Facebook Messenger and PayPal today made it possible for people to use their PayPal account as a source of funds when paying friends and family. Facebook Messenger has supported P2P payments for some time now, but previously required people to rely on their debit card for funds. Moving forward, Messenger users can take advantage of PayPal if they wish. A blue plus icon appears in the Messenger app that takes them to the payments tool. Once added to the app, PayPal will appear as an option when paying friends or family. PayPal integration with Facebook Messenger is rolling out to U.S. users starting today. PayPal also announced a new customer service bot for Messenger. PayPal customers can access and interact with the bot via Messenger to help with customer service, such as resetting passwords or handing account inquiries. The PayPal bot can easily be found via the Messenger search field.

One of Apple's key supply chain sources in Taiwan has reported that the tech giant has cut orders for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by about 50%. This drop will affect November and December orders. Following the announcement, Apple shares fell nearly 3%. The CEO of Rogers Communication, Canada's largest mobile provider, called consumer demand for the devices "anemic." Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said there has definitely been a drop in sales compared to last year, but he expects a large jump when the iPhone X is released. AT&T said their third-quarter handset upgrades were down 900,000 units compared to last year. Analyst thoughts aside though, this is still the first time iPhone production has been reduced so early in the product life cycle. There are two key reasons for why iPhone 8 sales have been sluggish. The first is that consumers don't see a big of enough difference from the previous generation iPhone 7 to warrant an upgrade. The other belief is that more customers than expected are holding off until the iPhone X is released. According to a carrier store survey, the iPhone 7 is currently outselling the iPhone 8. These numbers don't necessarily show that Apple is struggling though since they earn even bigger margins on devices with higher internal storage capacity. As the iPhone X launch looms, many are still uncertain whether consumers will be willing to stomach the $999 starting price.

Total Commander is regarded by many as the best replacement for Windows Explorer. Its latest release, version 9.10, looks to further solidify that status with various improvements, support for the Windows 10's Fall Creators Update and support for multiple screens with different DPIs per screen

A new drone developed at EPFL uses cutting-edge technology to deliver parcels weighing up to 500 grams. The device will never get stuck in traffic, it's programmed to avoid obstacles, and it can reach destinations on steep or uneven terrain. Its protective cage and foldable design mean that it can be carried around in a backpack and used in total safety.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi isn't even in theaters yet, but already Episode IX director JJ Abrams is giving some hints about his next installment in the franchise. Abrams was hired to helm the ninth film in the Star Wars saga in September, after it was announced director Colin Trevorrow had left the project.

As he works on the movie's script, along with co-writer Chris Terrio (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Abrams doesn't want the film to live in the past. Instead, he's looking to the future. Given that Disney, the studio behind Star Wars, will no doubt be continuing the franchise, that makes perfect sense.

During an interview alongside composer Michael Giacchino (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Abrams tells BBC Radio 4, "I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids loving what these movies were and, at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven't gone, and that's sort of our responsibility." That's a comment that could be taken both literally and figuratively.

But, then again, that's to be expected for anything in the "BBC Earth" family. The first episode of "Blue Planet II" premieres October 29th.

How does the Pixel 2 XL hold up to Jerry's durability test?

AlphaGo, the first computer program to defeat a world champion at the ancient Chinese game of Go, initially trained on thousands of human amateur and professional games to learn how to play. Its successor, AlphaGo Zero, skips this step and learns to play simply by playing games against itself, starting from completely random play. In doing so, it quickly surpassed human level of play and defeated the previously published champion-defeating version of AlphaGo by 100 games to 0. t is able to do this by using a novel form of reinforcement learning, in which AlphaGo Zero becomes its own teacher. The system starts off with a neural network that knows nothing about the game of Go. It then plays games against itself, by combining this neural network with a powerful search algorithm. As it plays, the neural network is tuned and updated to predict moves, as well as the eventual winner of the games.

Just over two weeks after a New York Comic-Con panel for Marvel's The Punisher was cancelled because of the October 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas, the Netflix series now has a premiere date: a new trailer reveals that the show will launch on November 17.

Google today revealed the Pixel Visual Core, a custom-designed co-processor that is built into every Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphone. The Image Processing Unit has eight cores, each with 512 arithmetic logic units (ALUs) that can handle some three trillion calculations per second. Google claims the Pixel Visual Core with HDR+ can run five times faster and at less than one-tenth the energy than running directly on the application processor. The Pixel Visual Core is laying dormant for the time being, but Google says it will turn the co-processor on soon. Google created advanced software to manage the Pixel's ability to capture rich photos and it wants to extend that to other photo apps. The Pixel Visual Core will eventually allow third-party apps to use the Pixel's HDR+ technology. Google plans to enable the Pixel Visual Core as a developer option in the developer preview of Android Oreo 8.1 (MR1) in the coming weeks. Later, Google will let third-party camera apps access it using the Android Camera API, giving them access to the Pixel 2's HDR+ technology. The end result should be much better photos on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL when using photo apps other than the stock camera.

Google is allowing people to use their non-Gmail email service within the Gmail app for iOS. Apple's own iOS email app and Microsoft's Outlook email app both already support multiple email services, as does Gmail on Android handsets. This will be the first time Google has brought the feature to its iOS Gmail app. Those interested in testing the feature can sign up with Google to take the beta app for a spin. The beta app will be distributed through TestFlight, rather than the iTunes App Store. Google hasn't said how long the feature might be in testing before it reaches final form.

Samsung has announced a major update to its Bixby personal assistant service. Samsung calls Bixby 2.0 a "bold reinvention" of the platform that will be available not only on phones, but other smart devices, such as TVs, refrigerators, and speakers. Bixby 2.0 will feature enhanced natural language processing for more natural commands and feedback. The assistant will be able to differentiate between multiple users' voices as well as their individual preferences and settings. Moreover, Samsung is opening Bixby up to third-party app developers. The company has made a private beta of the Bixby SDK available to select developers to test the platform and explore how it can be put to work in sports, food, entertainment, travel, and other apps. Samsung will slowly allow more developers to access Bixby over time and eventually expects to make the Bixby SDK available to all developers. "Bixby 2.0 will ultimately be a marketplace, for intelligence," said Samsung. "A new channel for developers to reach users with their service, not just on mobile devices, but through all devices." Bixby launched on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ earlier this year. It goes beyond the simpler types of requests available to Siri and Google Assistant by allowing Samsung smartphone owners to issue intricate commands that control applications.

Samsung today said it will work with Google to bring Google's ARCore augmented reality content to a wider range of its smartphones, including the Galaxy S8, S8+, and Note8. Using the ARCore SDK, developers will be able to create augmented reality experiences for millions of Galaxy handsets. Google announced ARCore in August. The effort will see less-demanding hardware requirements for running AR apps on Android devices, expanding AR's reach to some 100 million phones. In addition to its stance on AR, Samsung also provided an update on its efforts in the virtual reality space. For example, it continues to iterate on its Gear VR headset for Galaxy smartphones and recently introduced the Samsung Internet VR, a browser optimized for the Gear VR. Another app called Samsung PhoneCast VR lets people translate 2D apps into 3D AR through mirroring for improved gameplay. Samsung offers developers the Samsung Gear VR Framework, an open-source VR rendering engine with a Java interface. The Java UI gives developers a familiar environment in which to create without forcing them to learn new SDKs. Samsung says it will continue to work with partners such as Google and Facebook/Oculus to push mobile-based AR and VR forward.

Check it out!

Virtual idol Hatsune Miku appears to be dancing inside this modded PC case, which was recently shown in Osaka earlier this summer: the case mod is outfitted with a clear LCD panel, giving the appearance that Miku is dancing.

Intel on Tuesday is taking the wraps off of the Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP), formerly known as "Lake Crest," a chip three years in the making that's designed expressly for AI and deep learning. Along with explaining its unique architecture, Intel announced that Facebook has been a close collaborator as it prepares to bring the Nervana NNP to market. The chipmaker also laid out the beginnings of a product roadmap. The Intel Nervana NNP promises to revolutionize AI computing across myriad industries. Using Intel Nervana technology, companies will be able to develop entirely new classes of AI applications that maximize the amount of data processed and enable customers to find greater insights -- transforming their businesses. We have multiple generations of Intel Nervana NNP products in the pipeline that will deliver higher performance and enable new levels of scalability for AI models. This puts us on track to exceed the goal we set last year of achieving 100 times greater AI performance by 2020.

Microsoft's Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is here and ready to download. The software giant first started testing its Fall Creators Update back in April, and now all Windows 10 users will be able to experience the improvements today. Just like previous updates, Microsoft is rolling it out in stages, and you can check whether it's available for your own PC from Windows Update. If your device is eligible then it will start downloading in the background, and a prompt will appear to schedule a time to install. If your device isn't on the list, then that doesn't mean you can't skip the line. You can manually update to the Fall Creators Update over at Microsoft's Windows 10 site. Simply click the “update now” button and proceed with the upgrade assistant. You can also download ISO images of the final copy of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update should you want to clean install it on your PC. The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is version 1709.

The Windows 10 Creators Update will improve Game Mode. This mode promises to allow players' games to use the full processing power of their device as if it was an Xbox game console. This mode has been available in Windows 10 for a while, and the performance improvements it introduced were minimal. This mode will most probably be useful to those with really dated systems. Therefore, we'll simulate a dual-core system and we'll run some benchmarks in order to see whether the gaming experience is improved with Game Mode. The Windows 10 Fall Creators update will also introduce two new anti-cheat tools: Game Monitor and TruePla

Enjoy!

Researchers say they've found a serious gap in the WPA2 security protocol that can allow hackers to use key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs) to compromise most WiFi devices. The researchers say the method allows hackers to read encrypted information transiting via WiFi, including passwords, emails, photos, credit card numbers, and more. KRACKs can access nearly all WiFi traffic and, depending on the individual network safety configuration, insert code and alter data, such as send malware. The researchers claim the weakness is in the WiFi standard itself, and not in individual products, which is why the vulnerability is so widespread. Devices running Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS, and other platforms are impacted. The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) agreed with the researchers' assessment and warned, "The impact of exploiting these vulnerabilities includes decryption, packet replay, TCP connection hijacking, HTTP content injection, and others. Note that as protocol-level issues, most or all correct implementations of the standard will be affected." In other words, even if WiFi devices are being used properly, with passwords, they are still vulnerable. Google said it is aware of the issue and will patch the vulnerability in a future security update. The WiFi Alliance has not yet responded to the researcher's revelations.

Huawei today announced the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, the Chinese company's flagship smartphones heading into the end of the year. The Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro are high-end devices with curved glass panels front and back, and a metal frame in between. Huawei created a distinct reflective band that runs across the rear of the phones to call out the cameras. The phones share nearly all features and primarily differ with respect to screen aspect ratio and resolution. Where the Mate 10 has a quad HD 5.9-inch LCD panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio, the Mate 10 Pro has an HD+ 6-inch OLED panel with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The Mate 10's fingerprint reader is located on the front and the phone supports microSD memory cards, where the Mate 10 Pro's fingerprint reader is on the back and the phone doesn't support memory cards. The phones rely on Huawei's new Kirin 970 processor, its homegrown 8-core CPU, which includes a 12-core GPU and dedicated neural network processing unit, or NPU. The NPU is primarily put to use with the camera, where it is able to recognize objects and adjust the camera's parameters accordingly. At launch, the Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro will, for example, be able to recognize the difference between flowers and plants, or cats and dogs in order to more accurately capture photos. The phones feature a dual-camera system on the back with a 12-megapixel RGB sensor and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor, both at f/1.6. Some of the tools include scene recognition, bokeh, optical image stabilization, and AI-assisted focusing and zooming. The front camera has an 8-megapixel sensor at f/2.0. The phone will launch with Android 8 Oreo and EMUI 8, a new version of Huawei's Android skin. EMUI 8 was built to take advantage of the Kirin 970 and supports advanced split screen multitasking and a full desktop computing experience sans dock. The Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro also include 4,000mAh batteries with rapid and wireless charging, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, WiFi, high-definition audio, USB-C, and high-speed LTE. The Mate 10 is available only with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage, while the Mate 10 Pro is available in either a 4 GB / 64 GB or 6 GB / 128 GB configuration. Pricing and availability was not disclosed.

"Stranger Things" will stream on Netflix on October 27.

Just when you thought it'd be hard to muster excitement for Marvel stuff again, they go and drop this trailer. "Black Panther" reaches theaters on February 16th, 2018.

All of the iPhones Apple plans to produce in 2018 are likely to abandon the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in favor of facial recognition: according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Face ID will be embraced for a competitive advantage over Android smartphones. Kuo has previously said that it could take years for Android smartphone manufacturers to produce technology that can match the TrueDepth camera and the Face ID feature coming in the iPhone X.

AdGuard has found a total of 220 sites that launch mining when a user opens their main page, with an aggregated audience of 500 million people. 220 sites may not seem like a lot. but CoinHive was launched less than one month ago on September 14th. Their joint profit has been estimated at over US $43,000, and this money has been made at almost zero cost.

220 sites may not seem like a lot. But CoinHive was launched less than one month ago, on the 14th of September.

How much money have these websites made? We estimate their joint profit at over US $43,000. Again, right now it's not millions, but this money has been made in three weeks at almost zero cost.

Examining the website list more closely, we discovered that many of them are from the “gray zone”, mostly pirate TV and video sites, Torrent trackers and porn websites. Judging from these characteristics, we begin to wonder if browser mining is a bad thing and if it should be banned from the Internet.

Google went out of its way to put a expiration date on unlimited photo uploads for the new Pixel 2s, but a representative has clarified that nothing is changing for the original Pixels. Both the 2016 Pixel and 2016 Pixel XL will continue to receive free unlimited original-quality storage for photos and videos with no time limitations. That means the free unlimited original photo storage on the Pixel 2 isn't quite as good as the deal that was previously offered. Thankfully, Google also reaffirmed that photos taken with the Pixel 2 wouldn't be changed after 2020, they will always be accessible at the original quality, and after 2020 unlimited uploads will still be allowed at a slightly lower "high-quality." So, there you have it. If you were worried about your OG Pixel losing its unlimited original quality uploads, there's no reason to fret.

Today Sega released a new video related to the upcoming Yakuza 2 full remake for PS4 Yakuza Kiwami 2. The video showcases the gravure models that will take part in the game. If you're not familiar with the definition, a gravure model is a lady who models mostly for a certain category of Japanese magazines, normally aimed at a mature male audience. Yakuza Kiwami 2 will launch in Japan on December 7th, exclusively for PS4.

Facebook today made it possible for Android, iOS, and web users to order food for takeout or delivery without leaving the app. The social network has partnered with a number of food delivery services, including Delivery.com, DoorDash, ChowNow, EatStreet, Slice, and Olo, as well as a handful of restaurants, including Papa John's, Wingstop, Panera, Jack in the Box, TGI Friday's, Denny's, Chipotle, and Five Guys. A new "Order Food" option appears under the Explore menu. Facebook users will be able to search for food by cuisine or location, read reviews from friends, and order directly from within Facebook. People can select the delivery service that works for them, or sign up for a delivery service if they've never used one before. Facebook says the new service is available everywhere in the U.S

A new feature in Cortana called Follow Me has been spotted that will help the end user work through some simple scenarios. Below is Cortana telling you how to get a BlueTooth connect set up. No word on whether this will be released any time in the future to all the unwashed masses.

This is Eagle Prime, America's entrant into the Giant Robot Duel, in its first-ever live-fire combat trial. Eagle Prime is the first MK3-class MegaBot from MegaBots, Inc. It weighs in at 12 tons, stands 16 feet tall, seats two, is powered by a 430 horsepower V8 LS3 engine, and costs a cool $2.5M. Cupholders come standard. Eagle Prime will be representing Team USA in the upcoming Giant Robot Duel against Suidobashi Heavy Industries. Subscribe to this channel to watch the Duel!

Apple today released iOS 11.0.3 to help clean up some ongoing issues in the code. According to Apple, the updated system fixes an problem where audio and haptic feedback would not work on some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices. It also addresses an issue where touch input was unresponsive on some iPhone 6s displays that had been repaired with non-genuine Apple parts. iOS 11.0.3 is free to download for iPhone and iPad owners. Apple is already testing iOS 11.1, which will include hundreds of new emoji. Apple hasn't said when the public can expect to see iOS 11.1

It appears that Equifax's website has been hacked again and made to redirect to site-serving adware masquerading as an Adobe Flash update: the fake Flash update conceals a file named MediaDownloaderIron.ex, which, according to VirusTotal, is detected as adware by only three AV solutions. For the moment, only Malwarebytes flags the URL of the site serving the adware as malicious.

Note: the sound is coming from Step Up movie playing nearby (not from the Sonos speaker next to it).

AMD has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.10.1 offers optimal performance in The Evil Within 2 and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. This new driver also comes with a fix for DiRT 4 may experience flickering tire graphics on multi-GPU systems. Also, it makes it possible to apply Bezel compensation in mixed mode Eyefinity.

Gran Turismo Sport is set to release on October 17th in North America, and on October 18th in Europe. A free demo is currently downloadable and available to everyone from the PlayStation Store, and it'll be available until October 12th.

Microsoft executive Joe Belfiore on Sunday explained in a series of Tweets that the company is no longer creating new software or hardware for its Windows Mobile platform. Belfiore was responding directly to questions posed by fans when he said, "Many companies still deploy [Windows Phone] to their employees and we will support them! Of course we'll continue to support the platform ... bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/[hardware] aren't the focus," Belfiore admitted that he, like Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates, has switched to Android. "As an individual end-user, I switched platforms for the app/hw diversity." The questions put to Belfiore arose due to Microsoft's recent move to expand its Edge browser to to iOS. The browser is in beta mode via the App Store. Microsoft has focused much of its mobile app efforts on the Android and iOS platforms in recent years with its Office productivity suite, Skype communications tool, Android Launcher, OneDrive, and more. In the end, apps became the problem for Windows 10. "We have tried very hard to incent app [developers]. Paid money ... wrote apps for them ... but volume of users is too low for most companies to invest," wrote Belfiore. With no real selection of apps, Windows Mobile didn't have much of a chance against the Android and iOS platforms, which each offers more than one billion apps available to end users.

Enter the chilling world of Castle Rock, the new Hulu Original drama series from Executive Producer J.J. Abrams and the mind of Stephen King.

Here's Xenia and her perfect bikini body!

The secret lies in the X-FILES folder. Find out the truth when the X-FILES returns all-new in 2018 on FOX.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 387.92 Game Ready Graphics Drivers, which presents a more comprehensive package than most Game Ready drivers. This time, the changes aren't mostly limited to new, upcoming games support, though that's still part of the package. On that front, you can count on these drivers being optimized for the upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of War and The Evil Within 2, as well as Forza Motorsport 7, on which NVIDIA expects anywhere between 15% and 25% performance improvement (which should help improve NVIDIA's situation). On the VR space, this driver package brings the optimal experience for 4A Games' Artika.1 (if you recognize the studios' name, it's probably because they're the ones behind the Metro game series. Also interesting, however, are the feature updates that come with this driver package. Fast Sync is now supported for SLI configurations, though Maxwell architecture users should steer clear of 4K resolution, which isn't supported for this feature. There's also NVIDIA GameStream support for HDR under Windows 10. On the renderer side, we see added support for OpenGL 4.6, as well as for DirectX Intermediate Language (DXIL). This includes full support for DirectX 12 Shader Model 6.0 ( for features such as Wavemath), and the DirectX Shader Compiler, though it's only supported on NVIDIA Kepler and later GPUs. There are also some improvements to full-screen Vulkan applications, though this particular change may cause more errors while leaving and entering full-screen mode (Alt-Tab).

A NeoGAF member has posted a step-by-step guide for hacking an SNES Mini so custom ROMs can be added to the system. It isn't a simple process and you run the risk of bricking your console, but Cluster, the developer of Hakchi2, says the official version is almost ready for beta testing, so it shouldn't be long before there's a safer, more reliable way to hack SNES Classics.

In theaters November 2017

Cloning? Check. Robots going rogue? Check. A man who will go against every natural law just to bring back the people he loves? Check it out!

The new sci-fi anthology series from Amazon will be available to stream in 2018

Two cosmonauts, Sergey Ryazansky and Fyodor Yurchikhin, launched five nano-satellites from the International Space Station in the first ever spacewalk to be recorded in 360 degrees. The video three and a half minutes of a seven and a half hour long spacewalk in August.

Google has revealed that the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL handsets will include an optional, built-in eSIM card, allowing people to bypass the use of traditional SIM cards. According to Google, the eSIMs will be compatible with its own Project Fi service. During initial setup, owners will be asked if they want to use the embedded eSIM. Google says it will do the “heavy lifting” of activating the eSIM on its network. “This means you no longer need to go to a store to get a SIM card for wireless service, wait a few days for your card to arrive in the mail, or fumble around with a bent paper clip to coax your SIM card into a tiny slot,” explained Google in a blog post. For now, the eSIM is being tested on the new Pixel handsets only. Users will have to purchase the Pixel directly from the Play Store or Project Fi to take advantage of the eSIM. Both phones include a standard slot for nano SIM cards.

Microsoft today made a beta version of its Edge browser available to Android and iOS devices. The beta, available to registered Windows Insiders, requires users to initiate the signup process through a Windows 10 PC. Edge for mobile devices ports over popular desktop features, include Favorites, Reading List, New Tab Page, and Reading View. It can sync bookmarks and browser history with the desktop and includes a built-in QR code reader. It's only available to U.S. beta testers in English for now. Microsoft today also released a new launcher for Android handsets. The launcher replaces the native home screen on Android devices in favor of Microsoft's. It includes Windows 10 features such as favorites, recent photos, documents, and more. Before today, the Microsoft Launcher for Android was in beta status via the Microsoft Garage. It is now available for download through the Google Play Store

Apple says it is taking a close look at an issue impacting the iPhone 8 battery. According to a half dozen reports, the iPhone 8 battery sometimes swells during charging to the point of damaging the phone. Several iPhone 8 owners have posted photos of their devices, which have burst open due to the swollen battery. Apple issued a brief statement saying, "We are aware and looking into it." The number of affected iPhones appears to be very small and there have been no reports of fires or burns.

The holiday season will never be the same. Based on the extremely graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, HAPPY! premieres December 6 on SYFY.

The globe-spanning conflict between otherworldly monsters of mass destruction and the human-piloted super-machines built to vanquish them was only a prelude to the all-out assault on humanity in Pacific Rim Uprising.

Should you need a more complete list of YouTube MP3 ripping sites, Torrent Freak has a really good list compiled in this article about the RIAA going after those sites.

The RIAA notes that many sites use domain privacy services to hide their identities, as well as Cloudflare to obscure the sites' true hosting locations. This frustrates efforts to take action against these sites, they say.

Popular torrent sites are also highlighted, including The Pirate Bay. These sites regularly change domain names to avoid ISP blockades and domain seizures, and also use Cloudflare to hide their hosting location.

“BitTorrent sites, like many other pirate sites, are increasing [sic] turning to Cloudflare because routing their site through Cloudflare obfuscates the IP address of the actual hosting provider, masking the location of the site.”

Finally, the RIAA reports several emerging threats reported to the Government. Third party app stores, such as DownloadAtoZ.com, reportedly offer a slew of infringing apps. In addition, there's a boom of Nigerian pirate sites that flood the market with free music.