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At this week's Pwn2Own hacking contest, the iPhone, Safari, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox browsers were all taken down within minutes.

Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann took down the iPhone browser in under five minutes, and left with $15,000 in prize money. Weinmann is most notorious for being part of a team that cracked WEP Wi-Fi security in 2007, faster than was previously recorded.

Charlie Miller of Independent Security Evaluators took down Safari for the third year in a row, leaving with $10,000 in cash as a prize.

The most impressive exploit came from Peter Vreugdenhil who took down IE8 on Windows 7 by "bypassing the operating system's Data Execution Prevention, or DEP, security mechanism, which is designed to stop most attacks." Vreugdenhil earned the same prize as Miller. German student "Nils" took down Firefox on Windows 7 within minutes as well, earning $10k.

TippingPoint, the company that runs the contest, does not divulge the details of the flaws that are used to exploit the browsers but instead purchases the rights to the exploits and then turns it over to the companies behind the browsers.

Microsoft's previously announced Xbox Game Room is now available, says the software giant, giving access to classic arcade games for the 360 or the PC.

The service will eventually have 1000 games available by 2012.

Most interesting is the pay structure, which will be either 40 MS points for a single play (like at an arcade with quarters) or 240-400 points to own it.

Vid via Joystiq:

After nearly two years of excuses for the secrecy of negotiations over ACTA, the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a full draft of the proposed treaty has been leaked online and it looks just as bad as critics have suggested.

Among the worst provisions of the proposal is the requirement that third party service providers must implement measures to proactively identify and elminate access to content that's in violation of copyright law.

Failure to do so would make them liable for such infringement. Even worse, according to a note from New Zealand's negotiators this would even include search engines.

Assuming some service finds a way to implement this sort of proactive system, their ability to safeguard the privacy of users would be severely diminished.

Under current laws, when content owners identify content they believe infringes on their copyrights they can notify the service provider, such as YouTube, and demand that the content be removed. This is known as notice and takedown.

Under the ACTA proposal content owners would also be entitled to any information the service provider has which could identify the user responsible for the content without any judicial oversight.

According to analytics site Flurry, the Apple iPod Touch/iPhone continues to see strong growth in the handheld gaming market, taking chunks of market share away from the DS, but more so from the PSP.

Using data from the NPD and Apple, Flurry says that iPhone/Touch games accounted for only 5 percent of the whole portable market in the U.S. in 2008 but that number has grown significantly to 19 percent now. On the declining side, the DS/DSi dropped from 75 percent to 70 percent and the PSP saw a giant drop from 20 percent to 11.

The overall portable gaming market is estimated at $2.55 billion, as of the end of 2009. That leaves iPhone/Touch game revenue accounting for about $500 million in 2009.

"Our main finding is that iPhone (and iPod touch) is a gaming platform to be reckoned with," says the site.

Verizon Wireless and Skype today have announced Skype Mobile will be available to Verizon subscribers beginning tomorrow, the 25th of March.

The service, reads the press release will "use the Verizon Wireless voice network for the wireless connection of the Skype-to-Skype calls, providing Verizon Wireless customers with a superior experience and top-notch call quality."

Skype Mobile will be available for devices running Android as well as BlackBerrys either at www.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile or at www.skype.com/go/mobile. Visit the latter link through a PC and enter your mobile number to receive a text with a link. Both Android and BlackBerry users will also be able to download the app via their respective app stores.

The main advantages of using Skype Mobile are the following:

* make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype contact around the globe;
* send and receive unlimited instant messages with other Skype users;
* manage the Skype contact list directly from the mobile application; and
* call international phone numbers at competitive Skype calling rates.

Says Russ Shaw, general manager of Mobile for Skype: "Skype mobile will deliver an unparalleled experience for Verizon Wireless customers. It will be the best way to enjoy unlimited conversations with Skype contacts all over the world at no extra cost. In addition, Skype mobile will allow people to easily and inexpensively make calls to landlines and mobiles abroad at Skype rates."

Albert Gonzalez, the 28 year-old hacker convicted of stealing and reselling over 170 million credit and ATM card numbers, was being paid $75,000 by the U.S. Secret Service to work undercover informing on other credit card thieves before he got arrested.

The new revelation comes from Stephen Watt, Gonzalez's best friend and convicted accomplice. Watt was convicted of creating the sniffer program that Gonzalez used to hack into the corporate systems.

The Secret Service would not comment on the pay or identity of informants.

Former federal prosecutor Mark Rasch adds: "It's a significant amount of money to pay an informant but it's not an outrageous amount to pay if the guy was working full time and delivering good results. It's probably the only thing he was doing -- other than hacking into TJX and making millions of dollars."

For pleading guilty to identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy, Gonzalez is expected to receive over 20 years in prison when he is sentenced later this week.

The once-popular Sony handheld PlayStation Portable has turned five years old today, with Sony announcing that the many revisions of the handheld have sold 60 million units worldwide.

"It's been a resounding success," adds Peter Dille, Sony's senior vice president of marketing.

17 million of the sales have been in the United States. In comparison, the PSP's biggest rival, the Nintendo DS/DSi has sold 125 million units globally, with 40 million in the U.S.

Dille says the latest PSP hardware revision, the Go (which removed the UMD drive) has "met our expectations," although sales have notably been low.

In the first month since Microsoft created the "browser ballot box" as a way to end the EU's antitrust case against them, Internet Explorer's market share has dropped, as much as 2.5 percent in some nations such as France.

Data from StatCounter says IE market share dropped 2.5 percent in France, 1.3 percent in Italy, and 1 percent in the UK, not giant numbers, but definitely notable. Opera has reported that downloads of their browser are 200 percent higher, while Mozilla says: "We have seen significant growth in the number of new Firefox users as a result of the Ballot Choice screen."

The ballot box gives Windows users a chance to choose between 12 different browsers.

The Japanese Nikkei has reported on some more still-unconfirmed details of the Nintendo 3DS, which was just announced yesterday.

So far what is confirmed is that the 3DS will not require special 3D glasses, will have full support for DS and DSi games, and will be officially unveiled at the E3 event in June.

The Nikkei adds, via CrunchGear:

- Nintendo says the 3DS will be the first device of its kind.

- It will be sold, probably in Japan first, in the latter half of this year.

- Nintendo considers giving the 3DS a 3D joystick, force feedback and an accelerometer.

- The company already secured patents for several 3DS-related technologies last year.

Yesterday we reported on the launch of the official standalone 250GB HDD for the Xbox 360.

The price is $129.99 and will be available starting on March 28th.

At the same time, Microsoft has announced the price drop of the 120GB standalone model, which will be slashed to $99.99 "while supplies last," meaning there probably aren't too many left.

The 250GB model is an infinitely better deal, however it is important to note that both versions are very overpriced when compared to HDDs you can buy from e-tailers.

This week at the CTIA 2010 event, Sprint has unleashed the first 4G/WiMAX for the U.S. market, the HTC EVO 4G. The device had long been rumored as the "HTC Supersonic," and the device will run on the Android 2.1 firmware alongside the most powerful specs seen on a smartphone yet.

The full specs:

* 4.3 inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen display (with pinch to zoom)
* Android 2.1 with Sense UI
* Google Search, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Goggles, YouTube, Google Calendar syncing
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability for connecting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices
* GPS with Sprint Navigation
* Digital compass
* Bluetooth 2.1
* 3.5mm headset jack
* FM radio
* Amazon MP3 store
* Qik video sharing
* Kickstand for hands-free viewing
* 8MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash
* 1.3MP front-facing camera
* HD video recording (720p)
* HDMI port
* 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
* 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM
* 8GB microSD card in the box
* 1500 mAh battery

Stuart Parmenter of Mozilla has posted today that the company will not be creating a version of Firefox for Windows Phone 7 because "Microsoft decided to close off development to native applications."

Development of FF for Windows Mobile 6.5 will also be shut down given the fact that Microsoft has said they are betting the future on Win 7, not 6.5.

"Because we don’t know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold," reads the post.

Parmenter does hope that eventually they can start development back up, but says they will move their focuses elsewhere. "While I hope that we do see Microsoft provide us with a way to build Firefox for Windows Phone 7, we will continue to focus on the things that we can control: building a great consumer product on both Android and Maemo."

Last night Slashdot received an anonymous tip claiming that Palm was actively considering dropping the arguably superior mobile operating system WebOS for Android. The tip says Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein will release an internal memo on the matter in the near future.

Says the tipster of the memo: "While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform."

The tipster also notes that the WebOS UI will be integrated into Android, similarly to the popular HTC Sense interface which runs on top of Android 1.5-2.1.

PreCentral, the site which is pretty on top of Palm rumors, accurate or not, says the tip is likely a completely falsification, and we at AfterDawn are inclined to agree. The engineering necessary to create a working WebOS UI to work with Android will take too much time that Palm does not have.

Blockbuster has announced this morning that it has reached a deal with Warner Bros. to have new Warner releases available for rental day-and-day with release date, and a full 28 days before rivals Redbox and Netflix get them.

The financials of the deal were not released but it is clear that the deal is only for brick-and-mortar stores and online rental and not for Blockbuster's thousands of kiosks.

Blockbuster has almost $900 million in debt, and analysts have given an "ongoing concern" notification for the company, implying bankruptcy may be on the horizon.

The first movie available because of the deal is "The Blind Side," available today for rent.

"The studios appreciate that we are the only business that has the ability to offer cross channels," says CEO James Keyes, via BW. "That enables us to give consumers access to movies when they want it and where they want it."

Opera has submitted their Opera Mini browser for the iPhone today, hoping Apple will approve of the very fast browser which was first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress.

Opera Mini uses Opera's servers to render and compress pages, thus increasing speed for the end user. Apple could still possibly reject the app given that is a "duplication of core iPhone functionality," (Safari Mobile), however it has recently approved WebKit-based browsers.

The video shows off the Opera Mini browser in action, mainly running on AT&T's slower 2G (EDGE) data network, and Mini runs extremely fast. The interface is interesting as well.