Latest news

Verizon Wireless has announced today that its 4G LTE network will be expanded to 27 new markets in time for the summer season.

Starting on May 17th, communities in "Sea Bright, Monmouth Beach, Belmar, Point Pleasant, Toms River, Atlantic City and into Cape May County will have access" to the 4G network.

Notes the carrier: "The size of our 4G LTE network gives us a significant competitive advantage over competitors as it enables more residents, small businesses and local government to take advantage of the speed and connectivity benefits offered by this advanced technology. We are committed to continuing the aggressive rollout of our 4G LTE network in 2012."

The carrier currently offers 22 LTE-capable devices, including smartphones, tablets, notebooks and hotspot modems.

Verizon's LTE was recently rated the fastest 4G in the nation, beating out AT&T handily and destroying Sprint. T-Mobile is set to launch their LTE network next year.

Market research firm Strand Consult has reported on the recent decline in SMS revenue for carriers and the reasons for it.

While it is well known that global instant messaging services like BlackBerry Messenger, iMessage, Google Talk and WhatsApp are having significant impact on the carrier's text messaging revenue, Strand added one more name to the list; Facebook.

Says the report: "If you look at how most operators market and sell SMS, you will see that most operators charge the customer for each individual SMS he or she sends. In practice this means that the customer has a choice between sending an SMS that the customer knows costs money, or alternatively use his flat rate data subscription to write a message via Facebook if the recipient is on Facebook."

Strand continues: "In many ways one can compare Facebook's development in the mobile industry to how the Internet affected the media industry. Market players like Google, Skype, Twitter and MSN are only marginally important to the mobile industry compared to Facebook. The biggest difference between Facebook and Google is that Facebook is a communication tool that people use to keep in touch with their family and friends every day."

Google is on the verge of acquiring the Meebo social and messaging service.

If accurate, the price tag could be as high as $100 million, say reliable sources.

The company was created in 2005 as an instant messaging add-on for browsers and has been expanded to a "full suite" of social and mobile apps. More importantly, the apps are available to consumers and publishers, each with the intention of making online communication easier.

Meebo Messenger, a variant of the original add-on, still exists today. The company is currently creating a tool to "create an interest profile to get new and timely information about the things that matter to you."

The company has raised over $60 million in venture capital since its inception.

PSP being phased out by GameStop in U.S.

GameStop has confirmed that it is removing PlayStation Portable (PSP) inventory from the smallest 25 percent of stores, in an effort to consolidate supply.

"The consolidation is occurring to maximize the merchandising space in the smallest 25 percent of stores," the chain confirmed. "It will also provide a greater assortment in those stores that will continue to carry the category."

GameStop will continue to sell PSP titles online, and inventory will stay at larger stores throughout the U.S. for now.

The launch of the PlayStation Vita handheld in the U.S. market will probably kill off a lot of remaining demand for PSPs and games on UMD. PS Vita has no UMD drive, instead requiring that all games be purchased digitally.

Siri cheating on iPhone 4S.

Users noticed that when Siri is asked to find the "best smartphone ever," it actually gives an answer that recommends rival Nokia's Lumia 900 Windows Phone handset, and not any of Apple's gear.

The reason for Siri's betrayal of iPhone is explained easily though. The service returns results for the question from WolframAlpha, which returns exactly the same result as Siri when asked, "What is the best smartphone ever?".

WolframAlpha's results show that the Nokia Lumia 900 has four user reviews with a score of 5 out of 5, while a list of smartphones ranked by customer review does not even include an iPhone.

Since launching the iPhone 4S, Siri has given all kinds of bizarre answers to questions, ranking from answers that were hilarious to ones that actually caused controversy.

In November, Siri came under fire because it could not provide information on abortion clinics or contraception, but it could answer questions about where to have sex, or where a local escort service is located. Some groups were particularly angered that questions about abortion instead returned results for pregnancy crisis centers.

Facebook co-founder quits U.S. citizenship.

The news was reported by Bloomberg, based on an IRS notice from late April that contained a list of individuals who have chosen to expatriate.

Eduardo Saverin has sold off some of his Facebook stake, and does not appear in IPO filings that list shareholders with more than 5 percent of the company. Still, Saverin's holdings are believed to be substantial, especially as Facebook's IPO values the company at up to $96 billion.

The IPO could leave Saverin with a hefty capital gains tax bill. In the United States, for those in the higher income bracket, there is a minimum 15 percent rate for long-term capital gains. Saverin lives in Singapore, where there is no capital gains tax.

Renouncing citizenship of the United States is an irrevocable act, according to the State Department, and it is a lengthy process that includes an appearance before a U.S. diplomatic official.

After being convicted in 2009 and losing appeals, the time has finally come for the founders of the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay to "do their time" in prison.

Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neik will all likely face jail time in the Västervik Norra facility in Sweden while the fourth founder, Carl Lundström, will spend the next eight months under house arrest in his Stockholm apartment.

One of those men, Peter Sunde, was supposed to begin his sentence this week but has postponed his plight in the eleventh hour, filing a plea with the Swedish government requesting clemency, citing health concerns. Additionally, Sunde says he fears for the future of his micro-payment business, Flattr.

Without his presence, the company would lose its place in the market, reads Sunde's plea: "The idea for the company came from Peter himself, and he has a tremendous commitment to it. Peter's name and reputation in the industry will open many doors. The company has received a substantial amount of risk capital which has mostly been used to develop the product. After about two years development, the product is now basically ready to begin shipping to partners and large sites. A prerequisite for further development is that Peter is left on the company."

Pachter thinks we should expect GTA V in October.

It was announced earlier this week that BioShock Infinite would be delayed by its developer, Irrational Games, until February 2013. The news hit shares of publisher Take Two Interactive, as it took the anticipated title out of the vital holiday season.

Ken Levine, creative director at Irrational Games, put the delay down to maximizing game quality, and said the developer simply needed more time.

Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Securities, has another possible explanation for the delay.

"We believe that October is the preferred release month for GTA V?s developer, Rockstar Games, as the studio has scheduled every prior GTA releases during that month (with GTA IV delayed to April 2008, due to bugs in the PS3 version)," Pachter wrote.

"We speculate that once Rockstar Games notified Take-Two that GTA V would be ready by October, Take-Two gave Irrational Games the option to spend more time fine-tuning BioShock Infinite. Although we were confident that both games would sell millions of units when it appeared that they would be released in close proximity, we think that the delay will alleviate any wallet-share concerns and ensure that both games receive the undivided attention of Take-Two?s management and marketing teams, and will ensure that retail support is optimized."

Infamous BitTorrent site denounces Virgin Media attack.

The Pirate Bay has declared that DDoS attacks against websites are an "ugly" method that mirror efforts to block the BitTorrent website itself. Earlier this week, Virgin Media confirmed that its website was taken offline amidst an ongoing DDoS attack, allegedly carried out as revenge for the ISP blocking the Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay took to Twitter and to Facebook to denounce attacks such as these that are carried out in its name..

"Seems like some random Anonymous groups have run a DDOS campaign against Virgin media and some other sites.
We'd like to be clear about our view on this:

We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us.

So don't fight them using their ugly methods. DDOS and blocks are both forms of censorship.

If you want to help; start a tracker, arrange a manifestation, join or start a pirate party, teach your friends the art of bittorrent, set up a proxy, write your political representatives, develop a new p2p protocol, print some pro piracy posters and decorate your town with, support our promo bay artists or just be a nice person and give your mom a call and tell her you love her."

All ISPs in the UK, including Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media, were ordered to stop users from accessing the Pirate Bay website. Following a DDoS attack against Virgin Media, the ISP pointed out that it didn't have a choice in whether to block the website or not.

Foxconn chairman reportedly confirms Apple "iTV".

Chairman Terry Gou revealed in a speech that the company was making preparations to start manufacturing a television from Apple, according to China Daily. Development or manufacturing of the device has not stared just yet, according to the report.

The China Daily report, which dubbed the device "iTV", also repeated rumors that it would feature Siri and FaceTime video calling.

Gou also confirmed that the recent $808 million deal with Sharp - which saw Foxconn buy a 10 percent share in the consumer electronics firm - was made in preparation for the Apple television. Reports had suggested that Apple was considering buying a stake in Sharp for panel production, but Foxconn tied up a deal instead.

Apple was reportedly interesting in using Sharp's technology to produce Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) panels for its television. IGZO panel production was started in March by Sharp, and it allows the company to produce thinner and more powerful LCD panels.

Facebook experimenting with premium posting.

The test lets users pay a small fee which will make information they post more visible to friends, family and colleagues. The test is being run in New Zealand, with Facebook saying they want to see if some users would be willing to pay a small fee to flag up their posts.

"We're constantly testing new features across the site," said a Facebook spokesperson. "This particular test is simply to gauge people's interest in this method of sharing with their friends."

The spokesperson said that different ways of highlighting posts were being tested, and for a range of different small fees. Payments are accepted via PayPal or Credit Card.

As Facebook continues to grow, revenue growth has slowed down and the firm is looking for ways to ensure it has the long-term ability to gain revenue. It announced yesterday that it will launch a new App Center that allows developers to sell games and other apps directly to Facebook users. It will take a 30 percent cut of revenue.

Bankruptcy follows legal tussle with EMI Group.

MP3Tunes is a music storage service headed up former MP3.com founder Michael Robertson. In 2007, it was sued by EMI Group and fourteen other record companies and music publishers for alleged copyright infringement offences.

In 2011, a Manhatten federal judge ruled that MP3Tunes was not violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in permitting users to download tracks, except in cases where songs have been identified as pirates tracks.

In effect, this meant that MP3Tunes was not responsible for the copyright infringement of others, but could be found liable for contributory infringement where notices of alleged infringement were provided and not acted on.

The court did find MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson liable for having personally transferred songs from unauthorized websites.

MP3Tunes has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing assets of $7,800 and liabilities of $2.1 million in its court filing.

Total spend in April down sharply.

If you combine the same of consoles and games, spending dropped 32 percent in April this year, compared to April in 2011. Gamers spent 42 percent less on games in April 2012, according to NPD, which blames a lack of compelling game launches so far in 2012.

U.S. gamers spent $630 million in April, of which $307 million was spent on buying games for consoles and handhelds, down from $533 million of April 2011. One aspect of the steep decline may have been Easter falling in March, rather than in April, according to Anita Frazier, video game market analyst at NPD.

"We usually find that Easter-related purchases generate an extra 10 per cent in revenue in the month they occur," she said, "so some of the softness compared to last April could be attributed to the shift in Easter timing."

However, Frazier said the primary reason for the drop in sales is the light release schedule by game makers in the early months of the year, commenting that when a compelling title is released by a game maker, it still sells as well as ever.

Pirate Party cannot help users to circumvent block.

The court in The Hague sided with anti-piracy group Brein in ordered the Pirate Party to stop publicizing ways to circumvent the block on the Pirate Bay website in the country. All major Dutch ISPs have been ordered to block access to the notorious BitTorrent website, as have most in the UK.

The Pirate Party also cannot offer a proxy that can let users obtain TPB's links without directly visiting the file sharing site. The group has described the ruling as a slap in the face of the free Internet.

"The judge decided to give the Netherlands another nudge on the gliding scale of censorship," it said. "More and more bits of the internet will have to be censored because they might be used to get access to 'infringing' sites, until eventually most of the internet will be unreachable."

In the UK, the Pirate Party continues to instruct users on how to get around the Pirate Bay blockade in effect in the country. It will be interesting to see if the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) tries to follow Brein and have a court gag them.

Microsoft finally bringing full browser to console.

The Verge cites sources who inform it that Microsoft is working on a version of Internet Explorer 9 for the Xbox 360 console. The full browser lets Xbox 360 users finally surf the web using the console, which is a feature that has been a long time coming.

According to the sources, Microsoft has integrated Kinect voice and gesture control to the browser, although you won't need to have Kinect to use the browser.

There is no indication of when Microsoft is planning to deliver the new browser to Xbox consoles, but E3 is approaching again so it could be officially confirmed very soon.