Your smartphone tracks your whereabouts and provides personalized recommendations based on your location. Facebook tracks your networking and sends you personalized ads. You may even have a smart thermostat that knows when you’re too hot or cold.

Most consumers are favoring personalization over privacy, generally ignoring settings on their devices that turn off or adjust your data tracking. Now leading tech companies say that the personalization is also the future of business technology, according to the New York Times.

In recent speeches, Apple CEO Tim Cook and General Electric (GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt both noted the impact they expect new technologies and internet offerings will have on the business market. Apple’s Cook focused his remarks on internet services that could be developed on Mac computers and delivered via iPhones and Ipads. GE’s Immelt spoke about sensors that would connect electric meters, light bulbs, and cars, and the use of “predictive data” to enable more efficient uses of the devices.

Another example Immelt suggested: tracking jet engines or other machines individually, with each piece of equipment having the equivalent of a Facebook page where the company could track maintenance records and other vital information.

A hundred years ago, Frederick Winslow Taylor came up with management theories designed to maximize workplace efficiency, breaking production into discrete steps and putting workers into very specific factory roles.

Now smart machines and data tracking may foster a new workplace efficiency ethic, though some fear that worker privacy issues are not being addressed.

Following the hot opening weekend for “The Martian,” NASA has a cool idea for Martian living: ice homes built by robots.

A team of designers has created a NASA award-winning concept for human housing on Mars. Since it has long been known that Mars contains large ice deposits, the team has posited triangular ice homes built solely by robots, according to a Wired story.

The design team of eight people from the firms Clouds Architecture Office (Clouds AO) and Space Exploration Architecture (SEArch) were recently awarded first place in a NASA-sponsored competition for human habitation of Mars.

The design includes a double-walled structure with opaque ice walls to give inhabitants more light as they near the exterior, creating what the designers call a “contemplative yard” near the edges. The idea is to give the astronauts an illusion of the outdoors, to enhance their psychological well-being during their time on Mars.

The team also suggested that the ice homes would be built beyond the Martian equator, where temperatures remain low and the planet is always frozen. There, robots can use the sub-surface ice, with one robot designed for unearthing the ice and another for sculpting into the structure. The task will involve pressuring the ice into water, then 3D-printing it while re-freezing it in the chilly atmosphere.

The Phoenix Mars Lander, left behind on Mars in 2008, would supply the power needed for the robotic construction.

With Halloween coming, it must be almost Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving means one thing to U.S. retailers: the annual Black Friday day-after Thanksgiving sales.

This year is no exception, and already predictions for the biggest Black Friday deals are out. According to Fortune, the online shopping site DealNews.com has released its predictions for the most sought after Black Friday items, and the site expects consumer electronics will take the lead.

DealNews says its predictions are based on an analysis of three years of data, and claims about 70 percent accuracy on its past predictions. The site notes that many Black Friday deals could be available for the full week following the holiday.

Topping the list of best deals, DealNews says, will be huge savings on 60 inch HDTVs. The list suggests that many off-brand sets will be available at low prices, keeping the pricing down throughout the day. The price competition could also lead to deals in name brands like Sony and Samsung that could be found for $775, compared to $549 for off-brands.

Laptops are also expected to be deeply discounted. Last year, two retailers offered $99 laptops, so DealNews expects the same deal this year. Pricing for higher-end models may be less predictable but these machines could also be discounted by as much as 30 percent.

DealNews expects discounts from Apple, Android and Windows on tablets, with the iPad Mini 2 going for as low as $199. While Apple is expected to have its own deals, DealNews advises consumers that other retailers may have better deals.

Streaming TVs are also expected to be discounted, but the site warns that smartphone sales may not materialize this year.

More and more people are using the ride-sharing app Uber to get around town. Now a new survey shows that some Uber users have decided they can do without their own car.

The report, conducted for CNBC by the public opinion company Magid Advisers, surveyed 2,400 people on their use of products or services from new companies. According to the survey results, Uber was the third most commonly used new company, far ahead of Square, Airbnb, Fitbit and several others.

The survey found that 17 percent of respondents had tried Uber, up from just 4 percent in 2014. In addition, 22 percent of those who had tried Uber said they had postponed buying a car after using the service.

The findings may translate into 3 to 4 million people who are postponing buying a new car because of Uber, the survey’s developer said.

The survey is just the latest to show the influence of new, disruptive technologies. A previous Magid survey found a 95 percent increase in the number of cable TV subscribers who said they were “extremely likely” to cancel their pay TV service, due to the advent of other options.

Still, auto sales remain strong. General Motors reported a 12 percent gain in sales over this same time last year, and overall auto sales were the highest for September than any month since 2005.

Renewable energy advocates have long promised a solar revolution where we can rely on cheap power from the sun. Now a leading solar company says their breakthrough technology takes us one step closer to making this a reality.

The rooftop solar maker SolarCity has announced its new solar panels will be the most efficient in the world, setting the standard for high-efficiency, low-cost devices, according to a Fast Company story. The development is the result of SolarCity’s acquisition last year of the tech start-up Silevo, which created the new solar technology.

The new solar panels will produce 30 percent more power than current rooftop solar, reducing the net cost of a typical solar installation by between 20 to 30 cents per watt, a significant savings given the current costs of SolarCity’s installations are about $2.90 per watt.

SolarCity founder and CEO Lyndon Rive calls the new solar panels the “holy grail” of home solar, since they make the technology much more widely affordable. Initially backed by his cousin, Tesla founder CEO Elon Musk, SolarCity is now a $4 billion company with a market share more than three times larger than its nearest competitor.

Still, there is tremendous room for growth in solar power. Just 2 percent of total US energy production comes from solar power, but solar is the fastest growing sector of the energy market, with 35 percent of new energy production, ahead of natural gas, wind or other sources.

The latest version of Windows is out and Microsoft expects businesses and consumers will be updating their systems. But now the company is pitching Windows 10 to video game fans, who may find that changes were made to their liking.

Microsoft intended Windows 10 to be the best operating system for gamers from the outset, according to a PC World story. The update includes an X Box app and features that allow users to easily record and share game play through X Box Live.

In addition, earlier this week Microsoft announced it has purchased the 3D gaming engine Havoc from Intel. Havoc has worked with technology and gaming companies including Nintendo and Sony and created the 3D technology behind such popular games as Halo and Call of Duty.

Microsoft intends to make Havoc work for more than gaming; the company intends to enhance and expand its cloud services offerings through the acquisition as well.

Microsoft’s XBox One has lagged behind other gaming consoles such as Sony’s Playstation, so the company hopes the acquisition of Havoc will help close the gap. In addition to its 3D technology, Havoc brings its HoloLens augmented reality headgear to Microsoft, another potential addition to attract the gaming market.

Consumers shopping for appliances today look at power use rankings to see which models will give them the lowest energy costs. But now a European research group says Samsung televisions may not be as energy efficient as the company’s testing suggests.

In the wake of the Volkswagen test rigging scandal, the European group Complian TV says its research shows that Samsung televisions use more energy in real world use than shown in lab testing conducted to meet international standards. The research group, which is funded by the European Commission, says that outside the lab the company’s TV sets consistently use more energy than expected, according to Newsweek.

The Samsung televisions use a “motion lighting” feature intended to monitor energy use, and in lab testing the setting did cut power consumption. But Complian’s testing under real-world conditions found no such reductions in energy use, finding fuel bills and carbon emissions were higher than in the lab testing.

Samsung has denied that the setting is intended to rig the tests and strongly rebuked the comparison to the Volkswagen scandal. Complian’s report does not suggest any illegal behavior by the company, however the group did suggest that the power management settings may have been detecting test conditions.