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Microsoft has blamed a Leap Year bug for the downtime Windows Azure users had on February 28th.

Says the software giant: "The issue was quickly triaged, and it was determined to be caused by a software bug. While final root-cause analysis is in progress, this issue appears to be due to a time calculation that was incorrect for the leap year."

After diagnosing the problem, the Azure engineers created a workaround, but they have noted that some customers in the South Central region of the U.S. may still experience slight issues.

Azure is a cloud computing platform used to build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft data centers.

AT&T has announced revisions to their data throttling policy today, making the terms less vague.

Until today, AT&T would only say that the "top 5%" of unlimited plan bandwidth hogs were being throttled once they reached a certain point. That number was never stated, either, but most reports had it at around 2GB per month.

Now, the rules are set in stone. If you are using a 4G LTE device, you will be throttled after 5GB and 3G non-LTE users will be throttled after 3GB of usage.

Reads AT&T's statement:

With mobile data usage continuing to skyrocket and the availability of spectrum scarce, AT&T, like other wireless companies, manages its network in the most fair way possible so that we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience for all our customers.

How we're managing the network only affects a small minority of the heaviest smartphone data users still on unlimited plans. Put another way, this does not impact more than 95 percent of our smartphone customers.

Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect. Here's what customers need to know:

Apple is once again the center of rumor, as Digitimes is reporting that the company's oft-rumored "iPad Mini" is already being assembled.

The 7.85-inch model of the iPad will enter full-time production in the Q3.

Digi says samples are being sent to Apple for verification, currently, and barring any major setbacks the volume production would begin in July.

Sources say the model will price in at $249 to $299, which would make it more expensive than the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, although within striking distance.

Apple has long held that 10-inch tablets are the only reasonable size so for now take this rumor and store it with all the others.

According to the findings of an internal investigation, a laptop stolen from NASA last year contained International Space Station command codes, a potentially devastating finding.

The laptop had no encryption either, and is just one of many devices lost or stolen in the past few years from NASA which contained sensitive info.

Says NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin: "The March 2011 theft of an unencrypted NASA notebook computer resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station."

All in all, 48 agency devices were stolen or lost between April 2009 and April 2011. Most of the devices contained personal info, third party IP and other sensitive info. Additionally, in 2010 and 2011 NASA "experienced 5,408 computer security incidents that resulted in unauthorized access to systems or the installation of unauthorized software, costing the agency an estimated $7 million," says CBS.

The numbers, while shocking, may not, be the full extent either: "NASA cannot consistently measure the amount of sensitive data exposed when employee notebooks are lost or stolen because the agency relies on employees to self-report regarding the lost data rather than determining what was stored on the devices by reviewing backup files."

Earlier today Microsoft made the long-awaited Consumer Preview of Windows 8 available for download and installation.

Before we begin, the very basics are the minimum requirements to install the OS, which are: A 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (or 2GB for 64-bit), 16GB of storage (or 20GB for 64-bit), and a DirectX 9 graphics card with WDDM 1.0 support.

That being said, let's get started.

LG U+, a subsidiary of LG, has announced this week that everyone in South Korea will now have free Wi-Fi, no matter what ISP or carrier you have.

To get the free Wi-Fi, Koreans need to register for an LG U+ ID. Once that it is done, they can connect to the company's "Free_U+zone."

The way LG U+ can offer the service is that for every hour you stay connected you will have to sit through one 15 second advertisement. That's it.

South Koreans already have the fastest average Internet speed in the world and now have access to free Wi-Fi no matter where they are in the nation.

More info here (In Korean): http://www.uplus.co.kr/

The studio Super Fighter Team has confirmed today that it is working on a brand new SNES (Super Nintendo) game for release in 2013.

Super Fighter Team will be the first developer to make a game for the system since 1998's release of "Frogger." The new game is called Nightmare Busters, and it has been around on mobile devices.

The studio says the game is a "masterful run and gun game for the Super Nintendo and all compatible gaming systems." They will be putting the first 600 copies up for pre-order later in the year.

If you order the game, you will receive "One copy of the Nightmare Busters game for the SNES, compatible with PAL and NTSC regions. The game also includes an instruction manual and one full colour cardstock box to store the game and manual," says Verge.

Super Fighter Team is also looking to break the bank, as the game will cost $60 + $8 for shipping to the U.S. or $75 shipped to anywhere else.

Microsoft has released their long-awaited Windows 8 Consumer Preview today.

The download is available, and is just a bit over 3GB as a full ISO.

We will be putting up a guide to installing the OS on your current machine in the next few hours, but for now you can download the ISO or set-up tools here.

Windows 8 is a radical departure from past Microsoft operating systems, as it uses the touch-friendly Metro UI, a whole new slew of apps, gestures and a completely overhauled browser. Underneath it all, however, consumers with Windows 7 should not expect anything too far out of the ordinary.

If anyone has any first impressions of Windows 8 before our post, please feel free to add them in the comments.

The highly-anticipated $35 mini-computer, the Raspberry Pi, is finally here and available for sale although both current sellers have seen such overwhelming demand that you will likely have to wait a while to receive yours.

Reads the press statement:

Six years after the project's inception, we're nearly at the end of our first run of development although it's just the beginning of the Raspberry Pi story. Now we start developing educational tools and initiatives, at the same time as continuing research and development on Raspberry Pi hardware.

Although we are still waiting for units to arrive from China, you can start buying the Raspberry Pi today. We have entered into licensed manufacture partnerships with two British companies, Premier Farnell and RS Components. They'll be manufacturing and distributing the devices on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and handling the distribution of our first batches as they arrive in the country. The Foundation continues to make a small profit from each Raspberry Pi sold, which we'll be putting straight back into the charity.

The Raspberry Pi is a mini-computer created by UK programmers. What makes the computer so impressive (besides its price tag) is the fact that it can play 1080p HD video with no issues. The devices are intended to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools or at home. The company is looking to promote the Python programming language, alongside Basic and C among others.

The Pirate Bay has ceased distributing torrent files, a necessary move, they say, to "step forward in technology."

Instead of torrent files, the site will now use magnets, which they say will be more efficient and take up less space.

Reads the full statement:

No more torrents=no changes anyhow

Today marks the end of an era. Sort of.

TPB will no longer give out links to .torrent files. The reason is simple: They're just a waste of space and our time.

Instead we're giving you Magnet links. It's simpler for us and no more hassle for you. It's more resilient than .torrent files and it uses much less bandwidth for those who wants to mirror. Also, since the magnet links are just a hash, it's on every single torrent detail page - so noone knows that you actually downloaded a file or not.

This means that noone can block torrent files without blocking data within a webpage. So far, few countries have implemented such harsh censorship tactics. Countries, particularily in EU, seems to moving towards total censorship so we do all we can to avoid our users ending up with less freedom.

Interpol has said today that 25 alleged Anonymous hackers have been arrested in Europe and South America.

The arrests took place in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain and those arrested ranged in age between 17 and 40. All of the suspects are accused of "planning coordinated cyber-attacks against institutions including Colombia's defense ministry and presidential Web sites, Chile's Endesa electricity company and national library, and other targets."

Among those arrested, four are accused of defacing Spanish political party sites and using DDoS attacks on other sites. One is also suspected to be the manager of Anonymous's computer operations in Spain and Latin America. The hacker went by the aliases "Thunder" and "Pacotron," say officials.

Anonymous has retaliated multiple times against police officials and other intelligence agencies in the past following arrests of their members, and this time will likely be no different. Rumors on Twitter had the group preparing to DDoS the Interpol site.

Verge has reported that HP has laid off 275 employees from its WebOS division, as the operating system transitions to open source.

The statement from the company reads: "As webOS continues the transition from making mobile devices to open source software, it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before. This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well-equipped to deliver an open source webOS and sustain HP's commitment to the software over the long term.

HP is working to redeploy employees affected by these changes to other roles at the company."

The company last had a round of layoffs in September, and former Palm CEO and WebOS boss Jon Rubinstein left the company in January.

While unfortunate, the move was expected as many of those fired were from the webOS hardware division, where HP is unlikely to make any more products.

According to info hidden in Google's own data, there are less than 1 million Google TV devices being actively used.

Also notable is the fact that Logitech's Revue set-top is the most used GTV device.

GigaOM found the figures in Google's Android Market stats, which publishes rounded numbers on every application's install base. Each Google TV device comes with pre-installed apps, which Google lists in the Android Market, as well. The TV and Movies app (which is built-in and is the most important app in the platform) is listed as installed on 500,000-to-1 million devices which implies that active users are under 1 million, although that number has a big range.

Data mining firm Xyologic seemed to confirm the fact, estimating that the most important pre-installed apps are on around 600,000-900,000 Google TV devices.

The Logitech Revue, which launched at $250 but was quickly discontinued and sold at $99, is the most popular device, controlling 50-70 percent of the market (depending on what figures you see).

Sandisk, Western Digital, Fox and Warner Bros. have teamed up to create the Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA), a coalition that will create and license solutions to secure HD and other premium content on SSDs, HDDs and other flash memory products.

The SCSA is currently working on codename "Project Phoenix" which is "an initiative that will give consumers an easier and faster way to organize, store and move their high definition digital movies and TV shows - including new releases in up to full 1080p quality - across multiple devices."

Content will be stored in the cloud, as well, using the UltraViolet standard that is becoming more popular in 2012 for studios.

Says Warner Bros.: "Developing solutions that will allow consumers to easily access and store true HD digital content is a critical component supporting digital media and entertainment consumption. Through the SCSA, we will accelerate the development of products that will make it easy for the consumer to download, store and playback their high definition digital movies and TV shows, in full 1080p, on any SCSA-optimized device at home and on the go."

IBM has laid off 1000 employees, and that may just be the beginning.

The company does not comment on specifics, but Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701, the union that gathers data and comments directly from IBM employees has mentioned that the 1000 may not be the end of the cuts.

Employees were from multiple businesses and locations and half of those fired "are mobile or work from home."

IBM commented: "We are constantly rebalancing our workforce. That means reducing in some areas and hiring in others -- based on shifts in technology and client demand. This flexibility allows IBM to remain competitive and relevant in an industry that is constantly changing. And given the competitive nature of our business, we do not publicly discuss the details of our staffing plans."

The company has sifted its workforce globally and there have been steady layoffs in the U.S. since 2007. That year, the company had 121,000 employees and that number has fallen to about 98,000 as of today. Globally, the company has 425,000 employees.