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Adobe's Mark Doherty has shot back today at critics that have been reporting that Flash 10.1 kills the battery life of Android devices, posting a video in its defense.

The 17-minute video shows Doherty running a video on the non-mobile YouTube site, and after its done, shows the battery meter which has seen only 6 percent of the battery drained.

Doherty even goes on to say that they have tested a two-hour movie and still had life left.

(You can skip up until the 16 minute point)

Battery Performance with Flash Player 10.1 on the Nexus One from Mark Doherty on Vimeo.

Kotaku is reporting that Valve has hinted at Steam getting Mac OS X support sometime in the near future, giving Mac fans a chance to experience the largest online gaming digital distribution service.

warriorlax5506 of the Valve forum looked through the files of the newest open beta and found tons of Mac OS X-specific graphics, as well as menu files.

While there may not be that many Mac owners out there in comparison to Windows, Valve publishing partners Electronic Arts, PopCap Games and Take-Two all produce Mac versions of their games.

Twitter has been hit by a massive phishing attack over the last 24 hours, with users being PMed messages that read "This you???," followed by a link that directs you to a site to login with your Twitter details.

I can tell you this is indeed happening, as I've received two already. If you receive one, tell your friends/family to change their passwords.

Apple Inc. is apparently considering to provide options for 'explicit' applications to the company's popular App Store. This comes just days after Apple began removing applications that contained sexual or suggestive content without prior warning or notification to the developers.

The move was mostly criticized by the developers and by the tech media, possibly prompting Apple's decision to search for a compromise. The applications that Apple removed mostly just contained semi-nudity or innuendo. Some developers felt they were being punished for the content despite being given the green light for the applications by Apple in the first place.

"Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them. If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple," a statement from Apple read at the time.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that something was being considered as a compromise but that it's "not going to happen any time soon."

Cablevision has announced that it plans to launch its RS-DVR (Remote Storage-Digital Video Recorder) service in April. The company first announced plans to launch the RS-DVR in 2006 but was immediately hit with litigation from content companies. After a long battle, Cablevision won its case on appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a further appeal by film studios and TV networks.

The RS-DVR service will allow customers to record and access content on Cablevision's servers through the Internet. This allows Cablevision to cut costs of purchasing DVRs for subscribers and also the costs of sending out technicians to install new boxes.

"By year-end we intend to cease buying physical DVRs as we begin deploying our network-based DVR solution throughout our footprint," Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said Thursday. Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc. also plan to launch similar services soon, as they had sat out Cablevision's legal dispute to verify that such a service is legal.

Microsoft Corp. has announced that it plans to end support for older versions (or operating systems running older service packs) in the coming months. On April 13, the Redmond-based software giant will cease support for Windows Vista RTM (Windows Vista without service packs). On July 13, it will end support for all versions of Windows 2000 and also for Windows XP SP2.

"Back in October 2009 we talked about upcoming dates for end of support for certain Windows XP and Windows Vista versions," said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger. "Those dates are getting closer and this is the time to remind customers running these versions that there is a need to take action."

Microsoft will also be ending support for Windows Server 2000 on July 13. Windows Server 2003 will be moved from Mainstream Support to Extended Support on the same date meaning Microsoft won't provide no charge incident response, warranty, feature requests or design changes.

"We recommend that those of you still on Windows XP SP2 install the latest service pack available via the Microsoft Update Web site—Windows XP Service Pack 3—or look at moving to Windows 7," LeBlanc said. "Keeping your PC up to date and as safe as possible is something that people need to think about beyond just being on the latest service pack."

Cinema chain Odeon has announced that it reversed its decision to boycott the 3D theatrical release of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The chain is concerned that the decision to release Alice in Wonderland on DVD just 12 weeks after the theatrical release will set a new benchmark. Movies are usually released around 17 weeks after being shown in theaters.

"The Odeon and UCI Cinema Group is pleased to announce that, following detailed negotiations with the Walt Disney Company Ltd, an enduring agreement has been reached encompassing all the different aspects of both companies' commercial relationship," Odeon said in a statement.

"As a result of this agreement, Odeon is pleased to confirm that it will be able to continue with its plans for significant investment in new cinemas, in digital technology, in 3D capability and the other exciting developments designed for the increased enjoyment of all its customers."

Neither companies revealed any details on the agreement reached between both. Either way, Odeon movie theaters will be showing Alice in Wonderland in 3D in the UK, Ireland and Italy after all. Tim Burton had said he was upset by Odeon's decision to boycott the film. "I feel terrible about it," the director told the BBC's Breakfast programme. "To me it doesn't make anybody look good."

Apple has announced that the iTunes download store has reached a new milestone of 10 billion music downloads. The 10 billionth song, "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As the winner of the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs, Louie will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

"We're grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "We're proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering."

Over 12 million songs are available from the iTunes store. It also offers 55,000 TV episodes and 8,500 movies for download. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world and features the world’s largest music catalog.

Combined with the iPod, iTunes has been an incredible success story for Apple.

Nintendo has announced that 76 titles for the Wii console have sold more than one million copies. The tally splits up into 54 third-party titles and 22 first-party titles. As for the DS handheld consoles, 108 titles have now sold more than 1 million copies, split into 63 third-party titles and 45 first-party titles.

Nintendo made the announcements at the company's Media Summit in San Francisco yesterday. It also announced that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be released on May 23rd in the United States, and that the new Nintendo DSi XL handheld console will be released in the United States on March 28 in North America.

Microsoft Corp. has won a court decision that will allow it to attempt to topple a botnet by cutting off its methods of communicating with its creators. A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, granted a request from Microsoft to have 277 Internet domains deactivated, all of which are linked to the Botnet in question, identified as Waledac.

The judges order requires Verisign Inc. to temporarily suspend the suspect addresses, in an attempt to sever communications channels to the botnet before operators can establish links to the network.

Internet security firm NetWitness announced in February that a new computer virus had penetrated at least 2,500 organizations, breaching around 75,000 computers.

Botnets are networks of compromised computers that can be controlled by a centralized source, generally to dish out spam, carry out distributed denial of service attacks on targets and other illegal activities.

Compared to 2008, buyers of music downloads through the Internet actually deceased in 2009 by about one million people. The figures come from the NPD Group, but Russ Crupnick, an NPD senior industry analyst, believes there is no reason for the music industry to panic about the declining digital music customers.

Speaking at the Digital Music East conference on Wednesday, he told a gathering of music and technology executives that most of the lost customers were older users who had only recently started using the Internet for the first time and decided to try out music download sites.

In fact, the average music downloader is now spending more money on music than previously. Consumers spend an average of $50 a year on music downloads, up from $33. "You got some maturity in the marketplace," Crupnick told the audience.

"If I ran a record label, the first thing I would do is go out and hire a consumer promotion person from Kraft or Colgate. The consumer is saying they wanted to be promoted to and persuaded to come try this." He suggested that the music industry follow the examples of Kraft and Colgate and attempt to entice consumers with promotions such as bundled songs at low prices.

Nintendo announced on Wednesday that the latest revision of its DS handheld console line-up will make its way to North America at the end of March. The DSi XL is already available to buy for consumer in Japan. It features larger screens than the other DS models currently on the market.

The console will launch in North America on March 28th. Nintendo also announced plans to launch the DSi XL in Australia on March 15th this week. Last month, Nintendo sold about 420,000 DS units in the United States in January, while rival Sony moved around 100,000 PlayStation Portable (PSP) units, according to figures given by NPD.

The DSi XL includes two 4.2-inch screens, compared to 3.2-inch screens on the DSi. The console also comes with pre-installed games and applications, in the case of North America it is Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Math and Photo Clock, the DSi browser and Flipnote Studio applications.

It's nothing new to see copyright lobbyists making absurd claims about the evils of piracy, but a group called the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has sunk to a new low. In a report to the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) they claim that merely encouraging the use of free or open source software by government agencies promotes piracy.

The report was submitted as part of the USTR's annual review of international intellectual property enforcement issues. The purpose of this process is supposed to be identifying countries which aren't doing enough to combat IP infringement.

One solution that's becoming popular is promoting free and open source software. Such a solution addresses the economic reality that the price of software is a leading cause of piracy, especially in poorer countries.

In their 498 page report the IIPA urges the USTR to bully countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand into discarding policies giving preference to open source software. It even goes so far as to say just promoting the use of such software "encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations."

Large textbook publishers Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Macmillan, Cengage Learning, Elsevier, The McGraw-Hill Companies and Pearson filed a lawsuit against file sharing host Rapidshare earlier this month, and today have gained an injunction, meaning the service must now proactively filter about 150 textbook titles, or face a hefty fine.

The suit cited all 148 titles to which the publishers owned the copyright, and demanded that digital copies be taken down, and not allowed to be distributed at all.

Because of the new injunction, if any of the books is ever found available on Rapidshare, the company could face a fine up to 250,000 euros.

"This ruling is an important step forward. Not only does it affirm that file-sharing copyrighted content without permission is against the law, but it attaches a hefty financial punishment to the host, in this case Rapidshare, for noncompliance," adds Tom Allen, CEO of the Association of American Publishers, via TF. "Consider this a shot across the bow for others who attempt to profit from the theft of copyrighted works online."

Last year, in the US, a law known as PRO-IP was signed into law. It mandated the creation of a Justice Department position responsible for the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The second part of that law, requesting comments about IP enforcement issues from the public, is now underway.

Specifically, they are looking for "written submissions from the public identifying the costs to the U.S. economy resulting from infringement of intellectual property rights, both direct and indirect, including any impact on the creation or maintenance of jobs."

Comments should be emailed to the Office of Management & Budget (intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov) and must be received by March 24.

Comments received by the deadline will be published on a government webpage, so make sure you don't include anything you wouldn't want available to the general public.

PRO-IP (the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008) is a thinly veiled excuse to divert government resources to the entertainment industry's war against P2P file sharing.