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HP has announced a $169 Android tablet, undercutting rivals and adding its own player in the increasingly saturated small form factor tablet market.

The new Slate 7 will run on Android 4.1, has a dual-core 1.6GHz SoC, and features dual cameras and Beats Audio for better speaker sound.

From the outside, the tablet looks very generic and has a 16x9 display and an ugly large bezel.

HP is the largest PC maker on the planet (for the time being) but PC sales have peaked and the company needs to make up the revenue elsewhere. So far, their expenditures into the mobile space have failed.

Despite the price, the Slate 7 is nothing special, but the company does have an established brand name and a wide distribution network which should help it move units.

The Slate 7 will be available in April.

LG has announced today that it will be purchasing webOS from HP, giving the operating system a new home, again.

The operating system will get a third shot at life in smart TVs, says LG, who will not use it as a mobile OS.

As part of the deal, LG will acquire the source code for WebOS, all related documentation and engineering talent, and any related WebOS Web sites. Additionally, LG gets all HP licenses and any patents HP received from Palm.

HP purchased Palm for over $1 billion, completely mismanaged the operating system, and never released any viable products using the operating system. HP then relegated it to open-source, pretty much leaving it for dead.

"It creates a new path for LG to offer an intuitive user experience and Internet services across a range of consumer electronics devices," added Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer of LG Electronics Inc.

Samsung has confirmed today that its Galaxy S IV event will indeed be on March 14th.

The flagship device will get its own Unpacked event in New York City, following the footsteps of previous Galaxy phones.

Samsung will livestream the event at 7PM on the day.

There is little known about the device but it expected to have a 5-inch 1080p display, an IR blaster and a new, more powerful GPU.

March 14. Ready 4 the show? #UNPACKED twitter.com/SamsungMobile/...

-- Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) February 25, 2013

HTC America has announced this weekend that it will settle with the FCC over claims it did not "take adequate steps to eliminate security flaws" that eventually put millions of smartphone owner's data at risk of being stolen.

The FCC had claimed that HTC built millions of phones with security flaws that allowed for third-party applications to "evade Android's permission-based security model."

Android, which will always give users notice if data is being revealed to third parties, was prevented from doing so by the flaws built into the HTC smartphones.

As part of the settlement, HTC America will need to patch all existing software holes and create a new "comprehensive security program." For its part, HTC says the majority of its devices have already had the issues addressed. "We're working to roll out the remaining software updates now and recommend customers download them once available," said a spokesman, via Reuters.

In January, it became illegal to unlock your phone in the U.S., unless your carrier authorizes it.

This week, outrage over the new policy has led to over 100,000 signatures on a petition at the White House site, meaning the government must respond to it and "champion a bill that makes unlocking permanently legal."

The policy is a big issue for anyone who wants to use their phone abroad, without needing to go through their U.S.' carrier's expensive roaming and international plans. Additionally, anyone who wants to move to a new GSM carrier in the U.S. (such as T-Mobile to AT&T), will have issues.

All phones purchased after January 26th are affected, so unlocking all your older phones will not be a problem.

Unfortunately for those who signed the petition, the new policy is monitored by the Library of Congress and "the Library of Congress is an independent legislative branch agency, and it is unclear what power President Obama has to reverse its decision, even if he agrees with the petition," says NPR.

Samsung has unveiled their long-rumored Galaxy Note 8.0, a tablet to compete directly with the iPad Mini.

The Note 8.0 has an 8-inch screen, slightly larger than the iPad's 7.9-inch screen, and will include the company's stylus, the S Pen.

Resolution is better than that of the iPad Mini, at 1280x800 and under the hood is a 1.6GHz A9 quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, dual cameras 1.3MP/5MP, and either 16GB or 32GB of storage that is expandable with a microSD slot. The device also has an IR blaster and includes "Smart Remote," a Peel-powered app that turns the tablet into an interactive TV remote.

The device will come with Android 4.1.2 and Samsung's own TouchWiz UX overlay. The device will also include HSPA+ or LTE depending on your market, and will be able to make phone calls if your carrier supports it.

The big time Apple fan that started the "Every Apple TV Ad" YouTube channel has expanded, adding a new channel for its late founder Steve Jobs.

Dubbed the "Every Steve Jobs video" channel, there are currently above 150 clips of the Apple founder and CEO.

The site's creator had his reasons for putting the channel this week: "I'm a long time Apple enthusiast and throughout the years have gathered every single Steve Jobs video I could find ... To commemorate Steve Jobs birthday (Feb. 24th) I decided to put all these videos online and make them easily available for all. I believe it's the most complete archive available."

Clips go as far back as Steve's first TV appearance, with a young nervous Jobs claiming he might throw up.

Check the channel here: http://www.youtube.com/EverySteveJobsVideo

Facebook has updated its iOS app this week, adding free VoIP calling for users in the U.S. and Canada.

The social networking giant had been testing the feature through its Messenger iOS app since early January.

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.

The so-called "six strikes" Internet anti-piracy scheme set to go live tomorrow.

Center for Copyright Information's (CCI) Copyright Alert System is a way to educate accused pirates and eventually punish them if they do not change their ways.

Five ISPs have signed on to be a part of the CAS; Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Cablevision, Comcast and AT&T.

AT&T for example, after numerous warnings, will block subscriber's access to their most frequently visited websites until they complete a course on copyright. Verizon will throttle speeds of repeat pirates and Time Warner Cable will just temporarily shut down your connection. Cablevision and Comcast have not yet revealed their "punishments."

The system will monitor only torrent users, ignoring Newsgroups, P2P and warez downloaders.

Goldman Sachs had some harsh words for the PlayStation 4 and its parent, Sony.

The bank's lead analyst Takashi Watanabe (of Goldman Sachs Japan), says the console could send Sony into a "downward spiral."

"In addition to dedicated consoles, we see little reason for developers to produce top titles for platforms with a low installed base; in turn there is a danger the installed base will not grow because the content lineup is weak," reads Watanabe's note.

Additionally, the analyst says the console's incompatibility with PS3 games is a huge disadvantage.

Outside of those harsh words, he did see some positive, including "the introduction of software development-friendly architecture and easy access to premium games such as Diablo Ⅲ." The analyst also believes the console could be a success if Sony markets it as a home entertainment center rather than a gaming console.

According to a new report from Q&A site FixYa, the iPhone is the most reliable smartphone.

The company "looked at data from 722,558 problem reports listed on the site, and combined that information with market share data from StatCounter to create an ultimate reliability score for each smartphone manufacturer," says Mash.

Apple beat out Samsung, Nokia and Motorola handily.

"Smartphones are consistently being compared on a case-by-case basis, but no one has looked at the overall trends across a manufacturer's entire smartphone line," added FixYa CEO and founder Yaniv Bensadon. "Our newest FixYa report looks at lines like the iPhone, Galaxy, or Lumia, and through a careful analysis of issues versus market share, we've been able to directly compare manufacturers using a reliability score. The result is an accurate and fair method of a scaled approach to fairly compare these top companies to truly see who is the most reliable, and who is barely even competing."

Sony has confirmed; the upcoming PlayStation 4 will not support DualShock 3 controllers.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, says the PlayStation Move will be supported, however.

The move should not be seen as a total surprise, especially since the PS4 does not natively support PS3 games, anyways.

PS Move tech is built into the DualShock 4 controllers and there will be a PS4 Eye for motion gaming.

Sony just recently announced the PS4, showing off some gameplay demos and features. Read more from our launch post here: Sony Announces PS4

Ziff Davis, the recent purchaser of IGN, has announced today that they will be shutting down many of the gaming site's properties.

The new owners will shut down 1UP, UGO and GameSpy and IGN will see layoffs, as well.

Ziff Davis CEO wrote a memo for employees, and leaked by Polygon. "We are focusing on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen. Unfortunately, as a result, we have made the decision to close sites and restructure our teams accordingly," reads the memo.

Additionally, the company answered why they are closing the sites down: "Why? Given the state of the market and the economy, it simply wasn't feasible to run multiple sites all focused on video game content," reads an IGN post.

Ziff Davis owned 1UP and UGO until 2009 before selling it to IGN. IGN was just bought out by Ziff last month.

According to a new report, Google is now in talks with the major labels in an effort to launch an unlimited streaming music service.

In the report, it reads, "it is expected that the streaming service will offer a subscription model as well as free unlimited access to songs, supported by advertising, mirroring models adopted by Spotify and Deezer."

The move seems a natural expansion to the company's long-standing music download store in the U.S. and Europe.

As they do with other Google software, the search giant would include the streaming service with its Android phones and tablets, and its Chromebook PCs.

According to CNET, Google's new Google Glass eyewear will be available by the end of the year and cost under $1500 per pair.

The original target had been 2014.

Google also recently announced developer hackathons in both New York and San Francisco for people looking to use Glass in creative ways.

The search giant recently showed a full promotional video of Glass in use. Very early reviews claim the voice control UI still needs work, and Glass is only really functional in areas with fast data connections. The glasses Bluetooth to Android and iOS devices and can use Wi-Fi and 3G/4G from the connected phone, without having its own cellular radio.

Check the video here: