Clocking in at more than 162 million views, Candace Payne, better known as the Chewbacca Mom, could be the happiest person on Facebook in 2016. Payne’s excitement over a voice-changing Wookiee mask was the most viewed live video on Facebook this year. It beat out BuzzFeed’s countdown to the 2020 presidential election, CNN’s and NBC’s …

Microsoft wants its computers to be more nimble. Enlarge Image Qualcomm’s latest processors will be available for Windows 10 devices. Qualcomm To that goal, the Qualcomm announced at Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Community event on Wednesday that its Windows 10 devices will support the Snapdragon 835 processor, which you’ll see in many top-tier phones next year. The chip will be …

The “Person of the Year” is boiling on social media. This morning, Facebook and Twitter feel like the family dinner that turns to chaos the moment someone brings up politics. Time Magazine has selected Donald Trump as 2016’s Person of the Year. US presidents have been a fixture of the feature since it began, but that hasn’t stopped Trump’s opponents …

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Apple Watch had a record week of sales during the first week of holiday shopping. But it’s hard to know just what that means — Apple doesn’t report sales numbers for the wearable. Cook talked up the smartwatch in a Tuesday email to Reuters as technology research firm IDC noted that Apple shipped 71 …

You’re not the only one with a crappy internet connection. Millions of Americans are trudging from website to website, with sluggish internet speeds, the Federal Communications Commission said in its biannual report on internet access connections (PDF). Nearly half of the 102 million fixed connections in the US run at speeds below 25 megabits per second, the FCC’s standard for …

And the nominees are… Beyonce, Justin Bieber and Adele fans have reason to celebrate on social media today as the three artists are Grammy nominees in several major categories. Meanwhile, a hashtag parodying President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks is popping up across Twitter, and Facebook users are debating whether a Texas Republican’s decision to cast his electoral vote for Trump …

In a year where memes finally became bigger than Jesus Christ, there are a handful we hope don’t return in 2017. We laughed. We cried. We shared these memes. But now it’s time for them to go. In complete fairness, all memes are awful. None goes viral because it’s a well-crafted or original. “The things that go viral are very …

Once again, a Donald Trump cabinet pick has many Twitter users scratching their heads. This time, what’s got them perplexed is Ben Carson, a Trump rival during the Republican primary who is now an ally and possibly the next Housing and Urban Development secretary. On Facebook, meanwhile, people are chatting about a shooting tied to the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. Social …

It’s not too late for this year to make a comeback. With many social media users down in the dumps about 2016, a trending hashtag suggests how to put the brakes on this runaway train of a year. Also making waves: Rapper J. Cole’s unexpected music video release and his even-more-surprising disses. Social Cues is our guide on what’s trending …

These iPhoneys are going to need a jailbreak. The New York Police Department raided two storefronts in Brooklyn on Thursday night, seizing up to 11,000 fake iPhones and Samsung devices, as well as counterfeit phone accessories. Police said the counterfeit phones were valued at $8 million. Officers executed a search warrant for “Phone Traders” on Coney Island Avenue at about …