Anne B. McDonald, Martyn Williams

Droid Razr MaxxVerizon today announced another addition to the Droid family of smartphones, the Droid Razr Maxx.

The company says the phone is aimed at heavy multitaskers with its long battery life, which Verizon says is more than 21 hours on a single charge. The Razr Maxx is just 8.99 mm thick, which makes it a bit thicker than the original Droid Razr at 7.1 mm.

HP said today that the company would produce one last run of its discontinued TouchPad tablets to meet "unfulfilled demand."

The news came from HP's Mark Budgell, PR manager, social media strategy, on HP's The Next Bench blog.

Sony's main optical disc distribution warehouse for the U.K. was hit by a large fire on Tuesday morning that has apparently destroyed most or all of the building.

Television images showed fire consuming the facility in Enfield, which is just to the north of London. The warehouse is one of six Sony has in Europe. It is operated by subsidiary Sony DADC and handles distribution of Sony Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD blank media, and movies and games for the U.K.

In a twist on conventional charging for electric cars, Nissan has developed a system that allows a vehicle to supply electricity to power a house.

A prototype of the charging system running on a Nissan Leaf electric car was unveiled in Japan on Tuesday. The system can be used to supply electricity to a house during a power outage or shortage. A two-way charging device that would typically convert the household electricity supply to a voltage suitable for charging the car's battery can be reversed to feed power back into the household circuit.

Feeling the pressure from an unreleased rival, Nintendo will slash the price of its 3DS handheld gaming device worldwide from mid August as it attempts to turn around dismal sales and grab market share ahead of the launch later this year of Sony's PlayStation Vita.

The price of 3DS will be cut by 40 percent from ¥25,000 to ¥15,000 (US$320 to $192) on August 11 in Japan. U.S. gamers will see the price drop from $250 to $170 a day later on August 12.

Nintendo will slash the price of its 3DS handheld gaming device in Japan from mid August.

The price cut comes as the company deals with lackluster sales and the launch later this year of Sony's PlayStation Vita.

Sony reported a net loss for the three month period from April to June as the company dealt with unfavorable exchange rates, cut-throat competition in the consumer electronics business, and a hacking attack on its online gaming network.

The consumer electronics giant posted a net loss of ¥15.5 billion (US$191 million) for the quarter against a profit of ¥25.7 billion in the same period of 2010. Sales and operating revenue dropped 10 percent to just under ¥1.5 trillion.

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player.

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player.

Toyota has developed a safety system that can automatically stop a car in the moments before a collision with a pedestrian.

The system, which will begin appearing in Toyota cars in the near future, is built on existing pre-collision detection technology that is already fitted in some Toyota cars and those of competitors. Those systems are designed to guard against collisions with large objects, such as stopped vehicles or walls, and don't do a good job when it comes to people.

The cyber attacks that paralyzed a handful of major South Korean websites earlier this year were almost certainly carried out by North Korea or parties allied with the country, computer security company McAfee said Tuesday in a report.

The company's analysis, carried out with the help of the South Korean and U.S. governments, is one of the most thorough yet published on the March attacks, and details how they were carried out, and why they were so difficult to counter.