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Apps Thrill Toddlers as Swedish Schools Go Digital

Two-year-old Mia traces out a letter on the screen with her forefinger, then claps with joy when the computer chants "wonderful!" and emits a slightly metallic round of applause.

The preschool group at Tanto International School in central Stockholm is just getting used to a new batch of iPads -- one for every two children -- and it's a noisy, chatty affair.

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Video Games Target Japan's Silver Generation

At a nursing home in suburban Tokyo, 88-year-old Saburo Sakamoto darts his fingers energetically to catch characters that appear on a touch screen in front of him.

Peals of laughter erupt from the other side of the room full of octogenarians as they wallop plastic alligators that appear from little holes or wield foam hammers to crush frogs as they pop up.

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Report: Apple Sent Billions Offshore to Avoid Australia Tax

Apple shifted billions in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to Ireland over the past decade, a report said Thursday, as the government vowed to stop global companies from dodging their fair share of tax.

An investigation by the Australian Financial Review obtained 10 years worth of financial accounts for Apple Sales International -- an arm of the organisation it described as the "secretive" Irish company at the heart of the group's global tax arrangements.

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Roku Gets into Streaming-Stick Fight with Google

Roku is getting into an Internet video-streaming stick fight with Google's Chromecast.

Like the similarly shaped Chromecast, Roku's thumb-sized device plugs into a TV's HDMI port and feeds Internet video through a Wi-Fi connection.

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Game Play Remains at Heart of Changing Lifestyles

For almost as long as there have been computers, there have been people intent in playing games with them.

Since young programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with "Spacewar!" some 50 years ago, the world of videogames has exploded into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

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Toshiba Launches Next Generation 15,000 RPM Enterprise Performance HDDs

Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) today announced new additions to its lineup of enterprise performance hard disk drives (HDD), the AL13SXB series and the self-encrypting AL13SXQ series, which are suitable for mission-critical enterprise applications. Sample shipping will start from the middle of March.

The AL13SX series offers capacities up to 600GB [1], the largest-class storage capacity [2] in a 15,000 RPM 2.5-inch design, double the maximum capacity of previous generation drives [3]. The drives provide lower latency and power savings compared with legacy 3.5-inch 15,000 RPM 600GB models.

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Siri Gets a Seat in iPhone-Friendly Cars

Apple on Monday announced that autos will roll out this year with CarPlay technology making iPhones helpful road-trip companions, complete with Siri tending to messages.

"CarPlay gives iPhone users an incredibly intuitive way to make calls, use Maps, listen to music and access messages with just a word or a touch," Apple said in a release.

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Wifi in the Sky Looks Set for Takeoff

Wifi in aircraft, hobbled in the past by slow speeds, could soon take off as new technology enables passengers to surf the web as if they were in a coffee shop, Internet executives say.

More airlines are rolling out new and improved services thanks to satellite technology, industry leaders said at the recent Singapore Airshow, with the public increasingly demanding wifi on planes.

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Expanded UNR Earthquake Lab 2nd Biggest in World

There's a whole lot of shakin' going on at the University of Nevada, Reno.

UNR's seismic-simulation facility became the largest in the United States and second largest in the world this week with an expansion that included moving three new 27-ton shake table tops into the school's new Earthquake Engineering Laboratory.

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Tokyo Fair Showcases Latest Sex Aids

The latest sex aids are no longer simple gadgets, with many now digitized and linked to smartphones -- some manufacturers at a Tokyo fair even insist they are just like home appliances.

Twenty-four manufacturers and brands of sex goods from around the world, including from mainland China and Hong Kong, are showcasing their latest adult products at the "Pink Tokyo" sex fair.

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