The BBC looks at what it is like to be a cyclist in Rio de Janeiro and Nairobi.

Windows 8.1 running on Parallels Desktop for Mac. Parallels

Upgrades to software that let Mac users run Windows on OS X have become a yearly occurrence, as Parallels and VMware keep pace with new versions of the Apple and Microsoft desktop operating systems.

This year is no exception, with Parallels Desktop 10 becoming available today. Users of the previous two versions can upgrade to version 10 immediately for $49.99. Everyone else can purchase the new software for $79.99 beginning August 26. A student edition will run for $39.99.

VMware hasn’t yet announced when the new version of Fusion will come out, but you can probably expect it soon, or at least by the time Apple releases OS X Yosemite this fall.

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Anti-government demonstrators in Pakistan are advancing towards parliament, breaching a designated secure zone in the capital Islamabad.

Adam Carolla at Hollywood's Roxy Theater in 2013. Eric Neitzel

Yesterday, news broke that the highest-profile opponent of podcasting, "patent troll" Personal Audio LLC, and podcaster Adam Carolla had reached a settlement. The settlement referred to a court-approved press release, which was finally published (PDF) today on Personal Audio's website.

The press release really includes nothing new. Through discovery, Personal Audio simply found out podcasters—even famous ones like Carolla—just don't make that much money, so it isn't interested in suing them.

It includes the odd tidbit of naming six big podcasters it won't sue, including Joe Rogan and Marc Maron. The six named podcasters have all been supportive of Carolla and presumably are in there because Carolla's people insisted they be "immunized" in writing.

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The Civil Aviation Agency is consulting on changes which would allow the owners of vintage planes to take paying passengers on flights.

From hacking cars to traffic lights - behind the scenes at a cyber-security conference, Def Con.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of girls under 18, who have fled the conflict in Syria, being forced into early marriages, the United Nations has told the BBC.

Netflix has agreed to a paid interconnection deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC), one of the first ISPs to cry foul over Netflix's attempt to gain direct access to broadband networks without payment.

TWC complained about Netflix's Open Connect content delivery network (CDN) back in January 2013, saying the online video company was "seeking unprecedented preferential treatment from ISPs."

Netflix at the time was making its highest-quality streams available only to ISPs who agreed to connect directly to the Netflix CDN. Netflix later stopped its policy of withholding "Super HD" and 3D video from ISPs who didn't cooperate, but was able to get free connections from the likes of Cablevision, Virgin Media, British Telecom, RCN, and Google Fiber. By building its own CDN, Netflix was able to avoid paying third-party CDN providers to distribute its traffic, but some ISPs demanded payment. Failed negotiations resulted in traffic being sent through congested links and poor quality for customers for months on end.

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Zalman sent us their Reserator 3 Max Dual CPU cooler, which is a rather interesting device. It's an all-in-one liquid cooling solution that Zalman advertises as the "Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler". Zalman's engineers are certainly no amateurs when it comes to liquid cooling and the Reserator 3 Max Dual does appear unique, but is it really an "Ultimate Cooler"? We are going to find out in today's review.

A Bradford company which revamps old Citroen 2CVs says more of the cars are being sold to France.

Aurich Lawson

Ask anyone at Sony, and they're likely to tell you that sales of 10 million PS4s in less than nine months is unvarnished good news. But in an uncharacteristic bit of self-questioning, Sony's head of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has expressed some bewilderment and nervousness over the system's quick success.

"It's just beyond our imagination. We are so happy. But I for one am a bit nervous because we do not completely understand what's happening," Yoshida told Eurogamer in a recent interview. "You need to understand why your products are selling well so you can plan for the future, right? It defied the conventional thinking. Lots of people thought the dedicated game hardware might not be needed going forward, but still lots of people are very excited."

While Yoshida said he thinks the lineup of upcoming exclusive games like The Order and Uncharted 4 explains why gamers are excited for the PS4, he said that it still doesn't completely explain the speed at which the system is selling. "I'm asking journalists who ask [about sales] their opinion," Yoshida said. "I'm asking marketing people to tell us why."

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Homer Simpson at Comic-Con.

FilmOn founder Alki David, fresh off getting sanctioned $90,000 for broadcasts using the Aereo-like parts of his TV-over-Internet company, is ramping up a new kind of litigation. He said he owns patents related to hologram technology and keeps accusing high-profile hologram performances of intellectual property infringement.

The newest lawsuit (PDF) is over a hologram of Homer Simpson that was one of the highlights of last month's San Diego Comic-Con. On July 26, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening chatted with Homer for about two minutes.

During the video (above), Simpson complains about the Comic-Con registration process. "I don't care. I get my free ticket from the hologram of Tupac Shakur," answered Groening.

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Not everyone likes their friendly neighborhood cable behemoth.

Media attention and fallout from Comcast’s viral customer service missteps continue to plague the country’s largest Internet service provider. First there was Ryan Block’s ludicrous cancellation call, then Comcast refused to refund invalid fees for Tim Davis until he caught the company in a lie, and then Comcast kept Aaron Spain on hold for three hours, long enough for the customer service lines to close and leave Spain in limbo.

Each instance has been met with a swift response from Comcast’s PR group after going viral, but quick, reactionary responses don’t do anything to fix the underlying problems. Leaked documents obtained by The Verge (full PDF) paint a portrait of exactly how broken things are in Comcast call centers throughout the country, and the documents confirm what current and former Comcast employees have been saying for the past few weeks: selling services is a required part of the job, even for employees doing tech support. Comcast did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

It’s all part of "S4," a "universal call flow" for Comcast call center employees. Those four letters stand for "start, solve, sell, and summarize."

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Howdily doodily, Ars-iarinos! We come bearing a giant slew of discounts this Tuesday, including a variety of discounted BenQ monitors, particularly the 1440p BL3200PT for 37 percent off. Scroll through a few choice Dell laptop deals to find a selection of deeply discounted Lenovo accessories as well, including a wireless headset and wireless mouse that will set you back less than $30 combined.

Featured deals:

• BenQ Sale! BenQ VA LED GW2255 21.5" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $119.99 with free shipping (list price $199.99)
• BenQ Gaming Monitor RL2455HM 24" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $179.99 with free shipping (list price $299.99)
• BenQ GW Series GW2760HS 27" Screen LED-lit Monitor for $199.99 plus shipping (list price $399.99)
• BenQ BL3200PT CAD/CAM WQHD 32" Screen LED-Lit Monitor for $629 with free shipping (list price $999.99)

Monitors:

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Version:next-20140820 (linux-next) Released:2014-08-19

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that he's stepping down from the company's board, effective immediately.

With his ownership of the LA Clippers, teaching, and "civic contribution" taking his time, Ballmer wrote that he's now "very busy," and with both a new NBA season and new class of students, it would be "impractical" for him to remain on the board.

In announcing his departure, Ballmer expressed confidence in new CEO Satya Nadella's leadership, noting that although there are challenges ahead, there are also great opportunities, and he said that Microsoft's mix of software, hardware, and cloud skills is unmatched in the industry.

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Ron Amadeo

The HTC One M8 for Windows and the original HTC One M8.

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NEW YORK CITY—HTC has announced the HTC One M8... again. This time, though, it runs Windows Phone and is a Verizon-exclusive called the "HTC One M8 for Windows." HTC is the first OEM to take advantage of changes in Windows Phone 8.1 that allow for OS-agnostic smartphones, allowing (Verizon) customers to pick their hardware first and software—Windows Phone or Android—second.

We aren't glossing over any details here, either; the hardware is exactly the same as the Android version. That means you get all the good stuff from the HTC One M8: a 5-inch, 1080p LCD, a 2.36GHz Snapdragon 801, 2GB of RAM, a 2600mAh battery, and massive BoomSound speakers, all wrapped in an aluminum shell.

You get the not-so-good stuff from the original One M8, too. The device is huge for something with a 5-inch screen. The speakers add an extra set of bezels to the top and bottom of the device, and along with a strip below the screen dedicated just to the HTC logo, the device is easily the biggest 5-inch phone out there.

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OneNote for Android has been optimized for tablets. Andrew Cunningham

Microsoft's OneNote app for Android has just received a significant update that adds a brand-new UI design for tablets and improved handwriting recognition, the company announced on the Office blog today. The previous version of the OneNote app would run on tablets, but its interface made poor use of the extra space.

The old OneNote app running on a Nexus 7. You can see very little information at once, and the editing interface isn't much better. Andrew Cunningham

The new UI includes Office's trademark ribbon, a revamped UI for navigation, and requires much less zooming and tapping than before. It feels just a little cramped on the 7-inch screen of our Nexus 7, but it still works reasonably well and should be more comfortable on larger 8- and 10-inch Android tablets. The new handwriting feature allows you to draw on the screen with your finger, or with a stylus on Android phones and tablets that include them (Samsung's Note series comes to mind).

Andrew Cunningham

The new OneNote interface on a Nexus 7. Like many of Google's own apps, the new OneNote makes extensive use of sliding panels for navigation. Swipe from right to left to dismiss these panels and see your content.

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The phone version of OneNote for Android gets the same panel-based navigation system and handwriting support, though everything has been scaled down to fit better on smaller screens.

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The current incarnation of the SmartThings hub, which probably won't look much different once Samsung's acquisition of the company comes to fruition (unless they finally decide that white, clunky plastic is passe). Sam Machkovech

On Tuesday, Samsung announced that it would acquire Quietside, a manufacturer of air conditioners, heaters, and other HVAC appliances, for an undisclosed sum. This follows Samsung's purchase of smart home all-in-one solution SmartThings last week, an acquisition that had been hinted at in July, and the combination points to Samsung's desire to take over American homes by controlling their every device.

At first blush, the 100 percent acquisition of Quietside appears to merely streamline Samsung's operations, since the company already produces its own line of air conditioners—and has relied on Quietside to distribute those offerings in North America for over 15 years. Yet the Samsung announcement went so far as to hint at more to come: "[Samsung] also plans to unveil an enhanced HVAC product lineup that better reflects the needs of North American customers," it stated, though no timeline was attached to that sentence.

We can only assume that such a statement hints at the company's dreams of Samsung device interplay, with phones, watches, alarms, heaters, TVs, and more communicating with each other. As of now, Samsung's home appliance portfolio puts it in better position than its peers to consider taking over every corner of a home's electronics; where Google has Nest, Samsung has ovens and dryers. However, based on Samsung's "only Galaxy devices" compatibility track record, particularly with its Galaxy Gear offerings, we worry that Samsung will devour SmartThings' all-in-one home automation system and kill off compatibility with third-party products and protocols (a feature that, admittedly, was already thin enough when we reviewed the SmartThings hub earlier this year).

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Kevin Spencer

A healthcare system spanning 29 states announced on Monday that cybercriminals operating from China stole information on approximately 4.5 million patients, including names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers.

Community Health Systems, which comprises 206 facilities in the southern and western states, announced the incident in an 8-K filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The data breach likely stems from compromises in April and June of this year, involved sophisticated malware, and is apparently connected to China, the company stated.

"The attacker was able to bypass the Company’s security measures and successfully copy and transfer certain data outside the Company," CHS said in its 8-K filing. "Since first learning of this attack, the Company has worked closely with federal law enforcement authorities in connection with their investigation and possible prosecution of those determined to be responsible for this attack."

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