Hacker-themed video game "Watch Dogs" makes its hotly anticipated debut on Tuesday in a world grappling with real-life fears about privacy in the Internet era.

France-based Ubisoft's new title features a protagonist who controls the world around him by hacking into systems and has generated intense buzz for eerie parallels with the storm about US surveillance.

Sony will bring its PlayStation consoles to China through two joint ventures, its Chinese partner said Monday, as the Japanese gaming giant seeks to tap a newly opened market.

China in January formally authorised the domestic sale of game consoles made in its first free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, opening up a market with an estimated 500 million players to foreign companies including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

They fit in a pocket, have batteries that last all week and are almost indestructible: old-school Nokias, Ericssons and Motorolas are making a comeback as consumers tired of fragile and overly-wired smartphones go retro.

Forget apps, video calls and smiley faces, handsets like the Nokia 3310 or the Motorola StarTec 130 allows just basic text messaging and phone calls.

Google next month will start cranking out prototypes of a 3-D tablet designed to give users immersive experiences that could include virtual reality, according to U.S. media reports.

The tablet will have a 7-inch display and an array of sophisticated cameras, sensors and software, the Wall Street Journal said in a story citing unnamed sources.

More Facebook users can expect to see a blue cartoon dinosaur popping up in their feeds, reminding them to check their privacy settings.

No stranger to privacy fiascos, Facebook had already made the tool available to users who were posting public updates. The feature is designed to remind people how widely they share posts, what apps they use and other privacy issues.

Cable company Cox Communications says it plans to boost Internet download speeds to 1 gigabit per second starting in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Omaha, Nebraska, late this year. That is dozens of times faster than typical broadband plans.

The move will bring its service in line with Google's fiber rollout in cities such as Kansas City and Provo, Utah, and Austin, Texas; and an AT&T rollout in Austin.

BlackBerry said Wednesday it was building a system to make sense of the maelstrom of information from the "Internet of Things" ranging from cars to appliances and watches.

A series of initiatives codenamed Project Ion are being woven together to create a platform in the Internet "cloud" that businesses can use to collect data from smart devices of all kinds and derive insights in real time.

The independent music community on Thursday hit out at YouTube over proposals for a subscription music streaming service, which the Silicon Valley giant is expected to launch soon. 

The Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), the organisation that represents the global independent music community, issued a statement slamming YouTube's reported plans to block the content of members who do not sign a new agreement for the service as "unnecessary and indefensible".

The U.S. Product Safety Commission on Wednesday issued a recall notice for 440,000 smoke and carbon monoxide alarms by Nest, a tech-driven start-up acquired by Google earlier this year.

Nest in April disclosed that a "wave" feature that lets people disable alert sounds by flailing their arms could also accidentally be triggered by other gestures.

U.S. online giant eBay said Wednesday cyberattackers broke into its database containing customer passwords and other personal data in what could be one of the biggest breaches of its kind.

The California company said it was notifying its customers, urging them to change passwords to protect themselves.