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According to a report, three more well-known U.S. retailers suffered cyber attacks and data breaches over the holidays.

U.S. retailers Target and Neiman Marcus already disclosed data breaches that hit them during the holiday season last year. In Target's case, as many as 110 million people may have been affected by the data breaches which included some credit card information, but mostly other personal information such as names, e-mail addresses and so on.

Now, a Reuters report cites sources saying that three more U.S. retailers suffered similar attacks over the holidays or earlier in the year, but these have not been made public yet. The sources did not identify which retailers were hacked, only to say they had outlets in malls and are well known.

The attacks are believed to originate in Eastern Europe, and may be linked. Stolen credit card information can be used to make counterfeit cards, while other personal information can be used in phishing attacks against victims or identity theft.

A blog that displays and details source code shown on screen in TV Shows and movies is gaining considerable attention.

Have you ever watched a TV show or a movie that used either science- or techno-jargon too liberally as part of its plot? This could probably apply to a lot of Sci-Fi shows and movies, where the characters have gotten themselves into a spot of bother, only to have their sharp intellect and admirable knowledge of physics or whatever it may be, come to the rescue.

Quite often we are treated to a Chopra-like avalanche of sciency-sounding words which lead to a conclusion. The sciency stuff is not supposed to matter, it is not supposed to be scrutinized, all you should care about as the viewer is what it enables the characters to do. That can be difficult if you have even the slightest bit of knowledge in a field potentially being butchered on screen, so you have to work that little bit harder to suspend your disbelief.

When it comes to physics and other science stuff though, sometimes we can chalk it up to the story being set in the future when we know more about the nature of reality and can exploit the natural world that little bit more efficiently.

A Netflix show has just claimed its first Golden Globe award, further cementing the provider's ability to produce content on par with shows made for TV.

The Golden Globe went to Robin Wright for Best Actress in a TV Drama for her work in House of Cards. Wright plays Claire Underwood, wife of Kevin Spacey's Francis Underwood, in the drama that covers Francis' revenge on those who betrayed him when he was stepped over for the position of Secretary of State.

House of Cards was also nominated for nine Emmy Awards last September, of which it won three, making Netflix the first company to win the awards for shows only available online.

Turning to producing its own content for exclusive streaming on Netflix was a natural move for the company, but still considerably risky. Services like Netflix find themselves, in many ways, at the mercy of content providers and broadcasters as they seek to license shows for customers to watch. Such fees could eat away at revenue and could increase when it comes time to renew deals.

By taking the role as content producer as well, Netflix can avoid such problems, but still has to invest considerable resources to have the shows produced, as well as the cost of featuring stars.

A photo allegedly showing another view of the prototype Nokia smartphone running Android has surfaced.

It emerged late last year that Nokia had been testing an Android prototype device in case it was unsuccessful with Windows Phone smartphones. Of course, when Microsoft announced it was to acquire Nokia's phone business, such a prototype likely lost any chance of ever coming to fruition.

Still, details and some photos have previously leaked allegedly showing Nokia's prototype design, and here is another one that surfaced from a microblog in China.

@evleaks the engineering prototype of Nokia Normandy http://t.co/zHS3OGdtC6 pic.twitter.com/jXgkLuCKVc

-- sea (@seamissu) January 12, 2014

According to a report, Microsoft's upcoming 'Threshold' will be shipped as 'Windows 9' in April 2015.

That's according to Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows, which has previously disclosed information about a major revamp at Microsoft called 'Threshold'.

Microsoft is currently working on Update 1 for Windows 8.1, and on Windows Phone 8.1, but apparently is quite eager to get the "Windows 8" generation well and truly over. According to Thurrott, Microsoft will reveal its plans publicly for the next major Windows version (codename Threshold) at BUILD 2014 this April, which Microsoft will brand as "Windows 9."

At BUILD, Microsoft will provide its vision for the next generation of Windows, scaling back the secrecy of the Sinofsky era. There will be no alpha builds of the operating system though as it won't even enter development until that month.

Within the next year, before BUILD 2015, Microsoft will deliver three milestones of the operating system before final release (betas, release candidate and so forth.) Threshold will reportedly fix the Metro design language used by Windows, which may include a rumored Windowed mode that works on the Destkop as well.

Sprint has retired their One Up annual upgrade program after just four months in existence and the company has unveiled new "Framily" plans that allow up to 10 friends and family members to sign up together as a group and receive discounts.

Each member of the plan gets their own bills, and the discount could be as much as 50 percent off standard individual or family plans. Just like with rival T-Mobile, you will have to buy your smartphone without subsidy, either upfront or through an installment plan.

One example of the plan is having unlimited text and voice along with 1GB of data for a group of seven people for about $25 per month. An individual would pay $55 for the same service. If anyone leaves the plan, the price goes up for everybody else.

Sprint's One Up service allowed paying customers to upgrade their device every 12 months when financing their phones and returning the old phone at the time. It was generally considered a failure as other carriers offered better deals.

Before the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft promised one killer feature it could not deliver: live gameplay streaming via Twitch.tv.

It appears there is still no ETA for the launch of the feature, at least according to Twitch.

Microsoft has not given any update, so Twitch says the launch could be in "a few more months."

What is the reason for the extended delay? It remains unclear, but one theory is that Microsoft does not yet know how to deal with potentially offensive or sexual video. On the PlayStation 4, which did launch with Twitch, gamers using the augmented reality demo The Playroom filmed themselves having sex and the service was subsequently banned from being used with that game.

Xbox One Direct Broadcasting: There is no ETA at this time from Microsoft. Expect a few more months. If we know sooner, we'll update.

-- Twitch Support (@TwitchTVSupport) January 8, 2014

A nationwide probe has been launched in the United States involving more than 30 states, examining the data breach that affected tens of millions of Target customers.

Target had originally revealed that card details of more than 40 million had been stolen in a data breach during the busy holiday period. It then confirmed earlier this week that as many as 70 million guest users had also had their personal information compromised to some degree.

"A breach of this magnitude is extremely disconcerting and we are participating in a multi-state investigation to discover the circumstances that led to this breach," Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said.

The stolen credit card details could be used to make false magnetic strip credit cards, security experts have warned. Other personal information can also be used in phishing attacks.

Pizza Hut has said that Xbox Live gamers bought over a million dollars worth of pizzas from its Xbox Live apps in four months.

The Pizza Hut app on Xbox Live launched in April of last year, featuring the chain's menu and also supporting Kinect and voice commands for customers to customize their own pizzas.

"It's been a source of unbelievable growth for us," Pizza Hut director of public relations Doug Terfehr told Polygon.

"Just the explosion of people who wanted to download it, experiment with it, play with it with Kinect. As soon as we did one, everyone was contacting us to do the next [one]."

Terfehr said that Pizza Hut is certainly not done in the space, but did not elaborate on whether the chain plans to bring apps to other gaming platforms.

Samsung's executive VP of its visual display business HS Kim believes affordable OLED TVs are still several years away, but is optimistic on the transition to UHD.

Samsung and LG were the only two companies to sell OLED televisions in 2013, but with prices starting from around $9,000. OLED televisions make good impressions on reviewers but they are priced far out of the wider market that Samsung has dominated for years.

"Not many consumers tried to purchase OLED TVs at that price," Kim said. "Price was our greatest barrier. So our attempt to expand the market didn't really go well. I'm really, really terribly sorry to say this, but it will take more time. ... I believe it will take around three to four years."

Just a year ago, Kim had predicted it would take 2-3 years to make mass market OLED televisions, but there are difficulties plaguing the manufacturing process of OLED TVs.

Kim believes that the transition to Ultra-HD content will happen much faster than the transition to High-definition did nearly a decade ago. Content providers have made intentions clear to start offering 4K this year, with companies like Netflix in a prime position to benefit from the change.

GameStop has said it wants to sell PlayStation Now services to its customers, despite the launch of the PlayStation Now posing some questions about the future of its business model.

Right after Sony detailed PlayStation Now at the Consumer Electronics Show, shares in the GameSpot claim plummeted around 9 percent. Sony intends to to stream back-catalogue games from the cloud to customers either as individual digital rentals, or through a subscription service.

A beta for the service launches this month, starting with Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles. Support for PSVita, Bravia TVs and other devices will come later.

"GameStop has built a $600MM digital business, with most of the digital games sold through our stores. Similar to how we worked closely with our partner Sony to successfully sell the PlayStation Plus service, we are looking forward to working with them on including the new PlayStation Now service as part of our portfolio of gaming products we offer our customers," a representative for the company told GameSpot.

A U.S. appeals court has said that Apple does not infringe patents held by Google's Motorola Mobility in the production of its iPhone smartphones.

It upheld a decision made by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in April, 2013. The case stems back to a 2010 complaint from Motorola that Apple's technology infringes six patents held by the firm, but the ITC found that Apple violates none of the six.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit only examined one of the six in the appeal, and sided with Apple and the ITC.

"We're disappointed in this decision and are evaluating our options," Motorola said in a statement.

The U.S. Supreme Court will review broadcasters case against Aereo, which transmits broadcast TV signals to Internet-connected devices.

Thus far, Aereo has survived in its legal tussle with U.S. broadcasters. The service uses tiny dime-sized antennas to pick up broadcast signals. It then allows users to sign up and use those antennas to watch broadcast TV from any support device, and also offers DVR functionality.

Broadcasters, including Fox, Comcast, CBS, ABC and Disney, have argued that Aereo violates copyright law by broadcasting signals without paying fees.

Aereo also urged the Supreme Court to review the case as it seeks legal clarity to move ahead with plans to expand its service to new areas.

The court will hear arguments from both sides in April and make a decision by July.

Beats Music, the streaming service run by Beats Electronics, will launch on January 21st.

The headphone company, run by music industry exec Jimmy Iovine and famous producer Dr. Dre, says all U.S. consumers can try the service for free and AT&T customers can download or stream unlimited music for $10 per month. For $15 a month, a family of five can access the service. The charge will be part of your regular monthly bill.

Beats Music will be available on iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, PC and Mac, and eventually through set-top boxes and other Web-connected devices.

The unlimited downloads will allow you to listen to music offline, but the downloads expire and disappear when your membership ends.

To differentiate itself from rivals like Google Play Music All Access, Spotify, Rdio and others, Beats Music combines algorithms with specialized curated programming from "tastemakers." The service itself comes from "the trust that comes from excellent handpicked music with the personalization that knows you're an individual and that a handful of stations can't satisfy all listeners," says the company.

Samsung has responded to a previous report that some of its smartphones are affected by serious security vulnerabilities.

The initial report claimed the discovery of serious security vulnerabilities in the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone, and other models made by the Korean firm that run its KNOX security software, that could allow attackers to intercept data sent to and from Samsung devices.

Samsung now claims that the research details a classic Man in the Middle attack, and does not identify a flaw in its KNOX system.

After discussing the research with the original researchers, Samsung has verified that the exploit uses legitimate Android network functions in an unintended way to intercept unencrypted network connections from/to applications on the mobile device. This research did not identify a flaw or bug in Samsung KNOX or Android; it demonstrated a classic Man in the Middle (MitM) attack, which is possible at any point on the network to see unencrypted application data. The research specifically showed this is also possible via a user-installed program, reaffirming the importance of encrypting application data before sending it to the Internet. Android development practices encourage that this be done by each application using SSL/TLS. Where that's not possible (for example, to support standards-based unencrypted protocols, such as HTTP), Android provides built-in VPN and support for third-party VPN solutions to protect data. Use of either of those standard security technologies would have prevented an attack based on a user-installed local application.