News written by Andre Yoskowitz (December, 2011)

According to a new report from analyst firm Sterne Agee (via Barron's), Apple's still unconfirmed iTV will feature a la carte channels, meaning users can pick and choose what they want to buy.

The HDTVs, which have been the subject of rumor since last year, are expected to launch during the summer in 32 or 37-inch varieties, built by Sharp and with chips from Samsung.

Reads the client note:

Frankly, we think that Apple should enter the TV space. Frankly, we are not surprised and believe Apple should enter the TV space as this is arguably the only major end market the company is not currently participating in a bigger way. Moreover, we have picked up several data points indicating activity from component makers to manufacturing partners as well as Apple's own patent filings from at least 2005.

Sony has finally confirmed that its Tablet S and Tablet P devices will receive Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the future.

Additionally, the company reiterated that Sony Ericsson Xperia phones will get the update in March.

Reads the post: "Sony Tablet is evolving, and we'd like to keep you informed with the latest updates.

Today we're happy to confirm that an update to Android 4.0 will be available for Sony Tablet. Details including timing will be announced in due course, so please stay tuned."

The Tablet S has a 9.4-inch screen, a "magazine" form factor, a Tegra 2 dual core processor, dual cameras and Honeycomb 3.x. If you purchase the Wi-Fi-only version you get Honeycomb 3.1 (with Sony UI overlay) and if you buy the more expensive Wi-Fi/3G version you get 3.2 (with similar UI overlay). The tablet comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, DLNA compatibility, an IR port (to use as universal remote), an SD card slot, Sony's Crackle and eReader apps and Sony's "QuickView" tech for faster browsing. Finally, the tablet is the first to be Playstation Certified which means it can play PSX games from the PS Store.

According to the latest report from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee, Amazon had the highest customer satisfaction in 2011 while perennial competitor Netflix cliff dived.

The company says that Amazon and Netflix had been fighting for the top spot since 2004. This is the first year that either saw a significant dip in their customer sentiment.

On the 100-point scale, Amazon scored a solid 88, the highest score any retailer, ever. Netflix fell 7 points to 79 following a series of PR disasters. During the summer, the company arrogantly hiked the prices of their services and then tried to spin off the DVD rental business as "Qwikster." The company's stock fell from $300 to $50 as investors followed subscribers out the door.

Netflix saw a drop across the board, losing points in site content, site functionality, merchandise, and prices. Despite Netflix's drop, Overstock.com and Gap fell to 72 and 73, respectively, leaving them at the very bottom of the index.

The biggest jumps were TigerDirect to 79 and JC Penny to 83.

Chart via Crunch:

The popular PC gaming download platform Direct2Drive announced earlier this week that it is merging with GameFly, the gaming rental service.

Gamefly say it's working hard to make the process smooth, but there is one catch: Not all games will make the transition. A few titles that were readily available on D2D are not available via GameFly and Prima guides will not make the transition either.

As a precaution, D2D has told customers to download their purchases and guides to ensure they still have them after the merger. As for the games, D2D also notes that "Some older titles may not be available immediately after the transition, and will be added later."

The transition begins in January for U.S. gamers and it is unclear whether the service will ever make it overseas given that Gamefly is a U.S. service, only.

Subscribers will also be allowed to play hundreds of games, for free, with unlimited access.

Apple has been fined 900,000 euro today by Italy's anti-trust authority.

The large fine is in regards to Apple's misleading guarantees on its products and on assistance services.

Reads the statement: "Sanctions of a total of 900,000 euros have been imposed on the Apple group after it was found responsible for bad commercial practices that harmed consumers." Apple gave "unclear information on payments for additional assistance offered to consumers" and the company had not "fully implemented the two-year guarantee by the producer," read the complaint.

The fine is minuscule compared for the company which is expected to bring in $22 billion in profits this year alone.

The fast-growing Windows Phone Marketplace has surpassed 50,000 apps, just a month after hitting 40,000.

All About Windows Phone reported the number, which is different than Microsoft's official "more than 35,000" stance. The discrepancy is due to the fact that Microsoft does not include "lite" versions of paid apps and wallpaper apps in its tally.

The platform took just 14 months to reach the plateau, faster than Android which took 19 months and BlackBerry which took 27 months. Apple is not a fair comparison as there were already 4 million iOS devices active before the store opened.

In the past few weeks, the WPM is growing at a rate of 256 apps per day.

There is no clear reason as to the surge in developer interest but it can likely be attributed to the more widespread availability of WP7 devices and the anticipation of the first Nokia phones hitting the U.S. in the next two months.

It appears Universal Music Group (UMG) does not discriminate when it takes down videos, even nonsensically taking down music videos from its own artist.

Following the release of his official video for "They Burn Me," UMG took down the track from its artist 50 Cent, leaving the usual "this is blocked due to copyright" message in its place.

UMG and 50 Cent have a long history of disagreement. Earlier this year, 50 Cent (real name Curtis Jackson) accused Interscope (division of UMG) of leaking his first single and the artwork for his second single. Jackson had not wanted to release any of his tracks until later in the year. As retaliation, Jackson threatened to leak one of Dr. Dre's latest tracks, off the decade-in-the-making "Detox" album, but in the end he did not.

Furthermore, UMG publicly declared 50 Cent's personal website "a pirate site."

It is unclear why UMG took down its own artist's video, especially from such a prominent rapper.

Seven prominent LCD makers have agreed to pay a fine of $553 million to settle multiple cases relating to claims they conspired together to fix prices for LCD panels found in TVs, notebooks and other monitors from the years 1999 to 2006.

The companies in question are Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, HannStar Display, Chimei Innolux, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and Espon Imaging Devices. The case began in 2006, as authorities in Japan, Korea, the EU and the U.S. began probing into the "cartel" that had been formed by the companies and their anti-competitive activity.

So far, the companies and their top execs have paid out over $890 million in fines for settlements in the EU or elsewhere. Just last month, 8 companies including Samsung and Sharp, agreed to pay $388 million to settle litigation by direct purchasers of the LCD panels, says Reuters.

The $553 million from this payout will go to "indirect purchasers" of the LCDs and claims by 8 U.S. states; Arkansas, California, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New York, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com and "Google+'s unofficial statistician" has noted today that the social network is now used by 62 million people.

Additionally, Allen says the network is adding 625,000 new users every day.

Allen and his team run "hundreds of queries on various surnames" and they have been tracking Google+ since July, when Google announced that Plus had reached 10 million users. According to Allen, this is how the growth in Google+ is looking and where it is expected to go:

July 13 - 10 million
August 1 - 20.5 million
September 1 - 24.7 million
October 1 - 38 million (Larry Page announced "more than 40m users" on Oct 13th)
November 1 - 43 million
December 1 - 50 million
December 27 - 62 million
January 1 - 65.8 million (forecast)
February 1 - 85.2 million (forecast)

The mobile app research firm Flurry has released data today showing off how popular the Android and iOS operating systems were this holiday season.

On Christmas day, alone, 6.8 million of the devices were activated, 353 percent higher than the average of the first 20 days of the month. The number is even more impressive considering the operating systems saw 2.8 million combined activations last Christmas.

Although the split was not revealed, it is expected that Android and iOS split the 6.8 million almost evenly.

Furthermore, 242 million total apps were downloaded on Christmas, a large 125 percent jump from the 20 day daily average. In terms of year-over-year, the jump came from 150 million total apps. By New Year's Day, Flurry expects another 750 million apps to be downloaded.

The developer "pod2g" has unveiled his long-awaited iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak, after weeks of testing his exploit on different devices.

Because of the new release, all A4 devices are now jailbroken including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 CDMA, iPad 1, iPod touch 3G, and iPod touch 4G.

Following the release, the iPhone Dev Team and Chronic both released separate jailbreaks. The Dev Team has baked the jailbreak into the new RedSn0w 0.9.10 and the Chronic team has released an app in Cydia with the jailbreak called Corona Untether 5.0.1 if you are already using the tethered 5.0.1 solution. Anyone with a jailbroken iOS 5.0.1 is encouraged to download Corona.

If you aren't jailbroken, the best route is using RedSn0w, says the iPhone Dev Team, and to use the custom IPSW.

There are still no jailbreaks for A5 devices and all the above mentioned methods require iOS 5.0.1, not 5.0.0.

The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission has announced that starting in the spring, six Nissan Leaf electric cars will begin service as taxis in New York City.

Three fleet-operators will split up the Leafs, but the cars from each operator will share a single medallion. Because of this fact, there will only ever be three of the cars on the road at any time.

Chargers will be created in airport holding lots, garages around the city, and at the homes of other Leaf-owners. Leafs can go 60-130 miles per single charge.

The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission had this to say of the program: "This program is a real test with unknown results. We have worked to plan for the "what ifs," but there most likely will be bumps in the road. We want this program to be successful and hope that it will help lead to broader electric-vehicle applications in the taxi industry, but we will need your patience and assistance to get there."

Asus has said this week that the recent Hasbro lawsuit will not affect Transformer Prime tablet production.

The toy company is seeking an injunction on the tablet due to brand copyright violations. Transformers Prime is an animated TV series that launched in 2010, a new generation of the popular TV series from the 80s. As anyone who has watched the show or movies know, a Transformer turns from a robot into a vehicle like a truck or fighter jet to travel quicker. The Asus tablet "transforms" from a tablet into a laptop with a keyboard dock.

Spokesman Chang Wei-ming said "internal assessments conducted by the company found no patent infringement issues" and will not halt any production.

Hasbro wants Asus to stop using the Transformer name in current and future products and is also seeking monetary damages.

According to Inside-Games, Nintendo has committed to a Q3/Q4 2012 Wii U release date.

Previously, the company had given a huge range, from April to December.

Nintendo is expected to show off the Wii U next month at the CES event and have playable demos on the show floor. The company launched the console, and showed off its touchscreen controller at this year's E3 show.

While unconfirmed, thanks to the new provided roadmap, industry insiders now believe Nintendo will set a price and release date at this summer's E3 for an actual release sometime during the holiday season.

There has not been too much revealed about the system as of yet, but Nintendo has confirmed the games will be on a proprietary disc that is not Blu-ray or DVD. Additionally, the console will run on a processor similar to the one used in the IBM "Watson" supercomputer.

The Amazon Kindle Fire has just received its first "pre-alpha" ROM of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Because the ROM is so buggy, it is not recommended for installation unless you are a developer looking to help. The audio and video functions are still broken but the touchscreen, Wi-Fi and other standard features seem to be working just fine.

There was an issue where the device could not recognize the internal storage, but that appears to be fixed. The Amazon Kindle Fire does not have an SD slot.

If you are a daredevil, here are the instructions to root the device, along with the ICS ROM: XDA Devs

The Kindle Fire costs $199 and is expected to become the second-best selling tablet of all-time behind the iPad after just two months of availability.

Anyone with a 2011 LG smartphone with Android can expect the upgrade starting in the Q2 2012.

LG says "the global upgrade schedule will begin in the second and third quarters of 2012, which will be followed by a global roll out."

The first phones to get the highly-anticipated upgrade to Android 4.0 are the LG Optimus LTE, the Prada phone by LG 3.0, the LG Optimus 2X, the LG Optimus Sol, the LG my Touch Q and the LG Eclipse. Afterwards, the LG Optimus 3D, the LG Optimus Black, the LG Optimus Big, the LG Optimus Q2 and the LG Optimus EX will receive the update, likely by the end of August.

LG is particular to note that "it will be taking all possible measure to offer a smooth OS upgrade in a timely manner" but carrier and country requirements vary.

LG Display has announced it will unveil its new 55-inch OLED TV at CES next month.

The TV will be the largest ever OLED screen, and LG has hinted that it will be much more affordable (per inch) than past commercial OLED screens. For example, in 2008 Sony released an 11-inch OLED for $2200.

OLED displays are mainly seen now in phones and watches, where they are extremely cost efficient. Adds Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display: Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets. Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display's 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers."

LG says the new TV has wider color gamut than LCD screens, and a contrast ratio of 100,000:1. Furthermore, "the new technology allows light emitting diodes to self-generate light and features a reaction velocity to electric signals over 1000 times faster than liquid crystal."

Samsung has bought out Sony's share of their LCD joint venture S-LCD for $940 million.

The two companies started the venture in 2004 and there have been rumors of a break-up since the late summer.

Reads the press release: "Under the agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony's shares of S-LCD Corporation ('S-LCD'), the two companies' LCD panel manufacturing joint venture, making S-LCD a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung. In consideration for the share transfer, cash consideration of approximately KRW 1.08 trillion will be paid to Sony by Samsung. Concurrently, the two companies have entered into a new strategic agreement for the supply and purchase of LCD panels with a goal of enhancing the competitiveness of both companies. The agreement also allows Sony and Samsung to continue cooperative engineering efforts focused on LCD panel technology."

Sony saw a massive loss of $1.2 billion this year for its TV division, thanks to low demand out of Europe and a strong Yen not seen since the end of World War II. Samsung remains the top LCD maker in the world, with a profitable TV division.

Although unconfirmed by Microsoft, Epic Games community manager Will Kinsler says the software giant will begin blocking gun avatars from Xbox Live starting on January 1st.

Says Kinsler: "Heads up! Starting on Jan. 1, 2012, the Lancer and Hammerburst avatar items will no longer be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. If you've purchased the items prior to Jan. 1, you will be able to keep them. A new policy goes into effect for all gun-like avatar items on the Marketplace, so get them while they're hot." There are additional guns besides the Lancer and Hammer, and those are posted here: Neogaf.

Other weapons appear to be okay, including tanks, lightsabers, chainsaws and armored helicopters, so it is unclear where the policy sets its boundaries.

PCM speculates that the new policy is related to Kinect's ever-improving ability to map avatar movements to real-life gestures. This does not make all too much sense, however, as users who have already purchased the avatars get too keep them.

According to the latest market research from The NPD Group, smartphones are stealing market share from point-and-shoot cameras and traditional camcorders.

The group's Imaging Confluence Study shows that more and more consumers are taking pictures and videos on their smartphone and less and less are using traditional cameras or camcorders, including the once-popular Flip and Vado pocket camcorders. The "percent of photos taken with a smartphone" jumped to 27 percent this year from 17 percent last year.

Concludes Liz Cutting, executive director and senior imaging analyst at NPD:

There is no doubt that the smartphone is becoming 'good enough' much of the time; but thanks to mobile phones, more pictures are being taken than ever before. Consumers who use their mobile phones to take pictures and video were more likely to do so instead of their camera when capturing spontaneous moments, but for important events, single purpose cameras or camcorders are still largely the device of choice.

Akamai Technologies has bought out their rival Cotendo, the maker of mobile-network acceleration software.

The purchase price of $268 million was well below the expected price of $320 million, sending Akamai's shares soaring this week. There was a ton of interest in the company, as many larger companies look to expand their cloud computing efforts.

Cotendo, based in Israel, was founded in 2008 and provides technology that accelerates the delivery of content through the Internet "using a network of distributed servers around the world to put content physically close to consumers," says WSJ.

The company specializes in speeding up delivery of content to smartphones and tablets.

Cotendo has seen high double digit revenue growth over the last two years and had strong buyout interest from AT&T, Juniper and Akamai, who had sued the company over patent infringement just last year.

Steve Jobs has been awarded a posthumous Grammy by The Recording Academy.

The recently deceased Apple founder is a recipient of the Trustees Award for his contributions to the music industry.

Reads the news release: "As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs' innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased."

Apple also received a Grammy in 2002 for its contributions to the recording industry, mainly iTunes and the iPod media players.

Additionally, Steve Jobs was immortalized by a bronze statue in Hungary commissioned by Graphisoft, who says its professional relationship with Jobs stretches all the way back to the early 80s. (Pictured)

The University of California-Berkeley has chosen Google Apps over Microsoft's Office 365 as their new cloud-based email and calender provider.

After an "exhaustive" review process, the major university decided on the Google-based system: "While both products are feature rich and offer advantages over our current environment, the analysis concluded that the Google offering was the better overall fit for the campus at this time."

Additionally, the school revealed their selection criteria by releasing a matrix assessment. Microsoft scored higher in key areas like security, contract terms and ease-of-use for the calender, but the university still went the other way.

Berkeley decided on Google because it was easier to roll out and most of its student already have Gmail accounts and familiarity with Google applications.

Concludes the report: "Google's solution is optimized for web-based interaction. It is designed to be quickly provisioned and a migration to Google could begin more quickly than one to Office 365."

Earlier this week it was revealed that Google had paid again to be the default search engine in Firefox, the web browser which has about 25 percent of global market share.

Last year, Mozilla noted that Google practically kept the company in business in 2010, contributing 84 percent of their $123 million revenue.

The new deal, according to Kara Swisher, is apparently a lot more expensive for Google. If accurate, the deal now costs $300 million per year, for the next three years, meaning Mozilla will have made $1 billion revenue from Google, alone, for this year and the next three years.

It appears the payment was boosted so significantly because Microsoft and Yahoo were in the bidding, as well. Google was willing to pay up to block out the other companies, who are trying to take market share through a joint initiative and large marketing campaigns for Microsoft's Bing engine. Additionally, it has been speculated that Google is anticipating antitrust issues in the future, and is building a defense. For that to come true, however, Google's Chrome OS and Chrome browsers will need to get significantly more popular, to the point that they can be compared to Microsoft's Windows and Internet Explorer.

The Raspberry Pi, the $25 mini-computer created by UK programmers, will be available in January, after a year of tweaking and development.

What makes the computer so impressive (besides its price tag) is the fact that it can play 1080p HD video with no issues. The devices are intended to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools or at home. The company is looking to promote the Python programming language, alongside Basic and C among others.

For $25 you get a 3.3-inch wide board with a 700 MHz ARM11, 128MB RAM, HDMI-out, SD card slot, a USB port, audio jack and Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU. For $35, you can get a deluxe edition with an ethernet port and 256MB RAM.

The computer is intended to have a keyboard attached via the USB, and then attached to a monitor or TV via the HDMI.

According to info collected by The Domains, 37,000 domains were pulled from Go Daddy after it was revealed they were formal supporters of the draconian censorship bill dubbed SOPA.

Within 2 days, Go Daddy had switched their stance, but the damage had already been done. Many of the domains transferred to companies like NameCheap, who are staunch opponents of the bill.

The new report says 15,000 domains transferred out on Thursday and another 22,000 domains transferred out on Friday. The registrations normally cost about $10 on Go Daddy, so the 37,000 could likely hit the bottom line.

Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman has noted that he is not fully for or against SOPA, but that he is certainly for fighting online piracy. The company helped work on revisions to SOPA, but says the bill in its current form is still not good enough. Adelman says: "Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

For more info on the backers and the anti-SOPA companies here: 120 companies and groups come out in favor of SOPA

Microsoft has acknowledged that users are experiencing errors since they updated to the recent December Dashboard update.

Outside of errors, some users have been locked out of Xbox Live, completely. Because they are locked out, whenever trying to login the gamers are met with error popups. Some gamers who manage to get in through the errors, can then not play online or download their user profile.

The software giant says it is working on a fix.

Since rolling out on December 5th, adding Bing search, better Kinect integration (including motion and voice command control) and TV channels, users have complained of multiple errors when trying to access the Dashboard of their console.

If you are experiencing issues, Microsoft says they are more than likely codes "801540B7" and "80070571." The company would not reveal what is causing the errors.

Just a day after it was revealed as 1 of the 120 formal supporters of SOPA, Go Daddy has pulled its support from the draconian bill.

The turning point for Go Daddy, which sells domain names, seems to be when Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger networks said he would pull all 1000 of his domains from Go Daddy unless they dropped support for the "free Web cancer that is SOPA."

Cheezburger sites receive 375 million views per month.

Go Daddy has now posted a full statement on their site:

Sony has revealed all of the PS Vita's launch titles for when it hits Canada and the U.S. on February 22nd.

The games will cost $10 to $50 although the company has not put specific price tags on each game, yet. PSN downloads are expected to be on the lower range, while games like uncharted are expected to be the very high end.

Sony's own titles include:

Escape Plan (PSN Only)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
Little Deviants
ModNation Racers: Road Trip
Super StarDust Delta (PSN Only)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
wipEout 2048

Titles from third-party developers:

Army Corps of Hell
Asphalt Injection
Ben 10 Galactic Racing
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Dynasty Warriors Next
F1 2011
EA Sports FIFA Soccer
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Michael Jackson: The Experience
Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only)
Rayman Origins
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only)
Touch My Katamari
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition

The judiciary committee and its chairman Lamar Smith have revealed the 120 formal supporters of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), the draconian bill that will mark the end of free Internet, putting the U.S. in the illustrious group that includes North Korea, Iran and China.

SOPA was proposed earlier this year. SOPA is the first of two bills being considered by Congress. The second is E-PARASITE/Protect-IP. The bills are created to prevent piracy, copyright infringement, and block access to "rogue foreign sites." The bills have been generally panned by the public and the major tech companies due to the fact that companies can get domains and websites shut down if they "engage in, enable or facilitate infringement" or are even accused of it. By creating this blacklist, governments and companies can choose to get sites cut off from search engines and from accepting payments for ads. SOPA only gives accused websites 5 days to file an appeal before they get shut down. If a user posts pirated material in the comments or forum section, the entire site can be shut down for good.

Samsung has decided to play the Grinch this year for the holidays.

The company has announced this week that its Galaxy S line of phones- including the GS, the GS 4G, the Captivate and the Vibrant, will not be getting the much anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, ever.

Samsung says the phones do not have enough RAM or ROM to run ICS along with the TouchWiz UI overlay layer. The phones are over a year old and there are over 20 million owners of the line. The newer Galaxy S II line of devices will be getting the update, added Samsung.

The excuse seems strange as LG has recently announced that their far less powerful Optimus phones will be getting the update. It seems as though Samsung is pushing users towards its newer phones.

Thanks to a Bluetooth End Product List, Sony Ericsson's upcoming monster Android phone has been leaked.

The device will run on a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, have a 4.55-inch Reality display with 1280x720 resolution, LTE support and most notably, a 13MP back-illuminated camera sensor with LED flash.

On the front side, the SE LT28at will have a 720p camera for video chatting.

The device is expected to be unveiled at CES for AT&T.

Xperiablog has posted pictures taken with the camera, and they are, as expected, outstanding, especially when compressed down for the web. Here are the pictures:

Swype for Android has received its largest update yet, adding the popular Dragon dictation technology.

The tech comes via Nuance, which Swype purchased earlier this year. The company says English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are supported with more languages coming next year.

Dragon is a voice-to-text tech that will replace Google's built-in voice recognition when using the keyboard.

Additionally, the update brings "advanced language modeling" and easier language downloads.

Reads the press release:

Dragon Dictation
You've mastered text-entry using your finger, now get ready to use the best voice-to-text directly from within Swype. Dragon Dictation is now integrated directly into the Swype keyboard! Just press the Dragon Flame key and speak. This version of Swype + Dragon Dictation currently supports English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, but will be expanded to support additional languages in 2012.

Advanced Language Modeling
Swype now features an improved language modeling algorithm, designed to increase the accuracy of the suggestions we offer (such as knowing that you mean "mosh pit" instead of "mosh pot"). By analyzing the text you've already entered, Swype will offer more accurate predictions that make sense in the context of the sentence
Up to a 40% increase in prediction accuracy when a language profile is present
Learns over time as you use it, building up a personal language profile for you.
Enabled only for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Other languages coming soon!
Language Downloads
A long time coming, Swype now allows you to download any of the 50+ additional languages we support directly from within Swype's Settings window. For a list of supported languages, please see our language support info page.

Hasbro has sued Asus today, over the Transformer Prime name used in the company's new flagship tablet.

The toy company is seeking an injunction on the tablet due to brand copyright violations. Transformers Prime is an animated TV series that launched in 2010, a new generation of the popular TV series from the 80s.

In its statement, Hasbro says:

Hasbro continues to aggressively protect its brands and products and the specific actions we are taking today against Asus underscores yet again Hasbro's willingness to pursue companies who misappropriate our intellectual property for their own financial gain.

Verizon Wireless has confirmed yet another nationwide data outage today.

Early this morning, subscribers were greeted with spotty 3G and 4G connections, especially in large metro areas like NYC and San Francisco. The company began working on the issues immediately, and mainly had them solved by mid-day.

Adds a spokesman: "Verizon Wireless 4G LTE service is returning to normal this morning after company engineers worked to resolve an issue with the 4G network during the early morning hours today."

In early December, customers complained of slow speeds on their devices, which could not connect to 4G and were stuck on 3G. Verizon resolved that issue within a day.

Verizon is known to promote its "stable" network as a reason for its industry-high prices.

Microsoft has announced today that it will pull out from the Consumer Electronics Show after this year's event.

Spokesman Frank Shaw adds that the company will not complete avoid the event, meaning no keynote presentation and no booth: "We'll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won't have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don't align with the show's January timing."

Microsoft is following the trend Apple and Google started years ago, having their own smaller shows instead of being part of larger events.

The Consumer Electronics Association confirmed Microsoft's move (via Cnet):
"Both CEA and Microsoft have agreed that the time has come to end this great run, and so Microsoft will not have a keynote at the 2013 CES. Microsoft is an important member of CEA and we wish them all the best as they evolve their plans for new ways to tell consumer stories."

The first Android 4.0.1 ROM with HTC Sense has been leaked today.

Rather than a "vanilla" experience like the Galaxy Nexus, HTC adds their Sense UI overlay to Android, and their Ice Cream Sandwich update will be no different.

The new ROM will keep Sense 3.5, with the company's well known unlock screen and direct app launcher shortcuts. The power widget seems to have been updated for ICS, with on/off toggles for Wi-Fi, 4G, etc.

This initial leak is definitely an unfinished version of the update, which will likely see a large overhaul and polished features. HTC has said its devices will get the update in the Q1 2012.

Regardless, the ROM is available here: [ROM][★★ICS★★][Sense 3.5][21 Dec]RCMix ICE v1.0, First Sense Android 4.0.1 rom!!!

21-year-old Chicago resident Andre Curry has been arrested an charged with battery less than a week after he posted a picture on Facebook of his child with bound wrists, ankles, and tape over her mouth.

The caption for the photo said "This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back. ;)" The girl is reportedly just 22 months old.

TheDirty.com brought the picture to the national spotlight, asking users to call Chicago PD and report the photo.

Curry has been charged with aggravated domestic battery, and needs to be in court today.

The photo has been taken down.

Multiple sources today are reporting that Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia all considered purchasing struggling BlackBerry smartphone maker RIM before backing out.

Amazon was allegedly having casual talks with the Canadian company over the summer, but never formally bid. Supposedly, Microsoft and Nokia mulled over a joint offer, but never formally bid, either.

The company has struggled for years now as Android and iOS take its U.S. market share. The once hallowed smartphone maker has fallen from over 45 percent U.S. smartphone share, to 9.5 percent this year. The trend is expected to continue down into the foreseeable future, especially as Nokia and Microsoft push their Windows Phone platform.

Recently, RIM delayed their BlackBerry 10-based phones until the end of 2012, effectively killing any momentum they hoped to gain from the recent launch of their BlackBerry 7 devices. The company noted that they were delaying the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices as they wait for the production of dual-core chips with LTE support. RIM had initially planned to release the phones in February-April and had decent hype.

The NFL has announced that it will stream some of this year's playoffs, including the Super Bowl, via NFL.com and NBCSports.com.

Additionally, the games will be available on Verizon smartphones if you have the NFL Mobile app. If you have a 4G data plan, the app is free, but if you have a 3G-capable device only, Verizon Video subscriptions cost $10 per month.

Outside of the Super Bowl, fans can watch Wild Card Saturday and the Pro Bowl.

The NBC Sports live stream will have different ads than those seen on TV, but fans can watch the commercials on demand within hours.

Fans can watch the NFL Super Bowl on February 5th.

Android just keeps on growing.

Google's Andy Rubin has stated this week that the platform is now seeing 700,000 activations per day. The Android Chief posted the figure on his Google+ account.

In May, the company revealed 400,000 devices were being activated daily, which jumped to 500,000 in June and then 550,000 in July.

Overall, Google has activated over 220 million Android devices, in total. The figure jumped from 100 million in June.

Major rival Apple said in October that there had been over 250 million iOS devices activated. Android should surpass that in the next few months.

According to the latest figures from Enterbrain, the PS Vita is selling well in Japan.

The highly-anticipated handheld went on sale in the nation on Saturday, and Enterbrain says 321,000 units were sold in its first 48 hours of availability.

Although the sales were high, Sony had allegedly ordered 500,000 initial units, meaning the console is not selling up to internal expectations. Sony had even been rumored to be increasing its initial shipments to 700,000 units.

In comparison (via 1up), the original PSP sold 166,000 units in its first 2 days, and more recently the Nintendo 3DS sold 371,000 units in the same time frame.

Sales may be hindered due to issues experienced by early buyers, with many complaining of a non-responsive screen and freezing during gameplay. Sony has since released a firmware update and apologized.

Earlier this week, AT&T quit its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile after government and corporate opposition would have made it almost impossible to complete the acquisition.

Because of the failed bid, AT&T will have to give money and other "goodies" to T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom. Today, we have more details on what the company will receive.

First, AT&T will pay a $3 billion breakup fee (the largest ever), which it will pay in the next week. Additionally, the company must agree to "a large package of mobile communications spectrum and a long-term agreement on UMTS roaming within the U.S. for T-Mobile USA, all of which is worth about $1 billion," says Cnet.

T-Mobile will get new spectrum in 128 markets, including most of the major markets including Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle.

On the roaming end, T-Mobile will get to roam on the AT&T network for the next 7 years.

Lady Gaga had her Twitter account hacked yesterday, leaving 17 million fans with spam links promising "free iPads."

The tweet from the musician's account read: "Monsters, I'm giving away FREE iPad2's to each one of you in the spirit of the holidays :) Go to bit.ly/s5MTqM to receive one!" Bit.ly was quick to update the link and flag it, but the hackers posted another one, this time promising free Macbooks.

Finally, Gaga (or her PR team) took back the account, tweeting: "Phew! The hacking is over! And just in time, I'm on my way to Japan! So excited to spend Xmastime with my TokyoMonsters!"

The damage was done, apparently, as 7000 fans did click the link, and a few even retweeted the message. Additionally, singers Nelly Furtado and Nicole Scherzinger were hit my same hacker(s), with their accounts offering free Apple products too.

Skype has said this week it will be making free Wi-Fi available at over 50 airports in the U.S.

The promotion goes live today and will last through December 27th. The company says the promo is supported on PC, Macs and iOS devices. There was no word on Android.

Using the Wi-Fi, users can make video or voice calls with the VoIP service.

For a map of the airports, check the attached picture. Most of the major airports, like NY, Atlanta, Boston, DC, Miami and Chicago are included.

Skype gives instructions (via Cnet):

-Sign in to Skype.
-Go to Tools | Options | Skype Wi-Fi Access.
-Click the check box to Enable Skype Wi-Fi Access.
-Connect to a Wi-Fi public hot spot.
-In the Skype menu bar, click Tools | Skype Wi-Fi Access.
-Follow the instructions to join a compatible public Wi-Fi network.
-The free Wi-Fi can come in handy, especially around the holidays. Though more airports have been adding Wi-Fi coverage, some offer it only in certain terminals or specific areas.

Panasonic, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony and Toshiba have joined together to create a new content DRM for flash memory cards, including SD cards.

So far called the "Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative," (to be renamed) the companies will jointly license and promote the new DRM into the future.

Making the protection notable is the fact that it can protect HD content. The group says "a high level of content security will be realized through the use of the initiative's technologies, including unique ID (identification) technology for flash memory and robust copy protection based on public key infrastructure."

Furthermore, the group believes the tech will "enable various HD content applications" on Blu-ray, HD network downloads and broadcast content. By using the new content scheme, users can then use the content on Android smartphones and tablets, card-enabled TVs and Blu-ray products.

Mozilla and Google have renewed their long-standing royalties agreement.

The new deal will expire in 2015 and leave Google as the default search engine for Firefox. Google's deals with Mozilla have kept the company in business, with over $100 million of the company's revenue in 2010 coming from a similar deal, which expired last month.

Mozilla also has similar partnerships with other providers, including Bing, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay -and the company even has a Bing version of Firefox.

The two companies put out a press release, saying: "We're pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google. This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years."

Google SVP of Search Alan Eustace added: "Mozilla has been a valuable partner to Google over the years and we look forward to continuing this great partnership in the years to come."

This is a quick article as a headsup to UFC fans out there.

UFC and Microsoft have teamed up (sponsored by the Marines) to make UFC 141 Brock Lesnar vs Alistair Overeem free, as long as you watch it via Xbox Live on your Xbox 360.

All you have to do is log in to your Xbox Live and download the UFC app from the Marketplace. From there, you can "purchase" the fight and the checkout will show up as $0.

The fight itself is next Friday, December 30th. For more info on the fight, check the official page: http://www.ufc.com/event/UFC141

Pic via SD:

Sprint, the third largest carrier in the U.S., has expressed its extreme happiness over AT&T's decision to drop its bid for T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the nation.

The company had been one of the most vocal opponents of the move, which would have left AT&T with 120 million subscribers. Verizon, the top CDMA carrier, has 107 million subscribers. Sprint has 54 million subscribers and would have been left behind as a "duopoly" took over, argued the company.

Statement from Vonya McCann, Sprint SVP of government affairs:

Earlier today, AT&T terminated its definitive merger agreement with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile USA. This is the right decision for consumers, competition and innovation in the wireless industry.

From the beginning, Sprint has stood with consumers who spoke loudly and clearly that AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile would create an undeniable duopoly that would have resulted in higher prices, less innovation and fewer choices for the American consumer.

Sprint commends the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission and the bi-partisan group of state attorneys general who gave voice to the concerns of consumers across the country. We look forward to competing fiercely in the robust, competitive market that exists today and continuing to deliver the world class service and products that consumers have come to expect from Sprint

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has suggested this week that the company is working on a Nexus Tablet that will be released in the near future.

During an interview with an Italian paper, Schmidt says that "in the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality." It is unclear, however, whether the quote means Google is putting out a Nexus tablet or whether they will just be putting their marketing muscle behind an upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich device.

A few of Google's most popular partners are HTC, Samsung and Motorola.

Earlier this year, Google worked together with Motorola to release Android 3.0 with the Xoom tablet, which was not a pure Google experience, but close. For smartphones, Google has released the HTC Nexus One, the Samsung Nexus S and the newly launched Samsung Galaxy Nexus, each of which provides the "vanilla" Google experience and the quickest updates whenever a new firmware is launched.

AT&T has officially killed its bid for T-Mobile, following government and corporate opposition.

The proposed $39 billion acquisition was facing a DOJ lawsuit and strong corporate resistance from other small carriers who rightfully insisted that the merger would cause a duopoly in the U.S. with Verizon on the CDMA side and AT&T on the GSM side.

AT&T press release statement:
The actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice to block this transaction do not change the realities of the U.S. wireless industry. It is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world, with a mounting need for more spectrum that has not diminished and must be addressed immediately. The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage. In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.

As part of their annual '5 in 5' predictions, IBM says mind reading is coming sooner than you think.

The list is the company's way to predict 5 pieces of technology or services that will emerge five years into the future. The list also helps keep IBM focused on its "Smarter Planet" initiatives.

Here is this year's list:
Mind reading is no longer science fiction.
You will be able to power your home with the energy you create yourself.
You will never need a password again.
The digital divide will cease to exist.
Junk mail will become priority mail.

Kingdom Holding Co. has invested $300 million in Twitter, giving it a quick cash infusion.

The investment company, run by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, says the new stake is "strategic" as the company looks to expand and entice more paid advertisers.

Alwaleed is the nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, and is worth about $19 billion. His investment company is known to invest "in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact." The Prince's most notable investment is a $1 billion stake in struggling American bank Citigroup.

Twitter, launched 5 years ago, now has over 100 million active users and sees over 250 million tweets per day.

The microblogging site confirmed the investment, which came through sales on the secondary market from investors and other insiders. Adds KHC's executive director of private equity and international investments Ahmed Halawani: "We believe that social media will fundamentally change the media industry landscape in the coming years. Twitter will capture and monetize this positive trend."

The latest Elder Scrolls blockbuster has sold 10 million units since launch last month.

Developer Bethesda says they have sold 10 million units on Xbox 360, PC and PS3 since the November 11th launch. Adds the company: "Large retail reorders across all platforms and record-breaking digital sales reflect the ongoing global demand by consumers excited to explore this extraordinary fantasy epic."

Concludes Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax Media (parent of Bethesda):

We are gratified that Skyrim continues to garner high review scores and accolades around the world. We are most grateful to our fans for their support and enthusiasm for the game, and their love of the hundreds of hours of gameplay it offers. We continue to strive to deliver the highest quality entertainment experience for everyone. 2012 will be another huge year for our fans, with the release of the Creation Kit, as well as exciting DLC which will add to the richness of this epic adventure.

British Telecom (BT) has filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming many of its most popular products and services violate patents.

The products and services include the Android Market, Google Maps, Google Search, Google+ and Google Offers.

The patents allegedly being violated are related to "cover systems for navigation information, service provision system for communications networks, and telecommunications apparatus and method," says Cnet. BT is seeking monetary damages and an injunction on all the services.

As expected, Google is fighting the claims, saying: "We believe these claims are without merit, and we will defend vigorously against them."

Google has been the defendant in a high number of lawsuits over the past few years, mainly linked to their Android operating system. Heavy hitters like Oracle, Apple and Microsoft all claim patent violations.

Last week we reported that the ongoing antitrust dispute against Microsoft brought by Novell was in the hands of the presiding judge and jury.


That jury, however, has come back deadlocked, leading to a mistrial after three days of deliberation. 11 of the 12 jurors had reached a decision in favor of Novell but the last juror would not switch sides.

In 2004, the global enterprise software provider sued Microsoft, claiming the company violated anti-trust laws in 1994 by using its monopoly on personal computer operating systems to suppress WordPerfect, at the time the world's most popular word-processing program.

Eventually, WordPerfect's value cratered from $1.2 billion in 1994 to just $170 million when it purchased by Corel in 1996. As expected, Novell is suing for the difference in value, which would be tripled under US antitrust law to over $3 billion in damages.

Microsoft, in its arguments, said Novell lost the market share not because of Microsoft but because they did not make a compatible software for Windows 95 quick enough, allowing the company's own Word to gain traction. MSFT attorney David Tulchin added in the closing arguments: "Novell was late. It was always behind. It was playing catch-up. In the high-tech world where things can move quickly ... the market can kill you."

The WSJ has a full report today out on Apple's plans to dominate the TV market, even after the death of its leader Steve Jobs.

Over the past few weeks, "Apple executives have discussed their vision for the future of TV with media executives at several large companies," reads the report. It also appears that Apple's Eddy Cue is highly involved in the plans.

The Apple television will be able to recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs, and will completely rely on powerful wireless streaming for streaming content of music, movies and TV shows. It seems the TVs will also be able to respond to user's voices and movements (like Siri meets Kinect) sometime in the future, although it seems the first generation of the devices will not include the tech.

One specific of the software used on the future TVs is the fact that streaming content can be watched on the TV then paused and resumed on an iPhone or iPad.

Western Digital has said today that they will be cutting down the warranty period for their Caviar Blue, Scorpio Blue and Caviar Green hard drives.

The drives will have 2-year warranties for now on, down from 3. Caviar Black and Scorpio Black drives will continue with five-year warranties.

WD's AV drives and all of its external drives have unchanged warranty periods, as well.

Reads the letter from SelectWD:

This new warranty policy will be effective for drives shipped from January 2nd, 2012. It is important that you take a moment to update your website(s) and collateral to reflect this change for effected drives shipped after January 1st, 2012.

All drives shipped to distributors prior to Jan. 2nd 2012 will retain the current warranty terms. Because of existing inventory in the distribution channel there will be a short period of time when some drives with a 3-year warranty will be sold at the same time as drives with a 2-year warranty.

Read more...

Police officials are looking into the theft of $1.7 million worth of BlackBerry PlayBooks from a semi trailer.

The theft took place at the Pilot Travel Center of State Road 67 in Chesterfield, Indiana. The driver had stopped to take a shower and get some dinner.

When the driver returned, his truck was missing. He says he was gone for about an hour.

The truck had 22 pallets of PlayBooks, which is equal to about 5000 units. The tablets were coming from a distribution center in Ontario, Canada.

Police say the shipment did not have any tracking devices.

The authorities have contacted the FBI for assistance.

Apple has launched the iPhone 4S in 20 new nations.

According to the company, the popular smartphone is now available in Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

The pricing for the devices is ridiculous in some of the nations, as expected, topping out at $1400 USD in Brazil for the starter 16GB models. In Russia, the 16GB models start at $1100 and top out at $1350 for the 64GB models. These are, of course, currency conversions and subject to some fluctuation.

In most of the other nations, prices were just about $50 more than in the U.S., where unsubsidized devices sell for $649/$749/$849.

Fusion Garage, the makers of the Grid10 and Grid4 devices, have vanished off the face of the earth, leaving customers empty-handed for devices they were supposed to receive in October.

The company was behind the epic fail JooJoo/CrunchPad but tried to re-invent itself this year with the Grid10 tablet, which featured their own Android-based OS, "Grid."

As of this week, the company's site is down and its PR firm has left them, citing that the company has been uncommunicative for weeks, leaving them in the dark, as well.

McGrath Power, the firm, says: "Unfortunately, none of our efforts have resulted in any communication from the company to the customers. Given all of this, we don't have any other choice but to cease working with Fusion Garage effective tomorrow."

Launched in August after an extensive marketing campaign, the Grid10 was supposed to sell for $499 and ship on October 1st, but the as October rolled around, the company delayed the product and slashed the price to $299, even before it shipped. No customers have ever received a Grid10, or the Grid4 smartphone. Additionally, Fusion Garage had promised anyone who purchased the JooJoo in 2009 a free Grid10, but it appears that was a lie, also.

Last week we reported on the launch of Russian-based YouHaveDownloaded.com, which logs public torrent downloads. This week, it appears someone in the home of French President Nicholas Sarkozy is a pirate.

Youhavedownloaded.com is a website setup to show what files have been downloaded using BitTorrent trackers by a specific IP address. The site claims to have almost 53 million "users" in its database, from 113,200 tracked torrents containing almost 2 million files.

When you visit the website, it will check you IP address automatically and present you with files it knows you downloaded. If it doesn't have your IP address in its database, then it will simply say, "Hi. We have no records on you." You can search any IP address, torrent hash or filename for results, or you can snoop on randomly-presented IP addresses that are in the database.

Sarkozy is a notable proponent of anti-piracy legislation and notably wanted to begin the infamous "three strikes" policy in France where 3-time pirates get banned from the Internet.

Google has announced this week it is donating $11.5 million to associations that are fighting human trafficking and slavery around the world.

The search giant says the money will go towards "the creation of a coalition between various advocacy groups, led by International Justice Mission (IJM)." The IJM rescues people from forced labor and trafficking and the group says starting in 2012 they will join with other groups like the Polaris Project and Slavery Footprint for the new project.

IJM says the new funds will be used to push for new laws in countries, promote awareness in the U.S., and "improve the infrastructure and resources that enforce anti-slavery legislation overseas."

Google's director of charitable giving and advocacy says there are 27 million men, women, and children currently held as slaves around the world, and adds, "many people are surprised to learn that there are more people trapped in slavery today than any time in history. The good news is there are solutions."

Most of the money will go to campaigns in India, where forced labor is rampant.

Since its launch, iPhone 4S owners have had multiple problems to work through, including excessive battery drain, a non-working Siri and SIM card issues.

Today, Apple has said that the iOS 5.0.1 incremental build will deal with the SIM card issues.

Users, at some point during the day, were receiving an error message that says the SIM card is not valid or a message that says there is no SIM card inside, at all. The error was leaving users without a way to make phone calls through cellular service, or receive texts.

Apple will be pushing the update to all iOS 5 users who haven't yet updated, and the build is 5.0.1 9A406.

The support page says the update should fix the issues that an '"iPhone 4S may have difficulty recognizing a micro-SIM card," and will subsequently display "Invalid SIM" and "No SIM Card installed" alerts or "No Service" and "Searching" status bar messages.'

Time Warner has announced a deal that will give its subscibers access to the massively popular HBO GO service.

Additionally, the cable company says Cinemax subscribers will have access to MAX GO, as well. Time Warner will start beta testing both services this week and have the services launched to all subscribers that pay for HBO or Cinemax next month.

Time Warner Cable added: "We are working with HBO and our internal tech teams right now to determine the parameters of that beta trial, and will absolutely announce more specific details as soon as we can. Once started, that beta trial should be overwith very quickly, and our customers will be streaming all of their favorite HBO shows shortly thereafter."

Both services, which give users access to streaming TV on-demand as long as you are a subscriber, are available on iOS and Android devices as well as in-browser or through Roku set-top boxes. HBO says they have 1400 titles available right now, including all seasons of original programs like Game of Thrones, True Blood, and Boardwalk Empire. Furthermore, HBO GO also streams full-length features, docus and sporting events.

Sprint, the largest user of Carrier IQ software in the U.S., has said this week that is completely disabling the software in all of its devices.

The carrier admitted to using the software since 2006, and that it is installed on 26 million Sprint smartphones and tablets.

Due to recent customer concerns over the rootkit, Sprint says it has stopped collecting data using Carrier IQ, disabled it from all past devices, and will consider fully dropping it in the future. Sprint adds that they only used Carrier IQ to collect network- and device-related information for quality-of-service-related purposes.

"We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," read the carrier's statement to Senator Al Franken. "At Sprint, we work hard to earn the trust of our customers and believe this course of action is in the best interest of our business and customers."

Carrier IQ, which is installed in over 140 million devices, can read the state of your phone at all times, log all keystrokes, see who you called, see who you texted, see what terms you have searched for, and logs sleep/uptime.

Last month, Adobe announced that the Galaxy Nexus would not support Flash at launch, and fans would have to wait around a month before regaining the support.

The device, which launched around Europe over the past month, and in the U.S. on Thursday, is the first smartphone to have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's latest operating system update.

Adobe, recently announced it was discontinuing development on its mobile Flash player to move focus to HTML5 and its more popular Flash players on other platforms. The Android 4.0 update, which brings Flash to version 11.1.112.60, will be their last.

Additionally, the update will fix a few known issues, which included: Seeking while video is paused will not update the frame on ICS device, StageVideo using On2 and Sorenson does not work on ICS devices, PHDS content plays with audio pops, OS does not prioritize incoming call - audio remains playing before and after call is received, Enter key does not work on the multi-line text input field.

In a surprise move, The House Judiciary Committee has delayed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) vote.

The delay seems to be thanks to the committee's chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) agreeing to look further into one of the controversial provisions of the bill. That provision would allow the Attorney General to change many of the core Internet infrastructures in order to halt online piracy and copyright infringement. Other representatives argued changing the domain-naming system would cause security risks, says Wired.

Smith has pushed the hearing to the "earliest practical day that Congress is in session." With Congress' track record, that could be months down the line.

The Stop Online Piracy Act was proposed earlier this year. SOPA is the first of two bills being considered by Congress. The second is E-PARASITE/Protect-IP. The bills are created to prevent piracy, copyright infringement, and block access to "rogue foreign sites." The bills have been generally panned by the public and the major tech companies due to the fact that companies can get domains and websites shut down if they "engage in, enable or facilitate infringement." By creating this blacklist, governments and companies can choose to get sites cut off from search engines and from accepting payments for ads. SOPA only gives accused websites 5 days to file an appeal before they get shut down.

Dell has officially decided to kill its consumer netbooks.

The company will still sell enterprise models, but it is unclear for how much longer. Dell has already removed the netbooks from its websites, including the once very popular Inspiron Mini line.

Other companies, like Asus and Toshiba, remain committed to the small Intel Atom netbooks but Dell is moving on to the new trend, ultrabooks. To ensure it will not come back to netbooks, the company says it will not use Intel's forthcoming Cedar Trail platform, at all.

For those worried that the tablet/netbook Inspiron Duo would be discontinued, Dell says no, as it continues to sell well.

Adds Marketing Director Alison Gardner: "Thin and powerful is where it is at for us."

Game developer Square Enix has announced this week that 1.8 million user accounts have been compromised thanks to a security breach.

Hackers hit one of Square Enix's servers, taking the company's U.S. and Japanese sites offline. 1 million Japanese users accounts were compromised and 800,000 in the U.S., say reports.

Enix says that the accounts did not contain credit card info, but did have full names, emails, phone numbers and addresses. The developer has warned that phishers may send emails asking for passwords or credit card numbers, and that those should be ignored as the company would never ask for them.

The company was hit earlier this year, as well, with a European server being hacked and 25,000 customer accounts being compromised. Additionally, the resumes of 250 applicants were taken.

Although still horrible, the numbers in this case pale in comparison to Sony's nightmare PSN experience, in which over 100 million users had their personal info compromised, including passwords and likely credit card info.

Reuters is reporting this morning that Apple is now receiving their A5 processing chip from a plant in Texas, run by manufacturing giant Samsung.

The 1.6 million square feet factory is located in Austin and has recently reached full production. Samsung spent $3.6 billion to construct the non-memory chip production line.

Sources say the entire factory is dedicated to Apple chips, with a small amount of the line used for NAND flash memory.

The A5 chip is used in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The rest of Apple's components are made in Asia, mainly by Foxconn, one of the largest companies in the world.

Samsung created the factory in 1996, and the investment is the largest foreign one in Texas, valued at $9 billion.

According to the latest IDC figures, Apple continues to lose tablet market share, as the industry becomes more and more competitive.

Apple still has, by far, the strongest selling tablet, with the iPad outselling the next tablet by an 11:1 margin, but a large amount of new Android releases are starting to chip away at the share. Overall, tablet shipments rose 265 percent year-over-year, to 18.1 million units.

Analysts had expected 19.2 million units, but the miss is likely to be made up in the next quarter, the holiday quarter.

iPad sales came in at 11.1 million for the Q3, good for 61.5 percent market share, down a few percentage points from the quarter before. Samsung came in second with 5.6 market share after selling 950,000 units during the quarter. HP, thanks to its firesale, controls third at 5 percent after selling 900,000 TouchPads.

IDC has changed its methods to now include the Nook Color, Nook Tablet and Kindle Fire, which are intended as e-readers but have LCD screens and Internet access. The Nook Color saw 805,458 units sold, while the figures for the latter two devices will need to wait until the end of the Q4.

RIM has become the first handset maker to officially give instructions on how to remove the smartphone rootkit Carrier IQ.

The software runs secretly on over 140 million smartphones including Android, BlackBerry and some versions of iOS and can log all keystrokes, phone calls made, and apps used. T-Mobile, AT&T and Sprint have confirmed using the software, but Verizon vehemently denies including it on any of its phones. T-Mobile says it uses the software to help improve call quality.

RIM says it does not pre-install Carrier IQ on its BlackBerry devices, nor does it authorize carriers to do so. However, it has been revealed that the software is found on one carrier's Bold 9900, the Curve 9360 and Torch 9810. The document also shows that the Carrier IQ software was installed on Android phones from T-Mobile.

If you are looking to remove the software from your BlackBerry device, RIM makes it very easy.

Head over to the app marketplace and download "IQ Agent," says the company, which has quick instructions.

Amazon has said today that it is selling over 1 million Kindles per week.

The behemoth e-tailer is notorious for never revealing sales numbers for its products, so the new admission is in stark contrast to past press releases. Amazon says it is "selling well over" 1 million devices per week, and this mark has been hit for the last three weeks and running.

Included in the sales numbers are all generations of the Kindle e-reader, and the Kindle Fire tablet. Kindle Fire sales have been increasing week-over-week, added Amazon exec Dave Limp.

Many in the industry believe the press release was a direct response to a recent flurry of negative reviews of the Kindle Fire, which lacks many standard features like a mic and camera. However, the Fire sells for just $199, at least $100 cheaper than its competitors in the 7-inch category and $300 cheaper than the standard 10-inch tablets like the iPad and Galaxy 10.1.

Additionally, Amazon has already said an upcoming Kindle Fire software upgrade will "improve performance, touch navigation, and give customers the option to choose what items display on the carousel."

The social gaming giant Zynga will IPO tomorrow, pricing in at $10 per share, for 100 million shares.

There had been recent discussion on whether the company could have a strong showing in its public debut, but it appears that at least some large funds and other deep pocket buyers are willing to pay up. 100 million shares is equal to just 11 percent of all shares, giving Zynga a market value of just around $9 billion.

Additionally, the IPO will raise Zynga $1 billion in cash, which they expect to use to expand their existing lineup and development on new games. The IPO is the largest since Google's in 2004, although Facebook is expected to trump both by a hefty amount.

Separating Zynga from other recent social IPOs, is the fact that the company is actually profitable. Others, like LinkedIn, Zillow and Pandora, have had years of losses, and profitability does not appear to be on the horizon despite their billion dollar valuations.

Zynga is the giant behind hits like FarmVille, CityVille, MafiaWars, Empires and Allies, Words with Friends, and Zynga Poker. The company has 4 of the top 5 most popular games on Facebook , and has over 200 million monthly users.

The company says it makes all of its revenue from just 3 percent of its players, who buy virtual items like new guns, poker chips, and upgrades for their farm.

As a final reminder, we are in the home stretch of Google's great 10 cent Android Market promotion.

There are 12 apps today, as a special "blowout" for the last day. Each other day had 10 apps. It is unclear at what time tomorrow the promotion will end.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market. The promotion began last Tuesday and has seen very strong downloads for the apps.

The List:
1. Camera Zoom FX
2. Shine Runner
3. TileStorm HD
4. Star Chart
5. Talking Ben the Dog
6. Apparatus
7. Color & Draw for kids
8. Hyper Jump
9. Sentinel 3: Homeworld
10. Majesty: Fantastic Kingdom Sim
11. Puffle Launch
12. Heavy Gunner 3D

Nintendo will help the French museum appeal to new audiences.

The gaming company has announced today it will be sending 5000 of the new 3DS handhelds to the Louvre for use as an audio guide. Additionally, the museum is developing an iOS app, so their plan is clearly to appeal to the generation that has touchscreen smartphones or still games.

Museum-goers who rent the handheld will get to listen to the guided tour, which is available in seven languages. They will also be able to load and create special itineraries.

Nintendo says they have produced original content for the Louvre, but no one has elaborated on that just yet. Most likely, the content will have minor tie-ins to popular characters or include puzzle/mysteries related to the museum.

Finally, as Crunch mentions, this isn't the first time the two have teamed up, with the museum making an appearance on The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

As expected with a new update, there have been reports of a few popular apps having issues with Google's latest Android 4.0 software.

As of today, however, Netflix is now updated for the new software. The Android Market description now reads: "Supports Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.x, and 4.x in the USA, Canada, and Latin America. Download the free Netflix app to instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix."

Of course, to use the service you will need a Netflix subscription, which costs $7.99 per month for unlimited streaming.

After months of delays, Verizon finally launched the Galaxy Nexus today, the first phone to have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream sandwich is the biggest rehaul of the Android operating system, to date, and the first OS created for both smartphones and tablets, natively.

It is about time to write an obituary on the once hallowed smartphone maker.

RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry line of smartphones and the Playbook tablet has delayed their BlackBerry 10-based phones until the end of 2012, effectively putting the final nail in their coffin.

The company says they are delaying the launch of the BlackBerry 10 devices as they wait for the production of dual-core chips with LTE support.

RIM had initially planned to release the phones in February-April.

Outside of the delay, the company's earnings got smashed, with profits falling to $265 million for the Q3 2011, down from $911 million in the same quarter in 2010. Furthermore, the company downgraded their forecast for sales in the Q4, to 11 million units. This compares to 14.8 million sold in the same period last year. That figure hurts the most as the holiday season is normally a seasonally strong period for phone sales.

RIM's market share in the U.S., its largest market, has fallen from 44 percent in 2009 to just 10.5 percent in November, as Android and iOS continue to grow.

Additionally, the company announced more bad news, with a $356 million write-down for poor sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and a $40 million loss due to the 2-day service outage they experienced earlier this year that left users without emails and texts.

Verizon finally gives an official release date for the first Ice Cream Sandwich device.

The carrier will sell the device for $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.

Outside of being the first smartphone to have the official Android 4.0, the Galaxy nexus will have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED screen with 1280x768 resolution and dual cameras 1.3/5 MP. The phone has a curved design, is 9.47mm thin and has an impressive no-shutter lag camera.

Additionally, the phone has NFC support and Verizon LTE support, which is good for 190 markets and 200 million people. Verizon says average download speeds are 5 to 12 Mbits and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbits.

After months of speculation, Nintendo has finally given an official U.S. release date for its 3DS Circle Pad Pro peripheral.

Starting on February 7th, the accessory will sell for $20. Somewhat surprisingly, Gamestop will be the exclusive retailer for the device, suggesting Nintendo may not be expecting large sales.

There are only a few games currently compatible with the extra nub that the Circle Pad brings, and those include Monster Hunter Tri G, Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater, and Resident Evil Revelations.

Last week, Nintendo announced that its Circle Pad Pro would require a AAA battery, much to the dismay of gamers. This week however, those concerns have mainly been put to bed, as it appears the peripheral will work for 480 hours of gameplay on one single battery, giving most casual gamers a year or so before they need to go out an replace the battery, which can cost as low as $1 for a 2-pack.

Microsoft has announced the availability of SkyDrive apps for Windows Phone and iOS.

SkyDrive is Microsoft's cloud service used to store your data including documents, videos, music, photos and more. When you move any file into the SkyDrive, that file is then available from any browser in the world.

Recently, the company updated the service, adding support for HTML5 and CSS3 and now with the addition of native mobile apps, the service seems poised to better compete with DropBox and Amazon CloudDrive.

For Windows Phone 7.5, Microsoft explains that "we focused on deeply integrating SkyDrive into the phone itself through the Pictures and Office hubs. For instance, you can share photos stored on SkyDrive by email, text, or IM, use Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with SkyDrive files, and even keep your phone's camera roll up-to-date on SkyDrive automatically."

For iOS, the company explains: "We have a long history of supporting iPhone customers with built-in support for Hotmail and with apps like Bing, Messenger, OneNote (with SkyDrive sync), and now Skype. More generally, we believe you should have access to your personal content no matter which device you use. This is why we are excited to invest in HTML5 both on the web and on mobile on [ skydrive.com ] On the iPhone, we've taken the next step by making the new SkyDrive app for iPhone available in 32 languages worldwide. In addition to their OneNote notebooks, iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app."

The case is now in the hands of the presiding judge and jury.

In 2004, the global enterprise software provider sued Microsoft, claiming the company violated anti-trust laws in 1994 by using its monopoly on personal computer operating systems to suppress WordPerfect, at the time the world's most popular word-processing program.

Eventually, WordPerfect's value cratered from $1.2 billion in 1994 to just $170 million when it purchased by Corel in 1996. As expected, Novell is suing for the difference in value, which would be tripled under US antitrust law to over $3 billion in damages.

Microsoft, in its arguments, say Novell lost the market share not because of Microsoft but because they did not make a compatible software for Windows 95 quick enough, allowing the company's own Word to gain traction. MSFT attorney David Tulchin added in the closing arguments: "Novell was late. It was always behind. It was playing catch-up. In the high-tech world where things can move quickly ... the market can kill you."

YouTube purchases RightsFlow.

RightsFlow, the licensing and royalty service provider, has been acquired by YouTube this week for an undisclosed amount. The company helps digital music stores, distributors, labels and individual artists to have proper royalty arrangements, and song licensing.

Says YouTube in a blog post: "By combining RightsFlow's expertise and technology with YouTube's platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music."

YouTube has been accused multiple times of encouraging users to upload videos that include music or TV/movie clips that has not been authorized and labels/studios not compensated for.

As the site has matured, however, their filters and monitoring systems have improved and the site is "cleaner" than ever. It also embeds links to purchase the songs and movies seen in clips right into the description.

Concludes YouTube: "YouTube has had a longstanding commitment to solving the really tough challenges around online copyright--how to manage content rights in a quickly evolving technology world. We've already invested tens of millions of dollars in content management technology such as Content ID and, with over 3,000 major media companies using it, we've come a long way in just a few years. But we want to keep pushing things forward."

The Prada 3.0 is expected in February.

Last month, LG announced the renewal of its mobile phone partnership with high-end fashion name Prada. The two companies had already created two "premium" Prada phones in the past and the original PRADA phone, launched in 2007, was the first touchscreen phone ever, selling over 1 million units.

Today, the companies have launched the LG Prada 3.0, the third smartphone in the premium line. The companies held an event in London to celebrate the release.

The LG Prada 3 (specs via PhoneArena) has a 4.3-inch NOVA display with WVGA resolution, runs on a 1GHz TI OMAP4430 dual-core chip, has a 0.33-inch (8.5mm) thick body, dual cameras 1.3MP/8MP, 21Mbps HSPA+ connectivity, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, and an FM tuner.

Overall, the specs put the phone in line with other mid-low-high-end Android devices on the market.

Nokia is launching the Lumia 800 Dark Knight Rises edition smartphone, in honor of the upcoming film.

The extremely limited edition phone (only 40 will be made) are being released now, a day before the movie's 7 minute prologue is played with IMAX screenings of the latest Mission Impossible.

Each phone has a Live Tile for the movie and has the batman logo etched in the back.

The phones come in a special matching package, as well.

T-Mobile is getting the first Nokia Windows Phone 7.5 device to hit the U.S., on January 11th.

The Lumia 710 will sell for just $50 with contract.

Nokia and T-Mobile are having a party tonight to officially announce the product launch.

The Lumia 710 has a 3.7 inch TFT screen, runs on a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor, has 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and a 5 MP rear camera.

There is no word on when the flagship Lumia 800 will be headed to he U.S.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

Last Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

Stronger day for games, today, in my opinion.

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Google has made a welcome announcement today, extending their free calls within the U.S. and Canada Google Voice promotion for another year.

Just weeks before it was set to end, the company has now extended the free calls until the end of 2012.

Notes Group Product Manager Vincent Paquet:

As the holiday season approaches, we're happy to announce that we've extended free domestic calls within the US and Canada for 2012. This is our way of helping you connect with friends and family across the country. And you can still call the rest of the world from Gmail at our insanely low rates.

Earlier this week, the popular comedian Louis CK decided to release his latest film, DRM-free, and for just $5.

"Live at the Beacon Theater," when purchased, could be streamed twice or downloaded and played whenever and wherever you wanted.

The comedian left an initial statement that he understood making the film DRM-free and selling it himself would leave it open for easier piracy, but pleaded for people to buy the movie and not "torrent it."

It appears the experiment has been quite successful, with CK noting today that in just 3 days, the film has already brought in $500,000 in sales.

Here is the full post, taken from his statement here (it is wordy but worth a read for sure):

People of Earth (minus the ones who don't give a shit about this): it's been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money can be made by an individual in this manner?

Read more...

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle has delayed C Spire and Sprint's lawsuits against the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

The same judge delayed the Justice Department's lawsuit against AT&T, as well.

Proceedings will continue on January 18th.

AT&T is still weighing its options, but the $39 billion proposed deal is likely going to fail, due to the overwhelming support against it.

If the deal does not close, AT&T owes Deutsche Telekom $8 billion dollars in cash and spectrum as a break-up fee.

VisionMobile's latest 'The Open Governance Index' report has called Android the "most closed" open source platform.

The report looked into Android, Qt, Symbian, MeeGo, Mozilla, WebKit, Linux and Eclipse, with Android coming in last and Qt coming in first.

Reads the report:

Android ranks as the most closed project, with an Open Governance Index of 23%, yet at the same time is one of the most successful projects in the history of open source. Is Android proof that open governance is not needed to warrant success in an open source project?"

Google has made Android available at 'less than zero' cost, since Google's core business is not software or search, but driving eyeballs to ads. As is now well understood, Google's strategy has been to subsidize Android such that it can deliver cheap handsets and low-cost wireless Internet access in order to drive more eyeballs to Google?s ad inventory.

The three type-written pages that are Apple's founding documents have sold for $1.59 million today at Sotheby's.

On April 1st, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne all signed the documents which are headlined "Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement."

No one has heard of Wayne because he withdrew as a partner just 10 days into the new company, losing a 10 percent share of the company that is now worth over $350 billion.

Wayne, later in life, said of his decision: "If I'd stayed with them, I was going to wind up the richest man in the cemetery."

Pencom Systems CEO Wade Saadi is the current owner of the documents.

Sotheby's says the winner was a phone bidder. The anticipated sale price was $150,000.

Intel has said this week that hard drive shortages caused by the major flooding in Thailand will lead to lowered revenue for the company in the coming quarter.

The floods in the nation have shut down factories, killed hundreds of citizens, and caused billions in losses for companies.

Additionally, the lack of supply has lead to a huge cost for consumers, where the average hard drive now sports a price 80-100 percent higher than before the floods.

Says Intel SVP Tom Kilroy (Reuters):

In the last two weeks, as the supply became more apparent, we saw a substantial change in our order rate. Most of our customers are concerned the shortage will continue -- especially through the early part of the first quarter.

Carrier IQ, the much maligned rootkit installed on over 140 million smartphones around the globe, is back in the news today, but this time with potentially even more dire consequences than the past.

Michael Morisy, a journalist who founded an organization called MuckRock, requested knowledge of what the FBI was doing with the Carrier IQ data via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but was completely denied by the agency.

Carrier IQ has the ability to record every keystroke, search item, and phone call made from the device, so seeing if our government is using the data to spy on citizens is of paramount interest to everyone.

The FBI says any data they received from Carrier IQ "is exempt from disclosure laws" because it is part of a file "compiled for law enforcement purposes" and "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

Carrier IQ, for their part, has responded that the company has not provided any info to the FBI. However, that data could have been acquired via the wireless carriers that use the software, as well.

Barnes & Noble has rolled out the latest software update for the Nook Color tablet/e-reader, which it promises is the biggest, ever.

You can either update your device manually or have it OTA in the next few weeks (if you are connected to Wi-Fi).

The biggest part of the update is the addition of streaming video, via Netflix and Flixster apps.

Nook Colors will eventually get Hulu Plus, like their more expensive brother the Nook Tablet.

Finally, the update will bring Nook Comics, which has the "largest collection of Marvel graphic novels."

The popular browser extension AdBlock Plus is likely to lose a large number of its fans soon.

Instead of blocking all ads like intended, the app will now allow "acceptable ads" to load.

The qualifications have not been finalized, but here is what we know so far for "acceptable ads," via digitizor:

Static advertisements only (no animations, sounds or similar)

Preferably text only, no attention-grabbing images

At most one script that will delay page load (in particular, only a single DNS request)

Walter Isaacson's biography of the recently deceased Steve Jobs rocketed to the top of Amazon's best-selling book list and stayed there.

The book was released in late October following the death of the former CEO and founder of Apple.

Amazon's list includes digital and print copies.

Perhaps more notably were the books that came in 4th and 9th, each of which was published through Amazon's excellent Kindle Direct Publishing and therefore did not have print editions.

Full list (via LAT):

1. "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson

2. "Bossypants" by Tina Fey

3. "A Stolen Life" by Jaycee Dugard

4. "The Mill River Recluse" by Darcie Chan

5. "In the Garden of the Beasts" by Erik Larson

6. "A Dance with Dragons" by George R.R. Martin

7. "The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain

8. "The Litigators" by John Grisham

9. "The Abbey" by Chris Culver

10. "Inheritance (The Inheritance Cycle)" by Christopher Paolini

BBC has expanded its iPlayer app to work on iPhones, and over 3G.

The company says the app will work with all of the UK's 3G mobile networks.

For the time being, the Android version of the app only works over Wi-Fi but the Beeb says it is working on updating the software for 3G.

Some analysts are worried the move will put strain on the carriers, which may lead to reduced service for users that aren't even using the streaming service:

One potential danger is that people are going to run up unexpectedly high data bills, and the other is the strain that this is going to put on the system if a lot of people start streaming in this way.

The system would default to prioritise voice calls, so it wouldn't affect voice calls, but it would mean that people would be unable to use their data services.

Activision has announced today that its blockbuster smash hit Modern Warfare 3 has surpassed $1 billion in revenue, and it only took the game 16 days to do so.

The milestone was hit one day quicker than it took "Avatar," the most profitable movie of all time, to reach $1 billion in sales.

CEO Bobby Kotick notes:

Engagement of our Call of Duty audience continues to rise around the world. Call of Duty as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture and its broad and continued success is further validation that audiences increasingly value interactive experiences over passive experiences.

Call of Duty is now amongst that rarified group of sustained franchises like "Star Wars", "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings" and the National Football League (NFL) that attract or engage tens of millions of people every year or every new release.

Call of Duty has become that rare entertainment franchise that transcends its own genre. Core gamers love it, as our stellar reviews show. But every year, new people are drawn into Call of Duty. And while the franchise continues to set records, our fans still seem to want more, demonstrated by our record setting start on Call of Duty Elite. We are committed to helping everyone connect, compete and improve their game, Call of Duty style.

Microsoft has released Silverlight 5 today, the latest version of the plug-in/

The software giant explains the new features:

New features in Silverlight 5 include Hardware Decode of H.264 media, which provides a significant performance improvement with decoding of unprotected content using the GPU; Postscript Vector Printing to improve output quality and file size; and an improved graphics stack with 3D support that uses the XNA API on the Windows platform to gain low-level access to the GPU for drawing vertex shaders and low-level 3D primitives.

In addition, Silverlight 5 extends the ?Trusted Application? model to the browser for the first time. These features, when enabled via a group policy registry key and an application certificate, mean users won?t need to leave the browser to perform complex tasks such as multiple window support, full trust support in browser including COM and file system access, in browser HTML hosting within Silverlight, and P/Invoke support for existing native code to be run directly from Silverlight.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

On Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

Kind of a weak list today, in my opinion (but please don't let that discourage you).

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Doodle Jump
SoundHound ∞
Roll in the Hole Other Locale: Roll in the Hole
Flick Soccer
Flight Control
Beautiful Widgets
Blow Up
Block Breaker 3 Unlimited HD
When I Get Bigger
SUPER KO BOXING! 2

Apple has just announced that the 100 millionth app has been downloaded from their Mac App Store, 11 months after launch.

The store, which launched on January 6th, sold 1 million apps in its first day of availability and has seen a fast pace since.

While the number is large, by comparison the iOS App Store hit 100 million downloads in 54 days and is now above 15 billion downloaded.

Says Apple:

In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry. With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.

The Galaxy Nexus is now available in Canada, making it available (or planned) pretty much everywhere but the U.S.

Bell and Virgin Mobile have the device available for $160 with contract.

Verizon has not yet set a release date or price for the Android 4.0-packing smartphone, which was expected to launch in mid-November but has been delayed.

The Android 4.0 ICS device will have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED screen with 1280x768 resolution and dual cameras 1.3/5 MP. The phone has a curved design, is thin and has an impressive no-shutter lag camera.

Additionally, the phone has LTE/HSPA+ support and NFC for Verizon's ISIS payment system.

Developer Yifan Lu has jailbroken the new Amazon Kindle Touch.

The jailbreak tool will not require you to use advanced techniques as it is just an MP3 file.

Because the Touch operating systems uses more HTML than Java, devs/hackers say it is easier to exploit, at least for now.

While there are no uses, yet, for jailbreaking the device, it will likely not take long before homebrew apps are available that allow for the playback of non-Amazon files, and more, like custom ROMS (potentially).

Beijing has finally approved the Apple smartphone.

In China, before a device can be allowed onto Chinese networks, it must first be approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

With the new approval, China Unicom should begin selling the device soon, although the carrier has not provided a timeline except to say "this month."

The approved model is compatible with GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA / HSUPA, Bluetooth, and WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure), says MIC.

China Unicom will sell the smartphone for 4999 yuan ($790 USD) without contract.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

On Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Captain America - Sentinel of Liberty
Raging Thunder
NFL 3D Live Wallpaper
Backbreaker Football
Jenga
Just Me and My Mom
BackStab HD
Sim City Deluxe
Edmondo Sports Tracker
GLWG

HP has put their refurb TouchPads on sale on eBay for $99 + $19 shipping.

Over 2000 have already been sold.

Go now: HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 16GB Refurbished | FB355UAR#ABA

Original Article:

On Sunday, starting at 6 PM Central Time, HP will be selling refurbished 16GB and 32GB TouchPads on their eBay store.
The devices will sell for $99 and $149 just like they did on the firesale days of a few months ago.

Additionally, the company will be selling a $79 accessory bundle which has the wireless keyboard, charging dock and a case.

There is only a 90-day warranty on the devices and sales are final, no returns. Users can only buy 2 per eBay account.

The tablets will be available at http://stores.ebay.com/hewlettpackard.

Popular comedian Louis CK has decided to release his latest film, DRM-free, and for just $5.

When you pay, you can stream the movie twice or download it and own it forever, with no DRM.

The comedian does ask that people not steal his film, "Live at the Beacon Theater," and hopefully fans do not.

Says CK (via Crunch):

To those who might wish to 'torrent' this video: look, I don't really get the whole 'torrent' thing. I don't know enough about it to judge either way. But I'd just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without 'corporate' restrictions.

Please bear in mind that I am not a company or a corporation. I'm just some guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I would like to be able to post more material to the fans in this way, which makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me keep this being a good idea. I can't stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way.

HP has said it will not quit the webOS hardware business, although they would not put a roadmap on any future devices.

Even though the company said earlier in the year it was moving out of the webOS hardware business, new CEO Meg Whitman is going a different direction.

Says Whitman:

The answer to that is yes but what I can't tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not. We will use webOS in new hardware, but it's just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we've been taking it in the past.

According to Digi, Apple's manufacturing partners are expected to build around 2 million iPhone 3GS this quarter.

This number is certainly significant since the phone was launched 30 months ago and has since been succeeded by the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

The report notes that after this holiday season, production will begin winding down to 1.5 million units in the Q1 2012.

Furthermore, Apple will look to wind down production of the CDMA iPhone 4 from 1 million units this quarter to just 500,000 next quarter.

The CDMA iPhone 4 is sold by Verizon and Sprint in the U.S.

Starting tomorrow, struggling retailer Radio Shack is preparing to discount the AT&T models of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Each will see a $29 discount, bringing the small capacity iPhone 4s to just $69.99 with contract.

Radio Shack says they still have many iPhone 4 in stock, and obviously a large supply of the new 4S.

The 4S will sell for $169.99 at 16GB and $369.99 at 64GB, as expected.

Each phone requires a 2-year contract commitment with AT&T but the phones are cheaper than many high-end Android rivals.

Pic via BGR.

Sharp has noted this week that it expects to sell over 1 million big screen TVs (60" and up) in North America for the fiscal year ended March 31st.

Furthermore, the company expects sales to continue to grow going forward.

Adds Kozo Takahashi, head of the company's operations in the Americas:

With only four months to go it looks as though we will make the 1 million mark in the U.S. alone. We expect that number to grow in the next fiscal year.

According to the latest data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, texting while driving keeps increasing, most notably among younger drivers.

50 percent of American drivers between 21-24 have admitted to emailing or texting while driving, even though it is illegal in 35 states.

The study says in 2010 there were 3092 deaths caused by driver distractions that included texting and eating meals.

Additionally, the agency stakes out intersections and manually tallies how many distracted drivers they see, and that number jumped to 1 in every 100 in 2010.

Overall, the study of 6000, showed that 20 percent of those who responded would answer a phone call or would send a text while driving.

55 percent said distracted driving made no difference to their driving, but 90 percent said when they were passengers they felt unsafe if the driver was distracted.

Despite doing so themselves, most of those surveyed were all for banning handheld electronics in the car or steep fines above $100.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

On Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Pano
Apparatus
The Sims 3
Age of Zombies
Drop7 by Zynga
Season Zen HD
Snowfall Live Wallpaper
SlidelT Keyboard
Kids Connect the Dots
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD

One school has confirmed it was forced to spend on XXX domain names to prevent any tarnishing of its reputation.

University of Kansas has bought numerous domains, including KUgirls.xxx and KUnurses.xxx.

Total expenses? $3000.

The University will sit on the domains and does not plan to add anything to the sites.

Over 100,000 pages have already been bought including big-name corporation protection such as Nike.xxx and Walmart.xxx.

Other Universities, like Indiana University, Purdue University and Ball State University have also bought the domain for their name, and other similar registrations, like Indiana taking hoosiers.xxx.

The ICM Registry sells the domain names for $100 a piece.

The NPD Group has said today that the gaming industry enjoyed its best November, ever, on the back of Modern Warfare 3.

Notes NPD's Anita Frazier:

This November marks the best November on record for sales of new physical content.

According to Digitimes, Barnes & Noble has received over 1 million of the new Nook Tablets from its component suppliers.

Citing the company's manufacturing partners, the report says the company had to increase its orders recently thanks to strong sales.

Initially, B&N had ordered 800,000 to be built through 2011.

The tablet has s a 7" display with a resolution of 1024x600, is powered by Android 2.3, has a 1GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM.

Nook Tablets come with 16GB onboard storage and accepts SD cards up to 32GB.

The device sells for $250.

UK retailer Clove has said this week that the highly-anticipated Transformer Prime will reach the nations next month.

Clove has the tablet up for pre-order with stock "expected in January."

The smaller capacity 32GB version will sell for £459.00 (£550.80 with VAT) with the keyboard dock.

Asus' 64GB variant will sell for the same price, but without the keyboard dock. Those are the only two versions available, currently, from Clove.

Finally, the company has promised an update to Ice Cream Sandwich in early January.

Sotheby's auction house is preparing to auction off the three pages of typewritten paper that are the founding papers for Apple.

On April 1st, 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne all signed the documents which are headlined "Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement."

The auction is expected to fetch about $150,000 next week in NYC.

Pencom Systems CEO Wade Saadi is the current owner of the documents, and he said he did not tell too many people he owned them.

However, after Jobs passed away earlier this year, his phone began ringing from those that did know, inquiring on how to purchase.

Video via NBC:

Maine senator Olympia Snowe has said today that Amazon should end its Price App promotion.

In an effort to bring awareness to their mobile app, Amazon is offering consumers up to $5 worth of free credit if they compare a product in-store and decide instead to buy it from the e-tailer.

You must use Amazon's Price Check app on Android or iOS, which gives users the chance to scan a bar code, take a pic of the item, or use a traditional text search to find the item, price, details and reviews of products.

When you walk in stores, Amazon is asking that users submit prices of items via the app, so that the company can confirm they have the lowest prices. The promotion is good for 5 percent off, up to $5, for up to three items.

Snowe says:

Amazon's promotion -- paying consumers to visit small businesses and leave empty-handed -- is an attack on Main Street businesses that employ workers in our communities. Small businesses are fighting everyday to compete with giant retailers, such as Amazon, and incentivizing consumers to spy on local shops is a bridge too far.

HP has said today that it will be donating its webOS software to the open source community, just 20 months after purchasing Palm and webOS for $1.2 billion.

The company says it will remain active in the development and support of the operating system and hope that adding community support will certainly help the software survive for new generations of hardware.

Says the press release:

webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable. By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.

The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform
HP will be an active participant and investor in the project
Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation
Software will be provided as a pure open source project
HP also will contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the community in the near future along with a plan for the remaining components of the user space.

According to some great research from Asymco, it appears that every Apple employee makes Apple $278 per hour in revenue.

Each store made $481,000 revenue per employee in 2010, up from $388,000 in 2009.

The average revenue per store visit is $45, and Apple had 250 million visits last year.

Asymco says there are 1 employee for every 10,000 annual visits.

Each employee is estimated to work "360 hours per quarter, so the average employee sees 6 visitors per hour or one every 10 minutes. As that visitor generates more than $45 of revenue, an Apple store employee creates sales at the rate of about $278/hour."

Earlier in the year, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) took down the popular hip-hop music blog Dajaz1.com, claiming it was a "rogue site" and guilty of copyright infringement.

The domain seizure was notable because the owner came out in full force defending the blog, even sending the New York Times emails that document how most of the "infringing" tracks made it to his site - they had been sent directly to him by artists and labels looking for some underground promotion.

This week, ICE has apologized for the seizure, and returned the domain to its owner. ICE says "the government concluded that the appropriate and just result was to decline to pursue judicial forfeiture," according to Ars.

A lawyer for the site says it was almost impossible to get the domain back, as the government had sealed the files, blocking anyone from seeing how they were receiving extensions on the forfeiture deadline, which expired months ago.

Despite the domain being returned, the RIAA continues to say that the owner of the site "specialized in the massive unauthorized distribution of pre-release music. Dajaz1 profited from its reputation for providing links to pre-release copies, and during that time nearly 2,300 recordings linked to the site were removed from various file-sharing services."

Last week, Nintendo announced that its 3DS Circle Pad Pro would require a AAA battery, much to the dismay of gamers.

This week however, those concerns have mainly been put to bed, as it appears the peripheral will work for 480 hours of gameplay on one single battery, giving most casual gamers a year or so before they need to go out an replace the battery, which can cost as low as $1 for a 2-pack.

The peripheral launches tomorrow along with the release of Monster Hunter 3G in Japan, says 1up.

First rumored in the summer, the company introduced the Circle Pad in September.

A few other games that can use the control system are Resident Evil: Revelations and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D.

The peripheral will likely cost $19.99 when it hits the EU and NA markets.

The consensus amongst Wall Street's research analysts is that Apple will hit 30 million iPhones sold in the fourth quarter of 2011, surpassing their previous record amount by a gigantic leap.

Previous high estimates were at 28 million but demand for the 4S has been unprecedented.

AT&T recently said they expected to have their best smartphone quarter ever, as well, thanks to iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S sales.

The 3GS is the first iPhone to sell for $0 (with contract), making it very popular with users who want an iPhone but may not be able to pay the upfront fees for the newer devices.

A few of the notable Apple analysts to raise forecasts are Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu and Ticonderoga Securities' Brian White, who says his checks of the company's suppliers has shown huge growth and demand was higher than ever.

Nintendo has said this week that thanks to a partnership with Boingo, the company is expanding its free Wi-Fi hotspots for 3DS handheld users to 42 U.S airports.

Using the handheld, owners can use the hotspots to play online games, browse and purchase from the 3DS eStore and watch online videos.

The hotspots also give access to the Nintendo Zone, a virtual service that gives gamers coupons and promotional offers.

"With the holiday season approaching, more leisure travelers and families with children will fill our airports and have access to our hotspots," says Colby Goff, senior vice president of strategy and business development for Boingo Wireless (Sutra). "Our state-of-the-art networks will provide Nintendo 3DS users with seamless connectivity and fast, reliable service to help them make the most of their travel downtime."

Citing trusted sources, BGR is reporting that Samsung is working on an 11.6-inch tablet for launch at the Mobile World Congress in February.

The tablet will have a powerful dual-core Cortex A15 Exynos 5250 CPU clocked at 2GHz and a massive 2560x1600 16:10 resolution.

Additionally, the device will have a smaller bezel to compensate for the extra size of the screen.

The 11.6 (probably not the name) will run on Android 4.0, include NFC Beam and have an optional HDTV dock.

For now this is rumor but the tablet will certainly be one of the most powerful if it launches when expected.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

On Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Spirit HD
Shazam Encore
Sentinel 3: Homeworld
Farm Frenzy
Toddler Spanish
Need for Speed Shift
Jelly Defense
Game Dev Story
Baseball Superstars 2011
My Beach HD

Microsoft has unveiled the Windows 8 Windows Store, where developers can sell apps.

Starting in February, devs can sell apps for a minimum $1.49 up to $1000.

Like other app stores Microsoft will take 30 percent revenue, but if your app is popular and brings over $25,000, the cut is reduced to 20 percent.

In-app transactions have the same split, if they use Microsoft's billing system.

Windows Store developer accounts cost $49.

Pics via Verge:

Apple has confirmed its large Grand Central store will open tomorrow at 10 AM.

The 23,000 square-foot megastore will be complete with Genius Bar tech support and "a few new things designed for people who move at New York speed," says ABC.

Those include: "We have all of our workshops as well as one-to-one training. We'll also have, exclusive to this store, 15-minute express workshops that are streamlined versions of all our favorite workshops."

There is also an Apple Store App which will let you use your iOS device to make purchases online and pick up the product when you get to Grand Central.

The store will have 300 employees.

Apple bought out the space that was rented by Charlie Palmer's Metrazur restaurant for $5 million, ensuring Palmer breaks his lease 8 years early.

The MTA says Apple will pay $1.1 million rent per year, a significantly higher amount than Metrazur, which was paying $263,997. Foot traffic through Grand Central is over 750,000 people per day, with commuters having an average salary above $100,000.

Months after warning users, AT&T has now begun throttling data speeds for heavy users.

If you are, according to AT&T, in the top 5 percent of all users, you are likely to see your speeds reduced into the end of the billing cycle.

The new rule affects only users with unlimited plans, as everyone else is already on a tiered plan.

Without giving an exact figure, AT&T says top 5 percent users normally consumer "12 times as much traffic as the average customer." I take that to mean over 10GB, but it is unclear what figures AT&T uses. It is estimated Apple users consumer 800MB per month.

AT&T was recently rated dead last for carriers in the annual Consumer Reports satisfaction survey.

Streaming games service OnLive has set out to disrupt the mobile industry, introducing apps for Android tablets and smartphones.

The apps will let gamers play new PC and console games on their mobile devices, with the touchscreen or with a new OnLive controller. Because it is streamed, users do not need to have huge memory cards to fit the games.

A few of the touch-enabled games are Bastion, Darksiders, Dirt 3, LEGO Batman and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Chaos Rising.

To use the gaming service you need Android 2.3 or higher. The list OnLive provides says these devices are compatible: Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, HTC Evo View, HTC Flyer, HTC Jetstream, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony Ericsson Tablet S, Toshiba Thrive, HTC EVO, HTC Nexus One, HTC Rezound 4G, HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL, Motorola Droid 2, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola DROID BIONIC 4G, Motorola DROID RAZR 4G, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II 4G.

Verizon has announced this morning that its 4G LTE service has been returned to normal, following a one-day technical issue.

Yesterday, customers complained of slow speeds on their devices, which could not connect to 4G and were stuck on 3G, instead.

Verizon would not give an explanation for the outage but said service is fully restored: "The company's network operations team resolved a technical issue."

The carrier's 4G service is available in 179 cities to a population of 186 million.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

The deals went live earlier than yesterday, when they didn't go up until 4 PM.

On Tuesday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

List, available now from here or via your Android phone/tablet:

Talking Tom Cat 2
Reckless Getaway
ADW EX Launcher
Tetris
Space Physics
Can Knockdown 2
Homerun Battle 3D
Toki Tori
Kids Learn to Read
Blue Skies Donation Wallpaper

On Sunday, starting at 6 PM Central Time, HP will be selling refurbished 16GB and 32GB TouchPads on their eBay store.

The devices will sell for $99 and $149 just like they did on the firesale days of a few months ago.

Additionally, the company will be selling a $79 accessory bundle which has the wireless keyboard, charging dock and a case.

There is only a 90-day warranty on the devices and sales are final, no returns. Users can only buy 2 per eBay account.

The tablets will be available at http://stores.ebay.com/hewlettpackard.

Hackers have posted 14 of Mark Zuckerberg's private Facebook pictures to the Internet in an effort to highlight a serious bug.

The pictures were uploaded to imgur with the headline "It's time to fix those security flaws Facebook."

After the incident, Facebook says it fixed the glitch, which was found in the tools that help users report inappropriate images.

Said Facebook of the glitch (via the Beeb):

Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously.

The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user's most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos.

This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.

The German Mac site Macerkopf has posted the latest rumor on the upcoming iPhone 5 today.

Sources speaking to the site say Apple is working on multiple configurations of the new smartphone.

The first test device has a quad-core processor, although the site says it was nowhere near a foregone conclusion that the device will have one. The second test device has very powerful dual-core processors, with 28nm technology and high clock speeds.

Additionally, the devices are being tested with different resolutions, all larger than the current 960x640.

720p displays of 1280x720 and 1440x900 are being tested.

The iPhone 5 is expected next October.

Amazon has announced the one day promotion for December 10th.

In an effort to bring awareness to their mobile app, Amazon is offering consumers up to $5 worth of free credit if they compare a product in-store and decide instead to buy it from the e-tailer.

You must use Amazon's Price Check app on Android or iOS, which gives users the chance to scan a bar code, take a pic of the item, or use a traditional text search to find the item, price, details and reviews of products.

When you walk in stores, Amazon is asking that users submit prices of items via the app, so that the company can confirm they have the lowest prices.

"We scour online and in-store advertisements from other retailers, every day, year-round," said Sam Hall, director of Amazon Mobile. "Now, we are enabling customers to use the Price Check app to share in-store prices while they search for the best deals."

The promotion is good for 5 percent off, up to $5, for up to three items.

For the second year in a row, AT&T has gotten the worst rating in Consumer Report's annual satisfaction survey.

On the high end, little regional carrier Consumer Cellular got the highest ratings.

Among the major carriers, Verizon took first, Sprint took second and T-Mobile took third.

Despite being in third, T-Mobile had significantly higher ratings than its GSM rival, across the board. AT&T had tried to acquire the carrier for $39 billion but was rebuffed by the U.S. government.

"Our survey indicates that subscribers to prepaid and smaller standard-service providers are happiest overall with their cell-phone service," added Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports. "However, these carriers aren't for everyone. Some are only regional, and prepaid carriers tend to offer few or no smart phones.The major carriers are still leading options for many consumers, and we found they ranged widely in how well they satisfied their customers."

Consumer Reports says "we surveyed over 66,000 of our subscribers about their service and customer-support experience with both standard and no-contract providers." The full report will be available next month.

Here is today's list of 10 cent apps from the Android Market.

The deals went live at 4 PM.

Yesterday, the Android Market started an excellent promotion, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

List, available now:

Beautiful Widgets
Flick Golf!
Fruit Ninja
Reckless Racing
AirSync by doubleTwist
Christmas HD
Star Chart
Read It Later Pro
NFL Rivals
BB-Bedtime Battle

According to Reuters, Verizon will launch a standalone streaming service next year, taking on Netflix and traditional cable providers.

The company is already in talks with prospective partners, and Verizon will launch the service "outside of markets where it currently offers its broadband and TV package (FiOS)."

If accurate, that means the new streaming service will be available to 85 million households.

Unfortunately, the sources say the package will be pretty limited and be more similar to "Starz Play" and "Epix" than a full Netflix-esque offering.

Allegedly, Verizon has been weighing the offering for two years now.

The NFL is on the verge of extending its major media-rights deals this week, with the agreements bringing the league $3.2 billion per year over 8 years.

Each of deals will be an extension of prior deals with Fox, NBC and CBS and be a 60 percent increase over the prior contract details.

When completed, the deals, along with the current media-rights agreements with ESPN and DTV, will bring the league $6 billion per year for the nation's most popular sport.

Both the NFL and its partners are now exchanging terms sheets and the deal is expected to close before Christmas.

Before the new deals, the NFL brings in about $9.4 billion in revenue per year.

Starbucks is seeing a big success in their mobile initiatives.

In January, the company started its Starbucks mobile app, which allows users to pay for their coffee (and everything else) using a mobile app and a "digital Starbucks card."

How the "Starbucks Mobile Pay" works is users with Android or iOS devices load money onto their digital cards and then present a barcode to pay-by-scan at registers in 9000 different locations.

Since launch, over 26 million mobile payments have been made, says Adam Brotman, vice president and general manager of digital ventures at Starbucks, via VB.

6 million of those transactions have occurred in the last nine weeks, showing growth is strong.

Microsoft has confirmed the rumor today that its first public Windows 8 Beta will be released in February.

The company also added that the Developer Preview had been downloaded over 3 million times.

Original story:

TNW is reporting today that sources have told them the public Windows 8 beta will be released in February.

The operating system has long been rumored to have a September 2012 release date, and the new beta date still leaves that month as a very viable option.

It is unclear what will be added in the beta, as a feature set has not been released, yet.

There has been a developer preview released, and some earlier versions of the OS were leaked, but each had noticeable features missing, including the email function.

Check our guide on how to Install Windows 8 Dev Preview in VMware Workstation here.

Cox Communications has made TV streaming available to iPad owners , as long as you have one of their more expensive cable subscriptions.

Dubbed the Cox TV Connect app, users can log in and watch live TV from their tablets.

"A screen is a screen is a screen," added Cox VP of Video Strategy Steve Necessary.

For now, the app only has 35 live channels, compared to similar apps from rivals like Cablevision that offer all their hundreds of channels.

Cox says it will add content on a rolling basis.

The European Commission has launched its investigation into whether ebook publishers Lagardere, Pearson Plc, News Corp, CBS and MacMillan colluded with Apple to price-fix ebooks, making it more expensive for the end consumer.

Says the EC (via Reuters):

The Commission will in particular investigate whether these publishing groups and Apple have engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition in the European Union or in the European Economic Area.

The Commission is also examining the character and terms of the agency agreements entered into by the above named five publishers and retailers for the sale of e-books.

As of 11 AM, over 100,000 .XXX websites are live, ushering in a new "era" of porn.

After a decade of debates, the new top-level domain went public this year, allowing companies to have porn-only addresses.

Says the ICM registry (company behind handing out domains):

The Internet is home to a wealth of content, suitable for a wide range of ages and values. The adult entertainment industry has, and always will, account for a large amount of this content and while it is enjoyed by some, it is not suitable, or of interest, to all Internet users.

Regardless of your views on adult content, it's here to stay, so let's be adult about it.

The Android Market has started an excellent promotion today, offering 10 days of 10 popular apps for 10 cents.

Android's promotion is in celebration of 10 billion apps being downloaded from the market.

The first apps are:

SoundHound
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD
Minecraft - Pocket Edition
Swiftkey X
Endomondo Sports Tracker
Great Little War Game
Sketchbook Movile
Fieldrunners HD
Color & Draw for Kids (Phone)
Paper Camera

Google has announced today that their Voice Search feature in Android and iOS has now added Arabic and Hebrew support.

Thanks to the update, Voice Search now supports 29 languages in 37 countries.

Users in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, UAE, and Israel now have access.

Says Google:

When building support for Arabic and Hebrew into our language model we faced some unique challenges, including how to understand words with diacritics (accents that indicate a difference in pronunciation, a linguistic phenomenon called "Nikud" in Hebrew, and "Tashkil" in Arabic) and words appended with other words ("and" for example) that can have many different nuanced meanings.

To train our system we collected over one million utterances in Arabic and Hebrew, using the languages as they are spoken in the more populated parts of each country. For Arabic, we trained the system to recognize Gulf, Levant and Egyptian dialects. While initially we may not accurately recognize words spoken in every regional accent and dialect, one of the major benefits to Google's cloud-based model is that the more people use Voice Search, the more accurate it becomes.

According to the latest comScore figures, Android and iOS continue to grow their smartphone market share in the U.S.

Android jumped 4.4 percentage points to 46.3 percent for the three-month period ended October 30th.

Apple, after seeing strong sales of the iPhone 4S and continued sales of other iPhones, jumped 1 percentage point to 28.1 percent.

BlackBerry, which used to have over 50 percent share n the U.S., fell another 4.5 percentage points to 17.2 percent.

Microsoft, with its now defunct Windows Mobile 6.5 and its latest Windows Phone 7.5 came in fourth at 5.4 percent share.

Samsung remained the top selling smartphone maker in the nation.

Verizon's upcoming Galaxy Nexus will cost $299 with contract when it inevitably hits the carrier this month.

Google and Samsung unveiled the flagship Android 4.0 phone earlier this year but all the companies involved have been utterly quiet on a release date.

The $299 price tag makes sense as Verizon has set that price point for its LTE phones.

As reported earlier, Verizon is unsurprisingly removing a major feature, Google's "Google Wallet" NFC-based service.

This is likely because Verizon is part of the joint "Isis" NFC payment system.

RIM has fired the two employees that were so drunk and unruly on a flight to China that the plane had to make an emergency landing.

Says the company: "RIM does not condone behaviour that conflicts with applicable laws and employees are expected to act, at all times, with integrity and respect."

Original Story:

RIM has suspended its two employees after their excessive drunkeness forced a flight to make an emergency landing.

45-year-old George Campbell of Conestogo and 38-year-old Paul Alexander Wilson of Kitchener were so belligerent on a recent flight from Toronto to Beijing that the crew had to physically handcuff them to their seats before eventually detouring and settling for an emergency landing in Vancouver.

The two have also plead guilty to mischief and will have to pay the airline $71,757 in restitution for the flight delay, the landing, and the hotel rooms for all 312 passengers. The flight made it to Beijing 18 hours late after an overnight in Vancouver.

Added RIM:

Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation.

As part of their punishment, neither can use Air Canada for one year.

HTC has seen its revenue fall for the first time in two years this quarter, as the smartphone maker struggles to keep up with the competition.

The Taiwanese-based company said today they made 31 billion Taiwanese dollars ($1.03 billion USD) in revenue for the month of November, down from 38.4 billion ($1.28 billion) last November.

HTC's figure was even more surprising because the company saw a 36 percent jump in October.

The company recently signed a deal to take a majority share of Beats Audio, including the technology in all its latest devices.

CEO Peter Chou has promised quad-core phones and tablets in 2012.

MIPS has created their own Android tablet, and it will sell for $100.

While there are many cheap Android tablets available on the market, what separates this from the rest is that it will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and have a capacitive multi-touch screen.

The Novo 7 tablet will run a 1GHz Ingenic Xburst processor made by MIPS, dual-cameras (2MP rear/VGA front facing), an SD card slot and HDMI out.

Additionally, the tablet can handle "3D graphics with the Vivante GC860 GPU and 1080p video decoding."

Says Ingenic:

We are pleased to join with MIPS to announce these breakthrough high-performance, low-power, low-cost Android 4.0 tablets. Combining the elegance of the MIPS architecture and Ingenic?s innovation in processor design, we are bringing a new level of processor technology to mobile devices. As we continue to collaborate with MIPS to broaden the mobile ecosystem around the legendary MIPS architecture, we anticipate even broader proliferation of our devices worldwide. We believe the mobile world will be more versatile and colorful with another processor joining in.

Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Vita will region-lock all digital content.

If you need to switch to a different PSN account the hanheld will need to be factory reset, says Sony Japan's Third-Party Relations chief Brad Douglas.

Just like the PSPs of the past, gamers can only use one account.

Physical media will remain region-free but gamers who are fans of region-specific PSN content will not be able to access the content without factory resetting their console.

Admitted Douglas, however (via Reg):

The Vita is not region-locked, but that only applies to physical media. Don't know the rationale behind locking digital.

It has been slowly working its way to this point but Android 2.3.x is now on a majority of Android devices, at 50.6 percent.

Android 2.2.x Froyo is on 35.3 percent. Google's newly released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought up the rear at 0.01 percent.

Android 2.1 Eclair fell to under 10 percent (9.6) for the first time in years, while Honeycomb 3.0-3.2 came in at just 2.4 percent, showing the low availability of the OS for tablets.

Somewhat astonishingly, the 3 years old Android 1.5 and 1.6 was still on a combined 2.1 percent of devices.

(Pics via RWW)

The disgraced Japanese camera company Olympus may have hid up to $1.7 billion in losses through fraudulent accounting.

Sources close to the panel investigating the fraud say Olympus, at its peak, hid losses of 130 billion yen, equal to $1.7 billion USD.

Although there was rumors of Yakuza ties, the panel has not found sufficient proof.

In an effort to hide losses from poor investments over the past decade, Olympus went through a huge series of mergers and acquisitions and then inflated the administration fees paid out for the acquisition to companies that did not exist or were owned by Olympus.

Former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and ex-internal auditor Hideo Yamada are likely to be charged with the fraud, and potentially former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. All have resigned.

Jailbroken iPhone 4 users, rejoice.

The blog InTech-BB (currently down) has posted a guide on how to add the popular Apple virtual assistant Siri to the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G (fourth gen).

H1Siri comes via the Chinese dev group "CD-Team" and the app has been released to Cydia, which is the App Store for jailbroken iOS devices.

The only requirements are Cydia and iOS 5.

Because the app is new, there are expected bugs, including a camera bug that requires its own fix.

HTC previewed the much-awaited Honeycomb update for its Flyer tablet in September but has been notably quiet since.

Today, the software update will hit all European nations offering the device.

The company says U.S. owners will be getting the update "very soon," without providing a solid timeline.

For those with Flyers, the update is 210MB large and will bring the OS to version 3.55.405.1.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) could eventually come to the Flyer, says the company, but the chances are likely low.

Despite their recent discontinuation of the Streak 5 and Streak 7 tablets, Dell has said they will still back Android into the future.

The company has currently shut down most of their mobile devices, and their only remaining American-available smartphones are the Dell Venue and Venue Pro, each of which run on Windows Phone 7.5. Speculation was Dell is waiting for Windows 8 for their next round of tablets.

Dell offers a 10-inch Android tablet, but only in China.

Says the company of their thoughts on Android (via Verge):

Dell remains committed to the mobility market and continues to sell products here and in other parts of the world. Streak 7 delivered a unique experience for customers who wanted a larger screen-size yet the freedom of staying connected to their personal and professional content while on the-go. It continues to be available in many markets through retail, distributors and carrier partners such as Optus in Australia. A 10-inch version of the tablet, Streak 10 Pro, is currently offered in China, offering the ultimate digital divide between work and life. The Venue and Venue Pro devices, as well, continue to earn accolades for performance, design and functionality around the world. We also recently launched the Latitude ST, a 10-inch Windows 7-based touch-screen tablet designed for vertical markets such as education, finance and healthcare in November of this year. We remain committed to expanding our reach beyond PCs with a targeted set of open, standards-based mobility solutions and services designed for commercial and mobile professional customers.

Earlier this year, Sony bought out Ericsson's stake in their decade-long "Sony Ericsson" joint venture for 1 billion euros.

Today, Kristian Tear, an executive VP at Sony Ericsson, has said that the company's transition back to just Sony will be completed by the middle of next year.

The new company will be "doubling down" on its smartphone offerings and killing off its feature phone division.

Finally, Tear says the company will be significantly increasing advertising and marketing in key markets.

Sony's mission statement is to eventually become a top Android vendor.

Gowalla has confirmed that they have been acquired by social networking behemoth Facebook.

The company says that its founders and team members will join Facebook and move to the Palo Alto headquarters with Gowalla "winding down at the end of January."

Users can then export their data at that point.

Adds FB, via Crunch:

We're excited to confirm that Gowalla co-founders Josh Williams and Scott Raymond, along with other members of the Gowalla team, are moving to Facebook in January to join our design and engineering teams. While Facebook isn't acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we're sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time.

According to a Vita developer interview, the new PS Vita will not allow web browsing whilst gaming.

When you hit the PS button during gameplay, the console menu will be brought up including the option to check friends list, music and Twitter. Web browsing is not included, however.

The Vita will run on an ARM Cortex A9 quad-core processor and be powered by a quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU.

Featuring a 5-inch capacitive multitouch OLED screen (with 16 million colors), the device will be 7.16 by 0.73 by 3.28 inches. Furthermore, the Vita has 512MB memory and 128MB VRAM in its graphics processor.

Sony recently announced the Vita will launch in Japan on December 17th and the U.S./EU in 2012.

Sony has listed the first 262 PSP games that can be downloaded for the upcoming Vita as part of the UMD Passport program.

How the program works is if you own the game on UMD, you can download a copy to your Vita at a discounted price.

In Japan, the service will launch on December 6th and the games will cost 500 to 1500 yen ($6-$19).

At launch, the 262 games will only represent a portion of the total 606 games available in the Japanese PlayStation Store. However, Square Enix, Namco Bandai, Konami and Capcom have not begun to support the program and they are certainly major publishers.

The games are here, in Japanese.

RIM has suspended its two employees after their excessive drunkeness forced a flight to make an emergency landing.

45-year-old George Campbell of Conestogo and 38-year-old Paul Alexander Wilson of Kitchener were so belligerent on a recent flight from Toronto to Beijing that the crew had to physically handcuff them to their seats before eventually detouring and settling for an emergency landing in Vancouver.

The two have also plead guilty to mischief and will have to pay the airline $71,757 in restitution for the flight delay, the landing, and the hotel rooms for all 312 passengers. The flight made it to Beijing 18 hours late after an overnight in Vancouver.

Added RIM (via theRecord):

Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation.

AT&T?s Dell Venue Pro is the latest device to get the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update, months after its launch.

Says Microsoft:

Hi everyone. Today we've started delivering Windows Phone 7.5 to Dell Venue Pro handsets on AT&T. If you (or friends or family members) haven't installed the update yet, now's the perfect time. You'll find step-by-step instructions at Update Central.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we're also continuing to deliver occasional firmware updates to specific Windows Phone models and carriers around the world. Firmware updates are designed to improve your phone's performance. If one is available for your phone, you'll see an update notification pop up.

The upcoming AMD Radeon HD 7000 series video cards have been priced, says FZ, and they won't come cheap.

The HD 7970 high-end card is expected to have XDR2 DRAM, PCI-E Gen 3, built with 28nm tech and include the new GCN architecture.

At $549, the 7900 will be the most expensive card in the lot.

The "mid-range" HD 7950 will sell for $449.

Full details will be revealed this week, says AMD.

Google has begun rolling out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for its employees using the Nexus S smartphone.

The company regularly give employees the OS first so they can work out any remaining bugs in a "contained environment."

Employee Adel Saoud says:

Just got Ice-cream Sandwich update on my Nexus S & it's looking great

Yeah an OTA, but it's an early one for Google employees so we test it further so it's even more awesome when you guys get it. So sadly I can't comment on it more at this time...

Wii U Daily has posted a spec sheet for the upcoming console from an "undisclosed developer."

Unfortunately for fans, these rumored specs are not all that impressive and the source seems to have mis-worded a good portion of the report.

According to the source, the Wii U will have a quad-core, 3-GHz CPU from IBM, a 45-nanometer PowerPC chip. This is strange because IBM has suggested the Wii U will run on a Power7 CPU, which would be significantly more powerful than the rumored chip.

Additionally, the console will have 768 megabytes of embedded DRAM and an "unknown 40-nanometer GPU from ATI." This is once again strange as eDRAM is extremely expensive and the current Wii only has 3MB of it, says PCM.

If accurate, the specs will place the Wii U squarely ahead of the PS3 and Xbox 360, each of which are over a half-decade old, but not by much.

Crackberry has a preview of the upcoming BlackBerry 2012 BBX roadmap.

The "London" (pictured) will be the first BlackBerry devices to use the BBX operating system, RIM's first move away from their BlackBerry OS and the first integration of the very sleep QNX OS.

Sources say the London should be released in March, although RIM is notorious for being late with their devices.

Headed further into 2012, the codenames looks like "Lisbon," "Milan," "Nevada," and "Black Forest."

The Milan has a preliminary March launch date, as well, and should be headed to AT&T.

Lisbon is expected to be a slider. Black Forest is a 10-inch PlayBook and Nevada is expected to be the next flagship device, a touch screen and full QWERTY BBX.

(Pic of the "London" via Read more...

Earlier this week, a Chinese seller put the HP TouchPad Go up for sale on eBay.

The TouchPad Go is the 7-inch prototype model of the now defunct TouchPad tablet.

On eBay, the pre-release model was put up for sale at $700 and it is unclear if there was interest before the auction was taken down.

The specs were mostly the same as the TouchPad, and this model came with a 3G radio and 32GB internal storage.

Auction was here.

Tesco has announced today that they will be adding free Wi-Fi to their Tesco Extra stores in the UK.

The only catch is you will need a Clubcard.

After getting a card, you register and then you have unlimited access anytime you are at a store.

Shoppers without a Clubcard will only get 15 minutes of access.

There are 13 Tesco Extra Stores in London, eight in Manchster and six in Birmingham.

It appears that Nokia has seen a significant downturn in market share in its native nation of Finland.

In the past 12 months, Nokia has dived from 76 percent market share to just 31 percent.

That figure is enough to keep the handset maker in first in the nation, but other companies have significantly closed the gap.

Samsung has jumped from 3 percent to 25 percent, Apple has jumped to 16 percent, Sony Ericsson and Huawei came in at 11 percent each, and Chinese handset maker ZTE has the remaining 6.

Nokia will look to take some of that share back with the release of their new Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7.5 device.

The Lumia has seen strong reviews out of the gate.

Game Informer's upcoming January magazine will give a first look into the new Obsidian Entertainment-developed "South Park"-based RPG.

The game is called "South Park: The Game," and publisher THQ says the game will hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC later next year.

Obsidian is the team behind Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol.

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are "writing the script, performing the dialogue, and overseeing the development of the game," says Shack.

Throughout the course of the game you get to control "the new kid" in South Park and the game requires you to make friends and "defend the town from a wide range of threats."

Concluding their study on piracy in the nation, the Swiss government says downloading unauthorized music and movies will remain legal, as the piracy actually pays for itself and does not cause enough damage to be made illegal.

The report says around 30 percent of all Swiss citizens have regularly pirated music, movies and games over the last 15 years.

However, says TF, "these people don't spend less money as a result because the budgets they reserve for entertainment are fairly constant. This means that downloading is mostly complementary."

Finally, the conclusion is as long as you are only downloading for personal use and not for monetary gain, you will be protected by the law.

Somewhat funnily, the study also says copyright holders should adapt to their present situation where piracy is a fixture.

CD Projekt RED co-founder Marcin Iwinski has said this week that DRM does not work, and should be stopped.

The studio is behind the hits The Witcher and the new The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

As an example, the studio says with no DRM on The Witcher 2, the company has already sold over 1 million legal copies.

Iwinski says he has seen all different types of DRM and anti-piracy measures since the 90s but none has ever worked:

Whatever we used was cracked within a day or two, massively copied and immediately available on the streets for a fraction of our price.

Apple has confirmed it has removed the Match.com app for violating store rules.

The developer added a direct link within the app to the dating service, a direct violation of Apple's policies for in-app subscriptions, says AI.

To quote the store's policy: "Apps can read or play approved content that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the app, as long as there is no button or external link in the app to purchase the approved content."

Match.com undoubtedly created in the app in such a manner as to get around Apple's 30 percent revenue cut.

To get their app re-introduced to the Store, Match.com will need to re-work the in-app subscription run through Apple's servers, therefore giving them back their revenue cut.

According to multiple sources, Facebook has acquired the location-based social service Gowalla.

Neither company would comment on the rumor.

Gowalla, which was made popular due to its "check-ins," recently redesigned its mobile apps to move towards "user-generated place recommendations."

Says the CEO Josh Williams: "We wanted to go back to our passion, which is inspiring people to visit new places and visit the world through the eyes of someone they trust."

Gowalla was beginning to feel the heat from check-in services like FourSquare and from daily deal behemoths Groupon and Google. Additionally, Facebook had added its own "Places" location-based deals service, but recently shut it down.

Dell has discontinued sales of its Steak 7 tablet, following less than stellar sales.

The computer company recently discontinued its Streak 5 tablet/smartphone hybrid, citing the same reasons.

Earlier this year, CEO and founder Michael Dell said the Android tablet "market has not developed to the expectations they would have had," suggesting the company is waiting for Windows 8 next year to jump back in the tablet market.

Currently, Dell offers the Inspiron Duo tablet/netbook combo, and its Venue Pro smartphone as its only Android and Windows Phone 7 offerings, leaving its mobile offerings very thin.

The company has a 10-inch Dell Streak Pro available in China, as well, but nowhere else.

(Pic via Verge)

Hyperkin, the console accessory maker has made their much-anticipated SupaBoy handheld Super NES available for purchase on Amazon.

As the company describes it: "The SupaBoy will play original SNES cartridges on a built-in 3.5" LCD screen and is designed to look like an original SNES controller including a D-pad, face buttons, as well as right and left shoulder buttons. The SupaBoy also includes two front loading ports that are compatible with full-size SNES controllers and video/audio out, allowing up to two players to play the SupaBoy on a regular TV screen."

The feature list:

Two seven-pin ports in front for wired controllers
SNES controller design
Screen size (diagonal): 3.5 inches
2.5 Hours battery life
Measures: 8.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches
Weight: 11.5 ounces
Stereo sound
AV Out
Headphone jack
Adjustable volume control

In June, Google acquired the large advertising optimization platform for publishers, AdMeld, for $400 million in cash.

The company launched in 2007 with $30 million in venture capital.

In July, the U.S. DOJ requested more info from Google over its acquisition, for anti-trust purposes.

Today, the DOJ has approved the acquisition:

We're pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice has today cleared this deal. We'll close the acquisition in the coming days and then start the real work-building improved products and services that help our publisher partners to make more informed decisions across all their ad space, and to grow their revenues.

According to Sony Division 2 Software Development Head Muneki Shimada, the company's new proprietary (and expensive) Vita memory cards are more secure, and have guaranteed performance.

By creating their own cards, with specified read/write speeds, they can guarantee the performance, instead of hoping that gamers pay to get better class cards.

Adding more security is a good thing, for Sony, who is looking to avoid having their new Vita ravaged by piracy like the original PSP was.

Furthermore, the new memory cards can't be used as "mass storage" on PCs, it will only sync with a proprietary Sony management program. The program is not optional, but required.

By using the program, Shimada says (via Shack) "you do not need to remember which folder contains data on the memory card," making it easier to find files.

The management program is ready for Windows and Mac.

Sony is selling the cards at $30 for 4GB, $45 for 8GB, $70 for 16GB or $120 for 32GB.

The Apple iPhone 4S will hit 6 new countries later this month, on December 16th.

Most notably from the new batch are BRIC nations Brazil and Russia, two of the most populated countries on the planet.

Additionally, the device is headed to Taiwan, the Philippines, South Africa, and Malaysia on the same date.

In Brazil, carrier Claro posted the release date but did not include prices. Grey market phones there have been selling for as much as $2000.

Russian retailers are already taking pre-orders.

After weeks of speculation, Acer has officially launched their ICONIA TAB A200, a slightly outdated tablet with Honeycomb and a Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

Nicely, the tablet will be upgraded to Android 4.0 late next month.

The device has 1GB RAM, 8GB or 16GB of storage, is a thick 12.4 mm, has a resolution of 1280 x 800 and a large 3260mAh battery.

Additionally, Acer has added its "Acer Ring" UI to Android, which adds better multi-tasking features and screenshot capabilities.

Finally, the tablet has a 2MP front-side camera and full USB port next to a microSD slot.

(Specs, pics via netbooknews)

TNW is reporting today that sources have told them the public Windows 8 beta will be released in February.

The operating system has long been rumored to have a September 2012 release date, and the new beta date still leaves that month as a very viable option.

It is unclear what will be added in the beta, as a feature set has not been released, yet.

There has been a developer preview released, and some earlier versions of the OS were leaked, but each had noticeable features missing, including the email function.

Check our guide on how to Install Windows 8 Dev Preview in VMware Workstation here.

HBO Co-President Eric Kessler has not so subtly said this week that Netflix will never get any of the company's original programming.

The company has massively popular series like True Blood, Game of Thrones, Entourage and Boardwalk Empire, among a plethora of others.

Kessler called streaming companies "competitors" and also went as far as to say that the current spike in "chord cutting," where consumers cancel their cable TV service, will reverse when the economy recovers.

HBO currently offers its TV shows online and on mobile devices to subscribers via HBO Go, which has been a very popular option since its launch.

Earlier this year, Netflix and HBO publicly bid against each other for the right's to David Fincher's "House Of Cards," with Netflix winning out after offering conditions no other reasonable company could match.

Carter Nicholas of eDataSource has noted today that Amazon has sold 850,000 Kindle Fire tablets through their own site, alone, with many more expected from other retailers.

Says the CEO: "Our estimate is that Amazon.com has now sold 850,000 units direct from the Amazon.com site. Total sales would be substantially larger. Amazon may have sold as many as 2 million or more so far when you consider all sales channels."

For example, Best Buy has said the tablet is selling extremely well, but we wont see actual figures until their quarterly earnings report later this month.

Amazon did not confirm that figure but did say (via Cnet) "even before the busy holiday shopping weekend, we'd already sold millions of the new Kindle family and Kindle Fire was the bestselling product across all of Amazon.com."

That was fast.

Plaintiffs have sued Carrier IQ, and phone makers HTC and Samsung for violating federal wiretapping laws this week, just one day after the U.S. Senate got involved in the scandal.

For the past few weeks, there has been much ado about Carrier IQ, the software unknowingly pre-loaded in over 140 million smartphones around the world.

The company has been accused of being a rootkit/keylogger pre-installed on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Nokia devices around the world. The software quietly watches and logs all keystrokes entered into the device, including texts. It also monitors location, when you shut your phone off, and who you call.

In the latest suit, violations of the Federal Wiretap Act, if convicted, will cost the company $100 per day, per violation. Conservatively saying that the company has been spying on you for 6 months, the fine could be as high as $2,520,000,000,000.

Thanks to the Android-x86.org group, the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system has been ported to work on x86 processors like those made by AMD and Intel.

With the port, the OS should be able to be used on notebooks without any need for virtualization.

Additionally, the OS could be made available for x86 tablets in the near future, as well.

The current port is still a "work-in-progress" and has broken support for audio, cameras, wired networking and hardware acceleration.

What does work, however, is full multitouch, Wi-Fi and graphics acceleration.

Quick Guide: How to check if your smartphone is infected with Carrier IQ

What carriers, OEMs are known to have Carrier IQ installed?

Amazon has expanded its Kindle Store to Spain and Italy today.

Additionally, the company has now begun officially selling the e-readers in the nations.

The Spanish Kindles will cost 99 euros and Amazon says there are now "22,000 Spanish-language Kindle books, including the most best sellers in Spain with 20 of the Top 30 El Cultural non-fiction best sellers, the largest selection of Catalan, Basque, and Galician books, and over a thousand free classics in Spanish."

In Italy, the Kindles will cost the same price, and Amazon boasts "the largest selection of Italian-language titles in digital with over 16,000 Italian-language Kindle books, a wide array of best sellers and hundreds of free Italian classics."

The stores have a total of 900,000 titles, in multiple languages.

Apple has made a statement in the huge CarrierIQ fiasco, saying they have now fully dropped support for the rootkit/keylogger.

The next update for iOS 5 (and other past operating systems) will remove all traces of the software.

Says Apple:

We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.

The RIM BlackBerry PlayBook has been jailbroken.

Three hackers lay claim to the feat, saying: "We've done it. We've broken RIM's fancy security. We've got the device fully rooted - this persists even after the device reboots."

In the video, the hackers show off root on version 1.0.8 of the PlayBook's QNX-based operating system, but they say the root works on the newer 2.0 beta, as well.

Furthermore, the tablet can now access Hulu, which is blocked from mobile devices.

The group comically calls the tool DingleBerry.

Adds the group:

So we're planning on releasing this pretty soon, just as soon as we finish cleaning up a couple of things that are still looming and finish up a tool to make it easier for you guys.

I'm hoping that at some point we can maybe even get a full version of Android running on the PlayBook, although that's going to be a lot of work.

NOD32 and Kaspersky, the popular anti-virus solutions, have had some of their websites defaced by hackers.

Kapersky's Costa Rican site was hacked by Algerian hackers "Over-X," "indoushka" and "Saousha."

The attackers say it is not the first time the site has been unsecured, and as of earlier today, the site was still down.

NOD32's Ukrainian site (nod32.in.ua) was hit by the hackers KhantastiC haX0r and Shadow008 but has since been restored and re-secured.

The page, when defaced, read: "HellO NoD32. Where is Security ?! Are U Hacked ? Yesh ! U have been Hacked Once Again :D !!! Everyday Someone Get Hacked Today is your Day. Impossible only means it has not been done..."

The same group hit Panda Security last month, as well.

Spotify has introduced its new Spotify Apps features today, with the company opening up the Spotify platform to third-party developers.

The first partners are big companies like Billboard, Last.fm and Rolling Stone.

For example, Rolling Stone will have editors and musicians create playlists that will be backed by Spotify.

Furthermore, the platform is now open to developers who can build HTML5 apps backed by the service.

User can also use the new "App Finder" search bar in Spotify to find apps, like as if it were the App Store or Android Market.

(Pic via Verge)

Over the last two weeks, the phone-tracking firm Carrier IQ has seen its popularity explode, but not in a good way.

The company has been accused of being a rootkit/keylogger pre-installed on over 100 million Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Nokia devices around the world. The software quietly watches and logs all keystrokes entered into the device, including texts. It also monitors location, when you shut your phone off, and who you call.

In the U.S., AT&T and Sprint are carrier partners, and HTC and Samsung are noted manufacturers that use it.

Here is the video that started the scandal, thanks to Trevor Eckhart (continue after the video for rest of article).



Because the company has sent a C&D to Trevor, and the company has stopped answering reporters, the US government has gotten involved.

Toshiba has announced it will be closing half of its discrete chip-making facilities in Japan and already cut down on production by the end of the month.

The company currently has six facilities in the nation.

Toshiba, just like other manufacturers, has said that demand for TVs and PCs has fallen sharply in Europe and that overall no one in the U.S. or Europe is in the market for their discrete chips at this point in time.

The plants will close down starting in April, but production will be slowed across the board starting this month.

Furthermore, along with weakening demand is the strength of the Yen, which has hit levels not seen since the 1940s. Similar reasons were cited by Toyota, who has temporarily halted some of its Japanese operations.

Time Warner Cable and other ISPs are preparing to move to usage-based pricing for their Internet access, in the latest ploy to squeeze every last cent from consumers.

One analyst, Craig Moffett, of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. says he predicts that either Time Warner, Cox or Charter will institute the pricing model in 2012.

So far, there have been no official moves to usage-based pricing in the U.S., but (of course), AT&T has been experimenting. Rogers in Canada has been using the model since 2008.

It appears that the ISPs, most of which are cable TV providers, as well, are scared of the exponentially growing usage of web video spurred by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple and more recently HBO and Google.

Time Warner, the second-largest US cable operator, says they lost 126,000 pay-TV accounts last quarter as more consumers "cut the chord."

The ISP tried to test tiered pricing in 2009 but overwhelming consumer disgust forced the company to drop the attempt.

Streaming services such as Netflix have vocally panned the move, which will force it (and other similar companies) to lose millions of subscribers.

The UK broadcaster ITV has acquired free-to-air rights for some of the most popular Warner Bros. films, including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the 6th film in the 8 film franchise.

ITV already has the right for the first 5 films. The franchise concluded earlier this year with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2.

"ITV has been a great supporter of the films produced by the studio over the years," added Jeffrey R. Schlesinger, president, Warner Bros. International Television Distribution, "and this deal once again illustrates the continuing value of top quality feature films to broadcast networks."

As part of their releases, ITV also produces a new Harry Potter: Behind The Scene Magic TV special hosted by Ben Shephard for each film.

Additionally, the deal adds films like 300, I am Legend, Body of Lies and extends deals for the Matrix trilogy, Troy, Mystic River and others.