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Intel has announced today that a dozen new netbooks will be released this week using the company's new dual-core Atom processors, the fastest CPUs available for netbooks.

Netbooks are hitting stores from Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba.

"Acer strives to continually improve on our customers' total mobile experience, whether it is increased responsiveness or extended Internet interactivity through longer battery life," added David Lee, associate vice president of Acer's Mobile Computing Business Unit. "We are pleased to select dual-core Intel Atom processors for Acer netbooks, helping to empower netbook users achieve even more – both at work and at leisure."

Earlier in the month, former Apple employee Paul Devine was arrested and charged with selling secrets to Asian suppliers in exchange for over $2 million in kickbacks.

Devine, one of Apple's global supply managers, was charged "with offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions," which began in 2006.

Today, federal prosecutors have alleged that Devine stashed over $150,000 in cash in shoe boxes in his home, which were then discovered by federal agents during a raid.

Devine is also said to have been hiding $20,000 in different foreign currencies.

To be released from prison on bail, Judge Howard Lloyd says Devine must transfer all cash he has in foreign bank accounts and post that along with $600,000.

It is unclear how much money will be transferred over, but prosecutors say it is "very significant."

Devine has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to multiple reports, Indian citizen Gopal Gujjar was killed last week when his Nokia mobile phone exploded while he was making a call.

Gujjar died of injuries to his right ear, neck and shoulders.

The body was found with blasted remains of the phone near Gujjar's farm in Banda village, Kota.

Police say the phone was a basic level Nokia 1209, which was released in the nation in 2008.

Reports claim the incident is the first time in Indian history that a mobile phone has exploded while not being charged.

Earlier in the year, a 27-year old Indian woman was killed when her phone exploded during a call. In her case, however, the phone was charging while she made the call.

Apple has said today that iTunes U downloads have reached 300 million, three years after the store launched.

The service offers 350,000 files, and over 800 universities have active iTunes U sites.

Apple says a few of the most respected institutions, including Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne and Université de Montréal all "distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store."

iTunes U content is usually free, but can be restricted to each university's student body. The content includes audio, video, PDFs, podcasts and slideshows.

"iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world's top institutions," added Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "With such a wide selection of educational material, we're providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad."

Apple's service can be accessed from your PC or Mac, but only from an iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone if you need to use a mobile device.

ColombiaReports, an English-language news site in the South American nation has posted today that three Colombian teens have been murdered after a death threat against them and other teens was posted on social networking giant Facebook.

The three victims, aged 15,16 and 17, were killed just outside of Puerto Asis, in southern Colombia.

In total, 69 teens were named in the death threat, which "kindly" asked all to leave Puerto Asis within 72 hours or get killed.

Volmar Perez, Colombia's ombudsman, said that the murders "coincide with ... the publication of a (Facebook) list with the names and aliases of 69 teenagers where (it) is said that they have three days to leave Puerto Asis and if not, be killed."

Perez condemned the threats and the violent deaths.

Added the news report: "It is unclear whether the murders are carried out by leftist guerrilla group FARC or drug cartel 'Los Rastrojos,' both highly active in the southern department."

According to Bloomberg, Apple is currently deep into negotiations with News Corp., CBS and Disney trying to allow iTunes users to rent TV shows for 99 cents.

Says one analyst: "This is a smart move by everyone. Something like this a la carte rental service is an incremental opportunity and it doesn’t upset the existing ecosystem."

The move would also help Apple take back some share from Netflix and Amazon, which offer streaming or on-demand video services.

Bloomberg cited sources close to negotiations who also said Apple is set to introduce an updated iTouch with a higher-resolution screen, and an updated, cheaper Apple TV set-top box.

Huge electronics maker Toshiba has said today that is currently developing 3D HDTVs that do not require any special glasses.

The Yomiuri newspaper said that Toshiba plans to release the TVs by the end of the year, but spokesperson Yuko Sugahara declined to comment on the timetable.

Panasonic and Sony have already released 3D HDTVs, both the displays require special (and usually expensive) glasses.

The new TVs would use technology that "involves transmitting different images at various angles to create an illusion of dimension and depth, a principle used by current glasses-free monitors," says Sugahara, via Yahoo.

Nintendo announced earlier this year that its upcoming handheld, the 3DS, would use similar technology, allowing for 3D gaming without glasses.

Dell has launched their first smartphone in the United States since 2007, following up on their Axim line with the release of the Aero Android device.

The smartphone will sell via AT&T for $100 with contract, making it cheaper than the carrier's current Android offerings.

Dell is also selling the device for $300 without contract.

The device weighs just 3.67 ounces, making it one of the lightest Android devices ever created.

Dell's low-end device runs a customized Android 1.5, has a 624-MHz processor, a 5MP camera with 8x zoom and 2GB of internal memory with an expandable MicroSD slot.

Despite not running Android 2.2 Froyo, owners will be able to playback Adobe Flash videos, thanks to built-in Flash Lite, giving it an immediate advantage over the Apple iPhone.

Amazon's highly anticipated third-generation Kindle e-readers will begin shipping on Friday, but the e-tailer says that any orders placed this week will not ship until at least September 17th.

The e-tailer is selling their new Kindle Wi-Fi for $139, the cheapest model yet. A third-gen Wi-Fi/3G version will sell for $189.

Each new model is slimmer and include higher contrast screens and "crisper text." Both have six-inch screens, but weigh 15 percent less and are 21 percent slimmer. Each also has twice the storage of the original Kindles, allowing for up to 3500 books to be stored.

Due to strong demand for the products, both are temporarily sold out.

Says the site: "Due to strong customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Order now to reserve your place in line. Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis. Orders placed today are expected to ship on or before September 17th."

Amazon had announced the devices in late July.

TNW has put out an interesting article today on Kindle e-book sales compared to iBook sales, going as far as to say that the Kindle still outsells Apple's equivalent by 60-to-1.

In June, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said iBooks had already captured 22 percent of the e-book market, a gigantic number given that the store had just launched. Many were skeptical of Job's number, however.

TNW spoke with J.A. Konrath, a popular author who is a huge fan of the future of e-books, about how well sales are going for him, on both platforms.

Konrath publishes his books on Kindle himself, cutting out publishers that used to take most of his profits. By doing so, and selling his e-books at a very reasonable $3 a piece, Konrath is making over $2 per book sold. When his books were in paperback, he was lucky to make $0.80 for every $10 book sold.

The author compared sales from iBooks, the Kindle, and from paperback: "Publishers might be looking at enriched or enhanced ebooks as their new big-ticket items to replace hardcovers. But the major ebook retailer, Amazon, isn’t set up for video. Kindle isn’t even able to do color yet. That leaves Apple, and according to my numbers Apple is a very small part of the ebook market. I sell 200 ebooks a day on Kindle. On iPad, I sell 100 a month."

Samsung has announced today that Melissa Thompson of Greater Manchester has broken the record for fastest text message, shattering the old record by almost 10 seconds.

Thompson was using a Galaxy S with Swype and texted the phrase: "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

The former Guinness World Record was 35.54 seconds for the phrase, which was shattered when Thompson did it in 25.94 seconds.

Thompson was shopping with her boyfriend when Samsung asked her to take a shot at the record.

Says the texting champ: "I used to send a lot of text messages - 40 or 50-a-day to Chris alone so we both knew I could type fast. But since we moved in together and I started my job I haven't been texting as much and, you could say, my fingers were out of shape. It's a real shock to find out that I'm the fastest texter in the world."

Motorola has released their official Android upgrade schedule, giving some long-time owners a set timetable for updates to their smartphone operating system.

A few of the devices are still running Android 1.6, or even 1.5, and are in desperate need of an update.

Unfortunately, most of the devices listed will not be getting an upgrade to 2.2 Froyo.

The schedule:

North America
Droid X by Motorola (USA): Upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for late summer
Devour (USA): Will not have a software upgrade to Android 2.1
Backflip, Cliq and Cliq XT (USA): Upgrade to Android 2.1 (testing in process) planned for late Q3/early Q4
All Android 2.1 and 2.2 upgrades for Canada are under evaluation only. This includes the Backflip, Dext, Milestone, Quench

Europe
Milestone: Initial rollout of upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for Q4
Backflip and Dext: Will not have software upgrades to Android 2.1

Asia-Pacific
Milestone, Motoroi and Titanium (all Korea): Initial rollout of upgrades to Android 2.2 planned for Q4
Milestone (Asia-Pacific): Upgrade to Android 2.2 under evaluation
Backflip, Dext and Quench (all Asia-Pacific): Upgrades to Android 2.1 under evaluation

Facebook recently posted to their blog that they now have 150 million people actively using the social network from their mobile devices, including smartphones, MP3 players and tablets.

The Facebook for iPhone app is also now showing as having 103 million active monthly users, which amounts to almost every "i" device ever sold.

In June, Apple said they had sold about 110 million iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.

Says David Kirkpatrick, of The Facebook Effect: "The Facebook application is by far the most important application on both the iPhone and the iPad. Without the Facebook application, my own opinion is the iPhone would never have become as important as it is. It’s the single most widely used application. It’s so heavily used compared to other apps that I have been told by someone who thought he knew the data — this is highly secret data and I don’t know the actual numbers — that more than half of all usage of the iPhone of apps, other than those provided by the phone itself like telephony and email, is coming from Facebook. And on the iPad, too, it’s just a huge, huge part of usage. So in a way, Apple and Facebook are joined at the hip, and I think that’s one reason why Zuckerberg and Jobs have been spending time together."

EMI Music has just purchased Digital Stores Limited, a company which provides online stores for artists including The Beatles, Queen & Oasis.

The acquisition is a logical one for EMI, which is in need of revenue streams outside of physical and online music sales. Although the business has been improving since the 2007 purchase by private equity firm Terra Firma, they still lost more than 600 million euros last year.

It also dovetails nicely with the recent trend of labels signing artists to 360 deals. These deals give the label a cut of everything from merchandise to tour revenue, and are becoming an increasingly important part of the modern music business.

Owning a company like Digital Stores also has a lot of potential for selling services to artists not otherwise affilliated with EMI. Both artists on other major labels and those who wouldn't be signing with any major become potential revenue sources.

If they manage it well, this could be a key part of EMI's transformation from a traditional label to an all around music marketing and artist services company. Of course any of the major labels could have done that already.

Popular singer Lady Gaga has overtaken Britney Spears as the "queen" of Twitter, becoming the most followed person on the micro-blogging site.

Gaga passed Britney and now has 5.74 million followers.

The eclectic artist just became the first person to have 10 million fans on Facebook, the social networking giant.

Lady Gaga moved to the title after adding 700,000 new followers in the last month alone.

Spears surpassed Ashton Kutcher in May, lasting just three months at the top.

Famecount, a social media-tracking site, says Lady Gaga may not stay at the top for long, as teen sensation Justin Bieber is adding 800,000 new followers every month.