In Another Earth, Brit Marling, left, and William Mapother play individuals drawn together by accident.

SAN FRANCISCO — Another Earth is a science fiction film unlike most before it. With a gentle touch, it makes audiences contemplate complex physics, space travel and the possibilities of a multiverse — all while telling the rather quiet story of a young woman trying to atone for a terrible mistake that altered her own existence forever.

The movie’s lead character, Rhoda, played by writer-producer Brit Marling, tries to help a composer whose life she shattered the night a second version of...

We’ve seen a flood of Android tablets this year, most of them largely the same.

They run the same operating system, and they’re pretty close when it comes to size, weight, processing power and price. So when all the big stuff is baked, it’s the little things that make a tablet stand out.

Toshiba’s Thrive tablet, a 10.1-inch slate that starts at $430 for the 8GB, Wi-Fi only model, is a stand-out, alright — it’s the biggest and heaviest of the tablets from the major manufacturers.

Being the fattest kid in class sounds like a silly way to differentiate. But the extra bulk allows for some attractive...