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Gizmodo, the site that first uncovered Microsof'ts plans to release a "digital journal" dubbed the Courier, is reporting this week that the company has scrapped those plans.

Execs were told by CEO Steve Ballmer that the tablet would no longer be supported, which seems reasonable given that the Courier was never publicly acknowledged as an upcoming device.

In the videos released by Gizmodo and then Engadget, the Courier seemed to be in its final stages of development, but it appears, at least from an outsider's view, that Ballmer does not want to directly compete with the iPad, and eventually the HP Slate or Dell Streak.

Adds Microsoft Corporate VP of Communications Frank Shaw: "At any given time, we're looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, known globally for calling ex-President George Bush a "devil" among other slights has set up a Twitter account and has quickly amassed 120,000 followers.

The president even had 12,000 followers before his first Tweet, which came right before midnight on April 27th.

Venezuela is said to have 200,000 "active" Twitter users and it seems that a good portion have signed up to follow their elected leader.

Chavez's first Tweet says: "Epa que tal? Aparecí como lo dije: a la medianoche. Pa Brasil me voy. Y muy contento a trabajar por Venezuela. Venceremos!!" Roughly translated that says "What's up? Came as promised, at midnight. Headed to Brazil now. I'm very happy to work for Venezuela. We will win!!"

If you want to check out some Chavez tweets, head here: http://twitter.com/chavezcandanga

Mozilla has finally released the "pre-alpha" of the Fennec browser today for Android devices, bringing an early version of mobile Firefox to testers.

Says Mozilla developer Vladimir Vukićević: The release is "usable enough that we wanted to get some feedback on it."

The developer is fast to warn that the release is very buggy and will give Android users a lot of "force close" notifications, with some of the bugs even crashing the phone. The browser may not even work on phones that aren't the Droid or Nexus One.

The new release does have some notable features including "Weave" support, allowing for bookmark syncing from your desktop version of Firefox.

You can get it here but don't expect a fun-filled ride: http://bit.ly/fennec-android

The battle over Apple's decision to keep Flash of its iPad and iPhone devices has taken a new turn this week, with the CEOs of the companies slugging it out with rant posts.

Over the course of a few months, the niceties between Apple and Adobe have broken down, with Apple practically saying Flash is not good enough to be on the iPad and one Adobe developer going as far as to tell Apple to screw itself.

This week, round two of the "epic" battle began, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs posting a 1700 word rant with his thoughts on Adobe and Flash, and why HTML5 is better. He also takes aim at Flash by saying it affects battery life negatively, is hard to use on touchscreen devices, and is not secure. I will post the letter at the end of the article, but Jobs concludes his post by saying:

"Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short. The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games. New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind."

Sony has been sued this week in California over its recent firmware update that removed the "OtherOS" feature of the PlayStation 3, a feature that had allowed for the installation of Linux on an HDD partition.

The firmware update, version 3.21, was released last month.

The case was brought by Anthony Ventura who is claiming that the update is an "intentional disamblement of the valuable functionality originally advertised as available." Ventura adds that millions of customers purchased their consoles with OtherOS advertised, and that Sony has broken the terms of its contract with these customers.

Additionally, Ventura says there are no "security concerns," as Sony claims, and the real reason the feature was removed was to prevent homebrew and piracy. Piracy has decimated PSP software sales, and it seems Sony would like to stop that on the PS3 before it even gets started.

Bungie, the developer behind the Halo franchise has announced they have signed an exclusive 10 year pact with Activision that will bring the developer's "next big action game universe to market."

For the next decade Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute future Bungie games "based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices."

Financials of the deal were not disclosed.

Bungie formally had an exclusive partnership with Microsoft, but the two split in 2007.

"We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise," adds Bungie President Harold Ryan. "From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences."

The Halo franchise has so far brought in $1.5 billion in revenue, and Bungie has sold over 25 million units worldwide.

"Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade," says Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. "Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities."

Hulu has shelved plans to expand the streaming service to the UK, citing failed negotiations with British broadcasters.

The extremely popular online video service has been a U.S. exclusive since its launch.

All content deals with the ITV and the BBC have fallen apart, mainly because both now have their own streaming services.

"Hulu’s talks with ITV have come to a halt because the broadcaster wants to focus on growing its own catch up service – ITV Player and not syndicate its content out to a third party at the moment. Conversations with Channel 4 and Five have also not come to any fruition because Hulu wants to sell the advertising inventory around both broadcasters’ content – like it does with US content - and this is not something either broadcaster is willing to concede ON. Hulu has told several people at the British broadcasters that it has been forced to abandon its UK expansion plans after failing to sign any content deals," says a "senior TV executive," via The Telegraph.

Google's Andy Rubin has revealed this week that the upcoming Android firmware, version 2.2 (froyo) will have built-in full Flash support.

Rubin managed to take a subtle shot at Apple during the interview with the NYTimes, in regards to the "openness" of the Android operating system.

When asked if consumers acutally cared whether a smartphone OS is open, he compared closed platforms, like that of the iPhone OS to totalitarian governments.

"When they can't have something, people do care. Look at the way politics work. I just don’t want to live in North Korea," Rubin says.

He adds: "Sometimes being open means not being militant about the things consumer are actually enjoying."

It is unclear when 2.2 will begin hitting smartphones, but it is expected, at least on the Nexus One and other top-end phones within the next couple of months.

The Google Nexus One is set to go on sale in the UK via Vodafone starting on April 30th with the "superphone" being available for as cheap as free depending on the contract.

After just a couple of days on pre-order, the phone is already sold out, meaning either demand was very high or supply was low, with many assuming the latter.

For anyone ordering the device, Vodafone is sending off this message: "Thank you for placing your order, reference number [redacted]. Unfortunately we have suffered a surprisingly high demand for the Nexus One From Google, which means that it is unexpectedly out of stock. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused. We hope to have further stock available within 7-10 working days and will contact you again once your order has been dispatched."

The U.S. launch was considered rather sluggish, but Google says the phone has already helped their bottom line.

After over three years of release, the Nintendo Wii finally has a new colorway, a slick black headed to U.S. retail shelves on May 9th.

So far the date has been confirmed by Target and GameStop in the U.S., and confirmed for May 23rd in Canada by Future Shop.

The Wii itself will be completely identical to the white model currently available (minus the color, obviously) and will come bundled with a Wii remote, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and a Wii MotionPlus for $199.

The black colorway has been available in Japan since late last year, and has sold pretty well.

Worldwide, Nintendo has sold 70 million Wii units.

AOL has sold one of the pioneers of instant messaging, ICQ, to Digital Sky Technologies Limited (DST) for $187.5 million USD.

Despite losing popularity in the United States to other services such as MSN Messenger and AIM, ICQ remains the most popular IM service in Russia and other smaller international markets.

"The acquisition of ICQ is a strategic enhancement of our business in Russia and Eastern Europe. ICQ’s long-standing brand name and its sizeable loyal customer base together represent a very attractive opportunity to further strengthen our position in the region," says Yuri Milner, Chief Executive Officer of DST.

ICQ was created in 1996 by Mirabilis of Israel, and AOL purchased the parent company in 1998.

Besides Russia, ICQ is a leader in Israel and the Czech Republic, where users spend over 5 hours a day on the service.

Adds Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL: "As AOL continues its turnaround effort, we’re fortunate to find a great home for ICQ with DST. DST is a leading innovator in the Internet investment space and has a significant presence in the markets where ICQ is strong. Founded and run in Israel, ICQ has been a revolutionary company on the Internet. We wish them great success as a part of DST and will be rooting for them going forward."

Giant computer manufacturer HP has agreed to purchase the struggling smartphone maker Palm today for $1.2 billion in cash, including assuming Palm's debt.

Palm put itself up for sale in the last two months after it became clear that the company's phones were not selling and it only had enough cash to last the next 12 months. Palm was entertaining offers from HTC, Lenovo, RIM and others, but HP was never really listed as a likely candidate.

Although Palm has arguably the best smartphone OS available (WebOS), the company has struggled to sell its flagship Pre (Plus) and Pixi (Plus) models, forcing retailers to slash the price to as low as $0 in an effort to get them off shelves.

Gizmodo editor Jason Chen has had his home computers seized this week by California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team.

The team was working on a warrant from the Superior Court of San Mateo.

Chen recently revealed the upcoming iPhone 4G/HD, which was dropped in a bar by Apple developer Gray Powell, and eventually purchased by Gizmodo for $5000 USD.

New to the "iPhone HD," are a front-facing camera for video conferencing, a better standard camera (including larger lens and flash), a Micro-SIM slot (just like the iPad), 960x640 resolution, a second mic, metallic exterior (not plastic) and split side buttons for volume.

After the report went up, Apple demanded its prototype back.

All pics via Gizmodo:

According to data from market research firm FADE (Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment), Xbox Live Arcade sales in March 2010 were the best ever, with a full 41 percent year-on-year growth from last year.

Revenue topped $10 million USD for the first month ever, and growth was strong from the preceding months, where revenue were under $7 million each month.

Overall, for 2010, revenue has grown by 5 percent year-on-year but if March's trend continues, expect that number to be much higher.

Analysts have attributed the boost to Microsoft's "Block Party" promotion, which highlighted a group of games, including the popular Toy Soldiers which brought in $3 million in revenue by itself.

The full list, via GI:

* Toy Soliders - 209,000 units ($3.14m)
* Perfect Dark - 161,000 units ($1.61m)
* Trials HD - 53,000 units ($0.80m)
* Battlefield 1943 - 37,000 units ($0.56m)
* Castle Crashers - 34,000 units ($0.51m)
* Hasbro Family Game Night - 32,000 units ($0.32m)
* Scrap Metal - 18,000 units ($0.27m)
* Marvel vs. Capcom - 25,000 units ($0.25m)
* Shadow Complex - 13,000 units ($0.20m)
* Magic: The Gathering - 16,000 units ($0.16m)

In late October we reported that Microsoft was blocking all "unlicensed" Xbox 360 storage devices, successfully forcing gamers to only purchase memory cards sold by Microsoft, at a higher price.

Large peripheral manufacturer Datel struck back in late November, filing an antitrust lawsuit.

In response, Microsoft filed motions to have the case dismissed but a judge has thrown out those motions today, clearing the way for Datel's suit to move forward. Because the motions were dismissed, the two parties will now meet in preparation of their upcoming June 2nd hearing.

Microsoft recently sued the UK-based accessory maker over its Xbox 360 controllers, claiming the company illegally copied the design.