Microsoft's move, announced at its annual developers conference in San Francisco, is an attempt to broaden the small user base of mobile versions of Windows, in the hope that more customers will end up using Microsoft's cloud-based services such as Skype and Office.

Up to now, Microsoft has charged phone and tablet makers to use versions of its Windows system on devices, as it has done successfully for many years with Windows on personal computers. Hardware makers factor the cost of that into the sale price of each device.

That model has been challenged in the past few years by Google Inc's free Android system for phones and tablets, which hardware makers embraced and accounted for more than 75 percent of all smartphones sold last year.

By contrast, Windows-powered phones have been well reviewed but held only 3 percent of the global smartphone market last year. Windows tablets have only about 2 percent of the tablet market, according to tech research firm Gartner.

Microsoft's move to make Windows free for some devices bucks a central tenet of Bill Gates' original philosophy, that software should be paid for, which led to Microsoft's massive financial success over the last four decades. But analysts said it is a realistic reaction to the runaway success of free Android.

"Microsoft is facing challenges on the mobile and tablet fronts and need to change their strategy to move the growth needle, this is a good and logical first step," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

It comes a week after new Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella unveiled new versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications for Apple Inc's iPad.

The Shipboard Autonomous Fire-fighting Robot (SAFFiR) has been built by engineers at Virginia Tech and other US universities.

The robots are expected to perform a variety of tasks - balancing, turning valves, picking up and dragging a fire hose and jetting water on the fire.

They also have a vision system to search for survivors.

"The human-sized autonomous robot is capable of finding and suppressing shipboard fires and working seamlessly with human fire-fighters," says the Office of Naval Research's website.

Such a machine should be "able to withstand higher heat for longer periods than human fire-fighters," it adds.

Two versions of the robot, made by researchers at Virginia Tech and the universities of California, Los Angeles and Pennsylvania, will be tested on board the decommissioned USS Shadwell.

The ship is regularly set on fire to test new equipment.

One robot will be about 5ft (1.5m) while the other will be slightly taller and more advanced.

Synthetic soldiers

Robots are increasingly finding their way into the military. The Pentagon's Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has a range of battlefield robots and is also working on ways to enhance soldiers' abilities with exoskeletons and uniforms made of smart materials.

This week it announced a new unit devoted to researching the intersection between biology and engineering.

It will look at creating man-made super-materials, renewable fuels and solar cells.

But it has led some commentators to ask if, longer term, the military will also try to create artificial life.

Fire TV can access content from Netflix Inc, Hulu and other providers of streaming video. The device also offers a prominent platform for Amazon's streaming video service and its growing slate of original television and video games.

Fire TV viewers may eventually be able to use their remote to buy a product in a commercial, analysts said, as Amazon's multimedia and online retail businesses become even more integrated.

"The company will eventually want to help you buy things in the living room," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said. "Only Amazon can piece that entire experience together in the living room and though we don't see evidence of that ambition here today, we should assume Amazon knows this and is planning on it."

Amazon is a latecomer to the fast-growing set-top box market dominated by Apple Inc, and some analysts were disappointed Amazon did not undercut its rival's price.

But Amazon promised that Fire TV, available now on Amazon.com, would be more powerful and easier to use than Apple TV, Google Inc's much cheaper Chromecast and Roku Inc's set-top box.

"When we look at the living room, how do we make the complexity disappear?" Peter Larsen, vice president of Amazon's Kindle unit, said at a New York event to launch the product.

Fire TV's remote features a microphone that enables voice-activated search. Fire TV is integrated with Hulu Plus so users can see Amazon shows from their Hulu account, and Amazon said it may bring in other partners soon.

By next month, Fire TV users will be able to play thousands of video games with a controller that costs $39.99.

The set-top box is one of several growth initiatives by Amazon, one of the world's largest online retailers. It is investing heavily in building fulfillment centers worldwide to expand its same-day delivery and grocery service. Earlier this week, Amazon approved six original television shows.

Amazon decided to develop the device after reading customer complaints on its website about lagging performance, cumbersome search and closed "ecosystems" on rival set-top boxes.

Larsen took shots at rivals Roku, Apple TV and Xbox, pointing out what Amazon considered to be flaws in search, access and performance with each of its competitors.

"If you add it all up, Fire TV has three times the performance and power of Apple TV, of Roku 3, of Chromecast," he said. "This is a powerful device."

Fire TV can predict what the user will watch and cue it up instantly, Larsen said. It also has a feature that uses data from IMDB to identify the music on screen as well as the actors and their filmography as they exit and enter the screen on TV.

The company, which specializes in developing genetically engineered crops that withstand herbicides and ward off insects, said the profit margin in corn, its top revenue producer, increased 2.5 points in the second quarter ended on February 28.

The corn business was on track to post record volume for the fiscal year, despite lower plantings expected in the United States this spring.

Growing market opportunities in Eastern Europe and advancements in Latin America are helping the company's corn business. And despite year-to-year fluctuations in output and demand, Monsanto said it sees demand for corn worldwide surging with population and income growth over the next several years.

"This is a year where everyone in agriculture recognizes the market realities of softer commodity prices, more volatile global currencies and some decrease in corn acres in key markets like the Americas," Monsanto Chairman Hugh Grant said on a conference call with analysts and reporters.

"We're not immune to these trends," he said. "But our business is on track to deliver the growth we anticipated."

Still, reaction was mixed, and the stock seesawed.

Analysts said there were both positive and negatives with the quarterly performance, including weaker-than-expected growth in herbicide earnings. And some investors were disappointed that the company did not raise its outlook, citing expectations for flat results this quarter.

"Lots of puts and takes this quarter," said BGS Financial analyst Mark Gulley. "A standoff thus far." Shares of Monsanto were up 1.4 percent at $115.17 in afternoon trading after falling 2 percent earlier in the session.

PROFIT CLIMBS 13 PERCENT

Monsanto said it had earned $1.67 billion, or $3.15 a share, in the second quarter, up 13 percent from $1.48 billion, or $2.74 a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average were expecting $3.07 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net sales rose to $5.8 billion from $5.5 billion, in line with analysts' expectations.

Calling the situation "incredibly concerning", NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said NATO had spotted signs of movement by a very small part of the Russian force overnight but had no indication that this was part of a withdrawal to barracks.

Russia's seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region has caused the deepest crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War, leading the United States and Europe to impose sanctions on Moscow. They have said they will strengthen these if Russia moves beyond Crimea into eastern Ukraine.

NATO military chiefs are concerned that the Russian force on the Ukrainian border, which they estimate stands at 40,000 soldiers, could pose a threat to eastern and southern Ukraine.

"This is a very large and very capable and very ready force," Breedlove said in an interview with Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.

The Russian force has aircraft and helicopter support as well as field hospitals and electronic warfare capabilities - "the entire suite that would be required to successfully have an incursion into Ukraine, should the decision be made," Breedlove said.

"We think it is ready to go and we think it could accomplish its objectives in between three and five days if directed to make the actions."

Russia has said it has no intention of invading its neighbor, although since the toppling of Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich in February it has asserted a right to intervene to protect ethnic Russians if necessary.

Further Russian intervention in Ukraine would be an "historic mistake" that would deepen Moscow's international isolation, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday.

POSSIBLE AIMS

Breedlove said Russia could have several potential objectives. These included: an incursion into southern Ukraine to establish a land corridor to Crimea; pushing beyond Crimea to Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa; or even threatening to connect to Transdniestria, the mainly Russian-speaking, separatist region of Moldova that lies to the west of Ukraine.

The new New York City would balance the relationship between the information networks that the metropolis depends on and Earth’s finite resources.

All vital components of life would be monitored and attuned to the needs of every organism, not just humans. Supplies of food and water, our energy and waste and even our air would be sensibly scrutinised. Thanks to masses of miniaturised low-cost electronic components deployed across the city, communication becomes far easier. New York will grow and adapt to millions of new minds entering it everyday.

The city would make sure every need is provided for within its borders. How we provide nutrients, transports, and shelter would be updated. Dilapidated buildings would be replaced with vertical agriculture and new kinds of housing would join cleaner, greener ways to get around the city.

What were once streets become snaking arteries of livable spaces, embedded with renewable energy sources, low-tech, green vehicles for mobility and productive nutrient zones. The former street grid could provide the foundation for new flexible networks. By reengineering the obsolete streets, we can create robust and ecologically active pathways.

While all this may sound optimistic, some of this city of tomorrow is already taking shape.

The Highline is a perfect case of adaptive reuse. This former elevated railway was converted into a public promenade and restorative ecological spine for the city. The raised streetscape helps retain rainwater, over 200 plant species, recreational green space; the freight trains are gone, replaced by people walking and cycling.

The Lowline, meanwhile, is a strategy to position state-of-the-art solar equipment to illuminate a discarded underground trolley station on the Lower East Side of NYC. This concept is to create an appealing underground common space, delivering an attractive ecological space within the heart of this crowded metropolitan environment.

Then there is Vision 42. This enterprise re-imagines an upgraded light rail transport at Midtown Manhattan as an alternative to traffic congestion. It’s designed as a crosstown, low-floor moderate speed train line traversing river-to-river at 42nd Street. Alongside is a landscaped tree-lined pedestrian street path. Vision 42 is a prototype for an entire network of walkable streets, greenways, and smart transports throughout a future New York.

A surprise decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to sign more than a dozen international conventions that could give Palestinians greater leverage against Israel left the United States searching for a way to keep the talks going past an April 29 deadline.

"We are disappointed by the unhelpful, unilateral actions that both parties have taken in recent days," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama headed to Michigan.

He said Secretary of State John Kerry was "in close touch with our negotiating team, which remains on the ground in the region to continue discussions with the parties".

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were due to meet later in the day with U.S. envoy Martin Indyk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

The Palestinians had handed over to a U.N. representative and other diplomats applications to join 15 international conventions. They include the Geneva Conventions, the key text of international law on the conduct of war and occupation.

A senior Palestinian official, voicing frustration exacerbated by Israel's failure to carry out a pledged release of several dozen Palestinian prisoners, said on Wednesday that the eight-month-old talks had become merely "negotiating about negotiating".

Palestinian officials said Israel's failure to free the prisoners meant Abbas was no longer bound to a commitment not to confront it at the United Nations and other international bodies.

The developments further complicated efforts by Kerry to piece together a three-way deal to push the faltering negotiations into 2015.

The talks were already in trouble over the issues of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War, and Palestinian opposition to Netanyahu's demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Israel had said it first wanted a Palestinian commitment to negotiate past the original target date for a deal before freeing the last of the 104 prisoners it promised to release as part of U.S. efforts to restart the negotiations last July.

"UP TO THE PARTIES"

On a 5-4 vote, the court struck down the overall limits on how much individuals can donate during the federal two-year election cycle.

Before the ruling, donors could not exceed a $123,200 overall limit during the two-year period. The ruling allows donors to contribute nearly $6 million in the same period, according to public advocacy groups.

Wednesday's Supreme Court decision is the latest in a series of rulings by the conservative-led court to give big-money donors more influence in U.S. elections.

Republicans, who generally favor lifting finance limits, hailed the decision. Democrats typically argue for tighter restrictions, fearing that wealthy individuals could otherwise hold undue influence over the political process.

The ruling leaves in place base limits on how much a donor can give each candidate, committee and party, limiting the scope of the decision.

In the current two-year election cycle (2013-14), an individual can give $2,600 to each candidate or committee and $32,400 to a national political party.

Election lawyers said the ruling means wealthy donors can give to more candidates ahead of this November's mid-term congressional elections than was previously allowed.

FREE SPEECH

The court said the aggregate limits violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects free speech. The majority rejected the contention of President Barack Obama's administration that the limits are needed to fight corruption.

The caps "do little, if anything, to address that concern, while seriously restricting participation in the democratic process," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican.

"What I think this means is that freedom of speech is being upheld," Republican John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters.

Fred Wertheimer, an advocate for campaign finance limits, said the court had "continued its march to destroy the nation's campaign finance laws, which were enacted to prevent corruption and protect the integrity of our democracy."

The 5-4 split was along party lines, with the five justices appointed by Republican presidents joining the majority and the four appointed by Democratic presidents dissenting.

Sell Hack is available as a free extension to the Chrome browser that, once installed, will pop up a "hack in" button on LinkedIn profiles.

Users can then find the email address associated with the account even if they are not connected.

LinkedIn said it was taking legal action over the plug-in and advised users to uninstall it.

Sell Hack insisted that the the tool was created for marketing professionals and that all data is publicly available.

On its website it said: "We just do the heavy lifting and complicated computing to save you time, We aren't doing anything malicious to LinkedIn."

But the social network for professionals did not agree.

"We are doing everything we can to shut Sell Hack down. On 31 March LinkedIn's legal team delivered Sell Hack a cease-and-desist letter as a result of several violations," a spokesman told the BBC.

"LinkedIn members who downloaded Sell Hack should uninstall it immediately and contact Sell Hack requesting that their data be deleted."

He said that members should "use caution" before downloading any third-party extension or app.

Renesas owns 55 percent stake in Renesas SP Drivers, its joint venture with Sharp Corp and Taiwan's Powerchip.

Apple expects to complete the stake purchase by summer, the business daily reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. company "apparently wants to meld" the design of core display components into its overall product development as image quality becomes a crucial selling point for smartphones, the Nikkei said.

Sharp, which owns 25 percent in Renesas SP, is expected to sell its stake to Apple if the U.S. company asks, the newspaper said.

Renesas has been hit by slowing orders and competition from companies such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The site says the move was in response to new Mozilla chief executive Brendan Eich's previous opposition to gay marriage in the US state of California.

Users are directed to use other internet browsers, such as Chrome.

Mozilla said OKCupid had not contacted it to confirm facts, and that: "Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples."

Visitors to OKCupid's website using Mozilla's free Firefox browser see a message that reads: "Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples.

"We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OKCupid."

However, it is still possible to access OKCupid's site via Firefox, if users click through the message. Ok Cupid is owned by media conglomerate IAC/InterActive Corp, which owns 50 brands across 40 countries.

These include other major dating sites, like Match.com, as well as news website the Daily Beast and web properties like Dictionary.com. Court rulings

Mr Eich, who is the inventor of JavaScript, was appointed to lead the open-source browser firm on 24 March.

He is listed publicly as having donated to a campaign in support of California's Proposition 8 campaign in 2008, which had sought to ban gay marriage in the western US state.

Although it was initially passed, it was later overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2013.

After his appointment was announced, supporters of same-sex marriage in the US, including many Mozilla employees, expressed unease at the decision.

Mozilla's head of education, Christie Koehler, who is gay, wrote on her blog: "It's hard for me to think of a scenario where someone could donate to that campaign without feeling that queer folks are less deserving of basic rights."

However, she added that while she was personally disappointed, she said she did not think it would affect her work at Mozilla.

Mr Eich responded in a post, saying that he remained committed to openness in the work place and offering assurances that Mozilla would not change certain policies, like health insurance for the partners of gay employees.

A "goat simulator" released on 1 April, which promises users the experience of life as a goat via a game that allows them to "wreck stuff", would seem to have all the hallmarks of a classic April Fool - but it is true.

The BBC has rounded up some of the top technology news stories that are not. DIY Apple repairs

Apple's products have earned a reputation as hard-to-fix so it came as something of a surprise to learn that it had bought iFixit, the company dedicated to DIY repairs.

On iFixit's website, it declared itself proud to have been acquired by Apple and said that it would "become a key player in the future of Apple device development".

"As part of the deal Apple made a commitment to produce the most replaceable electronic devices and personal computers on the market. This is a clear win for the whole iFixit community," it said.

Much of its repair work would centre on upgrades, it went on.

"Visit any of our Apple Store locations and an army of well-groomed young people will happily take your money and congratulate your excellent taste." Google Pokemon The search giant traditionally throws itself into the the spirit of April Fool's Day, and this year is no exception.

The company is offering Auto Awesome Photobombs for Google+, which allow users to upload an image of David Hasselhoff, described by the search giant as "everyone's favourite crime-fighting rock star lifeguard" to their photos.

It has also claimed to have added emoji support for the Chrome browser on Android and iOS. The add-on will translate web pages into emoji icons to make them faster to read, it says.

Its most elaborate joke though is an update for Android and iPhone versions of Google Maps that lets users go around the world catching Pokemon.

The game is real but comes with a fictional job ad, offering the position of "Pokemon master" for those who could catch all 150 Pokemon.

Smart gloves

Mobile phone manufacturers HTC and Samsung chose to poke fun at the growing range of smart wearables on the market with both advertising a fake smart glove.

"Imagine the power of complete smartphone creative freedom. Now imagine that freedom in the shape of a glove," said HTC.

Meanwhile rival Samsung announced its first "all-over-hand" wearable device, dubbed Fingers.