Sony announced Wednesday it was launching an Internet subscription television service that includes live feeds from major broadcast networks, mounting a challenge to the cable TV model.

PlayStation Vue, a cloud-based TV service, will initially be available in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia to customers with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 game consoles, and later to customers with Apple iPads.

Technology firms will ultimately prevail in their efforts to use strong encryption on devices that cannot be accessed by the government, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said Wednesday.

Schmidt, speaking at a Washington think-tank, said he was "sympathetic" to the arguments of law enforcement and intelligence agencies seeking to thwart crime and terrorism, but that it is not feasible to create access only for "the good guys."

Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) launched a new initiative Tuesday to offer entrepreneurial and technology skills to small businesses in Sao Paulo's biggest slum, a trial program eyeing Brazil's huge and increasingly lucrative favelas.

Under the program, computer use and classes will be offered to entrepreneurs in the poorer slum district of Heliopolis to help them reach more consumers.

Need a copy of your wedding ring, a new name tag for the dog, or a spare part for the washing machine? Just print it, is the message at the CeBIT IT fair in Germany.

A host of companies are showcasing new tech marvels, from web-connected robots to 3D printers, that can turn homes, schools and offices into design labs and mini factories.

Nintendo said Tuesday it was teaming up with a mobile gaming company to develop games for smartphones in what could be a turning point for the Japanese giant which has long refused to enter the soaring market.

The maker of the iconic Super Mario and Pokemon franchises plans to buy 10 percent of Tokyo-based DeNA for 22 billion yen ($181 million) with the pair set to create games based on Nintendo's host of popular characters.

Facebook said Monday it won't allow the social network to be used to promote terrorism or hate speech as it unveiled a wide-ranging update of its "community standards."

The new guidelines give more clarity on acceptable posts relating to violence, hate speech nudity and other contentious topics.

The online bulletin-board style social network Pinterest announced Monday it had raised $367 million in new capital, pushing its valuation to $11 billion.

The new funds will help fuel global expansion plans for the fast-growing social network which calls itself a "visual bookmarking tool."

Somewhere on Earth a computer hacker types a malicious command and hits enter. Half a world away, an urban commuter train speeds out of control, derails and crashes into a building.

Happily the kind of scenario that makes for Hollywood blockbusters and keeps public security officials awake at night would, in this case, only damage a model train set at a German IT industry fair.

Apple is in talks with U.S television networks to offer around 25 channels .across any iOS device as soon as September, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The company has been in discussions with CBS, 21st Century Fox and Disney (owner of ABC) among other networks, as it attempts to put together a bundle of popular channels.

China's huge IT sector is out in force in Germany this week, signalling to the world it is ready to not just copy but lead as a tech superpower.

Bucking China's economic slowdown, information and communication technology are booming in the world's largest smartphone market, which also boasts the highest number of Internet users.