Imagine playing a co-op shooter like Fortnite Battle Royale or PUBG on a VR headset — in real-time, with zero lag — all through your phone, while traveling in a fleet of self-driving cars going 200 miles an hour. Sit tight, because the future of gaming, and everything else, is about to change forever. If you look at the corner of your phone, you’re probably used to seeing a little indicator that says 4G LTE, 3G, or, god forbid, 2G, and you’ve come to recognize that it probably has something to do with your phone’s connection to your mobile network. The higher the “G,” the faster the connection.

Retail is having its best holiday shopping season in six years, according to early data tracking consumers' purchases. Sales in the U.S. from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve were up 5.1 percent to more than $850 billion, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which monitors spending both in stores and online via all forms of payment. Mastercard also said online sales during that time frame were up 19.1 percent from a year ago, in line with earlier reports that showed robust growth in e-commerce this holiday season.