The Pixel XL is the first Android phone to deliver an emphatic, cohesive, surprise-and-delight experience. Samsung and the other Android phone makers have tried to give users something magical before, but they never quite made fetch happen. Even Google itself has toyed with a unified software/hardware gestalt via its Nexus phones, but those devices could sometimes feel like stripped-down vessels for disconnected software services. But in the Pixel XL we finally have an Android phone that directly competes with the iPhone in terms of holistic design. For this we can thank Google Assistant, which serves as a central entry point for all the Google services I've been using daily since I switched from the iPhone in 2014. It really ties the room together.

Google has been selling phones since the Nexus One landed almost seven years ago. In fact, there have been eight Nexus phones, one each year through 2014, and two last year. They have generally been good phones, especially in the last few years. But the Pixel is not a Nexus. With the Pixel, Google did more than partner with a phone maker to slap Android on an already-designed handset. It created its own hardware and software innovations on top of stock Android. The result is a phone that may displease Android purists, but should delight everyone else. This is Google's first real attempt to push a phone to the mass market, and the Pixel competes directly with the iPhone as well as pricey flagships from Samsung and LG. The Pixel is smaller, with a 5-inch 1080p display instead of the Pixel XL's 5.5-inch 1440p display. The smaller display--along with the Pixel's smaller battery--is the only difference between the two models. Nexus phones were built in partnerships with hardware partners like LG, Motorola, and Samsung.

There's a good chance information about you is available for sale to advertisers and other businesses on Vertical Mass. The nearly 3-year-old West Hollywood start-up provides user data storage and analysis software for companies in music, sports, video games and Hollywood. Those companies also can list some of their user information for sale, with Vertical Mass collecting a portion of the proceeds. Fees from the software service and the data marketplace have brought Vertical Mass seven figures in revenue for two consecutive years, Chief Executive Mark Shedletsky said, declining to provide specific figures. But investors think the company is only getting started as a key information broker in the entertainment universe.

Google couldn't have picked a better time to hit reset on its flagship phones. Samsung's Galaxy Note7 is literally burning up in flames, and that's created a gaping hole in the premium Android market. The company's new Pixel and Pixel XL replace the Nexus phones. The names are new and they're positioned as premium phones, but, make no mistake, they still stick to the Nexus mission: to offer the very best and purest experience of Android and Google services that you can get. Which isn't to say the Nexus phones were flawless. The problem with Nexus wasn't bad hardware (last year's 5X and 6P were the best Nexus phones yet) or poor software (stock Android will always be superior to any custom skins), but that they never moved outside of the geek circle: Google barely marketed them, and they never really sold at scale.

Despite decades of object examples suggesting otherwise, the video game-turned-movie Assassin's Creed continues to look very good. The latest trailer highlights the movie's present-day setting, always an object of curiosity in the games. The Assassin's Creed series sends modern-day protagonists back to live in the shoes of their distant ancestors, with the help of super computers and what amounts to next-next-next-next-gen virtual reality. Stephen Colbert's alter ego Randy gave Barack Obama career advice Man climbs to the roof of London's Tate Modern in nail-biting GoPro footage'Game of Thrones' actor reads celebrity tweets in a very dramatic way This trailer for Werner Herzog's'Into the Inferno' will leave you in awe of volcanoes

Ever wanted to know what historical images would look like in color? Rudy Marsman used a computer algorithm to add color to six black and white films from the archives of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Rudy is a master student in Information Science at the VU University in Amsterdam. The automatic coloring of moving images was part of the research he did for his master thesis at Sound and Vision. As part of my master's thesis I researched the possibilities to automatically color black and white videos.

Before we jump into a discussion about the Pixel XL, we wanted to set out our review methodology. We've had the Pixel XL in our office since Friday last week, and this is going out at 12.01 am on Thursday morning. We've had barely a couple of days with the phone between other things, and we think that a phone of this importance deserves more than just a few days before publishing a review. So, this time around, we've adopted a different strategy. First up -- and in today's post -- we're going to do a bit of a first look.

The idea of falling in love with a robot is not currently accepted in any society in the world--most likely because robots are regarded as nonliving objects. But as AI evolves, it has the potential to surpass human intelligence, so, at some point, robots may not be perceived as objects anymore, but as equivalent to humans. Many of the companies developing companion robots design them with humanlike functionality, such as the ability to identify their owner's feelings and to evolve their knowledge based on their owner's lifestyle and preferences. The ultimate goal is to ensure the human is happy and satisfied. In this report, we examine how technological advancements could revolutionize relationships and love between human beings and robots.

Where exactly is Westworld located? The show hasn't been very specific about its location and has so far only dropped clues here and there as to its whereabouts. Fans have noticed that the park is so huge that employees need to live onsite, while guests reach the park using an extremely fast and modern train. In the episode "The Stray," fans further learned that park employees communicate with loved ones using computer terminals, therefore implying that wherever Westworld might be, it's definitely far, far away. A popular fan theory has developed that Westworld is located in another planet.

The world's oldest news gathering organization is getting a little help from a young tech startup to bring to life facts and figures for readers. The Associated Press and Graphiq, which specializes in using artificial intelligence to rapidly create interactive data-driven infographics, announced a new partnership Tuesday. Through the AP, Graphiq will distribute its library of more than 10 billion interactive charts and graphs (the company calls them "visualizations") to the wire service's thousands of news clients around the globe, the two companies told Inc. The partnership, whose financials were not disclosed, will make it easier for the AP to provide data infographics for more of its stories while exposing Graphiq to a worldwide user audience. "Today we're reaching hundreds of millions of readers a month, but the AP reaches half the world's population every day," Alex Rosenberg, Graphiq vice president, told Inc. Rosenberg noted that Graphiq will embed some of its staffers in AP newsrooms to be readily available throughout the news outlets' reporting process.