Xiaomi launches Redmi 2 with LTE, Snapdragon 410 CPU, improved 2MP front camera; goes on sale in China Jan. 9 for about $112  —  Xiaomi Announces Redmi 2 Smartphone Packing LTE, A 64-Bit Snapdragon, And More  —  Xiaomi doesn't have much of a presence in the US, but it's one of the most prominent smartphone makers in Asia.

Withings launches Activité Pop, a $150 version of its $450 fitness-tracking wristwatch  —  The Withings Activité Pop is a cheaper brand of beautiful fitness-tracking wristwatch  —  It's not Swiss Made, but it's not $450 either  —  The Withings Activité is a watch.

Netflix Cracks Down on VPN and Proxy “Pirates”  —  Due to complicated licensing agreements Netflix is only available in a few dozen countries, all of which have a different content library.  —  Some people bypass these content and access restrictions by using VPNs or other circumvention tools that change their geographical location.

Seagate debuts 7mm thin, 500GB HD for $100; 500GB wireless drive for $130; and 3-5TB Personal Cloud drives  —  Seagate outs a fleet of cloud, wireless and super-thin hard drives  —  If getting your digital life better organized is tops on your list of New Year's resolutions, Seagate has a trio of options that cover all the bases.

Acer announces first 15-inch Chromebook with Core i3 processor, 1080p display  —  To kick off CES 2015, Acer has announced its first ever 15-inch Chromebook.  The 15.6-inch screen makes it the biggest Chromebook released to date, but keeping trend with other Chromebooks on the market, the device is still affordable, starting at $250.

What to expect at CES 2015: wearables, Intel Broadwell devices, retail-ready VR headsets, more  —  Here's what to expect from CES 2015  —  The future will be wearable, autonomous, and always connected  —  With 2014 now firmly in the rearview mirror, the tech industry is gearing …

Intel invests $24.8M in smart glasses maker Vuzix for a 30% stake in the company  —  Intel invests $24.8 million in smartglasses maker Vuzix  —  The investment gives Intel 30% ownership of the company  —  Many predicted that Google Glass would be a hit in 2014.

If the Supreme Court tackles the NSA in 2015, it'll be one of these five cases  —  Roughly a year and a half since the first Snowden disclosures, there's already been a judicial order to shut down the National Security Agency's bulk metadata collection program.

Nielsen: song streaming in the US up 54% to 164B in 2014, song downloads down 12% to 1.26B, album downloads down 9% to 106.5M  —  U.S. Music Fans Continue Shift to Streaming Services as Apple Readies Beats Revamp  —  Paid music downloads, which have dominated the digital music market …

Military tech company ODG announces consumer augmented reality glasses running Android featuring Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS; to be released in 2015 for under $1,000  —  Secretive Military Tech Company Announces Augmented Reality Glasses For Consumers  —  For the past six years …