'First!' The people battling for celebrity attention on social media

Right now in Kent, England, Anthony is almost certainly checking actor Jamie Dornan's Twitter feed. The 22-year-old French teaching assistant has probably also got one eye on Dornan's Instagram stream, although the actor posts there less frequently, and Facebook page

Anthony relentlessly follows and checks (and then re-checks) virtually every action the 50 Shades of Grey star takes online. He spends up to 15 hours per day keeping tabs on Dornan's social media activity

In the quest to be first to Like, comment or respond to Dornan's online activity, and to bring news to Dornan's other fans via the Jamie Dornan Online fan site, Anthony is a social media monitoring machine. In France, Anthony's "co web," Laura, a 25-year-old childcare worker, puts in the same kind of hours in pursuit of reaching Dornan's posts first Read more...

More about Entertainment, Social Media, Celebrities, Features, and Psychology

Honeysuckle Weeks Discusses Eighth And Final Season Of 'Foyle's War,' Debuting In U.S. February 2

As British mystery series Foyle?s War begins its eighth and final season Monday, February 2, Honeysuckle Weeks, one of its stars, looked back nostalgically this week at her work on it, a period she said took up one-third of her life.

Does A Fourth Super Bowl Win Make Tom Brady The Greatest QB Ever?

Football is about winning and no one has won at a greater clip than Tom Brady.

There are balls galore at a massive new ball pond for adults in London

LONDON — Do you miss the big ball-filled playgrounds of your youth? Head to Hammersmith, London then, where a veritable ocean of balls has just opened up.

Jump In! is a new ball pond full of 81,000 balls built by creative agency Pearlfisher to "promote the transformative power of play." For most, it's mainly a chance to regress to the carefree ball frolics of their youth for an hour or so.

Image: Mashable/YouTube

The ball-fest runs at the Pearlfisher Gallery in west London every Monday to Friday until Feb. 13th, and is free.

Email jumpin@pearlfisher.com to reserve a place among the balls. They're donating £1 to Right To Play for everyone who attends. Read more...

More about Uk, London, Us World, Videos, and Balls

Senators Blast IRS Commissioner Over Waste, Bonuses, Bad Service, More

As the 2015 tax filing season gets underway, Senators place the blame with the IRS, not Congress. Meantime, Obamacare requires extra filing attention.

OnePlus has a new flavor of Android called OxygenOS

You may know OnePlus as one of the fast-rising Chinese mobile companies — the one that made a name for itself by offering an impressive phone, the OnePlus One, for a relatively cheap price. One of the key ingredients of the phone was its OS, a popular modified version of Android called Cyanogen.

Late last year, though, the relationship between OnePlus and Cyanogen hit the skids when the OnePlus One was banned in India because a rival manufacturer had an exclusive deal with Cyanogen to sell phones in that country. That led OnePlus to build its own Android-based OS, and now it has a name for it. Read more...

More about Tech, Apps Software, Mobile, Oneplus, and Cyanogenmod

Pitbull-Dachshund mix with tiny feet and a huge head sparks adoption frenzy

No, you're not dreaming. This is an actual Pitbull-Dachshund puppy.

Don't even try to figure out how it makes sense, everything about him is perfect. Just appreciate his cute little feet and his ginormous adorable head.

See also: Dog travels the country, poses for majestic portraits

Image: Moultrie Colquitt County Humane Society Facebook

The one-year-old's name is Rami, and he's as rare as he is majestic. According to the Moultrie Colquitt County Humane Society's Facebook page, he's also available for adoption. But you'd be facing some stiff competition in adopting him — within hours of posting, his image had been shared more than 29,000 times. Rami was so popular, the center put out a notice to have people send in early applications. Read more...

More about Dogs, Cute Animals, Watercooler, Pics, and Conversations

Study Links Allergy And Depression Medications To Increased Risk For Dementia

Results from a new study provide increasing evidence that anticholinergic drugs—commonly used to treat allergies, insomnia or even depression--may heighten the risk for dementia in older persons.

When her favorite song plays, tiny diva shows classmates how it's done

Everyone has that one song that makes them lose control on the dance floor, and this girl just found hers.

Unsatisfied with her classmates' lackluster moves, this little student throws her headband and goes off on her own freestyle.

See also: A supercut of the most overused pop song lyric

When you find out everything's cancelled today. #Goodmorning

A video posted by JUAN VELOZ (@jveloz) on Jan 27, 2015 at 6:25am PST

Watch out world, the next Rihanna has arrived and she's wearing yellow flannel. Read more...

More about Viral Videos, Cute Kids, Watercooler, and Videos

Mobilizing tech for good: The 2015 Social Good Summit in New York

As technology continues to evolve, its ability to affect positive change has grown exponentially. From GIFs that promote safe vaccine transport to paper microscopes designed to detect disease, the world has given rise to a generation of innovators, activists and entrepreneurs dedicated to harnessing the power of tech for good.

Since 2010, Mashable has brought together world leaders, grassroots activists and global citizens to discuss digital solutions to the greatest challenges of our time. This year, we're proud to carry on that tradition at the sixth annual Social Good Summit, which will be taking place from Sept. 27 to 28 in New York City. Read more...

More about Social Good and Social Good Summit

Why The Hardest Questions Have The Simplest Answers

Good people are good at answering hard questions. Great people are great at asking simple questions. Let me explain with a couple of examples.

9 Ways To Create A Stress-Free Work Environment

David Cameron listens to a 'chillax' playlist on Spotify

LONDON — Today marks 100 days until the general election in May, and politicians are hitting the campaign trail hard. Amid all the TV and radio appearances Tuesday, though, one startling revelation stands out: David Cameron tunes in to a "chillax" playlist on Spotify.

See also: David Cameron says TV debates take the life out of elections

The news, which came on an LBC radio interview, begs several questions immediately. What could be on this laid-back mixtape? Jack Johnson? James Blake? Something acoustic and mellow? Or is he more of a Pure Moods kind of guy, cranking up the Enya and Enigma of an evening? Perhaps we'll never know. Read more...

More about Beyonce, David Cameron, Music, Us World, and Politics

Why NYC smartphones got blizzard alerts, but no one else did

If you were in New York City on Tuesday night, that strange noise coming from your smartphone at about 8:55 p.m. was an alert about the imminent road closure. Due to the severe blizzard blanketing the city in snow, the streets would close to everything but emergency vehicles at 11 p.m.

This is the wireless emergency alert (WEA) system at work. WEAs take advantage of the ubiquity of smartphones to alert people about emergencies. The alerts come in from federal agencies or local governments, and all the major carriers push them through to their subscribers at no cost.

See also: Craigslisters are desperately searching for blizzard cuddle buddies Read more...

More about Alerts, Tech, Mobile, Us, and Wea

A Completely Unstructured Approach To Covering Big Data

Not to give you too much of a peek inside the sausage factory, but my general method for pulling together these posts is to peruse the news and see what big data themes have percolated to the forefront on the web. For those of you too young and too addicted to Starbucks to know what “percolators” actually were, the contemporary synonym is “trending.”

SAG Awards 2015: 'Orange is the New Black,' 'Birdman' among winners

Netflix had a good night at the SAG Awards

The streaming network took home three awards at the annual event, including best comedy ensemble (Orange is the New Black), best actor in a drama (Kevin Spacey), and best actress in a comedy (Uzo Aduba)

See also: Uzo Aduba delivers tearful tribute to 'OITNB' cast in SAG Awards speech

On the movies side, many of the actors who heard their names read should be getting used to making speeches by now, as quite a few of them just accepted Golden Globes a few weeks ago

Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons and Patricia Arquette all walked away with new hardware to add to their growing collections Read more...

More about Movies, Television, Entertainment, Tv, and Sag Awards

Obama and Indian PM cite progress toward nuclear ties and climate change

NEW DELHI — Seizing on their personal bond, U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday that they had made progress on nuclear cooperation and climate change, with Obama declaring a "breakthrough understanding" in efforts to free U.S. investment in nuclear energy development in India.

Obama and Modi expressed hope that a landmark 2008 nuclear agreement between the U.S. and India could begin to bear fruit.

See also: Obama ending India trip early, will join world leaders to pay respects to Saudi king

"We are committed to moving towards full implementation, and this is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship," Obama said. Read more...

More about India, Barack Obama, Us World, Politics, and Us

For Cloud Computing Guidance, Look To Washington (Seriously)

Let's face it, cloud computing is uncharted territory for many organizations. To sort-of paraphrase Winston Churchill, never in the field of computing have so many depended on so few. Enterprises are gradually, and inexorably, turning over significant portions of their infrastructures to outside cloud providers. Lately, there's been talk of consolidation of big cloud providers to a few major providers.

The Beatles To Tarzan: 4 All-Time Epic Negotiations

Some of the all-time most epic negotiations involve entrepreneurs who viewed the scope of their deals in terms of decades, rather than years. Too often, entrepreneurs negotiate deals which consider a relatively short-term time horizon. This tendency is understandable, as most business negotiations address near-term objectives, such as driving incremental revenue or acquiring customers. However, shrewd entrepreneurs look beyond a deal’s near-term impact.

Millennials, On-Trend Customers Hate Your Old-Fashioned Luxury (Here's What They Do Like)

Young customers today including millennials, as well as the more on-trend among their elders, are turned off by design cues in hospitality, retail and other commercial settings like gilded ceilings, ostentatious furnishings, and "fakey-parked" Bentleys outside hotel entrances. Customer experience consultant Micah Solomon explains.

Cultural Events Offer Alternate Options During Super Bowl Week in Phoenix

On Sunday, February 1, Super Bowl XLIX comes to Arizona with what promises to be a very entertaining contest between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. The latter team is actually aiming for back-to-back NFL Championships, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in a decade, after disposing of the Denver Broncos rather easily in last year’s event. They’ll be seeking to do the same against the last franchise who secured back-to-back titles, the Patriots, who are actually shooting for their first Super Bowl win since second of the back-to-back championships in 2004. No matter the result, it should be a very unique clash between two prestigious organizations, and with the aforementioned at stake, this will surely be one of the more monumental Super Bowls in the history of the sport.

Will Obama's 529 Plan Tax Hike Also Hit Disabled Kids?

On top of everything else, it appears that President Obama's 529 plan tax hike might also fall on--of all things--disabled children and the parents who save for them.

Mobile network Three set to buy O2 for £10bn

LONDON — Mobile network Three is set to acquire Britain's second-largest mobile provider O2 from Spain's Telefónica in a £10 billion ($15 billion) deal.

See also: Google could be your next mobile carrier as early as this year

The move would create the UK's biggest mobile group and reduce the number of major operators in the UK from four to three.

It would also make Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest person whose firm Hutchison Whampoa owns the Three network, one of the biggest foreign investors in the UK.

Hutchison said its offer includes £9.25 billion ($13.9 billion) in cash plus up to another £1 billion ($1.5 billion) in interest payments after the deal is completed, depending on how O2 and Three perform once they are combined. Read more...

More about O2, Business, World, Three, and Mobile Networks

SIHH 2015: Introducing the Exceptional A. Lange & Sohne Saxonia Automatik

It's January and every watch geek knows what that means. Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, more commonly referred to as SIHH, has arrived! Amongst the exhibitors at this grandiose affair are Cartier, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, A. Lange & Sohne, and a plethora of other Richemont brands and independent watchmaking houses. When it comes to ultra-luxury watches, I tend to prefer the simpler designs, such as the new Saxonia Automatik by A. Lange & Sohne.

Drone pilot settles controversial, 3-year case with FAA

The controversial case in which a drone pilot fought the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for almost three years — and almost changed the rules of the game — is finally over. It ended in a tie.

Raphael Pirker, also known as "Trappy," announced that he settled his lawsuit against the FAA on Thursday, agreeing to pay $1,100. That put an end to a case in which the FAA had fined Pirker for allegedly flying his drone "recklessly" while filming a commercial at the University of Virginia

See also: The 19 best drone photos of 2014

Pirker, however, did not admit to any wrongdoing or to violating any rules Read more...

More about Faa, Us World, Us, World, and Drones

Verizon Sees More Connections Amid 'Wireless' Threat From Google

Wireless and broadband connections are up for America’s leading carrier, but its market share could be under threat from a reported alliance between upstarts T-Mobile and Sprint with Google.

Amazon Kindle Textbook Creator turns PDFs into e-textbooks

Amazon on Thursday released a tool meant to help educators and writers publish e-textbooks.

It's straightforwardly titled the Kindle Textbook Creator, and it makes it easy to transform PDFs into an e-book format. Plain PDFs are pretty static learning materials, but Amazon says its Textbook Creator offers a simple (and free) way to organize an array of educational materials — graphs, equations, charts or anything else you might find in a textbook

See also: Why E-Readers Are the Next iPods

Textbooks created with the platform will also give readers a variety of Kindle tools to take advantage of. There's a multicolor highlighting tool, a notebook feature to capture key passages, a dictionary/Wikipedia lookup function, and flashcards. Once readers buy the Kindle textbook, they can read it on all sorts of devices, like Amazon's Kindles, of course, as well as iPads, iPhones or Android devices Read more...

More about Amazon, Education, Kindle, Ereader, and Tech

'Better Call Saul' review: Spinoff delivers your 'Breaking Bad' fix

LOS ANGELES — Though touted as a prequel, Better Call Saul's opening minutes begin where Breaking Bad's penultimate episode left Saul Goodman, which will give viewers a welcome false impression that Vince Gilligan's acclaimed AMC series never ended.

In this scenario, told through black-and-white scenes reminiscent of Bob Odenkirk's role in the 2013 film Nebraska, the sleazy criminal lawyer is no longer that, having recently extracted himself from his dangerous life in Albuquerque in favor of a safer one in Nebraska.

See also: 'Breaking Bad' Cast Feels All the Feels at Final Emmys Together

The series immediately flashes back to 2002, six years before Saul even meets antihero Walter White, where we learn his origin story as an unknown public defender struggling to support himself and his ailing older brother Chuck McGill (played by Michael McKean) Read more...

More about Entertainment, Tv, Reviews, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul

Seven Common Small Business Mistakes And How To Deal With Them

Courtesy of seven leaders drawn from Forbes’ list of America’s Most Promising Companies. Edited by Max Mallet

Goodnight Moot: 4chan founder steps down after 11 years

Goodnight Moot.

Christopher Poole, founder of the controversial anonymous online community 4chan, announced Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role as the website's sole administrator

See also: Aliens in the valley: The complete and chaotic history of Reddit

"I founded 4chan eleven and a half years ago at the age of 15, and after more than a decade of service, I've decided it's time for me to move on," Poole, who goes by the user name Moot, wrote in a post announcing his decision. "I'm retiring as 4chan's administrator."

Eleven and a half years of @4chan, in numbers: pic.twitter.com/YhzUy0XbvQ

— 4chan (@4chan) January 21, 2015 Read more...

More about 4chan, Moot, and Business

UK's Iraq War inquiry to be postponed until after general election

LONDON — The official six-year-long inquiry into the 2003 Iraq War will not publish its report until after the general election in May.

The inquiry chairman, Sir John Chilcot confirmed the news Wednesday in a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron.

See also: Hoax radio message sparks search for fake missing plane

In the letter, he promises to finish the work as soon as possible but says "it is clear that it will take some further months."

The news has been met with dismay, with Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg calling it "incomprehensible." Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon echoed his sentiments. Read more...

More about Tony Blair, Us World, World, Saddam Hussein, and Iraq War

Live from Microsoft's Windows 10 consumer event

Microsoft's other Windows 10 shoe is about to drop.

Four months after revealing Windows 10 and its enterprise and business focus, Microsoft is finally ready to deliver on the promise of an operating system that "unlocks new experiences for customers to work, play and connect."

See also: What to expect at Microsoft's big Windows 10 event

Though well over a million people downloaded the first Windows 10 preview build, not much is known, beyond the return of the Start Menu, about how this major update will impact and benefit consumers. That all changes on Wednesday.

It's also a good bet that we'll learn more about Windows Phone, Windows gaming and how all the Windows 10-based technology ties together. There may even be some new hardware. The fun begins Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 9 a.m. PST (Noon ET). Read more...

More about Microsoft, Windows, Live Blog, Tech, and Apps Software