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According to Bloomberg, Disney and Starz are in negotiations that may eventually affect Netflix's ability to stream Disney films via its "Watch Instantly" service.

Disney is seeking more money from viewers who watch Starz movies online though Netflix and other outlets. Netflix users currently pay no premium for the streaming services. Also under negotiation is digital rights, determining whether DreamWorks and Pixar movies are included with the Starz package or whether Netflix will have to make a deal directly with Disney.

"Netflix may be challenged to retain some of its most appealing content when Starz renews its Disney distribution deal, which expires in 2012," says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Barton Crockett.

Apple has fired back at Nokia this weekend, filing a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) over patent violations.

"Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously," said the company. "However, this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia's innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007."

Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007 and has quickly become the most profitable phone maker in the world. On the other hand, Nokia continues to lose market share in the smartphone market despite keeping its title as the most prolific manufacturer worldwide.

For more info on Nokia's suit against Apple check here: Apple sued by Nokia for patent infringement

For more information on Apple's countersuit, check here: Apple countersues Nokia in patent dispute

The German government has warned Internet users about the security vulnerabilities of the Internet Explorer browser and recommended that everyone find an alternative, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others.

The warning came from the German Federal Office for Information Security.

Microsoft has said that most exploits can be shut out by placing the security zone of the browser on "high" mode. By doing so however, many popular sites are blocked and functionality is limited. The German officials all agree that even "high" security mode does not make IE as safe as other browsers. The warning is aimed at IE 6,7, and 8 users.

"This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week," said an expert, via the BBC. "The way to exploit this flaw has now appeared on the internet , so it is quite possible that everyone is now going to have a go."

Yesterday, Verizon dropped the prices on their unlimited voice and text plans, and today AT&T has followed suit, giving iPhone users a break from their normally very high monthly fees.

Before today, iPhone users had to pay $130 a month for unlimited voice and data, but AT&T has cut that price to $100 total for both. Texting remains $20 for unlimited plans.

Current subscribers can change to the new plan without penalty or contract extension.

Read the price release here: AT&T Announces New Unlimited Plans

It was reported this week that high-end Blu-ray player maker Lexicon, which sells its BD-30 for $3500, had simply just taken a $500 Oppo BDP-83 and placed it into a new case, without making any modifications to the original internals. Worst of all, the new player had THX Certification, but some research proved that to be false. Rather then go through all the audioholics' review, I will post a link to it, here:

"It's an Oppo BDP-83. Normally we'd launch into a statement like this with more tact. We may, for example, wax eloquent about the Lexicon BD-30's beautiful chassis or it's billet aluminum front face. We could tell you about the heft of the unit, or the fact that comes double boxed with enough padding to warrant throwing it off the FedEx or UPS truck while it's still moving. While all of that is true, the Lexicon BD-30 is still an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Player. And what's more, it's not just using the same parts - they actually stuck the player inside - chassis and all. This would be OK, were it not for the $3000 premium over the Oppo and THX certification. As Sherlock Holmes would say: The game is afoot!"

Sony Japan has introduced a new TV tuner for the PlayStation 3 dubbed "torne," a very similar product to Sony Europe's PlayTV hardware.

Torne will allow gamers to watch digital terrestrial broadcasts on their PS3 as well as record the shows to the internal HDD or an external one. The device connects via the USB port and includes a digital TV guide.

Recorded shows can be transferred to a PSP as well.

The Torne will be released in Japan in March for 9,980 yen ($109 USD) and Sony will be releasing a "PlayStation 3 Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Recorder Pack" bundle at the same time.

Alan Ellis, the former admin of the giant private torrent tracker OiNK, has been found not guilty on the charge of conspiracy to defraud, and will walk free.

At its peak, the indexing site had 200,000 members which had shared over 21 million music files.

The prosecutors had claimed that Ellis was receiving £11,000 a month in donations, and that there was $300,000 USD in Ellis' PayPal account. They did not mention that donations went towards paying the servers and hosting fees of the popular site. Ellis says any "surplus" from a monthly donation eventually went towards buying a new server. Ellis did admit, however, that he had £20,000 in savings when the police raided his home.

Google and T-Mobile have slashed the price of the Nexus One for T-Mobile upgraders, dropping the price from $379 to $279, while giving refunds to those who paid the full price in the last week.

To be eligible, you must have had T-Mo service for 22 months since your "last upgrade or new contract." You must also be an individual customer, not on a family plan, or on a business account.

To purchase the phone without upgrading or without a new contract, the phone costs $530 unlocked. With a new two-year contract the phone costs $180.

Sony has revealed today that besides seeing huge hardware sales for the PlayStation 3, revenue from the PlayStation Network (PSN) set a new all-time record in December as well.

Overall, revenue increased 155 percent in the US, year-on-year, setting up the largest revenue month for the service to date. Sony did not reveal the exact figures, however.

"Final Fantasy VIII" was far and away the most downloaded game of the month, followed by "PixelJunk Shooter."

Nintendo will officially announce a "DS 2" handheld within 8 months, says top video game industry analyst Jesse Divnich, despite a record sales year for the DS/DSi in 2009.

"Even though the Nintendo DS posted a record year in 2009, EEDAR expects Nintendo to make an official announcement on the DS2 within the next eight months," wrote Divnich in a note. "Nintendo has always had a controlling stake in the handheld market, despite facing numerous competitors, and EEDAR believes one of the biggest reasons for Nintendo’s success in the handheld market is their ability to remove opportunity gaps for competitors to enter. Nintendo’s transition from the GBA to the DS, a year earlier than anticipated, was a brilliant strategy to remove any upper hand the Sony PSP could have by being first to market."

The new hardware will also help Nintendo to somewhat curb the piracy market, which will in turn give publishers more reason to invest in handheld gaming.

NBC has reported this week that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has moved on from the iPhone to the Nexus One, the latest Android device, and a direct rival to Apple's product.

When asked what his favorite phone device was, "Woz" said "Well, it's the latest one. It's a non-Apple product, but it's a gadget that just came out yesterday." This was one day after the Nexus One was released.

The news may not be so surprising especially since Woz has jailbroken his iPhone 3G, and even criticized Apple for the first iPhone and its lack of 3G support.

After the report however, Woz cleared up any misunderstandings by admitting that the Nexus One is in fact is favorite new gadget but that he still owns two iPhones, and has been known to carry three phones on him at one time.

Earlier this week, Gawker offered up to $100,000 USD to anyone who could bring concrete proof of the existence of the much-hyped Apple Tablet, and they announced a winner today, with that winner being Apple itself after the company sent a cease-and-desist letter which calls for the end of the search for the "unannounced and highly confidential" product.

The letter, from Apple’s law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, says: "While Apple values and appreciates vibrant public commentary about its products, we believe you and your company crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple’s trade secrets. Such an offer is illegal and Apple insists that you immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt. Apple has maintained the types of information and things you are soliciting ... in strict confidence."

The letter:

Microsoft has gone in a different direction then Google and Yahoo, saying that it has no plans of exiting the Chinese search engine market.

In speaking of the recent cyber-attack on Google, CEO Steve Ballmer said: "There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand. We're attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary."

Earlier this week, Google threatened to pull their service from China after they were attacked by hackers trying to gain access to human rights activists' Gmail accounts. China says they will stay if Beijing can come to an agreement on freedom of information.

When asked if Microsoft may follow Google (and Yahoo) out of China, Ballmer was frank. "I don't understand how that helps anything. I don't understand how that helps us and I don't understand how that helps China."

Google has a 30 percent market share in China, behind Baidu at 60 percent. Microsoft's' Bing has under 4 percent.

According to the latest NPD figures, the struggling video game industry ended 2009 on a high note, with hardware sales jumping 16 percent, offsetting a dip in software sales. Overall, sales jumped 4 percent to a record $5.5 billion USD.

Nintendo dominated the hardware and software charts, winning the month easily, spurred by promotions from Amazon and Wal-Mart. The Wii sold 3.8 million units and the DS/DSi sold 3.31 million units. In the software chart, Nintendo had 6 of the top 10 sellers, including the top 3 (if you split Modern Warfare 2 into separate console sales).

"We expected to have a good holiday and this was a great reaffirmation of that," added Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

PlayStation 3 sales jumped 90 percent to 1.36 million units, and the Xbox 360 was slightly behind at 1.31 million units sold for the month. The PSP got crushed in the handheld market battle, selling just 656,000 units.

Eastman Kodak has said today it is suing RIM and Apple for patent violations relating to the cameras used in BlackBerrys and the iPhone.

The complaint was filed with the International Trade Commission and alleges that the smartphones infringe on Kodak patents "covering technology for previewing photos."

Kodak is asking for an injunction on the import of phones sold by both companies. The company is also seeking unspecified monetary damages, and the end of the use of the technologies.

RIM and Apple declined comment but it is not as if sales of the popular devices are in immediate trouble. Patent disputes sometimes take up to 10 years, however ITC complaints usually take only 15 months.

"We've had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement," added Laura Quatela, Kodak's chief intellectual property officer. "Our primary interest is not to disrupt the availability of any product but to obtain fair compensation for the use of our technology."

Kodak currently has 1100 patents relating to digital photography technologies and licenses them to over 30 companies.