Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui launched on Thursday the internet 3G service which will cover Beirut and its suburbs.

"Our target is to move ten years forward in internet speed and we hope that the technical difficulties will be fixed in the coming weeks,” he said during a press conference at the American University of Science and Technology.

From robotic hand-clapping arms to a device that could show tsunami alerts in the sky, Japanese technology researchers showcased their latest inventions in Tokyo Thursday.

Two pairs of artificial arms welcomed visitors as the Digital Content Expo opened for a three-day run, producing a realistic clapping sound due to the soft palms of the hands.

Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma said Thursday he expects an answer from Yahoo! within weeks to his long-standing offer to buy all or part of the U.S. Internet giant, saying delays were hurting both firms.

The Chinese entrepreneur denied reports he had a $20 billion war chest ready for Yahoo!, but added that money was not the biggest obstacle to what would be a stunning takeover of a U.S. tech major by a Chinese firm.

Startup Lytro unveiled a camera that lets people adjust the focus on photos after they take them.

Work that Ren Ng started in a lab while working on a PhD at Stanford University about eight years ago has led to the creation of what is billed as the first camera that captures the entire light field in a scene.

Online auction and financial transactions powerhouse eBay said Wednesday that profit in the recently ended quarter climbed as commerce shifts to smartphones and tablet computers.

The Silicon Valley company reported that its net income in the quarter ending September 30 rose to $490.5 million as revenue leapt 32 percent to $3 billion.

Microsoft said Thursday that Nokia is going to launch phones using Windows' new mobile operating system next week, giving a major boost to the US firm's come-from-behind phone software business.

Windows Phone division chief Andy Lees said the Nokia devices were a huge development for Microsoft as it struggles to capture a piece of the market for mobile operating systems already dominated by Apple, Google and BlackBerry.

Seeking an edge in the world of high-end smartphones, Motorola is bringing back the "Razr" name, once attached to the best-selling phone in the world.

The phone revealed Tuesday is thin, like the old Razr. Otherwise, the new Razr is a different breed from the folding "dumb" phone that made Motorola the second-largest phone maker in the world, before Apple Inc. shook up the industry with its iPhone in 2007.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics on Wednesday unveiled its new smartphone that runs on Google's latest Android operating system, the latest weapon in its battle to topple Apple's iPhone.

The launch of the "Galaxy Nexus", which comes days a after the new iPhone 4S went on sale, was initially scheduled for October 11 but was delayed following the death of Apple chief Steve Jobs as a gesture of respect.

Sony said its next-generation PlayStation Vita games console will be released in the United States and Latin America on February 22.

"PlayStation Vita will redefine traditional boundaries of gaming and blur the lines between entertainment and reality," said Sony Computer Entertainment America chief executive Jack Tretton.

Research In Motion (RIM) on Tuesday set out to rev up itsBlackBerry and PlayBook lines with a tactic from Apple's winning playbook -- sexy, entertaining software applications.

Co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis opened a major RIM developers conference here with a humble acknowledgement that the company stumbled with a recent BlackBerry service outage and quickly shifted to talk of an upbeat future.