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User Revolt Causes Instagram to Keep Old Rules

Instagram on Thursday tried to calm a user rebellion by nixing a change that would have given the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing service unfettered rights to people's pictures.

"The concerns we heard about from you the most focused on advertising, and what our changes might mean for you and your photos," Instagram co-founder and chief Kevin Systrom said in a blog post.

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Great Firewall 'Upgrade' Hits China Internet Users

Chinese authorities, who have long sought to limit access to information, seem to have reinforced the so-called Great Firewall of China, frustrating foreign companies and raising activists' concerns.

The Great Firewall -- the country's huge system of Internet limits and censorship -- now appears to be stepping up targeting of virtual private networks, or VPNs, commonly used to circumvent controls on websites the government considers threatening.

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Queen's Christmas Speech Goes 3D

Queen Elizabeth II will broadcast her annual Christmas message to Britain and the Commonwealth in 3D television for the first time, Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday.

Exactly 80 years after her grandfather king George V first started broadcasting a speech on December 25, the queen will embrace the new technology to mark her Diamond Jubilee year.

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U.S. Toughens Online Privacy Rules for Children

U.S. regulators unveiled new rules Wednesday aimed at strengthening online privacy protection for children, to reflect the growing use of mobile apps and social networks.

The Federal Trade Commission said its updated rules require online services to get consent from parents if they are aimed at children under 13 or know that they are collecting personal information from young children.

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Videogame Maker THQ Files for Bankruptcy

The U.S. video-game company behind popular titles "Saints Row" and "Red Faction" said on Wednesday it had filed for bankruptcy while wrangling to sell its assets to "a stalking horse bidder."

California-based THQ Inc. planned to continue operating its business while positioning itself to be taken over.

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Google Sells Motorola Mobility Home for $2.35 bn

Google on Wednesday announced it is selling the Motorola Mobility Home unit to global communications technology company ARRIS in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.35 billion.

"This transformational combination of two complementary businesses will create a leading end-to-end provider of today's video, data, and voice products and tomorrow's next-generation IP-based broadband products," said ARRIS chief executive Bob Stanzione.

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Apple 'Pinch-to-Zoom' Patent Deemed Invalid

A filing Wednesday in a high-stakes legal battle between Samsung and Apple revealed that a "pinch-to-zoom" patent central to the case has been deemed invalid.

The patent was a centerpiece of a trial that ended in August with a jury ordering Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.

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Brazil Company Sells Cellphones with iPhone Brand

It's not your Apple's iPhone.

A Brazilian company has begun selling smartphones with the iPhone brand after winning the legal right to use the name in Latin America's biggest country. Adding insult to Apple Inc.'s injury, the phone runs on Android operating system from archrival Google Inc.

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Shooting Renews Argument over Video-Game Violence

In the days since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a shell-shocked nation has looked for reasons. The list of culprits cited include easy access to guns, a strained mental-health system and the "culture of violence" — the entertainment industry's embrace of violence in movies, TV shows and, especially, video games.

"The violence in the entertainment culture — particularly, with the extraordinary realism to video games, movies now, et cetera — does cause vulnerable young men to be more violent," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said.

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EU, Google to Seek Anti-Trust Accord

The European Union will seek an accord with US Internet search giant Google as progress has been made in resolving EU anti-trust concerns, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Tuesday.

Almunia said he made the decision after meeting Google head Eric Schmidt in Brussels as "we have substantially reduced our differences regarding possible ways to address" EU competition concerns since talks began in July.

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