The Short List: Yahoo's big announcement; blizzard a bust; Tiger Woods

Yahoo tries to steal Apple's thunder

Big tech news today. First, Yahoo shares jumped in after-hours trading after the company announced it would spin off its remaining holdings in Alibaba. Most investors look to Yahoo not for its e-mail, entertainment, sports and news properties, but for its investment in China's high-flying e-commerce giant. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's plan to spin-off the company's $40 billion stake in Alibaba will likely buy her at least another year to turn Yahoo's core business around. The news of the split-off encouraged investors, who have been down on the stock over the last 12 months. Next, Apple rang up record quarterly results from — what else — iPhone sales. Apple's blow-out quarter surprised even analysts. In extended trading, Apple shares were up 5%, to $114.74. The record sales highlight the wild popularity of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The not-so-good news today was the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 291 points after a spate of earnings misses from key companies including Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble and DuPont.

Meteorologists are sorry about getting the whole #Snowmageddon2015 thing wrong

Historic. Crippling. Potentially the biggest in history. The way everyone was talking, New York City was prepping for a real-life Day after Tomorrow. But in the end, #Snowmageddon2015 — forecast to be the biggest storm NYC had ever seen — was kind of a bust. Hey, at least your fridge is well-stocked. The city was preparing for a blast of 20 inches of snow or more. Central Park only had about 8 inches this morning. Meteorologists tweeted their apologies. A sheepish National Weather Service office in New York posted this on its Facebook page. Boston ended up taking the brunt of the storm (which also brought the arrival of a yeti). Some areas south and west of Boston could see 3 feet of snow by early tomorrow. Coastal areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island, N.Y., are facing blizzard conditions — heavy snow with consistent wind gusts in excess of 35 mph. Want to see how the storm unfolded through your eyes? Check out the best posts from social media hour by hour. And even though #Snowmageddon2015 was kind of meh in NYC, snow falling in Manhattan is always beautiful. Check out our hyperlapse of the storm below.

The Mormon Church said it supports LGBT rights — with a catch

Mormon church leaders said at a rare news conference today that "we must all learn to live with others who do not share the same beliefs or values." The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said they would support some housing and job protections for gays and lesbians in exchange for legal protections for believers who object to the behavior of others. It's not clear how much common ground the Mormon Church will find with this new campaign. The church insists it's making no changes in doctrine and still believes it's against the law of God to have sex outside marriage between a man and a woman.

Tiger Woods gives a tongue-in-cheek account of what happened to his tooth

Tiger Woods is back, and so is his tooth. Upon reaching the driving range in Scottsdale, Ariz., early this morning ahead of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, he flashed a smile that revealed not one single gap — a stark contrast to his Jan. 19 appearance in Italy, where he made a surprise visit to watch his girlfriend, skier Lindsey Vonn, capture her record 63rd World Cup race win. Woods' agent said Woods had been hit by a shoulder-mounted video camera by one of the members of the media in a rush to the victory stage. Tiger reiterated the story today; race officials had disputed his account, saying that no incident had been reported. Is it the full story? Perhaps the bigger question is, does it really matter? Tiger said he was surprised by how much attention his missing pearly white garnered. "The story is about Lindsey breaking the record. That's the story." Read his blow-by-blow of what happened here, some of which earned the former World No. 1 some laughs. He's playing the Phoenix Open for the first time since 2001.

Get your iPhone camera ready because a spiffy new video tool has come to Twitter

It's hard to convey just how funny your cat was when he jumped onto your keyboard, or how freaking adorable your nephew is when he eats his peas, or just how ridiculous the weather is outside when all you have is 140 characters, right? Good news: Starting today, Twitter is letting you shoot, edit and post videos directly through the Twitter app on your phone. Hooray! The social media company also added private group messaging. Both video and group messaging have been super popular on other services such as Facebook and have been frequently requested by Twitter users. Is it the death of Vine? Probably not. But it sure makes adding videos, and chatting, on Twitter way simpler. Twitter, which says its ambition is to build "the largest daily audience in the world," is hoping to get more people to use the service and to get the people already using it to engage with it more frequently.

Extra Bites

Day in Pictures: Our favorite photo from today's gallery.

Have you seen it? It's just the best part of any storm. Dogs in the snow:

Because University of Colorado students are amazing, they created a website to find pets lost in disasters.

Sam Smith's Stay with Mesounds a lot like a Tom Petty song.

First lady Michelle Obama pulled off the potentially touchy feat of dressing appropriately as a western woman in a roomful of Saudi royals. See how she dominated. Again.

Lena Dunham says she knows she can be irritating. It's been this way since the second grade.

Someone took a sledgehammer to a new Ford F-150 pickup. Don't worry, it was all in the name of research.

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This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY.

Contributing: Rick Hampson, Doyle Rice, John Bacon, Jessica Guynn, Jefferson Graham, Jon Swartz, Adam Shell, USA TODAY; John Shinal, Special for USA TODAY; Cooper Allen, USA TODAY Network; Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY Sports; Associated Press