YouTube is making a bold step into original programming in an entertainment venture with some 100 content creators, from Madonna to The Wall Street Journal.

The Google Inc.-owned video site said Friday that it's launching more than 100 new video channels. The partners include an array of Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos.

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s stock recovered some of its recent losses Friday as investors applauded a change of heart about the technology conglomerate's previously announced plan to shed its personal computer decision.

The about-face announced late Thursday alleviated concerns that HP would compound its myriad of headaches by selling or spinning off a division that accounts for about one-third of the company's revenue.

Current-season shows on The CW including "The Vampire Diaries" and "Gossip Girl" are coming to Hulu.

The five-year deal announced Friday means that before the end of the year, the online video service will feature shows from five of the largest six broadcasters — ABC, NBC, Fox, The CW, and Univision. The only holdout is CBS.

For the first time, Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more smartphones in the latest quarter than tech industry darling Apple Inc. On the surface, this may look like a big upset in a world that affords the iPhone maker adulation and outsized expectations.

The real reason, however, has more to do with timing and Samsung's variety of offerings and prices.

Hackers have hit the website of Nigeria's top anti-corruption agency over a government official suggesting tighter Internet control in Africa's most populous nation.

A group of hackers calling themselves NaijaCyberHacktivists claimed the attack Friday on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's site, which saw its usual home page replaced with a warning from the group. The hackers said the attack was a response to suggestions the government censor Internet content.

Japanese electronics giant Sony said Thursday it would buy out its Swedish partner Ericsson from their mobile phone joint venture, giving it full control over its increasingly vital handset business.

"Sony will acquire Ericsson's 50 percent stake in Sony Ericsson ... making the mobile handset business a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony," the two companies said.

Singapore's SingTel has developed an application to rival the voice-activated Siri on the iPhone 4S that is sure to go down well in the island state -- because it can understand "Singlish".

When Apple unveiled its latest handset earlier this month most of the talk was about Siri, which can give directions or even advice to users simply by asking a question into the speaker.

Research In Motion is being sued in the United States and on its home turf in Canada for a BlackBerry service outage that affected millions of people worldwide.

The lawsuits seek class action status to represent all BlackBerry users in the respective countries and call for RIM to pay unspecified cash damages.

Facebook announced Thursday that it would immediately begin building a massive data center -- its third globally and first in Europe -- in the Swedish town of Luleaa, near the Arctic Circle.

"After a rigorous review process of sites across Europe, we concluded that Luleaa offered the best package of resources, including a suitable climate for environmental cooling (and) clean power resources," said the world's largest social media site, which counts more than 800 million users worldwide.

Video game makers are breaking out the big guns and hitting players with a barrage of dynamite titles that will compete for their devotion and entertainment dollars this holiday season.

Bethesda Softwork's freshly released "Rage" blends brilliant graphics with fast-paced combat on foot and in vehicles in an expansive vision of an Earth rendered wasteland by an asteroid strike.