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The UK satellite provider Sky has announced it will be the first in the region to offer a dedicated 3D channel when it launches Sky 3D in April.

The first 3D live sports event will be a football match between Arsenal and Manchester United. There will be one Sky Sports broadcast completely devoted to the 3D showing, with 8 different 3D camera setups.

As long as you have a 3D HDTV, Sky+HD customers can watch the programming from their homes as well starting in April. The programming will be free and current set-top boxes are capable of receiving 3D content.

Microsoft has announced their quarterly earnings today, claiming their highest-ever quarterly revenue, thanks directly to strong sales of the Windows 7 operating system.

The company sold 60 million copies of the new OS, and overall net income jumped 60 percent year-on-year to $6.66 billion USD.

In comparison, Vista took four months to sell 40 million copies, and sales slowed from there on out.

Additionally, Zune HD sales were not revealed, but total Xbox and Zune revenue dropped 11 percent year-on-year.

According to the NYTimes, Fujitsu will be suing Apple over the rights to the name iPad.

In 2002, Fujitsu released a real-time, portable inventory-management device called the "iPAD," which was last updated in 2006.

The iPAD runs with a "PXA 270 processor with Microsoft Windows CE .NET 5.0, together with a 802.11 b/g radio and Bluetooth v1.2." Companies such as Current Directions still advertise the sale of the product.

PCMag says there is one problem: "The Fujitsu iPAD trademark stalled because of an earlier filing by another company, Mag-Tech. Fujitsu let its application lapse, but revived its application. Apple has asked for more time to fight the application."

Following Nokia's earnings report today, there was an interesting note about the Ovi Store, Nokia's application store for its mobile phones.

The Ovi Store is now seeing 1 million downloads per day, a strong milestone for the service that opened to criticism last year for its sloppy launch.

Nokia VP of Product, Media George Linardos said earlier this month that the company was looking to re-do the store, and that a V2 should be available by the Spring. Apparently, the Ovi Store has also surpassed the iPhone App Store in most territories in Asia and Latin America, although it is important to note that Apple has a much smaller base in those nations.

In comparison, the Apple App Store is seeing 300 million-plus downloads per month.

ScanSafe, a provider of corporate software, has reported that workplace piracy (and attempted piracy) is up 55 percent in the last three months on corporate networks, including downloads of movies, music and software.

The company says it "currently processes data across more than 100 countries for millions of employees, giving it the industry’s most significant insight into the latest trends in Web traffic and malware."

"Employees mistakenly assume they can use the Internet at work in exactly the same way as they use it at home and this is potentially one of the reasons for this steady increase in illegal download attempts over recent months," adds Spencer Parker, director of product management at ScanSafe. "Inappropriate Internet use in the workplace can put the employer at risk for legal liabilities."

Parker continues: "Downloading illegal content is a 'double whammy' for employers as not only does it put them at risk legally but it also puts the company network at risk of being infected with malware. A large majority of free illegal downloading websites are often riddled with malware."

Yesterday we reported that Wal-Mart had a "coming soon" screen for the Google Nexus One, and it appeared that the smartphone may have been headed to brick and mortar stores around the U.S. (View the screenshot in the linked article.)

The retailer has since responded to the page, calling it an error: "Due to a technical error, this item erroneously was displayed on our site ... We have no plans to carry Nexus One in Walmart stores or online at Walmart.com at this time,"said spokesperson Ravi Jariwala.

We now have both sides of the story, but who do we believe? It seems like a waste of time and effort for someone at Wal-Mart to create a full Nexus One page, along with "coming soon" attached, if the retailer is not expected to sell the device.

Sony will be releasing "around" 10 motion control-based games this year, for use with the PS3's upcoming "Arc" device, says a short Nikkei report today.

A few of the games released will be sports based and "pet raising" based.

Sony announced last week that the device was being pushed back from a Spring release to a fall release, but that it would come with "extensive line-up" of software in North America, Europe, Japan and the Asian regions.

Rival Project Natal is coming in the fall as well.

In updating the iPhone SDK, Apple is now accepting apps that allow for VoIP calls over 3G networks. Until this week, that option had only been available through Wi-Fi.

iCall, the maker of the iCall app first noted the SDK change and has updated its app to be "the first and only VoIP application that functions on the iPhone and iPod Touch over cellular 3G networks."

Apple had previously acquiesced to AT&T, prohibiting VoIP over 3G, leaving applications like Skype and iCall to work only over Wi-Fi.

Says iCall CEO Arlo Gilbert: "I applaud Apple's decision to allow iCall to extend its functionality beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G networks. This heralds a new era for VoIP applications on mobile platforms, especially for iCall and our free calling model. I hope that now more developers will begin using our VoIP as a platform to integrate VoIP into their applications."

AppleInsider has put together a strong list of what Wall Street analysts are expecting for the newly launched Apple iPad tablet, and the consensus seems to be 1 million to 5 million units in its first year for the "risky" device.

Needham & Company says the iPad is "another winner." RBC Capital Markets, judging by the general unenthusiastic reaction from the tech community says: "Not everyone initially liked the Ten Commandments either -- but they endured." RBC continues that: "With iPad, Apple creates a revolutionary e-reading, browsing, media, gaming experience. Newspapers, Web pages, books 'come alive' with video, animation, color and fullscreen touch." The lack of a camera, the inability to multi-task applications and no Verizon compatibility is disappointing, they add, but don't see it being a dealbreaker.

Kaufman Bros. says the cheap, Wi-Fi only version will be the best seller, with the AT&T 3G version selling for too high of a premium.

Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner calls the iPad "a revolutionary new media device," and expects 1.1 million units sold in its first year.

Nokia has just announced the financial results for the previous quarter. The mobile giant reported profit of 1,395 billion euros (approx. $1,952 billion) and the revenue rose to 12 billion euros (approx. $16,8 billion). Revenue went up 22 percent from the previous quarter but had a 5 percent decline from year ago.

Overall sales rose 17 percents from the previous quarter and 12 percent from year ago to 126,9 million units. Market share climbed from 38 to 39 percent. The average selling price (ASP) of mobile devices was up one euro to 63 EUR.

Sales of converged mobile devices, including smartphones and so called mobile computers such as the Nokia N900, climbed as well. A total of 20,8 million converged mobile devices were sold during the quarter, an increase of 4,4 million units from previous quarter.

Services generated a revenue of 169 million euros, which increased 14 percent from the previous 148 million.

Overall the result was very positive for Nokia and far better than analysts expected.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a statement today telling citizens that the Android mobile OS is "OK" in China despite Google's recent threat to leave the country unless a compromise is made on search engine censorship.

Official Zhu Hongren says there should "be no limit" to a mobile OS in China as long as it follows the nation's laws.

The statement was mainly to appease the fears of investors and fans of Android but it may have also been a way for China to officially acknowledge the country's dependence on Android, and its variant, Open Mobile System. China Mobile, which is backed by the Chinese government, has released most of its smartphones with OMS.

Motorola and Samsung recently delayed the release of two Android phones in the nation following Google's threat. Lenovo, however, says they are still on track to release their Android phone in China this spring.

The European Commission (EC) has agreed to requests from a human rights watchdog to monitor Virgin Media's planned deep-packet inspection test on its network to determine the level of illegal file sharing. Virgin will use software called CView that will sniff traffic over the Gnutella network, eDonkey network and through BitTorrent and will be capable of retrieving file names.

The system is setup currently so that individual users cannot be identified by CView. However, Privacy International is concerned that using the software will breach UK privacy laws. "Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) intercepting communications is a criminal offence regardless of what you do with the data," Alexander Hanff, head of ethical networks at Privacy International, said.

He has vowed to file a criminal complaint if Virgin starts using CView. Legislation proposed in the UK would use a measured response to fight piracy. It would start with a warning letter to a customer of an ISP (from the ISP once it receives a complaint) and those who persist will get further, stronger warnings before eventually being suspended from the service.

According to CVG, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was given the opportunity to sign up as part of the device that we now know as Project Natal, but declined because he felt they could not launch it at mass-market price.

The technology was demoed by Israel-based 3DV Systems in 2007, but Iwata and other executives declined to accept it as a Wii peripheral.

"Iwata-san only ever invests in something he can guarantee will work for a Nintendo audience," says an unnamed "top" executive, via CVG. "3DV showed off a camera that detected motion in 3D, and had voice recognition - but Iwata-San was unconvinced he could sell it at a Nintendo price point. He also had some worries around latency during gameplay."

Despite agreeing that Microsoft has improved on some aspects of the technology since it purchased 3DV last year, the exec adds: "What we witnessed at E3 was smaller and the facial [reading] stuff had improved, but it's the same technology. We remain unconvinced Natal will deliver on the more sophisticated elements of what Microsoft is promising at the price they're aiming for."

More than 150 people have contacted consumer publication Which? Computing claiming to have been wrongly targeted with written warnings for Internet piracy activity. ACS:Law has sent thousands of letters to users in the UK accusing them of illegally sharing copyrighted content on the Internet, and providing a chance to pay about £250 to settle the case.

Which? claims to have been contacted by a number of people who say they have no knowledge of the alleged offense. One such case involves a 78 year old man who was accused of downloading and sharing pornography. "He doesn't even know what file-sharing or BitTorrent is so has certainly not done this himself or given anyone else permission to use his computer to do such a thing," Which? was told in a complaint.

The consumer advocate is now concerned that users might be accused wrongly. "Innocent consumers are being threatened with legal action for copyright infringements they not only haven't committed, but wouldn't know how to commit," said Matt Bath, technology editor of Which?. "Many will be frightened into paying up rather than facing the stress of a court battle."

Samsung has announced that they have begun mass producing displays for 3D LED HDTVs, a move that puts a lot of support behind the technology that many critics have called a "gimmick."

Being in mass production should mean lower prices for the end user in a short time frame. 3D TVs have so far come with a heavy price tag.

"Recently, 3D displays have captured the industry spotlight. Samsung Electronics aims to lead the global 3D TV panel market in pioneering mass production for 3D LED and LCD TVs," reads the press release.

The displays being produced are 40-inch, 46-inch and 55-inch.