By Harro Ten Wolde BARCELONA (Reuters) - Apple's rivals want to benefit from its magic, hoping that its long awaited new smartwatch will finally conjure demand for wearable technology that has so far generated more buzz about its potential than actual sales. Gizmos that users wear on their bodies have yet to live up to the hype as the next big thing in technology. "If Apple is successful, it'll create a rising tide that will lift the whole market," said Ben Wood, a top gadget reviewer at technology market research firm CCS Insight. His company predicts Apple will sell 20 million of its new smart watches this year, helping spur 150 percent growth in the wearable technology sector to 75 million gadgets, rising to 350 million by 2018.

The U.S. trade office said on Thursday it is keeping an eye on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's  consumer shopping website for sales of counterfeit and pirated goods, but refrained from putting the site back on a piracy blacklist. Alibaba has fought hard to tackle counterfeit products to keep its reputation from being tarnished in the run-up to, and after, its initial public offering last year. The U.S. Trade Representative removed China's Taobao.com, Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer shopping website, from its list of notorious markets in 2012.

By Sarah McBride and Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Former venture capitalist Ellen Pao could take the stand as early as Thursday in her gender discrimination lawsuit against her previous employer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, giving testimony that will likely make or break the case. Questioning Pao provides the best opportunity for each side to clinch their arguments, but it is also extremely risky, according to employment law attorneys following the trial. The lawsuit, which the former Kleiner Perkins partner filed in 2012 against the venture capital firm, has helped spark a broad and ongoing discussion about sexism in Silicon Valley. To win, Pao needs "to come across as extra-capable," said Kathleen Lucas, a San Francisco attorney who represents employees.

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday started auctioning off 50,000 bitcoins following the conviction of Ross Ulbricht for running Silk Road, the underground website where authorities said drugs and other illegal goods could be bought using the virtual currency. The six-hour online auction of roughly $13.5 million worth of bitcoins at current prices began at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT). The Marshals Service conducted auctions in June and December for nearly 80,000 bitcoins seized during the Silk Road raid in 2013. Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper said he would be a bidder.

By Leila Abboud BARCELONA (Reuters) - Shazam, the company behind the mobile phone app that enables its 100 million users to recognize music they hear, and buy the recordings, is now promising to extend the app's scope to objects, such as products in retail outlets. "Shazam is already a verb. We want to expand the universe of what you can Shazam," Chief Executive Rich Riley told Reuters at the Mobile World Congress industry fair in Barcelona. To fund the expansion the London-based company raised $30 million from several unidentified billionaires and financial institutions in January, coming on top of $40 million raised from Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim in 2013.

Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon hold dominant positions in the tech sector and have been among the biggest engines driving the Nasdaq above the 5,000 mark this week for the first time since 2000. The tech world moves so quickly that in 2000 Google wasn't yet public and Facebook didn't exist. Apple had yet to introduce the iPod, let alone the iPhone. "In other sectors there's a greater sense of permanence in the leadership, but tech is always changing," said Scott Kessler, head of technology sector equity research at S&P Capital IQ in New York.

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Not that we were expecting it, but 9to5Mac is reporting that Apple's premium iTunes streaming service will be a no show at Monday's "Spring forward" event in San Francisco. When it eventually launches, the subscription service will essentially be a do-over of Beats Music — this time under the iTunes brand and built directly into iOS. 9to5Mac says Apple's annual WWDC keynote is the most likely venue for an unveiling of the product. The new streaming music service could come as part of an iOS 8 software update later this summer, though it could also be positioned as one of the main (and few) big new features of iOS 9.

The prettiest yellow thing on the planet is now even more powerful