After a blockbuster year delivering a significant improvement in profitability, investor expectations were high for Amazon‘s fourth quarter results. But the online retailer failed to meet consensus estimates for both the top and bottom line. Amazon’s net sales grew about 22% year-over-year (y-o-y) to $35.7 billion in Q4 2015, compared to Reuters’ compiled analyst expectations of $35.9 billion. Its net income more than doubled y-o-y to $482 million or $1.00 per share, but it still missed consensus estimates of $1.56 a share. 

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Alphabet is set to release Google’s Q4 2015 earnings on Monday, February 1st. In Q3, the company reported that its revenues grew by over 13% year over year to $18.7 billion. However, cost-per-click, which has been declining for the past two years, continued to negatively impact growth. This decline has been largely due to the advent of smart phones that enable users to search for content through locally installed apps. As a result, advertisers are allocating less ad dollars for mobile search. Nevertheless, Google’s management continues to look for ways to improve its mobile revenues, and has recently introduced deep links for mobile apps to surface mobile content during search. Additionally, it is focusing on improving its revenues from YouTube’s video display ads and its programmatic ad platform. Therefore, in this earnings announcement, we expect the programmatic platform to once again drive revenue growth across its mobile and PC search and display ads divisions. And we expect greater clarity on nomenclature, as parent and holding-company Alphabet discusses the performance of both Google and is smaller, sister businesses.

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When we look back on 2016, we may very well see it as the jumping-off point for policies and practices that define higher education in the digital era. Here are four predictions to watch for in the coming year.

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If you or a loved one is partial to a cozy evening of “Netflix and chill”–a term that’s grown hugely popular on social media for describing a low-key rendezvous that uses streaming media as a backdrop (and/or pretense)–then the hosts of one carefully tailored Airbnb property might have just the rental for your next night in.

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Video games contributor Todd Kenreck interviews Alex Evans, Media Molecule co-founder and technical director a on PlayStation 4’s Dreams, a game that lets you sculpt your own character and your own world. His studio’s Little Big Planet was one of the most innovative games in years, Media Molecule push character and game creation much, much further is a very exciting prospect.

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PlayStation 4 has a massive user base to draw from for multiplayer matches unlike any other platform which could leave Eve Valkyrie on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in the dust.

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What constraints to AI and machine learning algorithms are needed to prevent AI from becoming a dystopian threat to humanity? This question was originally answered on Quora by David Brin.

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After a mad scramble to get beta access at the last minute, I slid into The Division’s PS4 test just in the nick of time. I was certainly not going to miss what would be my first experience with one of the biggest games of the winter (possibly the year) and a competitor to Destiny, the game I probably play and write about more than any other.

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