keep for now

Hampton Adams has been one of CES' most loyal devotees for 15 years. But unlike a good chunk of the 140,000-plus who descend on the world's largest technology showcase every January, the portfolio manager is less keen on fiddling with cutting-edge technology than picking winners.

Global PC shipments declined 1.4 percent in the last quarter of 2011 mainly due to weak demand in Western Europe and the United States, according to research firm Gartner.

Life Technologies said it started taking orders for its "$1000 genome" device, placing the maker of life sciences tools in pole position in an industry-wide race to build the cheapest and fastest platform for gene sequencing.

The symbolic Doomsday Clock calculated by a group of scientists was moved a minute closer to midnight on Tuesday, with the group citing inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and climate change.

France's auction for six new free digital terrestrial television channels attracted 31 bids, French broadcasting regulator CSA said on Wednesday.

Dell Inc intends to launch its first consumer tablet computer in late 2012, marking its entry into a hotly contested and increasingly crowded arena that has already claimed arch-foe Hewlett Packard.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) will again dominate conversations at CES, the world's biggest technology showcase. Only this time, the talk is extending beyond iPad and iPhone chatter to include Siri, the voice app that is capturing consumers' imagination.

At restaurants, at movies and at the office, checking Facebook has become a regular habit for many of the Internet social network's more than 800 million users.

High levels of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere mean the next ice age is unlikely to begin for at least 1,500 years, an article in the journal Nature Geoscience said on Monday.

The world's best known living scientist, Stephen Hawking, was too ill to attend his 70th birthday celebrations Sunday but in a recorded speech urged people to "look up at the stars" and be curious about the universe.

Ilan Ben-Dov plans to step down as chairman of Partner Communications (PTNR.TA), Israel's second largest mobile phone operator, the company said on Sunday.

Japan's Olympus Corp has sued its current president and three ex-directors for several million dollars in compensation, sources told Reuters on Monday, as the company seeks to draw a line under one of the nation's worst accounting scandals.

The world's biggest technology trade show will feature razor-thin laptops, powerful new smartphones and fancy flat-screen TVs, but talk in the cavernous halls of the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off on Monday night, may focus on whether the show itself has a long-term future.

The ousted British CEO of disgraced Olympus Corp, who blew the whistle on a $1.7 billion accounting fraud, dropped his bid to return to lead the medical device maker, blaming cozy ties between its management and big Japanese shareholders and saying the saga had taken its toll on his family.

Benchmark Co analysts downgraded Google Inc to hold from buy, citing a decline in advertising revenue from Europe and an uncertain outlook for the first half of this year.

With mounting evidence linking hundreds of small earthquakes from Oklahoma to Ohio to the energy industry's growing use of fracking technology, scientists say there is one way to minimize risks of even minor temblors.

More than 10 million Facebook users play glitzy Diamond Dash each month, according to developer Wooga, making it one of the most popular games on the social networking site.

South Korea said on Wednesday it had approved a plan by Samsung Electronics Co to build a flash memory chip plant in China seen costing some $4 billion, as a boom in smartphones and tablet computers fuels the chip industry's growth.

Computer hackers published details of thousands of active Israeli credit cards after breaking into Israeli websites, the chief executive of Israel's largest card company said Tuesday.

Two robotic probes began orbiting the moon Sunday in preparation for an unprecedented mission to map the lunar interior.

An app that acts like a musical postcard enables users to capture and share musical moments with friends and family and to discover great songs along the way.

British police have found evidence that private investigators working for newspapers hacked into the email account of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was finance minister, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.

The year 2011 was Britain's second-warmest ever, the Met Office said on Friday, although temperatures in December have in fact been close to average.

Two robotic NASA probes are due to arrive at the moon this weekend to resolve a long-standing mystery of what is inside Earth's natural satellite and how it got there.

The third director in a week has resigned from the Eastman Kodak Co. as the former film giant struggles to survive the dominance of digital photography.

The World Health Organization issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.

Verizon Wireless, which this month angered customers with three separate data service problems, said on Thursday it will add a $2 fee for one-time telephone and online bill payments.

Russia's deputy prime minister vowed Thursday to punish "sleepy" security officials after bloggers posted dozens of photos of an apparently unguarded strategic military rocket motor factory near Moscow.

A record number of large scale ivory seizures will be recorded globally in 2011, pointing to a surge in elephant poaching in Africa to meet Asian demand for tusks for use in jewelry and ornaments, a monitoring group said Thursday.