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This may be the final nail in the coffin of plasma display televisions.

Following Pioneer exiting the market earlier this year, Panasonic had confirmed today that they will be exiting the plasma TV market, ending production in December and all related operations by March of next year.

Two of Panasonic's three factories have already ceased production of new plasma displays, and the third will conclude by the end of next month. Last April, the company ceased all research and development on future plasma tech.

Panasonic says that "rapid, drastic changes in the business environment" (including price pressure from cheaper LCD TVs) forced their hand and the end of the plasma.

The company will move future R&D to OLED as Panasonic sees the tech as "one of the key future products" for the industry.

The Uplay Passport system used by Ubisoft is to be discontinued for all new games, including Assassin's Creed IV.

"The Uplay Passport program was initiated as a means of giving customers full access and support for online multiplayer and features, along with exclusive content, bonuses, and rewards," Ubisoft said in a statement.

"However, games today are blurring the line between offline and online, between what is 'single-player' and what is 'multiplayer.' Based on that and on the feedback we received from you, we recognized that Passport is no longer the best approach for ensuring that all our customers have the best possible experience with all facets of our games."

While Uplay Passport is included with all copies of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, those who won't have one in future will be able to download one for free either through Xbox Live or PSN. Anyone who already bought one should contact the Ubisoft support team.

Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja has confirmed that the country's government data networks were breached by hackers.

While Mr. Tuomioja did not point the finger of blame himself, TV station MTV3 cited unnamed officials in labelling Russia and China as the primary suspects.

"I can confirm there has been a severe and large hacking in the ministry's data network," he told reporters. The nation's most highly classified information was not affected however.

The hackers seemed to have been targeting communications between Finland and the European Union for years until the breach was discovered in the spring.

Russia and China have been accused of hacking government and corporate entities in the Western World throughout recent years. In 2007, Estonia blamed Russia for a crippling cyber attack against the country.

In weeks, all eyes have been on the National Security Agency in the United States after leaked documents emerged showing widespread surveillance of political targets in Europe, including German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Alongside its announcement of the Nexus 5 today, Google also revealed that the device would be available through T-Mobile and Sprint, marking the first time a Nexus has been available on more than one carrier at launch.

There had been some reports stating that AT&T would also be carrying the device, but Google clarified by saying that the phone works on its network, but the carrier will not sell the device. Verizon also opted out of the device.

In the past, carrier support has been uneven, to say the least. The original G1 was a T-Mobile exclusive, Google's Nexus One worked on GSM carriers, its Nexus S was a Sprint exclusive (an unlocked version worked on T-Mobile) and the recent Nexus 4 was available unlocked or through T-Mobile only.

The new device works on nearly all bands, for 2G, 3G and 4G, making it a truly universal device. Sprint and T-Mobile will sell the phone in stores, and it is available through the Google Play store online.

A man in Norway received a very pleasant surprise when he realized that 5,000 Bitcoins he bought and forgot about in 2009 had risen in value to $848,000.

Kristoffer Koch bought 150 kroner ($25.43) worth of Bitcoins in 2009 when researching encryption. He discovered Bitcoin as part of his research. In the years that passed, Koch completely forgot about his purchase.

Bitcoin gathered some more attention in the media in recent times, and Koch decided to check how much his ~$25 investment was now worth. To his surprise, the value of his small investment has grown to around $848,000.

He began converting his Bitcoin into cash and was raking in $75,000 per day. With the money he has already bought an apartment that he is currently renovating.

TuneIn has released an app for the PS3 console, and will release an app for the PS Vita handheld next week.

TuneIn offers more than 70,000 AM, FM, and internet radio stations, and over 2 million podcasts from around the world.

Features of the TuneIn app include:

• World's Radio: With over 70,000 stations and 2 million podcasts from around the world, TuneIn is a leading service for listening to music, sports, and news.
• Live Music: Live Music on TuneIn lets listeners discover and enjoy unplugged, acoustic, and even local performances from their favorite artists -- plus, TuneIn has partnered with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Austin's SXSW, San Francisco's Outside Lands, and Seattle's Bumbershoot to make live music festivals available to music fans everywhere.
• Sports: TuneIn offers listeners the ability to catch a wide variety of live sports, including college football, cricket, lacrosse, and baseball.
• Talk: Listen to the world's best comedians and personalities on TuneIn, like NPR's "Fresh Air," "This American Life," or the Adam Carolla Show.

You can find TuneIn Radio in the "What's New" and "TV/Video Services" sections on the PS3 system XMB, as well as in the "Apps" section of PlayStation Store. The PS Vita version can be found in the Apps subsection in the PS Vita store when it's available next week.

Google has confirmed today that the Galaxy Nexus, the company's reference device from two years ago, will not receive the brand new Android 4.4 KitKat.

Sources claim that the issues are related to the Galaxy Nexus' Texas Instruments chipset. TI bowed out of the mobile chipset market in 2012, and therefore cannot offer proper support for new operating systems and compatibility.

The open-source community will likely create a capable Android 4.4 ROM, but Galaxy Nexus owners may not be as happy with needing to root their device when they had Google-fed updates for so long.

Google Nexus 4, 7 and 10 owners will be receiving the update within two weeks. The Nexus 5 will launch with the device, but will require a small update when setting up your phone.

Dell co-founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners have taken the PC manufacturer private.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Dell stockholders will receive $13.75 in cash for each share of Dell common stock they hold, plus payment of a special cash dividend of $0.13 per share to stockholders of record as of the close of business on Oct. 28, 2013, for total consideration of $13.88 per share in cash.

The total transaction is valued at approximately $24.9 billion.

"Today, Dell enters an exciting new chapter as a private enterprise," said Michael Dell said on Tuesday. "Our 110,000 team members worldwide are 100 percent focused on our customers and aggressively executing our long-term strategy for their benefit."

As promised, Google's Chromecast now has native Pandora streaming.

The most recent update to the Android and iPhone app allow for the popular Internet radio service to be 'cast' to the big screen via the HDMI dongle.

Pandora says an iPad app update is on the way, but is not available now.

The popular $35 device now has native streaming apps for Netflix, Hulu and Pandora with HBO Go expected later this year.

Google officially announced the Nexus 5 earlier today, following months of leaks that revealed the hardware, its specs and its price.

The flagship has a Full HD IPS 4.95" 1920x1080 display (445 ppi) protected by Gorilla Glass 3, runs on the brand new Android 4.4 KitKat and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 at 2.3GHz, 2GB RAM, and an Adreno 330 GPU.

Additionally, the phone weighs just 4.59 oz, has a premium glass design, a 1.3MP front facing camera, an 8MP rear facing camera with Optical Image Stabilization, a 2,300 mAH battery and wireless charging capabilities.

The LTE-capable device also has dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4G/5G) 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, NFC (Android Beam), Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and a micro USB port with SlimPort enabled for full connectivity options.

Apple has confirmed today that some iPhone 5S handsets were hit by a manufacturing defect that causes the battery to drain much quicker than it should.

"We recently discovered a manufacturing issue affecting a very limited number of iPhone 5S devices that could cause the battery to take longer to charge or result in reduced battery life," said Teresa Brewer, an Apple spokeswoman. "We are reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone."

The company did not confirm the exact amount of affected customers, but suggested the figure was in the thousands.

Unlike what many customers believed, Apple says the issue is not battery related.

Microsoft has asked for EU antitrust approval of its purchase of Nokia's mobile businesses.

The deal, announced earlier this year, also includes a long-term 10-year licensing agreement of Nokia's patent portfolio.

Microsoft will pay $5 billion for the mobile phone division, and $2.17 billion for the patent trove. The company says the transaction will close in the Q1 2014, pending approval by shareholders and regulatory approval, including the EU antitrust ruling.

The software giant is making a large, bold investment in the future of Windows Phone, expanding their partnership with Nokia from early 2011 that saw the start of the Lumia brand of smartphones. Microsoft is looking to "accelerate the growth of its share and profit in mobile devices through faster innovation, increased synergies, and unified branding and marketing."

European Commission officials have until December 4th to decide on the acquisition.

Intel, who has long tried to create a Web-based subscription TV service, is reportedly preparing to hand over controls to the project to Verizon.

The sources say the two companies are in end stage negotiations, but it's unclear whether Verizon would take over the entire Intel Media unit, or if Intel would keep some creative control.

In 2011, Intel began its venture into Web TV by hiring Erik Huggers, who previously led web video for the BBC. Huggers was put in charge of creating an Intel-built set-top box and an Intel-branded pay TV service that could be accessed via desktops, the set-top or other Internet-connected devices.

As expected, Intel had issues gaining content for the "OnCue" service due to its lack of connections in the industry, and a mid-July 2013 launch was pushed back indefinitely.

Sprint, the third-largest carrier in the U.S., has said it will gradually offer faster LTE speeds than its rivals; Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

The company wants to expand its proposed 'Spark' service, which reaches up to 50-60 megabits per second speeds but will first launch in just five cities, LA, Tampa, Miami, Chicago and New York.

LTE speeds from Verizon, for example, reach about 12 megabits/s, but its network already covers most of America.

While the speeds seem good in theory, issues of power consumption, battery life and heat have yet to be seen in real world examples.

Sprint even demonstrated speeds of 1 gigabits per second to reporters, which it said could make online multiplayer gaming or 4K streaming a possibility on mobile.

AT&T dismissed the presentation, but declined to comment on any of their own high-speed offerings: "A demo counts as much as making a touchdown with no other players on the field," said the carrier.

Sprint says that Spark will be available to 100 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2014, and the company is upgrading its antennas and receivers to use 8 transmitters, capable of handling tri-band frequencies and a spectrum range that can handle 180 megabit speeds, theoretically, by the end of 2015.

Nintendo revealed today that they sold just 460,000 Wii U consoles for the 180 day period ending September 30, 2013.

The shocking figure comes as part of the company's latest earnings report.

This most recent quarter was an improvement over the last quarter, with the gaming giant selling 300,000 units compared to 160,000. The console was obviously helped by a price cut and new higher profile releases such as Pikmin 3 and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD.

Thanks to a weak yen, the company did manage a $6.1 million profit, which was a decent turnaround for the company that lost $168 million last year.

Nintendo had internal targets of 9 million Wii U sales by the end of the company's 2014 financial year (year ended March 2014). That target seems utterly impossible, as the console has yet to reach 4 million units sold since launch.

The 3DS had a much better quarter, selling 3.89 million units, along with software sales hitting 27.38 million units thanks to new first party titles like Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. Pokemon X and Y are expected to help next quarter's 3DS sales improve even more.