The ESA lost contact with its Schiaparelli lander shortly before it was supposed to land on Mars on October 19th, and now the mystery of what happened to it has been resolved. Like we previously noted, there was a chance that the lander ditched its parachute too early and crashed onto the surface of Red Planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to Europe's Schiaparelli test lander. The new image shows a bright spot that may be Schiaparelli's parachute, and a larger dark spot interpreted as resulting from the impact of the lander itself following a much longer free fall than planned after thrusters switched off prematurely.

Whenever a new iPhone launches, we get to read about crazy stuff people are willing to do in order to get their hands onto Apple's newest flagship. I'm not talking about standing in lines for weeks, although that is also pretty hardcore. For example, last year there was a case of a Chinese guy who tried to sell his kidney so he could buy the new iPhone.

This year we have something less dangerous but equally stupid. A Ukranian webshop Allo decided to give away five iPhone 7 devices to people who officially and legally change their name into - Sim iPhone (sim means seven in Ukranian), Sim being the name and iPhone last name.

The iPhone 7 in Ukraine costs around four average monthly wages, so yes, it is highly valued in that country. The average monthly wage in Ukraine is around $200, and the price of the iPhone 7 is around $800.

Huawei will announce their new flagship phone, the Mate 9, on November 3rd and a lot of information has already leaked, including the price, specifications, and photos. You can read more about it here.

We also found out the Mate 9 will come in two models - standard and curved. Evan Blass reports that the curved model will come to the market named the Mate 9 Pro.

The Mate 9 Pro, with a 5.9-inch display, will feature Huawei's newest chip - the Kirin 960. Users will presumably be able to choose between 4 and 6 GB of RAM, and 64 to 256 GB of flash storage.

Elon Musk held an AMA or "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, where he answered questions strictly related to SpaceX, and not his other companies. The session came almost a month after his presentation at the International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico on September 27th, where he gave details about SpaceX's plans for the colonization of Mars.

Many users wanted to know about the rockets that SpaceX will use to get first people to Mars and Interplanetary Transport System. Musk pointed out that the ITS is designed for a maximum acceleration of 20 Gs, but the spaceship would be limited to around 5 G's nominal, but able to take peak loads 2 to 3 times higher without breaking up.

Musk also believes that the Falcon 9 rockets will be used indefinitely.

Nintendo's brand new Switch system won't support the kind of second-screen gaming experiences found on the Wii U.

Nintendo has affirmed that the Switch's tablet-like "console" is the main unit that powers the gaming experiences, and the dock just relays video signals and charges the system, likely without any extra internal chips. However we have specific reports that the Switch will have boosted performance when its docked versus handheld-based gaming.

"Nintendo Switch is dedicated to deliver a single-screen experience, on whatever screen you might choose," Nintendo told Polygon.

A talented artist splashes some much-needed color on Nintendo's brand new Switch handheld console hybrid.

via GIPHY

Skyrim: Special Edition console mods are limited to just 1GB on PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro, whereas Xbox One gets a beefy 5GB limit.

Bethesda has already confirmed that Skyrim: Special Edition mods on PS4 and PS4 Pro aren't compatible with new assets, meaning no new customized armor or weapon mods, but it gets worse: Skyrim mods on PS4 can't exceed 1GB in size.

"Note on Mods: For Skyrim Special Edition, Mods will reserve 5 GB and 1 GB of space on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, respectively," Bethesda wrote on its updated Skyrim: Special Edition FAQ page.

The latest Nintendo Direct will focus on Monster Hunter, not the new Nintendo Switch console handheld hybrid.

October is traditionally a big month for Nintendo Direct announcements, and many gamers were hoping for a blowout of Nintendo Switch info. Instead of full Switch specs, pricing, and launch games, Nintendo has dedicated the upcoming showcase to Monster Hunter, which might mean we're getting a brand new sequel.

Considering all of the Monster Hunter games are currently available in Japan, the consensus is that Nintendo could unveil Monster Hunter 5 and then stealthily add it to the Switch's launch lineup.

NVIDIA isn't far away from the launch of its GeForce GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti graphics cards, with AMD dropping the "suggested e-tail price" of its Radeon RX 460 and Radeon RX 470 graphics cards. We exclusively reported that the price drops were on their way, and now it has officially happened.

Here's the new pricing structure:

AMD is now directly competing against the GTX 1050 with the new price on the RX 460, while the RX 470 is more expensive than the GTX 1050 Ti, an overclocked model will come very close to the performance of the faster, and more expensive RX 480.

Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are some of the best Android-based smartphones money can buy, but what happens when you drop, or damage your expensive new Android 7.1-powered handset? Other than cry of course.

Google has teamed with repair company uBreakiFix, with Google providing its consumers access to manufacturer-backed, same-day repair services that use OEM parts. Yahoo reports that you will "not have to wait for appointments to get your broken screens fixed, and you can use the available mail-in service if you are not able to visit any of the 250 retail locations".

There are over 250 locations in 187 cities across the US, with each store featuring a team of specialists who will get your Pixel or Pixel XL up and running agian. uBreakiFix CEO and founder Justin Wetherill explains: "We are pleased to provide Pixel customers with the quality repair service and exceptional customer experience that have come to define our brand. A broken device shouldn't have to ruin someone's day".

This year's release of 'Deadpool' was a huge surprise success for 20th Century Fox, grossing nearly $250 million dollars more than the latest 'X-Men' feature 'Apocalypse', despite having a budget nearly two thirds less. Unsurprisingly, the studio has fast tracked a sequel, but they're now on the lookout for a brand new director.

According to The Wrap, former visual effects artist Tim Miller who infused the first 'Deadpool' film with a sleek, fourth wall busting style has apparently opted out of returning to helm the sequel, following "creative differences" with star Ryan Reynolds. The final straw apparently revolved around the casting of the main villain Cable, which found the studio side with Ryan Reynolds. Despite Miller walking, writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are returning to write the script.

Whoever ends up behind the camera, 'Deadpool 2' is set for a 2018 release.

Elon Musk will host an AMA or "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit today, October 23rd, at 6 PM EDT (3 PM PDT). Standard subreddit rules will apply in the AMA thread and the users have been warned to follow the rules and not to ask questions already submitted.

The questions and answers will be on the SpaceX subreddit, meaning you can ask questions related to SpaceX, and not Tesla Motors or SolarCity. Musk also pointed out that he will be answering SpaceX related questions.

Tens of millions of IP addresses were used to take down popular websites like Twitter, Spotify and Netflix on Friday by so far unknown sources. The DDoS attack on the DynDNS started on Friday morning, but the service was restored around 9:30 AM ET. However, around Friday noon, another attack began. Service was restored at approximately 1:00 PM ET same day, but many users had reported they had issues with certain websites.

Dyn reported there was an attempt of a third attack wave, but the were able to successfully mitigate it without customer impact.

Dyn issued a statement saying they are continuing their investigation.

Smartphones, including the iPhone, almost entirely replaced the MP3 players, but Apple's iPod earned its place in history because it forever changed the world of music.

Steve Jobs introduced the iPod at a very humble presentation on this day, October 23rd, 15 years ago. The iPod, which had 5GB of storage and allowed you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket, along with iTunes, started a revolution in the way we buy music and movies.

The first iPod was the size of a deck of cards, with an aluminum back and plastic front end. It had a rather modest screen compared to today's standards, and its price was $399 for a 5GB model, FireWire port included.

ARK: Survival Evolved has been updated, with developer Studio Wildcard releasing update v248 that includes new dinosaurs, new mechanics and features, and now ARK: Survival Evolved features procedurally generated maps - and that's a big deal.

The biggest change to ARK is the inclusion of procedurally generated maps, that will be randomly generated for the user - all on top of the massive worlds that are created. ARK: Survival Evolved players can choose from various landscape options, where they can tweak the heights of mountains, the depths of valleys, and the number of lakes, oceans and rivers - as well as the biomes that they want, and so much more.

There are also new creatures to be scared of, with the prey-grabbing Kaprosuchus, the boulder-throwing Chalicotherium, and the oxygen-giving Diplocaulus - all making appearances in the v248 update for ARK: Survival Evolved. Here's what the v248 update for ARK: Survival Evolved includes:

AT&T has struck a deal to acquire Time Warner, with the merger mounting towards over $80 billion. The news has been reported by the likes of The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg, and has the deal reportedly ballooning out to $85 billion, once it's all done and dusted.

If the deal is inked, AT&T will find itself owning HBO, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and CNN - these companies own some of the biggest entertainment and media companies under their respective umbrellas. HBO has the rights to shows like Game of Thrones, while Warner Bros. has Batman, Superman, the upcoming Wonder Woman and Justice League movies, and so much more. Now AT&T will own them, so could we expect some big changes in the way AT&T stream media to their wireless customers?

What I'd like to be right now: a fly on the wall of the likes of Netflix, and AT&T's competitors - as well as other media and entertainment companies. This $80 billion deal is mammoth, and it'll have big waves for the entire industry.

Shadow Warrior 2 has been one of the best releases on PC in 2016 so far, with developer Flying Wild Hog releasing their third patch for the PC version of Shadow Warrior 2 since it released last week.

The new update includes shadow and geometry flickering issues, optimizes shadow rendering performance, and defaults the GPU to the dedicated graphics card, and not the integrated GPU on your CPU (if you've got one). The new patch also includes some performance improvements to the cooperative side of the game, with FWG providing a bunch of cooperative network bandwidth usage optimizations, and new Photomode fixes.

There are also some new balance and gameplay changes, and the usual general gameplay and UI improvements. The full patch 1.1.3.0 changelog:

We're beginning to find out more concrete details on the technical specifications of Sony's upcoming PS4 Pro console, with PlayStation Chief Architect Mark Cerny explaining some of what Sony has done inside of their new console.

Cerny said there are two chips in the PS4 Pro, which lets it play older PS4 games - but when you install the PS4 Pro game, both of the chips work together. Since Sony tapped AMD's new Polaris architecture for the PS4 Pro, is there some CrossFire magic going on?

He explains: "We doubled the GPU size by essentially placing it next to a mirrored version of itself, sort of like the wings of a butterfly. That gives us an extremely clean way to support the existing 700 titles. We just turn off half the GPU and run it at something quite close to the original GPU".

It looks like developer Battlestate Games has been busy with completely changing Escape of Tarkov, their new hardcore story-driven MMOFPS game that has been in a state of constant change since the developer started on it.

It's been in closed Alpha form for a while now, but the studio is continuing its work on large-scale online testing and performance optimization. The team has made massive upgrades to the graphics in Escape from Tarkov, which looks positively awesome.

The team has said that they have made "significant engine changes", teasing: "

It's no doubt that Nintendo is blowing up the gaming scene as we speak with their release of the latest next-gen console: Nintendo Switch. Though let's not forget that the 3DS is still out there making headlines. Nintendo-America has recently unveiled their new Special Edition: Lime Green 3DS XL.

The console is now available as an Amazon exclusive for the US market, and comes with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System classic Super Mario World pre-installed. Customers will need to buy an AC Adapter (sold separately) but if already owners of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, or Nintendo 2DS can use those adaptors as the system is compatible.

The Special Edition: Lime Green New Nintendo 3DS XL is now available to buy from the US & CAD Amazon website ranging from $199.99 - $239.99 depending on what region customers live in.