Facebook is letting friends pry.

New "ask" buttons popping up in profiles of friends at the leading social network let people inquire about omitted information such as whether they are in romantic relationships or where they live.

Priming itself for the age of Internet-delivered video, AT&T Inc. said it would buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion in cash and stock, or $95 per share.

While DirecTV doesn't help the telecom company compete in the online video space immediately, cost savings from the merger and the extra cash flow will improve its ability to compete with the cable giant that would be formed by Comcast Corp.'s proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable.

Google on Friday confirmed it has bought a startup specializing in using smartphones to translate signs, billboards or other written words in real time.

Quest Visual and the technology built into its Word Lens application will become part of a Google team devoted to developing translation features and services.

Google said Friday it could take weeks to devise a way to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling that it honor requests to be "forgotten."

Word that the U.S. Internet titan is grappling with how to implement the judicial order came as it fielded requests from people who want links to deeds or critics deleted from search results.

The technology titans behind the top two smartphone platforms in the world called a truce Friday in a long-running patent war.

"Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies," the companies said in a joint statement.

U.S. regulators voted Thursday for a controversial proposal that would allow Internet "fast lanes" while leaving open the possibility of tougher regulations to protect online access.

Amid demonstrations outside its meeting and following weeks of lobbying from various groups, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of the new rules, which still must go through a public comment period before being finalized.

Only a few dozen Indonesians queued up Friday to lay their hands on BlackBerry's new budget handset, in a lukewarm welcome that highlighted the smartphone maker's fading fortunes.

The Z3 -- launched in one of Blackberry's last bastions-- is a key test of whether the ailing Canadian company can regain ground lost in emerging markets to Apple's iPhone and devices using the Google Android operating system.

Sony's PlayStation 4 led a surge in console sales that lifted the U.S. video game market in April, said figures released Thursday by market research firm NPD Group.

Sales of video game hardware, mostly consoles, jumped 76 percent to $192.8 million during the month compared to a year ago, more than offsetting a 10-percent drop in sales of game software to $227.9 million, NPD reported.

Sales of Samsung Electronics' new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone are outpacing that of its predecessor, the company's co-chief executive said, suggesting it may be regaining momentum in the multi-billion-dollar sector. 

More than 11 million S5s have been shifted since its launch at the start of last month. That compares with about 10 million units of the S4 smartphones in the same amount of time last year, J.K. Shin, who also heads Samsung's mobile business, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Google's Internet-linked eyewear -- hotly anticipated by some, feared by others -- is now available to anyone in the United States with $1,500 to spare and a yen to become an "explorer."

The decision to open the "Glass" test, or beta, program on Wednesday to anyone with enough money and curiosity came about a month after a one-day sale of the eyewear to the public.