Microsoft wants people to be excited about Windows 10, which will be available later this year for PCs, smartphones, and other devices. However, it looks like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is especially excited about Cortana, the digital personal assistant currently available on Microsoft-powered smartphones.

Cortana is able to browse the Web, find things on a PC, remind users of calendar updates, and serve as the ultimate personal assistant. If used properly, Microsoft hopes Cortana will become a frequently used tool that can make interacting in the OS - and on the Internet - even easier.

"Cortana, that's perhaps the thing that's going to change personal productivity even most and especially with Windows 10 and how Cortana comes to Windows, both to the browser as well as to the Start [menu]," Sadella recently said during a financial analyst briefing. "I think it completely changes what personal productivity software means from a day-to-day experience."

Often referred to as the 'most intelligent man on Earth', Professor Stephen Hawking has told audiences in Australia that the future of humankind is grim if we don't master interplanetary travel by the end of the millennium.

From his office in Cambridge, Hawking appeared via hologram to sold-out crowds at Sydney's Opera House, telling crowds that he didn't "think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet... We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity". Hawking's comments echo many other respected scientists who urge authorities to prepare for the need to leave our big blue planet - a topic at the heart of the 2014 feature film 'Interstellar'.

In a lighter topic, Hawking also fielded a question on the "cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world", to which he replied "Finally, a question about something important" before delivering a response outlining the theory of an alternate universe where the boy band member stayed.

KAIST researchers in South Korea are working on creating a thermoelectric generator that can be used to help power wearable electronics. The team developed a glass fabric TE generator that is able to produce electricity based on heat created by the human body.

"Our technology presents an easy and simple way of fabricating an extremely flexible, light, and high-performance TE generator," said Byung Jin Cho, head of the KAIST research team, in a statement to the media. "We expect that this technology will find further applications in scale-up systems such as automobiles, factories, aircrafts, and vessels where we see abundant thermal energy being wasted."

There have been organic and inorganic material TE generators manufactured in the past, while Cho's team is interested in a new concept that is able to be flexible yet not lose much thermal energy. KAIST's design utilizes a self-sustaining structure that is able to accurately trap inorganic TE materials in between upper and lower substrates.

A new scientific report finds three out of four extremely hot days are caused by humans and greenhouse gases - and it's an important metric considering there is more talk regarding climate change.

Researchers took a look at one-tenth of one percent of hot days, picking the hottest and most extreme days - and used 25 computer models to find that these extreme weather days occurred once in three years, assuming there were no greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. However, when the current level of greenhouse gases is included, the number jumps to four days.

"This new study helps get the actual probability or odds of human influence," said Jonathan Overpeck, climate scientist at the University of Arizona, in a statement published by the AP. "This is key: If you don't like hot temperature extremes that we're getting, you now know how you can reduce the odds of such events by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Seth McFarlane's 2012 debut feature film 'Ted', starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis was a huge success for Universal Studios, grossing over half a billion dollars on a $50 million budget. It's no surprise that a sequel is on the way, and today the studio have released a risque red band trailer for the film - but only if you're over 18....

This time around, Ted has given up his bachelor ways and married his girlfriend Tami-Lyn, but when the couple decide to expand the family, the oversize teddy bear must prove he is a human in the eyes of the low to retain custody of a child. Directed by 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' creator Seth McFarlane the sequel returns stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis and adds Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman.

'Ted 2' hits cinemas in Australia on June 25th, and on June 26th in the United States.

Halo 5: Guardians won't be available until this fall, but it looks like Microsoft Xbox One gamers can be excited about the possibility of picking up a limited edition Guardians Xbox One console.

"There is a limited edition console coming, yes. It hasn't been revealed yet, but it's pretty sweet," said Josh Holmes, studio head for Halo 5: Guardians, in a tweet posted yesterday (which has been deleted).

Details giving us additional information about single player, vehicles, weapons, and other game details remain unknown. However, Microsoft is enjoying the hype surrounding Halo 5, and while the company put together an Xbox One bundle for its Halo: The Master Chief Collection, nothing has been confirmed about a Guardians bundle just yet. Expect the title to receive attention during E3 2015 from Los Angeles in June.

Last week, Comcast dropped its effort to take over Time Warner Cable, as antitrust regulators and business watchdog groups showed their displeasure with the takeover attempt.

"Today, we move on," said Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, following news of Comcast's decision to leave behind TWC. "Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn't agree, we could walk away."

However, it looks like Charter Communications, the No. 4 largest cable company in the United States, is considering another effort to acquire TWC. Prior to Comcast's effort to purchase TWC last year for almost $159 per share, Charter offered $130 and $132 per share for TWC - which the company rejected.

Even though mobile malware targeting the Google Android operating system is increasing, actual infection rates are still relatively low, according to cybersecurity experts. Unfortunately, it looks like almost 1 out of every 5 Android apps were "malware in disguise," according to the newest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report.

Over one-third of all Android apps are "madware," or "grayware," designed to increase the number of ads that a mobile user sees. In addition, Symantec noted the first infection by mobile ransomware, which encrypts data on a victim's phone until a ransom is paid.

Android, the No. 1 mobile OS based on market share, has an open infrastructure that makes it even more flexible to use by each phone manufacturer - but also gives cybercriminals the ability to create better malicious apps.

There might be numerous instances of mobile malware in the wild, but the matter is overhyped and not as frightening as perceived, according to advanced threat detection firm Damballa. It turns out you're more likely to be struck by lightning than suffer a mobile malware infection.

In network traffic monitored in 2014, 9,688 of 151 million mobile devices tried to access black list domains from mobile devices. Mobile operators are focusing more on security for smartphones and tablets, which is making it more difficult for malicious apps to compromise devices.

"This research shows that mobile malware in the United States is very much like Ebola - harmful, but greatly over exaggerated, and contained to a limited percentage of the population that are engaging in behavior that puts them at risk for infection," said Charles Lever, senior scientific researcher at Damballa.

Exclusive: According to our industry sources, AMD has a few surprises in store for us when it comes to the Radeon R9 390X, and the other GPUs that will arrive with the Radeon 300 series.

Our source wouldn't elaborate, but they did say that the new Radeon R9 390X will arrive with specifications and possibly features that are different to what the rumors currently suggest. We've reported that the Radeon R9 390X would come with two versions; the 4GB and 8GB products with GDDR5 or High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM1) from SK Hynix. But, we've heard from other industry sources not long ago that there would be tight stock when the 390X launches, which could be caused by yield issues on HBM1. We've also reported that the R9 390X would arrive as a watercooled version, but now we're getting new information.

Something interesting that our source said, was that if HBM1 provides what it on paper should provide very easily, "NVIDIA are in trouble". Now, for what we know, there are only a few launches from NVIDIA for this year. First, the rumored GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which will be a cutdown GM200 GPU, the same found on the Titan X. Second, there's also news of NVIDIA allowing add-in board (AIB) partners to use aftermarket coolers on the Titan X, which will see a big injection of speed from Titan X cards from the likes of MSI, ASUS, and more.