GIFs are a fun and often humorous way to interact via text. A GIF keyboard is automatically built into any iPhone running iOS 10 or later, allowing you to send pictures to convey thoughts or ideas. 

For an even greater library of GIFs, users can download third-party apps like GIF keyboard and GIPHY. Just like texting a written message, texting a GIF is easily accomplished through the Messages app.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to text a GIF on an iPhone using the built-in Messages keyboard

1. Open the Messages app.

2. Select the "Images" icon from the menu bar below the new message field. It looks like a pink circle with a white magnifying glass in the middle.

Select the pink "Images" icon. Kelly Laffey/Business Insider

3. A GIF keyboard will pop up that says "Find images." Scroll through the GIFs to view popular or recently used GIFs. If you're looking for a specific GIF, type what you're looking for into the "Find images" search bar to discover GIFs that best fit your message.

You can search for the GIF you want using the "Find images" search bar. Kelly Laffey/Business Insider

4. Scroll through the screen until you find the appropriate GIF. Tap on it to insert it into your message. 

5. The GIF will appear in the text field. If you accidentally selected the wrong GIF, you can delete it from your message by hitting the small "X" in the top right corner of the GIF. Tap the "Send" button, the blue arrow icon on the right side, to send it.

How to text a GIF on an iPhone using a third-party app 

You can also send a GIF through a third-party app. Popular options include GIF Keyboard and GIPHY. 

If you've downloaded these from the App Store, they will appear on the same menu bar as the "Images" keyboard in Messages. Select the app's icon to open its GIF library. 

This is the GIPHY icon, which allows access to the app's GIF keyboard. Kelly Laffey/Business Insider

Original author: Kelly Laffey

AirDrop is arguably one of Apple's most useful inventions. The feature allows users to transfer files and photos between nearby Apple devices, even when you don't have service.

But AirDrop can also lead to uninvited requests, if you don't have your iPhone's settings properly configured.

To avoid receiving AirDrop requests from people you don't know, you'll want to turn off AirDrop while in public spaces, or limit who can see your device to only your contacts.

Here's how to do it.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to turn off AirDrop on an iPhone via Settings

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap "General."

3. Tap "AirDrop."

4. Tap "Receiving Off" so that no one can see your device.

Once you've tapped "AirDrop," you'll have three options. Christina Liao/Business Insider

You have three options to choose from in AirDrop settings. "Receiving Off" makes your iPhone undetectable, "Contacts Only" limits it to just the individuals saved in your contacts, and "Everyone" allows any Apple device nearby to request a transfer.

How to turn off AirDrop on an iPhone via the Control Center

1. On an iPhone X or later, swipe down from the upper right corner of the screen to open the Control Center. On an iPhone 8 Plus or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

2. Press firmly on the network settings square in the top right corner of the screen to expand it.

The network settings card can be found in the top right corner of the Control Center. Christina Liao/Business Insider

3. Once the square has expanded, you'll see "AirDrop" and its respective icon in the bottom left. Tap on the icon.

In the bottom left corner of the network settings card, you'll find the AirDrop icon. Christina Liao/Business Insider

4. Tap on "Receiving Off," so that no one will see your device when using AirDrop.

Original author: Christina Liao

Hello! Welcome to the Advertising and Media Insider newsletter. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter filling in for Lucia this week. If you got this email forwarded, sign up for your own here. Send tips or feedback to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

First, Business Insider is working on two lists and we want your nominations. My colleague Tanya Dua is putting together our annual rising stars of Madison Avenue, and I'm compiling our annual list of hottest adtech companies. 

On to the news.

Patrick Coffee had a big scoop this week on a major change at WPP. The holding company is absorbing the Possible, Mirum, and iStrategyLabs agencies into Wunderman Thompson, potentially affecting several thousand employees.

The move reflects CEO Mark Read's ongoing plan to streamline the company. According to sources, the absorbed agencies will eventually drop their names and function as a single business.

Ad holding company WPP is continuing its consolidation spree with the Wunderman Thompson network absorbing 3 more agencies

Patrick also spoke with Alastair Mactaggart, the real estate billionaire behind the upcoming California Consumer Privacy Act. The CCPA is the toughest US data law to date, and Mactaggart is now seeking ballot initiative called the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act.

The billionaire behind California's sweeping new data privacy law reveals his plans to further regulate the ad industry and fight big tech lobbyists

With the recent departure of Seth Dallaire, Amazon lost one of its biggest advertising names. I talked with Amazon's closest agencies to identify five insiders who are likely candidates for his job.

Amazon has a big leadership hole to fill with the departure of advertising exec Seth Dallaire. Here are five insiders that ad execs say are his likely successor.

In October, rival content-recommendation startups Taboola and Outbrain announced plans to merge. While the two companies talked about their plans in prepared statements, Lucia reported the inside story this week on the long battle between both companies to win deals with publishers.

How Outbrain established 'around the web' content recommendations, only to lose its lead to Taboola and end up getting eaten by its rival

Direct-to-consumer companies are still booming and Tanya reported this week that Tim Armstrong is giving DTC brands their own Black Friday-type holiday. The former AOL and Google exec now runs the startup dtx company and is using TV, billboards and digital media to promote 50 brands like Rockets of Awesome and Andie Swim Nov. 15.

Former AOL and Google exec Tim Armstrong is pronouncing a day for direct-to-consumer brands to rival Black Friday and promising them an audience of at least 100 million

Tanya also covered fashion retailer Express' move into DTC with a new health and wellness line that competes against upstarts. UpWest sells sleep aids, clothing, CBD products and home items like candles and bath salts.

The direct-to-consumer economy shows no signs of slowing down. Fashion retailer Express is launching its own DTC brand to catch up.

Here are other great stories from media, marketing, and advertising. (You can read most of the articles here by subscribing to BI Prime; use promo code AD2PRIME2018 for a free month.)

State Farm becomes the latest marketer to drop the classic ad-agency-of-record model after cutting its marketing budget by 15%

Bloomberg News employees are having jitters about layoffs on top of uncertainty about a Michael Bloomberg presidential run

Chickpea pasta maker Banza just raised $20 million in a Series B round — and plans to spend most of it on marketing and expanding to restaurants

A Molson Coors exec reveals how it works its brands into Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon shows and why 70% of its product placements are now in digital

Former MTV exec Andy Schuon says his new app solves the podcast discovery problem

How Instagram hiding 'likes' could change the influencer business, according to industry execs

An Amazon-focused tech firm has hired a vet of the e-commerce giant to build advertising tools for sellers

A martech startup that has raised $3.5 million says its technology helps cannabis brands reach consumers in a new way

An AI startup says it's built a 'crystal ball' for advertising, and it has Mondelez, Ford, and Comcast buying in

The amount influencers earn from sponsored posts is soaring. Here's the average cost brands pay on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

Original author: Lauren Johnson

Some Bloomberg News employees are nervous about possible layoffs, adding to uncertainty created by Michael Bloomberg's possible presidential run.There's already been a string of exits of senior journalists based outside the US and layoffs in the US are rumored, fueling speculation that the parent company Bloomberg LP is headed for a soft sales year.Company spokespeople said there haven't been any layoffs and that Bloomberg LP wasn't poised for a slowdown.Bloomberg News is one of the biggest news organizations, with 2,700 people, and parent Bloomberg LP hit a $10 billion revenue milestone in 2018. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Some Bloomberg News employees are nervous about layoffs coming, sources told Business Insider, adding to uncertainty created by Michael Bloomberg's possible presidential run.

At least 10 senior journalists have left Bloomberg's overseas bureaus including Paris, London, and Rome. Many of those let go were veteran journalists and presumably highly paid.

Employees were also told to curtail travel for the rest of the year, which was considered unusual for the media company.

It's true that Bloomberg News also has been doubling down on coverage areas including environmental and cybersecurity, according to a memo issued in September. It's also routine for companies to watch expenses near the end of a fiscal year.

But the departures of highly paid people — senior editors can make more than $250,000 a year — and curtailing of travel has ignited speculation that the parent company Bloomberg LP is poised for a slow sales year and that it's prepping for a possible sale. "This is new," one insider said.

Adding to their uncertainty, some insider said, Bloomberg recently added broad access to Dow Jones articles to the terminal. Does Bloomberg need all its journalists when it has access to all these articles from Dow Jones along with The New York Times and Washington Post?

Bloomberg spokespeople said there haven't been any layoffs and that newsroom headcount would be flat in 2019. They said travel was still permitted but that the company was being mindful of travel expenses as part of routine end-of-year budgeting. They said Bloomberg LP wasn't poised for a slowdown and that it was expecting another year of growth in 2020.

Still, the employee jitters take on more significance now that Bloomberg took steps November 8 to enter the 2020 race for president.

Bloomberg top executives sought to reassure employees that the company would run smoothly if its founder ran for president, according to a memo seen by Business Insider. The message said the company was on track for another year of growth. The memo was first reported by the FT.

The message didn't address whether he would seek to sell the company if he stepped away. In 2018, Bloomberg said he would be likely to sell the company if he ran for president.

Bloomberg LP is driven by its massive, $22,000-per-year terminal subscription business serving Wall Street clients. Its smaller Bloomberg News arm is marketed as a key benefit to terminal subscribers.

Bloomberg News is one of the biggest news organizations, with 2,700 people. Bloomberg LP, with about 20,000 employees all in, hit a $10 billion revenue milestone in 2018. 

News coverage is likely to be another area of concern if Bloomberg enters the race. The newsroom has in the past restricted how it reports on its famous founder, creating unease among some of its journalists. The company has not said what its coverage plans will be this time around, Politico reported.

Original author: Lucia Moses

You can luckily save text conversations on your iPhone for those times when your conversations are just too funny, moving, or filled with important information to delete or exist simply on your phone. While there isn't a feature for automatically exporting a conversation, you can save an entire iPhone text conversations for later review and enjoyment using a workaround in the Messages app. To preserve a text chain with total fidelity to its original appearance, a series of screenshots may be your best option.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's a bit surprising, really, that it's not easier to export and save entire iPhone text message conversations or at least large portions of a chat. 

With a quick workaround, however, you can indeed save entire text conversations had on your iPhone, and you can then forward them as an iMessage or even email them to yourself.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to save an entire text conversation on your iPhone

1. Open the text chain you wish to preserve and hold a finger down on one of the texts in the conversation.

2. Tap the "More…" option when it appears, then tap the circle to the left of each text and image you want to save.

You can send an email from your Messages app to get the written content of a text exchange, though images may not come through. Steven John/Business Insider

3. Tap on the curved arrow at the bottom right corner of the screen, then enter the phone number or email address  that you wish to send the text the conversation to.

Select the messages you'd like to export and tap the arrow at the bottom of the screen. Steven John/Business Insider

4. You can also hold a finger down on the new text message and tap "Copy" to copy it for pasting elsewhere on your iPhone, such as into an email or a note.

Text message formatting will change during the export process, but all of the content should remain the same. Steven John/Business Insider

Original author: Steven John

The Department of Homeland Security's practice of searching people's phones and computers at border crossings without reasonable suspicion is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.The ruling is being heralded as a victory by privacy advocates, who were concerned with DHS's unfettered access to travelers' sensitive personal information at border crossings.Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol must now demonstrate legitimate suspicion of illegal activity before being able to search travelers' electronic devices.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agents will no longer be able to indiscriminately search the phones and laptops of travelers crossing the US border, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

In its ruling, the US District Court in Massachusetts ruled that it violates the Fourth Amendment for Homeland Security officials to search travelers' electronic devices without "individualized suspicion" of contraband.

The lawsuit that led to the ruling, Alasaad v. Nielsen, was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU of Massachusetts on behalf of 11 people whose devices were seized and searched without a warrant by border patrol agents. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was the defendant, alongside ICE and CBP heads.

"This ruling significantly advances Fourth Amendment protections for millions of international travelers who enter the United States every year," ACLU staff attorney Esha Bhandari said in a statement. "By putting an end to the government's ability to conduct suspicionless fishing expeditions, the court reaffirms that the border is not a lawless place and that we don't lose our privacy rights when we travel."

It's not yet clear whether DHS will appeal the ruling. A DHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

The practice of searching electronic devices by ICE and CBP has been widely documented in recent years. Before Tuesday's court ruling, there was no clear legal precedent to determine whether Fourth Amendment protections extended to people entering the US internationally — in its absence, DHS officials operated under CBP Directive No. 3340-049A, which declared that agents could search anyone's electronic devices for any reason. 

In August, a Lebanese student who was admitted to Harvard University was temporarily detained by Border Patrol agents in Boston who searched his phone and laptop. Based on what they found, the agents deemed him "inadmissable," temporarily barring him from entering the country and starting college (after a legal battle, the student was allowed to enter the US in September).

CBP has reportedly also targeted journalists and activists crossing the border, searching their electronic devices for sensitive information. Seth Harp, a journalist with The Intercept, recounted his experience being detained by Border Patrol after returning from a trip to Mexico in June, during which agents searched his laptop and poured through sensitive information provided by his sources.

"It was the digital equivalent of tossing someone's house: opening cabinets, pulling out drawers, and overturning furniture in hopes of finding something — anything — illegal," Harp wrote at the time. "He also went through my personal photos, which I resented. Consider everything on your phone right now. Nothing on mine was spared."

The new ruling effectively bars Border Patrol agents from searching any electronic devices they see fit. Read the whole ruling here.

Original author: Aaron Holmes

When words are not enough, GIFs are a perfect way to convey big emotions, like outrage, shock, and joy.

But have you ever felt limited by the selection available? Perhaps you have a series of photos that would look spectacular as a GIF, if only you knew how to make one. Or perhaps you want to elevate the content you post on social media with sleek, artistic-looking animations.

While GIF-making may look like a difficult feat, if you follow these steps in Adobe Photoshop CC 2020, you'll be well on your way to cranking out custom GIFs in minutes.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Adobe Photoshop (From $129.99 at Best Buy)

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

How to make a GIF in Photoshop

You'll just need a batch of images to start. Using a tripod is great if you want to stage a stop-motion style animation, or you can use grab frames from a video to capture movement. 

Once you have your images ready, grab your PC or Mac computer and open Adobe Photoshop CC 2020.

1. Go to "Window," a tab on the main task bar, and select 
"Timeline." When selected, a checkmark will appear on the left.


2. Then click "File," from the same upper task bar, and scroll down to "Scripts."

3. Select "Load Files into Stack…"

4. In the new window that has popped up, titled "Load Layers," click "Browse…"

Original author: Emma Witman

Elon Musk might be the world's most extremely online billionaire
The Tesla CEO, worth an estimated $26 billion, has a habit of getting into fights and long-running feuds over the internet.Musk is an enthusiastic Twitter user and often jokes around with his followers — but sometimes takes it too far.Here are his weirdest fights.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk has a combative streak.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is famously unpredictable as chief executives go, a personality trait which has sometimes landed him in trouble — particularly with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

But Musk's combative side doesn't just express itself in skirmishes with government agencies. The Tesla billionaire has ended up in bizarre spats with a strange array of people — from fellow billionaires to artists to rescue divers — and often via his preferred medium of Twitter.

The twists and turns in the stories of Musk's various battles are no less baffling, and it can be hard to remember all the different ways Musk has squared up to various public figures and regular citizens.

We've catalogued his weirdest fights.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos called former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier this year and asked him if he was interested in running for president, according to Recode.Bloomberg filed paperwork to enter the Democratic primary in Alabama this week, a major indicator that he may enter the 2020 presidential race.But he told Bezos he was not considering a run at the time of their call, according to the report.Bloomberg's potential candidacy has already attracted the support of other billionaires, including investor Leon Cooperman, who has been highly critical of the more left-leaning candidates in the race.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg took steps toward entering the 2020 presidential race this week, filing to enter the Democratic primary in Alabama.

And, according to a report from Recode's Jason Del Ray, Amazon CEO and world's richest person Jeff Bezos called Bloomberg earlier this year to gauge his fellow billionaire's interest in a presidential run.

According to Recode, Bezos asked Bloomberg whether he would consider running for president on a phone call, after the collapse of Amazon's plans to build a second headquarters in New York City earlier this year. At the time, Bloomberg said no, according to the report.

Recode noted that Bezos has largely avoided electoral politics, and it is not clear whether he would actively support Bloomberg's candidacy.

Bloomberg's prospective entry into the Democratic primary comes amid continued polling and fundraising strength for Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the two most left-leaning candidates in the race.

Bloomberg, who would likely run as a moderate, is entering the race as doubts about former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign emerge among more establishment and centrist factions in the Democratic Party.

Bezos is not the only billionaire who has expressed interest in a Bloomberg campaign. Billionaire investor and founder of Omega Partners Leon Cooperman told CNBC on Friday that he would back the former NYC mayor now that he is in the race. Cooperman has been deeply critical of Warren's proposed wealth tax on the hyper-rich.

Original author: Andy Kiersz

I can't even begin to count the number of times I've declined travel insurance when booking plane tickets. But when it came to Amtrak, horror stories of delays that I couldn't shake from my head convinced me it might be worth the investment for my cross-country trip this fall. Turns out I was right. The first train of my journey was delayed so long I missed my connection, and spent an unplanned night in Chicago. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As I booked a cross-country Amtrak journey this fall in pursuit of stories for Business Insider, there was a cacophony of horror stories I couldn't get out of my head.

Beyond anecdotal tales of massive delays, like the 183 passengers who were stuck on a train for 36 hours earlier this year, data shows these tales are far from outliers. My first train for this journey, the Lake Shore Limited, was on time just about 42% of the time last year, according to Amtrak's annual report.

So when the railroad's booking website hawked travel insurance for just $17 on my $900 fare, I bit the bullet and bought for the first time what I had long considered to be a scam and didn't think of it again. Here's how it ended up saving me $124. 

Original author: Graham Rapier

Amazon Web Services introduced a new discount model to make it easier for customers to save money — while simultaneously making it harder for them to switch to a competitor's service.The Seattle-based company is offering discounts to customers if they make a one- to three-year commitment for a minimum amount of spending on its cloud platform.The move is meant to help AWS hold onto its lead in the cloud-computing market, where runner-up Microsoft is gaining traction, including recently beating Amazon to a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract. Click here to read more BI Prime stories

Amazon Web Services just made it easier for customers to save money on its most popular service – and more difficult to switch to competitors like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

The Seattle-based company has long offered discounts to its most dedicated customers. Before, those discounts required users to rent specific servers (or, at least, types of servers) from Amazon in advance, in a program known as Reserved Instances.

The big change is that Amazon's discount model now requires customers to make a one- to three-year commitment for a minimum amount of spending on the platform.

This new model, which AWS is calling Savings Plans, not only makes it easier for customers to save money but makes it harder for them to move onto a cloud competitor. After all, once you're under one of those long-term deals, you could walk away from AWS, but you'd still be on the hook for those cloud bills.

Doing so could help AWS hold onto its lead in the cloud-computing market, where runner-up Microsoft is gaining traction, including recently beating Amazon to a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract. 

Corey Quinn, cloud economist at a company that helps AWS customers manage spending called the Duckbill Group, said the new saving plans represent a "complete overhaul" of AWS pricing.

"This is a big deal," he told Business Insider. "It makes it easier for people to save money and means customers don't have to spend a few days a month with a spreadsheet."

How it works

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, known as Amazon EC2, is the company's most popular cloud service. It allows customers to rent virtual servers, hosted in Amazon's own massive data centers, which they can use to run their own applications.

AWS charges customers to use the service in two ways: either paying as they go for the compute capacity they use, or paying in advance for what they think they'll use.

The latter option, called Reserved Instances, can save customers a lot of money, but also required customers to do the tricky math involved in accurate predictions of how much computing power they were going to consume in the near future in order to get good value from it.

Under the Reserved Instances model, companies had to choose which kind of instances, or virtual servers, they wanted, selecting from a variety with different amounts of memory and processing power.

The company this week released a new, easier way for customers to pay in advance and, ultimately, save money. It's called a Savings Plan.

The company has two new Savings Plans to give customers more flexibility. The most flexible option, called Compute Savings Plans, lets customers reserve any instance family – instance types grouped together based on compute, memory, and storage capabilities – in any region. That can save them as much as 66 percent, AWS says.

They can save more, as much as 72 percent, through EC2 Instance Savings Plans, which are limited to a specific instance family within a region – less flexible than the other savings plan, but more flexible than the previous model.

Under the new model, customers only have to plan for a minimum amount of spending over the next one to three years. They commit to spending a certain amount per hour, and anything above that just moves to the normal, pay-as-you-go price.

Why it matters

Providing discounts helps the platform companies move customers to the cloud and keep them there. Amazon invented the notion of Reserved Instances, but cloud competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud later introduced their own variants — in both cases, considered to be more flexible than Amazon's version, Quinn said.

Amazon's new discount model is more flexible, makes it easier for AWS customers to plan for capacity and makes it harder for customers to switch to another plan, Kim Weins, vice president of cloud strategy at IT management company Flexera, said.

Under the previous model, customers had to spend a lot of time and money up front to come up with a plan to maximize their use of AWS, or else risk reserving servers they don't end up using, sort of like leasing a car and leaving it in the driveway, Weins says.

The new Savings Plans ensure higher utilization and less waste. There are, however, caveats, Weins said. The EC2 Instance Savings Plan isn't much of an improvement on Reserved Instances because customers still have to pick an instance family and region, and the Compute Savings Plan doesn't offer as much of a discount as its predecessor.

In addition to introducing the new discount model, Amazon is investing in AWS by hiring more marketing and salespeople for the unit. AWS is a major profit driver for the Amazon empire. The business raked in $9 billion in Amazon's most recent quarter, and was responsible for nearly 72 percent of the retail giant's operating income. 

Original author: Ashley Stewart

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and noted philanthropist, talked about how he successfully led Microsoft's growth on an episode of the podcast "Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman."Part of Microsoft's success was its strategic partnership with IBM in its early days.Gates advises leaders to pick partners "that are highly visible and tough." Click here for more BI Prime stories.

One of the earliest high-impact decisions Bill Gates made was figuring out how to work with IBM.

It was 1980 and IBM wanted Microsoft to quickly provide the operating system for the 16-bit IBM PC, what would become, in Gates's estimation, a model for personal computing.

Even though the project was viewed as an experiment, Gates jumped at the opportunity. 

"We put so much energy into this thing," he said on the podcast "Masters of Scale," hosted by LinkedIn founder, venture capitalist, and startup philosopher Reid Hoffman.

Capitalizing on partnership

Gates was able to move Microsoft into the next generation of personal computing because of that strategic partnership with IBM — Big Blue, an enterprise tech firm before anyone really knew to call it as such. But with the partnership,  Microsoft now had an operating system that they were able to market as a separate product.

They had leverage in the dawn of home computing, one that extended beyond the machine and into the software itself that IBM's competitors were eager to buy. One recent computing historian referred to the partnership, which was formalized nearly 39 years ago to the day, as the date "IBM Signs A Deal With The Devil."

That devil, of course, was the soon-to-be-gigantic Microsoft. 

Learning from one partner in particular: IBM Japan

Beyond being positioned for the latest turn in the industry, Microsoft as a company learned from IBM's strengths in sales and quality products.

IBM Japan in particular was picky about quality, Gates said. It was difficult at first to get acclimated to their standard, but Gates eventually realized that they weren't crazy, they were just disciplined— and he himself would have to learn how to do that.

"We spent two years just in total pain, where the Japanese guys were flying in, and they would sit there day and night even though they didn't even know how to fix the thing," Gates said.

Gates's first victories began in Japan, the Wall Street Journal reported in 1986, snowballing into the larger international success of Microsoft's products. 

Gates's experience with IBM Japan led to the advice he told Hoffman that applies anyone who wants to scale their company fast: Pick the toughest customers and meet their needs. 

Tough doesn't equal dislike, or hard to work with. It means selecting customers with high standards, who, in turn, elevate the standards of your company. You have to pick customers that are both highly visible and tough, says Gates. And he thinks this is critical to growth. 

"Partnerships really are so understated in terms of their key role," he said.

Take care of partners and they'll take care of you 

In the case of IBM, there were years in which Steve Ballmer would take the red-eye down to IBM's former campus in Boca Raton, Florida, spend a day there, and then fly back. Gates describes this as "the right thing to do to get things done." Ballmer's frequent flights helped the partnership between Microsoft and IBM thrive, uniquely positioning Microsoft to grow in the following decades. 

More recently, Nadella has announced strategic partnerships with companies, like Novartis, Accenture, and Avanade, to build new technology.

Microsoft's history illustrates the importance of acting on changes within an industry, with the right partners, for massive scale.

Original author: Sherin Shibu

Hello!

We published a bunch of great stories on Facebook, Tesla, WeWork, Walmart's Jet, SoftBank-backed startup Fair, and buzzy AI startup UiPath this week, so I want to jump right to it:

An anonymous memo alleging ongoing racism at Facebook is circulating inside the company

Employees have been sharing and discussing an anonymously authored blog post that asserts racism at the company has gotten worse over the last year, and quotes what it says are 12 current and former employees about their experiences, Rob Price reported.

Tesla is starting to ditch Salesforce and replace it with its own software for company salespeople

Tesla is starting to abandon Salesforce for a proprietary customer-relationship-management (CRM) system, three Tesla salespeople told Mark Matousek.

WeWork's coding boot camp Flatiron School has laid off dozens of employees

WeWork's coding boot camp, Flatiron School, laid off dozens of employees on Thursday as the coworking giant continued to slash costs after its failed initial public offering, Becky Peterson and Meghan Morris reported. Separately, Meghan and Julie Bort reported that insiders say WeWork's IT is a patchwork of cheap devices and Band-Aid fixes that will take millions to fix. 

Top leaders are leaving Walmart's Jet, and some employees are growing concerned about the site's future

Jet, the Walmart-owned e-commerce site, is facing a stream of departures from top leaders, fueling concerns among some employees about the company's future, according to Hayley Peterson.

SoftBank-backed startup Fair burned through nearly $400 million in 10 months. Insiders reveal how Softbank stepped in and cleaned house in the wake of WeWork.

A dozen current and former employees told Meghan Morris that Fair's unconstrained growth was its undoing. It hired people it didn't have jobs for and bought millions of dollars in inventory it lost track of as it burned through funding, they said.

Hot AI startup UiPath's job cuts were triggered after it burned cash faster than expected and missed its revenue target, according to an internal document

UiPath was burning cash faster than expected and its revenue growth, although robust, was below its internal targets when the company launched a plan — dubbed Project Dawn — to slash hundreds of jobs and dramatically reduce costs, according to a presentation reviewed by Ben Pimentel. 

WPP's shakeup

Mark Read, the CEO of WPP, the world's biggest ad holding company, is shaking things up as he looks to get the company back to growth. This week:

The changes come as WPP looks to tackle headwinds caused by client budget cuts and a large-scale shift away from traditional advertising channels.

In conversation

Dakin Campbell talked to Atte Lahtiranta, Goldman Sachs' new chief technology officer. He shared his strategy for attracting outside developers to work more closely with the bank, giving a glimpse into the future of how Wall Street will work.Julie Bort talked to Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, who revealed he almost blew the company off when it first reached out to him 15 years ago, believing it was "just a bookshelf."Melia Russell talked to Sean Knapp, the founder and CEO of Ascend, a startup that came out of stealth mode in July. He shared the pitch deck he used to raise $15 million in funding.Jeremy Berke talked to Peter Barsoom, the CEO of 1906, a Colorado-based cannabis-edibles brand. He walked through his plan to more than quadruple sales in a year.Shana Lebowitz talked to Dane Holmes, Goldman Sachs' outgoing talent chief. He shared the three questions he asks himself before taking any new role — including his next one as CEO of a HR tech startup.Rachel Premack talked to Ken Braunbach, VP of inbound transportation at Walmart, about everything from increasing sustainability to its trucking fleet that's more exclusive than Harvard.Lydia Ramsey talked to CVS Health CEO Larry Merlo about the company's HealthHubs, its bet that it can transform its pharmacies into places where you'd want to go to get healthcare.Joe Williams talked to Leigh Radford, who heads Procter & Gamble Ventures. She explained why she rents out a movie theater for her team every quarter to spark innovation at the $299 billion retail giant.

Finance and Investing

We got a leaked copy of the memo Robinhood sent to barred users who exploited its now infamous 'infinite money' glitch

Robinhood restricted the accounts of users exploiting an "infinite leverage" glitch, and a leaked letter sent to one terminated trader revealed how the company announced account terminations.

Here's the pitch deck that fintech dv01 used to nab $15 million from the likes of George Soros and Pivot Investment Partners. The startup's founder called it the easiest round he's ever raised.

Fintechs have had a relatively easy time raising money thanks to a slew of eager investors with cash to spend. But the most recent round raised by Perry Rahbar for his fintech dv01 might take the cake. 

Tech, Media, Telecoms

Amazon has a big leadership hole to fill with the departure of advertising exec Seth Dallaire. Here are five insiders that ad execs say are his likely successor.

When Dallaire recently left Amazon to be CRO of Instacart, Amazon lost a big name behind its growing but still nascent advertising business.

How Outbrain established 'around the web' content recommendations, only to lose its lead to Taboola and end up getting eaten by its rival

In October, the two dominant content recommendation companies Outbrain and Taboola announced plans to merge to create a $2 billion company. 

Healthcare, Retail, Transportation

Companies like Google and Microsoft are making big investments in startups looking to disrupt healthcare. Here's where 5 top tech giants are placing their bets.

Tech giants like Google's parent company Alphabet and Microsoft have taken their time figuring out how to approach the massive $3.5 trillion US healthcare industry. 

Meet the 7 remote-monitoring startups that are raising millions to provide a new way of caring for aging Americans at home

The US population is aging rapidly and startups are looking to create new ways of helping to care for the elderly.

Original author: Matt Turner

Activision Blizzard will launch the Call of Duty League with 12 teams in January 2020.Call of Duty League franchise owners paid $25 million or more to secure their place in the Call of Duty League, according to ESPN."Call of Duty" is a perennial best-seller with yearly releases that draw in millions of players. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is already the best-selling video game of 2019 less than a month after its release,While Call of Duty has a long history of international esports events, Activision's decision to build a franchised league with a limited number of slots offers a higher value to investors who want to monetize esports in a similar fashion to traditional sports leagues.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Activision Blizzard is establishing a professional league around one of the biggest games in the world, and it's an important step forward for the rapidly developing esports industry.

The company is launching Call of Duty League in January 2020 with 12 franchise representing international cities. "Call of Duty" is a perennial best-seller with yearly releases that draw in millions of players. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is already the best-selling game of 2019 less than a month after its release, and more than 100 million people downloaded the free-to-play "Call of Duty Mobile" in its first month online.

Despite the game's popularity, however, "Call of Duty" esports events haven't seen the same longterm success as popular esports titles like "League of Legends," or even other military games like "CounterStrike." Activision Blizzard has supported "Call of Duty" competitions for years, but the Call of Duty League introduces multi-million-dollar franchises and a structure that parallels the major American sports leagues.

The Call of Duty League is Activision Blizzard's second franchise-based esports organization. Blizzard's Overwatch League completed its second season in September 2019 after expanding the total number of teams from 12 to 20. Several of the franchise owners in the Call of Duty League also own squads in the Overwatch League.

Here's a closer look at how Call of Duty League will work. 

Original author: Kevin Webb

Silicon Valley firms are putting internal employee newsletters on the walls of bathrooms stalls to reach workers while they poop.Google pioneered the practice, and Facebook, Yelp, Jet.com, Group Nine and others have all also adopted the practice in recent years, Business Insider found.The organizer of one company's toilet-wall newsletter boasted of the efficiency gains it gives the company. The practice is emblematic of the technology industry's relentless drive for productivity and sometimes unconventional working methods.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Silicon Valley's efficiency-obsessed tech giants are increasingly turning to the final frontier to reach their employees: the toilet.

Companies like Facebook, Google, and Yelp are all sticking up newsletters, memos, workplace training drills and other important messages for their workforce on the walls of toilet stalls, ensuring workers can learn more about the business while they do their business.

It sounds like something from a script of the satirical "Silicon Valley" TV show on HBO, but the bathroom work reading is as unsurprising a sight at many tech companies today as ping-pong tables or a barista. 

The practice is the latest, and perhaps most intrusive, example of how Silicon Valley's quest for relentless productivity and its yen for rulebreaking are reshaping how we think of the boundaries between business and personal duties. In a world where smartphones and instant messages have made working off-hours from a bus or a bed seem normal, business reading in the washroom may be the next tech industry innovation coming soon to an office near you.

Google was a potty publishing pioneer. Since at least as early as 2006, the $905 billion tech behemoth has published "Testing on the Toilet," a one-pager that gives engineering advice to fellow employees. It also has "Learning on the Loo," which helps enlighten enthroned employees about other aspects of the company.

One recent "Learning on the Loo" from October 2019 addressed workforce unrest and employee concerns — an issue that has bedeviled the company over the last few years, with employees protesting the treatment of contract workers and the company's response to sexual harassment allegations. (A Google spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.)

But these days, the California-based search giant is far from the only company to capitalize on employees' bathroom downtime as an opportunity for learning. 

A recent "Learning on the Loo" newsletter from Google's employee bathrooms, provided to Business Insider by an anonymous source. Names and internal URLs have been redacted. BI

It's "arguably a better use of time when on the loo"

Social networking behemoth Facebook offers a variety memos for employees to digest while they deposit.

These include a weekly "Product and Business Marketing Update" internal newsletter that details product changes, successful advertising customers, and other company news, and the suggestively named "The Weekly Push" — a regularly published memo that provides technical pointers and coding advice for employees and engineers.

San Francisco-headquartered Yelp is another enthusiastic adopter of company-mandated toilet reading material. Following Google's lead, it has its own "Learning on the Loo" newsletters that let engineers share info about different parts of the company and its processes with a captive audience. 

In a statement provided to Business Insider by a spokesperson, Yelp employee Shrayus Gupta, who co-maintains the program, wrote: "In March 2019, Yelp's San Francisco headquarters started the "Learning on the Loo" program where an engineer from any team has the opportunity to write about an engineering or work related topic and see their work published in bathroom stalls across the office. The monthly program initially started as a great way to introduce effective software testing topics, and has since expanded to more general topics such as how to hold more effective meetings. The program has empowered engineers to write about topics they're most passionate about."

He also praised the efficiency gains the program offers indisposed employees: "Yelp's 'Learning on the Loo' program has been an effective communication method to share information across the office and, arguably, a better use of time when on the loo. Yelp employees have had overwhelmingly positive feedback about the program — in fact, the team has months of content backlogged!"

Walmart-owned ecommerce site Jet.com also has a weekly newsletter with internal company updates that workers can peruse on the can, a source said — though a company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An example of Yelp's "Learning on the Loo" toilet memo provided by a company spokesperson. Yelp

The 'ideal worker' doesn't let anything get in the way of work — even bodily functions

Sigrid Luhr, a Ph.D candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley who is researching the Silicon Valley tech industry and inequality, said the practice is inline with the broader trend of work encroaching into the personal realm in the name of maximizing efficiency.

"Most jobs are premised on the existence of what sociologists call the 'ideal worker,' and this is someone who is essentially available to work at all times they may be needed" Luhr wrote in an email.

"In the tech industry, it seems that ideas about the ideal worker are taken to the extreme, and there is pressure to make the most of all available work hours. So it doesn't surprise me that this would extend even to the bathroom or other times when workers are meant to take breaks." 

Other experts questioned whether toilet reading materials would really boost employee productivity — or whether they're more about workers performatively demonstrating their commitment to their employer.

"Professionals in intensive careers are often devoted to their work and live out this devotion in ways that contribute simultaneously to the company and to the worker's professional growth and a sense of accomplishment. In addition, many employers can expect and sometimes coerce what I call a 'dedication display' that is unmoored from workers' actual productivity,"  Mary Blair-Loy, professor of sociology at UC San Diego, said.

"These mandated dedication displays can be invasive of workers' personal time and undermine real creativity. If employers paste work-related reading material on the inside of bathroom stalls, I would see this as a power grab, an assembly-line mentality, a cultural message that values workers' dedication display over their actual contribution. Yet to work at the highest level of creativity, human beings need to take a few steps and a few breaths during the day, to rest their eyeballs in the middle distance, and to be given the respect to defecate in peace."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to review some important company documents. (Maybe.) AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Forward-thinking media companies are getting in on the action

It's not just traditional tech companies that are trying to get employees to study while they strain. Several new media companies are also getting in on the trend.

Refinery29, a millennial women-focused media company, publishes a biweekly memo called the "Tissue Issue." Company spokesperson Chelsea Sanders said that this "highlights standout content across all our platforms, interesting audience feedback and insights (comments, timely research, etc.), recent visual + design campaigns we've done, and of course, birthday shoutouts. It was started about 4 years ago, as an idea from a junior employee." (Vice, the parent company of Refinery29, has occasional signs on toilet doors but hasn't yet adopted the practice more wholeheartedly.)

And Group Nine, a media holding company that owns lifestyle publication Thrillist, politics outlet NowThis, animal news site The Dodo, and other brands, publishes a weekly newsletter "Whole Nine" that is pasted in toilets so employees can touch up on their knowledge of upcoming events, open roles, announcements, and other news while they tinkle.

"At Group Nine ... we like to say that we meet our audiences in the places where they spend their time — our employees are no exception!" a spokesperson said. "We've been posting our newsletters in bathrooms stalls for just shy of one year and it's been very well received. True — some employees at first found it a little funny but it's actually a really great way to reach more people and to encourage conversation around what's happening at the company."

Do you have a story to share about your workplace? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.)

Read more:

Original author: Rob Price

Swedish pilot and Instagram influencer Maria Fagerström uses Instagram to share her work as a pilot, her travels, and her home with her boyfriend with her nearly 500,000 followers.

In her bio, she promises, "I'm here to give YOU a bit of insight into the aviation world," and she follows through. Fagerström responds to comments, and she sometimes makes posts about certain questions that come up again and again.

She shared some common things people don't know about being a pilot with Business Insider.

Original author: Mary Meisenzahl

Twitter

Not long after Shroud, on October 27, Cory "King Gothalion" Michael announced his own exclusivity deal with Microsoft's Mixer. 

In a video posted to Twitter, Michael said, "It's my belief that working with Xbox and Microsoft is not only gonna help us propel what we're doing, but also propel what's always been important to the channel, which is doing good in gaming."

He specifically cited, "the potential of having platform-level input," which is a notable difference from the arrangement streamers have with Twitch.

When Ninja left the platform back in September, his manager and wife, Jessica Blevins, told Business Insider they felt as if Twitch "did not listen" to them.

"Everything we were asking, it never came back reflecting our wishes — and that's completely outside of finances," she said. "And for us, two people who were streaming on Twitch, it was really upsetting for us to go months and months and keep reiterating that we love you guys, we've been here for a long time, but the things that are in the contract right now just don't make sense."

Original author: Ben Gilbert

For years now, Tesla has a been a battleground for short-sellers. At times, they've made money; but they've also lost money, most recently when Tesla posted a surprise third-quarter profit and the stock rocketed back above $300.

Tesla shares are volatile, but so are short-sellers attention spans. For much of the past two years, their focus was on Tesla's automotive business, and that made sense. Even today, automotive revenues are the vast majority of Tesla's topline, at over $14 billion year-to-date, while the energy business has kicked in just over $1 billion.

Through three different vehicle programs: Model S, Model X, and Model 3, Tesla had demonstrated an enviable ability to generate massive buzz and sign up customers. But when it came to actually building and delivering cars, Tesla struggled. The modern auto industry is very much about manufacturing processes, but Tesla didn't want to follow any leaders. CEO Elon Musk's ego got in the way of smooth execution on this front.

Short-sellers smelled blood and moved in, knowing that the cash-intensive nature of the car business would weigh on Tesla's ability to post profits and raise capital. Some big names — Jim Chanos, David Einhorn — started making media noise, arguing that Tesla was headed for bankruptcy.

Musk didn't help Tesla's cause by entering a chaotic period in which he sought to take the company private, failed, and had to submit to an SEC investigation and pay millions in penalties, forfeiting his chairman title in the process.

A stabilized car business sends short-sellers looking for weakness elsewhere

The Tesla Model 3. Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

However, following earnings results from Q3 2019, Tesla looks as though it's stabilized its Model 3 operations and can move on to the next challenge, launching its Model Y crossover. (Revenues appear to have leveled off after reliably expanding by about million per quarter, but the company would probably exchange revenue growth for steadier profits, and in any event the balance sheet now has over $5 billion in cash with only two months left in 2019, an historically unusual situation for Tesla.)

Shorting Tesla based on a negative view of a car business that's grown from less than 50,000 in yearly sales to almost 250,000 in 2018 or probably 300-400,000 in 2019 is, to borrow a phrase from the chess world, a busted position.

That's why shorts have zeroed in on solar. For the record, I thought that Tesla's 2016 merger with SolarCity — Musk was chairman, his cousin Lyndon Rive was CEO, and his brother Kimball was on the board — was a terrible idea. My main concern was that Tesla would be adding SolarCity's rather weird debt-load (it was based on long-term solar-panel leases) to the balance sheet at a time when Tesla needed resources to launch Model 3.

There really isn't much point to sugarcoating the SolarCity reality at the time, which is that it was headed for insolvency. Chanos had already bet on this via a short position that he took in 2015; the merger snookered that, and Chanos moved on to making Tesla his most talked-about position. 

Musk now has some shareholders alleging that the SolarCity merger involved fraud and self-dealing, a question for the legal system to sort out. From a Tesla investor point of view, the negative aspects of the merger were oversold: the stock tanked in late 2016 but by mid-2017 it was surging toward record highs, nearing $400. The long consensus was that all the worry about SolarCity created a terrific buying opportunity.

Always being right but losing money anyway

Musk speaking before the Tesla-SolarCity merger. Thomson Reuters The tendency of Tesla to reward long investors — the stock is up over 1,200% since the company's 2010 IPO — is both frustrating and addictive to short sellers. After all, the stock is up ... 1,200% in less than a decade, and during that time Tesla has never posted an annual profit. Hence the addiction.

But what about the frustration? Well, as I noted in 2017:

The shorts have always been right about Tesla, but it hasn't mattered. They were right when it was just a car company selling a tiny number of cars and making no money. They were right when it became an energy storage company. They were right when it rescued SolarCity. 

GRRR! Few things are worse on Wall Street than always being technically right while still losing money. 

If long investors are sort of like grand military strategists, surveying financial continents and deploying forces to hold ground and avoid conflict, short sellers are more like guerrilla tacticians, flitting from skirmish to skirmish, savoring the melees. Any weakness is a target.

With Tesla's automotive business now as strong as its been in the company's history, the weak point is now obviously solar. To the markets, that business is as irrelevant as its ever been; despite the foolhardiness of the tie-up, Tesla shares have consistently unyoked themselves from the SolarCity burden, and in any case, Tesla hasn't exactly poured money into growing SolarCity (quite the opposite, in fact, as Musk has admitted Tesla borrowed staff from SolarCity to get the Model 3 out the door).

As fas as I'm concerned, Tesla solar is basically a nothingburger and I half-expect Tesla to wind it down once it figures out a way to get the debt off its balance sheet. But naturally, Musk, a committed solar booster, has shown himself to be overly sensitive to short-sellers, poking Einhorn after the guy complained about Tesla in his Q3 investor letter (and, pointlessly, inviting Einhorn to tour Tesla's facilities when Einhorn appeared in his letter to suggest that Musk should face prosecution).

Interestingly, the short attack on solar has taken what was an invisible business and brought it back into the picture. This could actually improve Tesla's solar fortunes. But that's always a risk in guerilla warfare: assault a weakness enough times and you could inadvertently transform it into a strength.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

The organizing power of YouTube creators is on full display thanks to one YouTuber's effort to plant 20 million trees by the end of the year.

YouTuber MrBeast launched the #TeamTrees campaign last month after fans bombarded him with memes suggesting he commemorate reaching 20 million YouTube subscribers by planting 20 million trees. At $1 a tree, the cause's goal is to raise $20 million by January 1, 2020 to plant trees in part with the Arbor Day Foundation's reforestation program.

The initial debut of the #TeamTrees campaign gathered the support of more than 600 influencers, who flooded social media and YouTube with videos and posts to raise awareness about the tree-planting effort. It seems that the mass-bombardment has been successful however: #TeamTrees has drawn donations upwards of tens of thousands of dollars from some of the most popular YouTube stars, and more than $1 million from two tech CEOs as well.

Here are all the big names in tech and YouTube that have so far donated to the #TeamTrees campaign:

Original author: Paige Leskin

Director Christopher Nolan's Hollywood blockbuster "Interstellar" just celebrated its fifth anniversary.In the movie, Matthew McConaughey plays an astronaut who journeys into a supermassive black hole called Gargauntua.To make "Interstellar" scientifically accurate, Nolan hired physicist Kip Thorne to render the most realistic depiction of a black hole possible.But since the movie was released, scientists have learned more about what black holes really look like, and even imaged one for the first time.These discoveries revealed that, despite Nolan and Thorne's best efforts, Gargantua wasn't perfectly accurate.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At the heart of every galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, where gravity is so strong that nothing — not even light — can escape its boundary.

In the movie "Interstellar," a fictional black hole called Gargantua takes center stage. The film came out exactly five years ago, in November 2014. In it, Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway play astronauts who travel through a wormhole — a tunnel that allows for nearly instantaneous travel between far-distant points — to explore three planets that orbit Gargantua, 10 billion light-years from Earth. 

In the end, McConaughey's character navigates his ship into the supermassive black hole, inside which he discovers a fifth dimension, inter-dimensional omniscient beings, and the ability to communicate with his estranged daughter across time and space.

Director Christopher Nolan and his visual effects team strove for superior scientific accuracy in "Interstellar" — they even hired theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate Kip Thorne as a consultant.

"Neither wormholes nor black holes have been depicted in any Hollywood movie in the way that they actually would appear," Thorne said in an interview prior to the movie's release. "This is the first time the depiction began with Einstein's general relativity equations."

Indeed, the movie's depiction of Gargantua was lauded as the most accurate film portrayal of a black hole ever. 

An artist's concept of a supermassive black hole. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Reuters

But in the last five years, a handful of major discoveries about black holes have given physicists new insights about what these massive objects look like and how they behave. Based on that information, Gargantua wasn't completely accurate, though it still comes close in many respects. Here's what "Interstellar" got right and wrong. 

The first image of a black hole ever captured

Supermassive black holes form when stars collapse in on themselves at the end of their life cycles. On average, they're millions of times more massive than the sun.

Scientists struggled for decades to capture one on camera, because black holes are so massive and spin so quickly that they distort space-time, ensuring that nothing can break free from their gravitational pull. Because even light can't escape, these forces create a unique shadow in the form of a perfect circle at the black hole's center.

The outer border of that center is known as the black hole's event horizon, or "point of no return."

But in April, a group of scientists from the international Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration released the first-ever photograph of a supermassive black hole to the public. Though the image was fuzzy, it showed that, as predicted, black holes look like dark spheres surrounded by a glowing ring of light.

"As a cloud of gas gets closer to the black hole, they speed up and heat up," Josephine Peters, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford, previously told Business Insider. "It glows brighter the faster and hotter it gets. Eventually, the gas cloud gets close enough that the pull of the black hole stretches it into a thin arc."

The unprecedented photo shows the supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy, which is about 54 million light-years away from Earth. The black hole's mass is equivalent to 6.5 billion suns. 

On April 10, 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope team released the first image ever made of a black hole. Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration/Maunakea Observatories via AP

To capture the image, astronomers relied on years of data from eight telescopes synced up across the globe. So the image is a reconstructed view, not a photograph.

"It feels like looking at the gates of hell, at the end of space and time," Heino Falcke, an Event Horizon Telescope collaborator, said when the photo was published.

The EHT team's next target is likely Sagittarius A*, the black hole in the center of our own galaxy.

We simulated what it might look like to hang out near a black hole

Since the April EHT image was so blurry, NASA scientists created a visualization of what a black hole might look like close-up and in action. 

The animation shows how gravity surrounding the black hole would twist light from the orbiting cloud of gas, dust, dead stars, and other space detritus (called the accretion disk). That would appear as a rainbow of fire bending around a dark abyss.

The black hole would change in appearance depending on how you looked at it. A side view, like the one below, would show the accretion disk slithering around the event horizon.

An illustration of a black hole as seen from the side. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman

The disk would appear brighter on one side than the other because M87's black hole is likely spinning, which also spins the cloud of dust and gas orbiting it. So the material moving towards our eyes would seem brighter than the material moving away — a bit like the beacon of a lighthouse.

If you were to look at the black hole from above or below, however, the accretion disk would form a near-perfect circle and the light would appear more evenly distributed.

According to Thorne, the reason the black hole in "Interstellar" doesn't match the M87 black hole image is that Nolan elected to omit that brightening and dimming phenomenon.

Thorne told Gizmodo that "the human eye would likely not be able to discern the brightness differences on the two sides of the hole when the overall brightness is so extreme." That's why the film's black hole appears to have same brightness all the way around.

The depiction of a black hole seen in the movie "Interstellar." Paramount Pictures

Scientists confirmed that there's a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

Supermassive black holes are common in the universe — they've been found at the center of almost every galaxy scientists have examined. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is 25,000 light-years away and 4 million times as heavy as our sun.

Sagittarius A*'s accretion disk is about 100 million miles wide, or a little wider than the distance between Earth and the sun.

In October 2018, astronomers revealed that they'd observed Sagittarius A* sucking in blobs of hot gas at 30% of the speed of light — 201 million mph. That triggered three powerful bursts of radiation that were detected by telescopes on Earth.

The center of the Milky Way galaxy, imaged by the Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared cameras, October 9, 2019. NASA, JPL-Caltech, Susan Stolovy (SSC/Caltech) et al.

At the time, the study authors said the flares "provide long-awaited confirmation that the object in the center of our galaxy is, as has long been assumed, a supermassive black hole."

Josephine Peters, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford who wasn't involved in the study, previously told Business Insider that the observations followed material "as close as you can get to a black hole without being consumed by it." 

But Peters added that Sagittarius A* "is still incredibly mysterious." 

The more scientists learn about black holes like Sagittarius A*, the better directors like Nolan can depict them in Hollywood blockbusters.

Original author: Aylin Woodward