Google is buying secret smart watch technology from Fossil for $40 million. Design company Fossil said Thursday some members of the research and development team supporting that intellectual property will join Google as well.

“Google it.” We use this phrase every day. Once upon a time, the word “Google” just indicated a very long number. Today, it’s a verb.

That extends to physical products as well.

But the world's most powerful search engine can do more than find things. Yes, the full G-Suite is a game-changer, and many of us have uploaded our entire digital existence to Drive; but most users don't even realize how much power they have with a simple browser, thanks to Google's many features and tricks.

As anyone who has tried using VR in an airplane or crazy self-driving car knows, it can either help you while away the time or make you nauseous.

Verizon has expanded access to high-speed data in 54 additional countries in its TravelPass program for travelers who are willing to pay extra. The program allows travelers to pay a flat fee each day for access to high-speed data, texting, and calling. New countries include Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya.

Australia has passed controversial laws designed to compel technology companies to grant police and security agencies access to encrypted messages.
The government says the laws, a world first, are necessary to help combat terrorism and crime.

Apple’s quarterly financial calls are heavily anticipated by many, as the trillion dollar company doesn’t just disclose revenue, but also shares how many iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices it sold.

An unknown Chinese company earlier this week unveiled the world’s first foldable smartphone, beating Samsung and Huawei to the punch. The two companies had been racing to claim the title of having unveiled the first foldable handset in the world, but now neither will be able to say they were first.

Yesterday, Royole beat Samsung and Huawei to the punch by releasing the first-ever commercially available smartphone-tablet hybrid.

The high-def movies you bought in the Google Play Store will automatically be upgraded to 4K for free, Google says, at least when 4K titles are available from participating Hollywood studios.

Apple and Samsung are being fined €10 and €5m respectively in Italy for the “planned obsolescence” of their smartphones.

The UK Parliament caused a bit of a stir this week with the news that it would play host to its first non-human witness. A press release from one of Parliament’s select committees (groups of MPs who investigate an issue and report back to their peers) said it had invited Pepper the robot to “answer questions” on the impact of AI on the labor market.

You’d be forgiven if you thought Amazon was finished announcing new hardware after last month’s massive Echo event. The retail giant has at least a few more announcements up its sleeve, starting with updates to the Fire TV line. The new TV Stick 4K and refreshed Alexa Voice Remote are up for pre-order today.

Nintendo might be giving consumers a new and improved version of the Switch console next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The Trump organization said on Friday it is looking to expel obstacles to quicker arrangement of the up and coming age of remote interchanges, known as 5G, which it touted as progressive for a large group of enterprises.

A Taiwanese "white cap" programmer claims he'll communicate himself hacking Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page on Sunday, reports Bloomberg. Writing in a Facebook post to his 26,000 adherents, Chang Chi-yuan guaranteed to erase the Facebook author's record, and communicate himself doing as such on Facebook Live. Chang is an outstanding programmer in Taiwan, as indicated by Bloomberg.

A week ago, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the prime supporters of Instagram, declared that they were leaving Facebook, where they had worked since Mark Zuckerberg purchased their organization six years prior. "We're anticipating taking some time off to investigate our interest and inventiveness once more," Systrom wrote in an announcement on the Instagram blog. "Building new things necessitates that we venture back, comprehend what moves us and match that with what the world needs; that is the thing that we intend to do."

There are a lot of reasons why cloud-based backup is one of Nintendo Switch Online's most awaited features. It can make sure you don't lose your progress if your game suddenly gets corrupted, if your console gets stolen or if you decide to buy a new Switch. Sadly, it looks like it won't be available for some games on the platform. GameInformer has discovered that a number titles that need a subscription to the service for online play don't have access to the feature.

Huawei has been caught optimizing some of its top smartphones to over-perform on benchmark tests. On Tuesday, Xclusiveupdate24 discovered that Huawei’s P20 had been programmed to maximize performance specifically when running 3DMark, a popular benchmarking app. Today, the company behind 3DMark followed up with a statement saying that it had confirmed the findings and would delist the P20, as well as three other Huawei phones with similar behavior, from its benchmark leaderboards.

Researchers in Japan have developed a "telepresence" system that lets one person remotely control a set of robotic arms attached to a backpack worn by another person, effectively allowing two people to work together on complex tasks without being in the same place.

It’s been rumored for a while that Apple would be releasing two new OLED iPhone successors to the iPhone X this year — an upgraded 5.8-inch model, said to be called the iPhone XS, and a larger 6.5-inch version that is reportedly going to be called the “iPhone XS Max,” according to multiple sources speaking to 9to5Mac.