Video

Samsung's Galaxy S 4 might be one of the best smartphones around, but it is only a small upgrade over the Galaxy S III. The new flagship phone, which is called the GS4 for short, began selling late last month and is a solid smartphone with top-of-the-line technologies and simple-to-use features. But with no new mind-blowing features, it may not be worth the upgrade. There is a lot to like about the device though, particularly for those looking for a new smartphone. Let's start with my favorite part: the camera.

Angus T. Jones, the fraction in the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men," made news recently when he called the series "filth," bemoaned his own participation in it, and advised people not to watch it. The call came in the course of what he at least would call a religious testimony, delivered on video and posted on YouTube. On ABC's "Nightline," Dr. Damon Raskin, a former child actor himself, described Jones' behavior as "very self-destructive"; on his blog, TV comedy writer Ken Levine called him "an incredibly ungrateful confused young man who has just committed career suicide and left himself open for major lawsuits.

BEIJING - Zhu Ruifeng fancies himself a Chinese version of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a citizen journalist who is plying his trade online. In 2006, he started the People's Supervision website, which breaks stories about official corruption in China. He has had a couple of scoops - one about the widespread use of expired vaccines and others about crooked party apparatchiks - but nothing that's gotten the reaction of a sexually explicit 36-second video released last week. The video shows a paunchy Communist Party official in flagrante delicto with an 18-year-old woman in Chongqing.

Skier Lindsey Vonn was taken to the hospital by helicopter Tuesday after crashing during the super-G at the world championships in Schladming, Austria. She appeared to have injured her right knee and was treated on the slope for 12 minutes before being airlifted to the hospital. The injury occurred while the four-time World Cup champion was landing a jump. After losing balance on her right leg, with her knee bending awkwardly, Vonn's ski came off immediately, causing her to go off course and hit a gate before stopping.

Apple released the iPhone 5 on Friday and some people were already dropping them -- on purpose. And the verdict? It could be the most durable iPhone ever. As pointed out by MacRumors , Android Authority today posted a drop test video (see above). The site pitted the iPhone 5 against one of its top rivals, the Samsung Galaxy S III. Overall, the Apple device came out on top. The video, which includes a very enthusiastic tester, features a series of drop tests, including a pocket drop, a chest-height drop, an ear-height drop and, at the end, a drop from higher than the top of the guy's head.

New video surfaced on the Internet on Thursday purporting to show Syrian rebel fighters killing 11 prisoners they accused of taking part in massacres by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. It was the latest of many grisly videos that have spotlighted the growing sectarianism and brutality on both sides of a conflict that has killed at least 80,000 people since 2011, according to new United Nations estimates. Another video circulating on the Internet appears to show a Syrian rebel commander mutilating the corpse of a dead soldier while shouting sectarian insults, drawing condemnation this week from New York-based Human Rights Watch.

If you're not intimately familiar with big-league soccer or why David Beckham became so famous in the first place, watch this video. The seven-minute clip shows more than two dozen of Beckham's free kicks for goals, mostly when he played with Manchester United and Real Madrid before the Englishman joined the Galaxy in 2007. The video has been viewed more than 8 million times and for good reason. Beckham's free kicks were a sight to behold, with the ball streaking into the net with a speed and right-to-left arc that looked like a Zack Greinke curveball.

Do you dream of living on Mars? Then turn on your webcam. You've got an application video to make. Mars One, a Netherlands-based group that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a reality television phenomenon, has started accepting applications for its astronaut selection program. In just two weeks, more than 78,000 people from more than 120 countries have applied. QUIZ: How well do you know the red planet? You don't need previous experience in rocket science, astronomy, or really anything to apply for the Mars One astronaut selection program -- but you will need to be at least 18 years old and have nerves of steel.

Corporations are quick to recruit rappers to sell their soft drinks, shoes and smartphones - but the moment there's a whiff of controversy, they are just as quick to cut them loose. The latest example is PepsiCo and Lil Wayne. Last week, the soft drink company announced it had ended its relationship with Wayne, one of the biggest selling rappers in music, over a vulgar sexual reference to slain civil rights figure Emmett Till in a remix of Future's hit, "Karate Chop. " Wayne's controversy followed similar flaps between PepsiCo and Tyler, the Creator over a video ad the rapper created that some deemed racist and sexist, and Reebok and Rick Ross after he rapped about slipping a party drug in a woman's drink and taking her home.

There is nothing like listening to Stephen A. Smith drop names, places and other various references to his many friends in the sporting world when he's on ESPN's First Take morning program or breaking down the NBA on various other broadcasts. A lot of people don't like his shtick, but let's face it, most of the big-time personalities on sports television mimic talk radio these days: the louder and more emphatic you say it, the better. You don't have to be right. Or wrong.