When the top executives of the world's wireless industry gather next week in Barcelona, Spain, for their annual trade show, cellphones will take a back seat to talk of cars, electric meters and insulin monitors.

That idea of empowering new devices with wireless connections has been percolating for years. General Motors cars have had wireless OnStar connections for more than a decade. But the push is intensifying now that most people have cellphones —and the wireless industry's future growth depends on it. That means the GSM Mobile World Congress, the telecommunications industry's largest annual trade show, will be abuzz with discussion of devices like "smart" meters that report a home's usage of electricity, natural gas or water back to the utility, and to your phone.

Facebook allowed users on Friday to make free calls to friends at the leading social network using its application tailored for iPhones or iPads.

An updated Facebook "app" for the popular Apple mobile devices shows when friends are online and then gives the option of ringing them up by tapping an icon on the screen.

Microsoft joined Facebook and Apple on Friday on the list of U.S. technology titans targeted in recent cyberattacks.

"As reported by Facebook and Apple, Microsoft can confirm that we also recently experienced a similar security intrusion," Trustworthy Computing team general manager Matt Thomlinson said in a blog post.

Struggling Japanese electronics maker Sharp plans to suspend tie-up negotiations with Taiwan's Hon Hai and search for new capital partners, local media reported on Saturday.

Cash-strapped Sharp had been trying to seal a capital-injection deal with Hon Hai Precision, also known as Foxconn, by a March 26 deadline.

"Crysis 3" (Electronic Arts, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, $59.99) is a gorgeous game. Its creator, the German studio Crytek, has lived up to its promises that it will set a new benchmark for computer graphics. On a state-of-the-art PC, it's spectacular.

You probably don't have a state-of-the-art PC, but that's OK. I played "Crysis 3" on Microsoft's eight-year-old Xbox 360, and it still looks pretty good. If only all that beauty was in the service of something more interesting than another alien bloodbath.

Google is adding a new and more expensive touch to its line of Chrome laptops in an attempt to outshine personal computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple.

The Chromebook Pixel unveiled Thursday includes a nearly 13-inch (33-centimeter) display screen that responds to the touch or swipe of a finger. That duplicates a key feature in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8, a dramatic makeover of the world's leading operating system for PCs.

North Korea will soon allow foreigners to tweet, Skype and surf the Internet from their cellphones, iPads and other mobile devices in its second relaxation of controls on communications in recent weeks. However, North Korean citizens will not have access to the mobile Internet service to be offered by provider Koryolink within the next week.

Koryolink, a joint venture between Korea Post & Telecommunications Corporation and Egypt's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding SAE, informed foreign residents in Pyongyang on Friday that it will launch a third generation, or 3G, mobile Internet service no later than March 1.

China's full-throated denials of hacking and counter-accusations of its own do nothing to allay growing concern over large-scale cyberspying alleged in a bombshell report this week, Western analysts said.

Chinese officials and state-run media have lashed out after a report by a U.S. firm laid out in unprecedented detail what Western officials and experts have long claimed: that China's army runs an aggressive hacking operation targeting U.S. firms.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin said Thursday the success of the social networking site would be hard to match but he hoped to make an impact as an Asia-based technology investor.

"It's clearly a tough act to follow," the 30-year-old Brazilian billionaire told a business conference in Singapore, where he is a permanent resident and putting money as an "angel investor" into Asian and other start-ups.

Sony unveiled a new generation PlayStation 4 system Wednesday and laid out its vision for the "future of gaming" in a world rich with mobile gadgets and play streamed from the Internet cloud.

At a press event in New York, computer entertainment unit chief Andrew House said PS4 "represents a significant shift from thinking of PlayStation as a box or console to thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a leading place for play."