Japanese electronic giant Panasonic said Thursday it will abandon research into new smartphones for retail consumers at home as it struggles to make inroads in a sector dominated by Apple and Samsung.

The move comes two months after competitor NEC said it was pulling out of the market citing tough competition.

Security researchers said Wednesday they uncovered a "cyber mercenary" team which specializes in attacks on targets in Japan and South Korea, and warned of more operations of that nature.

Kaspersky Labs identified the group as "Icefog," and said evidence points to it being based in China.

Amazon is refreshing its line-up of tablet computers with new devices called Kindle Fire HDX, which are significantly faster and lighter than the previous generation.

The 7-inch and 8.9-inch versions also have sharper, more colorful displays than older models, and both have more pixels per inch than the latest iPad.

Samsung said Wednesday it would unveil a smartphone with a curved display in October -- a technological innovation aimed at maintaining its lead in a lucrative but increasingly saturated market.

Curved displays are at a nascent stage in display technology which is shifting towards flexible panels that are bendable or can even be rolled or folded.

Teenagers' nightmarish propensity to post underage party hijinks, flesh-flashing and nasty commentary online have found a dream come true in California, which will soon let them erase their tracks.

The first-of-its-kind "eraser button" law, signed Monday by Governor Jerry Brown, will force social media titans such as Facebook, Twitter and Google let minors scrub their personal online history in the hopes that it might help them avoid personal and work-related problems.

A court has ruled that Apple can use the trademark iPhone in Brazil, ending the exclusive rights Brazilian firm Gradiente had been given by INPI, the Latin American nation's intellectual property office.

Judge Eduardo de Brito Fernandes ruled that the INPI must end the exclusive rights to that name that had been formally held by Brazil's IGB Electronica, Gradiente's owner.

China's first free trade zone will allow access to Facebook, Twitter and other websites banned nationwide, in a rare exception to strict Internet controls, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Shanghai free trade zone, approved in August to boost competitiveness, will also lift a 2012 block on The New York Times, the South China Morning Post said, citing unnamed government sources.

With an open-source brain, a host of potential apps and the fact that it can be 3D-printed at home from online files, Jimmy could be the must-have tech device of 2014.

Unveiled by respected futurist and Intel researcher Brian David Johnson at the Maker Faire event in New York this weekend, Jimmy is a very real example of what a 3D-printing revolution could usher in as well as demonstrating how far the tech community has come in the field of artificial intelligence.

Pandora Media Inc. shares fell Monday after Apple Inc. reported a strong response to its new radio service.

THE SPARK: Apple said Monday that more than 11 million listeners have already tuned in to its iTunes Radio service in the first few days since its debut. The music service comes with new iPhones and the free iOS 7 mobile operating system update, both of which hit the market Friday.

Tech pioneer BlackBerry made a last roll of the dice Monday and agreed to a probable $4.7 billion buyout by a consortium planning to take the struggling smartphone maker private.

BlackBerry was once a leader in mobile tech but has been squeezed by rivals Android and Apple, which coincidentally announced record sales of its latest iPhone on Monday.