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AP Technology NewsBrief at 11:08 a.m. EDT(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Verizon Wireless nixing unlimited data for newbiesSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless carrier, is getting rid of its unlimited data plan for new smartphone customers starting Thursday, shifting instead to limited data plans that give users between 2 and 10 gigabytes of data each month. With the change, Verizon joins the company of fellow carriers AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA, which have both set limits to monthly data usage. Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's third-largest carrier, still offers an unlimited plan. Twitter comes to White House for Obama town hallWASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama will take on the Twitterverse during a town hall at the White House Wednesday hosted by the popular social media service Twitter. The 2 p.m. EDT event is expected to focus on jobs and the economy. Twitter "curators" will help select questions for the president that are representative of the most popular topics submitted online, the White House said. China's Baidu, Microsoft to cooperate in searchBEIJING (AP) _ Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. will use Microsoft's Bing for some English-language results as the software giant tries to expand its small share of China's search market. China has the world's biggest population of Internet users, with more than 450 million people online. Global e-commerce, search and other Internet brands have struggled to gain a foothold against aggressive local competitors in a heavily regulated market. Budgeting for wireless data on Verizon's new plansNEW YORK (AP) _ Are you a wireless data glutton or a nibbler? New Verizon Wireless customers will have to figure that out starting Thursday as the country's largest wireless carrier plans to roll out data plans with monthly usage caps. The apps that eat your wireless dataNEW YORK (AP) _ If you have a cellphone with a monthly limit on how much data you can use, here are some tips on what types of phone use will gobble up your precious megabytes: _ Streaming video and videoconferencing. The biggest offender. One minute of YouTube-quality video eats up 2 megabytes. If you're on a plan that gives you 200 megabytes per month, you can't even watch Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video once per day. If you're on a 2 gigabyte plan you can, but don't make your iPhone a replacement for a TV. In either case, it's fine to indulge in YouTube and Netflix if you're on Wi-Fi. Netflix to stream movies, shows in Latin AmericaLOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) _ Netflix is expanding its movie and TV show streaming service into 43 countries throughout Latin America in the online movie rental company's largest international expansion yet. Analysts said the expansion was larger than expected. The company's stock hit an all-time high of $283.50 in morning trading Tuesday. Nokia abandons Japan marketTOKYO (AP) _ Nokia Corp., battered by the popularity of smartphones, is abandoning the Japanese market, after a brief foray with luxury cell phones costing as much as 20 million yen ($250,000). The Finnish handset maker is closing by the end of July its last store selling high-end Vertu cell phones in Ginza. Previously, it had four such stores in Japan, according to Tomoko Morinari of Sunny Side Up, a Tokyo public relations company that has Nokia as its client. UK phone hacking targets more slain schoolgirlsLONDON (AP) _ Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal dominated the airways Wednesday as it swelled to allegedly involve more missing schoolgirls and the families of London terror victims. Lawmakers held an emergency debate, companies hastily pulled their ads and the prime minister demanded two new inquiries. News International, the British linchpin of Rupert Murdoch's global News Corp. media empire, was under intense pressure due to its News of the World tabloid, which has admitted hacking into the phones of celebrities but now stands accused of possibly interfering with police investigations into missing girls who were found murdered. Next gen video games let players control the storyLOS ANGELES (AP) _ Menacing alien machines descend on Earth, and amid all-out war, a soldier searches a building to find a frightened boy hiding in a vent. "It's OK," says the soldier. Google temporarily disables 'Realtime' searchGoogle Inc. has temporarily shut down a search engine feature that allows users to find real-time updates from Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and other social networking sites. A message posted early Monday on Twitter by the team behind Google Realtime says the search feature has been temporarily disabled while Google explores how to incorporate its recently launched Google+ project into the feature. The tweet tells readers to "stay tuned." (c) 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |