Technology

NEW YORK — Facebook, the social network that changed “friend” from a noun to a verb, is expected to file as early as Wednesday to sell stock on the open market. Its debut is likely to be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004.

NEW YORK — Kids “LOL” and “OMG” each other all the livelong day, but ask them to decipher the XLVI of this year’s Super Bowl and you might as well be talking Greek.
They may know what X means, or V and I, but Roman numerals beyond the basics have largely gone the way of cursive and penmanship as a subject in schools.

TORONTO — Tablet ownership nearly tripled in Canada last year and will continue to surge in 2012, according to a report by the Media Technology Monitor.
Among anglophones, tablet ownership was at about 11 per cent last fall, up from four per cent in 2010, according to the report, based on surveys of 4,000 anglophones and 4,000 francophones late last year.

MONTREAL — French accents could soon be allowed in Internet domain names ending with “.ca.”
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority launched the final phase of a consultation process into the move last week.
Accents on French characters are expected to be permitted in Canadian domain names within nine to 18 months.

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama plans to “hang out” in a video chat room to answer questions about his State of the Union address, part of a White House effort to test new social networking tools and the latest evidence of the growing intersection of social media and politics.

NEW YORK—Apple is launching a new version of its iBooks software, tailored to present vivid, interactive textbooks for elementary and high school students on the iPads.
IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features, the company announced yesterday at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

NEW YORK — Apple is launching a new version of its iBooks software, tailored to present vivid, interactive textbooks for elementary and high school students on the iPads.
IBooks 2 will be able to display books with videos and other interactive features, the company announced Thursday at an event at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

LAS VEGAS — Cheaper tablets, thinner laptops and an array of sleeker TVs stood out at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
More than 140,000 people gathered there this week, for an event that’s growing despite the absence of Apple and more recently, the decision by Microsoft to make this the last year it participates.

NEW YORK — Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, the American sentenced to death by the Iranian government, is linked to a small New York company specializing in video games that recreate real-life conflicts in the Middle East and beyond.

MIAMI—NASA is questioning whether Apollo 13 commander James Lovell has the right to sell a 70-page checklist from the flight that includes his handwritten calculations crucial in guiding the damaged spacecraft back to Earth.
The document was sold by Heritage Auctions in November for more than $388,000—some 15 times its initial list price.