U2's Bono had some choice words for Steve Jobs about iTunes, according to TUAW's Yoni Heiser.

In an interview with Irish radio host Dan Fanning, Bono recounted a conversation he had with Steve Jobs in 2009:

So 5 years ago I began a conversation with Steve Jobs at my house in France and I said to Steve: "How is it that for a person who cares about the way things look and feel more than anyone else in the world that iTunes looks like a spreadsheet?"

Bono was probably talking about iTunes 9 (or eariler). Admittedly, it looks pretty spreadsheet-esque:

To Bono's point, iTunes hasn't changed much since this version came out. It got a slicker, more modern look in 2012, but it's still pretty much the same.

Apple recently used iTunes to give away U2's new album, it wasn't exactly a big hit with users. Apple is also reportedly rebranding Beats Music into iTunes, a signal that the bane of Bono's existence isn't going away anytime soon.

SEE ALSO: Apple Denies Report That It Will Shut Down Beats Music

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Sony announced on Monday that the PlayStation TV will be available on Oct. 14, and will launch with 700 games. 

We got our first look at the set-top box at the E3 video game conference in June. The PlayStation TV will allow you to play PS3, PlayStation One, and PSP classic games through Sony's streaming-game service, PlayStation Now. It will also give you access to music and video-streaming services, much like Amazon's Fire TV or the Apple TV. 

It will also connect with a PlayStation 4, allowing you to play PS4 games on another TV in your house, using what it calls Remote Play. The only caveat is that a wired internet network connection is necessary. 

The PlayStation TV will be $99 for the system itself. You'll also need to buy a DualShock 3 controller, which must be purchased separately and costs about $40. Or for $139, you can a bundle that includes a controller and a Lego game, as well as an 8GB memory card. 

The device has been out in Japan for nearly a year under the name Vita TV, but was marred by a fairly limited library of games and mediocre streaming services.

It'll be interesting to see what Sony has in mind for the future of the set-top box, or if it's just trying to throw its hat into an already crowded ring full of Apple TVs and Rokus. The Fire TV launched with more than 100 games back when it debuted earlier this year. And Microsoft doesn't offer a set-top box or any sort of "remote" play functionality with its Xbox console.  

According to Business Insider Intelligence, video game consoles are the most popular streaming devices, with 54% of the market. 

Perhaps with a launch library full of 700 games and the promise of Remote Play, the PlayStation TV will offer people an alternative to a standalone streaming device, which costs way less than a full gaming console. 

You can preorder a PlayStation TV now. 

SEE ALSO: Here's Why Microsoft Might Spend $2 Billion On A Video Game With No Ending

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The Obama administration announced executive steps on Monday to curb down on the maneuver known as tax "inversions," by which companies slash their tax bills by moving their companies' tax bases overseas.

On a conference call with reporters Monday evening, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the administration was taking executive action since it had become clear Congress would not address the issue this year. He said the steps would make companies "think twice" about the maneuver.

"We’ve recently seen a few large corporations announce plans to exploit this loophole, undercutting businesses that act responsibly and leaving the middle class to pay the bill, and I’m glad that Secretary Lew is exploring additional actions to help reverse this trend," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

The new regulations will go into effect immediately, senior administration officials said Monday. Lew said on the call that they are aimed at reducing the benefits of and, "when possible," stopping inversions. 

The actions unveiled on Monday eliminate certain techniques inverted companies currently use to gain tax-free access to the deferred earnings of a foreign subsidiary, which officials said would "significantly diminish" the ability of inverted companies to avoid U.S. taxation. The moves also erect more barriers to inversion by strengthening a requirement in the tax code that former owners of a U.S. company own less than 80% of the combined entity.

So-called tax "inversions" have become a corporate trend over the past year, as companies have either acquired rivals or merged with them to relocate their headquarters to a foreign country with lower corporate tax rates.

Their increased usage has prompted Obama to call companies unpatriotic for exploiting the tax loophole and urge Congress to address the problem. The most prominent recent example of a corporate inversion came when Burger King announced it would acquire Canadian coffee and donut chain Tim Hortons and move its base to Canada.

Democrats have sought to use the issue as fodder ahead of November's midterm elections, but the issue has so far failed to resonate with voters. It has been complicated by investors like Warren Buffett, who is normally sympathetic to the Democratic position on tax issues but whose company is providing financing to complete the Burger King-Tim Hortons deal.

Republicans support addressing inversions but prefer to do it as part of a broader overhaul of US corporate tax policy. In a statement, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner blasted the administration's executive move.

"Under President Obama, the United States has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world," said Michael Steel, Boehner's spokesman. "The answer is to simplify and reform our broken tax code to bring jobs home — and help grow our economy and create even more American jobs."

MORE TO COME...

SEE ALSO: Warren Buffett Singlehandedly Undermined Democrats' Main Argument Against Inversions

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Smartwatches might become mainstream in a couple of years thanks to our obsession with Facebook.

So far the smartwatch market growth has been tepid (at best), but the market may reach $10 billion by 2018, according to a Citi Research report led by Oliver Chen.

Half of that market size is expected to come from tech trendsetters who don't wear watches, and the other $5 billion is going to come out of the traditional watch market.

People Haven't Really Been Into Smartwatches

Although Apple unveiled its Apple Watch in September 2014, smartwatches have been around for over 10 years.

They just never really caught on. And there are several reasons for that. 

The most obvious one is price — smartwatches are expensive. Only 14% of US consumers are interested in paying more than $199 for a smartwatch, but most smartwatches cost in the mid $200s, according to the report. Plus, smartwatches tend to have poor user interfaces and poor battery lives.

Another major complaint about smartwatches is that they aren't broadly compatible with most smartphones (even the Apple Watch is only going to work with iPhones).

Since people want to hook up their smartwatches to their smartphones, that means that consumers view their smartwatches as smartphone accessories rather than standalone tech pieces, according to Citi.

We're Addicted To Social Media

In order to understand how companies can capitalize on the fact that consumers see smartwatches as smartphone accessories, it's important to understand what exactly people are doing on their smartphones.

Increasingly we're using mobile web browsing. Specifically, we're web browsing on mobile apps. Citi's report notes that the addition of mobile apps in smartwatches will drive the smartwatch market growth.

Nowadays, the majority of smartphone users are obsessed with checking social media every day. 

Digital browsing by mobile apps is growing at an incredible rate. From June 2013 to June 2014, mobile app browsing went up by a whopping 52%.

As a comparison, mobile web browsing only increased by 17%, and desktop browsing just barely increased by 1% in the last year.

However, it's not just that mobile app browsing is growing. It's also important to note that app browsing is significantly more popular on smartphones than on tablets.

57% of smartphone owners used their smartphone applications every single day of the month. Meanwhile, only 26% of tablet users used their tablet applications on a daily basis.

The Citi report notes that people prefer smartphones over tablets for daily use because smartphones are way smaller and portable, and analysts "expect that Smartwatches could have a similar or higher application usage rate." In other words, the addition of mobile apps will make the (smart and portable) smartwatches more appealing to consumers.

And it's also important to note what kind of apps people are checking out. 25% of the time spent on mobile apps is attributed to social networking. 

The most visited mobile app (by US users over the age of 18) was Facebook. And 36% of the top 25 most popular mobile apps were social media.

And that's not even counting smartphone owners under the age of 18, who are arguably much more likely to use social media and messaging than adults.

You can already see the Apple Watch moving in this direction — you'll be able to access Facebook and Twitter straight on the app.

But the Apple Watch is not going to replace your smartphone. That's not the point.

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Activists gathered in Manhattan's Financial District on Monday morning where they said they planned to stage a mass sit-in" to protest Wall Street for "financing climate change." The event is being promoted billed as "#FloodWallStreet" on social media.

According to a press release sent out by organizers on Monday morning, #FloodWallStreet will include "masses of activists in blue sitting-in and risking arrest, accompanied by a 15-foot inflatable ‘carbon bubble’, a marching band, oversized puppets, a 300-foot #FloodWallStreet banner, and other large-scale art pieces."

The protest comes one day after Sunday's "People's Climate March" where over 300,000 people including many celebrities and politicians marched through New York to demand action to fight climate change ahead of United Nations' Climate Summit.

Business Insider's Colin Campbell is at the protests and this post will be continuously updated with his reports.

Update (4:25 P.M.):After a lengthy sit-in at the Wall Street bull statue, the protesters attempted to march toward the stock exchange where several arrests were made. Our full liveblog of the day's events is below. 

10:37 A.M - According to the press release, the protesters are currently gathered in Battery Park for "non-violent direct action trainings" and speeches. Business Insider estimates there are at least 200 people in attendance. 

A female speaker, who used the call-and-response "people's mic" technique popularized during the Occupy Wall Street protests emphasized a connection to those demonstrations, which began on September 17, 2011. 

"Three years ago, almost today ... a few blocks from here, the Occupy movement was born to put corporate capitalism on trial. The entire world listened and the debate about inequality opened up that rages until this day.," the woman said. "And now we are back. ... We never went away. We were organizing in our communities. And now we are back with the power of the water behind us to fight back like the Earth itself is fighting back."

Park officials are using yellow tape to keep the crowds off the grass. Police are already set up outside the park. According to the press release, the demonstrators are scheduled to begin marching through the Financial District at 11:30 a.m.  

11:16 a.m. - Another speaker told the group they expected to face "relatively minor charges" after the sit-in. They suggested it was the "perfect" protest to participate in for those who have "never been arrested before." 

11:37 a.m. - After a speaker discussed an Occupy Wall Street "bail fund" that they said could be used for protesters who were arrested, the crowd began to form in groups and prepare to march from the park towards Wall Street. Business Insider observed the crowd has swelled and now includes several hundred people. The NYPD did not respond to an email asking about their plans for the protests or how many people they believe are participating. 

Business Insider's Colin Campbell, who is in the crowd, said that, as they prepared to march, members of the group raised concerns that there were "too many white men in the front carrying the banner." Using the people's mic, they managed to assemble a more diverse group to lead the march. 

11:44 a.m. - The protesters began marching shortly before 11:40 a.m. 

According to a flyer distributed in the crowd, the protesters are planning to stage their "action" at noon near the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall Street and Nassau Street.

11:57 a.m. - The protesters are marching down Broadway and bouncing what the press release described as the "a 15-foot inflatable 'carbon bubble'" in the air. According to Campbell, the bubble, which appears to be a large fabric ball, is "bouncing off cars" and Broadway is "stopped 100%." 

12:04 p.m. - #FloodWallStreet protesters have begun their sit-in. Some have started to sit down by the "Charging Bull" statue near Wall Street and others are continuing to march. According to Campbell, about 100 protesters are seated near the statue and many are singing. 

12:19 p.m. - Police are standing by and watching the group of protesters who are sitting around the bull statue. 

#FloodWallStreet has sat down in front of the bull! pic.twitter.com/xppKni01mh

— Jeff Rae (@jeffrae) September 22, 2014

12:33 p.m. - According to MSNBC's Ned Resnikoff, the NYPD has moved "at least one large NYPD bus and several vans" to the corner of Beaver Street to potentially arrest protesters.

12:50 p.m. - Police have set up barricades around the area and are working to keep the sidewalks clear for pedestrians, but Business Insider has not yet seen any arrests. 

1:06 p.m. - Business Insider's Ben Winsor, who has also arrived to cover the protests, reports police have barricaded and cleared Wall Street. A group of officers on horseback are assembled behind the barricades out of view of the protesters. 

1:13 p.m. - About 20 police officers with plastic handcuffs have positioned themselves near the protesters seated by the bull. Earlier, police deflated one of the "carbon bubbles" used by the protesters who booed and chanted "Pigs!" 

1:42 p.m. - Protesters remain seated by the bull statue with police assembled to the north of the statue. The crowd was chanting about "staying here a while" and joking about ordering pizza. Broadway is still shut down from Morris to Beaver Streets.

Business Insider interviewed a man in a polar bear costume who said he came from the North Pole.

"My home is melting and we're the early warning system," the man said. "If the ice caps melt, how long before North America, South America, and Europe are underwater."

The man later clarified he was actually from Shelter Cove, California.

A police officer told Business Insider they did not know how long the protest would continue.

"It's up to them," the officer said. "Ask any one of them." 

2:00 p.m. - Many of the protesters seated by the bull are currently dancing and entertaining themselves with renditions of MC Hammer's hit "U Can't Touch This" and the Reel 2 Real's classic "I Like To Move It." 

2:19 p.m. - A group of people brought pizza to the protesters leading to a chance of "Pizza, reheated, will never be defeated!" According to Newsweek reporter Zoe Schlanger, the protesters ordered 400 pizzas. 

Journalist Nick Pinto reports one of the activists announced via the "people's mic" that the protesters intend to remain by the bull statue "through the closing bell and beyond." 

3:18 p.m. - A group of the protest organizers are gathered together and voting on their next move. 

"Our options are; we can sit, we can stay here, or we can go up Wall Street," a female protester said. "The stay option in, we stay, for ever, and ever, and everm and ever until the cops make us leave and arrest some people."

Another man suggested the sit-in already accomplished its goals by showing strength.

"We have done it. We have fucking won," he said. "It doesn't matter if our numbers diminish now."

It doesn't matter if our numbers diminish now."

Another woman in the group echoed this view.

"Now our work here is done," she said. "We can march out of here. We will march out to Wall Street together." 

3:22 p.m. - The group has concluded their vote. They decided to speak to the larger crowd and continue playing music by the bull before marching up Wall Street towards the stock exchange in time for the closing bell at 4 p.m.

3:29 p.m. - A woman addressed the crowd and praised them for their participation in the protest.

"We've accomplished something huge. People don't get in the street all the time,  she said to cheers. "We're being super disruptive in one of the economic centers of the entire world. We all know that what happens at the stock exchange is fueling climate chaos."

3:47 p.m. - The protesters are now en route to the stock exchange. Police are walking in front of the crowd. 

3:55 p.m. - The protesters have arrived at barricades on Wall Street where they are clashing with police. Officers are pushing the barricades in front of the protesters and arrests are being made. The NYPD has not responded to a request from Business Insider asking how many arrests have been made and why. 

3:59 p.m. - Multiple arrests have been made. Business Insider's Ben Winsor saw one man who was arrested while being covered by police on the ground. Some of the protesters are chanting "Who do you serve? Who do you protect?" Plastic handcuffs are being distributed among the police officers. 

4:03 p.m. - At least eight of the police officers on scene at the protest are wearing riot helmets. Some of the protesters are chanting, "Riot gear, that's not cool." 

4:08 p.m. - According to Fusion's Tim Pool, police have fired pepper spray on some of the reporters. 

5:32 p.m. - A blue smoke appeared in the middle of the protest and was apparently thrown by the protesters.

5:38 p.m. -

This man is throwing real dollar bills over crowd and police. "Their money isn't worth anything on a dead planet."pic.twitter.com/L2evJRec0t

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) September 22, 2014

5:45 p.m. - The NYPD told Business Insider that only pepper spray has been used to control the crowd thus far. 

"There have been erroneous reports that the NYPD employed tear gas and mace, when in fact we use neither. Pepper spray was used as a force continuum," the NYPD said.

5:50 p.m. - The man throwing money in the 5:38 p.m. update said his name was Graham Boyle. He described himself as a "freelance artist" and said his cash throwing protest consisted of $200 in singles.

"It was self-financed by a collective I work with called Patches and Flags," he said.
Boyle's group was planning to pay for their expenses traveling from Washington DC to participate in the climate protests. Last night, he said they began speaking about how "capitalism is the root cause of a lot of the climate crisis" and decided on doing a "creative, poetic, symbolic performance or action." He said throwing the money was designed to show that "our community and our movement can subsist without money."

"We can create alternatives and find sustainable models of production," he said.

6:25 p.m. - Mohamed Elroby runs the hot dog stand across from Trinity Church, which is at the epicenter of the protests. He said the #FloodWallStreet demonstration has been "very bad" for business.

"They block the streets, my customers can't come," he said.

(Correction 5:40 p.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly described a gas as "apparently" coming from the NYPD when its source was unclear. This story was originally posted at 10:36 a.m.)

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The iPhone's camera has long been inching toward dSLR-quality photos. Now it can do something previous iPhones have only dreamed of: shoot in manual mode.

Manual, which is already in the App Store, gives users full control of the iPhone's shutter, ISO, white balance, focus, and exposure. 

That gives you the opportunity to stop and blur motion, a technique often used by professional photographers.

Manual was developed by William Wilkinson and Craig Merchant. Wilkinson introduces Manual in a tongue-in-cheek video on the app's website.

"This is an amazing camera," says Wilkinson, while holding an iPhone 5 and trying to take a photo of his friend. "But sometimes, it can be f****** stupid."

Wilkinson then chucks the iPhone over his shoulder and pulls out another from his shirt pocked to demonstrate Manual.

Professionals don't make art by shooting in automatic mode. Now you don't have to, either.

Check out Manual's video:

SEE ALSO: Apple Denies Report That It Will Shut Down Beats Music

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Madrid (AFP) - Cristiano Ronaldo scored four times as Real Madrid came from behind to move within three points of La Liga leaders Barcelona with a 5-1 win over Elche on Wednesday.

The Portuguese also scored a hat-trick in Real's 8-2 thrashing of Deportivo la Coruna on Saturday and now has 12 goals to his name in just eight appearances this season.

The Santiago Bernabeu had been briefly stunned as Ronaldo was penalised for a foul on Pedro Mosquera as he tried to clear inside his own area after 15 minutes and Edu Albacar slammed the spot-kick past debutant Keylor Navas in the Madrid goal.

However, the European champions responded in style as Gareth Bale headed home an equaliser before a Ronaldo penalty put them in front.

Ronaldo then produced a towering header to send the hosts in 3-1 up at the break before completing his hat-trick with another penalty and rounding off the scoring with a cool finish from Bale's pass in stoppage time.

"To score four goals is very difficult. I thank my teammates for passing me the ball to be able to score," said Ronaldo.

"It was a very good game for us. We started a little badly, I gave away the penalty, but we responded well with two quick goals."

The build up to the game had been dominated by Real coach Carlo Ancelotti's decision to hand Navas his debut ahead of the under fire Iker Casillas in response to his side's defensive troubles so far this season.

However, the Costa Rican was left with no chance when Albacar slammed his penalty into the top corner to give the visitors' the lead.

Things very nearly got worse for Real moments later as Marcelo was lucky to escape with just a yellow card after bringing down Garry Rodrigues on the edge of the box and Albacar curled the resultant free-kick inches wide.

Ancelotti's men were gifted a route back into the game on 20 minutes when Bale made a good contact with James Rodriguez's cross from the right, but Elche 'keeper Manu Herrera should have kept the Welshman's effort out at his near post.

Referee Clos Gomez then balanced up his decision to award Elche a soft penalty by pointing to the spot despite there appearing to be no contact between Mosquera and Marcelo as the Brazilian full-back tumbled in the box.

Ronaldo smashed the ball high into the net to make it 2-1 and was celebrating again four minutes later when he leapt highest to power Marcelo's cross into the far corner.

Herrera atoned for his earlier error by beating away a fierce Ronaldo free-kick as he went in search of a second hat-trick in as many games and made an even better stop to deny Toni Kroos his first Madrid goal at the end of a lovely move involving Ronaldo and Rodriguez.

However, Ronaldo's 25th hat-trick for the club finally arrived nine minutes from time when he slammed home another penalty after he had been clipped inside the area by Mario Pasalic.

And there was more to come from the 29-year-old as he raced onto Bale's brilliant assist to slot home his fourth of the evening.

Victory takes Madrid up to fourth with Barcelona in action on Wednesday away to Malaga, whilst champions Atletico Madrid travel to Almeria.

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The United States has submitted its international legal justification for its strikes on Syria to the other 14 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). According to Bloomberg News, the US is claiming that it's carrying out airstrikes out of legitimate self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

In a letter to the other Council members this morning, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power wrote that the Syrian government no longer had the ability to fight jihadist groups operating within its borders — and that those groups posed an active threat to US security.

"'States must be able to defend themselves' when 'the government of the state where the threat is located is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its territory for such attacks'" the letter states, according to the Bloomberg report. Power claimed that US actions against the Khorasan Group, a collection of high-level Al Qaeda commanders that are using Syrian territory to plot attacks on western targets, were initiated in order “to address terrorist threats that they pose to the United States and our partners and allies.”

The attacks on ISIS in Syria stand on questionable domestic legal ground. The administration is claiming that it can attack groups in Syria under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which allows the president to initiate military action against "nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 ... in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons." ISIS is an Al Qaeda offshoot that was cast out of the organization in February. Jabhat Al Nusra and Khorasan are Al Qaeda affiliates and consist of high-ranking Al Qaeda members, did these groups not exist on September 11th, 2001.

In terms of international law, a state is allowed to wage war outside of its territory if it's been invited by a recognized foreign government — as happened during the 2012 French intervention in Mali, when the government in Bamako requested French assistance in stemming a jihadist advance through the country.

However, a state can also wage war if there's explicit authorization from the Security Council, which is theoretically the arbiter of all armed conflict on earth. The 2011 NATO intervention in Libya, which was permitted under Security Council Resolution 1973, falls into that category.

Syria hasn't definitively invited the US to strike within its territory — even if several governments have withdrawn their recognition for an Assad regime that hasn't exerted any meaningful control over much of its country for months. And the US didn't obtain a UNSC resolution that allows it to strike inside the country.

Because of this, Power is appealing to the third legitimate use of force under international law: Article 51 of the UN charter, which states that "Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations." Iraq and Syria are UN member states that have been the target of jihadist groups in Syria. Coalition actions could easily count as collective self-defense, especially since regional neighbors like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar and involved.

The fact that Power submitted the letter — and not the Arab members of the coalition working alongside the US on the military operations in Syria — is in keeping with the administration's overall public and legal justification for action in Syria. The administration is staking the legality of its actions on the assertion that ISIS and Al Qaeda operatives in the country pose an active threat to the US homeland and to US assets abroad.

Business Insider has reached out to the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council for comment and has not received any responses. We will update this post as we receive responses.

Additional reporting by Hunter Walker. 

SEE ALSO: Meet the Khorosan, the terrorist group that's suddenly a bigger threat than ISIS

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Damascus (AFP) - President Barack Obama said Tuesday that air strikes the United States and its Arab allies unleashed against the Islamic State group in Syria showed that America is not alone in confronting the jihadists.

Dozens of IS and Al-Qaeda militants were reported killed in the raids, which Washington said had partly targeted extremists plotting an "imminent attack" against the West.

Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the operation, which involved fighter jets, bombers, drones and Tomahawk missiles fired from US warships.

US and French forces have already been carrying out air strikes in neighbouring Iraq. 

Tuesday's raids mark a turning point in the war against IS, which has seized swathes of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic "caliphate."

Obama said "the strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America's fight alone. 

"It must be clear to anyone who would plot against America and try to do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people," he added.

Describing the strikes as "very successful," the Pentagon said they hit IS positions, training compounds, command centres and armed vehicles in the group's stronghold of Raqa and near the Iraqi border.

The fact that the five Arab nations joining the strikes are Sunni-ruled will also be of crucial symbolic importance in the fight against IS, which is also Sunni.

- Turkey to 'join coalition' -

NATO member Turkey, another Sunni nation and a neighbour of Syria, has so far remained on the sidelines, but US Secretary of State John Kerry said Ankara had pledged to join the coalition.

"Turkey is very much part of this coalition, and Turkey will be very engaged on the frontlines of this effort," Kerry said after meeting Turkish officials in New York.

Speaking on national television, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara's contribution would consist of "all kinds of support including military and political".

Washington had been reluctant to intervene in Syria's civil war, but was jolted into action as IS captured more territory and committed atrocities including the beheadings of three Western hostages.

The United States said it had not requested Syria's permission for the strikes or given advance notice "at a military level".

Even so, President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus supported any international effort "to fight against terrorism".

The United Nations says about 191,000 people have been killed since an uprising against Assad erupted in 2011, escalating into a war that brought jihadists streaming into Syria.

- 'Huge impact' -

An anti-regime activist in Raqa, Abu Yusef, said IS had redeployed its fighters in response.

"The impact of the strikes has been huge," and the jihadists "are focused on trying to save themselves now," he told AFP by Internet.

The raids prompted many civilians living near IS positions to flee, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

That follows the exodus in recent days of tens of thousands of residents into Turkey in response to an IS assault on a strategic Kurdish town in northern Syria.

IS militants have warned of retaliation to the strikes, and Algerian extremists threatened Monday to kill a French hostage within 24 hours unless Paris halted air raids in Iraq.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls ruled out negotiation and rejected their demand.

- 'Al-Qaeda plot' -

Washington said it launched 14 strikes against IS targets around the jihadist stronghold of Raqa, as well as in Deir Ezzor, Albu Kamal and Hasakeh on the border with Iraq.

The raids were believed to have killed a group of Al-Qaeda "veterans" -- known as Khorasan -- plotting to attack the United States and Western interests, the Pentagon said.

The strikes targeted their training camps, an explosives and munitions production site, a communication building and a command and control centre, it said.

The Observatory said at least 50 Al-Qaeda militants were killed, as well as more than 70 IS members. Eight civilians, including three children, were also among the dead.

The CIA says IS has up to 31,000 fighters, and EU counter-terrorism chief Gilles de Kerchove told AFP Tuesday the number of Europeans joining Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq has surged to about 3,000 from 2,000 only months ago.

Air strikes were also conducted in Iraq, the Pentagon said, bringing the total number of US raids there to 194.

Washington has said the goal of the strikes is to weaken IS so it can be taken on by ground forces including the Iraqi army and moderate Syrian rebels, who are to be trained and equipped by the coalition.

Syria's opposition National Coalition welcomed the new raids, but urged sustained pressure on Assad's government.

But the Hazm Movement, a rebel group that has reportedly received weapons from the United States, criticised the raids, saying they would benefit the regime.

"The sole beneficiary of this foreign interference in Syria is the Assad regime, especially in the absence of any real strategy to topple him," it tweeted.

And Assad ally Iran also condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

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In case you hadn’t heard, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba just had the world's biggest IPO in history.

But if you thought Alibaba's revenue was explosive, get this: Based on estimates from The Economist charted for us by Business Insider Intelligence, Alibaba shoppers spend an average of $9,368 each second. This is an incredible feat, especially when you consider Amazon shoppers spend less than half of that value ($3,691) each second. Users on eBay, which once tried to compete with Alibaba in China, only spend about $2,775 each second. In other words, Alibaba sells a ton of stuff, and consumers feel very comfortable buying all of it.

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Eduardo Saverin, most famous for cofounding Facebook before getting booted out by Mark Zuckerberg, now has his sights set on transportation startups.

On Tuesday a Texas-based startup called Silvercar announced it has raised a $14 million Series B round led by Saverin and Velos Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported. Saverin will join Silvercar's board as well.

"We’re seeing sweeping changes in how personal transportation is being packaged and consumed, and Silvercar is doing for car rental what Uber and Lyft did for livery,"Saverin said in a statement to Mashable. "In fact, like Uber, there’s so much potential beyond the first product. I believe that the most exciting things Silvercar will do are yet to come and will be borne out of their consumer-friendly mobile app and powerful technology platform."

Unlike Uber and Lyft, which have been duking it out in price-gauging wars that have left some Uber drivers upset, Silvercar isn't trying to make its rentals cheaper. Instead, Silvercar finances its own fleet of Audi A4s. It's available at eight U.S. airports now, and will be in 10 by the end of the year, according to Techcrunch.

Saverin, who renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore two years ago,  also backed a peer-to-peer airport car rental service called FlightCar. He contributed to its $13.5 million Series A round of fundraising earlier in September. 

SEE ALSO: UBER DRIVERS PROTEST: 'You Can't Make A Living Working Only For Uber'

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Scientists have captured an amazing bird's-eye video of killer whales, not from a plane or a helicopter, but from an aerial drone.

Last month, researchers from Vancouver Aquarium and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used a hexacopter to take 30,000 photos of a northern resident killer whale population over the course of 60 flights. The researchers can use these aerial photos to evaluate the health of individual whales, including to determine whether they are sick or pregnant.

Here's a clip taken from the drone on one of its flights, you can see the whole pod traveling together:

It may sound crazy, but aerial images can give researchers all kinds of information from afar.

"We can monitor how robust, how healthy populations are, by looking at the relationships between their size and their shape," says Wayne Perryman, a researcher with NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center who also uses drones to research marine animals. "If it's a female, we can tell if she's pregnant or not. We can monitor how animals change in shape as they go through pregnancy, as they lactate. So all these kinds of basic life history questions that you used to have to have your arms around an animal to ask, we can ask those with photographs."

Even better, drones seem to be less intrusive to marine life than boats. The researchers in this expedition reported that their drone appeared to go unnoticed by the Orcas. The technology holds promise as a way to get close to animals without stressing them out or putting human researchers in danger.

Drones are becoming increasingly popular for scientific applications and conservation work, and have been used for everything from surveying endangered dugongs in Australia to deterring poachers in Africa.

Check out the full video below, uploaded to YouTube by Vancouver Aquarium, in the clip below:

SEE ALSO: Here's How Drones Are Changing The Conservation Game

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The health of people in the United States is plagued by conundrums.

We spend more on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet we lead far shorter lives. A baby born on American soil is the most expensive in the world, yet our newborns have a lower chance of surviving past infancy than those born in eight other developed nations. The Affordable Care Act has made health insurance more accessible to the poor, yet bills for medications and basic hospital procedures remain strikingly high.

Here are 11 charts that show in embarrassing detail some of the many shortcomings of our healthcare system.

1. Americans don’t live as long as we should.

In terms of overall life expectancy, the United States ranks 26th out of 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. Americans enjoy fewer years than Slovenians and Koreans, living just a tad longer than Czechs and Chileans, who used to rank far behind us.

2. But our country spends far more on healthcare and drugs than any other developed country.

Nearly a fifth of America’s gross domestic product goes toward healthcare spending, putting us above the Netherlands, France, Germany, Canada and Switzerland, where actual health outcomes are much better.

3. Many of us die from diseases that don’t have to be fatal.

Americans are more likely to die from asthma than people than in Brazil or Costa Rica, even though the disease is equally prevalent in those countries.

4. Americans with certain treatable diseases are more likely to end up in a hospital — and more likely to die.

We send more adult asthma sufferers to the hospital to be treated than any other developed country, coming in just under the Slovakian Republic. The soaring cost of asthma medication in the US (a Qvar brand inhaler, for example, costs 18 times more in the US than it does in Greece) is partially to blame for this problem, but access to preventative care also plays a role. Uninsured asthma patients are far more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance.

5. Our life expectancy varies by skin color.

In 2009, the average black American could expect to live to just 75, the same life expectancy white Americans enjoyed 30 years earlier in 1979. Today, Black Americans remain far more likely than white Americans to die from heart disease, cancer and diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

6. It’s too easy to opt out of vaccinations, leading to new cases of preventable diseases.

Low vaccination rates can lead to outbreaks of diseases like measles and Hepatitis B, especially among susceptible populations such as the young and the elderly. A handful of wealthy southern California schools have lower vaccination rates than South Sudan— a troubling trend that extends to New York City private schools as well.

7. American doctors spend very little time with patients.

In comparison to physicians in the Czech Republic, New Zealand, France and Israel, doctors in the US spend far less time consulting with patients and do a far worse job explaining to them what’s wrong.

8. Life-saving prescription drugs cost a fortune.

The US spends a huge chunk of its budget on pharmaceutical drugs. Unlike other countries, whose governments regularly haggle with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices, Medicare is forbidden from engaging in such negotiations. This is why a cancer drug like Gleevec, which costs about $1,000 in New Zealand and Canada, costs an average of $6,214 in the US. Even the common pain medication Celebrex, which runs for $51 in Canada, can cost anywhere from two to nine times that amount in the US.

9. Standard lab tests are far pricier, too.

An MRI in the US, for example, can cost 10 times as much as it would in Switzerland.

10. American babies are the most expensive in the world.

Giving birth in the US — including hospitalization and a normal delivery — costs an average of $10,002, nearly five times more than the cost of birth in Argentina or Spain.

11. Yet babies born in the US are far less likely to survive past infancy than babies born in many other developed countries.

In 2004, the latest year that data are available for all countries, the US ranked 29th globally in infant mortality, with the same rate of infant death as Slovakia and Poland.

SEE ALSO: Babies Are More Likely To Die In Detroit Than In Mexico

Read more: One Blockbuster Drug Explains A Lot About Our Out-Of-Control Healthcare Costs

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Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were up more than 7% in after hours trade on Tuesday after the company announced better than expected earnings and revenue for the second quarter.

In the second quarter, the home goods retailer reported earnings per share $1.17, topping expectations for $1.14. Revenue came in at $2.95 billion, beating estimates for $2.89 billion; on a same-store basis, sales were up 4.3% in Q2. 

Bed Bath & Beyond also said it repurchased $1 billion worth of stock, or 16.9 million shares, during the quarter, and that it has $1.8 billion in authorized share repurchases remaining under its most recent buyback plan announced in July.

According to its latest 10-Q filed with the SEC, as of May 31 the company had about 201 million shares outstanding.

For the fiscal-year, Bed Bath & Beyond sees earnings of $5.00-$5.08 per share, roughly in-line with the $5.03 currently expected by Wall Street analysts. 

Excluding Tuesday's after hours gains, Bed & Bath shares were down more than 20% year-to-date. 

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Researchers at the University of Arizona have released a study that reveals America’s food preferences based on the most commonly used Twitter hashtags.

Spotted on FirstWeFeast, the researchers analyzed 3.5 million tweet with food hashtags that were taken from Twitter’s API between October 2013 and May 2014. 

The original purpose of the study was to determine if what people hashtag and talk about on Twitter can convey information about their community and health, such as their likelihood of diabetes, their weight, and even their political preferences.

What they found was that our food preferences can actually reveal a lot about us. Diabetes sufferers, for example, were more likely to tweet about Mexican, fried food, or bacon. Food also delineated party lines, with Democrats tweeting about vegan food, brunch, and the deli counter, while Republicans were all about lunch, snacks, and #party.

The researchers created visual maps of the food patterns they found as well, such as which foods each state hashtagged the most on Twitter.

Some of the findings were unsurprising, such as Texans loving brisket and Wisconsinites favoring sauerkraut. But other states had bizarre results, such as the spiky fruit durian being popular in Maine or Alaska loving to tweet about the herb tarragon.

It should be noted that these results don’t necessarily show the state’s favorite food, but the food that is most often hashtagged on Twitter. New York’s “prune” result for example was not about the fruit at all, but is instead the name of a popular NYC restaurant.

The researchers also filtered out the highest-weighted hashtag results for some major US cities where, it seems, everyone loves to get drunk. Mixed drinks were one of the most popular hashtags across the board (especially if they were bottomless), as was #wine, #foodie, and #brunch. 

Last but not least, researchers broke down the findings by region for the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. The Midwest was most likely to tweet about breakfast and recipes, the Northeast loved its brunch, the South favored lunch as well as mixed drinks like bloody marys, and the West tweeted most about dinner and #foodporn.

You can read the paper online here or play with this interactive tool that allows you to create your own graphic visualizations.

SEE ALSO: The Best Food You Can Eat In Every State

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If you want to purchase a ticket for Derek Jeter's final home game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, it will cost you at least $379 per ticket on the secondary market.

As of Tuesday afternoon there were 1,398 tickets available for the game on StubHub.com, ranging in price from $379 for upper deck seats in the outfield to $15,225 for upper deck seats behind home plate.

Of course, if you want good seats, you don't have to pay $15,225, but you will have to pay a lot. The cheapest seats available in the first 15-20 rows closest to the infield are going for $3,852 per seat. Cheaper seats can be found in the bleachers where tickets are starting at $432 per seat.

That's quite a mark-up over the regular prices for those tickets. The seat selling for $379 typically has a face value of $20 while the $3,852 seats would normally sell for $655.

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San Francisco's rental market is exploding.

According to a report released by online real estate marketplace Zumper last week, San Francisco is the most expensive place to rent a one-bedroom apartment. 

The study found that the median rent for one bedroom in San Francisco was $3,100, compared to $2,995 in New York City and $2,250 in Boston.

Our friends at Zumper helped us compile a list of one-bedroom apartments you can rent for around the median price in different San Francisco neighborhoods. 

This one-bedroom apartment is located on the 17th floor and has its own private balcony.

Rent: $3,100/month

Neighborhood: Civic Center

Located at the top of Cathedral Hill, you'll get spectacular views of the city. Amenities include a gym, indoor saltwater pool and sauna. 

In North Beach, this older one-bedroom apartment rents for $3,000.

Rent: $3,000/month

Neighborhood: North Beach

There may not be a washer, dryer, or a dishwasher, but there is 600 square feet of space to furnish.

In SOMA, $3,000 will get you a cozy but functional one-bedroom apartment down the street from Twitter and Square.

Rent: $3,074/month

Neighborhood: SOMA

There's ample closet space and a fitness center in the building.

Whether it's losing a major client at work or watching a relationship deteriorate, everyone has experienced failure at some point in their life.

And while it's difficult to wade through when it happens, once you've picked yourself back up, past failures can motivate you to do an even better job next time.

"Failure is the inevitable price of trying to do something," writes Karl Smith, founder of Business Networking South Africa, in a recent LinkedIn post. "It forces you to be more creative as you look for new ways."

But finding inspiration from failure is often easier said than done. For anyone trying to get back on their feet after a setback, here are three steps for becoming stronger than ever:

1. Own up to it. Perseverance is necessary to push through rough patches, but it can also be your downfall if you refuse to admit failure. Hard as it may be, learn to recognize and accept when something isn't working, Smith advises. "Being able to recognize a failure just means that you'll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed," he adds. "Failure teaches you what doesn't work."

2. Remember past success. Yes, you failed this time. But this one failure is just a piece of the bigger picture. "Failing doesn't mean that you're worthless, or that you'll never achieve the things you want," Smith explains. Instead of dwelling on where you went wrong, remember all the times when things went right. Find a way to learn from this mistake the same way you've learned from other ones.

3. Take action. Once you've accepted your failure, it's important to make decisions about what you'll do next, because simply doing nothing will only keep you stagnated where you are. Forget about the past and think about the future, Smith suggests. "You can't change it so you may as well stop worrying about it," he says. "Take stock of what you have learned. Repackage your knowledge, experience, skills and move on to accomplish your purpose."

Read the full LinkedIn post here. 

Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email. 

SEE ALSO: 11 People Whose Failures Led To Success

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Whoever said that the almighty wallet can conquer everything may have been right. 

Of the 139 Airbus A380 superjumbos that have been delivered over the past eight years, 52 are flying with Dubai's Emirates Airlines — with dozens more on order. That's why when Emirates demands a redesigned version of the superjumbo with more efficient engines, Airbus listens.

According to Dow Jones Business News, that's exactly what's happening right now. 

Emirates CEO Tim Clark has stated that the airline could "definitely" buy 60-70 more superjumbos if Airbus is willing to offer a redesigned version of the plane with new Rolls Royce Trent Engines

The new engines would increase fuel efficiency by 10-12%, reports Dow Jones. At a current list price of $414 million, the Emirates order can potentially be worth as much as $28.98 billion. 

The airline has given the aviation giant a 6-month window to decide whether or not it will build the A380neo (New Engine Option). 

For Airbus, the company's vaunted A380 Superjumbo was supposed to revolutionize air travel in the same way the Boeing 747 did decades earlier. Instead of selling like hotcakes, Airbus has found buyers hard to come by, with only 318 orders and a dozen airlines around world operating the aircraft.

To say Emirates is an important client for Airbus would be an understatement. However, with other, potentially more lucrative projects such as the A350XWB, the A320neo, and the A330neo on the docket, Airbus isn't exactly rushing to pump more cash into the money-losing plane. For its part, Airbus chief executive John Leahy made it clear that the company will not be making a decision anytime soon. 

Earlier this year, Airbus cancelled an order for six superjumbos from Skymark Airlines citing concerns over the Japanese domestic carrier's ability to pay for the planes. Others clients, including Virgin Atlantic, have repeatedly delayed the delivery of their aircraft. Virgin Atlantic CEO Craig Kreeger told Bloomberg in April that the airline was still trying figure whether the A380 will be a fit for the airline. 

With 3-engined airliners retired from passenger service, and Boeing's 747-8 Intercontinental struggling to find buyers, the four-engined jumbo jet's days may be numbered — regardless of what happens with the Emirates order.

SEE ALSO: Here's Why You Shouldn't Panic When An Airliner Loses An Engine In Flight

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Gadget teardown site iFixit found something quite interesting in the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus: There are rubber gaskets surrounding the Home and volume buttons. And that means it's slightly more water resistant.

"Altogether, this seems to represent a move toward increased water/dust resistance, and therefore improved durability," iFixit writes. 

Extended warranty service SquareTrade tested this by dunking the phones in water for around 10 seconds. 

"The audio on both phones shut off temporarily, but came back on after a few minutes," the testers said. There was no other damage to the phones. 

But that doesn't mean the phone is completely waterproof, of course.

If you want a phone that's way more waterproof, you'll have to go with a phone that has an IP67 or IP58 rating, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, PhoneCruncher points out. Phones with high durability ratings can be submerged for way longer — sometimes up to 30 minutes. 

You could also buy a protective case for the phone that adds some durability. You can even get your device treated with a special coating to make it waterproof. 

But still. Even slightly more water resistance is great news for people who accidentally drop their phones in a sink or toilet (ew). And 10 seconds is plenty of time to frantically grab for a phone that's submerged. 

SEE ALSO: Apple Quietly Killed The iPod Classic, But There Are Ways You Can Still Get One If You Hurry

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