Following an investigation, Apple has reportedly agreed to pay up to $350 million in back taxes to the Italian government. “The investigation, which dates to 2013, examined whether Apple had moved roughly $1.1 billion in revenues from its Italian operations through an Irish subsidiary to lower the taxes that the company was obliged to pay in Italy,” The New York Times reports.  

Adding to the growing consensus that Apple had an off year, The Verge suggests that the tech giant’s releases were not up to par. “We're not used to Apple being just fine,” it writes. “We're used to Apple being wildly better than the competition,” it writes. “But what we got in 2015 was an Apple that released more products than ever, all of which felt incomplete in extremely meaningful ways.”  

Samsung has big plans for its mobile payment service, including expanding in the United States. “Lower-priced Samsung phones will likely start offering the mobile wallet ‘within the next year,’” Reuters reports, citing an interview with Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay. The service first debuted in South Korea on a handful of high-end Samsung phones.  

Adding to the growing consensus that Apple had an off year, The Verge suggests that the tech giant’s releases were not up to par. “We're not used to Apple being just fine,” it writes. “We're used to Apple being wildly better than the competition,” it writes. “But what we got in 2015 was an Apple that released more products than ever, all of which felt incomplete in extremely meaningful ways.”

Samsung has big plans for its mobile payment service, including expanding in the United States. “Lower-priced Samsung phones will likely start offering the mobile wallet ‘within the next year,’” Reuters reports, citing an interview with Thomas Ko, global co-general manager of Samsung Pay. The service first debuted in South Korea on a handful of high-end Samsung phones.

It’s back. Or, at least another iteration of Google Glass is in the works, and 9To5Google has photographic evidence to prove it. “Google’s next move for Glass is clearly into the enterprise, and the device that Google is using to make this move … has improved internal hardware, and a new look built around a button-and-hinge system made for working environments,” it reports.

ZDNet considers whether Microsoft can keep up the pace of Universal Windows Platform app releases. “Developers follow the dollars,” it notes. “As Windows 10's share grows on PCs and tablets, developers will likely become more and more interested in writing apps for the platform.”

Early next year, AdBlock Plus will be “baked-in” to electronics company Asus’ proprietary browser, Motherboard reports. “That is, it will be activated by default,” it writes. “Several months ago, concern over consumers’ use of AdBlock came to a head, when adblocking apps finally became available for smartphones.”  

Exploring the perilous ups and downs of startup culture, The New York Times shares the story of Good Technology -- a mobile security start-up that passed up an $825 million buyout offer before eventually selling for $425 million. “What Good’s employees experienced is an example of who loses out when a company backed by venture capital goes south,” the NYT notes.  

After a brief run, Microsoft has disabled Cortana’s hands-free feature on Android. “’Hey Cortana’ allows users to open Cortana and give her commands just by saying those two words,” Venture Beat notes. “The feature is similar to ‘OK Google.’” According to a Google rep: “We’ve received user feedback that the ‘Hey Cortana’ feature is conflicting with Android voice search.”