Technology Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) , Smartphone shipments rose 36 percent worldwide in the fourth quarter as the sleek devices supplanted personal computers and other gadgets on holiday shopping lists, according to a report released Friday.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) , Wool instead of synthetic fleece, carbon skis and a spoon-shaped sleeping bag are among the hottest products at the world's largest expo for outdoor equipment and apparel, where vendors are vying for a share of the $289 billion Americans spend every year on outdoor gear, travel and services.

NEW YORK (AP) , Verizon Wireless said Friday that it's selling space on the airwaves to AT and T Inc. in exchange for $1.9 billion and the transfer of some airwave rights from AT and T. The sale of spectrum rights will let AT and T expand its capacity for wireless broadband in areas that include Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and Cincinnati.

MIAMI (AP) , Woman guilty of kidnapping, abuse in missing Fla. foster child; mistrial on murder count .

TOKYO (AP) , According to its official statements, North Korea is ready to go to the brink. But how serious are Pyongyang's threats? This week, new U.N. sanctions punishing the North's successful...

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) , What's the hot gossip on the party circuit at Davos this year? No big Google bash. For the past few years, the hottest invitation at the World Economic Forum was the...

PARIS (AP) , The French government is redefining hashtag with a Gallic touch. The country that has an academy devoted solely to the use of the French language has given its official seal of approval to a new word for the Twittersphere: mot-diese.

Hollywood fantasy, meet realm of reality. Driverless cars , like the ones featured in the television show "Knight Rider" or movie "I, Robot" , are actually coming to American highways. Google invented one three years ago and now California is reviewing its road and transportation rules to make space on the highway for automated cars.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) , Like vinyl records and skinny ties, good things eventually come back around. At NASA, that means looking to the Apollo program for ideas on how to develop the next generation of rockets for future missions to the moon and beyond.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) , Samsung Electronics Co. said quarterly profit soared 76 percent, boosted by the popularity of its Galaxy smartphones, which outsold the iPhone for a fourth straight quarter. But the company said Friday it expects earnings to decline during the current quarter because of seasonally low demand for consumer electronics.

HAVANA (AP) , Cuba's state telecom monopoly confirmed Thursday that the island's first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world has been activated, but said it won't lead to an immediate increase in access.

George Tunis, a CEO of Hardwire LLC, and his young son were watching the news as tragedy unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. When Mr Tunis looked at his son and saw the fear in his eyes, his engineering brain took over, The Blaze reports. "We can fix this," he said. "We have to do something."

HELSINKI (AP) , Struggling Nokia Corp. turned a fourth-quarter net profit of €202 million ($270 million) compared with a loss of $1 billion a year earlier, but revenue fell 20 percent as it failed to make gains in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

VATICAN CITY (AP) , Pope Benedict XVI put church leaders on notice Thursday, saying social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter aren't a virtual world they can ignore, but rather a very real world they must engage if they want to spread the faith to the next generation.

LONDON (AP) , British regulators have fined Sony 250,000 pounds ($396,100) for failing to prevent a 2011 cyberattack on its PlayStation Network which put millions of users' personal information , including names, addresses, birth dates and account passwords , at risk.