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It's a truth, often forgotten, that no-one can be perfect at everything. We may laud Justin Timberlake's musical, dancing and acting ability, but he's probably a terrible plumber. It's a problem that the Army is beginning to understand, since the sort of people who can successfully fight in a cyber war are more likely to be bad at assault courses, climbing ropes and carrying heavy objects. It's with this in mind that Lt. Gen. Robert Brown, head of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, says that the US Army may relax its fitness requirements for digital soldiers.

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Want to build an Xbox One game without registering as a developer? You may soon be able to, thanks to a leak of the Xbox One developer SDK by a hacking group called H4LT. It cites noble reasons for posting the software, namely to allow greater "creativity and research... towards homebrew applications" on the console. The leak, however, doesn't mean you can start cooking up official Xbox One apps, because you'd need to be accepted into Microsoft's ID@Xbox publishing program and clear other hurdles. Still, it'll let curious types poke around the SDK or possibly check for weaknesses, giving Microsoft another holiday headache.

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Whether you think depth-sensing cameras will become the next big thing or fizzle out, the model that helped usher in the tech is set to be retired for good. The original Kinect will be phased out in 2015, some four years after Microsoft first introduced it to bolster Xbox 360 sales. The sensor was controversial with gamers from the get-go, but was embraced by the DIY hacking community and companies who used it for facial and motion tracking, among (many) other uses. Plenty of those folks still rely on the Kinect v1, so Microsoft advised them to buy as many as they need, and soon, since it won't make any more after the current stock sells out.

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When Sony Pictures' computers were hacked on Thanksgiving, its employees were forced to use older technologies to keep things running, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Staff relayed details about the hack from one person to another via phone, and had to haul in old machines to issue physical checks instead of transferring salaries through bank deposit. Sony execs also reverted to old BlackBerry company phones -- as they can send and receive emails through their own servers. These reports don't only shed light on what happened (and what continues to happen) behind the scenes at Sony, they also give us a glimpse at how the investigation was handled.

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New York City wants to make it easier for the recipients of its some 8-to-10 million annual parking tickets to pay their fines. To do so, it's accepting pitches for payment systems that'd take advantage of mobile tech and things like Apple Pay and bitcoin. New York has an online payment system in place already, but as The Wall Street Journal notes, it doesn't work via mobile devices. There are a handful of guidelines (PDF), however, so don't go thinking you can get too crazy with your submission. Perhaps most notably, the system would need to support payment of tickets that have been placed but not yet processed ("windshield tickets"), the interface should be aesthetically pleasing and should also come at "no or minimal" cost to the city and its users. What's more, Gotham officials say that being able to schedule a hearing to dispute an infraction via the app is paramount as well.

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Interested to learn how The Interview is faring following Sony's cyberattack catastrophe? Check. What about Sony's new 360-degree video store called Milk VR? We have that too -- just click on the gallery below for all our news highlights from the past 24 hours.

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You can already run a conventional operating system like Linux on your Chromebook if you're the determined sort, but it's not really convenient... not unless you like hopping between virtual terminals, anyway. However, there's now a relatively simple way to juggle between Chrome OS and Linux. If you grab a tweaked version of David Schneider's Crouton extension and type in a terminal command, you can now run a version of Linux (so far, Debian and Ubuntu) in a window. You won't have to drop that Hangouts chat just to finish some work in OpenOffice, in other words. While you'll still have to be comfortable with installing Linux in the first place, this could easily turn your cheap web surfing machine into more of a power user's tool.

[Image credit: François Beaufort, Google+]

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So you're fortunate enough to be shopping for a Tesla Model S, but you're anxious about just how far the electric sedan's variants will go on a full battery. How do you know you won't be stranded on the roadside because you bought the wrong edition? The automaker clearly wants to put that range anxiety to rest. It just posted a detailed look at the driving range you're likely to get from the Model S based on a slew of factors, including the equipment you use and how you drive. There's a range estimator, too, if you want to see how each of those factors comes into play.

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As you've probably read by now, LG's keen on tipping its hand ahead of our arrival in Las Vegas for CES. This year is no different, and with today's news the company focuses on monitors. First up, LG has a 21:9 display with AMD's FreeSync tech in order to keep things smooth during intense gaming sessions. In fact, the company says it's the first to do so on an ultra wide option. The added feature "guarantees the smoothest and most seamless gaming experience, generating fluid motion without any loss of frame rate," for those looking to upgrade any current setup. The 34UM67 (pictured above) also has a Black Stabilizer to illuminate dark scenery and a Dynamic Active Sync mode that keeps input lag to a minimum. Of course, you'll need to be sure your favorite title supports 21:9 resolution, but games like Battlefield 4 and World of Warcraft already do. For folks not looking for a gaming-specific display, there will be a couple more 21:9 options shown off in the desert.

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