A movement by privacy activists to curb tracking of Internet users' browsing habits scored a major victory last month when Microsoft launched its new browser with "do not track" as the default, or automatic setting.

But some advertisers are in revolt against the move, certain websites are skirting the Microsoft effort and the debate over online privacy and tracking is heating up.

Afghanistan has launched a new literacy program that enables Afghan women deprived of a basic education during decades of war to learn to read and write using a mobile phone.

The phone is called Ustad Mobile (Mobile Teacher) and provides national curriculum courses in both national languages, Dari and Pashto, as well as mathematics.

It can scan zombies, replace a TV remote, open a window into virtual worlds and shoot ninja stars across a living room. It's the Wii U GamePad, the 10-by-5-inch touchscreen controller for the successor to the Wii out Sunday, and if you ask the brains behind the "Super Mario Bros." about it, they say it's going to change the way video games are made and played.

"You can't manufacture buzz," said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. "You can't manufacture word of mouth. All we can do is to provide the product and the games to foster some sparks that hopefully enable that to happen. We think we have that with Wii U."

The artsy downloadable game "Journey" leads the pack of nominees for this year's Spike Video Game Awards.

The PlayStation 3 game received seven nods in such categories as best graphics, independent game, original score and game of the year.

Twitter on Thursday introduced a new feature to the globally popular one-to-many text messaging service -- the ability to email "Tweets" directly from the message stream.

The new feature made its debut as the San Francisco-based firm rolled out improved applications for using the service on iPhones or smartphones powered by Google-backed Android software.

Katey Klippel makes a point of keeping her smartphone in her bag when she returns home from a hard day at the management consulting firm where she works in Washington.

That way, she can better practice what her employer preaches and stop checking her emails after hours.

A California judge on Thursday granted motions to add Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 with the Jelly Bean operating system to a patent infringement suit between the mobile giants.

San Jose judge Paul Grewal granted the motions filed by the two companies, which are embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 nations and have accused each other of stealing design and technology.

The White House said Thursday it was considering an executive order on cybersecurity after legislation on infrastructure protection failed again in the Senate.

"The president is determined to protect our nation against cyber threats," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council after Wednesday's failure in the Senate of a bill aimed at protecting U.S. "critical infrastructure" from cyber attacks.

As Israeli warplanes pound Gaza, the military has launched an unprecedented communications strategy on social networks by posting real time information about its assault on the Palestinian territory.

With live-tweets, videos on YouTube, updates on Facebook and graphics on blogging platform Tumblr, the tech-savvy Israeli army have blanketed social networks with their take on the deadly assault.

A California lawyer is suing Microsoft Corp., claiming the Surface tablet he bought doesn't have all the storage space the company advertised.

Andrew Sokolowski, a lawyer in Los Angeles, claims that he bought a Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage last week. But he quickly ran out of space after loading it with music and Microsoft Word documents.