TECHNOLOGY

The newest gadget hits stores on Friday.

German software maker SAP AG says it intends to become a major provider of database software in a move that would heat up its long-running rivalry with Oracle Corp, led by Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison.

Path, one of the fastest growing social media platforms, snagged another major boost in credibility this week: Britney Spears has joined the network. The world-famous pop star tweeted out to her fans about her new Path account on Monday.

Apple's new iPad uses chips made by Qualcomm, Broadcom, Samsung Electronics and other semiconductor makers, according to a firm that cracked open one of the devices.

HTC has confirmed that it will be pushing out the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update for 16 of its smartphones and tablets.

Those who pre-ordered the third generation iPad in time will get it delivered to their door steps on Friday, but for everyone else there will be a wait in the infamous Apple Store lines that started to form five days ago.

Finnish cell phone giant Nokia has a Windows 8 tablet in the works that is expected to be released later this year.

Fans of the Walking Dead TV series and comics will soon be able to run from zombies themselves. TellTale Games just announced that The Walking Dead: The Game, a five episode adventure game will begin to be released digitally in April. The four other episodes in the gaming series will be released regularly per month. The Walking Dead: The Game will be available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, PC, Mac and iOS.

Apple's new iPad uses chips made by Qualcomm, Broadcom, Samsung Electronics and other semiconductor makers, according to repair firm iFixit, which cracked open one of the devices.

PayPal, the payments service owned by eBay Inc, jumped into the nascent mobile payments arena on Thursday with a new device that helps businesses accept credit and debit cards via mobile devices, taking on early-moving start-up Square Inc.

Apple shares hit an all-time high of $600 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, after the new iPad went on sale in Australia Friday morning.

Cisco Systems has reached a $5 billion deal to buy NDS, which makes set-top box software for cable and satellite TV companies, a move the network equipment maker said would accelerate its expansion into the video communications market.

James Whittaker, former Google employee, spouted off in a blog post on Tuesday entitled Why I Left Google, saying its social media efforts with Google +, for which he was the head of the engineering team, have been a failure threatened by competition with Facebook.

For novelists, the days of sending manuscripts to dozens of publishers and anxiously awaiting a reply may soon be over.

Apple Inc's new iPad went on sale in Australia early on Friday, greeted by throngs of fans hungry to get hold of the U.S. consumer giant's latest, 4G-ready tablet computer.

China Mobile <0941.HK>, the world's biggest wireless carrier by number of subscribers, met expectations by posting a 4.6 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday as higher mobile data usage offset some of the impact of hefty handset subsidies.

Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS> said on Thursday a Dutch court rejected its 3G patent bid to ban sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad in the Netherlands.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Thursday a Dutch court rejected its 3G patent bid to ban sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad in the Netherlands.

U.S. securities regulators brought charges against an online trading platform and two private funds that were offering Facebook shares, the first major actions following a year-long probe into lightly regulated trading in private company shares.

Half of iPhone users have noticed a boost in their battery life after upgrading to the iOS 5.1 software, a poll conducted by the Cult of Mac stated Wednesday.

Nokia's Lumia 900 on AT&T has been delayed to April, but the date is still not known. We know it will be $100 on contract, but when Windows 8 rolls out at the end of the year, how much of it will be included on Lumia phones? Microsoft is redesigning its desktop operating system to look more like the Windows Phone system for mobile devices.

U.S. securities regulators brought charges against an online trading platform and two private funds that were offering Facebook shares, the first major actions following a year-long probe into lightly regulated trading in private company shares.

China Mobile <0941.HK>, the world's biggest carrier by number of subscribers, is set to post its slowest quarterly growth in almost two years on Thursday due to weak user rates, though the pace might pick up later this year if it attracts higher-end users with a network upgrade and lands an iPhone contract.

A Vietnamese tech site, which claims to have its hands on the new 6GB WiFi + 4G iPad, has leaked photos taken with the tablet's new camera displayed on the revolutionary iPad Retina Display.

ST-Ericsson is preparing to unveil a major operations revamp within two weeks, placing the troubled mobile chip venture on track for a takeover by a peer or competitor that would create a formidable rival to Qualcomm Inc.

Anonymous hackers broke into the DigitalPlayground.com server this week (the third porn website the hacktivist collective has targeted in the past few weeks) and emerged with 72,000 passwords and email addresses (82 of which had a .gov or .mil domain), as well as 40,000 credit card numbers. The cyber-attack was carried out by a hacker group calling itself Th3 Consortium, who claim close affiliation with both Anonymous and LulzSec.

Fares rushes through a crowded Moroccan market, past a man selling Persian rugs, a cat mewing for slivers of meat from a butcher, and a woman surveying mounds of bright red and yellow spices.

It's time to get in line as Apple has announced that the new iPad will be in stores around the world at 8 a.m. local time on Friday.

Apple Inc is seeing record pre-orders for its latest iPad with wait times for shipping the tablet now reaching two to three weeks, said Canaccord Genuity analysts, who now expect the company to sell 65.6 million iPads this year.