An expensive mistake by Google could turn into a golden opportunity for China's Lenovo Group as it expands beyond its success in the personal computer industry.

Google is ridding itself of a financial headache by selling Motorola Mobility's smartphone business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. The deal announced late Wednesday comes less than two years after Google bought Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion in the biggest acquisition of Google's 15-year history.

Nintendo has been unable to arrest a slide in console sales as more people play games on smartphones and tablets. The company's apparent solution? A move into health care.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata vowed Thursday to stick to the company's old ways, refused to resign or cut product prices despite its dismal earnings, but said the video game maker will enter the health care industry.

Apple reshaped technology and society when Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone seven years ago. Now, the trend-setting company is losing ground to rivals that offer what Apple has stubbornly refused to make: smartphones with lower prices and larger screens than the iPhone.

The void in Apple's lineup is a major reason why the company's quarterly revenue may be about to fall for the first time in more than a decade, much to the dismay of investors who are worried that Apple Inc. is losing its verve and vision.

Like any ordinary printer, this machine ingests a blank page and spits it out covered in print.

But instead of ink, it uses only water, and the used paper fades back to white within a day, enabling it to be reused.

Documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden suggest that spy agencies have a powerful ally in Angry Birds and a host of other apps installed on smartphones across the globe.

The documents, published Monday by The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica, suggest that the mapping, gaming, and social networking apps which are a common feature of the world's estimated 1 billion smartphones can feed America's National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ with huge amounts of personal data, including location information and details such as political affiliation or sexual orientation.

Microsoft on Monday said that it bought the rights to "Gears of War" in a move that promises to keep the hit videogame franchise true to Xbox consoles.

Microsoft and rival Sony in November released new-generation videogame consoles, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 respectively, and the battle for devotees includes exclusive games.

Google Glass is getting glasses.

Google is adding prescription frames and new styles of detachable sunglasses to its computerized, Internet-connected goggles known as Glass.

Pale blue, fibre-optic-like lines linking dots in an outline of China emerging from darkness -- technology giant Baidu has launched an astronomical chart-style image of the country's New Year travels.

The chart, tracking the mobile phone data of travelers using Baidu's map service, is a visual representation of the world's largest annual human migration and is available at qianxi.baidu.com.

The Android smartphone platform has extended its lead over Apple's iPhone in key markets including the United States, Europe and China, a survey showed Monday.

Windows Phone, meanwhile, has made inroads to secure a strong third place showing in some markets, and is ahead of Apple in Italy, according to the survey of fourth quarter sales released by Kantar Worldpanel.

The big players in the traditional toy market have come out fighting in Britain as little fingers are increasingly occupied by iPad-type devices at playtime.

Previously seen as the preserve of grown-ups, tablets are increasingly top of children's wish-lists.