Facebook said Wednesday it is testing a version of its leading social network tailored for getting jobs done in workplaces instead of tuning into the lives of friends.

"Facebook at Work" smartphone applications appear in Apple's online app store and the Google Play shop for Android-powered mobile devices, but can only be accessed by a few companies collaborating with the social network. 

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry's shares jumped then fell back Wednesday amid rumors of takeover talks with South Korea's Samsung, which both companies promptly denied.

BlackBerry's share price gained US$2.89 in the last hour of trading, closing on the Nasdaq up almost 30 percent at US$12.60 before falling back sharply to $10.53 in after-hours trading.

Samsung on Wednesday launched its first smartphone using its home-grown Tizen operating system, aimed at breaking the South Korean electronics giant's dependence on Google's Android.

The Samsung Z1, which has 3G capability and a liquid-crystal display, was launched in India with a price tag of 5,700 rupees ($90), the world's largest smartphone maker said in a statement.

Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson said Wednesday it had filed a complaint against Apple in a U.S. court over the technology giant's use if its technology in smartphones.

The complaint came after Apple filed a case Monday against the Swedish company, claiming that Ericsson's LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry standards and that the Swedish company was demanding excessive fees to renew a licensing agreement.

Google on Wednesday began turning smartphones into real-time language translators -- of both written and spoken content.

The California-based Internet titan is hoping that, along with making it easier for people to understand one another on their travels, Google Translate will serve as a useful tool for teachers, medical personnel, police and others with important roles in increasingly multi-lingual communities.

The accused U.S. mastermind of an underground criminal website that distributed narcotics, hacking services and forged documents to more than 100,000 people all over the world goes on trial Tuesday.

The trial of 30-year-old Ross Ulbricht, a skinny Eagle Scout from San Fransisco, has been heralded a landmark case in the shadowy world of online crime, as well as surveillance and privacy.

A computer program that analyzes your Facebook "likes" may be a better judge of your personality than your closest friends and family, according to research out Monday.

The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University.

The development of artificial intelligence is growing fast and hundreds of the world's leading scientists and entrepreneurs are urging a renewed focus on safety and ethics to prevent dangers to society.

An open letter was signed by famous physicist Stephen Hawking, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk along with some of the top minds from universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, and Oxford, and companies like Google, Microsoft and IBM.

The Volkswagen Golf was named North American car of the year at the Detroit auto show on Monday, while Ford picked up the honors in the truck category.

General Motors is expected to roll out a new electric vehicle priced for the masses — and more cheaply than its current electric, which hasn't sold as well as expected.

With the introduction of a $30,000 Chevrolet electric car, expected to be named the Bolt, GM would set up a showdown with Silicon Valley's Tesla Motors.