Information from "citizen scientists" is becoming more and more vital for some research projects, scientists say.

The French transport minister Alain Vidalies has said in a radio interview that Air France is withdrawing its plans to develop its Transavia Europe budget unit, that are at the heart of a labour dispute with pilots.

The head of a large UK haulage firm has said the number of illegal immigrants trying to enter the UK is the worst he's ever seen.

India successfully puts its first satellite in orbit around Mars, after Mangalyaan's 10-month mission from Earth.

California startup Melon has developed a personal activity monitor in the form of a brainwave headband.

Indonesians are protesting against a proposed bill to abolish local direct elections, the BBC's Alice Budisatrijo reports

What happens when an artist becomes the subject of a work of art rather than its creator? An exhibit curated by Picasso's grandson showcases photos of artists at work.

China's Eco City was built to house 350,000 residents but so far just 12,000 people live there.

It's been a long time in coming, but PayPal announced in a blog post today that they have partnered with BitPay, Coinbase, and GoCoin to allow merchants to accept Bitcoin. This comes just a few weeks after the announcement that businesses working with Braintree would be able to accept Bitcoin, and this is a more direct use of Bitcoin. The support will come via integration in the PayPal Payments Hub, and there is one significant catch: for now this is only supported for merchants in North America. Still, it's at least one small step towards further acceptance of virtual currencies. There are other qualifications to using Bitcoin with PayPal as well.

The blog notes, "To be clear, today’s news does not mean that PayPal has added Bitcoin as a currency in our digital wallet or that Bitcoin payments will be processed on our secure payments platform. PayPal has always embraced innovation, but always in ways that make payments safer and more reliable for our customers. Our approach to Bitcoin is no different. That’s why we’re proceeding gradually, supporting Bitcoin in some ways today and holding off on other ways until we see how things develop."

Interestingly, this comes at a time when the mining phase of Bitcoins and other virtual currencies has largely moved beyond GPUs and onto dedicated SHA256 and Scrypt ASICs. That's good news for gamers and graphics gurus like our own Ryan Smith, as it means we hopefully won't see quite as many GPUs that should be playing games sacrificed in pursuit of cryptocurrency mining. (And yes, I know there are many alt-coins that use other Proof of Work algorithms that haven't been ported to ASICs, but few if any are actually profitable to mine with GPUs at this point.) Scott Ellison of PayPal also notes that PayPal has worked with many merchants selling cryptocurrency mining hardware, but they do not work with pre-orders/pre-sales (i.e. early funding of hardware that has not yet shipped).

Today's announcement and the earlier Braintree announcement mark a clear change in tone from PayPal regarding Bitcoin, as the history of PayPal and Bitcoin has been a bit rocky up until now. Going back a few years, in the early days of Bitcoin PayPal actively took steps to prevent people from using their service to purchase Bitcoins. Others have reported bans from PayPal and closed accounts for dealing in Bitcoins. Obviously the inability to roll back purchases made via Bitcoin is a risk, and companies like Coinbase and BitPay now have services in place to mitigate some of the risks. Regardless, with sites like Newegg.com, TigerDirect.com, Overstock.com, and others all beginning to accept Bitcoin as a viable method of payment, it looks like PayPal has decided to join the club.

While there are still plenty of naysayers when it comes to Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies in general, this is great news for Bitcoin proponents as integration with PayPal opens the doors for thousands of small shops to begin working with Bitcoin.

Never officially announced, Blizzard has been talking about an MMO project, codenamed "Project Titan," for the last seven years. The project has had problems, and the company said in 2013 that it was delayed until 2016 at the earliest.

Those problems appear to have proven fatal. The company told Polygon that it has been cancelled entirely. The problem? Even with as much MMO experience as Blizzard had, it struggled to make the game fun.

In the interview, Blizzard senior vice president of story and franchise development Chris Metzen also suggests that the company has changed the way it views itself. Smaller games such as Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm have enabled the company to step back from "colossal, summer blockbuster-type products."

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

World leaders are being asked to make bold pledges to address climate change at a one day summit in New York.

US President Barack Obama has hailed the support of Arab nations in air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants, saying: "This is not America's fight alone."

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting ARM’s Austin Texas campus for a meeting with Vice President of CPU Product Marketing Nandan Nayampally. The topic of discussion: ARM’s next Cortex-M processor, codename Pelican, is officially launching today as the Cortex-M7.

Syria was told of the US air strikes on Islamic State (IS) targets before they were launched - but President Assad's regime did not condemn the operation.

US economist and UN adviser Jeffrey Sachs has told the BBC he thinks governments are still not working hard enough to take care of climate change.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of US Army Private Chelsea Manning. The lawsuit asks for treatment for Manning's gender dysphoria, which she was diagnosed with in 2010 while she was stationed in Iraq.

Gender dysphoria refers to a condition in which a person's gender identity is different from that which they were assigned at birth. The condition is recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, as well as the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.

Manning was court-martialed last year for handing a cache of classified documents over to Wikileaks, which most famously resulted in the notorious “Collateral Murder” video. She was convicted in July 2013 of espionage, theft, and computer fraud, but she was acquitted of “aiding the enemy,” which was one of the most serious charges. Manning is currently serving 35 years in prison and resides at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Microsoft

Microsoft today announced the Wireless Display Adaptor, which will enable Windows and Android systems to wirelessly send their screens to any display with an HDMI input.

One of the new features that Windows 8.1 added, and that most people overlooked, was built-in Miracast support. With the right combination of wireless drivers and video drivers, Windows 8.1 machines can beam their screen over Wi-Fi to Miracast receivers, enabling wire-free, configuration-free connections between PCs and Miracast-enabled TVs and projectors. Windows Phone 8.1 also includes Miracast support; Android has supported the technology since version 4.2.

What has consistently been rare is Miracast hardware on the receiver end. Most TVs and projectors don't support it, so while hardware that supports Miracast broadcasting is becoming quite common (all Microsoft's Surface-branded tablets, except the first generation ARM Surface RT, Samsung smartphones with AllShare Cast or Samsung Link software, new Windows Phones), that hardware has had nowhere to broadcast to.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

A rare skeleton of a woolly mammoth is set to be sold at auction in the UK in November with a guide price of £150,000 to £250,000

The Hollywood actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, tells a UN climate change meeting in New York that climate change is not ''a fiction''.

An iPhone 6 Plus displaying a subtle bend after a weekend of use. MacRumors forum poster Hanzoh

Early buyers have now had a few days with their new iPhones, but some of them are running into a problem: in some cases the thin, flat phones are bending or warping slightly in users' pockets.

The earliest reports came from MacRumors, where forum posters reported bending in the iPhone 6 Plus after a weekend of use. Later, Geek.com writer Russell Holly posted photos of the smaller iPhone 6 exhibiting some of the same behavior. When placed on its (normally flat) front face, Holly's iPhone 6 rocks back and forth slightly on its face, a behavior we haven't noticed in any of our iPhone 6es or iPhone 6 Pluses. Based on the reports that we've read so far, it appears that some combination of body heat and pressure from the carrier's pocket is responsible for the warping.

We've reached out to Apple for a comment on the situation and will update this article if the company responds. It's worth noting that many phones, including the older iPhone 5 and 5S, have been known to bend occasionally—Cult of Mac has a nice roundup with plenty of examples. The question at this point is whether these reports of bending and warping iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units are isolated incidents or if, like the iPhone 4's antenna problems, the issue is endemic to the new design. We'll keep an eye on this one as more people begin receiving the phones and as we spend more time with them ourselves.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments