A study of Fitbit heart monitors has set pulses racing. The San Francisco wearables company on Monday defended the accuracy of its fitness trackers after a study conducted by researchers at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, found its PurePulse technology didn’t correctly monitor heart rates. The study was commissioned by lawyers representing a group of …

Google launched its smartphone payments system Android Pay in the UK on Wednesday, eight months after it first arrived in the US. All Android phone owners will now be able to enjoy the same benefits as iPhone and Samsung users, which have had their own mobile payments systems in place for some months. Once Android Pay is set up on …

A facial recognition service in Russia is putting public anonymity at risk by letting people photograph strangers and identify them using an app. Tapping into publicly available data from popular Russian social network Vkontakte, the app, called FindFace, claims to have a 70 percent success rate when it comes to identifying people. FindFace has been in existence only since February, …

Authorities in France have opened an investigation after a woman allegedly broadcast her death on Periscope, the Twitter-owned live-streaming app. The woman died Tuesday after intentionally falling under a train in Evry, about 25 miles from Paris. She reportedly was using the app at the time of her death. Periscope is primarily used for streaming and watching live broadcasts, but …

Gadget designers must be tickled pink these days. In a world that’s long been largely black and white, a blushing hue known as rose gold has become the hot color. It’s an option for Apple gadgets from iPhones to MacBooks to Beats headphones, as well as phones from a number of Android device makers. Rose gold got off to a …

Now playing: Watch this: Facebook in trouble for storing information about your… 1:11 Facebook knows you so well these days that it can recognize you just by seeing your face. You may not have a problem with this, but that doesn’t mean it’s all good in the eyes of the law. The social network lost the first round of a …

Apple Music will get a new interface at the company’s developer conference in June, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The year-old music streaming service, which is a competitor to the likes of Spotify, Tidal and Pandora, will become more intuitive to use and will be better integrated with iTunes, Apple’s music download business, the report said. …

Virtual reality company NextVR is teaming up with entertainment producer Live Nation, owner of Ticketmaster, to bring “hundreds” of live musical performances to people around the world. Viewers will be able to take in gigs from the front row, onstage and even backstage, with the bonus of “optimized” 3D audio. No schedule has been announced yet, but NextVR plans to …

Opera is introducing built-in ad-blocking tools to its desktop and mobile browsers, the company announced Wednesday. Announced for developers back in March, ad blocking will now be available to all users of Opera browsers, which serves as an alternative to Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge. Increasingly browser builders are moving towards making it easier for their users to …

Apple’s new health app array could keep the doctor away. The technology titan on Thursday released the first set of CareKit apps, all of which are designed to help people manage medical conditions. The four free apps include Informed Data Systems’ OneDrop, built to help people with diabetes manage their disease, and Iodine’s Start, which helps people on antidepressants understand …