Technology

Repressive regimes have stepped up efforts to censor the Internet and jail dissidents, Reporters Without Borders said in a study out Thursday.

China, Iran and Tunisia, which are on the group's "Enemies of the Internet" list, got more sophisticated at censorship and overcoming dissidents' attempts to communicate online, said Reporters Without Borders' Washington director, Clothilde Le Coz.

Meanwhile, Turkey and Russia found themselves on the group's "Under Surveillance" list of nations in danger of making the main enemies list.

Apple's patent suit against HTC, filed Tuesday with the International Trade Commission, is just the latest in a string of technology-related complaints filed with the government agency. The trend shows the increasing importance of the ITC.

Apple alleges that Taiwan-based HTC infringes on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's graphical user interface, architecture and hardware. The company is seeking a permanent injunction barring HTC from importing infringing phones into the U.S. Apple is also seeking triple damages and maximum interest.

Apple Inc. said it found more than a dozen serious violations of labor laws or Apple's own rules at its suppliers that needed immediate correction.

The findings were outlined in a company report on audits of 102 supplier facilities conducted in 2009. That was a year in which questions about the practices of one of Apple's suppliers came into focus after the suicide of a Chinese worker who held a sensitive job handling iPhones.

In the near future, you might not even have to visit a bank or an ATM to deposit a check. You'll simply snap a couple of photos of it with your cell phone.

Applications to do just that are already available for Apple's iPhone and other gadgets from USAA, a company that provides insurance and banking mainly for military veterans. Chase, Bank of America and Citibank are among the banks planning to release similar applications this year.

If you talked to portfolio managers at any time in 2009, chances were good that they would extol the virtues of technology stocks. The information technology sector of the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks rocketed 59 percent higher last year, beating every other sector and doubling the broad index's 23.5 percent advance in 2009.

How quickly fashions change on Wall Street. A month into 2010, tech is down 8.2 percent, more than any sector but telecommunications, itself off 8.9 percent this year. The S&P 500 has dropped 2.3 percent.

Government officials continue to put pressure on U.S. technology companies to stop censorship in China. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, is joining other government officials to fight censorship in China and other countries.

Nintendo's president shrugged off the just unveiled iPad tablet computer from Apple as delivering "no surprises," and displayed as little enthusiasm for 3-D technology and high-definition upgrades for games.

"It was a bigger iPod Touch," Satoru Iwata said of the much anticipated device shown Wednesday by Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs.

Iwata denied speculation in Japanese media that what Nintendo Co. has in the works in new gadgets may be a DS equipped with a motion-sensor similar to the wand for Nintendo's hit Wii home console, or a Wii upgraded for high-definition TVs.

Microsoft has taken a step toward getting the federal government to pay attention to cloud-computing services. The Redmond, Wash.-based company is asking for a cloud-computing law.

Microsoft's senior vice president and top legal counsel, Brad Smith, has proposed that Congress institute the Cloud Computing Advancement Act to help foster trust in cloud-computing services and address privacy concerns.

The Federal Communications Commission has a daunting task to complete this spring. The deadline for public comment on the FCC's proposed Net-neutrality rules passed this week, and now the FCC is accepting rebuttals and replies to comments made by Internet companies, industry associations, and government officials.

The proposed Net-neutrality framework or national broadband plan would regulate businesses in an effort to ensure that all people of the U.S. have broadband access. The rule change also means consumers will have more say in which Internet products succeed.

Amid the companies unveiling new laptops, smartphones and electronic book readers is an auto company that has tapped several partners to help make the automobile a moving technology machine. Ford unveiled a slew of innovative technologies on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.