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ConnectU Faces Skeptical Judges in Facebook Appeal

A skeptical panel of judges is mulling whether Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg duped former

Harvard classmates in a $65 million settlement of a lawsuit charging that he stole the idea for the website recently valued at $50 billion.

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China Schools Issue GPS Phones for Safety

Schools in Beijing are giving GPS-equipped mobile phones to students, as China seeks to tackle the twin problems of missing children and campus violence, state press said Monday.

The Beijing Red Cross Foundation distributed the first batch of 20,000 GPS phones, which can be worn as a watch, to primary and middle school students over the weekend, the Global Times reported.

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No, Facebook is Not Shutting Down

A rumor Facebook was shutting down wafted over the Web on Sunday, forcing the hugely popular social network to deny it had any intention of closing.

The rumor was started by a satirical online website whose other news flashes include such items as "Alien Spaceships to Attack Earth in 2011" and "George Clooney Running for President."

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Japan Twitter Users Set New Record on NYE

A flood of Japanese Tweets sent as the New Year arrived in Tokyo boosted global traffic within the network to a record 6,939 tweets per second (TPS), the microblogging site has reported.

The figure more than doubles the previous record of 3,283 TPS, set during Japan’s surprise victory over Denmark in last summer’s World Cup in South Africa, it said.

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US rule likely to trigger Facebook IPO in 2012

With so many investors becoming fans of the company, Facebook will be legally required to begin sharing more information about its finances and strategy by April 2012, according to documents distributed to prospective shareholders.

Some of the numbers that began trickling out Thursday were eye-popping — most notably a net profit margin of nearly 30 percent, much higher than most people had previously speculated.

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Israel Airport Wifi Blocks Political Sites

Israel's Airport Authority said on Thursday it is examining its wireless Internet service at Ben Gurion airport after learning it blocks access to a range of Israeli political websites.

The restrictions were first reported by Haaretz newspaper, which said the Wifi service was blocking access to sites run by leftist organizations such as Peace Now and Breaking the Silence, as well as right-wing groups like the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel.

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Microsoft CEO Takes CES Stage Amid Tablet Crush

One year ago, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage at the tech industry's premier gadget show to showcase a Windows tablet computer to an audience that had yet to meet the iPad.

This year, with tablets marking the hottest items at the show and Windows lagging far behind Apple Inc.'s popular iPad, the stakes were higher. Microsoft's status as a technology oracle, which guaranteed its spot delivering the trade show's night-before keynote each year, is slipping.

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Trillion-Dollar Forecast for Gadget Sales

As the top U.S. consumer electronics trade show prepares to open this week, organizers are forecasting that global gadget sales may top one trillion dollars this year for the first time ever.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said Tuesday that worldwide annual spending on mobile phones, computers, television sets and other items is expected to rise 10 percent in 2011 to 964 billion dollars.

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Gadget Charger Harnesses Walking Power

A U.S. company has come up with a baton-shaped device that charges gadgets using power generated by walking, hiking or running.

Tremont Electric was in Las Vegas on Tuesday for the Consumer Electronics Show, where it will tout the nPower PEG (personal energy generator) as ideally suited for today's gizmo-dependent lifestyles.

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Restaurants Load Menus on iPad

The bar is buzzing on a busy night at Chicago Cut steakhouse as regulars Keith and Peg Bragg sit at a high table scanning the wine list.

Within seconds, they have all bottles under $40 at their fingertips using an iPad supplied by their server.

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