From PC World: Google has acquired Polar, a company that specializes in online polls that allows its customers to get “instant opinions on anything.”

The deal was announced on Polar’s website and Dave Bresbis, vice president of engineering for Google+, welcomed the addition of Polar’s staff to his...

From CNET: Facebook is looking for more feedback on the ads that users choose to hide in hopes of figuring out what ads you actually want to see.

The social network said Thursday that it's updating the News Feed ad-hiding tools to find out why users don't think certain ads are relevant. Now when...

From DailyTech: Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) appears to have silently rolled out "Technical Preview" builds of its upcoming Windows "Threshold" (Windows 9) to select enterprise clients. One of these clients has leaked screenshots of the new operating system and fresh details to a pair of German websites...

From InfoWorld: Compared to the glitz and fanfare surrounding Apple's announcement Tuesday of the iPhone 6 and the long-awaited Apple Watch, next week's expected debut in India of Google's Android One smartphones should be a more modest affair. It certainly will be treated that way by the media....

From PC World: With the introduction of the Snapdragon 210 chipset, Qualcomm is hoping to push down the cost of LTE smartphones even further.

The last 12 months have seen a growing focus on smartphones that cost below US$200. But while these products are becoming increasingly competent, they are...

From CNET: Microsoft has already made it clear that it's planning to phase out the Nokia name in its mobile products, and a newly leaked internal document confirms just that. The document, which was obtained by tech blog GeeksOnGadgets, reportedly says upcoming Nokia Lumia devices will soon be...

From DailyTech: HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) released its first -- and only second so far -- branded tablet in May 2011, the 7-inch HTC Flyer. At the time it was soon to become America's top smartphone seller. The tablet packed decent hardware, but the weak state of Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android 2.3...

From InfoWorld: Western Digital's (WD) HGST subsidiary on Tuedsay announced it has added 8TB and 10TB hard drives to its HelioSeal product line, which hermetically seals in helium in order to reduce internal drive friction and power use.

WD also announced its first NVMe (non volatile memory express...

From PC World: We now know the name of the next generation Basis smartwatch from Intel: the Basis Peak.

Intel wearables chief Mike Bell revealed a teaser image of the next-generation fitness band at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday, revealing also that it would ship in November.

At CES 2014...

From CNET: Marvell added to the push for ultra-high definition as the next big thing in televisions with a beefed-up version of its Armada 1500 chips, which are used in set-top boxes and smart TVs.

The new Armada 1500 Pro 4K is the chipmaker's first in the line to enable ultra HD, also known as 4K...