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Following the conclusion of the current sequester, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will order 650,000 iOS devices from Apple, replacing older BlackBerry phones.

The agency had been testing BlackBerry 10 devices to save on costs, but it appears they were not ready for primetime.

Allegedly, the breakdown will be 210,000 iPhones, 220,000 iPads (including Minis) and 200,000 iPod Touches. Of the devices, "more than half are headed to the battlefield, afloat, and to associated support commands. Most of the rest will stay [at the Pentagon]."

The DoD currently has 470,000 BlackBerry devices in daily use, all of which use the older and outdated BlackBerry 7 operating system.

Twitter is celebrating its 7th birthday today.

On March 21st, 2006, founder Jack Dorsey tweeted "just setting up my twttr" starting the microblogging revolution.

The video features some of the more important events in the history of the service.

Additionally, Twitter also announced the milestone of hitting 200 million active users, with 400 million tweets being sent daily.

just setting up my twttr

-- Jack Dorsey (@jack) March 21, 2006

Behemoth video sharing site YouTube has now reached 1 billion unique monthly users.

The number is extremely significant given that there are just under 7 billion humans on Earth.

Says Google:

What does a billion people tuning into YouTube look like?
-Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube.
-Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences.
-If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India.
-PSY and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That's a lot of Gangnam Style!

While the rumors have been rampant for months, another leak from this week gives more credence to the rumor that the next Xbox will require an Internet connection and all games must be installed to the HDD.

VGLeaks posted screenshots of the Durango XDK (Development Kit) on Tuesday, and with them are some interesting facts.

The documentation says the console will include an HDD with enough capacity "to hold a large number of games." All games must be installed to the drive as "play from the optical drive will not be supported." That being said, it appears the discs will only be required for installation and then are useless.

Additionally, the documentation suggests the console will be "always on, always connected," which normally refers to a necessity of being connected to the Internet to be able to play games, including single-player modes.

Take everything from the screenshots with a grain of salt, however, as other sources are reporting that the documentation is from 2012, which could mean Microsoft has had a change of heart.

The Xbox Next is expected to be unveiled at this year's E3 for release over the holidays.

Droid-Life has posted a 6-minute long preview of the upcoming Google Play Store 4.0 application.

The update is expected to be unveiled at this year's I/O event, alongside an update to Android itself, either 4.3, or maybe even 5.0.

From the preview, the redesign is a major overhaul. All the fonts and pictures are larger (including new fonts) and the store is a bit more green (just in color, not environmental friendliness).

Take a look at the preview after the jump. You can start at 1 minute in and not miss anything:

According to the WSJ, HTC's longtime CEO has bet his job on the success of the One flagship device.

Reads the exact quote, "In a meeting in late 2012, Mr. Chou told senior executives he would step down if the new smartphone doesn't succeed, according to people familiar with the situation."

The company recently had to delay the launch of the smartphone, which features high-end specs and the company's latest version of the Sense UI.

Chou founded HTC in 1997 and has remained its chairman since.

HTC One has a 4.7-inch LCD with 1080p resolution and a massive pixel density of 468ppi.

Under the hood is a Snapdragon 600 SoC that includes a quad-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz and LTE. The device runs on Android 4.1 with HTC Sense 5, has 2GB RAM, 32 or 64GB internal storage, GPS and GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a large 2300mAh battery.

Amazon has denied Crunch's report that they are actively building a $99 Kindle Fire HD.

The rumor had been that the company was looking to completely disrupt the market with the low-priced tablet in 2013, which would match white box Asian OEMs yet feature Amazon's popular Kindle hardware and software.

Says an Amazon spokesperson: "It's not happening--we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware."

As rumored, the $99 Kindle Fire HD would include a TI processor, 1280x800 resolution and a 7-inch display.

A few months ago, the cloud-based gaming company OnLive infamously fell apart, with company laying off all of its employees and selling for just $4.8 million, a fraction of its value just months before.

The service allows gamers to play PC games via a set-top box on your HDTV or on a PC that does not have powerful specs. The games were streamed via cloud servers and cost a nominal amount per month.

OnLive's new owner Gary Lauder has remained quiet since his acquisition but has finally posted today about the company and its return. The company now has 90 employees, a new office and a new SVP of Engineering.

"The Game Service and the Desktop are two great examples of what can be done with OnLive's core technology, but they are just the beginning," says Lauder. The OnLive Desktop service lets you stream an almost full copy of Windows to devices with other operating systems.

Adds the owner: "So now, the Next Big Thing for the team that built the first cloud gaming service is to build a robust, scalable open platform using our core streaming technology, but with a completely new architecture that will allow ANYONE to leverage our low-latency streaming solution."

IHS iSuppli has released its first virtual teardown of the upcoming Galaxy S4, estimating the bill of materials at $236.

Adding in manufacturing costs, the total production cost clocks in at $244 says the company.

At $244, the phone costs 15 percent more ($31) to build than its predecessor, the S III. Most of the extra cost can be attributed to the Super AMOLED FullHD display and the upgraded processor (at least in the HSPA+ model).

The FullHD display cost $75, 10 percent more than the S3's 720p display.

Most surprising, the new phone's 13MP camera costs just $1 more than the 8MP camera of its predecessor, begging the question as to why more manufacturers don't use a larger sensor.

Check the full breakdown here (via GSMA):

Intertrust Technologies, a software company owned by Sony and Philips, has sued Apple over patent infringement.

The 15 patents are related to security and covers devices across Apple's spectrum such as the iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and Mac desktops and laptops.

Additionally, the suit covers iTunes, iCloud and the Apple App Store.

Intertrust develops and licenses DRM software, which is then used by content producers from the music, movie and gaming industries. Companies such as Samsung, HTC, Nokia and others license the software.

According to multiple sources, Google is planning to merge their messaging platforms into one single service, dubbed "Babble."

Google, in there ongoing expansions into multiple fronts, has let their messaging platforms run rampant. Currently, there is Google Talk, Google+, Voice, Google Hangout and Chat for Drive. All work towards the same end, but behave differently and do not really collaborate.

The sources claim Google is seeking to end this by creating a new service fresh, a cross-platform solution that would take on up-and-comers such as WhatsApp and Line and also established services like BlackBerry Messenger.

Reads one source: "Babble continues Google's trend towards organization by conversation. You can share photos in chat windows just like you would in G+ Messenger, start a Hangout with anyone in your contact list, and the conversations are threaded across all the existing services. Moving forward, the individual services will all be pushed onto the single platform, and you'll be able to use the same chat window across all of Google's products with the same features available everywhere. It's not so much releasing a new product as it is pulling together all of the existing products under a single branding."

Electronic Arts has started an 'Origin Player Appreciation Sale' this week, slashing prices on 200 games by up to 70 percent.

The sale will go until March 26 at 10:00am PT and will include Origin's entire spectrum including PC/Mac games and titles for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Wii U.

For example, newer games like Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 are down to $30, for all platforms they are available on.

Mass Effect 3 has been cut to $10, Hitman Absolution is $12 and the award-winning The Walking Dead series (all episodes) are $10.

Origin has 40 million registered users.

Check the sale here: Player Appreciation Sale

According a new report, Amazon is looking to get into the streaming subscription music business, following other giants into the ring.

So far the talks with the record labels have been "informal," but Amazon is hoping to create a service similar to Spotify, the leader in the market.

Spotify, along with Rdio, Rhapsody and others, offer limited access to millions of tracks, for free via browsers or desktop apps. If you move to premium packages, you can gain unlimited access to the music as well as mobile access.

The sector leader, Spotify, now has 6 million users paying either $5 or $10 per month for premium accounts, with that number growing quicker every month. The company has a total of 24 million users around the world.

Google is said to be planning a rival service, integrating YouTube.

According to Bloomberg, the rumors are correct, Samsung is actively developing a smartwatch to once again beat Apple to the punch.

Apple has long been rumored to be developing an iWatch, wearable technology that syncs with your iOS device, includes fitness features and can possibly even make and receive phone calls. However, the company has never confirmed and there is no word on a possible release date.

"We've been preparing the watch product for so long," Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile business, said during an interview. "We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them."

There were little other details revealed, so it is unclear what features a Galaxy watch may include or when it will go on sale.

Microsoft has announced it will be offering developers $100 per app for new published apps submitted to either the Windows Phone Store or the Windows 8 Store before June 30th.

Each developer can qualify for up to 10 apps per store, for a net total of $2000 in bonuses.

All apps must meet standard certification requirements, and the app must do more than just launch a web page. Additionally, you cannot clone existing published apps.

Microsoft also notes that the promotion will run until 10,000 apps are published or the time ends, whatever comes first.

The company has struggled to meet expectations for Windows Phone, as it fights to take share away from Google and Apple. Windows 8 has also failed to gain traction in the operating system market.