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A Robert W. Baird analyst is predicting that Rockstar Games' latest Grand Theft Auto title will beat the early success of its predecessor, released in 2008.

When released in 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. It sold 3.6 million copies off the shelf on its very first day. The number swelled to 6 million copies in the first week, and 11 million in the first month.

Fast forward over five years to today, with the release of the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and there are plenty of reasons to expect it to beat GTA IV, according to Colin Sebastian, a Robert W. Baird analyst.

"Given the significantly higher installed base of relevant console platforms at launch, greater sales concentration among the top video game franchises, and unprecedented pentup demand, we expect GTAV to outpace GTAIV sales, and generate roughly $1 billion in retail sales during the first month," he said in a note to investors.

Grand Theft Auto V breaks from tradition by allowing you to control three different main characters; Michael De Santa is a retired bank robber, Trevor Phillips is a former criminal associate and Franklin Clinton is a repo man looking to expand his horizons a bit. Their stories are interconnected and they combine their skills to pull of missions.

Microsoft has acknowledged a zero-day vulnerability affecting all versions of Internet Explorer, and has rushed out a temporary fix while working on it.

The flaw affects all versions of Internet Explorer from 6 to IE11, although so far only Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 are subjects of attacks in the wild.

This issue could allow remote code execution if an affected system browses to a website containing malicious content directed towards the specific browser type. This would typically occur when an attacker compromises the security of trusted websites regularly frequented, or convinces someone to click on a link in an email or instant message.

While Microsoft is working on an update for its hrowser to immunize against exploits in the wild, it is offering IE users a workaround in the form of a Microsoft Fix It solution, which you can download from Microsoft.com.

Google's new Nexus 7 tablet is reportedly being shunned by Verizon, which has said the tablet cannot be activated on its network.

The news comes as a surprise given that the Verizon logo was clearly visible at the Nexus 7 unveiling. Customers who have just gotten their hands on the new Google tablet were running into problems activating the device on Verizon's network, and according to Verizon Support on Twitter, it simply can't be activated.

@jeffjarvis I'm excited you got your Nexus 7 but not all LTE tablets are created equal. It's not part of our line up & can't be activated^JH

-- VZW Support (@VZWSupport) September 17, 2013

One workaround is to use an LTE SIM card that has been transfered from another device working on the Verizon network.

The news is likely to get under Google's skin very quickly, as it had urged the FCC to make Verizon understand that the open access provisions in its license obligations - when it licensed wireless spectrum at auction in 2008 - must be complied with

Pre-orders of Apple's new iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S have hit 100,000 according to China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd.

When Apple released its iPhone 5 in China in December of last year, over 2 million units were sold in the first three days of availability. China is seen as crucial in the extremely competitive smartphone market, but it clearly is a hard nut to crack.

The simple fact is the vast, vast majority of Chinese mobile users could never afford to pick up an iPhone, but at the same time, China has a growing wealthy population and a growing middle class.

"Since Unicom began online preorders, order volumes have surpassed 100,000 units," China Unicom revealed on its Weibo account.

It provides the first indication for demand for the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C in the Chinese market.

Both devices will be available to purchase in China on Friday.

Mozilla has released the Firefox 24 update, addressing some serious security flaws in the open source browser.

In total, the update addresses 17 security advisories, of which Mozilla deemed it necessary to rate 7 as critical flaws.

"Mozilla developers identified and fixed several memory safety bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances, and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code." MSFA 2013-76 states.

The bugs were also fixed Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 17.0.9 (the browser packed in the TOR browser bundle), Thunderbird 24.0, Thunderbird ESR 17.0.9 and Seamonkey 2.21.

Besides security updates, Firefox 24 also brings support for a new scrollbar style in Mac OS X 10.7, the ability to tear-off chat windows to view separately by simply dragging them out, and a new option to close all open tabs "to the right" of an active tab, by right clicking and selecting the option. This is intended to make life easier for those of us who end up with dozens of tabs open after shotgun browsing for too long.

Get the latest Firefox release from: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

SanDisk has unveiled the fastest memory card in the world, the Extreme Pro CFast 2.0.

As the product name suggests, it is based on the CFast 2.0 draft specifications released by the CompactFlash Association recently - the first of its kind. It will be available with storage capacity of 60GB and 120GB, and it should be noted that write speed drops to 225MB/s for the 60GB card.

According to SanDisk, the beast of a card supports read speeds of up to 450MB/s and write speeds up to 350MB/s. With the SanDisk Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 memory card, it takes only four minutes to transfer 100GB at max speed, according to SanDisk, though these numbers are subject to many factors such as host device, file attributes and so on.

"With the SanDisk Extreme Pro CFast 2.0 card, we are enabling a next generation card format to meet the needs of high-end professional cinematographers," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk.

"These cards will enable new digital solutions for professional filmmakers looking to embrace technologies such as high-quality 4K video, and are another example of SanDisk's innovation and leadership in flash memory storage."

Netflix is a legal alternative to using piracy to get content online, but it admits that piracy sites give it valuable information about what subscribers likely want to watch.

One of the most difficult constant challenges for Netflix is gaining the rights to stream content. It needs to strike a balance between the often exceptional fees demanded by content providers, and making sure to have listings good enough to attract potential new customers to the relatively low-cost service.

Given that Netflix needs to restrict content it streams by region, the job is even more difficult, as is determining what content will be the best investment in each region.

That is where sources of online piracy offer a valuable, free service to the streaming giant; in order to figure out what to add to its listings in a particular region, Netflix checks the torrent (and other) sites to see what is the most pirated in that region.

"With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites," Kelly Merryman, Vice President of Content Acquisition at Netflix, told Tweakers (Dutch).

Mozilla has confirmed that its Windows 8 'Modern' version of Firefox has been postponed, again, this time until January.

The company had estimated an early December launch for the touch version of the browser, following two prior delays.

A "Preview Release" will still be released on Tuesday along with the alpha build of Firefox 26.

"The goal of the Metro Preview Release is to gather feedback and defects from the larger Aurora community," Mozilla noted. "Whether or not the Metro Preview Release will graduate from Aurora to Beta and Release channels is still to be determined. At a minimum, it should significantly increase the number of testers and feedback."

Mozilla started developing their Modern edition 18 months ago, with a very basic preview released alongside Windows 8 in October 2012. At the time, the company expected the browser to be completed by January 2013. That clearly did not happen.

Tencent has announced it will acquire a large 36.5 percent stake in Sohu's Sogou search engine.

The search engine is the third-largest in China, but one of its fastest growing.

After the purchase, the company's share could increase to 40 percent in the future, says Tencent.

The company will pay $448 million for the share.

Sogou has 10 percent share of the market, ahead of Tencent's Soso search engine at 3.15 percent, but well below Qihoo 360 at 17 percent and Baidu at 66.4 percent.

Intel has purchased the Spanish artificial intelligence technology startup Indisys, a company that focuses on natural language recognition.

The deal was reportedly around €20 million ($26 million) and follows Intel's recent acquisition of Omek, an Israeli startup with specialties in gesture-based interfaces.

Indisys employees have joined Intel already, confirms the company: "Intel has acquired Indisys, a privately held company based in Seville, Spain. The majority of Indisys employees joined Intel. We signed the agreement to acquire the company on May 31 and the deal has been completed. However, I can confirm that the value of the transaction is not material to Intel."

Intel would not confirm how they are using the tech: "Indisys has a deep background in computational linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and machine learning. We are not disclosing any details about how Intel might use the Indisys technologies at this time."

Following the launch of T-Mobile's Jump early upgrade program, rival carriers have scrambled to unveil their own services.

It is Sprint's turn now, with the company ready to debut 'One Up' on September 20th, say reports.

As with other services, customers will pay monthly installments for their new phones and have the ability to trade it in every year for a new one at no extra charge.

Making 'One Up' different is that, unlike T-Mobile, there is no additional fee per month. T-Mobile costs $10 extra per month to sign up for the program. Verizon and AT&T don't offer any discounts on your monthly service plan, but One Up does.

When broken down, One Up charges about 50 percent of the phone's retail price to let you use it for a year, before you can trade it in.

After long threatening to do so, Kim Dotcom has sued the New Zealand government over the illegal spying against him and the raid on his home and personal property.

The government admitted the spying was illegal, and a New Zealand court granted Dotcom the rights to sue earlier this year.

Dotcom and other plaintiffs are seeking about $7 million in damages. In court documents, Dotcom claims that the 'Five Eyes' spy-network (UK, US, Canada, NZ and Australia) were actively spying on him, illegally.

"The Prime Minister of New Zealand declined an independent inquiry into illegal spying," Dotcom told Ars. "Now my court case will uncover the truth about the [Government Communications Security Bureau] using X-Keyscore, Prism, and the Five Eyes spy cloud to spy on New Zealanders. The truth will come out."

Dotcom notes that the GCSB, New Zealand's version of the U.S.' National Security Agency had been spying on him "since at least December 16, 2011," well before the 2012 raid. Cameras were installed on adjacent properties to spy on Dotcom, reads the filings, and a hidden pencam was "used by Senior Constable Homan when he visited the Mahoenui Valley property on January 19, 2012, and that no search warrant had been obtained for this search."

AT&T, one of the ISPs that participates in the Copyright Alert System and its "six-strikes" system for copyright infringers, will in some cases terminate your account entirely if you are a repeat offender.

The CAS' main goal is to educate Internet users about copyright, whilst showing off legal alternatives.

Initial alerts will tell customers that their Internet is being used for unauthorized downloads, and subsequent alerts could range from more emails to mandatory educational courses online or even throttling of your speed.

AT&T, surprisingly, is taking it a step further telling alleged copyright infringers that an account termination is a possibility.

Here is the full CAS letter sent by AT&T (via TorrentFreak):

Copyright Infringement Alert

Dear (Primary Account Holder),

We are sending you this alert as part of our participation in the Copyright Alert Program -- an industry-wide initiative intended to help users understand their rights and responsibilities in the distribution of copyrighted content online.

According to Reuters, a handful of private equity firms are looking into BlackBerry, but there has so far been a very lukewarm response to buying the whole company.

Instead, the buyers seem interested in different parts of the struggling smartphone maker.

The company is currently valued at just above $5 billion, but in a break up could be worth upwards of $10 billion. BlackBerry's assets include the "services business that powers its security-focused messaging system, worth $3 billion to $4.5 billion; a collection of patents that could be worth $2 billion to $3 billion; and $3.1 billion in cash and investments."

Of course, the hardware business is worthless, but will cost up to $2 billion to liquidate entirely.

The report says at least five PE firms have "signed confidentiality agreements or have agreed to meetings with the company to gain access to the company's books." The sale process will likely start in a few weeks.

The hits just keep on coming for the struggling smartphone maker.

HTC has confirmed it has laid off 20 percent of its HTC America division, which includes employees and contractors. The division only has 150 employees but it is still significant for any division to get hit for such a figure.

The statement:

Today's reduction in force is a decisive action by HTC Corp (US) to streamline and optimize our organization and improve efficiencies after several years of aggressive growth. Realigning its human resources against key strategic initiatives will help HTC more effectively advance into a new stage of growth and innovation. This is a hard decision that has direct impact on people who have contributed to the growth HTC has experienced the past several years. However, to achieve our long-term goals as a business and return maximum value to our shareholders, this is a necessary step to drive ongoing innovation, ensure our ability to create strong products like the HTC One, and forge strong customer relationships that solidify our future. HTC is proud of its employees and has a track record of hiring the best and brightest; we continue to hire in strategic areas and encourage impacted employees to apply for open positions that are a fit for their skills.