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A new class action suit filed by Robbins, Geller, Rudman, & Dowd has accused Microsoft of hiding major losses related to its Surface RT tablet.

Last month, the company reported its quarterly earnings and had to take a $900 million write-off for inventory adjustments and the recent 30 percent price cut made on the failed tablet.

The complaint accuses the software giant of "materially misrepresenting the true financial effect" that the tablet was having on the company's businesses and that it failed to tell investors about the excess inventory of Surface RT it was hoarding at the time.

By failing to alert shareholders, the company violated "generally accepted accounting principles" and "SEC rules and regulations."

Reads the suit (via AllTD): "What Defendants knew, but failed to disclose to investors, however, was that Microsoft's foray into the tablet market was an unmitigated disaster, which left it with a large accumulation of excess, over-valued Surface RT inventory. Defendants' materially false and misleading conduct enabled Microsoft to forestall Surface RT's day of reckoning and delay what would be tantamount to an admission by the Company that its all-important entry into the tablet market had been a failure."

Netflix has released their July data of the "Netflix ISP Speed Index," showing off which ISPs "provide the best Netflix streaming experience."

Posted below is the U.S. index, but there are maps for other countries, as well, here.

The company compiles the data from all of its 36 million Netflix subscribers. The company says its members stream over 1 billion hours of TV and movies per month, meaning the data has a pretty solid set to reference.

Google Fiber offers the best experience, by a long shot, which is none too surprising given it is far and away the fastest consumer Internet available.

Earlier this week, HTC announced it was beginning its most expensive marketing campaign ever, unveiling the "Change" brand platform.

Actor Robert Downey Jr. is the centerpiece of the campaign and will be featured in all new ads and commercial spots.

The company says the campaign will roll out in three phases, with the first phase "highlighting HTC's brand with a playful take on what it means to different people." The next phase "will feature executions which highlight how HTC innovations--like BlinkFeed, Video Highlights and BoomSound--have changed the face of the mobile industry." Finally, the third phase "will focus on how HTC products empower individuals to drive change in their own lives."

Here is the first ad:

Prosecutors in Brazil allege that Samsung Electronics imposes harsh working conditions on employees at a factory in the Amazon region.

The Manaus prosecutors office reported one worker having to package nearly 3,000 phones in a day. It has accused Samsung of labor law violations for making employees work long shifts without sufficient breaks throughout. The factory employees around 6,000 people.

Prosecutors allege that a worker at the factory has only 32 seconds to assemble a mobile phone and 65 seconds to put together a television set. Employees who gave evidence to the office said that shifts can last up to 15 hours, and that back aches and cramps were common among the workforce.

Samsung said it would fully co-operate with the investigation.

"We are committed to offering our collaborators around the world a work environment that ensures the highest standards when it comes to safety, health and well-being," a Samsung statement said.

The prosecutors office will seek more than 250 million reais - about $108 million - in damages.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has told Sky not to air a TV ad featuring Bruce Willis, saying the ad is misleading to consumers.

The ad featured the star walking into the offices of an ISP to complain about the quality of his service (download limits), when he is told to switch to Sky Broadband as its "totally unlimited." A voice-over then reveals that the service is £7.50 per month.

A viewer complained to the advertising watchdog saying that Sky didn't make it clear the extent of the commitment customers have to make in order to receive the unlimited service for £7.50 per month. On screen small print does say that Sky Talk, calls and line rental were required, from £14.50 per month.

At the beginning of the ad, the small print also says "Sky TV from £21.50 a month, box and set up costs may apply." The Advertising Standards Authority found the ad to be misleading, since it was clearly not aimed at existing Sky customers.

Microsoft's Xbox One console is more aware of temperature and power usage than the Xbox 360 was, according to Xbox general manager of console development Leo del Castillo.

The Xbox 360 console was plagued for multiple years after it was released with hardware problems that often had overheating at their core. In later hardware revisions and software updates for the console, it became more sensitive to heat issues and would warn users and shut down if the system got too hot.

With the Xbox One, the console can scale back its power usage to a state that will produce much less heat, which is something the Xbox 360 couldn't do.

"One thing that we have more flexibility with...with the architecture of the Xbox One, is that we can dial back the power of the box considerably," he said. "We had a little less flexibility with the 360. And so basically, if we couldn't dissipate the heat, there wasn't a whole lot of leverage we could pull to keep the heat from being generated, so we had a limited amount of time before it just shut down. Xbox One can actually dial it back to a lower power state, so low in fact that it can [be] in a mode that uses virtually no air flow."

Microsoft has announced the Season Pass Guarantee, which means if you buy a season pass on Xbox 360, you will get a season pass for the same games on Xbox One.

Of course, that means you would need to own the same game on both platforms. The point of the guarantee is to make transitioning from Xbox 360 to Xbox One an easier and smoother process, so you don't have to worry about which console you're playing games on or repurchasing your existing add-ons on Xbox One.

Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are lined up to take part in the Season Pass Guarantee program so far, and Microsoft said it will announce more participants in the coming months.

Earlier today, Microsoft also announced that it would have to cut the number of markets it launches in from 21 to 13, with the 8 countries that will miss the November launch expected to get the new console in 2014.

The Radio Times website has gotten caught up in the middle of an anti-piracy effort aimed at blocking providers of live streams (or links) of football games.

In a scenario that mirrors exactly what digital rights advocates warned about, the unrelated Radio Times website was partially blocked to UK Internet users because it shared an Internet Protocol address with First Row Sports, which is a website that was ordered blocked in the UK recently.

Users who attempted to reach "radiotimes.com" (without the WWW.) would be unable to reach the site as the anti-piracy block would take effect. Naturally, Radio Times are less than pleased.

"It's outrageous that our website has been suddenly switched off and our users wrongly informed that it's to protect against copyright infringement," said Ben Preston, according to the BBC News website..

"The Premier League seems to be behaving like the worst sort of blundering striker who's forgotten the first rule of football - check you're at the right end before you shoot."

Other sites reportedly affected incorrectly by the block include the websites of the Blackburn Rovers, Reading and Brentford football clubs, and the Notes from Nature science project and Galaxy Zoo space education site. The way the system works means that ISPs have to rely on rights holders to correctly identify offenders, but this system has been criticized exactly because it could snag unrelated sites just as it has in this case.

Microsoft has confirmed that the anticipated Windows 8.1 update will begin to roll-out on October 18.

Windows 8.1 will start rolling out worldwide as a free update from 12:00am on October 18th in New Zealand (4:00am October 17 in Redmond) through the Windows Store. It will also be available at retail and on new devices starting on October 18th by market.

Windows 8.1 improves areas of Microsoft's flagship OS, like personalization features, an improved Windows Store experience, cloud connectivity with SkyDrive and so on. The update is seen as a response by Microsoft to a lot of negative feedback it received since Windows 8 launched last year.

Microsoft has already released a preview version of Windows 8.1 which you can download.

Activision has boasted the success of its Call of Duty franchise with a new infographic that shows the mind-numbing amount of time spent playing the games.

Since the release of Call of Duty 4 (2007), Activision claims that over 100 million people have played a CoD title, which is larger than the populations of many countries, like the United Kingdom, France or Germany. CoD gamers have clocked up an impressive 25 billion hours playing the games, or about 2.85 million years, which the infographic points out is longer than humanity has been around, which it is by more than ten fold.

In all that combat, more than 32.3 quadrillion (32,300,000,000,000,000) shots have been fired, while over 5 billion cars have been destroyed. Players have called in 31 billion Care Packages since the features was introduced in Modern Warfare 2.

Here is the graphic.

Microsoft has restored its YouTube app for Windows Phone devices after seemingly coming to an agreement with Google.

There was a public spat over the YouTube app back in May, due to the fact that the app could download videos for local playback, and didn't display any ads. When Google lashed out at Microsoft, it removed the ability to download videos but still didn't display any ads.

When Google persisted with complaints, Microsoft pulled the YouTube app altogether and replaced it with an older app.

Now the newer app has been restored and displays pre-roll ads on monetized YouTube videos. It also adds a feature to upload videos, but Ars points out a very annoying limitation of the feature. Over cell networks, only short videos - less than 5MB - can be uploaded. Anything bigger requires a Wi-Fi connection, but even at that, any video over 20MB requires external power, and any over 100MB simply won't upload.

This is due to the upload being a background transfer, which has some advantages for app switching, but when Lumia phones can record HD videos, even the 100MB limitation is too much.

Sony seems to be preparing to begin selling a 12GB flash-based PS3 console in North America from the end of this week.

Canadian retailer Future Shop had the 12GB PS3 listed today before it was promptly taken down, though Engagdet did manage to get a screenshot of the listing before it was removed, and then another picture allegedly from a KMart stockroom in the U.S. of the retail packaging of the console.

Sony revealed earlier this year that it was going to be releasing a 12GB flash-based PS3 in parts of Europe and Hong Kong, but denied that it would ship in North America.

The Future Shop listing had the 12GB model "in stock" at $199.99.

Microsoft has revealed that the Xbox One console will launch in 13 markets in November, down from a goal of 21 markets set at E3.

The Xbox One console will launch in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, in November. However, it has had to delay the launch in several markets originally intended for November, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland.

"While we wish we could launch Xbox One simultaneously in these markets, there are many factors that determine the timing of specific market launches," a Microsoft statement reads.

"This includes work to localize the Xbox One dash, incorporate additional voice and languages, and build partnerships to bring apps and meaningful local content to each country."

For users in those right countries who have already pre-ordered an Xbox One console, Microsoft has promised they will receive a pack-in game with your console when it launches.

A Russian man has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court in New Jersey to charges related to the largest cybercrime case prosecuted in the country.

Prosecutors allege that Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, of Moscow, conspired with a group of hackers from Russia and the Ukraine to steal more than 160 credit card numbers that cost victims over $300 million. Among the targets were NASDAQ and Heartland Payment Systems Inc. Jet Blue Airways and J.C. Penney were also hit by the group.

Smilianets denies the allegations and claims that he is looking into irregularities with the circumstances of his arrest last year in Holland.

He allegedly sold credit card data starting at $10 for a U.S. card and $50 for a European card. He was extradited to the United States in September 2012, and has remained in federal custody ever since.

He faces up to 30 years for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 30 years for committing wire fraud and 5 years each for gaining unauthorized access to computers and conspiracy to gain access.

Prosecutors are also seeking the extradition of Alexandr Kalinin, another suspect that is living in Russia.

Samsung has announced the availability of its curved 55-inch KN55S9C OLED television in the United States, selling for a whopping $8,999.

Samsung says its curved tv offers an unprecedented leap forward for picture quality, sharp contrast and a whole new way to experience television. The self-emitting RGB sub-pixels are laid directly on the color display panel, so no color filter is required. Without the need for backlighting, the Samsung Curved OLED TV displays pictures with absolute blacks at a contrast ratio never before seen on conventional TVs, the South Korean giant says.

"As a leader in standout design and television display technology, Samsung's new Curved OLED TV sets the bar for the next generation of televisions coming to market," said Joe Stinziano, Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics America.

"Customers have come to expect brilliance from Samsung, and our Curved OLED TV is just that. With true-to-life color, ultimate contrast, and superior picture quality, this new TV delivers an astonishing home entertainment experience."