Nokia said Friday it will establish a broad strategic partnership with Microsoft, adopting Windows Phone as its main smartphone platform.

The International Monetary Fund has issued a report on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency. The goal is to have a reserve asset for central banks that better reflects the global economy since the dollar is vulnerable to swings in the domestic economy and changes in US policy.

The phones are built for people who use Facebook as their primary means of communication, according to INQ. The home screen comes with a feed for seeing friends' updates, pictures, videos and web pages.

In the last few years, mobile phones have become status symbols. Use a fancy one and people will think you're cool. Use a more traditional one and folks stare as though you just pulled up to the party in a Buick.

OCZ Technology, a provider of solid-state drives (SSD) for computing devices and systems, has signed an agreement with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) for asset-based financing of up to US$25 million.

The arrest of a Taiwanese general accused of spying for China is a warning to Taiwan to be wary of its old foe despite warming economic links that are likely to stay unscathed by the case.

The TI OMAP 5 offers quad-core computing at up to 2GHz with power consumption barely breaking into double-digit wattage figures. In terms of raw figures, that level of performance is very near that of current Intel and AMD desktop chips.

Talks with some suitors but Twitter's valuation at $8-10 billion.

TriQuint Semiconductor's (TQNT) fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled as revenue jumped by nearly one-third, but results still fell short of analysts' forecasts. "With the world transitioning to a mobile Internet, I expect a strong market and see another solid growth year for TriQuint in 2011," said company president and CEO Ralph Quinsey.

German exports rose 0.5% in December to round out a year of strong growth, increasing 18.5% in 2010, figures show.

Nokia may announce as soon as Friday a partnership with Microsoft or Google to adopt a new operating system.

"The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable," said CEO Steven Elop in an internal email.

Apple has started production of a new version of its iPad tablet computer. It will have a front-facing camera for the first time. The new iPad will be available through Verizon and AT&T, but not Sprint or T-Mobile in the U.S.

China's central bank said Tuesday it will raise its benchmark deposit and lending rates by 0.25 percentage point each effective Wednesday, in its latest move to tighten liquidity and manage inflation. The People's Bank of China said in a statement it will raise the one-year yuan lending rate to 6.06% from 5.81%, and the one-year yuan deposit rate to 3.00% from 2.75%.

"There are certainly server applications today for which ... a lack of 64-bit is not a barrier..."