While sales have understandably fallen in the last months ahead of the launch of the PS4 and Xbox Infinity, Microsoft remains the undisputed king in the U.S.

The software giant sold 130,000 units in April, giving it the lead for the 28th straight month.

Overall retail spending on the console, including hardware, accessories and software totaled $208 million, most of any console in the nation.

Microsoft will be unveiling the next-generation Xbox on May 21st.

The Pentagon has confirmed that some Apple devices have been cleared to run on defense networks.

iPads and iPhones running iOS 6 will now be allowed on the network.

Last week, the Pentagon said a number of BlackBerry and Samsung devices had been cleared, as well, including the BlackBerry 10 smart phones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and Samsung's Android Knox.

"This is a significant step towards establishing a multi-vendor environment that supports a variety of state-of-the-art devices and operating systems," Lieutenant Colonel Damien Pickart added.

Before today's news, the Pentagon had 600,000 mobile device users with 470,000 using BlackBerry and under 50,000 use Apple or Android as part of test programs.

According to multiple sources, Microsoft is planning a 7.9-inch Surface tablet that it expects to launch in late June.

Additionally, Samsung will be supplying the displays for the tablet.

Consumers have been moving away from the standard full-sized 10-inch tablets and towards smaller form factors which are more portable. Google's Nexus 7 and Apple's 7.9-inch iPad Mini have been major hits. Samsung recently unveiled an 8-inch Galaxy Note that can make calls.

Thanks to those tablets, the 7.5-8-inch market is expected to account for 12 percent of all tablet sales in 2013.

It appears that Yahoo's rumored acquisition of Tumblr is close to fruition.

The company's board will vote on Sunday night whether to approve a $1.1 billion all-cash offer for the photo blogging site.

If approved, the acquisition would be announced on Monday by CEO Marissa Mayer, who is said to have championed for the deal.

Yahoo has been actively looking to make their userbase younger and Tumblr's main demographic is 18-24-year-olds.

Tumblr would be the biggest of new CEO Marissa Mayer's purchases, which have included Summly, Astrid, Jybe and others in the $100 million or less range.

According to a new global poll by Bloomberg, Apple has lost its innovative touch, the "magic" that once led it to become the biggest public company in the world.

71 percent of all poll respondents say the company is no longer an industry innovator, with 28 percent saying they believe it is permanent. 43 percent believe Apple has just lost its way temporarily.

23 percent of respondents remained loyal, saying Apple is still the best in the business while the remaining 6 percent were unsure.

Despite the lack of innovation, the company remains a monster powerhouse in the smartphone and tablet industry. The iPhone accounts for over 60 percent of the smartphone industry's profits and the company brought in $41.7 in net income last year alone.

Apple's shares have struggled in the last year, falling from a high of $702 to just $433 today.

Last week we reported that the NVIDIA SHIELD "console" would be available for pre-orders through multiple retail partners starting on May 20.

Today, Nvidia has fast-tracked the launch, starting pre-orders three days early.

The 'console-grade' controller features a 720p display, powered by Tegra 4 and running Android. "SHIELD is the one device that taps into the planet's largest ecosystem of games -- spanning NVIDIA TegraZone, Google Play and Steam," NVIDIA's announcement reads. "Rediscover your Android games with the mobility, control and performance of SHIELD. Connect to your Google Play account to enjoy your favorite movies, music and apps."

NVIDIA SHIELD's specifications:

• Tegra 4 – The world's fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
• Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
• Multi-touch display – 5-inch, 720p retinal multi-touch display for high-fidelity visuals
• Integrated speakers – Custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system – we think this is SHIELD's sleeper feature
• Wi-Fi – 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi for game streaming
• Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
• There's more – NVIDIA put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack

DirecTV, the U.S.' second largest pay-TV provider, may be considering a bid for Hulu, say sources.

There has been plenty of interest for the streaming company, which offers current and past libraries of TV shows from ABC, NBC, the CW and Fox.

Among the would-be buyers are the Chernin Group, Time Warner Cable and Yahoo.

DirecTV would use the company to expand its "TV Everywhere" service, which makes TV available online to DTV subscribers.

Yesterday, Google announced that it had partnered with Samsung to offer an unlocked Galaxy S4 that runs on stock Android and does not include any Samsung apps or its TouchWiz UX overlay.

Speculation quickly grew that other OEMs would make a similar move, but HTC has at least dashed those hopes for their company.

"HTC is not currently planning a 'Nexus Edition' of the HTC One," said the company to SG.

The HTC One is widely regarded as the best piece of hardware to run Android, but there are plenty of critics of HTC's Sense user interface, which was recently updated to its 5th generation.

According to a new IDC report, Android now accounts for 75 percent share of the smartphone market.

For the Q1, IDC says Android and Apple shipped 199.5 million handhelds, up 59 percent year-over-year.

Combined, Android and iOS control 92.3 percent share of smartphone operating systems, leaving very little room for competition from BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

The news was not all bad for Microsoft, however, as Windows Phone surpassed BlackBerry during the quarter, shipping 7 million units good for 3.2 percent share. BlackBerry fell to 4th with 6.3 million shipments and 2.9 percent market share. WP saw 133 percent growth year-over-year, beating out all other OS.

Nokia shipped 79 percent of the Windows Phone devices during the quarter, with HTC accounting for most of the rest.

Multiple sources are reporting today that Yahoo is in active talks to purchase Tumblr, the popular photo blogging service.

The deal could go for as high as $1 billion, which would be the same ballpark as Facebook's acquisition of Instagram last year.

Yahoo has been actively looking to make their userbase younger and Tumblr's main demographic is 18-24-year-olds.

Tumblr would be the biggest of new CEO Marissa Mayer's purchases, which have included Summly, Astrid, Jybe and others in the $100 million or less range.

Spotify has announced they will be updating their desktop standalone application to display play counts for popular tracks when viewing the songs via an artist's profile.

Some users have already gotten the update but Spotify says it will take a couple of weeks to roll out.

"We're committed to making Spotify even more artist and fan-friendly and showing play counts is a clear step in that direction," said the company. "Now artists can get immediate feedback on how their music is performing on Spotify and fans can keep up to date with popular tracks."

The play counts are global.

In the screenshot below, you can see Daft Punk's latest,'Get Lucky,' has already been played over 22 million times.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has announced today that Twitter will soon be integrated into the company's portal newsfeed.

Says the exec: "Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information. 140 characters can connect athletes with their fans, capture live chatter from the red carpet, and inspire global debate. Tweets have become an important information source for many of our users, so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo! newsfeed.

As users explore our nearly endless stream of content, we will seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources. With this greater breadth of compelling content, we're excited to give our users even more opportunities to learn and connect. Users now also have an easy way to discover relevant and interesting people and publishers to follow on Twitter, personalized to their interests and preferences.

Major video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has said today that it is not currently developing any games for the Nintendo Wii U.

Spokesperson Jeff Brown told Kotaku today that "we have no games in development for the Wii U currently."

The company had hinted last week that its upcoming blockbuster Star Wars games would not be headed to the Wii U, but it seems there are no games headed to the struggling console.

In 2011, the companies announced their "unprecedented" partnership for the Wii U but Brown says the company has fulfilled their obligations and no longer have to develop for the system.

Whether or not EA stops developing for the Wii U for good, this news is certainly not good given that the Xbox Infinity and PS4 are right around the corner.

Microsoft has responded to a demand from Google Inc. to remove its updated YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store.

Google sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter, ordering it to remove the YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store. A recent update to the app violated the terms of the YouTube API, because it intentionally cuts out advertisements and cuts straight to the video.

Google not only pointed out that this is a violation of the terms of the YouTube API, but that it also denies the creators of the content ad revenue for their work.

Microsoft issued a statement in response, saying essentially that it would absolutely show the advertisements, but that Google needs to come to the table.

YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms. Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We'd be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page's comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.

Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet PC running Windows 8 will be available in the United Kingdom from May 23.

The Surface Pro is Microsoft's effort to Showcase Windows 8 Pro. It is coming to the UK with similarly hefty price tags compared to other regions, with the 64GB device costing £719, and the 128GB config costing £799.

"The response to Surface RT has already been great to see," said Robert Epstein, UK Surface Lead.

"There has been strong anticipation for Surface Pro in the UK and we're excited to be able to offer people a fully blown Windows 8 PC packed with powerful processing features in the innovative Surface design."

Surface Pro, powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, is equivalent to a full-blown Windows 8 laptop that also boasts tablet capabilities.

Surface Pro will be available from http://www.microsoftstore.co.uk