The display businesses of three major Japanese electronics makers are joining forces to become more competitive in small and medium-sized panels — a sector that's expected to grow because of the popularity of smartphones and tablets.

The display-business subsidiaries of Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. agreed to sign a deal later this year and to complete the business combination by the first few months of next year, the companies said Wednesday.

Sony says it will start selling a head mounted display that provides a 3-D theater of music videos, movies and games, targeting people who prefer solitary entertainment rather than sitting in front of a TV with family or friends.

Sony Corp. said Wednesday that the 60,000 yen ($800) "HMZ personal 3-D viewer" is set to go on sale Nov. 11 in Japan, and is planned for the U.S. and Europe, perhaps in time for Christmas, although dates have not yet been set.

British mobile phone giant Vodafone said Tuesday that it was holding initial talks to merge its Vodafone Greece division with Greek telecommunications operator Wind Hellas.

"Vodafone Group confirms that it has entered into discussions with Largo Limited to explore a potential business combination between Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas," it said in a brief statement. Wind Hellas is controlled by Largo.

Twitter users fired off a record number of tweets per second following the announcement by pop diva Beyonce at the MTV Video Music Awards that she is expecting a baby.

"Last night at 10:35 pm, Beyonce's big MTV #VMA moment gave Twitter a record bump: 8,868 Tweets per second," the San Francisco-based real-time messaging service said in a statement on its @TwitterGlobalPR feed.

Electronics giant Samsung Monday said it would launch a counter claim against U.S. firm Apple in Australia as part of a dispute between the rival companies over tablet computers.

The American company launched legal action against South Korea's Samsung Electronics in Sydney earlier this month, accusing it of infringing its patents with its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

At the height of what he calls his addiction, Ryan Van Cleave would stand in the grocery store checkout line with his milk and bread and baby food for his little girls and for a split second think he was living inside a video game.

It sounds crazy, but it's true: Something would catch his attention out of the corner of his eye — maybe another shopper would make a sudden move for a Hershey bar — and he was mentally and emotionally transported to another world.

Steve Jobs has been Apple's most recognizable personality, but much of its cachet comes from its clean, inviting designs. For that, Apple can credit its head designer, Jonathan Ive.

Ive, a self-effacing 44-year-old Brit, helped Jobs bring Apple back from the brink of financial ruin with the whimsical iMac computer, whose original models came in bright colors at a time when bland shades dominated the PC world. He later helped transform Apple into a consumer electronics powerhouse and the envy of Silicon Valley with the iPod, the iPhone and, most recently, the iPad.

A popular Twitter-like service in China has contacted millions of users warning them to ignore false reports, in a sign of growing official unease over the rise of social networking sites.

Sina's micro-blogging site Weibo sent at least two messages on Friday to refute rumors, including one that the suspected murderer of a 19-year-old woman had been released on bail because of his father's connections.

A 19-year-old New York man who created a program that allows iPhone users to "jailbreak" the device to run unauthorized applications claims to have landed an internship at Apple.

Nicholas Allegra, creator of the site JailBreakMe, announced the news on Thursday on his Twitter feed @comex.

Internet giant Google has rolled out an online map tracking the path of Hurricane Irene and providing other useful information about the storm headed for the U.S. east coast.

The map, located at crisislanding.appspot.com, is a product of the Google Crisis Response team, which provides online tools to help with relief efforts following natural disasters.