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Apple is reportedly in talks with major publishers Hearst, McGraw-Hill and Hachette Book Group over deals that will have magazines, educational, and trade titles available via the company's upcoming tablet.

Hachette would distribute books, Hearst would provide magazines, and McGraw-Hill would provide electronic versions of college textbooks. Hearst has popular print magazines such as Esquire and Marie Claire, however no deal is set yet, say sources.

All three publishers declined comment.

The tablet is expected to launch on the 27th at Apple's next event.

The world's foremost Android "hacker" Cyanogen has introduced a new Nexus One rom that enables multi-touch support for the "superphone."

For now, multi-touch using the hacked rom will only work using the built-in browser but Cyanogen says he's working on updates to activate multi-touch for all apps.

It is still unclear why Google will not enable the multi-touch, as the ability is there. Many speculate that it will lead to a patent violation, with Apple controlling most of the patents on the technology.

For those interested in the new rom, check here: [N1 Addon] Multitouch Browser for Nexus

I don't generally like to post articles on claims about console hacking. Over the past few years, the PS3 and Xbox 360 have been subject to numerous hoaxes. In the Xbox 360 case, there were several that turned out to be true (esp. of late), but so many others that didn't. For the PlayStation 3, there has been a lot of claims made and not a lot that has come from them (that's just good security, over three years now).

So I have been following a blog from George Hotz (geohot), who is responsible for several iPhone hacks, on PlayStation 3 (PS3) hacking, and just today I came across a blog entry dated as the 22nd January, 2010 with an immediately intriguing title: "Hello hypervisor, I'm geohot". So while I (and most of us) generally ignore things like this that are submitted to us by users, in this case I'm willing to make an exception, even just for the sake of discussion, and out of respect.

Hello hypervisor, I'm geohot

I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1.

A federal Judge on Friday dramatically reduced a penalty imposed on Jammie Thomas-Rasset by a Jury last year that amounted to almost $2 million for the offense of sharing 24 songs over the Internet. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who knocked the $1.92 million penalty down to about $54,000 ($2,250 per song), described the original fine as "monstrous and shocking."

"The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music," Davis wrote. Davis did deny a request for a new trial from Thomas-Rasset however, and has given the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) seven days to either accept the smaller penalty or ask for a new trial.

"Whether it's $2 million or $54,000, I'm a mom with four kids and one income and we're not exactly rolling in that kind of dough right now," Thomas-Rasset said. The Judge said that he came to the $2,250 fee by simply tripling the minimum $750 penalty defined by Federal law, but did indicate that he could have considered an even lower fine.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console has sold 3 million units in the United Kingdom since it was launched. "We'd like to offer a huge thank you to our retail partners in helping us pass the 3 million PS3 milestone," said Ray Maguire of Sony UK.

"The £249 price point is enabling us to reach a much broader audience and our line up of software, Heavy Rain, and God of War III - and that's just in Q1 - should help maintain the momentum." Back in July of last year, the console had reportedly moved 2.2 million units in the region, highlighting a very decent 800,000 units sold in the second half of 2009.

Around the same time, Microsoft had said the Xbox 360 was up to 3.9 million units in the UK, while in December of 2009, Nintendo revealed that the Wii had reached 6 million unit sales. The Wii is leading the market easily worldwide with 56 million units sold globally.

BACH Technology, a technology company based in Norway, Germany and China, which also has the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology as a partner, is pushing a new digital music file format that could be used with legal online music stores. MusicDNA focuses on embedding more content into the file, such as song lyrics and images, as well as making them capable of receiving media updates through the Internet.

The proposed file format has the backing of the original MP3 file inventor (who is a BACH investor). It would store MP3 audio but provide additional content to those that legally purchased it through the Internet. The original artist or record labels could "send" updates to the music file over time, whether it is information on tour dates or links to new content available on the Internet.

The user would be able to control the type of content that it would receive. Users that download the file illegally would not be able to tap its additional content features. The file would work as a normal MP3 file in a portable media player. BACH is in contact with record labels, rights holders and technology companies to plot a path forward for MusicDNA.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has said that global legislation aimed at tackling piracy is the key to the sector's survival. The trade group noted Spain as proof of a link between government inaction and growing music piracy. It said that Spain does not have laws in place to prevent illegal downloads, and pointed out that sales of music from local artists fell 65 percent in five years.

IFPI chairman John Kennedy described the situation in Spain as "almost irreversible". In the UK, the IFPI has thrown support behind the Digital Economy Bill, which contains measures that could result in music file sharers being disconnected from the Internet, and a controversial clause that hands power to change copyright laws to the Secretary of State.

"I hope they won't throw clause 17 overboard," Kennedy said. "We want this to be futureproof." Unsurprisingly, he also believes that suspension for persistent file sharers is a tactic that will be effective against online piracy. "If there is a risk of kids losing their internet connection, they will stop," said Mr Kennedy. He described the loss of the recent case against Oink (BitTorrent tracker) as a terrible disappointment, and added that it was an indication of how UK laws are out of touch.

The Chinese government has denounced criticism directed at it in a speech about Internet freedom given by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday. In the speech, Clinton has named China as a country that restricts Internet freedom, among several others. In her speech, Clinton also called for the Chinese government to investigate allegations made by Google that a China-originated attack on its systems targeted Chinese human rights activists, and to publish the results of the investigation.

"The US has criticized China's policies to administer the Internet, and insinuated that China restricts internet freedom," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement on the foreign ministry website. "This runs contrary to the facts and is harmful to China-US relations." When Google itself launched in China in 2006, it agreed to censor some search results, which included those related to the 1989 Tienanmen Square protests and Tibet.

Clinton acknowledged in her speech that the Internet was a "source of tremendous progress" in China, but warned that any country imposing political or commercial restrictions on the free access of information risked "walling themselves off from the progress of the next century." She called for tough action to be taken against people and states that engage in cyber attacks.

Microsoft released a patch for its Internet Explorer browser yesterday, aimed at protecting users of the software from vulnerabilities that were exploited in the recent Google China hack. The company claimed that hackers had targeted Google and at least 20 other companies in China by exploiting the browser weakness, and said the patch should be considered critical and applied as soon as possible.

Symantec Corp. warned that others have now begun to exploit the flaw too, with at least 100 websites being discovered that use the IE weakness. The real threat from the flaw is that it can lead to virus infections without the user having to download and run any file, which is usually the case. The patch address eight vulnerabilities in the Internet Explorer browser.

The websites discovered by Symantec successfully attack Internet Explorer 6 only, but the security firm warns that attackers could target Internet Explorer 7 and 8 as well. The patch will be delivered to most users via Automatic Updates, but can be manually applied through Microsoft's Windows Update site too (you need to be running Internet Explorer).

Earlier this month we reported Scripps Networks Interactive had pulled its popular Food Network and HGTV channels from Cablevision, after the two companies could not agree to carriage fees.

Last night the cable company reported that all customers would be getting the channels back, after the companies agreed to a non-disclosed new agreement.

Cablevision blacked out the stations for its 3.1 million New York, New Jersey and Connecticut subscribers after the company asked for a 200 percent fee increase.

Thanks to a $1.25 billion settlement between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in an antitrust battle, AMD has posted its first quarterly profit in three years. AMD did benefit from a lift in the computer market, with microprocessor and graphics chip unit sales increasing, although prices have fallen too. Revenue was up 42 percent over the same period of last year, totaling $1.6 billion (just ahead of the $1.5 billion analysts expected).

AMD admits that it would have last money if it wasn't for the Intel settlement. For 2009, AMD's net income was $304 million with revenue at $5.4 billion, compared to 2008 when AMD made a net loss of $3.1 billion with revenue of $5.8 billion. Intel reported last week its highest gross profit margin in the company's history with better sales in all of its major product categories.

The $1.25 billion settlement it paid to AMD brought an antitrust suit due to go to trial in March to an early end. AMD originally filed the lawsuit against Intel in 2005. The deal does not bring to an end other cases against Intel that AMD has been vocally supportive of. It has complained to antitrust regulators around the world about Intel's sales tactics, which it alleges are illegal.

Video-sharing site Vimeo has launched its own experimental HTML 5 video player. For users with the right browser, this means there would be no need for the Flash plug-in to play about 90 percent of the videos available on the service. However, Vimeo's staff blog was quick to point out that the new player is only in beta test phase, and suffers from several limitations, some related to browsers' handling of HTML 5.

Firstly, videos cannot be watched in full screen mode at the moment, due to browser limitations. Vimeo is working to at least offer full-window support within the next day or two. Users will not be able to embed the HTML 5 video player in external sites at the moment either. The player is also expected to be harboring some bugs for the moment too.

The positives that Vimeo highlights however are the immediate loading of the video player and instant seek abilities (no waiting for buffering). It should also provide smoother, less jumpy playback. In order to even test the HTML 5 player, a user would need to have the latest version of Google Chrome, Safari or Internet Explorer with Chrome Frame installed.

Earlier this week we reported that Verizon was suspending the Internet service of alleged illegal file sharers.

This afternoon, Verizon has denied the claims, saying that the original Cnet article misquoted a spokesperson.

Spokeswoman Bobbi Henson says that although the company does reserve the right to kick pirates off the Internet, they have not done so yet.

"I'm not aware that we've ever terminated anyone's account for excessive consumption, although we reserve the right to do so," added Henson. "That part of the CNET story is wrong. I did not say 'we've cut people off'; I said we reserve the right to do so."

Henson adds that the warnings have worked well "in reducing instances of repeat notices and has not resulted in the termination of any Verizon customer's service."

Motorola has announced that it has opened its own app store in China for Android phones, giving users a chance to download apps for their phones despite Google's decision to pull out of the nation.

The store, called Zhi-Jian-Yuan (Shop4Apps), will be available on February 14th, the Chinese New Year, for Android users in China.

"I see Google and Android as two separate things," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Gartner. "China has always been a key market for Motorola and unless forced to, I doubt they will walk away from it."

According to new reports, Electronic Arts is already working on games for the upcoming Apple Tablet, and that Apple entrusted the company to create games that would highlight the tablet's "gaming capabilities."

The tablet is expected to be unveiled, after years of hype, on January 27th at an Apple event.

All reports have the device as a 10.1-inch multi-touch capable tablet, with an included e-book reader, as well as Wi-Fi, 3G, TV, and gaming capabilities.

Although consumers have made it clear they will not pay more than $700 for the device, many analysts believe the expensive tablet will weigh in at $999.