Documents leaked by former NSA contactor Edward Snowden suggest that spy agencies have a powerful ally in Angry Birds and a host of other apps installed on smartphones across the globe.

The documents, published Monday by The New York Times, the Guardian, and ProPublica, suggest that the mapping, gaming, and social networking apps which are a common feature of the world's estimated 1 billion smartphones can feed America's National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ with huge amounts of personal data, including location information and details such as political affiliation or sexual orientation.

Microsoft on Monday said that it bought the rights to "Gears of War" in a move that promises to keep the hit videogame franchise true to Xbox consoles.

Microsoft and rival Sony in November released new-generation videogame consoles, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 respectively, and the battle for devotees includes exclusive games.

Google Glass is getting glasses.

Google is adding prescription frames and new styles of detachable sunglasses to its computerized, Internet-connected goggles known as Glass.

Pale blue, fibre-optic-like lines linking dots in an outline of China emerging from darkness -- technology giant Baidu has launched an astronomical chart-style image of the country's New Year travels.

The chart, tracking the mobile phone data of travelers using Baidu's map service, is a visual representation of the world's largest annual human migration and is available at qianxi.baidu.com.

The Android smartphone platform has extended its lead over Apple's iPhone in key markets including the United States, Europe and China, a survey showed Monday.

Windows Phone, meanwhile, has made inroads to secure a strong third place showing in some markets, and is ahead of Apple in Italy, according to the survey of fourth quarter sales released by Kantar Worldpanel.

The big players in the traditional toy market have come out fighting in Britain as little fingers are increasingly occupied by iPad-type devices at playtime.

Previously seen as the preserve of grown-ups, tablets are increasingly top of children's wish-lists.

Max Mosley, the ex-Formula One boss, on Sunday vowed more legal action against Google after a German court ordered the Internet giant to block photos of him at a sadomasochistic orgy.

Mosley, 73, said that after German and French legal rulings in his favor in the past two months, he also planned to take the U.S. company to court in California and Britain, in comments to German news weekly Der Spiegel.

Google apologized Friday after the Internet giant's widely used free email and an array of other services were disrupted by apparent software woes.

"Earlier today, most Google users who use logged-in services like Gmail, Google+, Calendar and Documents found they were unable to access those services for approximately 25 minutes," Google engineering vice president Ben Treynor said in a blog post.

U.S. prosecutors on Friday fired back at Apple's bid to derail a court-ordered monitor in its e-book price-fixing case.

Apple is out of line asking for an emergency order stopping the monitor from tending to business until the outcome of an appeal in the case, Mark Ryan of the U.S. Department of Justice argued in a court filing.

A surge in shark attacks on Maui over the past year, including two fatal ones, hasn't stopped people from surfing and swimming in the warm ocean waters that surround the Hawaii island.

But it has spurred sales of devices that claim to keep sharks away by emitting an electric pulse.