So now we know, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: Google is to build a new augmented reality OS based on Android, and it’s already assembled a team of engineers to do it. The search colossus, it seems, has thrown the gauntlet firmly at the feet of Microsoft, Samsung and Facebook.

In an intriguing development which suggests that tech firms are interested in exploring how suitable wearables will be for accessing digital content, news has broken that Apple has been permitting a select few to come in and test their apps on the Apple Watch ahead of the device’s launch – right inside its top secret Apple Watch lab at the Cupertino HQ

Europe’s planned new data protection law has been “mangled” by the Council of the European Union, according to the IT news source, The Register. Have ministers yielded to pressure from ISPs, big internet companies and security services to water down the original rules, which were designed to safeguard the personal information of EU citizens when in the hands of government and big business?

In the context of another tech boom, Apple has decided to bring the majority of its contract security staff in-house as permanent, full-time employees, according to a recent media report in The San Jose Mercury News (Apple is based in the Cupertino area just west of San Jose).

It’s hard to believe it, but 24^th February 2015 marked the fourth birthday of Google’s Panda algorithm: Panda 1.0 debuted on 24^th February 2011. Yup, it’s been with us that long. And it’s hard to dispute that it represented the most significant content quality algorithm the search giant has ever released, including Penguin.

A new study from UK market research firm BDRC Group suggests that UK brands are failing to make optimal use of Twitter to improve their performance (some of them even dismally so).

Following reports from Apple news specialist 9to5Mac that iOS 9 will prioritise stability after a turbulent patch of bugginess, the same source reveals that iOS 8.3 and 9 will be offered on a public beta programme.

Remember the battle between LG and Samsung to persuade us we all needed curved phones back in 2013? Neither set consumer interest ablaze. But LG’s latest offering – the G Flex 2 – just might.

The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muižnieks, has slammed the raft of new mass surveillance counter-terrorism measures spreading across Europe in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen.

Journey back in your mind to a year ago: remember when Facebook offered $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp? Pretty well everyone thought such an offer was little short of crazy (most American pundits hadn’t ever used the messaging app). Now we know it wasn’t so crackers after all: Snapchat is now raising money on a valuation of $20 billion. How come?