Uber's Android App May Be Collecting An Alarming Amount Of Your Personal Data

Uber's Android App May Be Collecting An Alarming Amount Of Your Personal Data

Uber's Android app may be sending your private data back to the company, reports Cult of Mac's Buster Hein. The data transfer was reportedly discovered by Joe Giron, who runs a cybersecurity firm. Cult of Mac says: "Digging into the app’s code, GironSec discovered the Uber app “calls home” and sends private data back to Uber. This isn’t typical app data, though. Uber is sending back users’ entire SMSLog even though the app never requests permission. It also sends call history, Wi-Fi connections used, GPS locations and every type of device ID possible. The app even checks your neighbor’s Wi-Fi and sends back info on the router’s capabilities, frequency and SSID." It's unclear what purpose this information would serve for the ridesharing company. Neither Giron nor Cult of Mac said whether Uber's iOS app was transferring similar data back to the company. An Uber spokesperson gave Business Insider the following statement: Access to permissions including Wifi networks and camera are included so that users can experience full functionality of the Uber app. This is not unique to Uber.  In addition, our code lists several feature options that our mobile security vendor offers, but that we do not use.  For example, “whether device is rooted, whether it has any malware on it, and whether it’s vulnerable to the Heartbleed security bug" are not features that Uber uses.  For a list of features that we do use, please visit: https://m.uber.com/android-permissions. SEE ALSO: Uber Would Be Valued At $40 Billion In New Round, Report Says Join the conversation about this story »

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Celebrities Show Off Their Beats In Apple's New Ad (AAPL)

Beats released a new ad on Wednesday, and it's chock full of celebrities. The ad, called "#SoloSelfie," is a mashup of pop culture's A-list with celebrities like Serena Williams, Kendall Jenner, and Big Sean taking video "selfies" of themselves wearing Beats. Celebrity endorsements like this, and the company's famous cofounder, Dr. Dre, are what put Beats on the map in the first place. The whole video appears to be taken using an iPhone 6, so it's partially an ad for the phone's stellar camera as well. Check out the full spot below. It's worth watching twice to see if you can name all of the celebs. SEE ALSO: Apple's New iPhone Ad Shows Off One Of The Best Features Of iOS 8 Join the conversation about this story »

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Uber Is Blowing Up So Much Faster Than Facebook Did

Uber has experienced explosive growth over the last three years: Since raising $49.5 million in 2011, $258 million in 2013, and a whopping $1.2 billion in June, Uber has made its ridesharing service available in more than 200 cities in 45 countries worldwide. Now, the company is looking to close a new funding round that would value the company between $35 billion and $40 billion. We thought it'd be interesting to compare Uber's sky-high valuation to that of Facebook, another massively popular tech company. Based on company data charted for us by BI Intelligence, Uber is considerably further ahead than Facebook was, at least in terms of its valuation, in its third year of fundraising. Facebook achieved Uber's $35-40 billion valuation during its seventh year, two years before its IPO in 2012. SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: Consumers Ready To Upgrade Want An Apple iPhone Join the conversation about this story »

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The 10 Biggest Poker Players In Silicon Valley

Poker is a game that involves quick decision-making, risk-taking, and bluffing, among other things.  It’s why so many Wall Street investors, from Carl Icahn to David Einhorn, love playing it. And it’s no different in the highly competitive, risk-taking culture of Silicon Valley. In fact, some of the top Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors are so obsessed with it, they even have their own poker nights almost every month. Generally, good businessmen are good poker players. It's no surprise that so many business leaders in Silicon Valley are obsessed with poker. Chamath Palihapitiya (Social+Capital founder) Chamath Palihapitiya is known as one of the most hardcore poker players in the Valley. He’s played in several World Series of Poker events, and finished 101st out of more than 7,000 contestants in 2011. He also hosts monthly poker nights at his home in Palo Alto, inviting other tech entrepreneurs like David Sacks and Dave Goldberg.  David Sacks (Yammer founder) David Sacks has also played in the World Series of Poker, and alongside Palihapitiya, is frequently mentioned as the top poker player in Silicon Valley. In a past interview, Sacks said he doesn’t believe in hobbies, but likes to play poker.  He often plays with professional poker player Phil Hellmuth, too. “I’m not in the same league as [Phil Hellmuth], but I’m not a donkey,” he said in a past interview. Jason Calacanis (Inside.com founder) Jason Calacanis isn’t afraid to talk about his pokerbobsession, and said in a previous interview that he was “absolutely addicted” to it at one point. He’s a serious poker player and was sponsored by FullTiltPoker when he played in the World Series of Poker for the first time in 2009. He’s so into the game that he even thinks of his company like it's part of the game. “Risk-taking is my thing … I think of my company as my chip stack,” he told PokerListings. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Now, Anyone On Earth Can See A View Of Our Planet From Space In Real Time

There's nothing as profound as seeing Earth from space. Yet, only the 543 people who have trained as astronauts ever get to experience the Earth in a way that boggles the human mind — called the overview effect — until now. But now, thanks to the High Definition Earth Viewing experiment, anyone with access to a computer and internet can watch Earth float in space from the perspective of the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The HDEV experiment was activated on April 30 of this year, and so far over 32 million people have experienced the Earth in a way unlike any other — at a height of 268 miles above the surface. Several commercial HD video cameras are attached to the European Space Agency's Columbus module aboard the ISS. Each camera is pointed at Earth, and live records and streams what they see. The live stream cycles through the different cameras on board. When that happens, the live stream cuts out for a few seconds, but the fresh, new view you get is completely worth the few seconds it takes for the switch. As gorgeous as it is, this experiment has a purpose besides awing people on Earth: Each camera is protected inside a pressurized, temperature-controlled case. The experiment aims to test the effects of space on this equipment and the video quality it produces. High school students helped design some of the components of the experiment through the High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware program. Enjoy the view below:  Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream If that one's not working, here's another live stream, from NASA: Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During "loss of signal" periods, viewers will see a blue screen. Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below. Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream And if neither of these video streams are working, check out these short videos below which were taken earlier from the live stream:   SEE ALSO: We Asked A NASA Astronaut What His Scariest Moment Was IN PICTURES: The Incredible Story Of The Women Who Were Meant To Be The First Astronauts But Were Left On Earth Join the conversation about this story »

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These Surveillance Balloons Are The Hot New Way To Spy On People

Police in Jerusalem have been using sophisticated surveillance balloons to monitor protests and violence in the city.  The balloons, manufactured by an Israeli developer and manufacturer of intelligence systems, can stay in the air for up to 72 hours and carry sensitive cameras. Produced by Devan Joseph. Narrated by Graham Flanagan. Video courtesy of Associated Press. Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »

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This Guy Started Some Of The Biggest Tech Companies, But What He Really Cares About Is Cycling

When Max Levchin was 10 years old and growing up in Communist Ukraine in the mid-1980s, his parents saved up to buy him a junior-size road bike, a rare luxury, and his mother, a cycling enthusiast, taught him how to ride. His family happened to live in an apartment complex that stood behind Kiev's only open-air cycling track. At night, Levchin would sneak into the closed facility, pedaling around the oval, counting each completed lap in his head as he tapped out a steady rhythm. In the darkness of the velodrome, the only sound he heard was the whirring of his chain spinning the cogs on the back wheel of his bicycle. Nearly three decades later, Levchin still rides, not in a velodrome, but in the California hills. Numbers continue to speed rhythmically through his mind, powering the engineering genius of his work and the data-driven cyclist he has become, logging between 200 and 300 miles a week, often over the steepest hills he can find. And while his state-of-the-art carbon-fiber road bike is a world away from the steel racer he’d ridden as a boy, Levchin's passion for cycling has only intensified. Every day, the 39-year-old entrepreneur — who has multiple hits behind him and more startups now in early stages — competes only against himself. I have no business riding with Max Levchin. This thought flashes through my mind as I watch him pedal away from me. Having pushed off at 7 a.m., we're not long into our ride on a cold mid-November morning, and he's already dropped me on the first climb, Camino Alto. It's a quiet, leafy ascent in Mill Valley, north of Levchin's adopted hometown of San Francisco. Camino is not a particularly hard climb, but he's pushing 400 watts and I'm pushing myself into oxygen debt. Eventually I crest the summit and find him waiting on the side of the road. He’s standing over his bike, tapping the display of his cycling computer. It looks like he’s not even breathing. A pattern emerges. We hit a climb, Levchin blitzes up the hill, I do my best to chase him, and he soars out of view. He waits at the top, I roll up, and we bomb the descent. We match pace on the flats until the next climb, and the cycle repeats itself. Perhaps the hardest thing about doing this ride, known locally as Paradise Loop, is not that Levchin is out-climbing me, which he is, but that he’s so nice about it. Over the course of our ride, he takes the time to tell me about the local roads, all of which he knows intimately. He points out potentially wet or dangerous grates and manhole covers. If he were a jerk and this good on the bike, I could easily dislike him, but he’s not. He’s just very fit and surprisingly laid-back for a star of Silicon Valley. It’s hard to not like him. Rediscovering A Sense Of Order Two days before our ride, Levchin — the serial entrepreneur who cofounded PayPal and the game maker Slide, and joined Yahoo's board at the behest of CEO Marissa Mayer — agrees to meet me at his office in downtown San Francisco. There he works on one of his latest startups, Affirm, which aims “to remake consumer finance from the ground up.” It’s a casual, open-space office. Levchin is wearing sneakers, jeans, and T-shirt, and he greets me with a bar of dark chocolate and iced coffee. As we sit down to chat, he opens by saying, “I’m completely obsessed with cycling. It’s the only sport I follow.” That means keeping close tabs on everything from one-day classics like Paris-Roubaix and track racing, to cyclocross and the grand tours such as the Tour de France. That, thankfully, puts us on slightly more equal footing. Technology is not my beat, but as a journalist I have been to the Tour and Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of California and other world-class bike races, and I've pedaled a road bike since I was a teen, too. Over the years, Levchin and I have both done our share of racing in the amateur ranks, but three years ago he crashed hard at 40 mph. This “pretty permanently” injured his right hip and more or less put an end to his racing; about the same time, I wiped out on a mountain bike, breaking bones in my left leg and ankle. I, too, am pretty permanently injured, thanks to an initial misdiagnosis that, in the end, had me wearing a cast and confined to a couch for nearly a year. Bouncing back from those crashes is something we’re both tackling, though his grueling daily regimen is a tough one to match. Levchin moved to the Bay Area in the late 1990s, and while he was working at PayPal, he didn’t ride a bike at all. After PayPal, he was “bored” and gained a little weight. His girlfriend, and now wife, Nellie, said to him, “You have a beautiful bike sitting in the garage. Why don’t you ride it? It’ll give you a sense of order.” But it was a few months before he decided he was ready to take up cycling again seriously. He used to be good at it, he says, and now had to deal with being “fat and slow on the bike.” He didn’t want the frustration of not being able to fly up hills. As I would learn, Levchin doesn’t care for moving slow. He tackles climbs just as he appears to do business: deliberately and efficiently. Levchin says he became "readdicted" to cycling after attending some CompuTrainer classes, in which you set your bike up on an indoor turbo trainer and do high-intensity interval workouts. “I ran my Vo2 max and was like, ‘Oh, I’m still pretty good — I can still push 300 watts without breaking too much sweat,” he says. “I was probably stronger than most people in the CompuTrainer group, so I thought I might as well get back on the road.” "Every couple of years I threaten to get back into racing, but Affirm has taken up a lot of time that I’d normally spend training," he says. "To be competitive, you need to ride 15 hours a week, at least, and I'm not really there anymore, but I still manage 10 to 12 hours consistently, some weeks more. My primary goal right now is to still be the strongest in my pack," he says with a little smile, "though sometimes that might involve editing the pack." The Millionaire Who Goes To Bed Hungry Throughout the 2000s, Levchin pursued cycling while he was building Slide and helping with the launch of Yelp. Then, Google bought Slide, in 2010, for an estimated $228 million. The following year, Levchin came up with a new project: win bike races. He trimmed down, hitting a low of 153, taking on the lean frame and low body weight of most competitive cyclists. His threshold power, a significant predictor of endurance performance ability, was between 385 and 390, and he could “put real hurt on people.” Levchin became so thin that one day his wife said to him, “Look, a couple more pounds, and I’m going to look for an alternative husband. There’s not a lot of you left.” “She threatened to take photos,” Levchin recalls, “because she could count my ribs from the back. I said, ‘All right, just give me a year. I wanna race.’” During that time Levchin often went to bed hungry in an effort to get leaner. But it wasn’t as simple as riding a bike and eating carefully, because there were things like running a company and leading all-hands meetings. He had to have enough sugar to function. “My goal for about a year was to be the best cyclist I could be, and I worked hard at it,” he recalls, “and I was quite good.” Today, Levchin weighs 165 pounds, “and that’s if I have a light breakfast,” he says only half-jokingly. He estimates that his threshold now is 365, or about 5% lower than when he was racing. “It used to be like, ‘Hey, there’s a fun hill — I’ll show you how it’s done.’ Now it’s like, ‘Oh man, I’m going to have to really work it.’” Data As Truth For all his passion for two wheels, it isn’t just pedaling Levchin loves. He also thrives on data and information. It’s helped make him who he is, quite literally. (As PayPal's chief technology officer, he revolutionized the payments system and developed breakthrough antifraud technology.) After hanging out with Levchin, even for a few hours, you get the impression that no matter what he’s doing, he can’t go long without some sort of numbers to process. Today, cyclists like Levchin have loads of performance information at their fingertips, and quantifying training intensity and recovery is much easier to do. Many amateur athletes, and almost all the pros, have power meters attached to their handlebars, as does Levchin. One of his favorite tools that he syncs with his power meter is Strava. Used by cyclists and other endurance athletes around the world, the Strava app allows you to record your speed, elevation gain, calories burned, power output, heart rate, and more, and then share it online and compare notes with others. A popular feature on Strava is the KOM, or king of the mountain. When you climb a hill, or a “segment” in Stravaspeak, faster than everyone else, you become the king of that climb. That is, until someone pedals up faster and knocks you off. Strava’s headquarters are in San Francisco, not far from where Levchin lives and works. The day Strava launched in 2009, Levchin signed up as a paid “premium” member. He encouraged his friends to start paying for the service too. “I was like, ‘You don’t want this thing to shut down,” he recalls. “I’m a big fan of products where I’m passionate about the experience, so I’m happy to pay for it. I think Strava is doing fine now.” (That’s true: In October, Strava raised $18.5 million in Series D funding. It also hired venture capitalist Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital as an adviser.) For data-driven athletes like Levchin, Strava is a must-have. "My No. 1 competitor is me,” he says. “In the end, the trick of convincing yourself that you’re still good because your buddies are having a bad day and you’re killing them only goes so far. Strava is the source of truth, where you upload your ride and say, ‘Hey, my power up this hill was 5% less than it was last year, when I set my personal record. My heart rate is a bit higher.’ There’s no one to blame but you. “Then you say, ‘What’s going on here? Oh, you’re trucking around five more pounds, and you’re not training as hard.’ So Strava is a good way to keep yourself completely honest. It’s also a good way to compare notes with other riders. It creates a ladder for me to climb. For most segments on Strava, I know I’m not in the top 10, but I’m frequently in the top 10% or 20%, and that’s a meaningfully high level.” With the most popular KOMs on Strava, he knows the top riders are pros, but still he’d like to get as close to them as possible. The Reptilian Brain What’s most compelling about cycling for Levchin is that it comes down to riding through the pain. “There’s always a moment where you’re like, ‘I can’t do it anymore,’ but it’s never when you’re cresting — it’s when you’re halfway up a climb,” he says. “When your tongue is hanging out on the handlebar and you’ve still got another five k to go. You just have to fire that extra gear, or climb off, which is sort of pathetic.” That skill is mirrored in successful entrepreneurs, he says. "When I'm in the middle of a really hard ride, it's a bit like starting a company," he says. "Am I going to slow down, or am I gonna go all in? And you just grind. On the bike, I'm no [Tour de France champion] Chris Froome, but I work very hard. I'm willing to suffer. I ride every day, no matter what." Still, even Levchin admits that in both entrepreneurship and cycling, sometimes you have to know when to give up. “In a bike race, if you know you’re not going to bridge to the front group, you don’t want to burn yourself, because you know there’s another race tomorrow,” he says. “In entrepreneurship it’s the same thing: You can spend five years trying to find an elusive market that doesn’t exist. The parallels are fairly frequent, but the one that appeals to me the most is this getting through the barrier of ‘I just can’t do it anymore.’ That’s just not an option. It’s very true in bike races, and it’s very much true in entrepreneurship. “The one thing that happens when you’re at the limit on the bike is that you get this diminished reptilian brain,” he tells me. “There’s no room for neocortex, there’s no room for middle-brain activity. It’s like [makes heavy-panting sounds] — Make it stop! And the only way to make it stop is to get to the finish line.” Whereas some people might burn out with so much data passing through their reptilian brains, Levchin can’t seem to get enough. And that can be a problem: All the data he picks up feeds into his tendency to over-train, and it’s hard for him not to work hard. He even gets annoyed whenever he has to ride slow. “My No. 1 enemy is the power meter,” he says. “If the number has not cracked 300 [watts] I am not OK with that.” He recalls a recent workout at home on his indoor trainer. It was supposed to be a recovery workout during which he’d go easy, give his body active rest, and spin out lactic acid. But after warming up he found himself looking at his power meter, which read 190 watts. He decided that was pathetic, so he pushed harder and was soon at 250 watts. Not long after he was hammering at 300 watts. He literally could not pedal easy. “It’s very easy to be very focused on one thing,” Levchin tells me. “If you’re focused on being the best cyclist you can be, it’s easy to deprive yourself of conversation, food, wine, whatever it is that interferes with being the best cyclist, because you need your eight hours of sleep and your carefully measured calories. “When you’re training and running a company and you’re trying to be a good family man and have friends, inevitably you have to make a decision where you say, ‘Well, it’s stupid not go to this great dinner party, because I’ll see all my friends and I’ll have a great meal and it will be fun, and yeah, I’ll stay up late and I’ll still ride in the morning, but I’ll feel crappy and be two pounds heavier than I would like to be, and probably slightly hung-over.” Levchin used to ride every other day outdoors and the rest on the indoor trainer. These days, he typically does five days on the trainer and “sneaks out” for longer rides on the weekend. That, in part, is because he and his wife, Nellie, now have two kids. “They’re a lot of fun,” he says, “and they need me and I need them. Today, for instance, it was very tempting to just go out and ride, but I wanted to be with them, so I just banged out an hour on the trainer doing intervals.” Riding with Levchin reveals his intensity. When he wasn’t pushing it on the climbs, we sprinted for town signs. When a magnet used for his computer’s sensor became dislodged from his chainring, Levchin, the meticulous engineer, spent several intense minutes to try to fix it on the side of the road, as if he feared he might miss the opportunity to capture some ride data. Coming Full Circle Our three-hour ride ends at one his favorite coffee shops. Levchin checks his computer to see how far he’s ridden, and checks his phone to see who has been texting him. He’s got a little more time to ride, he realizes, before he and Nellie take their kids to a party that afternoon. I’m cooked, and I’m content to sit in the sun and sip espresso. Sure enough, Levchin tells me he’s going to take a quick spin up and over a nearby climb and that he’ll be back shortly. I watch him reset his computer for his next workout, and off he goes. Inside 30 minutes Levchin returns, with the extra climbing workout done. As we head back to San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, he’s already talking about his next ride. “For someone as competitive as I am — foolishly competitive or correctly competitive — it’s sometimes hard to reconcile having a family life and a great experience with my friends and a nice meal with a great glass of wine, and the prioritization is pretty hard,” he says. “I’m getting better about knowing what’s important, but in the morning I still want to be the fastest guy up the hill.” NOW CHECK OUT: Images of my ride with Max. Here, we go head to head in a sprint to the line: Join the conversation about this story »

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Twitter Is Going To Start Monitoring What Other Apps You Have On Your Phone

Twitter will soon begin tracking what other apps users have installed on their iPhones, Re/code reports. It will begin collecting this data unless you opt-out. It hopes that such information will lead to greater insights about their user base. This, in turn, will help it sell better targeted ads, something its business model is heavily dependent on. While the company currently collects data on what users tweet and who they follow and engage with, the information is limited to Twitter’s own ecosystem. Monitoring a user's app downloads will give Twitter a wider view and more competitive information. It will also help Twitter figure out what it should be doing with its own app, or if it should be building its own products.  Imagine if this existed years ago. Twitter might have seen Snapchat exploding in popularity. It could have tried to buy Snapchat. Or it could have built a Snapchat killer.  While Twitter will be able to know which apps you have installed on your phone, they won’t have any visibility into what you’re actually posting on those apps, and can’t gather data on anything inside them. They will simply know that you have Facebook and Instagram installed on your phone, not what you’ve posted to Facebook or which photos you’ve liked on Instagram. It’s worth noting that Facebook currently monitors this type of data. Twitter will distribute an an in-app notification with more information on the update itself and their new data policy before they start collecting any data. Join the conversation about this story »

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Explore Top-Shelf Booze With This Liquor Tasting Pack [44% Off]

Booze is a great gift idea for anyone old enough to drink. Choosing the right bottle, however, can be a drag. There are so many types and flavor profiles, the wrong choice could be the difference between a great gift and a forgettable one. Flaviar, a liquor sampler delivery service, can make things easier. It's a great way to discover and explore fine alcohol, from craft batches to well-known brands, and it's currently available with a 44% discount. You'll receive a hand-sealed tasting box with five different spirits, from scotch to cognac to rum. You'll also get access to the School of Spirits e-learning course to expand your knowledge. If you're giving this as a gift, keep the course for yourself so you sound smarter than you are. It's a great idea for any aficionado or novice who wants to explore new tastes.   Get 44% off the Top Shelf Liquor Tasting Pack ($33.99 incl. shipping) Here's exactly what you'll get: Five (5) vials of different spirits – 45ml each Tasting notes and drinks description Tasting pack theme description (more general, on Scotch, on Rum etc.) The School of Spirits E-Learning Course 7 Day Email Course Learn about Fine Spirits Tips & Tricks on Tasting Become a Rockstar of the Bar Receive a Fancy Certificate Get 44% off the Top Shelf Liquor Tasting Pack ($33.99 incl. shipping) SEE ALSO: Essential Items For A Grown-Up Grooming Routine Join the conversation about this story »

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My Ride With The Brilliant Max Levchin: Photos Reveal The Beauty And Intensity Of One Man's Passion For Cycling

You may know Max Levchin best as one of the cofounders of PayPal, or the entrepreneur who sold one of his startups, Slide, to Google for millions of dollars. Or you might know him as the mastermind behind the potentially revolutionary companies Glow and Affirm. Perhaps you know that he sits on the board of directors at Yahoo and Yelp.  You might not know he’s a fast cyclist. I learned this firsthand when I traveled to California to write a profile of him, share my passion for pedaling with a fellow obsessive, and, yes, test my mettle against his. As he probably has his whole life, Levchin won, and with grace.  Up And At 'Em Levchin brings a sharp focus and a high level of intensity to his business life and his cycling. He often wakes up early to go out for a ride, then it’s into the office for a busy day. If he's pressed for time, he'll ride his indoor trainer for an hour. "I try to touch my bike at least once every day," he says. Style Is The Man Levchin’s penchant for the stealth look borders on obsessive, but then again, obsessive is what roadies are. He avoids loud colors and showy brand logos whenever possible. Note the reflective tabs on his Swiss-made Assos apparel, on the back of his thighs and calves. On his left leg he wears a Road ID, which has his name and emergency contacts. Preride Logistics Before we roll out, Levchin tells me about the ride we're doing, Paradise Loop, one of the most popular routes in the Bay Area. He has ridden it more than a hundred times, so he knows each rise, downhill, and turn. He likes that he can test himself repeatedly over certain sections and compare his performance data over time. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Android Phones Are Taking A Growing Share Of Mobile Commerce Sales, At The iPhone's Expense

In the past, e-commerce traffic and sales were lopsidedly an iPhone- and iPad-driven phenomenon.  But over the past year, new data shows Android is quickly closing the gap in several ways. Average order value (AOV): On smartphones, there is now a very narrow gap. iPhone users spend $129, on average, compared to Android Phone users who spend $120. The AOV difference on tablets persists, however.  Conversion rate: Android visitors to e-commerce sites see a conversion rate of .7%,according to Monetate. That's lower than iPhones' visitors' rate of .9%. This difference in conversion rate between iOS and Android phones — an indicator of propensity to buy — remains significant, but it is hardly an insurmountable gap.  Order share: Android devices account for a growing share of e-commerce orders, as the iOS share shrank. About one-fifth of sales on Custora’s e-commerce platform are Android-driven. iPhone's share is declining.  The findings, from a recent report on the rise of Android as a commercial platform, show that it’s becoming increasingly important for commerce apps and sites to support both iOS and Android platforms. Android tablets and phones are also gaining shares of e-commerce traffic.  Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Trial Membership Today >> Here are the report's other main takeaways:  Mobile business models that neglect or ignore Android risk severely limiting their market potential. Android is roughly twice the size of iOS in terms of its user base and is comparable in size to the world’s two other major platforms: Facebook and Windows. Android is rising faster than competitors as a driver of mobile revenue, including ad revenue. In this year's second quarter, Android's share of mobile ad traffic passed the share controlled by Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Android at 39% still lags iOS in ad revenue share, but it is gaining share twice as fast. The fragmentation problem is extremely overblown, from all perspectives: screen size, operating system version, and device proliferation. Globally, 80% of Android devices are running the two latest available versions of the platform. In the U.S, it's over 90%. Android Lollipop will roll out beginning this month. Google has also made strides in addressing the quality of apps in the Google Play app store, and that has translated to revenue growth. The percentage of spam apps is falling. Meanwhile, global  revenue on Google Play more than doubled year-over-year in the first quarter of 2014. That's faster growth than iOS, according to App Annie. Some analysts believe Google Play will overtake the Apple App Store in revenue within five years.  Android's Achilles Heel remains the feature-creep and bloatware perpetrated on the platform by partner carriers and manufacturers. But Google is exerting more and more control over Android and pushing partners to adopt its preferred version of Android, which has a full suite of Google apps, including  Search and Google Play.  Google has made progress in "recapturing" Android. In the second quarter of 2014, 65% of global smartphone shipments were running Google's preferred version of Android, rather than variants. That was a 3-percentage-point improvement over the previous quarter.   The report is full of charts and data that can be easily downloaded and put to use.  In full, the report:  Explains how Android has essentially solved the fragmentation problem  Delivers all the key stats in a dozen charts for Android-based e-commerce, advertising, and app sales Shows how Android is growing much faster across most key mobile business categories than rival platforms Lists all the milestones Android has achieved in 2014, including surpassing iOS in web traffic share Delves into why Android still has significant vulnerabilities, and how Google is addressing them For full access to the report on Android As A Mobile Business Platform and all our downloadable charts and data on mobile computing strategy and trends sign up for a free trial subscription today.     Join the conversation about this story »

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The Sad Truth About What Happens To 'Pardoned' Turkeys

Every year, the president pardons one or two turkeys from being a family's Thanksgiving feast. One turkey is actually pardoned, the other is runner-up. This year, the lucky birds are named "Mac" and "Cheese." But are Mac and Cheese actually lucky? History would suggest not. While the birds may be pardoned, that doesn't mean they get to enjoy a long life. CNN looked into pardoned turkeys and where they go to die. They're hauled off to Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, and given shelter in a small coop. But there, no other turkeys gobble. That's because all the previous pardoned turkeys are now dead. Well, almost all. There's one lone survivor, Carmel, who was pardoned by President Obama in 2013. Carmel's co-pardoned turkey, however, died over the summer. The 2012 pardoned turkeys died before they ever got a chance to meet Carmel. It's kind of like The Hunger Games. Even if you're the one turkey who survives Thanksgiving, the odds are not in your favor. "All the turkeys ever pardoned at the White House are dead, including the six already given a pass from the roasting pan by President Barack Obama in previous years," CNN wrote last year. Dean Norton, who is in charge of livestock at Mount Vernon, tells CNN why: "The bird is bred for the table, not for longevity...Some of [the pardoned turkeys] have been pretty short lived." National Turkey Federation spokesperson Keith Williams tells ABC: "They're not pets. They're not workhorses. They don't live that long." SEE ALSO: 13 Sad, Sad Facts About Your Thanksgiving Turkey Join the conversation about this story »

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An Incredibly Easy Way To Know Exactly When To Expect Your Holiday Guests

If you're expecting guests — or someone is expecting you — it's nice to stay on top of arrival times.  What's not nice, though, is the constant exchange of texts and the GPS-checks required to keep each other posted on your locations.  Luckily, you can stop the cycle of constant updates with this really simple iPhone trick.  With only a few clicks, you'll be able to let your friend or loved one track your route. Here's what to do: If you want to share your location with a person you're texting with, click on "Details" in the top right corner: You'll see "Share my Location." Click it: Depending on how far away you are, you can share for an hour or until the end of the day. Or who knows, maybe you want to go crazy and share your location indefinitely: Your friend or family member will then be able to see where you are on your route. In this example, my friend Megan is the bigger blue dot and I'm the little blue dot/picture combo. Hitting "directions" will let your friend see exactly how long it should take you to arrive: SEE ALSO: How To Stop People From Being Able To See That You Read Their Facebook Message Join the conversation about this story »

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17 iPhone-Only Apps That Will Make Your Android Friends Jealous

One of the best things about owning an iPhone is that you get a lot of the newest apps first before they arrive on Android. It may not be fair, but it's a great perk for iPhone users. That means there's always something new to try. You can enjoy exclusive apps from Instagram and Facebook, cutting-edge photography apps, your own digital butler, and even an app that will tell you the exact minute it's going to start raining (or snowing). You're bound to find something you'll like, but just remember not to brag too much to your Android friends.   Manual gives photography experts full access to all of your camera's settings. Manual lets you open up the hood of your iPhone's camera, giving you full independent control of advanced settings like shutter, ISO, white balance, focus, and exposure compensation. Price: $1.99 Paper by Facebook combines your news feed and current events in an elegant way. Paper by Facebook is a unique way to ingest all of the stories you see on Facebook, whether they're from your friends or a news outlet. You can post directly to Facebook from within the app, or customize the topics you'll see with a nifty carousel that lets you mix culture, science, news, and whatever other topics are up your alley. Price: Free Vesper is an elegant way to record your thoughts. Vesper is a note-taking app that takes a lot of the hassle out of organizing your thoughts. You can easily tag each entry so you can search for a specific thought by keyword later, and all your notes will be synced to your Vesper account, free of charge. Price: $2.99 See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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This Old Nintendo Game Quadrupled In Price In Just A Week

Earlier this month, a hacker discovered that an old Nintendo game from 2011, called "Cubic Ninja," could be used to hack into the company's 3DS handheld game system. Using the game, hackers could install "homebrew" software onto the 3DS. Nintendo quickly pulled it from the digital download store, according to VentureBeat. That made the game hard — but not impossible — to find.  Homebrew refers to games, apps, emulators, etc., made by consumers and that can be downloaded onto the 3DS. Homebrew software isn't sanctioned by Nintendo.  Some retailers are cashing in on how popular this old, (and until now) forgotten game is. You can buy a used copy of "Cubic Ninja" at GameStop for up to $39.99. On Amazon it's going for as much as $130. "Cubic Ninja" was only $5 as recently as last week, according to Polygon. Although the fear is that the hack could make it easy for people to download pirated games, it wouldn't be possible with "Cubic Ninja."  "I don't care if people pirate in their private lives, but I don't want to be a part of it," Jordan Rabet, the person who found the hack, tells Eurogamer. "I don't want to release something others can use to steal someone else's intellectual property. That's not what I want. I wouldn't release something that could be used for piracy ... it's just not something I want to do." Instead he's hoping that the exploit in "Cubic Ninja" will make people want to develop more homebrew games for the 3DS. Right now he's even working on a 3DS version of "Minecraft." It's not a surprise that Nintendo pulled "Cubic Ninja" so rapidly from its e-store. The company has a strict policy against emulators and piracy. But still, a quick firmware patch could render the game's exploiting powers useless.  "It's just a vulnerability in a game to access a vulnerability in the system firmware. All they'd really need to do is patch the firmware and then the game doesn't even matter," Rabat says.  SEE ALSO: There's A Really Good Reason Why The Xbox One Is Such An Enormous Device Join the conversation about this story »

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Amazon Has Holiday Discounts On Its Kindles, TV Streaming Stick, And Smartphone (AMZN)

Amazon just announced a bunch of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on its electronics, including several Kindles and its new TV streaming stick.  The discounts aren't super steep (~$20 off in most cases), but worth checking out if you have any Amazon fanatics in your life.  Check out the deals: Kindle (deal running Nov. 27-29) $79 Kindle for just $49 Kindle Paperwhite (deal running Nov. 27-29) $119 Kindle Paperwhite for $99 Kindle Unlimited/Kindle Bundle (deal running Nov. 27-29) New Bundle: 6 months of Kindle Unlimited plus a Kindle for $79; also available for Kindle Paperwhite for $129 Fire HD (Fire HD 6 deal running Nov. 27-29; Fire HD 7 deal running Nov. 27-Dec. 1) $99 Fire HD 6 for $79 $139 Fire HD 7 for $109 Fire Phone (deal running Nov. 25-Dec. 1) Fire Phone is now available unlocked with a no contract price of $199  Fire TV Stick (deal running Nov. 23-Nov. 29 at Best Buy and Staples) $39 Fire TV Stick available at Best Buy and Staples for $24.99 SEE ALSO: How To Stop People From Being Able To See That You Read Their Facebook Message Join the conversation about this story »

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Spending On Native Advertising Is Soaring As Marketers And Digital Media Publishers Realize The Benefits

Native is one of the hottest topics in digital media, and advertisers and publishers are taking notice. By creating advertisements that are in the same format as the content audiences are there to consume, marketers hope to provide a much less disruptive advertising experience. Native ads have also proven effective, drawing higher click rates than traditional banner ads, particularly on mobile devices.  New and exclusive data from BI Intelligence finds that spending on native ads will reach $7.9 billion this year and grow to $21 billion in 2018, rising from just $4.7 billion in 2013. We are the only research service that has provided a detailed breakdown of spend projections and growth rates for each of the three main native ad types — social-native, native-style display ads, and sponsored content.  Access The Full Report And Downloads By Signing Up For A Trial Membership » Here are some of the key takeaways: Social native ads will account for the biggest share of native ad revenue during this time period, but native-style display ads will grow the fastest.  Social-native, including Facebook News Feed ads and promoted tweets on Twitter, will draw a majority of native ad revenue between 2013 and 2018. Native display ads, like the splashy native ads on Yahoo's news pages and apps, will see the fastest ramp-up.  Sponsored content, like some of the paid stories and sections on BuzzFeed and The New York Times (and Business Insider), has also attracted considerable attention. Native ads perform better than traditional display. This is particularly true on mobile. Desktop native click-through rates (CTRs) averaged a respectable 0.15%, while native-mobile ads had CTRs over 1%, according to recent data from Polar Media Group and Celtra, respectively. Consumers hold a generally positive attitude toward native advertising, according to survey data, but advertisers and publishers must ensure that ads are relevant and are purchased by trustworthy brands to avoid the risk of any mainstream backlash.  The report is full of charts and data that can easily be downloaded and put to use.  In full, the report:  Provides charts and datasets on native ad spend trends and audience perceptions Forecast spending on top native ad formats, including social, display, and sponsorships Clearly defines the most important native ad formats and provides example images Analyzes how native ads preform compared to their traditional counterparts  Looks at how audiences perceive native ads, and how advertisers and publishers can keep their attitudes positive Demystifies the native-advertising landscape, highlights the most popular types of native ads and sponsored content For full access receive to all BI Intelligence's analysis, reporting, and downloadable charts and presentations on the digital media industry, sign up for a trial. Join the conversation about this story »

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Apple Pay Competitor 'Android Pay' Is Reportedly Coming To China

It looks as if Apple Pay will soon face some competition in the mobile payments space from its biggest competitor, Android. According to a new report from China Business News, a new mobile payments service called Android Pay is coming, and it will most likely launch in the third quarter of 2015. Android Pay is reportedly being developed by China UnionPay, which is the biggest credit- and debit-card provider in China. For context, UnionPay is the second-biggest payment network in the world next to Visa, based on the value of processed transactions. Because of UnionPay's expansive list of partners, Android Pay could feasibly debut with the support of more partners than Apple Pay, which UnionPay also plans to support next year. According to Want China Times, UnionPay has already approached smartphone makers including Lenovo and Coolpad. UnionPay is likely to offer subsidies to smartphone makers to ensure popular smartphones will include the technology required for Android Pay to work. Android Pay will be similar to Apple Pay and will use Near Field Communication payments with Android smartphones, which will allow for wireless payments. Apple recently announced the ability for Chinese Apple users to make payments using UnionPay's credit cards in its App Store, a collaboration that suggests Apple could work with UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China. There's no reason why UnionPay couldn't introduce Android Pay while also supporting Apple Pay in the future, but for now it appears that Chinese smartphone users won't have to wait too long to be able to purchase things at the store with a swipe of their phone. SEE ALSO: Use This Clever Trick To See Your iPhone's True Signal Strength Join the conversation about this story »

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Here's What Earth Looks Like From One Of NASA's Most Advanced Satellites

The Landsat program involves a series of successive satellites that each take tens of thousands of pictures of Earth over their life time. The first Landsat satellite was launched into orbit in 1972, which makes the Landsat program the longest-running project to collect photos of Earth from space. In total, the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images of Earth that provide an unprecedented look at how the face of our planet is changing in recent decades. NASA launched the latest member of the team, Landsat 8, into orbit on February 11, 2013. It is the most advanced Landsat satellite, yet, according to the mission's officials.  With powerful cameras on board, Landsat 8 can resolve a region of Earth as small as 100 feet long. This means the satellite can take a clear picture of a baseball field, which is impressive considering the satellite orbits 438 miles above Earth's surface. At this height Landsat 8 moves at about 4.7 miles per second and orbits Earth 15 times each day. Between Landsat 8 and the still-operational Landsat 7, the two satellites observe every spot on the globe at least once every eight days. From space, the Grand Canyon looks like a treacherous crack across Earth's surface. This glacial chunk has almost completely detached from the larger Antarctic Pine Island Glacier and is large enough to fit 8 Manhattan-sized cities on it. This false-colored image of Western Australia shows sediment and nutrient flow patterns (blue/yellow/red) in the mouth of a nearby river. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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We Put A GoPro On The Empty Train That Runs Through Downtown Detroit

Previously, we showed you the love/hate relationship between the city of Detroit and the People Mover — a unique light rail system in downtown.  While it might be a money-losing venture, the People Mover does provide a great view of downtown Detroit. It takes the People Mover 15 minutes to do a complete lap around downtown Detroit. Watch our video to see it all in just over a minute. Produced by Will Wei Follow BI Video: On Facebook Join the conversation about this story »

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The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now

Good morning! Here is what you need to know before your first meeting of the day. 1. Japan is shrinking. The Financial Times says: "Japan’s gross domestic product shrank in the third quarter of 2014 at 1.6 per cent per annum over the quarter and 1 per cent over the previous 12 months. This disappointed the stock market, which fell by more than 2 per cent." 2. The price of oil is still falling and OPEC is not going to cut production. The cartel meets today to discuss the glut of supply and the economic havoc it is wreaking on nations like Russia that need that price to go up. Read more from Reuters. 3. The EU will meet today to decide whether Google will be broken up. Even if they vote to end the search giant's virtual monopoly it is far from clear that a breakup would actually happen — but a regulator can always dream! 4. A huge storm is turning Thanksgiving in the US into a travel nightmare. 600 flights cancelled so far on the national holiday, NBC reports. The US will be basically out of commission all day, FYI. 5. There might be a vaccine for Ebola. A drug developed jointly between the US government and GlaxoSmithKline will be tested in Africa, the Wall Street Journal says. 6. Microsoft accidentally announced it is to acquire mobile email startup Acompli. The company published a blank blog post with a URL that says so ... no confirmation yet. Read more on Techcrunch. 7. Australian cricketer Phil Hughes has died after being struck on the head by a "freak" ball. He was wearing a helmet, but the ball hit him on the neck, the BBC says. 8. US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is recovering in hospital from cardiac surgery. At 81, she is the oldest justice on the high court. People, obviously, are wondering if she might step down and be replaced, Slate says. 9. A Bollywood actress has been given a 26-year jail sentence by a Pakistani court because she acted in a wedding scene on TV. Veena Malik will appeal, and the sentence is a regional one that may not apply to other parts of the country, the Independent says. 10. Some layoffs at Walmart in China. The 30 mid-level management layoffs come after the chain closed 20 stores in the country. Read more at the FT. And finally ... The earth has a a Star Trek-like invisible shield that protects us from deadly electrons. A cold gas zone forms a "glass wall" barrier about 7,200 miles around us. Phew! Join the conversation about this story »

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10 Things You Need To Know Before European Markets Open

Good morning, and happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating! These are the major news stories you need to know about before markets open in London and Paris.  OPEC's Big Decision On Oil Output Comes Today. Oil-producing cartel OPEC's Gulf oil producers will not propose an output cut on Thursday, reducing the likelihood of joint action by OPEC to prop up prices that have sunk by a third since June. Samsung Shares Are Rallying On A Major Buyback. Shares of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd opened sharply higher on Thursday on the news that it will buy back $2 billion (£1.27 billion) of its own stock. Toyota Is Recalling More Dangerous Airbags. Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would recall 57,000 vehicles globally to replace potentially deadly air bags made by Takata Corp, in a sign that the safety crisis surrounding the Japanese auto parts maker is far from contained. Here Comes Draghi. At 11 a.m. GMT, ECB president Mario Draghi is speaking in Finland, following some remarks yesterday from vice president Vitor Constancio, which suggested that the ECB might do QE at the beginning of 2015. Asian Markets Are Down. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.78% in trading Wednesday, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the session 0.51% lower. The People's Bank Of China Loosened A Little Again.  The Chinese central bank did not sell any repurchase (repo) agreements, a change of policy that keeps funds in the banking system and a signal that the central bank hasn't finished easing, according to Bloomberg.  Angela Merkel Wants To Relax Relations With Russia. The German chancellor suggested opening trade talks between the EU and Russia's Eurasian Economic Union, as a means of keeping communication open with president Vladimir Putin, according to the Financial Times.  Thailand's Military Junta Might Delay Elections For Two More Years. Thailand's junta said Thursday elections in the military-ruled kingdom would likely be delayed until 2016, days after military officials ruled out lifting martial law any time soon. Europe Wants A Worldwide 'Right To Be Forgotten'. European privacy regulators want Internet search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing to scrub results globally, not just in Europe, when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" as ruled by an EU court. Police Have Basically Cleared A Major Hong Kong Protest Site. After a 24 hour operation, police have arrested many student protesters and effectively cleared the Mong Kok area of the city, according to the Wall Street Journal.  Join the conversation about this story »

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Blast hits British embassy vehicle in Kabul: embassy

Kabul (AFP) - A British embassy vehicle was hit by a blast in Kabul on Thursday, causing some injuries, an embassy spokesman told AFP. "A British embassy vehicle was attacked. There are some injuries. We are working with Afghan authorities," the spokesman said. Afghan deputy interior minister Ayub Salangi said it was suicide motorbike bomb. Join the conversation about this story »

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Tibetan tapestry fetches record $45 million in Hong Kong

Hong Kong (AFP) - An ancient Tibetan silk tapestry has set a world record for Chinese art after it was sold to a Shanghai tycoon for $45 million (HK$348 million) at auction in Hong Kong, according to Christie's. The 600-year-old artwork, called a thangka and embroidered in vivid hues of red and gold, was bought by Liu Yiqian on Wednesday and will be displayed at his new museum in Shanghai, the auction house said. "I am proud to bring back to China this significant and historic 15th century thangka which will be preserved in the Long museum for years to come," he was quoted as saying in a Christie's press release Thursday. Hong Kong has emerged as one of the biggest global auction hubs alongside New York and London, fuelled by China's economic boom and demand from Chinese and other Asian collectors. The sale broke the world record for any Chinese work of art sold by an international auction house. The piece -- which depicts the meditational diety Raktayamari, known as the Red Conqueror of Death, standing stride a buffalo -- was created during the Ming dynasty between 1402 and 1424. It is one of a set of three thangkas from the Jokhang Monastery in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, according to Christie's. In April, Liu bought a Ming Dynasty wine cup which broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong for $36.05 million (HK$281.24 million). A taxi driver-turned-financier now aged 50, Liu is one of China's wealthiest men and among the country's new class of super-rich scouring the globe for artwork. He is worth an estimated $1.6 billion. Join the conversation about this story »

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Uber's Android App May Be Collecting An Alarming Amount Of Your Personal Data

Uber's Android app may be sending your private data back to the company, reports Cult of Mac's Buster Hein. The data transfer was reportedly discovered by Joe Giron, who runs a cybersecurity firm. Cult of Mac says: "Digging into the app’s code, GironSec discovered the Uber app “calls home” and sends private data back to Uber. This isn’t typical app data, though. Uber is sending back users’ entire SMSLog even though the app never requests permission. It also sends call history, Wi-Fi connections used, GPS locations and every type of device ID possible. The app even checks your neighbor’s Wi-Fi and sends back info on the router’s capabilities, frequency and SSID." It's unclear what purpose this information would serve for the ridesharing company. Neither Giron nor Cult of Mac said whether Uber's iOS app was transferring similar data back to the company. An Uber spokesperson gave Business Insider the following statement: Access to permissions including Wifi networks and camera are included so that users can experience full functionality of the Uber app. This is not unique to Uber.  In addition, our code lists several feature options that our mobile security vendor offers, but that we do not use.  For example, “whether device is rooted, whether it has any malware on it, and whether it’s vulnerable to the Heartbleed security bug" are not features that Uber uses.  For a list of features that we do use, please visit: https://m.uber.com/android-permissions. SEE ALSO: Uber Would Be Valued At $40 Billion In New Round, Report Says Join the conversation about this story »

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Thai elections may be delayed until 2016: junta

Bangkok (AFP) - Thailand's junta said Thursday elections in the military-ruled kingdom would likely be delayed until 2016, days after military officials ruled out lifting martial law any time soon. The admission will cause consternation among the kingdom's international allies who had been pushing for a swift return to democracy following the military's takeover in May. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha had previously said his government hoped to hold fresh polls around October 2015, once the drafting of a new constitution was completed. But General Prawit Wongsuwon, the deputy prime minister and defence minister, said a 2016 election date was now more likely.  "We think so," he told reporters when asked if the poll would be held in 2016. "If the constitution is ready, the election will be held by that time," he added. Prawit was speaking after Finance Minister Sommai Phasee gave an interview to the BBC late Wednesday saying any return to democracy was unrealistic before mid-2016. "As announced by the prime minister, it would take about one year. But, from my feeling, I think it may take, maybe, a year and a half," he told the British broadcaster. Sommai said he had spoken to General Prayut about the feasibility of holding polls as recently as last week. The confirmation from senior government figures of a likely election delay comes days after a junta official told AFP martial law would only be lifted when the country "has peace and order". Martial law -- imposed by the army two days before the coup -- bans political gatherings, allows the detention of dissidents for up to seven days without charge, and permits trials in a military court. Junta chief and premier Prayut -- who was army chief when he staged the May 22 coup -- has said the takeover was necessary to end months of political unrest that left nearly 30 people dead. But critics accuse the military of using the protests as an excuse for a power grab. A council selected by the junta is currently working on a raft of reforms to be introduced before any return to democracy, including a new constitution. The military say the changes are needed to rid the kingdom of corruption and close the nation's festering political divide which has seen years of street protests and military coups.   But critics dismiss the process as a naked attempt to dilute the influence of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who is adored by poor rural voters -- particularly in the north -- but loathed by much of the military establishment and the country's Bangkok-based royalist elite. Opponents say the committee tasked with writing the new constitution is stacked with anti-Thaksin figures seeking to erase his legacy rather than craft policies to end years of political turmoil. Join the conversation about this story »

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British trio on brink of Europa League knockout phase

Paris (AFP) - Everton, Tottenham and Celtic can wrap up their places in the Europa League knockout stage in Thursday's penultimate batch of group matches. Red Bull Salzburg, Dinamo Moscow, Fiorentina and Legia Warsaw are already guaranteed their place in the last-32. That leaves 20 places still up for grabs from the group phase with eight third-place finishers from the Champions League also set to parachute into the draw.  Roberto Martinez's Everton side are enjoying a fine return to European football since their glory days of 1985 when they won the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup, the same year they became English champions.  The Toffees, on eight points, face a daunting trip to Wolfsburg carrying a one point lead over their Bundesliga hosts with French side Lille on three and tackling Turkish side Krasnodar who prop up the group with two draws from four matches.  One player Everton will have to keep an eye on is Wolfsburg's dynamic midfielder Kevin De Bruyne who has three goals and three assists in the competition so far.  The 23-year-old Belgian has been revelation both in the league and on the continent since his 20 million euro transfer from Chelsea in the summer.  "Surely one of the best players Wolfsburg have ever had," said his defensive teammate Marcel Schafer. "Maybe things are going a bit better for me than last season, but that is the same with other players," said De Bruyne who came up through the Genk system before a loan spell at Werder Bremen and then finally signing with Wolfsburg. "I am young, I can still improve. When I play football, I always enjoy myself. I am a winner – I am here to win every game," he added.  The two teams can advance with Everton needing a win to top the pool while a draw could see both sides move forward if Lille fail to win in Turkey.  Everton's veteran defender Sylvain Distin says the team are in good spirits and ready for the challenge in Germany.  "We're full of confidence at the moment. We always have been to be honest. Even if things were a bit difficult at the beginning of the season, we were aware of our qualities and knew that things were going to get back on track," said Distin.  "At the moment, things are going well but it's going to be a tough game. Wolfsburg are a really, really good team and I'm sure after the game we had here they're going to try to reverse that." Celtic have bounced back following their Champions League exit at the qualifying stage and can join already qualifed Salzburg from Group D if they beat their Austrian visitors at Celtic Park.  Tottenham, who won the then UEFA Cup for the second time in 1984, host eliminated Serbian club Partizan Belgrade sharing the Group C lead on eight points with Istanbul's Besiktas.  The White Hart Lane outfit will definitely qualify with a win, while a draw will also be enough if Asteras Tripoli fail to defeat Besiktas in the Peloponnese region of Greece.  In other eye-catching match-ups, Feyenoord on six points and Sevilla on eight meet in a battle of former champions in Rotterdam.  The winner is assured their last-32 place while a draw will also carry the two clubs through if HNK Rijeka and Belgian side Standard Liege finish level in Croatia.  Sparta Prague and Napoli meet in a top of the table clash in Group I with both teams on nine points and on the brink of qualification.  Swiss club Young Boys are their only threat on six points and in action on the road in Slovakia at eliminated Slovan Bratislava.  Borussia Moenchengladbach on eight points are one point ahead of La Liga hopefuls Villareal in Group A as the two teams meet in Spain.  Elsewhere in the pool, FC Zurich come into their tie with four points and will stay in contention with a win at home against Cypriots Apollon Limassol. Join the conversation about this story »

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Jet-lagged McIlroy in early Australian Open golf hunt

Sydney (AFP) - Jet-lagged Rory McIlroy believes his best is yet to come after opening with a two-under par round in defence of his Australian Open title in Sydney on Thursday. The world number one, weary after a 4:30am wake-up call for his early start at The Australian course, carded four birdies and two bogeys in an opening 69. That placed the Northern Irishman one stroke off the early lead midway through the first round in chilly, damp conditions. "I definitely feel like there is a better score out there," he said after his opening round. "I gave myself a lot of chances early on in the round but didn't really take them. "I started off OK but in the middle of the round I hit a couple of loose shots and actually made a couple of good up-and-downs for pars, but then made three birdies on the back nine against one bogey. "Even though I felt I didn't play that good today anything in the 60s was a pretty good score out there." McIlroy is coming off a stellar year, winning two majors (the British Open and the US PGA Championship), a World Golf Championship title (WGC-Bridgestone) and the flagship event of the European Tour (BMW PGA Championship) to finish the season at the summit of the world rankings. Teeing off at the 10th hole, he turned at level par after just one birdie on his opening nine, at the 459-metre par-five 14th, before handing the shot straight back when unable to save par from the trap on the par-three 15th. He collected further up-and-down birdies on the first and fifth holes to climb to two under before again dropping a shot after finding the sand with his approach on the seventh. But McIlroy rifled an approach shot to just a metre from the pin at the last for a birdie. McIlroy overhauled Adam Scott with a birdie at the final hole to win last year's Australian Open at Royal Sydney in what was his only 2013 tournament success. World number three Scott is again his main rival this year and tees off later Thursday. The world golf's top player forecast better fortunes ahead as he works towards Sunday's final round.  "My ball striking wasn't really there, I guess I know I can just play better," said McIlroy. "I'm feeling a bit jet-lagged. It was a 4:30am wake-up call for an early start so I just want to rest this afternoon and make sure I'm ready for tomorrow.    "I'm in a good position right now and if I play well over the next couple of days then I right in there with a chance on the final day." Join the conversation about this story »

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Phillip Hughes dies from injuries: Cricket Australia

Sydney (AFP) - Australian batsman Phillip Hughes died Thursday from the injuries sustained when he was hit by a bouncer in a domestic game this week, Cricket Australia said. "It is my sad duty to inform you that a short time ago Phillip Hughes passed away," Australian team doctor Peter Brukner said in a statement.  Hughes was 25.     Join the conversation about this story »

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Suit says Goldman Sachs, others rigged metals prices

New York (AFP) - Banks Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Standard Bank and a unit of chemical producer BASF conspired to manipulate platinum and palladium prices, according to a US lawsuit filed this week. The class-action suit, filed Tuesday in New York, said the four defendants shared nonpublic information about client purchases and sale orders to manipulate prices for their benefit and to the detriment of plaintiffs. This illegal sharing of information "gave them the ability to execute trades... in advance of those (price) movements," the complaint said. "This unlawful behaviour allowed Defendants to reap substantial profits, while non-insiders, which include Plaintiffs and members of the Class, were injured." The plaintiff, Modern Settings, a US maker of jewelry and other metal products, alleges it lost value on "tens of thousands of transactions" due to the conspiracy, the complaint said. Investors in the commodities "lost millions of dollars as a result of this conduct," said Labaton Sucharow, the firm representing the plaintiffs, in a statement. The complaint alleges the manipulation began as early as 2007 through the present. It seeks to bar the illegal conduct and gain unspecified financial damages. The four defendants participated in twice-daily "fixings" teleconference calls to set prices for the physical metals markets in a process set up by the London Platinum and Palladium Market in 1987.  However, the suit alleges the defendants discussed their trading strategies and customer orders prior to the official fixings call. The London Platinum and Palladium Fixing Company on October 16 named the London Metal Exchange, the main global metals market, to provide pricing, replacing the current system. The new system, to take effect December 1, will use an electronic trading platform. The reform is one of several changes in financial markets in the wake of scandals, such as the alleged rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate by leading banks. The Libor rate, which banks charge each other for short-term loans, underpins an estimated $300 trillion of transactions worldwide. Join the conversation about this story »

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19 Of The Most Expensive Substances In The World

Gold is an incredibly expensive substance. But many things are worth more than their weight in gold. Ranging from foods to creams to gems to things the average person can't fathom, we pulled together a list of 19 of the most expensive items in the world. Think we missed something? Let us know in the comments. 19. White Truffles Cost: Up to $5 per gram or $2,000 per pound What you do with it: This seasonal mushroom can be shaved over pasta, steak, eggs, and rice and infused in oil to sprinkle on almost anything. 18. Saffron Cost: $11.13 per gram or $5,040 per pound What you do with it: Saffron is a flowering plant that can be used in natural remedies for everything from depression to menstrual cycles. 17. Iranian Beluga Caviar Cost: $35 per gram or $1,000 per ounce What you do with it: Also known as "almas," these costly fish eggs are eaten cold and in small bites as an appetizer and on unsalted crackers or bread. See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Ebola vaccine promising in first human trials: NIH

Washington (AFP) - Researchers say they're a step closer to developing an Ebola vaccine, with a Phase 1 trial showing promising results, but it will be months at the earliest before it can be used in the field. The news comes amid the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 5,700 people, mostly in West Africa. Pharmaceutical companies and health agencies are scrambling to fast-track experimental drugs and vaccines that could help. In the first phase of testing, all 20 healthy adults injected with a higher or lower dose of the vaccine developed antibodies needed to fight Ebola, said the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducted the study. Results were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. "The unprecedented scale of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has intensified efforts to develop safe and effective vaccines," said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is developing the vaccine alongside GlaxoSmithKline. The vaccines under development "may play a role in bringing this epidemic to an end and undoubtedly will be critically important in preventing future large outbreaks," he noted. "Based on these positive results from the first human trial of this candidate vaccine, we are continuing our accelerated plan for larger trials to determine if the vaccine is efficacious in preventing Ebola infection," he added. But the NIAID/GSK vaccine is still a long way from being ready for use in the field. The NIAID is "in active discussions with Liberian officials and other partners about next-stage vaccine testing in West Africa" for efficacy and safety, the NIH said, but no announcement on larger-scale trials was expected before early next year. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine against the Ebola virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids and has been fatal in an estimated 70 percent of cases in the current outbreak.   - Antibodies within four weeks -   The volunteers were injected starting in September, and each showed a positive result for Ebola antibodies in blood tests within four weeks. The 10 volunteers in the higher-dose group developed higher antibody levels, the NIH said.  In addition, two of the lower-dose group and seven of the higher-dose group developed a kind of immune cell called CD8 T cells, which are an important part of the body's response against disease. "We know from previous studies in non-human primates that CD8 T cells played a crucial role in protecting animals" who got the vaccine and then were exposed to Ebola, said researcher Julie Ledgerwood, the trial’s principal investigator.  None of the volunteers experienced serious side effects within the study period, though two had a brief, mild fever within the 24 hours after the injection. The vaccine uses a modified chimpanzee cold virus to deliver segments of genetic material from the Ebola virus. The genetic material cannot spread in the body like the virus does, but can still prompt the antibody response. The version tested at NIH contains material from two species of Ebola -- the Zaire species, responsible for the outbreak in West Africa, and another called Sudan Ebola.  "This work is encouraging and another significant contribution to efforts to tackle the Ebola crisis," said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. The White House also congratulated the vaccine researchers. "We congratulate Drs Francis Collins and Tony Fauci and their teams at the National Institutes of Health on the first published results from Phase 1 clinical trials of a promising Ebola vaccine candidate," a White House statement said, adding that President Barack Obama would visit the NIH next week.  A second version of the vaccine, aimed at blocking just Zaire Ebola, also began human testing in October, at the University of Maryland. Another experimental vaccine that has shown promising results in primates is the Canadian VSV-EBOV, licensed by US firm NewLink Genetics. It is also in early stages of human testing. The World Health Organization said Thursday that the global death toll from the Ebola virus had increased to 5,689 out of a total of 15,935 cases of infection, almost entirely in western Africa. The new numbers increased the death toll by 230 people and a 584 case increase from reports last week. The WHO believes that the number of deaths is likely far higher, given the difficulty in collecting comprehensive figures and Ebola's high fatality rate. The first case discovered in the current outbreak was in Guinea in December 2013. Join the conversation about this story »

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'Fractured skull' reports as cricketer Hughes' vigil continues

Sydney (AFP) - Australian batsman Phillip Hughes has a fractured skull and suffered catastrophic bleeding in his brain, reports said Thursday, as shattered players maintained a vigil at his hospital bedside. Hughes, who was due to celebrate his 26th birthday this weekend, is in his third day of intensive care in an induced coma after surgery. He remains critical after being felled by a Sean Abbott bouncer during a Sheffield Shield game between South Australia and New South Wales at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday. Doctors have yet to detail the extent of his injuries but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said his skull was fractured while the Sydney Morning Herald reported that he suffered catastrophic bleeding in his brain. An update on his condition is expected later Thursday. Hughes' life-threatening injuries, despite wearing a helmet, have sent shockwaves through the cricketing world.  Test stars Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Steve Smith are among a stream of personalities from the sport who have visited Hughes' bedside. Emotions were running high with supporters shedding tears and sharing hugs. Australia captain Michael Clarke has been an almost constant presence at his close friend's side at St Vincent's Hospital since the freak incident, arriving again early Thursday. A who's who of the cricketing world have sent their best wishes, including Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and the captains of England, South Africa and India. The vigil by family and friends continued as questions were raised about a delay in the response after the initial emergency call for help was made. Sydney Cricket Ground officials said a call was made six minutes after the batsman crumpled to the ground at 2.23pm, but the ambulance did not arrive until 2.52pm. A helicopter and another ambulance were also dispatched. While waiting, Hughes was given CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by NSW team doctor John Orchard before being rushed to hospital for scans and surgery. The Sydney Cricket Trust defended its handling of the incident. "SCG Trust staff followed the venue's emergency management plan quickly, calmly and professionally, as did staff from Cricket NSW and the NSW Ambulance Service," trust official Phil Heads told reporters. New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner said she would meet the state's ambulance commissioner on Thursday to find out why it took so long to arrive at the scene despite the nearest ambulance station being barely one kilometre away. Join the conversation about this story »

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South Korea current account surplus expands in October

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's current account surplus in October rose to $9 billion on growing exports of ships, memory chips and steel, state data showed Thursday. The preliminary figure compared with a revised surplus of $7.4 billion in September, the central Bank of Korea said. The current account -- the broadest measure of foreign trade in goods and services -- has been in the black for two years and eight months. Exports last month amounted to $52.2 billion compared to $50.7 billion in September as overseas shipments of ships, memory chips and electronic devices all rose.  Imports stood at $43.5 billion, leaving an overall surplus of $8.7 billion in the goods account. The services account, which includes spending on overseas trips and royalty payments, saw its deficit shrink to $250 million from $280 million a month earlier.  Asia's fourth-largest economy has racked up an accumulated current account surplus of $70.6 billion as of October.  It is on course to meet or exceed the central bank's target surplus of $84 billion for this year -- a record high -- Jung Joon, director of the BOK's financial statistics, told Yonhap news agency. Join the conversation about this story »

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Michael Brown's Mother Says He Was 'Running For His Life'

Michael Brown's parents sat down with PBS' Charlie Rose on Wednesday. In the conversation, Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, said that her son was "running for his life" after an altercation with Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, an event that eventually led to the teenager's death. St. Louis prosecutor Robert McCullough announced Monday that a grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson, prompting nationwide rioting. “My son was running for his life, and as his father has said before, he’s had a conversation with him about how to deal with the authorities if you’re approached," said McSpadden. "Which is to obey, basically. If they ask you to do something you have to do it. I believe that [Wilson] asked my son to stop and I believe that’s what he did.” You can watch a clip of Charlie Rose's interview with Brown's parents below. The full interview airs Wednesday at 11pm EST on PBS and again on Bloomberg News on Thursday.   SEE ALSO: Darren Wilson Says He Has A 'Clean Conscience' About Michael Brown's Death Join the conversation about this story »

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Hughes' blow a cruel example of cricket's risks

London (AFP) - Phillip Hughes' sickening injury was a stark reminder of the inherent dangers faced by batsmen confronting bowlers propelling a five-and-a-half ounce 'missile' at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour. Despite wearing a helmet, Australian left-hander Hughes was left in a critical condition after being hit on the base of the skull by a bouncer during a domestic game in Sydney. The question of how batsmen should protect themselves from a blow on the head is not a new one. Patsy Hendren, the Middlesex and England batsman, briefly wore a reinforced, multiple-peaked cap made for him by his wife in 1933 following England's infamous 'Bodyline' tour of Australia in 1932/33 that led to a spate of short-pitched bowling. Hendren quickly abandoned his innovation and for more than 40 years batsmen made do with caps, sunhats or, as was usually the case, nothing at all on their heads. The Laws of Cricket were adjusted to rule that repeatedly bowling short-pitched deliveries was "unfair", although it was down to the umpires to make an assessment of the "relative skill" of the batsmen, largely so that those who were good at hooking the bouncer were not denied the opportunity. However, it was rare to see bowlers warned, much less withdrawn from the attack, for bowling an excessive number of bouncers. The mid-1970s saw England's Mike Brearley experiment with a protective skull-cap worn under the cap, with something similar worn later by India's Sunil Gavaskar. But the most notable change in headgear came during Kerry Packer's 'rebel' World Series Cricket in the late 1970s which attracted an exceptional crop of fast bowlers, including the West Indies' Andy Roberts, Wayne Daniel, Michael Holding and Joel Garner. With umpires seemingly reluctant to do anything about bouncer frequency, batsmen decided to treat their heads the same way they had long treated their legs and hands -- by covering them up.   - Motorcycle helmets -   England's Dennis Amiss, who had struggled against Australia's celebrated fast-bowling duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson during the 1974/75 Ashes, was a pioneer of the batting helmet. "I went to a motorcycle helmet manufacturer, and he came up with something lighter than the fibreglass motorcycle helmets around in those days and had a visor that could withstand a shotgun blast at 10 yards," Amiss told the Daily Telegraph.  "The problem was that it covered your ears, making it difficult to hear what your batting partner was saying, and we had a spate of run-outs." Instead, the forerunner of the 'cap'-design helmet worn by Hughes became commonplace, with plastic visors giving way to grilles, although, for a long time, many batsmen used helmets without any facial protection.  Former England captain Michael Atherton, an opening batsman, writing in Wednesday's edition of The Times, said: "Maybe helmets had made us a little complacent, then. Certainly, they have changed the game beyond all recognition". Atherton added that whereas in the pre-helmet era batsmen generally hooked cautiously and infrequently off the back foot, helmet-wearing players such as Australia's Matthew Hayden were emboldened to hook off the front foot, a potentially riskier option. Yet Vivian Richards, one of cricket's greatest batsman, bucked the trend by hooking some of the fastest bowlers the game has known during the 1970s and 1980s with nothing more than a West Indies cap on his head.  "That you should cover yourself in a suit of armour, to make yourself brave, or to enable you to hook –- when you never hooked in your life –- just because you've got a helmet on. That's rubbish," Richards told the Guardian in 2009.  "Even though they say cricket is a gentleman's game, it's a man's game." Yet no helmet can offer complete protection without at the same time making life uncomfortable for batsmen. One way to improve batsmen's safety would be an outright ban on bouncers, yet no major figure within cricket believes ridding the game of its "terrible beauty", to use Atherton's phrase, is an option. "Without fast bowling, without the physical threat, cricket is a lesser game," wrote Atherton. "But with that, comes inevitable risk." Join the conversation about this story »

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OPEC set for pivotal decision on oil output amount

Vienna (AFP) - The OPEC oil producers cartel meets in Vienna on Thursday for a pivotal decision on whether to reduce the amount of oil it produces, faced with a global supply glut that has massively depressed crude prices. The price of US benchmark oil fell to a four-year low Wednesday on growing expectations that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will not take significant action in the Austrian capital, home to the 12-nation cartel that pumps out about a third of the world's crude. Thursday's OPEC meeting is the most significant in recent years after crude futures have sunk by more than 30 percent since June on plentiful oil supplies, a strong dollar and worries about stalling energy demand in a weak global economy. OPEC is under pressure from its poorer members like Venezuela and Ecuador to cut output as tumbling prices have slashed their precious revenues. However the cartel's Gulf members have rejected calls for a cut unless they are guaranteed market share in the highly competitive arena. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said Gulf nations had reached a consensus over what needed to happen regarding the cartel's level of supply, adding that it hoped the other members would agree. "I am confident that OPEC is capable of taking a very unified position," Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters. OPEC pumped 30.6 million oil barrels per day last month, above its 30 million bpd target according to the International Energy Agency, which advises countries on energy policy. Some analysts believe that the cartel will on Thursday agree to trim such excess rather than cut its official ceiling. "Traders are sceptical that the cartel's current production ceiling of 30 million barrels of oil per day will be reduced at this meeting," said Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst at Forex.com. "If OPEC were to trim the production limit, it will therefore concede more market share to shale oil producers, so it is not in the best interest of its members in the long term."  Ahead of the OPEC meeting, the world's top oil producer Saudi Arabia cut charges for US customers in a move seen as a bid to maintain its market share amid increasing competition from oil extracted from shale rock in the United States. OPEC has meanwhile insisted that it is not solely up to the cartel to tackle the oversupply that is sending crude prices crashing, in turn benefitting consumers at the petrol pumps but hurting oil companies' incomes. Officials from Saudi Arabia met with their counterparts from Venezuela and non-OPEC oil producers Russia and Mexico in Vienna on Tuesday. Following the surprise gathering, Russian oil giant Rosneft said it had trimmed its daily output by 25,000 barrels because of "market conditions".  The token reduction represented less than one percent of the behemoth's total and did nothing to boost energy prices on depressed global commodity markets. On Wednesday, the price of US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January fell 40 cents to $73.69 a barrel -- its lowest closing price since September 2010. Join the conversation about this story »

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It's Time To Stop Hating On The Cadillac Escalade

Let's face it: big SUVs haven't escaped the stigma as gas-guzzling destroyers of the environment — and they never will, even as SUV sales in the U.S. have boomed this year.  "Responsible" people hate SUVs, and not without justification. But that doesn't mean SUVs aren't experiencing a resurgence in popularity, not does it mean that the automakers aren't happy. They love SUVs because SUVs make them a lot of money. When you get right down to it, Americans actually like SUVs because they provide a good combination of practicality and versatility. If you have your kids, your kids' friends, a dog or two, maybe a pony and two dozen skateboards, and all the additional gear that defines American life, you're going to like an SUV. But what about luxury SUVs? Run-of-the-mill SUVs appeal for the obvious reason that they're essentially overblown station wagons, are reasonably capable in bad weather, and avoid associations with another genre of vehicle that's stigmatized in a different way: the dreaded minivan. Luxury SUVs are something else: they are statements. And no luxury SUV makes a bigger statement than the Cadillac Escalade. BEYOND SUV Everybody builds a large, luxury SUV. There's the Lincoln Navigator. There's the Lexus LX 570. There's the Infiniti QX80. There's the Acura MDX. There's the Audi Q7. There's the Mercedes GL 550. Soon, there will be a BMW X7. It goes on and on. But hovering above them all like a massive monolith, a tribute to the very idea of an enormous SUV, is the Escalade.  There's the Cadillac Escalade. And there's everything else. All those other big SUVs are fine automobiles, but what I'm trying to say here is that the Escalade, by virtue of its very Escalade-ness, has a different effect on one's psychology. You open the driver's door, using the thoughtfully illuminated handle, and you ascend to what can only be called a driving platform with the assistance of a retractable step. You settle into a realm of leather and mellow light: the instrument cluster is all digital and the infotainment screen is large. Very quickly, your responsible person arguments fall away. The enviroment overwhelms. Good lord, this thing is vast! It could contain multitudes. The cargo compartment at the Escalade's rear seems impossibly far away. Heck, the passenger seat seems kind of distant. You have 420 horsepower to bring to bear on the roadways, conjured by a 6.2-liter V8 engine; when you push the start button, that powerplant makes it presence briefly felt, shaking the frame of the hulking beast. But it's the briefest of shudders. And it doesn't roar when you step on it — rather, it whispers, with an almighty purpose. On the outside, the Escalade is all great slabs of sheet metal and elongated head- and taillights, with a front grille that's as large as an entire Fiat 500 and adorned with that still-gorgeous Cadillac badge, all fake heraldry and pretense earned over the decades. The tires look as if they belong on something designed for war. The side-view mirrors are as big as guitar amps. The glove compartment could hold an entire beagle. EMPOWERMENT I won't deny it: there's something empowering about driving the biggest car on the road. I spent a weekend driving around New York City in a 2015 Escalade — the ESV extended wheelbase version, in fact, so an even bigger Escalade than the normally enormous Escalade — and I felt like a god. All other traffic was amusing and quaint. I remember pulling up next to what I thought was a Subaru. And then it pulled away and I realized it was a Toyota Highlander — an SUV that weighs a mere two tons to the Escalade's nearly three. If you want to indicate to a cab that you plan to take over a lane, a slight turn of the wheel in that direction, realigning the Escalade's immense form, is enough. Sorry, little yellow interloper. So sorry. It's also possible to employ this trick with city buses, semis, and I assume freight trains. There's only one vehicle in all that land that can challenge the Escalade for asphalt supremacy and it's called the Hummer, and they don't make those anymore. The Escalade ESV is based on the Chevy Suburban, which is also impressively large but certainly not as upscale as the Escalade. There's a wrinkle, however, in the luxury impression that the ESV delivers: It can come off as a a $100,000 airport shuttle. While you float above the world in a cocoon of undeniable plushness, your seat heated, your steering wheel heated, your SiriusXM radio piping the Greatest Hits of 1986 into your happy space through 16 Bose speakers, you could certainly be conveying a platoon of tourists to JFK. But you can also drive your friends around. All of your friends. At once. STOP THE HATE Haters gonna hate. You can't avoid the core problem of the Escalade: its willfully oppressive ginormousness and the small matter that you'll only going to get around 15 mpg combined city/highway driving, making the Escalade a substantial effort on the part of General Motors to transform proven oil reserves into greenhouse gases.  This is simply a fact of life. In art, there's something known as "monumentality." It's art on a scale that's intended to provoke. It says that art can be a powerful as the sight of mountains.  The question then becomes: Should there still be monumental Cadillac Escalades and all they entail? Didn't the financial crisis and the ensuing bankruptcy of GM turn the gargantuan luxury SUV into a vanished breed? Is the Cadillac Escalade a monument to something even remotely worthy? Well, of course not. But the Escalades continue to move among us. And the thing is that there is a definite Escalade Effect. When you're on the outside, you seethe with anger. You're rightly appalled. But when you're on the inside, you are serene and you feel a special power thrumming within you. Good or bad, this is what happens. It is the transformative effect of the Escalade. No other vehicle can achieve this. No other vehicle even comes close. Enjoy it while you still can. SEE ALSO: I Take Back Every Bad Thing I Ever Said About Lincoln Join the conversation about this story »

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Celebrities Show Off Their Beats In Apple's New Ad (AAPL)

Beats released a new ad on Wednesday, and it's chock full of celebrities. The ad, called "#SoloSelfie," is a mashup of pop culture's A-list with celebrities like Serena Williams, Kendall Jenner, and Big Sean taking video "selfies" of themselves wearing Beats. Celebrity endorsements like this, and the company's famous cofounder, Dr. Dre, are what put Beats on the map in the first place. The whole video appears to be taken using an iPhone 6, so it's partially an ad for the phone's stellar camera as well. Check out the full spot below. It's worth watching twice to see if you can name all of the celebs. SEE ALSO: Apple's New iPhone Ad Shows Off One Of The Best Features Of iOS 8 Join the conversation about this story »

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See Which States Have The Most Super-Rich Residents

As part of its annual World Ultra Wealth Report, wealth intelligence firm Wealth-X created a map showing which US states are home to the most super-rich people (defined as those with $30 million or more in assets). Some states have more ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals than major countries. Wealth-X found that California had more super rich people than the United Kingdom (13,445 v. 11,510); New York had more than India (9,530 v. 8,595); and Texas had more than Canada (6,510 v. 5,305). The numbers in the grey circles show how many UHNW individuals live in each state; colors indicate change in that number from 2013. In 2014, the world’s UHNW population grew 6% to 211,275, and that group's collective wealth increased 7% to nearly $30 trillion, according to Wealth-X. Although these individuals account for only 0.004% of the world’s adult population, they control almost 13% of the world’s total wealth.  "Even though North America was strongly affected by the Global Financial Crisis, recovery for the region’s wealthiest was swift," the report noted. The chart below shows how North America's UHNW population and their wealth have grown (and are projected to grow) in this decade.   SEE ALSO: Here's Where Europe's Wealthiest People Live Join the conversation about this story »

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