Facebook on Thursday freed members from the bonds of being either male or female, letting people opt for custom genders such as transsexual or "intersex" at the social network.

Along with adding scores of "custom gender" options on profile pages, Facebook is letting members select which pronouns they wish used when referring to them in posts or messages.

Children's advocacy groups fired at Facebook on Thursday, rejecting a $20 million deal made to settle charges that the social network violated privacy by using "likes" as endorsements for ads.

U.S.-based Public Citizen led organizations backing a legal brief urging a federal appeals court in San Francisco to toss the deal inked last year.

U.S. videogame hardware sales surged in January, with Sony's new-generation PlayStation 4 consoles leading the charge, according to figures released on Thursday.

People spent $241 million on videogame hardware, predominately consoles, in January compared to $205 million in the same month a year earlier, when a fifth "leap week" gave figures a particular boost, according to industry tracker NPD Group.

Nokia is selling a new Windows phone that promises enhanced video-recording capabilities.

The new Lumia Icon sports four microphones, compared with the one or two typically found in smartphones. The two on the front are activated when making phone calls, while the two on the rear are used when taking video — to better capture sound coming from the subjects.

Microsoft on Wednesday denied censoring Chinese-language search results across the globe, but the group behind the accusation stood firm.

"We can emphatically confirm that they are not," Microsoft's senior director of Bing search engine Stefan Weitz said in a blog post addressing talk of political censorship.

Francois Hollande announced Wednesday measures to boost innovation and start-ups in France, as he became the first French president in 30 years to set foot in California.

On the last day of his visit to the United States, Hollande, who has seen his approval ratings plummet to rock bottom at home over his failure to restore economic prosperity, said that "France must recognize the dynamism of its entrepreneurs."

Yahoo on Tuesday added the startup behind smartphone visual diary-app Days to its list of acquisitions as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to pump new life into the aging Internet pioneer.

Financial terms of the deal to buy New York City-based Wander were not disclosed, but technology news website TechCrunch put the value at more than $10 million.

Airline pilots and federal officials launched a campaign Monday to warn about the dangers of people pointing lasers into cockpits. They're promising prosecution for those who are caught, and a reward for those who turn them in.

While the powerful beams of light do not harm the aircraft, they can temporarily blind pilots, some of whom had to hand over control to a co-pilot.

TV viewers increasingly are watching programs on their own schedule, according to a Nielsen company media study released Monday.

In the past year, time-shifting of television content grew by almost two hours, averaging 13 hours per month, the study found. Viewers averaged nearly 134 hours of live TV viewing a month in 2013, down nearly three hours from 2012.

Google overtook U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil on Monday to become the world's number two company when rated by market value, behind its high-tech rival Apple.

Even though Google shares fell 0.38 percent, a bigger drop in Exxon stock allowed the Internet giant to capture the second spot in market capitalization.