As spending on gadgets flattens in a world obsessed with smartphones and tablets, the Consumer Electronics Show here hopes to be a launch pad for a new must-have device.

From drones and smart cars to remote-controlled door locks and eyewear, the annual CES event officially starting Tuesday promises to showcase an "Internet of Things" with users at its heart.

The new Chevrolets coming out this year will be faster -- on the information superhighway.

The General Motors division said Sunday it would deploy fourth generation (4G) Internet connections on several models to help motorists who want to stay connected with the growing number of apps for automobiles.

The future of the public library looks a lot like an Apple Store. Rows of glossy iMacs and iPads beckon. Hundreds of other tablets stand ready for checkout to anyone with a borrowing card.

This $2.3 million library in Texas has no actual books. That makes BibiloTech the nation's only bookless public library, a distinction that has attracted people from as far away as Hong Kong who want to learn about the idea and possibly take it home.

Troubled smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd. is accusing a company backed by "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest of being a rip-off artist.

The allegations emerged in a patent infringement lawsuit filed Friday in a San Francisco federal court by BlackBerry. The suit targets an iPhone keyboard made by Typo Products LLC, a Los Angeles startup co-founded by Seacrest and entrepreneur Laurence Hallier.

Quantum computing is getting the headlines these days, with buzz among scientists of giga-powered number-crunching and unbreakable encryption.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is reportedly advancing towards a quantum computer that could crack almost any conventional algorithm.

Facebook has been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging the social networking behemoth gleans data from purportedly private messages, in violation of users' rights.

Two plaintiffs claim the site scans private correspondence between users for links to third-party websites, sharing that information with the likes of "advertisers, marketers and other data aggregators."

Ford announced plans Thursday for a prototype hybrid car that uses solar energy from a rooftop charger, reducing gas use and avoiding the need for plugging into the electric grid.

The US auto giant said its C-MAX Solar Energi concept car with a solar panel roof draws power from a special solar concentrator lens similar to a magnifying glass.

Snapchat said Thursday it would be releasing an updated version of its hit app after hackers accessed the phone numbers and usernames of 4.6 million accounts.

The numbers were partially masked when they were briefly published on SnapchatDB.info.

Hackers broke into Snapchat, the hugely popular mobile app, accessing the phone numbers and usernames of 4.6 million users and publishing them online, tech news website TechCrunch has announced.

The numbers were partially masked when they were briefly published on SnapchatDB.info, and the unidentified hackers told TechCrunch they had done this "to convince the messaging app to beef up its security."

A sophisticated, real-world study confirms that dialing, texting or reaching for a cellphone while driving raises the risk of a crash or near-miss, especially for younger drivers. But the research also produced a surprise: Simply talking on the phone did not prove dangerous, as it has in other studies.

This one did not distinguish between handheld and hands-free devices — a major weakness.