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Microsoft has announced the launch of its Xbox 360 Special Edition Chrome Series Wireless Controllers.

The controllers will be available in Blue, Red and Silver and also "feature the transforming D-pad."

Each controller will retail for $55 and go on sale on May 15th.

Microsoft says there are more details available at xbox.com/accessories.

In the U.S., the different colors will be available at exclusive retailers. GameStop will have Blue, Walmart will have Red and Best Buy/Microsoft Stores will have Silver.

Pictures of the controllers:

Despite their report that the new third-generation iPad has overheating issues, Consumer Reports has rated the device its top tablet.

After testing competing devices, including Android tablets like the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the site says the higher temperatures was common and should not be a cause for concern, unless you are playing a processor-intensive game on full brightness.

The group says at maximum brightness, playing a game like Infinity Blade II, on a hot day, the tablet will top out at 122 degrees, higher than predecessors and Android competitors, but not by much.

Apple has sold over 3 million units since launch in March, and the company is the clear market leader in the 10-inch tablet market.

In its report, the group recommended the tablet along with some others, including the Sony Tablet P and the one-pound heavy Toshiba Excite 10LE.

Earlier this year, tech giant LG Electronics introduced the world's first 55-inch OLED HDTV.

The TVs finally have a release date, at least for Europe, where they will go on sale on May 16th.

LG has priced the TV at nine million won ($8000), and the TV will have an unveiling party in Cannes where they will hold a movie premier at the much-heralded film festival.

"Starting in Europe, the company plans to advance marketing activities of its OLED TVs worldwide," said LG in a statement. The company had originally planned to release the TV in the fall but management believes a launch now will give the company the benefit of seasonal demand before the London Olympic Games from July 28 to August 12.

Said Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display when the devices were introduced: "Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets. Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display's 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers."

Even though the consoles had been restored to factory settings, security researchers at Drexel University and Dakota State University were able to easily find credit card and other personal info.

Ashley Podhradsky, Rob D'Ovidio, and Cindy Casey of Drexel University, along with Pat Engebretson at Dakota State University purchased a refurbished Xbox 360 from a Microsoft-authorized retailer and used a very basic modding tool to gain access to the previous owner's credit card info, even though the hard drive had been wiped and the console restored to factory settings.

Says Podhradsky: "Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information. But they don't do a great job of protecting the user's data. A lot of them already know how to do all this. Anyone can freely download a lot of this software, essentially pick up a discarded game console, and have someone's identity."

Microsoft says it is investigating the case: "We are conducting a thorough investigation into the researchers' claims. We have requested information that will allow us to investigate the console in question and have still not received the information needed to replicate the researchers' claims. Xbox is not designed to store credit card data locally on the console, and as such seems unlikely credit card data was recovered by the method described. Additionally, when Microsoft refurbishes used consoles we have processes in place to wipe the local hard drives of any other user data. We can assure Xbox owners we take the privacy and security of their personal data very seriously."

Although AT&T and HTC have kept quiet on the launch date of the new One X flagship device, Best Buy has let slip that the device will be released on May 6th.

The leak comes via a customer who pre-ordered the device and received a confirmation email with the stated date.

For now the date is unconfirmed, but it fits into HTC's timeframe given when the phone was introduced.

The device has a large 4.7-inch display with 1,280x720-pixel HD resolution and Gorilla Glass. The phone runs on Android 4.0 with HTC Sense 4.0, and the phone maker has decided to keep three buttons, one for back, home and running/recent apps. Due to its large screen, the device is 0.36-inches thick, putting it on par with the Windows Phone-powered HTC Titan.

Microsoft has proudly announced that their Internet Explorer browser gained market share in March, one of only a few times in the last five years they have showed a gain in that area.

The figures come via independent research firm Net Applications, who produces reports each month.

On a smaller scale, Internet Explorer 9 on Windows 7, which the company calls a "core metric," increased significantly, with over 50 percent of all Windows 7 users now running that specific version of the browser.

For the month, IE moved to 53.83 percent global share, up from 52.81 percent in February.

Firefox and Chrome each lost share, and remain neck-and-neck on a global scale. Firefox fell from 20.92 percent to 20.55 while Chrome fell from 18.90 to 18.55 percent.

TalkAndroid is reporting today that Google's upcoming "Google Drive" cloud service will give users 5GB of free storage, right from the start.

Last week, we reported that Google's oft-rumored service would finally be launching, in April, with just 1GB for starters.

The new rumor suggests the Drive will be launched on April 16th, free to everyone with a Gmail or Google login.

Market leader Dropbox offers 2GB of storage and easy ways to gain more. Amazon, Apple and Microsoft also offer cloud solutions with free storage, although each have their own pros and cons.

Although unconfirmed, the Google Drive API is expected to allow third-party apps to store data to your Drive, which would be a fantastic addition for Android owners. If accurate, you could back up all your apps and data right to Drive and restore it from another device when you log in, similar to how Titanium Backup uses Dropbox if you have a rooted device.

According to Variety, Ashton Kutcher will play former Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an independent biopic directed by Joshua Michael Stern.

The film will follow Job's teen life up until his time as CEO of the world's most valuable company.

Kutcher will begin filming in May while the actor is on break from 'Two and a Half Men.' Five Star Institute's Mark Hulme is financing and will produce the movie.

The film will be independent of the Sony Pictures blockbuster which will be based on the best-selling Walter Isaacson book that was released just a month after the entrepreneur's death.

Given the date for the story, many believed it must be a hoax, but the story has since been confirmed.

(Pic via THR)

The Nokia Lumia 900 has gone up for pre-order through AT&T and Wal-Mart.

AT&T's new flagship Windows Phone device will be free for new subscribers through AT&T and just $49.99 through Wal-Mart with contract.

The device will be released on April 8th in the U.S. Nokia said the phone is the first to be designed specifically for the North American market.

With 2-year contract (for existing subscribers), the Lumia 900 will sell for just $100, well below the price of other 4G LTE smartphones, which sell for $200 with contract on AT&T and up to $300 with contract on Verizon. The Lumia 900 is also the first LTE Windows Phone smartphone to reach the States.

Black and blue models will go up for sale at launch, while a white model will go on sale on April 22nd. Pre-orders begin on Friday.

The Lumia 900 has 4.3-inch AMOLED display, 1.4GHz single-core processor, Nokia's ClearBlack technology, LTE support, an 1830 mAh battery, 512MB RAM, 16GB internal storage and an 8MP Carl Zeiss camera with large aperture (F2.2) and wide angle focal length (28mm). The phone also has a 1MP front facing camera.

Just months after the shut down of the world's top cyberlocker Megaupload, Paramount Picture's has sent the MPAA and U.S. DOJ a list of 5 "rogue" file-sharing sites that should be shut down next.

The lucky handful are Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles.

Sites like Fileserve and Filesonic (which did not make the list) almost immediately shut down their affiliate programs and sharing capabilities after the raid on Megaupload and other lockers cut off access to U.S. visitors.

The MPAA defines a rogue cyberlocker as such: "Rogue cyberlockers aren't just distribution hubs for stolen movies and TV shows - both the users who upload content and the operators who run the sites can earn money from doing so. As Internet video traffic grows, the threat from rogue cyberlockers that profit from stolen content is rising rapidly."

Paramount says the 5 cyberlockers in question receive a massive 41 billion page views every year and are "criminal" in nature. Each of the sites have been referred to the Department of Justice but it is unlikely that any action can be taken until the government can get through its case against Megaupload.

So called "white-box" phone makers are being shut out of the Chinese market, as large player like ZTE, Lenovo and Huawei release smartphones for under 1000 yuan ($150 USD).

Other big players, like Samsung and Nokia, are also reducing their prices in the nation in an effort to take market share.

"White-box" handset makers, who create un-branded phones that clone popular Android (and other smartphone OS) devices, will likely see a 30 percent drop in their sales in 2012, says Digitimes. A few hundred are even expected to go bankrupt over the next year.

Not helping their case is the fact that Chinese carriers are aggressively subsidizing Lenovo, ZTE and Huawei phones, allowing them to compete price-wise. Brand recognition has also increased exponentially in the nation, leading to more demand for branded phones from big-time smartphone makers.

A week after filing for bankruptcy, the UK-based retailer Game Group has been sold to private investors.

On March 26th, GAME's UK and Ireland operations were turned over to Pricewaterhousecoopers, the massive accounting firm.

The company is behind the brands of GAME Group plc, Game Stores Group Limited, Gameplay (GB) Limited, Game (Stores) Limited, Games Station Limited, Game (retail) Limited and Gamestation Limited.

Baker Acquisitions Limited, backed by private investment company OpCapita, has purchased the rest of GAME's UK assets, saving all 333 remaining GAME and Gamestations in the UK and 3200 jobs. 277 of the company's 610 stores had already been shuttered while 2,104 employees got laid off. Baker will also re-hire a "small number" of executives who were laid off last week.

The acquiring company is said to have purchased GAME for just £1, as the group will have to pay off £85 million in debt.

Says a Baker rep: "We have assembled a strong team of experienced industry operators to implement the programme of operational change that is needed. There is a huge amount to do but we look forward to the challenge of restoring GAME's fortunes in partnership with its employees and suppliers."

Rovio has announced today that it will be creating an animated series based on its popular Angry Birds game.

The series will be weekly starting in Autumn, with 52 episodes planned. Each episode will be about 2.5-3 minutes long.

Says Rovio animation boss Nick Dorra: "We're going to roll out a weekly animation series later this year of shortform content. We're going to roll it out on all possible devices."

"We're looking at building a video app for that, and we're also looking at partnerships and so on... We want to be on all screens."

One such partnership is the deal Rovio announced at CES with Samsung to have a Rovio channel on all new Samsung SmartTV web-connected TVs.

The new announcement comes six months after the developer purchased Finnish animation studio Kombo.

Dorra also hinted that an Angry Birds movie is coming, but not until after 2014.

Last week, AOL hired Evercore Partners to help it sell its 800-strong patent portfolio.

The company confirmed it has received numerous buyout offers from private equity firms, with the firms wanting to take AOL private. Such firms include Providence Equity Partners Inc, TPG Capital and Silver Lake. At the time, Starboard Value, a hedge fund that owns 5 percent of AOL, said the firms believe AOL's patent portfolio could bring in over $1 billion in licensing income if used correctly.

Today, the patent advisory firm M-Cam has said the patents are worth about $290 million, a significantly smaller figure than the hedge fund hoped for.

AOL was once valued at over $100 billion but now has a market cap of just $1.75 billion thanks to slowing advertising growth and the decade-long decline of dial-up revenue.

Stupid purchases, like $800 million for Bebo, certainly has not helped the company's fortunes either.

RIM has denied the multiple reports that it is planning to leave the consumer smartphone market.

Following horrendous earnings from the one-time powerful smartphone maker, speculation began that the company would move into enterprise and security, leaving the consumer market for good.

The Canadian company has said today that is not true: "The claim that RIM has said it will withdraw from the consumer market is wholly inaccurate," says Patrick Spence, RIM's managing director of Global Sales & Regional Marketing (via Pocket-lint)

"While we announced plans to re-focus our efforts on our core strengths, and on our enterprise customer base, we were very explicit that we will continue to build on our strengths to go after targeted consumer segments. We listed BBM, as well as the security and manageability of our platform, among these strengths."

The company recently revealed its Q4 2011 earnings, showing a huge dip to $4.2 billion in revenue and a loss of $125 million, down from a $1 billion profit in the same quarter in 2010.

Former Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, following the announcement, decided to resign from his only remaining position as a board member, and the company's CTO David Yach resigned, as well.