A Texas appellate court has ordered Whitney Harper to pay $27,750 in fines for illegal sharing of 27 tracks when she was 15 years old, throwing out the old judgment that had ordered her to pay just $7400.
The first decision had given Harper the "innocent infringers" exemption, via the DMCA, meaning she could be fined a number under the minimum $750 per track, as stated in the law.
Harper shared the files via Limewire seven years ago, back when she was a 15-year old high school cheerleader, and says she thought the sharing was the same as Internet radio.
"Harper cannot rely on her purported legal naivety [sic] to defeat the … bar to her innocent infringer defense," said the court.
Said the woman, two years in court: "I knew I was listening to music. I didn't have an understanding of file sharing."
We reported two weeks ago that an NES console with an opened copy of Stadium Eventssold for $13,000, a high premium, although there are only known to be around 10 copies of the game in existence.
Today, that number has been blown out of the water, with a sealed NTSC copy of the game selling for $41,300 today, alone.
Read the auction:
"An online article states that, “The North American, or NTSC, version of Stadium Events is universally accepted as the rarest licensed NES game available for purchase in North America”. As the article continues, “ONLY ONE OF WHICH IS FACTORY SEALED”. If this is true then THIS IS that “ONLY” game that is factory sealed. This is truly an opportunity of a lifetime.
The PAL versions (many listed for sale here on EBay) were never recalled and therefore are not nearly as valuable as this NTSC version I am selling. Not only is this a NTSC version - it is factory sealed, the box alone (opened) is estimated at approximately $10,000. Do your research - this is truly ONE OF A KIND!!"
Two days ago we reported that there was a massive phishing attack being worked through Twitter, with people you are following sending personal messages asking you to click on a link that promptly took you to a new landing page where you are asked to sign in to Twitter.
By signing in, users were having their accounts stolen, and used to send more of the messages to other victims.
Today, Twitter finally released a warning about the attack:
Over the past few days, Twitter has been helping folks victimized by a phishing attack. Phishing is a deceitful process by which an attempt is made to acquire sensitive information such as Twitter usernames and passwords. The bad guys masquerade as someone you trust and may send you a Direct Message (DM) with a link. This DM may say something along the lines of, "LOL that you??" followed by a link to a fake Twitter login page. If you enter your credentials on that fraudulent page, the phishers can sign in as you and trick more people.
Anatomy of A Phishing Scam
Generally a phishing attack against Twitter users breaks down to a three-part process. First, accounts compromised in the manner described above send out messages to all accounts following them. Second, accounts that are newly compromised send out more messages. Third, the scammers behind the phishing attack make an attempt at monetization by sending out spam links instead of links to a fake login page. We fight phishing scams by detecting affected accounts and resetting passwords. However, it's better to stop them before they start.Read more...
Although not in our normal niche, this article was too interesting to pass up.
Eurocopter has created a new helicopter blade, dubbed Blue Edge, that significantly reduces noise from the rotor blades. Testing on an EC155 helicopter has seen noise reduced by 4 decibels.
Says Wired: "The technologies are able to reduce noise by minimizing the blade-vortex interaction of the main rotor on a helicopter. Blade-vortex interaction is the source of the pulsating sound most of us are familiar with when helicopters fly overhead. The noise is created when a rotor blade hits the wake vortex left behind from the blade in front of it."
Current Hulu investor Providence Equity Partners has invested $50 million into the new Qiyi online video service started by search giant Baidu.
The service, as promised, should be a Hulu-esque ad-supported streaming service for China, including censorship.
Providence is the biggest investor by far, with Reuters reporting that the service has $60 million in backing, with the other $10 million coming from Baidu itself.
According to TC, China has over 500 million Internet users, but the online video market only brings in about $25 million in revenue per quarter. Analysts expect that number to at least triple by 2012.
The business rating and review site Yelp has been sued this week by two law firms, which are alleging unfair business practices and extortion.
The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a veterinary hospital in California which asked Yelp to remove a negative review, but was then denied. Afterward, sales representatives from Yelp called the hospital at least once a week demanding a check for $300 to make bad reviews go away.
This is the second time Yelp has been accused of extorting from small businesses, with East Bay Express accusing them last year in a broad report.
Yelp responded to the new case, via TechCrunch: "Yelp provides a valuable service to millions of consumers and businesses based on our trusted content. The allegations are demonstrably false, since many businesses that advertise on Yelp have both negative and positive reviews. These businesses realize that both kinds of feedback provide authenticity and value. Running a good business is hard; filing a lawsuit is easy. While we haven’t seen the suit in question, we will dispute it aggressively."
The new PopCap release Plants vs Zombies has become the fastest and highest grossing iPhone game launch in history, with over 300,000 apps sold in the first 9 days, for a gross over $1 million.
"Plants vs Zombies is our latest major franchise to make the jump to iPhone, and from the early customer and critical feedback it appears to be a great adaptation of the game," added Andrew Stein, director of mobile business development at PopCap, via GI.biz. "There's always a concern when bringing a computer game to a mobile, pocket-sized device that something will get lost in the process, but in this case the overwhelming consensus is that Plants vs Zombies is even more fun on the smaller touch screen."
Additionally, PopCap's Bejeweled 2 became the first paid app to reach 3 million sales.
According to UnwiredView, the CDMA version of the Google Nexus One has been approved by the FCC, meaning the smartphone should be headed to Verizon in the near future.
The approved phone has model name PB99300, whereas the GSM version currently available is PB99100.
Neither Google or Verizon would give a specific date, or a price, but expect the phone sometime in March, with a similar price to that of its GSM counterpart on T-Mobile, at $180 with contract.
A student at Pentucket Regional High School in Massachusetts saw their iPod Touch spontaneously explode while it was sitting on her desk during class this week, and fire officials were forced to come and clear out the room.
West Newbury fire Chief Scott Berkenbush says: "Some chemicals had come out, so we checked and made sure it was OK and cleared the scene. No one was transported. The teenager was checked out by (American Medical Response technicians) and not transported."
This is at least the third documented case for iPods simply exploding, but so far Apple has not claimed any liability. Furthermore, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has implied that lithium batteries may be more to blame than the Apple hardware.
Adding as a joke, Berkenbush said: "iPod is the new Toyota. I think the problem is with the battery itself. If any moisture gets on it or it falls in a puddle, it can spark."
As we reported earlier this week, Apple announced that the iTunes download store has reached a new milestone of 10 billion music downloads.
The winner, was a 71-year old man named Louie Sulcer, who won after downloading the 1958 hit "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. He won a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
Being interviewed at the Nintendo Media Summit yesterday, Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime has warned would-be buyers to expect hardware shortages of the Wii at least until the end of March.
Fils-Aime attributes the shortages to the unexpected record sales in December, where the company sold 3.8 million units.
"On the Wii hardware side, we are back to a situation where demand is exceeding supply and we’re going to be in that situation through the end of March," says Fils-Aime. "You can't sell 3.8m units in one month without that suction of demand pulling product through the distribution channel."
The president continued: "It obviously caught us a little bit off-guard and we're rapidly trying to rectify the situation."
After selling the record amount of Wiis in December, sales fell off 31 percent in January, leading many analysts to ask Nintendo whether there was supply issues.
Sony America publisher relations senior VP Rob Dyer has admitted this week that the PSP Go handheld "confused" buyers, and that sales have struggled.
Acknowledging another long-time criticism, Dyer says the expensive $250 price has not helped sales any, with the cheaper PSP-3000 model handily outselling its newer brother.
"Yeah, I think the higher price point didn't help matters any," Dyer said, via IpodNN.
Since the release of the PSP Go, Sony has done nothing but lose market share to the DS/DSi, and even the iPod Touch, which are cheaper and have big fan bases.
Sprint has confirmed leaked WebOS 1.4 update details today, with many rumored features confirmed.
Video recording is coming, Adobe Flash 10.1 for the Palm Pre, and a Flash beta app for other Palm devices are also in the update.
Electronista says the "Universal Search now includes EAS (Exchange) GAL corporate address look up, while the application launcher now gives users more feedback. The Pre Button in the gesture area will now blink until a notification is acknowledged."
Formatting, browser and time zone bugs have been fixed as well. Emails are now sortable and numbers can be dialed directly from SMS messages without need to load the contacts.
Samsung and Skype have announced that the upcoming Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series HDTVs will come with built-in Skype software allowing for video and voice chats via your TV.
The first model will begin shipping in the "first half of 2010."
"Our consumers want their televisions to be a 'one-stop shop' for entertainment and communication delivered with the highest quality," added Kevin Kyungshik Lee, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. "Including Skype on our TVs meets that expectation perfectly. We're thrilled that Samsung's consumers can now use our TVs to experience the rich video and voice communication that hundreds of millions of Skype users worldwide enjoy."
The HDTVs were first introduced at the CES show last month.
You will need to buy and connect a camera, which is available through both companies, and obviously have a Skype account, which can even be created through the remote control of the TV.
Adobe's Mark Doherty has shot back today at critics that have been reporting that Flash 10.1 kills the battery life of Android devices, posting a video in its defense.
The 17-minute video shows Doherty running a video on the non-mobile YouTube site, and after its done, shows the battery meter which has seen only 6 percent of the battery drained.
Doherty even goes on to say that they have tested a two-hour movie and still had life left.
Kotaku is reporting that Valve has hinted at Steam getting Mac OS X support sometime in the near future, giving Mac fans a chance to experience the largest online gaming digital distribution service.
warriorlax5506 of the Valve forum looked through the files of the newest open beta and found tons of Mac OS X-specific graphics, as well as menu files.
While there may not be that many Mac owners out there in comparison to Windows, Valve publishing partners Electronic Arts, PopCap Games and Take-Two all produce Mac versions of their games.
Twitter has been hit by a massive phishing attack over the last 24 hours, with users being PMed messages that read "This you???," followed by a link that directs you to a site to login with your Twitter details.
I can tell you this is indeed happening, as I've received two already. If you receive one, tell your friends/family to change their passwords.
Large textbook publishers Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Macmillan, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Pearson filed a lawsuit against file sharing host Rapidshare earlier this month, and today have gained an injunction, meaning the service must now proactively filter about 150 textbook titles, or face a hefty fine.
The suit cited all 148 titles to which the publishers owned the copyright, and demanded that digital copies be taken down, and not allowed to be distributed at all.
Because of the new injunction, if any of the books is ever found available on Rapidshare, the company could face a fine up to 250,000 euros.
"This ruling is an important step forward. Not only does it affirm that file-sharing copyrighted content without permission is against the law, but it attaches a hefty financial punishment to the host, in this case Rapidshare, for noncompliance," adds Tom Allen, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, via TF. "Consider this a shot across the bow for others who attempt to profit from the theft of copyrighted works online."
According to a MediaPost report, Twitter will be launching an official advertising platform, with head of product management and monetization Anamitra Banerji confirming it at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.
The platform is "only in the test phase," however. When asked how it would work, Banerji says it will be "explicitly clear that a sponsor paid for the ad," and it will be "relevant and useful, so the user doesn’t think of it as an ad."
As reported today, the company says they receive and distribute about 600 Tweets every second, reaching a popularity almost as high as Facebook, meaning advertising revenue could be very high if done correctly.
We will keep you updated when the platform is better explained.
PCWorld has reported this week the results of their annual 13-city 3G wireless data test, and the changes in results from last year are drastic.
Averaging the lowest average download and upload speeds last year, AT&T has brought itself back, registering the best average speeds for this year, including the best performance in 10 of the 13 cities, besting rivals Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
AT&T average download speed grew to 1410 kbps, and reliability increased as well.
Before posting the charts, here is how the source reports their testing: Before getting into the details of our test results, a few words about the testing and the data. During December and January, PCWorld and our testing partner, Novarum Inc., tested the download speeds, upload speeds, and network dependability of the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon 3G networks from 20 locations in each of 13 U.S. cities. Altogether we ran more than 51,000 separate tests covering 850 square miles of wireless cell coverage servicing 7 million wireless subscribers (see “How We Do the Testing”).
At each testing location, we connected to the 3G network via both laptops and smartphones. The laptop tests accurately measured the capacity and performance potential of a given network, while the smartphone tests approximated the real-world connection speeds users of these popular devices might experience, given the less-powerful processors and 3G radios that the devices contain.
Although it was announced months ago, Google has officially dated the end of Internet Explorer 6 support via YouTube, with March 13th being that day.
The date was posted under YouTube Help, with the header: "When does older browser support end for YouTube and what does this mean?" The answer reads: "Support stops on March 13th. Stopped support essentially means that some future features on YouTube will be rolled out that won’t work in older browsers."
YouTube will also notify visitors using IE6 to change browsers whenever they try to access the site.
Google has also announced that IE6 support will be dropped from Google Docs starting March 1st.
Apple shipped 24.89 million iPhone units in 2009, making it the top shipped smartphone for the year.
The numbers come from industry group Gartner, which showed off smartphone market share.
Phones with the Symbian OS remained on top with 80.88 million units shipped, with RIM second at 34.35 million smartphones shipped for the year. Finishing off the list are Windows Mobile, Linux, Android, and WebOS.
Percentage-wise, Symbian controlled 46.9 percent, RIM followed at 19.9 percent, Apple with 14.4 percent, WinMo at 8.7 percent, Linux at 4.7 percent, Android at 3.9 percent and WebOS at 0.7 percent.
Overall, 1.211 billion phones were shipped in 2009, down from 1.222 billion in 2008.
Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio has reassured investors that the Nook e-reader is still selling well, and that the iPad should have little effect on the company's bottom line.
Because the book store offers e-books from its bookstore on many platforms, says Riggio, hardware is less important.
Riggio calls the Nook a "halo" device that is used mainly to get customers into stores, or to visit the e-book store.
Given the "strategic nature" of the e-book business, Riggio would not give any hard numbers for sales but called it the best selling device the company has.
Publishing giant Macmillan has announced today the launch of it's own DynamicBooks software platform, allowing professors to edit digital textbooks without approval of the original author.
The instructors can add or delete text, re-arrange chapters, and add their own media and charts, using a simple online authoring tool.
The digital textbooks will go up for sale via dynamicbooks.com and through college book stores, and will be quite significantly cheaper then their print counterparts. For example, the New York Times shows the book "Psychology," which has MSRP of $135, but retails for about $120 at most big book stores. The DynamicBooks version will retail for $48.76 and can be viewed on computers and the iPhone.
According to a Facebook post, Best Buy will begin offering the Motorola Devour for $99 starting February 25th, alongside price drops of the Droid and the Droid Eris.
With activation and 2-year agreement, the Devour will cost $99, the Droid will drop to $99, and the Droid Eris will be free.
Reads the post:
"We lowered our prices on the Droid Eris by HTC to Free, DROID by Motorola to $99.99, and on February 25th are introducing the MOTOROLA DEVOUR™ with MOTOBLUR™ at $99.99. Pricing requires 2 year activation. Activation and termination fees apply. Handsets may vary by store. See store for details."
PreCentral is reporting today that the Palm webOS 1.4firmware update should hit Sprint and Verizon phones by the 25th, with rollout expected to last for up to a week.
100,000 devices will get the OTA rollout at a time, but users can manually install it from the update launcher if they want it right when it launches.
The update should bring video recording capability, Flash 10.1 compatibility, speed and battery improvements, as well as LED alerts on by default.
According to the New York Times, Wal-Mart is set to purchase VUDU, the premium video streaming service, as a way to compete against iTunes, Netflix and cable VOD.
The move marks the third time Wal-Mart has tried to compete in the realm of video rental. In 2004, it started a DVD-by-mail service, but closed it in 2005 and set its customers right to Netflix as part of a deal.
In 2007, they started an a la carte music download program with full blessing from the major record labels, but killed the service in 2008 after Apple surpassed them as the biggest music retailer in the United States.
Vudu offers the most HD movies, and offers the best quality, but has remained for the most part, obscure, as it does not have broad marketing.
Nokia and Sky have teamed up to introduce a new application that will give smartphone users a way to watch live Premiership football matches on their Nokia handsets.
The app is free from the Ovi Store, and will also allow users to watch on-demand highlights, or program their Sky+ boxes to record the games.
So far, the app is compatible with the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia 5530, with Nokia 5230 and X6 support expected soon. 10 other handsets will get a watered down version without live broadcasts but with the other features.
Rupert Englander of Nokia adds (via PCAdvisor): "Modern lifestyles have driven demand for great mobile content and services on-the-go, and it's great to know that this app will make a real difference to Nokia users."
Google has been sued today by Harvard Law School student Eva S. Hibnick, who has started a class-action lawsuit against the search giant "on behalf of Gmail users," claiming that the new Buzz social networking service is a breach of user privacy.
Buzz is a voluntary add on to Gmail, but all users are automatically enrolled and have to opt-out if they don't want to use it.
"The social networking industry is going too far," Hibnick added, saying she was disgusted that upon opening Gmail, she was already being "followed" by people on her contact list that Google had chosen for her.
Law School student Benjamin R. Osborn, who is aiding Hibnick, doesn't say whether he believes Google intentionally breached privacy. "I don't know what Google’s motive is in all of this," Osborn says, via the Harvard Crimson newspaper. "I think they were just trying to jump-start their social network." However, "[Buzz] has already violated people’s privacy. Damages have been incurred. And we want Google to change its conduct in the future."
In early January, YouTube launched a video rental service that allowed users to rent films from the Sundance Film Festival. The service has not necessarily strived, but today the streaming giant has announced an expansion of the service.
The films cost $3.99 to rent for 48-hours, but the NYTimes reported that YouTube and the content providers only netted $10,709.16 in revenue, from 2684 views.
New publishers that have signed up for the service, however, include Anime Network, Bay View Fitness, Cerebellum Corp, FineCooking, FineWoodworking.com, FitnessChannel, FUNimation Entertainment, GolfLink.com, Language Tree, Questar Entertainment, Terwilliger Productions, TravelVideoStore.com and UFOTV Studios, says NewTeeVee.
Pricing and availability will differ by publisher.
Ubisoft has defended their actions today, via an interview with CVG.
The full interview (definitely worth reading if you were critical of the previous article):
What's the problem this DRM is trying to address? Ubi are increasingly concerned about piracy on the PC. "It's a huge problem - you know it, I know it, other people know it. It really is a very important issue that all serious companies need to address," says their spokesperson. But they also believe that their online services will make PC gaming better. "The real idea is that if you offer a game that is better when you buy it, then people will actually buy it. We wouldn't have built it if we thought that it was really going to piss off our customers."
So what's in it for gamers? Ubi say there are three advantages to their online services. The first: you don't need a disc. The second: that you can install the game on as many PCs as you like, as many times as you like. And the third: the automatic uploading of savegames to Ubisoft's servers.
Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has stated that the company is currently developing an app that will bring music videos to your HDTV via the upcoming Boxee Boxset-top box.
The company has distribution partners in YouTube and AOL, and is looking to continually expand.
Boxee, which is currently in beta, has said they have almost 1 million users that have downloaded the software, and that number is expected to continue growing.
Vevo is a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, using YouTube as a backend, and with financial support from AT&T and Abu Dhabi Media Co..
9-to-5Mac has reported an interesting finding today, showing off what seems to be pretty concrete proof that future iPhone OS products such as later model iPads or iPhones will include video chatting support.
Found tucked away in the 3.2 SDK, are a few icons relating to video calling, such as "decline or end video" and "accept video."
There are also some video chat related strings, as pictured.
Of course it makes more sense that this may only be available for the iPad (which is expected to have a front facing camera) but future iPhones may get a second camera, it wouldn't be that far out of the realm of possibility.
AndroidCentral has posted a video of the Google Nexus One running a new custom ROM that was ported from the HTC Desire. The new ROM has HTC Sense, and has Flash 10.1 support.
IntoMobile is reporting that the latest beta of the redsn0w jailbreaking utility, version 0.9.3 has brought back iPhone 3G data tethering to jailbroken devices, even for those with OS 3.1.2.
The new redsn0w uses an IPCC tethering hack, one that was overridden by Apple recently, but it appears the cat-and-mouse game is back on.
The site posts a little how-to as well:
Okay, maybe a little guidance is in order here. For clarification, you’ll need the redsn0w 0.9.3 beta to get the IPCC tethering hack working again – find at the bottom of the page via the link above (or here). Once you’ve run redsn0w, you’ll have to download a custom IPCC file (carrier bundle), which tells your iPhone that you are allowed to tether on a given carrier.
1. Point your iPhone Safari browser here, and download an IPCC file that corresponds to your region and carrier.
2. Once downloaded, install the IPCC file and replace your existing carrier bundle.
3. Navigate to Settings > General > Network on your iPhone to enable tethering.
4. You now have tethering enabled on your iPhone 3G/3GS running iPhone OS 3.1.2!
Silicon Alley Insider has posted their "Chart of the Day," and it is very interesting how such a simple chart can show how so much has changed, in not a very long period of time.
For the three year period ended December 2009, Windows Mobile fell from over 35 percent smartphone market share to about 17 percent, losing incredible amounts of share to Apple, RIM, and although not pictured, Android.
Making the chart even more notable is the fact that Apple only has one device, the iPhone, whereas Windows Mobile can be the operating system for any number of mobile devices.
The figures are via ComScore, which is known for its accuracy.
Earlier this week we reported that a lawsuit had been filed in US District Court accusing administrators at Lower Merion School District in Rosemont, PA of using webcams on a school-issued laptop to illegally spy on a student.
Today, the FBI has opened an investigation into the allegations, which is considered illegal wiretapping and a violation of student's privacy.
District Superintendent Christopher McGinley denied the allegations: "At no time did any high school administrator have the ability or actually access the security-tracking software. We believe that the administrator at Harriton has been unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked in connection with her attempts to be supportive of a student and his family. The district never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action."
AppAdvice has posted a report today that the highly-hyped Apple iPad should go up for pre-order on the 25th, a little over a month before its release date on March 29th.
Citing a "reliable source," the site says the pre-order is for the U.S. only, and will be limited to the Wi-Fi model only. The 3G versions will not go up for pre-sale until later.
Apple will not comment on rumors, but recently made the news when it was revealed that the company was keeping all freight details private, keeping launch proximity a secret.
With your purchase of On2, you now own both the world's largest video site (YouTube) and all the patents behind a new high performance video codec -- VP8. Just think what you can achieve by releasing the VP8 codec under an irrevocable royalty-free license and pushing it out to users on YouTube? You can end the web's dependence on patent-encumbered video formats and proprietary software (Flash).
To sit on this technology or merely use it as a bargaining chip would be a disservice to the free world, while bringing at best limited short-term benefits to your company. To free VP8 without recommending it to YouTube users would be a wasted opportunity and damaging to free software browsers like Firefox. We all want you to do the right thing. Free VP8, and use it on YouTube!
Why this would be amazing
The world would have a new free format unencumbered by software patents. Viewers, video creators, free software developers, hardware makers -- everyone -- would have another way to distribute video without patents, fees, and restrictions. The free video format OggTheora was already at least as good for web video (see a comparison) as its nonfree competitor H.264, and we never did agree with your objections to using it. But since you made the decision to purchase VP8, presumably you're confident it can meet even those objections, and using it on YouTube is a no-brainer.Read more...
Director James Cameron has announced that his epic blockbuster hit Avatar will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in April, although the first version released will not be in 3D.
The original Cameron quote is as follows: "It's all right on schedule. We'll do the Blu-ray and the standard def DVD April 22nd, that's our plan as of right now, and that'll be pretty much bare bones. And then we'll do a value-added DVD and a 3-D Blu-ray in I think November sometime."
Fox however, has stated that the 3D version is not coming out in November. Says the spokesperson: "3-D is in the conceptual stage and 'Avatar' will not be out on 3-D Blu-ray in November."
'Avatar,' released in December, has quickly become the highest-grossing film of all-time (not adjusted for ticket inflation), and is the highest-grossing film in U.S., Chinese, Russian, Spanish, U.K history.
Redbox will begin adding Blu-ray titles to its 22,000 kiosks starting in the Q2 2010, says parent company Coinstar CEO Paul Davis.
So far, the company has been only testing Blu-ray releases in its kiosks.
"[Blu-ray] strengthens our position to meet consumer demand," adds Davis, although he concedes that they will not cost $1.00 like DVD releases do. When asked about the price, he said they have not determined a price, but they will "for sure be higher than our standard DVDs."
According to Sony Ericsson president Bert Nordberg, the company rejected the opportunity to build the Google Nexus One, saying that it did not want to gain a reputation as a subcontractor. After SE turned down the offer, HTC gladly took the chance to manufacture the smartphone.
Although sales of the Nexus One have been rather small by most standards, HTC gained tons of publicity from the partnership, with their CEO given a few minutes to talk at the much-hyped Nexus One launch last month about his company and the brand itself.
Sony Ericsson has seen over $1 billion in losses over the past year, and continues to lose market share to rivals, leading to over 2000 layoffs.
Attendees of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) have received a limited-edition Adobe Photoshop 1.0 app for their iPhones, a nostalgic throwback to the original program, which was released in 1990.
"I really wanted to do something special to commemorate 20 years of Photoshop, and the best thing I thought of was a nostalgic iPhone app," says Russell Brown, Adobe's Senior Creative Director, who was around for the original release of 1.0. "Since I had less than two weeks to make it happen, I came to the best iPhone team I knew, who were able to use their Corona SDK to pull it off with utmost speed and faithfulness to the original product."
The United States International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate into the patent complaints filed by Apple against rival Nokia, in their ongoing litigation battle.
Starting last October, Nokia sued Apple over patents relating to technologies used in the iPhone. Apple then countersued, and eventually asked the ITC to step in. Apple is seeking an injunction on some Nokia products, and Nokia is looking for royalty payments, payments that will likely be in the hundreds of millions per year.
Google has had their request to become an electricity marketer accepted today by U.S. energy regulators, allowing the search giant to begin buying and selling bulk power.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission backed Google's application, reads the WSJ, allowing the company to become a market-based rate authority. Google's application stated that it does not own any generators or transmission lines, and will not use its position for retail purposes.
Most marketers are utility or power generator companies, but a few corporations, like Kimberly-Clark, have been granted the authority as well, given the large amount of power they use. Google says it will use the title to manage its own energy supplies, and to "gain better access to renewable power."
"We made this filing so we can have more flexibility in procuring power for Google's own operations, including our data centers. FERC authority will improve our ability to hedge our purchases of energy and incorporate renewables," adds Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick.
The Lanxiang Vocational School in China has denied a recent report that stated the school was the source of the recent cyber attacks on Google.
"Investigation in the staff found no trace the attacks originated from our school," added Li Zixiang, party chief at Lanxiang Vocational School in Shandong Province.
Lanxiang was created to train computer scientists for the military, and the New York Times reported earlier in the week that the cyber attacks on Google, Microsoft and other US companies was sourced from Lanxiang.
The school currently has 20,000 students, learning all types of vocational skills.
Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has made an interesting note this week, saying that if they had sufficient funding they would create their own smartphone operating system.
Additionally, Jha said now that Windows Mobile has updated to version 7, the company will consider using it again, after writing it off for years.
Says Jha, via the WSJ: "If I had more money for R&D, I'd be developing an operating platform." In regards to Windows Phone: "I'm open to it...I think I need diversity in our portfolio."
Motorola remains committed to Android, the operating system that practically saved the company from bankruptcy, but it seems Motorola is looking to open up to other operating systems in the next year.
Torrent.ru, the Russian-based torrent indexing site that serves 4 million users, has had its domain name suspended today, effectively taking down the site at its current location.
The large indexer, which has over 1 million active torrents, had the domain name suspended by RU-Center, the nation's largest registrar and web-host.
According to Andrey Vorobiev, Director of Public Relations (via TorrentFreak), "the domain was blocked on the orders of the Investigative Division of the regional prosecutor’s office in Chertanovskaya, Moscow, but could not disclose the reasons."
For now, the site is back up at Rutracker.org, but it remains unseen whether that new domain will be taken down by the authorities as well.
According to Mashable, CBS looks to be on the verge of dropping the price of their TV episodes on iTunes from $1.99 to $0.99, with CEO Les Moonves saying specifically that "there are certain shows that will be sold on Apple for 99 cents."
Although many networks price down older content, MediaMemo says that the context of the quote shows CBS is "planning on changing its pricing structure on more than a one-off basis."
If the move does take place, rivals like NBC and Fox will likely be forced to drop their prices as well for TV shows. At under a dollar, consumers will be more willing to purchase the content, but it is unclear what kind of hit margins will take for the content holders.
Their is no deal set in stone yet, but Apple and CBS are currently in negotiations.
According to a new research report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), about 9.78 million pirated games were downloaded in December, although the trade group says its numbers are skewed, to the lower side.
Only 200 of the most popular games were part of the survey, and downloads were only counted from P2P services and torrent trackers. One-click hosts such as Megaupload and Hotfile were not included.
"These figures under-represent the true magnitude of online game piracy," says the ESA, via GI.biz."They address only downloads of a small selection of ESA member titles. And while they account for illegal downloads that occur over select P2P platforms, they do not account for downloads that occur from 'cyberlockers' or 'one-click' hosting sites, which continue to account for high volumes of infringing downloads."
Entertainment Weekly has reported that a young couple got married on Valentine's Day, at an Apple Store, with, you guessed it, the priest dressed as CEO Steve Jobs.
Says EW: "The happy couple is Josh and Ting Li, who confirm to EW that this was their real wedding. They first bonded over a mutual fascination with all things clickwheel, Josh says. “We got to know each other because Ting was looking to buy an iPod…and I managed to strike up a conversation that way.” Romance blossomed for the two iLovebirds. “I used to joke that the Apple Store is my church because I am not religious, and I loved everything Apple,” Josh adds. “Ting then came up with the idea of having the wedding there.” They haven’t decided yet where to have a reception, but I hear Cupertino is lovely this time of year.
I think this renegade Apple store wedding trumps the Halo wedding, but can it top that Star Wars wedding? What about a Katamari Damancy wedding?"
According to a new report from MediaMemo, content providers are eager to bring the popular TV and movie streaming service Hulu to the Apple iPad, but the normally free service will become a paid subscription service if it does get exported to the tablet.
Hulu has been long said to be exploring subscription plans, as a way to bring the site a healthier profit.
The first problem for Hulu on the iPad would be Apple's lack of Flash support. Although the partners behind Hulu are looking to create an Apple-friendly version of the site, that seems to be in early development still. It is "unlikely" that any version of Hulu will be available for the iPad launch in late March.
Apple has doubled the previous cap imposed on iPhone owners when trying to download applications via AT&T 3G.
Until today, users could download apps with a limit of 10MB in size, with any larger downloads having to be done via Wi-Fi. Users can now download apps up to 20MB in size.
Although criticized, the caps are imposed to help AT&T save bandwidth on an already overworked network.
Verizon has begun OTA updates for the HTC Droid Eris, giving owners Android 2.1, the newest firmware available from Google, even before Motorola Droid users have gotten it.
Users at Droid-Life have had mixed results however: "it's now sounding more and more like eris users truly are receiving some sort of an update to 2.1. some are reporting that sense ui is missing while others apparently still have it. and now after our source has confirmed an update request from a droid user, we have to wonder what verizon has done this time. this is shaping up to be a huge disaster for htc, motorola and verizon," reads the post.
HTC had confirmed the update was coming on Tuesday, but did not give a date.
Verizon has released apps for Android and Windows Mobile users today that will allow smartphone users to use their phones as remote controls for FiOS TVs.
The remotes can navigate playback, schedule DVR programming, and set parental controls.
To sync you will need the app, be on the same wireless network, and select the phone from a FiOS TV widget, says Electronista.
For now the remote app works with the Motorola Droid and the HTC Imagio, but Verizon says more supported phones are coming.
BGR is reporting today that a GSMPalm Pixi-esque smartphone should be headed to carrier T-Mobile soon, with Palm and T-Mo in the "final stages" of launch plans.
Currently, Palm's new line has been CDMA only, with the Palm Pre and Pixi on Sprint and the Palm Pre and Pixi Plus models on Verizon.
The next big mobile phone event is the CTIA next month, and will likely be a launching ground for any big announcements.
Verizon offers the Pixi Plus for $80 with contract, cheaper than Sprint offers the inferior Palm Pixi (non-Plus).
At this week's Mobile World Congress Show Daily, it appears that Sony Ericsson has hinted at the possible creation of a PSP phone.
Says President Bert Nordberg, via electronista: "We missed the window for high-end and touchscreen devices big time. Part of the recovery will be much better design and closer work with our partner Sony... In the past there was no tie-up between us, the PSP platform and Sony, but you can expect to hear much more about that."
There have been many rumors of a "PSP phone" in the past, but not to many have come with basis directly from the mouth of the President of the company.
RSJ IT Solutions of Australia has lost a lawsuit to Nintendo today, and will have to pay the gaming company $520,000 in damages for selling the R4 flash cart, a device used to run homebrew on the Nintendo DS handheld.
Along with the fine, Nintendo has won an injunction forcing the company to cease sales of the device via any site it owns, most notably gadgetgear.com.au.
Additionally, the two owners of the site are banned from selling the devices anywhere in Australia. Both must identify the suppliers from where they purchased the R4 carts, which will likely lead to more lawsuits from Nintendo.
Despite the legal uses of the R4 flash cart, it also allows for easy playback of pirated games, which is why Nintendo has filed over a dozen lawsuits in many different countries trying to stop sellers and importers of the device.
Amazon has announced today the launch of the free Kindle application for RIM BlackBerry users, giving the smartphone users access to over 400,000 e-books.
The app, aptly named "Kindle for Blackberry," is free and available to BlackBerry users on any carrier in the United States.
"Since the launch of our popular Kindle for iPhone app last year, customers have been asking us to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry," adds Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, via Yahoo.
Larry "Major" Nelson, Xbox Live community director, has Tweeted today that many Midway games available via Xbox Live Aracde have been removed for the time being due to issues over publisher rights.
Says the post: "Some XBLA titles are no longer available for purchase from Xbox Live Arcade due to publisher evolving rights and permissions."
Nelson then listed the titles, which are: Cyberball, Defender, Paperboy, Rootbeer Tapper, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Robotron, Joust, Gauntlet and Smash TV. "If you purchased any of those titles... you will still be able to play them or re-download 'em. And no, it's not Game Room related."
Midway, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009, is now mostly owned by Warner Bros., who snatched up profitable assets.
CVG has received a review copy of Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed 2 for PC and it appears that the DRM being used by the publisher requires a constant Internet connection for the game to work. If your Internet drops for any reason, you are kicked from the game, losing all progress you have made since the last save.
The article says you can't even start the game without Internet, as you will be greeted by an error message. Making matters even worse, you are still kicked back to the main menu if the game loses connection to the "Ubisoft Master servers," which may not even be your fault.
There is really nothing else to say about this except the fact that clearly, publishers have not gotten the hint yet that ALL games are cracked, and released online without DRM and this latest DRM is just hurting PAYING customers.
Following on the heels of expected approval in the EU, the United States Department of Justice is also expected to approve of the Yahoo/Microsoft search deal, sometime within the next 30 days.
As with the European Commission, the DOJ is expected to give unconditional approval.
The deal was originally announced in July, and will last 10 years when approved.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ) has announced that the Torne DVR for the PS3 will be released in the nation next month, and will support Japan's terrestrial digital broadcasts.
The Torne connects via a USB port, and will allow users to record TV to the PS3 HDD or to external hard drives. Eight external drives can be registered to use the recorder.
The DVR will retail for the equivalent of $110, and Sony will bundle a 250GB PS3 with Torne for $470.
Google has donated $2 million USD this week to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company behind Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary and Wikibooks.
Although the company was not in desperate need of money, the $2 million donation should be a welcome relief, regardless. Wikimedia raised $8 million for the year, after 230,000 people donated, on average, $33 USD.
Wikimedia communications chief Jay Walsh added: "Many have speculated as to the relationship between our organizations before, but with this news we're pleased to clarify their great role as a philanthropic supporter for the Foundation."
Apple's iBook store will sell e-books protected with DRM, says the LA Times, with sources saying it will likely be FairPlay copy protection.
E-book market share leader Amazon has been criticized for using DRM for e-books they sell for the Kindle device, and it appears that Apple will employ the same tactics.
FairPlay will restrict the amount of devices that are authorized to read the e-book, with the number likely being between 3-5.
The iPad iBook store will sell the books in the open ePub standard. Five publishers have already signed deals to sell via the iBook store and have accepted FairPlay; Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette.
Sony has announced the addition of Netflixstreaming to its Dash personal Internet viewer, making all 17,000 "Watch Instantly" TV episodes and movies available through the device.
"We're continuing to develop innovative products that bring online music, news, video and more into our customers' homes in real time," says Brennan Mullin, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' personal imaging and audio business. "By adding content from Netflix and Demand Media to our dash product, Sony is giving consumers a new, convenient way to enjoy some of the highest quality entertainment and most useful information available on the Internet today."
The Dash has a 7-inch touchscreen and will be available starting April for $199.
After months of delays, Google's proposed $134 million merger with video software compression company On2 has finally been accepted by On2 shareholders and the company says the deal should close on Friday.
From the press release:
Under the terms of the merger agreement, as amended, each outstanding share of On2 Common Stock (other than shares owned by (a) Google, Oxide Inc., Oxide LLC or On2 and (b) any On2 stockholders who are entitled to and who properly exercise appraisal rights under Delaware law) will be cancelled and extinguished and will be automatically converted into the right to receive (1) $0.15 in cash; (2) 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A Common Stock; and (3) cash in lieu of any fractional share of Google Class A Common Stock (after aggregating all fractional shares of Google Class A Common Stock issuable to such On2 stockholders), without interest.
According to new Compete figures, Facebook has become the second most popular site in the United States, just barely surpassing Yahoo which has held the spot for some time.
The last time the top spots switched was in early 2008, when Google surpassed Yahoo.
Overall, 148 million US users visited Google in January, with Facebook seeing 133.6 million. Yahoo fell to third, at 132 million.
Following in Netflix's footsteps, rental giant Redbox has agreed to wait 28 days before making new Warner releases available via their kiosks.
The delay will give Warner's "retail partners a period of exclusivity," which the studio hopes will help offset continued declines in DVD sales as well as give VOD a better chance at succeeding.
"The 28-day window for Redbox balances the economics of our relationship while continuing to offer great value to their customers," adds Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders. "This accord establishes a mutually beneficial relationship that will foster an ongoing and productive partnership."
With the agreement, Warner and Redbox have dropped any pending lawsuits against each other, as well.
HBO has announced the launch of HBO Go, an online streaming video service that will allow users to watch the premium channel's exclusive content at their own leisure.
The only catch is you have to already be a subscriber to HBO or Cinemax TV services, but surely no one thought HBO would give away all these movies for free, right?
An advantage HBO has over competition in VOD is their popular exclusives like True Blood, Entourage and others.
So far it seems that subscribers will only be able to login to HBO Go if they are a Comcast or FiOS subscriber, and it is unclear when the service will be available to those not using those ISPs.
Boxee has announced the latest update to their beta service, version 0.9.20.10708, just about a month after the launch of the service.
The company says in the 37 days since launch, 150,000 new users have joined Boxee, 3 million apps were launched and 1.5 million movies or TV episodes were watched.
Although the update has little new features, it has over 500 bug fixes, which should make the service much more stable for the end user.
Says the company of bugs they fixed:
* Multilingual keyboard support: under settings->appearance->region to add keyboards
* Significantly improved video quality of our DXVA support
* Regained support for older graphics cards (pre-2.0 pixel shader) which was broken after move to DXVA
* Improved file scanning performance
* Hardware acceleration of H.264 on Intel HD4500 cards
* Hang on FLAC tag read over SMB
* SMB crashes when canceling SMB operations
* Hang on shutdown due to wait for SMB and file scanner
* Hang in file scanner when manually scanning a folder
* Hangs due to excessive locks around database pool
* Hangs when left idle due to UDP sockets leak
* Corrupted graphics on some ATI cards (X1600)
* Log file cycling (every 32M, old log overrides boxee.old.log)
* Present action dialog when clicking on DVD icon to allow browse/eject
* Optimization to file scanning making it less IO intensive
* Fixes to iPhone remote keyboard under Linux * Added support for m4b playback (audio books)
* Crash in ID3 tag reading (playback and background scanning of some mp3 files)
* Crash in some wav files which contained extra-info in the wav header (playback and background scanning)
* Crash on some rss feeds caused by mis-parsing of empty http headers
* Crash on image extraction from mp3 tags (in some cases)
* win32: fixed runtime error in some cases where vc90 runtime was not installed properly
* Dual screen issues. sometimes a movie would only show black screen when switching screens.
* Allow apps to define properties for rtmp streaming * Playback of some internet video streams, mainly coming from playlists (partial read of the network buffer was causing wrong codec detection)
* Playlist playback of internet video streams was sometimes using the music player instead of the video player
* Playback of music from history (was not working and now it will open the folder played from)
* Logout was broken enabling logging-in even after password change (was using stored cookie)
* Win32: when launching boxee while another instance is running it will just bring the other instance to front
Sony has discontinued sales of its first generation OLED HDTV in Japan, citing sluggish demand for the display. Sales will continue in other markets, however.
OLED displays are thinner, more energy-efficient and produce much more vibrant and "crisp" images than LCDs and have therefore been touted as the next-generation of TVs.
The decision is an absolute setback for Sony, which in 2007 said the following: "I want this world's first OLED TV to be the symbol of the revival of Sony's technological prowess. I want this to be the flag under which we charge forwards to turn the fortunes around."
The 11-inch OLED TV was selling for the equivalent of $2200 USD.
LG and other manufacturers have promised mass produced 15-inch displays during 2010.
Katherine Evans, a teenager in Florida sued her former principal in 2007 after she was suspended for criticizing a teacher with a Facebook page.
She was suspended for the page, which the principal called "cyber bullying" and in response, Evans sued the principal. Today, a federal judge has ruled that the suit can proceed, and Evans says she is looking to have her suspension expunged from any permanent records as well as a "nominal fee" and the payment of all her legal fees in the matter.
The case should go to trial by the Spring.
"This is an important victory both for Ms. Evans and Internet free speech," says Maria Kayanan, associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, via the NYT. "Because it upholds the principle that the right to freedom of speech and expression in America does not depend on the technology used to convey opinions and ideas."
Skype and Verizon Wireless have officially announced a partnership today that will bring the VoIP service to BlackBerry and Android phones starting next month.
The VoIP service will be available over Wi-Fi and 3G and will allow for international calls at rates that are far cheaper then currently charged by carriers.
Skype will come pre-installed on the "BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR," starting in March.
"More and more, what's happening is that your mobile phones are really just personal computers in your pocket," adds Skype CEO Josh Silverman, via RWW. "And people want to use those computers ... to communicate."
As an example of how cheap will benefit users, per minute calling to France using Skype costs $.024 while the same per minute rate for Verizon is $.17. That's right, 8 times more expensive. Of course, you will need to purchase Skype's $3.99-a-month international call subscription but the savings are noticeable if you spend more than even 20 minutes on the phone per month.
Today, reports are stating that the actual device will cost only $1 USD, and the app to use it will be free. The reader works on any device with a headphone jack, but so far the app only works on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.
The service is so cheap because Square will take 2.9 percent of each transaction.
Sony has noted today that it will be holding a full motion controller session at the upcoming GDC event, allowing programmers to get a hands-on with the new "Arc" device.
The session is called 'Introducing the PlayStation 3 Motion Controller', and will be led by Kirk Bender, SCEA developer support, and David Coombes, SCEA platform research manager, says GI.biz.
The one-hour-long presentation will take place on March 11th.
Two well-known hackers, Sherif Hashim and another who goes by the name iH8Sn0w, have had their Apple IDs blocked from accessing the App Store this week.
Hashim created a hack for the iPhone OS 3.1.3 and Sn0w created the XEMN tool that unlocks the radio baseband for iPhone 3G and 3GS with 3.1.3.
The latest move has started an avalanche of worry from users of jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches who were worried that their accounts might be banned too, but those worries seem unfounded, as Apple does not want to block possible purchases from millions of users on jailbroken devices.
Both hackers Tweeted responses; Hashim: "Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons", that's what i get when i try to go to the app store, they must be really angry :)))))
iH8sn0w: @sherif_hashim lol, they did that to my ih8sn0wyday[@t]googmail.com too. (right after I posted XEMN)...
At the Toy Fair 2010, Mattel has seemingly brought the ever-popular Barbie into the 21st century, with the introduction of the Barbie Video Girl Doll.
The doll has a video camera built-in to her necklace, and an LCD video screen in her back, allowing you to record and see everything the Barbie has seen.
Barbie has a USB port in her back as well, so you can plug her in, and playback the video on a computer or TV. You can record up to 30 minutes of video and later edit it at Barbie.com.
The doll costs $50 USD and will be available in toy stores starting in July.
Aptina Imaging, "the CMOS imaging leader," has announced today the launch of a 14MP CMOS image sensor for mobile phones, one that can handle recording at 1080p/60fps.
The sensor, the 1.4-micron MT9F011 includes "low power consumption, a four-lane MIPI® data interface (configurable as single, dual or quad lane), Bayer resample for improved video, 1/2.3” optical format, and 25 degree chief ray angle to minimize module height."
Adds Farshid Sabet, Aptina General Manager, Mobile Business Unit: "Aptina continues to enable imaging everywhere. In an increasingly video-centric world, the availability of the MT9F011 and its full HD video combined with unparalleled pixel performance and sensor functionality enables our customers to deliver new and differentiated video products faster. Based on recent interest and design-in activity, the MT9F011 sensor positions us to leverage our strength and capitalize on new opportunities."
The company says samples are currently available and mass production expected in the Q2.
Adobe has officially announced Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR for Android today at the Mobile World Congress, setting a time frame as well for its release.
The blog post by The Flash Blog says: I have also been testing a selection of mobile Flash sites, created by key partners like YouTube and ESPN, and I am very excited about the future of Flash in the mobile browser.
Samsung has launched the i8520 Beam smartphone today, featuring Android 2.1, a projector, Bada user interface, and TouchWiz 3.0 for widgets.
The built-in DLP pico projector "casts a 6-lumen image and has its own customized interface when blown up to the larger size. Samsung has a unique implementation that can show the 5-megapixel camera's sensor image through the projector for specialized situations, like viewing documents in a classroom," says Electronista.
The device has a large 3.7-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and 16GB internal memory.
No word on price or availability, but Samsung has likely in time for Summer.
Following months of uncertainty, NetEase has been given official approval for a World of Warcraft launch in China. The notice was posted on the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) regulatory body Web site.
NetEase can now operate the world's most popular game in the world's most populous nation.
The new approval should also lead to eventual approval of the WoW: Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, which will benefit Blizzard and NetEase.
"We believe NetEase is well positioned to benefit from continuing strong growth in the Chinese online gaming market. Additionally, NetEase’s licensing deal with Blizzard gives the company the most diversified portfolio of games among its peers," reads one analyst's opinion.
According to Sony senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold, PlayStation 3 hardware shortages are likely imminent in the upcoming months, following the extremely high demand of the holiday 2009 months.
"We're working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months," says Seybold.
Overall, the PS3 saw 36 percent growth year-on-year for January, while rival consoles saw a slowdown.
"The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January," Seybold continued. "We're working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months."
Amazon currently only allows sales of one PS3 per household, given the shortages.
The more expensive bundle will include a 250GB FFXIII-engraved console, two wireless controllers and exclusive avatar downloads (outfits and a Chocobo pet).
The second bundle will include an Elite 360 (120GB model) and a single controller.
The game and bundles are set for release on March 9th.
According to a new survey by Cision and The George Washington University, most journalists and editors now use social media sources when doing research for stories, although most that do agree that information may be less reliable than information gathered from traditional media sources.
All of those surveyed use Google for research, 96 percent use corporate websites, 64 percent use blogs, while 61 percent use Wikipedia, 60 percent use sites such as Facebook and 57 percent use Twitter.
"Mainstream media have clearly hit a tipping point in their reliance on social media for their research and reporting," says Heidi Sullivan, Vice President of Research for Cision. "However, it's also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors' and reporters' reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism."
The results are based on 371 responses from journalists, conducted in September of last year. About 50 percent of those questioned had over 20 years of experience in the field.
Motorola has announced the sequel to the original MOTOBLUR-based phone, the Cliq, launching the Cliq XT (Quench in Europe).
The device will run on Android 1.5 with BLUR for the time being, with an update to 2.1 in the works. The 3.1-inch screen has 320x480 resolution, a 5MP camera with flash and autofocus, support for Adobe Flash Lite, Wi-Fi, 3G, and full GPS.
In terms of availability, Motorola says: QUENCH with MOTOBLUR will be available in multiple regions around the globe beginning in Q1 2010. In the U.S., the device will be called CLIQ XT with MOTOBLUR and will be available exclusively through T-Mobile USA beginning next month.
Announced today at the Mobile World Congress, 27 of the world's largest telecoms have announced the creation of the Wholesale Applications Community, an app store that they hope will rival the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.
The store should encourage developers to create applications for all smartphones and operating systems.
A few of the biggest names involved in the store are AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, China Mobile, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone, Wind and LG Electronics.
"For customers this means a broader choice of innovative applications and services available on a wider choice of devices than ever before," says the group.
Combined, the group has access to 3 billion customers worldwide.
"Today, I'm proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones," stated Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft. "In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences."
The company has launched their Windows Mobile/Windows Phone 7 series today, bringing together a new interface that connects Zune music and video, Xbox Live gaming, and an intuitive smartphone operating system.
Trying to differentiate itself from the iPhone and Android phones, which use home screens of widgets and icons, Microsoft says it has tried to blend applications together for a more "integrated experience," allowing the OS and applications to "share information with the user in a natural and seamless fashion."
According to new figures from the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association), the Australian music industry has seen growth for the first time since 2003.
Says Slyck: "...wholesale revenues over the full year increased almost 5% when compared to 2008. An increase in overall digital revenues was the key contributing factor to this growth, with digital albums demonstrating an increase of over 60% by revenue, more than offsetting the relatively modest decline in physical CD sales..."
Surely piracy is still killing the music industry?
Defunct online video streaming site TV-Links has won its court case this week, years after it was taken down by Dutch law enforcement officials.
TV-Links was one of the most popular online directories on the Internet, indexing TV shows hosted on streaming video sites, legal and illegal.
In October 2007, following complaints by the U.K.’s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the site was taken down and its admin arrested. The case against the admin and the site was the illegal distribution of copyright protected content.
A judge ruled today that the site was not liable as linking to TV shows is not the same as distributing it.
Verizon and Skype are expected to announce a new deal on Tuesday that will bring the VoIP company to the largest cell network in the United States.
The Skype software will work via Wi-Fi and 3G, and seems to be a direct response to AT&T's recent addition of the software.
Skype is currently developing a 3G iPhone app, but it appears that it is still not completed. If the Verizon deal is accurate, the app could be available as soon as the announcement.
In what can only be considered a disappointment, Adobe has confirmed today that the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 will not have Flash support at launch.
"Microsoft and Adobe are working closely together. While the newest version of Windows Phone won't support Flash at initial availability, both companies are working to include a browser plug-in for the full Flash player in future versions of Windows Phone. More details will be shared at Microsoft MIX next month," reads the Adobe statement.
Windows Mobile 7 is expected to be officially launched tomorrow.
VG247 has come upon some screenshots of the debug build of the upcoming PlayStation 3firmware update, version 3.20, which shows that 3D video output will soon be an option.
With developers now testing the 3.20 update, it shouldn't be too long until it hits gamers, likely within the next couple of months.
The new leak follows what Sony's John Koller confirmed last month, that "It’s gonna take just a simple firmware update which most people do regularly anyway, and that’s all it’s gonna take to accolade the PS3 to 3D gaming."
Users will of course need a 3D-capable HDTV and 3D glasses, which many consider a gimmick, but it is nice to know the option will be there, regardless.
Google has taken down a few of the most popular music blogs available on Blogger this week, leading to an avalanche of criticism. Google, for their part says the sites were taken down after repeated copyright claims.
A few of the most popular sites, Pop Tarts, Masala, I Rock Cleveland, To Die By Your Side, It's a Rap and Living Ears were taken down without warning, but a few are back up, at their same URLs.
Blogger product manager Rick Klau wrote of the controversy: If Google receives "multiple [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] complaints about the same blog, and [we] have no indication that the offending content is being used in an authorized manner, we will remove the blog."
For their part, many of the sites in question have taken down songs before without question when asked, and some have the songs up legally.
LG has announced at the Integrated Systems Europe show this week that it will be bringing a 15-inch OLED HDTV to the U.S. market by July.
The display will also be the first mass produced OLED TV to achieve 720presolution, managing 1366x768. The OLED display will have a contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1.
It is unclear what the price of the display will be, but it is expected to be between $1800 and $2200.
A game collector has just paid an astonishing price for a 20-year old NES console on eBay, $13,105, and no, that isn't a typo.
The system came included with one of the top three rarest Nintendo classic games in existence, Stadium Events, which was released in 1987 by Bandai. There are said to be only 10 copies of the game left in the world.
Besides Stadium Events, the console came included with copies of a few other games, but the system wouldn't have likely topped $100, even with the other games.
The EU is expected to approve the search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, says Reuters, with the 10-year partnership going into effect soon after approval.
The European Commission has until February 19th to approve or block the deal.
"I expect clearance without any concessions next Friday," says the insider source.
The partnership is expected to help both Bing and Yahoo take some market share from Google in the search engine market, although Google has an estimated 90 percent of global share compared to 7.4 percent for Bing and Yahoo combined.
True Move, the current exclusive Thai iPhone carrier should have some competition coming its way soon, with an industry source telling Reuters that Total Access Communications will soon begin selling the phone, starting in March.
TAC is owned by Telenor of Norway, which sells the iPhone in a few countries.
True Move has had its monopoly since January 2009, with 100,000 sold in the time frame. The carrier says it hopes to sell another 120,000 in 2010.
Thailand is one of a few Asian nations that have over 90 percent mobile phone saturation rate.
TiVo has started the process to bring closed captions to DVR boxes, filing a patent this month with the USPTO.
Enhanced Television (ETV) and other closed captioning technology will be used to deliver the data.
ETV metadata has been recently integrated into most cable broadcasts, and the new patent will give TiVo a way to deliver the data in a "more interactive method," says Electronista. The interactive menu will include the text, sound effects and a digital video.
Samsung's first Bada OS phone has been leaked today, dubbed the Wave, and featuring 720p video recording among other notable features.
The touchscreen device has a 3.3-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, 2GB internal memory, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The display is said to be "incredibly" vibrant and removes all outdoor visibility issues.
Bada has the apps menu, contacts, and calling always pinned on the homescreen, and widgets are available for news, weather and more. Multi-touch is standard.
Skyfire has announced their acquisition of Kolbysoft, the team behind the Steel Web browser on Android devices.
The Skyfire browser is available currently for Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 devices and offers full Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support through cloud-based processing.
Steel is a free, popular browser available in the Android Marketplace.
Confirming yesterday's reports that the company was headed directly to bankruptcy, Veoh founder Dmitry Shapiro has said that the company would be liquidating and filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Says Shapiro, speaking about the lawsuit Universal Music Group filed against them in 2008: "The distraction of the legal battles, and the challenges of the broader macro-economic climate have led to our Chapter 7 bankruptcy."
Chapter 7, unlike Chapter 11 usually means the company is shutdown for good, rather than reorganized. The liquidation confirms that.
Private investors had invested $70 million in the streaming site.
Both Sony and Microsoft have revealed the numbers behind their console online services, with both services growing significantly over the year.
Sony CEO Jack Tretton says that the free PlayStation Network (PSN) now has over 40 million users, with the service growing 155 percent in December alone.
Says Tretton: "We’ve also successfully established that we’re not just a disc-based powerhouse, but we’re also a digital powerhouse. PlayStation Network experienced huge growth last year, marking its best revenue month in December – a 155% increase in sales from the previous year. More than 40 million of you all over the world are coming to PlayStation Network to access multimedia content and to enhance your social gaming experiences."
Microsoft says Gold subscription XBL members now total 23 million. Additionally, users logged in at the same time reached an all-time high last month, hitting 2.3 million.
After falling to under 10 percent in December, Bing has regained some ground in search engine market share, moving up to 10.9 percent. Google, the dominant market leader, fell 1 percent to 66.3 percent overall, with Yahoo remaining in second at 14.5 percent share.
Smaller rivals AOL, Ask and MyWeb combined for 5.5 percent, a small gap up from December.
Compaq has launched its new AirLife "smartbook" this week, an interesting move away from skimpy netbooks.
The AirLife includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, has 3g wireless built-in, Wi-Fi and runs the Android operating system.
Most notably, the smartbook includes a 10.1-inch, 1024x600-pixel touchscreen TFT display, allowing for multi-touch.
There is a 16GB SSD, so internal memory may become a problem fast, but the computer should also load everything lighting quick. The battery life is promised at 12 hours, with 10 days of standby.
There was no word on price or availability as of yet, but subsidized the smartbook is expected to cost under $300.
iTunes is on its way to hitting 10 billion music downloads, and to celebrate the milestone, the company is giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card to a lucky winner.
Google Chrome for Mac beta, which was first released in December, has updated today to version 5.0.307, adding extensions and bookmark sync among other features.
There are currently over 2200 extensions available in the Chrome gallery.
Users with multiple computers can now sync bookmarks as well, no matter if you have a PC, Linux or Mac machine.
2010 started off very poorly for the video game industry, with overall revenue dropping year-on-year by 13 percent, to $1.17 billion USD.
Hardware sales dropped an astounding 21 percent year-on-year, to $353.7 million and software sales were not too much better, dropping 12 percent year-on-year to $597.9 million. Accessories were the lone bright spot, seeing growth of 2 percent to $217 million.
The Wii was the top console seller, as usual, and the Xbox 360 somewhat surprisingly took back second place from the PlayStation 3. The DS/DSi crushed the PSP in the handheld market.
US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - JANUARY 2010
Hardware: $353.7 million (-21%)
Software: $597.9 million (-12%)
Accessories: $217 million (2%)
Total Games: $1.17 billion (-13%)
Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows Mobile 7 on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, in a final attempt to stop the crushing Windows Mobile market share has taken in the past few years to the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.
"They seem to have lost the world's attention in smart phones," notes analyst Dan Hays, of the consulting firm PRTM.
Although less likely, Microsoft could possibly reveal a Zune HD-based phone, a long-hyped device that could be the best music playing phone on the market. "If that thing had a phone in it ... that would be a pretty darn good device," added Charles Golvin, analyst with Forrester Research, speaking of the Zune HD. "But my own judgment is that this is kind of their last chance. If Windows Mobile doesn't get it right this time around, they're probably toast."
Windows Mobile phones accounted for only 9 percent of smartphone sales in 2009, down from 13.2 in 2008, and down from over 15 percent in 2007.
Veoh, the "revolutionary online video service that gives users the power to easily discover, watch, and personalize their entertainment viewing experience," has announced today that they will be laying off most of their staff as they head in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the upcoming months.
The site has yet to find a business model that has worked, and has used all $70 million they received in funding from venture capitalists and large investors such as Time Warner and Goldman Sachs.
CEO and Founder Dmitry Shapiro has been actively looking to sell the company, but Veoh had been embroiled in a lawsuit over copyright with Universal Music Group which had all but killed a possible sale. The funny part was that they won the lawsuit, which ruled the site was protected under the DMCA.
Google has announced the acquisition of Aardvark, the Internet search and social networking started by former Google employees. Neither company would release the financials of the deal, but it appears to be at least $50 million.
The move should help Google compete better with Twitter, and the move comes just one day after Buzz was released, adding social networking features to Google Gmail accounts.
Reuters says Aardvark "has pioneered a new type of Internet search dubbed "social search." Instead of looking at Web pages to find answers to search queries, Aardvark's service taps a person's network of social contacts."
The acquisition is Google's sixth purchase since September, but one of its smallest.
The Financial Times is reporting today that Apple has negotiated with content providers to sell standard definition TV shows for $1 an episode, 50 percent cheaper than usual, when the iPad launches.
High definition media will likely remain the same price, although that is still unclear.
It is also unclear what shows will cost $1, and how widespread the availability of the episodes are.
Additionally, the same report is saying that Apple has so far not given up on the idea of an iTunes subscription model, which would cost $30-a-month for unlimited TV episodes.
OpenOffice.org, the powerful, free productivity suite, has updated today to version 3.2, adding a plethora of new features, and fixes.
Although I will not go into all the new features, OpenOffice has a bountiful page with all the updates. You can view that here: OpenOffice.org 3.2 New Features.
The video game rental service GameFly has filed an IPO today, becoming a publicly traded company and raising $50 million USD. The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker GFLY.
The company has 334,000 subscribers and had revenue of $46.4 million for the six months ended September 30th, 2009. Net profit was $3 million, a drop year-on-year.
Additionally, GameFly is also in control of a network of gaming-related sites that bring in about 4.4 million unique users per month.
The company says it will use the IPO money for future growth.
Sony has revealed the company's first two 3D Blu-ray players today, the BDP-S470 and S570 which will be available within a month, and will retail for the relatively cheap $200 USD and $250 USD, respectively.
Both players can be controlled via an iPhone or iPod Touch with a new BD Remote App, which will also show off more content related to the movie right from the device.
The more expensive device has Wi-Fi built-in while the cheaper player has a Wi-Fi dongle available separately.
* Full HD1080p single-disc Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, SA-CD player
* Blu-ray 3D ready (with firmware update available this summer)
* BRAVIA Monolithic Design
* BRAVIA Internet Video and BD-LIVE™
* IP Content Noise Reduction
* Built-in Wi-Fi® Wireless (802.11) with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
* Entertainment Database Browser with Gracenote technology
* BD Remote (iPhone/iPod touch remote control – free app.)
* Photo/music/video playback via USB and DLNA® (with firmware update)
* DVD upscaling to 1080p with Precision Cinema HD Upscaling
* Dolby® TrueHD and dts®-HD Master Audio™ decoding
* Built-in 1GB MemoryRead more...
Facebook has announced that Facebook Chat is now available through multiple IM clients, allowing you to chat with Facebook friends without needing to open the site in your browser.
Says the blog post:
We believe you should be able to connect with your Facebook friends everywhere. We're happy to announce that now you can with Facebook Chat. Starting today, the more than two billion chat messages sent on the site every day can be sent from your favorite desktop instant messaging client.
By integrating Facebook Chat with your preferred instant messenger, you'll never miss a message when you have to navigate away from Facebook and you'll be in control of how and where you chat with your Facebook friends. Simply connect your Facebook account with the instant messaging client of your choice and start chatting. You will not need to stay logged in to Facebook.com to continue to access your Facebook friends.
If you don't want all of your online friends to appear, you can adjust which Friend Lists show up in chat by adjusting them on Facebook. To go offline, you can either close your instant messaging client or click "go offline" in your Facebook Chat options. As always, your conversations will remain completely private and only between you and your Facebook friends.
Adjusting Friend Lists that appear in Chat.Read more...
Sony's John Koller has confirmed today that the PlayStation 3 will be receiving 3D support over the summer, via multiple firmware updates.
Says Koller, via Pocket-Lint: "3D is a major part of our initiatives in 2010 and we're currently developing 3D stereoscopic games to come in conjunction with the launch of Sony's 3D compatible BRAVIA LCD TV in summer 2010. The amazing thing about the PS3's technology is that all PS3 units that exist in homes and markets will be able to play 3D stereoscopic games as well as 3D BD movies through separate firmware upgrades - something that other platforms are unable to do. We'll be announcing actual game titles separately later, but we think that 3D stereoscopic gaming has a ton of potential, particularly in placing consumers within the actual experience."
3D Blu-ray support will likely be activated first, with 3D gaming made available through the second update. The releases coincide with the release of Sony Bravia 3D HDTVs.
According to a new blog post, Twitter is set to begin using BitTorrent on the backend as a way to more efficiently deploy files.
Reads the post:
Anyone who has the battle scars that come from managing a large operational set of computers, like a large popular web site, knows all too well the challenge of deploying a new image site-wide. Often times, this needs to happen fast (think emergency patch) and as with so many other applications on the network, the traditional client-server model breaks down at scale in the face of this challenge.
But now there is an interesting open source project from Twitter that might bring some relief to this particular problem. The project uses BitTorrent technology and is called Murder (per the project page, a “murder” allegedly describes a flock of crows, not some lesser crime than the accusations too-often leveled against the hard-working engineers at BitTorrent, Inc). The distributed nature of BitTorrent means an operation that once took many dozens of minutes, now happens in less than a dozen seconds. These efficiencies will reduce maintenance windows, site downtime and exposure to security vulnerabilities.Read more...
YouTube has announced today that they will be adding parental controls, letting parents filter certain videos and block their kids from watching them.
Some of the videos that can now be flagged inappropriate and filtered are those that show off violence or sexual content.
Scott Rubin, head of child safety policy for YouTube says the filtering will remain a challenge: "With 20 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube, we really count on our community members … to know our community guidelines, those rules of the road, to flag videos they think violate the rules."
The new parental controls are dubbed "Safety Mode," and it will limit videos flagged as containing nudity, narcotics, graphic violence and news containing violence. All comments are collapsed on open, and if the kids choose to view them, all comments with profanity are filtered. Safety Mode remains locked at all times, even if the user is logged out.
Safety Mode is browser-specific and must be turned on for all browsers that are used on the computer. The controls are also account-specific, and must be turned on for those accounts.
Today, they have detailed the update, with Droid users getting many of the top updates that were heralded on the Google Nexus One.
Multi-touch will be available for the browser, Google Maps and the photo gallery. Voice recognition is added, allowing for speech-to-text.
3D Gallery is added for photos, video and album art display, including a 3D stack that moves when the phone is tilted. Additionally, a new News and Weather app widget is added to the homescreen allowing for easy and customizable forecasts and headlines.
Google has announced that it will begin building an ultra fast broadband network to service up to 500,000 customers around the United States, with speeds advertised at about 100 times the current average speed for broadband connections.
The company will use fiber optic lines, and the entire network will be an experiment. The experiment is whether it can sell more Web ads, if it encourages citizens to be on the Internet more. Although the move would put the company in direct competition with Verizon, Time Warner, Comcast and others, a move to a standalone broadband business seems unlikely for the search giant.
Google says to: "Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture."
James Burt of Queensland, Australia has agreed to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages as compensation for lost revenue caused when Burt uploaded a game before its official release date.
Burt made New Super Mario Bros. for Wii available online in early November, one week before its official Australian street date. As is the case in most countries, distributing games without permission is illegal and carries a hefty fine.
Rather than head to court, Burt and Nintendo settled and came to the $1.5 million figure, which also includes $100,000 to pay for Nintendo's legal fees.
"Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise our industry by using all means available to it under the law," says the company.
Adds Nintendo Australia managing director Rose Lappin: "It wasn't just an Australian issue, it was a global issue. There was thousands and thousands of downloads, at a major cost to us and the industry really. It's not just about us. It's about retailers and if they can't sell the games then they have to bear the costs associated with that. Once it's on the internet it's anyone's really."
Google has introduced their own social networking service, dubbed Google Buzz, which will allow Gmail users to share status updates, photos, videos and more. Buzz will be a direct competition to Facebook and Twitter.
In response, Facebook announced today that FB Chat will be integrated into the AIM instant messaging service, which currently has 17 million users. There are 400 million Facebook accounts, as of this week.
There are currently 176 million Gmail users, and Buzz will create a "circle of friends" right from launch that is a group of people in which you communicate the most with through Gtalk or Gmail.
Buzz allows for status updates like Facebook, photo sharing from Picasa and Flickr, video sharing from YouTube, and Twitter messages.
The service is available for mobile phones as well at buzz.google.com.
According to the latest figures from research firm comScore, the Android mobile OS continued to take market share at a fast pace, jumping from 2.5 percent in September to 5.2 percent in December.
On the other hand, RIM, Microsoft and Palm all lost share.
The Apple iPhone gained share as well, jumping from 24.1 percent in September to 25.3 percent in December.
Despite losing share, RIM remained atop the smartphone market share with 41 percent.
Last week Microsoft announced that it was shutting down the Xbox Live service for the original Xbox console starting in April, effectively killing all online play for the orphaned console, as well as for Xbox games that can be played on the Xbox 360.
Bungie, the developer behind the Halo series, says it is saddened that gamers will no longer be able to play Halo 2 online.
"We're all saddened at the realisation that an era is coming to an end but looking back, we're incredibly fortunate to have had such a great run and such strong support from our fans," says Bungie. "Halo 2 has been at or near the top of the Xbox Live charts for original games since it launched over five years ago. We're extremely thankful to everyone who has played, enjoyed and supported Halo 2 over Xbox Live. We've had some great fun together, including far too many humpday losses to even recount."
With that being said, Bungie is inviting all current and former Halo 2 players to have one last battle on April 14th, the last day before the servers go down.
Motorola has announced via Facebook that DROID users will soon be receiving on over-the-air update for Android 2.1, making the phone the second to have the latest firmware, after the Google Nexus One.
It is unclear what will come with the update, but many are speculating that increased multi-touch support is coming along with API changes.
Says the post: "Motorola: Hi all-- we know you are frustrated with the lack of details regarding Android software upgrades and we sincerely apologize for not being able to share info sooner. We're happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to DROID will start to roll out this week, and we will have more information to share on other device upgrades later ...this week as well. Thanks for your patience and continued support."
According to Cnet, Netflix will add 5.1 surround sound and closed captioning to their Watch Instantlystreaming service soon, with 1080p playback coming later in 2011.
Current requirements for streaming include a 5Mbps connection, and it appears that that requirement should not change until 1080p streaming becomes available, even given the extra bandwidth necessary for a 5.1 audio stream.
Microsoft Silverlight, the technology used for the streaming, has supported 1080p streaming since March.
Google has started live phone support for the Nexus One this week, finally giving users a way to directly talk with representatives from the company. Until this week, live, phone support had been redirected to carrier T-Mobile, or hardware manufacturer HTC.
If you had wanted to contact Google, it had to be done through email with 24-hour turnaround.
Because the phone is only available online, many buyers have been reluctant to purchase the "superphone," especially without having support from a representative. Reports have shown that most new purchases of the Nexus One have come from users that have already tried Android in the past and are more familiar with the interface.
Adobe has announced today that Flash 10.1 will only work on Android smartphones running firmware 2.1 or later, a move that disappoints most Android phone owners out there, being that only one phone currently has 2.1, the Google Nexus One. Most Android phones still run firmware 1.5 or 1.6.
Additionally, the company has said browser plugins for Android, webOS and Windows Mobile will be available before June.
Adobe says that over 50 percent of all smartphones will have Flash support by 2012 and that most tablets will support it as well.
Of course, Apple users will probably never see Flash support, given the ongoing battle of words between the two companies.
Following an FCC investigation into the overall industry, Google has slashed the fee for Nexus One owners who decide to drop their contract early.
The early termination fee, or as Google calls it, the "equipment recovery fee," is now dropped from $350 USD to $150 USD for T-Mobile users who purchased the phone but no longer want their T-Mobile contract. The $150 is on top of the $200 that T-Mobile charges for breaking the contract early.
Says Google: "Google's overall financial philosophy with regard to operator service plans remains unchanged: We make no profit from commissions from operators or from equipment recovery fees, and our recovery fees are based on operator charges to Google for early termination of service."
Christopher Poole, founder of the infamous meme site 4chan came out this week claiming that Verizon was "explicitly blocking" access to the site, and it appears Poole may have been right.
Jeff Nelson, a public relations employee for the ISP said via Twitter this morning: "2 of 4Chan affiliates were staging for attacks." However, "They're green-lighted for tonight's network update."
Poole's full post earlier had read: "Over the past 72 hours, we've been receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers having difficulty accessing the image boards," Poole wrote. "After investigating, we found that Verizon is dropping traffic... only on port 80 (HTTP). No other subdomain/IP/port is affected, which leads us to believe this block is intentional. After an hour and a half on the phone, we've received confirmation from Verizon's Network Repair Bureau (NRB) that we are "explicitly blocked."
Verizon had refused comment until today except to say that they were being bombarded with calls about the issue, adds PCWorld.
Sharp and Samsung have decided to end all ongoing patent infringement disputes over LCD displays this week, although it is unclear what the financial details are of the agreement.
"We have a confidentiality agreement but we can say these conditions will be in favor of Sharp," added Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama.
Sharp filed the first suit in 2007, in the U.S., claiming that Samsung infringed on five of its patents relating to LCD modules. The suit then expanded to South Korea, wherein Samsung countersued for patent infringement, as well. The suits expanded to Europe in 2008, before finally being taken in front of the International Trade Commission.
The new settlement includes patent cross-licensing agreements.
The Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, which sold out within hours when it launched over the holiday season, is finally available for sale again, says the company, with the company ramping up supply and making the device available in-store and online.
If you are looking to buy it in-store, B&N has created an online locator to see if the store near you has any in stock. Check that here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/instore/.
Online, the device is available for $259 USD with free shipping.
Additionally, current owners can now download Nook firmware version 1.2, which adds the ability to browse "books, magazines, and newspapers via Wi-Fi inside Barnes & Noble stores," says CNet.
Chinese officials have announced this week the bust of a large hacking ring that was allegedly the nation's largest distributor of hacking tools.
The Black Hawk Safety Net, which used the site 3800cc.com as a front, allegedly made $1 million in income in 2009 from 12,000 subscribers.
Three admins were arrested as part of the raid. Strangely, the arrests are said to have taken place three months ago, but only reported this week.
Black Hawk was known more as a hacking "training" group, mainly through the sale of malicious software and instructions on how to use them. In 2007, the group made the news for helping create a virus that took down corporate and government systems in Hubei.
Along with the arrest of 29-year-old Li Qiang and 28-year-old Zhang Lei (the third man was not identified), 1.7 million yuan ($250,000 USD) in assets were seized, mainly in cash and computer equipment.
Hannover House, the video and film distributor has announced today a new deal with Google that will launch a video rental and VOD channel for Hannover on YouTube.
Starting this week, the channel will have 100 films from Hannover House, Elite Entertainment, FOCUSFilms, and Plaza Entertainment.
"YouTube and Google are uniquely positioned to reinvent the entire video-on-demand consumer model," says Eric Parkinson, C.E.O. "Their reach is unsurpassed, and their consumer pricing model is extremely competitive, in many cases beating traditional video rental costs. With more and more consumers moving toward video-on-demand as a convenient way to view movies, the Hannover House movie channel venture with YouTube will prove invaluable to our company." "We believe that video-on-demand will continue to grow over the next few years into a major revenue source for the company. The technology has reached the point where films can be quickly and safely streamed directly to consumers, and this creates an immediacy not previously available. Additionally, video-on-demand eliminates the inventory, freight and storage costs associated with hard goods items such as DVDs and Blu-ray units."
BenQ has introduced the world's thinnest 21.5” W LED monitor, which promises "top of the line" performance as well.
Dubbed the BenQ V2220/V2220H, the 15mm-thick monitor has a 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and offers Full HD1080p playback.
DeviceMag adds that "the LED monitor has been designed in such a way that it possesses the ability to reveal detail in darkly lit areas of the screen rendered as undifferentiated blocks on less capable displays."
The monitor is also considered "green," given that it cuts down power consumption by 28.6 percent compared to CCFL models.
After first being blocked in 2008, an Italian court has once again ruled that ISPs in the nation must block access to the infamoustorrenttrackerThe Pirate Bay, leaving millions of users without access to one of the most popular sites on the planet.
In the original case, after an appeal by the Pirate Bay, the Court of Bergamo ruled that foreign websites cannot be blocked over alleged copyright infringement. Fast forward until today and the Supreme Court has ruled that ISPs can indeed be forced to block torrent sites, even if they are foreign-based.
The ruling says any site that offers torrent links to connect to copyrighted material is "engaging in criminal activity," says TF.
Of course there are proxies, and thousands of other smaller sites that are not yet blocked, so it is not as if Italian torrent fans are in complete trouble.
After one week of suspended sales, physical books published by Macmillan have now returned to Amazon, ending the dispute that begun last week over the price of digital books (e-books).
Macmillan wanted the end of the set-price $9.99 e-book rate that Amazon has had for best-sellers, claiming it is too low and under-values books in general.
As a result, Amazon stopped offering both the e-book and physical copies of Macmillan titles but as of this past weekend Amazon responded by saying: We have to "accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."
For now on, e-books from Macmillan will be priced from $12.99 to $14.99 at launch, with prices changing over time.
Although it is unclear whether the price cuts are temporary or permanent, Microsoft has cut the prices of their Zune HD models from $220 to $200 for the 16GB model and from $300 to $270 for the 32GB version.
Amazon and Wal-Mart have taken the cut a bit deeper, dropping the prices to $190 and $250, respectively.
Microsoft has implied that the prices are temporary "sales" prices but has not said when the promo will end, if ever. At the current price point, the Zune HD offers a discount from a comparable iPod Touch, the market leader for media devices.
The software giant still has under 5 percent market share while Apple controls over 70 percent.
According to BBLeaks, the upcoming BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 3.0 details have been leaked, and it appears that BB owners will be getting better support for Gmail among other significant updates.
For Gmail, BlackBerry owners can now create labels, as well as use a plugin that will sync the unread/read status of your emails to Gmail wherever you are using it.
Additionally, the leak shows added support for Open Office document file types, as well as Windows Media Audio (WMA).
It is still unclear when BIS 3 will be released but many are guessing it could hit as early as this month's MWC event.
According to the latest IDC numbers, vendors shipped 54.5 million smartphones in the Q4 2009, a record, and a 39 percent increase year-on-year.
Nokia led the pack with 67.7 million for all of 2009, 39 percent of the market. RIM came in second with 34.5 million shipments for the year, good for 20 percent share. Apple rode a strong Q3 and Q4 to come in third, with 14 percent share and 25 million units shipped.
Overall, 2009 shipments totaled 174 million, up 15 percent year-on-year.
Thanks to the DROID, Motorola was number four for the Q4, but still came in 7th overall for the year.
More details have been released on the upcoming Motorola Devour from Verizon, and it appears that the Android device will launch with Adobe Flash Lite, giving the phone the Flash support that no other Android device has had yet, including more expensive brother phone, the Verizon Motorola DROID.
Flash Lite works with Flash 9 content and will work using the built-in browser.
The latest update to Google Maps 3.4 has enabled multi-touch for the Motorola DROID, with pinch-to-zoom now available for the device, at least while using the popular app.
Last week Google updated the Nexus One to have multi-touch, silencing critics who had claimed that Google was purposely leaving out multi-touch for a number of different reasons including not wanting to pay patent royalties to rival Apple.
I updated my G1 to Maps 3.4 today and pinch-to-zoom didn't work so it seems as though this may be DROID-only for time being.
Today they have announced the same offer for the United States, with the price officially dropping from $149.99 to $129.99 "while supplies last."
The software giant would not elaborate on whether this was the end of the 120GB model HDD, but it appears that way. Expect a 250GB HDD release in the EU and US territories soon enough.
According to a pretty long thread over at Zune.net, it appears that Zune Pass subscription holders have seen their music disappear in the last week, for no reason whatsoever.
Says the first post of the thread:
"Anyone else finding more content either not available, album only or music that was offered (Spoon/Arcade Fire) now just gone? This seems to be happening more and more over the past few months. Just wondering if anyone else has been having the same issues when looking for music?
Seems to defeat the purpose of paying $15 a month for a subscription and purchase service."
If you are a Zune Pass owner, check the full thread here and any responses from Microsoft.
According to figures from Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment (FADE), the Xbox Live Arcade has hit $103 million in revenue for the year 2009, a giant 34 percent increase year-on-year.
The best-sellers were mainly at the $15 USD mark, and overall average price for downloadable games rose from $8.33 to $9.12 in the same time period.
Battlefield 1943 was the highest grossing game, accounting for $12.5 million in sales with an estimated 800,000 units sold.
The average XBL user spent $2.79 on Arcade for 2009, a drop from 2008.
There are currently over 20 million with XBL accounts.
Microsoft has noted that it will be dropping the price of the 120GB Xbox 360 HDD in Europe, as well as releasing an external 250GB HDD for the console in Japan.
The 120GB drive will drop from £99.99 to £79.99, "while supplies last," with many expecting that a 250GB HDD release will come after all supplies are exhausted.
"Microsoft is now offering a standalone 250GB hard drive in Japan to provide consumers in Japan more storage options for their games and entertainment," says Microsoft. "We work closely with retailers to determine the best approach for our products on a region-by-region basis. In Europe, the 120GB hard drive is available for an ERP of €129.99 / £79.99 while supplies last. We also offer other storage options for consumers to choose from such as the Xbox Live 60GB StarterPack that includes a 60GB hard drive, three-month subscription to Xbox LIVE, ethernet cable and wired headset for an ERP of €79.99 / £59.99."
In June 2008, Sling Media introduced an iPhone-version of the SlingPlayer software, however, it only worked over Wi-Fi, and not AT&T's 3G data service.
As of this week, it appears a 3G-compatible version is coming.
Say the companies:
"Just as we've worked with Sling Media in this instance, we look forward to collaborating with other developers so that mobile customers can access a wider, more bandwidth-sensitive, and powerful range of applications in the future," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Collaboration with developers like Sling Media ensures that all apps are optimized for our 3G network to conserve wireless spectrum and reduce the risk that an app will cause such extreme levels of congestion that they disrupt the experience of other wireless customers. Our focus continues to be on delivering the nation's most advanced mobile broadband experience and giving our customers the widest possible array of mobile applications."
Deutsche Telekom AG is actively considering an IPO for its T-Mobile USA branch, as a way to help pay for the carrier's large upcoming infrastructure buildout.
Telekom is Europe's largest mobile phone carrier, but T-Mobile remains in fourth place in the US. It is currently in talks with banks for an underwriter of the public offering.
The company has already spent $3 billion on 3G infrastructure in the U.S., and Telekom's share price has fallen despite one of the largest stock market rallies in history.
A newly launched site called TVGorge is promoting what millions of international citizens have wanted for years from streaming site Hulu; free access to tons of TV shows, legally.
The site uses "indexing techniques" to gather content from tons of legal TV streaming sites around the world. It claims TV.com, Hulu, TVGuide and TVDuck as "partners." The site does not store video files on its own servers and simply uses links or embeds from other sites.
There are currently 120 TV shows available, with full seasons available for shows such as Californication, 24 and 30 Rock, among many others.
Although the site claims legality, it will be interesting to see how long until some content holder puts an end to the site, or at least the international part.
Twentieth Century Fox has filed six new lawsuits this week, all against alleged sellers of a workprint version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was leaked online one month before the film's theatrical release.
The DVDs containing the pirated film were being sold on iOffer.com, Craigslist.org and Sell.com before the movie's release date.
A few of the lawsuits are for different movies, including "Marley & Me," "Avatar" and "Bride Wars." Fox employees purchased the discs from these sellers over the course of the last year.
Fox says it is seeking up to $150,000 per infringement.
"This kind of conduct not only violates the law, it’s just plain wrong," Fox added. "We filed these lawsuits today to protect our creative professionals and the intellectual property they spend years developing."
Almost a year later, the FBI and Fox have still been unable to track down the earliest leak of the workprint copy.
Microsoft has announced today that they will be discontinuing Xbox Live service for the original Xbox console starting in April. The move will effectively kill all online play for the orphaned console, as well as for Xbox games that can be played on the Xbox 360.
"This isn’t a decision we made lightly, but after careful consideration, it is clear this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox Live community," says XBL general manager Marc Whitten.
Whitten does admit that some games still have significant amounts of players, such as Halo 2, but all things must come to an end. Says the GM: "There’s no greater example of the power of the Xbox Live community than the Halo franchise. Halo 2 has had an amazing run on Live, with a dedicated community more than five years after launch and well into the next generation of consoles. It has fundamentally changed the way we play videogames. And while it’s difficult to see that run come to an end, the Halo franchise continues to act as the benchmark for multiplayer gaming in this generation, with Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and soon Halo: Reach on Xbox 360."
Apple is still working with Verizon on an iPad model that will support Verizon's 3G service says Fox News, citing a source within Verizon.
Earlier this week Fox News reported that AT&T had outbid Verizon and therefore will be the carrier of choice at launch in March. AT&T had not ironed out a deal until six days before the iPad launch event on January 27th, says the report.
Following Fox's note, a few Wall Street firms predicted that a Verizon deal would be signed by the end of 2010. Some say Apple will announce a new iPhone and an iPad, both with Verizon support at June's WWDC event.
Arstechnica is reporting today that RealVideo continues its death spiral, this time with C-SPAN getting rid of the streaming video format in favor of Flash and Windows Media.
Says the C-SPAN site: "Due to lack of demand for the RealVideo format, we will be retiring our links to C-SPAN live video streams in the RealVideo format effective March 1, 2010."
The Ars reporter says the codec lives on in a few Government committees, such as the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works but the FCC finally upgraded last year to Flash, after previously broadcasting all their meetings on a server that could handle only up to 200 users and produced 240x240 resolution video.
Amazon has announced their acquisition of the touchscreen company Touchco, a move that will lead to the next Kindle e-reader being a touchscreen device.
The NY Times says Touchco's "interpolating force-sensitive resistance technology allows for flexible, transparent, pressure-sensitive touch-screens that could cost as little as $10 a square foot."
By comparison, the iPad's touchscreen is more expensive and "cannot detect the unlimited amount of simultaneous touch points that Touchco's technology allows."
Touchco's screens can distinguish between the different pressures produced by a human finger or by a pen stylus.
Today's Video Daily comes from Google, which has announced that its upcoming Chrome OS will be used for tablets as well, with some of the concept pictures and a video posted on their blog.
What will make this special compared to the recently unveiled iPad? Looks like we will have to wait and see for the most part.
The Hollywood studios have lost a landmark case against the ISP iiNet today after an eight-week trial.
The case would have impacted how Australian ISPs would have had to react to potential pirates, but the judge ruled that iiNet was not responsible for the downloading habits of any of its subscribers.
Justice Cowdroy said all the evidence showed that iiNet was simply providing Internet service for its customers, not facilitating piracy. He did conclude, however, that iiNet had knowledge of infringements occurring and did not anything to stop them, which was fine as the ISP is simply "a legitimate communication facility," not "intended nor designed to infringe copyright."
"iiNet is not responsible if an iiNet user uses that system to bring about copyright infringement ... the law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another," Justice Cowdroy added.
MPEG LA, the company behind the H.264 video-encoding codec, has decided to extended the royalty-free period of the tech until December 31st, 2015, allowing sites to stream using the technology for free.
The current licensing period was set to finish at the end of 2010.
The extension may be a way to "encourage" sites to use H.264 instead of free rival OggTheora, which was recently selected by Wikipedia for video playback. H.264 is currently used by the king of web video, however, YouTube.
Lesser rival On2 creates a codec called VP8, and Google recently announced their acquisition of On2, sparking speculation that VP8 would be the new codec of choice for YouTube.
A DVD-Screener copy of the highest-grossing film of all-time, Avatar, has hit P2P and torrents today, coming just a few days after Academy members received the screener from Fox.
Until today, telesync versions had been available, and total downloads were estimated at over 2 million just from torrent downloads. The first copy available was Avatar DVDScrxvid - IMAGiNE.
The new screener will likely see many times that amount of downloads, but Fox should have little to worry about as Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all-time and will undoubtedly be the best selling DVD in years and the biggest Blu-ray release of all-time by a long shot.
According to the The Symbian Foundation, the world's most popular mobile operating system, Symbian, is going open-source.
Individual developers as well as organizations can now modify the source code "for any purpose."
The Foundation says over 330 million smartphones have shipped worldwide running Symbian and the new move to open-source should attract a plethora of new developers to work on the platform, thus speeding up improvements.
"This is the largest open source migration effort ever," says Lee Williams of the Symbian Foundation, via the BBC. "It will increase rate of evolution and increase the rate of innovation of the platform."
Nokia purchased the software in 2008 and created the Foundation to oversee the transition to open-source. Members of the Foundation include Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.
Apple has released iPhone OS update 3.1.3, and along with the bug fixes and security patches comes the inevitable breaking of jailbroken devices.
Creators of jailbreaking tools such as Redsn0w, Blackra1n, and PwnageTool have warned jailbroken iPhone/Touch users to not update to the latest firmware just yet. In fact, Redsn0w was updated just yesterday to work with OS update 3.1.2.
For now, if you want to keep your device jailbroken, do not update to 3.1.3, and be careful with the unpatched security exploits.
Twitter director of Trust and Safety Del Harvey has posted today that it will be forcing a number of users to change their passwords this week after it was discovered that hackers had used torrent sites to steal access to user's data.
"As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor our user base for odd activity, we noticed a sudden surge in followers for a couple of accounts in the last five days. Given the circumstances surrounding this we felt it was best to push out a password reset to accounts that were following these suspicious users," said Harvey.
It is unclear how many users are affected.
The details were stolen from third-party torrent sites that require logins. Because many users use the same information for multiple sites, the hackers used the torrent site logins for Twitter as well.
"As a general rule, if you signed up for a torrent forum or torrent site built by a third party, you should probably change your password there," adds Harvey. "The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the same email address and password (or variant) on multiple sites. We strongly suggest that you use different passwords for each service you sign up for."
Fox News is reporting that Verizon and AT&T fought over having their 3G service available to future iPad owners and that AT&T won the rights by outbidding the competition.
iPad 3G costs $30 USD monthly for unlimited, or $15 for 250MB data plans, a price about half the cost of what 3G service would normally cost from AT&T for a netbook or modem owner.
Verizon had no comment on the report, and AT&T did not either except to say it's happy to be the "main carrier partner" for the iPad.
After months of leaks and rumors, Verizon has officially unveiled the Motorola Devour, and will begin selling it in March.
Touted as a younger brother to the DROID, the new phone will have the MOTOBLUR interface and run Android 1.6, at least at launch.
The Devour has a slider QWERTY keypad, a 3.1-inch HVGA screen and an optical trackpad. It will use Verizon's EV-DO Rev, 3G and has Wi-Fi b/g and Stereo Bluetooth support. The GPS receiver and 3.2MP camera are standard.
The device will come bundled with an 8GB microSD memory card.
According to an interview with IGN, Sony senior VP of marketing Peter Dille says the company is on the fast track to passing the Xbox 360 in sales soon, also saying that the PS3 will still be around in 10 years, and the 360 will not.
"We can be passionate fans, but I don't think they'll be around in 10 years so I'm very confident we'll pass them within that time frame," says Dille. "I mean, we've got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now - they've got 39 million [units sold]. I don't even need to go out 10 years. I'm not going to make any predictions for your interview today other than we'll pass them, but you look at where we are today and where they are today, and they had an opportunity to sprint as far ahead of us as possible when they had the head start. Well, we're breathing down their necks and they can see us in the rearview mirror and it's not going to take too long to pass them."
Additionally, Dille confirmed that the company would begin adding subscription models to PSN, although gaming would remain completely free.
Apple has released a patch this week for the iPhone/iPod Touch that should fix five exploits, a few of which could have allowed remote access to the device in question.
If a user opened an infected audio or image file, or hit a malicious FTP server, hackers could run code remotely, taking control of the device.
Another of the exploits could allow hackers to bypass the password on a locked device, as long as they had access to the actual device.
Google has announced today that Nexus One owners will be receiving an over-the-air update for their smartphones this week, one that adds a number of features, the most prominent being multi-touch support.
Full update:
Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web
Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
* Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com - access your favorite places from your phone or computer
* Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history - makes it easy to search for places you've searched for before
* Night mode in Google Maps Navigation - automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving
Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications
3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones
Our first Video Daily piece today is another interesting video showing off a Nokia smartphone in action, this time connecting it to LEGO Mindstorms NXT and using both to solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle.
Using an ARM processor, the NXT scans the cube, maps it out and uses the algorithms needed to solve it.
uTorrent 2.0 Final is now available, says the official site, moving out of the beta stage it has been in since August.
Feature overview from the creators:
UDP trackers are a different protocol for tracker communication that uses significantly less processing power on the tracker end. It's important for us to support this because trackers have limited resources, so this should allow them to support many more users with their current hardware and not crash under the load.
uTP is an alternative communication method for BitTorrent traffic that allows the client to automatically regulate its bandwidth usage to avoid adversely impacting your internet connection. This will allow you or other users on the network to download their torrents but still allow others on the network to function with little difference. This does not require any additional setup.
In addition, uTP in this version has added its own form of STUN, a method of getting incoming connections without direct connectivity to the Internet. This allows µTorrent to punch holes through routers and firewalls to increase connectivity and improve speeds. It is even possible to connect two firewalled peers through uTP's NAT traversal feature.Read more...
A few reports have surfaced today that the Apple iPad will likely launch with a camera, despite it not being showed off during Apple's tablet unveiling last week.
A screenshot from the event shows a dot above the screen that looks very much like a camera. A screenshot from the iPad emulator (via the SDK) shows the clear option to "take a photo."
Additionally, Mac repair company Mission Repair is already receiving replacement parts for fixing the iPad, and one employee has showed off a pic of where a camera would fit perfectly.
Toshiba has hinted this week that it may be leaving the LCD production business, a way to curb ever-increasing losses.
Corporate senior executive VP Fumio Muraoka says the strong yen, steep price declines in the units, and shrinking demand may lead to Toshiba needing to leave the business.
Toshiba Mobile Display posted an operating loss of $211 million USD for the months of April to December 2009, which followed losses of $180 million and $110 million for the division for the same periods in 2008 and 2007.
The division used to be a partnership with Panasonic but Toshiba bought out the entire stake in March.
This weekend, Mozilla released the long-anticipated mobile browser, Firefox Mobile 1.0, for the Nokia Maemo.
Hoping to take market share from more established players like Opera, the Firefox browser will include customizable browser extensions as well as Weave Sync, the bookmark and history-syncing extension.
Nokia's open source Maemo OS is only available on the N900 and N810, and the first release will also not include Flash support, which Mozilla fired at Adobe about, citing poor standard of quality. For those hoping to use YouTube without a stand-alone app, you can download the YouTube Enabler add-on.
Windows Mobile is next on the timetable, with Android coming third. Hopefully by then it will be a fully workable browser.
Wikimedia, the company behind Wikipedia has said this week that they have installed a new server, one that should allow for the "huge influx" of video that is starting to be uploaded to the encyclopedia site.
Besides video coming from volunteers, hundred of hours of footage is coming from recent partnerships with national archives and museums.
In 2008, Wikimedia and open source video platform Kaltura joined forces to bring video to Wikipedia, but apparently the process it "taking a little longer" than originally anticipated.
Says Wikimedia’s Head of Communications Jay Walsh about the delay, via NewTeeVee: "We don't work with proprietary video systems." Wikipedia will use the free, open-source codecOggTheora for video playback, which many browsers did not even support until recently.
Walsh says to expect at least some rollout of an HTML5-based video player and editor in the next three to six months.
Cnet has reported today that a 53-year old grandmother almost had her Internet service suspended for alleged piracy, although it was never proven that she had downloaded anything she was accused of.
Qwest Communications told her that she was accused of downloading 18 Hollywood movies including Zombieland and the latest Harry Potter, and that her service was set to be terminated. More harshly, her name would be placed on a blacklist for other ISPs in the area to know what she had done.
Cathi Paradiso is a technical recruiter and obviously needs her computer and working Internet connection to live. She emailed the movie studios accusing her, as well as Cnet, and asked for help: "Take me off your hit list. I have never downloaded a movie. Period... You'll need to admit you made a mistake and move on to the correct perpetrator... I am saying this once more: My computer is not a toy. My livelihood depends on my ISP's reliability. Look for the perpetrator and leave my service alone."
Before shutting her off, Qwest sent out a technician to investigate and they found that her wireless network had been infiltrated and someone had been using it to download the movies.
According to security researcher Steven Adair, hundreds of prominent websites including those run by the CIA and FBI are currently being attacked by the Pushdo botnet, which floods the sites with junk data.
Other sites being hit include Twitter, Paypal, Google and Microsoft's homepages.
"It seems the Pushdo botnet recently made changes to its code to cause infected nodes to create junk SSL connections to approximately 315 different websites," says Adair. "The bots seem to start to initiate an SSL connection and a bit of junk to the websites and then disconnect. They do not actually request an resources from the website or do anything else other than repeat the cycle periodically."
Pushdo, otherwise known as Pandex or Cutwail, had been around since 2007, and also distributes rootkits and trojans.
According to new data from ABI Research, the Apple iPhone lost smartphone market share in the fourth quarter 2009 compared to the Q3, dropping from 18.1 percent of all sales in the third to 16.6 in the fourth.
Unit sales grew, to 8.7 million, up from 7.2 million in the Q3, however the overall smartphone market grew 26 percent in the same period, mainly thanks to Motorola's Android phone releases.
A similar trend occurred in the Q4 2008, when the iPhone saw a bit of a dip after a strong Q3.
ABI analyst Michael Morgan made a bold statement following the report, saying Apple could possibly be getting a case of "Razr Burn," a reference to the once-popular Motorola Razr which sold over 100 million units in a short period of time but then completely fell off after two years.
Adds Morgan: "To lose market share in a record quarter, that's got to sting a little bit."
The blockbuster epic Avatar is set to pass Titanic as the highest-grossing film of all-time today (non adjusted for inflation), also becoming the second movie to ever surpass the $600 million plateau in the United States.
Titanic holds the number one spot with $600,788,188 in sales, and Avatar, by most unofficial accounts, is at $598 million as of print time.
Video game industry analyst Michael Pachter has said today that he expects the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to receive price cuts again this year, which will lead to the Wii being forced into a price cut as well, in order to keep the remaining price advantage it has over its rivals.
"The Wii enjoyed a $350 price advantage over the PS3 at launch, and a $150 advantage until September. Now, the gap has narrowed to $100, with the feature-laden PS3 a tempting purchase for prospective console households," says Pachter.
"The holiday Wii sales boost was primarily attributable to a $50 gift card promotion offered by Wal-Mart; while we expect similar promotions at holiday next year, we expect the other consoles to be lower-priced by then, further eroding the Wii's competitive price advantage."
Pachter also says that the DSi handheld is most likely overpriced, compared to the iPod Touch, which offers a plethora of free apps as well as better music and video playback capabilities.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has given his response to last week's iPad unveiling, calling the device "a bigger iPod Touch," with "no surprises."
Additionally, Iwata denied rumors that Nintendo was working on an HD-enabled Wii and a DS with motion control. "I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines," he concluded.
Iwata also took a swing at 3D gaming, admitting he does not believe it will catch on, despite the success of films such as Avatar. "I have doubts whether people will be wearing glasses to play games at home. How is that going to look to other people?" he adds.
So far the main concerns critics have had of the iPad is the lack of multitasking, the continued lack of Flash-support, and lack of USB ports.
Intellect Wireless, a small company based in Virginia has sued Apple this month over wireless communication technology found in the iPhone, in what has got to be the millionth time Apple has been sued over technology relating to their smartphone.
The patent in question is for a concept meant to "receive and display caller ID information, non-facsimile pictures, video messages and/or Multimedia Messaging Services [MMS]."
Intellect is asking for $10 million in damages from Apple, but will accept a settlement.
The company has so far sued T-Mobile, Virgin, Helio, US Cellular, Motorola, LG, Sanyo, Samsung and HTC over similar patent disputes.
TechOn is reporting today that large OLED panels should become available mainstream starting in 2010, with LG Display planning 20-inch displays for this year and 40-inch displays by 2012.
Says VP Won Kim, in charge of OLED Sales & Marketing at the firm: "They may be expensive, but it will be possible to buy a 40-inch class OLED TV in 2012."
OLED displays offer superior quality to LED LCD displays, and can be as thin as a a few millimeters.
The current 15-inch OLED display offered by LG has a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and "color reproducibility range of 98% of the NTSC standard."
According to recent figures from Valve, active Steam accounts grew by 25 percent, year-on-year, to over 25 million.
Monthly "player minutes" has reached 13 billion, an all-time high, says the company.
Concurrent users hit an all-time high as well in December, at over 2.5 million.
"Steam turned five years old in March 2009," added Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years - such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks - we've seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day."
Sony has announced that it will debut a new reality series, via the PlayStation Network, beginning later this month dubbed The Tester, in which 11 contestants compete in challenges to win the position of game tester at Sony America.
The show will be available for free to download.
The full press release:
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced it will debut the original competition reality series, The Tester, on PlayStation®Network for free download starting February 18, 2010. In the unique series, 11 hopeful gamers from across the country will compete in grueling physical and mental challenges to win a position as a game tester at SCEA and a $5,000 signing bonus, all under the scrutiny of a panel of judges, including actor/comedian and diehard gamer Hal Sparks. With the launch of The Tester, available for digital download only on PlayStation®3 (PS3™) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) entertainment systems, SCEA further expands the current library of original and exclusive content on PlayStation Network.Read more...
According to the latest Net Applications data, the Google Chrome browser continues to take market share from rivals Internet Explorer and even Mozilla Firefox, moving to over 5 percent market share for the first time, ever.
IE fell to 62.18 percent from 62.69 in December and Firefox fell from 24.61 to 24.41. Chrome moved from 4.64 percent to 5.20. Notably, Firefox has fallen for two months straight, a fact that hasn't occurred in years.
Of note as well is the fact that Internet Explorer 8 has finally surpassed IE6 for most used IE browser, at 22.31 percent to 20.07 percent.
The Spanish language blog MuyComputer has reported today that Microsoft will be launching the long-anticipated Zune Phone this month at the Mobile World Congress event in Spain.
The presentation of the device will come from Microsoft and Nvidia as the phone will use a Tegrachipset, giving it the ability to play 3D games among other features.
The site adds that the phone will have a 480x272 resolution screen, 720p HDMI-out, weigh 70 grams, and use Windows Mobile 7.
Microsoft has announced they will begin selling a 250GB HDD add-on for the Xbox 360 in Japan starting next month.
Beginning March 11th, the drive will cost ¥15,540 (about $172 USD).
The drive marks the largest stand-alone unit ever available for the console.
Microsoft has no plans to sell the drive outside of Japan, adds spokesperson Kei Iwasaki, so it seems that North American and European gamers will have to stick to the smaller stand-alone units Microsoft has available in their regions.
A Texas appellate court has ordered Whitney Harper to pay $27,750 in fines for illegal sharing of 27 tracks when she was 15 years old, throwing out the old judgment that had ordered her to pay just $7400.
We reported two weeks ago that an NES console with an opened copy of Stadium Events 
Two days ago we reported that there 
Although not in our normal niche, this article was too interesting to pass up.
Current Hulu investor Providence Equity Partners has invested $50 million into the new Qiyi online video service started by search giant Baidu.
The business rating and review site Yelp has been sued this week by two law firms, which are alleging unfair business practices and extortion.
The new PopCap release Plants vs Zombies has become the fastest and highest grossing iPhone game launch in history, with over 300,000 apps sold in the first 9 days, for a gross over $1 million.
According to UnwiredView, the 
A student at Pentucket Regional High School in Massachusetts saw their iPod Touch spontaneously explode while it was sitting on her desk during class this week, and fire officials were forced to come and clear out the room.
The first look at the upcoming Symbian^4 mobile operating system from 
Being interviewed at the 
Sprint has confirmed leaked WebOS 1.4 update details today, with many rumored features confirmed.
Adobe's Mark Doherty has shot back today at critics that have been reporting that Flash 10.1 kills the battery life of Android devices, posting a video in its defense.
Kotaku is reporting that Valve has hinted at 
Large textbook publishers Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Macmillan, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Pearson filed a lawsuit against file sharing host Rapidshare earlier this month, and today have gained an injunction, meaning the service must now proactively filter about 150 textbook titles, or face a hefty fine.
PCWorld has reported this week the results of their annual 13-city 3G wireless data test, and the changes in results from last year are drastic.
Although it was announced months ago, Google has officially dated the end of Internet Explorer 6 support via YouTube, with March 13th being that day.
Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio has reassured investors that the Nook e-reader is still selling well, and that the iPad should have little effect on the company's bottom line.
Publishing giant Macmillan has announced today the launch of it's own DynamicBooks software platform, allowing professors to edit digital textbooks without approval of the original author.
According to a Facebook post, Best Buy will begin offering the 
According to the New York Times, Wal-Mart is set to purchase VUDU, the premium video 
In early January, YouTube launched a video rental service that allowed users to rent films from the Sundance Film Festival. The service has not necessarily strived, but today the 
Last week we reported that Ubisoft's new 
Mitsubishi has unveiled new 
Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff has stated that the company is currently developing an app that will bring music videos to your 
Silicon Alley Insider has posted their "Chart of the Day," and it is very interesting how such a simple chart can show how so much has changed, in not a very long period of time.
AppAdvice has posted a report today that the highly-hyped 
A new letter has been posted to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) website, which is interesting and worth a read.
Director James Cameron has announced that his epic blockbuster hit Avatar will be released on 
Redbox will begin adding 
According to 
The Lanxiang Vocational School in China has denied a recent report that stated the school was the source of the recent cyber attacks on Google.
According to Mashable, CBS looks to be on the verge of dropping the price of their TV episodes on 
According to a new research report from the 
According to a new report from MediaMemo, content providers are eager to bring the popular TV and movie 
Verizon has begun 
Verizon has released apps for Android and Windows Mobile users today that will allow smartphone users to use their phones as remote controls for FiOS TVs.
BGR is reporting today that a 
Amazon has announced today the launch of the free Kindle application for RIM BlackBerry users, giving the smartphone users access to over 400,000 e-books.
Larry "Major" Nelson, 
Following on the heels of expected approval in the EU, the United States Department of Justice is also expected to approve of the Yahoo/Microsoft search deal, sometime within the next 30 days.
Google has donated $2 million USD this week to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company behind Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary and Wikibooks.
According to new Compete figures, Facebook has become the second most popular site in the United States, just barely surpassing Yahoo which has held the spot for some time.
HBO has announced the launch of HBO Go, an online 
Boxee has announced the latest update to their beta service, version 0.9.20.10708, just about a month after the launch of the service.
At the Toy Fair 2010, Mattel has seemingly brought the ever-popular Barbie into the 21st century, with the introduction of the Barbie Video Girl Doll.
Vodafone has announced the launch of the Vodafone 150, an under-$15 mobile phone designed specifically for 'developing' nations.
Aptina Imaging, "the CMOS imaging leader," has announced today the launch of a 14MP CMOS image sensor for mobile phones, one that can handle recording at 1080p/60fps.
Adobe has officially announced Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR for Android today at the Mobile World Congress, setting a time frame as well for its release.
Following months of uncertainty, NetEase has been given official approval for a 
Square Enix has confirmed the 
Announced today at the Mobile World Congress, 27 of the world's largest telecoms have announced the creation of the Wholesale Applications Community, an app store that they hope will rival the iPhone App Store and the Android Market.
According to new figures from the 
Defunct online video 
VG247 has come upon some screenshots of the debug build of the upcoming PlayStation 3 
The EU is expected to approve the search deal between Yahoo and 
Skyfire has announced their acquisition of Kolbysoft, the team behind the Steel Web browser on Android devices.
After falling to under 10 percent in December, Bing has regained some ground in search engine market share, moving up to 10.9 percent. Google, the dominant market leader, fell 1 percent to 66.3 percent overall, with Yahoo remaining in second at 14.5 percent share.
Compaq has launched its new AirLife "smartbook" this week, an interesting move away from skimpy netbooks.
2010 started off very poorly for the video game industry, with overall revenue dropping year-on-year by 13 percent, to $1.17 billion USD.
The video game rental service GameFly has filed an IPO today, becoming a publicly traded company and raising $50 million USD. The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker GFLY.
James Burt of Queensland, Australia has agreed to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages as compensation for lost revenue caused when Burt uploaded a game before its official release date.
According to the latest figures from research firm comScore, the Android mobile OS continued to take market share at a fast 
According to Cnet, Netflix will add 5.1 
Adobe has announced today that Flash 10.1 will only work on Android smartphones running 
After first being blocked in 2008, an Italian court has once again ruled that ISPs in the nation must block access to the 
Although it is unclear whether the price cuts are temporary or permanent, 
According to BBLeaks, the upcoming BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) 3.0 details have been leaked, and it appears that BB owners will be getting better support for Gmail among other significant updates.
According to the latest IDC numbers, vendors shipped 54.5 million smartphones in the Q4 2009, a record, and a 39 percent increase year-on-year.
According to figures from Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment (FADE), the 
In June 2008, Sling Media introduced an iPhone-version of the SlingPlayer software, however, it only worked over Wi-Fi, and not AT&T's 3G data service.
A newly launched site called TVGorge is promoting what millions of international citizens have wanted for years from 
Twentieth Century Fox has filed six new lawsuits this week, all against alleged sellers of a 
Arstechnica is reporting today that 
The Hollywood studios have lost a landmark case against the ISP iiNet today after an eight-week trial.
According to the The Symbian Foundation, the world's most popular mobile operating system, Symbian, is going open-source.
uTorrent 2.0 Final is now available, says the official site, moving out of the beta stage it has been in since August.
This weekend, 
Cnet has reported today that a 53-year old grandmother almost had her Internet service suspended for alleged piracy, although it was never proven that she had downloaded anything she was accused of.
According to security researcher Steven Adair, hundreds of prominent websites including those run by the CIA and FBI are currently being attacked by the Pushdo botnet, which floods the sites with junk data.
