Hate your cable company? wireless Internet is coming

Can your broadband connection be faster, cheaper and wholly wireless?

A startup called Starry thinks so and intends to take the place of your cable or phone company.

The New York- and Boston-based startup, created by the folks who tried to shake up the television industry with the now-defunct Aereo, hopes to create fresh competition for major cable and telecommunications players that sell Internet. Starry plans to launch a wireless broadband service called Starry Internet at a lower price than current providers. The company plans to roll it out in Boston this summer and spread to more cities throughout the year. The eventual goal is to go nationwide.

"Wired infrastructure is just difficult," Starry co-founder and CEO Chet Kanojia said Wednesday at a press event in Manhattan. "It should be wireless."

If Starry delivers on its promise to offer up to a 1-gigabit connection, or 10 times the average home broadband speed, it could shake up the broadband industry. For many, this would be far faster than what they get from the cable or phone companies. Starry represents another potential alternative for high-speed online access, which includes Google's $70 Fiber service in a handful of markets.

Such efforts have encouraged existing Internet service providers to speed up their connection speeds in some markets. And it may encourage them to spruce up their customer service, which is routinely panned. Surveys last year by the American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the "vast majority" of the lowest-performing companies for customer satisfaction offered either Internet service or pay TV, with Time Warner Cable at the very bottom of the list.

Still, there have been other major efforts to provide wireless broadband service, such as from WinStar and Clearwire, though they didn't take off.

Verizon declined to comment. Cable providers, including Comcast and Time Warner Cable, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The first major product from Starry will be the Starry Station, a $350 Wi-Fi hub with a touchscreen that includes monitors for your Internet connection and speed, parental controls and the ability to support connected devices. The device, which can be used with any available Internet service, will provide a Wi-Fi connection to your phones and other devices and will support future devices in connected homes.

The device is available for pre-order on Starry.com and will also be available on Amazon Launchpad in early February. The routers will start shipping in March.

Starry Internet will be powered by hubs called Starry Beams that will be placed at the tops of buildings and other locations and will send out signals at the high radio frequency of 39 gigahertz (In comparison, Verizon and AT&T use spectrum that runs at 700 megahertz). That frequency, which Starry has an experimental license to use, offers high speeds but doesn't travel far, so these hubs will have to be built roughly every mile. Only experimental Beam units are out in use now.

Internet trolls explained by science

If you call me out in a comment at the end of this story and I ignore you, one of two things are happening. A: I'm not really ignoring you, but I just haven't gotten around to responding yet. Or B: I think you're a troll.

In their video below, posted Sunday, they break down the science behind Internet trolling, citing a 2014 research paper (PDF) that found 5.6 percent of Internet users -- from a sample size of 1,215 online survey respondents -- either consider themselves to be trolls or at least enjoy trolling activities. (It seems reasonable to me to assume that some trolls might not self-identify, making the actual percentage higher.)

The study, which was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences by a trio of Canadian researchers, delves into the traits linked to trolling behaviors. It found that trolls often have certain things in common, such as psychopathy, narcissism and sadism. If I were a troll, this might be where I'd post an all-caps "DUH!" and a few other rude and inflammatory comments.

Spacetime is a rainbow

Prepare to have your brain fried by this latest theoretical discovery. If we had a prism capable of splitting spacetime, we'd see many variations that combine to form one big spacetime, in the same way that various wavelengths of light combine to form white light.

At least, that's the case according to a theoretical model by the University of Warsaw's Faculty of Physics. Their paper was published in the December 2015 issue of Physics Letters B.

According to the team's calculations, any model of the universe using the popular quantum theories of gravity must also include this "spacetime rainbow."

When white light is split by a prism, the colours of the resulting rainbow contain photons with different energy levels. The higher the energy level, the greater the angle of deflection. This, the team said, could be seen as the photons "sensing" the same prism as having slightly different properties.

This is where the comparison to spacetime comes in. Just as the wavelengths experience the prism differently, particles of different energies in quantum universe models experience spacetime differently.

"Two years ago we reported ... different types of particles feel the existence of spacetimes with slightly different properties," explained Jerzy Lewandowski, who led the research team.

"Now it turns out that the situation is even more complicated. We have discovered a truly generic mechanism, whereby the fabric of spacetime felt by a given particle must vary depending not only on its type, but even on its energy."

Are extreme-sports junkies still in love with GoPro

GoPro, darling of the action-cam world, just got the wind knocked out of it.

The San Mateo, California, company, which builds sturdy point-of-view cameras used by skydivers, snowboarders and other extreme athletes, has built its reputation on inspiring people to try something crazy. Who wasn't thrilled by Felix Baumgartner's skydive from a balloon floating 24 miles above earth? Or a Red Bull-fueled bicycle backflip over a 72-foot canyon?

It turns out that people like to watch but may not want to jump into the action themselves.

GoPro is cutting 7 percent of its workforce, or about 105 jobs, the company said this week. The decision follows disappointing sales of its latest device, the GoPro Hero4 Session. The company also slashed its sales estimate for the just-ended fourth quarter.

The news reflects the reality that we're not all risk takers and, more specifically, that we're not all hungry to capture on video our attempts at extreme anything. GoPro had been the dominant name in the action-camera niche for several years thanks to its affordable, easy-to-use products. But the company's financial pinch begs the question: Has GoPro peaked?

"We've argued for some time now that the market for cameras is not only shrinking, but segmenting into niche areas," said Andrew Uerkwitz, an analyst with investment management firm Oppenheimer. "The action camera is not a fad per se, but it is a limited market."

Others believe that GoPro's downturn is due purely to the company pinning its hopes for holiday season sales on the tiny Hero4 Session. The camera received mixed reviews and was originally priced at $400 when it was released in July. By December, the price tag was cut in half. Consumers' weak response to the camera was costly for the company and forced the job cuts, GoPro said.

GoPro is looking to expand its business to take on another hot trend. The company plans to release a drone, though it faces the challenge of competing with the affordable, camera-equipped drones people may have already gotten over the holidays, including those from Parrot and DJI.

The company is also attempting to turn video into a part of its business model by licensing footage shot on its cameras to media companies. In line with this, GoPro plans to release new software to make it easier for you to edit and share your videos.

Expanding the number of ways that GoPro makes money should help alleviate what Uerkwitz sees as one of the main problems with the company's business model: the long replacement cycles for the cameras. In other words, those suckers are built to last. Once you have one, you're unlikely to buy another anytime soon.

"GoPro seems to have figured this out as they have announced new products for the drone and 360-[degree] camera market," Uerkwitz said. "But until we see the launch of these products, GoPro is in a challenging position."

Double Robotics

You may not have heard of telepresence robots, but a startup called Double Robotics hopes to change that with the second generation of its device.

Telepresence robots represent you from afar, allowing you to roam corridors with co-workers, glide into offices for private chats and continue conversations in the company cafeteria. The Burlingame, California-based company wasn't the first to the technology, but it did pioneer a less-expensive approach by mounting an Apple iPad tablet atop a stalk with motorized wheels.

A person uses a computer to pilot the robot around a distant location by typing in keyboard controls. They can see what's in front of the robot by way of images transmitted from the tablet's camera back to their computer screen. At the same time, their computer's camera transmits live images of their face to the robot's tablet so people looking at the tablet can see and talk to them.

Double Robotics launched the new version of its product on Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The 35-employee startup hopes that the Double 2's features will prompt current customers to expand beyond the testing phase and attract new companies too.

"We've sold over 5,000 units now. We expect to have quite a spike with this release," Chief Executive David Cann said.

The boundaries between work and home have been blurring for years with telephones, pagers and e-mail enabling bosses to reach subordinates at all hours and allowing employees to work from home and hotels. Smartphones accelerated the trend with a constant network connection. Now telepresence robots could make remote working even more like the real thing by giving you a virtual body and face

Compared with its predecessor, the Double 2 can better navigate bumps like cords and rug edges without tipping sideways. It also drives fast enough to keep up with people walking at full speed and gets a wider-angle camera option so the pilot can see groups of six people, not just two, Cann said.

"We think bringing these new features out will make people feel more confident to roll this out to more novice employees and make it a standard part of telecommuting policy," he said.

The first-generation product cost $2,500, but accessories raised the price to $3,500. The Double 2 is $3,000 including the accessories.

Eventually, telepresence robots could be used for entertainment and recreation, not just for business and education. But a more immersive experience would be better for those potential uses. That's why Double Robotics is eyeing virtual reality technology that would let the operator of a telepresence robot see a 3D world, as well as improving sound.

Man watches on phone as home is robbed

Technically Incorrect: A New York man reportedly gets a phone alert telling him his apartment has a burglar. He observes his stuff getting stolen.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

The thing about notifications is that they can bring you bad news.

Do you want bad news? Worse, do you want to watch bad news happening, especially if it's happening right inside your home?

In Danny Wheeler's case, he wanted to know. As the New York Post reports, he used a security system and app called Canary. It tells you when nefarious beings are roaming inside your house.

So it was that at lunchtime on Tuesday he received an alert telling him there were intruders at his apartment on Second Avenue and East 81st Street in Manhattan.

Not only that, the Canary system also transmitted images of the action. Wheeler told the Post he immediately dialed 911. He said: "I was making my way [home] watching the entire video like a madman in the cab."

He posted the video to YouTube. It shows a man in a Yankees hat coming in and then letting another man in through a window.

They didn't stay long, however. A neighbor noticed the intruders on the fire escape and asked them what on earth they thought they were doing. In a New York manner, I imagine.

Wheeler says that the film stars got away with around $500 worth of jewelry. The NYPD wasn't immediately available for comment, but Wheeler believes that the Canary system helped the police. Indeed, he said that an officer recognized one of the men.

He blamed his own apartment for the break-in, though. He told Gothamist: I pay stupid amounts of money to rent this apartment and a shoddy window is the reason [I'm] here right now."

In his review, CNET's Ry Crist thought that the $250 Canary system has excellent camera quality, but its motion sensor is so sensitive that it is "borderline unusable."

Wheeler, though, said he's glad he at least saw what had happened, rather than arrive home to find things missing and a mess.

At the time of writing, the two intruders are still somewhere out there.

Lyft partners with China's largest ride-hailing service

Uber may have some competition in China from its US rival as Lyft links up with Didi Kuaidi to let travelers use their apps interchangeably.

Ride-hailing company Lyft has long been considered small potatoes compared with its rival Uber. Yes, Lyft is in 65 cities in the US, but Uber is in more than 300 cities in 60 countries. Yes, Lyft is valued at $2.5 billion, but Uber is valued at more than $50 billion.

But that could change soon and quickly.

San Francisco-based Lyft announced Wednesday that it's partnered with Didi Kuaidi, the largest ride-hailing service in China. These two companies both provide services that let drivers connect with passengers via a smartphone app. The partnership will link the two companies' apps, allowing passengers to use their usual app while traveling abroad just like they would at home. Didi is also investing $100 million in Lyft.

"Didi Kuaidi is the clear market leader in China and has invaluable local expertise," Lyft co-founder and President John Zimmer said in a statement on Wednesday. "In today's rideshare environment, where every region presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities, partnering with the homegrown leader is the winning approach to Chinese expansion."

While solely in China, Didi owns a massive share of the overall ride-hailing market with a presence in more than 360 cities and a valuation of $16 billion. The service says it has more than 5 million drivers (Uber has around 1 million) and gets 10 million ride requests per day. The allegiance of Didi and Lyft could pose a serious threat to Uber, which has set its sights on China over the past few months with grand plans for expansion there.

China's massive population of 1.35 billion and growing middle class have created a lucrative market for Uber to capitalize on. In June, CEO Travis Kalanick reportedly sent a letter to investors that said Uber will invest more than $1 billion for its China expansion during 2015. And last week, he announced Uber plans to spread its service to 100 additional cities in China within the next 12 months.

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However, Uber has faced roadblocks from Chinese regulators. In May, local authorities visited Uber's offices in Guangzhou and Chengdu to investigate whether it was operating an unlicensed (and thus, illegal) taxi operation. And earlier this year, China's Ministry of Transport called for tighter laws against unlicensed taxis, specifically referring to apps like Uber. Uber didn't respond to request for comment.

Didi, on the other hand, works with government regulators before launching in local cities. Making nice with regulators has become Didi's competitive advantage in China and why it's been able to add so many new cities in such a short amount of time.

In the past, Lyft has said that it had no immediate plans to enter the international market and now it's clear what its expansion plans are. During a press conference on Wednesday, Zimmer wouldn't say if the company intends to partner with local companies in other countries, like India's Olacabs or Singapore's GrabTaxi. But he did say, "Our vision to connect people in communities with better transportation was never just about the US."

As far as what's in it for Didi, company President Jean Liu said at the press conference Wednesday that her goal is to continue innovation in the ride-hailing industry and that Lyft is the best partner for that. She noted that Lyft was the first company to let passengers hail drivers using their own personal cars and it was also the first to introduce a carpooling service.

"We think the Lyft and Didi partnership together will open a new global era for the ride-share industry," Liu said. "When we work together we will be able to push the evolution of this industry to the next level."

Apple Wants to Transform Your Doctor Visits

Apple (AAPL) is looking to transform your relationship with your doctor.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives spent the first 10 minutes of their live event to talk about how the new Apple Watch is going to change health care.

“Just months ago, we started selling Apple watches to customers, and it’s already changing lives,” said Cook, who added that the smartwatch is “making days better” for its users by getting them moving again.

Now, the company is looking to take it to the next level by partnering with leading hospitals and designing new software platforms like Healthkit and ResearchKit in hopes of turning Apple into a central repository for clinical data and trials.

During a live demonstration, Apple Executive Jeff Williams demonstrated how the Apple Watch helps doctors track their patients and prioritize their schedules using an app called AirStrip, which was designed for health care providers.

Dr. Cameron Powell, one of the co-founders of the app, also took to the stage to explain how physicians can use their smartwatches to monitor patient vitals and even check an unborn baby’s heartbeat with their Sense4Baby technology

According to AirStrip’s website, Sense4Baby was designed to improve the way doctors treat high-risk pregnancies by providing real-time, remote information directly from the patient’s body (aka their wrist) to the healthcare providers.

Expecting mothers can monitor their contractions and even hear the baby’s heart rate on their watch. They can also send their vitals to their doctor using their smartwatch and receive private responses directly.

The user is authenticated throughout the experience as long as the watch remains on their wrist.

Health care continued as a clear theme of Apple's event when executives introduced their new iPad Pro. During a live demonstration, another doctor used an app to show how it can help doctors explain knee injuries through a digital skeleton.

5 best sites to find a job

Finding a new job can sometimes feel like full-time work. You have to update your résumé, write cover letters and keep your fingers crossed for a callback. But first you have to find places to apply.

Whether you're re-entering the job market after a leave of absence, or seeking a better fit with a new company, the Internet is the best tool in your job-hunting arsenal. We've combed the Web looking for the best places to start your job search. Here are five sites to kick your job hunt into high gear.

Indeed

Kick off your search with Indeed. It claims to be the biggest job site in the world, with about 800,000 new listings posted on the site each week.

Indeed's search works a lot like Google. Find jobs by typing the keywords into the What/Where box at the top of the page. You can narrow or widen your results by clicking "Refine your search."

Save searches and have Indeed email you new job leads every morning that match what you're looking for. You can also use the handy Indeed app on the go.

Be sure to check out the upload résumé feature. It converts your résumé into a webpage with a unique link, making it easy to share with prospective employers. Need help improving your résumé? Read this tip before you spend any money.

2. Simply Hired

Of course, you don't want to just use one job-posting site. Simply Hired is another great option. It has more than 9 million listings that it pulls from thousands of company sites and job boards.

Create an account to save searches and receive daily or weekly email alerts. A new mobile app lets you search, save and apply to jobs right from your smartphone.

If you're looking for a company that shares your values, check out Simply Hired's Special Searches. It lets you narrow your search to companies that are friendly to new graduates, veterans, working moms, 50-plus workers and more.

3. CareerBuilder

Want to land a position in corporate America? CareerBuilder works with more than 300,000 employers, including 92 percent of the Fortune 100.

You can store up to five different versions of your résumé, making it easy to apply for different positions. You can also choose to make a résumé public or private. That comes in handy if you don't want your current employer to know you're job hunting.

There's also a free mobile Jobs app that lets you apply for position with just two taps of a finger. Other free resources include career tests, a salary calculator and résumé writing tips.

4. Net-Temps

Not getting anywhere in your job search? With dozens or hundreds of people applying for every open position on the market competition is tough. You might be making some basic mistakes in your résumé or interviews that are hurting your chances.

Pay a visit to Net-Temps and its well-stocked Career Advice section. Career Advice contains hundreds of helpful job-hunting articles. These articles are written by recruiters and industry professionals, so they know what works in job-hunting and what doesn't.

Résumé writing and interview preparation are just the beginning. Tips on career advancement and finding a job after college are also available. You can find information on negotiating your salary, and dealing with layoffs, too. There are articles to help anyone get a job, or help you keep the one you have.

5. Glassdoor

Job hunting isn't just about finding a company that will hire you; you need to find a company you want to work at. When you find an enticing job posting, you want to find out everything you can about that particular company.

Glassdoor takes you beyond boilerplate job descriptions and offers an insider glimpse of the hiring process at thousands of companies. Employees and other job seekers anonymously post company reviews, interview questions and salary and benefits information.

Have your eye on a particular job? Glassdoor’s Inside Connections tool combs through your network of Facebook friends to help you uncover potential referrals inside a specific company. In a competitive job market, a referral from a friend or colleague can make all the difference.

Company behind Second Life building virtual reality universe

In a few years, we'll be able to strap on virtual reality goggles and plunge into a sprawling and complex virtual universe. But first, someone has to actually built it.

Linden Lab wants to make it easier for people and companies to build their own virtual reality experiences.

The makers of the 13-year-old Second Life virtual world are designing a platform to create and host virtual reality experiences. Codenamed Project Sansar, Linden Lab's undertaking has been shrouded in secrecy. Last month, the company had a few Second Life veterans play around with the early beta. It was the first time anyone outside the company had set a (digital) foot in the world.

Think of it as the YouTube of the virtual world -- an entry point for anyone who wants to build a VR experience without investing a ton of time and money.

Second Life is an aging virtual world that had a lot of hype but never quite reached a mass audience. It peaked at a million users. It's still chugging along today with hundreds of thousands of loyal users. It's even profitable -- but it is not the future.

A year and a half ago, Linden Lab started plotting its entry into virtual reality.

Virtual and augmented reality will be a $150 billion market by 2020, according to Digi-Capital.Facebook's (FB, Tech30) Oculus Rift headset is leading the way with immersible video, audio and even touch experiences. A commercial version of the $1,500 device is expected to hit the market in early 2016, though it will take more time before any kind of VR tech spreads to the masses.

"We know more than anybody else what it takes to do something like this," said Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg.

Porting Second Life over to VR was quickly ruled out. The performance requirements for virtual reality are high -- it requires more frames per second and high resolution art. Starting fresh gave Linden Lab a chance to rethink how a virtual world is organized and how it makes money.

Creating worlds will be more difficult in Project Sansar than Second Life, but Altberg said they've made a tool non-engineers can use.

"It's still extremely difficult to create content for virtual reality. Pretty much anything you want to create, you have to have a sophisticated engineering organization in place," said Altberg. "We're trying to solve those problems."

A news publication could make a place to experience virtual versions of articles. Executives could gather in virtual meeting rooms. Doctors could open virtual health care clinics. They would all likely prefer to do it without having to build something complicated from the ground up.

Internally, Linden Labl employees are working on polishing the product, building their own test worlds along the way. They've made a desert scene with crazy big machinery, weird futuristic lounges and a famous landmark. They've even created an exact replica of a conference room in Linden Lab's San Francisco office, down to the objects on the desk.

Altberg expects to have the first version of Project Sansar available by the end of 2016. Then it will be up to creators and companies to decide what the coming virtual reality universe will look and feel like -- and what we'll actually do when we're there.

Prosthetic hand 'tells' the brain what it is touching

Research on prosthetic hands has come a long way, but most of it has focused on improving the way the body controls the device.

Now, it may also be possible for prosthetic hands to send signals back to the body and "tell" it information about what the bionic hand is touching, according to a new study.

Recently, researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm of the U.S. military, implanted an array of small electrodes into the region of the brain that controls movement in a woman who is paralyzed. The electrodes communicated electrical activity from the brain's motor cortex, via wires, to a prosthetic arm that the woman was able to move through a wide range of motions.

Then the research team asked, "Can we run the experiment in reverse? Can we do for sensation what we did for the motor system?" said Justin Sanchez, program manager of the DARPA biological technologies office, in a presentation he gave on Thursday at the Wait, What? A Future Technology Forum, which DARPA hosted in St. Louis.

To answer this question, the researchers worked with a 28-year-old man who is paralyzed. They implanted an electrode array in both his motor cortex and sensory cortex, the brain region that recognizes tactile sensations such as texture and pressure. Wires from the motor cortex array controlled the hand, as they did for the female volunteer, and sensors in the hand also conveyed information, via another set of wires, back to the array in the sensory cortex.

The researchers showed that this feedback system allowed the hand to communicate directly with the brain. In a video included in Sanchez's presentation, a researcher blindfolded the man and then gently pressed on different fingertips in the prosthetic hand. The volunteer was able to identify which fingertip was being touched with "nearly 100 % accuracy" even without seeing it, according to a DARPA press release about the research.

People who have prosthetic hands today rely on being able to see what the hand is doing to control it, said Sliman Bensmaia, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Chicago. But people will never be able to use these hands with dexterity until they can feel what they are doing without looking at them, he said. Bensmaia did preliminary research for Sanchez's team on how to make the electrode array work in the sensory cortex.

"On the short term, you want to know whether you are touching an object, and how much pressure you are exerting on it, those basic things that you need to hold things," Bensmaia said. But as the technology progresses, touch sensors may also be able to convey temperature and texture, he added.

Although the current demonstration is the first of a prosthetic hand directly communicating with the brain, other researchers have demonstrated that they can send messages from sensors in the prosthetic hand to electrodes implanted in nerves in the arm that then communicate with the brain.

"(However), in situations where people have spinal cord injury, so they are quadriplegic ... you probably couldn't give them sensation back through the nerves," because they have lost the use of the nerves in their arm, said Dr. Paul S. Cederna, professor of plastic surgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan.

Devices on the market now rely on either body power, in which a healthy part of the body controls the prosthetic through cables and harnesses, or myoelectric devices, in which electrical signals from muscles attached to the prosthetic control it.

Researchers are also working on developing highly sensitive prosthetic arms that can recreate nearly every motion of a real arm, and bionic hands that can becontrolled through an iPhone.

The big benefit of Sanchez's approach is being able to use prostheses for people with spinal cord injuries, Cederna said. The 28-year-old man in the current demonstration has been paralyzed for more than a decade because of a spinal cord injury.

Although Cederna was not involved in Sanchez's research, he conducts DARPA-funded research on how to improve control of prosthetic devices through peripheral nerves, such as those in the arm.

The idea of implanting an electrode array into the brain to either control or receive signals from a prosthetic limb is big step forward, but it is not ready for prime time yet. "The biggest challenge, once you put that electrode into the brain, you develop scarring around the electrode, and that makes it increasingly difficult to pick up the signals it needs to pick up," Cederna said.

Researchers are working hard to develop electrode arrays that work for longer periods of time, Bensmaia said. Currently electrode arrays in the motor cortex only work for a few years, although arrays in the sensory cortex appear to be more stable, he added.

The Moto X Pure Edition is the best Android phone ever

The Moto X Pure Edition is not just the best giant Android smartphone or the best Android phone for the money. It is the best Android phone ... period.

It's everything a great smartphone should be: It's thin, beautiful, fast, has a battery that will get you through the day, it has an awesome 5.7-inch display, a great camera, a super-fast turbo-charging battery, yadda yadda ... yawn.

Every high-end smartphone has all of those features. But there are three things that make the Moto X Pure Edition particularly special and worthy of the "best ever" recognition.

1. It is the most customizable phone on the market

Smartphones are deeply personal items -- they're with us all the time. More than any other smartphone maker, Motorola gets how important it is to tailor its smartphones to its customers.

Like Motorola's two previous Moto X phones, the Pure Edition comes in a huge variety of colors and materials. There are hundreds of different options to choose from, including grippy silicone models in a dozen colors, multiple wood grains and differently styled leather backs.

Motorola's software is also personal. It's mostly Android as Google(GOOGL, Tech30) intended it, with just a few welcome tweaks that make your phone your own. For example, the Moto X Pure Edition can change its settings depending on when and where you are. It can go into vibrate automatically when you're at work, read texts aloud when you're driving, announce who's calling when you're home and silence itself when you're asleep.

It even comes with an increasingly rare SD card slot, allowing customers to cheaply add storage to their devices and avoid the single biggest ripoff from cell phone companies.

2. It will work on any carrier

The Moto X Pure Edition will only be offered unlocked and without a contract, meaning you won't be able to buy a subsidized Moto X directly from your carrier. But it will work on any of the four nationwide cell phone companies. You can use the same exact phone on Sprint (S), T-Mobile (TMUS), AT&T (T, Tech30) orVerizon's (VZ, Tech30) networks.

That will give you so much more freedom than you're likely used to. If T-Mobile is offering you a great deal in October, and Verizon gives you a better offer in November, you can switch with no strings attached.

Motorola also believes that software updates will come in more quickly, since they won't be subject to the traditional carrier approvals that can severely delay even the most crucial updates.

3. It costs just $399

What makes Motorola's new phone really stand out is the price. The Moto X Pure Edition costs about $350 less than the similarly sizedApple (AAPL, Tech30) iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Think about that: It compares equally or favorably in hardware specifications to its top-selling rivals, but you can get the Moto X for about half the price.

At $399, the Moto X Pure Edition is not only the best Android smartphone but the best phone deal as well.

Caveat: It's not perfect

Though the new Moto X is the best Android smartphone, it's important to note that doesn't mean it's perfect. (No phone is.)

The battery is big enough to get you through the day, but it feels like it could have -- and should have -- been even bigger. The Moto X Pure Edition is slightly thicker than the Galaxy Note 5, yet they have the same-sized battery. Notably, the Moto X makes up for it with the fastest-charging battery on the market, giving you an insane 10 hours of battery life with a 15-minute charge.

Also there are a few design quirks: There's no fingerprint sensor, which is a drag. The trademark Motorola finger rest "dimple" on the back isn't positioned where it should be: It's too low on the phone to comfortably place your finger there. And the front "selfie flash" is unattractive on black versions of the phone.

Still, you're not going to beat the Moto X Pure Edition's best-on-the-market combination of personalization, freedom and price. It's a stunning achievement by Motorola.

The Moto X Pure edition is available for pre-orders on Wednesday on Motorola, Amazon (AMZN, Tech30)and BestBuy's (BBY) website. Motorola says the phone will begin shipping in the next few weeks.

12 things you didn't know you could do with Facebook

Facebook was a lot easier to use and understand a few years ago.

Managing its growing sea of features can be daunting, but there are ways to make the social network more to your liking.

Here are 12 tips and ideas:

1. Reduce notifications

You can't get rid of all notificationson Facebook's website. But you can disable a lot of them.

Go into your Settings, and click on Notifications. Once you're there, adjust the alerts you want to get on your computer and your phone.

Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't let you disable email notifications through Settings. You have to click Unsubscribe to every type of notice until you stop receiving them.

To stop alerts for a group or a page, you have to go into each page andindividually select Off. You can also click Unlike or Hide on the page.

For an event, remove yourself from the guest list, which can be a handy way to avoid the RSVP, or select Hide From News Feed.

2. Turn off auto-play video

With auto-play videos, you end up downloading a little more data than you might want to, and you run therisk of seeing something you might not want to see.

To turn off auto-play for the desktop site, go to the Videos section at the bottom of your Settings. Change the rule from Default to Off.

On the mobile app, touch the icon with the three horizontal lines and scroll down. Then select App Settings and tap on Video Auto-Playto choose what you want.

3. Save things to read or watch later

News Feed posts come with an option to be bookmarked. Click on the upside down arrow at the top right corner of a post, and choose Save video or link.

To look at everything you've collected, click on the Saved button on the side of your Facebook homepage.

4. Tell people how to pronounce your name

In your profile's About section, click on Details About You. There you'll select an audio pronunciation key.

5. Figure out if someone has blocked you

Facebook doesn't (and may never) notify you when you've been blocked, but you don't have to use any external apps or browser plugins to figure it out either. Here are some clues to look for:

• Posts you share on each other's timelines disappear. They are restored when a block is lifted.
• Chat logs remain intact, but new messages are not delivered.
• When you click on the name in a chat window, or in an old notification, you get this message: "The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in."
• Once you unblock someone, you have to request each other as friends again.

6. Block Candy Crush and other invites

In addition to blocking individual people, Facebook also lets you block app invites, pages, and event invites.

If you add a friend's name to the Block App Invites setting, you'll never see another Candy Crush request again from that person.

7. Find things you've shared or commented on in the past

Search your Activity Log for key words in a post or photo caption.

On the desktop site, click the drop down menu (upside down triangle) at the top of the page, and select Activity Log. Use the Activity Search field at the top right corner.

8. Figure out who might see your likes and comments on their News Feeds

If your friend shares something on Facebook, she dictates the privacy setting for that item.

When you like or comment on it, anyone who falls under that privacy setting may be able to see that action in their News Feed or news ticker.

Let's say your friend posts a group photo. She tags all 20 people, and sets the privacy to Friends Of Friends.

If you comment on that photo or like it, all 20 people, plus all of their friends, and all of those people's friends can see your comment.

So if you're hesitant about potentially having your name and Facebook activity visible to people you don't know, hover your mouse over the privacy setting for each post before you interact with it.

9. Shrink the amount of space that Facebook takes up on your phone

Facebook's mobile app is more than 96 MB in size. It can grow to hundreds and hundreds of megabytes, especially if you also browse the Web a lot inside the app. That's because Facebook temporarily stores photos you see on News Feed and a webpage's data on your phone so everything loads faster.

To clear out the cache on iPhones, you have to delete the Facebook app and then reinstall it. On Android, you can clear an app's cache by long-pressing on the app icon, dragging it into App Info and selecting Clear Cache.

You can also just use the mobile Web version of Facebook instead of the app.

10. Choose whose news you want to see first

Earlier this summer, Facebook introduced a "See First" feature that allows you to choose your favorite people and see news about their lives first.

Just hover over your friend's name, then click on Following and select See first.

11. Log off Facebook on another computer

Go into Settings, and select Security. In the Where You're Logged In section, you'll see which devices have been used to access your Facebook account.

Choose the End Activity option to sign out of a device.

12. See all of the apps that use your Facebook login

In your Settings, click on Apps to see which third party programs have access to your Facebook information. Remember, apps will never post to your Facebook without your permission.

If you choose to approve, you will be able to limit who sees your post.