Gas prices are so getting so low, people are taking photos of the signs

A gallon of gas for under $3? The number on signs across the U.S. has caught many drivers by surprise — so much so that they're taking photos.

In the past month, the national average price of gasoline fell $0.30 to $3 on Friday, according to AAA.

See also: 26 Weird Museums to Visit for the Ultimate American Road Trip

"It's stunning what's happening here," Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, told the Associated Press. "I'm a little bit shocked."

Kloza said the average will fall to under $3 by early Saturday morning, for the first time in four years. The highest average price in the continental U.S. is in New York, at $3.37, and the lowest is in South Carolina and Tennessee, both with an average of $2.75. Read more...

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HTC Desire 510 review: Inbetweener

We're not far from the time when the smart in phone will be implied. Prices are falling, market share is climbing - it's near impossible to keep track these days of all the new entries in the low end and the midrange. HTC's Desire lineup is no...

Andy Rubin exits Google: Where are the robots?

“The future is looking awesome!” Andy Rubin tweeted almost a year ago. Back then, it was

Google had just acquired yet another robotics firm for Rubin, the founder and former head of Android, to run as part of Google’s Robot Initiative (hence the tweet).

Almost a year later, Andy Rubin has yet to tweet again (about anything) — and has, with little fanfare, exited Google

Which leaves me with just one question: Where are my freakin’ Google Robots, Andy?

Thus far, the Google robot legacy has been one of frustration. For the better part of a year, I watched as Google snapped up one major robotics company after another. Most were, admittedly, well known only to the robot community. But the Boston Dynamics acquisition stood out, because its videos of walking, running, jumping and lumbering Big Dog robots had captured the imagination of millions of viewers on YouTube. Read more...

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Google rotates 6 Doodles for Halloween and lets you spookify selfies

It's Halloween, so naturally we expected a themed Google Doodle to go along with the day

But this year, we were treated to six Doodles (in the form of GIFs) that alternate each time you load the homepage, from a witch stirring the pot to werewolves howling at the moon. While the mix is certainly fun, the Doodles are far less interactive than they've been in the past. Bing's following up its brilliant Halloween homepage from 2013 by taking visitors on a tour of famous scary myths, including the Flying Dutchman and Bloody Mary.

See also: 50 last-minute Halloween costumes

But the true standout this year comes from Google+, which is getting into the spirit with a #Halloweenify tool that gives your selfies a twist. After uploading a photo to the site, visit the Photos tab, and follow the commands at the top of the page Read more...

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Stories that will scare the bejeezus out of you in 5 words or less

Freddy Kruger wishes he was this terrifying.

Halloween is supposed to be scary — and nothing is scarier than your true fears about life that you would never admit it out loud. #ScaryStoriesIn5Words exploits that very fear.

See also: 12 Halloween costumes you can make in 5 minutes or less

The #ScaryStoriesIn5Words hashtag, which is trending on Twitter, was started by host of Comedy Central's @midnight Chris Hardwick. The stories are making us all laugh nervously (they're funny because they're true). Read more...

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Samsung Ativ S gets updated to Windows Phone 8.1

The Samsung Ativ S is now ready to enter the Windows Phone 8.1 club. Lagging behind several Nokia handsets, the smartphone launched two years ago is finally starting to receive an over-the-air update to Windows Phone 8.1. Owners of the Ativ S in both Italy and Germany have reported getting asked to perform the update. Furthermore, Samsung confirmed the rollout for unbranded units sold in Italy, so other European countries should see it pretty soon, we assume. As is usually the case with such things, the rollout might take a while, so perhaps don't lose sight of your patience just yet. The update comes with a few new features, such as the Action Center for notifications and shortcuts, the ability to use a background image for the tiled home screen, a swipe-enabled keyboard, an optional third row of tiles, improved Bing search, separate volume levels for ringtones and notifications and for media files and apps, a new layout for the Camera app, live folders, and a screen sharing option (that works only via USB). Music and Videos are now two separate apps. The dialer, calendar, task manager, and Internet Explorer have been updated too, sporting better performance and graphics. Source (in Italian) | Via 1 (in Italian) • Via...

5 Pokémon horror movies to thundershock you this Halloween

Maybe your Poké-pals aren't so cuddly after all.

In the spirit of Halloween, UK-based graphic illustrator and gamer Ed Krieger imagines a series of posters in which your favorite Pokémon characters were antagonists in classic horror films.

See also: The 10 Most Bizarre Pokémon Fan Theories

Jigglypuff alien invasions? Tangela deep sea creatures? We'd watch these movies!

"Pretty much all my inspiration is from gaming," Krieger told Mashable. "I've been gaming most of my life. I usually create art based on what I've been playing, Nintendo being the most influential."

You can check out more of Krieger's video game illustrations on Tumblr at his blog Purple Pixel. Read more...

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5 eery space images to celebrate Halloween

'Costume Quest 2' is a wild goose chase to save Halloween

Candy binges. Pumpkin carving. Horror movie marathons. These are our Halloween staples — traditions people look forward to year after year

And then there's a tradition of games designer Tim Schafer: watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

"I grew up in California, where the seasons don't change, so the Charlie Brown special represented what fall was supposed to feel like to me," Schafer says. "Hearing that music, seeing the leaves blowing, it brings back great childhood memories."

See also: 8 Halloween games for the fraidycat in all of us

It's an association he felt while testing Costume Quest, a Halloween-themed game produced by Schafer's studio Double Fine. Though Schafer leads production on most games from Double Fine, this was the first time he took a backseat. Read more...

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Samsung Galaxy S5 joins Sprint's device leasing scheme

A couple of weeks ago Sprint introduced its device leasing program, and so far only the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been in it. Through this scheme, you're able to lease a handset by essentially paying Sprint a monthly sum as 'rent'. And now the carrier has announced it's adding two new devices to the leasing roster, namely Samsung's Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy S5 Sport (pictured to the left). Beginning today you can grab either smartphone through Sprint Lease and pay $20 per month for it. The lease goes on for two years, after which you have four options. You can give back your S5 or S5 Sport and lease another handset, you can purchase the S5 or S5 Sport you've been using, you can continue leasing it on a month-by-month basis, or you can return the device to Sprint and terminate service. Like in the case of the aforementioned iPhones, if you're an existing Sprint customer and you choose the leasing option before January 15, 2015, you'll only pay $5 per month for the Galaxy S5 or Galaxy S5 Sport. The rest of the terms of the program remain...

Money flies onto interstate, motorists freak out

The real Dracula is way more disturbing than any story

Count Dracula might be a fictional character who makes the blood curdle on Halloween, but his historical namesake is not. Vlad III, known in his heyday as Dracula — or Drăculea, in old Romanian — was a medieval prince with a figurative thirst for blood.

As his other nickname, "Vlad the Impaler," suggests, Vlad had a penchant for brutally punishing his enemies. However, much of what modern historians know about Vlad III comes from pamphlets and other texts printed in the 15th century, both during and after Vlad's reign. The historical accuracy of these texts — many of which were written by Vlad's enemies — can't be confirmed. Read more...

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For Microsoft Outlook for Mac, 2015 has come early

Microsoft Office for Mac won't be coming until 2015 but the new Outlook for Mac is available now.

The company rolled out an updated version of Outlook for Mac for Office 365 users Friday and revealed new details about when the rest of its Office software will be available.

See also: 10 Incredible Works of Art Made in Microsoft Excel

"This release offers a more familiar and consistent experience between Outlook on the PC, Outlook on the web and Outlook Web App (OWA) for iPad, iPhone and Android devices," the company wrote in a blog post.

The user interface in the newest version of Outlook has been revamped with a more modern design, improved scrolling and faster loading. Microsoft also improved its Exchange functionality with faster syncing and online archive support that allows users to search their Exchange archive from within Outlook. Read more...

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Silent massacre: A month of slaughter in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Editor's note: Some may find the imagery below to be disturbing.

Throughout October, the death toll in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been steadily increasing. Rebel groups have carried out a series of seemingly arbitrary killings and kidnappings against civilians, murdering men, women and children with machetes, batons and axes. The attacks have left at least 100 dead in the past month, Amnesty International said on Friday

One armed group being credited with most of the violence is the Ugandan-based Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which has been hiding out in the Congolese forest. The most recent attack on Thursday night claimed the lives of 18 civilians. Locals reported that groups of men entered villages with child soldiers as young as 7 years old, then ordered the children to kill civilians. Read more...

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British Museum now lets you 3D print its artifacts using Sketchfab

Why visit a museum halfway around the world, when you can check out 3D scans, and print them from your own home?

Sketchfab, a platform that lets users publish and share 3D content online, unveiled on Thursday an option for users to make their files downloadable. Under Creative Commons licenses, a user can either publish 3D content "for display and download" or "for display only," Sketchfab said in a blog post. Users can apply the content in a variety of ways, such as using it in virtual reality environments, when developing video games or, if the files are compatible, for 3D printing.

See also: 3D Printing: Everything You Need to Know in 2 Minutes Read more...

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Baby's Halloween costume does Ruth Bader Ginsburg justice

Your Michael Jackson costume will never be as cute as Blue Ivy's

At least 1 dead in Virgin Galactic spaceship crash

A spaceship that has promised to shuttle hundreds of paying customers to orbit when it begins commercial flights next year crashed after experiencing an "in-flight anomaly" during a test flight on Friday. California Highway Patrol said there is one fatality and one major injury.

See also: Virgin Galactic SpaceshipTwo: What Your $250K Flight Will Feel Like

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo had taken off at 12:19 p.m. ET from Mojave, California for what the company was calling a "Halloween treat."

But less than an hour later, the company tweeted that something had gone wrong. The vehicle was manned, the company said in a statement provided to NBC News, but the fate of the pilots is unknown. Read more...

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