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Following a blockbuster deal with rival Dish Network, Disney is in talks with DirecTV where the satellite company will license the rights to offer Disney's broadcast/cable channels via a new Internet-based TV product.

DirecTV and Disney's current contract expires in December, and the Internet rights would be part of a larger multi-year programming deal.

"The deal and terms are not unexpected as the Dish contract was the most recent in the Disney timeline to expire," DirecTV added. "The DirecTV contract is up next and we're in the process of working with Disney on a similar long-term agreement of our own."

The landmark deal between Dish and Disney was the first time a major pay TV operator gave rights to its content to be viewed via smartphones, tablets, PCs and set-top boxes outside of their already paid for TV subscriptions.

Disney controls ABC, the Disney Channel, ESPN and more popular content.

Getty Images, with over a hundred years of photography, has made their previously watermarked images available to all.

The company is dumping the watermark for most of its collection, as part of a broad embedding program that will include the image with a footer at the bottom of the picture with a credit and a link to the original licensing page.

While it will still be simple to take the un-watermarked image by screenshotting it, Getty says the images were already everywhere. "Look, if you want to get a Getty image today, you can find it without a watermark very simply," says Craig Peters of Getty Images. "The way you do that is you go to one of our customer sites and you right-click. Or you go to Google Image search or Bing Image Search and you get it there. And that's what's happening... Our content was everywhere already."

Getty has made their embeds social media friendly, with native code for Twitter and Tumblr along with standard WordPress embed code. Getty can build revenue from the new code by potentially mining data or adding ads, although it will do neither at launch. Regardless, they will control the images, which is a step up from the unlicensed versions being available everywhere.

Roku has followed up their 2012 Streaming Stick with an updated model that will directly compete with Google's Chromecast HDMI dongle.

The original model sold for $99 but the second-generation model will sell for $49.99. The Chromecast sells for $35 with a limited lineup of applications that is rapidly expanding.

Unlike the Chromecast, the Streaming Stick must also be plugged into the TV's USB port for power aside from being placed in the HDMI port.

The updated Streaming Stick now supports 1080p and will come with an included remote familiar to Roku set-top owners. The remote has quick action buttons for Netflix, Amazon, and strangely, Blockbuster and M-Go.

Roku has a large lineup of channels, including all of the most popular streaming applications and almost 1,200 more. You can "cast" YouTube and Netflix, just like the Chromecast, and control the device from iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Spotify has acquired The Echo Nest, a company "that powers the vast majority of internet radio" with its technology.

Echo Nest powers Twitter Music, Rdio, Vevo, MTV, MOG, IHeartRadio and more.

Despite being aquired, "The Echo Nest API will remain free and open to support its robust developer ecosystem," and the company will remain a "wholly owned subsidiary" of Spotify, working independently.

Says Spotify of the move: "The addition of The Echo Nest to Spotify will also strengthen Spotify's ability to help brands and partners build amazing music experiences for their audiences." When asked about competing companies, Spotify noted: "In the few cases where The Echo Nest does work with direct competitors we will work with them to understand these relationships and determine the next business steps. The Echo Nest will meet all contractual obligations to all customers."

Although it is the general consensus that Nintendo has played itself out of the home console market with the Wii U being a failure, according to VGChartz, Microsoft's new Xbox One only barely beat out the Wii U in sales for the week ended February 22nd.

For the period, the Xbox One saw global sales of 56,769 units, while the older Wii U had global sales of 44,503 units. Sony demolished its rivals for the week, thanks to the PS4's launch in Japan. The console saw 449,705 units sold, with 319,000 coming from Japan, alone.

Of course, the aging Xbox 360 and PS3 still saw sales, but Microsoft once again was the laggard, at 28,782 units sold.

The Xbox One is not available in Japan but Microsoft struggles heavily in the nation, and will likely continue to do so even with the Xbox One.

According to a new AP report, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) will build the chips for Apple's next iPhone, leaving rival Samsung hanging.

The semiconductor company has already begun producing the A8 chip, a more powerful version of last year's 64-bit processor.

Multiple supply chain sources are cited in the report, and the report also claims the new iPhone 6 will have a 4.7-inch screen.

Samsung used to make nearly all of Apple's chips, but as the two companies have stepped up their global battle, both in smartphones and in patent litigation, Apple has been trying to move away from its reliance on the components maker. This has been tough, as there are very few companies that can match even half of Samsung's production.

Chinese-based OnePlus has revealed details about its upcoming CyanogenMod-powered smartphone.

The device will launch in 10 markets in the Q2, and will sell for under $400 unlocked.

"We followed the minimalistic approach "less is more". Our designers put a lot of effort into it, focusing on making a device that looks good and it's easy to hold and use," OnePlus developers said during a Reddit AMA.

Although the company did not give exact specs, it did note it will be doing only online sales and the phone will not include unnecessary sensors like the Galaxy S5's heart rate monitor.

"On one hand, users want a larger screen because it gives them more space to view their content. On the other hand, other users have also been requesting that screen sizes do not exceed 5-inches, so they can use it with one hand," the company added. "What do we make of these conflicting demands? We designed the OnePlus One to be easy to handle with one hand, while at the same time having the largest possible display size under these circumstances. How? By having a slim body, tapered edges and narrow bezels."

While Google has been actively updating their services and apps for iOS devices, it is undoubtedly true that some of their apps just do not work as well for the iPhone and iPad as they do for Android.

One of those apps was Gmail but the latest update should remedy two of the more glaring issues with the app.

Reads the blog post:

"The app now fully supports background app refresh, which means your Gmail messages will be pre-fetched and synced so they're right there when you open the app--no more annoying pauses while you wait for your inbox to refresh. This feature requires iOS 7, and you'll also need to turn on background app refresh and notifications (badge or any other type) for the Gmail app.

The Gmail app also now supports sign-in across Google iOS apps, including Maps, Drive, YouTube and Chrome. Sign in to one, and you'll be signed in to all (this also works for signing out). So you won't have to type in that 27-character password or retrieve your 2-step verification code every time you navigate to another Google app. You may need to re-login after you update the app, but then you'll be all set."

Sony has announced today this week that PlayStation 4 sales have reached 6 million units sold around the world, including 370,000 units sold in Japan during its first ten days of availability in the nation.

Additionally, PS4 software sales reached 13.7 million units, including physical and digital downloads from the PlayStation Store.

"I am absolutely delighted that PS4 is off to such a great start in Japan," said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "The responses we have received for the PS4 system's integrated social capabilities have been phenomenal, and I couldn't be more thrilled that gamers are utilizing these unique features to engage, share, play and connect with users around the world. SCE will continue to expand the world of PlayStation by growing its library of breakthrough games and bringing more innovative features and services only possible on PS4."

Sony says Killzone Shadow Fall is one of their most popular titles, with over 2.1 million units shipped globally. The other top titles were none too surprising, including KNACK, Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA14, Battlefield 4, and Assassin's Creed: IV Black Flag.

While the Academy Awards will undoubtedly lead to a surge in movie sales and legal downloads, it has also proven to be a boon for unauthorized pirated downloads.

Citing data from public torrent trackers (not including cyber lockers and private trackers), Torrentfreak says illegal downloads for "12 Years a Slave" tripled week-over-week and "Gravity" saw downloads double.

"12 Years a Slave" won Best Picture and "Gravity" was the big winner with seven Oscar wins, mainly due to its great visual effects.

This is certainly not a new occurrence, as it happens most years, most notably when the "Hurt Locker" saw downloads grow nearly 1000 percent after winning multiple awards in 2012.

This morning, Apple announced the launch of CarPlay, bringing the iOS experience to automobiles starting in 2014.

iPhone 5, 5C and 5S users can use CarPlay to control phone calls, use Maps, play their music, and have messages dictated to them. When released, cars will have a native CarPlay interface or you can choose to activate Siri from a new voice control button on the steering wheel.

"CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPhone and iOS Product Marketing. "iPhone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we're thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva."

According to the latest Net Applications data, Firefox has hit a 5-year low in browser market share.

February saw the launch of Firefox 27, Chrome 33 and continued migration to IE11, which is the browser of choice in Windows 8.1.

Internet Explorer (in all versions) remained flat, losing just 0.02 percentage points, falling to 58.19 percent share. Firefox fell nearly half a percent to 17.68 percent and Chrome took everyone's losses and turned them to gains, jumping to 16.84 percent from 16.28 percent.

Rounding out the top 5, both Safari and Opera fell marginally, to 5.67 percent and 1.23 percent, respectively.

In 2012, Internet Explorer hit all-time lows at around 51 percent share, but has slowly rebounded and appears to be aiming at 60 percent share again by the end of the year. Firefox had been above 18 percent share since April 2008, so Mozilla clearly needs to begin thinking strategy to stem more losses. Chrome has stayed between 15 and 19 percent for the last two years, and appears stagnant. Chrome could soon pass Firefox though, which it got within hundredths of a percentage point of doing so in May 2012 and July 2013.

Even though one of Ellen DeGeneres' selfies from last night's Oscars event is the most retweeted image of all-time, that hasn't stopped Nokia from mocking the blurriness of a few other photos taken throughout the night.

The photos, taken with a Samsung-sponsored Galaxy Note 3 (Ellen uses an iPhone in real life), did come out blurry (as do most impromptu selfies taken with 2MP cameras), so Nokia jumped at the opportunity to take aim at a rival.

"Let's do away with blurry photos, Ellen!", read the tweet from Nokia USA's official page, including the hashtags #blessed and #blurry.

Samsung has been a huge supporter of recent events, including being a sponsor at the Sochi Olympics, the NBA All-Star Game and now the Oscars.

Let's do away with blurry photos, Ellen! | @TheEllenShow #Oscars #Blessed #blurry pic.twitter.com/56p0xQO2WV

-- Nokia USA (@NokiaUS) March 3, 2014

Ellen DeGeneres has managed to smash the record for Twitter retweets by a huge margin, and the photo has nearly 3 million retweets as of writing.

During the Oscars, Ellen grabbed a bunch of celebrity friends including Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and more and snapped a "selfie" using her Samsung-sponsored phone.

Within an hour, the photo broke the record for most retweets, and even took down Twitter for a very brief period, bringing back bad memories of Twitter's early "fail whale" days.

The previous record was President Obama's celebratory 2012 election winning tweet, at nearly 780,000.

Windows XP's end is nigh.

The aging operating system will soon lose support from Microsoft, and the company has announced two initiatives to help those still using XP. The software giant launched XP twelve years ago.

Starting April 8th, there will be no more security updates or technical support for the OS, effectively making the OS unsafe for future use.

In order to help customers migrate to newer versions of Windows, Microsoft says it has partnered with Laplink to create a free data migration tool called PCmover Express that should simply move your files and data including user profiles and settings over to a new device or to a new partitioned OS. If you want applications to move over, you will need to buy a premium version of the software, which will be discounted.

Furthermore, starting March 8th, Windows XP users who have opted into Windows Update will receive pop-up messages letting them know about the end-of-life for the OS and where to learn more.

Finally, if you don't know what OS you are running, Microsoft will tell you here.