Microsoft has announced two new versions of its Xbox One console in an ambitious plan to ensure the lifespan of its latest machine. A new, more compact version called Xbox One S is launching in August, while Christmas 2017 will see the arrival of Xbox One Project Scorpio, a significantly more powerful update, that will support high definition virtual reality as well as games designed to exploit new 4K Ultra HD technology. Related: E3 2016: what's it really like to go to the world's biggest games event? During the company's press conference ahead of the E3 games event in Los Angeles – the industry's largest event, which begins tomorrow – Xbox chief Phil Spencer declared that the new consoles are designed to ensure the lifespan of the machine beyond a single hardware generation. He also announced closer compatibility between Xbox One and Windows titles, allowing cross-platform multiplayer gaming in titles like Gears of War 4 and Minecraft.

People have a tendency to talk about their city's terrible drivers with a weird sense of pride. In Boston, they're called Massholes. In Philly, being aggressive and rude behind the wheel is just a given. Wherever you go, it seems, traffic is terrible. The automobile, the sociologist Henri Lefebvre once said, was "the last refuge of chance and risk in an increasingly controlled and managed society."

Bolstered by a bevy of marketing partners and the exhibition muscle of its parent company's cinema chain, Legendary Entertainment's "Warcraft" smashed its way into the box-office record books last week in China, earning 156 million in its first five days in theaters. The long-awaited fantasy film based on Blizzard Entertainment's popular "Warcraft" video game series occupied nearly two-thirds of all screens on the mainland upon its opening Wednesday, with 120,000 screenings alone on its first day in theaters – a record, according to Dalian Wanda, which purchased Legendary this year. The opening-week performance of "Warcraft" already has outstripped the entire China runs of other major Hollywood films released this year including "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Kung Fu Panda 3." And the movie's China receipts have been some six times greater than its domestic earnings. Near the end of "Warcraft" -- an elaborate, exhausting cinematic collision of humans and Orcs, live actors and digital extras, geek enthusiasms and multiplex dollars -- the director Duncan Jones grants us a breather from all the thundering mayhem. Near the end of "Warcraft" -- an elaborate, exhausting cinematic collision of humans and Orcs, live actors and digital extras, geek enthusiasms and multiplex dollars -- the director Duncan Jones grants us a breather from all the thundering mayhem.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is taking place in San Francisco, where Tim Cook and other executives are expected to reveal changes to Apple operating systems, give Siri a bigger role, and make the App Store more compelling for developers. We'll be live-blogging here, as our reporters at the Bill Graham Auditorium, follow the coverage. Thanks the audience and Apple community and ends WWDC. App varies from teaching young people simple code to introducing more complicated coding features. "Swift Playground will revolutionize the way people learn to code," Cook said.

Apple's developer conference kicked off in San Francisco Monday. SAN FRANCISCO – Apple unloaded an avalanche of evolutionary news at its developers conference Monday, an effort to tout the power of its iOS ecosystems. From confirming speculation that Siri would be opening up to app creators to a new messaging app that can suggest emojis, Apple's top executives offered a smorgasbord of updates that were all about making it easier for consumers to interact with Apple's hardware. "You're a part of everything we do now," Apple CEO Tim Cook told the 5,000 developers gathered at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for the kickoff to WWDC 2016. "We think it's crucial that we provide the best tools so you can create the best apps."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn just lit up the cloud wars. The giant maker of Windows software missed out on the consumer boom. Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft is reaching for riches in the "cloud," doubling down on software and services delivered over the Internet on a variety of platforms and devices. With the 26.2 billion acquisition of the Facebook of professional networks, Microsoft is placing a big bet that bringing together its "professional cloud" and LinkedIn's professional network will help the pair create valuable services for business customers and accelerate Microsoft's shift from traditional software to the cloud, where it's taking on fellow titans of technology Amazon.com and Google. As more companies realize the benefits of shifting software and data off their own computers, tech giants and a slew of start-ups are battling ever more aggressively for these clients.

Microsoft has launched its smallest Xbox games console - the Xbox One S - at the E3 gaming event in Los Angeles, but then revealed it was working on something even more powerful. The new console, which comes in a colour called'robot white', is 40 per cent smaller than the original Xbox One and has abandoned the bulky power external supply seen in previous consoles. It also supports 4K Ultra HD video, but will also come with up to 2TB of internal hard disk space. But Microsoft said it will be dwarfed by a new console it plans to launch in 2017. Codenamed Project Scropio, the newly announced system will aim to deliver true 4K Ultra HD gaming with what Microsoft claims will be the'most powerful games console ever built'.

Once a year, when Slava Epstein was growing up in Moscow, his mother took him to the Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy, a showcase for the wonders of Soviet life. The expo featured many things--from industrial harvesters to Uzbek wine--but Epstein, who began going in the nineteen-sixties, when he was eight or nine, was interested primarily in one: the Cosmos Pavilion, a building the size of a hangar, with a ceiling shaped like a giant inverted parabola. Space fever was running high in the city. Since 1961, when Yuri Gagarin orbited the globe, unmanned vessels had been launched toward Mars and Venus. Beside the expo's entrance, the towering Monument to the Conquerors of Space depicted a probe swooping up to the heavens. The Pavilion displayed futuristic technology--Vostok rockets and Soyuz orbiters--but Epstein was less interested in the glories of advanced thruster design than in the glories of space. He wanted to devote himself to astronomy. When a textbook that he found on the topic began with algebraic formulas, he prodded his older brother to explain them. During high school, he enrolled in classes in physics and math at Moscow State University. His parents disapproved of his desired career: because he is half Jewish, Epstein would face harsh Soviet quotas limiting Jews in the study of physics, a field deemed relevant to national security. But after his first lecture the professor invited him for a walk, and affirmed what they had been saying all along. "Don't do it," he warned. Soviet Russia may have been a fatalist's paradise, but from a young age Epstein felt that he was hardwired for optimism. He convinced himself that what is truly important in science is the ability to connect ideas, no matter the field, and so he took up biology. Rather than telescopes, he would use microscopes, which he began taking with him on trips to the White Sea, near the Arctic Circle, to study protozoa along the shore--research that could be conducted with minimal state interference. Over time, he grew interested in even smaller, more ancient forms of life: bacteria. Studying microbes inevitably causes a reordering of one's perceptions: for more than two billion years, they were the only life on this planet, and they remain in many ways its dominant life form. To a remarkable extent, the microbial cosmos was less explored than the actual cosmos: precisely how the organisms evolve, replicate, fight, and communicate remains unclear. Nearly all of microbiology, Epstein eventually learned, was built on the study of a tiny fraction of microbial life, perhaps less than one per cent, because most bacteria could not be grown in a laboratory culture, the primary means of analyzing them. By the time he matured as a scientist, many researchers had given up trying to cultivate new species, writing off the majority as "dark matter"--a term used in astronomy for an inscrutable substance that may make up most of the universe but cannot be seen.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Apple's Siri already lives in the company's iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple TV streaming box. Soon enough, the virtual assistant will have a new home on the desktop. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced at its annual developers conference Monday that Siri will be coming to Mac computers later this year in its upcoming Sierra update. During a demo on stage, Apple executive Craig Federighi showcased how Siri will be able to quickly pull up files stored on your Mac. Siri for the Mac will also be able to search for images on the Web, launch playlists, and send messages.