Mike Alsbury - an employee of Scaled Composites, the firm behind SpaceShipTwo - was the pilot who died

Police secured the crash site in the Mojave Desert amid fears that some of the debris could be explosive

The investigation into the Virgin Galactic spacecraft crash in California's Mojave Desert could take about a year, the head of the US transport safety agency has said.

Christopher Hart said Virgin Galactic would be able conduct further test flights while the investigation took place.

SpaceShipTwo broke up in mid-air during a test flight on Friday.

One of the pilots was killed and the other injured.

Virgin chief Sir Richard Branson says he is "determined to find out what went wrong" and learn from the tragedy.

The US National Transportation Safety Board team had completed its first full day of investigation, Mr Hart said, and would be examining evidence at the scene for four to seven days.

He said the craft's debris was spread over an area measuring five miles from end to end.

He told a news conference the test flight had been "heavily documented" and his team would have to trawl through "extensive data" - which was why the full investigation could take "about 12 months or so".

However, he added than any discoveries of issues that required "immediate attention" would be communicated to Virgin Galactic.

The co-pilot who died when SpaceShipTwo disintegrated shortly after take-off was named as 39-year-old Michael Alsbury. The pilot was identified as Peter Siebold.

Scaled Composites, the company both pilots worked for, said Mr Siebold, 43, was "alert and talking with his family and doctors".

Mr Hart said his team were waiting for doctors to allow them to interview Mr Siebold.

'A massive setback'

Speaking earlier at the at the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the craft was being developed, Sir Richard said "nobody underestimates the risks involved in space travel".

Virgin Galactic had hoped to launch commercially in 2015. It has already taken more than 700 flight bookings at $250,000 (£156,000) each, with Sir Richard pledging to travel on the first flight.

"It's a horrible day for Virgin Galactic and for commercial space travel. It's a massive setback," Sir Richard told the BBC.


He said the company had to pick itself up, find out what went wrong and see whether they can fix it. "I'm hopeful we'll be able to overcome the problems," he added. Learn more »

The 2015 Ford Mustang has been discussed at length, and the switch from a live axle to an independant suspension may be heresy in the eyes of naysayers, but unfortunately I think the live axle technology was taken to its limit in the last model.  Theoretically, it could be made better, but it would be kind of like perfecting a black-and-white TV by making it an OLED flatscreen. You could make it, but why?

I was able to take a quick spin in one of the loaded EcoBoost 2.3 2015 Ford Mustangs that features 310 horsepower being pumped out of the four-cylinder. What’s nice? A memory seat with seat positions in the Mustang?! Yes, one for comfort, one for track, and one for the Missus. The six-speed automatic with paddle shifters also is really nice – I know, but remember they still make a GT for those who want to shift themselves.  There is even discussion of letting customers pick their own rear end ratio in the EcoBoost model, just like the old days. Acceleration or economy?

The engine start button is in the right place on the dashboard for nostalgia – located low and next to some older-school toggle switches.

Overall, when you think of the Mustangs 5.0s of my Vanilla Ice youth were rated at 225 horsepower, we have come a long way.  A 310-horsepower four-cylinder that isn’t some SVO special edition?!

And if you were wondering what the Coyote 5.0 can do when the Pirellis are on Ford check out the video below:
Mustang Magic: A quick ride in the 2015 Ford Mustang Learn more »

I had to smile at my wife’s first reaction when I handed her my new iPad Air 2 to check out straight from the box. “It’s awfully heavy,” quoth the resolutely non-tech-oriented love of my life.

Say what??!

Translated, what she meant, I think, was that for a device with such a razor-thin form factor, it still has reassuring heft, a point on which I concur. I have never considered my iPad 2 to be particularly porky, but the Air 2 (hopefully the number 2 will prove as auspicious with this machine as it has with the older unit) is definitely more vestigial, and appeals to my taste for miniaturization without loss of function.

I’m pleased with the gold color. I like both the traditional White/Silver and Black/Space Gray themes, but they have been getting a bit “been there; done that” and the gold is a refreshing change. I particularly like the look of the gold around the periphery of the display bezel in top/edge viewing aspects.

It’s understatement to say the Air 2 is faster. It’s afterburners-on compared to the old A5-powered Air. I’m also looking forward to the four times greater system RAM, allowing faster switching among open apps and browser tabs, which has been an increasingly major source of frustrating slowdowns on the iPad 2 lately, even though cautionary prudence has kept me from upgrading to reportedly even slower iOS 8 on the old machine after reports that it’s even more sluggish on A5 Pads. The iPad Air 2, of course, came loaded up with iOS 8, but it has plenty of power to support it.

The new fully-laminated Retina Display is beautiful. I haven’t been chafing with the iPad 2′s relatively mediocre 1,024 x 768 panel, but the Retina is definitely nicer; much brighter and snappier with higher contrast. Hopefully, the anti-glare coating will hold up in use.

I don’t find TouchID much of a big whoop. Typing in four-letter passcodes is really no hardship, and I find Touch ID misfires annoyingly often, even though I have recalibrated my thumbprint three times.

The Lightning connector is two-year-old news, but this is my first device to have it. I found no deficiency in the old 30-pin connector, and for me Lightning is just another proprietary bit to possibly get lost or damaged and not as easy/cheap to replace.

These are very early days impressions. I’m not a fast adopter of new hardware, and prefer to ease into it slowly and deliberately. I did a full iTunes backup of the iPad 2 onto my MacBook Air and restored it onto the iPad Air 2. The settings “took” (mostly), but I found that the restore didn’t bring my app collection with it, and I’ve been obliged to manually download dozens of apps via the iTunes “Purchased” pane. Not sure whether this is normal or not, and it isn’t a show-stopper, but has been time consuming and tedious.

Consequently, three days on I’m still using the old iPad 2 for production while I experiment with the Air 2 and get it configured the way I like it. The 2 feels like a comfortable old shoe/glove/pair of jeans—the new has long since worn off, but I know exactly what to expect. I’ll get comfortable with the Air 2 in time, but it’s not a process I like to rush. I think I’m going to really like this new tablet, but it will be some time before I know for sure. Learn more »

It’s time to serve your customers. What could they possibly want? Bacon, of course!

Twisty Hollow gives you three concentric circles with some icons. Line up the correct sequence of icons and the bacon gets made, the customer gets to eat the bacon, and, as in real life, everyone is happy.

Mmmmmmm, bacon…

So, they start adding things like fish and diamonds and sushi in later levels, but we’ll always have bacon. The goal is to make sure all of your customers get served. As the game progresses, customers may leave or even set a fire on a finished product slot if they do not get what they want quickly enough.

Gameplay is handled entirely via tap and swipe. The dial motion is very much like the selection wheel on the old click wheel iPod (may it rest in peace). The game sports some Saturday cartoon style graphics (the characters remind me a little bit of the Mii characters) and bouncy backing music. The controls are fairly easy to use but you need to be careful on the small iPhone scree or you may end up moving the wrong circle

Twisty Hollow is moderately fun and is a good enough occupier of idle time, but that’s about all. The “cute” graphics and relatively easy play will probably help it go over better with the young gamers. Learn more »

Apple lawsuits in October 2014 ran the gamut from class-action to patent to trademark, and there was a blast from the past no one could have foreseen.

• Apple won a patent lawsuit filed by WiLan after the two LTE patents being used were invalidated.
• Many years ago, Apple used FairPlay, a Digital Rights Management (DRM) to keep unauthorized computers and devices from playing music purchased on iTunes. Now Apple is facing a $350 million anti-trust lawsuit claiming the DRM was used to stifle market competition and make it difficult for customers to move to another platform.
• Russian Railways has to wait until November 20th to appeal a court decision that ruled in favor of Apple. Russian Railways sued Apple after an app used its logo without permission and wants 2 million rubles (approximately $55,807).
• Bose dismissed the patent lawsuit they filed against Beats Electronics after accusing them of infringing on several of their noise-cancelling headphone patents.
• Robert Herskowitz brought a $5 million lawsuit against Apple in 2012 saying that Apple defrauded customers by billing twice for songs purchased in iTunes and they couldn’t get refunds. Later, he joined forces with Phoebe Juel who sued Apple after being charged for a song she already bought but couldn’t locate on her computer. Their combined lawsuit recently got dismissed after they reached a settlement with Apple.
• The High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation brought against Apple, Google, Adobe, and Intel after they entered a no-poaching agreement is still continuing. The latest news is the tech workers who brought the lawsuit are asking a federal appeals court to deny the $324.5 million settlement offered.
• It was only a matter of time before angry 2011 MacBook Pro owners sued Apple over its apparent lack of response to the graphical problems they’ve suffered due to faulty hardware. They were forced to pay out-of-pocket to fix their laptops by replacing the logic board, which could be as much as $600. The plaintiffs want Apple to “acknowledge a defect in the 2011 MacBook Pro models, notify owners of the issue, bear the costs of inspection of affected machines, and pay the full costs of repairs and damages.”
• iVoice Enterprises asked India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to remove Apple’s iPhone trademark from the Trademark Registry. Patently Apple notes that iVoice Enterprises has a trademark for Indian Phone, which they abbreviate as iFon. Is the trademark for Indian Phone or iFon? If the former, then Apple has nothing to worry about. If the latter, then it will probably be up to the courts to decide if iFon is close enough to iPhone to make a difference.
• GPNE Corp. sued Apple using patents originally designed for pagers 20 years ago claiming several iOS products violated them. Since the patents expired, the lawsuit was thrown out, prompting an Apple spokesman to call them a patent troll attempting to “extort money from Apple for 20-year-old pager patents that have expired, wasting time for everyone involved.”

Learn more »

Yes, I know Halloween is over, technically. It’s November; time for snow. But the scares don’t have to quit coming just yet (or ever, because they’re fun), so the beautiful people of GameAgent have rounded up 13 Mac games to play on Halloween…and beyond.

The list comes from Russ Looney, a fellow who knows a thing or two about Mac gaming. And even better, the list is on one page! It’s not click bait! #7 won’t blow your mind, and you totally will believe #11.

A few obvious choices appear, such as The Walking Dead series (we highly suggest you avoid Season 2), Dead Island and Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but there are some pretty unique finds in here, too. Not all of the games are aimed at horror fans, either. Some are just spooky, while others are more about your basic Halloween fun, safe for the kids.

Prices for the games range from $2.99 to $39.99, with most of them dropping between $5.00 and $20.00. Head on over to GameAgent to see the full list, then take your pick. 13 is a lot of games, after all, and it’s likely you’ve already played some of these, anyway. Personally, I think I’m going to use this opportunity to finally play Limbo. Learn more »

Not too long ago, I wrote an article proclaiming Erik the Slayer to be a huge jerk. I based this on the fact that I had more than one screen shot of Erik the Slayer standing by, doing absolutely nothing as NPCs were attacked by vicious beasts. After that article went live, I had several people point out to me that Erik the Slayer is based on an Elder Scrolls super-fan who has since passed away. I’m not sure how that stops this resident of from being a jerk, but perhaps it’s something about not speaking ill of the dead.

I would let it go, but I have even more evidence that Erik the Slayer is a huge jerk.

Yes, that’s Erik the Slayer, choosing to continue farming even though the dead body of his neighbor is right in front of him. What kind of a person does that? What sort of person watches the Dragonborn slaughter a defenseless man so that she can adopt his children, and chooses to go right on farming?

What’s even worse is that Erik the Slayer doesn’t even like farming! He all but begged me to talk his father into letting him go out on adventures, and this was after watching me slaughter his neighbor! You know what kind of person does that?

A huge jerk, that’s what kind of person. Learn more »