Spotify announced Wednesday that outside developers can create applications for the popular online music service and unveiled partnerships with Rolling Stone, SongKick, TuneWiki and others.

"Today Spotify becomes a musical platform," Spotify chief executive and co-founder Daniel Ek said at a press conference in New York. "Developers can create beautiful, responsive apps.

A trio of software developers said Wednesday they have cracked BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer software and promised to reveal the secret within a week.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion was investigating the "jailbreaking" claim, which threatened to mar the firm's reputation for mobile devices with tough security.

Twitter Inc. and Japan's biggest homegrown social networking site mixi Inc. joined forces Wednesday to strengthen their ground against a rapidly expanding Facebook.

For Twitter, the partnership with a local social network could point to a new strategy as the San Francisco-based microblogging service seeks to accelerate global growth. Japan is the company's second-biggest market after the U.S. and has served as a key international testing ground of sorts.

Electric cars with cutting-edge green technology and vehicles remote-controlled by smart phones caught the eye Wednesday at the first Tokyo Motor Show held since Japan's devastating earthquake.

Companies showcased concept cars with "transformable" bodies and automotive computers linked to smart phones, while showing off energy-efficient vehicles with electric, fuel cell and hybrid engines.

Facebook has agreed to tighten its privacy policies and submit to external audits in order to settle charges that it abused users' personal data, U.S. authorities said Tuesday.

In a deal with the Federal Trade Commission, the social networking giant promised to honor users' privacy preferences and to stop making claims about the security of personal information that are untrue.

Google's free online mapping service on Tuesday began helping people navigate inside airports, transit centers, and major shops in the United States and Japan.

The latest version of Google Maps for smart phones powered by Android software began providing detailed floor plans marked with blue dots showing where users are to within several meters.

U.S. authorities said Monday they have shut down 150 websites offering counterfeit goods like sports jerseys and luxury handbags in an operation tied to the pre-Christmas shopping surge.

The shutdowns, launched last week on the eve of the "Black Friday" post-Thanksgiving shopping surge, hit websites that were mostly backed by China-based counterfeiters, according to John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which led the operation.

A San Francisco startup specializing in security for smartphones and tablets powered by Android software said it had been bought by Twitter.

Whisper Systems did not disclose the terms of the deal.

The Internet on Monday buzzed anew with talk that Facebook is poised to go public after the Wall Street Journal reported the social networking giant could issue stock as early as April.

"We are not going to participate in speculation about an IPO," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said in response to an AFP inquiry.

U.S. shoppers were on pace to drive "Cyber Monday" sales to a new record high as people flocked the Internet to snap up deals offered by online retailers.

By mid-afternoon in New York, IBM Benchmark reported that online sales on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday were 15 percent higher than they were at the same point last year.