From cooking pots to cars and aeroplanes, the products of the future will be increasingly intelligent - able to communicate and cooperate with humans, other devices and their environment. EU-funded research is assisting this smart products trend that promises to make everyday life easier, more comfortable and productive.

Anyone who has ever tried to install a new entertainment system in their home, fit a child seat in their car correctly or learn how to use a new hi-tech kitchen appliance knows just how complicated and frustrating some products can be. Paper instruction manuals are often hard to follow and getting two or more devices or components to work together can be a nightmare. But what if the products themselves could tell users and each other what to do?

Mobile payment provider Bango says its integration with Facebook is now live, enabling the social network to bill customers via their mobile networks in the UK, Germany and the USA.

The partnership was first announced in February and will be expanded to work in other countries later this year.

The vast majority of tablet computing devices - including the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire - are not made by the company whose name appears on the device. Instead they’re made by contract or outsourced manufacturers based in Asia, according to a new report from IHS iSuppli.

It’s calculated that around nine out of every 10 media tablets will be outsourced this year.

Say what you like about the Apple iPhone 5, it’s certainly a popular phone.

Apple has just announced the new iPhone 5 has sold over five million units within the first three days of launch. In addition, more than 100 million existing iOS devices - iPhones, iPads and iPods - have been updated with the company’s new iOS 6 mobile operating system.

Apple has been named as the UK’s coolest brand, according to the 2012 CoolBrands survey. The annual survey combines votes from an independent ‘expert council’ with the opinions of around 3,000 members of the public.

Approximately 1,250 brands were shortlisted for the survey, which considers factors including style, innovation, originality, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness.