Excessive email volume is hurting workplace productivity, according to a UK study. Office workers are bogged down with emails and juggling work across platforms. 

After a successful test of drone deliveries, Mercedes-Benz plans more deliveries for next year. The automaker said it completed 100 product drop-offs without a hitch.

Google researchers have found another application for facial identification. They now have a feature in the labs that can detect if another person is looking at a person’s phone, like over their shoulder.

As might be expected, Amazon sold a lot of things over the Black Friday weekend. Heading the list of items sold were voice devices, with the Echo Dot and Amazon Fire TV Stick  with Alexa remote control were the best-selling products across Amazon.

Robots are being developed for plenty of things, most notably for doing repetitive tasks. A new on in the works can pick up groceries at checkout, hold them up for a scanner to read the price and then drop them in a bag.

Some fun things around the holidays have legs. Now the jolly elf featured by Office Depot is back, with full augmented reality features to people can elf themselves or someone else.

 Drones are on the way to the mass market in the U.K. and now new rules are coming to manage them. Police would have the power to seize drones believed to have committed an offense and there would be designated no-fly zones.

Another use for virtual reality has been cropping up in the form of employee training. Now Walmart is used VR to show its employees what Black Friday could look like, in advance.

Another smart speaker is hitting the market, this one from Chinese powerhouse Baidu. The device also features Baidu’s work on artificial intelligence.

 The smart speakers from Amazon keep coming. Now there’s a limited edition Echo, with fabric coverings. The red one is a limited edition production.