. Musicians have many more ways to reach fans directly, and as a result the relationship between fans and bands is stronger than ever. Albini says his band's live gigs can pay 10 times better than they did a decade ago. According to Albini, the only people who don't like the way it works are the middlemen who profit off the old way of doing things. Look no further than mega-star Taylor Swift, whose record label pulled her songs off Spotify. He takes particular issue with a statement that's often thrown around these days in the music business: "We need to figure out how to make internet distribution work for everyone." As he puts it: I disagree that the old way is better. And I do not believe this sentence to be true: “We need to figure out how to make this digital distribution work for everyone.” I disagree with it because within its mundane language are tacit assumptions: the framework of an exploitative system that I have been at odds with my whole creative life. Inside that trite sentence, “We need to figure out how to make this work for everyone,” hides the skeleton of a monster.... The internet has facilitated the most direct and efficient, compact relationship ever between band and audience. And I do not mourn the loss of the offices of inefficiencies that died in the process. I suppose some people are out of work. But the same things happened when the automobile replaced the horse, and all the blacksmiths had to adapt, spending their time making garden gates rather than horseshoes. It's a great speech for anybody interested in digital music and the music business. Read the whole thing here>> Join the conversation about this story »

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Over 8,000 People Already Use Facebook's 'Secret' New Project: Facebook At Work

No one should be surprised that Facebook is secretly working on a form of Facebook for work. Because, if you are ever lucky enough to be one of Facebook's 8,348 employees, you will be on Facebook all day long. Not with your friends, but with your co-workers. At Facebook, employees use Facebook for everything: they use it instead of email, as their group chat room, to collaborate on documents, to IM, to share news. Sources close to the company tell us a few other companies are in a pilot mode, testing a version of Facebook at their companies that mimics how Facebook employees uses it internally. For instance, if someone at Facebook notices something on campus that needs to be fixed, they post a photo of the broken thing to the facilities management group. In fact, through such photos, the maintenance crew noticed that employees were always cutting across a certain section of grass. So they put a brick path in. Which caused a Wizard of Oz prankster showdown. Someone painted the brick path yellow and posted a photo. Someone else added a Wizard of Oz house complete with dead witch and ruby red slippers and posted a photo. The key to a Facebook At Work service will be how much Facebook lets people separate their  work identities from their personal Facebook selves. We would guess that Facebook would follow Google Apps in this. A login from your company Google Apps account is managed by an IT administrator and it's not the same as the one you use for your personal gmail and apps. But, you can link the two and sign into multiple accounts at once. The biggest question is if Facebook will use ads with Facebook at Work. Presumably, it will one-day have a free ad-supported version as well as a paid subscription version, no ads. However, sources tell us that the pilot program does not include ads. Facebook could eventually offer a subscription version, but typically how it works is it throws a new service out there, sees how popular it becomes and invests in new features and ways to earn money after it gets popular. But of Facebook opts to use ads, that could be a problem, warns David Lavenda, VP of Product Strategy at harmon.ie, a product that would compete with Facebook at Work. harmon.ie is an app that combines Microsoft's social tools into one screen (Yammer, Outlook, SharePoint, Office 365 notes, etc.). A few years ago, Lavenda was working on his own Facebook at Work app. He had taken Facebook and added a bunch of security features to it make enterprises like it. He had several big companies testing it and was showing it to more.  At one high profile demo, while we were showing how secure the solution was, an ad for 'Casual Sex Friday' popped up on the screen. The Legal folks in the room told us to close the computers – the demo was over. And thus ended his attempt to turn Facebook into something for enterprises. Facebook obviously has control over their own ad network, though again, we understand that the prototype is not so far along that "SFW" labels on ads are in use. Still, Facebook is proof that Facebook can be used by over 8,000 employees productively. If it works out the bugs so enterprises can trust it, it could prove popular. Facebook declined comment. Join the conversation about this story »

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Cisco Just Released A Slack Clone With Audio And Video (CSCO)

Cisco revealed a free collaboration app called Project Squared on Monday, joining a highly competitive market filled with new enterprise messaging startups like Slack. Project Squared is basically a business application that lets teams create rooms where they can post messages, share content, and even have video conferences. Cisco says it's compatible with any device, including phones, tablets, and desktop PCs, and claims to have top-notch security. Cisco also partnered with the storage and collaboration app Box to make it easier to share and open content directly from within its Project Squared app. “It’s like a conference room created just for you and your team that has everything everyone needs to do their very best work,” said Matt Cutler, Cisco’s director of product management. “It makes collaboration simpler.” Today’s news shows Cisco is still taking the enterprise collaboration market seriously, after years of trying to make it into a big business. Cisco dropped more than $3 billion on collaboration company WebEx in 2007, but that product looks a little outdated, especially on mobile devices when compared with the consumer apps people use every day. In the meantime, a bunch of newer companies have been making progress in businesses by offering simpler ways to collaborate, with a strong mobile focus. Slack, the enterprise communication app, recently raised $120 million at a $1.1 billion valuation and its user base is exploding, while Blue Jeans Network, the cloud videoconferencing provider cofounded by a former Cisco exec, raised nearly $100 million since its founding in 2009.  It’s unclear how exactly Project Squared will separate itself from these upstarts, but the following screenshots will give you an idea what it looks like: This is what the main screen looks like on an iPhone. It simply shows a list of chat rooms you’re a part of. Here’s what a typical room would look like. You can invite multiple people into a single room, and see in real-time who’s read your message or who’s typing.  You can share files directly from within the room. It also integrates with Box. You can start an instant video conference within the app, too.  And maximize the screen if you want.  Here’s what it looks like on the desktop. Join the conversation about this story »

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MARISSA MAYER: Here's How The Top Woman In Tech Spends Her Millions

Thanks in part to a number of big acquisitions and criticism from investors, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is one of the most polarizing figures in Silicon Valley right now.  But it's no secret the former Google executive and self-professed nerd leads a pretty interesting life, filled with high fashion, luxurious apartments, and exclusive parties.  Mayer made a fortune when Google went public in 2004 — and her lifestyle choices certainly show that. Marissa Mayer grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, where she worked hard in class and juggled many different after-school activities: piano lessons, debate team, volleyball, swimming, and ballet, which gave her a tremendous amount of discipline. Source: Business Insider   She left Wisconsin for Stanford, where she got both her bachelor's and master's degrees in symbolic systems. She was a stand-out in her computer science classes and received a whopping 14 job offers upon graduation. She eventually chose Google, becoming the young search engine's 20th employee and its first female engineer. Source: Business Insider   Mayer already had plenty of wealth to her name by the time she became Yahoo's CEO in 2012. As one of Google's first employees, she made a fortune when the company went public in 2004. Source: Business Insider See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Watch This Determined Squirrel Steal A GoPro

This camera owner was met with quite the surprise when a squirrel decided to take his GoPro for an adventure up a tree. Produced by Devan Joseph. Video courtesy of Associated Press. Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »

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Some Android Fans Are Freaking Out Because There's No Silent Mode In Google's New Android Update (GOOG)

Over the past few days, Android fans have been complaining via Reddit and various forums that there's no silent mode in Android Lollipop. While the silent mode that Android users are familiar with may be gone, Google has added a few options to replace it. You essentially have three options, as Gigaom originally pointed out on Monday. There are three modes to choose from: None, Priority, or All.  None keeps your phone entirely silent, which means you won't hear any system notifications. This also means your screen won't light up when you receive a text or notification like it would have with the old silent mode. Priority silences almost everything other than alarms and only allows certain notifications to come through. You can also choose to set your phone so that it automatically kicks into Priority Mode at a certain time every day. The third option, All, allows all notifications to come through normally as its name implies. You can find these settings by pressing the volume rocker on your phone. Although the Priority and None settings sound similar to silent mode, some Android users have voiced their disapproval. The biggest complaint appears to be that the screen no longer lights up when you get an incoming notification like it did with silent mode. Here are a few comments from a Reddit thread about the subject, which has more than 400 comments at the time of writing. Some Android fans in the XDA Developers forum have also complained about these changes to the sound settings in Lollipop. Other than some backlash about the lack of a silent mode, general reception from developers and critics seems to be positive when it comes to Google's new Android update. Lollipop is currently shipping on the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, and Google's partners are expected to roll out the update over the course of the next several months.  SEE ALSO: Here Are All The Phones Confirmed To Get Google's Massive Android Update Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's What Businesses Really Want From The iPad (AAPL)

Apple is in the middle of a huge push into big businesses, which it hopes will revitalize its iPad business. We're now learning more about what kind of apps businesses are looking for on iPads and other tablets, thanks to a recent report from Good Technology. Last week we reported on the importance of custom apps in the enterprise. Good's data shows that in fact a lot of businesses do want these apps. It was the second-most important category, with 27% of Good customers saying they wanted custom apps. The only type of tablet app companies craved more were document editing apps — think Microsoft Office for iPad — which 36% of companies said they wanted. No wonder the free versions of Office apps immediately topped the Apple Store charts. Rounding out the list were document access, secure messaging, and secure browsing. Custom-made apps were also the top-desired category for smartphones. This makes a lot of sense: companies have written millions of custom Windows apps over the years, and those apps are often an essential part of how employees work. For companies to get full value out of their tablets and phones, these apps — or some equivalent — have to become available for the newer devices. This result also highlights one huge difference between selling to consumers and businesses. There's no way a single consumer (or even a 1,o00 consumers banded together) could tell Apple, "We'd like you to build an app exactly how we'd like it. Just for us." That's essentially what businesses want from Apple. Luckily, Apple enlisted IBM's enterprise expertise in July for this very reason. Big Blue is reportedly working on "100 industry-specific enterprise solutions" for prospective tablet buyers. We'll have to wait and see if those solutions are enough to move the needle for Apple. SEE ALSO: Companies Want One Thing From iPads — And They're Not Getting It Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's The Untold Story Of How Tesla Motors Got Its Name

In 2003, Martin Eberhard went to Disneyland with Carolyn, the woman who would become his wife.  The engineer was taking the first steps to launch an electric car startup.  It would one day become a $28 billion company. But he needed a name. The car wouldn't be like other electric vehicles: Instead of a hippie-dippy golf cart, this would be a high performance sports car — the kind that could accelerate from 0 to 60 in under four seconds.  The point was to make a car so awesome, so badass, so powerful that it would forever change what everybody thought about electric vehicles.  But what kind of name could communicate all that?  He'd been pitching his girlfriend on names for months. Nothing clicked. It couldn't sound overly ecological. One of the reasons that GM's EV-1 electric car failed is that it couldn't escape from the green ghetto. It couldn't sound too engineer-focused, either, he thought — any Leaves, Volts, or Bolts would have to be set aside. It had to sound like a car company, not another Silicon Valley startup.  Plus, it had to be easy to remember.  Eberhard and Carolyn sat down at the Blue Bayou, a restaurant nestled inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  Romantic, right?  On this night, Eberhard made a fateful pitch.  What if the name honored Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American genius that invented the AC induction motor, which the new company planned on using? He said to her, "What about Tesla Motors?"  Bingo.  Her reply: "Perfect! Now get to work making your car." On April 23, 2003, Eberhard's cofounder Marc Tarpenning nabbed the domain name: Teslamotors.com. On July 1, 2003, they incorporated.  The car that could change history had its name. This post is taken from "The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster," an original Business Insider investigative feature. SEE ALSO: The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster Join the conversation about this story »

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CHART OF THE DAY: Facebook Has 25X More Advertisers Than Twitter (TWTR)

Last week, Twitter CFO Anthony Noto offered a big long-term revenue forecast to get investors and shareholders excited about the company: He flashed a chart that suggested Twitter would be able to generate $14 billion in revenue in about 10 years. If Twitter wants to achieve its ambitious revenue goals, it will need to increase its number of advertisers and overall ad load. Based on company data charted for us by BI Intelligence, Twitter trails Facebook in the number of ads that appear in a user's timeline — 5% for Facebook versus 1.3% for Twitter — and in the third quarter, Twitter claimed far fewer global advertisers than Facebook (60,000 versus 1.5 million).   SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: Mobile Messaging Is Poised To Overtake Social Networks Join the conversation about this story »

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Pandora Cofounder Tim Westergren Is Building A Massive Vacation Home — And His Neighbors Aren't Pleased

Pandora cofounder Tim Westergren has big plans for the property he purchased near Point Reyes Station, California in 2008. According to a proposal submitted by Hidden Dragon LLC to the Marin County Community Development Agency, Westergren and his wife, Smita Singh, plan to build an 8,297-square-foot complex on a 16.9-acre lot.   The home, which will have a total of nine bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, is meant to be a vacation home until the Westergrens retire. In addition to a 5,494-square-foot main house, there's a separate meditation hut, caretaker's cottage, and a lap pool planned for the property, which for years was a Russian Orthodox monastery called St. Eugene's Hermitage. But the residents of nearby Inverness, a small unincorporated community with a population of 1,300, don't seem to be too excited about the plan. This particular part of Marin County is largely rural and sparsely populated. Inverness is close to the Point Reyes National Seashore, a protected nature preserve with dramatic cliffed beaches and headlands. According to SFGate, residents have sent more than two dozen letters to the county's office, complaining about the massive scale of the construction project.  "Our own house is 900 square feet, as are many of the houses here, and while that may seem small, a development that approaches commercial, rather than residential, at over 8,000 square feet is totally out of control," neighbors Doug and Kathy Gower wrote in a letter to the county, SFGate reports. "If you're someone who doesn't have an insane amount of money, then you build sensibly," Nancy Stein, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, told Inside Bay Area. "But because the money out there is insane, people are able to do outlandish things. I would like this place to stay open to musicians and artists, people who don't have a lot of money." There has been some debate over how many bedrooms and bathrooms the home will have, and community members worry about the large amount of water the home will potentially use.  Though some outlets have reported that the house would have as many as 17 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, a spokesperson for Westergren tells Business Insider that the main house will have six bedrooms and the guesthouse will have three. There will indeed be 14 bathrooms, but two of those will be half-baths. And while some descriptions have drawn out a complex of buildings connected by decks (not unlike a boutique hotel), the spokesperson stressed that the main house, garage, meditation hut, and guest house are all free-standing buildings. Westergren had alerted his neighbors to the construction plans in an October 2013 email, according to Inside Bay Area.  In the email, the couple wrote, "We wanted to check in, say hello and let you know how excited we are to begin the process of building our home in your lovely neck of the woods. Our program will be light on the land and will be sustainably designed and built. We are big believers in integrating a home with its natural environment — minimizing the disturbance of both the land and the surrounding community." The proposal is currently being reviewed by the county, with a decision on its future to be decided after a public hearing in January. Westergren and Singh hope to move in by 2016. SEE ALSO: 19 Crazy Facts About Bill Gates' $123 Million Washington Mansion Join the conversation about this story »

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The Mobile Payment Industry Is About To Explode, With Apple Leading The Way

It's an incredibly exciting time in mobile payments thanks to a number of shakeups that promise to turn the industry on its head.  In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at the most important developments in the last few months, how they've reshaped the mobile payments landscape and whether they'll be the catalyst for people to finally start paying with their phones.  Apple Pay: The biggest shakeup was Apple's launch of its new payments feature: Apple Pay. The NFC-compatible system allows iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users to make payments at over 200,000 retail locations in the US. Apple Pay boasts a number of security features that speak directly to consumers' top mobile payments concerns.  Big Retail's move: Hoping to steal the show, MCX, a consortium of over 70 of the largest retailers in the US, announced its own mobile wallet, "CurrentC," days before Apple. These merchants control one in five retail dollars spent in US stores, and MCX merchants won't be accepting Apple Pay, according to sources familiar with the matter.  The in-app crowd: Finally, a new breed of apps that bypass the payment terminal by allowing users to make in-store purchases entirely within their phone. They promise to fundamentally change the way we pay in restaurants and bars, and make it a software-only process.  Access the Full Report, Dozens Of Charts, And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >> Here are more of the key takeaways: Mobile payments will see explosive growth. Mobile in-store payments will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 154%, to $189 billion in 2018 from $1.8 billion in 2013, according to our forecast. While the growth will be explosive, in-store mobile payments will still account for less than 4% of brick-and-mortar transaction value by 2018. A small percentage of people have used mobile payments. In late 2013, just 6% of US adults said they had made a payment in a store by scanning or tapping their smartphone at a payment terminal. That percentage will go up to 8% this year. Apple's introduction of the Apple Pay mobile wallet in the iPhone 6 line will be the key factor that will drive this percentage up. Millennials are early adopters of mobile wallets. Fifty-five percent of people who say they use mobile wallets are millennials (ages 18 to 34). These mobile natives are likely to continue to drive mobile wallet adoption.  Of the two leading in-store mobile-payments technologies — NFC and QR codes — NFC will be the winner. Scanning a QR code or a barcode has been the top method for making a payment via smartphone in recent years because it can be done with Android phones and iPhones. But with Apple's adoption of NFC for the iPhone 6 line, many more people will begin using NFC-based mobile payments.  Apple Pay will succeed and bring mobile in-store payments into the mainstream. Apple has a devoted fan base and the unique ability to change consumer behavior on a large scale. A majority of US tech consumers said they would absolutely use Apple Pay, according to a survey of Business Insider readers. In addition, the company has included a number of features within Apple Pay to address consumer privacy and security concerns.  In full, the report: Forecasts mobile payment volume through 2018 as well as mobile payment volume as a share of in-store payments.  Details the demographics that are using mobile payments and how they are using them.  Explains the three biggest developments in mobile payments that we saw in the third quarter: Apple Pay, MCX, and phone-only payment apps.  Analyzes the strategic advantages of Apple Pay, MCX, and phone-only apps and where these three technologies will meet resistance. For full access to all BI Intelligence's charts and data on the Payments Industry, sign up for a free trial. Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's The Full Conversation I Had With Mark Cuban About The Future Of The Internet

Last week, I had a long email conversation with Mark Cuban about net neutrality. I emailed Cuban following a series of tweets he sent criticizing President Obama's proposal to regulate internet service providers (ISPs) under Title II, the same utility classification given to telephone lines. Without getting too complicated, Obama and other net neutrality advocates believe all traffic on the internet should be treated equally. Rich companies shouldn't be allowed to pay for faster access to customers because that gives them an unfair advantage over tiny startups that may have a superior product. The theory goes that allowing companies to pay for these so-called "fast lanes" will hurt innovation and allow big companies to keep getting bigger. Cuban compared that to the same kind of government regulation that nationalized the railroads in Ayn Rand's famous novel "Atlas Shrugged." I'm a net neutrality advocate, but since Cuban is well versed in the web and how to make gobs of cash on it, I wanted his perspective as an entrepreneur. It was a lengthy back and forth, far too long to include in the one column I published Sunday. Plus, we still didn't get to cover everything. This issue is so deep and complex you can debate it for hours. That said, it was a great debate, and I think you should read the whole thing. Here's the full exchange. I've cleaned it up for grammar, spelling, formatting, and swearing: Kovach Hey Mark, A few things that stood out from your recent string of Tweets: Yes, broadband speed and quality have gotten better. But it's still behind the most of the developed world. We pay a lot more on average for slower speeds. The overarching problem is that there is no competition among ISPs. They each have monopolies where they operate. That in turn gives them little incentive to provide better service, invest in infrastructure, and so on. In fact, investment in those things have declined over the last four years. Allowing ISPs to compete would be wonderful, but they're not competing now. And the way the system is set up now, they won't need to. The unfortunate truth is that while Title II isn't ideal, it's the best and only option we have right now to ensure those monopolies continue to run away. Anyway, let me know what you think. Cuban If you don't like it now, let the government get involved. Walk into any Best Buy and choose from three wireless broadband options and cable and Telco wired option. You have choices. How much faster are all those connections today than last year and the year before? That article you tweeted was beyond stupid? [Note: The article Cuban refers to is this one by James J. Heaney. Heaney, a conservative, argues that Title II classification is the best option.] Kovach Wireless is not an option. It will be one day, but right now it is far too expensive and spotty coverage-wise to be a replacement for wired broadband. Try connecting to a LTE network outside a major city and you'll see what I mean. Maybe someone will swoop in and invest bazillions to build out a better wireless network. I hope that happens. But for now, it's all about wired, which is monopolized. And it's going to be like that for the near to medium term. What's your solution? Cuban Where do you live? And I just realized you are with BI. These aren't for publication. [Cuban later published these emails on his personal blog.] Kovach New York City. Manhattan, specifically. I'd like to publish something in addition to your tweets though. A lot of people are talking about it. What's your answer to solving the wired broadband monopoly if not Title II or something similar? Cuban First of all, I think that ISPs, however you define them are doing an amazing job increasing bandwidth available to homes. The idea that Netflix, Hulu, and the aggregate of all OTT [over the top] services can grow to where they are, as quickly as they have, and service has gotten better, not worse in most places and cases, is a testament to the actual investment being made on increasing bandwidth. Providers are jacking up not just to the home, but the throughput as well. Something is driving them. If not competition, then what? And isn't there T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint in Manhattan for wireless? Don't all have coverage for most of the continental US? If you can make your phone a hotspot on all carriers (some charge more), then you have broadband options. When you want unlimited or close to unlimited bandwidth, then you have fewer choices or you may not like your choices, or coverage, but you have options, even if imperfect. Then of course you have the option of walking out the door to any number of public hotspots to use Wi-Fi and the number and coverage of Wi-Fi hotspots is expanding every day. You may not like all your options, but that's a different issue. But let's put all that aside. The big morass is with the nuance of defining what will be covered and how. No one can agree what net neutrality is and what Title II should cover. What I am certain of however is that the government won't do a good job avoiding the law of unintended consequences. What I am certain of however is that the government won't do a good job avoiding the law of unintended consequences. And let me be clear, if the promise of the internet was content like movies and TV shows or music videos, then none of this would be a big deal to me. But it's not. We don't know whats next on the net and how it will be impacted by the need for the government to define what can and will happen on the net in some manner that they think protects consumers. What if the need for machine vision is ubiquitous for some application, say self driving cars. What happens? What if communities want to put up high res, high bit rate, real time video around schools, intersections, wherever the residents agree they are willing to accept any privacy issues. What happens? What if some amazing application appears that wants to suck up every free bit of bandwidth available in a shared manner between every and any CPU made available to it? What about medicine and health care? There is an emergency surgery that a doctor who is in who knows where and wants to be able to help in some manner that is unknown to us today, but she can't get the bandwidth allocated to the application because it happens to be when TV and movie OTT services swamp bandwidth between the doctor and the remote hospital. What about the internet of things? What high bit rate applications will be created and how can they, or any other high bit rate applications get past the 50 Mbps peer to peer unicast streams that kids are streaming to each other on for five hours a night? We are trying to define the undefinable because it seems like some people are afraid they may be denied movies and TV shows and the like. That makes no sense to me. Kovach First, thank you for responding. This is great and really clarifies your tweets from yesterday and I think everyone will get a lot out of it. A few things: Yes, there's great competition among the wireless carriers right now. The four major ones are available just about everywhere. And the competitive landscape is mostly working there and benefiting customers. Look at T-Mobile. The changes Legere has made there over the last two years have caused the big guys like Verizon and AT&T to react and change pricing plans and what they offer. That's good! But wireless broadband is not designed to be a replacement for your wired broadband. It's designed to let you sip data on the go. Depending on the carrier, data plans can cost ~$60 for 3GB of data per month. If you go over that, the carrier either throttles your speed or charges you extra for more data. That's way more expensive than getting 250GB or unlimited data on wired broadband for about the same price. Cuban What on the internet ends up being used in the way it was designed? What on the internet ends up being used in the way it was designed? The internet was designed for everything but video. There are networks designed to carry video signals and they deliver digital TV channels every second of the day. You may not like the depth of competition wireless currently provides, but then wireless networks are getting better by the day and standards are being set for 5G that will compete with wired broadband. There will come a time in the next decade when cutting the cord refers to cutting your broadband cord. It's inevitable. How will Title II deal with that? Will Title II sunset in five or seven or 10 years? Or will we find the future of broadband cut off at the knees because Title II of 2015 didn't anticipate broadband of 2022? Unwired Wi-Fi networks are being created. There are thousands of broadband hotspots. How is that happening? How far will it go and how will Title II impact their growth? Kovach It's unfair to say wireless and wired broadband providers compete with each other. They don't. They will some day, maybe, but not now. Cuban It's unfair because it doesn't fit your argument. Kovach I also disagree that broadband has gotten as good as you think it has. Yes, it's incrementally better, but still far behind other developed countries. Investment in broadband networks is declining, not going up. And the ISPs have no reason to build out their networks because there aren't any viable competitors. (Google Fiber is an exception, but it's only available in a handful of cities.) I also don't consider free hotspots at coffee shops, etc. a competitor because they use the same ISPs folks use in their homes. Plus, I doubt ISPs are very worried about people sitting in Starbucks all day using free Wi-Fi. Cuban Nonsense. How much wired bandwidth do you have today to your home versus three years ago what's the comparative throughput? And add some context. Netflix started streaming in earnest five years ago and the usage exploded. It went from DVD to consuming 30% of prime time bandwidth. Networks built out to cover it, and as a result Netflix is able to support tens of millions of subscribers. If the networks aren't keeping up, why are the number of over the top video provider startups exploding right now? Are they all stupid? If the networks aren't keeping up, why are the number of over the top video provider startups exploding right now? Are they all stupid? The amount if video consumed on the net is growing how fast? Right? How has that happened if networks are so bad? How is it that 4K video is now being streamed? 4K. Seriously, if there was a fear of unequal access how in the world would 4K over the top even be possible? That's 4x the bandwidth of HD. What about cloud computing? How did it explode from nothing to huge? Millions of companies are trusting the net to provide access to any digital type of content and Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others trusting the net to provide access to their clouds and hosting servers on the networks you want to regulate. What is the impact of net neutrality going to be on clouds? What about cyber security? The minute there is an attack that does damage, you can bet that Title II will be used as a weapon by politicians and we will have discussion of Title III start. What about content delivery networks (CDNs)? With net neutrality in place, CDNs will explode. They will pay the networks a ton of money to host their servers and then charge the same people that you think will buy high-end commercial fast lanes a ton of money to assure their streams are better to the last mile than smaller competitors are. Should we regulate CDNs? And of course what about the many other reasons beyond lack of choice in the last mile that impact consumer experience? When your next door neighbor streams his live gaming all day to his friends at 50 Mbps and everyone else on that last mile buffers all that the time, who takes responsibility? Should Title II throttle upstream bandwidth to make sure the last mile isn't impacted by bandwidth hogs? What happens if after Title II investment doesn't keep up for the last mile and people start complaining that their service suffers because their neighbors stream all the time? And the question is why should they suffer so their neighbors can watch streaming video rather than TV? Why should a non-OTT subscriber pay more so streamers get their video? What about nonessential, but ground breaking bandwidth hogging applications? Things like machine vision, high bit rate internet of things applications, self-driving cars, peered sensors? What if there is a groundbreaking collaborative computing app that eats a ton of bandwidth? If you want to see bandwidth and innovation throttled, have the government regulate network  management and investment. Kovach On your example of bandwidth for medicine and healthcare: Obama's proposal would prioritize traffic for essential services like that. So that's not an issue. Cuban NOT true. First in line in a traffic jam is still slow and buffering. And how are you going to regulate quality of service settings? Will Title II decide how last mile consumer usage will be prioritized versus downstream? Who is going to say what an essential service is? Kovach I do agree with you that we don't know what the internet will become, and what kinds of services it will power down the road. But I think it's a narrow view saying net neutrality advocates just want faster Netflix. They don't. Netflix is often used an example, but those who support Title II see the internet the same way you do. Who knows where we'll be in a few years! And I think that gives us even more reason to make sure it's protected now. Cuban You can't protect what you don't know. If that is the right approach, why not further regulate everything? What happens when some new internet service takes on a political tint or is perceived as impacting an election? What if they get the legislation wrong? No one trusts the politicians we have in  place to do anything right, but we think they can take on a difficult issue like this? Kovach Based on what you've written, I think our goals are the same, but we differ on how to get there. I find that comforting! Cuban No they aren't. There is a place for more government if the net wasn't working. It's working. The issues above are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are thousands more. The net is working. There is no better platform for innovation in the world right now than the net, and you think further regulating it is good? You keep on saying that more money is being spent elsewhere on networks than here in the USA. Show me those numbers. I see more per capita being spent here. And you talk about our ranking in the developed world. You and many are being intentionally obtuse. All the surveys are based on average speed. We rank 11th I think, but the difference between 11th and 2nd is 3 Mbps. 3 Mbps, and that's based on averages. When you look at peak speed it's a smaller delta. And all the countries above us are denser and less populous. As far as growth in speed, we are increasing 9% or more quarter over quarter. How is that bad? Kovach I'm still not convinced by your argument that wired and wireless broadband compete. If LTE from wireless carriers won't work everywhere (indoors, basements, dead zones, rural areas, etc.) and it costs much more than wired broadband, how are those direct competitors? How are wireless carriers offering a viable alternative to wired broadband? (That's not to say they'll never be able to do it. But in the near to medium term, it's not going to happen.) I also don't buy the population density argument when it comes to internet speeds. I live in Manhattan, which is very dense (duh). Here's a speed test from my apartment on Time Warner cable in April: Here's a speed test I took from a random coffee shop using free WiFi in Seoul, Korea in April: That's a huge gap. And while I can pay Time Warner extra to get speeds like that, I wouldn't have to in Korea. Cuban You got me. We aren't as good as South Korea. Now explain to me how government intervention is going to change that? And explain to your internet cafe how they are only getting 50 Mbps when they are paying for more. Your wired broadband doesn't have drops that cover every inch of your apartment. And your Wi-Fi won't either. And you risk interference from your neighbors appliances. It has limits like mobile. Have you checked to see if you can get mobile service in your apartment? Maybe with an amplifier? You aren't a typical internet user. What percentage of internet homes use under 40 gigabytes per month?  Kovach That still doesn't account for the cost thing. Watch two movies on Netflix and you've eaten up your data cap from Verizon. Cuban Most households aren't Netflix users. At least not yet. Most just use the internet like they did pre Netflix. Kovach That was just an example. What about YouTube? You don't think the average person can eat up 3GB of YouTube along with other basic stuff like emailing, web browsing, facebooking, and so on? 3GB is nothing. My point is, wireless plans are designed for on the go. Wired is designed for heavy usage. They're not the same. I hope that changes, but it's not the reality of things now. Also! Next time you're in New York you should come by BI's office and hang out. We've grown so much. You should see it. Crazy, exciting company to be at. I've been here four years and I love it. Cuban Would love to come by. And remember we aren't typical users. Cuban (after this post published Sunday) You took a nice discussion and cherry picked it into bull---- so you could make your point. Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's The Email Exchange Between Billionaires Jack Dorsey And Evan Spiegel That Inspired Snapchat's New Payment Product

Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel just launched a new payment product for Snapchat, Snapcash, which lets users send each other money over private Snapchat messages. The idea was spawned in May 2013, shortly after Spiegel and Dorsey were introduced by a mutual business contact, Peter Fenton. Fenton is a general partner at Benchmark, which is a Snapchat investor. Fenton also invested in Dorsey's last company, Twitter. Dorsey was eager to show Spiegel his new product, Square Cash, and he sent Spiegel some money over an email to demonstrate the product, Recode's Kurt Wagner reports. "That to me, when I look back over the last couple years, was the most fun and exciting product [I’ve seen],” Spiegel told Wagner. “I really thought that was cool. I wasn’t expecting that from email.” Spiegel replied to the email, "Ok, this is actually genius." After that, the pair began plotting SnapCash. Here's the email exchange, via Recode: Join the conversation about this story »

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15 Android Apps That Will Make Your iPhone Friends Jealous

One of the best things about Android is that apps have a lot more freedom compared to those found on iPhones. Today, most apps launch on both Android and iOS, but the most interesting Android apps are exclusive to Android because they do something Apple wouldn't allow. From an app that lets you message your friends while still watching Netflix to an app that lets you hack your smartphone's LED lights for custom notifications, you're guaranteed to find something new. Just remember you can't recommend them to your friends with iPhones. Muzei promises to turn your home screen into a "living museum." Muzei is a live wallpaper that changes your home screen into a different famous work of art each day. Price: Free HoverChat lets you message without stopping what you're doing. HoverChat is a messaging app that lets you continue your conversations even while you're using another app or watching a movie. By resizing and deciding how transparent you want the messaging window to be, you can customize your messaging to fit what you're up to. Price: Free Google Keep is a powerful tool for recording what's on your mind. Google Keep is a flexible note-taking and reminders app. You can color-code your notes and take pictures from within the app, and if you record a voice memos on the go, the app will automatically transcribe it for you. Price: Free See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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A New App That Helps You Park Your Car ‘Could Radically Alter How Large Cities Work’

Luxe, a new on-demand valet app promises to eliminate parking woes and revolutionize city planning. New York Times Technology Columnist Farhad Manjoo says the app will "completely upend" urban life as we know it. The app functions similar to other mobile on-demand services. Before leaving for your destination, you enter the address where you’d like a Luxe valet to meet you. When you pull up to the predetermined address, a blue-jacketed Luxe valet will be ready and waiting for you by the side of the road. You hand him your keys, and can even specify if you’d like your car washed (an additional $40) or your tank filled up with gas ($7.99). Your valet then drives off and parks the car to one of the many lots that Luxe has struck a deal with. Luxe works with garage owners to help fill their empty lots on off-peak hours.  Right now, it's only in San Francisco, and parts of LA. Luxe charges $5 an hour with a max rate of $15 per day. It might sound expensive, but it's a far cry from the steep fees many San Francisco residents are accustomed to paying.   Summoning your car back is as easy as dropping it off. You open the app, tap in your current location, and a Luxe valet will roll up in your vehicle in about ten minutes. They’ll return your vehicle anywhere within their service area — not just to the original drop off location. So it’s easy to drive your car to dinner, then have it returned to you outside an event in a different part of town. Though the idea of an on-demand valet may seem preposterous, Manjoo points out that finding a place to park your car is “one of the most soul-destroying hardships of living or working in San Francisco.” But the app won’t just relieve the painful hardship of finding a parking spot by your office. Because Luxe drivers are able to immediately relieve drivers of searching for a parking place, fewer cars will be on the road creating congestion by endlessly circling blocks while they hunt for a spot.  Garage owners are also happy because their underutilized lots are getting use. Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's Biz Stone's Goofy New App, Super

Twitter cofounder Biz Stone launched Jelly in 2013. It's a Q&A app that focuses on its users answering questions using visuals, rather than text.  The app never really took off, though, so Stone and the gang launched a new app to get people to share photos they take: Super. It's available for both iOS and Android.  Super is a colorful app that lets you post pictures using prompts that the app provides, such as The Best, The Worst, and even simply Check Out. You then post a picture from your own gallery, take a picture, or use one of the pictures that Super offers. It's kind of similar to meme generators that let you create pictures with goofy captions, only meant for sharing among your friends and on social networks like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. The picture is then shown to the friends you have on your feed, which you can find from your contacts, or through Twitter and Facebook. You can also see pictures that have been posted nearby.  And that's basically it. Stone tells TechCrunch's Josh Constine, who found the app a few months ago, that the app isn't serious, and that he's "not going to proclaim that it's the most innovative thing ever or that it's going to save the world. It's not, it's just fun." It's certainly not serious. Its colorful graphics and silly noises the app make for a good time. You can also like posts and reply to them with pictures and graphics of your own, which gives it more of a social network feel.  But unless you have a ton of friends using it, and until it catches on, the novelty could wear off pretty quickly. Here's how to use it: After downloading the app, sign up for an account by creating a username and password.  After you go through a few more steps, including making a profile picture and giving the app your phone number so it can text you a code to make sure "you're a human," you're ready to find some friends.  You can then follow these friends by clicking on the button to follow them on the right side.  You can see a stream of what your friends has posted to Super in the main screen. You can also see what people nearby are posting, or what everyone who has the app is posting, by clicking on the top drop-down menu.   Or you can upload photos from your own library, or take a photo, that answers one of the prompts the app gives you. You can choose different fonts for the text, as well as different filters, like black and white and some more wonky-looking ones. That's my cat Noodle. Super gives you a bunch of different prompts to help you out. On your profile screen, you can see who you're following and who's following you. And you can see the pictures you've posted and who's replied. If you swipe to the left from a picture you've uploaded, you can share your creation to your social networks, or just save the image to your phone. Clicking on the little light bulb in the top left lets you see your activity, like what your friends are up to and who has "liked" your posts. SEE ALSO: This Messaging App Will Force You To Be Brutally Honest Join the conversation about this story »

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Google Glass Needs To Be Way Cheaper, Google X Boss Says (GOOG)

Google Glass had a lot of enthusiastic adopters when it launched in 2012, but recent reports suggest early fans are starting to ditch the product. For example, nine out of 16 Google Glass app makers contacted by Reuters said that they had abandoned the product "because of the lack of customers or limitations of the device." One reason for Google Glass' slow adoption is its high price tag. A pair of Google Glass costs $1,500, which even by tech gadgets' standards is quite high.  Astro Teller, head of Google X labs, which led the development of Google Glass, also acknowledged it in a recent interview with CNET. Although Teller didn't mention a specific timeline or a target for dropping the price, he said price cuts for high-end products, like Google Glass, could make a big difference in market penetration, unlike cheap wearables in the $30 to $40 range. "But for a $200 watch, or Glass, or anything in between, I think it's sort of fair," he said. He added, "Every time you drop the price by a factor of two, you roughly get a 10 times pick up of the number of people who will seriously consider buying it." In other words, for Google Glass to become a mainstream product, it needs to cut its price in half twice, which would lower its price to a more manageable $375. In the interview, Teller also said Google Glass had become a "poster child" for some of the privacy issues around wearable devices and that it was something that needed to be discussed. He also said Google Glass was focused on becoming "smart eyewear," rather than a computer-like device that does everything on its own. Join the conversation about this story »

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Oracle Employees Are Gossiping About A Tiny 60-Person Layoff (ORCL)

A source tells us that a small layoff in Oracle's European Global Software Support unit has rattled some Oracle employees all over the world, even in the US. Oracle has told about 60 employees that they will be laid off. This includes people in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain, our source says. The business reasons for the layoff were straightforward. Managers of this unit wanted to hire more people in Romania, where the costs, particularly salaries, are far lower than they are in Western Europe. But according to one Oracle employee who is still with the company, employees across the Global Software Support unit have been talking about this move. "The cold mechanics of it angered a lot of people — it's sad," this employee told us. Employees have been riled up because a European labor group, known as the European Works Council, wrote an opinion about the layoff. The EWC warned that Oracle was deliberately targeting experienced employees who had been with the company on average 13.6 years, using their salaries to hire more than 60 junior people in Romania. Business Insider saw a copy of this report. This report says the information about the layoff came from discussions with the leaders of the Global Software Support group, who report to Richard Sarwal, senior vice president and GM. The report also warned that 60-person layoff was only Phase 1. Oracle employees are frustrated with this situation for a couple of reasons, our source tells us: Management hasn't discussed any of these changes with them. They are hearing about the layoffs and the consolidation plans from their colleagues.  They are also hearing that more than 60 people have been let go. Although Oracle has contacted the people affected, it hasn't told them exactly when their last day will be, our source says. The scuttlebutt is that these employees could be asked to train the junior Romanian employees prior to being cut. While this all sounds nerve-wracking for some Oracle employees, it is important to know that, in terms of numbers, 60 people is insignificant for a company with 125,000 global employees. And it's a common business practice to trim employees from expensive areas in favor of others in cheaper ones, especially for overhead types of jobs like customer support. We also understand from the report that the people who have been let go will be invited to apply for other positions inside of Oracle. Oracle declined comment. Join the conversation about this story »

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Indonesian police criticised over virginity tests

Jakarta (AFP) - Human Rights Watch Tuesday urged Indonesia's national police to halt "discriminatory" virginity tests for women applying to join the force in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. The rights group said women applicants are required to be both unmarried and virgins, and the virginity test is still widely used despite the insistence of some senior police officials that the practice has been discontinued. In a series of interviews with HRW, young women -- including some who underwent the test as recently as this year -- described the procedure as painful and traumatic. The women told how they were forced to strip naked before female medics gave them a "two-finger test" -- a practice described by HRW as archaic and discredited. "I don't want to remember those bad experiences. It was humiliating," said one 19-year-woman who took the test in the city of Pekanbaru, on western Sumatra island, and whose identity was not disclosed. "Why should we take off our clothes in front of strangers? It is not necessary. I think it should be stopped." Nisha Varia, associate women's rights director at HRW, described the tests as "a discriminatory practice that harms and humiliates women. "Police authorities in Jakarta need to immediately and unequivocally abolish the test, and then make certain that all police recruiting stations nationwide stop administering it." The tests contravene the police's own guidelines on recruitment and violate international human rights to equality, non-discrimination and privacy, HRW said.  Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. While senior police have insisted in recent years that virginity tests for female applicants have been stopped, HRW said a posting on the force's own website this month noted that female applicants must undergo the procedure. Women currently make up about three percent of the 400,000-strong force, HRW said, but added the police had launched a drive to increase the number of female officers. Society is deeply conservative in parts of Indonesia and some still value female virginity highly. The issue hit the headlines last year, when the education chief of a city sparked outrage by suggesting that teenage schoolgirls should undergo virginity tests to enter senior high school. Join the conversation about this story »

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10 Things You Need To Know Before European Markets Open

Good morning! Here are the major stories you need to hear about before markets in London and Paris open. JP Morgan Downgraded The US Stock Market. JP Morgan on Monday downgraded its view of the US stock market, reversing from a bullish view to a bearish one as valuations relative to Europe had "turned outright expensive."' The US Senate Is Heading For A Vote On The Keystone Pipeline. Backers of the Keystone XL oil pipeline hope a vote in the US Senate late on Tuesday will send a bill to the desk of President Barack Obama. European Carmakers Had The Best October For Five Years. Sales are up 6.5% on the same month last year in Europe, despite poor economic performance generally, according to the Financial Times.  Japan Is Poised For A Snap Election. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce on Tuesday that he will delay an unpopular sales tax rise and call a snap election. Asian Markets Were Very Mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed up 2.18%, erasing much of the drop seen on Monday as terrible GDP data were released. In comparison, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is currently trading down 0.87%. Traders Aren't Using The Hong Kong-Shanghai Stocks Link Much. Investors largely turned away from the link-up between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges on Tuesday, a day after it launched to much fanfare and ambitions for billions of dollars in daily cross-border transactions. The UN Says Fewer Babies Will Be An Economic Miracle For Africa. Fewer babies could mean an "economic miracle" for sub-Saharan Africa, with gains of $500 billion (£319.4 billion) a year over three decades for the region, the UN Population Fund said Tuesday. Hong Kong Police Are Preparing To Clear Out Protesters. Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday prepared to clear part of a key area of the heart of the city that has been occupied by pro-democracy demonstrators for nearly two months. UK Inflation And German Confidence Are Coming. UK CPI figures are out at 9.30 a.m. GMT, with analysts expecting a modest jump to 1.3%. German investor confidence figures are out at 10 a.m. GMT, which should give a hint at the state of Europe's largest economy in November.  Chinese House Prices Dropped For A Second Month. According to the Financial Times, Chinese property prices dropped by the steepest amount in October since the current data series began three years ago.  Join the conversation about this story »

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The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Tuesday. 1. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to call a snap election on Tuesday, one day after poor GDP figures showed that the country had slipped into a surprise recession. 2. A Sierra Leone doctor infected with Ebola while working in his home country died Monday at a US hospital. 5. Hong Kong authorities have started dismantling barricades located at a main pro-democracy protest camp opposite government headquarters.  6. Victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme are about to recover an additional $496.8 million. 8. Japan cut its target of Antarctic whales killed for research by two-thirds, down to a cap of 333 from around 900. 9. Two terrorists who entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and opened fire, wounding seven worshippers, were shot dead by police.  10. Toyota plans to introduce the first commercially available car that runs on hydrogen in the US next year, a four-person sedan called Mirari.  And finally ... Thirty years after Band Aid released the hit single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, the song has been recorded again to help in the fight against Ebola in West Africa.  Join the conversation about this story »

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Ronaldo aims to outshine Messi on Manchester return

Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Cristiano Ronaldo will try to outshine Lionel Messi on his return to Old Trafford when the two best players in the world clash in a friendly between Portugal and Argentina on Tuesday. Real Madrid forward Ronaldo and Barcelona striker Messi are locked in a battle to prove themselves the top player on the planet and their latest showdown comes on the former home turf of the Portugal icon. Adding spice to their rivalry with Spain's two superpowers is the speculation that they aren't on good terms off the pitch either. Whatever the status of their personal relationship, the duo have deservedly become serial trophy collectors over the last decade, with team and individual prizes hoovered up on a regular basis. Messi has won the Champions League three times and Ronaldo twice, while Messi has six league titles in Spain and Ronaldo three with Manchester United and one with Real. Between them they have won the past six coveted Ballon D'Or contests, awarded to the player voted the world's best by managers, players and journalists. Argentina star Messi has been voted the winner four times in that period and has come second to Ronaldo the other two years. Ronaldo hopes to add a third gong this year, and few would disagree if he pipped Messi and several contenders from the German World Cup winning team. Ronaldo has 18 league goals already this season, while Messi has -- by his standards -- a modest total of seven, although he was voted player of the tournament at this year's World Cup Also in Ronaldo's favour, he became the record goalscorer in European Championship qualifying and tournament history with his strike in a 1-0 victory over Armenia at the weekend. That was his 23rd goal in the competition, surpassing the previous high mark set by Jan Dahl Tomasson of Denmark, and his 57th in 117 caps for Portugal. "I have done what I have to do. I have won major titles, I have beaten other records, and I now have to wait calmly for the votes," he said. Ronaldo's return to Old Trafford will be his second since he left United for Madrid in 2009. In March 2013, he scored the goal that knocked his old club out of the Champions League in front of still-adoring United fans. But poor ticket sales for this week's friendly suggest United supporters aren't quite so keen to pay tribute to their former idol on this occasion. Ronaldo is still looking forward to the chance to return to Manchester however and he said: "It's special going back to Old Trafford and I hope the stadium will be with me." There will also be a return to Manchester for former City and United striker Carlos Tevez. Tevez, now with Juventus, came back into the Argentina squad last week after three years in exile and played in last week's 2-1 friendly win over Croatia at West Ham's Upton Park. Join the conversation about this story »

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Iran nuclear talks enter slippery final straight

Vienna (AFP) - Iran and six world powers descend on Vienna Tuesday seeking to nail down a mammoth nuclear deal, six days before a deadline with differences still considerable despite months of negotiations. Such an accord could not only consign to history one of the 21st century's most intractable geopolitical conundrums by easing fears once and for all that Iran might build a nuclear bomb. It could also silence talk of war, put Iran and the West on the road to normalised relations after 35 years in the deep freeze and give US President Barack Obama a rare foreign policy success. Hardliners in both the United States and Iran are putting their negotiators under pressure not to give too much away, however, and it is far from certain that a deal can be done. "There's still a big gap. We may not be able to get there," Obama warned last Sunday. Iran's arch foe Israel, widely assumed to have a formidable nuclear arsenal itself, is also watching closely, as are Sunni Gulf monarchies uneasy about any US rapprochement with Shiite Iran. The United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany (the P5+1) want Iran to scale down its nuclear programme to make it virtually impossible for Iran to assemble an atomic bomb. Iran, which says its nuclear aims are exclusively peaceful, wants painful sanctions lifted and a recognition of its "right" to a peaceful nuclear programme. On November 24 last year, after moderate Hassan Rouhani became president, Iran and the P5+1 secured an interim agreement. However, they missed a July 20 deadline to reach a comprehensive accord, giving themselves four more months, which expires this coming Monday. US Secretary of State John Kerry, due back in Vienna later this week, said at the time that the talks were "the best chance we've ever had to resolve this issue peacefully". And now, says chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman, it is "time to finish the job". - Give and take - Some areas in what would be a highly complex agreement appear provisionally sewn up, like altering a reactor being built at Arak, a different use for the Fordo facility -- under a mountain to protect it from air attack -- and more inspections. But the big problem remains enrichment, which renders uranium suitable for power generation and making nuclear medicines -- but also, at high purities, for a weapon. Iran wants to ramp up massively the number of enrichment centrifuges in order, it says, to make reactor fuel. The West wants them slashed, saying Iran has no such need at present. Other thorny issues are the duration of the accord and the pace at which sanctions are lifted, an area where Iranian expectations are "excessive", one Western diplomat said. "They want everything, all at once and this is not realistic," the diplomat involved in the talks said. - Another extension? - Given the differences many analysts expect another extension. "There is virtually no possibility that a complete deal will be concluded by November 24," former top US diplomat on non-proliferation Robert Einhorn, now an expert with the Brookings Institution, told AFP. "I think they'll agree to extend the interim arrangements for several more months." And the alternative -- walking away -- would be "catastrophic," Arms Control Association analyst Kelsey Davenport said. "Given the political capital that both sides have invested ... it would be foolish to walk away from the talks and throw away this historic opportunity," Davenport told AFP. For now though, officials insist that they remain focused on the deadline.  "An extension is not and has not been a subject of conversation at this point," a senior US official said late Monday. And another extension also carries risks, not least increasing the likelihood of Republicans pushing for fresh US sanctions, something which could prompt Iran to walk away. Join the conversation about this story »

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7 wounded in Jerusalem synagogue, 2 attackers killed

Jerusalem (AFP) - Two assailants who entered a synagogue in Jerusalem and fired on worshippers, wounding at least seven, were shot dead on Tuesday, police said.  "Two terrorists entered a Jewish seminary in Har Nof in Jerusalem armed with a pistol and an axe and there are seven people injured," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.  "The two terrorists were neutralised," she said, indicating they had been killed.    Join the conversation about this story »

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Hong Kong-Shanghai trade link disappoints on day two

Hong Kong (AFP) - Investors largely turned away from the link-up between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges on Tuesday, a day after it launched to much fanfare and ambitions for billions of dollars in daily cross-border transactions. Officials have trumpeted the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect as opening up China's closeted stock markets to the outside world and giving mainlanders a chance to enter the lucrative Hong Kong exchange. But the second day of trading has proved a damp squib, with China-based investors buying little more than three percent of their daily allowance of Hong Kong shares by the break, while Hong Kong dealers picked up only a fifth of their Shanghai quota. The launch day was also disappointing. While Hong Kong investors had exhausted their daily allowance of Shanghai shares two hours before the end of trade, mainlanders used up less than 20 percent of their quota by the close. The weak uptake was reflected in the two stock markets, which were hit by another batch of downcast housing data out of China that indicate continued weakness in the world's number two economy. Hong Kong was down 0.75 percent at lunch, while Shanghai was 0.41 percent lower. "One would expect trading volumes to be the highest at the beginning and have daily trading limits hit extensively," Credit Suisse said, according to Dow Jones Newswires. "While we do expect participants to increase materially over time, southbound volumes were disappointing." Shares in Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing fell 2.8 percent Tuesday after losing 4.45 percent Monday. The creation of the trading platform is seen as a key step towards greater liberalisation in the world's second largest economy. But it is subject to strict limits in order to preserve capital controls in China, where Communist authorities keep a tight grip on the yuan currency. If an investor buys stocks in the other market, when they sell the money can only go back to their home market account, a so-called "closed path" to prevent "hot money" leaking out. However, while Hong Kong dealers are keen to buy up firms in China, many mainland traders -- who are usually elderly, private investors -- are reluctant to go the other way, and enter a market with which they are not familiar. Join the conversation about this story »

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Japan cuts Antarctic whale quota

Tokyo (AFP) - Japan said on Tuesday it has cut its Antarctic whale-catch quota by two-thirds in a move it hopes will convince international opponents it is conducting genuine scientific research on expeditions in the region. The International Court of Justice -- the highest court of the United Nations -- ruled in March that Japan was abusing a scientific exemption set out in the 1986 moratorium on whaling. The court said the controversial programme, which sees taxpayer-subsidised Japanese boats harpooning the huge mammals and then selling on their meat, supposedly as a by-product, was a commercial hunt masquerading as research. Judges said any nation that wanted to avail itself of the scientific exemption had to show why it was necessary to kill whales to do the research. Japan cancelled its 2014-15 Antarctic hunt after the ruling, but said it intends to resume "research whaling" in 2015-16. In the new plan submitted to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its Scientific Committee, Japan has set a new annual target of 333 minke whales, down from some 900 under the previous programme, the government said in a statement. This level of catch is "necessary" to obtain information on the age of the population, information Japan says it needs to allow the setting of "safe levels of catch limits" and to ensure sustainability. Tokyo also defined the research period as 12 years from fiscal 2015 in response to the court's criticism of the programme's open-ended nature. "We will explain the new plan sincerely so as to gain understanding from each country," Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Koya Nishikawa told reporters. Japan killed 251 minke whales in the Antarctic in the 2013-14 season and 103 the previous year, far below its target because of action by activist group Sea Shepherd. Tokyo also conducts hunts in the name of science in the Northwest Pacific, where it killed 132 whales in 2013, and off the Japanese coast, where it caught 92. The world's whaling watchdog IWC agreed this year to toughen scrutiny of Atlantic hunts, but rejected a bid to expand protection in the South Atlantic, as it struggles to balance traditional hunting claims with conservation. Join the conversation about this story »

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England, Scotland on Glasgow collision course

Glasgow (AFP) - Each heartened by positive results in Euro 2016 qualifying, England and Scotland will renew their 142-year-old rivalry in a hotly anticipated end-of-year friendly at Glasgow's Celtic Park on Tuesday. Roy Hodgson's England are riding high after opening up a six-point advantage at the top of their qualifying group by coming from behind to beat Slovenia 3-1 on Saturday. Having won all four of their Group E games to date, qualification is already beginning to appear a formality, and in age-old rivals Scotland they face a team who have not beaten them in 15 years. But Scottish confidence is also on the up and with England's dispiriting World Cup group-stage exit still fresh in the memory, Hodgson will know that a poor result could disturb his side's fragile momentum. England won 3-2 when the teams last met at Wembley Stadium in August last year, with Rickie Lambert scoring the winning goal with his first touch of the ball as an international player. Tuesday's resumption of hostilities comes with new political undertones, after the people of Scotland voted against breaking away from the rest of Britain in a fiercely fought independence referendum in September. England have not ventured north of the border since November 1999, when they won the first leg of a Euro 2000 qualifying play-off 2-0 at Hampden Park, and they can expect a fiery reception. Scotland enjoyed a rousing 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland at a fervent Celtic Park on Friday and England captain Wayne Rooney has warned his team-mates to expect a caustic atmosphere at the 60,000-seater ground. "You don't realise until you actually play there what the atmosphere is like," said the Manchester United striker, who marked his 100th England appearance with the equaliser against Slovenia. "I remember my first time with United against Celtic and I'd actually been up to watch a couple of Celtic games when Alan Stubbs was there and Roy Keane. "I was in the crowd and the atmosphere was great, but when you're actually down there it's different. You don't realise until you're on that pitch what it's like. "So maybe a few of them (younger England players), you might need to speak to them and say, 'Listen, this is going to be hostile. Make sure you blank it out, relax, and play your normal game. Don't get involved in it.'" - Gordon eyes comeback - Scotland's win over Ireland, secured by a sumptuous Shaun Maloney curler, left Gordon Strachan's team level on points with Germany and Ireland in Group D and three points below leaders Poland. Hopes of a first major tournament appearance since the 1998 World Cup therefore remain fully intact ahead of the winter break, and Charlie Mulgrew says there will be no slackening off ahead of England's visit. "It will be a huge game," said the Celtic midfielder. "Even though it is named a friendly there is never a friendly between Scotland and England, so we are looking forward to it." England have allowed goalkeeper Joe Hart to return to Manchester City to rest, which means that Southampton's Fraser Forster could start at the stadium where he previously spent four years with Celtic. Hodgson could hand a debut to West Bromwich Albion's Saido Berahino and will also want to test the sharpness of Ross Barkley and Theo Walcott, but wholesale changes are unlikely. "I will change the team, but we are not looking to play a totally different team up in Scotland because we know that it is going to be a tough game," Hodgson said. "And a game like that in Scotland will probably tell me a little bit more about this team." Strachan is expected to rejig his starting XI, with Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon in line to win his first cap for four years after serious injury problems forced him into a two-year career hiatus. Striker Steven Fletcher is likely to miss out after injuring his ankle against Ireland. Join the conversation about this story »

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The Journalist An Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Publicizing Personal Details About Has Responded

On Monday night, Buzzfeed released a report stating that an Uber executive made some offhand and regrettable remarks in the presence of a journalist without realizing he wasn't off the record. The executive in question is reportedly Emil Michael, Senior Vice President of Business. As Buzzfeed writes, he's accused of suggesting "that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company." The remarks were partly aimed at journalist Sarah Lacy, who has been critical of Uber in the past. Lacey is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily, and a former senior editor at TechCrunch. On Monday night, the website was hosting their "PandoLIVE" program when Buzzfeed posted its story. Lacy was on the program and she, along with her co-host, responded to the article, and had plenty to say about Uber itself. As one might imagine, it's a passionate and angered response. You can hear it all below via Soundcloud, and please note the audio does contain strong language:   Join the conversation about this story »

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Hong Kong authorities begin clearing part of main protest camp

Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday cleared a small part of the main pro-democracy protest camp, the first of several planned evictions to shrink mass sit-ins that have blocked major thoroughfares for seven weeks. There was no resistance from demonstrators as workers dismantled metal barricades blocking access to a skyscraper opposite government headquarters, on the edge of the sprawling camp in the central Admiralty district. Join the conversation about this story »

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Watch Ken Block And His Souped-Up Classic Mustang Go Bananas In Los Angeles

Ken Block's newest video "Gymkhana 7" was released Monday and has already racked up 3.4 million views on YouTube. The video's eye-catching cinematography, expertly executed stunts, and intriguing locales make it "must see TV" — for motorheads, or for people who just like to watch a lot of tire smoke. Behind of the wheel of his modified vintage 1965 Ford Mustang — with a mindblowing 845 horsepower — Block turns Los Angeles into his personal playground. The Gymkhana crew went everywhere and did some very cool things, from blasting down the Los Angeles River to turning donuts around Randy's Donuts to spoofing the O.J. Simpson low-speed freeway chase. That's right. Ken Block recreated the O.J. chase, white Bronco and all. Gymkhana 7 — as you may have guessed — is rally racing and stunt-driving icon Block's 7th official four-wheeled extravaganza. Previous installments of the series included drives though downtown San Francisco, as well as over carefully designed obstacle courses in the California desert. Gymkhana (which is a type of motorsport) is a form of carefully choreographed, controlled chaos, and Block has turned it into an art form. On the closed streets of Los Angeles, the rally driver uses his smoking tires to pay homage to iconic landmarks, historic moments in pop culture, and even So Cal's signature low riders.  Check out Ken Block's Gymkhana 7 here: SEE ALSO: This Audi Can Hit 150 MPH — Without A Driver! Join the conversation about this story »

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Aussie Beale gets thumbs up from fellow bad boy Cooper

Dublin (AFP) - Australian bad boy Kurtley Beale is a welcome late addition, and not a distraction, to the Wallabies squad on their European tour, claimed their mercurial fly-half Quade Cooper. Beale, who was fined a total of Aus$48,000 ($41,700) for sending an offensive text message to then-Wallabies business manager Di Patston and sanctioned again for being rude and disrespectful to the team management, has not played for Australia since the defeat in Cape Town by South Africa on September 27. However, he received a call-up for the final two Tests last week and Cooper said the 25-year-old utility back was in good spirits as they prepare for the daunting one-off Test with Six Nations champions Ireland at Lansdowne Road on Saturday. "From a team point of view he (Beale) offers a lot, everyone's happy to have him here," said Cooper, who has been no stranger to controversies in the past. "Cheiks (coach Michael Cheika) speaks highly of him and knows his ability as a player." Cooper, who was fined a record Aus$60,000 in 2012 for describing the Wallabies regime under then-coach Robbie Deans as "toxic", said Beale's behaviour was not up for debate. "None of us are here to play politicians, or politics, we're all here with the same focus of improving as a rugby team, and improving as rugby players," said Cooper. "From a professional point of view we're focusing on beating Ireland this week -- we know it's going to be a tough encounter. "Kurtley is fine, he's in good spirits and he's keen to get out there, train and be a part of the squad." Cooper, who at one point deliberated over accepting a lucrative offer to switch to rugby league before opting to remain in union, suffered a shoulder injury in May and lost his place to Bernard Foley as first choice fly-half. The New Zealand-born playmaker has been used sparingly on the tour so far although he sparked a revival from the Wallabies when he came on in the narrow 29-26 defeat by France on Saturday. However, he spoke glowingly about Cheika, who stepped in when Ewen McKenzie resigned at the end of the Rugby Championship as part of the fallout from the Beale scandal. "Cheiks' style of play is about bringing out your best and bringing your strengths to the table and making those strengths seem even stronger than they really are," said Cooper. "In terms of way we are playing it is a lot different to what I am used to but at the same time it is an opportunity to learn. "I am loving learning under this environment and hoping I can continue to grow as a player, you don't want to become stagnant, always want to improve and I see this is a great opportunity to do that." Cooper, who also fought in professional boxing bouts and spars with Cheika at training, said the tour couldn't have come at a more opportune time allowing the players to try and forget about the past few months which also included some poor results with Argentina pulling off a shock win over them. "With the ups and downs we have had in the past season it is great to be on tour and be with the group for five weeks and have five games and find our identity as a team, it's something we are working very hard at," said Cooper. "This is an interesting tour. We had a good start against the Barbarians and Wales and a tough game against the French. We are looking to play very hard and improve as a team." While Cooper said Cheika's inside knowledge of Irish rugby -- he coached Leinster to their first European Cup win -- would be useful, he believed the best way to beat Ireland was by nullifying the threat of his opposite number Jonathan Sexton. "He's such a class act, I have always enjoyed playing against him personally," said Cooper. "For me I love the way he plays, not a traditional Irish fly-half who sits in the pocket and kicks, he loves to run, he loves to have a few little trick plays. "Being shortlisted for IRB player of the year is well deserved. Hopefully we can overcome him on Saturday." Join the conversation about this story »

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This Epic Scene Shows Why 'Video Game High School' Is So Popular

If you think video games are big now, just think how big they would be if virtual reality technology reached the point where playing a video game felt like actually questing through mystical lands, racing sports cars, or fighting with guns. In this hypothetical world, everyone would play video games and pro-gaming leagues would be wildly popular. This vision sets the stage for "Video Game High School," a web series about a kid in the future who is sent off to a fantastic school for gamers. The Kickstarter-backed show is currently being promoted in a big YouTube ad series and has a rabid fanbase, with 12 million people watching the first episode on YouTube. Now in its third season, the show can also be seen at the home of RocketJump Studios as well as Netflix and other paid streaming sites. For a preview, check out our Episode One Spoilers. Sometime in the future, there's a kid named Brian Doheny who doesn't have a lot of friends. In this picture, bullies are about to steal his digital possessions. Brian lives with his single mother who is addicted to video games, living her whole life in some alternate reality. The kid gets his kicks playing first-person shooters, and right now he's hurrying to join a game that started without him. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Uber Exec Reportedly Suggested Digging Up And Publicizing Personal Details Of Female Journalist

An Uber executive made some offhand and regrettable remarks in the presence of a journalist without realizing he wasn't off the record, Buzzfeed reports. Specifically, the accusation is pointed at Emil Michael, Senior Vice President of Business at Uber. "A senior executive at Uber suggested that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company," Buzzfeed's Ben Smith writes. The remarks were made in the presence of a Buzzfeed reporter at a dinner that Michael thought was off the record. Michael has since said that the remarks were "borne out of frustration" and "do not reflect my actual views and have no relation to the company’s views or approach." An Uber spokesperson also said that the company has never considered doing opposition research. The remarks were partly aimed at journalist Sarah Lacy, who has been critical of some of Uber's recent moves. Even if Uber would never actually hire opposition researchers, this is a pretty big lapse of judgment for a company who has looked to improve its image in the wake of reports about its cutthroat business tactics, such as reportedly placing calls for rides to rival Lyft then canceling them at the last minute.  Read the full report over at Buzzfeed. SEE ALSO: Sarah Lacy Responds Join the conversation about this story »

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This Brilliant Chart Reveals How Patience Pays Off For Investors

When first introduced to investing, people are often told that the stock market offers around 10% per year. Meanwhile, bonds offer a mid-single digit return annually. However, these average numbers rarely reflect what'll happen in any single year. In fact, it's actually rare to see the stock market return 10% in any particular year. But on an annualized basis, historically, the market is more likely to deliver these average returns the longer you hold these investments. This eye-opening chart comes from JP Morgan Asset Management. It shows the range of returns on an annualized basis for stocks, bonds, and a 50/50 stock-bond portfolio over 1-year, 5-year, 10-year, and 20-year periods. The returns data is from 1950-2013. As you can see to the left, the stock market gave as much as 51% and took away as much as 37% in any given year. For an investor with a minimum 5-year investment period, a portfolio of stocks would've done no worse than -2% on an annualized basis while offering a return of up to 28% using the same calculation. If you extend the holding period to 20 years, you'll see the worst you would've done is +6% annualized while getting +18% annualized in the best case. The average annualized returns for stocks during those 20-year periods: 11.1%. That's very close to the 10% we're taught as kids. Assuming history repeats, the longer your holding period, the more predictable and typical your annualized returns become. Join the conversation about this story »

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Mass murderer Charles Manson to marry in prison

Los Angeles (AFP) - He may not be everyone's idea of a good catch, but mass murderer Charles Manson has been granted a marriage license to wed a 26-year-old woman who has been visiting him in prison. Manson, 80, who is serving a life sentence for slaying seven people, plans to marry Afton Elaine Burton, 54 years his junior and described in US media as a slender brunette.  "He has received a marriage license," the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told AFP on Monday. The license was applied for on November 7, according to the website for King's County, California, where Manson is in jail, but no date for the nuptials has been set. Manson has been in prison for more than four decades after the 1969 killings, which included the brutal murder of director Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.  But Burton, who also calls herself "Star," has said she and Manson are madly in love and already consider themselves married.  "I'm completely with him, and he's completely with me. It's what I was born for, you know. I don't know what else to say," she told CNN in August of the now gray-haired killer, who has a swastika tattooed on his forehead.  She said she had been following Manson's "philosophy" since she was a teenager and moved to Corcoran, where the convicted murderer is detained, to be closer to him.   They talk every day and she visits him at California State Prison most weekends, Burton said.    Manson was married twice before he was jailed, first to Rosalie Jean Willis from 1955 to 1958 and later to Candy Stevens between 1959 and 1963.  He was sentenced to death in 1969 along with four of his disciples for having led the killing of seven people, but their sentences were later changed to life in prison. In 2012, Manson applied for parole but was denied release and is not eligible to apply again until 2027. Manson headed an apocalyptic cult that committed murders in upscale, mostly white neighborhoods of Los Angeles in order to blame the crimes on African Americans, in hopes of sparking a "Helter Skelter" race war.   Join the conversation about this story »

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Fewer babies herald 'economic miracle' for Africa: UN

London (AFP) - Fewer babies could mean an "economic miracle" for sub-Saharan Africa, with gains of $500 billion (400 billion euros) a year over three decades for the region, the UN Population Fund said Tuesday. The State of World Population report said a total of 59 nations were poised for a "demographic dividend" when the working-age population outnumbers the rest due to declining fertility rates. The United Nations agency said these nations -- almost all in Africa -- could follow the example of East Asian economies like South Korea whose rise since the 1970s was helped by demographics. "Recent shifts in the age structure towards younger populations present an unprecedented opportunity to catapult developing economies forward. "The 'economic miracle' experienced by East Asian economies could become a reality for many of today's poorer countries," the report said. It said there was also evidence to suggest that the demographic dividends could make the transition to more democratic forms of government "more likely". The report found that the share of the youth population peaked in around 2010 in the world's least developed countries and "has begun declining", meaning that the working-age population in those countries will more than double by 2050. In Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, the report said the demographic wave could "treble per capita income in a generation" as long as it was accompanied by the right policies and investments. "The right investments are education, particularly girls' education. Girls must go to school, they must stay in school," the fund's executive director Babatunde Osotimehin told AFP in an interview. "We also believe that health services, particularly reproductive health services, must be made available so women can make choices over their lives," he said. But the Nigerian, a trained doctor, warned that health systems in countries in west Africa affected by Ebola had been "overwhelmed" and said that this could have a knock-on effect for the care of pregnant women and children. "You actually might end up with more fatalities from that than you would from Ebola," he said.   - 'Unmet need' for contraception -   The report said governments should be ready to take advantage of the demographic dividend as there was only a "one-time opportunity" for rapid economic growth offered by this windfall. "Without a solid economic and policy framework to back it up, the demographic dividend may not be fully realised," it said. The countries named in the report also include some nations from continents other than Africa like Afghanistan, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and Yemen. The report said that all the countries were on a path of demographic transition that begins with a lowering of infant mortality rates, which in turn encourages parents to have fewer children and invest more in their education and healthcare. It noted that women in developing countries "generally have more children than they desire" and there was "an unmet need for modern contraception". "Today there are more than 220 million women who want family planning and are not getting it," Osotimehin said. The report homed in on the development of East Asia -- defined as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore -- where average annual income per capita more than quadrupled between 1965 and 1995. It quoted research by David Bloom, a professor at Harvard University's School of Public Health, showing that the "demographic dividend" accounted for up to one third of that rise in income. "We reckon that if all of Africa does this and in a timely fashion it will add about $500 billion to the GDP of Africa per year. Its' huge. It's about a third of what (GDP) is now," Osotimehin said. Global fertility rates internationally have been dropping since the 1950s, from an average of six children per woman to about 2.5 today. While the trend could be an economic boon for the developing world, the report warned that it was becoming a problem for mature economies. "This demographic reality, tied to the ongoing shift in the balance of world population from younger to older people, creates risks," the report said. In developed economies "smaller cohorts of young people may be tasked with paying more per person for the pensions and healthcare costs of larger older populations".   Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's Video Proof That Satya Nadella Is Creating A New Post-Windows Microsoft (MSFT)

Need proof CEO Satya Nadella is moving Microsoft past a Windows-take-all mentally? Take a look at the YouTube video ad for its new app, Sway. It features a guy using Sway at work ... on an iPad. There's even a close up on the iPad, just to make sure you didn't miss it and think he was using, say, a Surface. Wow, how far Microsoft has come. In the summer of 2013, months before Satya Nadella was named CEO, he allowed a Mac to be used on stage during Microsoft's annual developer conference and shocked the folks in Redmond, sources told us. Today, Microsoft is featuring an iPad in its new product advertisements. Yawn. Looks like the Windows vs. Mac wars are so 2013. SEE ALSO: Meet Sway, Another Important Microsoft Product You've Never Heard Of Join the conversation about this story »

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Microsoft Is Sick Of PowerPoint, Too (MSFT)

We can't even remember the last time we saw someone under 30 fire up a PowerPoint instead of a Prezi when giving a talk. Microsoft hopes to put the kibosh on that with Microsoft Sway, its new presentation app. Sway lets you drag and drop photos, videos, files from your computer, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or cloud storage. It works via a Web browser or an app for your phone and the presentation is stored on the Web. Microsoft announced Sway in October and on Monday offered an update, giving preview invites to various journalists including us. We played around a little with Sway and can confirm that it is remarkably easy to use. It has some nice features like "change my mood" which lets you choose a new layout, background, and fonts. The "remix" button does that for you (a little like the "I feel lucky" button on Google). We didn't see anything in the demo that made us say, "Wow! No one's ever done that before!" But first things first. Prezi says it has over 50 million people use it including 80% of the Fortune 500. That's an awful lot of people who have had their heads turned from PowerPoint. Microsoft needs an easy-to-use alternative to Prezi, and Sway fits that bill. Here's a partial demo from Microsoft's video. Notice this Microsoft ad shows the guy using Sway on an iPad. But, perhaps the most impressive thing about Sway is that it's part of an bunch of new apps that under CEO Satya Nadella's new mission: to "reinvent productivity. " Sway joins ... Skype Translator, a service launched earlier this month that will translate a Skype conversation between two languages in real time. Delve, an Office 365 tool that rolled out in September that is supposed to find all the important stuff buried in your documents, calendars, contacts. Power Q&A, an add-on cloud service for Office 365 customers And Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri, available in the current version of Windows Phone and, sources say, will be available as a desktop app in Windows 10. And here's an example of a Sway presentation. SEE ALSO: Over 8,000 People Already Use Facebook's 'Secret' New Project: Facebook At Work Join the conversation about this story »

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CREDIT SUISSE: 'We Are Bearish Gold' (CS, GLD)

"We are bearish gold." Credit Suisse is newly out with a huge report on its outlook for 2015, and among its 10 best trade ideas for next year: short gold. The firm's technical analysis team puts a price target of $950 on the precious metal for the end of next year, and Credit Suisse's David Sneddon says that from a technical analysis standpoint,  and his team that gold's recent break below $1,180 confirmed a bearish "triangle" continuation pattern.   Here's the technical chart from Credit Suisse. The firm's quick rationale: "Gold remains very expensive relative to historical norms, with carrying costs becoming more penal as US interest rates begin to rise." And continued strength in the US dollar should also keep gold under pressure, the firm writes.  Credit Suisse, elsewhere in its research report, also argues that equities have become a hedge against inflation, a role that was typically assigned to commodities and particularly gold.  Amid the recent decline in gold, Credit Suisse isn't the first research firm to say gold could be in trouble. Back in early October, analysts at Ned Davis Research said that, amid a declining "supercycle" for gold, the precious metal could be headed to $660.  A look at the long-term chart for gold and you can see that it's been an ugly couple of years. And while gold rebounded a bit late last week, the longer-term outlook for gold is less than, well, you know. Join the conversation about this story »

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PlayStation Chief Takes A Victory Lap Around The Xbox One (SNE, MSFT)

Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden isn't worried about the other guys, not even mobile and PC games.  In a Q&A with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, Layden touts the PlayStation 4's incredible achievement of trouncing its main competitor on the market, the Xbox One, for 10 months in a row. It could've been 12 months in a row, he says, but they didn't get enough units to market in time. On Friday, Sony revealed all of the PS4's accomplishments on the console's first birthday. In the past year, 13.5 million units have been shipped worldwide, and people have spent 1 billion hours playing online. According to Takahashi's math, the PlayStation 4 "has about a two-to-one advantage over Xbox One," and Layden agrees, saying, "The math seems to look like that." The Xbox One could catch up this holiday season, but Layden says he's "not at all" worried about the Xbox One's planned $50 price cut. "We're going to be fully engaged in that battle."  Layden's view on mobile and PC games is also interesting. The mobile games market is enormous, and will continue to grow. And e-sports online games, such as "League of Legends," are ramping up their space in the market. In fact, the company behind "League of Legends," Riot Games, is on track to becoming a billion-dollar business.  But Layden doesn't seem too worried.  "We coexist," Layden says. "The world is a big place. We totally accept that, even if you’re a hardcore PlayStation gamer, you may wish to have different gaming experiences in different settings. That’s completely reasonable." He says that the key to making it is offering a great player experience. "We want to be successful. I don’t think it’s necessarily a zero-sum game. I don’t have to beat some other game in order for my game to succeed. I just have to make a great game." Still, he's not opposed to finding new business models, perhaps even a free-to-play model, which is how "League of Legends" has found such great success. As he puts it: Free-to-play is an interesting market. It’s quicker to understand how that works on a mobile phone, or on tablet, because the development costs going in to build the application are different. When you bring it to a 75” TV, the development cost of creating that is pretty high. If it’s completely free-to-play, you’re looking at business models where 99 percent of people don’t pay for anything, one percent pay for everything, and that’s how you build it out. It’s tricky. We’re working with a lot of different developers on what’s the best route to market for that. Read the entire Q&A over at VentureBeat>> SEE ALSO: This 22-Year-Old Went From Working At McDonald's To Making $1 Million A Year Playing Video Games Join the conversation about this story »

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GRANTHAM: The Stock Market Will Run Deep Into A Bubble Before It Crashes

You could argue that Jeremy Grantham is bullish. In a new quarterly letter to GMO clients, the gloomy veteran fund manager predicts the S&P 500 could see another 10% surge from the 2,041 level we're at today. "My personal fond hope and expectation is still for a market that runs deep into bubble territory (which starts... at 2250 on the S&P 500 on our data) before crashing as it always does," he wrote. We should remind you that exactly a year ago when the S&P 500 was at around 1,790, Grantham made a medium-term prediction that the market could see gains of 20% to 30% in one to two years. That call was actually more bullish than the typically bullish forecasts of Wall Street's sell-side strategists. So far, the market is almost perfectly tracking Grantham's prediction, which only makes us more nervous about his calls for a crash. Purgatory Of Low Returns To be clear, don't mistake Grantham's near-term forecast as him being bullish. He and his GMO colleagues are rather bearish on stocks. GMO's James Montier described the firm's base-case scenario for the next seven years as a "purgatory of low returns." "On our data, with U.S. large cap equities offering negative returns (-1.5%) except for high quality stocks (+2.2%), with foreign developed and emerging equities overpriced (+3.7%), and with bonds and cash also very unattractive, investors have to twist and turn to find even a semi-respectable portfolio," Grantham noted. "It is a particularly tough process today with nowhere to hide and no very good investments compared to, say, the time around the 2000 bubble when there were several." GMO's Ben Inker offers a Hell scenario in which investors are rewarded a bit more over the next seven years as savers get punished. Still, both the Hell and Purgatory scenarios mean unusually low average annual returns for many years to come. "Our official forecasts are for the Purgatory path and our hopes are there as well because Hell is a very unpleasant long-run outcome for investors," Inker writes. "But if we knew we were in Hell, the right solution today is a decently risked-up portfolio. That portfolio doesn’t make sense in a Purgatory scenario, as the extra risk gives almost no additional return." The Bubble Excitement Like bullish stock market strategists Ed Yardeni and Sam Stovall, Grantham points to various historical calendar patterns that suggests now is a great time to be in stocks. Here's Grantham on years three of the US presidential terms: Regular readers know the score: +2.5% a month for the seven months from October 1 to April 30, in year three on average since 1932 (a total of +17%). This is now the 21st cycle. The odds of drawing 20 random 7-month returns this strong are just over 1 in 200 according to our 10 million trials. But 17 of the actual 20 historical experiences were up and the worst of the 3 downs was only -6.4%, so the odds of this consistency plus the high return would be much smaller. The remaining 5 months of the Presidential year have a good but not remarkable record, over .75% per month, but the killer here is that the remaining 36 months since 1932 averaged a measly +0.2% a month! Grantham warns that this time is different with negatives including the ending of the Fed's bond purchase program, the prospect of soon-than-expected rate hikes, the escalation of geopolitical turmoil, and the ongoing threat of the Ebola virus spreading. We've already seen the S&P fall over 9% from September 19 to October 15 on those same fears before roaring back to new all-time highs. "Usually the bubble excitement – which seems inevitably to be led by U.S. markets – starts about now, entering the sweet spot of the Presidential Cycle’s year three, but occasionally, as you have probably discovered the hard way already, history can be a snare and not a help." SEE ALSO: Everyone's Telling Us To Forget About 10% Annual Stock Market Returns Join the conversation about this story »

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We Asked A NASA Astronaut What His Scariest Moment Was

What makes space travel such a remarkable achievement is how absolutely perilous the mission is for human kind. And no one knows the treacherous journey more than the astronauts who trek it. Former NASA astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, spoke with Business Insider at BBC FUTURE's World-Changing Ideas Summit, about what it takes to be an astronaut. Between 1985 and 1996, Hoffman completed five spaceflight missions, flew aboard four of NASA's five space shuttles, and logged over 1,211 hours in space. When asked what his scariest experience was during all those missions, he noted: "I never really got scared," Hoffman said. "There's lots of things that can happen that you can't do anything about, so why worry?" When astronauts climb aboard a spacecraft, they're consciously strapping themselves to, what is in every sense of the word, a rocket. And they know it. "If sitting down on top of a loaded rocket causes you emotional stress, maybe you're not in the right profession," said Hoffman, who retired from NASA in 1997 and is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman rode his first space shuttle, "Discovery," into space in 1985 — the year before the Challenger disaster. According to retired Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, during a TED talk in Vancouver earlier this year, the odds of catastrophic failure in 1979 were 1 in 38. The odds were likely similarly bleak when Hoffman fist entered space. Hadfield, on the other hand, thinks that the few minutes after liftoff were some of the scariest moments he's ever experienced. "The way I approached space flight [is] you know you're strapping yourself on top of 4.5 million pounds of high explosive," Hoffman said. "I was fully confident that if anything happened ... that we were well enough trained to do what had to be done." And so, 560 people have trained as astronauts despite those scary, adrenaline-pumping moments after lift-off. After it's over, they're awarded with a view that is nothing shy of spectacular. SEE ALSO: Astronaut Gives Amazing Speech On How To Conquer Your Biggest Fears IN PICTURES: 11 Breathtaking Images From The Final Space Shuttle Launches Join the conversation about this story »

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This Insider Just Explained The Truth About Today's Music Business

Steve Albini has recorded well over 1,000 rock albums, from famous names like Nirvana and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, to more obscure but beloved bands like Jesus Lizard. He's also played in a few bands that are well known in indie rock and punk circles, like Big Black. But he's equally well known for a 1993 essay that he wrote. The essay, "The Problem With Music," was an essential read for any musician who dreamed of signing a big record company contract. The basic idea was that most of those contracts were one-sided, and ended up making record companies rich while keeping musicians in a state like indentured servitude. The essay was shared and reprinted and published all over the internet. Fast forward 21 years. This weekend, Albini gave a speech at an Australian music conference in which he basically said that the internet hasn't broken the music business at all  — at least not as far as fans and 99% of musicians are concerned. Fans have easier access to more music than they ever could have dreamed of 20 years ago. Musicians have many more ways to reach fans directly, and as a result the relationship between fans and bands is stronger than ever. Albini says his band's live gigs can pay 10 times better than they did a decade ago. According to Albini, the only people who don't like the way it works are the middlemen who profit off the old way of doing things. Look no further than mega-star Taylor Swift, whose record label pulled her songs off Spotify. He takes particular issue with a statement that's often thrown around these days in the music business: "We need to figure out how to make internet distribution work for everyone." As he puts it: I disagree that the old way is better. And I do not believe this sentence to be true: “We need to figure out how to make this digital distribution work for everyone.” I disagree with it because within its mundane language are tacit assumptions: the framework of an exploitative system that I have been at odds with my whole creative life. Inside that trite sentence, “We need to figure out how to make this work for everyone,” hides the skeleton of a monster.... The internet has facilitated the most direct and efficient, compact relationship ever between band and audience. And I do not mourn the loss of the offices of inefficiencies that died in the process. I suppose some people are out of work. But the same things happened when the automobile replaced the horse, and all the blacksmiths had to adapt, spending their time making garden gates rather than horseshoes. It's a great speech for anybody interested in digital music and the music business. Read the whole thing here>> Join the conversation about this story »

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