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Apple allegedly had talks with Beats Audio on a potential partnership in an upcoming music streaming service.

Beats, which was started by music moguls Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, have been planning a streaming service (a la Spotify) for some time, and the duo have some clout in the industry.

According to the reports, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Internet products chief Eddy Cue were in the meeting with Iovine, and Cook expressed interest in Beat's business model for the streaming service.

Dubbed Project Daisy, the streaming service recently secured $60 million in funding from a group of investors including Warner Music Group head Len Blavatnik. The service is expected to launch in the Q3 this year. The service will "bring an emotional connection back to the act of music discovery," says Beats.

The European Commission has once again fined software giant Microsoft over failing to comply with its commitment to give users a chance to choose their default browser when purchasing a new PC.

Microsoft has been hit with the 561 million euro ($730 million) fine for what it has called a "technical error" within its Windows 7 OS.

In 2009, the company agreed to present a web browser choice screen to all users in the European Economic Area (EEA) in order to settle a competition investigation, in which the European Commission outlined its preliminary view that the company abused its dominant position in the market for client PC operating systems through the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows.

The Browser Choice screen is an unbiased browser selection program that allowed a user to install an alternative web browser, or stick with Internet Explorer as a default. However, Microsoft failed to roll out the browser choice screen with its Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011, meaning millions of users were not given the choice to move away from Internet Explorer. As expected, the European Commission was not happy.

Despite a strong holiday season, Wii U sales have fallen off considerably in the last couple of months.

The drop in sales led Nintendo to slash their fiscal year projections for the console, and President Satoru Iwata actually had to come out with a statement stating that the console would not be getting a price cut in the near future.

This week, Alain Corre, Ubisoft's executive director for EMEA territories, says the company may need a price cut to stay relevant, especially ahead of this fall's PS4 launch.

Ubisoft is one of the console's biggest game publishers, and they recently announced that expected blockbusters Watch Dogs and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will both be available for Wii U this year. A price cut would help move consoles, and help Ubi's bottom line with (most likely) stronger software sales.

"We always want the hardware to be at a low price because we want as many fans as possible to afford to buy our games, so that's for sure. We think that Wii U will find its public at some point. Some were expecting sales to be quicker but we are optimistic. I think Nintendo has said that the Wii U sales in general were below expectations originally and the software tie-in ratio is also stable, so I think that when less machines sell, less games sell," says Corre.

According to the latest IDC report, the global PC market will decline for the second straight year.

While it forecasted slight growth for 2013 last year, the research firm was forced to reverse its original prediction due to a number of factors including slowing growth in emerging markets.

For 2013, the firm expects PC shipments to decline by 1.3 percent to 345.8 million units. Last year the market contracted by 3.7 percent. Desktops will be the biggest losers, seeing a 4.2 percent decline for the year. IDC predicts desktop sales will continue to fall at least until 2017.

Loren Loverde, VP of IDC's Worldwide PC Trackers group, says customers have not been wowed by new models, and competition from tablets and high-end smartphones continue to crush demand.

"Growth in emerging regions has slowed considerably, and we continue to see constrained PC demand as buyers favor other devices for their mobility and convenience features," says Loverde.

Additionally, the firm has somewhat soured on Windows 8 and its potential to boost the market.

According to Fortune, Google will launch a subscription streaming music service later this year.

The service will be backed by the YouTube brand, and will offer free unlimited streaming for basic users and more advanced features for subscribers.

Most likely this will work just like Spotify, which is free for streaming, with ads, and costs $5 per month for unlimited without ads and $10 for unlimited without ads and mobile access.

So far, according to the sources, Warner Music has signed on for the new venture and that label is usually the hardest to negotiate with. YouTube is a powerhouse, and its top videos are music, with many new videos from top artists topping 200 million views in a couple of months. A recent report claimed that 64 percent of teenagers preferred YouTube for music listening over any other service.

Google will be entering a crowded market, which includes Spotify, Soundcloud, Rdio and to a lesser extent, Pandora.

Google has revealed today how many National Security Letters it received during the year.

The NSLs allow the FBI to demand account information without a judge's warrant.

Usually, the FBI sends such letters to credit companies, banks, ISPs and other companies in an effort to learn more about American's finances and private communications. The agency will normally demand phone numbers, email addresses, and websites visited from companies like Google, citing that the information is relevant to an ongoing investigation. Google notes (via Wired) that the FBI, in their demands, "may obtain 'the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records' of a subscriber to a wire or electronic communications service. The FBI can't use NSLs to obtain anything else from Google, such as Gmail content, search queries, YouTube videos or user IP addresses."

Thanks to a new deal with the Obama administration, Google can reveal a "range" of NSL letters it has received. From 2009 until 2012, the company wrote that it received "0-999" National Security Letters.

Overall, in 2011, the FBI issued 16,511 NSLs related to 7201 different people.

The small Japanese carrier Willcom has unveiled the world's "smallest and lightest phone."

Dubbed the Phone Strap 2 WX06A, the device weighs in at just 1.1 ounces and measures a tiny 32 x 70 x 10.7mm.

Besides having the title of smallest and lighest, the phone does not offer too much else. The Phone Strap 2 has a 1-inch display and two hours of talktime.

The point of the device is to "strap it" onto a tablet for calling, email, and texting capabilities.

As can be expected, the device will be released in Japan only, and only 12,000 will be manufactured.

The BBC has announced that it will be making its extremely popular iPlayer streaming VOD service available to Windows Phone users.

Before today, the service had been available to Android, iOS and BlackBerry users.

Says the company: "Today I can let you know that we have signed a deal with Microsoft that will enable us to bring BBC iPlayer to the Windows phone platform.

We will be releasing a shortcut to BBC iPlayer in the near future which will be available in the Windows Phone Store, enabling the BBC iPlayer website to work on Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 via a live tile.

This shortcut will wrap the BBC iPlayer mobile website together with our media player. Hopefully these and other developments will help to expand our online reach further. Our latest figures show that over 650 different device types can access BBC iPlayer."

Disney has agreed to a new content licensing agreement with 3D company Sensio Technology for an upcoming VOD TV service.

The new service is called 3DGO! and will go live later this month.

At launch, the service will be limited to 22 Vizio TV models, all of which have 3D and Internet capabilities.

Over 20 movies from the studio will be available, including newer films like "Brave" and "Frankenweenie."

For the time being, it would seem the service will be very niche, as 3D set sales remain lackluster.

"We are very excited with today's announcement with The Walt Disney Studios which heralds a new era for 3D movie watching at home," said Nicholas Routhier, SENSIO president and CEO. "The Disney 3D library is without contest one of the best out there and we are thrilled to add an incredible selection of titles from a true legendary studio and 3D pioneer. From day one, we've set out to bring the best of 3D entertainment to our clients and today's announcement is the concrete proof of the seriousness of our commitment. We are more determined than ever to realize our promise to address the lack of 3D content to the home and to support our SENSIO Hi-Fi 3D customers with the best library of 3D content in the market. We are really looking forward to the next few months, as more content providers will join us in this effort to give consumers instant and easy access to the largest variety of high-quality 3D content."

Last month, Facebook updated its iOS app, adding free VoIP calling for users in the U.S. and Canada.

Today, the company has expanded that support to its Messenger app for Android. However, the service only works in Canada for the time being, with a U.S. release coming in two weeks.

The social networking giant had been testing the feature through its Messenger iOS app since early January, and testing for Android since early February.

Accessing the free calling is simple enough. Tapping a friend's name in the chat menu, and then heading to "info" will show off a new option to make a free call.

For the call to work, both users must have the latest version of Facebook.

The calls work via your existing data plan.

Asus has announced that its Transformer Pad TF300 is getting the Android 4.2 update this week.

The device will be the first non-Nexus tablet to receive the software.

U.S. users will be the first to get the update, with other regions getting the OTA update later this month.

It is unclear which build Pad owners will get, but it is very unlikely that it will be the brand new 4.2.2.

Asus cited its "very close" relationship with Google as the reason for being first with the operating system. Despite this boast, other new Asus devices, like the Transformer Pad Infinity, MeMO Pad Smart, and MeMO Pad will get the update in May.

According to Bloomberg, the oft-rumored Apple iWatch could debut before the end of 2013, and be more profitable than any HDTV the company could be developing.

If accurate, the sources say the device would be able to "make calls, check caller ID, relay map coordinates and carry a built-in pedometer and health monitoring sensors." The watch will likely have a deal with fitness partner Nike, at launch.

While flexible display tech is still at least two to three years away, Apple may save that for future generations of the device, say the sources.

Previous reports stated that Apple has up to 100 engineers working on the device, which will have a massive launch when it actually debuts, whenever that may be.

Rival Samsung is also rumored to be working on a Galaxy watch, for launch this year.

Federal Judge Lucy Koh ruled late last week that Samsung may have been unfairly hit in the patent infringement case against Apple, slashing the damages in the case to $599 million from the previous $1.05 billion.

Additionally, there will be a new trial for the cut balance, which could mean that Apple will walk away with part of the damages.

Koh stated that "the Court identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award," and was therefore reducing the award.

The judge found that the jury miscalculated the damages, including the time period Apple should be awarded damages for.

While the verdict still stands on all the patent infringement, it is highly unlikely that Apple will get anywhere near the original $450 million awarded. The jury awarded damages for almost 15 months extra than they should have, for starters.

Indie film makers Adam Hamdy and Shaun Magher are bringing their film "Pulp" exclusively to Xbox Live.

The move is a first for the network, which offers tons of movies, music and games.

Hamdy says the move made sense due to the cost of distribution: "For a film like 'Pulp,' that doesn't have bankable stars with a track record, it's a challenge for any distributor to take that gamble."

Speaking of Xbox Live, he says, "It's a great fit. The film is really well aligned with our audience."

The movie will set you back 1,420 points for the HD version and 1,180 for the SD option, an expensive price point for an indie film.

Microsoft says it plans to distribute more exclusives this way into the future.

Samsung has posted a quick teaser trailer for the upcoming Galaxy S IV flagship device.

In the clip, a boy is the "secret messenger" for the Samsung Unpacked 2013 event, and he is given a secret package, the S IV.

The device will be launched on March 14th during the Unpacked event in New York City.

Samsung's latest is expected to include a 5-inch 1080p screen, a top of the line GPU and new software which could include eye-tracking capabilities.

Check the trailer here: