UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) president Dana White has said today that the sport is preparing to sue individuals and websites that offer the MMA content illegally.

The UFC made about $350 million in PPV revenue in 2009, but many websites have been streaming the UFC PPV events for free online, while they are playing live.

UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said his anti-piracy group had found 271 illegal streams of the UFC 106 event, with a total of 140,000 viewers.

"The piracy of live sporting events is illegal, it kills jobs, and it threatens the expansion of U.S. based companies," Fertitta added. "The UFC is potentially losing millions of dollars a year from piracy."

White, clearly extremely angered by pirates, says the company has been considering the legal actions since 2007 but will take the leap this year due to heavier "losses."

"It's going to be a battle, man," White says, via MMAJ. "It's going to be a battle, but I'm ready to {censored} fight.We're gonna go after them, we're gonna go after them hard, and we're gonna hurt them."

In what is frankly a head-scratching display of skewed reasoning, Sony has said today that it will not promote the sleeper hit Moon (starring Sam Rockwell) for an Oscar award because the movie does not come out on DVD in the U.S. until later this month and the company does not want to have screeners leaked to the Internet.

Last week, director Duncan Jones tweeted his displeasure at Sony's decision to not send screeners out, citing the fact that Moon had been successful (awards-wise) in many other smaller awards shows. You can view his tweets here.

Sony's response (via MovieLine): "The DVD and Blu-ray come out on Jan. 12 — next Tuesday — and it was felt that to preserve the integrity of the film, we didn't want to send screeners. We're concerned about piracy. The thing about Moon is that its particular genre is very predisposed toward being uploaded onto the Web. We really just wanted to protect that aspect of it. I'’s a simple as that. […] A lot of publicity for Moon is coming out next week. Hopefully that will remind all the consumers, all the readers — and especially any awards folks — that this terrific title is out there."

In March 2009, Nine Inch Nails went around the U.S. for the Lights In The Sky Tour and because they somehow could not get a professional capture team for a commercial release, they released 405GB of free raw HD footage from the tours to their fans, allowing them to do what they please with it. Today, the group This One Is On Us has released their creation, in literally every format you could ever need, for free.

The full post:

Our 2008 Lights In The Sky tour was an ambitious multimedia production on a scale well beyond anything we'd ever attempted before. Everyone involved was extremely proud of how it came together, and we were devastated when, for a variety of reasons, we were unable to capture it professionally for a theatrical or commercial release. As a "plan B" of sorts, early last year we released a massive 405gb free download of raw HD footage captured at three different shows during the tour. The idea was to get the footage out in the wild and see what our notoriously enterprising fans could do with it. There were no rules. No strings attached. This was a gift, and an experiment, and for the past year we've watched it come to life in more ways than we could have ever imagined.

The NYTimes is reporting today that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will unveil a Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard built tablet tonight during his CES 2010 keynote speech, stealing some thunder from Apple's still unofficial "iSlate."

Both HP and MSFT declined comment on the report or the product, but sources say the device will be "touted as a multimedia whiz with e-reader and multi-touch functions."

In September, Gizmodo showed off a prototype for Microsoft's tablet, dubbed Courier. You can view pictures and the video (which I recommend) here: Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet

Samsung has announced that their upcoming Moment Android smartphone will be the first American phone to include the free Mobile DTV standard.

There is no word when the Moment will be launched for the public, but it is being trialed in Washington D.C, the first city to receive the free broadcasts.

Local broadcasters can use Mobile DTV to transmit free signals to mobile phone and laptops and Mobile DTV devices, and 35 channels are already available.

The Moment has a 3.2-inch AMOLED display and will run the newly launched Android 2.1 firmware, the same that is run on the Nexus One.

Pic via PCMag (Note: pic shows 1.6 firmware):

Nintendo has said today that it expects to smash previous sales records, selling over 3 million Wiis in the US for the month of December.

The official numbers will hit on January 14th and the Wii sold 2.15 million consoles last December.

Additionally, the DS/DSi is expected to set another sales record as well, although the company did not give a figure.

"The millions of people who bought Nintendo hardware during the holidays can look forward to enjoying great games on those systems now and in the future," added Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive VP of Sales & Marketing."The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for Nintendo DS, and Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros Wii are all currently providing Nintendo fans with amazing experiences and fun adventures for the whole family."

T-Mobile has announced today that they have completely upgraded their 3G network to HSPA 7.2Mbps (peak speed) from the former 3.6Mpbs, allowing for much smoother streaming and music and video downloads.

The carrier also noted that its 3G map now covers 200 million Americans.

Additionally, T-Mobile has been trialing HSPA+ in Philadelphia and hopes to deploy the update to its entire network by June 2010. HSPA+ will offer download speeds up to 21Mbps, faster then most of the country's DSL and cable lines.

ESPN has announced that the popular sports network will be launching ESPN 3D in June, in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The company says it is the first "all 3D" TV channel.

ESPN 3D will show off 85 live sporting events in its first 12 months, but there will be no older programming. That being said, when those 85 events are not running, the station will just remain dark, with nothing playing. The events will include the Summer X Games, NBA basketball matches, and NCAA football/basketball matches.

ESPN has committed to the station for the first year only, through June 2011.

"We're going to assess the viability of this as we did with all our businesses," adds Sean Bratches, an ESPN executive vice president for sales and marketing.

To recieve the channel you will obviously need a new 3D-capable TV, like the ones set for release later this week at the CES event.

It is unclear whether you will have to pay a premium for the channel, and whether or not your cable company will need to provide new set-top boxes or just firmware updates.

Highlights

- Nexus One "superphone" is reality
- Spec sheet as expected
- Noise reduction/suppression in speakers
- Android 2.1 firmware
- Updated widgets, weather, sports, etc
- Live wallpapers, touch the water it ripples...music live wallpaper turns into equalizer that "bounces" to the beat
- 3D app homepage
- New music, video, pictures gallery, tilts...works like Cooliris
- Excellent speech-to-text (write emails, navigate to anywhere), all text fields include speech-to-text
- Upcoming Google Earth app
- Will NOT work with AT&T 3G frequency
- http://www.google.com/phone
- $530 USD unlocked, $180 with T-Mobile
- Headed to Verizon and Vodaphone in "Spring 2010"
- Free engraving on the backplate
- Tethering coming in the future, officially
- NO multi-touch, "we will consider"

Google's much hyped Android press release began at 10 AM PST, and there are quite a few sites out there live blogging the event.

We would however, like to give you the opportunity to watch the event, LIVE, and for free. All that is required is the latest VLC player.

Apple will soon announce its intent to purchase Quattro Wireless for $275 million USD, says AllThingsDigital. The company specializes in mobile advertisements.

The move would mirror Google's recent $750 million acquisition of AdMob, the market share leader in the mobile ad department, and Quattro's biggest direct rival.

Although Apple has declined comment, the report says the announcement should be official this week. Quattro's biggest clients are Ford, Disney, and the NFL.

The move would seem a a bit out of Apple's comfort zone, which of late has been to focus almost exclusively on improving the software and hardware aspects of their iPod line of media devices and their smartphone, the iPhone. Many analysts see the move simply as a cheap way to defend against Google, who will be the clear leader of the mobile ad market when the deal is approved.

Microsoft has revealed the retail prices for its upcoming Office 2010 productivity suite today, with the four versions selling for $99 to $499 USD.

The cheapest version, Office Professional Academic, will sell through most campus book stores for $99 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access and Publisher. Office Home and Student, will sell for $149 boxed, or $119 as digital downloads with a "product key card."

Office Home and Business will cost $297 boxed or $199 with the key card. The most expensive, Office Professional, includes all the programs and premium technical support and will cost $499 boxed and $249 with the key car.

Each edition will include free access to Office Web Apps, Microsoft's slimmed down versions of the programs that can be accessed through an Internet browser.

Apple has said today that the App Store has reached a new milestone, 3 billion downloads, just 3 months after hitting 2 billion.

"Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months -- this is like nothing we've ever seen before," added CEO Steve Jobs. "The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon."

From April to July, Apple was seeing about 6.9 million downloads per day from the App Store, but since September, that number has jumped to 10.1 million. Apple has over 100,000 applications available through the store. The much newer Android Market and Palm App Catalog have about 18,000 and 1,000, respectively.

The Finnish record label Lion Music has started a new campaign this week, promising to not sign any new musicians until the government has managed to stop unauthorized music downloads.

"We are NOT able to sign more artists. No demos or masters you send us will be considered for release. We will NOT listen to any mp3 files or check out your websites and we will NOT respond to questions regarding releasing your album," says Lars Eric Mattsson, company president, via TF. "The illegal file sharing on the net is killing independent music. We are sorry about this situation but we are sure you are aware of what is going on."

Mattsson continues: "Our demo policy will not change before our politicians have stopped the P2P sites. Illegal file sharing is not just about stealing from rich major companies. It is about killing independent music and making it impossible for many great musicians to have a chance to release albums and have a musical career even as a part time job. Next time you consider downloading an album for free or adding new torrents please think of the impact you are having on the artists – would you like it if we came into your home and stole your pay check?"

Skype has announced today the addition of 720p HD webcam and software support for their service, but perhaps more notably, deals with both LG and Panasonic for Skype-enabled HDTVs.

Current Skype users can upgrade to the new 4.2 beta which can achieve 1280x720 HD resolution at 30fps. The company will begin selling HD webcams, through faceVision, for $100 which included video encoding and on-board processing.

The HDTVs will have integrated Skype software, built-in 720p webcams and mics, for voicemail, landline and mobile calls.

Pricing should be made available at CES.

Sprint and Skiff have announced today that they will be introducing the new Skiff e-reader at the CES event later this week, one that will be extremely fast and will feature a large resolution screen.

“We think it’s the speediest reader yet,” says Gil Fuchsberg, president of Skiff. "We've got some things that we can do that you’ve never been able to do on e-ink screens before."

Partner Sprint will provide the 3G wireless service for the device, and will even make the Skiff Reader available in Sprint retail stores and online, the first carrier to do so.

Skiff will also offer a store selling newspapers, magazines and e-books that should work with most other e-readers and smartphone apps. "We think there'll be a market for dedicated readers alongside applications on your phone or tablet PCs," Fuchsberg added, via the NYT.

The display is black and white, but Fuchsberg says a firmware update will bring color very soon. "We're working very aggressively on color, and we’ll bring color to this device as quickly as we can," he added.