Andy Rubin heads up a new robotics effort in Google that includes seven acquisitions to date  —  Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android  —  PALO ALTO, Calif. — In an out-of-the-way Google office, two life-size humanoid robots hang suspended in a corner.

Google is building Chrome apps support for Android and iOS, beta release coming as soon as January 2014  —  Google is working on bringing Chrome packaged apps from the desktop to the mobile world.  The company is currently building a toolkit to help developers create Chrome apps for Android and iOS …

Exclusive: Instagram Business Lead Emily White to Be Named COO of Snapchat  —  Emily White, the Facebook executive in charge of bringing advertising to its Instagram photo-sharing unit, is leaving to become COO of Snapchat.  —  The move is a major talent grab by the ephemeral photo and video mobile service …

Twitter Considered Buying Topsy, Too — Here's Why It Didn't Happen  —  Apple just spent a bunch of money on social analytics company Topsy.  And while everyone has good guesses on what Apple wants from Topsy, no one seems to know for sure.  —  But before Apple, Topsy had at least …

LG G Flex Hands-On: First Self-Healing, Flexible Smartphone  —  The future will not be flat.  That's what LG's Dr. Ramchan Woo declared as he unveiled the new LG G Flex during an exclusive press event in California.  The 6-inch handset is one of the first to offer a curved body that contours …

YouTube's Music Subscription Service Won't Show Up This Year  —  Waiting for YouTube's subscription music service?  You're going to have to be patient.  —  The video service, which is already the biggest free music service in the world, had planned on launching a paid service this year.

Apple, PrimeSense And Perceptive Computing Or: Why Your Phone Will See In 3D  —  Last month Apple confirmed the acquisition of Israeli motion-sensing company PrimeSense.  Initial thoughts turned towards applications in the Apple TV set-top box, but other reports that Apple was interested in its ‘mapping’ capabilities as well.

Three UK offers free data, text and calls while roaming in the USA  —  Hey hey, it's a party in the USA, or at least, it will be for UK-to-US travelers who are signed up to Three.  The network has just announced that those intrepid pond-hoppers will be entitled to roam with their UK allowances of data, text and calls absolutely free.

You are the query: Yahoo's bold quest to reinvent search  —  When Yahoo launched its home page redesign in February — its first such overhaul in the Marissa Mayer era — the company's chief executive sent out a jovial tweet:  —  A new experience launching on Yahoo today with a newsfeed …

Dreamworks-incubated video-creation app Ptch acquired by Yahoo, shutting down January 2  —  Ptch Joins Yahoo!  —  We launched Ptch just over a year ago.  Our passion and our mission was to give you the best way to make and share beautiful movies made from the photos and videos on your phone.

Inside Vertu, makers of the world's most expensive phones  —  The company that grew out of Nokia's answer to ‘what if you could build a phone without worrying about the money?’  —  Vertu started life in the late 1990s as an indulgence for Nokia's designers.

Facial recognition technology to be scrutinized by Obama administration  —  The privacy implications of facial recognition technology will be the next topic for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to tackle as part of its multi-year privacy evaluation.

Hotfile settles MPAA copyright case, agrees to $80 million in damages  —  Six days before movie studios were set to begin a jury trial over alleged copyright violations by the “cyberlocker” site Hotfile, the case has settled.  Hotfile has agreed to pay $80 million and to stop operating …

Honda integrates iPhone w/ 2014 Civic touchscreen in first steps towards iOS in the Car  —  Honda is introducing two new technologies in its new 2014 Civic that will make it easier for iPhone users to interact with content in the car in its first steps towards Apple's iOS in the Car.

Inside China's Version of Silicon Valley  —  Entrepreneurs, Investors Rub Elbows in Beijing's Zhongguancun District  —  BEIJING—On the outside, China's answer to Silicon Valley doesn't look the part: It's a crowded mass of electronics malls, fast-food joints and office buildings in northwest Beijing, bisected by congested highways.

NORAD and Microsoft team on a touch-friendly Santa Claus web tracker  —  NORAD's Santa Claus tracking has officially entered the tablet era.  The defense agency has teamed up with Microsoft on an updated web-based tracker that's designed for touch-friendly browsers, including Internet Explorer 11.

Hands-on with the YotaPhone: the e-ink Android phone that nobody expected  —  There was a moment, back in 2012, when we had some quiet doubts about the YotaPhone.  The first prototype was desirable, useful, and far beyond any kind of gimmick — but it also seemed like it'd be hard to manufacture …

Obama administration backs patent troll bill, House vote set for this week  —  The White House has been trying to crack down on patent trolls, and today it's come out in support of a House bill that would begin to do just that.  The bill, Representative Bob Goodlatte's (R-VA) Innovation Act …

Twitter IPO Sparks Investor Interest in Social Startups  —  DataSift Inc., a startup that makes information from social sites easier to manipulate, wasn't planning on raising money this year — until Twitter Inc.'s initial public offering prompted a surge of investor interest.