• Back in September, Mark Wahlberg shared his daily schedule on Instagram, which details how he wakes up at 2:30 am every day, showers for an hour and a half, plays golf for 30 minutes, and is somehow in bed by 7:30 pm.
• Of course, the internet had opinions, and it even spawned a full-blown meme where people shared their own wild schedules.
• On Friday, November 9, Wahlberg was a guest on "The Tonight Show" and explained to Jimmy Fallon that the schedule was "misleading," and addressed a few of the concerns.
• But the schedule still doesn't make any sense.

It's common knowledge that Mark Wahlberg is in incredible shape — he always has been. But for the past four months, he's been upping his intense schedule to an entirely new level. He frequently posts on Instagram about his 4 am workouts, among other things.

According to Wahlberg, he was told that people were interested in his daily schedule, so it was posted — not by him — to his Instagram account. The schedule, which includes a 90 minute shower, a 30 minute round of golf, and two hours of "family time" while his kids are at school, was roasted by the internet.

Read more: People are creating their own hilarious daily schedules after Mark Wahlberg said he wakes up at 2:30 a.m. and spends 1 hour in 'cryo chamber recovery' every day

Wahlberg was finally given an opportunity to defend himself when he was a guest on "The Tonight Show," and Jimmy Fallon asked for some clarification on the matter.

He explained that he's not actually in the show for an hour and half. He told Fallon, "I shower for about five minutes, then I drive or pick up the kids, drop them off, go to the golf course... There's other things happening between 6 to 7:30."

Wahlberg also confirms he only spends three minutes in the cryo chamber, and the literally fatal hour that the schedule implies.

But Wahlberg doesn't address his speed round of golf, his lack of rehearsal time for the movies he appears in, the hour of snack time, and the lack of time spent devoted to his successful burger chain, Wahlburgers.

We need more information, Mark.

You can watch the whole interview below.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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• About 40 Playboy Bunnies work at the recently opened Playboy Club in New York City.
• Richie Notar, the club's creative director, told Business Insider that there are two main things they look for when hiring a Bunny.
• They want the Bunnies to have a warm disposition that makes people feel at ease when they walk in the door, and to have something interesting going on in their lives outside of the job.

About 40 Playboy Bunnies work at the recently opened Playboy Club in New York City— and each one of them was carefully selected.

The club's creative director, Richie Notar, told Business Insider there are two main things they look for when hiring a Bunny to work at the club.

First and foremost, they look for people who have a welcoming and warm disposition.

"Because in that cruel and terrible world out there in New York City, you walk through those doors and it's like walking into a house, and you hug someone with your smile and you look at them," Notar told Business Insider. "You're not like, 'Uh, reservation?' I want eye-to-eye contact." 

When someone makes a customer feel at ease right when they walk in the door, it makes a difference to their entire experience at the club, he said.

"From that point on, what happens is the food tastes better, the table is more comfortable," Notar said. "Everything seems better when you feel like you're in good hands."

Notar said they also look for candidates who have something interesting going on in their lives outside of the job. 

"One of the things that I would like to do ... is focus on people that have something interesting outside of this," Notar said. "I want them to be interesting in different ways other than just bringing you a drink."

A dental hygienist is one of the Bunnies on staff at the club, along with an opera singer who agreed to sing an "operatic happy birthday" song to a customer, much to Notar's delight.

Of course, prior hospitality experience is a bonus, Notar said. "But my philosophy has always been, you have to start with a good person."

If there's one thing Notar won't tolerate from potential Bunnies, it's attitude.

In New York, he says, "the hotter the restaurant, they're like, 'I'm doing you a favor by letting you in.' There's a lot of attitude. No attitude on my watch."

SEE ALSO: I visited New York's new Playboy Club, where Playboy Bunnies serve drinks in their iconic costumes and members pay up to $100,000 a year — and it wasn't at all what I expected

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NOW WATCH: 7 places you can't find on Google Maps

There are dozens of ways you could put together a list of the best video games ever made. You could look to classics, like "Super Mario Bros." here.

You could look at impact on the medium, or highest sales. You could write down your personal favorites on pieces of paper, then throw them into the air. Where the pieces land? That's your list!

But what we've got here is something slightly more scientific. Reviews aggregation site Metacritic compiles all reviews of games, then it averages those scores into an overall average. What you'll find below is the top 50 highest-rated games of all time, based on the averages obtained by Metacritic. We made one small change: Since there are a handful of duplicates on the list (multiple versions of the same game, released on multiple platforms), we've just taken the highest-ranked version of the game to make room for a handful of games that wouldn't have otherwise made the list.

Without further ado, these are the 50 best video games of all time:

SEE ALSO: The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics on Metacritic

50. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4"

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 8.4/10

Plot summary (from Metacritic): "Build your skills, earn respect, and show that you've got what it takes to Go Pro. 190 progressively harder goals. No time clock, no constraints. Pro-specific challenges. Evolving levels. Interact with other skaters. Multi-player modes. Customize your game...Your career is what you make of it."

Platforms: GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Tapwave Zodiac, OS X, PC

49. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2"

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 6.4/10

Plot summary (from Metacritic): "'Modern Warfare 2' continues the gripping and heart-racing action as players face off against a new threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. An entirely new gameplay mode which supports 2-player co-operative play online that is unique from the single player story campaign. Special Ops pits players into a gauntlet of time-trial and objective-based missions. Rank-up as players unlock new Special Ops missions, each more difficult. Missions include highlights from the single player campaign, fan favorites from 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare' and all new, exclusive missions. Setting a new bar for online multiplayer, 'Modern Warfare 2' multiplayer delivers new capabilities, customization, game states and modes, including: Create-a-Class Evolved. Secondary Weapons - Machine Pistols, Shotguns, Handguns, Launchers. Riot Shields. Equipment - Throwing Knives, Blast Shield, Tactical Insertion. Perk Upgrades. Bling (Dual Attachments). Customizable Killstreaks - AC130, Sentry Gun, Predator Missile, Counter-UAV, Care Package. Accolades (Post match reports)."

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, OS X

48. "Final Fantasy IX"

Critic score: 94/100

User score: 8.9/10

Plot summary (from Metacritic): "The last 'Final Fantasy' for the PlayStation, 'Final Fantasy IX' returns to the pure fantasy roots that spawned the series. This latest installment features highly detailed characters, vehicles, and environments, and breathtaking cinema-graphics. The addition of brand new features such as the story-enhancing Active Time Event system and the return of mini-games that grant additional gameplay make 'Final Fantasy IX' not only a memorable gaming experience, but also a significant step forward in the series."

Platforms:  PlayStation, iOS, Android, PC, PlayStation 4

• We spent six hours at Red Lobster, eating as many shrimp as we possibly could to celebrate Shrimpsgiving 2018.
• We consumed 350 shrimp as part of the chain's Endless Shrimp deal, our thirdyear in a row stuffing ourselves with shrimp for hours.   
• But, as the hours rolled on, we realized — we'll never shrimp again. Here's why. 

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

It was Endless Shrimp. 

For three years, we have consumed the pink jewels of the ocean. For three years, we have spent one long day gorging ourselves, striving to meet new goals and best our shrimpy limits. And, for three years, we have succeeded. 

Read more:We went to Red Lobster's $21.99 Endless Shrimp to see if it's really unlimited

But this year, it wasn't easy. 

We ventured to Red Lobster for our annual Endless Shrimp outing two months ago. This year, unlike years past, we struggled to keep the holiday spirit in our hearts at Shrimpsgiving and in the weeks that followed. Against the backdrop of our familiar booth and all-too-familiar Mumford & Sons soundtrack, we craved... change. 

Let us take you on a journey that we have gone on before. But this time, it is the same, yet so different:

SEE ALSO: This popular Southern taco chain has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but on a recent visit, we were thoroughly impressed by the restaurant. Here's what it was like.

The familiar intersection: the corner of 7th Avenue and 41st Street, a spot we rarely visit except to pay tribute on Shrimpsgiving.

The red lobster himself loomed above, seemingly saying, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

And for another year, Endless Shrimp was resurrected, a shrimpy Lazarus.

• Conditions for homeless residents in San Francisco are among the worst in the world, with many living in crowded camps filled with trash, feces, and discarded needles.
• In September, United Nations Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha released a report calling the crisis a "human rights violation."
• Business Insider spoke with Farha about the root causes of homelessness — and what she sees as the most viable solutions. 
• Farha doubled down on her previous comments, arguing that San Francisco's homelessness crisis suggests a "cruelty that is unsurpassed."

When Leilani Farha paid a visit to San Francisco in January, she knew the grim reputation of the city's homeless encampments. In her four years as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing, Farha has visited the slums of Mumbai, Delhi, Mexico City, Jarkarta, and Manila. The crisis in San Francisco, she said, is comparable to these conditions.  

While New York City and Los Angeles have the highest numbers of homeless people in the US, San Francisco has the highest rate of street homelessness nationwide. On any given night, more than 4,300 citizens sleep without a roof over their heads.

But not even this knowledge could prepare Farha for what she witnessed in January. 

In the city's core, homeless residents were denied basic access to water, toilets, and sanitation facilities. There were piles of trash and scattered feces on the ground. In the neighboring camps in Oakland, rats dug through the mud and families huddled outside in the cold. The experience, she said, shook her to her core. 

"The idea that a government would deny people those services ... when they have nowhere else to go suggests a kind of cruelty that is unsurpassed," Farha told Business Insider. "It's an attempt to erase people. Worse than erase — I can only use the word annihilate. It is a denial of someone's humanity."

The visit led to a report in which she described San Francisco's crisis as a human rights violation. The language may sound grave — but so is the crisis. 

San Francisco's homeless are often victims of hard times

At one point on her trip, Farha encountered a young man living underneath a highway underpass, cooking quesadillas on a small stove with an open flame. 

Read more: UN report: San Francisco's 'cruel and inhuman' homelessness crisis is a human rights violation

"The last time I had seen someone cooking on the sidewalk like that was in India, with the pavement dwellers there, and here I am in San Francisco in a state with the sixth largest GDP in the world," said Farha.

She asked the man about how he came to be homeless, and found that he had traveled from the Midwest after his mother died and his family broke down. 

"I think he was in the midst of developing a psychosocial disability from the trauma of being on the streets," she said. 

While many homeless residents in California are native to the area, the man's story is relatively common. Farha said most of the homeless residents she met in San Francisco were victims of hard times.

"They were working and then their apartment building got sold to someone, the investor raised the rents, the person couldn't afford it anymore, they couch surfed for a while, and then they hit the street," she said. 

Her comments echo the understanding among homeless residents and advocacy organizations like the National Coalition for the Homeless, which attributes homelessness to "a complex set of circumstances that require people to choose between food, shelter, and other basic needs."

A crisis of open air drug markets, discarded needles, and poop piles

San Francisco's crisis of open air drug markets, discarded needles, and piles of poop on the sidewalk dates back to the nation's neo-liberal housing policies in the 1980s, according to Farha.

These policies allowed the private sector to wrest control of investments in the affordable housing market, while the government slowly retreated. In 1986, President Reagan signed a housing tax credit that gave big corporations more oversight over low-income housing. By the 2000s, companies were selling off social housing — dubbed "housing of last resort"— for major profits. 

"It's very hard for a city to compete against a private equity firm in terms of buying up land," Farha said. "Private equity firms have such a huge amount of capital at their disposal. They call them vultures for a reason. They can go in and use their power and wealth and buy up a huge amount of property very quickly."

After the global financial crisis in 2008, firms like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs began purchasing single-family dwellings and charging high rents, rendering them unaffordable for most residents. These properties were then bundled together so that shareholders effectively became landlords. 

In the current market, investors in cities across the country frequently buy units and flip them into short-term rentals on services like HomeAway and Airbnb. All the while, the world's wealthy billionaires are scooping up luxury apartments, creating a demand for high-end real estate.

To make sense of the San Francisco crisis, Farha has had to sift through this winding history. "I've had to get my head around all this stuff just to understand homelessness," she said. 

Resident blame tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook

Many residents have been quick to blame San Francisco's housing crisis on major tech companies like Google, Intel, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. As early as 2013, San Franciscans took to protesting the private buses that shuttle Google workers from their homes in the city to the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.

The protestors have even come up with a name for the massive influx of high-tech firms: "techsploitation." In May, protestors in the Mission District — home to a number of the city's homeless residents — stood outside chanting the phrase, "Sweep tech not tents."

Though Farha acknowledges the stark contrast between the city's multi-billion-dollar tech firms and residents sleeping on the streets, she doesn't think techies are exclusively to blame.

"I absolutely do not want to only point the finger at the big tech firms," she said. "I think they actually come to the table late on this."

Even so, she said, companies with massive amounts of wealth have a responsibility to share it.

In early November, Farha praised Salesforce chairman Marc Benioff's decision to support Proposition C, a controversial ballot measure in San Francisco that will tax the city's largest corporations to fund services for the homeless. The measure passed on Tuesday, but was just shy of a two-thirds majority, meaning it could be stalled by legal proceedings for years to come.

In a New York Times editorial, Benioff said homelessness was an even bigger threat to his business than a "small tax" because "companies can truly thrive only when our communities succeed as well."

Housing is a human right 

At least one key player in California has taken note of Farha's concerns. After releasing her report in September, Farha received a call from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who wanted to start a dialogue about addressing the Bay Area homelessness crisis.

Despite the complicated nature of the issue, Farha isn't short on solutions. But first, she said, people have to understand that housing isn't a commodity — it's a human right. 

"No international human rights treaty codifies the right to gold, but several codify the right to housing," said Farha. "That's because housing goes to the core of what it means to live in dignity. You can't live in dignity without decent housing."

Under international human rights law, governments are required"to apply the maximum of available resources to upgrading informal settlements" like slums, shanty towns, and homeless encampments.

For Farha, these resources include taxes like Proposition C that go toward identifying and addressing the root causes of homelessness. It also means getting rid of forced evictions from homeless camps, adopting inclusionary zoning laws, and offering skills training programs for homeless residents. In the past, Farha has also criticized laws that prohibit the homeless from living out of their vehicles.

"It's not to say that we want to bring down capitalism," Farha said. Instead, she said, the human rights obligation lies with the government, which is responsible for regulating private actors.

One of her dreams as Special Rapporteur is to get people to understand the role of government in homelessness.

If a person is walking along the street and sees someone homeless, it's okay to think whatever you want, she said. "But also think, 'That homeless person represents my government's failure to implement the right to adequate housing.'"

Join the conversation about this story »

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• President Trump, tweeting from a trip to Europe, blamed bad forest management for the string of deadly wildfires wreaking havoc on California. 
• He previously criticized "bad environmental laws" for the Carr fire earlier this year near Redding, California.
• Experts say the forests currently burning have up to 25 times the density of healthy forests, adding to fire risks. 

Tweeting from his trip to Europe, President Trump blamed forest mismanagement for the trio of deadly wildfires in California that have burned tens of thousands of acres, displacing thousands, and leaving at least nine dead.

"There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,"he said early Saturday. “Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!"

It’s not the first time Trump has blamed forest management on deadly wildfires. Earlier this year, when the deadly Carr Fire killed eight people near the town of Redding, California, he tweeted that the disasters were made worse by "bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amounts of readily available water to be properly utilized."

Tom Bonnicksen, a retired forestry expert and fire researcher, told the San Francisco Chronicle that indeed, a lack of forest management was partly to blame for the fires’ intense heat and rapid spread.

"There are millions and millions and millions of dollars going into fighting fires," Bonnicksen said, “but there are not millions and millions and millions of dollars going into preventing the fires."

That lack of oversight has left forests with an overabundance of smaller trees and shrubbery, which can be among the first vegetation to fuel a fire, while larger trees take much longer to return.

A healthy forest, experts told the paper, should have 60-80 trees per acre, while the forests around Paradise — home to 27,000 people that is now completely charred— have as much as 2,000 per acre.

In Northern California, the Camp Fire has grown at a pace of 80 football fields per minute after starting Thursday morning. Four people were burned to death in their cars, the Butte County sheriff Korey Honea told the Associated Press. One deceased person was found near a vehicle.

As of 6:00 a.m. PT, the blaze had burned 90,000 acres in just over 24 hours and was 5% contained.

More than 6,700 structures were destroyed. It is now considered the most destructive wildfire in California history in terms of the number of structures destroyed.

To the south, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, two smaller fires also started Thursday and are now creating havoc for drivers and forcing homeowners to flee. The Woolsey and Hill Fires are burning through parts of Ventura and LA counties. The flames have threatened the homes of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and shut down stretches of the 101 freeway.

More coverage of the California fires:

• Malibu is in flames as two wildfires spread through southern California — here's what it looks like on the ground
• At least 9 people dead, thousands of homes destroyed in 3 dangerous wildfires burning across California
• A California wildfire just demolished an entire town and forced the Kardashians to evacuate. Here’s why wildfire season is getting longer and stronger.

SEE ALSO: Malibu is in flames as two wildfires spread through southern California — here's what it looks like on the ground

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NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

• Apple's new MacBook Air seems to be the perfect laptop for me.
• The problem is that I spent thousands on a new Apple laptop last year.
• I'm annoyed because my MacBook Pro has several issues that the new MacBook Air fixed. 

When I received my MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in August of 2017, I was pumped.

15 months later, I have mixed feelings about my major purchase — and many of them are caused by Apple's new MacBook Air with Retina display, which is the laptop I wish I had bought. 

I thought I had made the purchase correctly. I researched the specs, saved up, and waited until Apple refreshed its laptops with the latest Intel chips, so I wouldn't be buying old technology. 

Reader, it was expensive. I loaded it up with lots of bells and whistles, including an upgraded processor, additional RAM, and extra storage space. I had owned my last MacBook Air for over six years, so I was ready to amortize the roughly $2,000 cost over a long period of time. 

And now, just over a year later, I regret my purchase. It's not really a knock on the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar — although there are issues — it's just that the new MacBook Air is the right machine for what I need to do, and I'm frustrated that there was no similar option when I needed a new Mac. 

Now, I've got an expensive laptop that I'm not completely satisfied with that I expected to own through 2023, and my wandering eye is looking towards Apple's latest and greatest. 

Read more: Hands-on with Apple's new redesigned MacBook Air: This could be the laptop that Apple fans have been waiting for

A few issues 

It's not that the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is a bad machine — I've worked on it, traveled with it, and generally used it heavily, as I expected when I purchased it. 

But I shouldn't have to deal with daily annoyances on what is a premium laptop. 

Let's start with the Touch Bar.

I dislike it. I wish it weren't on my laptop. I frequently control iTunes through the function keys, and the touchscreen simply doesn't provide the same feedback as a button. I hit mute all the time when I'm in meetings to make sure my music doesn't start playing and embarrass me. These are buttons I press perhaps 30 times a day or more.

It's also really easy on the Touch Bar to accidentally activate a key, whether it's Siri (right above backspace!) or the screen brightness. It also frustrated me that I have to look at the Touch Bar to determine what I'm doing, because by default, it changes from app to app. There's a setting that basically turns it into the old keys, but even then, it's just a less effective version of what I had on my laptop in 2011. 

The MacBook Pro with Touch Bar also has disappointing battery life — about four hours, in my experience. It's bad enough that when working in the field and covering events like Apple's iPhone launch, I frequently need to plug-in before the day is done. My 2011 MacBook Air had better battery life. 

One place where that energy is going is heat: My MacBook Pro with Touch Bar gets extremely hot. It's too hot to use on my lap or in bed. I've worried that it's too hot to put directly on my dining room table. 

Finally, my MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has the "sticky key" problem that's led to a slew of stories and even class-action lawsuits. The "1" key sticks and sometimes types two 1's when I only mean to press it once. The spacebar sometimes doesn't register. 

It's a problem. Apple says it will fix the sticky keys free-of-charge, but that's time and effort I'll need to spend.

But the MacBook Air solves all these problems

Enter the new MacBook Air, which went on sale this past week. It appears to be the device that I wanted last year, when I bought my MacBook Pro.

For example, although it has Apple's Touch ID fingerprint scanner — a nice feature — it doesn't have the Touch Bar, bringing back my beloved media controls and escape key.

In terms of battery life, Apple says the MacBook Air can get up to 12 hours on a single charge. That might be optimistic, given that Apple boasts 10 hours for the model I have that usually runs out of battery in half the time, but it's a step in the right direction. 

And it has an improved keyboard that should address the sticky key issues I've experienced. Apple even highlighted it at its launch event in Brooklyn. "The new MacBook Air has our latest-generation keyboard with keys that offer four times the stability over the previous generation, creating a modern keyboard with a more precise and responsive typing experience," an Apple official said at the launch. 

A teardown from iFixit shows that these keys have a plastic piece inside the keys that should cut down on crumbs and other debris getting inside the keys.

While the price — starting at $1199 — isn't that far off from what I paid for mine, especially after upgrading the storage and RAM, it's hard to not feel buyer's remorse.

The MacBook Air does still have some shortcomings compares to the Pro — it has a less powerful Intel chip, for example. But I don't really need massive processor power. 

Of course, it's not Apple's fault that every year it comes out with new computers that are better than the last year's models. That's how the business works.

But I think a little bit of my annoyance is due to the fact that all of these changes could've been made in 2017. People were complaining about these issues with the MacBook Pro back then. Apple never said it was preparing a new computer that addressed the issues — it never talks about upcoming products. 

Which left me in a sticky situation in the summer of 2017. It wasn't the right time to buy Apple's best 13-inch laptop, as it turns out the next year's model ended up being what I wanted. 

While it's great that Apple has fixed many consumer complaints with its main laptop line, it highlights that computer purchases are big items that people plan to use for years, unlike phones, which have a two to three year lifespan. And people who end up buying lemons are stuck with them for a long time. 

People who now buy the new MacBook Air seem happy, and are likely to say they're satisfied with their purchase. But by not having a reliable release schedule and a roadmap for future updates, there's a chance that some people — like me — will end up in a generation of customers who are stuck with a laptop they're not completely happy with. 

SEE ALSO: Hundreds of people have taken to Reddit to complain that Apple is 'nickel and diming' them with its new products

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Apple's October 2018 event in 8 minutes

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• I've been using Microsoft's new Surface Laptop 2 and love the sleek design, vibrant display, and powerful processor.
• You can also get similar specs in the new MacBook Air — but it starts at $1,199.
• The Surface Laptop 2 is also pricey, starting at $999, but I think it's one of the best laptops you can buy right now.

Traditionally, Microsoft has been known as a software company, but in recent years that has been changing — the company has been releasing well-reviewed and highly anticipated hardware too. That has all culminated in Microsoft's latest lineup, which includes the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 2.

The Surface Laptop 2 already has a lot going for it. It features a super sleek design, options for powerful specs, and a great display. It's also a little pricey, starting at $999.

Is it worth the cash?

As with any new product, the first thing you'll notice about the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is its design, and it's a beautiful piece of hardware. The outside of the laptop is sleek and stylish and comes in a few different colors — including Black, Platinum, Burgundy, and Cobalt Blue. Notably, the Black version is new — and we loved the beautiful look and feel of the Black model, complete with a glossy black logo on the lid, black keyboard keys, and so on.

The laptop itself is relatively portable, which is always helpful. It comes in at 12.13 x 8.79 x 0.57 inches, with a weight of 2.76 pounds. That's about middle of the road for a 13-inch laptop — it's not as light as the Surface Pro, which comes in at around 1.6 pounds, or the Samsung Notebook 9, which is 1.8 pounds. Still, we found the laptop to be easy to carry, and even forget about when it's in a backpack.

One of the things that sets the Microsoft Surface Laptop apart from other laptops is the soft Alcantra fabric that surrounds the keyboard, and we quite like it. It makes resting your hands on the keyboard nicer and a little warmer than a metal laptop. Over time, the finish may wear a little, but if you get a darker color that wear may not show up quite as much.

Speaking of the keyboard, Microsoft claims that it's quieter than ever on the Surface Laptop 2— something that we can definitely confirm.

Even those only a few meters away may not be able to hear typing, which is very helpful in an office environment or when you're typing with others around. It feels pretty good too — there's plenty of travel to make for a nice, tactile typing experience, and the spacing of the keys is pretty good too.

On the edges of the laptop, you'll find a standard USB port, a mini DisplayPort, a headphone jack, and a Surface Connect port, which is used for charging. That's really not as many ports as we would have liked to see. For starters, Microsoft really should have included at least one USB-C port given the fact that it's the port of the future, and an SD card slot would have been nice too.

The display is nice too.

It comes in at 13.5 inches, with a resolution of 2,256 x 1,504 and a 3:2 aspect ratio. It's a touch display too — so when the trackpad and keyboard aren't enough, simply reach out and control the device with your hands. Colors on the display, we found, were vivid and deep. The computer isn't a 2-in-1 — you can't detach the display — but the touch support is still a nice addition. Above the display is a 720p front-facing camera, which supports Windows Hello. Windows Hello essentially allows you to unlock your computer with your face — and we found that it was fast and convenient.

Under the hood, the Surface Laptop 2 has a lot to offer.

The base model comes with an eighth-gen Intel Core i5 quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, but it can be upgraded with up to an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and up to a 1TB hard drive. Safe to say, the base model will be more than powerful enough for most people who might web-browse email, and watch Netflix every now and then. For those that want a little more power, however, the ranged-up options might be the way to go. It's also worth comparing those specs to similar models. You can get a Dell XPS 13 with the exact same specs for $930, which is a little cheaper. You can also get similar specs in the new MacBook Air — but it starts at $1,199.

The battery life of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 officially comes in at 14 hours and 30 minutes of video playback, and while we didn't quite hit that, it's safe to say that the battery life on the laptop is really quite good. It's a little longer than the battery on the Dell XPS 13, which is one of the laptop's main competitors.

The Surface Laptop 2, as you would expect, features Windows 10 — but unlike the original Surface Laptop, the new device does away with Windows 10 S, which is a good thing. The lightweight version of Windows isn't bad for some uses, but in a $1,000-plus laptop, you really should get the full version of Windows.

Ultimately, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is one of the best laptops you can buy, and should definitely be considered for those looking for a high-end laptop for work, home use, or anything else. It's not cheap — but it is a flagship-quality product.

But are there better options? Well, that depends.

The aforementioned Dell XPS 13 is another excellent choice, and it offers a similar-sized display in a smaller package. It also offers a beautiful edge-to-edge display, and a much better selection of ports. In the end, for most users, it's the better choice. That said, that doesn't mean you should avoid the Surface Laptop 2 — if you like the soft-touch finish, need a slightly better keyboard, and don't mind paying a little extra for a laptop with fewer ports, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is the way to go.

Shop the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 starting at $999 at Microsoft or Best Buy.

SEE ALSO: These $300 bookshelf speakers are the best in their price range — here's what they sound like at home

DON'T MISS: The best Alexa-enabled speakers you can buy that aren't made by Amazon

Join the conversation about this story »

• President Donald Trump announced his first recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Saturday, the nation’s highest honor for a civilian. 
• The seven recipients will include American pop culture figures Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth. 
• Political recipients include the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and retiring Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. 

President Donald Trump has announced his first recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and they include the wife of a major Republican Party donor, the longest-serving Republican senator in US history, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth.

Trump will also posthumously recognize the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for nearly three decades on the Court as a "champion of the Constitution," according to a White House statement. 

Presley was chosen for his prolific music career in addition to his two years of service in the Army, the White House said.

Medals are also going to Miriam Adelson, a doctor and the wife of casino magnate and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson; Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is retiring after more than 41 years in the US Senate; former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Alan Page, who began a legal career after leaving the NFL.

Hatch, who has served in the Senate since 1977, is being honored for sponsoring the most bills of any living Congress member and leading a career in which he "championed religious liberty, fought against communism, and stood on the side of freedom around the world." 

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest honor for a civilian. The ceremony will take place on November 16. 

Read more: Trump always brags about his record of endorsing candidates — here's how many won

The last Medal of Honor ceremony was in January 2017 when former President Barack Obama awarded former Vice President Joe Biden. Obama previously named recipients including Bruce Springsteen, Sandra Day O'Connor, Harvey Milk, Stephen Hawking, Michael Jordan, and Bill and Melinda Gates.

Over the course of his two terms, Obama honored over 100 individuals, more than any other president. 

The White House wrote in a statement that the medal would be "awarded by the President to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 places you can't find on Google Maps

Warning: There are minor spoilers ahead for "The Grinch."

Universal's animated remake of "The Grinch," makes some additions and updates to the classic Dr. Seuss story, but it also adds some new characters, including a screaming goat kids should enjoy.

It turns out the little guy, who pops up several times throughout the movie, was inspired by the popular Taylor Swift goat meme. 

"We'd already done the scene where we knew the Grinch was going to go out to try to find reindeer and find Fred [reindeer]. We'd already started to build that sequence, and then we were like, 'This is missing something. There's a layer of fun to be had as he's journeying out into the woods,'" co-director Scott Mosier told INSIDER. 

"I wish I could say it was some deep, artistic, creative core, but it was YouTube," Mosier continued about the inspiration for the tiny goat. "There's a Taylor Swift remix of one of her songs with a screaming goat, and we all couldn't stop laughing. I just think it's the funniest thing in the world."

Mosier is referring to the YouTube remix of Swift's 2012 song, "I Knew You Were Trouble." It went viral in 2013 after a screaming goat was added to a portion of the chorus. 

You can watch it below: 

Mosier said it became an idea they had for the film and the team at Illumination started to build it for the movie, but they weren't sure if he would make it into the final cut. 

"We were heading to the first test screening and we were like, 'How are we going to end the movie?' And there was that screaming goat, and we were like, 'Let's go for it,' Mosier said. 

"Initially, it was like, 'OK, well, here's the button for the end of the film to get us through the test screening and we'll see how it plays," said co-director Yarrow Cheney added. "It was, probably, the biggest laugh, and it really just gave such an energy to the end of the film that at that point it was like, 'OK, something's working here. We need to keep this."

Interestingly enough, "The Grinch" isn't the only animated movie this month where you'll see a bleating goat. A similar gag occurs in Disney's upcoming "Ralph Breaks the Internet," its "Wreck-It Ralph" sequel. So expect to see a lot of the animal. 

You can read more from our conversation with "The Grinch" directors here. The movie is now in theaters. 

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This company spent 10 years developing a product that allows humans to scale walls like a gecko

• Alibaba had already generated more sales on Singles' Day 2018 — just 10 minutes into the 24-hour shopping event — than Amazon is estimated to have reached in its record-setting 2018 Prime Day. 
• Singles' Day has topped $6.5 billion in sales already, 20 minutes into its 11/11 event, which kicked off at midnight on Sunday in Shanghai. 
• For comparison, Amazon's sales were estimated to reach roughly $4.2 billion over the company's 36-hour Prime Day in July. 

SHANGHAI, China — Alibaba's Singles' Day surpassed Amazon's biggest shopping day of the year in less than 10 minutes. 

Less than 10 minutes in, Alibaba's massive 24-hour online shopping extravaganza had generated more than $4.68 billion in sales. Twenty minutes in, sales had surpassed $6.5 billion. 

In 2017, Alibaba's Singles' Day sales exceeded $25 billion.

While not an exact comparison, Amazon's total sales are estimated to have topped $4.2 billion over the company's 36-hour Prime Day in July 2018, according to Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Michael Pachter. Amazon does not release Prime Day sales figures, but the company said it was "the biggest shopping event in Amazon history," exceeding sales from Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and the previous Prime Day.

Total online sales on Black Friday reached $5 billion in 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Cyber Monday sales were roughly $6.6 billion. 

Over the last decade, Alibaba has almost single-handedly turned Singles Day — November 11, or 11/11 — into a cultural phenomenon and by far the biggest day of the year for online shopping. 

The explosive start to Singles' Day comes as little surprise, despite some recent shakiness in the Chinese economy. Gross merchandise value encompasses value generated globally across Alibaba's swiftly expanding ecosystem, which includes Taobao.com, Tmall, and concepts that blend online and offline sales, like the supermarket chain Hema.

A decade of skyrocketing 11/11 sales brings an added pressure to post ever-higher figures, according to Dr. Daniel Zipser, a McKinsey & Company senior partner who leads its consumer and retail practice in Greater China.

"The whole world is looking," when it comes to GMV figures, Zipser told Business Insider on Saturday. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How ketchup started as a fish sauce from Asia

• The widest room in a narrow New York City townhouse is just 10 feet wide — and it's selling for $5 million.
• The exterior of the Lower Manhattan home measures just under 13 feet, a Douglas Elliman agent told Business Insider.
• Real estate developers are building more super-narrow townhouses in leftover space from larger projects, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A Lower Manhattan townhouse that measures 10 feet wide inside is about to go on sale for $5 million.

The exterior of the newly-built industrial-looking house in Manhattan's historic South Street Seaport district is just under 13 feet wide. But listing agent Gordon von Broock of Douglas Elliman said the home was designed with its size constraints in mind.

"There's high ceilings, very low profile, there's no moldings or anything that sticks out," he told Business Insider. "Everything's very clean. I think it just feels — I wouldn't say spacious — but it feels like a normal room."

Real estate developers in New York City are starting to build more and more ultra-narrow townhouses, often to use up leftover space from larger projects, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"There's only so much land that can be sold and developed and, at some point, people are finding unique ways to build — and more creative ways," von Broock told Business Insider.

The Seaport townhouse was built on leftover land from a five-unit condo building on the same lot developed by Andreas Giacoumis, according to the Journal. Once the city building department gives the townhouse its own official address of 267 ½ Water Street, it will be ready to close a sale, von Broock said — although they've already been showing the home.

The developer, Giacoumis, told the Journal that "small spaces are the way of the future."

Here's a look inside the narrow, ultra-modern home. 

SEE ALSO: New York City has more penthouses available than it can fill — and it suggests a change in the way wealthy people are looking at luxury real estate

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The Manhattan townhouse measures 10 feet wide on the inside and just under 13 feet on the exterior. It's about to go on the market for $5 million.

Source: Douglas Elliman

The townhouse looks particularly narrow when viewed head-on: It's sandwiched between two wider buildings. Its facade is made up of glass and steel columns.

Source: Douglas Elliman, The Wall Street Journal

The home is in New York's Seaport District, which listing agent Gordon von Broock says is an up-and-coming neighborhood that reminds him of the early days of Tribeca or the Meatpacking District's popularity. "The biggest thing that would be attractive to buyers is living in that area," he told Business Insider.

Source: Douglas Elliman

• Some luxury destinations aren't quite what they seem on Instagram.
• Many of these hotspots are overcrowded, overpriced, or simply lacking in authenticity. 
• From the Champs Elysées in Paris to ultra-modern Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, here are nine luxury hotspots that might not be worth the hype.

Some places around the world are known as go-to spots for luxury travel, shopping, or experiences.

The Champs Elysées in Paris, for example, with its Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Longchamp boutiques, is consistently ranked one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Dubai boasts of having the most luxurious hotel in the world. 

But many find that these and other luxury destinations don't quite live up to the hype. Take a look below for some disappointing photos of what nine luxury hotspots look like in real life.

SEE ALSO: What it's like to be a millionaire in America today

The Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris is one of the most iconic streets in the world, lined with museums, high-end restaurants, and five-star hotels.

Source: Paris Info, Business Insider

Shopping opportunities range from retailers such as Zara and H&M to luxury boutiques that include Louis Vuitton, Mont-Blanc, Guerlain, and Ferrari. It's consistently ranked as one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world.

But most of the time, you'll hardly be able to move through the throngs of tourists.

• College is expensive, so it's important to pick a school that offers a good financial aid package.
• Student Loan Hero recently found the top US colleges that give the most financial aid.
• It found that US colleges offer an average of $20,494 in financial aid, but the colleges on this list of the top 25 offer at least twice that amount.

College doesn't come cheap.

The average cost of tuition and room and board at a four-year public college is $20,770; at a four-year private institution, that number jumps to $26,950, according to the College Board's "Trends in College Pricing 2017" report. 

That's why it's important to pick a college that offers a good financial aid package. 

Student Loan Hero recently rounded up the top US colleges that give the most financial aid to students in need using data from Peterson's. It looked at 1,244 US colleges.

It found that an average of $20,494 is offered in financial aid to students, but the colleges we highlight below — the top 25 from Student Loan Hero's ranking — offer at least twice that. In most cases, the average financial aid package at each of these schools is just short of the total cost of tuition.

Wellesley College offers an average financial aid package of $47,527 — and that ranks lowest on this list, with the numbers only going up from there.

Below, see the top 25 colleges for financial aid. 

SEE ALSO: College is more expensive than it's ever been, and the 5 reasons why suggest it's only going to get worse

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25. Wellesley College

Average financial aid package: $47,527

Annual tuition and fees: $48,802

Students receiving need-based aid: 1,361

24. Trinity College

Average financial aid package: $47,679

Annual tuition and fees: $52,760

Students receiving need-based aid: 976

23. University of Notre Dame

Average financial aid package: $47,884

Annual tuition and fees: $49,685

Students receiving need-based aid: 3,997

Who doesn't like free tech? 

That's the question at the heart of Spotify's new promotion: The music streaming company is offering free Google Home Mini smart speakers to anyone paying for a Spotify Family subscription ($15/month).

But the free offer is limited — you've gotta act fast! So, how do you get one? Follow these simple steps:

SEE ALSO: Amazon Echo vs. Google Home: How the 2 families stack up

First things first, two limitations:

1. The free Google Home Mini offer applies to both new and existing Spotify Premium for Family customers in the United States.

2. The offer is only available through the end of December, so get in while you can.

Okay, let's get to the directions!

1. Log in to your Spotify account on the Spotify website.

The Spotify website is right here.

2. Make sure your subscription is a Family Plan.

There are a few different types of Spotify paid accounts. To get the free Google Home Mini, you have to be a subscriber to the Spotify Premium for Family plan.

The Premium for Family plan costs $14.99/month, but it allows up to five people to access Spotify Premium (no ads, offline listening, etc.) using individual accounts. That's just $5 more than the usual price of a single Spotify Premium account — it's a no-brainer if even just two people are using the service, let alone five.

Can you smell it in the air? That potent stench of gun smoke and manure is a sure sign that you've been playing too much "Red Dead Redemption 2." We're waist deep in blockbuster video game season, folks.

Huge new entries from already massively popular franchises are the standouts this year, and "Red Dead Redemption 2" (seen above) is the heaviest heavy of them all. The long-awaited sequel to Rockstar Games' brilliant original "Red Dead Redemption" is a kind of like "Grand Theft Auto" meets "The Magnificent Seven"— a fitting game from the folks behind the "Grand Theft Auto" series. 

But this fall isn't all cowboys and train robberies.

Below, we've put together the 16 biggest games of the biggest game release season of the year:

SEE ALSO: A $100 mini version of the original PlayStation is on the way with 20 games packed in — here are the games included

1. "Madden NFL 19"

New year, new "Madden" game. 2018 is no different, and the latest entry in the football simulation series is available to buy now.

A handful of changes are being made this time around, like every year, but let's be honest: You're not buying "Madden" because of changes. Is anyone? "Madden NFL 19" is simply the latest iteration of a formula that's been working for over 25 years, which is exactly what it's supposed to be.

Release Date: August 10

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

2. "Marvel's Spider-Man"

The new "Spider-Man" game — a PlayStation 4 exclusive game — features a massive New York City that you can swing around, with plenty of enemies to pummel along the way. It's focused on re-creating the Spider-Man experience as closely as possible.

This is the classic Peter Parker/Spider-Man you already know and love.

"Our Spider-Man features a 23-year-old Peter Parker who has become a masterful Spider-Man," the game's creative director, Bryan Intihar, said of the game. "While he may be more experienced, Peter and Spider-Man's worlds continue to collide as he tries to juggle them."

Read our review of "Spider-Man" right here.

Release Date: September 7

Platforms: PlayStation 4

3. "NBA 2K19"

For the 2oth anniversary of the NBA 2K series, newly minted Los Angeles Laker LeBron James is gracing the cover.

As per usual, "NBA 2K19" is a gorgeous basketball simulation — the basketball equivalent of "Madden" for football. It sets the standard for sim basketball games. Also like "Madden," it doesn't change too much from year to year. The focus is on updating the game to be a strong reflection of the current NBA, and it consistently delivers on that. Expect "NBA 2K19" to continue that tradition.

Read more about "NBA 2K19" right here.

Release Date: September 11

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch

• Former Google employee turned comic Sarah Cooper has help for women in tech with a new book called "How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings."
• The book is, of course, a satirical look a corporate life for women. And it's hilarious.
• Still, the author tells Business Insider, it was inspired by true stories from her own Google career, as well as her friends and co-workers.

Sarah Cooper is like the anti-Sheryl Sandberg

Instead of telling women to "lean in," the former Google employee is offering more practical advice for women in tech with her new book, called "How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings."

"Ambitious women are scary. In this fast-paced business world, female leaders need to make sure they're not perceived as pushy, aggressive, or competent," the book's promotional materials explains. Chapters include "How to be harassed without hurting his career" and "How to bring your true self to work and then hide it completely." Each chapter ends with a list of "inaction items."

Behind the humor there is, of course, a serious message.

"'How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men's Feelings' was sparked from all the things I did at Google to seem more likable and approachable, like being less direct with feedback and using all those smiley faces in my emails, as well as the double standards I saw between my male and female coworkers," she said.

Read more: One of Google's new sexual harassment policies could be the key to changing all of Silicon Valley's bro culture

It was inspired by a blog post she wrote called  "9 Non-threatening Leadership Strategies for Women" which went instantly viral with "many women writing to tell me they experienced the same thing," she said.

That post has become part of the book. It offers such gems as: "If a male coworker steals your idea in a meeting, thank him for it. Give him kudos for how he explained your idea so clearly. And let’s face it, no one might’ve ever heard it if he hadn’t repeated it."

The stories and illustrations in the book are sometimes fictionalized, sometimes not, but all inspired by real incidents experienced by Cooper, her friends, and her co-workers.

'I got free food and lots of free material'

After spending five-plus years as a woman in tech working her way up to a manager position at Google, Cooper had plenty of inspiration for the book and her new career as a comedian. She's best known for her previous book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings and for her blog, The Cooper Review.

Although Cooper also did a short stint at Yahoo, both books and much of her blog was mainly inspired by Google, she told Business Insider.

"At Google, I got free food and lots of free material," she said.

Beyond giving women in tech a much-needed laugh, Cooper hopes to let women know that, no, they aren't imagining it.

That's a super helpful message in today's #MeToo world. It is particularly potent given the recent uproar at Google as the company comes clean over how it has dealt with various sexual harassment incidents.

A Non-Threatening Women's Foundation

We asked Cooper if she considered reaching out to Sandberg with a copy of the book. Sandberg is, of course, the former Googler, now COO at Facebook, who is famously leading today's renewed feminist movement seeking gender equality in the workplace. 

Cooper tells us she didn't send the book to Sandberg, but if she ever gets a chance to hang with her, "I'd like to hear how much she leans back after leaning in, and then leans in again, and then has to lean back again, and if it's good workout for her abs."

We also asked her if she would model her book after Lean In organization and start a Non-Threatening Women's Foundation, with meetups and support circles.

"Yes I'd love to start a non-threatening woman's foundation where we'd probably spend all our meetings just apologizing to each other," she quipped.

But she also had a more serious response: "The ultimate point of the book is to stop worrying if you're hurting men's feelings, so maybe I'd start a foundation for Threatening Women!"

SEE ALSO: One of Google's new sexual harassment policies could be the key to changing all of Silicon Valley's bro culture

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 places you can't find on Google Maps

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

As headlines like "Amazon Is Secretly Becoming a Bank" and "Google Wants to Be a Bank Now" increasingly crop up in the news, tech giants are coming into the spotlight as the next potential payments disruptors.

And with these firms' broad reach and hefty resources, the possibility that they'll descend on financial services is a hard narrative to shy away from. To mitigate potential losses under this scenario, traditional players will have to grasp not only the level of the threat, but also which segments of the financial industry are most at risk of disruption.

Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft, collectively known as GAFAM, are already active investors in the payments industry, and they're slowly encroaching on legacy providers' core offerings. Each of these five companies has introduced features and offerings that have the potential to disrupt specific parts of the banking system. And we expect a plethora of additional offerings to hit the market as these companies look to build out their ecosystems.

However, it remains unlikely that any of these firms will become full-blown banks or entirely upend incumbents, due to regulatory barriers and the entrenched positions of big banks. Moreover, consumers still trust traditional firms first and foremost with their financial data. That means these companies are far more likely to rattle the cages of incumbents than they are to cause their total demise. That said, these companies have a proven capacity to revolutionize industries, making their entry into payments critical to watch for legacy players, especially as their moves demonstrate an intent to be a disruptive force in the industry.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence analyzes the current impact GAFAM is having on the financial services industry, and the strengths and weaknesses of each firm's position in payments. We also discuss the barriers these companies face as they push deeper into financial services, as well as which aspects of a bank’s core business provide the biggest opportunities for the new players. Lastly, we assess these companies' future potential in payments and the broader financial services industry, and examine ways incumbents can manage the threat.

Here are some of the key takeaways: 

• GAFAM has been actively encroaching on the payments space. This includes offering mobile wallets for in-store and online payments, peer-to-peer money transfer services, and even loans for small- and medium-sized businesses. 
• These firms' broad reach and hefty resources have put them in a strong position to take on legacy players. GAFAM has products that have been adopted by millions of users, and in some cases, billions. They also have access to a tremendous amount of capital — Apple, Microsoft, and Google had over $400 billion combined in cash at the end of 2016.
• However, these firms have to overcome major barriers to compete against legacy players, which includes regulation and trust. For example, 60% of respondents to a Business Insider Intelligence survey stated that they trust their bank most to provide them financial services.
•  As a result of these barriers, it's more likely that GAFAM will make a dent in very specific segments of the financial services industry rather than completely disrupt it. 

In full, the report:

• Explains what GAFAM's done to place themselves in a position to be the next potential payments disruptors.
• Breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of each company as it relates to their ability to build out an extensive financial ecosystem. 
• Looks at the potential barriers that could limit GAFAM's ability to capture a significant share of the payments industry from traditional players. 
• Identifies what strategies legacy players will have to deploy to mitigate the threat by these tech giants.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Irish entrepreneur Mark Cummins is the founder of Pointy, a startup that helps bricks-and-mortar retailers show what they have in stock online.
• Cummins is a serial entrepreneur and sold his first startup, visual search app Plink, to Google in 2010.
• Ironically, he was rejected for a job at Google years earlier as a graduate from Oxford University.
• Pointy has announced a major partnership with Google and has won investment from the founder of Google Maps.
• The startup says it has signed up thousands of US retailers.

LISBON — As an engineering and computer science graduate from the University of Oxford, Mark Cummins fancied his chances of landing a job at Google.

Oxford is one of the most prestigious universities in the world and ranks highly on global league tables for computer science. Cummins had graduated top of his year from Balliol College and, as he put it, "thought I had a pretty good CV."

Cummins filed his application and, like any Oxbridge graduate with a top-tier degree, expected the offers to roll in.

"I didn't even get a phone call," he told Business Insider during an interview at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon. "I had a back and forth with a recruiter, but I never really understood it."

Cummins had the last laugh. Five years later, Google would go on to buy his first startup. And a few years after that, Google would also be integral to the success of his second.

Mark Cummins' first startup was Plink, an app that recognised artwork

After several more job rejections, Cummins opted to stay at university and do a PhD in the then-unfashionable area of robotics and machine learning. This was before breakthroughs like DeepMind's AlphaGo made AI sexy again, and the entire field of learning was still emerging from a second "AI winter."

The interest in robotics provided the germ of a startup idea. Cummins was working on place recognition for robots for his thesis, specifically around how they process images to determine their location.

"My PhD work was on a robot [that] would collect images as it drove along to determine: 'Have I come back to a place I've been before?'" Cummins explained. "The first iPhone had just come out, the first Androids were just coming out, and mobile was just starting to take off. I thought, this seems interesting, maybe we can do something with photo matching, so we launched a company around that."

The company, Plink, was a kind of Shazam for art. Users would photograph a piece of artwork, and the app would identify it. The app garnered 50,000 users in its first six weeks and Cummins and his cofounder, James Philbin, won $100,000 during an Android Developer Challenge. That brought the app to the attention of Google, Cummins' one-time dream employer.

Google began courting the startup and the young Oxford founders ended up meeting senior execs at the time, such as Android product spokesman Hugo Barra and Google+ architect Vic Gundotra. They impressed the top brass enough to field an offer.

The pair accepted what Cummins described as a life-changing amount of money, and took jobs within Google. While Plink's consumer app shut down, its technology ended up being used in several Google image recognition services, such as Google Lens and Google Photos.

Cummins hit on his second startup idea while working at Google

Three years later, Cummins had moved to Australia and was still working for Google. He had an inkling for his second startup when he realised there were still elementary questions the search engine couldn't answer for users.

Specifically, he was drinking craft beer at a party one night, and then wasn't able to find a nearby shop that sold the same brand. "Where's the nearest store that has this product available? It seemed like a basic question," Cummins told Business Insider.

The problem is that most small local retailers don't bother to log all the inventory they have. Their cash registry, as Cummins put it, can "look like it's from a Western." There's no way for consumers to know for sure whether a local shop is selling an item they need — and so they turn to Amazon and deprive the smaller retailer of valuable footfall.

Cummins began nosing around small retailers in Australia, asking what it would take for them to upload their inventory and make it searchable online. He concluded that some hardware would be required and set about looking for another technical cofounder.

Philbin, his Plink cofounder, had a young family and was not available. Cummins rang up another old friend from his Oxford days, Charles Bibby, a sailing expert who was in the middle of a yearlong sailing trip around the Mediterranean.

Bibby found the vision so compelling that he cut the trip short after three months and sailed home to start Pointy.

Pointy helps people find what their local shops have in stock

The end result is the Pointy box, a small device that looks a little like a 9-volt battery.

It plugs into a retailer's barcode scanner and logs items as they're being scanned for purchase. Eventually, Pointy's software logs what a retailer is selling and can take a good guess as to when it's out of stock.

That information is then listed online on a dedicated page hosted by Pointy, so anyone trying to find a local shop that sells, for example scotch tape, can click on a Pointy link and see whether it's available nearby.

While it's easy to see on Google when your local hardware store is open, it's currently quite difficult to check what it might have in stock. "It's not ecommerce, it's more about driving footfall," said Cummins.

The box costs $499 for US retailers. Pointy also offers to place local ads for retailers on Google, and takes a slice of the ad revenue.

It feels like a strange decision to focus on bricks-and-mortar stores in the age of Amazon, but Cummins argues that online shopping only accounts for 10% of US commerce. The majority of the population still prefers to a trip to a local store when they need something.

Cummins says that Pointy "ranks very well" on Google. And over the summer, the startup announced a partnership with search firm that means product information appears on the "knowledge panel" in search and Google Maps.

To date, the firm has raised $19 million from Vulcan Capital, Polaris, Boston Ventures, LocalGlobe, Seedcamp and well-known angels such as Google Maps founder Lars Rasmussen, TransferWise cofounder Taavet Hinrikus, and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. It is headquartered in Dublin — Cummins is Irish — and manufactures the Pointy box in Ireland.

For now, Pointy is focused on persuading retailers to adopt its technology. Cummins says that 1% of all US retailers are on board, citing US Census Bureau statistics. That amounts to around 10,000 US retailers. It also has some pickup in its home market and across the UK.

On the consumer side, it looks like the startup is pretty reliant on Google — which is fine, as long as the firm plays ball and integrates Pointy's data into its search results. The current partnership is a blessing, but the startup might need to branch out to defend its turf. Cummins says Pointy plans to build out its offering so that retailers can do more than just have a store page online, but he wouldn't give any further detail at this point.

And could another Google acquisition be in the offing? Cummins said his former employer came sniffing around to be involved with Pointy early in its development, but gives a firm denial that there might be a buyout. "There's nothing on the cards," he says.

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• Labour's Shadow Science Minister Chi Onwurah MP tells Business Insider: "If the choice is between a second referendum and a deal which is bad for Britain then I would go for a second referendum."
• Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer was in Brussels last week having talks about alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. 
• Corbyn has come under increasing pressure to back a second referendum.
• One of Theresa May's own ministers resigned on Friday calling for a new vote on leaving the EU.

LISBON —A shadow minister in Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench team has joined growing calls for a second EU referendum, telling Business Insider that a second vote will be necessary if May's Brexit deal is bad for Britain.

Labour's shadow science minister Chi Onwurah told Business Insider that while she would prefer a general election, she would support a second referendum on Brexit if the deal Prime Minister Theresa May puts to parliament fails to meet the opposition's six "tests."

"If the choice is between a second referendum and a deal which is bad for Britain then I would go for a second referendum," Onwurah told BI.

"I would prefer to have a general election of course, but if the choice is a deal which the Tories have engineered so that it's going to take us into a race to the bottom, loss of workers rights, no access for my constituents, then I would back [it]," she said.

Her comments come as one of Theresa May's own ministers resigned from government, calling for a second referendum on Brexit.

The Transport minister Jo Johnson quit on Friday, saying that the Brexit decision must "go back to the people."

Onwurah previously indicated she might support a second vote during the last Labour leadership election.

However, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has since resisted calls to explicitly back a new vote, saying only that the party would leave "all options ... on the table" in the event that May's deal fails to pass through parliament.

Onwurah joins an increasingly loud chorus of voices demanding a second bite of the cherry on Brexit. A group of pro-Remain business leaders last week also called for a second referendum. The former head of the civil service, Bob Kerslake, who now advises the Labour leader, also joined the calls in the past week, telling Business Insider that a second vote was now needed to prevent the "catastrophe" of a no-deal Brexit.

When pressed on whether that put her at odds with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — who would prefer a general election and a deal that meets his six tests — she laughed.

"It's very difficult, you are asking for more certainty from the opposition who are not in government than you are from the actual government, far more."

Asked whether the country needed certainty, she replied: "Well exactly, and we are a government in waiting. That's absolutely true. So I recognise that, but we haven't got the civil service [to provide administrative support], and Keir Starmer is in Brussels today."

She added that Starmer and Corbyn have both been to Brussels to confer with EU officials on alternatives to May's Brexit.

Starmer is "seeing, talking about what kind of deal we could have. He's in Brussels — Keir's been in Brussels a lot and so has Jeremy," Onwurah said.

Read more:Polling data offers a clue to why Theresa May's own MPs have plotted against her so viciously.

Asked if that amounted to a parallel set of talks that Brussels was holding with Labour, in the event that May's Conservative government falls, she replied that: "There are talks ... I also wouldn't say that what's happening with the Tories are 'real' negotiations because you see that every time they put something forward something comes back again. ... So there are definitely, Keir and Jeremy have been talking to our European sister parties and colleagues."

Onwurah said she believed there were only about four Labour MPs — out of 257 in the 650-seat House of Commons — who were absolutely pro-Leave, and another 40 who are Remainers but represent constituencies that voted Leave, and thus might be open to backing May's deal.

SEE ALSO: It's a 'trap door': Two EU negotiators dropped clues that Britain is heading into a 'no-deal' Brexit

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