The cat appears to be out of the bag for Qualcomm's next major mobile chip, the Snapdragon 820. Analyst Pan Jiutang posted some slides on Weibo detailing pretty much all of the important information about the new processor, ahead of Qualcomm's expected launch later this month. First, the big stuff: The 820's newer Hydra CPU is apparently 35 percent faster than the 810, Qualcomm's current high-end processor, and its Adreno 530 graphics processor is 40 percent faster while also being 30 percent more power efficient. Additionally, the chip's 14 nanometer manufacturing process should also make it more efficient than the 20nm 810. The 820s' improvements are all fairly standard, and quite honestly most people won't even see the performance differences with its predecessors. But it should open the door for even more complex games on smartphones and tablets, as well as more apps that might need more horsepower than today's chips.

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After months of sitting on the sidelines while Meerkat and Periscope dominate the livestreaming space, Facebook is rolling out its own offering... well, sort of. It's launching Facebook Live, a service that lets "public figures" (that is, celebrities with verified public pages) stream real-time video of their adventures through Facebook Mentions. You can comment on and share these feeds if you're a mere commoner, but you can't record them yourself. Some of the first broadcasts will come from the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Michael Bublé and Serena Williams, if you're wondering about the intended users.

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Apple will patch the dangerous DYLD "privilege escalation" bug in its next OS release, Mac OS X 10.10.5, The Guardian reports. The DYLD bug allows a program to run with administrator access but without requiring an admin-level password. And unlike the Thunderstrike 2 worm, which has already been partially patched, the DYLD bug has been both spotted in the wild and remains unaddressed at this time.

[Image Credit: the Associated Press]

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Music is about youth, vibrancy and rebellion, something that seems at odds with Rolls-Royce, cars that are normally the province of stuffed shirts the world over. Despite this, the company feels that it needs to reach out to music-loving billionaires, which is why it's launching the Rolls-Royce Wraith Inspired By Music edition. Effectively, the existing Wraith has been kitted out with a custom stereo that, it's claimed, will turn your car into "the most exclusive music venue" on the highway. Considering that a base model Wraith can cost in excess of $360,000, we'd say that's a fair claim to make.

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To ensure that your Samsung devices get timely updates when security issues arise, the company announced a new plan for the patches. Samsung is changing how it handles the security problems by fast tracking fixes via over-the-air updates which will happen "regularly about once per month." The device maker says it worked with carriers to quickly patch the Android Stagefright flaw that let hackers access phones through MMS videos. Moving forward, Samsung will employ a similar process for beaming out updates, with a hand from carriers and other partners to make sure Android gadgets are updated as soon as possible -- especially when it comes to critical issues. "Since software is constantly exploited in new ways, developing a fast response process to deliver security patches to our devices is critical to keep them protected," explains Samsung executive vice president Dong Jin Koh. Expect to see more info on devices and update timelines in the near future.

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Welcome back to the show, everyone! In case you missed it, we now have an iTunes and RSS feed for the show, so you can subscribe to it however you like. Thanks for your patience on that!

As for the episode, we've got some great questions this week. We tackle how and when you should call out companies on Twitter for bad behavior (if it gets really bad you can always take the nuclear option like my husband and I did, but I don't recommend it). My friend Anthony Carboni of 3 Scientists Walk Into a Bar pops in to answer a fascinating question about how our brains work when we code, and I take on yet another dog question. Because dogs are awesome.

Don't stop sending those questions in! You can email them to me, or post online using the hashtag #DearVeronica. Have a great week!

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Who knew that reflection-free window photos were suddenly in vogue? Google and MIT do, apparently. Some of their researchers have developed an algorithm that eliminates unwanted visuals by using frames from a short video to separate the foreground from the background. Unlike an earlier MIT-only technique, this works with nearly any kind of obstruction. It'll remove rain drops and chain link fences, for instance. And in an odd twist, it can also capture an uncannily clear image of any reflections -- you know, in case you want to remember what shirt you were wearing when you took that shot.

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Mighty No. 9, the new game from Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, isn't going to be arriving until some point in the first three months of 2016. It's the second delay for the kickstarted title, which was originally slated to drop this spring before being pushed back to September. According to an update posted to Kickstarter, the reason behind the push back is that while the core functionality of the piece has been finished, there's still a raft of bugs and issues relating to the online components that have yet to be fixed. Considering that so many recent high-profile releases have been sold with bugs that make them almost unplayable, it's probably wise to hold off. Still, judging by the comments on the post, it looks as if plenty of backers would much rather have the game now and wait for the features to come later.

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Sway, Microsoft's app for building well-designed presentations on the web, is beginning to seem like more than just a mere experiment. Today, Microsoft announced that it's bringing the app out of preview mode (the company's designation for a beta test), and it's launching a dedicated Sway app for Windows 10. On top of that, Sway is also one of the services Microsoft has integrated into Docs, its new online document sharing service. That's a surprising amount of progress for an app that initially seemed like a less capable PowerPoint for the web. In a nutshell, Sway lets you create stylized presentations that are easily viewable across phones, tablets and computers. Much like Edge, the company's new Windows 10 browser, it's as if Microsoft went back to the drawing board and came up with a new type of presentation app for our multi-device age. In many ways, it's also like a modern Content Management Service like those offered by Squarespace and Medium, allowing you to just plug in content and get a beautiful final product.

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It's almost trivially easy to buy a multi-room audio system at this point, but what if you want stylish audio to go with your designer home? Don't worry -- Bang & Olufsen has you covered. The Danish brand has launched its own platform, BeoLink Multiroom, that pipes music throughout your home. While that concept isn't exactly novel, B&O is counting on simplicity to reel you in. All you do is tap devices to either start playing or link them to playback elsewhere. You might tap the BeoSound Moment (the company's adaptive music hub) to start listening in the living room, and a BeoPlay speaker to carry that sound into the kitchen. While you can use either a BeoMusic app on your phone or a BeoRemote One to steer the sound, you don't have to depend on controllers as much as you would with some rivals.

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Get ready for a shock, but Popcorn Time, the illegal-as-hell streaming app for pirated movies, may not exactly be secure. Researcher Antonios Chariton told Torrent Freak that he found a vulnerability that could let attackers take complete control of your computer. The bad guy would have to be a "man in the middle," between you and Popcorn Time's Cloudflare infrastructure, ie, a local attacker, network admin or ISP. If so, he could intercept requests that are sent via insecure HTTP channels, and send a malicious "XSS" code response by exploiting another problem, the lack of input checks.

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Genius, formerly known as crowdsourced song annotation service Rap Genius, has finally released an Android app, along with a redesigned website and iOS version. It's where music enthusiasts can read -- or write and upload -- the meanings, history and even hip hop feuds behind song lyrics as annotations. For instance, by clicking on a part of Meek Mill's new track Wanna Know, I found out that he was "clowning Drake for never having a real chance with Nicki [Minaj]." Unfortunately, Android users can neither add nor edit annotations yet, though a spokesperson told VentureBeat that those features will be available soon.

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With Windows 10, Microsoft is all about the Xbox integration. Xbox 360 preview users can now see gaming activity from Windows 10, Xbox One and of course, their Xbox 360. The feeds show achievements, broadcasts, screenshots, text posts and GameDVR clips from you or people you follow. You can then share or comment on directly from the console, or create a new post. The Xbox One has had that feature since February, but as one Major Nelson commenter put it, at least Microsoft isn't forgetting its old warhorse completely. The feature has only rolled out to Xbox 360 preview program participants, but everyone else will likely see it with the next regular update.

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Human hands remain far more dexterous than their mechanical counterparts, but we doubt manufacturers would replace basic pincers with expensive robotic arm technologies. Since it's darn hard and costly to develop or buy a machine that can replicate what the human hand can do, a team of MIT scientists has developed a technique that could give even simple robotic grippers the power to do more complex movements. The approach called "extrinsic dexterity" makes use of walls, furniture or anything else around to help robots perform a particular task. In the video below the fold, for instance, a pincer changes a metallic cylindrical bar's orientation (from horizontal to vertical) by picking it up and tapping it against a wall a couple of times -- just watch the clip to see how quickly the whole thing goes down.

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Even though modern consoles ship with at least 500GB of storage, you only have to install a small number of digital games before your internal disk is full. Sony and Microsoft have alleviated some of the pain by bundling more storage, but if you've already put money down for a next-gen gaming machine, you're left with the option of switching out the default hard drive or, if your console supports it, attaching external storage via USB. Seagate recognized that most gamers probably prefer the hassle-free option, so it's teamed up with Microsoft to create a new 2TB Game Drive that works with both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

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With mobile annihilating the mainstream PC industry, Intel knows gaming is buttering its bread. The chip giant launched its sixth-generation "Skylake" desktop processors today with two enthusiast quad-core models: the Core i7-6700K and i5-6600K. The 14-nanometer chips are unlocked for maximum overclocking (all the "K" series CPUs will be), and if you're not into that, the two new chips have fairly high base frequencies: 4.0GHz for the Core i7-6700K and 3.5GHz for the i5-6600K. Compared to similar current-gen models, prices are reasonable -- suggested retail is $350 for the i7-6700K and $243 for the i5-6600K, with street prices likely lower.

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After the Phantom 3 Professional and the Phantom 3 Advanced, DJI's back with an even cheaper drone dubbed Phantom 3 Standard to tempt beginners. It costs just $799, which is $200 less than the Advanced and $460 less than the Professional, but you still get all the essentials: a built-in 3-axis stabilization gimbal, 12-megapixel still image capture (supports RAW shooting), up to 2.7K of video capture at 30 fps and 40 Mbps, video downlink at up to 720p and a slightly longer flight time of up to 25 minutes. The only real downside here is that the Standard can only transmit video back to your phone at up to 1km or 0.62 miles, which is half as much as the other two models.

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If you've been jonesing for a Garmin running watch that will talk to your smartphone without trashing your bank balance, you're in luck. Garmin has rolled out the Forerunner 25, a follow-up to the 15 (but not a replacement) that's much more at home in a connected world. If you link the newer wristwear to your phone, you can share live workout tracking with your friends, get important notifications and automatically upload brag-worthy results to the company's Connect service. It's easier to gauge your progress in mid-run, too, since there's a 32 percent bigger active display space than before. Both small and large versions go on sale later this summer at $170 for the core model, and $200 if you want an external heart rate monitor at the same time.

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