A Chinese dissident convicted of subversion based on evidence provided by U.S. Internet giant Yahoo! was released from prison on Friday after serving a 10-year term, his wife said.

Wang Xiaoning, 62, became a cause celebre after a Beijing court named Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) as the source of evidence that led to his 2003 conviction, in a public relations disaster for the company.

The repercussions of Apple's billion-dollar patent victory over Samsung were still being felt at Europe's biggest consumer electronics show, as the South Korean firm launched a host of new gadgets.

After losing the biggest patent case in decades, Samsung came out fighting at the IFA show in Berlin which opens on Friday, with a sweeping media launch of smartphones, tablets, a "smart PC" and a voice-controlled camera.

Independent booksellers have found a new partner to help them sell e-books.

Toronto-based e-reading service Kobo has an agreement with the American Booksellers Association to offer e-books at independent stores. Kobo and the booksellers association announced Tuesday that starting this fall around 400 stores will offer e-devices, accessories and selections from Kobo's e-book store.

President Barack Obama reinforced his image as the social media president Wednesday as he took questions from the public in an online chat on the Reddit website.

As Republicans gathered for the nominating convention in Florida, Obama chatted about hurricane relief efforts, the space program and Internet freedom in a wide-ranging discussion.

Samsung will offer three different choices to people interested in buying a desktop computer equipped with a redesigned version of Windows going on sale this fall.

The personal computers previewed Tuesday by Samsung at a technology conference in Germany provided one of the first glimpses at the Windows 8 machines scheduled to hit the market on Oct. 26.

Brazil hopes to capitalize on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics to advance its goal of becoming the world's third largest information technology and communications (ITC) market, a top industry official says.

"We are today the fifth largest ITC market in the world, (worth) $210 billion dollars," Antonio Gil, president of the Brazilian Association of Information Technology and Communication Companies (Brasscom), told Agence France Presse in an interview Monday.

Smartphones are set to make up a majority of the global handset market next year, fueled by surging demand from consumers in both wealthy and emerging nations, a survey showed Tuesday.

The report by IHS iSuppli said smartphone shipments in 2013 are forecast to account for 54 percent of the total mobile phone market, up from 46 percent in 2012 and 35 percent in 2011.

Beirut remains the media and technology incubator in the region. As an assertion of the capital’s role, the organizers of the corporate digital marketing conference DGTL#U have chosen Beirut to be the first stop in the road show around Arab cities including Kuwait, Jeddah, Muscat, Riyadh, amongst other countries, a press release said Wednesday.

Top international digital experts are meeting in Beirut to share significant case studies and success stories with marketing professionals from Lebanon: Phil Erhart from Apple, Ramzi Raad from TBWA\RAAD, Mike Al-Mefleh from RIM, William Kanaan from Google, Dani Risha from Impact BBDO, Jiri Voves from SocialBakers, Hassan Mikail from Aramex, Tarek Atrissi from Atrissi Design...

The New York Times Co. has agreed to sell its information website About.com for $300 million to IAC, a conglomerate headed by mogul Barry Diller.

The two firms announced the cash deal late Sunday, concluding the effort by The Times to sell off non-core assets.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics vowed on Tuesday to take "all necessary measures" to keep its products on U.S. store shelves, in response to Apple's request for a ban on sales of some smartphones.

After winning a $1.05 billion U.S. court judgment in a patent suit last week, Apple on Monday filed a court request to ban eight Samsung mobile devices including versions of its Galaxy and Droid smartphones.