A fire at a giant Chinese factory making almost one sixth of the world's supply of a key high-tech component shows how vulnerable global manufacturing chains can be to an unexpected event, analysts say.

The vast SK Hynix facility in Wuxi city produces dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, used to store data in personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Internet radio titan Pandora on Wednesday appointed a digital advertising star as its chief executive in the increasingly competitive online music business.

Brian McAndrews took the helm of the Oakland, California-based firm as Apple was poised to launch an iTunes Radio service with the Sept. 18 release of new iOS software for powering iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices.

NASA scientists are using former military surveillance drones to help them understand more about how tropical storms intensify, which they say could ultimately save lives by improving forecast models that predict a hurricane's strength.

The unmanned Global Hawk aircraft were designed to perform high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance and intelligence missions for the Air Force. Two of the original Global Hawks built in the developmental process for the military have found new life as part of NASA's research mission, studying storms that form over the Atlantic Ocean. NASA planned to launch one of the drones from its Wallops Flight Facility on Wednesday to study Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which re-formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday.

The EU presents a radical telecoms industry shake-up on Thursday, aiming to create a single, fully connected European market and remove unpopular mobile phone roaming charges it claims are unjustified.

The plans are controversial, however, and last-minute wrangling over the details led the European Commission on Tuesday to reschedule a planned announcement Wednesday.

Apple on Tuesday unveiled two new iPhones, fielding a slick new top-end model along with one aimed at budget-conscious smartphone shoppers around the world.

"The business has become so large that this year we are going to replace the iPhone 5 and we are going to replace it with two new designs," Apple chief Tim Cook announced at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters.

Richard Van As, a South African carpenter, lost four fingers from his right hand to a circular saw two years ago.

He was unable to afford the tens of thousands of dollars to get a myoelectric hand, which detects a muscle's electric impulses to activate an artificial limb.

Yahoo is auditioning for a bigger role on iPhones and iPads with the release of its first mobile application tailored for watching video on touch-control screens.

The app, called Yahoo Screen, is set up to make the experience of sifting through video on smartphones and tablet computers more like channel surfing on a television. Instead of relying on a TV remote control, users of the Yahoo Screen app unveiled Monday will use their fingers to flip through programs and sort through roughly 20 different channels separated into categories such as celebrities, sports, games and food.

Facebook on Monday began feeding select news outlets real-time social network chatter about hot topics to weave into story coverage, wading deeper into Twitter territory.

A pair of software tools, Public Feed and Keyword Insights, lets Facebook's media partners tap into comments posted on the service.

Sony's next-generation video game machine PlayStation 4 won't go on sale in Japan until next year, meaning that it won't be on time for the key year-end holiday or New Year's shopping season.

Hiroshi Kawano, Sony Corp.'s chief of the game business in Japan and Asia, said Monday at a Tokyo event that the PlayStation 4 will go on sale Feb. 22, 2014, in Japan.

Apple's highly anticipated event Tuesday looks to extend the reach of the iPhone to new markets as the tech giant moves to regain momentum in the smartphone segment.

Analysts believe an invitation-only special event at Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley will spotlight a more economical iPhone priced to compete in places where money is tight, along with a beefed-up top-end model.