Consumer Reports, the influential magazine for product reviews, gave a thumbs up to Apple's new iPhone on Tuesday after declining to recommend the previous model because of reception problems.

"Apple's newest smartphone (the iPhone 4S) performed very well in our tests, and while it closely resembles the iPhone 4 in appearance, it doesn't suffer the reception problem we found in its predecessor," Consumer Reports said.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers "are ready and eager to go to court" in a bid to block AT&T's $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile, Attorney General Eric Holder assured lawmakers on Tuesday.

"The Justice Department does not file matters in court, does not file suits challenging proposed mergers unless we are prepared to follow them all the way through," Holder, who has rescued himself from the lawsuit, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The expansion, announced on Monday, is the latest feature on Google's Plus service to imitate what's already available on Facebook, the leading website for sharing with family, friends and businesses.

Google Inc. unveiled Plus in late June to counter Facebook's popularity and learn more about people's interests. It hopes to gain insights that will help its dominant Internet search engine spit out more compelling results that keep people coming back to click on ads.

The latest installment of the blockbuster Call of Duty videogame franchise went on sale Tuesday with publisher Activision saying pre-orders had topped last year's record-shattering "Call of Duty: Black Ops".

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" hit stores at midnight with thousands of fans lining up to be the first to get their hands on the game, the eighth title in a franchise that has won a devoted following since it was launched in 2003.

Ford Motor Co., stung by falling quality ratings because of its glitch-prone MyFord Touch system, is planning a major upgrade that it hopes will fix the problems — and repair its own reputation.

Early next year, Ford is sending flash drives with a software upgrade to approximately 250,000 U.S. customers with MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch, the equivalent system in Ford's luxury Lincoln brand. Owners can do the upgrade themselves in about 45 minutes, or dealers will do it for free. Ford is still deciding how it will offer the upgrade to 200,000 buyers outside of the U.S.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's press office informed his followers on Monday that his twitter account is @HaririSaad.

"Hariri would like to point out that the only twitter account that PM Saad Hariri uses to tweet, personally and directly, with his Followers is: @HaririSaad," his press office said.

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt agreed Monday to set up a YouTube channel exclusively for South Korean pop music, as he began a visit aimed at expanding his company's presence in the country.

The pledge came when Schmidt met President Lee Myung-Bak, Lee's office said.

The websites of Israel's army and intelligence services were down Sunday, two days after a hacker group appeared to threaten the Jewish state over its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.

The websites of the Israeli army, Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and the Mossad spy agency were all down.

The annual hajj pilgrimage that draws millions of Muslim faithful to Mecca has gone hi-tech this year, with the Saudi authorities calling in latest electronic aides to help control the vast crowds.

Coping with the world's largest annual human assembly poses a security headache for Saudi Arabia -- guardian of the two holiest Muslim shrines in the cities of Mecca and Medina, the birthplaces of Islam.

The heads of China's largest Internet and technology firms have vowed to stop the "spread of harmful information" on the web after attending a three-day government workshop, state media said Sunday.

Nearly 40 companies, including e-commerce giant Alibaba, online portal Sina and search engine Baidu attended the seminar hosted by the State Internet Information Office, an online watchdog, the official Xinhua news agency said.