Apple, in a move hailed by a group of U.S. senators, has agreed not to allow any new iPhone applications in the App Store that identify police drunk-driving checkpoints.

Senators Harry Reid, Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg and Tom Udall urged Apple, Blackberry maker Research In Motion and Google in March to ban Smartphone applications that could help intoxicated drivers avoid police.

Facebook on Friday said it is dabbling with a Twitter-like feature that alerts members in real time to what their friends are up to on the social network.

The feature, reportedly called "Happening Now," is being tried by a "fraction of a percent" of Facebook's more than 600 million members, according to the world's leading online social network.

Citigroup Inc. has become the latest victim in a string of high-profile data thefts by hackers targeting some of the world's best-known companies.

The New York bank said Thursday that about 200,000 Citibank credit card customers in North America had their names, account numbers and email addresses stolen by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site.

Apple is hoping to break ground next year on a new campus designed to house 12,000 workers in a building that resembles a huge spaceship.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs argued for the new campus in Cupertino, California in a personal appearance on Tuesday before the city council, which later posted a video of his presentation on its website, Cupertino.org.

US computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced on Thursday that its rival to Apple's hot-selling iPad, the HP TouchPad, will go on sale in the United States on July 1.

The touchscreen tablet computer, which is powered by the webOS software platform bought from Palm, will be available in Britain, France, Ireland and Germany a few days later and in Canada in mid-July, HP said in a statement.

Facebook is coming under fire for a feature that uses facial recognition software to allow members to tag pictures of their friends on the social network.

The "Tag Suggestions" feature made its debut on Facebook in the United States six months ago but has drawn renewed attention this week after the social network began rolling it out to other countries.

If you've ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn't have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the same time.

Scientists have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap, instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name, high-resolution photographs and information on the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark.

Whizzing around with your own personal jetpack may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin aims to have his "jet ski for the skies" on the market within 18 months.

After 30 years of painstaking development, Martin's jetpack last month soared 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above the South Island's Canterbury Plains as its creator watched anxiously from a helicopter hovering nearby.

A team of Japanese inventors have come with a new device that blends the country's fascination with cuteness and its penchant for experimental high-tech -- brainwave-controlled cat ears.

The fluffy headwear reads users' brain activity, meaning the ears perk up when they concentrate and then flop down again to lay flat against the head when users enter a relaxed state of mind, say its developers.

Nintendo stock plunged Wednesday in Tokyo despite the much ballyhooed unveiling of the Wii U, the successor to its hit Wii video game console.

The demonstration of a prototype at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, appeared to leave investors disappointed and skeptical.