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Samsung has announced a major partnership with Best Buy today, with the latter adding 1400 Samsung Experience Shops within their retail locations across the U.S.

The Experience Shops will be run by "Samsung Experience Consultants" who are trained to provide demonstrations and give instructions on all Samsung mobile products including smartphones, tablets, laptops, connected cameras and accessories.

Additionally, "Smart Service" at the Shops will help customers with Samsung account set up, warranty issues and registration and all "post purchase support."

Best Buy locations currently have dedicated Apple counters, but they are not manned by Apple employees.

According to Apple analyst Brian White of Topeka Capital, Apple's oft-rumored HDTV will come with a ring-shaped motion controller, allowing users to control their TV with the wave or point of a finger.

In his client note, the analyst claims Apple will finally launch the TV later this year, and it will "revolutionize the TV experience forever."

The iRing will be one of the centerpieces of the new experience, as it acts as "a navigation pointer," enhancing motion detection and replacing some of the basic functions of a remote control.

Additionally, White says all TVs will come with a "mini iTV" 9.7-inch display that can be used phone calls, video conferencing and to view other content: "Essentially, we believe the 'mini iTV' screens will be able to capture content from the 60-inch 'iTV' across a distance of up to 200 meters, allowing a user to view 'iTV' content in the kitchen, washroom, garage, bedroom, backyard, etc. We believe Apple will offer one 'mini iTV' per 'iTV,' but package options will include up to four screens (i.e., one screen is part of the standard package and pay extra for each additional."

According to a new Digitimes report, Samsung has some pretty lofty ambitions for 2013.

The company wants to sell 500 million feature and smartphones this year, a number that will require strong growth.

In 2012, IDC reports that Samsung shipped 406 million devices, so this year's growth will have to exceed 23 percent to reach the 500 million mark.

From 2011, Samsung saw 21 percent growth, mainly due to strong sales of their Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2 smartphones.

The company's latest flagship, the Galaxy S4 is set for launch around the globe in the coming months, and is expected to be a hit seller.

Google has released their early April OS version share update, and Android 4.x saw a nice boost from earlier in the year.

Jelly Bean, versions 4.1.x and 4.2.x, are now on 25 percent of all Android devices, jumping from 16.5 percent last month.

Gingerbread (version 2.3.x), is still on 39.8 percent of devices, followed by Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x) on 29.3 percent and all other versions combining for 6 percent.

The Android Devs say the huge jump was most likely due to a new method of calculating the figures. The numbers were formerly pulled from devices that checked into Google servers but now (and moving forward) will be calculated by visits to the Google Play Store.

Reads the post: "The new device dashboards are based on the devices of users who visit the Google Play Store (rather than devices that have checked-in to Google servers). As a result, the dashboards more accurately reflect the users most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem--and thus most likely to download and use your apps."

A day ahead of the major Facebook event tomorrow, a few sites have posted leaks of the alleged Facebook Phone.

The phone is supposedly called the HTC First, and will feature Facebook's Android variant, rumored to be called "Home."

If accurate, the device itself does look like a rather generic HTC device, but it is also unclear who the phone will be marketed to.

As reported, the Facebook Home will be a modified version of Android that includes deep integration with the social network. It will keep most of Android's foundations but will have "all sorts of extra Facebook functionality built in." The home screen would be highly dedicated to Facebook. This could include a widget reading Facebook news feed stories, and easy access to Facebook Messenger, Facebook voice calls and picture uploads.

The event is scheduled for 10AM PST tomorrow.

LG has confirmed that it will be launching phones this year that run on the Mozilla Firefox mobile operating system.

The phones will launch in the South American nations of Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela as well as in Spain.

Additionally, the company will expand its launch to Hungary, Mexico, Serbia, Montenegro and Poland during the Q4 2013 and Q1 2014.

The company was quick to note, however, that "LG's planned launch of Firefox phones is a means to meet diversifying consumer needs but this doesn't indicate any shift away from Android."

ZTE and Huawei have also announced Firefox phones, but major player Samsung has already stated they will not be building phones with the OS.

Rovio, the Finnish gaming company behind the 'Angry Birds' franchise, has reported a very profitable 2012.

The company reported revenue of $200 million with a $71 million profit.

Overall revenue grew 101 percent year-over-year, from a bit above $96 million in 2011.

In 2012, the company released four new games; Angry Birds Space, Amazing Alex, Bad Piggies, and Angry Birds Star Wars. More importantly, however, the company teamed up with major retailers like Walmart to sell consumer products like shirts, plushes and even sodas.

Rovio CMO Pete Vesterbacka has long called Disney its aspiration, in regards to becoming a huge entertainment brand.

Former Windows Phone GM Charlie Kindel has announced this week that he has been hired by Amazon, fueling rumors that Amazon's oft-rumored smartphone may be in the works.

Kindel's LinkedIn profile says his role is "director of something secret" and he is already looking to "build a new team going after a totally new area for Amazon."

In his past life, Kindel worked for Microsoft working with mobile developers.

Last year, the former head of Windows Phone Developer Experience, Brandon Watson, joined Amazon's Kindle team.

Sony has announced today that the Epix streaming service is now available to PlayStation 3 users in the U.S.

The VOD catalog has 3000 movies all available in HD, alongside comedy specials, concerts and some sporting events.

Sony added that all PSN members will get a 14-day free trial. If you subscribe to PlayStation Plus, you will be able to watch one movie for free every week for the whole year.

It is unclear which movies will be available for free, however.

Finally, the company notes that a PS Vita mobile app will be available very soon.

The former owner and operator of a piracy index (linking) site has been sentenced to five months jailtime in Italy.

Additionally, the 43-year old, Giampiero Mantellassi, will have to pay a 5000 euro fine and 15,000 euros in compensation to the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE)

The site was Vedogratis.it, and it linked to movies that were available illegally on streaming portals. The site first opened in 2008, and authorities say it generated ad revenue from over 50,000 daily users.

Mantellassi claimed the site did nothing wrong as it did not host any of the content, but apparently that argument did not work.

HBO programming president Michael Lombardo has made comments this weekend that other media companies would do well to listen to.

The executive claims that the massive amount of piracy for their hit show, Game of Thrones, does not hurt DVD/Blu-ray sales at all, and is actually a compliment.

It was recently revealed that each episode of the show sees over 4.3 million illegal downloads, making it the most-pirated TV show in the world, beating out perennial faves like 'Dexter.'

"I probably shouldn't be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts," adds Lombardo (via Freak). "[Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network." When asked if consumers are still going out to buy the discs, Lombardo replied, "The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales."

AT&T has announced this week that it will be the exclusive carrier for HTC's 64GB model of the upcoming 'One' flagship.

The carrier confirmed the fact via a promotional video on the company YouTube account.

HTC will be offering 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models, as well, depending on your carrier.

The company recently had to delay their flagship due to component supply issues related to the new 'Ultrapixel' camera. HTC says the phone will reach the U.S. before the end of April.

HTC also recently announced it had seen "several hundred thousand" pre-orders so far in the U.S., spread out between Sprint, T-Mobile USA and AT&T. Verizon has not yet been confirmed as a carrier for the device.

In a creative April Fool's jokes aimed at their biggest detractors, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has announced today that it has moved its servers to the U.S., and will forever be known now as "Freedom Bay."

Reads the post:

You probably heard about our recent move to North Korea.

Many of you rightfully bashed us for siding with a dictatorship. We want you to know that we have listened to your critique.

So without further due, we hereby announce that we have moved our servers from the evil North Korea to the greatest f***in nation in the entire world.

The United States of America, f*** yeah!

We have worked closely with the awesome american government to establish a strong military graded server park that will endure any nuclear attacks that Kim Jong Un and his evil allies will send at Us.

Along with this move to the greatest country in the universe, we will soon remove all torrents from North Korea, China, Iran, France and Islamistan. American torrents will be seeded with extra power, to ensure that you'll get your american dose extra fast.

Apple has been denied in their attempt to trademark the iPad Mini.

The US Patents and Trademarks Office denied the application, claiming that Apple can't trademark "iPad Mini" because the law does not allow them to trademark the word mini, which is simply a description of something in miniature form.

Reads the letter: "The term "MINI" in the applied for mark is also descriptive of a feature of applicant's product. Specifically, the attached evidence shows this wording means "something that is distinctively smaller than other members of its type or class". See attached definition. The word "mini" has been held merely descriptive of goods that are produced and sold in miniature form. The examining attorney has also attached evidence from an internet search showing third party descriptive use of the term "mini" to describe the small size of various handheld digital devices. See attached evidence. Therefore, the wording merely describes a feature of applicant's goods, namely, a small sized handheld tablet computer."

Reads Google's latest blog post:

Gmail launched nine years ago on April 1st, 2004. Since then you've been able to use hundreds of new features that push the boundaries of what email can do and make it easier to get things done.

Starting today, you'll get to experience the next big step for Gmail, Gmail Blue. Watch the video to learn more: