AP Technology NewsBrief at 4:05 a.m. EST

(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Review: Microsoft Office pricey, but good valueNEW YORK (AP) _ As much as I like Google Docs for word processing and spreadsheets, I find the online software clunky at times. So I was skeptical when I heard Microsoft is trying to sell its new version of Office as an online subscription. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the subscription gets you the same software you'd get buying it at a retail store. In fact, I'm using the new Office 2013 to write this review, and it feels as smooth as the customized version of Office 2010 I regularly use.

IBM sends Watson to NY college to boost its skillsTROY, N.Y. (AP) _ Watson, the supercomputer famous for beating the world's best human "Jeopardy!" champions, is going to college. IBM is announcing Wednesday that it will provide a Watson system to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first time the computer is being sent to a university. Just like the flesh-and-blood students who will work on it, Watson is leaving home to sharpen its skills. Course work will include English and math.

Critical, long-overdue BlackBerry makeover arrivesTORONTO (AP) _ BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. will kick off a critical, long-overdue makeover when chief executive Thorsten Heins shows off the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday. Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple's trend-setting iPhone and Google's Android-driven devices. There has even been talk that the fate of the company that created the BlackBerry in 1999 is no longer certain.

Nintendo returns to profit, lowers sales forecastsTOKYO (AP) _ Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. returned to the black for the first nine months of its business year and more than doubled its profit forecast for the full year, getting a perk from a weaker yen, despite pessimism about sales prospects. April-December profit for the Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games totaled 14.55 billion yen ($160 million), bouncing back from the 48.35 billion yen loss reported a year earlier, it said Wednesday. Nine-month sales inched up 2.4 percent to 543 billion yen ($6 billion).

LG Electronics sinks to loss after EU fineSEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ LG Electronics Inc. reported its first quarterly loss in a year Wednesday after Europe slapped it with a massive fine for price fixing. Its net loss totaled 468 billion won ($429 million) for the last quarter of 2012, compared with a loss of 112 billion a year earlier.

Ticketmaster makes online 'CAPTCHA' puzzles easierLOS ANGELES (AP) _ Ticketmaster, often the target of fan anger when tickets to popular concerts get sold out in seconds, is removing an annoyance that can slow down the buying process: the jumble of letters that people need to decipher known as "CAPTCHA." The puzzles provided by Google Inc. are meant to deter automated systems known as "bots" from purchasing large numbers of tickets the instant they go on sale. Scalpers have been known to employ bots to acquire tickets, which they resell for a profit.

Amazon posts lower 4Q net income but stock jumpsNEW YORK (AP) _ Amazon's fourth-quarter net income fell 45 percent, as sharply higher revenue failed to keep pace with increased spending on order fulfillment and digital content, a trend that's become the norm for the world's largest online retailer. The company's financial results missed Wall Street's expectations _ but investors sent the world's top online retailer's stock up more than 9 percent in after-hours trading.

Judge rejects Apple's patent award demandsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ A federal judge late Tuesday rejected Apple Inc.'s demand to increase the $1.05 billion in damages a jury ordered Samsung Electronics Inc. to pay its fiercest rival in the smartphone market. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh also rejected demands from both companies to conduct another trial on different issues over claims that Samsung unfairly used technology controlled by Apple to build its iPads and iPhones to market knockoff products. She also upheld the validity of the Apple patents at the center of the dispute.

Microsoft retools Office for touch screen, Web useSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Microsoft is aiming its redesigned Office software at the growing number of people who expect their favorite applications to be at their fingertips, wherever there's an Internet connection. In an attempt to extend a lucrative franchise beyond personal computers, the world's biggest software maker is selling a retooled version of Office as an online subscription service to consumers for the first time. It's a departure from Microsoft's traditional approach of granting permission to install Office on solitary machines for a one-time fee.

Apple unveils iPad with more memoryCUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) _ Apple says it will sell an iPad with more memory than the current models available. Apple Inc. said Tuesday that the new, full-size model comes with 128 gigabytes of memory, up from 64 gigabytes. Nothing else has changed, so it will remain a fourth-generation iPad, which went on sale in November. The memory increase does not apply to the iPad Mini, which also went on sale in November.

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