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Google has backed Hotfile in its fight against the major movie studios.

The search giant has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the cyberlocker, which the MPAA has called "indistinguishable" from the recently overthrown Megaupload.

In the brief, the company asks the ruling judge to be "careful about accepting Hollywood's interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, specifically the provisions relating to when ISPs enjoy safe harbor from liability," says THR.

Google specifically states that the DMCA puts sole responsibility of enforcement of copyright infringement on copyright owners and that cyberlockers like Hotfile, as long as they remove infringing material when asked, remain protected by the safe harbor act.

That argument may sound familiar because Google used it to defend a $1 billion lawsuit from Viacom a few years ago. Google won, but Viacom has appealed. Another similar decision was UMG v. Veoh, which ruled in favor of Veoh and not the music label.

Zynga has announced a press conference at 3PM EST, and the gaming company is expected to announce an acquisition.

The social gaming giant is expected to announce the acquisition of OMGPOP, the developer behind blockbuster hit 'Draw Something.'

If previous reports are accurate, the buy price will be between $150-$200 million.

Draw Something has seen over 20 million downloads in the iOS store and an almost equal amount in the Google Play Store, in just under 2 months of availability.

In a staggeringly short period of time, the game has already eclipsed the popularity of Zynga's "Words with Friends," says BI, their most popular game in the mobile world.

Sharp has released a new tablet in Japan with outdated specs.

The 10-inch device, dubbed the Sharp RW-T110, has a 1280 x 800 display, a 1 GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Additionally, the device only has a 6240mAh battery and 8GB of internal storage and weighs in at 1.4 pounds.

Separating the device from tablets with the same old specs is the fact that the RW-T110 has an NFC chip, allowing for wireless mobile payments and other short-range transactions.

Going on sale next week, there was no word on international availability or price.

Microsoft has announced today that it will not be announcing its Xbox sequel "anytime soon."

Says Microsoft Corporate Communications chief Frank Shaw: "While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon. For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360."

The Xbox 360 has remained a constant winner over the past year, beating out rivals Nintendo and Sony handily. Last month, Microsoft sold 426,000 Xbox 360 units, beating out the Wii at 228,000 units. Sony did not disclose PS3 sales.

Microsoft's yet un-named Xbox successor is codenamed 'Durango,' say sources.

Just one year after starting their "paywall," the New York Times is making it even harder to read free articles.

The company has 480,000 paying subscribers, so the paywall has been very successful.

Readers with free accounts can read up to 20 articles per month currently, but as of next month that number will be cut in half to just 10 free articles per month.

As is the current deal, if you end up at an article through Twitter, Facebook or Google News, you can read an unlimited amount of free news.

At the end of 2011, circulation revenue was up thanks to the digital subscriptions, but overall revenue has been falling for the better part of a decade thanks to advertisers taking their money elsewhere.

Windows Phone has surpassed Symbian in terms of market share, at least in the U.S.

Thanks to decently strong sales of Nokia-made devices, the operating system is now the proud owner of 2.5 percent of market, beating out the Symbian OS created by Nokia, as well, which used to dominate the market.

Year-over-year, Symbian share fell from 12.4 percent to 2.4 percent, with the operating system being completely discontinued.

The Nokia Lumia 800 accounted for 87 percent of all Windows Phone 7 sales in Europe, and has helped the OS go "mainstream."

Says one analyst (via BW): "The fact that Windows Phone sales have overtaken Symbian based on one handset is encouraging. However, Nokia will need to expand the range quickly in order to keep up with the slew of next generation competitor products being launched in quarter two."

Angry Birds maker Rovio has announced today it is teaming up with a "major U.S. retail chain" to have its branded toys, books and T-shirts available at thousands of stores nationwide.

The Finnish company would not reveal which company, however. Many have speculated the partner is Target, but that remains to be seen.

Rovio will launch the partnership later this week alongside the launch of Angry Birds Space, the highly-anticipated next entry in the series. The game features "zero-gravity" levels, adding a new twist to the game.

Angry Birds has been downloaded over 700 million times on iOS, Android, PCs and Macs.

In just two years, the company has grown from nothing to being valued at over $3 billion by some in the industry.

Beats Audio, the producer of audio products and equipment is close to purchasing the digital music subscription service MOG, say sources.

HTC recently purchased Beats Audio, which was started by hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre and executive Jimmy Iovine, and it appears the companies are not done with acquisitions.

Allegedly, Beats and MOG have been in talks for weeks and an announcement could be made this week. Both companies declined comment.

MOG has already raised $33 million in venture capital since launch from investors, and the buyout price is expected to be higher than the current investment. MOG also owns a very successful ad network for music sites.

The service has 500,000 active users although it is unclear how many are paying subscribers.

If accurate, HTC will likely discount the service or even offer it for free with new HTC smartphones as a way to entice new customers. HTC has struggled to keep their growth afloat thanks to the rise of Samsung in the smartphone market.

A group of Chinese authors has sued Apple this week, claiming the tech giant has been selling unlicensed copies of their ebooks via their iOS App Store.

The 12 writers are seeking $3.5 million in damages for 59 books and three separate lawsuits.

While it was assumed the books were being sold via Apple's iBookstore, the titles are not. They are instead being distributed as apps in the App Store. Many e-books were distributed this way before the launch of the store in 2010.

Apple has said it is looking into the complaints and will respond "promptly and appropriately."

Wang Guohua, attorney for the writers, says third-party devs uploaded the apps, without the permission of the writers. Apple deleted many of the apps in January after a complaint but they were re-uploaded.

Says Wang: "Some developers, with whom Apple has contracts, put them back online again. It is encouragement in disguise, because they did not punish the developers. The developers could have been kicked out. But nothing happened to them."

According to a new report from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, teens are texting more and calling less, following a decade long trend.

The report says the "volume of texting among teens has risen from 50 texts a day in 2009 to 60 texts for the median teen text user" in 2011, while 75 percent of teens with phones actively text.

In its "Teens, Smartphones and Texting," annual report, Pew also confirms that older teens (14-17 year-olds) saw the biggest increase, from a median of 60 per day in 2009 to 100 in 2011. Older girls are the "most enthusiastic" tweeters, steady at a bit over 100 texts per day in 2011.

Boys of the same age average 50 per day.

Although 63 percent of teens text each day, only 39 percent use their phones for voice calling daily. Only 14 percent on teens use a landline to make calls.

Another trend is the growing amount of smartphones amongst teens, up to 31 percent.

Samsung has posted the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code for the Galaxy S II, letting developers have an easier go at making custom ROMs.

The company just recently started updating the phone, so the release has come as a surprise to the Android dev community. Samsung has also released the source code for the last three versions of Android 2.3 Gingerbread in the past.

For now, the ICS source-code will only be relevant to those in the Korean and European markets, as large markets like the UK and US have not received the update yet.

The source code comes with the company's TouchWiz UI, but interested parties should be able to strip it.

Sprint shares are down 5 percent today after an analyst downgraded the company.

In his report, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett says the company has a substantial risk of bankruptcy in the next few years. The analyst used a financial "swap agreement" known as credit-default swaps (CDS) to make the assumption.

Moffett says there is a 50 percent chance of the company seeking bankruptcy protection in the next five years: "We suspect that this implied probability of bankruptcy will come as a surprise to most equity investors."

In 2005, the carrier acquired Nextel, which will likely prove to be the company's downfall, says Moffett. Subscribers have been leaving Nextel at an alarming pace, while Sprint remains in charge of upkeep of the Nextel network, which is different from their own CDMA network.

Additionally, CEO Dan Hesse made a "all-in" bet this year on the iPhone, paying Apple $15 billion for rights to the popular smartphone over the next 5 years.

The Android benchmarking app NenaMark is showing a new leader today.

A mysterious Sony entry now tops the leaderboard, suggesting the company is quietly working on a quad-core Tegra 3 tablet.

According to the app, the new device has Android 4.0.3 and a 1280 x 800 screen resolution.

A user with the name "sony s1" ran the test, although it was run on an older, less accurate version of the app.

For now it remains speculation, but Sony will need a hit on their hand if they wish to remain relevant in the tablet market.

Pic via Verge:

Despite the claim by numerous analysts that iPad sales were light, both Apple and AT&T have said today that the new tablet is breaking records.

Apple CEO Tim Cook noted this morning that he is "very thrilled" with a "record weekend" of iPad sales.

AT&T for their part said that Friday was a record-day for iPad sales and activations, with new records for both.

Verizon, Apple's other partner on the iPad, has not made a comment on the tablet or its sales, as of yet.

Calls to most Apple stores will reveal the stores still have some stock of the tablets, eve though pre-order models were sold out a week before launch. It is unclear whether this is attributed to more supply of the tablets than usual, or weaker sales but for now Apple and AT&T are at least claiming that the new device is selling at a record pace.

Apple has used a special conference to announce a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share, and to authorize a share buyback program.

The company says it expected to spend about $45 billion over the first three years of the plans, which will start in July.

Apple is expected to make $150 billion over the period, and should likely not have to dip into their current $97 billion cash hoarde.

Starting in October, Apple will have the option to buy back $10 billion worth of stock, making each share more valuable for investors.

Reads the release:

Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year. Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.
Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.