Our weekly roundup of worldwide technology news in pictures, courtesy of IDG News Services. This week: Facebook’s stock goes public, a robot-snake is born, Julian Assange has his day in court and more

SalesForce.com launches SMB help-desk service

Desk.com, a new SaaS venture for SalesForce.com, is a help-desk offering that will help small businesses contact customers with problems. It has ties back to Facebook and Twitter to help organize and facilitate contact between those businesses and their clientele.

Taiwanese ad for tablet resurrects Steve Jobs

It may be called an “homage” but Taiwanese company, Action Electronics, has used Steve Jobs iconic image, with some added angel wings, in a launch ad for its own “Action Pad”. A spokeman for the company said that advertisements in Taiwan often feature parodies of famous figures like U.S. president Barack Obama but the move may end up a lot more controversial with the addition of the angel wings and Jobs’ recent death.

Georgia Tech makes a snake-bot

In an effort to make robots more energy-efficient, scientists at Georgia Tech have turned to nature for the design of their latest ‘bot. The Scalybot 2 mimics the movement of a snake - or really, 20 different snakes that the scientists studied - to make its movement more effective.

Facebook goes public

This Wednesday, the much-anticipated Facebook IPO went public, with the tech giant filing paperwork to hold a US$5 billion stock offering. Facebook was founded in 2004 and now has 800 million users.

Study finds nearly a quarter American couples met online

In a study of 3009 currently-coupled U.S. respondents, it was found that – up from 10.9 per cent in ’99-03 – 23.2 per cent of U.S. couples met online. The study was conducted by Michael Rosenfield from Standford University and Reuben Thomas from City College of New York.

Sony replaces Howard Stringer with Kaz Hirai as CEO

After a year of earthquakes, floods and hackers, a recent Sony earnings call forecasted US$3 billion in losses for the Japanese tech giant for the fiscal year 2011, through to March. Following this news was the much-rumoured replacement of Howard Stringer by fellow-exec, Kazuo Hirai.

Wikileaks’ Assange makes his appeal in UK Supreme Court

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, began his appeal against the extradition and sexual assault charges he’s facing in Sweden this Wednesday. Assange, already a polarizing figure, has a warrant for his arrest in Sweden connected to two incidents in 2010.