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Philippines Allows Phone Use on Planes

The Philippines' civil aviation authority said Tuesday it would allow passengers to use mobile phones and laptops to make calls and access the Internet during flights.

Civil aviation director general William Hotchkiss said the order covered "transmitting portable electronic devices".

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Samsung Sells 110-inch Ultra-HD TV for $150,000

Samsung said Monday a 110-inch TV that has four times the resolution of standard high-definition TVs is going on sale for about $150,000 in South Korea.

The launch of the giant television set reflects global TV makers' move toward ultra HD TVs as manufacturing bigger TVs using OLED proves too costly.

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More Americans Shopped on their Phones on Christmas

Most stores were closed but Americans still managed to shop on Christmas Day -- increasingly on their smartphones.

An IBM survey showed Christmas Day online sales were up 16.5 percent over last year, with a strong boost from smartphones and tablets.

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Blast from the Past: 1970s Games Revived on Internet

For those old enough to remember console games like "Asteroids" or "Red Baron," from the 1970s and 1980s: the games are back.

The Internet Archive this week launched its "Console Living Room," offering browser emulations of pre-Internet era video games which used to be played on consoles from firms like Atari, Coleco or Magnavox.

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Twitter Tumbles after Warning on Overvaluation

Twitter shares tumbled Friday after a brokerage analyst warned the popular messaging network was overvalued following a meteoric rise since its initial public offering in November.

Twitter shares closed down 12.99 percent at $63.79. But the stock has more than doubled from its offering price at $26 on November 7.

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Taiwan's HTC Designer Indicted for Leaks to China

Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday indicted a chief designer and five employees at leading smartphone maker HTC for allegedly leaking crucial trade secrets to China and breach of trust.

Chien Chih-lin, vice president of product design, was charged with leaking information relating to "highly valuable" designs for a yet-to-be-launched smartphone interface to unidentified individuals in Beijing in an attempt to set up a joint new company in China, prosecutors said.

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Websites Try to Fight Nasty Comments, Anonymity

Mix blatant bigotry with poor spelling. Add a dash of ALL CAPS. Top it off with a violent threat. And there you have it: A recipe for the worst of online comments.

Blame anonymity, blame politicians, blame human nature. But a growing number of websites are reining in online commentary. Companies including Google and The Huffington Post are trying everything from deploying moderators to forcing people to use their real names. Some sites, such as Popular Science, are banning comments altogether.

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Online Shopping Grows, with Some Growing Pains

Americans waited until the last minute to buy holiday gifts, but retailers weren't prepared for the spike.

Heavy spending in the final days of the mostly lackluster season sent sales up 3.5 percent between Nov. 1 and Tuesday, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks payments but doesn't give dollar figures.

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Amazon to Compensate Customers for Late Gifts

Amazon Thursday said it would give $20 gift cards and pay shipping costs for customers affected by problems at UPS and FedEx that delayed some Christmas package deliveries.

The Amazon pledge came after UPS in particular came under fire for late packages despite vows from retailers to meet a December 25 deadline.

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Apple Fined in Taiwan for Fair Trade Violation

Taiwanese authorities on Wednesday slapped a fine of Tw$20 million ($667,000) on U.S tech giant Apple for violating a fair trade law over .local iPhone pricing.

The Fair Trade Commission said an Apple unit in charge of Taiwan sales had interfered in the pricing and mobile phone payment rates of three local telecom service providers, despite selling them the distribution rights to the phones.

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