BGR Daily Breaking Stories

Daily Headlines FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015

Video: iPhone 6 free falls from space in the ultimate drop test How annoying is this? You drop your phone accidentally from barely 3 feet off the ground and the screen shatters instantly. Meanwhile, Urban Armor Gear flies an iPhone 6 into space and intentionally drops it back down to Earth, and it emerges unscathed. UAG’s video isn’t going to make the sting of having dropped and cracked your smartphone any less painful, but it’s still pretty fun to watch.  MORE → 2015’s most gorgeous Android phone will probably be unveiled on March 1st The HTC One M8 was easily the most beautiful Android smartphone of the year in 2014. It might not have been the best-selling handset since HTC doesn’t quite have a marketing budget that compares to its massive rivals Samsung and Apple, but the M8 is still one of our favorite phones of all time. Now, it looks like we may finally know when the phone’s sequel — presumably dubbed the HTC One M9 — will be announced.  MORE → Why Samsung should be happy to see Apple’s iPhone 6s crush sales records this year Apple is about to report results for the Christmas quarter that include all-time highs in a number of key areas, with analysts expecting the company to have sold a record number of iPhones during the period. While that’s generally bad news for rivals, Samsung may have a reason this year to appreciate Apple’s habit of constantly beating its iPhone sales records, especially once the company starts selling its iPhone 6s models, which are expected to launch later this year.  MORE → Microsoft slashes Xbox One price to $349 again after big win over PS4 in December Market research firm NPD Group on Thursday night released its sales estimates for the video game industry in December. The firm’s figures are widely viewed as the most important estimates in the industry, and for December they revealed a huge victory for Microsoft as Xbox One sales topped PlayStation 4 sales in the holiday month. A big reason for that win was obviously Microsoft’s move to slash the price of its Xbox One bundles to $349, and now the company has already brought back its promotional pricing once again for a limited time.  MORE → Monster specs for LG’s 2015 flagship phone may have just leaked LG at CES 2015 unveiled its second-generation smartphone with a flexible display, a powerful Android handset, but the G Flex 2 won’t be the company’s main phone this year. That spot is reserved for the LG G4, and a report from Greek publication TechManiacs, has revealed more details about the upcoming monster Android device.  MORE → How Facebook and Twitter make you pay the ‘cost of caring’ A new study from the Pew Research Center found that using social networks including Facebook, Twitter and others, as well as other means of digitally sharing experiences, isn’t as stressful as some claimed in the past. But the overall social networking experience may become an invisible burden for many, who unknowingly pay the “cost of caring.”  MORE → This hysterical retelling of ‘Interstellar’ cost just $20 to make The critical response to the Matthew McConaughey vehicle Interstellar was mixed, but everyone agreed that it was quite a sight to behold. Like Gravity before it, Interstellar turned outer space into an incredible spectacle, especially in IMAX theaters. This was all possible thanks to an enormous budget of $165 million, but one YouTuber took it upon himself to retell the epic story in 3 minutes… with a $20 budget.  MORE → Study reveals why we’ve stopped going to the movie theater In spite of all the blockbusters that released in 2014, movie theater attendance actually took a dive. According to a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the number one contributing factor to box office declines is the rise in ticket prices. Movie goers expect to get what they pay for, but in their minds, they’re paying more for the same experience that they’ve always had.  MORE → Fresh controversy engulfs Verizon’s unkillable stalker cookies Verizon has been using a kind of tracking cookie on its network that can’t be deleted. The company has insisted that the special cookie is only there for its own use and said that “it is unlikely that sites and ad entities will attempt to build customer profiles” using the cookies. However, a new report from Pro Publica indicates that Verizon’s promise has already come undone.  MORE → This cartoon will shame you into never buying a ‘selfie stick’ One of the more unfortunate trends to pop up at CES 2015 this year was the “selfie stick,” which is basically just a stick that you can attach to your phone and use it to hold the phone farther away from you so you can snap better selfies. The Oatmeal has put together a new cartoon flowchart that will help you decide whether you should buy yourself a selfie stick… and it basically says that you have no reason to do so unless you’re either Japanese or someone who has given up on life. MORE →