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Speaking at the MWC, Google Play VP Jamie Rosenberg explicitly stated that the model of selling hardware through their Play Store is "here to stay."

While that response seems obvious now, there had been internal discussions on whether the company was prepared. The recent Nexus 4 launch was an unmitigated disaster, with servers crashing and errors galore, but other launches, including the Nexus 10 tablet and the Nexus 4 Wireless Charger have been smoother.

"We're getting better at fulfilling demand and kind of operating the store in a way that consumers expect us to," Rosenberg added (via Verge).

The exec went on to say that the Store is "a reliable way for us to get these devices into market in different countries around the world." This is true as the Nexus 4, at the very least, is available to customers in seven different countries while also available in retail stores in the U.S.

While other notable smartphone makers have already signed on, Samsung will be passing on Mozilla's Firefox OS.

Speaking during the Mobile World Congress event, the company noted that it will not be creating a Firefox OS device in the future.

Mozilla has already partnered with LG, Alcatel, ZTE, Huawei, Geeksphone and most recently Sony on the hardware side. On the carrier side, the company has partnered with Latin American giant Telefonica, the U.S.' Sprint, European giant Deutsche Telekom and 14 other smaller carriers.

Each of the upcoming devices will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and generally include low-end specs aimed at budget-conscious consumers.

The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay will be departing Sweden en route to Norway and Spain.

Sweden's Pirate Party advocate group had been providing bandwidth for the site since 2009, but the group now faces a legal threat from the anti-piracy group Rights Alliance.

For now, Pirate Party operations in Spain and Norway will step in to be local hosts for Internet connectivity.

In their statement, the Norwegian Pirate Bay says it will provide the bandwidth as a "symbolic gesture to support The Pirate Bay...which is a search engine for cultural content." It also added that "non-commercial file sharing does not pose any problem in society."

While the nations do have anti-piracy laws in place, there have so far been no cases to prosecute bandwidth providers.

Sony Mobile has announced it has "ambitions" to release a Firefox OS smartphone in 2014 through carrier Telefonica.

Adds Bob Ishida, head of Sony Mobile Communications' Products Business Group: "Our engineers are now working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML5, evolving technologies which show great potential. In addition, we continue to work with our operator partners, including Telefónica, on a development project with an ambition to bring a product to market in 2014."

The recently revealed operating system, which will be aimed at the emerging markets, already has partners in Alcatel, ZTE, Geeksphone, LG and Huawei.

Telefonica is one of the largest carriers in Latin America, and Firefox OS phones will be aimed at budget-conscious consumers in those nations.

Blockbuster HBO hit "Game of Thrones" is well known to be the most pirated show on television now.

Director David Petrarca doesn't seem to care, however, downplaying any piracy since he says the show thrives on "cultural buzz."

In 2012, each episode of GoT was illegally downloaded almost 4 million times, making it far and away the most downloaded show on television, even ahead of perennial winners like Dexter.

Petrarca says HBO has 26 million subscribers in the US and 60 million worldwide, leaving plenty of dollars for the content to continue.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said today that Arrested Development will not be getting a second season with the streaming service.

The exec says the comedy was revived under "unrepeatable circumstances."

Starting next month, Netflix will stream 14 episodes of the cult classic comedy that was cancelled by Fox after three seasons and low viewership in 2006.

"Arrested is a unique property, we don't anticipate being able to do season five, six and seven," Hastings added. "We have less of a stake in it. It is really a fantastic one-off, which is coming together incredibly. I think it will be amazing for us, but think of it as a nonrepeatable amazing, whereas the other thing that we are doing is to trying to figure out a real mechanism where we can build shows and develop franchises over the long term. In that way, Arrested Development is a wildly successful tactic, as opposed to fundamental to the strategy."

That being said, the company hopes to be able to produce future seasons.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has suggested today that the company is working on their lowest priced Lumia device yet.

The company has been rumored to be exiting the high-end smarpthone market dominated by Samsung and Apple to attempt to dominate the low-end and emerging markets as they once did with Symbian.

According to Elop, the new device will be priced even lower than the newly unveiled Lumia 520, which will sell for just €139.

During their event this week, the company launched four new devices, two low-end Lumias and two non-Lumia phones, one that sells for just €15 phone. That mass market device will replace Nokia's 1280, which sold over 100 million units during its lifespan.

So far to date, the Lumia line has sold 14 million units.

Nokia Music will soon be available for Windows 8 and Windows RT, after a few months of availability solely on Windows Phones.

The new app will be designed specifically for Windows tablets, and was unveiled at the MWC event in Spain this week.

Nokia's unlimited streaming service is similar to Pandora in which you can create playlists based on your favorite songs, artists or genres and the service selects similar music.

The service is cheap compared to rivals, at just $4 per month, and subscribers can download offline playlists.

Some screenshots (via Verge):

Microsoft has quietly rolled out its latest Internet Explorer 10 browser for Windows 7 users.

The release preview was made available in mid-November, and the final version is now available to W7 users, which remain the majority of Microsoft's customers.

IE10 had previously only been available to Windows 8 users.

You must have Service Pack 1 installed to be able to download the browser, which is available in 32 and 64-bit variants. Most likely, if you have Windows 7, you have SP1, so that should not be an issue. Auto-updaters will take place for IE users in the coming weeks.

Outside of some aesthetic updates, IE10 also brings better JavaScript performance, integrated spell checking and auto-correct functions, and better support for the new CSS3.

Get it here: IE 10

Rovio's "Angry Birds" cartoon is set to debut on March 16th.

The most popular mobile game of the last few years continues to build its franchise, expanding to TV (kind of) and even sodas.

Dubbed "Angry Birds Toons," the show will look into the characters of Angry Birds, the birds and the pigs and we learn why the pigs are stealing from the birds in the first place.

The cartoon will only be available through the Angry Birds mobile app.

Rovio expects there to be one episode per week for the entire year, as each episode is only 7 minutes long, or so.

Sony has priced their highly anticipated Xperia Tablet Z.

The new Xperia Tablet Z is a full-sized 10.1-inch tablet that is just 6.9mm thick, even thinner than the iPad Mini.

Under the hood, the tablet runs on Android 4.1, features a 1920x1200 resolution, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, LTE, NFC, and IR blaster and an 8MP "backside-illuminated sensor" camera. It is all powered by a large 6000mAh battery.

Sony also says the device is waterproof and dustproof.

Finally, the company is promoting a new feature it calls "S-Force Front Surround 3D," which supposedly helps convey a feeling of surround sound and spacial movement.

"Xperia Tablet Z sets new standards in entertainment by matching premium specifications and Sony technology with cross-device connectivity and a consistent user-experience," said Kaz Tajima, Corporate Vice President, Head of UX Creative Design and Planning, at Sony Mobile Communications. "Xperia Tablet Z reinforces our intention to be a leading player in the premium Android device market, by building on the principles established by Xperia Z and perfectly optimising them for the tablet form factor."

According to Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida, every PlayStation 4 game will be available for digital download.

"PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc," said the exec.

More importantly, Yoshida says there is the possibility of a subscription service once there is a large enough PS4 library. "As more and more services and contents become available digitally, we'll have more of an option to create attractive packages. So hypothetically we can look at different models – like a cable TV company. We could have gold, silver or platinum levels of membership, something like that. We can do subscription services when we have more content – especially now that we have the Gaikai technology available. With one subscription you have access to thousands of games – that's our dream."

Samsung has finally announced it will be killing off its Bada operating system, and merging the OS into the newer Tizen, which itself was a merger of existing software.

The company has stated that it will be releasing multiple Tizen phones this year aimed at the low-end market. Additionally, the move is seen as a way for Samsung to break its dependence on Android in the mobile world.

After the two merge, Tizen phones will be able to run apps that were designed for existing Bada phones, such as the Wave.

"Rather than seeing this as a straightforward merger, it's better to view it as a transition to a better service," says Hong Won-pyo, the president of Samsung's Media Solutions Center (via Verge).

Hong says Bada was not a good fit for modern phones, but it appears that Bada and Tizen are close enough in foundation to merge seamlessly.

Asus has unveiled their new Padfone Infinity today, providing a flagship for their smartphone/tablet hybrid series.

As with other PadFones, the Infinity is a smartphone that can turn into a tablet when docked into a station.

The device will ship with Android 4.2 and be powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor with an Adreno 320 GPU. The screen is 5-inches and has a 1080p 1,920 x 1,080 resolution with 441 ppi.

Asus has boasted about the phone's cameras, which are a 2MP front-side camera and a rear LED flash 13MP f/2.0 aperture with lagless shutter speeds. Additionally, "the camera can capture up to 100 sequential photos at 8 frames per second, while simultaneously recording 1080p HD video," says Cnet.

The government of Iceland is drafting plans to ban Internet pornography (and print, as well) in an effort to block children from seeing violent sexual images.

Proposed originally by Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson, the draft has already caused an uproar, as opponents say the move would censor the Web and encourage even more authoritarian regimes.

Advocates feel differently: "When a 12-year-old types 'porn' into Google, he or she is not going to find photos of naked women out on a country field, but very hardcore and brutal violence," says Halla Gunnarsdottir, political adviser to the interior minister. "There are laws in our society. Why should they not apply to the Internet?"

Iceland already has a vaguely worded law that bans pornography in the nation, but the term "pornography" itself is not defined in the law, so it is never enforced. The new law would define pornography as "material with violent or degrading content."

Gunnarsdottir says the committee is still looking into how the ban could be effectively enforced. One possibility is a national filter or a blacklist, while another being discussed is banning paying for porn with Icelandic credit cards.