Danny Puff

by Jason Gilbert | @YahooTechIf you check Twitter even semi-frequently, you've probably come across Rob Delaney's bulge. The L.A.-based standup comedian's Twitter avatar -- a photo of the comic on a beach, in a speedo, from his nose down to his bare thighs -- is somewhat omnipresent on the social media site, thanks to the high amount of shares his bawdy, profane and occasionally incisive tweets attract. His knack for tweeting has boosted his follower count up toward a million, and has landed him gigs on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan and several other national TV shows. Not bad for a guy who was struggling to make a living doing standup five years ago.We talked to Mr. Delaney about his rise to fame on both Twitter and in the real world; his recent, inspired takeover of the @MLB Twitter account; and why he hates Walmart so much. You can read it all below, and follow Rob on Twitter right here. When did you first hear about Twitter and what did you think about it?

I think I first heard about it in 2008, and at that point nobody had any idea of the potential. What I was hearing about it was that it was the worst of mass texts. It was introduced so that every tweet made your phone buzz, and told you that your friend Susie was having Pad Thai with her cousin Eric; and I thought if my phone ever did that, I would throw it in the garbage disposal.

So my earliest impressions of Twitter were similar to what a lot of people thought, which was that it was a mass text message board that anytime someone you were friends with farted, you would find out about it.

And as much as I enjoy my friends farts, I want to savor them, I want them to be special, you know?

A lot of people know you solely from your Twitter account. How would you introduce yourself to a reader who isn t familiar with you?

The most important three things about me are, I m a dad, a husband and a comedian. I think that s about it. I m mostly boring compared to all the garbage that you read about online. I ve always been a weirdo.

Why do you say that you ve always been a weirdo?

I ve always enjoyed silly, funny, outrageous, insane things for their entertainment value. I m addicted to laughing and making other people laugh so I spend most of my waking moments either trying to make funny things or consume them -- for better or for worse. My life has a singular focus, certainly.

If I were a woman, when I encountered sexism I d be like BRB, I m gonna go *MAKE A HUMAN* IN MY BODY LIKE A MAGICAL GOD, YOU SAD OAF.

rob delaney (@robdelaney) August 9, 2012 What were you doing before Twitter?

Standup and trying to get hired for late-night shows. I had been doing standup for some years before Twitter and -- you know, I was getting paid to do it, but not enough to live. I don t know if you ve seen Mike Birbiglia s film Sleepwalk with Me, but it s superb, and there are literally scenes where his traveling standup gigs result in a net negative, where you re paid less than it cost to get there. And I definitely had plenty of those.

I m guessing Twitter has changed that.

Yeah, very, very dramatically. I am able to now sell places out on the road, which is the greatest thing that ever happened, as far I m concerned. It s afforded me insane opportunities. As I said, I was pursuing all the classic avenues that a comedian does to make a living beforehand, but Twitter pretty much pole-vaulted me into another universe. So I m very cognizant of that.

You re sort of a poster boy for the success a comedian can have by making himself known through Twitter. Has anyone from Twitter reached out to you?

I was summoned to headquarters maybe a year-and-a-half ago and we just shot the breeze. They kinda wanted to know what I liked about it, what I didn t like. And we just sort of had a little brain-smush together, and that was fun. Any time I ve interacted with anyone who works at Twitter-- you know, they re pretty youth-savvy and interesting and interested in what I m doing and what people are doing with Twitter.

I m curious to hear what you told them you didn t like.

I told them that for my purposes, I need no bells and whistles. I am after the pure experience of what can I get in 140 characters. Twitter for me could be a white box that I put jokes in. I m very interested, of course, in how many people share my jokes or are retweeting, but that s literally the only bell I need. I need no others.

But I don t have any real standing complaints about Twitter. If I graded it as a service I might give it an A, instead of an A+; but, you know, what is perfect in this world, other than Adele s porcelain complexion and melodious voice? Not much.

When are we going to see a Rob Delaney show?

I don t know! I just wrote a pilot for the BBC. And I just gave that to them. Maybe they ll like that, maybe they won t, but it was my latest effort to make a television show. It s a sitcom about a husband and a wife and their children.

Do you have a British accent?

No, I m American in it. I m American, and my wife is Sharon Horgan, and she s Irish. But it s set in London.



You recently took over Major League Baseball s Twitter account. How did that come about?

They just asked me to! They wrote me on Twitter, Hey, can you follow us so we can DM you? And then they did, and they asked me if I wanted to do that, and I said Yeah, definitely. I had done it for Conan O Brien s show, I had taken over their Twitter, and that was really fun. They were such great sports and I do legitimately love baseball, so for me it was a blast.

If you could take over another corporate Twitter account, which one would it be?

Maybe Walmart, and not for any social activism purposes. Iif you look at the Walmart Twitter, it is the worst, most pathetically offensive thing on the Internet. They totally have people who have like ***social media degrees*** running it. They clearly have a protocol where you literally respond to every tweet that they get--except ones from me, they never respond to me.

They try to feign humanity and engage with users. First of all, if you re tweeting Walmart, you re an idiot. Really? It s like, Hey, I couldn t find Jack Reacher on Blu-Ray! So they ll write back, It s in the DVD section! Hey, what are you doing for Memorial Day?! It s like they ask a question that the answer will absolutely not matter and they ll never see it but they try to engage like they re your friend ***Corey***! To me that s on the level of, if the Nazis had invented SkyNet, that s what it would be like. To pretend that you re a human being when you re a gigantic soulless multinational. I can t off the top of my head think of anything more disgusting and offensive.

So I would love to literally tweet for them and tell the truth, and be like, We re Walmart. We re giant. We have many things for you to live a very bland and copiously overstuffed life of milquetoast unoriginality. You know what you re gonna get, so just swing on by. Don t ask us any questions because we re a friggin robot running a Twitter account." I d make it much more popular.

So you hate Walmart. Who are your favorite tweeters?

Twitter I believe was invented for Peter Serafinowicz. He s amazing. He s just virtuosic. Megan Amram: I literally dreamt last night that she and I were writing jokes, that s how great she is. The poet Patricia Lockwood is ridiculous. There s a woman in Indiana whose Twitter handle is MmeSurly. And she s not a comedian, but I gobble up her hilarious observations everyday.

Those are just a few, but I could literally go on all day with just amazing, exciting, wonderful comedians on there that I can t get enough of.

Probably the worst thing you can do to a person is leave them a voicemail.

rob delaney (@robdelaney) December 2, 2012 Folks to follow this Friday: Rob Delaney Peter Serafinowicz Megan Amram Patricia Lockwood Keply Pentland

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Fire crews in New Mexico on Saturday fought two growing wild blazes that have scorched thousands of acres, spurred evacuation calls for dozens of homes and poured smoke into the touristy state capital.

State officials said the uncontained blaze near Santa Fe had spread to 8 square miles, making it apparently the largest of several wildfires burning in the West as it placed the city under a blanket of haze. The thick smoke also covered the Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

The fire in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest is burning just 25 miles from the city, prompting the Red Cross to set up an emergency shelter at a nearby high school.

Officials asked residents in about 140 summer homes to evacuate as a crew of 340 battled the flames near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas.

Crews also cleared out campgrounds and closed trailheads in the area as they worked to prevent the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and more populated areas.

The state Department of Health warned residents in the Pecos, Santa Fe and Espanola areas to prepare for smoke and take precautions by avoiding prolonged or physical activity outdoors.

"Potentially unhealthy conditions could occur in these communities overnight and into the early morning," a statement released by health officials said.

Another New Mexico blaze, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs, had grown to about 1 square mile, state forestry officials said. Between 40 and 50 homes in the area were evacuated as around 80 crew members and a helicopter arrived to help fight the blaze.

Elsewhere in the West, fire crews worked to beat several other fires, including one in California and another in southwest Colorado.

A fire in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest in Southern California threatened power lines Saturday after prompting mandatory evacuation orders in the community of Green Valley a day earlier.

The evacuation order was lifted later Friday. Firefighters continued to work toward gaining control on the 3,600-acre fire with high heat in the forecast Saturday.

In Colorado, Mike Blakeman, a spokesman for the Rio Grande National Forest, said a fire 15 miles southwest of the small town of Creede was reported at about noon Friday and the cause of it remained under investigation. No structures have been damaged, but three homes and several outbuildings were threatened Saturday.

John Parmenter, director of Scientific Services Division at the nearby Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that the Thompson Ridge fire ignited Friday in dense territory that was scheduled for thinning in the next few years because it posed a fire hazard.

"The area that it's in is very steep terrain leading up to the Valles Caldera," he said. "It could burn a lot of forest . There's a lot of fuel in there."

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

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By Patrick Markey

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 1,000 people were killed in violence in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07, the United Nations said on Saturday, as fears mounted of a return to civil war.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in the last two months as al Qaeda and Sunni Islamist insurgents, invigorated by the Sunni-led revolt in Syria and by Sunni discontent at home, seek to revive the kind of all-out inter-communal conflict that killed tens of thousands five years ago.

"That is a sad record," Martin Kobler, the U.N. envoy in Baghdad, said in a statement. "Iraqi political leaders must act immediately to stop this intolerable bloodshed."

The renewed bloodletting reflects worsening tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and the Sunni minority, seething with resentment at their treatment since Saddam Hussein was overthrown by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 and later hanged.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday met leaders from across Iraq's sectarian divide to try to resolve the crisis. Leaders emerged smiling, but there were only initial talks that did not address fundamental Sunni discontent.

This week multiple bombings battered Shi'ite and Sunni areas of the capital Baghdad, killing nearly 100 people. Most of the 1,045 people killed in May were civilians, U.N. figures showed.

The U.N. toll is higher than a Reuters estimate of 600 deaths based on police and hospital officials. Such counts can vary depending on sourcing, while numbers often increase beyond initial estimates as wounded people die.

Al Qaeda's local wing and other Sunni armed groups are now regaining ground lost during their battle with U.S. troops who pulled out in December 2011.

At the height of Iraq's sectarian violence, when Baghdad was carved up between Sunni and Shi'ite gunmen who preyed on rival communities, the monthly death count sometimes topped 3,000.

Government officials say al Qaeda's wing, Islamic State of Iraq, and Naqshbandi rebels linked to ex-officers in Saddam's army, are now trying to provoke a Shi'ite militia reaction.

Security officials believe Shi'ite militias such as the Mehdi Army, Asaib al-Haq and Kataeb Hizballah have mostly kept out of the fray. But militia commanders say they are prepared to act.

Iraq's defense ministry on Saturday said it had captured an al Qaeda cell that was preparing to manufacture poison gases to attack Iraqi security forces but also to ship overseas for assaults in Europe and the United States.

SLIDE INTO CONFLICT

Since April, bombings and attacks have targeted Shi'ite and Sunni mosques and neighborhoods in Baghdad and other cities, as well as security forces and even moderate Sunni leaders.

Many Iraqis, especially in Baghdad, fear a return of death squads and revenge killings, with shops closing early and extra security measures in place.

"Shi'ite militant groups have largely stayed out of recent violence. If they are behind bombings of Sunni mosques, that suggests that they are being drawn into conflict," said Stephen Wicken, at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.

"That would set the conditions up for a slide into broader sectarian conflict."

Syria's war, where mostly Sunni rebels are trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad, has further frayed ties between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis. Iraqi fighters from both sects are crossing the border to fight for opposite sides in Syria.

Iraqi Shi'ite officials fear an Sunni Islamist take-over in Syria if Assad, whose Alawite sect is rooted in Shi'ite Islam, falls. Such fears reflect a broader regional rivalry between Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran and Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia.

Maliki has often upset his Sunni and ethnic Kurdish partners involved in a delicate power-sharing deal.

Soon after U.S. troops left, Iraqi authorities arrested the bodyguards of Maliki's Sunni vice-president and a year later those of the Sunni finance minister. The arrests were officially linked to terrorism cases, but they aggravated Sunni fears.

Since December, thousands of Sunnis have protested against the government in Sunni-dominated provinces such as Anbar.

An Iraqi army raid on a Sunni protest camp in the town of Hawija in April reignited violence that killed more than 700 people in that month, by a U.N. count. That had been the highest monthly toll in almost five years until it was exceeded in May.

(Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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KINGSTON, N.H. (AP) More than 100 family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.

The mourners and a few musicians filed into the white clapboarded First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam's rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in.

More than a dozen uniformed police officers from several agencies blocked off the street and guarded the church door, ensuring only friends and family were allowed into the service. Nancy Lanza grew up in New Hampshire and lived there before moving to Newtown in 1998.

Lanza's brother, James Champion, is a Kingston police officer and still lives in the town.

A lone police bagpiper played as the processional arrived and lined up outside the church to enter together. Media outlets were kept 60 yards back across the street and behind yellow tape, and mourners declined to talk to reporters.

A few people wiped their eyes as they left the church.

Friends have said Nancy Lanza loved the Red Sox and gardening and talked of a growing enthusiasm for target shooting. The rifle and two handguns Adam Lanza took into Sandy Hook were registered to her.

But they also said she never talked about her home life, keeping details about her son private. She occasionally said she was concerned about the future, but she didn't complain.

Nancy Lanza told a divorce mediator in 2009 that she didn't like to leave her son alone. People who met him described him as shy and introverted. The mediator recalled that Nancy and Peter, who had married in June 1981 in Kingston but divorced several years ago, were respectful of each other and concerned about Adam's needs. He'd switched schools several times and Nancy had tried home schooling.

The head of security for the district where Adam Lanza attended high school said Nancy Lanza often had to come to school to deal with him when he had episodes of anxiety or withdrawing from others.

The motive for her son's killing spree is still unclear. Investigators have said mother and son visited shooting ranges together, and the victims killed at the school were all shot with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle that Adam Lanza took from the house he and his mother shared. That gun and the handgun he used to shoot himself had been legally purchased by his mother.

The massacre has revived the national gun control debate and led to proposals for universal background checks on gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The Newtown massacre was the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history after the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage, which left 33 people dead.

Adam Lanza's father claimed his remains and a family spokesman said there were private arrangements, but the burial location was not made public.

A private funeral attended by about 25 people was held for Nancy Lanza in Kingston on Dec. 20.

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With the week winding down, you better get busy. Or maybe you could just look busy. Here s some help with that:

World-Changer: Just because you re wasting time doesn t mean you can t be productive. Create your own planet at planetmaker.wthr.us, an interactive site with tools for fiddling with the surface texture, atmospheric density and cloud cover, on the world of your choice. While adding rings to Mars, you can also pretend that you are learning something. Via Prosthetic Knowledge.

Add It Up: Turns out dog years are more complicated than the old multiply by seven rule, so the BBC has offered up a Dog Age Calculator. (Not enough choices on the breed menu, though.)

Best of the Worst: In other calculation news, consider The Wrongulator: The Calculator that Always Gives You The Wrong Answer! For more bad products, keep an eye on The Worst Things For Sale, which catalogs the Internet s most horrible items. Via Coudal.

Product of the Week: TV test card coasters. Via bookofjoe.

Art or Lulz? The Tumblr In Duplo examines the mysterious and liminal space that exists between how people present themselves and how the law presents them. More specifically, it juxtaposes mug shots and Facebook profile pictures. I know that sounds more like a Web stunt than an art project, but it does say liminal, so. . . . More at Hyperallergic.

Lulz or Art? Meanwile, the Tumblr Local People With Their Arms Crossed is just that. Nothing liminal about it or is there? Via Mashable.

Being Watched: Many people are paranoid about a world in which drones follow us around. But this Popular Science video introduces us to a company that hopes to serve those who want a drone to follow them around.

Listening To Cartography: For two hours and 47 minutes of pleasing instrumental music, enjoy the results of a collaboration between music site Disquiet and BLDG BLOG s Geoff Manaugh, which challenged musicians to interpret segments of a map as musical notations.

One Last Thing: Here is a link to a post about a tweet of a Vine of an Instagram of a Tumblr post of a Facebook post of a tweet.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) It's a warning as familiar as a daily prayer for Tornado Alley residents: When a twister approaches, take shelter in a basement or low-level interior room or closet, away from windows and exterior walls.

But with the powerful devastation from the May 20 twister that killed 24 and pummeled the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore still etched in their minds, many Oklahomans instead opted to flee Friday night when a violent tornado developed and headed toward the state's capital city.

It was a dangerous decision to make.

Interstates and roadways already packed with rush-hour traffic quickly became parking lots as people tried to escape the oncoming storm. Motorists were trapped in their vehicles a place emergency officials say is one of the worst to be in a tornado.

"It was chaos. People were going southbound in the northbound lanes. Everybody was running for their lives," said Terri Black, 51, a teacher's assistant in Moore.

After seeing last month's tornado also turn homes into piles of splintered rubble, Black said she decided to try and outrun the tornado when she learned her southwest Oklahoma City home was in harm's way. She quickly regretted it.

When she realized she was a sitting duck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Black turned around and found herself directly in the path of the most violent part of the storm.

"My car was actually lifted off the road and then set back down," Black said. "The trees were leaning literally to the ground. The rain was coming down horizontally in front of my car. Big blue trash cans were being tossed around like a piece of paper in the wind.

"I'll never do it again."

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said the roadways were quickly congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents.

"They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. They were essentially targets just waiting for a tornado to touch down," Randolph said. "I'm not sure why people do that sort of stuff, but it is very dangerous. It not only puts them in harm's way, but it adds to the congestion. It really is a bad idea for folks to do."

At least nine people were killed in Friday's storms, including a mother and her baby sucked out of their car as a deadly twister tore its way along a packed Interstate 40 near the town of El Reno, about 30 miles from Oklahoma City.

"We believe all the victims were in vehicles when the storm came through," Canadian County Undersheriff Chris West said Saturday.

More than 100 people were injured, most of those from punctures and lacerations from swirling debris, emergency officials reported.

Oklahoma wasn't the only state to see violent weather on Friday night. In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said.

Tens of thousands were without power, and only eight minor injuries were reported. Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency.

Northeast of St. Louis and across the Mississippi, the city of Roxana was hit by an EF3 tornado as well, but National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said it wasn't clear whether the damage in both states came from the same EF3 twister or separate ones.

Back in Oklahoma, Amy Williamson, who lives just off I-40 in the western Oklahoma City suburb of Yukon, said when she learned the tornado was moving toward her home, she piled her two young children, baby sitter and two cats into her SUV.

"We felt like getting out of the way was the best idea," Williamson said. "It was 15 minutes away from my house, and they were saying it was coming right down I-40, so we got in the car and decided to head south."

Williamson said she knows emergency officials recommend taking shelter inside a structure, but fresh in her mind was the devastation of the Moore tornado. Seeing homes stripped to their foundation made her think that fleeing was the best idea, she said.

"I'm a seasoned tornado watcher ... but I just could not see staying and waiting for it to hit," she said. She ended up riding out the storm in a hospital parking garage.

On Saturday, muddy floodwaters stood several feet deep in the countryside surrounding the metro area. Torrential downpours followed for hours after the twisters moved east up to 7 inches of rain in some parts and the city's airport had water damage. Some flights resumed Saturday.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said a man was missing from a vehicle near Harrah, east of Oklahoma City. Roadways around the area were crumbling because of water, especially near an intersection in northeastern Oklahoma City and in Canadian County south of I-40, between Mustang and Yukon.

When the storm passed between El Reno and Yukon, it barreled down I-40 for more than two miles, ripping billboards down to twisted metal frames. Debris was tangled in the median's crossover barriers, including huge pieces of sheet metal, tree limbs and a giant oil drum. The warped remains of a horse trailer lay atop a barbed-wire fence less than 50 yards from the highway.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported more than 91,800 homes and businesses across the state remained without power Saturday.

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Sean Murphy can be reached at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy.

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Associated Press writers Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Jim Suhr in St. Louis contributed to this report.

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(Reuters) - Former Beatle Ringo Starr is lifting the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four in their heyday from his personal collection, in a new photography book due out next month.

"Photograph," which will be released as an e-book on Apple's iBookstore on June 12, will coincide with a Grammy Museum exhibit on Starr, entitled "Ringo: Peace & Love," the book's publishers said on Wednesday.

A limited-edition hand-bound book signed by Starr will be available for purchase in December.

The book will include photographs from the musician's childhood in Liverpool, England, to his road to fame as part of the Fab Four, with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.

"These are shots that no one else could have," Starr, 72, said in a statement.

Highlights from the collection include behind-the-scenes candids of the Beatles in their daily lives and Starr's travel photography as the band toured the world.

Starr has also recorded videos featuring commentary to accompany the e-book.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) Engineering students at Northwestern University are getting a leg up on the competition. They're learning to swing dance in a for-credit class called Whole Body Thinking.

Joe Holtgreive (HOHLT'-greev), an assistant dean at the McCormick School of Engineering, started the class to help future engineers break outside their comfort zone.

Holtgreive says the course, led by Northwestern University Professor of Dance Billy Siegenfeld (SEE'-gen-feld), is teaching students known for left-brain thinking to use more of the right side of their brains.

The students include biomedical, mechanical and chemical engineering majors who say they're learning more than dance. They say the class is teaching them to think on their feet and work collaboratively with dance partners skills they say will help make them better engineers.

See the video here: http://bit.ly/12O445R

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives are investigating Justin Bieber for reckless driving after witnesses including former NFL star Keyshawn Johnson complained about the pop-star's alleged freeway speeds in their gated community in north Los Angeles County.

At about 8 p.m. Monday, Bieber allegedly drove his white Ferrari at freeway speeds in what is a 25 mph zone, Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Johnson was outside with his 3-year-old daughter who was preparing to get into a small electric car when Bieber zoomed by. Johnson was upset and got into his Prius, following Bieber to his nearby home. As the garage door was closing, Johnson put out his arm and stopped it, telling Bieber he wanted to talk about his reckless driving.

Whitmore said Bieber scurried into his home without speaking.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department received two calls and responded to the location. When they tried to talk to Bieber, however, they were also turned away.

"His security detail said he declined to talk to us based on the advice of counsel," Whitmore said.

Deputies interviewed two witnesses, including Johnson, and wrote up their report. They handed that off to detectives who are continuing to investigate the incident.

"Their eyewitness testimony to our deputies was definitive not only the speed, not only the vehicle, but Mr. Bieber was sitting and driving in the driver's side seat," Whitmore said.

Deputies plan to send a reckless driving report to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to consider filing misdemeanor charges in the next week or two.

Bieber's publicist did not immediately return a call for comment. Johnson declined to comment via ESPN, where he now works as a TV commentator.

Prosecutors are also looking at whether to charge Bieber for battery in a separate incident involving a neighbor, who complained the pop-star attacked and threatened him.

"We take this very seriously and if this actually did occur, which it appears that it did, it is unacceptable behavior from anybody, anywhere, anytime," Whitmore said.

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Follow Tami Abdollah on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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REDMOND, Wash. (AP) Will gamers want One?

After four years of development, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One entertainment console and touted it as an all-in-one solution for playing games, watching TV and doing everything in between. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be central to your living room, so it packed the new Xbox with such features as the ability to change TV channels through voice commands.

Although the device won't go on sale until later this year, at a price that hasn't been disclosed yet, Microsoft invited attendees of Tuesday's announcement event to take a closer look at the system.

Based on limited time with the device, the Xbox One feels like an improvement over its predecessor. But it fails to include features some fans have demanded, including the ability to play games bought for the existing Xbox 360 system.

Of course, many particulars about the Xbox One could change between now and when it's released. The specific date hasn't been revealed. More details are expected in three weeks at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention in Los Angeles.

For now, the system looks to be a thoughtful piece of technology, but there's still a lot that isn't known.

DESIGN: With contrasting matte and gloss finishes, the Xbox One is the slickest video game console so far, although we don't yet know what Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 will look like. (Nintendo's Wii U is already out, although sales have fallen short of the company's forecasts.) The Xbox's outer shell, which Microsoft calls "liquid black," features vented flourishes and all the inputs and outputs one might need, including multiple USB ports and HDMI pass-through.

KINECT: The new version of the Xbox's camera-based Kinect system comes with better motion and voice detection, including the ability to recognize faces, tell if you're smiling or talking and gauge your heart rate. It appears as sexy as the Xbox console and has been overhauled under the hood. It's three times more sensitive and has a larger, 60-degree field of view. In a demo, the doodad's high-definition camera easily displayed crystal-clear 1080p video and could detect up to seven people, though it lagged as more folks stood in front of it. The basic motion detection appears vastly improved, but the voice detection feature wasn't made available to try out, adding to the list of unknowns.

PERFORMANCE: The system seems to work harmoniously together. For example, by combining the Kinect's face detection ability with the machine's wireless controllers, it recognized almost magically when users swapped controllers.

CONTROLLER: The new controller's layout is mostly unchanged, but the bulky battery bump is gone from the back. The smoother Xbox One controller boasts a new directional pad and vibrating trigger buttons. The triggers pulsated in tandem with such imagery as a character's heart beating and a car revving up during a demo with a prototype controller.

REQUIREMENTS: Luckily, the Xbox One won't require a constant connection to the Internet, but there's a possibility that some of the key features wouldn't work as well or at all. The Kinect system is required and will come with the machine, rather than sold separately as has been the case with the Xbox 360. The Xbox One also will feature privacy settings so it doesn't feel like the Kinect's camera is always watching you.

LIMITATIONS: Xbox 360 games won't work on the Xbox One because the underlying technology is different, according to Microsoft. Microsoft was vague about how the Xbox One will handle previously played games bought from other gamers, though it confirmed used games will work somehow. There had been talk that Microsoft might restrict used games on the new machine.

GAMES: What games? Despite the fact that such titles as "Call of Duty: Ghosts," ''FIFA 14" and "Forza Motorsport 5" were teased during Tuesday's flashy presentation, actual games weren't available to try out afterward. Microsoft said it plans to focus on Xbox One titles at the E3 conference, which starts June 11.

The Xbox One shows promise with a sleek shell and a new Kinect detector that seems to perform fine at least if you don't try to confuse it with too many people at once. But the lack of games is notable, as are lingering questions about what it can do without an Internet connection. There are too many questions about the Xbox One, even after experiencing not just hearing what Microsoft has planned. At this point, it's too early to say whether Microsoft or Sony is leading in the latest round of the console wars. They'll have to duke it out at E3.

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Online:

http://www.xbox.com

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

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