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Apple, in an effort to move some of the negative publicity away from their iPhone 4 "antennagate" onto other phone makers, has released a video testing the new Motorola Droid X, which appears to have the same issues when held in the "death grip."

Posting the video on YouTube and their own site, Apple shows off the Droid X being held in two different grips, with the cell signal bars magnified in the corner.

When barely held, the phone has two bars. When held in the "death grip," the bars slowly but surely fall to zero.

While Apple may insist that every other smartphone has the same issues as their iPhone 4, has anyone heard complaints from a real user?

The Internet currently uses IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), which uses 32-bit numbers, allowing for the availability of a total of 4 billion IP addresses.

According to experts, about 94 percent of those addresses have already been allocated, and the Internet may run out of IP addresses by 2011, at least under the current IPv4 system.

A new system, IPv6, would use 128-bit numbers, allowing for an almost infinite amount of IP addresses. So far, however, adoption has been slow.

If adoption of the new system doesn't happen soon, Google Internet evangelist Vint Cerf warns that a "black market" for IP addresses would start, taking "away from the decentralized nature of the Internet."

"Without IPv6, the Internet's expansion and innovation could be limited," also notes American Registry for Internet Numbers president and CEO John Curran. "Delaying IPv6 deployment may strain the work of Internet operators, application developers, and end users everywhere."

Google is one of few companies that already puts all its services on the IPv6 protocol, with Facebook being another notable company.

YouTube has announced this weekend that they have begun testing a new way of embedding code that would support both HTML5 and Flash.

By using "iframes," the code will either use the Flash plugin or switch to HTML5, depending on what device or browser you are currently using.

If the video has ad overlays, or other features not yet supported by HTML5, it will force Flash, but that is the only time.

Embedded videos should now work on Android and iOS devices, which do not have Flash support yet.

YouTube Mobile already has HTML5 built-in, but now the embedded videos will work on other sites, such as when browsing Afterdawn from your smartphone or tablet.

View a test video here: New Way To Embed YouTube Videos

According to HP Executive VP Todd Bradley, the company has officially dropped any future plans to create smartphones with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

All smartphones will come instead, with WebOS, the mobile operating system acquired by the company when it purchased Palm.

Adds Bradley: "Our intent is to focus those resources and really make webOS the best OS it can be."

HP is one of Microsoft's oldest partners, and the company did not want any bad blood, adding it would still "Microsoft's biggest customer," just not in the smartphone market.

Since acquiring Palm, HP has dropped plans for a Windows 7 tablet, and now for Windows Phone 7 phones.

Motorola, the other major American player in the smartphone market, has also declined to create Windows Phone 7 devices.

Chatroulette, the online video chat room, has announced this week that is taking steps to clean up the service, which has been riddled by sexual perverts, threatening those who regularly expose themselves on the service.

Founder Andrey Ternovskiy said this week that the company is now collecting evidence, and will contact law enforcement if need be.

Says Ternovskiy: "We’ve captured and saved thousands of IP addresses of alleged offenders, along with logs and screenshots which prove wrong behavior."

Continuing: "We’ve blocked thousands of IP addresses, reported offenders and service seems to be much cleaner than before. That is cool. Now give us some time to put new features in place."

Chatroulette, since its start earlier this year, has been criticized for the amount of people who are exposing themselves, especially since many minors use the site regularly.

Ternovskiy has made it clear he is not against nudity on the site, even introducing adult-themed channels, but is very against user exposing themselves to minors. Concludes the founder: "Broadcasting inappropriate content to minors is a violation of both US and UN law. We are actively cooperating with law enforcement agencies."

While Microsoft has long said they want to standardize the user experience of Windows Phone 7, HTC has said today that they plan to bring HTC Sense to their upcoming WP7 devices, skinning the smartphones like they have Android devices.

Additionally, HTC is moving forward with the Sense UI for Android 3.0 (Gingerbread).

Says Drew Bramford of HTC about the Sense UI for WP7: "We won't be able to replace as much of the core Windows Phone experience, but we will augment it."

In regards to Android 3.0, Google is rumored to be creating a user experience that will negate the need for extra skins, making Sense, MotoBLUR and TouchWiz, among others, useless.

Google, however, will likely not prohibit UI skins for 3.0, whereas Microsoft has been a bit more staunch on their stance.

According to a new survey released by the Yankee Group, 73 percent of iPhone owners are very satisfied with their AT&T service.

The overall satisfaction rate for AT&T subscribers is 68 percent, while 69 percent of general smartphone users say they are satisfied with the carrier.

Many will be surprised by the results, especially given the very vocal detractors of the carrier and Apple's recent debacles with privacy on the iPad and "antennagate" on the iPhone 4.

Not to mention that AT&T charges iPhone owners about $12 extra than their other smartphone users, per month.

"Consumers transfer the high gloss of their Apple iPhone experience to AT&T," says the author of the study, Carl Howe. "The iPhone creates a halo effect that rubs off."

AT&T says it is the victim of misconceived perception, and really, their network is not as bad as you might hear on the news.

"There's a gap between what people hear about us and what their experience is with us. We think that gap is beginning to close," adds Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. "It doesn't mean we're perfect; we still have work to do. But that's no surprise to us, because we have a great network."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney is looking to purchase social gaming company Playdom for over $500 million USD, buying up the firm for which it already has an investment stake.

Word of the acquisition comes just days after Zynga, the company behind the blockbuster sensation Farmville (among others) was a hit at the Allen & Co. media mogul gathering.

Disney, following its recent acquisition of Tapulous, has made it clear it wants to grow a footprint in the gaming market.

Playdom has the most popular game on MySpace, "Mobsters," and a few other popular games such as "Big City Life," "Social City," "Bloodlines," and "Wild Ones."

The company says it has over 38 million monthly active users, and its CEO was former president of publishing at EA. By comparison, Zynga has over 200 million active users.

Playdom, just like Zynga, makes most of its revenue from advertising and the sale of virtual goods.

Horatio Toure, of San Francisco, stole an iPhone today off a woman walking down the street and was promptly arrested 9 minutes later.

Why so fast? Toure stole an iPhone that was being used to test software that tracks GPS location in real-time, allowing the company and the authorities to track Toure's exact location everywhere he went.

The woman he stole the iPhone off of was Jordan Sturm, an assistant at Covia Labs, the company designing the software. Sturm was testing "Alert & Respond," the app that allowed for real-time GPS tracking.

David Kahn, the CEO of the company, was following Sturm on a laptop, showing off the "Alert and Respond" software to his PR team. Because Toure was riding a bike when he stole the device, it appeared, in real-time, that Sturm had suddenly grown wings or wheels, leading to suspicions by Kahn.

The suspicions were confirmed when Sturm ran back to the office and informed her boss.

Besides tracking location in real-time, the software can also remotely turn on the phone's camera and take a pic, or turn on the mic and record what is being said.

Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, reported earnings on Thursday and showed that they added more contract customers in the quarter than rival AT&T did, despite AT&T's exclusive rights to the latest iPhone.

For the quarter, Verizon added a net 665,000 contract customers, thanks mainly to a steady rollout of strong selling Android devices.

AT&T reported a net addition of 496,000 contract customers, even with the launch of the iPhone 4.

Those numbers, which follow a trend, have led many to believe that Apple has almost fully saturated the market for the iPhone with AT&T, with most new buyers being users upgrading from past iPhones.

"We still see a lot of upside here now that we're in a much better position from a device line-up perspective," added Verizon CFO John Killian.

In the smartphone and "messaging device" market, however, AT&T hold a significant lead, with 53 of its contract subscribers owning such devices. Verizon only has 35 percent for that key stat.

Late last month, a man sued Facebook claiming he owns 84 percent of the social networking giant.

Paul Ceglia says he entered into a contract with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, for a 50 percent share, doing so for $1000 USD. In addition, Ceglia says the deal granted him 1 percent extra of the company for every day until the Web site was completed after January 2004.

The site took 34 days to complete.

Reads the signed contract: In return for the $1000 payment, Ceglia "would own a 50 percent interest in the software, programming language and business interests derived from the expansion of the [Facebook] service to a larger audience."

Facebook has come forward today with a strong denial of businessman Ceglia's claim to 84 percent of the social networking giant, going as far as to call the alleged contract in question a "forgery."

In his interview with "ABC World News" this week, Zuckerberg said: "I think we were quite sure that we did not sign a contract that says that they have any right to ownership over Facebook."

The company backed up its CEO saying: "Mark has made it clear that Ceglia's claims are absurd and we strongly suspect the contract is forged. However, we have not seen the original (no one has, including the court). Thus, we're focusing on the things that are not open to interpretation and are indisputable--Mark could not have given interest in a company that didn't exist or an idea he had not thought of yet and, even if he could, the statute of limitations has expired."

Apple, in the headlines recently for more negative reasons than not, has seen another setback in its upcoming launch of a white iPhone 4 model, which was initially set for a release day launch but was pushed back to "later in the summer."

Summer is here and there was no word about the white model, until this week.

Says Apple: "White models of Apple's new iPhone® 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected."

According to the Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, the delay comes from manufacturing problems in a Chinese factory with the company Lens Technology, which transforms raw glass into iPhone 4 glass panels.

Apple has never confirmed what is causing the delays on the white models.

The Chinese government has unblocked access to online pornography over the past two months, reports the AP, with porn sites and forums now accessible after years of being behind "The Great Firewall."

Pornographic websites have been available now for eight weeks, and there is still no word from officials in Beijing as to whether the move is an official change in policy.

Says Beijing-based internet analyst Zhao Jing: "This has never been done with the (Chinese) internet before." When asked why he believed the government was pulling such a move, he responded: "Maybe they are thinking that if internet users have some porn to look at, then they won't pay so much attention to political matters."

Those political matters are, of course, any website relating to human rights, or any challenge to the communist political authority in the nation.

There are 420 million Chinese connected to the Internet, by far the world's largest online population. It also has the world's most extensive censorship system, including technical filters and even human monitors.

Apple, following the PR disaster that was "antennagate," announced last week that they would be providing free cases to iPhone 4 buyers. The cases are intended to address the growing controversy over the phone's design flaw, which can cause dropped calls when it is held in a particular way.

Today, the have started the iPhone 4 Case Program giving owners a chance to get their free bumpers, while at the same time, getting full refunds for any case or bumper they have purchased since the phone's launch. Apple has set aside $175 million for the program.

If you are an iPhone 4 owner, the process is pretty simple:

1. Download the iPhone 4 Case Program app from the App Store.

2. Launch the app on your iPhone 4 and sign in using your iTunes Store account or Apple ID.

3. Select your Bumper or case.

If you purchased your iPhone 4 before today, you must apply for the program by August 22nd. For future buyers, up until September 30th, you will have 30 days from purchase time to apply.

Recently Howard Berman, chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called a new customs enforcement operation to shut down P2P websites "innovative," and said he is exploring ways to expand it.

He was referring to the seizure of nine domain names last month which kicked off "Operation In Our Sites," an initiative spearheaded by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). A number of questions surround the seizures.

The action was announced at a press conference held jointly by ICE head John Morton and representatives of MPAA member studios.

Although the rhetoric about "lost jobs and real hardships for ordinary working people" from piracy has been plentiful, specifics about what crimes were committed by most of the sites have been non-existent. Instead there has been an effort by government officials like Morton and Berman to confuse the issue by conflating unauthorized file sharing with counterfeiting, which seems to be where ICE comes in.

ICE is the agency responsible for dealing with counterfeit goods entering the US from other countries. However their only connection with copyright enforcement is as head of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), which coordinates anti-piracy efforts between a number of Federal law enforcement agencies.