Whizzing around with your own personal jetpack may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin aims to have his "jet ski for the skies" on the market within 18 months.

After 30 years of painstaking development, Martin's jetpack last month soared 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above the South Island's Canterbury Plains as its creator watched anxiously from a helicopter hovering nearby.

A team of Japanese inventors have come with a new device that blends the country's fascination with cuteness and its penchant for experimental high-tech -- brainwave-controlled cat ears.

The fluffy headwear reads users' brain activity, meaning the ears perk up when they concentrate and then flop down again to lay flat against the head when users enter a relaxed state of mind, say its developers.

Nintendo stock plunged Wednesday in Tokyo despite the much ballyhooed unveiling of the Wii U, the successor to its hit Wii video game console.

The demonstration of a prototype at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, appeared to leave investors disappointed and skeptical.

Sony introduced its new-generation "PlayStation Vita" gaming handset and blockbuster 3D console titles as it sought to shake off the stigma of cyberattacks on its system.

The Japanese entertainment giant turned the Los Angeles sports arena into a music and videogame mega-hub starring exciting new game play and hardware on the eve of the Tuesday opening of a premier Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Microsoft on Monday added YouTube, voice commands, television shows and more to its Xbox 360 with Kinect as the hot-selling videogame console matures into an entertainment center for all.

Studios joined Microsoft on the eve of a premier Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles to unveil blockbusters such as "Mass Effect 3" that let players use body motion or voice to execute tactics once the exclusive duty of toggles or buttons in controllers.

Australian researchers have developed a "smart" bandage that changes color as a wound worsens or improves, potentially leading to the better treatment of ailments such as leg ulcers.

Lead inventor Louise van der Werff, a materials scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, said the dressing would change from red to blue depending on the temperature of the wound.

More Chinese companies than ever took part in Asia's largest IT fair, which ended this weekend in Taipei, but their growing numbers could not disguise their lingering weaknesses, observers said.

China has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to innovation, not least when compared with the host of the five-day Computex fair, the small but savvy island of Taiwan, which punches above its weight in technology.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is taking a break from medical leave on Monday to preside over the opening of the company's annual conference for software developers.

And in a break from Apple's usual practice of shrouding its events in an air of mystery, the California gadget-maker this time revealed ahead of time what it plans to announce at the event in San Francisco.

Sony Pictures Entertainment apologized Saturday over a personal data breach that hackers said involved more than one million passwords, email addresses and other information being stolen.

"We deeply regret and apologies for any inconvenience caused to consumers by this cybercrime," the company said in a statement after the latest online attack targeting the Japanese electronics giant.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the U.S. government is looking into Google's "very serious" allegations of a cyber spying campaign originating in China.

It was serious enough for U.S. President Barack Obama to be kept informed as the White House said "threats to information and communications infrastructure pose a serious economic and national security challenge."