The new iPad model hitting stores Friday comes with several improvements over the original version but the same price tag, hobbling efforts by rivals at breaking Apple Inc.'s hold on the emerging market for tablet computers.

Competitors such as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. can't seem to match the iPad's starting price of $499. Tablets that are comparable to the iPad in features cost hundreds of dollars more, while cheaper tablets are inferior to the iPad in quality.

South Korea's electronics giants are engaged in rare public mudslinging about whose 3-D television technology is better, as they battle for a greater share of a potentially huge global market.

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, respectively the world's largest and second largest flat-screen TV makers, each claim their technology offers more vivid images and wider viewing angles.

Eden Sawczenko used to recoil when other little girls held her hand and turned stiff when they hugged her. This year, the 4-year-old autistic girl began playing with a robot that teaches about emotions and physical contact — and now she hugs everyone.

"She's a lot more affectionate with her friends now and will even initiate the embrace," said Claire Sawczenko, Eden's mother.

Developed nations have become "dangerously over-reliant" on satellite navigation systems such as GPS, which could break down or be attacked with devastating results, British engineers said Tuesday.

The Royal Academy of Engineering said the application of the technology was now so broad -- from car sat-navs to the time stamp on financial transactions -- that without adequate backup, any disruption could have a major impact.

YouTube announced that it bought Internet television company Next New Networks to improve content for the Google-owned video-sharing website.

The New York City-based startup was launched four years ago and is home to popular networks, such as "Barely Political" and "Indy Mogul," which it billed as the "filmmaking network for the YouTube generation."

There was a time when LOL — "laughing out loud" — was so simple.

If I thought something in a casual online conversation was funny, I typed it. If I wanted to let someone know I was kidding in an e-mail or an instant message, same.

The French finance ministry has shut down 10,000 computers after a "spectacular" cyber attack from hackers using Internet addresses in China, officials and reports said Monday.

The hackers were hunting for documents relating to the Group of 20 (G20) developed and developing nations, which this year is led by France, said Budget Minister Francois Baron, adding that a probe was under way into the attacks.

In the wake of the Stuxnet virus, the topic of international "cyber war" split IT experts at the world's top tech fair, some seeing the idea as fanciful, others warning it was already here.

"'Cyber war' has already left the pages of the science-fiction books and has become a reality," August-Wilhelm Scheer, president of BITKOM, Germany's high-tech lobby group, told Agence Freance Presse on the sidelines of the CeBIT exposition.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs emerged from medical leave on Wednesday to unveil a new version of the iPad designed to tighten the company's grip on the booming tablet computer market.

The iPad 2 is thinner and lighter than the original version released last year and features cameras for photography, movie-making or video chat.

A gleaming white robot that sings, dances, recites Shakespeare, mimics other famous robots and even tries to kiss passers-by drew huge crowds on Tuesday at the world's biggest high-tech fair.

Visitors to the CeBIT fair flocked to see the "RoboThespian" and its tricks, applauding loudly as the sleek machine gave a perfect performance of the famous "Hamlet" soliloquy, complete with over-the-top thespian actions and voices.