Turn your Roomba's trip around the house into a playable 'Doom' map

Once your Roomba is done tidying the house, you can clean up your enemies in hell.

Game programmer and designer Rich Whitehouse released a script on Christmas Eve which allows you to convert the robotic vacuum's trip around your home into a playable Doom map.

SEE ALSO: The creator of 'Doom' is releasing nine new levels for free in 2019

Naturally, the script is called Doomba, which works with Whitehouse's Noesis software that allows developers to convert models and animations to various formats.

Created to coincide with the classic video game's 25th anniversary, the script allows you to track your Roomba (or other untested robot vacuum models) as it creates its own map in its journey. Once you're done tracking, you can convert the journey into a Doom-compatible map. Read more...

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Generate your Apple Music 'year in review' with this app

If you're an Apple Music subscriber and feel left out by the plethora of Spotify Wrapped 'year in review' posts, there's a workaround for you.

You can use an app called Music Year In Review, developed by music social network NoiseHub, which puts together a snapshot of your listening habits this year, as spotted by TechCrunch.

SEE ALSO: Apple Music on Amazon Echo review: Not as good as HomePod, but good enough

Unlike Wrapped, which compiles your top 100 Spotify songs of the year in a playlist, calculates how many total minutes you streamed, and collates the number of new artists you discovered, the Apple Music workaround is undeniably simpler. Read more...

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Daughters hide precious voicemail in Christmas teddy bear for their dad

Some Christmas gifts will bring you to tears.

Especially this teddy bear given by two daughters to their father. By pressing a button on the bear, a very special voicemail from their late grandmother plays.

SEE ALSO: 5 Danish holiday traditions to make Christmas last a whole month

North Carolina-based Twitter user Melia, who goes by @meliatinnin, said her dad had kept the treasured voicemail on his phone, but his daughters found a different way to preserve it.

"My dad refuses to get an iphone because a voicemail from his mom that passed away won’t transfer from an android," she tweeted, "so me and my sister put it in a bear. merry christmas dad." Read more...

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Even Macaulay Culkin didn't know the gangster movie in 'Home Alone' is fake

It's the end of the year, but it isn't too late to learn something new before 2019! 

Seth Rogen — and a number of Twitter users — didn't know that the old movie Kevin McCallister watches in Home Alone isn't a real movie. In a tweet, Rogen said he believed Angels With Filthy Souls was an actual movie his "entire childhood." 

And Macaulay Culkin, who plays Kevin in the film, did too! 

Me too! https://t.co/Y24cIHLNlM

— Macaulay Culkin (@IncredibleCulk) December 26, 2018

SEE ALSO: Macaulay Culkin is home alone again in the new Google Assistant ad

In fact, the movie-within-a-movie is a parody of old gangster films like the 1938 film Angels With Dirty Faces. The fake film is the source of one of the most iconic holiday phrases in pop culture: "Keep the change, ya filthy animal."  Read more...

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Apple's iPhone XR is winning over Android users: report

Apple may be experiencing a slump in demand for its latest iPhone models, but it is winning over one very interesting group of smartphone owners: Android users.

The lower-priced iPhone XR, the latest in Apple’s current generation of iPhones, has been wooing more Android users to make the switch than previous models. A new report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that users upgrading from an Android phone made up 16 percent of iPhone buyers in the month after the launch of the iPhone XR in October 2018.

After the launch of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in September 2017, 12 percent who upgraded to Apple’s phones were Android users. Following the launch of the iPhone X in November of that year, those purchasing phones powered by Google's mobile operating system had made up 11 percent of iPhone buyers.  Read more...

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'Gears of War' creator is heading to Broadway with 'Hadestown'

Cliff Bleszinksi, the creator of action video game series Gears of War, is helping to bring a musical called Hadestown to Broadway.

Yes, that is a weird collection of words, and it honestly might sound like it's made up, but it's real, we promise.

NEWS!

I'm officially co-producing this show.

That's my next gig!

(Crazy, eh?!)

It's on Spotify, give it a go. It's fantastic! https://t.co/Ew7Tr1QsHA

— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) December 26, 2018

SEE ALSO: Kanye West called out on Twitter for being on his phone during Broadway performance

Hadestown, a musical that's based on the folk opera concept album of the same name by Anaïs Mitchell, is a reimagining of the classic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus travels to Hades to see his dead wife EurydiceHadestown is set in depression-era New York City instead of ancient Greece, and also interweaves the story of Persephone and Hades. Read more...

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Amazon breaks holiday sales record again, aided by Alexa voice purchases

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you're Amazon.

In a press release Wednesday, the e-commerce giant announced its strongest holiday season in the company's history. According to Amazon, more items were ordered from the company during this year’s holiday shopping season than ever before.

Amazon said in the U.S., more than one billion items were shipped by the company for free through its Amazon Prime service. The company also said that tens of million people started an Amazon Prime trial or subscription this holiday season in order to take full advantage of the free, fast, and last minute shipping options. The final Prime Now delivery before December 25 was on Christmas Eve at 11:30pm in Berkeley, Calif. Read more...

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Want a Tesla? Buy it before the $7,500 tax credit gets cut in half

Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be the first to remind you that time is running out if you want a federal tax credit on a new Tesla vehicle.

After Dec. 31, a $7,500 tax credit on Tesla's all-electric vehicles will start shrinking. Next year, Tesla buyers can still apply for a tax credit, but it will only be half of the $7,500 awarded this year. The credit drops to again to $1,875 in the second half of 2019.

Tesla reached the threshold of 200,000 electric vehicles sold in July, which triggered the phase-out period of the tax credit. All Model S, Model X, and Model 3 vehicles delivered before Dec. 31 will receive the original tax incentive. Other electric car companies will continue to offer the full tax credit into 2019 until they hit the cap. Read more...

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Samsung made a phone case with ears to help you make ASMR videos

Whether you were into squishing foam or cutting soap, the strangely soothing sounds of ASMR video definitely had a moment in 2018. 

Now, research from Samsung may make those videos a lot easier to create. The company is previewing a new research experiment that uses AI and a phone case shaped like human ears to make it easier to create ASMR videos with just your phone.

SEE ALSO: The correct length for a relaxing YouTube video is 8 hours

It's called the aiMo and the idea, according to Samsung, is to simulate the human ear. The combination of the case and AI is able to capture richer and more realistic sound, the company says. Read more...

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Comedian Dan Hirshon may 'look like' Bob Ross, but can he paint like him? — The Bob Ross Challenge

Comedian Dan Hirshon bravely takes on the Bob Ross Challenge.

The Bob Ross Challenge is not affiliated with The Joy of Painting or its producers. Read more...

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Fiona the Hippo celebrates her big 1,000 pound milestone

The world's most beloved hippo, Fiona, celebrated the holidays just like we do: by watching the scales closely. 

The Cincinnati Zoo's famous hippo has officially topped 1,000 pounds, up from a whopping 770-ish pounds from her Jan. 2017 premature birth weight of 29 pounds. 

Hooray! 🎉 Fiona finally broke the 1,000 pound milestone! That's a long way from the 29 pounds she weighed when she was born six weeks premature on January 24, 2017! Her #NewYearsReZOOlution: to keep growing! #teamfiona pic.twitter.com/xbXydyUcA2

— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) December 26, 2018

Fiona still has quite a ways to go: The average adult female hippo can weigh close to 3,000 pounds. But the milestone is still a pretty big deal, big enough that the zoo held a special 1K Walk in early Dec. as Fiona closed in on the big four-digit mark.  Read more...

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Finally, a New Tony Hawk Game

Read more...More about Mashable Reels, Tony Hawk Game, Tech, Iphone, and Gaming

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This daughter's prank involving Brussels sprouts will make you love pranks again

Christmas pranks are notoriously, unabashedly corny. Every once in a while, however, a Christmas prank comes along that's so good it makes you forget that nearly all pranks are bad.

I'm a particular fan of Twitter user Judy Brown's Christmas prank, which involves two of the most disgusting foods on earth: Ferrero Rocher chocolates (sorry) and Brussels sprouts (which are only good when roasted or fried).

Two years ago, as part of a Christmas prank, Brown switched out a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, a favorite of her father's, for a Brussels sprout.

Some of you out there may recall that in 2016 I played an excellent Christmas prank on my long-suffering Dad. It worked a treatpic.twitter.com/srfaVgLF2J

— Judy Brown (@mcjude) December 25, 2018 Read more...

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Google's Android TV now has tens of millions of users and could soon have even more

Google's ongoing battle with Apple, Roku, and Amazon for your TV set is heating up.

Android TV, which is the search giant’s set-top box and smart TV platform, is currently used by more than tens of millions of consumers, according to the company. This is different from Google's Chromecast streaming device, which simply allows users to cast media from their smartphone to their TV set. Android TV is a full-fledged operating system that allows users to download apps and use other Google-powered services on their televisions.

SEE ALSO: Apple TV 4K is the most essential product Apple makes

The made-for-TV operating system is being utilized by more than 100 global pay TV operators, according to Google’s senior director of project management for Android TV, Shalini Govil-Pai. Speaking to Multichannel News, he said that half of Android TV users are streaming on devices made by companies that partner with Google.  Read more...

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It's fine that the 'Us' trailer doesn't tell us much, or anything

On the first day of Christmas, Jordan Peele gave to the world the highly anticipated trailer for Us, his next horror film after the smash success of 2017's Get Out. 

On the second day of Christmas, a lot of people on the internet gave to us...a lot of hot takes on what the trailer revealed about the plot, the significance of the music used, what hints as to the movie's inevitable big twist might be, and more. 

SEE ALSO: Jordan Peele returns with the terrifying first trailer for 'Us'

The thing about everyone going into detective mode on the Us trailer is that the trailer is intentionally vague, much more so than the first trailer for Get Out was. Analyzing it to pieces is antithetical to the point of the trailer — like Get Out, its twists and message are going to be better delivered in the film. Read more...

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See two 'Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge' rides in action in Disney's latest trailer

Disney's blockbuster new Star Wars theme park attractions will be opening up in 2019, but you can sample two of them right now in this Christmas gift of a trailer.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run looks like a next-gen take on the classic Disney ride, Star Tours. Attendees apparently take control of different crew positions, depending on where they're sitting in the ride's mock-up of Han Solo's ship.

That's how it's been pitched, anyway. The few seconds we see in this trailer suggests a somewhat looser experience. Riders sit in an elongated version of the Falcon's cockpit, but the interactivity is seemingly limited to smacking button-laden panels set into each wall. Read more...

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This hoverboarding priest is a Christmas gift to all

Priests do a little too much walking and not nearly enough hoverboarding nowadays. Thankfully, we have some priests who are willing to stand up for what's hip and correct the trend.

Twitter user Vynnlo's local priest recently hoverboarded into his Christmas Eve service, bringing peace and joy to everyone who watched the subsequent viral video.

SEE ALSO: 'The Office' Christmas Episodes, Ranked

This isn't the first time this priest has introduced cool teen technology to his service.

two years ago he did magic tricks and the year after he brought out a lightsaber (i don’t have a vid of the magic trick 😔) pic.twitter.com/eu1X5zx0u7

— jerusalynn (@vynnlo) December 26, 2018 Read more...

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