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Facebook Barges into Google Turf with Home

Facebook Home, the new application that takes over the front screen of a smartphone, is a bit of a corporate home invasion. Facebook is essentially moving into Google's turf, taking advantage of software the search giant and competitor created.

Facebook Home will operate on phones running Google Inc.'s Android software and present Facebook status updates, messages and other content on the home screen, rather than making the user fire up Facebook's app. The software will be available for users to download on April 12 and will come preloaded on a new phone from HTC Corp., sold by AT&T Inc. in the U.S.

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U.S. Drivers Talk and Text as Much as Ever

Americans are using cellphones and other gadgets behind the wheel as much as ever, despite widespread awareness of the risks involved, a federal government agency said Friday.

Citing a 2011 survey, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said 660,000 Americans are talking or texting while driving at any given moment, a number unchanged from the previous year.

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India Files Police Complaint over Google Mapping

India's national surveying agency has filed a police complaint against Google over a contest organised by the firm for its Map Maker application, a senior official said on Friday.

The software giant organised its "Mapathon 2013" competition from February to March, asking Indian users to send in details of restaurants, hospitals, shops, addresses and street names using the Google Map Maker service.

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BlackBerry-Maker RIM Stops BBM Music Service

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion says it is silencing its streaming music service barely two years after it launched.

The Canadian company emailed BlackBerry Messenger Music subscribers this week to notify them that the cloud-based service will stop working on June 2.

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Click, Swirl, Sip? Interest in Online Wine Surges

The internet is blossoming into quite the virtual vineyard.

Online wine options are everywhere, from flash sale sites like Lot18 offering daily deals to Facebook prodding you to send a little something for Aunt Suzy's birthday. And now there's a new generation of startups such as Club W, which adds a little algorithm to your albarino, using surveys and ratings to figure out what you might like to drink next.

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Vintage Website Seen as Glimpse at Teenage Zuckerberg

A website thought to be the handiwork of Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 15 resurfaced on the Internet on Thursday, providing a glimpse into the early days of the famed Facebook co-founder.

"Hi, my name is Slim Shady," the creator of the website said in a message on an "about me" page at a website hosted by Angelfire, an Internet service from the 1990s that offered free online hosting.

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Survey: Sales of Web-Ready Digital Cameras Up in Asia

Sales of digital cameras that enable users to immediately post pictures on the web have risen sharply in Asia despite stiff competition from smartphones, an industry survey showed Thursday.

Market research company GfK said sales of WiFi-enabled cameras in 13 major Asian markets including Japan and China rose 52 percent from the year before to 8.44 million units in 2012 with a total value of $2.74 billion.

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Facebook Unveils its 'Home' on Android Phone

Facebook unveils its "home" on the Android smartphone Thursday, a move expected to tie the leading social network's services tightly into mobile software.

Invitations to a press event at Facebook's main campus in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park rekindled talk of a "Facebook phone," but analysts say the social network wants to spread roots across the Android platform.

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Mobile Phone Turns 40, with Little Fanfare

The mobile phone turned 40 on Wednesday, with no fanfare to mark the occasion in a market which seemed focused on new smartphones like the iPhone and a possible Facebook-themed device.

The first mobile call was placed April 3, 1973, by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper, head of a team working on mobile communication technologies.

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Profits Soar in 2012 for Angry Birds Creator Rovio

Rovio, the Finnish makers of the hugely popular mobile game "Angry Birds", announced Wednesday a 57-percent rise in net profit last year, boosted by consumer product sales.

"Year 2012 was another record-breaking year for Rovio," the company's chief financial officer Herkko Soininen said in a statement.

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