01/08/11| Technology News and Gadgets Updates

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Car Makers Add Apps to Their Dashboards

Automakers from General Motors Co. to Hyundai Motor Co. are using the Consumer Electronics Show to announce plans that will transform dashboards into mini-computers running Internet-connected programs.

For example, Ford Motor Co. debuted an app that will allow owners of its new Focus electric car to schedule charging times from a smartphone. Toyota Motor Co. unveiled a program that lets motorists make reservations via booking site OpenTable.com.

The auto industry's embrace of apps comes as carmakers look for new ways to differentiate their vehicles from the competition's. "Internet-connected autos will be among the fastest-growing segments in four years," said Gartner Inc. analyst Thilo Koslowski.

Mr. Koslowski forecasts more than half of all new premium vehicles in the U.S. will support apps by 2013 and mass market cars will reach that level in 2016.

Carmakers first started experimenting with apps about three years ago, when Ford announced its SYNC system. The technology allows drivers to use voice commands to control smartphones.

Now, the technology is advancing. Some new apps for cars will allow motorists to stream Internet radio, while others will let them update their Facebook pages from the driver's seat.

At the show, Toyota demonstrated its new in-car system, dubbed Entune. A relative latecomer to apps, Toyota said the system will connect cars to the Internet using a smartphone. When connected, Entune allows the car to stream music from Pandora Inc., book seats through Movietickets.com or conduct Web searches with Microsoft Corp.'s Bing.com.

The current apps were all designed by Toyota partners. Jon Bucci, who runs Toyota's technology initiatives, said the company will open the system to outside developers this year.

Ford is releasing a host of smartphone apps that allow car owners to keep closer tabs on how the vehicle is running. One in-house app, called Sync Destinations, allows drivers to enter their route in a smartphone and then beam it to the car, providing turn-by-turn directions. Another app, Sync AppLink, allows users to have their Twitter streams read to them. "It's all about using the right technology and the right application for our customers," said Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally.

General Motors has expanded its onboard OnStar system, allowing car owners to access it via their iPhone and Android handsets. Nearly all of GM's newest cars can send diagnostic information, such as when the oil should be changed.

OnStar is beginning to let motorists update their Facebook status by speaking commands directly to the car. The feature is integrated into OnStar's system, which also offers directions and emergency services.

Currently, the OnStar system doesn't accept apps written by third-party developers. But apps written by outside developers could be available later this year, according to two people familiar with company. GM is planning to create an app store for outside apps later this year, the two said.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

T-Mobile Smartphones to Head Down Market

T-Mobile USA is aggressively heading down market with its smartphone business, a move that could put further pressure on prices in what has been one of the wireless industry's most lucrative product categories in years.

Chief Executive Philipp Humm said in an interview that many of his smartphones will eventually be made up of Google-powered phones costing less than $100, half as much as the smartphones typically available at U.S. carriers. In October, to lower the cost of monthly bills, Mr. Humm introduced a limited data plan that costs $10.

The move acknowledges the reality of the market, where larger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. dominate the high end with devices like Droids and the iPhone. Mr. Humm is targeting lower-end contract and prepaid customers. But it is also the latest sign that carriers have to bring down prices to expand smartphone use.

"We are working with our vendors on this one to drive the price of smartphones down," Mr. Humm said. Not every customer is going to want or need the premier high-end handset, he added.

Smartphones turned mobile phones into minicomputers with better software, bigger screens and greater processing power. High-end devices like the iPhone contain just under $200 worth of parts, according to tear-downs by iSuppi Corp.

Their retail prices started dropping almost immediately after they were introduced. Apple Inc. cut the price of its top iPhone by $200, to $399, about two months after its June 2007 launch. Carriers have continued to cut the price of devices and service plans in an effort to expand their appeal.

Earlier this week, Sprint Nextel Corp. rolled out a new phone for its fast, next-generation wireless network and priced it at $149, $50 lower than the price of a similar 4G phone. "We just felt that it made sense and we need to break past that $200 barrier for 4G devices," said David Owens, Sprint's vice president of consumer acquisition. "It is an incredibly aggressive price point."

During the holidays, Verizon Wireless offered a cheaper smartphone data plan — $15 for 150 megabits a month—to lure in new users. The offering followed AT&T's move to tiered pricing over the summer, when it rolled out a plan charging $15 a month for 200 megabits. T-Mobile's plan is even cheaper — $10 for 200 megabits.

Google Inc. has made it easier to produce competitively priced smartphones by giving away its Android operating system. Cheaper smartphones may have slower processors or less advanced screens and cameras, but a lot of the basic functions are similar to those on top phones.

Getting manufacturers to bring down the price is important if carriers are to cut the retail price because they subsidize smartphones heavily. Apple's most expensive iPhone retails for $299 in the U.S., but Apple said in October it collected an average of about $610 a phone in the third quarter. Carriers make up much of the difference.

T-Mobile, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier behind Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, says it won't gear its lineup exclusively to the low end, but it will offer a range of smartphones, including high-end devices.

T-Mobile USA's third-quarter results showed improving performance, but a bulk of the growth came from less profitable prepaid customers. In November, the company said it was having trouble holding on to its most valuable customers, in part because it doesn't offer the iPhone. Mr. Humm, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, acknowledged that the likelihood Verizon Wireless getting the iPhone as well could affect his subscriber numbers.

Mr. Humm, who introduced the iPhone to T-Mobile in Germany, declined to comment on whether T-Mobile USA would get the device. T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom.

Twitter set record as Japan rang in New Year

A flood of Japanese Tweets sent as the New Year arrived in Tokyo boosted global traffic within the network to a record 6,939 tweets per second (TPS), the microblogging site has reported.

The figure more than doubles the previous record of 3,283 TPS, set during Japan’s surprise victory over Denmark in last summer’s World Cup in South Africa, it said.

"Just four seconds after midnight in Japan on January 1st, Twitterers set an all-time record in the number of Tweets sent per second," Twitter said in a blog posted Thursday.

"At that moment, the world sent a staggering 6,939 TPS wishing friends and followers a fond 'Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu' ('Happy New Year!')."

Twitter said that in Japan, with a population of over 127 million, "mobile networks have been known to crash under the strain of this collective cheer. This year, on New Year’s Eve, many people turned to Twitter to celebrate."

Twitter said that on New Year’s Eve, "we saw epic Tweet activity around the world as people in each time zone inaugurated 2011".

In the United States, "the East coast time zone alone almost amassed the same amount of Tweets at its peak of 3,000 TPS as the entire world did during the peak moment of the World Cup."

Created in 2006 to exchange messages of no more than 140 characters, Twitter had 175 million registered users as of November 1 and transmitted 25 billion "Tweets" last year. About 95 million messages a day are sent over the site.

Tablets crowd gadget show, chasing iPad's tail

Big tablets and small tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot near the horizon.

It's impossible to walk the floor at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show without stumbling across a multitude of keyboard-less touch-screen computers expected to hit the market in the coming months. With Apple estimated to have sold more than 13 million iPads last year alone, the competition is clearly for second place, but even that prize is worth pursuing.

Technology research firm Gartner Inc expects that 55 million tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.

A bevy of consumer electronics makers, including major names such as Motorola Mobility Inc, Toshiba Corp and Dell Inc, showed off their tablets in Las Vegas at CES, betting 2011 will be the year the gadgets finally take off.

Companies tried for years to popularize tablets, but the frenzy began only with the release of the iPad in April. Now companies whose names don't include the word "Apple" are doing everything they can to differentiate themselves from the tablet front-runner.

They're adding bells and whistles the iPad doesn't yet have — such as front and back cameras for video chatting and picture taking and the ability to work over next-generation 4G data networks — in hopes of taking on the iPad, or at least carving out a niche.

Motorola's Xoom sports a screen that measures 10.1 inches diagonally — slightly larger than the iPad's — and dual cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos.

It will also include the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc's Android software. Honeycomb has been designed for the larger touch screens on tablets; current versions of Android, used in many of the tablets at CES, are meant more for the smaller touch screens on smart phones.

For example, Gmail on a Honeycomb tablet shows a list of e-mails in one column and the body of the one you're reading in a second column. On a current Android phone, you'd only see one column at a time.

Motorola, at least, is confident that its offering is more full-featured than the iPad.

"A lot of people have been waiting for the definitive tablet," said Paul Nicholson, Motorola's marketing director. "This is the definitive tablet."

The tablet, which will start selling in March for an as-yet-unknown price, will also work on Verizon Wireless' existing, 3G network at first and later be upgradeable to work on its faster 4G network.

Tablets that work with a wireless carrier's high-speed data network may be a key to success in the tablet space, said Ross Rubin, an analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm. While a version of the iPad can use AT&T Inc's 3G network, Apple has not yet announced a plan for it to use any of the new 4G networks.

"Today we see a lot of tablet usage in the home. Perhaps tying it to a faster network can ... really expand the on-the-go use case for these products," Rubin said.

No matter how well any of the new contenders are received, though, analysts expect Apple to dominate in the tablet market for at least two years. With Apple's habit of annually refreshing its products, chances are the iPad will gain new features early this year that could launch it even further ahead of the competition.

Now, you can control computer commands by thought

A new software platform, developed by French scientists , which was demonstrated at a tech fest at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here allows individuals to control computer commands by just a 'thought'.

Acting as an interface designed to translate what happens in the brain into a computer command, this software --'OpenViBE'-- is the outcome of a project initiated in 2005 and has a multitude of potential applications.

"The OpenViBE software platform facilitates the design, testing and use of 'brain-computer interfaces' - in other words, systems that process the electrical signals linked with brain activity and translate them into a command that can be understood by machines," computer scientists Yann Renard and Laurent Bonnet said while demonstrating the software at the Department of Computer Sciences, IIT , here yesterday.

These allow individuals to communicate with a computer or any automated system without using their hands or other movements to activate a button or remote control, they said.

"OpenViBE provides a tool that is aimed at a varied audience, from researchers and clinicians to video game developers," they said.

To a query on whether writing by thought was now possible, the scientists replied in affirmative.

A person wearing an EEG (electroencephalogram) cap focuses his attention on the letter that he wants to spell out. When this letter flashes, a particular brain wave is generated which is picked up, detected and interpreted by the machine, they said.

Explaining further in technical terms, the scientists said, "OpenViBE is a series of software libraries and modules written in C++ that can be simply and effectively integrated in order to design real-time applications. Programmer users can develop their own code, while non-programmers can use the graphical interface."

The Brain-Computer Interfaces and OpenViBE can also be used to assist those with motor disabilities -- particularly entirely paralysed persons suffering from locked-in syndrome, in multimedia -- video games and virtual reality and in general to facilitate any type of interaction with an automated system like robotics, home automation.

"They also open up possibilities to treat certain neurological problems, attention disorders, motor recovery after a stroke for example, through rehabilitation processes such as neuro feedback," the scientists said.
Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

BlackBerry partners Sprint as tablet market soars

With 2011 set to become the year of the tablet with 55 million units expected to be sold, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has joined hands with Sprint Nextel Corp. to make a mark with its PlayBook in the fast crowding tablet market.

RIM is launching the WiFi-only version of its PlayBook in the US market in March. It will sold under $500.

But its wireless version to be released later will run on Sprint's fast wireless 4G technology and sold through the third largest wireless carrier in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper says the Sprint or wireless version of the tablet won't be available until the summer, and the companies have yet to reveal the price of the product.

According to the report, the Playbook also won't be able to run a significant number of the applications built for RIM's BlackBerry smartphone because the tablet runs on a new operating system.

PlayBook runs on a new operating platform built by QNX Software Systems. RIM bought Ottawa-based QNX Software Systems for $200 million in April to have exclusive access to its software technology for its tablet.

Unveiled in September, the seven-inch Playbook has a dual-core computer chip to run high- definition video and other application simultaneously. Moreover, it supports Flash which Apple's iPad does not, thus enabling PlayBook users to fully access YouTube and Facebook.

"RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis would not identify the maker of the computer chip, but he said the most difficult technical challenge of building the device was 'intercepting the availability of the dual core processor. Over the past decade, RIM helped pioneer the smartphone market with its BlackBerry. Now, Mr. Lazaridis said the Playbook represents RIM's foray into what he called the mobile computing market,'' the Wall Street Journal says.

Though the BlackBerry maker is happy with the light, portable PlayBook, Lazaridis has hinted that RIM would make larger tablets in the future.

According to the report, RIM might be making a big mistake by delaying the launch of the wireless version of PlayBook till the summer because by then wireless tablets by Motorola, LG and others would have hit the market.

The tablet revolution, which began with the launch of Apple's iPad in April and followed by Samsung's Galaxy Tab, is set to sweep the technology scene this year.

According to Gartner Inc., the tablet market will touch the 55-million mark this year, and iPad will account for much of the sales despite the entry of many new players.

The iPad has sold more than seven million units since its launch.

Navigating the Airfare Maze Online Gets Tougher

With online travel sites battling with some airlines, where does that leave travelers shopping for flights online? The simple answer is that they’re going to have to do more digging.
American Airlines removed its flight listings from Orbitz.com last month, when the companies could not agree on a new contract, and Delta withdrew its fares from CheapoAir.com, OneTravel.com and Bookit.com. More recently, Expedia.com dropped American flight listings. Delta has also notified Airfare.com, CheapAir.com, Vegas.com, AirGorilla.com and Globester.com that it will no longer allow its fares to be included on their Web sites in the United States and Canada after Friday.

The moves represent a standoff over the fees that airlines must pay to list their flights with online travel agencies. And at least one major fare distributor, Sabre, which runs a computer system that allows travel agents to see flight and fare information, joined the fray on Wednesday, announcing that it would end its distribution deal with American in August — a month before the end of its contract — and, in the meantime, would make American fares harder to see in its displays.

But American and Delta are not the only airlines becoming more selective about where their fares appear online. JetBlue, Virgin America and Spirit have increasingly been offering special fare sales only through their own Web sites. And some low-cost carriers, including Southwest and Allegiant Air, have long refused to list fares at online agencies or fare aggregators like Kayak.com, requiring travelers to visit the airlines’ own Web sites to see their flights.

So what’s the best way to search for fares now? Currently, there is no one-stop shopping site that includes all fares, but it is possible to cover your bases using only a few sites.

Start with ITA Software, which provides the technological backbone for many air fare shopping sites. It offers an easy way to narrow down the cheapest days to fly by allowing anyone to scan an entire month’s worth of fares for the cheapest rate. Click on “search airfares now” in the middle of the home page, then enter your departure date and destination and select “see calendar of lowest fares” to see which travel days yield the lowest rates. Travelers can also narrow searches by the number of stops and length of trip. But to book the actual ticket, users must go to another site, like the airline’s.

Cover your bases by adding a so-called meta-search site like Kayak.com, Fly.com or Farecompare.com, which don’t sell plane tickets but search hundreds of travel sites at once. Doing this will give you an idea of the best rates available from various sites. Each meta-search site configures its technology and accesses fares slightly differently, which can affect results. The sites also tend to differentiate themselves through special partnerships. Kayak.com, for example, receives fares from ITA Software; Amadeus, a global distribution system; and some airlines directly, including American and Delta. FareCompare licenses air fare data from more than 500 airlines via the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, which consolidates and distributes airline fares worldwide.

Before you hit the buy button, check out Airfarewatchdog.com, a site with actual people who manually search for fares and will sometimes uncover cheaper fares than the other sites. It often captures sales from Allegiant and Southwest, as well as special, last-minute fares that airlines often save for their own Web sites, like “JetBlue Cheeps” which are put on sale on Tuesdays via Twitter and listed only at jetblue.com/cheeps.

For trips to Europe, consider Momondo.com, a Danish travel search site that scours the airlines’ own Web sites as well as online agencies that focus on low-cost carriers, like LyddAir, which operates flights from Lydd Airport in Southeast Kent in Britain to Le Touquet in France. It also compares rates with more than 4,000 high-speed train routes across Europe — a valuable service, as trains are often more convenient in Europe than planes. One caveat: Because of the way Momondo pulls fares, it may show expired fares in its results.

To help evaluate prices, consider Bing.com, which offers a Price Predictor that uses algorithms to determine whether a fare is likely to rise or fall in the next seven days; this can help when trying to decide whether to buy now or wait for a better rate. Students can also consult STATravel.com or StudentUniverse.com, which offer special deals for anyone enrolled in college or graduate school.

And for those who care most about the quality of the flight experience, there are a couple of notable mentions. Rather than a long list of fares, Hipmunk.com sorts fares according to an “agony” index that factors in price, length of flight and number of connections. In a similar vein, InsideTrip.com, evaluates flights by 11 criteria, including legroom, aircraft age and on-time performance.

Samsung says open to mobile chip M&A, sees foundry deals

Samsung Electronics Co is open to acquisitions to grab a bigger share of the booming mobile processor market, and is expecting to win more chip manufacturing deals in the next two to three years.

The South Korean company is the world's biggest maker of memory chips but it lags far behind in the non-memory chip processor business dominated by the likes of Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Broadcom.

"We constantly study the market and try to determine what's the best ... and there's absolutely no reason why we want to avoid doing M&A," Wong Yiwan, vice president of Samsung's system chip business, told Reuters in an interview in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show.

"By the same token, we do other things that actually complement what we do ... clearly things like partnership. It's very difficult for one company to do everything."

No.1 mobile chip producer Qualcomm announced a $3.2 billion deal this week to buy Atheros Communications Inc, a key producer of chips used for Wi-Fi and bluetooth, showing its desire to become a stronger player in supplying chips for smartphones and tablets.

Cash-rich Samsung had been reportedly interested in buying Infineon's wireless chip unit, which Intel snapped up instead for $1.7 billion last year.

Its system chips division saw strong growth last year, driven by robust demand for mobile processors and image sensors, but an organic-growth approach kept its global share in an exploding mobile chip market at around 3 percent, according to research firm iSuppli.

The business also represents around 20 percent of Samsung's overall semiconductor business. Its mainstay memory chip operation, ranked the world's largest, earned 20 trillion won in revenue in the first nine months of 2010.

While still small in comparison, the division is expected to help offset weakening growth in memory chip demand, helped by rising popularity of smartphones, tablets and Internet TVs.

MORE FOUNDRY DEALS

Wong also expects to secure more outsourcing deals for chip manufacture in coming years, as belt-tightening companies shed capital-intensive investment in chip-making facilities.

Samsung said last month it had won a deal from Japan's Toshiba Corp to produce system chips, as the Japanese firm seeks to reduce its non-memory chip exposure.

"Our foundry business is doing very good. Many companies are adopting fab-light strategy. So demand for foundry service support has become stronger, and we actually benefit from that," Wong said.

"Clearly, expansion in foundry is our major focus ... so the next two, three years, you'll probably see more relationships being set up between our company and other companies on the foundry side."

Lenovo sets expectations for tablet market

Lenovo Group Ltd, which is making a concerted push into tablets, said it expects the devices to see good growth but still eventually only make up a fraction of the broader personal computer market.

Rory Read, chief operating officer for Lenovo, predicted that tablets will settle in at 10 percent to 15 percent of the overall PC market.

"I think it will fill in exactly where netbook was. Netbook I think has faded, it doesn't have that energy," he said in an interview on Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Read said he does not expect Lenovo's tablets to cannibalize its PC sales: "We see it more as a third or fourth screen; additive, like a smartphone."

The overall PC market is expected to top 400 million units this year.

China-based Lenovo, the world's No. 4 PC maker, has been increasing sales at a torrid pace. Third-quarter PC shipments surged 33 percent in the third quarter, according to IDC.

The company showed off one of the more unique tablets at CES this year. The Lenovo U1 hybrid is a laptop running Microsoft's Windows, with a 10-inch touchscreen tablet -- which runs Google's mobile Android platform -- that pops out of the frame.

The device will be available in China in the first quarter for roughly $1,300. The company's LePad tablet is also sold separately for roughly $500.

Read said the U1 is an example of the sort of differentiated "converged" device that Lenovo is banking on to drive growth.

He said the company is focused on its hardware business, and has no interest in moving into areas such as IT services, where rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Dell are putting considerable energy.

Lenovo moved in 2009 to reacquire the cellphone business it had previously sold off, and it launched the LePhone smartphone a year ago at CES.

The device is still only available in China, where Read said it ranks as the No. 3 premium-priced smartphone.

When asked when Lenovo would launch a smartphone outside China, Read declined to provide a time frame.

"The idea is to get the scale first. We think you only get one time to make that best first impression. Other players are rushing to bring I think premature technology to market."

Why the Fuss Over Facebook Doesn't Make It a Home Run

The news this week that Goldman Sachs was privately offering a minority stake in Facebook to new investors—and that Facebook would become a public company by early next year—has set off a buying frenzy, even among people who can't tell "LOL" from a Roman numeral.

If you've been left out, don't fret. Expectations are already so high that most of the future gain already may be gone.

Less than seven years after its launch in a dormitory room at Harvard University, Facebook is already booming past $2 billion in annual revenues, reports suggest—nearly triple its sales from the year before.

Yet to keep growing at anything like that pace, Facebook needs more capital. Employees and investors, meanwhile, also want to turn some shares into cash, say people familiar with the company. Under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, all companies with 500 or more holders of any class of stock are required to register with the SEC, triggering detailed financial disclosures. According to a filing Facebook made with the SEC in 2008, even its terminated employees can retain their restricted stock, so it was inevitable that the company would breach the 500-investor threshold.

So Facebook's best option for selling equity and remaining private was to tap into the kind of wealthy investor network that Goldman can provide. By offering shares to its most favored clients and forcing them to commit or decline in less than a week, Goldman made investing in Facebook seem like a precious privilege. The remarkable price for Facebook's stock, reportedly around $50 billion, or some 25 times the company's revenues, has been set in a closed feedback loop rather than in an open market. Facebook and Goldman declined to comment.

Investors are buying more than hope, of course. With roughly 600 million users and closing in on $500 million in annual profit, Facebook looks unstoppable.

Yet even with such a huge network, the company could falter. "Facebook is going to be extremely difficult to dethrone," says an industry veteran familiar with the company's operations. "But social trends online are completely unpredictable. If a new trend comes along that's really engaging to people and a different way of interacting, then Facebook could become the old way of social networking."

Even if Facebook continues to hit the mother lode of social-network profits, new investors could end up with little to show for it. In January 1875, during the Nevada silver rush, the price of Consolidated Virginia Mine hit $700 a share or a total value of $75.6 million (roughly $1.5 billion today). That was 15 times the company's revenues the year before, according to records compiled in 1883 by researcher Eliot Lord. Over the next four years, investors earned some $42 million in dividends—and, even so, the stock collapsed to $3 a share by the end of 1879. Investors who bought in on the ground floor in 1870, at $1 a share, tripled their money. Those who came later were wiped out, even though they owned a stake in an immensely profitable business.

Verizon Finally Lands the iPhone

The iPhone is finally coming to Verizon Wireless.

The largest U.S. wireless carrier will make the long-awaited announcement at an event Tuesday in New York City, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

The move will for the first time let U.S. consumers choose the network that carries their iPhone and perhaps give them additional pricing options that could affect their monthly bills.

It will also upend the balance of power in the industry, ending Verizon rival AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold on the device and leaving smaller players like Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA facing two well-capitalized competitors offering the world's most popular smartphone.
It wasn't immediately clear when Verizon would have the device in stores.
The Verizon phone will be similar to the iPhone 4 but run on the carrier's CDMA technology, people familiar with the matter have said.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.
Apple is moving to expand its carrier base in the U.S. at a time when it is facing increasing pressure from phones powered by rival Google Inc.'s operating system, called Android.
Google gives its software away, hoping to stake out space on mobile phones where it can sell ads and other services.

Android-based phones passed the iPhone in sales in the second quarter, according to research firm Gartner. The surge appeared to get to Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who made a rare appearance on a conference call with analysts in October and criticized Android as fragmented, referring to the myriad ways the software appears on the many different phones that use it.
AT&T has had the iconic device to itself since its introduction in June 2007.
Since then, the iPhone has fueled much of the carrier's subscriber growth and has given it a solid lead in smartphone customers.
The arrangement between Apple and AT&T was groundbreaking at a time when carriers tightly controlled the appearance and function of their phones, and put Silicon Valley companies like Apple and Google in the wireless industry's driver's seat.

Apple feels it has had tremendous success through its exclusive relationship with AT&T, but it recognized that it needs to partner with Verizon to grow sales faster in the U.S., a person familiar with the matter said.
"It's a big boost for Apple," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of New York-based Solaris Asset Managmenet which counts Apple in its portfolio worth $2 billion. "It opens up a huge uninstalled base for them in this country."
Verizon Wireless fought its way back into the smartphone race last year by heavily promoting Google-powered phones made by companies like Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and HTC Corp.
Top Verizon executives have continued to meet regularly with their counterparts at Apple, however, and have long expressed interest in carrying the iPhone, which could help add to the carrier's base of 93 million subscribers. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, has estimated that Verizon could add more than 10 million U.S. iPhone customers.
"It's great news," said Michael Benkoski, 55 years old, who works at a technology leasing company in Chicago. "I've been waiting for it for about two years."
IPhone users have long complained about dropped calls and poor service on AT&T's network, even as the carrier boosted spending to improve coverage. A Consumer Reports survey last month ranked Verizon's network as most reliable among the major carriers and AT&T's as the worst.
Analysts fear AT&T could see one to three million fewer new subscribers because of the Verizon iPhone. AT&T has been preparing for a loss of exclusivity, however.
This summer, it made it easier for customers to upgrade to the new iPhone 4, in the process locking them into new two-year service contracts. The carrier says many are also on family or business plans, making it tricky to switch.
Colby Synesael, an analyst with investment bank Cowen and Co., said that "the loss of the iPhone is more of a headline risk than a financial impact."
Smaller carriers like No. 3 Sprint and No. 4 T-Mobile could be harder hit, however.
"This is the worst case scenario for the other carriers," said Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. "When Verizon comes out with the iPhone, there's only one carrier in the U.S. that will gain customers, and that's Verizon."

While Verizon's network is popularly perceived to be better than AT&T's, it has yet to be tested by the heavy volume of data use that accompanies the iPhone. The carrier has been strengthening and testing its network for months to avoid the public relations nightmare AT&T has suffered from, one person familiar has said. Verizon executives also point to their success handling laptop traffic and the data demands of a growing base of Android phones.
Analysts will be eager to know when other U.S. carriers might also get to carry the iPhone. They aree also waiting to see whether Apple will offer the CDMA iPhone to other CDMA operators around the world in countries such as in India and China.
Verizon sent out invitations for an event to be held in New York City on Tuesday asking that recipients "Join us as we share the latest news," but didn't specify the subject matter. The event will be headlined by Lowell McAdam, president and chief operating officer of Verizon Communications.
The event threatens to overshadow Verizon's keynote address Thursday at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, where the carrier touted its new 4G network and announced a number of Google-powered phones and tablet PCs designed to make use of the network's capabilities.

Twitter, no plans to sell or go public

Twitter, which has fended off several buyers , intends to remain an independent company and is not considering going public at the moment, chief executive Dick Costolo said Friday.

"My sincere hope is for Twitter to be a successful independent company," Costolo said at a conference organized by technology blog AllThingsD.com on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"We've accomplished one percent of what we've set out to do and we have all this crazy potential," he said of the micro-blogging service which has attracted more than 175 millions users since it launched in 2006.

Asked about a potential initial public offering, Costolo said "I just don't think about it."

"We'll get to a point, I'm sure, when we'll have to start considering that," said Costolo who built and sold two companies, notably Feedburner, acquired by Google, before joining Twitter. "We're just not there yet."

A potential IPO by Twitter comes as another privately held social networking giant, Facebook, may be forced to go public next year because of an increase in the number of employees and investors holding shares in the company.

Costolo said for the moment Twitter's goal is to be present on more devices and platforms.

He said that an advertising program implemented last year that involves paid for "promoted tweets" was working "fantastically well."

"A couple of promoted tweets are in the top 10 promoted tweets of all time," he said. "It's a big enough business for us to be an independent company."

Twitter last month received an injection of $200 million in funding from investors to help fuel its growth, reportedly giving the San Francisco-based company a valuation of $3.7 billion.

"Our business plan is to continue to raise money," Costolo joked.

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