Samsung is to launch a range of smart refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines as its seeks to expand its business in Internet-connected homes, a top executive said Tuesday.

The South Korean tech giant is seeking to plough more resources into the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) as the market for smartphones -- one of its core product categories -- becomes increasingly saturated.

All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily.

The new measures are in response to last year's disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries.

Google has turned into a stock market laggard as the shift to mobile devices has lowered the Internet search leader's digital ad prices and the company's expensive investments in far-out technology has trimmed its profit margins.

Those factors have left some investors wondering what Google might do to boost its stock price, especially after the company's latest financial report. The earnings released late Thursday missed analyst targets, marking the fifth consecutive quarter that has happened.

The U.S. government is getting more than $41 billion from an auction of wireless spectrum, highlighting surging demand for new devices that connect to the Internet, officials said Friday.

The Federal Communications Commission, which revised down its estimate from $45 billion, said the auction that ended Thursday raised the highest amount ever for this type of sale and would improve wireless access countrywide.

Panasonic has closed its last remaining TV manufacturing factory in China and is to sell its plant in Mexico as part of a restructuring plan aimed at stemming losses, a newspaper said Saturday.

The Japanese electronics giant was forced to pull the plug on local production in the two countries due to a sharp decline in TV prices in North America and China, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Google profit jumped in the recently ended quarter, but the leap fell short of market expectations as smartphone-centric lifestyles brought with them a shift to cheaper mobile ads.

Google shares whipsawed, losing ground and then gaining, as Wall Street came to grips with concerns about a shift to lower-cost ads on mobile devices and the technology titan's penchant for spending on "moonshots" like self-driving cars and Internet-linked Glass eyewear.

Philipp Mattheis knew his gaming app was addictive when he realized he kept checking his phone -- hooked by the brightly-colored reminders telling him to play again or risk falling from the triple-figure level he had reached.

Yet gripping the German journalist's attention was not Candy Crush, but one of a new generation of Chinese language apps that are using tricks traditionally employed by online games to get users hooked on learning.

Swedish music streamer Spotify will provide the soundtrack for Sony devices, the companies said Wednesday, spelling the end to the streaming music service from the Japanese tech giant that invented the Walkman.

The deal -- which makes the Swedish startup the exclusive provider for Playstation Music and Sony's smartphones and tablets -- sees the companies link up in 41 markets.

It's do-or-die time for Yahoo and Marissa Mayer.

After cutting the cord with China's Alibaba, the high-profile Yahoo chief executive faces more pressure than ever to reinvent the fading Internet star.

U.S. online giant Amazon announced plans Wednesday to offer a cloud-based email and calendar service to directly compete with Microsoft Outlook and others.

The service dubbed Amazon WorkMail "enables users to send and receive email, manage contacts, share calendars, and book resources using the same email applications they use today" including Outlook and services like Google Apps.