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Although the Apple App Store remains the king, Google's Play Store is quickly seeing an increase in growth and share in the global app market.

App store analytics firm Distimo says Google Play accounted for 19 percent of all app store revenue in November 2012, and that figure has grown by a full 8 percentage points to 27 percent share as of April 30th.

Despite the growth, the Apple App Store still appears to be the most beneficial for developers. Daily revenue generated by the top 200 apps in the Google Play Store was $1.1 million compared to $5.1 million for the Apple App Store.

The apps include paid applications and free apps with in-app purchase options.

Microsoft has unveiled a new model of the Surface Pro tablet for Japan.

The tablet has 256GB internal storage, a full copy of Office 2013 and of course, Windows 8 Pro.

Available June 7th, prices start at 99,000 yen ($990 USD). At 256GB, it will be the largest capacity tablet available from Microsoft.

Additionally, some customers will get new exclusive Touch Covers, with designs by Beams, Rodeo Crowns and others. Limited to Japan, Microsoft will hold a contest and give away 100 such covers.

More details here: Surface Pro 256GB

Japanese carrier SoftBank has received national security clearance in its efforts to purchase Sprint Nextel for $20.1 billion.

Both companies were notified by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and the deal is now expected to close on July 1st.

Dish Network made a competing $25.5 billion bid last month, claiming that SoftBank having control of a U.S. phone network would compromise national security. It appears the CFI did not agree. As part of the new agreement, the companies must "appoint an independent security director to the new Sprint board."

The security director will have to be approved by U.S. agencies and will be the main contact between Sprint Nextel and the government. Regulators will also have oversight on all network-equipment and services purchased by the merged company.

If the acquisition is completed, SoftBank will own 70 percent of Sprint, the U.S.' third-largest carrier.

Last week, it was reported that the new Xbox One would not allow indie developers to self-publish games for the console.

Understandably, developers and gamers alike were very critical of the news but now it appears that Microsoft will include some kind of support for indie development.

"We're going to have an independent creator program," says Don Mattrick, Microsoft's head of interactive entertainment. "We're going to sponsor it. We're going to give people tools. We're going to give more information."

Of the program, itself, Mattrick said "We're going to have an independent creator program... There's no way we're going to build a box that doesn't support that."

Sony employees have responded to the campaign, which had been gaining steam.

The #PS4NoDRM campaign was aimed at stopping the company from using any kind of restrictive DRM as displayed by Microsoft for their Xbox One.

For example, Microsoft is said to be potentially blocking used games unless gamers pay a fee. Other reports claim used games will have to be deactivated from the original device before they can be played on a second device, which would be understandable given that all games must be installed to the hard drive. Regardless, the outcry has been immense.

Besides the aforementioned hashtag, the campaign also used #PS4USEDGAMES on Twitter, aiming the messages at Sony employees and executives. There were plenty of responses, including one from SCEA producer Nick Accordino: "Humbled by the outpouring of passionate PlayStation fans and their willingness to talk to us directly. Please know that we hear you. <3"

According to a new report from Experian, iPhone users spend more time on their phone than Android users.

Usage data shows that Apple fans spend 26 more minutes per day on their iPhones than Android smartphone users do.

On average, Android users spend 49 minutes per day, while iPhone users spend an hour and 15.

Breaking down the phone usage, Android users spend 28 percent of their time on phone calls compared to just 22 percent for iPhone users. Apple users make up for that time by spending 22 percent of their time texting, compared to 16 percent for Android.

Android users browse the Web more often and both spend an equal amount of time on social networking sites or apps.

For the last three years, Blizzard has been rumored to be working on a new MMO dubbed "Project Titan." The game will be its own franchise independent of World of Warcraft, that is if it can ever be actually built.

According to Ars, the company is now cutting back on the project's team and starting all development again from scratch.

At this point the game is expected to launch in 2016.

This would be a serious let down, as Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said this in 2011 about the game: "Without giving away any details, we have some of our most experienced MMO developers, people who spent years working on the World of Warcraft team, working on this project."

Blizzard recently revealed that World of Warcraft players are down to 8 million from a peak of 12 million earlier in the decade.

Last night, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke during the D11 Conference, and he had a lot to say about the future of Apple.

The exec says the company has plenty of more "game-changers" in us, the same sort the helped Apple become the biggest tech company in the world.

Cook confirmed that iOS 7 would be unveiled in two weeks at the annual WWDC, although there is still little know about the operating system outside of rumor and leaks.

When asked about innovation (and the company's recent lack of it), Cook noted: "Many people now say that innovation means a new category. Yes, we're still a company that's going to do that... We have some incredible plans that we've been working on for a while."

Many took this to mean that Apple could be expanding their TV offerings, including the Apple TV set-top box and the long rumored Apple "iTV" HDTV set. All Cook would say in response was "When you look at the TV experience, it's not an experience that people love. It's not an experience that's been brought up to date for this decade." He also noted that the company has sold 13 million Apple TVs since launch, with 6.5 million in the last year, alone.

According to a former AMD employee, Microsoft's new Xbox One deal with the company is valued at over $3 billion.

Bob Feldstein, formerly of AMD and now with Nvidia, let the number slip via his LinkedIn page. On the page, the exec writes that "AMD provided a custom silicon solution to Microsoft for the XBox One, a game console and entertainment device."

Continuing, he says: "My involvement was focused on business management and supply agreement negotiations. This required the coordination of multiple functional teams within AMD, as well as regular customer meetings with leadership teams responsible for handling the challenges of complex, multi-year deals. This project is valued at $3+B."

Although the complete specs are not known just yet, the Xbox One will run on a 64bit AMD architecture and include 8GB RAM.

According to sources, the newly released fourth season of 'Arrested Development' was pirated over 100,000 times in its first 24 hours.

As expected, copies of the show were available via warez and torrent sites minutes after the show launched exclusively on Netflix on Sunday.

While the number may seem low when compared to Game of Thrones and other broadcast hits, it is important to note that Arrested Development is a cult classic with a (growing) audience. Additionally, there are over 35 million Netflix subscribers around the world, with full access.

Netflix continues to invest 9 figures in original content, with three hits so far this year including House of Cards and Hemlock Grove.

Microsoft has filed a dispute over the XboxOne.com, hoping to regain control of the domain.

The dispute was filed with the National Arbitration Forum, an ICANN-approved organization for such matters.

While cyber squatting is a problem, this is not necessarily the case in this situation. The owners of the domain, UK residents, purchased XboxOne.com in December 2011, likely some time before Microsoft decided on naming its Xbox 360 sequel.

Right now the domain is not being used for anything, so Microsoft should have a decent case. Additionally, the software giant is expected to claim the site would be confusing to consumers if not owned by Microsoft.

For now, the dispute will go to the organization, with the result expected before the console's launch in November or December.

Two weeks ago, we reported that the NVIDIA SHIELD "console" would be available for pre-orders through multiple retail partners starting on May 17th.

Today, Nvidia's Vice President of Investor Relations Rob Csongor has said all May pre-orders will ship in August.

The 'console-grade' controller features a 720p display, powered by Tegra 4 and running Android. "SHIELD is the one device that taps into the planet's largest ecosystem of games -- spanning NVIDIA TegraZone, Google Play and Steam," NVIDIA's announcement reads. "Rediscover your Android games with the mobility, control and performance of SHIELD. Connect to your Google Play account to enjoy your favorite movies, music and apps."

NVIDIA SHIELD's specifications:

• Tegra 4 – The world's fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
• Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
• Multi-touch display – 5-inch, 720p retinal multi-touch display for high-fidelity visuals
• Integrated speakers – Custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system – we think this is SHIELD's sleeper feature
• Wi-Fi – 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi for game streaming
• Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
• There's more – NVIDIA put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack

LG had two Android announcements today, one of which was the recently reported white model of the Nexus 4.

The second piece of news is that LG is not working on the upcoming Nexus 5.

News comes via Kim Wong, Head of LG Europe: "There are currently no plans for a Nexus 5 made by us. We don't need that kind of marketing exposure anymore. The Nexus 4 was a great success, even with the supply issues and we have a great relationship with Google. But we won't make the Nexus 5."

LG had been rumored to be working on the device, which should be released sometime between December and February like all of the last Nexus phones have been.

LG has unveiled their oft-rumored white model of the popular Nexus 4 stock Android smartphone.

The device will launch tomorrow in Hong Kong, and rollout to the rest of the globe "over the next several weeks."

"Nexus 4 set the standard for Android 4.2 Jelly Bean smartphones," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. "Nexus 4 White delivers the same Google experience to consumers in a stylish and attractive color option."

The Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch 1280-by-768 True HD IPS Plus display (320ppi), runs the latest version of Android and is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB RAM.

Pricing has not been unveiled but should match the original at $299 for the base model.

BuzzFeed has announced today the start of "CNN BuzzFeed," a YouTube channel that includes content from CNN and is designed to be shared via social media amongst young adults.

At launch, the channel will have about three video per week, with BuzzFeed looking to "tackle" the most serious news events.

Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed COO, says the company will be investing over $10 million over the next two years to build the platform.

The move is not the first for BuzzFeed, which recently launched a business news site aimed at the 18-34 demographic. All content from the new channel will also be available on CNN.com.

Will the site eventually have ads? "BuzzFeed and CNN will figure out ways to do various ad formats and sponsored content down the road," Mr. Steinberg added (via WSJ).