Sony's new PlayStation Vue television service probably won't save you money over cable.

Starting at $50 a month, Vue offers more than 50 over-the-air and cable channels for online streaming. But you need a PlayStation game console and you still need Internet access — likely from the same cable company you're trying to ditch. If you press, your pay-TV company might offer a slimmed-down TV package that's comparable to Sony's in price and lineup.

Twitter chief Dick Costolo said Thursday the microblogging site planned to work with Indonesian authorities to warn people about natural disasters that regularly hit the archipelago, from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions.

During a visit to Jakarta, where Twitter opened an office this month, Costolo told reporters that he and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla had discussions about "government and Twitter working together in times of emergency to make sure in events like flooding, that people can be alerted right away". 

Facebook is turning its Messenger application into a platform for e-commerce, video and more in a bid to shake up online communication.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Messenger Platform, describing it as a way for software developers to boost appeal to the more than 600 million people using the application.

Japan's military has released a smartphone game featuring cutesy characters who dodge household objects, marking the latest effort to polish the force's image and lure new recruits.

The game, launched last week, calls on cartoonish figures in military uniforms to protect a home while the owners are away, including crawling on the floor and piloting a jet fighter to avoid flying objects including apples.

Google has lured away Morgan Stanley's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, to be its CFO at a time when the Internet search leader and its Silicon Valley peers are under fire for hiring and promoting too few women.

The appointment announced Tuesday fills a void that opened earlier this month after Google's CFO of the past seven years, Patrick Pichette, announced his plans to retire.

The maker of hit game Clash of Clans said Tuesday its revenues shot up to 1.55 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in 2014, a 130 percent bound over the prior year.   

Finnish mobile game studio Supercell, in announcing its results from last year, reported making 515 million euros in operating profit as defined by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

China's cyberspace administration is "complicit" in attacks on major Internet companies including Google, an anti-censorship group said Wednesday, calling on firms worldwide to strengthen their defenses.

Beijing dismissed the accusation and called for all sides to "abandon accusing each other without proof".

Would you pay to see some of the Internet's best video clips first? Vessel, a new service trying to change the way that short video pieces make money on the Internet and mobile devices, is betting on it.

Instead of free-for-all distribution supported solely by advertising, Vessel will charge $3 per month for exclusive early access to clips of musicians, sporting events, comedians and many other forms of entertainment not available on YouTube or any other digital video service for at least three days. CEO Jason Kilar, formerly head of Hulu Plus, believes Vessel's model will be able to pay video producers about $50 per 1,000 views of their clips on the site. That compares with just $2.20 per 1,000 views of ad-supported video at sites such as YouTube, Kilar says.

Instagram's latest stand-alone app, released Monday, lets users combine multiple photos and post them as a single image.

Called Layout, it is the second app that Facebook-owned Instagram has released. Last August, it came out with Hyperlapse, which lets users create time-lapse videos to share on Instagram.

YouTube on Monday premiered videos from 14 musicians as it tried a new, virtual-only format for the second edition of its music awards.

The giant video-sharing site had searched for a new approach after a mixed reaction to its inaugural event in 2013, which featured a livestreamed show from New York that appeared aimed at creating a new-media rival to the MTV Video Music Awards.