News written by Andre Yoskowitz (August, 2011)

AOL is in talks with banks in an effort to take the struggling company private.

For now, the discussion are revolving around a per share price in which AOL's management would consider being taken private.

The company, and its shares have struggled massively as the management tries to complete a restructuring into a digital content company.

Since IPOing in 2009, stock in the company has fallen from as high as $30 to $15 as of today, and as low as $10, last week.

AOL has tried to become a web content company, with its biggest purchase being The Huffington Post for $300 million last year.

CNBC is saying today that Facebook will launch a streaming music player, likely in partnership with MOG or Spotify.

Says CNBC's Jon Fortt:

Yes indeed, next month is going to be a big one for music. I'm hearing from someone familiar with the plans that Facebook will launch its long rumored music service at the F8 conference on September 22nd.

Now it seems likely that Facebook won't actually host the music, but will partner with others who do that. But Facebook to launch their platform at F8 on September 22nd.

MOG, a subscription-based music streaming service, already has a strong relationship with Facebook. It uses Facebook's social graph to help subscribers discover new artists based on those their friends already "like" on Facebook.

No other music service has that kind of access to Facebook's social graph. MOG also has a new HTML5-based player that Hyman said could be easily integrated directly into Facebook.

Sony has unveiled its latest Reader e-reading device, the world's lightest ever.

The company says the Reader weighs 5.9 ounces and is just 8.9mm thin with one-month of standby battery life.

Sony's Reader Wi-Fi uses an E Ink Pearl display and can handle EPUB, PDF and TXT formats. Everything else is pretty standard for an e-reader.

Featuring 2GB storage, Sony says you can fit 1200 eBooks, and there is a microSD slot, regardless.

Finally, Sony is also offering a limited edition Pottermore version of the Reader Wi-Fi which includes a voucher for a free download of the first version of the popular Harry Potter series.

Full specs:

Model name

PRS-T1

Display:

E-Ink Pearl™ v220
- Screen Size: 15.2cm (6 inches)
- Gray Scale: 16-levels gray scale
- Resolution: 600 x 800 pixels

Touch-screen

Clear Touch Infrared technology

Battery life (continuous playback)

-A single charge lasts over one month with wireless off based on a half-hour of daily reading time. *1
-Read on a single battery charge up to 3 weeks with wireless on. *1

Read more...

CNN has purchased the popular iPad media company Zite.

Zite, which has digital magazine/newspaper tech, delivers media depending on the user's personal preferences.

If you are a finance fan, your Zite magazine will be packed with finance-based articles and media. Same goes for sports, tech, politics, gaming, etc.

CNN says it will let Zite run as it currently is, with no layoffs or shakeups.

The news company has a notoriously ugly mobile site and so could eventually begin using Zite's tech to create an improved experience for its own users.

Sony has now shown off the specs of the Tablet S, set for release this month.

The tablet has a 9.4-inch screen, a "magazine" form factor, a Tegra 2 dual core processor, dual cameras and Honeycomb.

If you purchase the Wi-Fi-only version you get Honeycomb 3.1 (with Sony UI overlay) and if you buy the more expensive Wi-Fi/3G version you get 3.2 (with similar UI overlay).

The tablet comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, DLNA compatibility, an IR port (to use as universal remote), an SD card slot, Sony's Crackle and eReader apps and Sony's "QuickView" tech for faster browsing.

Finally, the tablet is the first to be Playstation Certified which means it can play PSX games from the PS Store.

The tablet costs $499 for the base 16GB/Wi-Fi model.

AT&T has announced that the first tablet with Android 3.1, the HTC Jetstream, will hit the carrier next week.

The 10-inch tablet (with 1280x768 resolution) weighs 1.56 pounds, runs on a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, has 8MP and 1.3MP cameras, 32GB internal storage and 4G support.

Furthermore, HTC says the device will have the popular Sense UI overlay.

Going on sale on September 4th, the tablet will cost $700 with contract or $850 without.

Additionally, if you want 4G data, AT&T is offering $15/250MB, $25/2GB and $35/3GB per month.

The U.S. government has filed to block AT&T much maligned proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

If successfully blocked, AT&T will have to pay a huge breakup fee of $3 billion to Deutsche Telekom (TMo's parent company) as well as $4 billion worth of wireless spectrum.

Says the DOJ:

AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.

We are surprised and disappointed by today’s action, particularly since we have met repeatedly with the DOJ.

It has been available for months in Europe, and has set pre-sale records in the U.S., but Samsung has finally announced the Galaxy S II for three major U.S. carriers.

For Sprint, the device will be called the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G and for T-Mobile the device will be called the T-Mobile Galaxy S II. AT&T only said their device would be unveiled in "the coming weeks."

Sprint's model came with a full spec sheet, pricing and availability:

Android 2.3
4.52″ Super AMOLED Plus display
1.2 Ghz dual-core CPU (Samsung Exynos)
WiMax 4G
8 Megapixel rear camera
2 Megapixel front camera
Preloaded apps: Nova 2 HD, Swype, Polaris Office
Bluetooth 3.0
Sprint ID
802.11b/g/n WiFi
WiFi Hotspot for up to 8 device

22-year-old Ashley McDowell of South Carolina was duped out of $180 after two men approached her in a McDonald's parking lot and offered to sell her an iPad.

One of the men, who had a gold tooth, says McDowell, explained that they purchased the tablets in bulk from overseas and were selling for $300. The woman said she only had $180 on her and they quickly accepted her price.

When McDowell got home, she opened the box (a Fedex box, not even an iPad box, mind you) to find a piece of wood with the Apple logo painted on it as well as a "screen" with a replica iPad home screen.

Adding insult to injury, the scammers threw a fake Best Buy sales ticket on top.

Despite dusting the box and "tablet" for prints, the police say they have no leads.

HP, in an unlikely move, will build more TouchPads, in an effort to "meet unfulfilled demand."

Analyst Shawn Wu says the move is just HP fulfilling its contract with Taiwanese manufacturer Compal, which it had cancelled half way through when it shut down the tablet project.

HP is assumed to have ordered 550,000 tablets through Compal.

The TouchPads will be on shelves starting in two weeks and will run through October 31st.

Each retailer has been given the rights to price any inventory at whatever they choose with the base at $99.

More info here: HP will not leave TouchPad users out to dry, one more update coming

The founders of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay have announced the launch of their own legal cyberlocker, called BayFiles.

The service, like rivals, allows users to upload files and share them online.

BayFiles is also registered as a DMCA agent, meaning they will take down all files that are flagged as unauthorized due to copyright infringement and bans multiple-time offenders.

In the future, the company hopes to expand BayFiles into a "feature-rich" cloud service, a la Dropbox. Just like new services from Amazon, Google and Apple, the platform will allow you to upload your music and stream it from a phone (or from anywhere) as long as you have Internet access.

The service is free to sign up, and free members can upload files up to 500MB.

Premium members (at $7 a month or $63 a year) can upload 5GB files with unlimited storage.

comScore has released their latest numbers on top smartphone platforms and unsurprisingly Android and Apple continue to grow at the expense of everyone else.

For the three months ended July, Android increased a full 5.4 points from April to 41.8 percent while Apple took a 1 point increase to 27 percent despite only having one device.

RIM got killed, again, with the BlackBerry maker dropping 4 points to 21.7 percent.

Microsoft, even with the launch of Windows Phone 7, continues to get killed also, down another point to 5.7 percent share.

Somehow, Symbian still has some share, 1.9 percent, despite being left for dead by Nokia.

According to Cnet, HP will release at least one future update for its discontinued TouchPad tablet.

On the 19th, HP slashed the price of its 16GB base model to $99 from $499 MSRP in a firesale intended to liquidate all remaining stock. The move worked and HP is said to have sold out nearly all of its inventory.

The company also added that it would no longer create webOS-based hardware, as the company moves increasingly into the software business.

Says HP:

We expect that HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog.

HP is fully committed to the ongoing support and service of customers who purchased webOS devices...We plan to continue to investigate the best ways to leverage WebOS software and grow the applications.

According to Forrester Research, Amazon could sell 5 million of its still unconfirmed tablet in the Q4, making it a viable competitor to Apple and the iPad.

When the tablet is eventually launched, it is expected to sell for $299 or even $199, well below Apple's base price of $499.

Says the firm:

Thus far, Apple has faced many would-be competitors, but none have gained significant market share. Not only does Amazon have the potential to gain share quickly but its willingness to sell hardware at a loss, as it did with the Kindle, makes Amazon a nasty competitor.

In April 2010, HP purchase Palm, along with webOS and all of the company's patents for $1.2 billion, stopping the struggling phone maker from an imminent bankruptcy.

Two weeks ago, HP admitted failure and announced they would not be building any more devices with webOS, while at the same time liquidating their current inventory, which included Palm Pre phones and TouchPad tablets.

At the same time, Google purchased Motorola Mobility in a shock $12.5 billion move, which has scared current smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, LG and HTC who are afraid the acquired company could be given favorable advantage with the Android operating system.

The Chinese ministry of culture has banned 100 songs from the Internet saying that any track that "harm the security of state culture must be cleaned up and regulated under the law."

It is unclear why exactly the songs were banned, but China is known for censoring anything it deems politically sensitive or potentially offensive.

Included in the list are songs from The Backstreet Boys, Beyonce, Simple Plan and four songs from Lady Gaga.

The list also banned music from Taiwan's Chang Hui-mei. China is currently in a spat with Taiwan over its territory.

Past music on the banned list included tracks from artists like Avril Lavigne and the Rolling Stones.

Currently, all songs posted on web sites in China need prior approval before they can be embedded.

The popular Android devs CyanogenMod have released a video this week showing off Android running on the HP TouchPad tablet, the tablet that normally runs on the webOS platform.

Says the team, via RootzWiki:

Our ultimate vision is to create a multiboot solution where the end user will be able to boot into WebOS, Cyanogenmod, and/or other OSes.

Ten days ago, HP puts its TouchPad tablet in firesale at $99, sending sales into a frenzy.

Earlier that week, HP announced they would not create any more webOS-based tablets and smartphones, and would begin liquidating their Pre phones and TouchPad tablet.

The firesale price was significant as a teardown of the tablet revealed the parts cost over $250 not including R&D and shipping. It also meant HP is taking a significant hit on each device sold, as they will likely subsidize retailers liquidating.

This week, it appears the TouchPad craze has reached a likely top, as hand drawn drawings of the TouchPad are now up for sale on eBay.

Reads one auction (currently going for $0.49):

This is an original drawing of an HP Touchpad.

Sold out in stores, this item is in high demand.

More customizable than the iPad, this drawing of an HP Touchpad can display any picture or game you want - simply cut a hole for the screen and place it over your REAL TOUCHPAD (not included).

This drawing is of a 64GB HP Touchpad WITH USB Charger and Wall Adapter.

Last week, the tablet formerly known as S1 was given its official name, the "Tablet S."

Set for launch in September, the device will run on Honeycomb 3.1 and support an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The tablet has a 9.4-inch screen, runs on a Tegra 2 processor and is the first tablet to have PlayStation certification. The device will have Wi-Fi, 3G and DLNA connectivity.

Today, Sony has let slip more info on the clam shell designed S2, giving it its official name of "Tablet P."

The dual-screened device will have 512MB RAM, 4GB storage, 4G support, a Tegra 2 processor and weigh just 13 ounces.

Pricing is still unknown.

Two weeks ago, Mozilla's Asa Dotzler confirmed that the company would begin hiding the version number of Firefox in the "Help-> About" window dialog.

If you wanted to check the version number, you would have to head over to the about:support page.

This week, however, the company has reversed course and says they will keep the current system in place:

There are no plans to adjust the version number. It will remain in its current place in the About window, and we are going to continue with the current numbering scheme.

Samsung has announced the LTE versions of their Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab 8.9 devices.

The company will show off the devices, as well as pricing and availability, at next week's IFA event in Germany.

Adds JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung's Mobile Communications Business:

With the introduction of GALAXY S II LTE and GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE, we will take the capabilities of these devices to a whole new level. LTE redefines the user experience made possible by these devices and opens entirely new possibilities in terms of content viewing, sharing, quality and connectivity.

This is a milestone in our commitment to lead the charge in 4G mobile telephony around the world, both in terms of back-end network solutions for service providers and the development of powerful consumer handsets.

Last week, GameStop made headlines by pulling coupons for a competitor out of boxes for Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Square Enix, the company behind the game, had placed vouchers for a free OnLive version of the game worth $50 in every box sold but GameStop, who has a competing cloud service, pulled the vouchers before selling the PC game.

Today, as a compensation to angry gamers, GameStop is offering a $50 gift card and a "buy two-get one free" offer on all used games.

Square Enix, for its part, has also apologized, stating that they did not tell GameStop of the vouchers in advance and the company will remove the coupon in all unsold copies and future shipments.

Says GameStop CEO Paul Raines (via PCW):

We regret the events surrounding this title release and that our customers were put in the middle of this issue between GameStop and Square Enix, the publisher of this game. And for this, we are truly sorry.

Western Digital has been forced to raise the prices of its HDDs, says Hexus, thanks to the continued demand and scarce supply for rare earth elements.

The move is effective immediately, with WD already informing partners of the price hike.

Prices are expected to be hiked 10 percent for 500GB drives and 5 percent for 1TB drives.

Rare earth elements, the supply of which is controlled by China, have been increasing in price for a year now, as the nation intentionally holds back supply to make as much profit as possible from desperate manufacturers.

It is unclear whether the price increases on WD drives will make their way to consumers or if the manufacturers will have to eat the charges, for now.

Earlier this year, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed against daily deal giant Groupon alleging that the company used bait and switch advertising.

Today, a U.S. judge has said a few parts of the lawsuit can proceed to court.

The suit, brought by San Francisco-based tour operator, alleges that Groupon buys many tour-related keywords on Google's AdWords service but when you click through they rarely actually offer tour coupons. By using such bait-and-switch tactics, the cost of keywords have skyrocketed and the tour company's ads on Google have declined in prominence.

Although some of the claims were tossed, the plaintiffs can rewrite their allegations.

Says the main plaintiff (via Reuters):

We're very happy we're going to get to go forward with these claims to address what we think is classic bait and switch advertising. Only now its done through Google instead of through the newspaper.

Facebook has announced the end of the "Deals" program they launched in April.

The service was set to compete with daily deal sites like Groupon, LivingSocial and Gilt.

Says the social networking giant of the move:

After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks.

We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We've learned a lot from our test and we'll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.

Apple has quietly killed off its 99 cent TV show rentals via iTunes, sticking with the more successful a-la carte purchasing option.

An SD-quality TV episode costs $2 to purchase while its HD counterpart costs $3.

Rentals were introduced last year alongside the second generation Apple TV set-top box.

Apple says:

iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows. iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.

According to chairman Eric Schmidt, Google is preparing to launch Google TV in Europe in early 2012.

The search giant is looking to expand its Google TV platform, which has floundered in the U.S. thanks to the restrictive nature of the media companies.

Additionally, the company will continue to fund broadcasting content but will not produce any itself.

Says Schmidt:

Just as smartphones sparked a whole new era of innovation for the Internet, we hope Google TV can help do the same for television, creating more value for all.

We’re agnostic when it comes to whether free or paid content models are best. It’s up to content owners to decide if they want to charge, and it’s up to users to decide if they want to pay.

Amazon is ready to hit the tablet market hard, says the NYPost, as early as late September.

Sources claim the e-tailing giant will release an Android-powered device in either late September or early October, while severely undercutting the iPad's market making $500 price tag.

The tablet will sell for either $199 or $299 (the price is still unclear), a price seen by only one tablet in recent memory, the newly launched Vizio Tablet (formerly VIA).

Additionally, it has become clear that users who were on the fence about tablets will buy in droves if the price is right. When HP put their Touchpad on firesale last week at $99 (down from $499), the company managed to sell hundreds of thousands per day, with the popularity taking down servers of big and small companies alike.

Because Amazon is expected to have higher-end specs in their tablet, the company is also expected to take a loss on each tablet sold, in order to make up the deficit in app, music, movie and e-book sales.

The FCC has said this morning that both AT&T and T-Mobile have provided enough info so that the regulatory agency can now continue its review on the proposed $39 billion deal acquisition.

82 days into a 180-day review "clock," the FCC halted the review but has now restarted it.

The FCC needed new information on the "economic modeling" AT&T provided last month, as it there were a lack of substantial arguments about efficiencies created by the huge merger.

Officials received enough info now on the new modeling and can continue its review.

Bob Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president of federal regulatory issues says they are now "confident that the commission will move expeditiously to complete its review."

According to former Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis, AOL considered buying Apple in the 90s, as the computer maker floundered.

In 1996, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy and AOL was growing at exponential rates and had reached 10 million dial-up customers.

Says Leonsis (via BizJ):

Ironically, at one point at AOL, we looked at acquiring Apple and saving it. We were all concerned that it wasn’t going to do well. Little did we know.

In August 2010, Google confirmed that they acquired Slide, the social networking gaming site created in 2005 by Max Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal.

The company's two most popular apps were SuperPoke and SPP Ranch. The first allowed you to adopt a virtual pet, and exchange money for virtual goods. Google purchased the company for around $200 million.

Today, Google has announced the shut down of the company and its apps.

Says Slide:

We created products with the goal of providing a fun way for people to connect, communicate and share. While we are incredibly grateful to our users and for all of the wonderful feedback over the years, many of these products are no longer as active or haven't caught on as we originally hoped.

iOS hacking star Nicholas Allegra (aka Comex) has taken an internship at Apple.

The hacker/developer is known for creating JailbreakMe 2 and 3, hacks that allow iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to run homebrew apps on their devices.

Says Allegra:

It’s been really, really fun, but it’s also been a while and I’ve been getting bored.So, the week after next I will be starting an internship with Apple.

According to 'sources' inside T-mobile, the U.S.' fourth largest carrier will be getting the iPhone 5 in October.

Verizon and AT&T will for sure be getting the upcoming device (whenever it launches), but strong rumors have surfaced the past few days that Sprint will also be getting the popular smartphone.

Says one report:

The informant, who requested to remain anonymous, went on to claim that the iPhone 5 would also operate at 3G speeds on T-Mobile US network. Current unlocked iPhone 4 units can only operate at 2G 'edge' speeds on T-Mobile's network, and lack certain network-dependent features, such as Visual Voicemail.

Joystiq posted a picture earlier in which Wal-Mart had discounted the price of the 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle.

The picture led to speculation that Microsoft would do an across-the-board price cut on their consoles following Sony's recent price cut on the PlayStation 3.

For the week beginning August 28th, Wal-Mart is slashing the price $50 to $249, in-line with the PS3 (non-bundled).

Microsoft has responded to the price cut, saying:

Walmart made an independent decision to implement this temporary price cut. We've made no announcements about price drops, and do not discuss our pricing plans in advance. Xbox is the number-one selling console in the U.S. for 13 of the past 14 months, and is showing record growth. With an incredible line-up of games and entertainment, we're expecting the biggest year in Xbox history as the best-selling console worldwide.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (of the NFL) coach Raheem Morris has confirmed today that his entire team has been issued iPad 2 tablets, moving away from paper playbooks.

The 90 players on the team have been informed to bring their new iPads to all practices and games instead of their older 500 page paper playbooks.

Each player can also use the tablets at home to review practice, situational and game footage.

Says safety Cody Grimm:

It’s crazy how much technology has changed the game. Back in the day, I think probably the whole team had to sit down with a projector and a reel, and watch the film together. They’d have the whole offense in the same meeting room. Now we all have our own iPad.

Last week, Nintendo announced the launch of a new slimmed down Wii console, part of the "Family Edition" bundle, which removes GameCube support completely.

The console is 30 percent smaller than the original Wii, comes with a Wii Remote Plus + Nunchuk, Wii Party and Wii Sports and has an MSRP of £99.

This week, it has become clear that UK retailers are already expected to drop the price at launch, down to £79.99 or even lower.

A number of retailers have confirmed to MCV that the sale will last through the holiday period.

Ubisoft's highly anticipated "From Dust" has been met with massive criticism since launch.

The game, like all new Ubisoft titles, comes with the draconian "always-on" Internet connection DRM.

If you ever have a connection hiccup, or just plain lose service, you are returned to the main menu. With the DRM, you cannot play games offline, even in "single player" modes. This has happened multiple times where an Ubisoft authorization server has gone down, leaving legitimate players standing idle while those with pirated copies play happily.

Additionally, From Dust is currently missing graphics options, is extremely buggy, and is capped at 30fps, no matter what GPU you are running.

As of writing, Ubisoft has listened to the significant outcry about the game and will be sending out a patch in the next two weeks to remove the always-on DRM. Furthermore, they are offering a full refund to Steam users who purchased the game and "are dissatisfied."

Apple’s Board of Directors have announced that CEO Steve Jobs has resigned his position, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s new CEO.

Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately.

"I hereby resign as CEO of Apple . I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee," said Jobs.

Apple has had Cook as the next in line for a few years now as Steve Job's health has been in flux.

"Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company," added Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, and Apple Board member. "Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

"The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO," added Levinson. "Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does."

According to BusinessWeek, Android apps are headed to BlackBerrys, soon.

QNX-based Blackberrys, set for launch in early 2012, will have the ability to run Android apps, allegedly almost as well as they would run on Android devices.

The brand new BlackBerry 7 phones will not be upgrade-able to QNX, and therefore will not have access to Android apps.

Although the RIM PlayBook runs on QNX, it has not yet been given the "Android Player" necessary to run the apps. That technology will come built-in to the new phones.

The Android Market has 250,000 apps while the BlackBerry App World has around 45,000.

Google has settled with the Department of Justice today for $500 million, over their part in showing illegal ads for Canadian pharmacies.

The investigation began in May, and Google said at the time it was setting aside $500 million for a potential settlement.

Google was investigated for showing ads from the companies that were selling counterfeit drugs or selling drugs without a prescription.

Over the years, Google has agreed it is a problem as pharmacies prove a "cat-and-mouse game" by finding new ways to get around Google's ad rules.

Notes Google (via NYT):

We banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies some time ago. However, it’s obvious with hindsight that we shouldn’t have allowed these ads on Google in the first place. Given the extensive coverage this settlement has already received, we won’t be commenting further.

Formerly known as the S1, Sony has officially named its upcoming tablet the "Tablet S."

Set for launch in September, the device will run on Honeycomb 3.1 and support an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The tablet has a 9.4-inch screen, runs on a Tegra 2 processor and is the first tablet to have PlayStation certification. The device will have Wi-Fi, 3G and DLNA connectivity.

Sony's tablet will have built-in integration for Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited services, will be able to control all devices in the home via an IR blaster.

The tablet will have dual cameras, 5MP on the back, 3MP up front, have "True Black" display technology and likely cost $600 at launch.

(Pic via Engadget)

Although AT&T has so far denied the rumor, it appears that the first-ever Facebook phone, the HTC Status, may be on its way out.

The move comes just 35 days after launch.

For now, AT&T says: "The HTC Status is a great product and our plans for it to be part of our portfolio haven’t changed." Where have we heard that before, though?

The HTC Status is dubbed the FB phone because it has its own Facebook button underneath the keypad which gives users a chance to use a deeply integrated Facebook app.

For example, if you are listening to music, by hitting the Facebook button you can instantly share what song you are playing, and same goes for Web browsing and pictures. Simply hit the button to share the site you are on or upload the picture you just took. When a friend calls, you will see their Facebook picture and current status on the home screen.

The device itself runs on Android 2.3 with HTC Sense overlay, have a 2.6-inch touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, dual-cameras and an 800MHz processor.

According to a new WSJ report (tweeted out), Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 at launch, although launch date is still unclear.

Apple has made the iPhone available to AT&T customers since inception, and this year to Verizon customers. Adding Sprint to the mix would mean the iPhone will be available on the three biggest carriers in the U.S. The fourth carrier, T-Mobile, is set to be acquired by AT&T next year for $39 billion.

Will update when more news is available.

First announced at last month's Computex 2011, the Lenovo IdeaPad S100 is now available in Europe.

The device is notable because it runs on MeeGo, Intel and Nokia's joint mobile OS.

Stores have listed the price at €185.

The IdeaPad S100 has a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) display, a 1.33 GHz Atom N435 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, integrated graphics, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, 10/100 LAN, a webcam and 7 hours of battery life.

Lenovo says there will be 3 colorways, black, red and blue.

South Korea is set to create its own alternative to Android and iOS, building a new smartphone OS for hometown champs LG and Samsung.

The country will allegedly begin developing the project by the end of the year.

Says Kim Jae-hong, deputy minister at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy:

We will forge ahead in developing a new kind of operating system, which is being seen as a next-generation product, in order to build the kind of advantage we do not enjoy in the market for smartphones and tablet PCs, which is dominated by Google and Apple.

Research firm InStat has concluded today that tablet sales will reach 250 million by 2017.

Tablets will continue to grow in sales as the market has reached an "inflection point through the combination of a new device (the Apple iPad), new business models supported by wireless operators, and new usage models through cloud computing and mobile applications."

Many different companies are also joining in the mix, like RIM and Microsoft which should lead to exponential growth starting next year.

Says Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist:

The tablet market and its associated ecosystem are still evolving. Over the next few generations we will see more differentiation between devices that are targeting different market segments and usage models. In addition, competitive device and service pricing will bring tablets into the mainstream consumer and enterprise markets. Tablets are joining an array of smart-connected devices that allow users almost unlimited access to content and communications. These new devices mark a significant change in the value change of the electronics industry where the content and applications are now the key differentiators and innovation drivers.

The latest Nintendo rumor has the company already developing a revised 3DS hardware, one that will launch next year.

Featuring a second analog stick, the console will also tone down the 3D capabilities of the system, which has proven to be a bust.

01net, which leaked initial specs of the Wii U, is the site behind the latest rumor, which could prove credible.

The site says its sources indicated Nintendo is concerned they marketed the 3D aspects of the console too aggressively, scaring away consumers who don't care for it and just want to play games on the go.

Nintendo recently dropped the price of its 3DS from $250 to $170, while offering 20 free games to early adopters.

Starting last week, Fox began delaying posting its new shows on Hulu for 8 days, unless you have a Hulu Plus subscription or are a DISH Network subscriber.

TorrentFreak is now saying that this new mandate is already causing a large spike in piracy.

Shows such as Hell's Kitchen and MasterChef have seen piracy increase 114 percent and 189 percent, respectively, in just the first 5 days.

Other, more popular shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons are likely to see even bigger spikes in piracy, when they return for new seasons.

It should be pretty obvious to media companies by now that if you are not making shows available for free online, users are not going to just stop watching them, they will use whatever methods possible to watch them as soon as they can.

Last week, HP decided to get out of the webOS hardware business, effectively shutting the door on its Palm purchase from last year.

The company put the TouchPad tablet on firesale for $99 and has sold an estimated 500,000 in the past three days alone.

HP has said today that they will not bring the Pre 3 smartphone to the U.S. but will firesale it in Europe for 75 euro, unlocked.

If anyone in the U.S. is willing to import the device, it will work with GSM carrier AT&T and T-mobile, says the company.

The Pre3 has a 3.58-inch touch screen at 480x800 resolution, a 1.4-GHz Qualcomm processor and dual cameras.

Last week, Sony Europe announced the launch of a new PSP, dubbed the E-1000, which will sell for just €99.

Additionally, the company said it will relaunch some UMD titles like FIFA 12 and Invizimals as "PSP Essentials" for just €9.99.

Today, the company has released all the specs for the new device, which strips Wi-Fi (among other features) in order to save on costs.

Spec list (via GR):

LCD screen: 4.3 inches / 10.9 cm (16:9) full-transparent type, TFT drive. Approximately 16,770,000 colours displayed.
Sound: Monaural speaker.
Internal disc drive: Read-only Universal Media Disc drive.
Interface: DC IN 5V connector. Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0 compliant). DC OUT connector. Headset connector. Memory Stick PRO DuoTM slot.
Power source: AC Adaptor: DC 5.0 V. Lithium-Ion rechargeable Battery Pack.
Maximum power consumption: Approx. 6 W (when charging).
External dimensions: Approx. 172.4 × 73.4 × 21.6 mm (width × height × depth) (excludes largest projection).
Weight: Approx. 223 g (including Battery Pack).
Compatible codecs: Universal Media Disc Video: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile Level 3. Music: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile Level 3, Linear PCM, ATRAC3plusTM Memory StickTM For details, refer to the User’s Guide.
Universal Media Disc laser
Input: AC 100-240 V, 50/60 Hz.
Output: DC 5 V, Max. 1500 mA.
External dimensions: Approx. 61 × 23 × 84 mm (width × height × depth) (excludes largest projection).
Weight: Approx. 62 g.

HTC's CEO Peter Chou has confirmed that the company will remain committed to Android following Google's decision to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Chou says it will "leverage partnerships" with both Google and Microsoft while at the same time creating something "unique in the smartphone ecosystem."

HTC has hired 1000 new R&D staff and will release 8 new phones by the end of the year.

The huge addition of new employees lead many to believe that the company is building its own OS, likely based off the Sense UI.

Says Chou:

This acquisition is more to enhance Google's patent portfolio, to support us, to protect us...It’s not the operating system, it’s the ecosystem…We think we can find a way to differentiate to add value, but at the same time leverage our partners, Google and Microsoft, since we have such a great relationship with them.

As expected, the RIAA has appealed the latest Jammie Thomas-Rasset decision.

Citing the court's failure to classify Thomas-Rasset's actions as a "distribution" under 106(3) of the Copyright Act, the RIAA believes the defendant will likely repeat her previous actions and violate the Copyright Act.

If the jury can define "distribution" as the RIAA wants it, it will likely result in a third trial.

Here is the backstory:

In 2006, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was sent a letter asking her to settle (for $3300) over alleged unauthorized file sharing of 24 tracks.

She refused and decided to take the case to court.

In 2007, Thomas-Rasset was found liable for $1.92 million in damages, but a retrial saw the fine dropped to $220,000. In 2010, however, a judge reduced the award to $54,000. The RIAA told Thomas-Rasset that they would accept $25,000, if she would agree to ask the judge to remove the decision from the record. She did not accept the terms of the deal and the trial went to part 3. Later that year, Thomas lost again in court, with a jury finding her liable for $1.5 million in copyright infringement damages. The Minnesota woman appealed.

On-demand streaming site Hulu is ready to begin accepting opening bids on Wednesday, says the WSJ.

Google, Yahoo, Amazon and DirecTV are expected to bid, with bids likely to range from $500 million to $2 billion.

Yahoo sent an unsolicited bid in June, which started the ball rolling.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has long said that the site can never reach its full potential as content providers pullback from offering free content. Fox recently started an 8-day delay window on its content, which will likely prove detrimental.

For now, Yahoo appears to be the top bidder with Google in second, as long as certain conditions are met.

After months of downtime, local Internet access in Tripoli, Libya was restored momentarily on Saturday night.

The Web is said to be down again in the capital city, as of today.

DSL-based Internet has been blocked since the spring, when rebels began an attack to remove leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Says a Tripoli resident:

Service was restored suddenly in Tripoli, flickered on and off for a couple of hours, and then died, with the majority of the country's international BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) routes withdrawn from service for good measure

Following HP's decision to kill off all webOS-based hardware and firesale their Pre phones and TouchPad tablet for $49 and $99, respectively, Microsoft is looking to bring talented webOS devs over to the floundering Windows Phone 7 platform.

Microsoft has had good success in bringing developers over to WP7 and despite mediocre hardware sales the platform has 30,000 apps in record time.

Director for Windows Phone 7, Brandon Watson, has tweeted this weekend:

To any published webOS devs: We'll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, including free phones, dev tools, and training, etc

According to comScore's July numbers for the U.S., both Twitter and Facebook saw record traffic (unique visitors), although growth is slowing slightly for Facebook.

In May, Facebook had 157.2 million uniques, followed by June's 160.8 million and now July's 162 million.

Twitter continued to post strong growth, moving from 27 million unique visitors in May, to 30.6 million in June and 32.8 million in July.

As of August, Twitter has completed its switch to the newly redesigned web page, which continues to add new features.

By comparison, MySpace continues to lose traffic, falling from 35 million uniques in May to 32.8 million in July.

Google+, the new social network from Google, was not added to the numbers, yet, despite having 20 million registered users.

Following years of piracy of their operating system, Microsoft has begun upping anti-piracy measures for its early Windows 8 builds.

In recent memory, Windows 7 builds were easily pirated but the company is shutting down the generic volume license keys of yesteryear. Additionally, product keys will no longer be shipped in the prodkey.txt file included in new build packages.

Anyone installing the latest Windows 8 builds will need to get their unique key from a secure Microsoft web page.

Furthermore, the company may begin using its "fast booting patent" which ET explains could help Microsoft use a remote server to push OS code to systems at boot time with embedded activation-related programming.

Windows 8 is set for a 2012 release on PCs and tablets.

Google has announced this weekend the addition of Google+'s Hangouts to YouTube.

By using the Hangouts feature, YouTube users can have a shared video watching experience.

To take advantage of the new feature, Google+ users need to hit "Share" under the video pane of the video they are watching, then hit "Watch with your friends: Start a Google+ Hangout."

You will also need the Google Voice and Video plugin (most people who use Gtalk will have this already) or you can install it when prompted.

Finally, hit anybody in your Circles that you want to share the video with and voila, group video watching.

In May, HTC CEO Peter Chou announced that his company would be moving back to open bootloaders on their devices, following considerable customer outcry.

The first phones to receive the unlocked boots are the EVO 3D and Sensation 4G.

Said the CEO at the time:

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.

According to analyst firm Morgan Keegan, BlackBerry maker RIM should be worth $25 billion in a buyout.

The analysis comes days after Google's surprise purchase of Motorola Mobility and all its patents for $12.5 billion.

Morgan Keegan notes RIM could sell for $47 per share, due to its large hoard of smartphone patents.

A different research firm, Stewart Capital, believes Samsung or Microsoft could be potential buyers.

Microsoft would certainly make an interesting candidate as they would instantly acquire a large customer base to help spread their Windows Phone 7 platform to.

According to multiple reports, an AT&T VP has confirmed an October release date for the iPhone 5.

The executive is said to have told managers that stores will get increasingly busy in the next 30 to 50 days, tasking them to prepare their teams in anticipation.

Apple sources have also told multiple publications that the next 60 days will be extremely busy, without citing why.

There has been unlimited speculation on when the iPhone 5 would be released after the company launched the iPhone 4 for Verizon in February, breaking its customary June cycle for new releases.

For now, October seems like the strongest bet for the release of the iPhone 5, and potentially a cloud-based iPhone 4S.

The 12th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary has added 400 new words, including such mainstays as "sexting," "woot," "jeggings" and "retweet."

Another notable entry is "cyberbullying" which has been used in the mainstream media for years now.

Each new word is selected after its ubiquity is proven via a database of over 2 billion words drawn from contemporary websites and texts.

Says the dictionary's editor Angus Stevenson:

It's how the dictionary has always worked - we get as much evidence as we can so we know it's not just a small number of people using the word and it's not going to disappear.

There's no official panel of cabinet ministers for new words or anything like that.

The PS3's Uncharted 2 was in the news years ago as it barely fit on a 25GB Blu-ray disc but it appears its sequel has taken it a step further.

Naughty Dog's upcoming addition to the blockbuster franchise is so far larger than a 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc and could eventually have the distinction of being the first game to require multiple discs.

Says Naughty Dog community manager Arne Meyer:

Uncharted 2 barely made it to 25GB, while Naughty Dog is going over 50GB this time, for Uncharted 3. But in the end we’ll be under 50. We’ll be one disc.

According to sources and retail checks, HP has sold 350,000 TouchPads this weekend, after putting the device on "firesale" price of $99 for the 16GB version and $150 for the 32GB model.

Earlier this week, HP announced they would not create anymore webOS-based tablets and smartphones, and would begin liquidating their Pre phones and TouchPad tablet.

Best Buy allegedly only sold 25,000 units since the July 1st launch date, and is now returning 250,000 they have extra in stock.

The firesale price is significant as a teardown of the tablet revealed the parts cost over $250 not including R&D and shipping. It also means HP is taking a significant hit on each device sold, as they will likely subsidize retailers liquidating.

All retailers that have dropped their prices in the U.S. and Canada are now sold out including Office Depot, Office Max, Microcenter and others.

Notably, Amazon and Newegg have not begun liquidating their stock, and may be returning the devices to HP like Best Buy did.

The HP small business site still has in stock but their site is getting absolutely pummeled. A wiki page here has over 2 million views since last night, and is growing by the second.

According to documents newly unsealed by the Brooklyn federal court, Apple has been quietly and effectively curbing knockoff sales of its products in New York City.

Two stores in Queens, NY, have already had all their unauthorized iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories seized. The company is demanding the names of suppliers and customers of the accessories.

One store, called "Apple Story," is also being told to change its name to avoid confusing consumers looking for sanctioned products.

NY resident Janie Po Chiang is the owner of Apple Story and Fun Zone Inc., each of which now have a trademark infringement suit filed against them.

Of the accessories seized, Apple says iPod, iPhone and iPad cases and stereo headsets came housed in packaging that was "nearly an exact duplicate" of genuine Apple products. Additionally, the products said "Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China," and had the official Apple logo.

Both parties are close to a settlement, says Reuters.

Lakshmi Access Communications Systems of India has launched their $99 Android tablet this week, which it hopes to gain success within a market where iPads and Xooms are just too expensive.

Industry experts in the nation have long believed that tablets would outsell laptops and desktops, although Internet penetration still remains low.

Dubbed the "Magnum Pepper Tablet PC," the device will only have a 4.3-inch display.

"We have made it affordable, we have ensured it fits the pocket," says managing director Mahendraa Kumar.

The tablet will have 3G and Wi-Fi, run on a 800MHz processor, 4GB storage and include 256MB RAM.

Lakshmi will expand to more expensive (and larger) tablets in the future, adds Kumar.

The tablet will be the cheapest in India, under Beetel Teletech's brand new $220 tablet, Apple's $500 iPad 2, and Samsung's $800 Galaxy 10.1.

On the back of strong iPhone and iPad sales, Apple is now worth as much as the 32 largest euro zone banks.

Over the past month, following a market crash in Europe, Asia and the U.S., banks have been notably crushed, even relatively steady banks like Santander, Deutsche Bank and Sociale Generale.

The 32 members of the DJ STOXX euro zone banks index are valued at $335 billion compared to Apple's current market capitalization of $335.25 billion.

Overall, the euro zone banks have lost 75 percent of their value since 2007, and have lost 33 percent since July after making marginal recoveries in 2009 and 2010.

Earlier today, the WSJ reported that Apple was set to release the iPad 3 in early 2012, and the iPhone 5 in September.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is prepared to introduce their own music streaming service, say multiple sources.

The company is in late-stage negotiations with UMG, Sony, Warner and EMI and expect to have licensing deals in place by September 5th.

Additionally, the music service could be integrated in BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) which has been getting increasingly more "social" as it updates.

It is unclear whether the music service will help attract new customers, but it may help slow the exodus of its current customers.

Android has quickly become the top smartphone OS in the world, with Apple continuing its slow grind higher despite only having one device.

RIM has recently launched their BlackBerry 7 devices, including full-touch phones, and QNX-based devices are set for launch next year.

Since the day after the iPad 2 launched, there have been rumors as to when Apple would release the iPad 3.

Today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is already developing the latest tablet, with a launch date set for "early 2012."

The new device will feature a 2048 x 1536 resolution display, the largest yet seen on a tablet.

One component supplier is said to already have an order for 1.5 million iPad 3s in the coming quarter.

Apple sold 9.3 million iPad 2 in the last quarter, alongside a record 20 million iPhones.

The iPad 3 will come at a time where most Android tablets have moved to the larger-screen-optimized Honeycomb OS.

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Last April, HP saved Palm from death by purchasing the phone maker, webOS and its patents for $1.2 billion.

Today, the company has admitted failure, and will kill off its tablet and smartphone division.

Additionally, the company is set to spinoff its PC division in order to move deeper into the higher margin services and software market.

Best Buy and other resellers of the HP TouchPad are now possibly returning hundreds of thousands of unsold units, leading HP to take a $100 million write-off.

We reported yesterday that Best Buy sold just 25,000 TouchPads in the last 6 weeks, leaving 240,000 in inventory.

It is unclear whether retailers are all returning the units, or taking a subsidy so they can discount the tablet and sell at "firesale" prices.

R.I.P Palm, again.

LG Electronics has cut its annual TV sales forecast by 20 percent, citing an uncertain global economy.

Rival Sony issued a similar warning just last week.

Market leader Samsung has long held a weak sales outlook for TVs in Europe and the U.S. for the coming quarters.

Says LG:

TV sales are seen sharply below our original target and may come in at around 32 million units this year, as the euro zone fiscal crisis is likely to continue and a U.S. consumption recovery also remains uncertain.

T-Mobile will get their first 4G BlackBerry on August 31st.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 will cost $300 after rebate with contract, making it more expensive than high-end Android devices like the HTC Sensation 4G.

Running on the BlackBerry 7 OS, with a 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, the device is also RIM's thinnest phone ever, at 0.41 inches thick.

BlackBerry 7, the last OS before the much anticipated QNX OS, is expected to offer a significantly improved browsing experience and better HTML5 performance.

The device, despite being extremely expensive, has also been critically panned in early reviews, being called a "subtle upgrade" from the Bolds released in 2008 and 2009.

Sony has released the final specs for its PlayStation Vita handheld, and it appears that despite the rumors, the console will have 512MB RAM.

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

Featuring a 5-inch capacitive multitouch OLED screen (with 16 million colors), the device will be 7.16 by 0.73 by 3.28 inches.

Despite rumors that Sony would skimp out on RAM, the Vita has 512MB memory and 128MB VRAM in its graphics processor.

The rear camera will be capable of 60fps and 640x480 resolution or 120fps at 320x240 resolution.

Sony says the Vita will playback MP3, AAC, WAV (Linear PCM) files and MPEG-4 video including H.264 AVC encodings in high, main, or baseline profiles.

HP has confirmed today it is looking to spin off its PC business.

The spin-off, along with a $10 billion purchase of Autonomy Corp., are expected to be announced today or tomorrow.

Autonomy is an enterprise software company that "develops a variety of enterprise search and knowledge management applications using adaptive pattern recognition techniques centered on Bayesian inference in conjunction with traditional methods."

A few of its customers include multinationals like Coca-Cola and Nestle.

HP has been looking to expand into software and the cloud, which historically have higher margins than PCs.

Amazon has said this morning that their VOD catalog has now hit 100,000 movies and TV shows available for purchase or rent.

Prime members get to stream 9000 of those titles for free, with Amazon actively improving the streaming content with licensing agreements.

Streaming rival Netflix has around 20,000 titles and over 25 million subscribers.

Hulu Plus, the premium subscription model of the free Hulu site, has 28,00 TV episodes and 1450 movies. Additionally, however, it has 25,000 clips from shows like Colbert Report and SNL.

Amazon VOD is available through their website or via many Blu-ray players, HDTVs, set-top boxes and gaming consoles.

Mozilla has confirmed this week that it plans to begin hiding the version number of Firefox in the "Help-> About" window dialog.

Asa Dotzler, community coordinator for Firefox marketing projects added the entry to Bugzilla, and says the dialog will now just offer more general information like "Firefox checked for updates 20 minutes ago, you are running the latest release."

If you now want to check the version number, you will have to head over to the about:support page, says ghacks.

It appears that Mozilla's ultimate goal is simply to make versions less important to the end user.

Earlier this year, Mozilla announced it would be moving to a more Chrome-like release schedule, and has since moved from Firefox 4 to Firefox 8 nightly (Aurora) in just 6 months.

Following Google's surprise $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee had an emergency meeting with the company's execs.

The chairman says the company must continue to develop its software "competitiveness" even if that requires an acquisition.

Says Lee:

(The company) must strengthen the competitiveness of its information technology (IT), secure more human resources and also more actively seek mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

We must pay attention to the fact that IT power is moving away from hardware companies such as Samsung to software companies.

Nintendo has announced today the launch of a new slimmed down Wii console, part of the "Family Edition" bundle, which removes GameCube support.

The console will come bundled with a Wii Remote Plus + Nunchuk, Wii Party and Wii Sports.

So far the console, which is 30 percent smaller than the original Wii, has only been announced for the UK, with a release date of "before Christmas."

The Wii (Slim) will sit horizontally and saves space by removing GameCube memory card and controller slots.

There will likely be more bundles announced in the coming month, added Nintendo.

Leaked photos of the Motorola Droid HD have surfaced this week.

The Droid HD, true to its name, will have a large 4.5-inch screen and a 720p resolution (1280x720), the largest yet seen on a smartphone.

Motorola's new "superphone" will run a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8MP standard camera with LED flash, a fron-side camera for video chatting, a microUSB and an HDMI port.

Google recently purchased Motorola Mobility (the smartphone and tablet division) of the company for $12.5 billion including all of MM's patents and $3 billion in cash.

The company says it made the purchase to protect itself from a slew of patent lawsuits brought by Oracle and Microsoft amongst others.

Leaked pics via TCM:

Amazon has purchased the rights to the latest book from best selling self-help guru Timothy Ferriss, in what many are calling its first "major publishing deal."

The e-tailer will begin publishing the book, "The 4-Hour Chef," in digital, print and audiobook starting in April.

Over the course of the past 12 months, Amazon has been moving into publishing, striking deals for imprints covering all genres. Additionally, they hired former Time Warner Book Group CEO Larry Kirshbaum to lead their New York division.

Says Ferriss of his move away from Random House's 'Crown':

It wasn't just a question of which publisher to work with. It was a question of what future of publishing I want to embrace.

My readers are migrating irreversibly into digital, and it made perfect sense to work with Amazon to try and redefine what is possible. This is a chance to really show what the future of books looks like, and to deliver a beautiful experience to my readers, who always come first. I could not be more excited about what we're doing.

The once-popular cyberlocker Hotfile is preparing to countersue Warner Bros., whilst currently in the middle of a lawsuit brought against it by the MPAA and its member studios.

In February, the MPAA sued Hotfile, run by a man in Florida, after the site saw such huge growth that it became a top 100 site in the world, in regards to traffic.

Cyberlockers, like Hotfile and Fileserve (and the fathers of the industry, Rapidshare and Megaupload) allow users to upload and share all files they want, and many use the platforms to share movies and music, while collecting an income. Hotfile, for example, paid $20 for every 1000 downloads of a user's file (with other conditions).

Despite shutting down some of its biggest uploader's accounts, Hotfile has not really gone down without a fight and a judge has so far thrown out the MPAA's case for direct copyright infringement.

Hotfile is also demanding that the film industry begin sharing its anti-piracy investigation techniques with the world, including why DMCA takedown notices are sent and they found such files. The MPAA has flatly said no, saying they are sensitive trade secrets.

British Secretary of State for Culture Jeremy Hunt has announced a £363 million investment allocated to improve broadband networks in England and Scotland.

English counties will get the brunt of the investment, £295 million, with Scotland getting the rest.

The investment is part of a wider plan to make sure the UK has the most comprehensive and fastest broadband in Europe by 2015. The goal is for 90 percent of homes to have broadband and minimum 2Mbps.

ISPs like BT and Virgin Media, will be in charge of bringing the broadband to 70 percent of the population and the new government investment will pay for the other 30 percent, which are mainly rural areas.

Additionally, the government has told BT "it must reduce the wholesale price it charges other providers to use its network in less populated areas," says Which.

ViewSonic has unveiled their 10-inch tablet today, one that dual-boots Android and Windows 7 and runs on Intel's brand new 1.5GHz Atom Z670 processor.

The ViewPad 10Pro will run Windows 7 Professional (or Home) and Android 2.3, 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 chips in April, the first designs that are efficient enough to compete with ARM designs seen in most tablets and smartphones now.

The tablet has a huge 3500 mAh battery and a 1.3MP front-side camera for video conferencing.

Says ViewSonic's vice president of business development, Michael Holstein:

We listened to our customers. We made the ViewPad 10pro dual OS interface as quick and intuitive as possible, while partnering with industry CPU leader Intel to deliver the latest in design and innovation across all fronts.

Today at their gamescom press conference, Sony Europe has announced the launch of a new PSP, dubbed the E-1000, which will sell for just €99.

Additionally, the company says it will relaunch some UMD titles like FIFA 12 and Invizimals as "PSP Essentials" for just €9.99.

In order to hit the sub-€100 mark, Sony has slashed Wi-Fi from the handheld. You better enjoy playing single player campaigns.

The design and form factor are slightly different as well, with a matte feel and "charcoal" color seen on the slim PS3s.

Sony says the console is only available in PAL regions, at least for now.

Some pictures:

According to former reporter Clive Goodman, News of the World executives knew about the phone hacking being used by its journalists since 2007.

Goodman is the only reporter to be arrested for the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of the 165-year-old tabloid.

The Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee has been examining and interviewing News Corp. employees, past and present, but cannot conclude on how much the executives knew. There were, however, "devastating revelations" found in the examination.

James Murdoch, son of CEO Rupert, told lawmakers he did not learn about the scandal until 2010, but News of the World's legal manager and top editor told lawmakers they told Murdoch of the phone hacking in 2008.

The phone hacking scandal came to a head two months ago when it was revealed that the tabloid was hacking the voicemail of a missing school girl to clear her inbox, leading the carrier and her family to believe she was still alive when she was not.

According to a new study from Dr. J. Lennert Veerman of the University of Queensland, watching TV will likely contribute to a shortened lifespan.

The study found that anyone who averaged six hours of TV watching per day, lived, on average, 5 years less than a person who did not watch any TV.

After the age of 25, every 30 minutes spent watching TV decreased lifespan by 22 minutes.

Of course, the TV watching is the indirect reason for the decreased lifespan. Explains Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine:

As a rule, the more time we spend watching TV, the more time we spend eating mindlessly in front of the TV, and the less time we spend being physically active. More eating and less physical activity, in turn, mean greater risk for obesity, and the chronic diseases it tends to anticipate, notably diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Potentially, those that watch excessive TV are lonely, or isolated, or depressed, and these conditions, in turn, may be the real causes of premature mortality.

In March, ICANN, the governing body behind the Internet approved .XXX domains, almost 10 years after the idea was brought to the group.

With a vote of 9-3, and despite objections from the adult industry, the measure passed. Adult sites can choose to use the new domain, but are not required to do so.

The domains will begin launching in December and it appears that large companies have already begun buying up .XXX domains, to protect against "cybersquatters" or others that will use their brand names maliciously.

900,000 "expressions of interest" have already been received by the ICM Registry from companies looking to pre-register their trademarks.

A few companies include Mattel, Viacom and the Red Cross who certainly don't want to see spongebobsquarepants.xxx, redcross.xxx or barbie.xxx used by the wrong person.

Steve Kondik, aka 'Cyanogen' has been hired by Samsung Mobile.

Hired as a software engineer, the developer says the new job will not affect CyanogenMod and it is not affiliated in any way with Samsung.

CyanogenMod is a custom ROM for Android devices built from scratch from the open source Android.

The ROM is preferred by users who don't want UI overlays like "MotoBLUR" and have rooted their devices.

It should be interesting to see if Cyanogen eventually makes its way to a retail phone, with no root necessary.

(Pic via Phan)

Interpublic Group has sold out part of their small stake in the social networking giant, valuing the company at $65 billion.

The ad company bought a 0.5 percent stake in 2006, when Facebook was a toddler, and the company has sold half of that today for $133 million.

Because they bought in so early, the company says it expects a "pre-tax gain of $132 million" on the transaction.

Says Interpublic:

Interpublic formed a strategic relationship with Facebook in 2006 that allowed us to fast-track the growth of our social media offerings on behalf of clients.

Facebook has since become a part of daily life for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Its ubiquity has meant the strategic value of our initial investment has moderated, while the financial value of that stake appreciated significantly. As a result, when an attractive opportunity to divest a portion of our position recently presented itself, we decided that it made sense to do so.

Today, we've agreed to sell half of our stake for approximately $130 million. Simultaneously, our board has authorized an increase in our share repurchase program by $150 million. We see this as an opportunity to further enhance shareholder value, and reflects our confidence in the long-term prospects for our company.

Apple has allowed the Cinemax "Max Go" app into the iOS app store this week.

Making that news notable is the fact that the app allows for streaming of Cinemax's more "adult" TV shows, the after-hours "Skinemax" programming.

Apple normally does not allow any adult programming in the app store, and the app even has a warning on the open that there are "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity" not suitable for those under 17.

The adult content is in the "Max After Dark" tab of the app.

Critics of Apple claim the company gives preferential treatment to larger companies in terms of app submission, even with apps that clearly "bend" the rules like the Max Go app.

TabCo is Fusion Garage.

Fusion Garage created the unsuccessful "joojoo" tablet in 2009 which the CEO admits could not live up to the hype surrounding it. Company will send all joojoo owners the new tablet, for free.

The company is calling their 10 inch tablet the Grid10, because it uses the new "Grid" OS. Grid is built from scratch on top of the Android kernel.

FG says the device will ship with Tegra 2 processor, 1366x768 resolution, Grid 1.0.

Grid Desktop is syncing program and brings all content directly to the Grid10. Coolest feature shown off is the Grid homepage, which is one full page, not separate home pages for "Clusters" of apps (social, music, movies, business) etc.

GridStore and Amazon Android store for apps, native email, gallery and more with split-screen capability in the browser. All of it looks very sleek, including movie playback.

Priced at $500 for Wi-Fi only, with September 15th release date. $100 more if you want 3G.

According to analyst Tim Bajarin, Amazon's mysterious upcoming tablet will likely sell for under cost, but still be wildly profitable over its lifespan.

Bajarian says talks with component makers have the Amazon tablet with an estimated cost of $300. The e-tailer will then likely sell the tablet for just $250, undercutting all other tablets on the market and selling under cost.

Despite taking a $50 loss per unit on the initial sale, Amazon will make up the difference in videos, songs, cloud storage and books sold, with Bajarian saying the company will "reap a profit of anywhere from 10 to 30 percent on the tablet over the last 18 months of the device's accounting period."

The analyst goes further and says, "when measuring by units shipped, this method could make Amazon the king of Android tablets very quickly. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it could 'own' the Android tablet market."

If rumors prove true, Amazon will release a dual-core 7-inch tablet and a quad-core 10-inch tablet sometime later this year.

AT&T has hired investment bankers to advise it on the sale of spectrum and possibly customers, assets that could be worth $8 billion.

The dump of assets will be one of many concessions expected of the company in its effort to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion.

AT&T gave a standard response (via Cnet):

As we said on the day we announced the merger with T-Mobile USA, we anticipate there will be some divestitures, as we have had in past mergers, but any speculation about the amount of divestitures is premature.

Weeks after pictures and video of the unauthorized Apple store in China (including fake Geniuses) made international headlines, the fake store has changed its name to "Smart Store," to avoid any issues with Apple China.

Authorities in the city of Kunming revealed last week that they had found 22 more Apple stores that have not been licensed by the company. Each of the stores have been ordered to stop using the Apple logo anywhere in their stores, and Apple China has accused the stores of unfair competition and trademark infringement.

The re-branded "Smart Store" was facing a shut down if it did not remove Apple trademarks by August 10th, and other stores are facing similar deadlines.

Most likely, each of those stores will change their name and remove the Apple logo from their stores, then continue with business as usual.

Last month, a blogger living abroad revealed the pictures and video of the store, which was so elaborate that the workers even believed they were working for the 'real deal.'

Following a furious ad campaign (below), the question remains, Who is TabCo?

We will answer that question when the tablet is launched in 2 hours.

Tabco is Fusion Garage. Check it here: Fusion Garage unveils Grid10

Hulu, the on-demand video site owned by Disney (ABC), News Corp. (Fox), Comcast (NBCU) and private equity firm Providence went up for auction last week, and initial bids are expected by the end of next week.

The owners are currently looking to sell the site and its licenses for $1.5 billion, although some companies have offered to pay more if other conditions are met.

For example, Yahoo is willing to pay $2 billion if Hulu guarantees them 4-5 years of exclusive access to the media content. Hulu, on the other hand, seems to be only willing to give 2 years of exclusivity, albeit with 5 years guaranteed access to the content.

Additionally, News Corp. has said it would like to keep a stake in the company, which should reduce the auction price.

Amazon, Apple, Yahoo, Google and DirecTV have all been said to be potential suitors.

Earlier this week, Google confirmed the addition of games to the Google+ social network.

As an icon (next to Stream, Pictures, etc) is a new icon for Games.

The first games available are Angry Birds, Zynga Poker, Dragon Age: Legends and other casual classics like Bejeweled.

In total, Google says there are 16 launch titles.

Different than Facebook, which places all game accomplishments right the on the user's wall, all Games achievements are only shared with circles in the Games page, not clogging up your stream.

You can invite friends, share updates and send messages or gifts from the Games page.

In June, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled plans to build a new 3.1 million square foot "Spaceship" campus in Cupertino.

The Cupertino mayor said later that month that there was little to no chance that city officials would reject the plans, and they have not. The building will still be required to pass environmental checks and pass a public hearing, likely early next year.

Said Jobs, in his introduction in June:

Nintendo's stock is in the toilet and investors have begun to get more vocal on the company's inaction.

Trading as high as ¥71,100 in 2007 with blistering Wii and DS sales, the company's stock has fallen to ¥10,900, its price before the launch of the Wii.

In the last five months alone, following the weak sales of the 3DS handheld, the company's stock has fallen 55 percent.

Investors in the company have finally begun to speak up, and have been encouraging Nintendo President Satoru Iwata to start creating games for iOS and Android, lest they keep losing market share to the mobile platforms, and Facebook.

Iwata has long stated that Nintendo will not create products for platforms that aren't their own, and that strategy has not even slightly shifted. Last month, Pokemon Co., which was formerly owned by Nintendo, announced they were creating a mobile game for Android and iOS, and Nintendo's shares exploded on the possibility Nintendo would follow suit. The shares have since returned and gone even lower.

The company kills off its phone/tablet hybrid after just 14 months on the market.

Dell did say that the Streak 7 will still be available, at least for the near future.

Via the tablet's web page, the company put up a banner that reads "Goodbye, Streak 5. It's been a great ride." The page also shows that the tablet is no longer available from the computer giant.

The tablet launched in the UK last June, and was delayed in the U.S. until August. At 5-inches, the tablet lost most of the pros of a larger screen device, but was too large to comfortably place in a pocket or use in one hand.

Additionally, the device launched with an outdated version of Android, which helped lead to its eventual demise.

For the week ended August 7th.

Following Nintendo's decision to slash prices on their 3DS handheld, sales of the device have collapsed (rightfully so), and sales of the PSP have seen some growth.

3DS sales came in at 4,132 compared to 35,619 for the aging PSP. The PSPGo managed to sell 7 units, which is still somewhat surprising given its price and pointlessness.

That difference is expected to close in the coming weeks, however, as Nintendo just cut the price from $250 to $170 in the U.S. (and similarly in Japan, EU).

All current owners will be offered 20 free games from the newly launched Nintendo eShop. Additionally, users who take advantage of the eShop deal are also enrolled in the "3DS Ambassador program," which allows for 10 free NES Virutal Console downloads like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Jr. Finally, "Ambassadors" will also get 10 free Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Microsoft's Bing search engine is more effective than Google's, says Experian Hitwise.

The active "success rate" for Bing compared to Google, for the month ended July 31st, was 80.04 percent to 67.56 percent, a significant difference.

Success rate is defined by how many search queries with a search engine lead to an actual visit to a website.

Yahoo searches were the most efficient, at 81.36 percent, although Yahoo is now considered part of Bing.

Whilst Yahoo and Microsoft are more efficient, Experian believes all three search engines can improve: "The share of unsuccessful searches highlights the opportunity for both the search engines and marketers to evaluate the search engine results pages to ensure that searchers are finding relevant information."

Experian also notes that Google's share of the search market fell to 66.05 percent while Bing-powered searches (Yahoo + Bing) increased, to 28.05 percent.

For more info, check here: Experian Hitwise reports Google share of searches at 66 percent in July 2011

Electronic Arts (EA) has now completed its previously announced acquisition of popular casual gaming company PopCap Games.

PopCap, the company behind blockbuster games like Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled, made over $100 million in revenue last year and is a top social/mobile gaming outfit with around 4.3 million active daily gamers.

The final price is $650 million in cash and $100 million in EA stock.

Furthermore, if PopCap hits certain volume and financial goals by the end of the 2013, the company will earn a $550 million bonus earn-out.

The company will be melted into EA's casual gaming division.

According to the latest figures from comScore, QR code usage continues to grow in the U.S.

Over 14 million Americans, 6.2 percent of U.S. mobile users, scanned a QR or barcode using their smartphone or tablet in June 2011.

Says Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile:

QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments. For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and the resulting information delivered, is crucial in developing and deploying campaigns that successfully utilize QR codes to further brand engagement.

Acer has launched the Iconia Tab A100 in the U.S. this weekend, the world's first 7-inch Android tablet to ship with Honeycomb.

The tablet runs on Honeycomb 3.2 (the latest firmware update), a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, has a 7-inch touchscreen with 1024x600 resolution, dual cameras, and weighs just 13.9 ounces.

An 8GB model sells for $329.99 and the larger capacity 16GB model will cost $349.99.

Running on Android 3.2 gives the tablet Zoom Mode, which optimizes Android's 200,000+ apps for tablets.

(Pics via PCM)

Apple, along with HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, have all been sued today over alleged e-book price fixing.

The suit claims the publishers and Apple colluded to break Amazon's discount pricing strategy with the sole intent of helping the iPad compete against the popular Kindle e-reader.

Furthermore, the suit claims that publishers, after discounting e-books for years to push adoption, feared Amazon's discounted prices would set a new (and permanent) low expectation for pricing of the books.

Says an attorney for the class-action suit:

Fortunately for the publishers, they had a co-conspirator as terrified as they were over Amazon's popularity and pricing structure, and that was Apple. We intend to prove that Apple needed a way to neutralize Amazon's Kindle before its popularity could challenge the upcoming introduction of the iPad, a device Apple intended to compete as an e-reader.

Utah-based company Millenniata has made a bold claim today, stating that their new M-DISC discs will last for the next millennium.

Millenniata says standard DVDs and Blu-ray Discs only last between 3-5 years before the dyes begin to degrade and data begins to get lost.

The M-DISC, on the other hand, has "actual pits are burned into the recording medium by a laser." M-DISCS are still readable by all DVD drives.

In its ongoing effort to release updates more frequently, Mozilla has unveiled Firefox 6 Final today, with those in the release channel getting access.

However, the public will likely have to wait a few more days to download the release via the in-browser update.

The company expects August 16th to be the official release deadline for the browser.

Furthermore, Firefox 7 Aurora is now available, as well.

A few of the new updates are updated Address Bar functionality, a redesigned Web Developer menu, an improved Firefox Sync and faster startup time.

You can download the latest Firefox 6 Beta here in preparation for the final launch: Mozilla Firefox v6.0 Beta 5

Sprint has noted today that it has killed off plans to release a WiMax 4G BlackBerry PlayBook, citing low demand.

RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, and Sprint, said it was a "mutual decision" to cancel the 4G tablet, which was announced in January.

The carrier will continue to sell the Wi-Fi-only model of the device and it is unclear whether AT&T and Verizon will make similar decisions to axe the 4G model.

Says Page Alves, Sprint's head of business services:

Right now the majority of tablets are Wi-Fi only. People use tablets in fixed locations.

After three weeks of availability, Spotify reportedly has 1.4 million users.

Perhaps more importantly, the service already has 175,000 paying subscribers, which should make the record labels very happy.

In Europe, the service commands 1.6 million paid subscribers, with a total user base of 10.7 million, so the conversion rate is a bit higher in Europe, at least for the time being.

That being said, Americans have very little incentive to upgrade, as there is unlimited streaming on the desktop version, with very little interruption and non-obtrusive ads. That will go away in six months, however, as Spotify moves the U.S. free tier in-line with Europe's, turning unlimited streaming into a limited amount of hours per month.

Read our review of Spotify U.S. here: Spotify Free for U.S., worth the wait?

Despite 5 million sales overseas (and counting), the Samsung Galaxy S II has been rightfully hyped in the U.S.

Today, the company has finally announced the U.S. launch date, August 29th, with a press event slated for early in the day.

Samsung's new "superphone" 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, 4G, 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 and weighs just 4 ounces.

It is expected to cost $200 with contract from Verizon and AT&T, and possibly Sprint and T-Mobile, as well.

Weeks after pictures and video of an unauthorized Apple store in China (including fake Geniuses) made international headlines, authorities in the city of Kunming have found 22 more Apple stores that have not been licensed by the company.

Each of the stores have been ordered to stop using the Apple logo anywhere in their stores, and Apple China has accused the stores of unfair competition and trademark infringement.

China's Administration for Industry and Commerce in the Yunnan provincial capital says they will increase monitoring of the stores, and set up a complaint hotline.

The Administration did not reveal whether the stores were selling knockoff Apple products, or genuine products that were smuggled into the country to avoid taxes.

Last month, a blogger living abroad revealed the pictures and video of the store, which was so elaborate that the workers even believed they were working for the 'real deal.'

In March, AT&T announced its intention to purchase rival carrier T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, barring any anti-trust setbacks.

Today, a partially-redacted document accidentally posted by a law firm under contract for AT&T leaked online, via the FCC website, and the general consensus is the letter shows that the company is willing to spend over three years of profit just to reduce competition in the market place.

AT&T has been telling regulators that the deal will lead to job gains and network investment, but the new letter, sent to potential investors, shows that is blatantly untrue.

While the carrier has been telling regulators the acquisition will increase network investment by $8 billion, behind the scenes the company is saying the deal will actually help them reduce investment by $10 billion over the next six years.

T-Mobile said last year it planned to spend $3 billion a year in new infrastructure investments.

Additionally, AT&T has been telling regulators that they need T-Mobile in order to increase LTE network coverage, but the letter seems to prove that is also a lie. The letter states that it would cost just $3.8 billion to increase LTE coverage from its current 80 percent to 97 percent (the other 3 percent will likely never get 4G service). Clearly they do not "need" T-Mobile, at a $39 billion premium, when the costs of expanding is just under $4 billion.

Kodawarisan has reported today that Apple has scheduled an iPhone event for September 7th, with the much-anticipated iPhone shipping either later that month or in October.

Additionally, Apple will launch the next generation of the iPod line, including Touch, Nano and Video models.

The Japanese-based site has accurately reported Apple rumors over the past 2 years, and Apple normally reveals new iPods in September as part of their customary cycle.

Apple is expected to add an A5 dual-core processor to the iPhone 5, along with an 8MP camera and a re-designed form factor.

The company is also rumored to be releasing an "iPhone 4S," a version of the iPhone 4 with less memory and storage that is deeply integrated with the new iCloud platform and will cost $0 with contract.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has allegedly filed for a patent that would bring an "airbag"-type system to smartphones and other mobile devices.

The patent application, from last February, shows a system where the phone detects it is being dropped and then deploys a damage protection system, similar to airbags in cars.

Reads the patent application (via PCW):

While the size and weight of portable devices make them convenient to carry around, these characteristics often make them more susceptible to damage and loss. With the number of cellular phones in use exceeding several billion and repairs typically exceeding $25, the costs of damage and loss of cellular phones amounts to billions of dollars per year.

According to ABI Research’s "Media Tablets" study, Android devices have now taken 20 percent share in the tablet market, slowly but steadily gaining on the iPad, the clear leader in the space.

The study notes that there have not been any "iPad Killers," not even close, and the 20 percent has been a collective effort.

Researcher Jeff Orr blames fragmentation on the hampered growth, with Android devices running a range of operating systems, from 2.2 to 3.2.

Overall, tablet growth should be huge in 2011, with "de-featured, low-cost media tablets are being introduced by more than fifty vendors in 2011," says Orr. "This will certainly help bolster year-over-year growth for the category, but it also creates a negative perception in the minds of the mass consumer audience about the readiness of media tablets to be fully functional within the next several years."

Orr adds that worldwide annual media tablet shipments are expected to top 120 million units in 2015.

More info here: Android Takes 20% Media Tablet Market Share from iPad in Last 12 Months

Rovio, the Finnish company behind the blockbuster hit 'Angry Birds' series, could be worth $1.2 billion, if reports are accurate.

The developer is allegedly in talks with investors for investments that would value the company well past the billion mark.

In under 2 years, all iterations of Angry Birds have been downloaded over 300 million times, and remain top hits on Android and iOS.

The game is free for Google Chrome users, and PC/Mac users can download a standalone game, as well.

Sources claim the investment will be a "strategic investment from a company in the entertainment business."

While a few names have been tossed around as potential suitors, two that stand out as high probability are Disney and Zynga.

HTC has announced an investment in Beats Electronics, the headphone maker.

The financials have not been released, but rumor has it HTC has spent around $500 million to purchase a 51 percent controlling stake in Beats.

Founded by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, Beats has quickly become a premiere name in "high-end audio" performance, as well as a status symbol in headphones.

HTC says Beats will continue to run "as usual," and upcoming HTC devices will include Beats audio technology.

It is unclear whether devices will come with a set of Beats headphones, as well.

According to Trevor Sheridan of Apple'N'Apps, Apple is looking to release an "iCloud iPhone" this year, alongside the launch of the iPhone 5.

The iCloud device will use the same parts as the iPhone 4, but with less memory and storage (to save money), and could cost $0 with contract.

Integrated directly into the cloud, the iCloud iPhone will help Apple keeps its 40%+ margins whilst releasing a device that can compete on a price level with low-end Android phones.

Says Sheridan:

The iPhone 5 will be a quality upgrade, but the star of the show will be the cheaper iCloud iPhone alternative. Apple wants to offer a lower priced iPhone while still maintaining their industry leading profit margins.

According to our sources, Apple is going to do this by using less on board Flash memory which are also falling in price. When looking at the iSuppli cost breakdown of the parts of the iPhone 4, the storage accounts for 15% of the cost to build the device, and that's true for the 3GS as well. Reducing 15% of the cost across millions of units is a substantial savings. The iCloud model will be for users who will want to use the iCloud heavily for storage, and keep a lot less on the iPhone itself. This will also help Apple make iCloud a feature by itself and reason to use the entire Apple ecosystem.

Small label Century Media, along with its associated labels "InsideOutMusic", “Superballmusic” and “People Like You" have pulled their music from Spotify, citing declining CD sales.

Says the label:

While everyone at the label group believes in the ever changing possibilities of new technology and new ways of bringing music to the fans, Century Media is also of the opinion that Spotify in its present shape and form isn’t the way forward. The income streams to the artists are affected massively and therefore that accelerates the downward spiral, which eventually will lead to artists not being able to record music the way it should be recorded. Ultimately, in some cases, it will completely kill a lot of smaller bands that are already struggling to make ends meet.

At the same time Century Media also believes that Spotify is a great tool to discover new music and is in the process of reintroducing their bands to Spotify by way of putting up samplers of the artists. This way, fans can still discover the great music released by the label.

Facebook has announced the launch of "Facebook Messenger," a standalone app for iOS and Android.

Messenger will focus on chat and messaging, give users a chance to message FB friends directly, without needing to open Facebook and navigate the site.

Additionally, the app will deliver the messages via notifications or texts, so your FB buddies are likely to see it more promptly.

You can create group convos, as well, notes FB.

Finally, the company says:

The Messenger app is an extension of Facebook messages, so all your conversations are in one place, including your texts, chats, emails and messages. Whether you're on your phone or on the web, you can see the full history of all your messages.

After announcing the tablet at this year's CES, Vizio has launched its Vizio Tablet (formerly Vizio Via Plus).

The tablet will be cheap, with an MSRP of just $299, well under rival tablets which normally price at $500.

Amazon, Costco, Sam's Club, Vizio and Walmart each have the tablet in stock now.

The tablet runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, weighs 1.2 pounds, has an 8-inch screen with 1024x768 resolution, Wi-Fi only, 1GHz processor, 4GB storage, MicroSD slot, HDMI slot, three speakers and a front-facing video camera for video chat.

Vizio's main selling point on the tablet outside of the price is its integration with VIA, which will control not only all Vizio devices in the house but also "up to 95 percent of all home theater accessories, including televisions and sound systems" with its IR controller.

Google promised the feature at the I/O event three months ago and it has delivered.

The search giant has confirmed today that Chromebooks, (the Samsung Series 5, Acer AC700 and CR-48) will finally have Netflix streaming access, a feature that was one of the most requested since the beta CR-48 devices were sent out to testers.

Because Chrome OS does not have native support for Microsoft's Silverlight in-browser plug-in, Netflix just did not work on the devices.

Upgrading to the latest Chrome OS update will give you access to Netflix streaming, says Chrome OS Community Manager Melissa Daniels.

One note for CR-48 owners, you cannot watch HD films, only low-res. This has been verified by me.

For more info here: Using Netflix

Nokia has said today that Symbian will be discontinued in the U.S.

The smartphone OS, which was, until recently the most popular in the world, never gained traction in the States despite strong sales in Europe and Africa.

Earlier this year, Nokia signed a deal with Microsoft to place fledgling Windows Phone 7 on Nokia hardware starting in September.

Additionally, the company just released its first MeeGo device, the Nokia N9, which has seen critical success in Europe.

Says Nokia's U.S. president Chris Weber:

Once WP7 comes out, we will essentially be out of the Symbian business, the S40 business, etc. It will be Windows Phone and the accessories around that. The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn't matter what we do (elsewhere).

While the result switches every minute or so, Apple and Exxon Mobile are currently fighting to end the day as the world's largest publicly traded company, by market capitalization.

As of writing, Apple has a market cap of $341.11 billion, while Exxon has a market cap of $342.78 billion. The companies have been interchanging over the past half hour, and at one point Apple was the biggest publicly traded company in the world.

Exxon is one of the largest oil companies on the planet, but has taken a hit recently alongside the decline in crude oil prices.

Apple, the most profitable smartphone maker on the planet, and the market share leader for tablets and media players.

While both companies are the largest publicly traded in the world, they are certainly not the most valuable, as the Saudi Arabian Oil Company is said to be worth $1.2 trillion.

Earlier this month, RIM announced its new BlackBerry 7 lineup, including new Torch devices and the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

According to BGR, the company is now rushing to push its QNX-based "BlackBerry Colt" to the market in the Q1.

The QNX devices will be the first dual-core BlackBerrys on the market, at a time when other manufacturers are looking to build quad-core devices.

Even though it will likely kill the device before it even launches, the source says RIM is working on a QNX-specific BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and that the first phone will not have native support for BES, one of BlackBerry's only remaining selling points.

However, not all is lost as users can run Microsoft ActiveSync out of the box.

Following an already overly rough year, Dolby announced last week that Microsoft's Windows 8 OS might leave its technology out.

Since 2007, Microsoft has included Dolby surround sound tech in its Windows operating systems, and the licensing agreement accounted for 12 percent of the company's total revenue.

"(We) have recently learned that our technologies are not currently included in the Windows 8 operating system under development. If our technologies are not included in the commercial version of Windows 8, we expect to support DVD playback functionality by increasingly licensing our technologies directly to OEMs and ISVs, and we will seek to extend our technologies to further support online content playback," read Dolby's statement.

Microsoft did not give a public reason for ditching Dolby, but it appears that adding the tech was no longer a selling point so saving the money seemed prudent.

HTC has started HTCDev.com, allowing those who like to tinker with their devices an opportunity to do so more easily.

The site gives access to the OpenSense SDK and access to the kernel source repository.

Using the SDK will give developers a chance to take adavantage of the popular HTC Sense API, as well as any add-on, including the stylus pen for the HTC Flyer tablet.

Probably most welcome to developers, is the bootloader unlock web tool.

HTC has said all future phones will come with unlocked bootloaders, starting with the Sensation and EVO 3D.

Chrome OS, the web-based operating system commercially released earlier this year by Google, will soon be making its way to tablets.

Web developer Francois Beaufort has posted a video showing off a tablet-optimized version of the OS.

It is unclear when tablets with the OS will hit the market, and at what price.

Chromebooks sell for $350 and require a constant connection to the Internet.

While tablets do sell with 3G/4G connections, the most popular are Wi-Fi only, due to their cheaper price tag.

Samsung has noted this week that it will release three new Bada phones in the coming months.

Bada is the company's own smartphone OS, launched last year.

There is very little info known about the new devices, but one appears to be the Samsung Wave 3, successor to the popular line of Bada devices.

The other two phones are the Samsung GT-S5360 and the GT-S7250D, which will run on Bada 2.0.

Samsung said last year it would remove some support from Android and Windows Phone in an effort to try their hand at Bada.

The phones are expected to launch at the IFA event in September.

In retribution for police arresting alleged Anonymous and LulzSec members, the hacktivist group AntiSec has released 10GB worth of data including private emails and info sent by confidential informants.

The hacktivists say they stole the info during attacks on 70 small-town law enforcement agencies.

AntiSec released the database in an effort to "embarrass, discredit and incriminate police officers across the US."

The group hacked Brooks-Jeffrey Marketing, the firm that builds websites for sheriff's agencies in southern states of the U.S. Says AntiSec: "It took less than 24 hours to root BJM's server and copy all their data to our private servers."

Some sites, like the Missouri Sheriffs' Association, remain down, even tonight.

It appears that Google's Chrome OS has been hacked by researchers, despite the search giant's claim that the OS would be safer than current offerings from Microsoft and Apple.

Chrome OS has only been available (commercially, not as beta) for a few months, so the news is even more disheartening.

Researchers at the recent Black Hat security conference say they hacked the system to access user’s emails, Google Docs, contacts, and Google Voice messages.

The researchers called for Google to fix the flaws, and soon. Hacking the built-in ScratchPad app the team easily grabbed user's contacts.

Google responded:

This conversation is about the web, not Chrome OS. Chromebooks raise security protections on computing hardware to new levels. They are also better equipped to handle the web attacks that can affect browsers on any computing device, thanks in part to a carefully designed extensions model and the advanced security available through Chrome that many users and experts have embraced.

Reaching a new price point for 4G devices, Sprint will begin selling the Samsung Conquer 4G for $99 (with rebate), on August 21st.

The device runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has a 1GHz processor, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, dual cameras and 2GB storage.

While the phone is certainly affordable, Sprint requires an Everything data plan + Premium Data, at $80 a month, to activate the phone.

Sprint's 4G WiMax network is available in 28 states/ 71 cities.

According to the WSJ, cable and satellite TV providers are just not selling as much porn as they used to.

While still wildly profitable, revenue on adult VOD and PPV service have been falling, showing consumer's move to the Internet for their pornography.

Over the course of two weeks, Time Warner and DirecTV has directly stated that PPV profits were weaker than expected thanks to "lower adult buys."

Says the Time Warner CEO:

There's been a fairly steady trend over some time period now for adult to go down largely because there's that kind of material available on the Internet for free.

HTC has acquired mobile app company Dashwire for $18.5 million, likely in an effort to fight against current patent litigation brought by rivals.

The global smartphone maker says the move will help it strengthen its cloud-based services.

Following suits from Apple and others, HTC has used its lush cash supply to begin acquisitions, including a $335 million purchase of S3 Graphics.

That move has already paid off, as S3 won a patent case over Apple two weeks ago.

Dashwire is said to have a portfolio of 20,000 patents purchased from a company called Intellectual Ventures. IV has licensing agreements with Google, Intel and Microsoft, among others, with many related to mobile devices.

Following its acquisition of Motorola's networking business for $1.2 billion, Nokia Siemens Networks has begun its layoff of 1500 employees.

The company has 70,000 employees and the layoffs will mainly be research staff.

In June, the company announced the cuts, alongside the relocation of 1200 employees into the LTE and WCDMA divisions.

GMB Union rep Andy Prendergast says (via ZD):

It's real tragedy that these jobs are going [as] they are well-paid, high-skilled jobs of the kind that we should be a world leader in.

The light regulation around labour laws makes it a lot easier to dispense with workers in the UK than in other areas. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea that the Tories have an economic policy built around growth.

Following up on their popular July 4th sale which slashed iOS games to just $0.99, Electronic Arts (EA) has started a back-to-school sale, slashing 80 percent off prices for their popular mobile games.

A few of the games are also "HD" versions built for the iPad.

Among the discounted are classics like Tetris, Scrabble, Battleship, Snood and Risk and on the newer side is the brand new (released last month) Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Furthermore, popular sports games like Madden NFL 11, Fifa 11 and Fight Night will be available.

Check the list here: EA Back-To-School Sale

Will Russia be getting the iPhone 5 just one month after its expected U.S. launch?

On the heels of word that Apple is actively looking to lease space inside the trade gallery of the historic Hotel Moskva in Moscow for an Apple Store, a Russian paper is claiming that the nation will get the iPhone 5 in November.

The iPhone 5 is expected to launch in September or October in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Citing handset retailers in Russia, the paper says sales of the iPhone 5 will begin "almost immediately" after the U.S. launch.

Russian carriers are in current talks with Apple about speeding up delivery of the smartphone, as previous versions have launched months after the U.S. launch, leading to a huge gray market for iPhones in the nation.

Despite Sony's recent announcement that its Vita handheld would not be hitting North America or the EU until 2012, Best Buy Canada has still put the console up for pre-order, at least 5 months before any possible retail launch.

The company has a page for the Vita with Wi-Fi-only at $250 and the Vita with 3G/Wi-Fi at $300.

Additionally, Best Buy Canada says March 30th is the expected date for launch, although that is likely educated speculation by the chain.

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

Pics via Nexus404:

On this date in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee (no, not Al Gore) published the first website ever on the World Wide Web (WWW).

At the time, Lee was a contractor at CERN, the European nuclear research organization and had access to the largest Internet node on the continent.

The Internet, back then, consisted of computers being able to talk to each other. Lee proposed the WWW system, which would give users a way to access various information sources, from whatever computer they were on using hyperlinks.

Thanks to the WWW, typing in a web address actually leads you to that site's servers, and a visual page.

The first ever website was a part of info.cern.ch and was just an info page with links. You can view a cached version of that page here: The first web page

For more info on the start of the WWW, check here: http://info.cern.ch/

Sanford Wallace, better known as the "Spam King," has been indicted in Las Vegas.

The 40-year-old is accused of sending 27 million spam messages to millions of Facebook users.

From November 2008 to March 2009, Wallace allegedly compromised 500,000 Facebook accounts after sending millions of pieces of spam through the company's servers, says USAT.

In March 2009, Wallace was banned from ever using Facebook, but the indictment claims the "Spam King" started using the site again in April.

Wallace has been sued by Concentric Network, AOL, CompuServe, MySpace and the Federal Trade Commission over spamming and phishing.

The Spam King is facing up to 16 years in jail if convicted on all counts of electronic mail fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt.

In an update to our recent article, Seagate has refuted the claim that they are slashing their warranties to 2 years (from 5) in an effort to cut costs.

In mass tweets sent to journalists, bloggers and others who reported the news, the company says simply: "Rumor's wrong. Seagate retail internal drives still have 5-year warranty."

Original story here claimed:

Seagate has noted today that it will shorten the warranty on most of its consumer series HDDs.

In an effort to reduce costs, the warranties will be reduced from 5 years to just 2 years.

Included in the list are Seagate's most popular drives, the Barracuda 7200.12 and Momentus Green product series.

Barracudas are 3.5-inch form factor and used for desktop builds while the slimmer Momentus are 2.5-inch and used for notebooks, or as slim external drives.

Enterprise models, like the XT series, will keep its five-year warranty.

It is unclear when the new move will go into effect.

According to the latest figures from comScore MobiLens, Android continues its exponential growth story, taking 40.1 percent of the U.S. market share for smartphones for June.

Overall, 78.5 million Americans owned smartphones, up 8 percent from the period ended March.

Android moved from 34.7 percent to 40.1 percent, holding the top spot. Apple saw smaller growth, but took second place at 26.6 percent.

RIM continues to fall, down from 27.1 to 23.4 percent, but still good for third place.

Microsoft, even with the release of Windows Phone 7 devices, continues to see share erode, down to 5.8 percent from 7.5 percent.

Symbian and WebOS controlled the rest of the pie.

Intel Labs has announced today the investment of $30 million into two new Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTC).

Both will be hosted at Carnegie Mellon University and the labs will focus on cloud and embedded computing research.

The investments are part of a greater $100 million plan to increase "university research and accelerate innovation."

Says the company:

These new ISTCs are expected to open amazing possibilities. Imagine, for example, future cars equipped with embedded sensors and microprocessors to constantly collect and analyze traffic and weather data. That information could be shared and analyzed in the cloud so that drivers could be provided with suggestions for quicker and safer routes.

Earlier this week,HP started a promotion that will chop $50 off the price of their newly-launched WebOS-based TouchPad tablet.

With the discount, the tablet will sell for $450 (16GB model) or $550 (32GB model).

Following the news, the discounts kept on coming, with Staples and other retailers offering the device for $100 off, for this weekend only.

On top of that, Woot is offering the tablet today (16GB) for $380..$120 off the list price.

HP purchased Palm last April to acquire WebOS and all its patents, and the TouchPad, along with a new version of the Palm Pre, are the only new devices consumers have seen with the mobile OS. Developer support has been, understandably, limited.

Sony's upcoming S1 and S2 tablets will run a custom Honeycomb UI, and pics of the OS have leaked today.

From the pics, the OS doesn't look too heavily altered, but with some additions.

Each tablet will run Android 3.2, with a custom launcher that adds quick access to network connections and access to favorites.

The app drawer will come standard but include Chumby and Zinio, apps for streaming photos, social feeds, weather, stocks.

Additionally, there is a custom keyboard and a music player that looks similar to Google Music.

Acer founder Stan Shih has made some bold statements today, claiming that popular tablets are just short-term fads.

Additionally, Shih throws ultrabooks in the same basket.

The retired exec also urged notebook makers "to come out with more value-added products through innovation."

Shih complemented the iPad by saying Apple used "outside-the-box thinking" and made the tablet extremely successful.

Acer has a 7-inch tablet coming out soon priced at $345, which Shih expects will cause some price competition in the smaller-screen market.

At this year's E3, Nintendo revealed the Wii U, stating it would be hitting retail shelves in mid-2012.

Today, president Satoru Iwata says they will not reveal anymore details on release date or pricing until 2012, likely 2-3 months before actual launch.

Says the exec:

Since the Wii U we showed you at the E3 show in June was still in the development phase without very specific proposals on the software titles, we are going to announce the release date and the price next year when we are able to explain the specific proposals.

Seagate has noted today that it will shorten the warranty on most of its consumer series HDDs.

In an effort to reduce costs, the warranties will be reduced from 5 years to just 2 years.

Included in the list are Seagate's most popular drives, the Barracuda 7200.12 and Momentus Green product series.

Barracudas are 3.5-inch form factor and used for desktop builds while the slimmer Momentus are 2.5-inch and used for notebooks, or as slim external drives.

Enterprise models, like the XT series, will keep its five-year warranty.

It is unclear when the new move will go into effect.

Every quarter it seems that T-Mobile reports customers jumping ship.

This quarter, the bleeding slowed, however, with the carrier losing just 50,000 customers of its 33.6 million large base.

In the corresponding quarter last year, the carrier lost 90,000 customers.

Despite the slow down, parent Deutsche Telekom said: "The contract-customer situation remains unsatisfactory, with the churn rate remaining at 2.4 percent."

Net prepaid subs rose by 231,000, showing that many users are moving to the great prices T-Mobile has for pre-paid.

AT&T has bid $39 billion to purchase T-Mobile, pending anti-trust issues.

Last July, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), a syndicate of technology, cable and entertainment companies introduced their long awaited cloud-based digital locker today, dubbing the service Ultraviolet.

The group is readying Ultraviolet for a fall launch.

When it launches, the service will allow users to stream their music and movies anywhere, as long as it is legally purchased. Content providers will get to use one cloud-based platform to create a set of Web standards for DRM on digital content.

Time Warner will be adding the UltraViolet technology to its movies in time for the holidays, says the company.

Two of its new releases, Horrible Bosses and Green Lantern, will be the launch films for UltraViolet.

Beginning with the releases of Horrible Bosses and Green Lantern in the fourth quarter, the vast majority of our future home video new releases will be UV enabled. The key part of our plan is to drive use of the UltraViolet is Flixster, the preferred system there.

Today, Flixster is one of the most popular applications for finding information about movies, and over the coming months we'll begin to roll out new upgraded versions of the Flixster service, which will be deeply integrated with UltraViolet.

A poster at MacRumors has posted an alleged picture of the iPhone 5, which is expected to launch in September.

In the image we see a very slim iPhone (thinner than the iPhone 4) with a more rounded body.

The poster says the picture was secretly taken while at the office of a French carrier.

Says the poster:

The only thing I can tell you, is that my iPhone 4 looks really slow now.

Japanese buyers will see the console for Christmas, but everyone else has to wait.

Despite the general expectation that Sony would be rolling out the PlayStation Vita handheld before the holiday season, the company has said today that it will not hit Europe or the U.S. until 2012.

Because of the delay, many analysts now expect Sony to have weakened sales of the console, and overall revenue decline.

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.

Yesterday, Google came out guns blazing, calling out Oracle, Microsoft and Apple, accusing them of trying to stifle Android growth and development with their lawsuits based on "bogus patents."

The post went on to list all the ways rival companies are trying to attack Android, including Microsoft's continued lawsuits to get $15 licensing fees per Android device, Microsoft's purchase of Novell patents, the CPTN's (Apple, RIM, others) $4.5 billion purchase of 6000 Nortel patents to make sure Google didn't get them, and Apple's current suits against Samsung and Motorola over Android devices.

Last night, Microsoft came back, crushing Google's argument with one email.

Frank Shaw, Microsoft Head of Communications, posted one email from Google SVP Kent Walker that proves that Microsoft asked Google upfront to be a purchasing partner on the Novell patents, and that Google declined:

Toshiba has announced its Qosmio F755 3D laptop will hit the U.S. on August 16th.

The company has been planning on releasing glasses-free 3D HDTVs and notebooks since 2010, and we finally have an American date. The F750 is set for release in Europe this week.

Price start at $1,699 for a 2GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 750GB HDD, 6GB DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 540M, Harman Kardon stereo speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio HDMI-CEC.

Says Toshiba of the 3D aspects:

To create a 3D effect without 3D glasses, the left eye needs to see a slightly different perspective to the right eye. The Qosmio F750 3D's state-of-the-art lenticular screen sends Qosmio F750 3D displays 3D images without the need for glasses. Eye-tracking technology ensures 3D effect works regardless of position (15.6") screen allows 2D and 3D images to be viewed simultaneouslytwo images of slightly differing perspectives individually to the left and right eye, which creates the 3D effect.

Read more...

HP has started a promotion today that will chop $50 off the price of their newly-launched WebOS-based TouchPad tablet.

With the discount, the tablet will sell for $450 (16GB model) or $550 (32GB model).

Retailers and channel partners have offered that demand for the TouchPad is very light, so the promotion is not a shock to anyone. What is shocking is how quickly HP had to resort to the price cut after launching the device on July 1st.

One HP partner in the health care market, Denali Advanced Integration, says they have seen interest from a number of hospitals who have requested "try-before-you-buy" units. There have been very little completed sales, however.

The company purchased Palm last April to acquire WebOS and all its patents, and the TouchPad, along with a new version of the Palm Pre, are the only new devices consumers have seen with the mobile OS. Developer support has been, understandably, limited.

Asus has said today that its Meego-based Eee PC X101 netbook will launch in two weeks in Europe.

The ultraportable is just 17.6mm and weighs 2.03 pounds.

Eee PC X101 feature a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) LED-backlit display, a 1.33 GHz Atom N435 single-core processor and GMA 3150 graphics.

Each computer also has 1GB of RAM, an 8GB SSD, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a microSD card slot, and a small 3-cell 2600 mAh battery.

The Eee PC X101 will be one of the first computers to run on Meego, the mobile operating system built by Intel and Nokia.

Priced in euro, the netbook will sell for just 169, and likely have a $199 pricetag when it hits the States.

In a surprising post today, Google has called out Oracle, Microsoft and Apple today, accusing them of trying to stifle Android growth and development with their lawsuits based on "bogus patents."

Says Google SVP and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond:

I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on....

...Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents....

...Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it.

RIMM has confirmed the long-rumored BlackBerry 9900 and a few new "Torch" devices, including a fully touchscreen version.

Each of the phones will run on the new BlackBerry 7 OS. BlackBerry 7 "introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with the powerful hardware enhancements found in the BlackBerry 7 based smartphones delivers browsing results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry® 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry® 5 based smartphones*.

Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser have also optimized zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences," says the press release. There are also tons of other "goodies" with BB7, including built-in premium apps, and BBM6.

The company says the launch (later this month) will be its largest ever, with 5 phones in total being launched.

Time Warner has confirmed today that their popular HBO Go streaming service is headed to more devices, including the PS3, Xbox 360 and Internet-connected TVs.

CEO Jeff Bewkes says the service, which has been available via web browsers and smart devices like the iPad, has exceeded expectations of popularity and will therefore be expanded.

If you are an HBO subscriber, you can view all episodes of HBO original series on-demand, streaming from your phone, tablet or browser.

Overall, the apps for the service have been downloaded 4 million times, and users with the app watch more of HBO's content than those with subscriptions that don't use it.

It is unclear when the expansion will occur, or how long the gaming consoles will take to have native apps.

Last week we reported on a survey by consulting company AptiQuant, which claimed that Internet Explorer users scored lower than other browser users on a standard IQ test.

Following deeper research into the company by the BBC, it appears that the whole survey was a very elaborate hoax.

AptiQuant claimed to have begun in 2006, but their website was actually started on July 14th, 2011.

Furthermore, all of the staff's bios were stolen from an established French company.

The company has not responded to any attempts of contact, and their Twitter page has been suspended.

In the original report, the fake company had claimed:

The group tested 100,000 participants while monitoring what browser they used.

A "population average" for IQ tests is 100, but Internet Explorer users scored below average. IE 6 users scored the worst of all, at just over 80. IE6 was released in 2001.

Users of Opera, Camino and Explorer with Chrome Frame scored the highest, with over 110. Opera users scored over 120.

According to the latest StatCounter data, Google's Chrome has now become the second most popular browser in the UK, whilst growing to 22.14 percent global share in July.

In June, the browser controlled 20.65 percent share.

Internet Explorer and Firefox lost some share to Chrome with IE falling from 43.58 percent to 42.45 percent and Firefox falling from 28.34 percent to 27.95 percent.

Apple's Safari continued its constant but tortoiselike growth, moving from 5.07 to 5.17 percent share.

If the current trend continues, Chrome may see its way into second place in global share by the end of the year.

According to government sources, the UK will finally legalize the personal ripping of CDs and DVDs for media players or for personal use.

Prime Minister David Cameron recommended the move in his review of the UK IP framework created by Professor Ian Hargreaves a few months ago.

Hargreaves rightfully pronounced that Britain's copyright laws, written 300 years ago, were "obstructing" innovation and growth, and new laws could add 8 billion pounds to the struggling economy.

To date, the practice of ripping CDs for personal use is legal in all European nations except for Ireland, Britain and Malta.

Additionally, the government will begin allowing exception to copyright for parody.

Google has announced today that they have expanded their Gmail calling program to 38 languages.

Since 2010, U.S.-based Gmail users could use the email service to call landline and mobile phones directly from their web browser, and that service has now been expanded internationally.

Outside of standard USD, you can now purchase calling credit in Euros, British Pound or Canadian dollars.

Furthermore, the search giant says it has lowered its calling rates, for example, "$0.10 (or €0.08) per minute to call mobile phones in the U.K., France or Germany (landlines are $0.02/min), $0.15/minute to call mobile phones in Mexico and $0.02/min to call any phone number in China and India."

The full list, with 150 destinations is here: Gmail rates page

Google also reiterated that calls within U.S. and Canada will remain free for the rest of 2011.

It has taken awhile, but Windows XP's global market share has finally fallen under 50 percent, to 49.69 percent.

Despite the fall, the OS remains the most popular operating system in the world.

Windows 7 was the main reason for the decline of its older brother, with the new OS moving up to 27.92 percent.

Apple's Mac OS X continued its rise, as well, shooting to 5.56 percent share.

Microsoft's "failed" Vista OS controlled third with 9.27 percent share, followed by the iPhone, JavaME, the iPad and Android with much smaller percentages.

Full figures here: NetApplications OS version trend

Android has now taken almost 50 percent of global smartphone market share.

According to research firm Canalys, strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region has helped the smartphone OS to become the top platform in 35 of 56 countries tracked with 48 percent share overall and 51.9 million units shipped.

Apple remained in second place, at 19 percent, after shipping a record 20.3 million iPhones last quarter.

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion continued its multi-year slide, falling to 12 percent from 33 percent share last year.

Windows Phone 7 brought up the rear at 1 percent share.

Samsung saw strong growth on Android devices, shipping 17 million devices on the back of strong Galaxy S sales. The number was a massive 421 percent larger than last year.

Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn has said it will replace some of its workers in the next three years, replacing them with 1 million robots.

The company, most notably known for manufacturing iOS products among thousands of other devices, has 995,000 employees in the Chinese mainland, and another 200,000 elsewhere.

By replacing human workers with robots, the company will curb rising labor expenses and improve efficiency, says chairman Terry Gou (via xinhuanet).

Foxconn has been in the news in the past year due to a string of suicides by workers.

Average line workers at the factory make about 900 yuan ($140 USD) per month.

Update: Sony has said this weekend they will not reduce the RAM in the Vita, but they will also not reveal the final specs meaning it could still be 256MB instead of the rumored 512MB.

According to developer Novarama's CEO Dani Sánchez-Crespo, the upcoming Sony PlayStation Vita will indeed see the rumored RAM reduction.

Originally pegged at 512MB of RAM, the handheld will have just half of that.

When asked if the cut would cause any problems for developers, Sanchez-Crespo says:

That won’t affect us. It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Generally for Vita, we still have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM.

Following the security breach of the PlayStation Network in April, Sony said the attacks would cost the company $170-178 million over the course of the 2012 fiscal year.

Today, somewhat surprisingly, executive vice president and chief financial officer Masaru Kato said "the [total] cost may be smaller than the original cost estimate."

The exec did say that "that was the May forecast. The first quarter cost was within our expected range."

Furthermore, PSN usership has returned to levels before the hack:

Most recently, user logins to the PlayStation Network in North America have returned to a similar level as before the cyber attacks.

Many customers have already returned to our service. At one point people were concerned, [but the] impact will not be as great as we originally estimated.

OnePlayS, the gaming rental service, has now gone live in Europe.

The service had been beta testing in Denmark for a few months.

CEO of the company is Lass Jensen, a founder of movie rental property (now owned by Amazon), Lovefilm.

Says Jensen (via GI):

We are extremely happy that our beta-testing have been a success and therefore is it a real pleasure to offer our services to all the European gamers.

Google TV is a failure.

Logitech, makers of the Google TV-based "Revue" set-top box, lost $30 million in the Q1, following a disastrous $34 million loss thanks to the Revue and its accessories based on the device.

The Revue debuted last October for $250 and was instantly met with criticism for the price and the fact that Google TV was buggy. Additionally, the media companies put a death knell in the service when they began blocking free streaming content from their own sites, like Fox.com or ABChd.com.

New CEO Guerrino De Luca, replacing recently fired Gerald Quindlen, said this of the set-top (eWeek):

We launched Revue with the expectation that it would generate significant sales growth in spite of a relatively high price point and the newness of both the smart TV category and the underlying platform. In hindsight, there are number of things we should have done differently.

Microsoft has been ordered to pay Alcatel-Lucent $70 million for infringing on a patent.

The patent is used in Microsoft Outlook and two other apps.

Lucent was asking for $75 million in damages and Microsoft asked the jurors to limit the fee to $5 million. It is clear with what side the jury sided.

The patent involved teach for touch-screen form entry. Alcatel-Lucent argued that the tech "played a central role in the entire operation" of Outlook.

Lucent won the case originally in 2008 and was awarded $358 million in damages. An appeals court overturned the damages award however, saying the figure lacked "sufficient evidentiary support."

Says Microsoft (via Bloomberg)

We continue to maintain that current law requires a genuine apportionment of damages when the infringement is directed to a small feature of a feature-rich product. We are reviewing the verdict in that light and considering next steps.

AT&T has announced this week that it will begin throttling unlimited data hogs on its smartphone networks.

The customers affected will be those in the "top 5 percent" during any billing period and use unlimited plans (which have since been discontinued by the carrier).

Starting on October 1st, the carrier says they will begin reducing speeds on the heaviest users with full speed returned at the end of the billing cycle.

Says AT&T:

Like other wireless companies, we're taking steps to manage exploding demand for mobile data. Many experts agree the country is facing a serious wireless spectrum crunch. We're responding on many levels, including investing billions in our wireless network this year and working to acquire additional network capacity. We're also taking additional, more immediate measures to help address network congestion.

One new measure is a step that may reduce the data throughput speed experienced by a very small minority of smartphone customers who are on unlimited plans - those whose extraordinary level of data usage puts them in the top 5 percent of our heaviest data users in a billing period. In fact, these customers on average use 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone data customers. This step will not apply to our 15 million smartphone customers on a tiered data plan or the vast majority of smartphone customers who still have unlimited data plans.