Growing global demand has fuelled a surge in US manufacturing activity, which last month (Feb. 2011) accelerated at its fastest rate in almost seven years, according to the Institute of Supply Management.

Here's what we definitely know: Apple is holding an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. As is Apple's ever-present policy of secrecy at all costs, that's pretty much all we know for sure.

The Motorola Droid Pro is a fair approximation of a BlackBerry handset, minus the inferior keyboard and the fact that it doesn't come close to matching Research In Motion's security measures.

Chinese companies will be allowed to buy a stake of as much as 10% in Taiwanese technology companies, according to a proposal by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Samsung Electronics won a US trade ruling in its efforts to block imports of flash-memory chips made by Spansion. Shares of Spansion fell after the close of regular-hours trading.

Although more flash production capacity is coming online, SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra downplayed the risk that oversupply will hurt prices this year.

On Semiconductor plans to invest more than US$30 million to expand capacity and capabilities at its 8-inch wafer manufacturing facility in Gresham, Oregon. The facility remains the company's most advanced wafer fab - with current production technologies down to 0.11-micron.

Asian currencies were set for a weekly decline, led by the Taiwan dollar and South Korea's won, as an uprising in Libya pushed up oil prices and sapped demand for emerging-market assets.

Cheap sensors and network availability are not only making individual cars smarter, but they're also boosting the brainpower the environment cars drive in.

First Solar reported a 10% rise in fourth-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street estimates, but the company lowered the top end of its 2011 sales forecast and its shares fell 4.7% after hours.

"Applied's solid first quarter was driven by continued strength in semiconductor systems and record profitability in solar," said Mike Splinter, company chairman and CEO. "We see momentum building in our end markets and expect our company's fiscal year revenue to be more than US$11 billion, exceeding our previous record by over a billion dollars."

Considering these are the two most popular services for the Generation Y, on one of the most popular smartphones on the market, the new applications and upcoming features have been long awaited.

The processor used in the smartphones, the PXA920, was introduced by Marvell a year ago, and Marvell said it's the first single-chip offering for TD-SCDMA.

Oil prices climbed to their highest level in 30 months in London today as Libya's uprising reduced shipments and sparked fears of unrest spreading across the Middle East.