Silicon Valley is left with two major questions in the wake of Verizon's (VZ) announced plan to buy Alltel Corp.(AT):

1. Will the deal help or hurt efforts to pry open America's closed cell phone system to accept any device and any applications?
2. Will Verizon start selling the iPhone (AAPL)?

For techies, the crucial fact is that the combo makes Verizon even more powerful -- especially in Washington, D.C. The deal puts Verizon back ahead of oligopoly tag-team member AT&T (T) as the nation's biggest cell phone operator. (Ailing Sprint (S) is a distant number three; nobody else is big enough to count.)

Might Tivo (TIVO) one day be embedded as a piece of software in your television set? The company is rapidly moving in that direction.

The DVR pioneer's recent linkup with Comcast Cable (CMCSA) is putting  software in New Englanders' cable boxes that would enable Tivo's fast-forwarding and view-later capabilities to work without having to add a separate Tivo box. If that experiment works, a national rollout could follow.