Apple could roll out smartphones and tablets with bigger screens in a move analysts say is an attempt to catch up with a trend set by its major rival Samsung.

The Californian tech giant and its Asian suppliers are testing smartphone screens larger than four inches and tablet screens slightly less than 13 inches, the Wall Street Journal reported, without naming the suppliers.

Network analytics specialty firm DeepField on Monday said that Google accounts for nearly a quarter of Internet traffic in North America.

"Based on measurements of end devices and user audience share, Google is now bigger than Facebook, Netflix and Twitter combined," DeepField chief Craig Labovitz said in a blog post.

A study released on Monday showed that Internet-powered shopping across national borders has created "modern spice routes" holding wealth for local merchants who tap into the booming trend.

Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Germany, China, Britain and the United States will see a combined total of $105 billion in "cross-border online shopping" this year and that figure should nearly triple to $307 billion in the next five years, according to Nielsen research commissioned by Internet financial transactions service PayPal.

Graphics chip star NVIDIA has set a July 31 release date for its Shield handheld gaming and entertainment device powered by Google's Android software.

The high-performance, handheld gadgets are in full production and will begin shipping at the end of this month, Shield director Jason Paul said in a blog post at the Silicon Valley company's website.

U.S. social network giant Facebook said Monday it has surpassed 100 million users a month using an application designed for "simple" mobile phones widely used in developing nations.

Launched two years ago, the "Facebook For Every Phone" app enables people to connect "no matter what kind of mobile device they use," the company said in a statement.

It's a single circuit board the size of a credit card with no screen or keyboard, a far cry from the smooth tablets that dominate the technology market.

But the world's cheapest computer, costing just $25 (£17, 19.50 euros), has astonished its British creators by selling almost 1.5 million units in 18 months.

Music streaming companies now account for 70 percent of all music bought in Sweden, home of Spotify, the world leader in the field, official industry figures revealed on Sunday.

The Swedish Recording Industry Association (GLF) said physical sales of music now stood at just 25 percent, confirming the march of digital music in the pioneering country.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will on Monday demand Internet search engines take action to block queries about child sex abuse, threatening legislation if they fail to comply.

"There are some searches which are so abhorrent and where they can be no doubt whatsoever about the sick and malevolent intent of the searcher that there should be no search results returned at all," Cameron was due to say in a speech in London.

Computer and software giant Apple said Sunday that it took its software developers website offline after it was hacked, warning that personal information about its users may have been stolen.

"Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website," Apple said in a statement.

Apple has bought online mapping services HopStop and Locationary as part of its ongoing effort to create a more formidable alternative to Google's navigation system.

The acquisitions confirmed Friday give Apple Inc. more tools to round out the maps that it embeds in the mobile operating system running its iPhones and iPads. Apple relied on Google Inc. for the built-in maps on those devices until switching to its own system last year.