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Verizon has responded to a claim that it is throttling (limiting bandwidth to) Netflix and other services in the cloud, just weeks after a federal court struck down the FCC's net neutrality rules.

The allegation comes from David Raphael, an engineer with cloud security firm iScan Online. According to Mr Raphael's account, he was first made aware of speed problems when using Amazon's AWS cloud services after the president of the company told him there was a dramatic slowdown. Raphael could not find a problem in the company's product, but all of the company's infrastructure is hosted on Amazon's servers.

One evening, Raphael noticed a considerable slowdown when using the company's services from home, and realized that both the company president, and himself, used Verizon's FIOS Internet service. He tested the speed at which he could retrieve data from Amazon AWS S3 and got a dismal 40kB/s. After remoting into the office - less than a mile away - the speed bumped up dramatically to 5000kB/s. A clear difference between both connections is one is for residential purposes, while the other is for business.

Around the same time, Raphael had noticed considerable degrading in the quality of Netflix video streaming. Netflix also uses Amazon's AWS services to host content.

Apple has removed the last fully-functioning Bitcoin wallet app from its app store, blocking iOS device users from popular apps available on Android.

Blockchain had been available from the iPhone-maker's App Store for over two years prior to its removal on Wednesday, February 5. In that time, it had clocked up over 120,000 downloads and wasn't the subject of any complaint made by users to Apple.

Citing an "unresolved issue," Apple has removed it from the App Store, meaning users of iOS devices (with the exception of jailbroken devices) are unable now to download any fully functioning Bitcoin wallet app for their devices.

Blockchain has responded angrily to Apple's decision to remove the app without providing any prior warning, any reasonable justification for the action or any means of redress.

"These actions by Apple once again demonstrate the anti-competitive and capricious nature of the App Store policies that are clearly focused on preserving Apple's monopoly on payments rather than based on any consideration of the needs and desires of their users," reads Blockchain's scathing reaction.

It notes that Google's Play Store provides a large number of fully functioning Bitcoin apps despite those apps providing competing services to Google's own "Google Wallet" service.

Google has reached a settlement with the European Commission that includes commitments to change its business practices, avoiding a potentially massive fine.

The case traces back to initial complaints made in November 2010 with the European Commission - the main regulatory body of the single European market - that questioned several aspects of Google's search and advertising business practices. The Commission wound up investigating eighteen formal complaints against the web giant, and in March 2013 informed Google that it was violating anti-trust rules in the European Economic Area, based on Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

These infringing practices included the prominent placement of Google's own specialized search services in its general search results. Consumers were not made aware that these services were also owned by Google, while specialized search services (restaurants, hotels etc.) of third parties were typically displayed lower in search results. Google was also found to be using original content from third party services without consent.

The Commission also scrutinized Google's advertising service restrictions and contractual obligations that forced content publishers to obtain all or most of their online search advertisements from Google, while also limiting the transferability of online search advertising campaigns to rival platforms.

Xbox's Marc Whitten has posted details for the upcoming Xbox One System Update, now officially set for February 11th.

The update will feature numerous improvements including back-end updates for developers, improvements to Kinect and other stability updates.

Reads the post:

The ability to see and manage your storage space. With this update, you will find it easy to find how much space your content takes up and better manage your content. You can also control your install lineup and more easily manage your download queue. We've separated My Games and My Apps into separate lists, so you can easily create separate queues for both. Now you can pick the order in which you want your content to load and we've added a boot progress indicator so you can better track updates while they load.

The battery power indicator is back! You can see it right on the home screen, so you can easily track how much battery life is left on your controller.

And, you will be able to use your USB keyboard with your Xbox One.

These are just a few of the many updates we will be shipping on February 11. We'll share more details on these and other upcoming features in the coming weeks. We have several surprises in store that we think you'll love.

According to a new report, Apple will use lithium-ion batteries for its still unconfirmed iWatch smartwatch.

The batteries will be provided by Samsung, LG Chem and Tianjin Lishen Battery, say the sources.

"Apple will utilize LG Chem's stepped battery since it offers better longevity than others and can be applied for different shapes," added one industry source. Stepped batteries have about 15 percent more energy efficiency due to using layers of 'stepped' batteries which also conserve space.

After years of rumors, Apple is expected to finally unveil the watch this fall. The device will have an OLED screen and will integrate deeply with other iOS products.

According to Deadline, Netflix has renewed hit series 'House of Cards' for a third season.

The company originally paid $100 million for two seasons of the political drama and the purchase price has paid off since the show has won Emmy awards and Golden Globe awards while helping bring more subscribers to the streaming service.

In addition, the move started a bigger foray into original programming, including more hits like Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black.

Season 2 of House of Cards will be available on Netflix starting February 14th.

President Barack Obama has announced $750 million in commitments from U.S. companies to help bring broadband Internet to more classrooms.

AT&T and Sprint have committed free Web service through their wireless networks, Microsoft has committed to significantly discounting their Windows operating systems and will also offer 12 million copies of Microsoft Office free, Apple has committed $100 million in iPads and computers and Verizon will donate $100 million in cash.

"In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, we should definitely demand it in our schools," Obama said during his speech at a middle school.

Perhaps most importantly, the FCC will be using $2 billion collected from service fees to connect 15,000 schools and over 20 million students to high-speed broadband before the end of 2016. President Obama says only 30 percent of U.S. students have true high-speed Internet access at school.

Apple kept its crown as the top smartphone maker in the U.S., taking 41.8 percent for the quarter ended December 31st, 2013 says research firm comScore.

Samsung remained in second, at 26.1 percent, growing 1.2 percentage points quarter-over-quarter.

Motorola and LG staged a dramatic battle for third with Moto winning out by a small margin, 6.7 percent to 6.6 percent. Both stayed relatively flat quarter-over-quarter. Rounding out the top five was HTC, down significantly to 5.7 percent continuing its long-term trend.

Android and Apple remained a duopoly in the market, with Android at 51.5 percent and Apple at 41.8 percent. Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Symbian all fell, leaving Apple as the clear winner for the quarter.

Red Star Linux 3.0, built by the Korea Computer Center (KCC) software center in Pyongyang, has come with a complete desktop design overhaul, one that has many seeing a possible copy of Mac OS X.

Version 2.0 had looked much more like Windows 7, and was released in 2011.

Since most of what occurs in North Korea stays in North Korea, this week is the first time we have seen details of the operating system, which was released in 2013. Will Scott, a computer scientist who taught at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) released the screenshots and other details. The school is foreign-funded, the first in the country.

Red Star Linux includes a version of Wine, allowing for a virtual environment to use Windows software. The operating system uses a browser based on Mozilla called "Naenara," or "My country."

Asus has unveiled an interesting new product this week running on Google's Chrome OS operating system, the Chromebox.

The Chromebox is a fanless, all-in-one mini-PC with 4.88" by 4.88" by 1.65" dimensions. The device is similar to Intel's NUC desktop, but at a lower price point, and with more components actually already in the device. The NUC is much more versatile but is more DIY.

Under the hood is a 1.4GHz dual-core Celeron 2955U (Intel Haswell), integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of RAM, 16GB SSD, dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, an SD card slot and a Kensington lock slot. If you live outside the U.S., you will have the option to jump up to a Core i7-4600U, and U.S. buyers will also be able to upgrade to a 1.7GHz Core i3-4010U.

Following the launch of Facebook's new news/news feed reader app Paper, startup company FiftyThree asked Facebook to change the name as it takes away from their own popular iOS design and drawing app of the same name.

Facebook declined.

The company has now applied for a trademark for "Paper," in an effort to protect their brand name. FiftyThree CEO and co-founder George Petschnigg had said they were keeping their options open, and this appears to be one option. The startup currently has the trademark for "Paper by FiftyThree."

Trademark lawyers believe that FiftyThree would have a case if they decide to move forward legally. Trademarks can be use-based meaning that "just by using a mark in a particular field, you've got rights. Some are state-based and some are federal-based, but if I start using a mark before you in the same area of goods or services, I've got rights to the mark over you."

Additionally, being that FiftyThree already has another trademark it makes those rights stronger.

Microsoft has announced a $15 million 'strategic investment' in location-based services startup Foursquare.

In addition, the company has struck a commercial licensing deal which will let the software giant integrate Foursquare's location data into its products.

"This is a big deal for us," says Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, in an understatement. "It started off as partnership talks, but those conversations ended up leading to strategic investment conversations. It's great, because they now have skin in the game--they are excited about making sure [our] company succeeds."

The company has so far raised $50 million in funding (including the new deal) and the CEO says Microsoft's investment has been in the works for a couple of months.

More importantly for both companies is the data-licensing agreement. Foursquare is the tech behind the location services on many startup giants like Uber, Instagram, Pinterest and more.

LG's upcoming G2 Pro phablet will feature some high-end specs for its cameras.

The company has confirmed that the device will have a 13MP sensor with improved optical image stabilization (OIS+) and 4K (3840 x 2160 pixel resolution) video recording. The front-side camera will be 2.1 MP.

In addition, the camera will allow for slow-motion video capture and a burst mode for quickly capturing multiple photos in one sitting.

LG is expected to reveal specs and availability of the device at this month's MWC event in Barcelona.

A new and interesting report from ABI Research should have Google on watch as Android continues to dominate global smartphone sales.

The firm claims that Google may be "losing control of the Android ecosystem" even as the operating system is now on anywhere between 76-80 percent of all new device shipments depending on whose data you follow. Many of the Android variants that are available on phones in Asia do not include Google apps and services, keeping ad-based revenue away from the search giant.

Of the 280 million smartphones shipped in the Q4 2013, 77 percent of them were Android-based, but only 150.4 million included Google apps and services, with the other 71.1 million running Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROMS and variants.

The trend appears to be against Google in this respect. In 2012, 146.7 million Android devices were shipped and 116.7 million smartphones had Google apps and services.

"The growth of AOSP is significant for Android's owner Google, because AOSP does not offer Google's services (due to their unavailability in China), impacting Google's ability to monetize the Android ecosystem," ABI Research senior practice director Nick Spencer concluded.

Facebook turned 10-years-old today and as a thank you to its massive userbase of 1.23 billion, as unveiled a "Look Back" feature allowing you to search back into your digital history.

You can view a personalized movie or view a collection of your top photos, as well as a "thank you" card from the company. If you get access to the movie, you will be edit the posts that are featured.

"It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's been amazing to see how people have used Facebook to build a real community and help each other in so many ways," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted. "In the next decade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to connect everyone and to keep serving the community as best we can."

Facebook continues to press forward with its mobile products and recently unveiled "Paper" for iOS which breaks down the News Feed and other news articles into a format that works better on the small screen.