Huawei has made a name for itself by partnering with Google on the final Nexus phone and selling affordable, feature-packed handsets in China, but now the company is looking to stand on its own in the U.S. Not only is it finally launching its 6.9-inch Mate 9 phablet to the States, it's bringing along a new friend along for the trip: Alexa. Among the features of the Mate 9--aside from its giant 1080p display--are a 4,000 mAh battery, 5A fast charging through its SuperCharge technology, and a Leica-made dual-lens camera that combines a 12MP standard camera with a 20MP monochrome one to capture more depth and detail. Also on board is Huawei's Hybrid Zoom system that delivers 2x magnification, and a 4-in-1 hybrid auto-focus that combines "laser focus, phase detection focus, depth focus, and contrast focus." The Mate 9 is powered by Huawei's in-house Kirin 960 chipset, which features an ARM Cortex-A73/A53 Octa-core CPU and Mali G71 Octa-core GPU. The company boasts that the chip utilizes a "Machine Learning Algorithm that helps deliver a fast and smooth experience, even after 18 months of continuous use."

Lynx, a small white humanoid, gave yoga instructions as it slid its chunky leg back for the pose. A bright blue light flashed across the side of its round head to indicate activity. After a few more leg movements, it came back into standing position when Alexa's voice boomed: "Your next exercise is waist stretching." Ubtech Robotics, the Chinese company that launched the Alpha robot series and JIMU coding bots for kids, has partnered with Amazon to bring Alexa's voice-recognition capabilities to their latest robot called Lynx. Starting in Spring this year, you will be able to interact with the robot as if it were your personal assistant.

Drivers of Ford vehicles will soon be able to talk to their cars, demanding anything from a nearby cheeseburger to a weather forecast. The car firm has joined forces with Amazon to implement the technology firm's personal assistant, Alexa, into its cars over the next three years. The alliance comes as many of Ford's rivals, including General Motors and Mercedes-Benz, have introduced smart assistants in their vehicles. Drivers of Ford vehicles will soon be able to talk to their cars, demanding anything from a nearby cheeseburger to a weather forecast. The car firm has joined forces with Amazon to implement the technology firm's personal assistant, Alexa, into its cars.

LG has unveiled an array of devices to make smart homes even smarter - including a radical ultrathin TV than can be hung on the wall with magnets. The ultrathin LG Signature OLED W television is just just 2.57mm thin in the 65-inch model, and mounts seamlessly to the wall to create the experience of'looking through a window into another world.' The company is set to market the device, which as yet has no price or release date, as a'wallpaper' TV. The ultrathin LG Signature OLED W television is just just 2.57mm thin in the 65-inch model, and mounts seamlessly to the wall to create the experience of'looking through a window into another world.' To avoid cables, it has a single cable that runs to a sound bar, which has all of the normal connectors.

Following the Arkansas hot tub murder case that has reignited the debate around privacy rights issues, activists are advocating the need to set protocols for technology providers to deter mass surveillance by the government and law enforcement agencies. In the Arkansas hot tub murder case, James Andrew Bates is currently on trial. Bates is accused of murdering his friend Victor Collins, who was found dead in a hot tub in Bates' home in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2015. Local authorities issued a warrant as they sought assistance from Amazon to release any audio or records from an Amazon Echo device that Bates owned. Following the footsteps of Apple, who similarly resisted handing over private user data to the FBI when the agency asked the company to unlock the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, Amazon also reportedly declined to give authorities the Echo data logged on its servers.

Entrepreneur is on the ground at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Check back for highlights from the event as well as insights from thought leaders and innovators. Amazon's Alexa, which provides an easy way to play music, turn on a light or order toiletries, is one of the first steps to artificial intelligence that can greatly benefit us in our day-to-day lives. But while Alexa may be a standout in AI, the technology isn't alone. Just this year, Google's AlphaGo made history by defeating a master human player at the ancient game of Go, and Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his AI home assistant, Jarvis.

Don't expect January Jones to be joining any online dating sites anytime soon. The 38-year-old single mother and "Mad Men" star says she doesn't "feel unhappy or lonely" without a partner. "People want to set me up all the time and I'm like, 'No way.' If I meet someone and we go out, then fine, but I'm not going to go look…," Jones told Red. Jones has kept the identity of the father of her 5-year-old son Xander under wraps, but about being solo, she boasts she has no qualms.

From the never-ending stream of bad news to a brutal election that seemed like it would never end to the dozens of celebrities -- including a few in the tech world -- that passed on, it was a tough year. But 2016 also had its share of important technological breakthroughs that changed how we live, work, and play. Virtual reality made a big comeback in 2016 and is sure to get even hotter this year. Virtual assistants moved out of our cell phones and into our homes, and smart home technologies may have finally broken through to the mainstream after years of trying. So what do we expect in the new year?

A humanoid robot is the latest product to be powered by Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant. The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones was given the first look at Lynx at the CES tech show in Las Vegas.

Ashley Madison users have already unwittingly encountered a great deal of bots, but in 2017 they are going to become more prevalent – and more transparent to the user, according to U.K.-based Juniper Research. In its top 10 predictions for the year, the organization forecasts that chatbots – virtual agents which operate via social networks and messaging platforms – will grow in presence and popularity, streamlining e-commerce activities such as booking flights and hotels, or to order items directly by speaking with a bot through an app. The research firm also expects there will be more opportunities for businesses to personalize these services, using social media analytics to provide consumers with specially tailored incentives. While acknowledging that many messaging bots have not seen a significant uptake in Western markets yet, due to their basic features and the technology not being fully-developed, Juniper noted that in Asian markets including China platforms such as WeChat have already established chatbots that aid in daily tasks. Meanwhile, North American applications such as Facebook Messenger are finally beginning to drive chatbot integration using ads. Bots won't be the only helpful technology to get more widespread use this year: With Google Assistant coming to multiple devices and Alexa, Cortana and Siri already available on several platforms, Juniper said 2017 will be the year when digital assistants become sufficiently mainstream for the device ecosystem to become a key battleground.