Blockbuster videogame "Halo" on Tuesday took on new life with the release of a sequel so hotly anticipated that launch day revenue was expected to eclipse anything seen in the industry this year.

Hundreds of thousands of fans queued outside shops in more than 40 countries where "Halo 4" went on sale the moment Tuesday arrived.

Microsoft and Apple are garnering the highest profit margins for their tablets, followed by Google and then Amazon, according to research firm IHS.

Microsoft Corp.'s first self-made tablet, the Surface, costs about $267 in parts and labor when excluding its optional keyboard cover. It went on sale Oct. 26 priced at $499, for a profit margin of around 46 percent. Surface comes with a 10.6-inch screen measured diagonally, and can access the Internet only through Wi-Fi. The price is for its base model with 32 gigabytes of memory.

A federal judge in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday threw out a suit by Apple Inc. claiming that Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility is seeking unreasonably high license fees for the use of patents on wireless technology.

The suit is part of a world-spanning battle between Apple and Google, whose Android software powers the smartphones that compete with Apple's iPhone. Google bought Motorola Mobility, a once pioneering maker of cellphones, this summer to gain control of its patents and gain leverage against Apple in its court battles.

Picture sharing website Instagram on Monday began rolling out online profiles that let people showcase themselves and photos they've taken with the Facebook-owned smartphone application.

The creation of an online home for Instagram images put a Facebook spin on the startup that the world's leading social network bought this year.

Flamboyant Megaupload boss Kim Dotcom has vowed to lie low as he awaits a U.S. attempt to extradite him from New Zealand, fearing a backlash after making a series of high-profile announcements.

Dotcom, who communicates publicly almost exclusively through his Twitter feed, unveiled plans last week to relaunch his file-sharing empire on January 20, the first anniversary of his arrest in Auckland on online piracy charges.

Apple Inc. paid an income tax rate of only 1.9 percent on its earnings outside the U.S. in its latest fiscal year, a regulatory filing by the company shows.

The world's most valuable company paid $713 million in tax on foreign earnings of $36.8 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 29, according to the financial statement filed on Oct. 31. The foreign earnings were up 53 percent from fiscal 2011, when Apple earned $24 billion outside the U.S. and paid income tax of 2.5 percent on it.

Samsung Electronics said Sunday that global sales of its flagship Galaxy S III smartphone had topped 30 million since its debut in May.

"The Galaxy S III continues to be a runaway favorite with customers around the world," JK Shin, head of Samsung's IT and mobile communications division, said in a statement.

Nani Teruya does not vote because she believes the United States is illegally occupying her home state of Hawaii, but people are trying to convince her to go to the polls next week via Google+ and Twitter.

She is one of six non-voters taking part in a CNN project that uses social networks to try and persuade people in Hawaii to cast their ballot in Tuesday's presidential poll, one of many 'get-out-the-vote' initiatives on social media.

Few want to even think about it, but the 2012 U.S. election result could be clouded by problems with voting machines ... again.

Twelve years after the Florida punch card debacle in which thousands of votes went uncounted in the crucial state, some experts cite similar concerns about voting technology.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) on Friday announced an alliance with Twitch to let gamers broadcast online play live for others to watch.

The feature will make its debut in massively multiplayer online first-person shooter computer game "PlanetSide 2" which will launch in North America and Europe on November 20.