Microsoft is reportedly planning to release a line of cheaper Surface tablets that will allow it to compete more effectively with Apple’s iPads. The company’s smaller, lower-cost Surface tablets could arrive as soon as the second half of 2018, said Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.  With 10-inch screens, the devices would be more …

Facebook has suspended around 200 apps as part of its investigation into whether companies misused personal user data gathered from the social network. The company has evaluated thousands of apps to see if they had access to large amounts of data, and will now thoroughly investigate those it has identified as potentially misusing that data, it said in a blog …

Google introduced its new user privacy policy on Friday in advance of a strict, new European data privacy law due to come into effect on May 25. The actual content of the policy hasn’t changed, but Google has updated the language and navigation of the document, and introduced videos and illustrations in order to make it clearer than ever before …

Snapchat started to roll out its second redesign in six months to iPhone users late on Thursday. It’s hoping to win back the people it alienated with an overhaul introduced earlier this year. The redesign sees the company backtrack on some of the features that failed to resonate with users, including returning Snaps and Chats to chronological order and returning …

Apple is reportedly cracking down on apps that share user location data with third parties by suspending them from the App Store. The company is informing developers if their apps violate terms within the App Store Review Guidelines, according to 9to5Mac. According to the guidelines, apps that share location data with third parties must get explicit consent from users and …

How many messaging apps do you have on your phone right now? It’s probably at least one, if not two or three. Now Yahoo wants to add another. The company is testing a messaging app called Squirrel focused on group messaging. Spotted by Android Police on the Google Play store, the app is currently in invite-only mode. “Organize groups and …

Facebook might be considering upping its emoji game with avatars that rival Snapchat-owned Bitmoji, according to code found hidden in its Android app by a developer. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth computer science student Jane Wong posted images on Twitter that appear to be from within the Facebook app, showing the option to create an avatar as “a whole new way …

HTC teased the unveiling of its latest flagship phone on Twitter on Thursday. The date? May 23. “Coming Soon. A phone that is more than the sum of its specs,” said HTC in a tweet, with an image showing a number of components spread out on a gray background. Update, May 4: If those components look strangely familiar, this might …

The Pentagon has banned the sale of Huawei and ZTE phones on US military bases worldwide, the US Department of Defense confirmed to CNET on Wednesday. The ban is based on the potential security threat the Pentagon believes the phones from the China-based companies may pose. It’s the latest move in an ongoing crackdown on the two companies by the US government, which is suspicious that they …

Nokia is in discussions to sell its health division Withings back to its original co-founder and chairman Éric Carreel, the company announced on Wednesday. The planned sale is part of Nokia’s honed focus on becoming a business-to-business and licensing company, it said in a press release. The deal is expected to close towards the end of June. Nokia purchased the …