Electronic Arts has announced a new cloud gaming platform, Project Atlas, that will be capable of streaming the company's latest video games to almost any mobile device or computer with a sufficient internet connection.

Chief Technology Officer Ken Moss detailed Project Atlas in a blog post published to Medium on October 29th, just weeks after both Microsoft and Google revealed their own cloud gaming platforms.

Cloud gaming uses remote servers to stream video games directly to the player. In the simplest terms, the server runs the game and sends the player a video feed from the cloud, while the player's controller inputs are sent back to the server. This allows the user to play the game remotely on their choice of computer or mobile device. With the server doing the heavily lifting, players will no longer need expensive video game consoles to run the latest games. Of course, cloud-based services still require a strong, stable internet connection to stream games properly.

Google launched a private beta test of its cloud gaming service, ProjectStream, at the start of October, giving players access to the recently released "Assassin's Creed Odyssey." The only requirements for ProjectStream are a computer Google's Chrome internet browser, and an internet connection with 25 mbps or higher download speed. While Google isn't known for video games, the ProjectStream experience was comparable to playing the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, both of which start at $300. However, the ProjectStream beta doesn't work with mobile devices as of yet.

Microsoft followed Google with the announcement of Project xCloud, a gaming streaming service that will utilize the company's Azure Cloud computing service. Project xCloud will not enter beta tests until 2019, but Microsoft has already confirmed several popular Xbox games for the platform, including including "Halo," "Gears of War," "Forza" and "Minecraft." According to Microsoft, thousands of developers will be able to release their new games simultaneously for Xbox and Project xCloud without additional steps. Rumors suggest that the next generation of Xbox devices will likely utilize some form of cloud gaming as well.

Now EA is the latest company to join the cloud gaming race. In describing Project Atlas, Moss explained that the service will streamline game development by providing a unified platform for developers. Currently, development teams need to spend additional time making sure their games play nice with whatever platform they're working with. This means ensuring that social features work on both PlayStation and Xbox, that stats are properly recorded and maintained on different networks, and that updates are consistent across separate platforms. With a cloud-based gaming service, developers would maintain full control of the game, effectively cutting out the middleman.

"With the unified platform of Project Atlas, game makers will have the ability to seamlessly deploy security measures including SSL certificates, configuration, appropriate encryption of data, and zero-downtime patches for every feature from a single secure source," Moss wrote in the post. "This means that they can focus on what game makers are best at — creating the best games."

As the largest video game developer in the world, EA's decision to pursue its own cloud gaming platform speaks to rapid change in the industry. Up until now, major game developers needed to choose which platforms their games could support, often leading to their audiences being fractured between different consoles.

By streaming games directly to players on a device of their choosing, EA can effectively cut out the middleman when it comes to content control and sales. With Project Atlas set to compete directly with Microsoft's Project xCloud and Google's ProjectStream, it will also be interesting to see if Electronic Arts is willing to share its new games on other streaming platforms.

All three cloud gaming services are still very much in their testing phase, so it'll be some time before they're available to the public, and likely longer than that before they become mainstream. It remains to be seen what will come of traditional video game consoles if more developers start to prioritize streaming games from the cloud.

Over three-fourths of Americans own smartphones, which means that it's incredibly important for tech companies to nail their mobile apps. But testing those apps to make sure they're working correctly can be a hassle.

HeadSpin, a Silicon Valley startup, allows developers to easily test, debug and monitor mobile apps and sites in real-time on actual devices. Oftentimes, developers use a simulator on their computers to test these apps, but even then, there might be unexpected bugs on the actual mobile app when used by real customers on a real phone.

And investors see potential for this idea: On Tuesday, HeadSpin announced $20 million in Series B financing. With this funding, HeadSpin's valuation is now north of $500 million, just three years in.

As an engineer, HeadSpin co-founder and CEO Manish Lachwani has worked on a wide variety of projects, from online games at Zynga to YouTube and Chrome at Google. But one problem stood out to him: testing apps. And it was "nearly impossible" to pinpoint why mobile apps sometimes failed.

"There was no way of understanding whether something would work or not," Lachwani told Business Insider. "That's where a number of these games failed. We had a very hard time."

HeadSpin can solve these problems within five minutes, Lachwani says, and being able to test apps can save developers both time and money.

With the funding, HeadSpin plans to incorporate more automation into the app to identify high-priority issues for apps.

"All this learning helped us create a platform that helps you understand what to fix prior to launch," Lachwani said. "Developers can see, this is where the problem is."

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled a revamped iPad Pro and a brand-new Apple Pencil. In the process, it fixed one of the few bad things about the generation of products that these new ones will replace.

The new iPad Pro has an entirely new design, including squared-off edges and a nearly edge-to-edge "liquid retina" display. But perhaps one of the niftiest changes comes in how it charges the Apple Pencil.

Now, your Pencil can snap on magnetically to the top of your iPad and charge up wirelessly, like so:

This is a total change from how the Pencil used to charge. The first-generation Pencil could only charge up one way: by removing the cap on the top and plugging it directly into the Lightning port on your iPad, where it would stick out awkwardly.

It looked like this:

The first-generation Apple Pencil charging on an iPad. Matt Weinberger/Business Insider

While that charging method was a good idea in theory — you didn't need a separate charger for your Pencil! — it clearly had some limitations.

If you brushed past the device too quickly while it was charging, the Pencil could potentially snap off, breaking the Lightning charger. Or worse, if left on the edge of a table, a little one walking by could have been poked with the pointy end of the Pencil.

At the very least, it was incredibly unwieldy, and looked a little silly to boot — not unlike Apple's Magic Mouse 2, which faces a similar issue.

Now read:Here's everything Apple announced at its big iPad and Mac event

The new second-generation Pencil fixes one more issue: you have to worry less about losing the Pencil anymore. Before, there was no easy way to keep track of the Pencil unless you had a special iPad case, and its totally smooth, cylindrical shape meant it was often at risk for rolling right off your desk. Now that it has one flat edge and it's magnetized, you can snap it onto your iPad and put the whole thing in your bag.

A pricier Pencil

The only downside: the new Pencil is more expensive, and it only works with a few iPads. The Pencil costs $129, $30 more than the previous model, and it only works with the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

What's different about the new version — beyond a tweak to the design and the wireless charging — is the ability to double tap on the device to change tools or brush sizes in whatever program you're using, and tap to wake it up. Plus, you can now get your Pencil engraved.

While Apple now offers a new version of the Pencil, it does still sell the first-generation model — it costs $99, and it's compatible with the following iPads:

Read more of our coverage from Apple's October event:

The US Department of Justice has indicted 10 Chinese intelligence officers and those working at their direction for stealing sensitive information from United States aviation companies, according to a federal court filing.

The DOJ says over a dozen US and European aviation companies were hacked over a period of more than five years beginning no later than January 2010 in an effort to obtain intellectual property and other confidential information. The alleged hacks ended no earlier than May 2015, the DOJ says.

According to the DOJ, the defendants sought information about a turbofan engine used in commercial aircraft that was being developed by a French manufacturer and a US firm. The engine was similar to one being developed by a Chinese state-owned aviation company, the DOJ says.

"For the third time since only September, the National Security Division, with its US Attorney partners, has brought charges against Chinese intelligence officers from the JSSD and those working at their direction and control for stealing American intellectual property," John C. Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security, said in a DOJ press release. "This is just the beginning. Together with our federal partners, we will redouble our efforts to safeguard America's ingenuity and investment."

The defendants opened email addresses under false identities and used multiple servers in different countries to evade detection, the DOJ says, and employed a number of techniques to gain access to confidential information. Those techniques allegedly included sending emails containing malware, installing malware on the web pages of targeted companies, and working with employees of targeted companies.

Two of the defendants worked for a branch of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) — which specializes in domestic and non-military foreign intelligence, as well as some areas of domestic and political security — located in Nanjing. Six of the defendants worked underneath the intelligence officers and were described by the DOJ as hackers. The other two defendants are Chinese nationals who were employees of a French aviation company that was targeted in the alleged hacks.

"This action is yet another example of criminal efforts by the MSS to facilitate the theft of private data for China's commercial gain," the US Attorney Adam Braverman said. "The concerted effort to steal, rather than simply purchase, commercially available products should offend every company that invests talent, energy, and shareholder money into the development of products."

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

At a market cap of $182 billion, and a position as a pillar of Silicon Valley, it can be hard to believe that the tech giant Oracle struggled financially in its early years. But Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison wants today's startup founders to know that even the successful companies like his went through severe rough patches.

Ellison hosts a cocktail reception to mentor startup founders each year. Last week, he hosted the founders of 22 startups at his San Francisco home — and eWeek was in attendance to report on the advice he gave.

"We were about a week away from not being able to make payroll," Ellison told the crowd of his early days at Oracle, as eWeek reports. At the time, Oracle had to wait about three months between the time it officially made an agreement with its first database client, and when it finally got the check. That client, incidentally, was the CIA.

While Ellison and other engineers at Oracle were building its first databases, Oracle was still short on money. It had to make extra money through consulting and technology development for other Silicon Valley companies. Oracle is known as the inventor of the modern database, but originally, consulting paid the bills. As the consulting business made money, Ellison was able to task more people to building that first database.

The lesson, Ellison said, is to balance doing whatever it takes to pay the bills with whatever it is that you actually want to do.

Fast forwarding to today: After over 40 years, Oracle still remains a major player in the Silicon Valley today, competing in the cloud space with Amazon, Microsoft, Google and more. The key to Oracle's continued relevance, Ellison told the founders in attendance, was not to stay stuck in old ways.

"The old solution to customers' problems may no longer be the best solution. When you see that, it's an opportunity—or a threat," Ellison said, according to eWeek. "It's our job as founders and developers to constantly change our companies based on technology available today that wasn't available yesterday."

In recent years, Oracle has been focusing on its autonomous, AI-powered database, and last week, Ellison announced the Oracle Generation 2 Cloud at the OpenWorld conference.

Read the full eWeek report here>>

There's new reason not to trust the "paid for by" disclaimer on the political ads you see on Facebook.

Facebook approved 100 fake political ad disclaimers that claimed to be paid for by every US senator, submitted by Vice News as part of an experiment. The social network began using the "paid for by" disclaimer in May, as a way to boost transparency in political advertising ahead of November's general election.

Notably, with this experiment, Vice News didn't actually get approval for fake ads. Instead — and this is an important distinction— it got approval to say that any political ads that it ran were "paid for by" Senator Mitch McConnell or any of his 99 colleagues in the Senate.

Facebook told Business Insider that the process for submitting ads and submitting ad disclosures are separate, and Vice only submitted fake ad disclosures. The approved disclosures would have allowed Vice to attach a "paid for by" message to any advertisements that it might have placed, should that ad pass muster and get approval.

To submit a political ad disclosure on Facebook, the social network requires a photo ID, the name of your company, and the last four digits of your social security number, all of which Vice says that it provided.

In general, the "paid for" feature seems vulnerable to bad-faith actors, and this isn't the first time phony ads or disclosures have made it under Facebook's radar. Just a few days earlier, Vice reported that Facebook had approved ads that claimed to be paid for by Vice President Mike Pence, and another by "ISIS," also placed by the news site However, an ad submitted under Hillary Clinton's name was rejected, Vice reports.

Notably, Facebook was quick to reject a fake disclosure "paid for" by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Vice reports.

Facebook told Vice that none of these fake ads and disclosures should have been approved by the system, and that it's working on several initiatives to combat misinformation and phony political ads.

Rob Leathern, Facebook's director of roduct management, shared the following statement with Business Insider:

"When it comes to political and issue advertising on our platform, we believe people on Facebook should know who is behind the ads they're seeing. It's why we've placed more than one million ads in a publicly, searchable Ad Archive. We know we can't do this alone and by housing these ads for up to seven years, people, regulators, third-parties and watchdog groups can hold these groups more accountable. This is also one piece of our broader efforts to bring greater transparency to ads related to politics on FB - an advertiser must also confirm their identity and location in the US before placing these ads."

Read the full Vice News report here>>

Facebook's revenue came in lighter than expected during the third quarter, but Wall Street breathed a big sigh of relief that users in the US did not flee the social network in droves after a string of scandals.

Facebook's daily users in the US — its most valuable market — flatlined at 185 million during the three months ended September 30, the same level as at the end of Q2.

Not long ago such a lack of growth would have been considered a big cause for concern among Facebook investors. But in a sign of how low the expectations have become, investors celebrated the fact a feared user exodus did not materialize.

Facebook's share price see-sawed wildly in extended trading on Tuesday, dipping as much as 6% and climing around 5%. As of writing, it sits around 3.6% up from its Tuesday close.

On a conference call with analysts, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked broadly about Facebook's strategy, positioning its current challenges as part of a generational shift akin to its shift from desktop to mobile years earlier. This time around, Facebook is shifting from "Feeds"-based products to "Stories" — ephemeral photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

"All of the trends we've seen suggest that in the not-too-distant future, people will be sharing more into Stories than they will into Feeds," Zuckerberg said. "It's one of the situations where the community growth we're seeing is outpacing the progress we've made so fr with developing the ads for that space."

Facebook's stock fluctuations on October 30, 2018, as it announced its Q3 2018 financial results. Yahoo Finance

The company, once loved by Wall Street for consistently outperforming, turned in a Q3 report that had a few blemishes.

Revenue grew 33% year-over-year to $13.7 billion, but fell short of the average analyst expectation of $13.8 billion. The company says foreign exchange headwinds totalled $159 million — more than enough to cover the amount Facebook missed revenue expectations by.

Facebook's operating profit margin fell to its lowest level in six quarters, at 42%. At this time last year, its operating margin was 50%.

Although earnings per share comfortably beat Street estimates — $1.76 versus $1.47 expected — Facebook noted that it benefitted from a lower than expected tax rate. The stock initially dropped more than 5% after Facebook published the results, before rebounding, and as of writing it hovers at around 1.5% in the green.

Here are the key number via Bloomberg:

Facebook's daily active user numbers for the past nine quarters, broken down by geography. Facebook

Daily Active Users in the US and Canada have now flatlined isnce Q1 2018 at 185 million — but that may come as a relief to investors that the company is not actively shedding users as a result of its tumultuous few months. Facebook is continuing to battle crises and repututional damage from multiple scandals, including Cambridge Analytica and the hack of 30 million users' sensitive data.

The US and European markets are the most important to Facebook's current business, since it can generate more ad revenue from the relatively affluent users in those regions. As the chart below shows, Facebook's average revenue per user in the US and Canada region in Q3 was more than 10 times higher than its average revenue per user in the Asia Pacific region.

Facebook

Most analysts remain optimistic on Facebook, despite its recent travails. Prior to market close, there was a consensus price target of $203.26, according to Bloomberg — up significantly from Tuesday's share price of around $146. The stock's all-time high is around $210.

"We expect Facebook's revenue growth to remain robust, supported by multiple growth drivers," Wedbush analysts wrote in a research note on Friday, ahead of Facebook's Q3 earnings. "The company's unmatched scale and ease of use when it comes to its advertising platform suggest that Facebook will continue to represent a core part of digital advertiser budgets."

The company's stock dropped 20% on its Q2 2018 earnings in July, when it failed to meet analysts expectations and warned that revenue growth rates were going to drop.

Business Insider is covering Facebook's Q3 2018 earnings live. Refresh this page or click here for the latest updates.

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The electric vehicle startup Faraday Future is close to running out of money as it forces some workers to take unpaid leave, The Verge reports.

According to the publication, the automaker has halted some operations at its headquarters in Gardena, California, and factory in Hanford, California. Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting reportedly said in an email to employees that workers who started on or after May 1 of this year will be placed on unpaid leave until the automaker receives new funding. Full-time employees who started before May 1 can continue working on a reduced salary of $50,000 per year and hourly employees who have been working for over six months can choose to remain at Faraday Future for minimum wage, Yueting reportedly said.

A Faraday Future representative confirmed to Business Insider that employees who joined after May 1 must take an unpaid leave of absence, while those who started before May 1 can continue working "at a reduced level of compensation," though the representative did not specify by how much compensation will be reduced. The representative added that the amount of time these changes are in place will depend on a "funding plan that is being vigorously pursued," and said the automaker anticipates the furlough will last through the end of this year.

"This was an extremely tough decision to make, and we recognize the emotional stress and financial strain this puts on people's personal lives. We are grateful to all of the hundreds of employees who are willing to stay and continue to work on the FF 91 core project, as well as those who will be on a temporary furlough," the representative said.

The representative attributed Faraday Future's financial troubles to its dispute with investor Evergrande Health Industry Group, which the automaker says has prevented it from seeking outside funding. The representative added that an arbitrator ruled last week that Faraday Future can now pursue funding from other sources.

Nick Sampson, one of the automaker's founders, reportedly resigned on Tuesday, saying Faraday Future is "effectively insolvent" in an email to employees.

"The company is effectively insolvent in both its financial and personnel assets, it will at best will [sic] limp along for the foreseeable future. I feel that my role in Faraday Future is no long [sic] a path that I can follow, so I will leave the company, effective immediately," Sampson reportedly wrote.

The Faraday Future representative confirmed Sampson's departure.

A Faraday Future representative told Business Insider last week, following a report from The Verge, that it would reduce the wages of hourly and salaried employees by 20% while laying off an undisclosed number of workers. The representative added that Yueting would lower his salary to $1 as some members of the automaker's leadership team decreased their salaries by more than 20%.

Faraday Future was founded in 2014 and has struggled to build its planned FF91 electric SUV amid financial concerns. Faraday Future has faced lawsuits and liens from suppliers who claim they have not been paid, and the first pre-production version of the FF91 caught fire hours after it was shown to employees and their families, according to The Verge.

Yueting, who is also the founder and chairman of the Chinese tech company LeEco, last year had $182 million in assets frozen by the Chinese government because of unfulfilled loan payments.

You can read Faraday Future's full statement below:

We can confirm the recent departures of Peter Savagian, SVP, Global Product and Technology and Nick Sampson, SVP, Product Strategy - we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

As you may know, recent actions taken by Evergrande is causing FF to experience extraordinary financial hardship. The investor has intervened in the Company's capital planning and is preventing FF from utilizing our assets, which requires FF to take some very difficult yet necessary actions.

FF received a favorable ruling in its arbitration against Evergrande last week and may now seek funding from other sources, which FF is actively pursuing, although this process will take some time.

During this interim period, FF is requiring certain employees to take an unpaid leave of absence (furlough) for the months of November and December and is offering other employees the option of taking the furlough for the same period of time. Employees who joined FF after May 1 must take a furlough. For those employees who started with FF before May 1, they may continue to work their regular schedule at a reduced level of compensation. All employees will continue to receive healthcare benefits if they previously received benefits from FF.

This was an extremely tough decision to make, and we recognize the emotional stress and financial strain this puts on people's personal lives. We are grateful to all of the hundreds of employees who are willing to stay and continue to work on the FF 91 core project, as well as those who will be on a temporary furlough. In addition, we take our relationship with our suppliers seriously, and we hope to receive support and understanding from our global partners as FF overcomes our difficulties.

FF anticipates the furlough to last through the end of December 2018. However, the actual length of this furlough depends on the funding plan that is being vigorously pursued. We continue to push forward to find additional funding from investors globally as we strive to retain our people and our suppliers.

We take pride in our close-knit community, and we are mindful of the impact these changes will have on our employees and their families. FF was born to disrupt and we are committed to making progress towards our goals, and continuing the necessary investments in our people, our products, technology, and business to develop an industry-leading connected mobility ecosystem without compromising our core values.

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