Google Glass is the perfect medium for receiving news updates about the topics you care about, but up until today no one had quite perfected how to do that.

The New York Times app comes standard with every pair of the high-tech glasses, but only sends the paper’s top headlines on an hourly basis. News isn’t tailored to fit your interests, nor is the frequency of news headlines are sent to you. The result? You end up with a backlog of news stories in Glass you likely don’t care about. For those you do care about, the app is only capable of reading you the first few sentences of the story or letting you share the story with friends on Google+ Read more...

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Angelina Jolie wrote a heartfelt column, "My Medial Choice" for the New York Times Tuesday, detailing her decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy at age 37. She explained that her choice was based on her abnormally high genetic predisposition for breast cancer; doctors estimated there was an 87% chance she would get breast cancer and a 50% chance she would get ovarian cancer. As the mother of six, Jolie says that she would hate for her children to lose her too early; her own mother died when she was just 56 years old

After having her DNA tested — a process which can cost anywhere from a hundred dollars to several thousand — Jolie learned that she is a carrier of a defective BRCA1 gene. That defect, though not the only determinant of breast cancer, meant a 65% chance she'd get the same disease that killed her mother. Read more...

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As part of its Star Wars Weekends event (running from May 17 to June 9), Disney is giving fans the chance to put their face on a 3D-printed Stormtrooper figurine

The D-Tech Me experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios uses a high resolution single-shot 3D face scanner created by Disney Research labs.

The 10-minute experience captures an image of the fan, which is later sent to a high-resolution 3D printer to create a figurine. The completed figurine will arrive in seven to eight weeks for domestic shipping.

Disney is also resurrecting a popular “cast yourself in Carbonite” option inspired by a scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Fans will receive either a Carbon-Freeze Me light-up band or a collector button depending on which option they choose. Read more...

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A sign-up page for a new version of Google Maps for the desktop has briefly become available online, showing a plethora of new features and a new design

The page, unearthed by Droid Life, is no longer available, but it's likely to show up again tomorrow during Google's I/O event

Among the features listed on the signup page were a new, smarter search, integration with Google Earth and Flight Search as well as a way to compare multiple modes of transportation

The mobile version of the app is not mentioned

A recent report said Google will soon launch an entirely new interface for the Maps desktop app. The changes mentioned in the report seem aligned with this latest leak — all that's left to do is wait until the new Maps becomes officially available Read more...

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An online campaign is attempting to "rebrand" Abercrombie & Fitch by donating its clothes to the homeless, after an author alleged that company CEO Mike Jeffries "doesn't want larger people shopping in his store."

The comments, made by Robin Lewis, were included in a Business Insider article published earlier this month. The piece also referenced, and breathed new life into, a 2006 Salon article in which Jeffries admits that A&F markets to "cool kids," while excluding those who are unattractive or overweight.

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." Read more...

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Google has updated its Google Play store for Android to version 4.1.6, bringing a change in design and several other improvements

The new, colorful home buttons (Apps, Games, Movies, Music, Books and Magazines) on Google Play are the biggest visual change in this release. There were also updates to the Application pages, as well as the Wishlist, which now shows apps in rows of three

Other new features include slight changes to functionality. For example, as Android Police notes, Update All now works for apps with new permissions, and the Play store now warns users about large updates when they're on a mobile-data connection Read more...

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Creaky sounds and strange shadows are enough to unsettle most adults, but they're especially frightening for children, who cope with overactive imaginations. This is the creative premise of Among the Sleep, a first-person horror-themed video game in which players navigate creepy environments as a two-year-old child.

Unlike many other first-person games, there is no combat. Instead, players must find places to hide (e.g. in cupboards or under furniture), and avoid confrontation to survive, according to Among the Sleep's Kickstarter page.

While the game's creators, Norway-based developer Krillbite Studio, plan to include puzzle and adventure elements, its main focus is on exploration and atmosphere (which you can experience in the video, above) Read more...

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Einstein's special relativity has proven more useful than ever, as scientists have now used it to discover an alien planet around another star.

The newfound world — nicknamed "Einstein's planet" by the astronomers who discovered it — is the latest of more than 800 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, and the first to be found through this method.

The planet, officially known as Kepler-76b, is 25 percent larger than Jupiter and weighs about twice as much, putting it in a class known as "hot Jupiters." The world orbits a star located about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus Read more...

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A new salvo has been fired in the ongoing Apple-Samsung war

In a US District of California filing yesterday, Apple added the new Galaxy S4 smartphone to a list of 22 Samsung products the company claims infringe on its iOS patents, giving Apple more ammunition for next year's patent trial.

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then these two should be happily married. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Both are pointing the finger and this seems to be a showdown based in part on Samsung elbowing in on Apple's iPhone market and the coming change to Samsung's own operating systems. Read more...

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Hewlett-Packard is announcing a more powerful, larger-screen follow-up to the Envy x2 Windows 8 PC called the HP Split x2. The "x2" designates the device's dual nature: The keyboard and monitor are separate devices; it's a laptop when docked together, and a tablet when removed.

In the case of the Split, it's a fairly large 13.3-inch tablet. HP sought out to upgrade the Envy x2 experience for power users who want a bigger screen, more features and greater processing power (the Split has an Intel Core chip, whereas the Envy was an Atom-powered device).

HP says the keyboard and touchpad are both full-size, and the USB ports are all 3.0. Like most hybrids, the Split x2 has batteries in both the keyboard base and the tablet. Read more...

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Many manufacturers have tried to create a "productivity" solution for Android tablets. Samsung does a decent job with its stylus-focused Note line, but manufacturers that build hybrids — tablets that become laptops with a keyboard dock — often come up short.

Hewlett-Packard is betting that it's finally cracked the Android hybrid with its Slatebook x2. By having the 10.1-inch tablet connect to the keyboard directly with a dock connector instead of via wireless, it can create a mouse cursor on the screen. While wireless connections (which similar hybrids typically have) provide more versatility, they can't do the mouse, so users must frequently touch the screen — a jarring experience for anyone used to a normal laptop with a touchpad. Read more...

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Andrew Wiggins is considered, by the men whose job it is to consider such things, the world's most promising basketball prospect since LeBron James

He's projected to be the top overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft following his required one-year stint as a collegiate student-athlete. But Wiggins delayed announcing where he'd play college ball for months — perhaps because it was fun to weigh his options, as we detailed in this post

The suspense ended Tuesday, however, when Wiggins held a small press conference to announce that he'll be a Kansas Jayhawk next season.

The only person nearly as in-demand as Wiggins Tuesday morning? Grant Traylor — or, more specifically, Traylor's Twitter account. Traylor is a writer for the Huntington Herald-Dispatch, and Wiggins' high school coach announced on Sunday that he'd be the only reporter allowed to attend the big announcement Read more...

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ABC released trailers for its upcoming 12 new shows Tuesday after announcing its 2013-2014 TV schedule during its annual upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City's Avery Fisher Hall

Seven dramas and five comedies — eight of which will premiere in the fall — are on tap, plus a Toy Story special from Disney Pixar, as well as reality series The Quest from the producer of The Lord of the Rings movie franchise

1The Goldbergs

"Before there were parenting blogs, trophies for showing up and peanut allergies, there was a simpler time called the '80s. For geeky 11-year-old Adam (Sean Giambrone) these were his wonder years, and he faced them armed with a video camera to capture all the crazy. The Goldbergs are a loving family like any other, just with a lot more yelling. Mom Beverly (Wendi McClendon-Covey) is a classic 'smother,' an overbearing, overprotective matriarch who rules this brood with 100% authority and zero sense of boundaries. Dad Murray (Jeff Garlin) is gruff, hot-tempered and trying to parent without screaming. Read more...

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Kobe Bryant either just proved he's awesome at social media, committed an egregious overshare or pulled off an All-Star troll move

In fact, he may have done all three in one photo

First, here's the background. Bryant's NBA season ended early when he suffered a ruptured achilles in April. He underwent surgery for the injury on April 14; that's a month ago Tuesday.

So, to commemorate the operation's month-iversary, what did Bryant do? Well, he posted a pretty graphic shot of the photo to Instagram, then tweeted it out to his 2.5 million Twitter followers

Read more...

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The Hunger Games has defined itself as one of this decade's major blockbusters, with intense special effects, a gigantic fan base and everyone's favorite Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence as the film's leading lady

But CineFix is proving that it doesn't take Hollywood magic or money to create trailers for movies. They recreated the trailer for Catching Fire, the second installment of the trilogy, scene-for-scene with low-budget effects. Clearly, the odds were ever in their favor

Compare the original video, below, with the new version: Read more...

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Twitter and ESPN's relationship just got a bit cozier. The sports giant will publish an increasing amount of video highlights on Twitter shortly after they happen live in a bid for more reach and ad dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning

ESPN will post short, ad-supported video highlights to Twitter from events including World Cup qualifiers, college football and the X-Games. Twitter users will be able to watch those clips via the web or mobile devices, while advertising partners sponsoring the highlights will buy promoted tweets on the social network

This builds on an already friendly relationship between the two companies, which announced a deal around this time last year to create custom ad programs for big sports events Read more...

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Whether you're a soon-to-be graduate, someone unhappy with your current career path or just struggling in the economy, finding your one true calling isn't easy.

In this comic, Grant Snider of Incidental Comics illustrates a machine that figures out your life's work for you. Be warned, though — the results may surprise you.

You can purchase Snider's comics as prints through his poster shop.

Comic illustration by Grant Snider, Incidental Comics. Published with permission; all rights reserved. Read more...

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Justin Krell is only 16 years old but says he really wants to do things that help people.

The Plankinton, S.D., teen has designed a working prototype for an in-vehicle system he calls "HardHit," which can help detect whether someone may have suffered a concussion during a car accident.

Krell, who is a sophomore in his small town's Plankinton High School, is participating in this week's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix. This world's largest science fair brings together about 1,600 high school student finalists from all over the world, who compete for more than $3 million in awards. Read more...

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Rumor has it Google will debut a subscription music service this week at its annual developer conference, Google I/O. The rumor mill intensified Tuesday after The Verge reported that its music industry sources said Google secured licensing deals with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group for YouTube and Google Play

Google already has Google Music, a cloud music service, that lets users upload as much as 20,000 purchased songs (for example, their iTunes purchases) in the cloud and listen to them across their Android devices or on the web

However, a Google subscription service with major record labels on board would put it in direct competition with existing music services, particularly streaming hotshot Spotify, which boasts 24 million monthly active users, 6 million paying subscribers and more than 20 million licensed songs in 28 countries Read more...

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Entrepreneurial hero and NBA team owner Mark Cuban is no stranger to skipping the so-called "normal" way of doing things

The world got one more example of Cuban's unique approach to business and sports team ownership on Tuesday afternoon. He used his personal blog to announce that his Dallas Mavericks plan to give their game uniforms a makeover for the 2015-2016 NBA season — but there's a catch

Cuban's team will only roll out the new unis, he writes, "if we get a unique and original design." And to find a worthy look, Cuban isn't just hitting up marketing companies or established designers. Instead, he's crowdsourcing from the Mavericks fan base, asking the artistically-minded to submit their own ideas Read more...

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One of the few bright spots in Facebook’s last quarterly report was a modest increase in how much money the company makes from payments (as opposed to the company’s primary source of revenue, advertising). Payments were up about 15% from a year ago, mostly due to Facebook Credits purchased to play games on Facebook.

Historically, Zynga has represented the bulk of that revenue. You would expect that, as Zynga’s fortunes have declined, Facebook would see a corresponding hit in games revenue. But that hasn’t happened, notes entrepreneur and part-time Facebook analyst Jon Milani, who dug into Facebook’s latest quarterly report Read more...

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Here's the challenge: Get through this entire video without cringing

It's a tough one, because — ew. Socially Awkward host Kevin Gisi and YouTube megastar iJustine take us through these 25 words that are, for some unknown reason, like nails on a verbal chalkboard

What English linguist subjected us to having to utter words like "masticate" and "excrete?" They should forever be stricken from the dictionary. Surely, we could all still survive if the word "moist" weren't around

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And don't forget to subscribe to Mashable's YouTube channel for more fun shows, interviews and lots of cats. Read more...

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Dwolla users are unable to transfer money to and from leading Bitcoin trading platform Mt. Gox following a court order from the Department of Homeland Security

Users of Dwolla's money-moving service began receiving this message as of Tuesday afternoon, first posted on Twitter by OkCupid cofounder Chris Coyne and reported upon by Betabeat.

Image courtesy @malgorithms

Jordan Lampe of Dwolla declined to offer further details

"Unfortunately, other than the information we've been able to provide our affected users, we've no additional information to provide," wrote Lampe in an e-mail to Mashable. "We respect the sensitivity of the matter, but the issue at hand lies with Mt. Gox and the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Government. We're working hard with our affected users to the best of our ability." Read more...

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The World Press Photo Foundation is denying accusations that its Photo of the Year is fake

In February, a panel of international judges selected Paul Hansen's photograph "Gaza Burial," which shows a procession of weeping men carrying the bodies of deceased Palestinian children wrapped in sheets

World Press Photo submitted the files for forensic review following controversy that spiraled from a blog post by image analyst Neal Krawetz, who alleged that the photo was actually a composite of three separate images. The story was later picked up by tech blog ExtremeTech.

However, after carrying out its own investigation, World Press Photo said Krawetz's analysis is "deeply flawed." Read more...

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Club Monaco's fall lookbook isn't making its debut in a print catalog or on a press-only site. Instead, the Ralph Lauren-owned fashion brand is releasing its lookbook simultaneously to the public and the media on Tumblr.

Club Monaco has cast eight pretty and much-followed Tumblr bloggers to model its men's and women's collections for fall, as well as looks already available in store. Viewers can download, reblog, pin and share images to Facebook or Twitter. Once the looks are available to buy, individual images will link to purchase pages on Club Monaco's website

"We're basically taking a PR tool and making it into a social media platform," Ann Watson, Club Monaco's vp of marketing and communications, told Mashable. "With the line between traditional press and consumer press blurring, thanks to social media, we feel the social lookbook is a reflection of this trend and respectful of the social media outlets that drive so much interest in our brand story." Read more...

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Want to try Google Glass, but can't get your hands on a pair? Chinese entrepreneur Sunny Gao just printed a 3D version of the high-tech specs. No big deal.

During the Global Hackathon on Saturday in Shanghai, Gao printed a replica of the much-hyped Google Glass. But unfortunately, his creation isn't functional, so we can't get too excited. No bypassing the wait list to crank out your own Glass just yet.

Gao did post a SketchUp file of the design, so anyone could print a 3D version of Google Glass.

If you could 3D print anything, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below. Read more...

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Embattled Internet television streaming service Aereo has an unlikely friend in Congress: Sen. John McCain.

McCain introduced a bill last week offering a carrot-and-stick approach to stop television distributors from bundling unpopular channels with those in high demand. While McCain's bill has been getting plenty of attention, flying under the radar has been what might be dubbed his "Aereo provision."

Aereo provides subscribers online access to live broadcast television by picking up broadcast networks' over-the-air signals on thousands of tiny antennae and transmitting them through the Internet. Subscribers pay Aereo a small monthly fee for the service, which is available in select cities with access expanding rapidly this year Read more...

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It's finally happened. Kickstarter users have said "No thanks!" to a celebrity's film project.

The crowdfunding campaign for the film Darci's Walk of Shame, which had Melissa Joan Hart attached to it, was cancelled Monday after raising only $51,605 from 315 backers in a little over a month. The hope was to raise $2 million.

For the unfamiliar, Melissa Joan Hart was a 1990s teen star best known for her roles in Nickelodeon's Clarissa Explains It All and TGIF mainstay Sabrina the Teenage WitchDarci's Walk of Shame—written by Dan Rosen— was supposed to be a comeback vehicle for the actress, who's seen herself relegated to cable television. Read more...

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The talk of the tech town is all about 3D printing. From iPhone cases to guns to full-sized houses, it feels like we've already come close to seeing it all. But what about sketches?

A new drawing tool called Doodle3D aims to bring your playful sketches to real, three-dimensional life. The device syncs with your iPad and plugs directly into your 3D printer. After sketching a basic line drawing, like a word or stick figure, your blueprints are sent to the printer via Doodle3D's WiFi box. Easy as that.

Granted, the creations are pretty simple — the variety of art tools appears to be similar to those from Draw Something. But if you're only looking to print basic shapes and doodles, it might be something worth checking out Read more...

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The sun, it seems, is in overdrive. Late Monday night, the sun unleashed its third major solar flare in 24 hours — the biggest and most powerful solar storm of the year, so far

This latest sun storm erupted Monday at 9:11 p.m. EDT and registered as an X3.2 solar flare, one of the strongest types of flares the sun can release, space weather officials said. It came on the heels of two other recent X-class solar flares on Sunday night and Monday, all of which were sparked by a highly active sunspot on the sun's far left side.

Officials at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., appeared amazed at the intense activity from the crackling sunspot Read more...

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