'Thriving' Facebook sees big gains on mobile

The world's largest social network continues its march of domination as it signs up advertisers eager to reach its vast mobile audience.

Facebook and Apple's offices are separated by just 15 miles of highway, a 22-minute drive. But they might as well be worlds apart.

Mark Zuckerberg is pushing his company to be more than just a place we share cat videosJames Martin/CNET

Where Apple on Tuesday told investors thatiPhone sales growth has stalled, Facebook Wednesday reported booming business selling the ads that run on those phones and other mobile devices.

In fact, David Wehner, Facebook's CFO, said the company experienced its "first truly mobile holiday season."

"Advertisers are no longer asking us whether they should advertise on mobile, they're asking how," he said in an interview. "We're answering that question well with Facebook and Instagram."

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, said in a statement that the effect has been a boon. "Our business is thriving."

The Best Places to Watch the Super Bowl in Denver

Courtesy Visit Denver by Megan Barber 

A local's guide to the biggest game of the year.

       Listen up, Denver fans: Peyton Manning and the Broncos have clawed and fought their way to Super Bowl 50, and all the excitement happens on February 7. If you can't make it to Santa Clara or don't feel like shelling out $6,000 for a ticket, don't fret. We've rounded up both the top pre-game activities on Super Bowl Sunday and found the best places to watch the Broncos take on Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. Get ready for all-you-can-eat-and-drink parties, 24-foot TV screens, and even a Super Bowl 5K race. Just don't forget your orange and blue gear; this is Broncos Country.

Review of the InterContinental Hong Kong

Wow. Is all you can say when you walk into the huge living room complete with grand piano and double-height, floor-to-ceiling windows. And through the windows you can spy the room’s private, infinity-edge pool against the 180-degree uninterrupted backdrop of Hong Kong’s famous city skyline.

The bathroom of the Presidential Suite at the InterContinental.

This is the Presidential Suite at the Intercontinental, and at 7,000 square foot, it’s the largest suite in Hong Kong.

The bathroom, too, is something else. Firstly, the bathtub complete with countless jets is so big that you could fit a whole Hong Kong Rugby Sevens team in it. It’s also perched right by floor-to-ceiling glass windows offering sweeping views of the city while you bathe. The super–high-tech showers also offer the same stunning view. And then there’s the private steam room and sauna. Oh, and Chanel toiletries.

The Killers of Swaziland

Some fifteen years ago in this African kingdom, two serial killers were hard at work. Just one of them was human.

I. The Sad Man

IN MID-MARCH OF 2001, twenty-six-year-old Samantha Kgasi-Ngobese disappeared. She had planned to travel to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland, a kingdom of a million people in southern Africa, to apply for a job at the High Court. Samantha had a law degree from the University of Swaziland and was hoping to use it.

But at the bus stop in Manzini, she met a man who promised her a different job, and she never made it to Mbabane. The man said his name was Thabiso Sikhodze and that he could get her a position at a chemical company. The job would pay 4,000 emalangeni (a bit less than $500) per month, a very good salary in Swaziland, then and now...

The female body Shape-shifting

The why and wherefore of women’s curves

Evolutionary curve

Curvology: The Origins and Power of Female Body Shape. By David Bainbridge.Granta; 227 pages; £14.99.

TABLOID newspapers take a prurient interest in women who flaunt their curves. The role of the media, and other cultural forces, in constructing notions of female beauty is often discussed. But “Curvology”,    a new book by David Bainbridge, focuses on the part played by evolution in men’s and women’s understanding and appreciation of the undulations of the female form. Men’s and women’s bodies differ more than is necessary simply to gestate, bear and nourish children. Why?

The simple answer, suggests Mr Bainbridge, a British reproductive biologist and veterinary anatomist, is that those curvy bums and boobs, the straight “enviable pins” that newspapers salivate over, ensure the future of humankind. They are proof that a woman was well-nourished while growing up and carries good child-feeding genes. He explains in such terms the changes....

David Bowie’s style legacy: ‘He stole ideas from everywhere’

David Bowie on stage as the Thin White Duke

From Aladdin Sane’s jumpsuit to the Thin White Duke’s suits, Bowie’s distinctive outfits have influenced designers from Jean Paul Gaultier to Hedi Slimane 

 

In 2012, I visited the V&A’s costume preservation department to see the preparations for the museum’s record-breaking David Bowie retrospective the following year. A curator carefully unwrapped the tissue paper around one garment and laid it out for me to see. It was an item as familiar to me as the school uniform I wore for my first five years of secondary school, and indeed, a picture of Bowie wearing it has been on my bedroom wall for most of that time: a knitted jumpsuit in a bright zig-zag pattern, with one leg cut off at the upper thigh and one arm cut away to reveal bare shoulder. It was, of course, a stage outfit he wore during his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane tours, and the biggest surprise about it for me, close up, was that it was knitted, with quite thick wool in the most richly patterned parts.

Five ways to wear... a check shirt - in pictures

A check shirt (or plaid, depending on which side of the pond you are from) fills a wardrobe void. It is practical enough to be classed as workwear and cool enough to have serious style credentials (see Kurt Cobain’s grunge legacy). American brand Rails specialises in the perfect check shirt (£145, squareonelondon.com). Seriously, they are the softest you will wear and while it’s not a formal piece of kit the number of ways in which it can be worn for casual events is limitless

Simple blood test could detect cancers early

Genomics company Illumina is developing a technology that could spot cancer signs in healthy people from drops of blood.

A blood test to catch cancers early is in development, backed by Bill Gates

Imagine if a simple blood test could detect cancers in healthy people before any symptoms show up. Backed by $100m (£69m) from renowned tech founders like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, a new company is developing a technique to do just that.

We hope today is a turning point in the war on cancer

Jay Flatley, CEO of Illumina 

 

Called Grail, the company has been set up by US-based gene sequencer Illumina, and will take on the ultimate challenge of detecting any type of cancer - from breast, to lung or prostate cancer - just by testing blood of healthy people. The goal: to find the signs before there are any symptoms or tumours, and hence save lives.Although others have succeeded in creating blood tests to detect tumour relapses or cancer progression, spotting cancer signs in the healthy is the holy grail.

Woman, 20, killed herself fearing she would lose boyfriend to arranged marriage, inquest hears

'I love you… I’m doing this for you': Final words to boyfriend she believed would be forced into arranged marriage before she stepped in front of lorry an aspiring fashion designer who feared she would lose the love of her life to an arranged marriage stepped in front of a lorry, an inquest heard. 

Suk Yin Cheng

Suk Yin Cheng left a note on her iPod expressing her belief that her boyfriend of two years would be forced to go through with the marriage. He said the 20-year-old appeared “happy” the last time they were together on the night before the tragedy in July last year. But minutes before her death, Miss Cheng rang Kahil Mohammad and said:

“I love you… I’m doing this for you.”  Instead of driving home to her parents' home, the young woman - known as Caley by her family - headed to a busy dual carriageway and walked in front of the HGV.
The hearing was told she died of multiple injuries after being hit by the lorry on the A38, near Burton, Staffordshire, in the early hours of July 2 last year.

Dream Suite: Four Seasons Mauritius Presidential Suite

The suite: This year's major Four Seasons Mauritius refurbishment saw the unveiling of a new-look presidential suite. It may not be the property's largest villa (that accolade goes to the two Royal Residences, which have secluded locations, five bedrooms apiece and sell at a similar price point), but the presidential suite tips the scales with its peerless setting on the resort's private island. This gives the three-bedroom suite panoramic views across a tranquil lagoon and, despite the privileged, secluded setting, it remains within easy reach of water sports, the spa and beachfront dining.

Four Seasons Mauritius

The details: There's a definite sense of arrival on first entering the presidential suite. The standalone villa is accessed via a private courtyard that connects, if desired, to two adjacent one-bedroom villas to create a private complex that accommodates up to 14 guests. Inside the suite, a spacious entrance foyer gives onto a light, bright living space whose dining area comfortably seats 10; nearby a full kitchen with discrete entrance for staff means bespoke menus can be prepared and served promptly. Glass doors open onto a generous veranda that's perfect for outdoor lounging and dining. Beyond lies a swimming pool and, beside it, a daybed shaded by a thatched pavilion.  It's the very best spot for contemplating the views out across the lagoon.

Apple stands defiant as PC market suffers steepest drop in history

The PC market suffered its worst ever decline of 10.6pc in 2015

Apple was one of two computer manufacturers to buck the slowing trend and increase its market share during 2015, as the PC market suffered its worst decline in history, falling 10.6 per cent from 2014.
 

The Californian company increased its global computer market share by 2.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 7.9 per cent compared to a year previously - the largest growth of any vendor that year, according to figures from analyst IDC.

Rival HP saw their market share fall by 10.1 per cent in the same period, compared to Dell's 5.7 per cent loss. Chinese rival Lenovo saw its share fall by 4.5 per cent to 20 per cent, retaining its position as the world's most popular PC maker thanks to strong sales in north America.

Asus sales were their strongest since 2012, as the company increased its share by 0.8 per cent.
Apple revived its MacBook range with the launch of the 12-inch MacBook in March, and updated its iMacs with 4K and 5K Retina displays in October. Overall PC sales in 2015 fell by 10.6 per cent compared to the previous year, as consumers hang on to their devices for longer and increasingly turn to tablets and larger-screened smartphones.