Hotels don't want guests to have to linger at the front desk — or even stop by at all.

New programs are helping speed up the check-in process for busy travelers, or in at least one case, letting them go straight to their rooms by using their smartphone to unlock doors.

An Estonian man accused of being part of a ring that swindled advertisers out of millions of dollars by "hijacking" online traffic was hauled before a U.S. judge on Friday.

Vladimir Tsastsin, 34, was extradited to a federal court in New York to face charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and money laundering, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Apple Pay, meant to inject momentum into a fragmented market for the emerging mobile payments sector, has instead highlighted the squabbles between retailers and the banking and payments industry.

Since Apple Pay made its debut October 20 for U.S. customers with the iPhone 6, several major retailers have said they would not use it.

Spain's parliament has approved new intellectual property laws that allow news publishers to charge aggregators each time they display news content in search results.

The law goes into effect Jan. 1 but does not specify how much aggregators like Google News could be charged. Spain's AEDE group of news publishers had lobbied for what is known as the "Google Tax" but has not provided specifics.

Microsoft is releasing a $199 fitness band that also checks your email and even pay for coffee as the software company seeks to challenge Apple and others in the still-infant market for wearable devices.

The Microsoft Band will work with the company's new Microsoft Health system for consolidating health and fitness data from various gadgets and mobile apps. Unlike rival health systems, Microsoft Health will work with competing phones, not just those running Windows.

Google on Thursday confirmed that an executive behind leading mobile device software Android is leaving the company to create an incubator for hardware startups.

Andy Rubin became a Google executive in 2005 when the Internet titan bought Android Inc., which was then a small startup that Rubin co-founded two years earlier.

Apple chief Tim Cook's announcement of his homosexuality was the top topic on Chinese Internet forums Friday, with many users lauding him as a hero -- and some joking about his declaration.

Cook wrote in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek that he was "proud to be gay" and considered his orientation among "the greatest gifts God has given me".

Apple is in preliminary talks to sell the iPhone in Iran, if sanctions are eased on the Middle East nation, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said Apple had begun talks with distributors to open official sales channels in Iran if authorized.

WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton received 116 million shares of Facebook stock currently worth nearly $9 billion when they sold their unprofitable messaging service to the social networking leader earlier this month.

The breakdown of the big winners in Facebook Inc.'s $22 billion acquisition emerged Wednesday in a regulatory filing.

Samsung Electronics Co. admitted erring in its smartphone strategy and vowed Thursday to overhaul its handset lineup after profit from those devices tumbled last quarter to the lowest in more than three years.

The South Korean company, which climbed from smartphone laggard to top seller in the past three years, had prided itself on responding quickly to market demand and ability to tailor handsets to the needs of users and mobile carriers around the world.