Huawei P40 Pro leak shows off five-camera bump and ceramic body

New renders from Evan “Evleaks” Blass give us what may well be our best look yet at Huawei’s next flagship phone. This is the P40 Pro, according to Blass, who says that the phone will make use of ceramic in its build. As with a previous leak, it looks like the front glass and back panel will curve on all four edges.

The most prominent design feature revealed in the images is the colossal camera bump that houses five lenses, one of which is a periscope-style telephoto camera. The Leica branding and technical details describe the array as covering 18-240mm equivalence, which between the ultrawide and telephoto should amount to more than 13x zoom reach. It’s likely, though, that Huawei is relying on software enhancements to arrive at that...

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Apple Pay launches new promotion offering 50% off games at Dave & Busters

Game for 50% with the latest Apple Pay promo.

What you need to know

• Apple has launched its latest Apple Pay promotion: 50% off at Dave & Busters.
• New and existing Power Card customers are eligible for the offer.
• Those interested must reload their Power Card using Apple Pay in the app by January 30th.

Apple has launched its latest Apple Pay promotion today: 50% off games at Dave and Busters, the popular nationwide restaurant and entertainment business. Reported by MacRumors, Apple Pay customers were notified of the promotion by email on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac today.

The email explains that the offer is available to anyone who uses Apple Pay to load their Power Card using the Dave & Buster's iOS app between now and January 30th.

"Get to the next level. With Apple Pay. 50% off gameplay with Apple Pay. Use Apple Pay and get 50% off gameplay when you load your Power Card in the Dave & Buster's app through January 30."

If you are a new rewards member to Dave & Busters, you need to sign up for your rewards account using the Dave & Busters app in order to qualify for the 50% off promotion. The promotion will be automatically applied to gameplay purchases made using Apple Pay for new customers.

If you already have a rewards account, you can still take advantage of the offer by using Apple Pay to reload your existing Power Card in the Dave & Busters iOS app.

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Here's the real reason Mark Zuckerberg is so afraid of TikTok

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Facebook still hasn't paid that $5B FTC fine, but what happens when it does?

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SpinLaunch spins up a $35M round to continue building its space catapult

SpinLaunch, a company that aims to turn the launch industry on its head with a wild new concept for getting to orbit, has raised a $35M round B to continue its quest. The team has yet to demonstrate their kinetic launch system, but this year will be the year that changes, they claim.

TechCrunch first reported on SpinLaunch’s ambitious plans in 2018, when the company raised its previous $35 million, which combined with $10M it raised prior to that and today’s round comes to a total of $80M. With that kind of money you might actually be able to build a space catapult.

Stealth space catapult startup SpinLaunch is raising $30M

The basic idea behind SpinLaunch’s approach is to get a craft out of the atmosphere using a “rotational acceleration method” that brings a craft to escape velocity without any rockets. While the company has been extremely tight-lipped about the details, one imagines a sort of giant rail gun curled into a spiral, from which payloads will emerge into the atmosphere at several thousand miles per hour — weather be damned.

Naturally there is no shortage of objections to this method, the most obvious of which is that going from an evacuated tube into the atmosphere at those speeds might be like firing the payload into a brick wall. It’s doubtful that SpinLaunch would have proceeded this far if it did not have a mitigation for this (such as the needle-like appearance of the concept craft) and other potential problems, but the secretive company has revealed little.

The time for broader publicity may soon be at hand, however: the funds will be used to build out its new headquarter and R&D facility in Long Beach, but also to complete its flight test facility at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

“Later this year, we aim to change the history of space launch with the completion of our first flight test mass accelerator at Spaceport America,” said founder and CEO Jonathan Yaney in a press release announcing the funding.

Lowering the cost of launch has been the focus of some of the most successful space startups out there, and SpinLaunch aims to leapfrog their cost savings by offering orbital access for under $500,000. First commercial launch is targeted for 2022, assuming the upcoming tests go well.

The funding round was led by previous investors Airbus Ventures, GV, and KPCB, as well as Catapult Ventures, Lauder Partners, John Doerr and Byers Family.

The four corners of the new space economy

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This clever R/C car leans and drifts like it weighs tons, not pounds

A handy Redditor has made a really cool Arduino-powered toy R/C car that can dip, move, and drift almost exactly like a real car. (And it’s decked out with an awesome-looking 1963 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Wagon shell, to boot.)

Seriously, watch this thing take a few turns. I’ve never seen an R/C car move like this — it realistically leans into turns and drifts, almost like a stunt car driven in a movie. Most R/C cars don’t move with quite the same illusion of weight.

This next GIF is pretty cool, too, showing how the car can bounce side to side and “fire” up its exhaust pipes as if it was revving up. It also gives you a brief look of what’s under the hood, so to speak:

The maker of the car, Dimitar Tilev,...

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WSJ: Facebook won't push through with plans to put ads in WhatsApp

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A Windows 10 Vulnerability Was Used to Rickroll the NSA and Github

A researcher demonstrated the attack less than a day after Microsoft disclosed one of the most critical Windows vulnerabilities ever. 

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Luigi's Mansion 3 is the Nintendo Switch bestseller for December 2019 NPD

Ghostbusting is at the top for Nintendo Switch.

What you need to know

• The December 2019 NPD report has been released.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the bestselling game of the month, while Luigi's Mansion 3 was the top seller on Nintendo Switch
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was the second-bestselling game of the month.
• You can Luigi's Mansion 3 on Nintendo Switch for $53 on Amazon.

Every month, the NPD Group releases information on the top-selling games across all video game platforms in the United States. While it doesn't account for worldwide sales, it does provide a good snapshot of one the largest video game markets. Mat Piscatella, an analyst for NPD, has shared the results for December 2019. For this month, data was tracked from December 1, 2019 through January 4, 2020.

For the month of December, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the top spot overall for the the third month in a row. Meanwhile, Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order took the second spot. Luigi's Mansion 3 did well as the bestselling game on Nintendo Switch and fifth overall for the month. The Nintendo Switch was the bestselling console of the month however, the PlayStation 4 is the bestselling hardware of the decade overall.

Here are the numbers for the December 2019 NPD results:

• Total: $2.984 billion, down 19% from $3.494 billion year-over-year
• Video games hardware: $973 million, down 17% from $1.168 billion year-over-year
• PC and video games software: $1.141 billion, down 13% from $1.314 billion year-over-year
• Accessories and game cards: $869 million, down 14% from $1.012 billion year-over-year

Here are the December 2019 game sales rankings (based on dollar sales, not units):

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
3. Madden NFL 20
4. NBA 2K20
5. Luigi's Mansion 3*
6. Pokemon Sword*
7. Mario Kart 8*
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
9. Pokemon Shield*
10. Minecraft**
11. Grand Theft Auto V
12. Red Dead Redemption II
13. FIFA 20
14. Just Dance 2020
15. Need for Speed: Heat
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
17. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening*
18. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
19. Super Mario Party*
20. Ring Fit Adventure

• *Does not include digital sales
• **Does not include Steam sales
• ***Minecraft digital sales include Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but not other digital sales.

Here are the best-selling games of December 2019 by platform:

Nintendo Switch

1. Luigi's Mansion 3*
2. Pokemon Sword*
3. Mario Kart 8*
4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
5. Pokemon Shield*
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
7. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening*
8. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
9. Super Mario Party*
10. Ring Fit Adventure

PlayStation 4

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
3. Madden NFL 20
4. NBA 2K20
5. Need for Speed: Heat
6. Grand Theft Auto V
7. FIFA 20
8. Death Stranding
9. Marvel's Spider-Man
10. The Outer Worlds

Xbox One

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
3. Madden NFL 20
4. NBA 2K20
5. Grand Theft Auto V
6. FIFA 20
7. Borderlands 3
8. Need for Speed: Heat
9. Red Dead Redemption II
10. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

Here are the best-selling games of 2019:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019
2. NBA 2K20
3. Madden NFL 20
4. Borderlands 3
5. Mortal Kombat 11
6. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
8. Kingdom Hearts III
9. Tom Clancy's The Division 2
10. Mario Kart 8*

That's all for the breakdown of this month's numbers. For more information, you can consult Mat Piscatella's thread right here. If you'd like details on last month's NPD breakdown, you can find that right here.

I see dead people

Luigi's Mansion 3

$53 at Amazon $60 at Walmart

Defeat ghosts as you search for your friends

The newest game in the Luigi's Mansion series has you playing once again as the scared plumber. But this time, you'll be exploring a haunted hotel, using new fighting elements, and have the help of a gooey doppelgänger. You can even play the main story with two-player co-op. This game also includes multiplayer modes where up to 8 players can play together either locally or online.

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Apple and the NBA team up for new Apple Music "Base:Line" playlist

Apple is adding another weekly updated playlist to its lineup.

What you need to know

• Apple has announced a new partnership with the NBA.
• Both companies are working on a new "Base:Line" playlist for Apple Music.
• The playlist will highlight up-and-coming talent in hip-hop.

Apple Music has a new weekly playlist heading its way. Reported by Bloomberg, Apple has apparently struck a deal with the National Basketball Association on a new Apple Music playlist.

The playlist, titled "Base:Line", will be a collaboration between the NBA and Apple and feature up-and-coming artists. It will feature forty new songs every week and mostly be based on the hip-hop genre. Tracks may also find their way onto NBA highlight reels, both company's social networks, and more.

Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services and a common attendee of NBA games, was reportedly involved in the deal. Cue told Bloomberg that the company is "excited about the partnership and that the playlist is designed to support emerging and established independent urban artists."

The songs that will encompass the playlist will reportedly come from a variety of sources, but specifically, UnitedMasters was mentioned in the Bloomberg article. UnitedMasters is a platform that connects artists with fans and brands and, in this case, Apple and the NBA.

There is currently no release date for the first "Base:Line" playlist. When it does drop, it will be available to listen on both Apple Music and through the NBA app.

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Taika Waititi reportedly approached to do a Star Wars movie - CNET

No official word on whether this is the same as Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige's possible Star Wars project.

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Epstein donations to MIT caused 'serious damage,' report finds - CNET

An independent report clears MIT's president, but a professor who accepted a $60,000 gift has been put on leave.

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Joker back in theaters this weekend after racking up Oscar nominations - CNET

If you didn't get the joke the first time, you'll get another shot starting Friday.

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Volkswagen confirms 8th-generation Golf GTI will debut in Geneva - Roadshow

The GTI will make its way to the US, as will the R, but that's not guaranteed for lesser Golf models.

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Get an Etekcity Wi-Fi and Bluetooth rechargeable smart scale for $42 - CNET

Unlike most smart scales, the Etekcity ESF00 Plus displays body composition details right on the scale, so you don't have to open an app to see your stats.

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Porsche 718 Cayman GTS, Boxster GTS are bringing the flat-six back - Roadshow

Closely related to the 718 Cayman GT4 and 718 Spyder, these will be a hoot.

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Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride are getting a slight price increase - Roadshow

The well-liked SUVs are now a couple hundred dollars more expensive than when they originally went on sale.

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Daily Show imitates Facebook to remind Trump who his friends are

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Copilot is a subscription personal finance tracker aiming to kill Mint

When Intuit acquired Mint more than a decade ago, mobile was in a different place — as were tech-enabled financial services. There hasn’t been much progress for the personal finance tracker app category in the meantime. Mint has stumbled along with integration issues and tiresome data misclassifications. For many, the best alternative has been firing up a spreadsheet.

Copilot is a new personal finance-tracking app from a former Googler that seems like it could garner a following based on its slick design and ease of use. The subscription iOS app lets you load your financial data, create custom categories for transactions and set budgets. It has been invitation-only for the past several months, but is launching publicly today.

Founder Andrés Ugarte told TechCrunch that he started the effort after eight years at Google — most recently inside its Area 120 experimental products division — because of slow progress in the personal finance space since Mint’s acquisition.

“I’ve been trying to use personal finance apps for the last eight years, and I eventually ended up giving up on them,” Ugarte says. “I was willing to make them work, and create my own categories and fix the data so that stuff was all categorized correctly. But I was always disappointed because the apps never felt smart because they would make the same mistakes again.”

I spent a few hours poking around Copilot over the past couple of days and I like what I’ve seen. The design is friendlier than other options, but its major strengths are that you can easily re-categorize a transaction that didn’t automatically fall in the bucket that you wanted it to, mark internal transfers between accounts and exclude one-off purchases from your tracked budget. Other apps have also allowed these functionalities, but Copilot lets you denote whether you want every transaction with a particular vendor to route to a certain category or bypass your budget entirely, so it actually learns from your activity.

In some ways, the killer feature of Copilot is just how great Plaid is. The app relies heavily on the Visa-acquired financial services API startup, and I can see why the startup was so successful. The integration’s intuitiveness alongside Copilot’s already smooth on-boarding process gives users early indication for the app’s thoughtful design.

Visa is acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion, 2x its final private valuation

Copilot has its limitations, mainly in that the team is just two people right now, so those holding out for desktop or Android support might have to wait a bit. Some may be turned off by the app’s $2.99 monthly subscription price, though there are more than a few reasons to avoid free apps that have access to all of your financial info. Copilot maintains that users’ financial info will never be sold to or shared with third parties.

Ugarte has largely been self-funding the effort by selling off his Google shares, but the team just locked down a $250,000 angel round and is searching for more funding.

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Here’s the zany internal Apple music video you’ve probably never seen

This morning, we introduced you to The Apple Archive, an unofficial collection of the Cupertino company’s official videos, print ads, marketing images, and even some eye-opening internal training videos — check out young Woz and his single earring at the beginning of this early video on the value of patents!

But at the time, we were blissfully unaware that the archive also included this delightful monstrosity: a four-minute music video masquerading as an “Easy Pay training video.”

We will now inflict it upon you:

It just keeps on going, doesn’t it?

I can guess what you’re thinking, but no, these employees were not fired — in fact, a LinkedIn profile suggests lead singer Brian Maslow spent five more years at the company and got...

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Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi may get his own Star Wars movie

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Champagne Collet

Taika Waititi, the director behind Oscar nominated film Jojo Rabbit and Marvel hit Thor: Ragnarok, is in talks with Disney and Lucasfilm about overseeing a future Star Wars movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The talks are far from final it seems, and it’s not clear how any project Waititi may work on would fit into the larger scheme of Star Wars’ expanding TV and film universe. But Waititi, having helmed a hugely successful Marvel film and coming off fresh from directing the well-received finale of Disney+ hit The Mandalorian, is certainly a strong contender to carry the Star Wars flame forward.

Disney and Lucasfilm are also in need of some new, high-profile talent after Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss...

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UK government opens trial for wirelessly charged taxis

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Microsoft's ambitious plan to remove its entire carbon footprint

Microsoft agrees with climate experts, that the world must take urgent action to bring down emissions.

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