According to the market research company Canalys, shipments of Android smartphones reached 32.9 million in the Q4 2010, making it the best-selling smartphone operating system in the world.

Symbian, long on top of the list, fell to second, at 31 million shipments.

In terms of market share, Android grew 615 percent from 2009 to take 32.5 percent, while Symbian fell from 44.4 percent to 30.6 percent in the same period.

Phone makers HTC and Samsung had notably strong years, accounting for 45 percent of the Android phone shipments.

Apple's iOS fell to third, at 16 percent, remaining practically flat year-over-year. Shipments increased 86 percent, however, to 16.2 million iPhones.

RIM's BlackBerry share dropped from 20 percent to 14.4, despite seeing a reasonably strong 35 percent growth in shipments.

Windows-based phones rounded out the top 5, although market share fell from 7.3 percent to just 3.1 percent. Windows Phone 7 sales were "steady," says the firm.

According to new reports from Taiwanese component makers, the Apple iPad 2 will have dual core 1.2GHz processors, alongside a plethora of upgrades.

Furthermore, the company will produce 5 million units in the Q1, expecting strong sales of the device.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the tablet will not have Retina Display, as previously rumored and will keep the same 1024x768 resolution as the original model.

Says the analyst (via Insider):

The improvement of the iPad 2 display focuses on thickness and anti-reflection, not resolution. iPad 2 display module is 30~35% thinner than iPad 1 and it’s helpful for better form factor.

Thanks to anti-reflection, iPad 2 could have better sunlight readable experience and it's helpful for Apple to compete with Amazon's fast growing Kindle business.

The most important reason why iPad 2 won’t have retina display is yield rate of panel making. At this point, making high resolution and bright IPS/FFS panel is not easy and the production volume and cost couldn’t meet Apple’s requirements.

According to multiple reports, Microsoft is ready to drop a major update for Windows Phone 7, with the firmware upgrade "imminent."

The software giant has updated its support sites with the "Troubleshooting problems during software update for Windows Phone 7" document, implying an update should be coming, soon.

Although it is unconfirmed, the update should bring faster loading times, copy/paste capabilities and a new and improved search function for the WP7 Marketplace.

There is no word on when the upgrade is coming.

Microsoft sold 2.1 million licenses of Window Phone 7 to OEMs in 2010, tacking on almost 900,000 in December alone.

Developer/hacker "@deeper-blue" has posted a quick video this weekend of how he ported the new tablet-optimized OS Android 3.0 to run on the Nook Color.

Deeper-Blue is able to boot the OS, and control the device, but functionality is still somewhat limited.

The hacker is now working on completing graphics acceleration, which should speed up the interface, which currently runs slowly.

Says the hacker (via XDA):

Graphics acceleration more or less working. The SGX driver seems too old for some buffer request of android 3.0, so right now the statusbar is invisible but still functional. Not sure if I can fix that or have to wait for the AOSP release.

What is not working... pretty much everything else, no accelerometer, no wlan, no sound. Haven't started working on those things yet.

Earlier this week, Google began censoring any search queries with references to torrents from its 'instant search' and 'autocomplete' features.

Last month, the search giant promised it would begin "making copyright work better online" whilst blocking "terms that are closely associated with piracy" from autocomplete.

BitTorrent services have been up in arms since the move, pointing out that there are many legal torrents out there that are being censored, like films that have been released for free by directors and made available via torrent sites.

A couple of the banned search terms are "utorrent," "bittorrent," "rapidshare," and "megaupload." However, other cyberlockers like Fileserve and HotFile are not banned. Suprisingly, "The Pirate Bay," is still a searchable term.

Rapidshare expressed the concerns of companies now censored:

William Power of R.W. Baird & Co has noted today that Verizon could sell as many as 25 million iPhones in 2011, basing the figure off a 1000-person survey.

The analyst believes a large number of Verizon feature phone users will upgrade to their first smartphone when the iPhone 4 hits.

Power was quick to add, however, that many factors could affect that number, including manufacturing capacity.

The latest analysis is the highest figure yet, ahead of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster's 15 million estimate and Gleacher and Co.’s Brian Marshall's 12 million estimate.

Munster, in his analysis, added the following:

Android phones outsell iPhones in the U.S., but we believe when Verizon gets the iPhone, that trend could be reversed. As an example, in countries where the iPhone is available on multiple carriers and competes with Android, we see the iPhone outselling Android.

Engadget has posted screenshots this weekend of Amazon's upcoming subscription streaming service, one that should directly rival Netflix.

The service will offer free, unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows to Amazon Prime members.

Reads a now removed page:

"Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commerical-free instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost."

China has blocked all searches for the Chinese word for "Egypt" on microblogging sites Sina, Tencent and Sohu, limiting the public's knowledge of the unrest occurring right now in the nation.

In response, Sina said (via PCW): "In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search result did not display."

The English word "Egypt," however, is still searchable.

Severe political unrest has hit the nation over the past week, with thousands of protesters rioting in the streets and demanding that President Hosni Mubarak be removed from power.

The Egyptian government shut down the Internet in the country, in an effort to stop protesters from organizing efficiently.

Mubarak's government also ordered the suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, while canceling the network's licenses. Al Jazeera was one of few broadcasters to get video of Cairo after the riots.

Sina, Tencent and Sohu have a total of 63 million users.

New York Senator Carl Kruger has made headlines today after introducing another ridiculous bill, one that will ban phone usage when crossing the street.

If passed, the bill would ban talking on the phone, texting, listening to iPods with headphones and playing handheld devices while crossing the street.

The fine? $100 if caught.

Says the Senator:

You can't be fully aware of your surroundings if you're fiddling with a Blackberry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod.

Comcast has completed its acquisition of NBC Universal this week, gaining a 51 percent stake for $13.45 billion.

NBCU is in charge of NBC, the fourth-highest ranked broadcaster in the U.S, Universal Pictures, the Universal theme parks, and popular cable channels like E!, Bravo and USA.

The FCC and US Department of Justice, facing criticism that the deal would allow Comcast to favor its own cable subscribers, has imposed numerous conditions that will force Comcast to keep NBCU content "as a single package to online competitors on terms comparable to those reached with more established rivals such as Dish Network Corp. and DirecTV," says the AP.

Furthermore, Comcast will have to match any new deals for programming between traditional media firms and online video providers, if it has a comparable program. For example, if Viacom makes a reality show available via Netflix, NBCU will have to make a comparable show available.

As part of the deal, Comcast bought the stake from GE for $6.2 billion in cash, and gave its cable channels (like E! and Bravo) to NBCU. Those channels were worth $7.25 billion.

If investment firm ITG is to be believed, 15 percent of all Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets are returned after purchase, a huge figure when compared to market leader Apple's 2 percent return rate for the iPad.

Says the firm: "Consumers just aren't in love with the device."

Samsung announced yesterday that global sales for the Tab had reached 2 million, just two months after launch.

The analysts believe the main problem with the Tab is its use of Android 2.2 Froyo, which was designed for smartphones, and is not ideal for large screens.

Upcoming Android tablets, like the Motorola Xoom and LG G-Slate will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which is optimized for tablets.

Research firm iSuppli says the Tab is not alone in its issues, however: "There are a lot of issues with Android tablets, not just Samsung. A lot of those products have difficulties with high return rates or with not moving off the shelf."

Google has confirmed it will be officially launching Android 3.0 Honeycomb at a press event on February 2nd.

The company also unveiled the new logo for the operating system (pictured).

Android 3.0 is optimized for tablets and will first be seen on the Motorola Xoom, which should be available at the end of February.

The SDK for Honeycomb was released earlier in the week, which PCM says includes a UI framework for creating great apps for larger screen devices; high-performance 2D and 3D graphics; support for multicore processor architectures; rich multimedia; new types of connectivity; and enhancements for enterprise.

At least 5 Honeycomb tablets have already been promised for the Q1, although none have been priced yet.

The UN has stated this week that worldwide Internet users have ballooned to 2 billion, while mobile phone subscriptions have hit 5 billion.

Says the head of the UN's International Telecommunications Union (via AFP):

At the beginning of the year 2000 there were only 500 million mobile subscriptions globally and 250 million Internet users.

By the beginning of this year 2011 those numbers have mushroomed to over five billion mobile users and two billion subscribers to the Internet.

Skullcandy, the company behind headphones backed by rappers, other musicians and athletes, has filed for an IPO today, en route to going public.

Despite remaining under-the-radar, the company disclosed that it made $7.65 million in the 9 months ended September 30th, on $96 million in revenue.

Reads the filing:

Skullcandy is a leading audio brand that reflects the collision of the music, fashion and action sports lifestyles. Our brand symbolizes youth and rebellion and embodies our motto, ’Every revolution needs a soundtrack.'

Nintendo has reported their earnings for the 9-month period ended December 2010, and net profit fell a whopping 74 percent, to ¥49.56 billion ($600 million USD) from ¥192.60 billion ($2.34 billion) in the same period in 2009.

The gaming company attributed the drop to a wildly stronger yen and a lack of compelling software titles for its DS and Wii consoles.

Overall revenue fell 32 percent to ¥807.99 billion ($9.8 billion) from ¥1.182 trillion ($14.4 billion).

Because Nintendo makes about 80 percent of its sales outside of Japan, most of its cash assets are held in foreign currency, like pounds, USD and euros. As the yen continues to gain strength, the value of those currencies decreases, forcing Nintendo to book appraisal losses.

Those losses remain as "paper losses" until the company converts back to yen, but they still hurt the books on a "net" basis.

According to the National Association of Theater Owners, the average movie ticket price in the U.S. jumped to $7.89 in 2010, with the cost crossing $8 for the first time ever in October.

For the Q4, the average cost stood at $8.01.

The first quarter saw the average at $7.95, which then dropped to $7.88 in the second and $7.71 in the third.

In 2009, the average ticket price was $7.50, so the growth represented a 5.2 percent increase, overall.

For the last five years, ticket prices have increased at an average 4.5 percent.

When Samsung launched their Galaxy Tab tablet in November, the company made it clear its first goal was 1 million sales before Christmas.

In early December, the company hit its milestone.

This week, Samsung has said they have topped 2 million sales, shipping over 800,000 in Europe, 550,000 in North America and 330,000 in Asia.

For comparison's sake, the market leader Apple iPad hit 1 million sales 30 days as well, but sales have recently topped 14 million since April.

Samsung's tablet runs on Android 2.2, has a 1GHz processor, a 7-inch multi-touch screen and dual cameras.

The tab is available in 94 countries.

IDC has reported this week that the global mobile phone market grew 17.9 percent in the Q4 2010, thanks mainly to increasing smartphone sales.

401.4 million units were sold in the quarter, compared to 340.5 million in the same period in 2009. For the year, sales were up 18.5 percent, jumping to 1.39 billion units. The figure was the largest growth rate since 2006's 22.6 percent jump.

"The mobile phone market has the wind behind its sails," added Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. "Mobile phone users are eager to swap out older devices for ones that handle data as well as voice, which is driving growth and replacement cycles."

IDC concluded that smartphone sales will drive the growth through the end of 2014, with expected 43.7 percent year-over-year growth in 2011.

Nokia retained the top spot in mobile phone shipments, followed by Samsung, LG, ZTE and Apple. ZTE sells low-cost feature phones and cheap Android smartphones in China.

Every year, starting usually in November and lasting into February, DVDs of movies that are up for award considerations are sent out to Academy, Golden Globe, SAG and other awards voters.

Without fail, a number of these discs are duplicated and find their way to warez and torrent sites, which label them as DVD Screeners.

It appears the studios are finally trying to take a big stand against the sharing of screeners, with some, like Fox Searchlight, turning to streaming instead of sending out physical copies.

This month, the studio gave free downloads of 'Black Swan' to 100,000 SAG voters via the Apple iTunes store. Each download expires 24 hours after the user starts viewing it.

So far, the ploy has not worked as pirates have ripped the streams and begun labeling them as Web Screeners. At least three such films, (127 Hours, The Fighter and King's Speech) are available as "Web Screeners" in full 720p HD.

Netflix has posted a list of the fastest American ISPs today, giving some of the most accurate data for sustained transfers, ever.

Most speed testing sites rely on quick (30 seconds or less) bursts of speed, which can be inaccurate.

Says Ken Florance, director of content delivery at Netflix:

We find ourselves in the unique position of having insight into the performance of hundreds of millions of long duration, high-definition video streams delivered over the Internet.

As we use a number of CDNs, and our clients can adapt to changing network conditions by selecting the network path that's currently giving them the best throughput, Netflix streaming performance ends up being an interesting way to measure sustained throughput available from a given ISP over time, and therefore the quality of Netflix streaming that ISP is providing to our subscribers. Obviously, this can vary by network technology (e.g. DSL, Cable), region, etc., but it's a great high-level view of Netflix performance across a large number of individual streaming sessions.

Despite continued growth and popularity, Hulu is allegedly in serious talks to become an online cable operator, completely re-branding itself.

The new company would broadcast live and on-demand content over the Web to paying customers.

Moving from its current free, ad-based business, and its Hulu Plus subscription plan, the new service would instead charge customers for bundles of channels like ABC, Fox, NBC, FoodNetwork, Disney, FX and more.

Hulu responded by saying "we do not comment on rumors and speculation, which is what this is."

The company brought in around $260 million in revenue for 2010, up from $108 million in 2009.

Hulu is jointly owned by NBCU, Fox and Disney.

Intel has announced that it will launch its first Meego tablets in June, running on the tablet-optimized MeeGo 1.2.

More models should hit in the Q3, especially since Intel's App Up center should be ready by then.

Developers are already submitting applications for the upcoming market, thanks to Intel's tablet preview program.

Intel will not only launch MeeGo devices during the period, as they have planned Windows 7 and Honeycomb devices, as well, each running on Atom.

Regal Entertainment, the largest movie theater company in the U.S. has announced today that it has amended its current contract with RealD over 3D screens.

In 2008, the companies signed a deal for Regal to install 1500 3D screens, and the new deal effectively doubles the original, with Regal now agreeing to install 3000 of the screens.

Says Regal CEO Amy Miles (via THR):

We continue to see high demand from moviegoers for RealD's premium 3D viewing experience and to meet that demand Regal expects to 3D-enable approximately 40% of its screens as part of its ongoing nationwide digital rollout.

Doubling our agreement for RealD 3D-enabled screens will allow us to play multiple 3D films at the same time and assure moviegoers the option of seeing films in a premium 3D format.

Microsoft revealed their quarterly earnings today, seeing revenue grow 5 percent to $19.9 billion.

The figure that really stood out, however, came from Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, which saw a huge 55 percent revenue growth, mainly thanks to strong Windows Phone 7 and Kinect motion control sales.

Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division consists of the Xbox 360, Zune, Kinect and Windows Phone 7.

The division had $3.7 billion in revenue this quarter, up from $2.4 billion year-over-year.

Xbox Live memberships grew 31 percent, Xbox 360 sales were up 21 percent, and the company sold 8 million Kinects in just 60 days.

Adds Microsoft CFO Peter Klein (via Tech):

We are enthusiastic about the consumer response to our holiday lineup of products, including the launch of Kinect. The 8 million units of Kinect sensors sold in just 60 days far exceeded our expectations. The pace of business spending, combined with strong consumer demand, led to another quarter of operating margin expansion and solid earnings per share growth.

Yesterday we reported that HTC was ready to unveil two Facebook-branded smartphones next month.

Today, the social networking giant has denied the rumor, saying there is no planned smartphone tie-ins coming.

Says head of business development at Facebook, Dan Rose (via Reuters):

This is really just another example of a manufacturer who has taken our public APIs (application programming interfaces) and integrated them into their device in an interesting way.

The rumours around there being something more to this HTC device are overblown.

After years of rumor and speculation, Sony has finally unveiled the PSP2, for now dubbed the 'New Generation Portable (NGP).'

For controls, the handheld adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support.

The handheld will have a new UI dubbed "Live Area," which is used to launch games, the online app/game store, view trophies, view news and send IMs to friends with NGPs.

Using the new feature "Near," gamers, when connected to the Internet, will be shown a list of the most popular games in the area, and what other NGP gamers are playing at that time, explains Siliconera.

Guide: How to install PlayStation 3 custom firmware 3.55, run homebrew

Will.i.am, the frontman of the Grammy-award winning group The Black Eyed Peas has been hired by Intel as a Creative Director this week, continuing his work at Dipdive on a grander scale.

Dipdive uses "new media to mobilize politics, social issues and music."

The musician will now be a director of creative innovations for Intel.

Says Will.i.am (via Boombox)

Nearly everything I do involves processors and computers, and when I see an Intel chip I think of all the creative minds involved that help to amplify my own creativity. Teaming up with the scientists, researchers and computer programmers at Intel to collaborate and co-develop new ways to communicate, create, inform and entertain is going to be amazing.

We're thrilled to tap into the limitless creativity will.i.am brings to the table. He's not only a brilliant artist and producer, but also an innovator pushing the bounds of technology professionally and personally. We share a strong interest in innovation around music, art and lifestyle, and are excited to join forces to establish an authentic, emotional connection with consumers.

Engadget has posted an in-depth preview of the upcoming Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone, dubbed the "Xperia Play", which should be unveiled officially at the MWC next month.

The Xperia Play has a 4-inch display with 854x450 resolution and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Although unconfirmed, the device's multitouch screen will allegedly be powered by a Sony Bravia engine for smoother video playback.

Under the hood, the device appears to run on a single-core processor clocked at 1-1.2GHz, an Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB RAM.

As is standard, the smartphone/handheld will have 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and an FM receiver plus transmitter.

Physically, the smartphone has 4 buttons, Back/Menu/Home/Search, a 1500mAh battery, USB port, microSD slot and 5MP camera which lacks 720p recording.

AT&T, in anticipation of the Verizon iPhone coming on February 10th, has quietly begun giving iPhone owners a chance to move back to unlimited data plans, the plan they unceremoniously dumped in June.

Verizon announced this week that all new iPhone owners would pay $30-a-month for unlimited data, a far better deal than AT&T offers, at $25 for 2GB.

The former exclusive iPhone carrier will now give all subscribers who had an unlimited data plan in the past the chance to move back. The deal is only valid for subscribers who had an iPhone, and the unlimited plan, before June 2010.

New purchasers will still have to use the limited data plans.

When asked for comment by the WSJ, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel would not confirm the move, just saying: "We handle customers and their situations individually, and we're not going to discuss specifics."

The average smartphone user consumes 290MB of data per month, although iPhone owners notoriously use more.

ZDnet has reported today that Microsoft sold 2.1 million licenses of Window Phone 7 to OEMs in 2010, tacking on almost 900,000 in December alone.

The figures come via senior product manager Greg Sullivan, who said the pace continued to accelerate.

Additionally, surveys of Windows Phone 7 owners concluded that 93 percent were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their device. Another 90 percent would recommend the product to others.

Says Sullivan:

We're still in the early stages. When people use this phone, they really, really like it.

Thanks to the massive influx of tablets, research firm Gartner has predicted that app downloads will total 185 billion by the end of 2014.

Apple announced last week that its iOS App Store (which fuels the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) had reached 10 billion downloads.

Says the firm (via CW):

Tablets will boost app downloads. Many are wondering if the app frenzy...is just a fashion. We don't think so.

Netflix has reported their quarterly earnings this afternoon, surpassing all analyst expectations. The company's stock has jumped 16 points (9 percent) since the report.

The company says it has surpassed 20 million subscribers, a number that even surprised CEO Reed Hastings and other top management execs.

Income for the quarter increased 52 percent year-on-year to $47 million, and revenue jumped 34 percent to $596 million.

By adding 3.1 million subscribers and breaking 20 million, Netflix is now the second largest media subscription business in the U.S., just 3 million behind massive ISP/Cable provider Comcast.

Wrote CEO Reed Hastings (via THR):

Our huge subscriber growth, fueled by the excitement of watching instantly, impressed even us.

More subscriber growth enables us to spend more on streaming content, making the Netflix service even better in 2011.

Mozilla has released Firefox 4 Beta 10 this week, within two weeks of Beta 9, suggesting a full RC should be available in the near future.

Little has been added to the browser, but many bugs have been corrected, the browser should be more stable, and Mac OS X users will have better support for Flash video.

Mozilla says it has received over one million "pieces of feedback" since launching the beta, and continues to ask beta testers for more.

You can submit feedback via the "feedback button" in the browser or via Mozilla's site.

Firefox remains the second most used browser behind Internet Explorer, but it has begun facing massive competition from Google's Chrome, as well.

According to a new City AM report, HTC is set to unveil two Facebook-branded smartphones next month.

The phone maker and social networking giant will join up and introduce the devices at the Mobile World Congress event.

Each device will be "high-end smartphone" and include Facebook branding and colors (blue, gray and white).

The smartphones will run on an Android variant, and Facebook will be prominent on the home screens.

It is unclear what carriers the phones will be connected too or what exact integration will take place.

We will keep you updated.

Google has officially moved from the testing stage and launched number porting for Google Voice, giving users a chance to transfer their current mobile phone number over to the powerful Voice service.

Last week, a few hundred users were given the option to port their number, which Google confirmed as a test before a major rollout.

It seems the bugs have been worked out as the service is now live for all existing accounts.

To port your number it will be a one-time $20 charge, and Google warns that doing so will kill of your contract mobile phone contract, likely leaving you with an early termination fee.

You can avoid the charge by getting a new number from your carrier, but this makes the "simple" process a lot less simple.

Google also warns that you may lose out on texts for 72 hours after transferring but no calls or voicemails.

For now, you can only transfer mobile phones but landline transfers are coming in the future.

Over the past few days, rumors have surfaced that the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 will include a pico projector, but manufacturers have quickly quashed that, claiming the "related R&D is still not mature and demand from consumers has yet to appear."

The parts makers speculate smartphones will begin seeing mass produced pico projector modules in 2012.

Currently, pico projectors offer poor image quality, weak lumen rate and take an exceptional amount of power to run.

Samsung, LG and even RIM have each released phones with pico projectors, and other companies have integrated the projectors into their digital cameras, but sales volumes have been very low.

Current estimates say 1 million devices will ship in 2011 with pico projectors, as the prices still remain high. A DLP-based pico projector module still costs over $50 USD.

HTC's upcoming Flyer tablet has seen its unofficial specs leaked today, although the company has not even announced the tablet yet.

The tablet will have a seven-inch screen, 1024x600 resolution, Android 2.3 (upgradeable to 3.0), a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and LTE support.

Additionally, the device will have a 5MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front side camera, and pre-installed Skype.

The standard camera will have LED flash and facial recognition.

Finally, the tablet will have HDMI-out, DLNA wireless streaming and a USB port.

Google has purchased Twitter movie recommendation service Fflick today for $10 million, with the deal expected to close by the end of the month.

Fflick uses Twitter "sentiment" to rate movies, showing positive and negative comments, as well as how many people are Tweeting about a certain film.

For example, on the front page is "The Green Hornet," which is showing an 81 percent "like" rating on 66,000 tweets.

By signing in with your own Twitter account, you can see comments from anyone in your own network.

Furthermore, you can use the service to buy tickets, add movies to your Netflix queue, and retweet any post you see.

It is unclear what Google will use the service for.

Spanish researchers at the Carlos III University of Madrid have posted interesting results today in regards to filesharing.

The researchers say a tiny fraction of users are responsible for over two-thirds of all content published, and over three-fourths of all downloads.

Using the names, ISPs and IP addresses of uploaders and downloaders to 55,000 torrents published to Mininova and the Pirate Bay, the group concluded that just 100 users were behind 67 percent of the uploads and 75 percent of the downloads.

Concludes the team (via TG):

The success of BitTorrent is due to the fact that a few users make a large number of contents available in exchange for receiving economic benefits.

Verizon COO Lowell McAdam has confirmed today that Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan for the iPhone, which will cost $30 per month.

In June, AT&T dropped its unlimited data plan for smartphone users, moving to $25-a-month for 2GB or $15-a-month for 200MB. Each plan has massive overage charges.

Verizon offers $30 unlimited or $15 for 150MB, but the company has long said it will be dropping the smaller plan at the end of January.

For more comparisons, the companies offer the same voice plans, and AT&T offers a better texting plan.

McAdam does make it clear, however, that the unlimited plan will not be around forever, as the carrier "will follow AT&T's move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future."

The large French telecom Orange has purchased a full 49 percent share of the online video streaming site DailyMotion, one of YouTube's "larger" competitors.

Orange purchased the stake for 58.8 million euros.

As part of the deal, Orange can purchase the other 51 percent in 2013.

Orange will use the site in the same manner it used small music streaming provider Deezer, as a way to becoming a multi-platform content aggregator and distributor.

The company's music subscription service based on Deezer has over 500,000 users.

Opponents of the deal say it might break net neutrality principles as Orange could technically favor DailyMotion content over YouTube.

Google has announced the start of an in-browser weather app today, for users running Android or iOS.

After opening the Web browser, if users type in "weather" to the search bar, they will be greeted with the current weather, using GPS for location.

iPhone owners can use the slider bar to see the hourly forecast for the next twelve hours.

For now, the app is not available for BlackBerry owners, or anyone who needs a language other than English.

(Pic via Electronista)

Internet security company BitDefender has reported this week that pornography is the top reason the average user gets hit with malware on their computers.

According to the firm, 63 percent of users who visited adult sites "compromised their security on multiple occasions."

Says the company (via Thinq):

This BitDefender survey confirms that users should think twice when accessing pornographic sites since this is an area that cyber criminals continue to exploit.

Over 60 per cent of respondents admitted that they have had malware-related issues more than once as a direct consequence of accessing adult content. The findings of this study should make users consider whether accessing these sites is worth compromising their systems, data and work.

Microsoft has asked the International Trade Commission to block all TiVo imports to the U.S., claiming the company has violated multiple patents.

The complaint focuses on patents relating to technology used in TiVo's Mediaroom software, available on various DVRs, including the AT&T U-Verse set-top box.

Microsoft filed a formal lawsuit against TiVo last January.

The software giant had initially tried to join AT&T in similar patent infringement suit, but instead opted for its own suit.

Reads the latest filing (via WR):

Microsoft seeks an order excluding TiVo’s infringing set-top boxes and associated software and hardware from entry into the United States and a cease and desist order or orders halting the domestic sale of infringing, imported set-top boxes and associated software and hardware.

In January of last year, Kodak sued smartphone giants Apple and RIM over patent violations relating to the cameras used in BlackBerrys and the iPhone.

The suit alleged that the smartphones infringed on Kodak patents "covering technology for previewing photos."

Today, the ITC (International Trade Commission) has thrown out the case, claiming that the patent was simply a small variant of an earlier patent and therefore could not be used.

Current generation smartphones like the iPhone cannot violate the patent in question, as a result, explains Electronista.

The ruling is not absolute, and will face an ITC panel in the coming months. Kodak filed a similar suit against LG and Samsung, and the judge in that case upheld the same exact patent.

In April 2010, Google unveiled Google Cloud Print, a service that enables any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer.

The option was given to Google Chrome OS users last month, but today Google has opened the public beta for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile.

Google says the service will be "rolling out to users throughout the next few days."

"Print" will be an new option in Google Docs and Gmail, and you can print PDF and .DOC attachments, as well.

To use the Cloud Print, you will need a phone with Android 2.1+ or iOS 3+ and connect a printer to the cloud service.

More info on that, here: Cloud Print instructions

Huawei Technologies of China has sued Motorola this week in an effort to block the company's sale of its network equipment unit to Nokia Siemens.

The company wants the $1.2 billion deal to be restructured to avoid infringing on Huawei's IP rights.

Huawei is demanding the deal exclude any equipment that is based on GSM or UMTS standards.

Allegedly, Motorola does not have a material UMTS business as it resells Huawei's UMTS equipment for wireless service and therefore should not be able to sell that gear.

Motorola split its company in half earlier this year, seperating its phone and set-top operations from its other core operations.

Both companies involved in the deal are still awaiting approval from Chinese anti-trust authorities, but say the case is "without merit" and hope to close in the next month.

PreCentral has posted the specs for the upcoming HP Topaz, the first of the company's WebOS tablets.

The Topaz will have 1024x768 resolution, premium audio and connect wirelessly to a Touchstone dock for content sharing and charging.

Notably, the Topaz will have cloud-integration services, such as e-book sharing.

Although unconfirmed by HP, the rumored specs:

Processor Dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 at 1.2GHz
Graphics Integrated Adreno 220 GPU
Screen 9.7" XGA 1024 x 768
Dimensions 190mm x 240mm x 13.7mm
Weight 700g / 1.5lb (estimated)
RAM 512MB DDR2
Storage 16g / 32g / 64g eMMC
Camera Front-facing 1.3mp camera for Video Chat
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
WiFi Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n
Other Radios Optional WWAN for HSPA, LTE, perhaps CDMA later
Sensors Accelerometer, eCompass, Gyro, Light Sensor, Microphone
Speakers 2 integrated speakers with Beats Audio, 3.5mm audio jack
Battery 24WHr for >8hrs, using two 3150mAh cells

According to Internet research firm Emarketer, Twitter's ad revenue will likely triple to $150 million this year.

Twitter introduced its ad program in April 2010.

The company believes revenue can top $250 million in 2012, as more corporations join early adopters like Nissan Motor, Hewlett-Packard and Starbucks.

Twitter currently has 175 million registered users, and competes almost directly for ad dollars with giants like Facebook and Google.

Despite the large user base, a Pew report in December claims only 8 percent of U.S. Internet users have Twitter.

Says EMarketer (via Bloomberg):

The company is definitely attracting brand advertisers. The difference is going to be whether Twitter can prove itself to advertisers as delivering results. I think this will be the year that we know a lot more.

According to multiple reports, the upcoming iPad 2 may have very low quality cameras, under 1MP.

Although still unconfirmed, the tablet should add dual-cameras, a combined GSM/CDMA chipset, Retina Display, and a slimmer form factor.

The alleged camera quality was discovered looking through the most updated iOS SDK.

Speculation is the rear camera, which is 5MP on Galaxy Tab, Xoom and even the iPhone 4, will instead be a tiny 0.7MP with the ability to shoot 720p video.

The front-side camera will be a 0.3 VGA camera, just enough for snapping self-pics or using FaceTime.

(Mockup via iFunia)

Former Facebook president Sean Parker has said today that the movie "The Social Network" was great, but the plot is "complete fiction."

Sean Parker is played in the film by actor/musician Justin Timberlake.

In the film, Parker is portrayed as a drug-using, paranoid playboy who eventually loses his position at the company after being caught by the police whilst partying with cocaine and under-aged Facebook interns.

When asked about his thoughts on the film, Parker told the DLD media conference (via Reuters):

It's a complete work of fiction. I kind of wish my life were that cool. There are no Victoria's Secret models in Silicon Valley."

Engadget has posted a few leaks showing off the Motorola Xoom's still unconfirmed release date and price.

The site says the powerful tablet will be released on February 17th (at least in Best Buy stores) with a price tag of $700, $30 less than the comparable Apple iPad (Wi-Fi/3G/32GB). The current-generation iPad's other specs, however, pale in comparison to the Xoom.

Motorola's Xoom will be the first tablet to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which has been optimized for media tablets.

The powerful tablet will ship with a 10.1-inch display, 1280x800 resolution, a Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB onboard memory (expendable via SD), a 5MP dual-LED flash standard camera and a 2MP front-side camera for video conferencing.

A few years ago, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay registered The Music Bay domain, but did nothing with it.

It appears now, however, The Music Bay is well on its way to becoming a reality and TF says the record industry should be "very afraid" of its presence.

The subdomain fear.themusicbay.org has been displaying a "coming soon" headline recently, with no other details.

TF spoke with a Pirate Bay 'insider' who said:

The music industry can’t even imagine what we’re planning to roll out in the coming months. For years they’ve complained bitterly about piracy, but if they ever had a reason to be scared it is now. It will be a special surprise for IFPI’s 78th birthday, and we’re thinking of organizing a huge festival in Rome where IFPI was founded.

The Japanese Nikkei has posted some details about the upcoming PSP 2 handheld, which has yet to be confirmed by Sony but most expect to be unveiled next week.

In the report, the paper says the device will have full 3G support.

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo will offer the 3G in Japan.

Through 3G, gamers can play multiplayer, download apps, movies and music, but not make any phone calls.

Furthermore, the PSP 2 will have an OLED screen, one that will be significantly larger than current PSP displays. The new PSP's processor will also allow for a new way to "handle HD resolution visuals," says Destructoid.

There is no word on 3G data plan fees and whether Sony will release a Wi-Fi-only model.

Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant owners will finally receive their OTA Android 2.2 upgrade, after months of waiting.

The Vibrant is the T-Mobile model of the device, which sells as the Captivate on AT&T, the Fascinate on Verizon and the Epic 4G on Sprint.

Because Samsung would not give a detailed answer as to why 10 million Galaxy S owners were still without the update, rumors began flying that the manufacturer was purposely sinking the update to not "devalue" the upcoming 4G models of the device.

As a response, Samsung said:

Samsung does not charge carriers for updates to new versions of Android. We are working to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available to all U.S. Galaxy S owners as soon as possible. Due to the complexity and unique functionality of each Galaxy S device, we are performing additional testing.

Video game industry analyst Michael Pachter has said this weekend that Nintendo has "blown" their chances to compete by not releasing the Wii 2 yet.

Pachter believes that since the Wii 2 will be playing catch-up to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, regardless, it should be available now, and competing in the "online space."

Says the analyst (via CVG):

With as much respect for Nintendo management as I can muster, I think Nintendo's completely blown it with their second generation Wii strategy. I think they have the mentality that to launch a new [console] they have to retire the old, and I think that's wrong.

I think the right strategy would have been to get a second generation Wii out and keep the old Wii at the same time, and have the second generation be the natural progression upgrade model.

Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. has been convicted and fined over insider trading.

The ruling, in French court, came as a surprise as even the prosecutor had recommended that the executive be cleared of charges due to lack of evidence.

During his time as an executive vice president for Vivendi, Bronfman was known as a "mastermind" behind giant mergers in the telecom and media markets.

The disgraced exec received a fine of $6.7 million, and a 15-month suspended jail sentence. Additionally, former Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier received a 3-year suspended sentence and a $200,000 fine for similar charges including misleading shareholders.

Both execs said they will appeal the decision.

Messier turned the small water utility company into a major media group during his 8-year reign, which ended in 2002 when the board of directors of the company fired him. When he exited, the company was around 45 billion in debt, after taking on companies like Universal.

Twitter has been hit by a new worm this week, one that uses the goo.gl URL shortener to trick users into downloading malicious code.

The worm uses the shortened link to take unsuspecting users to a site which offers the download for "Security Shield."

As with most malware, the "anti-virus protection" is really malicious code.

Writes Sophos security:

If you make the mistake of clicking on one of the malicious goo.gl links you are ultimately taken to a website which attempts to scare you into believing that you have a virus problem on your computer. You are then frightened into installing malicious code on your PC, and asked to pay money to disinfect your systems.

In general, please use caution when clicking on links. If you click on a link and find yourself unexpectedly on a page that resembles the Twitter login page, don't give up your username and password! Just type in Twitter.com into your browser bar and log in directly from the Twitter homepage.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who announced last week he will be stepping down to be succeeded by co-founder Larry Page, will receive a $100 million equity award as a parting gift.

The stock and option award will be the first for Schmidt since he joined the company in 2001.

Whilst losing his title as CEO, Schmidt will remain as executive chairman, in charge of external matters like relationships with governments and other partnerships.

Page says the decision was made to "speed up decision-making at the top" of the search giant.

Furthermore, Schmidt will cash out of $335 million worth of company stock. After the move he will still have $5.4 billion in shares remaining.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, during a panel discussion about intellectual property protection, has made sure to tell Chinese President Hu Jintao that around 90 percent of Chinese citizens are running pirated Microsoft software.

Microsoft's most popular software includes the Windows operating system and Office word processing suite.

President Obama even went as far as to discuss Ballmer's concerns (via NW):

We're making progress on making sure that the government procurement process in China is open and fair to American businesses. And we've made progress as a consequence of this state visit.

Some of it has to do with intellectual property protection. So we were just in a meeting with business leaders, and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft pointed out that their estimate is that only 1 customer in every 10 of their products is actually paying for it in China. And so can we get better enforcement, since that is an area where America excels -- intellectual property and high-value added products and services.

The Chinese State Radio Regulatory Center has approved Apple's iPad with 3G support, suggesting the device will go on sale in the nation soon.

Until recently, only the Wi-Fi version was allowed in the country.

The Regulatory Center, which is part of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, issued the approval last month, says the WSJ. The approval is for an "Apple 'data terminal' that supports 3G mobile technology standard Wideband Code Division Multiple Access."

Apple noted that it plans to offer the 3G model of the tablet in China, but did not give any specific timetable.

The site does note that most products "need multiple approvals from Chinese regulators before they can be sold in the country, including approval for a network access license," so the iPad may still be months away from total approval but on the right track.

Apple has announced today that the iOS App Store has hit 10 billion downloads, the latest milestone for the service.

The App Store has over 300,000 apps available.

Apple added that they will be giving the 10 billionth downloader a $10,000 gift card to iTunes.

Seven billion apps were downloaded in 2010, alone.

In the last month, the company has announced that the iPhone 4 will be headed to top U.S. carrier Verizon, breaking an exclusive relationship with AT&T that lasted since 2007.

Apple sold 16 million iPhones in the last quarter.

As was done with the 'God of War' collection, and soon with 'ICO/Shadow of the Colossus,' it appears that the classic 'Metal Gear Solid' trilogy will be re-released for the PS3, on Blu-ray and in HD.

The rumor comes via UK's Official PlayStation Magazine, who cites 'insiders.'

Metal Gear Solid 4 was released for the PS3 in 2008 and was met with rave reviews, with many calling it easily the game of the year.

It is unclear how the classic games will be reworked for HD (MGS was made for the PSX in 1998), but the God of War Collection sold very well, and included improved graphics and trophies.

Earlier this week it was reported that Sony will officially announce the upcoming PSP2 at an event in Japan on January 27th.

Today, multiple sources are reporting that the event will be called the "PlayStation Meeting."

PS Meetings used to be held annually, but there has not been one since 2005.

In 2005, Ken Kutaragi used the PS Meeting to show off plans for the PlayStation 3.

Sony will also use the event to outline plans for its networked entertainment services to share games, movies and music among handheld products, TVs and other devices.

In February, at the Mobile World Congress, Sony will show off the Sony Ericsson-branded PlayStation smartphone.

Less than a week after Hugh Hefner tweeted that an uncensored version of the Playboy app was headed to the iPad, Apple has shot down the rumor, saying it will stick to its strict no-nudity policy for apps allowed into the App Store.

Instead, Playboy will be creating a service where users can view all the uncensored archives online.

"The service will be iPad compatible and will utilize iPad functions," explains the company.

Playboy does plan to create an iOS app, but it will have censored images, and contain articles and jokes.

At the time, Hefner had said: "Big news! Playboy--both old & new--will be available on iPad beginning in March. The IPad Version of Playboy will include the whole magazine from the first issue to the latest and Playboy on iPad will be uncensored."

XBMC, the free and open source cross-platform media player and home entertainment system software has now been ported to the second-gen Apple TV, iPhone 4 and iPad, giving jailbroken users a chance to enjoy the very popular media center.

The software now works on the A4 chip used in the iOS devices, and will allow for content playback way beyond what Apple's devices natively support.

Apple TV owners can now enjoy 1080p video, although Engadget says some videos are choppy in Full HD.

As the group says, "your AppleTV2 is no longer chained to iTunes."

Additionally, XBMC has been ported for the iPhone 4 and iPad and will require your device to be jailbroken with the Cydia market.

According to Nokia, 20 percent of all mobile phones sold in the world are illegal clones, unlicensed copies that sell for a fraction of the cost of phones they are copying.

The world's top mobile phone maker says the "gray market" is killing their positions in emerging markets like South America and parts of Asia.

Says Nokia exec Esko Aho:

It is mostly China-originated, but it is global. It is not only in Asia, but also in Latin America and even in some parts of Europe.

Trapster, the free iOS/Android/BlackBerry app created to help users find police "speed traps" has alerted its 10.06 million users that their security has been breached and all accounts have been compromised.

All current users are told to immediately change their passwords, and change passwords for other services if using the same email and password combination.

Says the company (via Mash):

The Trapster team has recently learned that our website has been the target of a hacking attempt, and it is possible that your email address and password were compromised.

We have taken, and continue to take, preventative measures to avoid future incidents, but we are recommending that you change your Trapster password.

Opera Software has announced today that they will be bringing their popular Opera browser to Sony Bravia HDTVs and Blu-ray disc players.

The company says the browser will bring applications, widgets, a full and robust Web browsing experience, and HTML5, HbbTV and OIPF.

Flash is so far not supported.

Opera says they want to give TV users a chance to enjoy VOD, exchange "opinions with friends through social networks about the program they are watching," and quickly be able to purchase items they just saw in ads, or TV shows.

Adds Christen Krogh, Chief Development Officer, Opera Software:

The Web as we know it is evolving, and we are committed to making it more accessible across diverse devices. Our ability to address key hybrid broadcast-broadband initiatives in numerous markets makes us a natural fit with Sony. By delivering both a global viewpoint and the necessary technology, we are able to stay on the cutting edge of the industry.

Nvidia has finally confirmed their plans to release the ARM-based Tegra 3 chip, bringing quad-core processing to tablets and possibly smartphones in the future.

General manager of mobile business Michael Rayfield would not give a time frame, however, just saying the chips will make an appearance "soon."

Speculation is the company will show off the designs at next month's Mobile World Congress Expo.

The announcement comes just a week after the company announced "Project Denver," a Tegra chip for desktops and servers, mixing the CPU with a GeForce GPU.

Pricing for such a powerful mobile chip is still unclear, as well as power draw.

Waninkoko, infamous for his ISO loader on the Wii console, has issued a warning this week for gamers attempting to install his PlayStation 3 custom v3.55 firmware, making it clear that certain models will get bricked if attempting the update.

The custom firmware is notable because it allows for the playback of "backups" right from the hard drive.

GeoHot, the first hacker to create a custom firmware, using the root code of the console, does not allow for piracy on the system, and the firmware was created to allow for homebrew and Linux.

With the installation of the Waninkoko firmware came a plethora of reports about consoles being bricked (becoming unusable) and the warning makes it clear that only certain models of the console are succeptible.

Waninkoko does say, however that he is "Working on an alternative way, with no brick risk… No ETA."

Google quietly began testing number porting via the Google Voice service today, giving some users the chance to begin using Voice on their mobile phones as their primary number.

Confirms the search giant (via PCM):

"We're continually testing new features to enhance the user experience. For a limited amount of time, we're making the Google Voice number porting process available to users. We don't have any additional details to share at this time, but plan to offer this feature to all users in the near future."

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's (IFPI) latest Digital Music Report has painted a bleak picture for the music industry, explaining how its value has been cut by a third in just seven years, with no end in sight.

Digital music revenue has grown 1000 percent in the time frame, but growth has slowed from triple digits earlier in the century to just 6 percent in 2010.

The digital sales account for 1/3 of the industry's total revenue.

Adds IFPI chief executive Frances Moore:

"While record companies are innovating and licensing every viable form of music access for consumers. The music industry is still hemorrhaging revenue as a result of digital piracy."

Phandroid has reported today that the Motorola Xoom tablet may be headed to Verizon on February 14th, much earlier than anticipated.

The company showed off the tablet at the CES event earlier this month, to high acclaim.

Motorola's Xoom will be the first tablet to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which has been optimized for media tablets.

The powerful tablet will ship with a 10.1-inch display, 1280x800 resolution, a Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB onboard memory (expendable via SD), a 5MP dual-LED flash standard camera and a 2MP front-side camera for video conferencing.

Furthermore, the tablet has a micro USB 2.0 port, HDMI-pout, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

According to the Digitimes, HTC will launch three tablets during the first six months of 2011, with the first hitting in March.

Dubbed the "Flyer," the device will be a larger version of the Desire smartphone, and will run on 2.3 Gingerbread.

The device will be upgradeable to Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

HTC chose March to launch the device as it will be available right before the upcoming RIM PlayBook.

The company will launch the Flyer in conjunction with an unknown carrier.

HTC's two other tablets should launch in June, already pre-loaded with 3.0.

Within a day of iOS 4.3 beta 2 being released to developers, it is being reported that Apple may be considering adding a social network to the popular mobile operating system now used by over 100 million owners in, globally.

In the file system is a folder dubbed "Media Stream," which has in it a "Photo Stream" ability. Photo Streaming allows users can post images and invite friends to view them, similar to TwitPics via Twitter.

A secondary feature is "Find My Friends," a feature to help you locate your friends, other iOS users, using the system's GPS capabilities.

Apple recently patented "iGroups," which many now believe will be another layer of the social network.

Additionally, 4.3 will improve FaceTime, giving all iOS users the ability to video chat, not just iPhone 4 owners on Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile will re-launch the Sidekick mobile phone lineup, releasing the Sidekick 4G later this year, running on Android.

The device will be able to connect to T-Mobile's fast HSPA+ pseudo-4G network.

T-Mobile confirmed the move at a media breakfast this morning in NYC.

The original Sidekick devices were created by Danger, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2008 for $500 million. Danger founder Andy Rubin now leads Android.

As was standard with former devices, the smartphone will have a swivel screen and a full slide-out QWERTY keypad. It will also run on an Android 2.3 variant.

To date, Microsoft has hardly used Danger, only using the company to build the ill-fated Kin smartphones, which were easily the biggest flops of 2010.

Amazon has confirmed the purchase of popular European movie rental and streaming company LoveFilm for an undisclosed amount.

Different reports have placed the purchase price at between $200 million and £200 million ($320 million USD).

The e-tailing giant was already a minority shareholder of the company.

LoveFilm, comparable to Netflix in the United States, has 1.6 million subscribers in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark and offers physicals rentals and movie/TV streaming via Internet-connected TVs, PCs, Blu-ray players and the PS3.

Says the rental company (via RWW):

The deal is a winner for the members who love Lovefilm because of its value, choice, convenience and innovation in home entertainment. With Amazon's unequivocal support we can significantly enhance our members' experience across Europe.

Following up on last week's rumors that music service Spotify was close to a deal with a major American label, the WSJ is reporting today that the company has "finally signed with Sony for U.S. distribution deal."

The deal has not been confirmed, yet, but the source says the U.S. version of the popular European application will be almost an identical "mirror" of what it currently available.

There will be a free, ad-supported version, with a limited amount of hours of free streaming music, an ad-free version, and a subscription model that allows for streaming on smartphones like the iPhone and Android devices.

Before Spotify can launch in the U.S., it will need to sign at least one other major label, but rumor has it that other members of the Big 4 will not sign on unless Spotify moves completely to subscription.

Spotify has been promising a move to the U.S. since early 2009 but has had many issues bringing the popular European service Stateside.

After spending months atop the App Store top downloads list, Rovio's blockbuster smash hit 'Angry Birds' has been dethroned, by a physics game created by a 14-year-old.

'Bubble Ball,' created by middle schooler Robert Nay, is described in the iOS App Store (and now the Androif Market) as a "fun, new physics game."

In under a month, the game has seen over 2 million downloads in the iOS store and 100,000 in the Android Market, good enough to topple Angry Birds from its top spot in games.

Nay began creating the game when friends at school challenged him to create an app that would be accepted to the iOS App Store.

The teen then took to the local public library, and used books to learn which programs he needed to create the game. In just one month, Bubble Ball was submitted to the App Store.

Multiple sources are reporting today that Apple's oft-delayed white iPhone 4 model may finally be headed to retail shelves at the end of February.

An inventory screenshot from Best Buy shows the 16GB and 32GB models being available starting February 27th, with SKUs identical to those that the white iPhone had last summer before Apple pulled the devices.

Best Buy began pre-orders last summer, but pulled them when Apple announced delays on the device.

Furthermore, Vodafone Germany's inventory system has shown similar additions.

Apple said late last year that the white versions will see a "spring" release, so February 27th seems particularly early, and the date being a Sunday is unlike Apple's usual release days.

Hugh Hefner, the 84-year-old founder of Playboy has tweeted today that the adult entertainment magazine will be getting an iPad app in March.

Says the founder (via Yahoo):

"Big news! Playboy--both old & new--will be available on iPad beginning in March. The IPad Version of Playboy will include the whole magazine from the first issue to the latest and Playboy on iPad will be uncensored."

The brand resonates today as clearly as at any time in its 57-year history. I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world.

As of today, Starbucks will begin allowing iPhone, BlackBerry and iPod Touch owners to pay for their coffee via a mobile app in 7500 stores.

The program had been tested in 1000 stores since last year, and was successful.

CW explains that "the Starbucks mobile payment system allows customers to hold a smartphone displaying a two dimensional barcode for reading by a scanner installed at Starbucks cash registers."

You will need a Starbucks card to use the service, and the Starbucks card is always backed by a credit card. Everything else is done wirelessly.

The company is currently working on an Android app for the card, with no set timeframe.

Samsung has confirmed a Galaxy S successor is in the works, with a formal launch coming during the Mobile World Congress next month.

Via a promotional ad, Samsung has teased that on February 13th they will unveil the "evolution" of the Galaxy S line.

It is unclear what the name of the new device will be, but following the recent trend, the Galaxy S 4G seems likely.

The smartphone is rumored to have a dual-core Hummingbird processor, LTE-support and Samsung's Super AMOLED display.

Samsung recently boasted of strong sales for the original Galaxy S, which hit 10 million by the end of 2010.

Liberty Media has filed suit against cyberlocker Hotfile, as well as 1000 "John Doe" Hotfile uploaders.

Additionally, PayPal is named in the lawsuit, as Hotfile has an account with them.

Liberty is looking to have Hotfile's account frozen and their domain name seized.

The suit claims Hotfile is a Panamanian company that exists only in name and takes multiple steps to "obfuscate the facts of its location, address, and principals." The company is owned by Russian named Anton Titov, who is possibly a resident of Bulgaria. Hotfile allegedly has servers in Dallas, Texas and Florida.

The 1000 uploaders allegedly "jointly and severally, with actual or constructive knowledge of or with willful blindness, reproduced and distributed certain LIBERTY-owned works through www.Hotfile.com."

Liberty does conclude that Hotfile could have legitimate uses, but its main purpose is "to profit from the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials, many of which are the intellectual property of LIBERTY."

The company says it found over 2500 links to 800 of its titles, and the company is seeking $150,000 per infringement.

Nintendo has finally priced the upcoming 3DS handheld for the U.S., giving it a $250 price tag.

The device launches in the States on March 27th.

Most speculators had believed Nintendo would sell the console for $300, around the same price it will sell for in Japan, however, it appears the company has gone for a discount.

At $250, the 3DS will sell for $70 more than the most expensive DS, the over-sized DSi XL.

Both the Cosmos Black and Aqua Blue bundles will come with a free charging dock and a 2GB SD card.

The 3DS will hit Japanese stores on February 26th, 2011, and then the US/European markets one month later.

The first 10 launch games for the system are: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Pro Baseball Spirits, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, Ridge Racer 3D, Samurai Warriors Chronicle, Steel Diver, Super Monkey Ball, and Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition.

Just weeks after receiving a $175 million million investment by Amazon, popular daily deal site Living Social has begun a "once-in-a-lifetime" deal of offering a $20 Amazon gift card for $10.

The deal began at midnight and will run until 8 AM tomorrow.

So far, Living Social has sold 500,000 of the gift cards and it is unclear how much they paid for the cards.

The promotion makes it clear that Amazon.com is "not a sponsor" and the gift cards are "sold by LivingSocial, an authorized retailer of Amazon.com Gift Cards," and no one else.

Calls to Amazon have confirmed the promotion will run the full way through, with no cap on how many buyers, with most expecting a final count around 600,000.

Living Social is the second largest daily deal site behind Groupon, and the new deal seems like an easy and cost-effective way to bring in (potentially) hundreds of thousands of new customers to its service, whilst also sending traffic to its largest single investor.

Just two weeks after Geohot revealed the PlayStation 3 root key to the world, developer Infinity Ward has apologized to Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2 gamers affected by the influx of hackers playing on public servers.

Geohot revealed the key and just recently created a custom v3.55 firmware which allows for homebrew and Linux to be run on the latest Sony PS3 firmware.

While the hacker does not believe in piracy, others have been busy creating custom 3.55 firmwares that will run backup managers, allowing for the playback of pirated games right from the hard drive.

Infinity Ward says it has fallen victim to the ever increasing amount of users running custom firmwares, but says the hacking does not affect the latest game in the series, Black Ops, which was developed by Treyarch.

Digitimes has reported today that HP should begin shipping their first webOS tablets starting in March, throwing its first real competitor into the suddenly crowded media tablet market.

Says the source:

The development of WebOS tablet PCs was finished in 2010, but HP will have Taiwan-based Inventec begin ODM production and shipments in March 2011 to allow for software testing and timing of launch schedules in line with market development.

Despite 300,000 Android devices being activated daily, only 0.4 percent of all users are running version 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest upgrade to the mobile operating system.

The figure comes via Google's Android Developers website, with the note that Gingerbread's low adoption rate is thanks to the fact that it is only available on the Samsung Nexus S, which was released last month.

Google says (via LAT) that 51.3 percent of all devices are now running 2.2 Froyo, with 2.1 Eclair being run on 35.7 percent of Android devices.

The 2.1 figure is so high mainly thanks to Samsung's failure to upgrade Galaxy S owners to 2.2. There is still no official word or timetable for the update, leaving 11 million owners with an outdated operating system for the time being, unless they root their devices.

Users with the ancient 1.5 and 1.6 variants make up the remaining 12.6 percent.

The fragmentation of the operating system has been a main critical point of Android over the past year, with critics pointing to iOS 4.xx, which is on around 90 percent of all iPhones and iPads and is pushed to devices by Apple themselves, and not by the carriers.

IDC has reported this week that the Apple iPad controls 87.4 percent of the "media tablet" market (as of the Q3), while Amazon controls the standalone e-reader market at 41.5 percent.

A "media tablet" is defined as a 5-to-14-inch tablet shaped device with color displays running lightweight OS, such as Android or iOS.

By the definition, the Nook Color is considered a media tablet, while the original Nook, which uses a monochrome E-ink display is considered an e-reader only.

Furthermore, IDC separated "tablet PCs" from the group, defining those as running a Windows OS, and being based on x86 processors.

Apple made tablets "trendy" when it launched the iPad in April of last year, and competitors have been scrambling to keep up. The company sold over 7 million devices in the last quarter (Q4), alone.

To date, the biggest competitor has been the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which runs on Android 2.2 and has sold 1 million units. Competition is expected to heat up in 2011, as a plethora of powerful dual-core tablets will hit the market running Android 3.0 (tablet-optimized) or webOS.

Roku will announce this week that it has signed its first cable channel, "WealthTV," to its ever-growing programming lineup.

The company, through director of business development and content partnerships Ed Lee, says WealthTV is just "the first domino to fall," and the set-top box company is already in talks with other channels.

For $2.99 per month, all Roku users get 24/7 access to the WealthTV feed that cable subscribers gets, as well as VOD right for programs.

Says WealthTV founder Robert Herring:

We’re probably the only one in the industry who can do what we’re doing right now. It’s going to be a chance to lead.

Citing the "explosion" in data usage by smartphones and tablets, U.S. carrier Sprint has added a $10 surcharge to the bills of all data-hungry devices, including non-4G phones.

The add-on charge will begin on January 30th.

Sprint says the "Premium Data" charge will help the company continue to offer their cheap unlimited plans.

Says the carrier (via PR):

Sprint wants its customers to experience the range of entertainment and productivity possibilities available with today’s wireless technology. While some of our competitors impose overage charges and complex plans, Sprint continues to provide a worry-free, unlimited data experience while on the Sprint network. This is responsible, sustainable and reflects our commitment to simplicity and value.

Sprint’s unlimited data plans, with or without the $10 charge, continue to beat the offerings of our top national competitors, who cap users’ data, charge data overages, and do not offer the unique functionality of Any Mobile, Anytime, which gives subscribers on the Sprint network unlimited calling to any other wireless user in America regardless of carrier.

One day after announcing that CEO Steve Jobs would take another medical leave from the company, Apple's stock plummeted at the open of trading this morning, falling as much as 22 points before rebounding to end the day down almost 8.

Apple finished the day down 2.25 percent, at $340.65 a share.

After trading finished, the company posted record quarterly results, and reassured investors of the strength of the management team and its upcoming products.

Revenue for the fiscal Q1 came in at $26.74 billion, and profit reached $6 billion for the period.

16 million iPhones were sold in the quarter, a large 86 percent year-over-year jump, with 7.3 million iPads and 4.1 million Macs being sold in the same period.

Says COO Tim Cook:

The team here has an unparalleled breadth and depth of talent and a culture of innovation that Steve has driven at the company. We feel very, very confident about the future of the company.

Japanese chip maker Renesas, which merged with electronics maker NEC in 2010, has announced it will be integrating 16MP cameras in future handsets.

The CE150 image-processing system chip "will make it possible to produce 16MP phone cameras for the first time, up from the maximum 13MP that are currently available," explains Crunch.

Users will also be able to use the cameras to shoot 1080p Full HD video.

Renesas showed off a phone camera processor capable of such a feat in December 2008.

The company will begin mass-producing in March, with up to 1 million units being produced each month.

Sample units are available to handset makers for $48, now.

The Motorola Xoom tablet has won the Cnet CES 2011 Best in Show award today, beating out a plethora of other tablets, smartphones, HDTVs and more.

Motorola's powerful tablet will ship with a 10.1-inch display, 1280x800 resolution, a Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB onboard memory (expendable via SD), a 5MP dual-LED flash standard camera and a 2MP front-side camera for video conferencing.

Furthermore, the tablet has a micro USB 2.0 port, HDMI-pout, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and run on the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Battery life has been rated at 10 hours (peak) for video playback.

Motorola has allegedly already ordered 800,000 units of the device for the Q1 2011.

Penthouse has announced this week it will be launching the first 3D porn channel, set for launch in the Q2.

The new channel will feature adult programming natively shot in HD and 3D.

Says the infamous adult programming company:

We started shooting in 3D this past summer, and have significantly invested to perfect 3D production quality. Consumer excitement for 3D content is high, and Penthouse is the one studio that can rely on its broad expertise to deliver 3D in a manner unmatched by any other branded entertainment company.

Last November, Android developer Howard Harte offered $1000 to the first person or team that could jailbreak the Google TV.

A group of developers heeded the call and last week successfully jailbroke the platform using a mixed hardware and software-based hack.

The group, GTVhacker dev team, also released a 6-min video showing off their work (below).

Harte says he is excitedly writing code for the platform now.

"What this means is that we now have a complete Android development environment for the Google TV," added Harte (via RWW) "I am able to use standard Android development tools to develop for GTV, just like developing for any other Android device."

"The most important thing for developers though is that they now have full access to developing for the platform well in advance of Google releasing the tools," Harte continues. "Now, it should be possible for Rovio to port Angry Birds [...] to the Google TV."

Not to mention, working Hulu, CBS, Fox, NBC and other video content, as it should be.

According to multiple reports, Android 2.4, dubbed 'Ice Cream,' is set for a summer launch.

2.3 Gingerbread is available now on the Nexus S and soon on a number of other Android devices, like the Nexus One.

An announcement from Google is expected at the start of May, for a June or July release.

Google recently said they were trying for a new Android update every 6 months (or at least two per year), and with Gingerbread being announced just last month, the time frame works for Ice Cream.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb, formally announced at CES last week, will be the company's tablet-optimized OS, and will likely not make it to smartphones.

This weekend, Digg founder Kevin Rose added fuel to the iPad 2 rumor mill fire, claiming an introduction of the tablet is coming within a month.

Says Rose:

I have it on good authority that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next '3-4 weeks,' possibly Tuesday February 1st. The iPad 2 will feature a retina display and front/back camera. If you're thinking of buying an iPad, hold off for now.

Although it is not even official yet, AT&T PR head Larry Solomon took a shot at Verizon's upcoming iPhone.

Apple and Verizon are expected to unveil the CDMA version of the device on Tuesday, with sales starting in earl February.

Said Solomon: "The iPhone is built for speed, but that's not what you get with a CDMA phone. I'm not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane."

The claim is that AT&T's GSM technology is faster than Verizon's CDMA tech.

AT&T has been the exclusive American carrier for the iPhone since its inception in 2007. Analysts have warned that losing the exclusivity pact, and the strong growth driver that is the iPhone, may affect the company's bottom line for some time. Other analysts have warned that frustrated AT&T iPhone owners may jump ship to Verizon, who is known to have the most reliable network of the major carriers.

It appears the carrier has fired the first shot in what will almost certainly be a "war" for iPhone customers.

Although unconfirmed by both companies, Apple is expected to unveil a CDMA version of the iPhone on Tuesday, to be available on Verizon in the U.S.

Verizon is the largest carrier in the nation, ahead of rival AT&T, the current exclusive carrier of the Apple smartphone.

All reports claim that the device will be introduced this week, but go on sale in early February.

If accurate, a new WSJ report says Verizon will offer all iPhone purchasers an unlimited data plan option, which AT&T has removed for new owners.

Unlimited plans will sell for $30 a month, while AT&T offers, at most, 2GB per month for $25.

Yesterday, we reported that Apple had pulled the popular VLC media player application from the iOS App Store, following an argument over the GPL with VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont.

Denis-Courmont had filed a lawsuit against Apple in late 2010.

Under a standard GNU General Public License (GPL), VLC is available for Macs, Windows and Linux machines for free, and while it was free for iOS, the open-source nature of the application was compromised by Apple, since all apps in the iOS App Store must be signed by Apple and given DRM.

Today, popular jailbreak developer Ryan Petrich has added the app to his Cydia repository.

Cydia is the completely open app market available to users who have jailbroken their iOS devices.

Says Petrich of the app: "It was pulled from the App Store and deserves a new home in Cydia.”

IDB gives instructions on how to install:

Just days after releasing the root key for the PlayStation 3, opening up the console to homebrew, custom firmwares and more, Geohot has released a jailbreak for firmware version 3.55.

Says Geohot:

i do not condone piracy

it's jailbreak time
open the zip, you know how to install
3.55 only
would be pirates, don't waste your time
do not mirror file, link to geohot.com
no donations accepted right now, don't get scammed

homebrew signing source
make_self_npdrm makes valid NPDRM selfs from elfs
it does not contain any info on decrypting or removing NPDRM
NPDRM is required for interoperability of our homebrew applications
package_finalize turns your debug packages into psuedoretail packages
psuedoretail packages install on a geohot jailbroken PS3

i'm excited to see what you will create
open source SDK @ PSL1GHT

One day after the Wall Street Journal reported that a Verizon iPhone 4 was coming on Tuesday, sources speaking to Reuters have confirmed the claims.

Sales of the device are expected to launch in early February.

As with all prior reports, Apple and Verizon have not commented on the "speculation."

AT&T has been the exclusive American carrier for the iPhone since its inception in 2007. Analysts have warned that losing the exclusivity pact, and the strong growth driver that is the iPhone, may affect the company's bottom line for some time. Other analysts have warned that frustrated AT&T iPhone owners may jump ship to Verizon, who is known to have the most reliable network of the major carriers.

On the other hand, analysts also claim that a majority of AT&T's iPhone owners are part of family plans, which are much harder to cancel as they involve, on average, three family members.

Furthermore, many are new upgraders or purchasers, and AT&T charges very heavy early termination fees.

DigitalTrends managed to get a really nice 9-minute video from a Motorola executive who was showing off the Motorola Atrix smartphone; which doubles as a full notebook computer.

The Atrix runs Android 2.2 on a powerful Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz AP20H dual-core processor, alongside 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a huge 1930 mAh battery, and a 4-inch multi-touch screen with Gorilla Glass.

Additionally, the smartphone has a 5MP standard camera and a VGA front-side camera and AT&T 4G LTE support.

Unique to the device is a biometric fingerprint reader, which can be used to literally block anyone who isn't you from turning on the device.

The notebook (Atrix dock) is incredibly thin and has a stated 10-hour battery life.

When connected, the notebook runs off the Atrix phone, allowing owners to use a Linux-based OS, or just run the phone's features in full-screen (15-inch) mode.

Verizon has announced the upcoming HTC Thunderbolt with LTE 4G support, a likely successor to the very popular HTC Incredible.

The smartphone has a large 4.3-inch Super LCD display, a 1GHz processor, and run on Android 2.2 with HTC Sense 2.0. The updated Sense has the new "Fast Boot" for quicker booting of the OS.

When connected to Verizon's LTE 4G, the carrier says users should expect down speeds of 5-12Mbps and up speeds of 2-5Mbps.

The device has Mobile Hotspot capability for sharing the 4G connection with up to 8 Wi-Fi devices, as well.

Additionally, the smartphone has an 8MP standard camera and a 1.3MP front-side camera, along with Dolby and SRS surround sound.

Skype video conferencing is built right into Sense and the Thunderbolt has DLNA streaming multimedia support.

Says Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC Americas (via Engadget):

Apple has pulled the popular VLC media player application from the iOS App Store, following an argument over the GPL with VLC developer Rémi Denis-Courmont.

Denis-Courmont had filed a lawsuit against Apple in late 2010.

Under a standard GNU General Public License (GPL), VLC is available for Macs, Windows and Linux machines for free, and while it was free for iOS, the open-source nature of the application was compromised by Apple.

Says Free Software Federation's Brett Smith (via PCM):

The GPL gives Apple permission to distribute this software through the App Store. All they would have to do is follow the license's conditions to help keep the software free. Instead, Apple has decided that they prefer to impose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and proprietary legal terms on all programs in the App Store.

Nintendo has posted the final hardware specs for the 3DS handheld this week, and one glaring issue appears to be the battery life.

In the past, the Nintendo DS line has had very good battery lives, with the original DS lasting 10 to 14 hours, the DS Lite lasting 15 to 19 hours, the DSi lasting 9 to 14, and the large-screened DSi XL lasting 13 to 17 hours.

For the upcoming 3DS, battery life when running a game in 3D, is only 3-5 hours, with some warning that the actual time may be closer to the lower end of that range unless Wi-Fi is turned off.

Battery life is a measly 5-8 hours when running regular DS games.

President Satoru Iwata said back in October:

Launched on January 6th, the Mac App Store is already seeing its apps pirated or modified, thanks to lax security from developers and Apple.

Some of the paid apps "do not properly validate App Store receipts," allowing users to download the programs and not pay for them.

App Store receipts from any previous purchase (even on free apps) can be copy-and-pasted to validate the new downloads.

John Gruber (of Daring Fireball), does note that the 'hack' "isn't true for all paid Mac App Store apps."

It does affect apps where the "developers were lax about applying Apple's recommendations on validating store receipts. The app checks to ensure there is a valid receipt, but it doesn't check that the ID listed on the receipt belongs to the app," elaborates eW.

Although it is unclear how many apps are affected, insanely popular game 'Angry Birds' is one that can be pirated.

Apple said there were over 1 million downloads on the first day of the Store.

New figures from comScore say today that Android has finally surpassed Apple's iOS for second place in the U.S. smartphone OS market.

For the three month period ended November 30th, RIM's BlackBerry led the way at 33.5 percent, followed by Android at 26 percent and iOS at 25 percent.

At the end of August, BlackBerry had 37.6 percent share, with Android taking the lion's share of what RIM lost. Apple only added 0.8 percent to its share during the period.

Furthermore, a Nielsen report shows that 31 percent of Americans now use a smartphone, leading to a strong increase in competition from smartphone makers.

If the WSJ is accurate, Apple will launch a CDMA Verizon iPhone on Tuesday, which is expected to add over 10 million iOS sales in the Q1 2011.

Lady Gaga and Polaroid have launched a new pair of sunglasses at the CES event today, ones that come with a built-in camera.

The platinum selling artist was named a Polaroid creative director at last year's event.

Under the "Grey Label" (GL), the company debuted the GL20 Camera Glasses, the GL10 Instant Mobile Printer and GL30 Instant Digital Camera.

The glasses are fully functioning, and will take a picture of what you are looking at, with the ability to display it back on a small 1.5-inch LED screen on the lens.

There was no word on pricing or availability.

(Pic via Ars)

China's Global Times newspaper is reporting today that over 50,000 stolen iTunes accounts are currently being sold via taobao.com, a Chinese online store.

Some of the accounts are selling for as cheap as 1 yuan (about $0.15 USD) with others going for as high as 200 yuan ($30.15 USD).

An investigative journalist for the paper says he was able to quickly purchase an account for 33 yuan, given an iTunes username and password, and inevitably the user's credit card and billing address.

Says the report:

Potential buyers are promised access to music and movies through iTunes amounting to seven times more than the amount paid. The only restriction is that all downloads should be made within 24 hours of the transaction being completed at [the site].

Samsung and Verizon had noted this week that the popular Galaxy Tab tablet will be upgraded to support 4G in its next iteration.

The upcoming model will also include a faster 1.2GHz processor, and a 5MP standard camera.

Currently, the tablet has a 1GHz processor and a 3MP camera.

Added Marni Walden, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless (via TCM):

The 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab takes full advantage of Android 2.2 to deliver a blazingly fast experience for customers. The 4G LTE-Samsung Galaxy Tab pairs Samsung's advanced technology with the power of Verizon Wireless 4G LTE, so that customers can leap into the future of the mobile multimedia experience.

EMI has been sued this week by Bagdasarian Prods, the owner of the 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' franchise, over royalties related to a boxset of Chipmunks music.

Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. says EMI has not paid "appropriate royalties" on the 24 song boxset.

Bagdasarian, Sr. created the franchise in 1958 by speeding up his own recorded voice to a high pitch and releasing a number of chart-topping hits, like the Grammy-nominated "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)."

In the suit, Jr. is demanding monetary damages for breach of contract and copyright infringement, looking for a potential $3.6 million ($150,000 per track).

Last year, Jr. sued 20th Century Fox, looking to take half of all the profits for the animated "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Squeakquel." That film made over $400 million, globally. The suit is still pending.

The 'professional' social networking site LinkedIn will go public this year, having already nearly selected its bank underwriters.

Bank Of America, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are the current front-runners, say sources, via Reuters.

When asked for comment, a LinkedIn spokesman said: "An IPO is just one of many tactics that we could consider."

LinkedIn, Twitter and popular social gaming company Zynga have all considered IPOs (initial public offerings) for 2011, beating out social networking behemoth Facebook, which is expected to go public in 2012 (or at least begin disclosing their financials publicly).

The service is hoping to attract investors using its "reputation as one of the Web's fastest growing social network sites."

The NYTimes has reported that spam email volume fell by as much as 57 percent in December after a number of infamous botnets went dark and have yet to resume.

Beginning on Christmas Eve, the massive Rustock botnet "appears to have completely gone of the map and is yet to resume," says Matt Sergeant of Symantec. Sergeant is a senior anti-spam tecnologist.

The allegedly Russian-operated botnet accounts for just under 50 percent of the world's daily spam output.

Additionally, two smaller botnets known as Lethic and Xarvester stopped sending spam at around the same time.

"Did the people in charge of these botnets suddenly go on vacation? Currently there are no explanations on why these botnets stopped spamming," added Symantec.

Global spam volume fell to 30 billion emails a day from 70 billion before the botnets went dark. In August, spam hit its all-time high, at 200 billion messages a day, good for 92.2 percent of all email.

While it is still unclear why the botnets have stopped sending spam, the NYTimes speculates the owners may be scared after Russian authorities took down the massive spam ring SpamIt.com and recently arrested two other Russian spammers who had a database of 2 billion email addresses in the US and EU.

Today at the CES event, Motorola unveiled the Droid Bionic smartphone for Verizon, a powerful smartphone that should be the company's latest Android 'flagship.'

The Bionic has LTE 4G support, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a massive 4.3-inch qHD display, 512MB of RAM, an 8MP standard camera and a front-side VGA camera for video conferencing.

Furthermore, the device has HDMI-out and 'Mirror Mode' for simultaneous video streaming.

All content from the HDMI-out can be played back in 1080p Full HD.

The device also comes with remote wipe, data security and encryption capabilities, making it a strong choice for corporations, adds Motorola.

Fox and George Lucas have announced today that they will bring the highly-anticipated 'Star Wars' films to Blu-ray in September.

The movies will be available as three different sets.

'Star Wars: The Complete Saga" will include all six of the movies, along with 3 special features discs which have 30 hours of extensive special features, including deleted and alternate scenes.

The 'Prequel Trilogy' set will include Episodes I through III (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith) and a special features disc while the 'Original Blu-ray Trilogy' will include Episodes IV-VI (1977's A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Backand Return of the Jedi).

Amazon is selling the Complete Saga for $90 on pre-order, but the MSRP is $140. Each individual set is $70 MSRP.

Says Fox (via THR):

The Star Wars Saga is the most anticipated Blu-ray collection since the launch of the high-def format. The epic franchise pioneered sound and visual presentation in theaters and is perfectly suited to do it again in the home, with a viewing experience only possible with Blu-ray.

Skype has purchased the smartphone video streaming company Qik today, for up to $150 million.

The price is $100 million but could reach $150 million with an earnout.

Qik started 2010 with 600,000 users and ended the year with 5 million, says BI.

The service has seen new deals with Sprint, Nokia, Samsung and T-Mobile this year, and most consider Qik the premiere video streaming and uploading option on Android, which has quickly become a top smartphone OS.

Qik and Skype now share investor Marc Andreessen, the influential Netscape founder.

AT&T has announced today it will begin selling the aging iPhone 3GS for $49 with contract, slashing the price in half.

For the time being, AT&T remains the exclusive American carrier for the popular Apple smartphone.

The new deal will also be in effect for Apple stores and Apple online.

Since June, the 3GS has been selling for $99. In June the company launched the iPhone 4.

AT&T had been selling refurbished models of the 3GS at $49 for some time.

Rival carrier Verizon is expected to launch a CDMA model of the iPhone 4 next month, although neither company has confirmed the existence of such a device.

Electronic Arts (EA) has shown off the cover of the upcoming "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters," with its legendary namesake notably missing.

Tiger is removed from the cover of the game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii, but will remain on the PS3 Collector's Edition.

The game's cover instead focuses on the yellow flag at the Augusta National Golf Club, an iconic sign of the Master's.

EA started the series in 1999, and the game remained a top seller until last year, when Tiger's golf game took a back seat to his private life.

"Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11," released in 2010, saw 60 percent less sales than the 2009 edition of the game.

Gaming analyst Jesse Divnich gave his take on the situation (via Yahoo):

The sales issues of the Tiger Woods video game are much broader and deeper than Tiger's personal problems and has more to do with the entire golf sport struggling in 2010.

Of course, one could argue the decline in the interest of golf has to do with Tiger's extended absence and returned poor performance. But even if that was true, it says a lot about the PGA Tour and their over-reliance on one person to carry the whole league. PGA exposed itself to this risk and now is facing the consequences.

U.S. album sales declined in 2010 for the ninth time in the last ten years, and online downloads saw stalled growth, as well.

Music fans purchased 326.2 million physical CDs and digital albums in 2010, down 12.8 percent from 2009.

The figure is the lowest since 1993, the first year SoundScan began compiling the numbers.

Individual song downloads grew only 1 percent, to 1.17 billion, after 7 years of double and even triple digit growth.

The top album for the year was Eminem's latest, "Recovery," which moved 3.4 million copies. That number is higher than any album has seen since 2007.

By comparison, Eminem's blockbuster 2002 CD "Eminem Show" sold 7.6 million copies.

As a collection, the 8 albums of the "Glee" series sold 3.6 million copies.

The top selling individual song was Katy Perry's "California Gurls," at 4.4 million copies.

AT&T has announced today it plans to sell 20 smartphones in 2011 with LTE 4G compatibility, with 12 running Android.

The move likely signals that the carrier will lose its exclusivity on the Apple iPhone, which has been a top seller since 2007.

Verizon is expected to begin selling a CDMA version of the iPhone in February, although Apple has still not confirmed the move.

The Android devices will come from HTC, Motorola and Samsung. The carrier also announced it would be selling a Motorola Android tablet.

One of the Motorola devices, the dual-core Atrix 4G was announced, along with its unique ability to fit into a laptop and become, literally, the guts of the device.

AT&T's LTE network will begin rolling out in June, and should cover 75 million Americans by Christmas. National LTE will be available by the end of 2013.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said today at CES that Xbox 360 owners will soon be able to navigate Netflix and Hulu Plus using hand gestures, via their Kinect motion control systems.

The upcoming spring update will give users a chance to use their hands to find and watch videos via the services, or even use spoken commands.

Adds Ron Forbes of Microsoft's interactive entertainment division (via Cnet): You will able to watch the services "controller-free in the living room, the biggest screen in your home."

Additionally, the Zune Marketplace will be navigable via Kinect, as well.

Moving to figures, Ballmer said there are now over 50 million Xbox 360 and 8 million Kinect units sold.

Google took CES by storm today, showing off the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system.

The video makes it clear that 3.0 is made "entirely for tablet," which leaves some questions as to what will happen with the vast Android smartphone line when 3.0 becomes inevitable.

As part of the update, Google has added a 3D task switcher, a large virtual keyboard, more powerful (and live) widgets, a portal to Google Books, tabbed browsing, the updated YouTube, 3D Google Maps (version 5.0 on smartphones) and other more subtle features.

Check the video out:

Vizio has announced today that they have added Hulu Plus and Blockbuster on Demand to their VIA (Vizio Internet Apps) Connected platform.

The U.S.' top LCD TV maker recently announced it was bringing its VIA platform to a tablet and smartphone, both firsts for the company.

Vizio currently offers popular services like Amazon Video On Demand, Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora, Facebook and Yahoo Fantasy Football on its Web-connected platform.

The company was quick to note that you will still need to pay to use both services.

Blockbuster is free but you will need to register. The service offers rentals for $3-$4 and purchases from $6-$20 while Hulu Plus costs $8 per month.

In the near future, Vizio will be adding access to BigStar, MOG, OnLive, Skype and Vimeo, as well.

AT&T and Vitality have jointly announced at CES a new tech that will turn pill bottles 'smart,' with patients receiving daily reminders to take their medications.

The Vitality GlowCaps will use sound/light reminders to remind patients to take their pills.

Inside the cap is an embedded LED light which flashes orange when a user should be taking their drugs. If the cap is not removed within an hour, users will receive a phone call or text reminding them.

The embedded alarm also gradually gets louder after the one-hour mark.

Says Vitality (via LAT):

Each time the pill bottle is opened adherence data is recorded and securely relayed to Vitality over the AT&T wireless network. This daily adherence information is used to compile periodic progress reports that are sent to patients, caregivers and doctors, and family members.

Legendary rock band Pink Floyd has signed a new deal with record label EMI this week, one that will finally see the band's tracks made available online, via stores such as iTunes.

Earlier this year, Pink Floyd sued EMI because the label had wanted to begin selling individual tracks. The band says they never agreed to have the tracks available "unbundled."

The band cited a clause in their original contract (from 1967) which stopped the label from altering their work.

A judge sided with the group and said they reserve the right to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums."

EMI was forced to pay all legal costs and settle another dispute over online compensation.

The new deal is good until 2016.

Pink Floyd has sold over 200 million albums since 1965.

Although Microsoft has denied it, an increasing amount of Xbox 360 owners are complaining that their new Kinect systems are causing their consoles to get the dreaded RROD (red ring of death).

In the earlier years of the console, RROD was a major problem for 360 owners, as the lights mean the console needs to be replaced. Microsoft has curbed the problem with recent iterations, which use more efficient boards.

Console owners are now complaining that shorty after connecting their Kinect motion control systems, their Xboxes are beginning to fail, with some saying the death light came within a week.

Says one upset youth, Adam Winnifrith (via BBC):

We plugged it in the day we got it but only played it a few times before we got the red lights. The next day when we tried it again we still had the red rings of death and haven't been able to use it since. It is quite a shame as we got loads of new games for the Xbox too and I never had a chance to play them.

Qualcomm, the largest mobile phone chipmaker in the world, has confirmed today that they are purchasing Atheros, one of the top Wi-Fi networking hardware companies.

The deal will have Qualcomm pay $45-a-share for Atheros, totaling $3.2 billion.

With the acquisition, Qualcomm should cement its footprint in the competitive smartphone and tablet markets, where all new devices require Wi-Fi support.

Qualcomm should now have a leg up on rival Broadcom, says analyst Gary Mobley of Benchmark Company. "What Qualcomm would gain is having the full suite of connectivity offerings."

The deal still requires regulatory approval but should close without issue by Q2 2011.

Samsung and RealD have announced they are developing a new 3D display that will greatly increase the sharpness of 3D images.

The tech will work with 3D stereoscopic glasses, the same ones that are readily available in movie theaters and are very cheap to make.

This is notable, as current 3D HDTV glasses are expensive, with most selling for over $100 a piece.

Says RealD president of consumer electronics Bob Mayson (via LAT):

RealD is focused on delivering a premium 3-D experience on screens of all sizes, from motion picture theaters to consumer electronics, and we look forward to working with Samsung LCD to develop this new 3-D display technology.

Dell has announced today that it will be purchasing firm SecureWorks in an all-cash deal.

The purchase will give Dell its first managed security service.

SecureWorks sells remote services including security management, security assessment, network monitoring, Web application scans and all manners of compliance assistance.

Both companies had been partners since 2009.

The financials of the deal were not disclosed but Dell Services president Peter Altabef added (via IW): "It was just an outstanding opportunity that, quite frankly, was too good to pass up."

SecureWorks has increased revenue from $1 million in 2001 to $120 million in 2010.

The security company says they process 13 billion potential security threats for 2900 clients each day.

The Seattle Times has reported today that Microsoft will launch a Windows-powered HDTV set-top box at the ongoing CES event.

Microsoft, which showed off the software (Media Center running on Windows Embedded Compact 7) earlier in the year, will release the set-top later this year, pricing it at around $180-200.

Says the paper:

They'll pose a serious challenge to the new Apple and Google TV devices, largely because the Windows boxes have a polished and familiar TV-program guide that makes it easy to blend and navigate both online and broadcast content.

Top TV maker Vizio has announced today that they will be integrating the cloud-based gaming system OnLive with all new Vizio HDTVs, as well as Blu-ray players and the new Via Tablet and Via Phone devices.

Anyone with an upcoming Vizio product will not need to purchase the pictured OnLive console, meaning the company has integrated the gaming console into the devices.

Says OnLive CEO Steve Perlman:

"Today's OnLive/VIZIO announcement marks a major milestone: for the first time in the history of video games, consumers will be able to enjoy premium video games directly on a TV, no console or computer needed. VIZIO's innovative and cutting-edge technologies are ideally aligned to complement OnLive's vision for the future of entertainment and together we look forward to providing a wealth of rich-media, interactive content to consumers this year."

According to Bobby Cha, managing director of Korean consumer electronics firm Enspert, Google's upcoming Android 3.0 software, dubbed Honeycomb, will have a number of hardware requirements.

The tablet-optimized OS will require a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor at minimum, as well as 1,280x720 resolution.

As of writing, the only processor with that power is the Nvidia Tegra 2, although a few have been promised for 2011.

Although it will require 720p resolution, Cha made sure to note that "Honeycomb does not require 10-inch [screens] ... it's going to go as small as 7-inches."

Motorola's upcoming tablet will be the first on the market with 3.0, adds Cha.

Toshiba and LG will also have Honeycomb tablets out in the coming months.

Amazon has announced today that they have "tailored" new Kindle apps for Android and Windows tablets, giving those device owners a chance to access the Kindle e-book store.

The e-tailer has already created Kindle Store apps for the Kindle, PCs, Macs, Android smartphones, BlackBerrys and iOS devices including the iPad.

Says Dorothy Nicholls, Director of the Kindle (via press release):

"Kindle is light weight, easy on the eyes with a paper-like Pearl e-ink display, and has a full month of battery life. It's purpose-built for reading. Many people are buying both a Kindle and an LCD tablet computer. We're very excited to support the upcoming Android and Windows LCD tablet computers with free Kindle apps that we'll tailor for the particular devices. Our Whispersync technology makes it simple to move back and forth between devices. Read on your Kindle, read on your tablet, read on your phone. We'll keep track of your last page read, and make it easy."

Netflix has announced today that it has made deals with HDTV and DVD/Blu-ray player makers in an effort to put one-click "Netflix Buttons" on remote controls starting this Spring.

The button would lead users directly to their Netflix accounts, making the process easier than clicking through other menus.

Says Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey (via WSJ):

"We’ve always regarded ubiquity on devices as our strategy, and we want to be present there as simply and visibly as possible."

Last week, a hacking group called "fail0verflow" presented the PlayStation 3 "private key," a master code that Sony uses to authorize code on all retail consoles.

Knowing the root key means any hacker can gain full control of the PS3 system, without needing to jailbreak it using a USB dongle.

Today, infamous iPhone hacker Geohot released the root key to the world, beating fail0verflow to the punch.

Reads the post:

erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B
riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D
pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19
R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17
n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1
K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D
Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70

Read more...

All Hotmail users who had their email go missing, or had their inboxes automatically moved into the "deleted" folder, now have them back, says Microsoft.

Says the software giant:

"We have restored the e-mails to those who were effected.If you are still missing your e-mails, please post your issue here (please note that you need to be logged in to the windowslivehelp.com site to be able to post) with as much detailed information as possible (How much wasn't restored, and any specifics that you may have) We sincerely apologize and thank you for your continued patience."

As predicted at launch, Samsung has confirmed they have sold 10 million Galaxy S smartphones, just 6 months after launch.

One Galaxy S was sold every two seconds since launch, said the company.

4 million of the units were sold in North America, with another 2.5 million sold in Europe, and 2 million sold in Korea, home of Samsung.

The remaining sales came from different nations around Asia.

Says JK Shin, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics (via IW):

The Galaxy S is the result of our 22 year heritage in the mobile industry. It is the realization of our concept of 'the Smart Life' - we wanted to makes users' lives more convenient, more exciting, and more integrated. Today's milestone shows that we have succeeded: 10 million Galaxy S users around the world are living the Smart Life.

Research firm Net Applications has released their year-end browser market share figures and Google's Chrome finished out the year strong, closing at 9.98 percent market share.

Internet Explorer, in all its variations, finished the year at 57.08 percent, followed by Firefox at 22.81 percent.

Firefox started the year at 24.51 percent and IE started the year at 62.39 percent, so both saw considerable declines at the hands of Chrome and Apple's Safari.

Safari jumped from 4.50 percent to 5.89 percent market share from January 1st to December 31st.

Opera, despite releasing version 11 to critical acclaim, saw share drop from 2.39 percent to 2.23 percent.

When breaking down the Internet Explorer versions, IE8 accounted for 33 percent of overall share, with IE6 falling to 13.06 percent and IE7 falling to 8.76 percent.

The U.S. PlayStation Blog has revealed today that the blockbuster game Angry Birds will be hitting the PlayStation Network this week as a PS Mini.

Minis are playable on the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3.

Reads the Minis description of the game:

Angry Birds- The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 63 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

TorrentFreak has released their list of the most pirated TV shows for 2010, and the now-concluded mystery drama "Lost" topped the list.

At 6 million downloads, "Lost" beat out 2009's champion, "Heroes," which was downloaded 5.5 million times.

Rounding out the top 5 were "Dexter" at 4 million downloads, "The Big Bang Theory" at 3.9 million and "House" at 3.3 million.

The site also makes the interesting note that the most downloaded episodes of the shows actually exceeded average TV viewership, especially in shows like Dexter which air on premium channels.

Overall, downloads of the top five shows fell, year-over-year, notes the site.

The full list:

1. Lost
2. Heroes
3. Dexter
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. House
6. How I Met Your Mother
7. 24
8. True Blood
9. Glee
10. Family Guy

AOC, a maker of cheap LCD screens, has announced the launch of a $200 Android tablet which will be fully unveiled at the upcoming CES event.

The AOC Breeze will have an 8-inch screen with 800x600 resolution, 4GB internal memory, a Rockchip CPU and the old Android 2.1 operating system.

Set for release later this month, the tablet will also include a USB port and microSD memory card slot.

The Breeze weighs 1.1 pounds, has a 6-hour claimed battery life for video.

It is unclear if the tablet will have 3G support on top of its standard Wi-Fi.

Vizio, two days after teasing it in a Rose Bowl ad, has introduced their first tablet and smartphone, each of which runs on the Android mobile OS.

The company is the top LCD HDTV maker in the United States.

Dubbed the Via Tablet and the Via Phone, the devices will move away from current 4-button Android setups and include just a "Menu," "Back" and "V" button. It is unclear with the Vizio button will do.

Just like with their Web-connected TVs, the apps menu is separated into "Favorites" and "All Apps."

Apparently, according to the WSJ, the Via devices will have Netflix access, which would be a first for Android devices, through Vizio's Via Plus service.

The Via Phone will have a 4-inch screen, a 1 GHz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a microSD slot, a front-facing camera for video calls and a rear-facing 5MP camera.

Wang Chen, deputy head of China's propaganda department has revealed some interesting figures this week, including how many pornography sites were taken down in the nation last year.

Chen says:

By November, 350 million pieces of harmful information, including text, pictures and videos, had been deleted. There was a notable improvement in the online cultural environment.

Verizon has dropped the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab from $600 to $500, putting a pretty significant price gap between the tablet and even the cheapest iPad with 3G access, which retails for $630.

Furthermore, all new Verizon Galaxy Tabs will come with a $60 Samsung MediaHub voucher, giving owners a chance to rent a large amount of movies through the service for free.

Other carriers have been offering the voucher with purchases for the better part of a month.

If you purchased a Tab within the last two weeks, you can bring in the receipt and receive a $100 refund, as well, says the company.

Samsung's tablet runs on Android 2.2, has a 1GHz processor, a 7-inch multi-touch screen and dual cameras.

The Wikimedia Foundation, parent of online encyclopedia Wikipedia has said this weekend that they have raised $16 million, allowing the service to remain ad-free for another year.

Founder Jimmy Wales said the fundraiser was the "shortest" in the company's history, lasting just over 50 days.

Over 500,000 individuals made donations, doubling on 2009's count.

Donors from 140 countries donated an average of $22, and $13.7 million of the donations came via the Internet. The rest came from direct checks.

All the money will go to paying off Wikipedia's ever-increasing infrastructure costs, staffing, program support and grants.

Concluded Wales (via PCM):

This outpouring of support by hundreds of thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life is a testament to the spirit of the Wikimedia movement. Wikipedia is a public resource created and maintained by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, relied on by over 400 million people and paid for by half a million donors. It's truly user-created, supported and maintained.

According to the Financial Times, social networking giant Facebook tried to purchase microblogging site Twitter in 2008 for $500 million, but was rejected.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone says he wanted the service to become "a viable business" rather than have it taken over by a larger company.

"We've created something that people are finding value in," added Stone. "But we haven't yet created a business out of this, and we really wanted to do that."

In 2008, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered $500 million in private Facebook shares for the company but Twitter founders Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey each agreed that Facebook offered nothing that they wanted.

The microblogging site has 175 million registered users. 95 million tweets are sent daily.

Twitter has been valued at over $3 billion in recent fund-raising sessions despite never making one cent of profit.

Goldman Sachs has invested $450 million in social networking giant Facebook, valuing the site at $50 billion.

The investment values the company higher than Time Warner, eBay and Yahoo.

Says angel investor Chris Sacca (via NYT):

"When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public. This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’"

Sony has filed a patent infringement complaint against LG this week with the U.S. ITC (International Trade Commission), claiming many of the company's mobile phones and modems infringe on Sony's proprietary tech.

One of the patents relates to pictures associated with phone numbers. Most phones give the option for owners to add pictures of friends and family that will show up when that person calls.

According to Bloomberg, "Sony also said LG infringes on patented technology for encoding and transmitting audio in ways that adjust to available bandwidth capacity; delaying the start of audio recording for a set amount of time so that the recording doesn't pick up inadvertent noises; and technology for using the images streaming through a device's camera as a real-time viewfinder, then switching to saving better-quality files when the user decides to snap a picture."

Vizio, the top LCD maker in the United States, will make a move into the smartphone and tablet markets, say multiple reports.

The HDTV maker teased their latest moves during a short commercial played during the Rose Bowl, yesterday.

Reports state the company will reveal the products before the CES event later this week, perhaps even as early as a press conference tomorrow.

The Vizio "Via" smartphone will run on Android 2.2, have a 4-inch screen, and dual-cameras.

Vizio's tablet will have an 8-inch HD screen, Wi-Fi, run on Android 2.2, and include dual-cameras, as well.

Both devices will sell through Wal-Mart and Costco.

Barnes & Noble has followed Amazon's recent Kindle announcement by claiming that the Nook e-reader is their best-selling item, ever, just like the Kindle is for Amazon.

The Nook sells for $149, and the company recently released the Nook Color for $250.

Over the holiday season, the Nook Color was the best-selling gift, adds the company.

Furthermore, the company says digital books have begun to outsell physical book purchases, with 1 million digital books being sold on Christmas Day, alone.

Amazon made a similar announcement in July.

Neither company has released concrete sales figures on their e-reader devices.

Microsoft has been bombarded with reports to start the new year, each claiming that their old Hotmail messages have disappeared.

Some of the other reports claim that their inboxes have been automatically moved to the "deleted mail" folder, without user consent.

Windows Live support has responded by saying they are aware of the issue, and are currently working on a fix.

Hotmail/Live is the most used email service in the world, with 360 million users.

"At this point it appears to be a limited issue, and Microsoft is working with individual users who are impacted. We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers," says Microsoft spokeswoman Catherine Brooker.

In early 2010, Ubisoft began releasing PC games with the controversial "always-connected" DRM, which meant gamers could not play their single-player games without being always connected to the Internet.

If your connection hiccuped at any point, the game would return you to the main menu, losing any forward progress you had made since last saving.

It appears, after months of complaints and outrage, that the publisher has finally updated a few of its games to remove the DRM, including popular titles like Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction.

After the latest patch, players can enjoy their games without needing to be always connected to the Web, but an active Internet connection will still be needed to first start the game and validate the install.

In general, Ubisoft has shied away from the DRM, even choosing to not use it in its latest RTS game, "RUSE."

According to Citigroups’s US Internet Stock 2011 Playbook, Apple will likely generate $2 billion in revenue from the iOS App Store in 2011.

The report shows off research from Gartner, as well, which claims the total app market will bring around $4 billion in revenue in 2010, but grow to $27 billion in just three years.

Citi expects the smartphone market to continue strong growth into 2013, with 29 percent growth next year, and mid-20 percent growth for the following two years.

Smartphone sales grew by 53 percent in 2010.

The iOS Store has 300,000 apps and the Android Market recently hit 200,000.