Global smartphone sales saw their worst contraction ever in 2018, and the outlook for 2019 isn't much better, new surveys show.

Worldwide handset volumes declined 4.1 percent in 2018 to a total of 1.4 billion units shipped for the full year, according to research firm IDC, which sees a potential for further declines this year.

Facebook paid users, including teens, to track their smartphone activity as part of an effort to glean more data that could help the social network's competition efforts, according to a new report that may raise fresh privacy concerns.

Winning back trust is seen as the key priority for Facebook as the world's biggest social network readies its update on the final months of 2018 on Wednesday.

Chinese tech giant Huawei overtook Apple to become the second-largest smartphone seller in the world in 2018.

A newly discovered FaceTime bug lets people hear and even see those they are reaching out to on iPhones even if the other person hasn't answered their phone.

World powers are vying to develop so-called "hypersonic" weapons that travel several times the speed of sound, with France the latest to join a field led so far by Russia and China.

Facebook has said that it is trying to get its messaging apps to be friends, allowing encrypted missives be exchanged no matter which of its services are used.

Facebook unveiled Monday new tools to counter online political meddling in the European elections, part of a campaign to answer growing pressure to rein in disinformation. 

Pope Francis on Thursday warned against the "disinformation" and "targeted distortion of facts" to be found on the Internet and social networks' "manipulation of personal data".

Microsoft's Bing search engine was inaccessible in China on Thursday, with social media users fearing it could be the latest foreign website to be blocked by censors.