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Apple traditionally enjoys very strong iPhone sales after it launches new smartphones. And this is certainly true of the three months ending November 2016, when the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus topped the sales charts in US and helped iOS close in on Android in Great Britain.

In US, it is actually an all-iPhone podium, with the iPhone 6s joining the newer models in the top three, according to a new Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report. Apple saw its share rise to 43.5 percent, while Google's Android dropped to 55.3 percent of the market.

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Greenpeace has crowned Apple the most environmentally-friendly tech company for the third year in a row. The Cupertino, Calif.-based giant is well ahead of most of the big players in the field, being one of just three companies to get an "A" grade from the NGO, alongside Facebook and Google.

With a score of 83 percent, Apple has the highest clear energy index, using little natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. Facebook comes second with 67 percent while Google takes the last place on the podium with a score of 56 percent. Both companies rely more on natural gas, coal and nuclear energy than Apple.

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Today we arrive at the first of two 10-year anniversaries regarding iPhone: Steve Jobs unveiling the handset six months before its release -- unusual for Apple's then-CEO to pre-announce something, but necessary, with the federal regulatory rigmarole that cellular devices go through. Jobs and his management team brought the smartphone to market at great risk: Established and entrenched manufacturers, mainly Nokia, had huge distribution channels and massive amounts of research and development invested in their cellulars. iPhone debuted in one market (United States) and on a single carrier (AT&T, which concurrently rebranded). By most measures of business strategies: Insanity. But risk was a defining characteristic of Jobs' leadership style running the company.

You will read many "state of iPhone" analyses and commentaries this week spotlighting slowing sales, as buying growth plateaus in major markets (China, Europe, and the United States) and observing that Android continues to gobble global market share. The problem with iPhone is something else, and it's a metaphor for what's desperately wrong at Apple as 2017 starts: Loss of innovative mindshare; obsession with an outdated design motif; unwillingness to take meaningful risks. The company's fortunes rose with iPhone, and they will fall with it.

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Google is retiring the Hangouts API, meaning that apps relying on it will stop working. The announcement was made very quietly via email and an updated FAQ, and the change takes effect before the end of April.

The official cut-off date is 25 April, and after this date apps that use the API will cease to function -- most of them, at least. With immediate effect, it is no longer possible to create new apps that use the API. While Google does not say as much, the move is likely part of its push of Duo as a replacement for Google+ Hangouts.

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Teamwork, agility and communication set apart the most successful IT teams from the rest. It should come as no surprise: developments in technology and IT are the driving force behind many of the changes in our fast-paced world.

The demands on the IT team have never been greater. There is pressure to deliver new features and software to users, added to vast data growth, budget constraints and the ever-present need to do more with less. To get ahead, IT teams have to rethink and reshape application development and IT operations as they need to be able to work together, understand each other and be adaptable and flexible. The DevOps approach is grounded in the belief that development and operations teams work as one, adapting to one another, and learning about the other’s work in order to better grasp the demands of their own role.

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The NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 AD7200 802.11ad Smart WiFi router (R9000) costs $500. Let's get that out of the way. Some people think this is way too much to spend on a wireless router. Depending on your budget and needs, yeah, this could be too much for you. If you have a big home and spend a lot of time on the internet, however, money may be no object for a fast and reliable connection.

This particular router is NETGEAR's top-of-the-line home offering, meaning it is chock-full of features and technology. In fact, it even has 802.11ad -- something that is not worth getting excited about -- yet. This is not found on many routers nowadays, and for good reason -- it is very short-range and there are virtually no devices that can leverage it.

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In the past year we’ve already seen the Internet of Things used to carry out cyber attacks, and many experts are predicting that this is a problem that will grow in coming months.

Given that many people may have acquired new IoT devices over the holiday period, financial advice website RefiGuide has put together a timely infographic looking at the risks IoT devices can pose and what you can do to protect yourself.

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Consumer Reports played nasty, little Santa's helper by plopping a piece of chunky coal into Apple's Christmas stocking, when denying the coveted—and expected—recommendation. Holy Moly. Over the holiday, the InterWebs exploded with stories during an otherwise, slow tech news cycle. CR found widely, or perhaps wildly, inconsistent charge-to-depletion times for MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Uh-oh. At least the lap-hugger isn't explodin', like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. B-b-b-boom!

Perhaps, like me, you bought or received as present, one of these newfangled Macs. I have some questions about your experience starting with: How's your battery life? Do you get enough from the laptop to justify the price increase over last year's model? If you bought, or received, something else, did news about battery life affect the decision? Since we're all sharing our deepest, innermost MacBook Pro secrets, from here I will reveal my own. I bought not one, but two. Problems with the first, but not the second, and possible remedy will be familiar to long-time Windows users.

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Despite planning to stick with my iPhone 6s for another year, I ended up upgrading to the iPhone 7, and I’m pleased that I did. If you were lucky enough to get an iPhone 7 for Christmas, or an iPhone 7 Plus for that matter, you’re no doubt going to be as happy with the latest Apple smartphone as I am.

Getting started is straightforward, as once the phone is turned on you’ll be walked through the set up process, how to configure the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and set up a PIN. Once you've set up the basics, it's time to explore what you can do with your new device.

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Nokia just announced that it is suing Apple in the US and Germany because the iPhone maker is allegedly infringing some of its patents. According to the Finnish company, Apple rejected any licensing offers that would have allowed it to legally take advantage of the infringed patents.

"Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights", says Nokia's head of Patent Business, Ilkka Rahnasto.

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Twitter has given its search results a tweak just in time for the New Year. The change sees a move away from displaying tweets in reverse chronological order to showing them in order of relevance instead.

The company recognizes that the site is "live and real-time, so naturally Twitter search must surface recent, yet still relevant, results", so time of posting is still factored in to determine the display order -- it is just no longer the only factor used. With a dash of machine learning thrown in, Twitter thinks it has things sorted.

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If you look at the specs of the new OnePlus 3T, there is nothing that gives away the fact that it costs hundreds of dollars less than a "traditional" flagship, like an Apple iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S7. In some areas, it outdoes the big boys. It has everything that you would want in a high-end smartphone, with no compromise in sight.

I've had the OnePlus 3T as my daily driver for about two weeks now, after previously using the OnePlus 3 for a couple of months. And the new kid on the block is, to put it simply, the best "flagship killer" to date. It might even be the best smartphone that you can get for around $400.

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I laughed so hard and so often at IDC's smartphone forecast, my response took nine days to write -- okay, to even start it. The future isn't my chuckable -- that data looks reasonably believable enough -- but the past. Because 2016 was supposed to be the year that Microsoft's mobile OS rose from the ashes of Symbian to surpass iOS and to challenge Android.

In 2011, IDC forecast that Windows Phone global smartphone OS market share would top 20 percent in 2015. The analyst firm reiterated the platform's No. 2 status for 2016 in 2012 as well. Not that I ever believed the ridiculous forecasts, writing: "If Windows Phone is No. 2 by 2015, I'll kiss Steve Ballmer's feet" and "If Windows Phone is No. 2 by 2016, I'll clean Steve Ballmer's toilet". The CEO's later retirement let me lose from those obligations had I been wrong. I was confident in my analysis being truer.

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Microsoft can be surprising at times. After ditching Windows RT, the software giant has announced that it is working with Qualcomm to bring ARM support to Windows 10. In practice, that means that we will see Snapdragon-powered machines running Microsoft's latest operating system which, and this is key, can run proper x86 software.

Windows RT did not have that, as it was limited to apps available from Windows Store. And we all know how that worked out. However, x86 software on Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 devices can be seen as a game-changer as, in theory, it could pave the way to running resource-intensive programs, like Adobe Photoshop, on smartphones. And I am talking about the true Photoshop, not some dumbed-down mobile version. That could be huge, no doubt.

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1080p monitors are a dime a dozen nowadays -- the market is saturated with them. Heck, many people are opting for displays with much better resolution too. In other words, it is virtually impossible to have a 1080p monitor stand out from the crowd.

And yet, AOC has managed to do so. How? The company has integrated a Qi charger into the base of its newest 27-inch monitor -- the P2779VC. If you own a compatible smartphone, you can charge it wirelessly by placing it on the monitor. That unique feature aside, this PLS display has other cool aspects too, such as 8-bit color depth and 178-degree viewing angles.

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