Google and the IE Alumni Association invite AUB alumni and MBA students to a panel workshop and careers networking session on the topic of empowering SMEs in Lebanon through web-based technologies entitled "Deploying Technology to Empower SMEs in Lebanon". It will be held on Friday, May 4 at the Hotel Bristol and will feature a high-profile panel of tech industry entrepreneurs, including William Kanaan (Google), Maroun Chammas (IDM, Berytech), Hala Fadel (Comgest, MIT Enterprise Forum), and Elie Habib (Riyada Enterprise Development).

Registration Link : http://goo.gl/5Yrq8

Gadget giant Apple is avoiding billions of dollars in taxes by setting up small offices around the world to collect and invest the company's profits, The New York Times reported Saturdayfafp.

The report said an office in Reno, Nevada, where the corporate tax rate is zero, was one of many that the California-based technology giant uses to legally sidestep state income taxes on some of its gains.

A legal battle between Yahoo! and Facebook heated up Friday with the floundering Internet pioneer accusing the rising social network star of buying patents just to retaliate in court.

The accusation came in a 37-page response filed by Yahoo! to a countersuit Facebook filed charging that the Sunnyvale, California-based company is violating the social network's patents -- and not the other way around.

Google confirmed Friday that its online search and advertising services are under scrutiny by regulators in Argentina and South Korea.

Word of the probes came a day after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission revealed it hired former Justice Department prosecutor Beth Wilkinson to head an investigation into whether Google abused its dominance in online search.

Eighteen U.S. Olympians including swimming greats Mark Spitz and Janet Evans are suing Samsung Corporation, saying its U.S. Olympic Genome Project Facebook app misuses their names and images.

Spitz and Evans are joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by diver Greg Louganis, athletics great Jackie Joyner-Kersee, beach volleyball player Phil Dalhausser and 13 other swimmers.

LinkedIn users can now access the professional social network on their iPad with an application launched Thursday.

The free app is available through Apple Inc.'s iTunes store. LinkedIn says the app helps today's increasingly mobile professionals who aren't always tethered to a desktop.

Google on Thursday confirmed that it has sold 3D computer modeling program SketchUp as the Internet titan continues streamlining its product line with co-founder Larry Page at the helm.

SketchUp technology and members of the team will join Trimble, a California company specializing in making business or government workers more productive in jobs such as surveying, construction, mapping, fleet management and public safety.

A surge in Galaxy smartphone sales fueled earnings at Samsung Electronics to a record high in the first quarter, usually a tough season for the global consumer electronics industry, outshining handset rivals such as Nokia Corp.

Samsung sold more smartphones in the first three months of the year than Apple Inc. and raked in more than 70 percent of its operating profit from mobile businesses. Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. shot up nearly 3 percent.

The hacktivist group Raise Your Voice hit again on Thursday, hacking around 10 Lebanese government websites, the second such attack in nine days.

“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bare (sic) sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon. We will not be silenced and brainwashed by your media. We will not stop until the Lebanese people mobilize, demand their rights, and earn them,” said the group’s message posted on the hacked websites.

Japanese game giant Nintendo on Thursday posted its first-ever annual loss since becoming a public company, blaming a soaring yen and price cutting on its consoles for losing about $530 million.

The Kyoto-based company said it lost 43.2 billion yen ($530 million) in the fiscal year through March, reversing a year-earlier profit of 77.62 billion yen, although the result was not as bad as the 65 billion yen loss it had forecast this year.