Less than a week before their official announcement Neogaf has posted what appears to be the hardware specs for the upcoming Wii 2 (Project Cafe).

If the leaked specs are accurate, the system will bring a very powerful console, Blu-ray support, backwards compatibility and finally, HD graphics.

The leaked specs:

Graphics:
Custom AMD RV770 Chip “WOLF” @ 766Mhz on 32nm process
1398 Gflops

CPU:
Custom IBM Power 6 Chip “FOX” on 32nm process
4 cores, each two way SMT-capable and clocked at 3.5 GHz
175.9 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (single-precision)
87.6 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance (double-precision)

Memory:
512 MB XDR2 DRAM main memory
+ 1024 GDDR5 video memory
+ 16 MB eDRAM

Storage:
2.5-inch SATA hard drive with 250 GB / 320 GB capacity
Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 64 GB)

Read more...

Twitter may be ready to introduce its own photo-sharing service as early as this week, say multiple reports.

The service will be announced tomorrow at the D9 Conference in California, with CEO Dick Costolo as keynote speaker.

Currently, there are a number of competing photo services for Twitter, with the most popular being TwitPic, Lockerz and Yfrog.

The new service shouldn't be anything too mind blowing, but will be likely integrated into Twitter's official Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Web apps/sites.

Twitter recently acquired popular client TweetDeck for $40 million.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, saw its stock fall to a 13-year low today after the struggling company warned its fiscal year outlook would fall way short of previous guidance.

The company was down as much as 16 percent today to $6.79 per share, a number last seen in June 1998.

Nokia lowered its operating margin to 0 percent for the Q2 2011, down from an expected 6-9 percent, a massive collapse.

Says analyst Thomas Langer:

I think it is devastating now that shortly after the AGM we have this very negative news out from Nokia. Q2 and Q3 is one story, but I think this will raise doubts about the potential recovery trend based on Mango.

What worries more is that Nokia will not be the only one with Mango and the Nokia hardware and user interface has to be more compelling than those from competitors.

Given the internal turmoil that will be generated by this news it is increasingly difficult to see that Nokia can leapfrog one handset generation and be on par with the competition in early 2012. Investors should be more than concerned about the dividend possibility.

In a strange move for the company, Apple has pre-announced that it will unveil the iCloud, iOS 5 and OS X Lion next week at its annual Developer's Conference.

CEO Steve Jobs will do the unveiling and the keynote speech, despite still being on medical leave for cancer.

In launching the iCloud service, Apple is said to have deals in place with Sony, Warner and EMI but not with Universal, the world's largest record label. Users will be able to upload their music to a "cloud" server, thus saving space on their hard drives and smartphone memory while being able to stream their whole libraries when connected to the Internet, and from anywhere.

OS X Lion is the company's latest Mac operating system while iOS 5 is the latest operating system for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. It is unclear what new features the mobile OS will bring.

The official press statement:

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011
CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

Read more...

Samsung has confirmed today that it will stick with the Android mobile OS for its upcoming tablets.

Notes Samsung mobile boss JK Shin: "We'll continue to work with Android on future tablets."

The company has already announced the new Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, both of which will run Android Honeycomb 3.1. They expect tablet sales to rise to 7.5 million this year.

Samsung, despite being a major player in the mobile phone business, has trailed Apple in the tablet and smartphone market and both companies are now in a flurry of lawsuits against each other over alleged patent violations.

Adds Shin:

We didn't copy Apple's design. We have used many similar designs over the past years and it (Apple's allegation) will not be legally problematic.

Sony has noted today that the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Store will be full restored in all territories except for Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea by the end of the week.

The EU and NA territories have had online gaming and other features restored for a number of weeks, but no access to the PlayStation Store.

Adds Sony:

The company implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions.

We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online so that our fans can again enjoy the first class entertainment experience they have come to love. We appreciate the patience and support shown during this time.

ZiiLABS has showed off their new line of Jaguar Honeycomb tablets for OEMs this week, introducing the powerful "energy efficient" Android devices at Computex 2011.

The company, owned by Creative, uses their own processors, specifically the ZiiLABS ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 StemCell Processors.

Says the company:

As consumer demand for a wide-range of smarter, more connected tablets increases, so do the OEMs' needs to innovate while also shrinking their time-to-market. The JAGUAR platform combines our deep understanding and experience working on consumer devices and tablets with our ZMS processors, reference platforms, software and certification know-how to deliver a state-of-the-art platform that minimizes the complexities of introducing next-generation tablets.

Timing is everything and a frenzied land-grab is taking place in the tablet computing market. Android 3.X and ZMS-20 are designed and engineered specifically for this new and exciting tablet market where growth is expected to approach 100 million next year. The JAGUAR platforms based on ZiiLABS' ZMS-20 and ZMS-40 processors push performances to a new level that the world has never seen before and OEMs and ODMs can leverage this with JAGUAR to quickly stake a sizeable claim in this explosive market.

Nvidia showed off their quad-core Kal-El (Tegra 3) processors at the Mobile World Congress, going as far as to say that the first tablets with the powerful processors should be available by August.

Smartphones using the processor could be available before Christmas, added the company.

Today, we have our first Tegra 3 rumor, with sources claiming Motorola will be first with a quad-core tablet, with that device coming as soon as late August, in time for "back-to-school" specials.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says they have 10 OEMs working on Tegra 3 devices, but would not name the companies or give a time table.

The Tegra 3 features performance up to 500 percent better than the dual-core Tegra 2 processors and gaming performance that far outperforms any current device.

PBS has confirmed that hackers planted a fake story on their website late Saturday night after taking over the company's computer systems.

The group, identifying themselves as "The Lulz Boat," posted a fake story that famous rapper Tuapc Shakur, murdered in 1996, was really alive and living in New Zealand.

Additionally, the group started posting email and passwords for PBS users.

The group still had control as of this morning, posting defaced pages at an alarming rate.

Via the group's Twitter page, the Lulz Boat say they were angry about a recently aired "Frontline" episode about WikiLeaks.

ViewSonic has showed off a 10-inch tablet today, one that dual-boots Android and Windows 7 and runs on Intel's brand new Oak Trail processor.

The ViewPad 10Pro will run Windows 7 Professional and Android 2.2, with users able to switch the operating system by pressing one button on the display. The tablet can do so by virtually running Android using BlueStacks technology.

Intel unveiled the 1.5GHz processor Oak Trail chips in April, the first designs that Intel has put out that can compete with ARM chips seen in mostly all current smartphones and tablets.

Additionally, the tablet has 32GB Internal storage, a 3500 mAh battery and dual cameras.

The tablet will be significantly heavier than the market leading Apple iPad 2, weighing 28.21 ounces compared to 21.16 ounces. The device is expected to be priced at $800 when it goes on sale in Taiwan next month.

Asus has launched the ultraportable Eee PC X101 netbook today, a device that can run Windows 7 or MeeGo.

The netbook is just 0.7 inches thick and weighs in at 2.1 pounds.

If you opt for the MeeGo model, the netbook will run you just $200, a new leg down in netbook pricing.

MeeGo, originally a mobile OS created by Intel and Nokia, includes an app store, runs perfectly on Intel Atom processors and has good third-party support (relatively).

The Eee PC X101 will run on a new Intel Atom N435 processor and a special X101H model will have a hard drive/SSD hybrid drive.

Here is a hands-on video via Engadget:

Asus has shown off their much-hyped tablet/phone hybrid device, the Padfone.

The smartphone can be placed into a dock built-in to the back of the tablet, allowing users to have all the features of a phone (calls, GPS, texting, etc) on the larger screen of the tablet.

There were little other details revealed on a hardware basis, but the tablet will be 10.1-inches while the phone will have a large 4.3-inch screen.

Asus did not reveal pricing or a set release date.

It appears this weekend that Google has pulled a number of popular gaming emulators from the Android Market.

All were created by developer Yongzh and include Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, and Gameboid.

The developer says his account was removed without any prior warnings and he is now looking to move his emulators to the third-party "SlideME" app store.

Just last month, Google pulled the PSX emulator, PSX4droid from the Market, as well.

While emulators are legal, as standalone apps, 9 times out of 10, the ROMS (games) used by gamers are obtained illegally thus making the whole legal standing of the software sketchy.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of social networking giant Facebook has said this week that his new personal challenge is to "be thankful for the food I have to eat."

In doing so, Zuckerberg says he will only eat meat from animals he has killed himself.

Says the world's youngest billionaire:

I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have.

Nokia has won a partial review of the patent case it lost to Apple in March, with the six-member ITC reviewing 2 of the 6 patent claims that were thrown out by an ITC judge earlier in the year.

The ITC will focus on a few specific terms in the two patents.

Nokia is looking for a full injunction on the iPhone in the United States.

The first patent relates to speaker and antenna quality and the other is for reducing energy consumed by phone cameras.

Nokia first filed the lawsuit in October 2009, asking for the injunction and demanding royalties from all iPhones sold.

The latest rumor, and "confirmed" by a couple of photos, is that Sony will name their upcoming NGP handheld "PlayStation Vita."

Vita is the Latin term for "Life," which could absolutely be a reasonable name for the system.

Additionally, psvita.com has the same technical contact as psp.com, Sony.

Whether the rumor is true or not, we will know the official name of the system at Sony's E3 keynote on June 6th.

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

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

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

TechHog has posted what they claim to be the upcoming Google Nexus 3 flagship Android device, one that will run on Android's "Ice Cream Sandwich" platform.

ICS will be the first Android version to mix 3.1 Honeycomb (optimized for tablets) and the Android 2.x series built for smartphones.

In the leaked photo, the alleged HTC-built Nexus 3 will remove all physical buttons, the signature home/back/menu keys.

Additionally, the site also says that the company is working on both HSPA+ and CDMA versions, one for AT&T and one for Sprint.

While many will decry that the photo is faked, the editor of the original piece says the photo is edited, but only to remove items that would otherwise lead a trail back to the Google employee source.

In a open letter sent to members of Congress this week, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai has said that he cannot guarantee the PlayStation Network will not be hacked again despite new policy changes and added security measures.

Last month, Sony took down the PSN following multiple security breaches that left 101 million gamers with their personal data stolen including addresses, phone numbers and even credit cards.

Wrote Hirai:

No security system is absolutely foolproof, and changing conditions in the future can make a currently secure environment less secure.

These gaps in what we know are not for lack of trying by experts, but rather an unfortunate testament to the skill of those who perpetrated the attacks. Some aspects of the intrusion may never be known.

Apple has settled their lawsuit against teenager Fei Lam, although the settlement figures were undisclosed.

In 2010, Fei Lam, a 17-year-old student from Queens, NY, started the website whiteiphone4now.com which sold unauthorized kits to turn your black iPhone 4 into a white version.

Lam had secured a large supply of white iPhone 4 parts from Foxconn in China, even though Apple had delayed the model until February 2011.

The teen says last November he received a letter from a private investigator hired by Apple, accusing him of dealing in stolen goods.

Apple filed a lawsuit against against Lam this week, accusing him infringing on Apple's trademarks. The suit asked for an injunction and damages.

Horace Dediu of Asymco has posted some interesting figures today, noting that Microsoft has actually made a lot more money off Android phone sales than it does off of phones sold running Windows Phone 7, its own operating system.

Citigroup analysts says that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device sold, which will add up to an expected $150 million in revenue this year.

So far, Microsoft has sold just 2 million Windows Phone 7 licenses at an estimated $15 per license. $30 million is significantly less than what the company will make from HTC only this year.

Microsoft is expected to strike similar deals with other Android manufacturers that it has sued over the past two years over patent disputes.

When they do, revenue from Android could outshine WP7 sales for at least a couple of years.

Recent reports stated that Apple was considering using a new Samsung AMOLED display for their upcoming iPad 3 tablet but OLED-display.net says this is highly unlikely as production will not be able to hold up to expected demand.

The site says Samsung would not be able to produce enough 9.7-inch screens, especially since the company has already announced it will sticking to smaller and medium sized panels, mainly for smartphones.

Samsung's expected capacity is 8 million 4-inch AMOLED displays per month for the next six months. Tablet-sized displays are also said to have been delayed until early 2012.

The company will also use the larger (6 or 7-inch displays) for their own upcoming Galaxy Tab tablets.

Adds Barry Young, director of the OLED Association:

If anything, it would have to be after 2011, maybe 2012. It's just not going to happen for Apple.

The Apple iPhone 4 has finally made its way to India, 11 months after its global launch.

India has 800 million mobile phone subscribers but 3G has been slow to rollout in the nation, making smartphones a tougher sell. Smartphone sales only account for 5 percent of all mobile sales.

Aircel will sell the 16GB iPhone 4 for 34,500 rupees ($764 USD) or 40,900 rupees ($906 USD) for the larger 32GB version.

Bharti Airtel, the clear market leader in the country, will have similar pricing, and does already offer older models of the iPhone.

In 2011, however, Aircel and others have begun aggressive rollouts of 3G services and smartphone sales are expected to double in 2011 year-over-year.

Weeks after it restored access in the United States and Europe, Sony has said today that it will begin restoring the PSN in Asia beginning on Saturday.

Sony says online gaming and chat will be restored in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand this week. PSN will be down in South Korea and Hong Kong indefinitely.

The Asian rollout was delayed because officials in Japan and other nations forced Sony to prove that its services were completely secured following the breaches that led to 101 million gamers having their personal info stolen.

As "compensation," Sony is also giving a gift package to gamers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia just like it has in the NA and EU regions.

Sony noted last week that the breaches will cost the company $171 million.

Just weeks after acquiring the struggling movie rental company Blockbuster, Dish Network has dropped prices across the board for in-store rentals at the 1700 stores that are still open.

Starting today, thousands of films will be just 99 cents per day, matching the price of the popular Redbox kiosks.

Additionally, brand new releases will be $2.99 for the first day, and 99 cents for each day thereafter.

Says the CEO of Blockbuster, Michael Kelly (via THR):

Our customers are seeking a better value - we’ve answered with new pricing and the flexibility of single day rentals. Our new pricing gives our customers the best of both worlds: access to the latest releases – many 28 days before Netflix and Redbox – and the most movies at low prices.

According to 01.net, Sony will release the NGP this year in Japan only, with Europe and North America getting the handheld in early 2012.

Furthermore, Sony will have to downgrade some of the console's powerful specs, in order to stay competitive with the Nintendo 3DS' $250 price tag.

01.net gets a slight benefit of the doubt for the report because they leaked the full accurate specs for the NGP two weeks before it was unveiled officially by Sony.

If accurate, Sony will sell the low-end (non-3G) NGP for $250, but with 256MB RAM instead of the 512MB announced. The company may also remove most of the 16GB internal flash memory, meaning there may be a cloud offering or gamers will have to buy external storage.

To make up for cutting the RAM in half, Sony will allegedly reduce "the size of the OS footprint in memory."

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has said this week that the company will continue to support phones running the Symbian OS until 2016.

Earlier this year, Nokia made a billion dollar pact with Microsoft to turn Windows Phone 7 into its primary smartphone OS, pretty much leaving Symbian for dead.

Says Elop:

We're in a period where the investment in Symbian absolutely continues.

Even as we go through a transition towards our primary smartphone platform, Windows Phone, you will see that continued investment. And I know there's been questions about--so how long does that continue--and we've now been very clear about that, that software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016. So there's a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future.

Netflix has updated their Android app this afternoon, adding support for three more devices.

In addition to the Droid Incredible, Nexus One, EVO 4G, T-Mobile G2 and Samsung Nexus S, the app now supports the original Motorola Droid, the LG Revolution and the Casio G'zOne Commando C771, as long as the phones have Android 2.2.

The company also listed a few bug fixes:

-Fixed application failure on startup when phone's embedded storage space is almost full.

-Removed check that prevented attempt to playback on unsupported devices.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said today that profits for the company coming from China is only $1.25 billion per year, about 1/50th of the software giant's overall revenue of $62 billion.

The CEO says that number could jump to $7.5 billion if China had better piracy control.

Speaking to Chinese employees today, Ballmer said "our revenue in China will be about a twentieth of our revenue in the United States," even though the company sells the same amount of PCs in both countries.

Additionally, the CEO says the company makes six times as much per PC sold in India as it does in China, ever since India initiated stricter piracy controls in the country.

Developer CD Projekt has announced today that the official 1.1 update for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will strip all DRM that came with the game originally.

Additionally, the patch allows gamers to install and play the game on any amount of computers they want, whereas before it was restricted to 3 machines.

Says the developer:

Our goal is to make our fans and customers happy and to reward them for buying our game and DRM schemes does not support our philosophy as they might create obstacles for users of legally bought copies.

Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version. This means it has to be superior in every respect: less troublesome to use and install, with full support, and with access to additional content and services. So, we felt keeping the DRM would mainly hurt our legitimate users.

This is completely in line with what we said before the release of The Witcher 2. We felt DRM was necessary to prevent the game being pirated and leaked before release. This purpose has been served, so we are pleased to let our users enjoy the full freedom of game usage they deserve.

Google has introduced their "Wallet" automatic mobile phone payment system today, turning NFC-enabled devices into credit cards.

Users with Android devices will be able to pay for groceries or other items by waving their phones in front of NFC readers.

Google, alongside launching their daily deal site Google Offers, says it envisions Android devices eventually being a "personal financial hub" for coupons, loyalty points, payments, receipts and more.

As a way to not scare the credit card firms, Google will not take any share of the fees generated from Wallet payments, instead relying on added revenue from traffic, ads and Google Offers.

Wallet will launch over the summer, with trials starting sooner in NYC and San Francisco. A few of the retailers that will soon accept mobile payments are Macy’s, Subway, Walgreens, Toys “R” Us, Bloomingdale’s and Guess.

As with physical credit cards, users have zero liability if there are fraudulent purchases and users need a PIN number to access the app, meaning the chip can't be accessed by hackers.

HTC CEO Peter Chou has announced today that his company will move back to open bootloaders on their devices, following considerable customer outcry.

It is unclear which phone will be the first to be released with the unlocked bootloader, but the upcoming EVO 3D is a likely candidate.

Says the CEO:

There has been overwhelmingly [sic] customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.

PayPal and its parent eBay have sued Google and two executives today over trade secret misappropriation.

The trade secrets were related to mobile payment systems.

Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, two execs formerly of PayPal, helped Google launch their "Wallet" system today. Bedier worked for PayPal for nine years, serving as vice president of platform, mobile and new ventures before moving to Google in January of this year.

Tilenius was VP of e-commerce for eBay until early 2010.

Both are accused of having "misappropriated PayPal trade secrets by disclosing them within Google and to major retailers," says Yahoo.

The suit also claims that PayPal and Google were working together since 2008 on a deal that would make PayPal a payment option for app purchases via the Android Market.

Bedier was the executive in charge of the negotiations with Google at the time.

"At the very point when the companies were negotiating and finalizing the Android-PayPal deal, Bedier was interviewing for a job at Google -- without informing PayPal of this conflicting position," the suit says.

Facebook is reportedly set to add streaming music to its site, through a partnership with Spotify.

If accurate, the social networking giant will launch the add-on within two weeks.

Spotify would not confirm the deal:

We have a Facebook integration. We're continuously working with them to make that as good as it can be. But that's the extent of our relationship.

The PlayStation network will remain partially down until 8pm today, says Sony, as the company works on account access maintenance.

While you may have some issues getting into your account, online gaming will still be available.

Says Sony of the maintenance:

During this time, registration and Account Management will be inaccessible, including the password reset process. While some users may experience difficulty signing in to PSN, the majority of consumers will be able to play online as well as sign in to external sites that require PSN authentication.

Yahoo has said it will be rolling out a beta of its latest Yahoo Mail over the coming weeks, dubbing the service as the "best Yahoo Mail ever."

The update will hit Yahoo's 277 million free email users, and promises to be "faster, safer, easier to use, and offers a seamless experience across PC, mobile and tablet devices."

Furthermore, the company says it will offer unlimited storage. Rival Gmail offers 7.6GB, which is the most of the free offerings, currently.

Hotmail/Live has the biggest share of the market, at 327 million users, followed by Yahoo and Gmail at 220 million users. Gmail and Yahoo, however, have been chipping away at Hotmail for years now.

Says Blake Irving, Yahoo chief product officer:

Yahoo's vision for online communications brings together all the tools that people use to connect -- e-mail, chat, SMS, and social updates -- and makes it easier for them to share content and engage in conversations with the people that matter most to them.We're delivering on this strategy with the latest version of Yahoo Mail, providing our hundreds of millions of users worldwide with a fun, engaging and constantly connected experience across desktop, mobile and tablet devices that keeps the conversation going -- anytime, anywhere.

Sony has confirmed another security breach today, with a hacker taking info on 8500 accounts from a Sony Music Entertainment Greece site where music fans can subscribe to newsletters.

The attack occurred on Sunday, the same day that security firm Sophos made it public that the sites were vulnerable.

Info stolen included usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers. Because the site did not require credit card numbers, that info was fortunately not stolen.

The site is currently shutdown and will be restored after a full security review.

Sony has been hit with at least 5 attacks over the last month, with 101 million users having their personal info stolen by hackers. The PSN was down for three weeks following the first attack on April 17th.

Microsoft is set to appeal an EU antitrust fine that it calls "excessive" and "undeserved."

The 900 million euro fine, imposed in 2008, was a record at the time.

Microsoft was accused of failing to provide info that would let products better run on Windows.

Since the decision, Microsoft was attacked by the EU again, but decided to settle. Users are now given the choice to choose their own browser with all new Windows computers instead of using Internet Explorer right out of the box.

Says Microsoft's lawyer Jean Francois Bellis:

The fine was most undeserved.

This case would not have arisen if the Commission had been as explicit with respect to rates which it wanted Microsoft to charge as it had been with all other terms of licensing proposed by Microsoft.

Earlier this week, the much-anticipated new album from Bon Iver leaked to P2P, warez and torrents sites, the latest in a very long line of leaks.

It appears that iTunes is to blame for the leak, however, with Apple apologizing for the mistake.

Instead of just adding the disc's first single "Calgary" to iTunes, an employee put the whole album online a la carte.

The album is supposed to go on sale June 21st.

Apple corrected the problem very quickly but hundreds had already downloaded the album.

In 2008, iTunes accidentally leaked the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely Back and in 2009, the Norwegian version of the store leaked Kelly Clarkson's "All I Ever Wanted" one month early.

Opera has released the Mini 6 mobile browser for iOS today.

The new browser is optimized for the iPad, and features up to 90 percent "compression of data traffic" which should increase speed for end users as well as decreased data costs.

Additionally, the new iOS version includes "panning and zooming in one motion," share buttons to send content to email, social networking sites and more, and a fully redesigned skin and menus.

Says CEO Lars Boilesen:

The Opera Mini browser has always kicked up the tempo when downloading pages; now the browsing flows along to a smooth, easy beat.

Microsoft has unveiled Windows Phone 7.1 "Mango" today, with 500 new features.

The new firmware update will bring better social networking integration, a full search revamp, app upgrades, new communications updates and many more features.

For social networking, Mango will let users import their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn contacts with one-click. The native Facebook app will also get revamped, including face detection software and "check-ins."

The update will allow WP7 owners to create groups of contacts as live tiles which you can then "see the latest status updates and quickly send a text, email or IM to the whole group, right from the start screen."

Updating the search, user can activate visual search using the phone's camera, voice search or music search. You can also narrow down results with Local Scouts which "provides location-specific results that highlight important information about establishments and events in your immediate area. Clicking through on any link brings up general information as well as reviews gleaned from popular user-generated sites."

Apple has approved the 500,000th app to the iOS App Store today, another large milestone for the ever growing store.

By comparison, the Android Market has just over 200,000 apps, Nokia's now defunct Ovi Store had 50,000 and BlackBerry World and Windows Phone 7 Marketplace both have under 25,000.

It is important to note that active apps are just about 400,000 due to replacements and removals, however.

Thanks to http://www.facebook.com/500kapps, a joint effort by Chomp, 148apps and Chillingo, we have an awesome infographic about the milestone, available here:

Barnes & Noble has unveiled its latest e-reader today at a special launch event.

The device will be smaller (about the size of a paperback book) and weigh just 7.5 ounces.

Differentiating itself from the more popular Kindle readers and its own predecessors, the new Nook will have two months of battery life and a 6-inch touchscreen Pearl display with e-ink.

The latest Kindles have 1 month battery life, and do not feature touchscreens. The Apple iPad and the company's own Nook Color feature LCD screens and therefore have battery life of under 12 hours.

B&N's latest Nook will also 2GB built-in storage (enough for thousands of books), a MicroSD expansion slot, and Wi-Fi. The device will run on an Android 2.1 variant.

The Nook is up for pre-order and will start shipping on June 10th for $139.

B&N has also dropped the MSRP of the original Wi-Fi Nook to $119 and 3G Nook to $169.

(Pic via Cnet)

Twitter has completed their acquisition of TweetDeck, one of the most popular clients for the microblogging service.

The purchase ended for just over $40 million in cash and stock with the closing papers signed today.

TweetDeck had been previously linked to UberMedia, who was looking to purchase the client for $30 million and had an exclusive negotiating window that ran out. Uber has the top Twitter app for BlackBerry (UberSocial) and the "highest rated" Twitter app for Android, Twidroyd and has been allegedly cooking up a plan for a "Twitter killing" service.

As arguably the best Twitter client around (and accounting for 13 percent of all tweets sent on a daily basis), TweetDeck is a hot commodity for the microblogging platform and remains the top app for "power users," those who tweet many times per day from many different devices.

TweetDeck also allows users to connect their LinkedIn and Facebook platforms to one app.

Sony has given a revised forecast for their fiscal year today, adding a large loss resulting from the earthquake and tsunami tragedy in Japan and the security breach of the PlayStation Network.

The company says the PSN breach will cost Sony $171.1 million and the earthquake will cost them a devastating $1.8 billion.

PSN costs were mainly attributed to the cost of the free 1-year of ID theft protection the company is offering all affected, as well as the free games/PlayStation Plus and customer support costs.

Adds Sony (via Gamasutra):

So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack. Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change.

In addition, in connection with the data breach, class action lawsuits have been filed against Sony and certain of its subsidiaries and regulatory inquiries have begun; however, those are all at a preliminary stage, so we are not able to include the possible outcome of any of them in our results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2012 at this moment.

Nokia has said this weekend that it has selected Qualcomm as the chipset supplier for its first Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

The company is also negotiating with other chipset makers for future devices.

Says a spokesman:

The first Nokias based on Windows Phone will have the Qualcomm chipset.

Our aim is to build a vibrant ecosystem around Nokia and the Windows Phone OS and with that intent we are naturally continuing discussions with a number of chipset suppliers for our future product portfolio.

China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu has confirmed this weekend that his company is actively speaking with Apple in an effort to bring a CDMA iPhone to China.

Rival China Unicom, which is the largest carrier in the nation, has had an exclusive contract with Apple but that deal expires this year.

Wang would not comment on the progress of the discussions.

Overall, China has 866 million mobile phone users and China Telecom is the third largest carrier in the country.

Telecom has 103.10 million mobile phone users including 17.84 million 3G smartphone users.

Earlier this week, Liberty Media offered $17 per share, or $1 billion for giant book retailer Barnes & Noble.

Shares of the company, however, jumped to $18.33 by the close on Friday, as Wall Streets expects a competing bid.

Furthermore, many believe the bid undervalues the company, which has been struggling for years now.

Liberty is bidding for the company in an effort to continue the strong sales and growth of the Nook e-reader and Nook Color e-reader/tablet.

Finally, the offer is conditional on founder and current Chairman Leonard Riggio keeping a stake in his company and staying involved in running the company.

Barnes & Noble has around 30 percent of the e-book market, has 720 superstores, and has been up for sale since August.

Google has confirmed today that Android users with rooted devices will not be able to rent movies via the Android Market.

The search giant introduced the feature this month at the I/O Conference.

Says the Android support page entry:

I see "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49)” when I try to download a movie.

You'll receive this "Error 49" message if you attempt to play a movie on a rooted device. Rooted devices are currently unsupported due to requirements related to copyright protection.

Playboy has gone around Apple's "no nudity" App store stipulations and made its full archive of magazines available for iPad users, via the i.playboy.com site and not through the store.

The site will cost $8 per month, or $60 per year, or a highly discounted $100 for 2 years.

In early January, founder Hugh Hefner tweeted that the archive would be available online by March, so it appears the plans saw unforeseen delays.

In addition to the standard photos of naked women, the web pages will also include exclusive videos and content recommendations from a group of "high-profile panel of celebrated individuals from art, design, fashion, media and technology."

Those members will make new suggestions each month starting in June.

The site will be formatted in HTML5.

According to a new BBC documentary called "Secrets of Superbrands," MRIs of Apple "fanboys" and people who consider themselves "very religious" were very similar, with the same part of the brain being lit up for both.

In short, Apple "fanboys" and religious zealots have the same cranial reactions.

Furthermore, the documentary goes as far as to compare Apple Stores to cathedrals:

Apple stores often feature stone or other types of austere, simple flooring like a church with products mounted on pedestals like individual altars.

The scenes I witnessed at the opening of the new Apple store in London's Covent Garden were more like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a laptop.

Inside the store, glassy-eyed staff were whipped up into a frenzy of excitement, jumping up and down, clapping and shouting. When the doors finally opened, they hysterically "high-fived" and cheered hundreds of delirious customers flooding in through the doors for hours on end.

OnlinePhotographer recently spoke to a SanDisk engineer who dropped an astonishing tidbit of info.

The engineer says that at any given time, 30 percent of all SanDisk memory cards being used in the world are fakes.

Most of the cards are no-name brands being sold with SanDisk stickers and packaging.

Many of the cards also offer worse performance than the buyer would assume, for example, Class 4 SD cards being sold as Class 10 cards.

Additionally, a separate report states that eBay is a lead marketplace for the counterfeit goods, with around 70 percent of all memory cards being sold on the auction site being seen as fake or rebranded.

Google has confirmed that it will stop digitizing old newspapers, blaming publishers who were looking to make money off the archives instead of just leaving them free online like Google wanted.

All old digital articles will be found at news.google.com/archivesearch but the collection will not grow starting today.

Says Google of the move:

We work closely with newspaper partners on a number of initiatives, and as part of the Google News Archives digitization program we collaborated to make older newspapers accessible and searchable online.

"We don't plan to introduce any further features or functionality to the Google News Archives, and we are no longer accepting new microfilm or digital files for processing.

In April, the MPAA surprised no one by filing a copyright infringement suit against streaming site Zediva, claiming the site does not have proper licenses from the studios.

Zediva launched in January and has become very popular because it streams new releases and does not have delay windows like Netflix and Redbox do for physical discs.

The company "rents" users a DVD player and DVD and allows them to control it via online streaming, for the cheap price of $2.

Today, Zediva has countersued the MPAA whilst demanding a judge sanction.

Zediva has claimed it does not need licenses because it is just "like" a brick-and-mortar rental company. When a customer rents a DVD, it takes it out of circulation, and does not create any digital copies.

Reads the countersuit (via Wired):

The only difference between watching a rented DVD on the DVD player in one’s living room and watching a rented DVD using Zediva is that rather than connecting to the DVD player with a short cable, Zediva lets users connect to the DVD player over the internet.

According to Bloomberg, Apple is all set to launch their iTunes cloud service, having secured licensing agreements with three of the Big 4 labels.

Apple has reached agreements with EMI, Warner Music Group and Sony Music and is close to a deal with Universal Music Group, the largest label in the world.

The new cloud offering would let users save their music on Apple's servers and access it from their iOS devices, wherever they have Internet.

Differentiating the iCloud service from rival offerings by Amazon and Google, is the fact that about 10 to 20 seconds of the music will be saved internally to your device, meaning no delay at all when starting streaming.

Apple, although unconfirmed, may be ready to launch the service at their developer's conference, starting on June 6th.

It appears that Verizon will finally go through with killing off their smartphone unlimited data plans, moving to a tiered structure like rival AT&T's.

Additionally, the carrier will start "Family Data Plans," which will let families on the same plan share data for a cheaper price just like they do with voice minutes and texts.

Adds a spokesperson:

I think it's safe to assume that at some point you are going to have mega-plans (for data) and people are going to share that mega-plan based on the number of devices within their family. That's just a logical progression.

Research firm Gartner has spelled out Android and Apple's dominance in the global smartphone market, revealing the Q1 sales figures today.

Android moved to 36 percent share from 9.6 percent in the Q1 2010, with sales increasing to 36 million from 5 million year-over-year (YoY).

Symbian, the now defunct smartphone OS, fell from 44.2 percent share to 27.4 percent, even though sales increased to 27.6 million from 24.1 million. Symbian should eventually fall to 0 as Symbian has been left for dead by Nokia as they move on to Windows Phone 7.

Apple's iOS saw 16.9 million sales and 16.8 percent share, up from 15.3 percent share and 8.4 million sales.

RIM, despite growth for its BlackBerry smartphones, saw market share collapse to 12.9 percent from 19.7 percent. Sales increased to 13 million from 10.75 million.

Microsoft saw a weak introduction for its Windows Phone 7 line and market share fell to 3.6 percent from 6.8 percent. Sales saw a minor fall, from 3.7 million to 3.66 million.

Research firm Gartner has reported today that Nokia's market share continues its multi-year decline, falling to 25.1 percent, its lowest reading since 1997.

In the Q1 2010, Nokia's share was 30.6 percent, so the drop was very steep.

Samsung held its second spot, at 16.1 percent, followed by LG at 5.6 percent.

Apple moved to 3.9 percent share, the only manufacturer in the top 5 to see a gain year-over-year.

Overall, mobile phone sales were up 19 percent YoY, and smartphone sales amounted to 23.6 percent of all phones sold.

Smartphone growth topped 85 percent, YoY.

Complaints have started to come in that the new blockbuster game "LA Noire" is causing overheating issues for some Xbox 360 and PS3 owners.

Those users have experienced continual freezing during gameplay.

Rockstar initially said it might be issues with Sony's recent firmware update to 3.61, but Sony was quick to turn on the blame back on the developer:

Rockstar have now updated their FAQ on the matter, and have admitted that it is a fault with their latest title LA Noire.

Starting on May 22nd, Microsoft will begin offering free Xbox 360 consoles to students who purchase a new Windows 7 PC with a price tag over $700.

Says the company:

You can buy any kind of PC, although we recommend a few specifically for students like the HP Pavillion DM4 a great entertainment system on the go, the Dell Inspiron 14r a stylish powerful 14” PC, and the Samsung Series 9 a computer that has been described as looking like it is about to rocket off the runway. Ask Ben the PC guy, he has one! If you are still trying to figure out what might be the best option for you, you can use the PC Scout, an interactive app available on windows.com that helps you find a perfect match.

If you have a .edu email address you can purchase your new PC through one of our participating retailers including Dell.com, HP.com or Microsoft Store. If you don't have a .edu address or prefer to walk into a store, touch the PCs and test their features, bring your Student ID into Best Buy or any Microsoft Store retail location Check with your chosen retailer for additional specifics they may have in place.

Thanks to the Hargreaves report, which reviews UK copyright law, it appears that a few of the more archaic points of the laws will be revised for the digital age.

One such law makes it illegal for UK residents to rip DVDs, CDs and Blu-rays to your PC, even if you are simply trying to rip some MP3s from a CD to place it on your media player.

While there has been very little enforcement of the law in history, software for ripping discs is illegal in the UK. Hargreaves says this puts UK at an unfair economic position against other countries, including the US.

Says the report:

My recommendations set out how the intellectual property framework can promote innovation and economic growth in the UK economy.

They are designed to enhance the economic potential of the UK's creative industries and to ensure that the emergence of high technology businesses, especially smaller businesses, in other sectors are not impeded by our IP laws.

LinkedIn, the professional social networking site, has seen its stock jump as high as 170 percent in its first day of trading, seeing a peak of $122.70 per share.

The company's IPO price was $45 per share and the stock opened at over $80 per share at 9:30 this morning.

As of writing, the stock is trading at $102, good for 125 percent gain.

The company raised $353 million in the deal, selling 8 percent of its shares. The company was valued at $4.3 billion, which was clearly a huge undersell by the underwriting banks.

If anything is clear from today's action is that a social networking bubble has just begun, with Facebook, Groupon, Zynga and other companies expected to IPO in the next couple of years.

LinkedIn currently has 102 million users, slowing revenue growth from ads and subscriptions, and has never turned a profit.

Following in the footsteps of other ISPs like Comcast, AT&T began its broadband bandwidth caps earlier this month, giving subscribers "generous" caps of 150-250GB, depending on your subscription package.

The company claimed that only 2 percent of all users ever go over 250GB, so the cap will hardly affect anyone.

New data from Netflix (via DSL) makes it abundantly clear that those caps may be "generous" now but they will not be in the very near future.

Netflix now accounts for 30% of peak bandwidth usage in the U.S., with the average user streaming 40GB of movies and TV shows per month.

That number explodes to 80GB per month for users that stream through their Xbox 360 console. Overall, one quarter of all Netflix traffic comes through the 360, second only to the PlayStation 3, which accounts for almost 31 percent.

How long until these console users, who likely also game online occasionally, download DLC and possibly download movies from iTunes HD reach their caps?

According to Microsoft, one in every fourteen downloads is malware, and that Internet Explorer 8 and 9 blocks up to 5 million attacks, daily.

The figures come alongside a post boasting of the Application Reputation mechanism in Internet Explorer 9.

AR uses URL-based tactics to see if the site uses malware, and also check links and files.

Says Jeb Haber, the program manager lead for SmartScreen says:

Using reputation helps protect users from newly released malware programs - pretending to be legitimate software programs - that are not yet detected by existing defense mechanisms.

Reputation also enables IE9 to remove unnecessary warnings for downloads with an established positive reputation. Both publishers and individual applications build reputation. For example, a digitally signed application from a well-known publisher that has been widely downloaded has a better reputation than an unsigned application that has not yet been downloaded widely and has just been posted on a newly created Web site.

Google has announced today that it is currently fixing an Android security flaw that was brought to the public's attention last week by German researchers.

The group explained on Friday that some Google account authentication tokens were apparently being sent OTA unencrypted, leaving users with their data freely available if they were on public Wi-Fi.

Hackers using simple software could steal account info for Google Calendar, Contacts and Picasa accounts.

Users with Android 2.3.4 are free of the issue, but 98.4 percent of Android devices run Android 2.3.3 or lower, making the fix useless for the vast majority.

Google has begun rolling out the server-side patch this week for Android 1.5 - 2.3.3, and it will be completed by the end of the week.

Says Google, via CW:

Today we're starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.

Apple has now proposed a smaller standardized SIM card than is currently used, allowing its iOS devices to be marginally thinner.

UK carrier Orange seems to support the proposal:

We were quite happy to see last week that Apple has submitted a new requirement to (European telecoms standards body) ETSI for a smaller SIM form factor -- smaller than the one that goes in iPhone 4 and iPad.

They have done that through the standardization route, through ETSI, with the sponsorship of some major mobile operators, Orange being one of them.

Intel has confirmed today that it will introduce over 10 new tablet running its own chips, trying to steal some market share from mobile architecture giant ARM Holdings.

The company will show off the designs at the Computex computer trade show which starts on May 31st.

Asus and other companies are expected to unveil tablets at the event, as well.

Overall, 35 Intel chip-based tablets are expected to ship throughout the year.

Intel is launching their "Oak Trail" chips soon, boasting low power consumption.

Sony just cannot catch a break.

Within three days of the company restoring the PSN after over 3 weeks of downtime, Sony has had to take down its PSN web logins, thanks to a password exploit.

Users trying to sign in via Playstation.com, the PlayStation forums, PlayStation Blog, Qriocity.com or the Music Unlimited are greeted with the following message:

The server is currently down for maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later.

Unfortunately this also means that those who are still trying to change their password ... via Playstation.com or Qriocity.com will be unable to do so for the time being. This is due to essential maintenance and at present it is unclear how long this will take. In the meantime you will still be able to sign into PSN via your PlayStation 3 and PSP devices to connect to game services and view Trophy/Friends information.

Verizon will bring the Xperia Play smartphone to the U.S. next week, May 26th.

Sony's "PlayStation Phone" is an Android device that has slide-out gaming controls.

The device has been available in Europe for two months now but the American launch kept getting delayed.

Sony's smartphone will come pre-loaded with Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, and Tetris.

The smartphone will cost $200 with 2-year contract.

Developer Team Bondi has confirmed that at one point, the blockbuster title LA Noire filled six DVDs for the Xbox 360.

Says the Team:

We've always been called stupidly ambitious ... we make very big games.

It's the biggest map that we've done and that Rockstar have done, so there's a lot of detail in there, and also a lot of actor's performances - 21 hours worth.

BGR made headlines yesterday claiming that a "solid Apple source" had told them that the company is planning a major product launch this week, in celebration of their 10th retail anniversary.

The site explains:

-There’s an overnight shift planned for around 10-15 individuals at each Apple Store to work from late Saturday all the way through mid-Sunday.

-During the overnight shift, it’s going to be required that employees lock cell phones in the main office. They will also have to sign an NDA with Apple.

-There are a wide variety of roles, we’re told, for the overnight shift. This includes all visuals staff, a manager, a business team member, a few Genius team members, one back-of-house employee, and a few generic Apple specialists.

-Apple stores have apparently already received hardware to install, and are expecting more hardware to come on Friday or Saturday. All materials that Apple stores have received have been instructed to be under lock and key until after close on Saturday night.

Read more...

Although only partially confirmed, we reported earlier this week that Amazon is working on a full family of Android devices for the holidays, including a smartphone, a 6-inch tablet and a 10-inch tablet.

There are little other details but today BGR is saying that the larger tablet will be the first to run on Nvidia's "Kal-El" quad-core processor.

Additionally, the smaller entry level tablet will run on the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, with a higher clock speed than seen in most current tablets.

In terms of pricing, speculation is the 6-inch tablet will match Barnes & Noble's $250 Nook Color, while the larger tablet will sell for $400, which would really put a squeeze on Apple, Samsung and others.

An Israeli couple has named their newborn "Like," thanks to their joint obsession with social networking giant Facebook.

Says the father (via German press):

To me it is important to give my children names that are not used anywhere else, at least not in Israel. If once people gave Biblical names and that was the icon, then today [the Facebook Like] is one of the most famous icons in the world.

Sony has listed the titles it will give away for free to gamers affected by the nearly one-month long outage of the PSN.

PS3 owners in the U.S. get to choose 2 of the following 5 games:

Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD+ Fury

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation

Verizon has announced that it is expanding its 4G LTE network to a few new cities this week.

New cities to get the fast mobile Internet are Pensacola, Mobile, Denver, Montgomery, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Philadelphia, and Fayetteville-Lumberton, NC.

The carrier launched the LTE network in 30 major cities last year and tests have found it to be faster than AT&T and Sprint's rival networks.

Verizon has hopes of rolling out its entire network by the end of 2012.

Samsung has made it official, Android 2.3 Gingerbread is headed to the Galaxy S, Galaxy Ace/Gio/Fit/Mini and the Galaxy Tab.

Gingerbread brings a few new features, including an updated user interface.

Samsung says 2.3 for the Galaxy devices will bring:

Faster Performance – Multimedia content now has a lower CPU consumption rate, while support for more powerful 3D Graphics enables an enhanced mobile gaming experience.

Upgraded Usability – The user interface has been improved, enabling faster access and control and a more intuitive user experience. Users will also benefit from improved copy-and-paste functionality.

RIM has confirmed that it is recalling 1000 BlackBerry Playbooks thanks to a software glitch.

The company says a few of the 16GB models "were shipped with an OS build that may result in the devices being unable to properly load software upon initial set-up."

Most the affected devices are still in the distribution channel, fortunately, but RIM says about 1000 have made it into consumer's hands.

If you are having issues, the company says: "In the small number of cases where a customer received a PlayBook that is unable to properly load software upon initial set-up, they can contact RIM for assistance."

The recall marks another setback for the tablet, which had good critical reception but has been panned for its lack of native email/calender/contacts apps.

RIM recently showed off the apps, as well as the ability to use Android Market apps with little visual difference than on an Android device.

Netflix has announced it has signed a multi-year agreement with Miramax to bring hundreds of films to its "Watch Instantly" streaming library.

A few of the more recognizable films in the catalog are "Pulp Fiction," "Shakespeare in Love," "The English Patient," "Good Will Hunting," "Bad Santa," "Scream," "Spy Kids," "The Piano" and "Kill Bill."

Starting in June, Miramax will add dozens of titles at a time "on a rotating basis."

The financials were not revealed but Netflix is expected to be paying over $100 million.

Says Netflix COO Ted Sarandos:

Netflix is thrilled to enter into this deal with the new team at Miramax. Existing relationships with management and a shared affinity for these great films make this an important deal for both companies and for our members, who will enjoy instantly watching movies from one of the truly great film libraries for many years to come.

From day one, we've been very clear about the importance of digital and our desire to respond to the significant pent-up demand for our films -- delivering to consumers whenever and wherever they want. This agreement is an important first step in our digital strategy. Netflix has always been a trailblazer, with a tremendous track record of innovation and quality customer service. We're thrilled to now be in business with them as we build and revitalize the proud Miramax brand.

Nokia has quickly shot down the rumor that Microsoft is ready to purchase the company's smartphone unit.

The rumor came from questionable Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin, who has hit some homeruns in the past but more recently has come under fire for sensationalist posts that have not come true.

Murtazin says that Microsoft is ready to buy Nokia's smartphone unit next week, with both company's "in a rush" to complete the deal by the end of 2011.

Nokia's Uk Communications Director Mark Squires has crushed the rumor quickly, however:

We typically don’t comment on rumors. But we have to say that Eldar’s rumors are getting obviously less accurate with every passing moment.

Mozilla has said today that it will begin auto-updating users of the no-longer-supported Firefox 3.5 next month to 3.6, if users have selected auto-updates.

The company says there are still 12 million users of 3.5, which debuted in early 2009.

Firefox 3.5 is no longer supported, and the last security patch was sent out last month.

Says Christian Legnitto, Firefox release manager:

We are treating the automatic update checkbox enabled as a 'Yes, I want Mozilla to keep me updated. Previously as a courtesy we had people opt-in between major versions due to the potential jarring nature of the update. We feel the difference between 3.5 and 3.6 is not severe and with 3.5 reaching end-of-life 3.6 is the security update for 3.5 users.

The Japanese government has confirmed that it has blocked Sony from relaunching the PSN in its country, citing security concerns.

Sony launched the PSN, after nearly a one-month absence, in Europe, Australia and North America over the last two days.

Says Kazushige Nobutani, Japan's director of media and content in the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry:

As of May 13, Sony was incomplete in exercising measures that they said they will do on the May 1 press conference.

The company has made considerable enhancements to the data security, including updating and adding advanced security technologies; additional software monitoring and penetration and vulnerability testing; and increased levels of encryption and additional firewalls. The company also added a variety of other measures to the network infrastructure, including an early-warning system for unusual activity patterns that could signal an attempt to compromise the network.

According to multiple reports coming out of China, Microsoft is set to partner up with search giant Baidu, as early as next week.

Baidu will take over the paid ads on Bing China, while Microsoft will provide all of the English results for Baidu.

In China, Bing is a very small player, taking less than 5 percent share.

Baidu is the giant, with 76 percent, while Google has a still-relevant 19 percent.

The deal is expected to be announced next week, possibly even Monday.

The U.S. ITC has ruled in favor of Eastman Kodak this week, claiming the company's camera technology does not violate Apple's patents.

Two of the patents were ruled to not be infringing while the third was "invalid." The decision will go to the six-member ITC for a final review.

Apple opened the case in April 2010, counter-suing Kodak after the camera patent company sued Apple and RIM over patents related to how images are previewed on smartphones.

Kodak's original complaint was also ruled against by the ITC, meaning there have been no winners in this ongoing dispute.

That ruling is headed to the ITC panel for final review, as well.

Earlier this year, Sony Ericsson sued Clearwire over its logo, claiming it is too similar to its own logo and therefore would confuse consumers, especially if Clearwire eventually came out with smartphones, like it planned.

Says SE:

Over the past year, Sony Ericsson grew concerned that Clearwire's logos were moving progressively closer to Sony Ericsson's registered logo. Since Clearwire also previously announced it would enter the field of mobile devices by launching a smartphone, Sony Ericsson brought the litigation in January 2011 and sought a preliminary injunction against Clearwire to prohibit its further use of the logos.

In response, Clearwire represented to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that it had no present intention to launch a smartphone. This representation effectively provided Sony Ericsson with much of the emergency relief it sought.

As of 10pm yesterday, Sony has partially restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity, almost one month since it was shutdown following a security breach on April 17th.

Gamers can now play online, use the chat service and download music. All other services are still down, and the PSN is still completely down in Asia.

Following the attack, Sony confirmed that over 101 million users have had their personal data compromised, including names, profiles, addresses and credit card details.

Sony promised to return service on May 7th but could not as the Network continued to remain unsecured.

Bloomberg says the company "boosted security for PlayStation Network and Qriocity by increasing the number of firewalls between servers and adding software to monitor intrusions and system vulnerabilities."

Sony also added a new chief information security officer.

The company says all services, in all regions, will be fully functional by May 31st.

As a compromise for the downtime, Sony is offering all users 1 free year of identity theft protection and insurance, two free PS3 games, and a free month to PlayStation Plus.

According to Internet security expert John Bumgarner, Sony's computer networks are still not fully secured, even 28 days after hackers attacked the PSN and SOE, compromising the personal data of 101 million gamers.

Bumgarner says he found "a handful of security flaws" in the company's networks while studying its systems online. The security expert apparently found a "potential bonanza for hackers by using little more than a web browser, Google's search engine and a basic understanding of Internet security systems."

The expert knows what he is talking about, being the chief technology officer for the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit and a U.S. military special operations veteran.

Over the past week, Bumgarner says that Sony did fix three of the five flaws he had found.

Several glaring flaws still remain, however, and that is without the expert trying to break into password-protected sites or exploit any vulnerabilities.

As a small compromise for the downtime, Sony is offering all users 1 free year of identity theft protection and insurance, two free PS3 games, and a free month to PlayStation Plus.

AT&T has confirmed a record break-up fee if regulators do not approve its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA.

The carrier will pay $6 billion in fees and other benefits to T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, a record by a large stretch, implying AT&T has a strong belief the deal will be approved.

Says a Deutsche Telekom spokesman (via Reuters):

$3 billion would flow directly in cash, but Deutsche Telekom would also receive spectrum and a national roaming agreement. The company did not put a value on that, but according to analysts' estimates the spectrum and roaming agreement would amount to $3 billion.

If it proves to be accurate, AandMe is reporting today that Amazon is working on a full family of Android devices for the holidays, including a smartphone, a 6-inch tablet and a 10-inch tablet.

The site says the rumor comes from an "industry insider with direct knowledge of the project. The information was shared with me in a recent face-to-face meeting and I believe the source to be trustworthy."

There are little other details because the rumors are unconfirmed, but the editor believes that Amazon may even consider a set-top box with Google TV, alongside the other devices.

In terms of pricing, speculation is the 6-inch tablet will match Barnes & Noble's $250 Nook Color, while the larger tablet will sell for $400 and the phone for $200 with contract.

Amazon could even undercut those prices by a decent amount by subsidizing the devices with ads (like the Kindle) or taking a short-term loss on the hardware in an effort to sell more apps, music, movies and especially, books.

According to Jeffries analyst Peter Misek, the upcoming iPhone will be called the "iPhone 4S," not the "iPhone 5" as anticipated.

The device will be released in September, adds the analyst, citing "industry checks."

Perhaps more notably, Misek says Apple will expand the smartphone to Sprint, T-Mobile and China Mobile, making it available to hundreds of millions of more potential customers.

The iPhone 4S will include better cameras, a dual-core A5 processor, HSPA+ support and some minor changes to the form factor, adds Misek.

This year, Apple is not expected to launch the iPhone at their June developer conference, instead they are expected to unveil iOS 5 and Mac OSX Lion.

Adobe has launched Flash Player 10.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux systems this morning, as well as for Android phones and tablets including Android 3.1 Honeycomb.

The company says the latest Flash Player update includes "improved stability, stronger security and user privacy protection, and new desktop audio/video capabilities for businesses and developers."

Adobe posted most of the new features of the improved software:

Media measurement (desktop only) – Measuring video usage just got easier. Using Adobe® SiteCatalyst® with Flash Player 10.3, developers can implement video analytics for websites with as little as two lines of code for the first time. Media Measurement for Flash Player allows companies to get real-time, aggregated reporting of how their video content is distributed, what their audience reach is, and how much video is played. Mobile support will be available in an upcoming release.

Acoustic echo cancellation (desktop only) – With Flash Player 10.3, developers can create real-time online collaboration experiences with high-quality audio for telephony, in-game voice chat, and group conferencing applications. Developers can take advantage of acoustic echo cancellation, noise suppression, voice activity detection, and automatic compensation for various microphone input levels. End users will be able to experience higher quality audio facilitating smoother conversation flow, without using a headset.

Read more...

Research firm Gartner has noted this week that it believes SSD drives will get much cheaper in 2012, in time for the market to have a break out.

SSD, 2.5-inch form factor NAND Flash chips that offer better speeds and reliability over traditional HDDs, have yet to reach mainstream popularity due to extremely high prices.

128GB SSD models sell for, on average, $225 while for that price you can purchase three 2TB HDDs. Certainly the average consumer would prefer 6TB of storage to a measly 128GB for the same price.

Over the past two years, however, SSD prices have marginally fallen, while capacities have increased thanks to better manufacturing processes.

Gartner says it expects SSD prices to fall to about $1 per GB next year, still not "cheap" but certainly more affordable than current prices.

Samsung will show off their upcoming 300dpi WQXGA PenTile RGBW prototype tablet display at next week's SID Display 2011 conference, says the company.

The impressive 10.1-inch LCD display will have 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Pixel density is 300dpi meaning the resolution will fit in the definition of "Retina Display," as defined by Apple.

Says the company in the press release:

Samsung’s PenTile display technology is the only display technology that operates at 40 percent less power yet provides twice that of Full HD-viewing performance for consumers compared to legacy RGB stripe LCDs. There is no other commercial display technology on the market today that offers this high of a resolution and pixel density in a 10.1-inch size display.

LimeWire has decided to settle with the record labels in their federal copyright infringement suit, paying $105 million and finally marking the very end of an era.

After five years of litigation, LimeWire will pay out the money to 13 record labels; Arista, Atlantic, BMG Music, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, Laface, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin and Warner Brothers

LimeWire was shut down in October by judge Kimba Wood, who ruled that the company behind the P2P service was liable for wrongfully assisting users in pirating digital recordings.

Had the trial continue on to a jury, LimeWire was facing penalties of up to $1.5 billion, $150,000 maximum each for 10,000 tracks.

At its peak, LimeWire had 50 million monthly users, sharing hundreds of millions of tracks.

Edge is reporting today that retailers are starting to see the effects of the over 3-week-long PSN outage, with an influx of consumers trading their PS3s in for cash or Xbox 360s.

Furthermore, sales of PSN points cards are almost non-existent and the ratio has begun to shift for multi-platform games, with Xbox taking the lion's share.

One manager at a UK retailer had this to say:

In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades. However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.

We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 per cent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We’ve only sold 30 to 40 per cent of our inventory right now.

Netflix has announced the launch of the long awaited streaming app for Android devices, however, it is only available on five devices.

As of right now, the app is available for the Nexus S, Nexus One, T-Mobile G2, HTC Evo 4G and HTC Incredible.

You must be running Android 2.2 (or 2.3 for Nexus S) to download the app.

Netflix was clear to explain why the small selection of phones:

The Android platform is gaining rapid adoption in the mobile world and presents a great opportunity to reach more of our members. Because the platform has evolved so rapidly, there are some significant challenges associated with developing a streaming video application for this ecosystem. One of these challenges is the lack of standard streaming playback features that the Netflix application can use to gain broad penetration across all available Android phones. In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback. We are aggressively qualifying phones and look forward to expanding the list of phones on which the Netflix app will be supported. We anticipate that many of these technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months and that we will be able to provide a Netflix application that will work on a large majority of Android phones.

Nintendo has announced that the 3DS "eShop" will be added with a firmware update on June 6th for North America and June 7th for Europe and Japan.

Additionally, the update will bring the much-anticipated web browser to the handheld, and add DSiWare transfer.

Says Nintendo:

By downloading the free update via a broadband internet connection, Nintendo 3DS users can enjoy a number of new features and enhancements including an internet browser and access to the Nintendo eShop, where users can browse and purchase downloadable content.

Facebook has come clean this week, admitting to secretly hiring a PR firm that planted negative stories about Google in newspapers and websites.

The social networking giant hired top-5 PR firm Burson-Marsteller to tell newspaper editors to investigate into whether Google was invading the privacy of its users.

Burson-Marsteller even offered to help noted blogger Christopher Soghoian write an op-ed that would have bashed Google. The PR firm promised the story could be placed later in the Huffington Post and the Washington Post. Soghoian instead released all the emails and declined the offer.

While many believed the "unnamed client" was either Apple or Microsoft, it turns out Facebook has an ax to grind and hates the fact that Google is trying to use Facebook data in its own social-networking services, like Social Circle.

Social Circle lets Gmail users see info about their Google and Facebook friends, but also their "secondary connections," or friends of friends.

The latest data from the NPD Group confirms that PC sales are struggling, but the firm says blaming the Apple iPad is the wrong way to go.

Of consumers who bought the iPad within six months of its debut, only 14 percent pushed aside plans to buy a PC to buy the tablet.

For the more important holiday season, that number fell to 12 percent.

Instead, NPD says the decline can be attributed to:

The explosion of computer sales when Windows 7 launched, as well as the huge increase in netbook sales at that time, are much more to blame for weak consumer PC sales growth than the iPad. Overall it appears that the vast majority of iPad purchases to-date have been incremental to the consumer technology industry.

According to the latest Nielsen figures, overall music sales in the U.S. have increased for the first time in years, mainly thanks to extremely strong sales of the Beatles digital catalog.

For the YTD (year-to-date) period, sales were up 1.6 percent, with digital track sales up 9.6 percent, making up for continued declines in physical CD sales.

Until the Beatles finally put their entire catalog on sale via digital distribution last November, growth in digital sales has slowed to just 3 percent, after seeing triple digit growth for most of the previous decade.

Since November, digital sales have been much higher, leading the firm to believe that the Beatles sales were the catalyst.

The sustained sales may also be attributed to Apple's strong marketing campaign for the Beatles music, which may have led an older generation to start buying music.

Vinyl record sales were also up 37 percent year-over-year, as the records have become a new "trend" for younger buyers.

As reported this week, Google has launched the beta of their Google Music cloud service.

To nobody's surprise, the record labels are not happy, since Google decided to launch without any licensing deals in place.

The record labels gave Amazon the same angry treatment when they launched their CloudDrive last month.

Google Music lets users upload their music to an online server which can be played back in a Web browser or via a native Android app. In beta, the service is free but will eventually cost money.

It appears the negotiations between the labels and Google failed because the labels kept trying to raise rates and even tried to get Google to sign off on blocking "piracy sites" from Google searches.

According to numerous reports, Samsung has begun rolling out the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update to the original Galaxy Tab tablet.

2.3.3 may be the last firmware upgrade Galaxy Tab owners will receive, however, as Android 3.0 Honeycomb is not expected to ever make the trip.

Gingerbread adds a number of UI improvements, as well as some other features. NFC support is added but useless since the tablet does not have the chip built-in.

Samsung's new updated Galaxy Tab 10.1 is set for release soon, and will come with Honeycomb, dual-core processor and many other improvements including a larger screen and thinner bezel.

According to a new survey by Crucial, the average user replaces their computer after 4.5 years.

The survey polled 1000 PC owners in the US, UK and France, and it appears that over half of those polled believe their computer should last "much longer" than three years but admit they don't.

Most of those that upgraded their PC blamed "slow speeds," although it is unclear if these users had fast Internet connections, slow HDDs, viruses or just old hardware.

A solid 50 percent of those surveyed said they upgraded simply beacuse they hated something about their PC.

Comically, 35 percent of those polled said they were more scared about upgrading their computer manually than dealing with a house spider.

According to a new study from the BSA (Business Software Alliance), worldwide software piracy hit an all-time high in 2010, up to $59 billion worth.

That number was 14 percent higher than 2009 and 95 percent higher than 2003.

Says the group (via Cnet):

The software industry is being robbed blind. Nearly $59 billion worth of products were stolen last year--and the rates of theft are completely out of control in the world's fastest-growing markets.

Rovio and Google are offering Angry Birds HD for free for Chrome browser users.

Head over to the webstore here: Angry Birds HD for Chrome to install the game.

Reads the game's description:

**** Surprise! New exclusive Chrome levels ****

The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 70 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

“Lemme tell ya, these ain’t no ordinary finches we’re talkin’ about. These here are the Angry Birds, the ones that’s gonna kick you in the ‘nads. And they’re the ones on your side. They must be from Galapadapados, or sumptin’.” – Col. Angus, Bird Expert.

Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!

Google has introduced two Chromebooks today, one made by Samsung and the other made by Acer.

The netbooks will run on Google's Chrome OS.

Samsung's model will have a 12.1-inch display, 1280x800 resolution, 8 second boot time and 8 hour battery life. The device runs on a dual core 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 processor, has an HD webcam, a mini-VGA port, 2 USB ports and will weigh just 3.3 pounds.

A Wi-Fi-only version will sell for $429 while a 3G version will sell for $499.

The Acer model will be smaller and have an 11.6-inch display, 8 second boot time, dual core Intel Atom processor, 2 USB ports, an HD webcam, optional 3G and HDMI-out.

Acer's Chromebook will sell for $350 as Wi-Fi-only.

Google has introduced Android@Home today during their I/O conference, a service that it will give users a chance to control their home's lights and other appliances using an Android device.

The new remote is dubbed "Project Tungsten."

Using Android@home, users can also send their brand new Google Music cloud library to any computer or stereo in the home.

Making it even more interesting is the fact that if you have appliances that do not have built-in Wi-Fi, future items will have a protocol to make them compatible.

One example Google used was CDs selling with an NFC device inside the case. When you tap the case with your Android device with NFC, the entire album's content is uploaded to your cloud music library.

For now, Android@Home is a demo with future ambitions.

Following our ongoing coverage of Google's I/O conference, the search giant has announced streaming movie rentals for the Android Market, giving users one of their most asked for features.

Unfortunately, the service is only live for Honeycomb tablets and your home computer, for now.

The updated movie service will be available for phones and tablets running Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread "in a few weeks."

There will be "thousands of titles" available at launch.

You can stream the movies online or "pin them" to your phone/tablet and then watch offline.

Google has just launched their oft-delayed Google Music service in beta, live now at music.google.com.

You can head over now to request an invitation using your Gmail account.

For the service, you can upload up to 20,000 tracks to the cloud and stream the music from any computer or Android device.

The service will initially be free, and currently only for U.S. users.

For those with Honeycomb tablets, the service uses CoverFlow-esque browsing, and you can "Genius" tracks using InstantMix, which will then create a 25-song playlist of similar music.

Google adds that if you lose Internet, "the songs you've recently played will automatically be available offline."

If the embedded link doesn't work, click here to watch video: Google Music beta

Speaking at their I/O conference today, Google has said they are activating 400,000 Android devices daily.

Overall, activated Android devices now stand at around 100 million.

Since launch, there have been over 4.5 billion app installs.

Google is rolling out Android 3.1 today to Verizon Xoom owners. The Honeycomb update will bring performance enhancements like faster app switching and the ability to stretch widgets vertically and horizontally.

Finally, Android devices will now be able to act as USB hosts, meaning users can import photos directly from cameras to tablets. The devices will even be able to support Xbox controllers.

In what will become the largest unauthorized torrent downloading lawsuit in U.S. history, the U.S. Copyright Group is expected to sue 23,000 file sharers for downloading the Sylvester Stallone hit film "The Expendables."

A federal judge has given the Group the rights to subpoena ISPs to find the identity of those who downloaded the film, which means that 23,000 number may be a lowball figure.

Subpoenas will begin being sent out on Thursday.

Under the U.S. Copyright Act, damages allowed per infringement are $150,000 and the group will ask for that in each case.

Of course, they will also offer a settlement payment of $3000. If every accused downloader settles, the lawyers will make a cool $69 million.

The Group finds the IPs by starting downloads of active torrents and capturing the IP addresses of peers that are sharing.

Electronic Arts (EA) CEO John Riccitiello has noted this week that the company will eventually move completely to digital distribution, killing off physical discs.

Says the CEO during the company's quarterly earnings conference call:

Over the coming years, we will transform EA from a packaged goods company, to a fully integrated Digital entertainment company. We're transforming EA to a games as a service model by focusing on three new strategies.

#1: IP. We believe we are driving the strongest portfolio of IP in the industry with EA Sports, FIFA, Hasbro, Madden, Pogo, Battlefield, Need for Speed, The Sims, Tetris, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and more. We fully intend to make these properties into year-round businesses that lead their sectors across a range of platforms.

Read more...

According to WinRumors, Verizon may be ready to launch its first Windows Phone 7 device this week, on May 12th.

The HTC 7 Trophy, which has been delayed for a month, should be ready for official launch as early as this week, say sources.

Verizon's roadmap originally showed the device with an April 15th launch and $200 price tag with contract.

That price is expected to stick.

The Trophy will ship with the "NoDo" firmware update that brings copy and paste and performance upgrades.

Following two nights of speculation, Microsoft has confirmed it will be purchasing Skype for $8.5 billion in cash.

The deal has already been approved by both boards of directors.

Skype has 170 million "connected users" and those users ran over 207 billion minutes of voice and video in 2010.

Microsoft says:

The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.

Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world. Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.

Microsoft is on the verge of purchasing Internet phone company Skype for over $7 billion, in what would be the company's largest ever acquisition.

Negotiations are in the final stages but the deal could still fall apart, say multiple sources speaking to WSJ.

Skype has 663 million users globally and says 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls were made over the service in 2010.

In 2007, Microsoft overpaid for online advertising firm aQuantive, paying $6 billion in what is their current largest deal, ever. In 2008, Microsoft offered $48 billion for Yahoo but was turned down and eventually the deal collapsed. Yahoo is valued at $25 billion today so it certainly appears that Microsoft dodged a bullet.

The Skype deal will be very expensive given the company's history of no profits.

In 2010, Skype had nice revenue of $860 million but lost $7 million. Google and Facebook were reported as being interested in the VoIP company, as well.

Google has confirmed that it will be adding 3000 movies to its YouTube movie rental service.

It is unclear what films will be available but reports have stated that Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. have all signed up.

Says Salar Kamangar, Head of YouTube:

Today, we’re going to start adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S. (more on this in a post later today) that will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras. Whether it’s short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience.

In addition to expanding our movie offerings, we’re also bolstering our investment in the content that’s already being viewed by hundred of millions of people on YouTube. Our 20,000+ partners—folks like Machinima, Annoying Orange and Ryan Higa—are producing original content for the web and commanding TV-size audiences for their own brand of programming. Through YouTube Next, we’re helping fuel the creation of this type of content with initiatives like the YouTube Creator Institute and YouTube NextUp, following past initiatives like Partner Grants (which brought us Key of Awesome, creators of one of 2010’s most-watched videos) and $1,000 B&H Photo credits. In the coming year, we’ll bring even more content to YouTube. Building on the success of Partner Grants and YouTube NextUp, we’re providing even more resources to creators who you’ll know from TV or Hollywood, and to existing YouTube partners who have already built loyal audiences on the site. Look out for more details on this in the coming months.

In Google's latest note on Android release figures, it appears that 2.3 Gingerbread is still not seeing any distribution, with the operating system being seen on only 4 percent of all Android devices.

The 4 percent is a slow but gradual growth from the 1.7 percent share it held in March, although many current devices do not even have a timeframe for receiving 2.3.

Android 2.2 Froyo kept increasing its share, this time to 66 percent.

Google's tablet-centric Android 3.0 Honeycomb is only on 0.3 percent of all devices, showing widespread lack of adoption for the Xoom. At .3 percent share, it would imply that only 150,000-200,000 Xoom units have been sold since launch.

Nvidia has confirmed its plans to purchase the mobile chipmaker Icera for $367 million in cash in an effort to better compete with Qualcomm and Intel.

The deal will let Nvidia join the market for baseband/radio chips.

With the deal, Nvidia should be able to package its Tegra processors with cellular baseband chips, making it more potent.

The company says Icera should help it double revenue generated from sales of each tablet/smartphone.

Both Qualcomm and Intel offer combos of processors and radio chips, although Intel has yet to see much demand for its mobile processors or architectures.

According to the annual BrandZ Global Top 100, Apple is now the most valuable brand in the world, beating out perennial winner Google.

Apple blasted 84 percent year-over-year to a value of $153 billion, ahead of Google at $112 billion.

IBM jumped 17 percent, as well, enough to hold third place at $100 billion and leave McDonald’s in fourth at $81 billion.

"It’s clear that every single Apple employee, from Steve Jobs and Tim Cook to the summer interns, see protecting and nurturing that brand as a top priority," adds Millward Brown Chief Executive Officer Eileen Campbell in the report. "Tablet computing also drove value growth not just for Apple, but also for the providers who support yet another networked device."

Facebook saw the largest jump, running 246 percent to $19.1 billion, good for 35th on the list.

In other big news, Amazon overtook Wal-Mart as the most-valuable retail brand, jumping to 14th as Wal-Mart stayed in 15th.

Check the full chart here: BrandZ Global Top 100

Microsoft has revealed some of the new features coming with the Windows Phone 7 "Mango" update, and WP7 users should be excited for them.

Users will get native podcast support, turn-by-turn voice direction in Bing Maps, voice-recognition SMS, Bing Vision and Bing Audio (like Shazam/SoundHound/MusicID).

Bing Audio will be integrated right into Bing search, and will work just like similar products. Press a button while you are listening to a song you want to remember or buy (or don't know) and the service will connect you to a match.

The US, Great Britian, France, Italy, Germany and Spain will be the first with Bing Audio support.

Bing Vision is a camera-based search app, that will read barcodes, MS Tags, QR codes and text through OCR.

Click here for screenshots of the upcoming features: New Mango Features Coming For Windows Phone 7

The hacking group Anonymous has taken time to write a full PR release responding to accusations that it was behind the massive PSN hack that has compromised the personal data of 101.6 million gamers.

Two weeks ago, Sony hinted that they found files on the attacked server that imply Anonymous was behind the attack, and the media has gone even deeper in accusing the group.

I have posted the entire PR release below, or you can read it here (with clickable cites).

"SONY, I AM DISAPPOINT"
For Immediate Distribution
Press Release
May 7th, 2011
A 'HiveMind Effort' from
Anonymous Holdings LLC (Bermuda)


Yesterday, an article appeared in Financial Times, alleging Anonymous' involvement in the data and identity theft of some hundred million users of Sony's Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment. This crime is now being investigated by the Homeland Security Agency (HSA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and other legal entities.

Once again Anonymous has been blamed for a security breach, this time by the journalist Joseph Menn, in his article "Hackers point finger over Sony incursion" [1]. Here, Anonymous wishes to lay out our case against these allegations and false assumptions:

Read more...

Last week, Sony outlined its plans to give all PSN users in the U.S. free identity protection and $1 million insurance for a year.

The insurance will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.

Sony admitted last week that 101.6 million accounts were compromised by two "highly sophisticated attack" on Sony's servers on April 17th.

Today, the company has outlined its plans for similar protection for European users affected by the downtime.

Says Sony:

As I have explained previously, creating a similar offering for the many countries within the SCEE region is a very complicated process. Each country has a different way of handling identity theft; some offer relatively sophisticated services whilst others are much more modest.

We are currently in the process of identifying how we manage this situation and once the programme is ready to launch, we will provide details of exactly which services are available in each country and explain how to sign up. We hope to do this early next week.

Samsung has noted today that its upcoming Galaxy S II already has 3 million pre-orders worldwide, not including the U.S. where the phone hasn't gone up for sale, yet.

In Samsung's home country of Korea, the phone is already on pace to outsell the iPhone 4, which has been on sale for over 9 months.

The smartphone has a 4.27-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, Android 2.3.4, a 1.2GHz Samsung dual-core processor, an 8.49mm thin chassis (at lowest), an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p recording, NFC support, a 2MP front-side camera and HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS.

Furthermore, the device will run on Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI.

There is still no set date for launch in the U.S. following a delay from late March.

Although the company has had to delay the resurrection of the PSN, Sony is looking to make amends to frustrated gamers and will offer up two free PS3 games to everyone affected.

Users will get to choose the games from a small 5-lot of select titles.

For now, it is unclear what those titles will be, however.

Additionally, Sony announced last week that it would be offering everyone a free 30-day trial to the premium PlayStation Plus service.

After first announcing that the service would be up by yesterday, over the weekend Sony confirmed that they would have to delay the return of the service to an unknown time.

Adds Nick Caplin – Head of Communications, SCEE:

Please be assured that we are continuing to work around the clock to have some PlayStation Network and Qriocity services restored and will provide you with specific details shortly.

Daily deal behemoth Groupon has teamed up with Live Nation this week, in an effort to bring discounted ticket deals.

The new venture, GrouponLive, is already available if you want to use your email to subscribe to deals but deals won't start until the summer.

Live Nation Entertainment, a venture by Live Nation and Ticketmaster, currently promotes 20,000 shows every year.

Says Groupon CEO Andrew Mason:

With unprecedented access to Live Nation's expansive roster of performers and events, GrouponLive will be the destination for exclusive live event deals. We're excited to work with Live Nation to further deliver on our commitment to offer amazing local experiences to our subscribers.

GrouponLive represents a new channel to drive value for fans, while helping artists and others to reach ever larger audiences. By adding this channel to our ticketing platform, we will also provide our venue partners with another option for driving ticket sales across a wide range of events. Our success is based on selling tickets and filling seats and GrouponLive gives us another platform to achieve this.

Launched with just Android compatibility, Amazon's Cloud Player has now been updated to work with iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

While Android owners have a native app for the Cloud Player, iOS device owners need to stream the music via the Safari browser.

Open Safari, head over to the Cloud Player site, ignore the "your browser is not supported warning" and sign into your account.

From there, just click on the playlist/track you want to hear and it will begin streaming within the browser. Volume and controls work as usual and will even play in the background.

Unfortunately, on iOS you can't rearrange the songs in playlists or upload new files because the latter requires Flash.

Sprint has announced the release of the Nexus S 4G for their network, giving CDMA/WiMax 4G users a chance to use Google's flagship Android device.

Furthermore, the smartphone will launch with Android 2.3.4, meaning video chat through Google Talk is enabled.

The device is available for $200 with contract from Sprint, or $150 with contract through Best Buy.

If you want to buy the device without contract it will cost you $549.

As with all Sprint smartphones, you will be charged an extra $10 per month for "premium data."

Electronic Arts (EA) has said this weekend that all reports that the company is already working on software development for the next-gen Xbox console are false.

Reports had stated that EA had been given a working kit of the Xbox 360's successor in an effort to start game development early.

EA spokesperson Jeff Brown says, however, "this story is a total fabrication - 100 percent not true."

The original reports suggested that Microsoft could be ready to announce that new console at this year's E3, rivaling Nintendo's launch of the Wii 2 (Project Cafe).

For now, we will assume that Microsoft is not working on an Xbox 360 successor, and will have it available by 2015, at the end of a 10-year cycle.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer just reached American shores last week but has quickly seen huge demand and shortages.

Asus says today that they expect to produce 100,000 in May and 210,000 in June, and that all shortages are demand-based, and not due to component shortages or rumored quality control problems at their plants.

When asked when the shortages would stop, Asus responded:

We will see a significant alleviation in the month of June and if the demand continues to increase substantially then we will have to continue to ramp up production in order to fulfill our customers' demand.

Hysteria over the launch of the iPad 2 has led to four would-be buyers being injured, and a glass door being smashed through at the Beijing flagship Apple store.

The state press says four people were taken to the hospital after "a foreign" Apple employee jumped into the crowd "to beat" people who had allegedly cut in line.

In response, the crowd smashed the glass front door and rushed the store in anger, leaving those four injured.

Just like in the United States and other nations, there were hours worth of lines for the iPad 2, which just went on sale in China this weekend.

The store closed and has not yet re-opened, and a sign has been posted saying "queue jumping and the unauthorised sales of Apple products would not be tolerated."

It appears that Apple will go environmentally friendly with the release of Mac OS X Lion this summer, saying goodbye to physical discs and instead making the operating system available via the Mac App Store as a digital download.

The disc will be available if a user requests it (or has slow broadband/dial-up) but the digital download will be the default.

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January and it is expected to be a major component of 10.7 Lion.

If accurate, the move is part of a broader plan by Apple to lose the SuperDrive altogether, with upcoming MacBook Pros expected to remove the drive in an effort to make thinner notebooks with better battery life.

Apple is expected to reveal Lion at their June event instead of the iPhone 5.

If a new rumor proves accurate, the upcoming iPad 3 will go glasses-free 3D, like the Nintendo 3DS and a few newer smartphones.

Speculation has placed Apple releasing a new iPad in September or very early 2012, outside of their normal 1-year schedule.

For now, the source of the rumor is a "Hollywood insider" who says "the fact that the iPad 3 is 3D is a dead cert."

Furthermore, studios are rushing to get enough 3D content ready for the tablet's launch.

According to the New York Post, Conde Nast may be the next publisher to announce a magazine subscription via the iPad.

The "New Yorker" app may go up next week, in an effort to capitalize on the media hysteria revolving around the death of Osama bin Laden.

Additionally, the company will sell subscriptions to Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Self, and Golf Digest in the near future.

An annual subscription will cost $19.99.

Single-issue prices will drop to $1.99, down from cover-stand prices of $3.99-4.99 for the mags.

Last week, rival Hearst said it would make Esquire, O, the Oprah Magazine, and Popular Mechanics available on the iPad starting in July.

According to the latest comScore MobiLens survey, Android continues to take smartphone market share at a rapid pace, and mainly all at the expense of RIM's BlackBerry line.

The survey polls over 30,000 American smartphone owners.

For the month ended March 31st, BlackBerry fell to 27.1 percent share, with Android jumping to 34.7 percent.

In January, that number was a lot closer, with Android at 31.2 percent and BlackBerry at 30.4 percent.

By the same ticket, Apple continues to see stagnant share (as a percentage), holding above 24 percent but under 26 percent since October.

Microsoft has yet to see any significant bounce from the release of Windows Phone 7 and continues its multi-year free fall.

In this very quick guide we will teach our users how to keep updated with the latest AfterDawn news via the excellent (and FREE) Pulse news reader app for Android (and iOS).

Please follow the guide here (including QR code for quick download from your phone): Quick Guide: Adding AfterDawn feed to Pulse app on Android

Sony has said early Saturday that it must delay the restoration of PSN, although last week it promised to have the service up-and-running by Sunday.

A spokesperson simply said restoring PSN this week "would not be possible" and left no set date for its return.

Additionally, Sony said it removed the stolen personal info of 2500 PSN users that had been posted on a website.

The data stolen included name and some addresses.

For more coverage of the current debacle that is the PSN takedown, check our past articles:

Sony considering offering a reward for info on hackers

Sony offering identity-theft protection and insurance for one year to all U.S. PSN users

Hackers planning third attack on Sony

Following the breach of security that has caused 100 million accounts to have their data compromised, Sony is now considering offering rewards for info that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the hacks.

So far, Sony has not decided on whether to offer the reward but is actively considering.

The PSN has been down since April 17th, when Sony says it detected an attack and promptly shut down the service. Unfortunately, it was not quick enough, and 77 million accounts had their personal data stolen. Last week, Sony confirmed that another 25 million accounts were hacked from their Online division, which was then shut down, as well.

Yesterday, Sony Chairman Howard Stringer apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and offered all affected users in the U.S. one year of free identity-theft protection.

The company will offer $1 million insurance per user, which will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.

T-Mobile saw a massive spike in customer desertions last quarter, mainly due to "competitive pressures."

The carrier lost 471,000 net contract customers in the Q1, compared to 318,000 in the Q3 and just 77,000 in the same period last year.

Overall subscribers fell by 99,000 for the quarter as new and renewing customers could not make up the difference.

T-Mobile says "the decline in net contract customers was driven primarily by fewer contract gross customer additions and continued high contract churn due to competitive pressures."

For the quarter, the carrier showed $135 million profit, down from $362 million in 2010. Revenue was down also.

Earlier this year AT&T announced it was purchasing T-Mobile for $39 billion. That deal requires at least 10 more months before it can be approved by anti-trust regulators, however.

(Pic, source via ZD)

One of RIM's most-anticipated features for their PlayBook tablet is its ability to tap into the 250,000 app-strong Android Market.

This week, the company has demoed the feature and says it will be pushed to users in the summer.

The apps appear to run very well on the tablet, with the company showing off a few music apps, and IMDB.

Unfortunately, RIM does not show off any apps that would tax the graphics portion of the hardware.

Because there are no buttons on the PlayBook, the home/back/search/menu buttons have been mapped as gestures.

There are two new rumors today about the RIM PlayBook, one that the Sprint 3G model has been delayed and the other that a 10-inch model of the tablet is imminent.

If accurate, the 10-inch version of the tablet will be announced at the end of RIM's BlackBerry World, while the CDMA 3G version of the Sprint tablet has been delayed indefinitely.

The Sprint device was supposed to hit May 8th, but the new release date is unknown.

Says a briefing: "The launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet has been delayed for all Dealers. The new launch date will be communicated as soon as it is available."

Sprint's 4G model is still on track for its summer release, however.

A 10-inch model of the tablet would be put in more direct competition with the iPad 2 and Xoom (in terms of size).

According to new reports, iOS 5 may finally bring the ability to receive OTA updates from carriers, specifically Verizon and AT&T.

The two carriers are currently in talk with Apple over how to best make the updates work.

Apple will need to shrink the current size of its updates, say sources, with current iOS 4 downloads topping 500MB.

To get around this, the sources say "we believe that Apple will make the updates much smaller by using incremental patches rather than full OS downloads."

The Apple iPhone 5 is expected to be released later this year, possibly September, running on iOS 5 and with a dual-core A5 processor, 3G FaceTime capability, NFC and a better camera. There is also a chance that Apple will redo the form factor.

Warner Music Group has announced today that it has sold itself to the investment firm Access Industries for $3.3 billion, including assumption of debt.

Access will pay $8.25 per share, a 4 percent premium over the company's closing price yesterday but about 40 percent higher than the company's average share price of the last year.

Says Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and chief executive (via NYT):

We are delighted that Access will be the new steward of this outstanding business. They are supportive of the company’s vision, growth strategy and artists, while bringing a fresh entrepreneurial perspective and expertise in technology and media.

The latest rumor in the microprocessor space has Apple moving away from Intel and instead adopting ARM architectures for its laptops.

Apple will make the move when ARM releases 64-bit versions of its processors, likely at the end of 2012.

The source accurately reported in 2009 that Apple would begin moving away from Nvidia, and mostly all new iMacs now either have an AMD Radeon or Intel integrated GPU.

Additionally, Apple will "presumably" move their desktops to ARM, as well, with the deal all but set in stone.

Apple currently uses ARM architectures in iOS devices.

Sony Chairman Howard Stringer has apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and has offered all affected users in the U.S. one year of free identity-theft protection.

The company will offer $1 million insurance per user, which will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.

Debix has been hired to do the monitoring in the U.S. and it is unclear when international PSN users will get the same treatment.

Sony admitted this week that 101.6 million accounts were compromised by two "highly sophisticated attack" on Sony's servers on April 17th.

If you want the $1 million insurance, you have until June 18th to sign up for Debix's AllClear ID Plus protection service.

Added Stringer (via SFG):

I know this is a frustrating time for all of you. Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber attack we've all experienced and on fixing it.

Last year, AT&T began locking down all Android devices, blocking sideloading of apps for "security reasons."

Today, it appears that AT&T has removed that restriction, following considerable criticism.

In the newly launched Infuse 4G, users have confirmed that "Install from Unknown sources" is available in settings.

Outside from downloading pirated apps (which was likely AT&T's concern), there are a plethora of legal reasons to need to sideload applications, including the newly launched Amazon Appstore.

The Infuse 4G goes on sale next week for $200 with contract.

According to IRC chat logs acquired by Cnet, a group of hackers is planning a third cyber attack on Sony, which is still reeling from two attacks that have taken the PSN down for two weeks and left 100 million customers with data exposed.

The upcoming attack is planned for this weekend, and the hackers claim to already have access to some of Sony's servers.

Furthermore, the hackers plan to publicize all of the info they steal, including names, addresses and credit card numbers.

Earlier this week, Sony revealed that a "highly sophisticated, planned" attack hit Sony's servers and they took down PSN as soon as it was detected. The company also implied that the group Anonymous had something to do with it, as there was a file planted on the server named "Anonymous" which included the statement "We are Legion," one of the group's mottoes.

Anonymous, twice now, has denied being part of the attack.

Speaking to investors this week, Barnes & Noble has announced that it will reveal a new tablet or e-reader on May 24th, with many speculating it will include Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Says the SEC notice:

In a meeting with investor analysts on May 4, 2011, Barnes & Noble ... indicated it expects to make an announcement on May 24, 2011 regarding the launch of a new eReader device.

Sources have said this week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been actively speaking to Skype about a potential buyout or a joint venture.

If accurate, the report says Facebook could pay up to $4 billion for the video chat service.

More likely, however, the two companies will tie-up for a new joint venture.

Additionally, Google appears to be interested in a similar venture, as well, and has had "early talks."

Skype only commented to say: "As a practical matter, we avoid commenting on rumor and speculation."

CNET has been sued this week for distributing 220 million copies of LimeWire over the years.

The record labels say CNET parent CBS Interactive profited from the free downloads, which accounted for 95 percent of all LimeWire downloads since 2008.

Reads the complaint:

The CBS defendants received massive amounts of revenue from P2P provders on a ‘pay per download’ basis and also from advertising revenues generated by advertisements placed on the download screen for P2P software.

Netflix has confirmed that it has fired a call center worker that was caught stealing credit card numbers from customers of the rental service.

The data theft was discovered on April 4th and the worker was promptly fired.

Says Netflix Senior Counsel Sharon Williamson in a letter to the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General:

The worker accessed over approximately the past two months, without authorization, the credit card information of some Netflix customers who spoke with the individual over the telephone.

We do everything we can to safeguard our members' personal data and privacy, and when there's an issue like this we deal with it swiftly and decisively.

Sony has submitted their written responses to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce over the massive cyber-attack that has taken down the PSN for two weeks and exposed personal info for up to 77 million gamers.

You can view the PDFs of the report, "The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers" here.

The most shocking part of the report is the fact that they imply the group "Anonymous" in the attack, even though the group has denied any involvement.

Says Sony:

Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack.

We discovered that the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion.”

By April 25, forensic teams were able to confirm the scope of the personal data they believed had been taken, and could not rule out whether credit card information had been accessed. On April 26, we notified customers of those facts.

As of today, the major credit card companies have not reported any fraudulent transactions that they believe are the direct result of this cyber attack.

Read more...

Nintendo has announced it will begin officially selling the Wii console for $150 bundled, starting May 15th.

The bundle includes a Wii remote, Mario Kart, and a steering wheel.

Nintendo will continue to sell the $169.99 bundle (which includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii Sports) until inventory runs out. From there, that price point will be discontinued.

Says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime:

There is quite a bit more volume to be sold on the Wii home console. And the way we are going to get there is by offering the system at this low price and by including a key software title like Mario Kart."

Popular retailer Express has begun selling its entire catalog via Facebook today.

Users to the Shop Express tab of the company's Facebook Page can browse and purchase all the merchandise, just as if they were on the official site.

Adding to its normal features, users can also "like" clothing, and recommend items via posts on friend's walls.

Your account, along with real-time inventory and pricing, is synced across all of Express' sites and mobile apps, allowing for seamless shopping, says the company.

Says the company (via Mash):

We continue to look for ways that the customer can interact with the brand on their own schedule and at their convenience, so that we bring down as many barriers as possible.

Apple has introduced the refreshed line of iMacs this week, running on quad-core processors, adding a built-in HD webcam for FaceTime and Intel's new Thunderbolt interface.

The new computers will be available as 21.5-inch (1920x1080 resolution) or 27-inch (2560x1440), and each are LED-backlit.

Starting at $1199, the 21.5-inch has a 2.5GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache, 4GB RAM, a small 500GB HDD and a 512MB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD6750M video card.

The more expensive model starts at $1499 and has a 2.7GHz i5, a 1TB HDD and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M. It can also be upgraded (very expensively) to a 2.8Ghz i7 processor, a 2TB HDD and a 256GB SSD as a secondary (or primary) drive.

Moving up to the 27-inch models, starting at $1699 you can get a configuration with a 2.7GHz i5, a 1TB HDD and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M.

Warner Bros. has announced the acquisition of the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and its parent, the "social" movie site Flixster.

As part of the deal, Flixster will still run independently but will expand beyond its current movie discovery niche.

It is unclear how much the studio paid, but WSJ reports the value of the sites at $60-90 million.

Says Warner:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group will utilize the powerful Flixster brand and technical expertise to launch a number of initiatives designed to grow digital content ownership, including the recently announced consumer application “Digital Everywhere.” This studio-agnostic application will be the ultimate destination for consumers to organize and access their entire digital library from anywhere on the device of their choice, as well as to share recommendations and discover new content. The Flixster acquisition and “Digital Everywhere,” combined with the Studio’s support of the UltraViolet format are all part of an overall strategy to give consumers even more freedom, utility and value for their digital purchases.

Nielsen has announced today that for the first time since 1992, the amount of U.S. households with a TV set has fallen.

The 2012 Advance/Preliminary TV Household Universe Estimate (UE) fell to 114.7 million, from 115.9 a year ago.

Furthermore, Nielsen says U.S. homes with a TV set is now at 96.7 percent, down from its peak of 98.9 percent.

The company claims the 2012 UE drop can be attributed to:

Digital Transition: The summer of 2009 marked a significant milestone with a shift from analog to digital broadcasting. Following the transition, consumers were only able to view digital broadcasts via a set with a built-in digital tuner (i.e., a newer TV set) or an analog TV set connected to a digital-to-analog converter box, cable or satellite. TV penetration first dipped after this transition; the permanence of this trend was acknowledged in 2010 after the number of TV households did not rebound over time.

Economics: As with previous periods of belt-tightening, the cost of owning a TV is a factor in this UE decline; TV penetration first saw sustained decreases in second quarter 2009. Lower-income, rural homes were particularly affected.

Read more...

After being in advanced talks for a few weeks now, it appears Twitter will acquire the popular TweetDeck client, for somewhere around $50 million.

The claims come via Crunch who says the announcement should be made this week.

As arguably the best Twitter client around (and accounting for 13 percent of all tweets sent on a daily basis), TweetDeck is a hot commodity for the microblogging platform and remains the top app for "power users," those who tweet many times per day from many different devices.

TweetDeck also allows users to connect their LinkedIn and Facebook platforms to one app.

TweetDeck had been previously linked to UberMedia, who was looking to purchase the client for $30 million and had an exclusive negotiating window that ran out. Uber has the top Twitter app for BlackBerry (UberSocial) and the "highest rated" Twitter app for Android, Twidroyd and has been allegedly cooking up a plan for a "Twitter killing" service so on Twitter's end, the new purchase makes perfect sense.

Eldar Murtazin, the well-connected Russian analyst and tech writer has said today that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 sales are "catastrophic."

Earlier this year, the software company reported it had shipped 1.5 million phones, well above estimates.

Murtzain says, however, that only 674,000 of those have actually been purchased by consumers, while the rest sit on carrier's shelves.

Additionally, the writer says that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop will retire at the end of 2012, after he completes the transition of Windows Phone.

Windows Phone 7, alongside mixed critical reviews, has been plagued by botched firmware updates, some of which even left users with bricked devices.

Gartner has posted the latest worldwide OS market share figures, and it seems that as the economy recovered, so did OS sales.

For 2010, revenue jumped to $30.4 billion from $28.1 in 2009.

Microsoft gained share for Windows, but Mac OSX remained the fastest growing segment of the market.

The server market grew 5.7 percent, as well.

Of course, the Mac OSX numbers are a bit skewed because it still represents a minuscule portion of the market, says the research firm.

IBM AIX and HP-UX saw single-digit growth year-over-year. Oracle got the biggest bump, after purchasing Sun Microsystems and getting Solaris with it.

Chart:

The RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be getting Facebook and video chat apps in the next month, giving owners two of their most wanted demands.

RIM says the FB app was built specifically for the PlayBook's larger screen, working off the BlackBerry's popular smartphone app.

As is standard, the app will allow for watching videos and viewing photos, using FB chat, commenting/liking, and viewing other friend's profiles.

Says RIM's social networking boss:

There are over 30 million users of our Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app who are staying in touch with their social network while on the go. Now with Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook we can also offer customers highly engaging social experiences optimized for the PlayBook, including the ability to share FaceBook pictures and videos with friends and family on an HDTV.

Speaking over the weekend, PlayStation head Kaz Hirai admitted that up to 10 million user's credit card info were possibly stolen.

Apologizing, Hirai says: "We deeply apologize for the inconvenience we have caused."

The company does say that it does not believe any credit card info was actually stolen, but it is the first admission that comes complete with a figure.

When the PSN relaunches this week, everyone will need to download a system update and change their passwords.

As a small form of compensation, Sony will start a "Welcome Back" program, offering up some "entertainment content" for free and a free 30-day subscription to the premium PlayStation Plus.

Variety says that videogame publisher Ubisoft has launched their own movie studio, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, in an effort to adapt their own game franchises for the big screen.

The company says the film division will be headed by Jean-Julien Baronnet, the former CEO of Luc Besson's EuropaCorp.

Producer Didier Lupfer will lead production and development and Jean de Rivieres, an ex-distribution boss at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures France will be in charge of marketing and international sales.

Ubisoft has a number of properties that could easily be adapted for the big screen, including "Assassin's Creed" and "Splinter Cell." Their "Prince of Persia" franchise was made into a movie last year and grossed $335 million despite mediocre reviews.

Following the ongoing saga of the hacked PSN, Sony has now taken down their MMO and Facebook games.

Reads the official statement:

Dear Valued SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) Customers,
We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday).

We apologize for any inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience.

AT&T has started its DSL and U-Verse bandwidth caps today, two months after announcing the move.

DSL users will have a 150GB cap while U-Verse subscribers will have a 250GB cap.

Anyone who exceeds the limit three times will be charged $10 for every extra 50GB of data consumed.

The new policy goes into effect today for new and existing customers.

AT&T says it will send notifications when you reach 65 percent of the cap, 90 percent and finally when you hit the full cap. The company will also give all subscribers software to help them track their usage.

The caps will affect under 2 percent of users, says the ISP, subscribers who use "a disproportionate" amount of data and slow down networks for others.

AT&T notes that the average subscriber uses 18GB of bandwidth per month.

Sony announced earlier today that they will slowly be bringing back the PlayStation Network and Qriocity over the next week, and some unconfirmed reports already have the service up-and-running in Japan.

The company will also be ramping up security on the network in response to the largest security breach in the company's history, with personal info (and possibly but not likely credit card info) stolen from 77 million accounts.

Finally, Sony says they will be setting up a new customer appreciation program to thank everyone for waiting almost two weeks for PSN to come back up.

Sony says:

Third-party experts have conducted extensive tests to verify the security strength of the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. With these measures in place, SCE and SNEI plan to start a phased rollout by region of the services shortly.

-Added automated software monitoring and configuration management to help defend against new attacks

-Enhanced levels of data protection and encryption

-Enhanced ability to detect software intrusions within the network, unauthorized access and unusual activity patterns

Read more...

Warner Music Group could be sold at the end of the week for $3 billion, say sources, as all final buyout bids for the Big 4 record label are due tomorrow.

So far, the two competing bids are coming from Len Blavatnik's Access Industry and a joint bid by Tom and Alec Gores' Platinum Equity and Gores Group.

Warner says two major labels (BMG and Sony) were bidding, as well, but "fell short of what Warner's board was looking for from strategic buyers." It appears that Warner wants a premium from labels as the transaction will take much longer to complete, given anti-trust review.

With all that being said, insiders are still skeptical that an actual deal will be completed.

Warner put itself up for sale in January, following years of declining music sales.

"The key issues for Warner Music's board are price and simplicity of the transaction process," say the sources.

Warner has $1.9 billion in debt, and is only expected to make $333 million in income before interest, depreciation and amortization, for the fiscal 2012.