It's easy to dismiss Apple's new iPhones as merely catching up to Android.

After all, phones running Google's Android system long have had larger screens. In addition, many Android phones already have the wireless chips that iPhones are getting for making credit card payments without pulling out a card at retail stores.

The scores of new features in Apple's software update for mobile devices can be boiled down to one word: unity.

Many iPhone owners also have iPads and Mac computers, and family members are likely to have Apple devices, too. With the new iOS 8 software for iPhones and iPads, those devices start to act like one. Apps on those devices start to unite, too.

"NBA 2K15" is angling for a slam dunk with an innovative new way to put players in the game.

The developers of the interactive basketball franchise are adding the option for gamers to digitally graft lifelike 3-D renditions of their faces onto virtual players in the series' latest installment, set for Oct. 7. The process uses the camera for either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One game consoles to create faces for wannabe Kobe Bryants and Kevin Durants.

Control over Alibaba Group will stay in the hands of founder Jack Ma and other company veterans after the Chinese e-commerce giant goes public on the New York Stock Exchange in a record busting share sale.

A group of 27 managers dubbed the "Alibaba Partnership" will have the power to nominate a majority of board members, a structure that was unpalatable to Hong Kong's stock market and resulted in Alibaba deciding to list in New York.

Amazon.com on Wednesday expanded its array of tablets and Kindle e-readers, capping its line-up with a new flagship Fire HDX model boasting 'stunning' display and Dolby Atmos sound.

“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into the new Fire HDX...and it’s still startlingly light,” Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a release.

The number of websites has burst above one billion and is growing apace, according to figures updated in real time Tuesday by online tracker Internet Live Stats.

Tim Berners-Lee, considered the father of the World Wide Web, touted the milestone on Twitter -- one of the most prominent websites in the mushrooming but sometimes murky Internet world.

New-generation Apple software for powering its coveted mobile devices is set for release on Wednesday, two days ahead of the arrival of its latest iPhones.

The iOS 8 mobile operating system will be available free for download to many iPhone and iPad models and will be pre-installed on iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which hit the market on Friday.

Early reviews of Apple iPhone 6 models to be released on Friday sang praises of the large-screen handsets, proclaiming that bigger truly is better.

"The public asked for bigger and Apple delivered not only bigger but better, too," tech news website Slash Gear said in its review.

Google said Monday that worldwide government requests for user data rose 150 percent over five years, as the Internet giant renewed its call for reforms to allow for greater disclosure.

Updating the company's twice-yearly "transparency report," Google legal director Richard Salgado said "we’ve seen a 15 percent increase since the second half of last year, and a 150 percent jump since we first began publishing this data in 2009."

Apple on Monday began helping people boot U2 off their iTunes accounts after a cacophony of complaints about not wanting the automatically downloaded free album by the Irish rock band.

U2 performed at the close of an Apple event last week marked by the unveiling of new large-screen iPhones, a smartwatch from the California company, and word that free copies of the band's new "Songs of Innocence" album were instantly delivered to the more than half-billion iTunes accounts around the world.