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AP Technology NewsBrief at 1:39 p.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. TechBit: Iconic game 'Civilization' joins FacebookNEW YORK (AP) _ Long before "FarmVille," there was "Civilization," a video game in which players build a civilized world over thousands of years. Now, the game is coming to Facebook as "Civ World." Launching Wednesday, "Civ World" is a lighter, more social version of the classic game. In the Facebook adaptation, players cooperate to build cities and engage in diplomacy, scientific discovery and economics. 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 scandal mushrooms, inquiry soughtLONDON (AP) _ Britain's phone hacking scandal reached a new intensity Wednesday as the scope of tabloid intrusion into private voicemails became more clear: Murder victims. Terror victims. Film stars. Sports figures. Politicians. The royal family's entourage. Almost no one, it seems, was safe from the reporters and investigators toiling for a tabloid determined to beat its rivals, whatever it takes. 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. (c) 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |