The holiday season is in full swing, and Microsoft has rolled out its "12 Days of Faves" sale to give last-minute shoppers a way to save on the latest Xbox and Windows tech until December 22.

The Surface deals

The Windows laptop and accessories deals

The Xbox deals

Microsoft rarely discounts its hardware, so it's surprising to see gadgets like the Surface Pro 6 available for up to $200 off. Although these deals are primarily focused around hardware that Microsoft makes, you can save on PC laptops from other companies, like Dell's Inspirion 15. All laptops come with a $20 discount on a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365, a software suite that includes popular apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

If you need help deciding between the two Xboxes, both consoles can play the same library of games, but the Xbox One X is more powerful, so it can play them at 4K instead of 1080P. Microsoft has bundled both the Xbox One S and Xbox One X with a game, so whoever you gift it to can start playing the minute they take the console out of the box.

The company has also cut the price of its limited edition Playerunknown's Battlegrounds Xbox One controller, which is a great gift for gamers who want a little extra flare.

The "12 Days of Faves" may last until December 22, but you might want to place your order sooner rather than later. Microsoft's free shipping takes three to seven days to arrive, which is cutting it close if you're ordering any of these gadgets as a gift. You can pay between $4.99 and $16.99 for faster shipping, or choose the "pick up at store" option if you live near a Microsoft store that has these items in stock.

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out all of Insider Picks' holiday gift guides for 2018 here.

A notable design element of Apple's iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max phones is what most people call "the notch."

It's a cutout on the top of the phone's screen so that Apple can pack in the advanced cameras necessary for the FaceID facial recognition security without adding bezels around the phone's edges.

But in much of Apple's recent marketing, the notch blends into the screen because Apple displays a black background in many of the promotional images and on the front page of its website.

Now, someone is saying that those images are misleading — and she's suing over it.

In a complaint filed Friday in the Northern District of California, Courtney Davis' lawyers accused Apple of designing its advertising to obscure the notch, leading Davis to believe that the iPhone XS Max she preordered wouldn't actually come with a notch.

"Images that disguise the missing pixels on the Products' screens are prominent on Defendant's website, as well as in the advertisements of retailers who sell the products," the complaint said. "These images were relied on by Plaintiff DAVIS, who believed that the iPhone XS and XS Max would not have a notch at the top of the phone."

There are other matters cited in the complaint, including a claim Apple shouldn't count pixels on the corners of the device in its advertising, because they are rounded off.

The lawsuit is seeking class-action status, as well as damages from Apple. It may be years before there's any substantial developments one way or the other, given how long class-action lawsuits usually take to progress. Indeed, there's no guarantee that this will ever come to court at all.

But Friday's complaint is the first time that the marketing images related to the latest premium iPhones — starting at $1000 — are being closely scrutinized in a legal sense. When the marketing images were leaked in August, many tech commentators said the black background effectively hid the notch from being readily apparent.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The entire complaint is embedded below:

"Pokémon Go" is 2 1/2 years old, but it's still going strong — the game raked in $73 million in October alone, according to estimates, and just this week launched a long-awaited competitive-battling mode.

Now it appears that Niantic, the game's developer and a Google spinoff, is leveling up with a new $200 million funding round valuing the company at $3.9 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. The round is reportedly led by Silicon Valley investment firm IVP, with participation from Samsung and eSports investor aXiomatic Gaming. The Inquirer previously reported that Samsung's share of the round was $40 million.

The hefty funding round shows that investors are optimistic about Niantic. A year ago, the company was valued at $2.7 billion, making this a significant up round. Previous investors in Niantic include Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Google, and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.

There are some obvious reasons for this excitement: Even as "Pokémon Go" continues to outperform, Niantic is slated to release "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," a seemingly surefire hit, next year. The Wall Street Journal reported that Niantic is also in talks to develop more games based on licensed intellectual property.

However, beyond its bright future as a game studio, this investment would seem to have everything to do with Niantic emerging as a maker of software for programs. Earlier this year, Niantic previewed the Real World Platform, software that it intends to license out to developers to make their own GPS-based augmented-reality games.

Niantic's "Pokémon Go" got players to walk around in search of virtual monsters. Now it plans to license the tech to other developers. AP Photo/Nati Harnik

For Niantic, the Real World Platform appears to be the long-term play. Gaming is a hit-driven business; "Pokémon Go" revenues could evaporate tomorrow if another huge title came along. But history has shown that there's a durable business to be built in licensing out the foundational software to help others make games.

If you want an example, look no further than Epic Games, the creator of the international phenomenon that is "Fortnite." Beyond its video-game business, Epic has long offered the Unreal Engine, a wildly successful video-game engine that it licenses to other developers for free, taking a cut of their revenues in exchange.

While Epic doesn't break out how much revenue the Unreal Engine brings in, its sheer popularity in the gaming industry — smash hit "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is an Unreal Engine game, as is this year's "Dragon Ball FighterZ" — likely means that it's doing just fine. Earlier this year, Epic raised funding valuing it at $15 billion.

Niantic's big bet is that the Real World Platform will become a similarly foundational cornerstone in AR, which is the technology for overlaying digital imagery over the real world. Companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook all see AR as a major new phase in computing, and there's clearly at least the opportunity for Niantic to play a major role in the gaming industry yet to come.

Samsung announced that it's partnered with Niantic to build the Real World Platform, which could bring better augmented reality to its phones and other devices. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

This, too, is where Samsung comes in. In November, Samsung announced that it is collaborating with Niantic to further develop the Real World Platform, with this investment representing a deepening of that partnership. This alliance makes some sense, as Samsung has touted AR-related features as a selling point for its latest Galaxy S9 smartphones. With Niantic on its side, Samsung hopes to outdo rivals like Apple at AR technology.

Altogether, a picture begins to emerge about why Niantic seems to be in such demand. It has solid-gold gaming hits today that are delivering real revenue, a pipeline of successful games yet to come, and, perhaps most importantly, an actionable plan for generating a business that goes beyond appealing to fickle consumers. Oh, and Niantic hasn't even yet launched in China, which is the biggest smartphone gaming market in the world.

Of course, this all hinges on the expected bull market for AR technology to actually materialize. As we've seen with virtual reality, a sister technology to AR, consumer uptake of these platforms can be extremely slow. If Niantic's bet is correct, it stands to benefit — but, at least, if it's wrong, it still has "Pokémon" and "Harry Potter."

The instructions themselves are incredibly polished and well made, with many of them featuring adorable computer animations. It feels like Dbrand went the extra mile for customers.

Amazon's highly publicized hunt for the site of its new headquarters, known as HQ2, was a brilliant strategy.

The contest resulted in cities warring for Amazon's favor with offers of billions of dollars in tax breaks and other generous promises.

It has also given Amazon something that's potentially far more valuable than any subsidies it may have gleaned: a trove of data.

"Amazon has a godlike view of what's happening in digital commerce, and now cities have helped give it an inside look at what's happening in terms of land use and development across the US," said Stacy Mitchell, a director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a think tank based in Washington, DC. "Amazon will put that data to prodigious use in the coming years to expand its empire."

Amazon received proposals from 238 cities vying to be chosen as the home of its second headquarters.

The company then selected 20 finalists, and sent those cities a 29-page request for additional data.

New York City's 235-page response to that second reqeust was obtained and published by The New York Times on Friday. It contained detailed information — some of it not publicly available — on the city's work force, education systems, optimal sites for development, and current and future land use and development projects.

While the information in many of those proposals is sealed from the public or otherwise heavily redacted, it's safe to assume that most contain similar details.

Amazon could use this data to aid in future expansion as it selects sites for new stores, warehouses, data centers, fulfillment centers, and other brick-and-mortar needs.

Read more: Amazon is breaking a central promise of HQ2 by reportedly placing it in 2 different cities

In some cases, the bids could help Amazon get a leg up over its competitors, because the data they contain might not be publicly available.

"This is an incredibly valuable trove of data that 238 cities spent time compiling and submitting to Amazon," Mitchell said. "At the end of the day, it may well be that the data is the most valuable thing that Amazon has gotten out of this."

Tesla employees at the company's solar panel factory in Buffalo will hold a union organizing drive, the United Steelworkers (USW) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said on Thursday in a press release.

The unionization effort will involve production and maintenance employees, according to the USW and IBEW, which said Tesla employees contacted them about organizing.

The USW said in June 2017 that it was attempting to organize the Buffalo factory.

"Tesla greatly values its employees and the direct relationship it has with them at our Buffalo facility. We offer wages and benefits that exceed those of other comparable manufacturing jobs in the region, and we recently increased our base pay even further," a Tesla representative said in a statement to Business Insider.

"Ultimately, it's up to our employees to decide if they want to be unionized. While we will never please everyone outside of Tesla, we have an unwavering commitment to providing a great workplace for our employees."

Read more: 70-hour weeks and 'WTF' emails: 42 employees reveal the frenzy of working at Tesla under the 'cult' of Elon Musk

"I wanted to work at Tesla because I wanted a job in green energy, a job that can change the world," Rob Walsh, a Tesla employee and member of the factory's organizing committee, said in the press release. "But I also want a fair wage for my work."

USW had represented workers at the Buffalo factory when it was operated by Republic Steel. Tesla took over the factory, which it operates with Panasonic, in 2016, when it bought the solar panel installation company SolarCity, which had been using the factory before the acquisition. Production at the factory has faced delays, though Tesla says it plans to ramp up production in the first half of 2019.

Some employees at Tesla's auto plant in Fremont, California, have also attempted to unionize in the midst of reports from Reveal that Tesla has misreported workplace injuries, avoided using safety markings for aesthetic reasons, and failed to give injured employees proper medical treatment.

Tesla has denied that it has misreported workplace injuries and failed to use safety markings for aesthetic reasons. The company did not respond to requests for comment on the allegation that it failed to give injured employees proper medical treatment.

The National Labor Relations Board is investigating claims that Tesla has violated federal labor laws by interfering with union-organizing activities, retaliating against employees who supported a union, and using an overly broad confidentiality policy.

Tesla has denied those allegations.

You can read Tesla's full statement below:

Tesla greatly values its employees and the direct relationship it has with them at our Buffalo facility. We offer wages and benefits that exceed those of other comparable manufacturing jobs in the region, and we recently increased our base pay even further. In addition, unlike other manufacturers, every single employee is an owner of Tesla, as everyone receives stock upon hire and for good performance, which results in significantly more compensation beyond our already high wages.

Other factories are shutting down in the US and we still have a long way to go to make Gigafactory 2 financially sustainable. Nevertheless, we continue to do everything we can to keep exceeding our commitments to jobs and business in Buffalo.

Today's demonstration consisted almost entirely of groups outside of Tesla, not Tesla employees. And ultimately, it's up to our employees to decide if they want to be unionized. While we will never please everyone outside of Tesla, we have an unwavering commitment to providing a great workplace for our employees. That's what matters.

Facebook has killed off its Building 8 skunkworks lab following a significant reshuffle of its experimental-projects and hardware units.

The super-secretive organization was inspired by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and billed itself as a unit dedicated to building "new, category-defining consumer hardware products." In its buzzy heyday, it worked on far-out projects like brain-scanning tech and skin sensors. It was a moonshot factory, in other words, in the same vein as Google's X.

But things have now changed. Some of its most experimental projects have been shunted over to a new division, Facebook Reality Labs, and its hardware segment has been rebranded as Portal following the launch of Facebook's home video-chat device.

The Building 8 brand, meanwhile, has quietly been killed off completely, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Building 8 in 2016. He billed it as a bold bet on hardware for Facebook, which has never managed to parlay its success in the software space into physical consumer goods like Apple and Google. It was led by Regina Dugan, a former DARPA director and Google exec, who left Facebook in January after less than two years at the company.

"I'm excited to announce that we've started a new group at Facebook called Building 8 focused on building new hardware products to advance our mission of connecting the world," Zuckerberg wrote in a post when it launched.

"We'll be investing hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into this effort over the next few years. I'm excited to see breakthroughs on our 10 year roadmap in augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, connectivity and other important areas."

In October, those ambitions finally came to fruition with the launch of Portal, a touch-screen video-chat device that lets users them call their friends and consume media using Facebook's software.

With the launch, Building 8's executives and hardware-focused teams transferred to a newly formed Portal team — and Building 8 was shuttered, a previously unreported development.

Rafa Camargo, who was made the head of Building 8 when Dugan left, was appointed VP of Portal when it officially launched. Head of product Itai Vonshak, director of marketing Nick Fell, and head of device software Viresh Rustagi also all made the shift.

Some employees still advertise themselves on LinkedIn as working for Building 8, and there are still some open job advertisements for positions at Building 8 — but this is because they haven't been updated yet, a spokesperson said.

Other signs of the unit's newness abound. Building 8's official Careers page on Facebook's website has been killed — but Portal's jobs page uses all its old photos.

The Facebook Careers page for Building 8 has vanished — but Portal's page uses the same photos. Business Insider

Any other unannounced hardware projects being developed by Facebook now live under the Portal organization — excluding virtual or augmented reality efforts that would be part of Oculus, the company's AR/VR unit.

With Building 8's dissolution, its more experimental efforts have been spun out into another new group: Facebook Reality Labs.

Facebook Reality Labs was formed in May, prior to the launch of Portal, though at the time it was viewed as a rebranded Oculus Labs (Facebook's earlier AR/VR research efforts). It now holds tentpole Building 8 projects like the brain-computer interface team, which attempts to build computers that can meld with human minds. It's being led by Michael Abrash, a game-industry veteran and legendary programmer.

The haptics team, which is working on tech to help people "hear" through their skin, has also been transferred, according to its members' LinkedIn profiles, and healthcare projects that were once part of Building 8 have also been moved out.

Some of Facebook's other experimental research, like its work on biologically inspired "soft robotics," is also part of Facebook Reality Labs.

Facebook says it is still working on many of the same projects, albeit with a different structure. In an email, Facebook spokesperson Lisa Auslen said: "Building 8 was the early name of the team building consumer hardware at Facebook. Building 8 is part of Facebook's AR/VR organization. Now that we're shipping, it's the Portal team. And Rafa Camargo is still leading the team; that has not changed."

"We also unified research looking at longer terms projects under one team, which became Facebook Reality Labs, which is also part of our AR/VR organization. This includes research projects like the Brain Computer Interface." She said that the restructuring did not entail any layoffs.

Zuckerberg's vision may still be in place — but the reshuffle means it's playing out in a very different way.

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp 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.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

As cities and states battled to win Amazon's second headquarters, they provided the e-commerce giant with an overwhelming amount of data.

On Friday, it became clear just how much information Amazon wanted. On Monday, New York City posted its 253-page HQ2 proposal online. The city quickly took down the extensive proposal, but The New York Times downloaded the document before its removal and published it in full on Friday.

Read more: New York finally revealed the HQ2 rendering that helped it win Amazon over to Long Island City

"After Amazon announced its shortlist in January, it gave cities a 29-page request for information that required far more precision and was more about practicalities than flash," The Times reported.

Amazon's questions, as seen in the proposal, are truly far-reaching. And, New York City willingly provided the information.

"Specify the cost of a basket of goods in your community," one section said. "The basket is from Whole Foods: gallon of 2% milk, loaf of whole wheat bread, and an avocado. Also, the cost of Starbucks tall coffee, movie ticket, monthly gym membership (individual) at a YMCA (if U.S.), dry cleaning of a shirt, and a gallon of gas."

New York City dutifully answered the questions — an avocado costs $1.25 whether purchased in Midtown West or in Long Island City, Queens, though you can get a slightly better deal on movie tickets at AMC in Manhattan than UA Kaufman in Queens ($16.29 versus $16.40).

The depth of the data requested by Amazon is especially interesting because the company likely collected similarly extensive information on all of its 20 HQ2 finalists. This trove of data could be valuable for the company moving forward.

"Amazon has a godlike view of what's happening in digital commerce, and now cities have helped give it an inside look at what's happening in terms of land use and development across the US," Stacy Mitchell, a director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a think tank based in Washington, DC, told Business Insider's Hayley Peterson in November.

"Amazon will put that data to prodigious use in the coming years to expand its empire," she said.

The world is witnessing a massive boom in skyscraper construction, led by nations like China, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. This year alone, China built more skyscrapers than at any other time in history.

Amid growing competition for the tallest and most innovative towers, one high-rise in South Korea managed to surpass all others.

Read more: Stunning photos of the 10 best skyscrapers in the world

Earlier this week, the Lotte World Tower in Seoul received the Emporis Skyscraper Award, the world's most renowned prize for high-rise architecture.

The tower's sleek design pales in comparison to its record-shattering features, which include the world's highest glass-bottomed observation deck and the world's fastest elevator.

Take a look at how it was built — and what it looks like now.

Tesla has lowered the price of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV in China after the country temporarily lowered some tariffs on cars imported from the US, a Tesla representative confirmed to Business Insider.

For Chinese customers, the Model S starts at around $107,000, while the Model X starts at around $115,000, according to Tesla's Chinese website. For US customers, the Model S starts at $78,000 and the Model X starts at $84,000.

The Chinese government will temporarily remove 25% tariffs on 144 US vehicle and auto parts and 5% tariffs on 67 auto-related items between January 1 and March 31, Reuters reports. China has also reportedly decided to lower tariffs on some cars and auto parts from 40% to 15%.

Have a Tesla news tip? Contact this reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The "League of Legends" developer Riot Games has acknowledged Chief Operating Officer Scott Gelb's role in upholding a culture of toxic masculinity that has made the company the target of a gender-discrimination lawsuit.

Reports of Riot's "bro culture" first surfaced in late August, detailing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and gender discrimination in the workplace. Gelb specifically has been accused of repeatedly farting on employees, humping them, and hitting their testicles as a part of what was described as a running workplace gag.

Following the allegations that it fostered a work environment unwelcoming to women, Riot apologized and pledged to conduct an internal review and make necessary changes to its culture.

Now, more than three months into its 16-month "cultural transformation timeline," Riot has informed employees that Gelb will be suspended without pay for his behavior and undergo training before returning to the company in two months, Kotaku reported on Thursday.

Riot, whose extremely popular "League of Legends" is the most watched esport, has 2,500 employees, 80% of whom are men, according to Kotaku. Riot is a subsidiary of Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate and world's largest video-game publisher.

In an internal email first obtained by Kotaku and later published in full by Variety, Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent said the decision to suspend but ultimately retain Gelb was made following a joint investigation by a board-of-directors committee and the law firm Seyfarth Shaw.

Riot said in a statement: "After carefully reviewing and considering the findings, the Special Committee of Riot's Board of Directors determined that a two-month, unpaid leave of absence, along with training, was the appropriate action given the allegations that were substantiated. We can also confirm that many of the rumors circulating about Scott within the company, the media, and other channels were actually not true."

The email and statement don't specify what Riot found to be false or the behavior Gelb was suspended for, though it was generally described as inappropriate, unprofessional, and unacceptable.

Read more: The company behind one of the biggest video games in the world was just slammed with a lawsuit alleging its 'bro-culture' created a sexist workplace where women were rated on their 'hotness,' told that 'no doesn't necessarily mean no,' and shown unsolicited photos of male genitalia

Laurent asked Riot employees to join him in uplifting Gelb as a leader upon his return, commending his fellow executive's choice to seek "redemption" rather than leave the company. He said Gelb would "help make Riot a more diverse and inclusive organization."

"Scott could have avoided owning his past and his consequences," Laurent said in the email. "He could have left Riot. Scott chose ownership and redemption. I will root for him, will support him through this journey, and will leverage him as a great leader when he returns next year. I hope you will join me."

Kotaku said it spoke to several current Riot employees who were frustrated with the company's decision to retain Gelb. One person likened the two-month suspension as "a tiny slap on the wrist" and described the decision to keep Gelb as disrespectful to employees affected by his behavior.

In its August apology, Riot said it was willing to remove employees and make large-scale changes as part of its internal investigation.

"No one and nothing is sacred," the company's blog post said. "We are prepared to make big changes and have begun taking action against specific cases, including removal of Rioters, though we aren't likely to get into those details publicly on a case-by-case basis for legal and privacy reasons."

Laurent said in the email that Riot remained committed to protecting employees during the investigation but that Gelb's case was an exception because of his high-visibility role within the company.

The company is also facing a legal challenge from a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit filed in November by two female Riot employees, one former and one current, alleging that the company's "bro culture" negatively affected their careers.

Other Riot employees have been accused of sending unsolicited pictures of their genitals and maintaining a list of the "hottest" employees. The lawsuit also alleges that male Riot employees used the word "dick" 500 times in the workplace over a month.

Stringer/REUTERS

Tencent Music Entertainment on Tuesday priced its initial public offering at $13 per American Depository Receipt, the low end of its range, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter. Shares will debut for trading in the US on Wednesday. 

The China-based streaming-music service backed by tech giant Tencent previously said the IPO would price in the range of $13 to $15 per ADR, helping it raise about $1.2 billion. 

The IPO was initially scheduled for October 18, but the offering was postponed over fears that the brutal sell-off that wreaked havoc on markets in October and November would affect its pricing. Tencent Music was expected to have a $2 billion fundraising target, according to Reuters. 

Tencent Music operates several popular music brands in China — including QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo and WeSing — and had more than 800 million unique monthly active users in the second quarter of 2018, according to a filing.

For the year ended December 31, 2017, Tencent Music said it earned 1.32 billion Chinese yuan ($199 million) on revenue of 10.99 billion Chinese yuan ($1.66 billion).

The company also said it generated a profit of 2.11 billion Chinese yuan ($320 million) in the first half of this year, almost three times as much as its 732 million Chinese yuan profit during the same period in 2017.

For comparison, Spotify, which went public in April, said it had a net loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in 2017, on revenue of 4.09 billion euros ($5 billion). Spotify was reportedly valued at $19 billion in the private markets prior to its IPO. It is now worth about $32 billion.

Tencent Music will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TME." 

As 2018 draws to a close, Google is looking back on all the biggest questions Americans had throughout the year.

As part of its annual "Year in Search" series, the company released its list of the year's most trending search topics beginning with the words "How to," reminding us of all the things we needed help with in 2018.

Topics that made the cut were the ones that saw a spike in search traffic compared to the year before, Google said.

Questions about November's midterm elections took the top two spots on the list, reflecting the surge in voter turnout that changed the national balance of power. Other trending questions included ones about massive lottery jackpots and another about buying cryptocurrency.

Read on for the full list of the year's most trending "how-to" topics:

10. 'How to get boogie down emote'

Epic Games

If you don't know what any of the above words mean, don't be alarmed. It comes from "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the wildly popular free video game that in just over a year has generated more than $1 billion in revenue. In "Fortnite," players can unlock "emotes," or special victory dances for their characters — you've probably seen kids "flossing" at some point. The coveted "boogie down" emote was especially popular, it seems.

Read more: Fortnite — a free video game — is a billion-dollar money machine

9. 'How to screen record'

Apple doesn't include instructions on how to capture screen recordings on its products, so Internet users turned to Google for the answers. Here's our guide on how to screen record.

Read more: How to screenshot and screen record on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac

8. 'How to buy Bitcoin'

Reuters/Dado Ruvic

In January, the question on millions of Americans' minds was how to buy Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that skyrocketed to $19,843 apiece in December 2017. Unfortunately for Bitcoin investors, the momentum didn't hold, and the currency plummeted steadily throughout 2018. A year after it peaked, Bitcoin is worth a little over $3,000, and some experts fear it will never peak again.

Read more: Bitcoin unlikely to ever hit another record high, Barclays says

7. 'How to play Powerball'

In late October, four days after someone won the $1.57 billion Mega Millions jackpot, two lucky Americans won a Powerball jackpot worth $750 million. The massive prize was the fourth-largest in US history.

Read more: 2 winning tickets were sold for the $750 million Powerball jackpot. Here are the winning numbers

6. 'How to get the old Snapchat back'

Reuters

In February, Snapchat released a controversial redesign that separated users' celebrity Snapchat stories from their friends' stories. The update triggered backlash from plenty of users, including celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Chrissy Teigen. Snapchat eventually tweaked its design in May to satisfy users' biggest complaints.

Read more: Snapchat is changing its controversial redesign

5. 'How to turn off automatic updates'

Not many people like those pop-up notifications telling you it's time to update new software on your computer or phone. So it's no surprise people would flock to Google seeking how to turn those annoying updates off.

Read more: How to stop Apple from automatically downloading new software for your Mac

4. 'How to buy Ripple'

When cryptocurrency mania hit its peak at the beginning of 2018, XRP, or Ripple, was one of the biggest beneficiaries. The digital coin was worth more than $120 billion at its January apex, with only Bitcoin proving more popular. Although the diehards are still holding on, the cryptocurrency is worth just 10% of its peak value today.

Read more: Everything you need to know about Ripple and the company that created it

3. 'How to play Mega Millions'

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

With more than $1.5 billion at stake, it's no surprise Americans were Googling how to play the Mega Millions lottery. In October, the Mega Millions jackpot reached a near-record $1.54 billion, with one lucky player from South Carolina claiming the entire prize.

Read more: A single ticket holder in South Carolina won the $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot, close to the all-time record

2. 'How to register to vote'

The 2018 midterm elections prompted millions of people to search for instructions on how to register to vote. More than 800,000 people registered to vote on September's National Voter Registration Day alone, setting the stage for a heavily contested election season.

Read more: 'Thank God for Taylor Swift': Voter registration in Tennessee booms after pop star's Democratic endorsements

1. 'How to vote'

Voting booths are set up in Waterloo, Iowa.Scott Olson/Getty Images

The most trending "how-to" search of the year was "how to vote," according to Google. That comes as no surprise, as the 2018 US midterm elections dominated political headlines for much of the year. The elections saw the highest level of voter turnout in more than 100 years.

Read more: See the full House and Senate results of the 2018 midterm elections

In June, rapper XXXTentacion was shot dead in his car after leaving a motorcycle dealer in South Florida.

At the time of his death, XXXTentacion — whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy — was awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic abuse case. He faced charges of aggravated battery of his pregnant girlfriend, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering.

Onfroy rose to fame off of his 2016 single "Look at Me!" His debut studio album, "17," reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was certified gold in 2017. Onfroy's second studio album, "?," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in March.

By August, four suspects accused of killing Onfroy had been taken into custody.

On Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was interrogated by the House Judiciary Committee over a number of topics including the company's data collection and potential bias in the search results it serves up to users.

Republican House members — including Rep. Lamar Smith (TX) — didn't hold back on the topic of conservative bias.

"It will require a herculean effort by the chief executive and senior management to change the political bias now programmed into the company's culture," Smith said, citing "irrefutable" studies on the subject. "Google could well elect the next president with dire implications to our democracy."

Pichai responded: "With respect… we don't agree with the methodology [of the studies]."

Read more:Congress grills Google CEO Sundar Pichai for the first time

One person watching closely was Gabriel Weinberg, co-founder and CEO DuckDuckGo — a privacy-focused search engine company that competes with Google Search and last week, revealed a study of its own (not referenced by Rep. Smith).

The study, among other things, found that participants saw vast differences in search results when searching for the same keywords (like "gun control" or "immigration") from different locations across the country. The study controlled for other potential factors of personalization by having its participants log out of their Google accounts and search from an incognito state.

"What [our study] does reveal, or at least suggests, is that Google's collection and use of personal data, including location, which is then used to filter specific search results, is having an effect akin to the effects of a political bias," Weinberg told Business Insider on Tuesday. "That is an important nuance often missed in these discussions.
"

Essentially, Weinberg is saying that even if Google does not create its products with the intent of having a political bias, the fact that location information is used to filter results creates its own form of bias.

"If you live in this ZIP code, we're going to show you the NRA. But if you live in this other ZIP code, we're not going to show you the NRA," Weinberg says could explain the results his team discovered. "If that's what [Google's] doing, then you're putting a whole ZIP code (or whatever the location boundaries) in a filter bubble."

Screenshot

Filter bubbles occur when users get trapped in a cycle being served content that interests them most. The personalization may sound appealing, but the implications of not seeing content that contradicts one's beliefs can have major consequences.

"That's the problem with these algorithms," Weinberg said. "You make these things, you don't even realize what's going on, and then all of a sudden you're potentially influencing tens of millions of people."

A Google spokesperson denied the results of DuckDuckGo's study, saying: "This study's methodology and conclusions are flawed since they are based on the assumption that any difference in search results are based on personalization. That is simply not true. In fact, there are a number of factors that can lead to slight differences, including time and location, which this study doesn't appear to have controlled for effectively."

Weinberg said he anticipated Google's rebuttal and that is why he and his team controlled for both time and location in their research. Also, he argues the findings were far from trivial.

"On the surface level, [Google] said there were slight differences, and that is just totally different from what we saw," he explained. "We saw vast differences."

Weiberg told us that even if Google refutes DuckDuckGo's findings, he hopes it will at least inspires others — especially academics — to dig into the issue further.

"To date, no one has been really doing these studies to hold [Google] accountable," he said. "I don't think they want to acknowledge that it can have the manipulative effect that it can."

Most CEOs tend to choose their words carefully, fearing the consequences of saying anything that could be deemed controversial. For better and for worse, Elon Musk is not nearly as cautious.

The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company sometimes appears to prefer speaking his mind and dealing with the consequences later, like when he mocks his critics or opens up about his personal life. Musk's candor has endeared him to the fans and customers who find him more relatable than other famous executives, while also frustrating some analysts and investors who argue that he is temperamental and reckless.

Read more: Elon Musk says Tesla vehicles will soon be able to drive without any human input

The intense devotion and criticism Musk has provoked with both public and private statements have contributed to his status as one of the most scrutinized figures in American culture. This year, Musk's remarks have more often tended to get himself in trouble, hurting Tesla's stock price, spurring investigations from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice, and attracting lawsuits from investors. How Musk handles himself in the future will determine, in part, how effective of a leader he is as his companies move from upstarts to established players in highly competitive industries.

Below are 36 quotes that illustrate why Musk attracts so much attention.

If you ask John Blackledge, a financial analyst at Cowen Equity Research, you can't find a better bet for next year than Amazon.

The company has numerous opportunities ahead of it that could boost its revenue and swell its profits, including not just widely watched areas like its cloud-computing business, but also more obscure ones, such as its business-to-business marketplace, Blackledge said Tuesday in a new research report. What's more, its stock is significantly undervalued, he said; Blackledge's price target of $2,250 a share is 37% higher than Amazon's current price.

"Amazon has multiple levers to drive further upside," Blackledge said in his report, in which he reiterated his "outperform" rating on the company's shares. He continued: "Amazon is our best idea for 2019."

Read this:Amazon has quietly taken a big and fast-growing stake in a $7 trillion market

Blackledge is bullish on Amazon's prospects pretty much across the board. The company's overall revenue should grow at compounded annual growth rate of about 17% over the next five years, he said. He expects its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization— a widely watched measure among analysts that serves as a proxy for how much cash companies generate — to grow even faster, jumping 34% next year, 31% in 2020, and 25% on average over the next five years.

Amazon's advertising and cloud businesses are booming

Much of that growth will come from Amazon's nascent advertising business, he said. The company has collected a wealth of data on its consumers via its e-commerce site over the last 20-plus years. Other companies are eager to take advantage of that data to target Amazon's customers with ads, Blackledge said.

Amazon's ad business is on track to generate about $9 billion in revenue this year, he said. But because of that demand, it will be pulling in about $43 billion in sales by 2023, he said.

Even better for the company and its investors, it doesn't cost the company all that much to run ads, so as that business grows, so too will its cash flow and profits, he said.

The company will also benefit from Amazon Web Services, its cloud arm, Blackledge said. The growing number of companies moving their computing processes from their own data servers to cloud services such as AWS should continue to boost its sales, he said. AWS's revenue should grow by 31% on average over the next five years, he said. And because cloud services are generally less costly to operate than running an online store, Amazon's profits should boom as AWS becomes bigger, he said.

"AWS should enjoy years of secular tailwinds ... as further workloads migrate to the cloud," he said.

Don't underestimate the power of e-commerce

Many analysts have based their optimism about Amazon on AWS and its advertising business. But Blackledge has high hopes for its core e-commerce business too, even though the growth of that business has slowed of late.

On the consumer side, the company is poised to take market share away from incumbents in the apparel, grocery, and consumables sectors, he said. Amazon should also benefit as more consumers sign up for its Prime membership service, which offers free shipping and other perks. The number of US households with Prime is now 60 million, up 9% from a year ago. By contrast, the US has some 126 million total households.

About two-thirds of the US consumers who bought goods from Amazon in September were Prime members, and about 80% of Prime members buy goods from the site every month, according to Blackledge. What's more, they buy more frequently than non-members and purchase goods across more categories, he said.

"The impact of Prime and path for further penetration are perhaps under-appreciated," he said.

Amazon Business is becoming a big business

But the company has big e-commerce opportunities outside the US also, Blackledge said. Over the last five years, it opened up or made widely available its online store in India, Mexico, and Australia. The combined retail market in those countries is $1.8 trillion, giving the company plenty of room to generate new sales by taking share from traditional players.

Meanwhile, Amazon's business-to-business marketplace — where companies and organizations buy parts and other supplies from corporate vendors — is already growing rapidly. Amazon Business is on pace to have some $10 billion of goods sold through it this year, up from just $1 billion two years ago. And Amazon is quickly expanding the service; it's now available in seven countries, including Germany, France, the UK, and the US.

Amazon "is one of the few global companies capable of adding $100+ [billion] in addressable opportunity consistently by entering and scaling in massive domestic and/or [international] markets," Blackledge said.