There are a lot of things you have to take into consideration when looking for a new apartment, from rent to room size. Who you'll be residing near, however, can be even more important than whether or not the space gets enough natural light

Remember that no matter the coziness level of the breakfast nook, it'll be hard to eat your toast if the guy next door likes to practice chainsaw juggling in the morning (when he's fresh). So while you're mentally arranging your bedroom, take a peek out the window and make sure your potential new digs don't come complete with any of these neighborhood deal breakers Read more...

Just as Apple starts bringing a special version of Siri into cars, an AAA study throws a bucket of cold water on the next step in "safe infotainment" for the latest vehicles. The study found that of all the typical in-car activities studied, speech-to-text systems were "the most cognitively distracting."

The study results were expressed in workload ratings, where a baseline number of 1.0 was assigned to a single driver without any distractions inside the car. Listening to the radio was rated 1.21, having a passenger in the car, 2.33, and talking on a cellphone, 2.45 (with hands-free cellphone use rated at 2.27). Most dangerous was listening and responding to email using speech-to-text, garnering a 3.06 rating on the cognitive distraction scale. Read more...

Video: Diana - exclusive trailer

A teaser trailer for Diana, the 2013 biopic focusing on the last years of Princess Diana's life, has hit the web featuring a pretty compelling tagline: "the legend is never the whole story."

The trailer, released on Wednesday, highlights Diana's work as a philanthropist, her constant battle with the paparazzi and her highly publicized relationship with Dr. Hasnat Khan, played by Naveen Andrews.

SEE ALSO: Mom Photographs Daughter as History's Most Heroic Women

Oscar-nominee Naomi Watts bears a stunning resemblance to the late Princess of Wales, from the signature pageboy hairstyle to the near-perfect outfit replications. Try to watch it without getting chills Read more...

Americans offer very different opinions about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs depending on whether they're framed in terms of terrorism, a comparison of two national polls reveals.

A Pew/Washington Post study published Monday suggested respondents were in favor of the NSA's surveillance methods, generating headlines such as "Majority of Americans Support NSA Phone Tracking" and "Most Americans Are OK With the NSA Collecting Phone Records."

The devil is in the details, however. The Pew study asked respondents if "tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism," to which 51% said they're cool with it. Pew also found 62% of Americans believe it's "more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats even if that intrudes on personal privacy." (Emphasis mine throughout.) Read more...

Today that MySpace page that you so carelessly discarded in favor of your newer, shiner Facebook page will change forever

MySpace's classic interface gets the boot today, so all you'll have are the memories of your carefully curated top eight and your spectacular collection of glitter GIFs. It's the end of an era, so feel free to blast the Vitamin C as you scroll.

Image courtesy of Tumblr, quidditchchick004 Read more...

Facebook's introduction of hashtags paves the way for a lucrative stream of new advertising, but the company is not opening the program up to advertisers, at least not at this time.

Reps from the company confirmed that hashtags are off limits to marketers right now. However, there doesn't appear to be any reason why Facebook would block hashtag buys in the future. Facebook is, however, encouraging marketers to use hashtags in advertising and arguing that Facebook will now amplify a hashtag's influence. A rep stresses thought that "using them and buying them are different."

SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook Read more...

So you've got a less than pristine comic book in your collection? Perhaps there's a giant rip in its cover? Don't despair; it may still be worth something. Indeed, if it happens to be one of the world's oldest and most sought-after comics, it could still be worth six figures.

A copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938, the very first comic book to feature Superman, went under the hammer this week on auction site ComicConnect.com for $175,000, the site announced Wednesday. The buyer's name was not released

SEE ALSO: Relive the History of Superman in This Infographic

There are only about a hundred copies of Action Comics #1 left in the world. This one was discovered by Minnesota man David Gonzalez, wrapped between old newspapers in the insulation of an abandoned house he was fixing up. He'd bought the house for $10,000 — less than a tenth of the comic book's worth. Read more...

Next gen consoles, which are on stage at E3 in California, promise a variety of new features, but also present some hurdles for companies that want to take advantage of everything the new hardware has to offer, while not entirely disenfranchising current gen hardware owners.

That’s the challenge facing companies like Activision. Mashable recently sat down with company CEO Eric Hirshberg to talk about the gaming company's latest innovations and how it will approach the newest gaming platform from Microsoft: Xbox One.

Hirshberg, who unveiled Call of Duty: Ghosts at the Xbox One unveil, and then offered a much more extended look at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, said next gen platforms like Xbox One are bringing a new dimension to his games. Read more...

Hashtags are coming to Facebook to help users better surface conversations.

Support for the all-but-ubiquitous topic organization system was rumored in March and will roll out to a small percentage of users Wednesday. Facebook will roll out hashtags to more users in the coming weeks.

The social network wants to make it easier for users to find content already on Facebook, and functional hashtags are the first step. According to Facebook, many users already post hashtags anyway, so why not make them work. Hashtags will be both clickable and searchable, so, for example, topics like #NSALeaks or #NBAFinals will now exist. Read more...

Stuart Edge isn't your average magician. Instead of death-defying David Blaine antics, his magic tricks have much more heartwarming results

The YouTube do-gooder and prankster sought out people in need in Provo and Orem, Ut., taking $1000 out of his own savings to make the days of 10 different people. For the video, Edge performs a trick in which he switches a $100 bill in his closed fist with a $1 bill in another person's closed fist, leaving the participant grateful and amazed

SEE ALSO: Impress Your Friends With These 10 Magic Tricks

If you're wondering how he didn't get scammed, Edge and his team went through a lengthy process to ensure that they were actually giving money to needy people who would use the money honorably Read more...

You can be an NBA superstar and universally recognized as one of the true good guys in pro sports, but that doesn't make you immune to the scourge of hacking recently plaguing the social web

This is what Kevin Durant learned the hard way several hours ago when a "mr whitehat" gained access to his Instagram feed, changed the handle and locked him out with a taunting message. Durant then took to Twitter to digitally shake his head at the unprovoked aggression:

My Instagram just got hacked by this creep @liey_nyc....smh get a life

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 12, 2013

Smh twitter.com/KDTrey5/status…

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 12, 2013 Read more...

Heads up: A fake Twitter account spreading misinformation about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The Twitter account poses as that of The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, pictured above.

The fake account, @ggreenwild, is just one letter off from Greenwald's actual handle, @ggreenwald. The fake account gained steam Wednesday morning after several journalists retweeted its claim that Snowden was "confirmed dead."

SEE ALSO: Edward Snowden Wants 'People of Hong Kong' to Decide His Fate

The account then tweeted a clearly false story, claiming Snowden had been killed in a drone strike in Hong Kong — a claim so wild that most careful observers quickly realized the account was fake Read more...

LOS ANGELES — E3 booths are always quite a spectacle, with blaring music and game footage packed in massive structuresNintendo's booth this year was no exception.

The booth reflected many of the upcoming titles on the Wii U, a system it is trying to bulk up with flagship games in order to aid flagging console sales. This year they promoted Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Bayonetta 2, among others.

SEE ALSO: 15 Vintage Video Games You Can Play on Your iPhone

Check out Nintendo's booth in the photos above, and stay tuned for more coverage from Mashable at E3. Read more...

MySpace is dead. Long live Myspace.

The new Myspace, which first came online in late 2012 as a music-discovery service with the support of Justin Timberlake, officially launches to the public today. At the same time, the old capital-S MySpace is no more, departing for that big social network in the sky (although all user content will still exist on the new site).

SEE ALSO: Myspace's New Architects Reveal How to Rebuild a Brand

With the launch of the new Myspace comes a new app for iPhone, finally adding the big missing component to the service: a mobile experience. With a mobile app, support from artists, growing positive buzz and "classic" MySpace out of the way, new owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook think they have the ingredients — and the momentum — to make Myspace an online force again. Read more...

ESPN is shuttering its 3D television network, ESPN 3D, by the end of the year, a spokesperson for ESPN confirmed, citing that 3D TVs simply aren't as popular as they had hoped.

"Due to limited viewer adoption of 3D services to the home, ESPN is discontinuing ESPN 3D," an ESPN spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to Mashable, adding that ESPN "will be ready to provide the service to fans if or when 3D does take off."

SEE ALSO: 'I Printed a 3D Gun'

Although global sales of 3D TVs have been strong, especially in western Europe and China, demand for 3D TVs in North America has been softer. Indeed, the lack of 3D TVs at consumer electronics shows like the one held in Las Vegas last year indicates that manufacturers are shifting their focus to "smart" TVs with high-resolution and OLED displays. Read more...

The approaching responsibilities of fatherhood certainly haven't humbled Kanye West in the least. The hip-hop artist reflected on his career — his achievements, missteps, fame and contention — and revealed some of the creative process behind Yeezus, his sixth studio album, in an extensive interview in Tuesday's New York Times.

The interview is classic Kanye: "Yeah, kill self. That’s all I have to say. Kill self," he said, when asked about past outfits.

SEE ALSO: Kanye West Debuts 'New Slaves' in Videos Projected on 66 Buildings

But after slogging through questions about basketball tryouts and Taylor Swift, his best quote — hands down — comes near the end: Read more...

The centerpiece of Apple's keynote event at its developers conference this week may have been iOS 7, but it was really Craig Federighi who stole the show.

Federighi, who heads up development of iOS and Mac OS X as Apple's SVP of software, got more stage time than any other executive during the event. He also received more buzz than anyone else on stage afterwards; The Wall Street Journal labeled him "Apple's rising star." It was Federighi who walked through all the new features of iOS 7 and unveiled OS X Mavericks.

SEE ALSO: iOS 7 Updates Look a Little Too Familiar to Some Apple Developers

He also rattled off a few memorable one-liners for good measure. "Absolutely no virtual cows were harmed during the making of Calendar," Federighi said at one point, alluding to Apple's decision to ditch the virtual leather in the app and move away from skeuomorphism in general. At another point, he joked about Apple's decision to shift from naming its OS X after cats to California locations: "We do not want to be the first software release in history to be delayed by a lack of cats." Read more...

Apple's new iOS 7 re-imagines each of the native app icons. Moving away from Apple's usual skeuomorphic design tendencies, the icons embrace the "flat" trend credited largely to Microsoft's Windows 8

While iOS users can rejoice at the removal of eyesores like Newsstand and Game Center icons, many aren't sure whether this new batch of icons is an improvement. In fact, users have already complained about the icons' colors and questioned whether Apple "borrowed" design ideas from Android or NBC's peacock logo. Such claims have rendered the new, simpler icons controversial, even among Apple fanboys and fangirls. Read more...

Edward Snowden said he wants "the courts and people of Hong Kong" to decide his fate in a new interview published Wednesday.

"I have had many opportunities to flee Hong Kong, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong’s rule of law," Snowden told the South China Morning Post.

SEE ALSO: NSA Leaker Edward Snowden: a Timeline

On Sunday, Snowden revealed himself as the source behind The Guardian and The Washington Post's reports on the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. He also revealed his whereabouts, a Hong Kong hotel, which triggered a race among media outlets to locate him first Read more...

The few seconds before someone snaps your picture is the ultimate moment of vulnerability. So imagine the prolonged embarrassment when those moments are captured in a video rather than a photograph.

Seattle band Go Periscope recorded videos of friends who thought they were just posing for photos.

SEE ALSO: 20 Funniest YouTube Videos According to Reddit

The resulting footage is cringe-inducing and hilarious. Watch the smiling subjects grow increasingly impatient in the YouTube video above.

Go Periscope isn't the first to play this kind of prank. Director and film editor Dean Fleischer-Camp created a similar original video in May 2012. Read more...