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Verizon Wireless blocks Google's payments app.

The Samsung and Google-developed Galaxy Nexus smartphone will not include Google Inc.'s payment application, Google Wallet, on Verizon Wireless. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Verizon-branded phone will come without the app this month.

Google Wallet enabled smartphones users to make payments and redeem digital coupons with their phones.

"Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product," a Google spokesperson reportedly told WSJ, but did not elaborate on why Verizon Wireless made such a demand.

A good guess for the reasoning is Isis; a joint venture of AT&T Inc., T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless that will provide a service for customers to make payments and redeem offers using their smartphones. Isis is expected to begin trials in 2012.

EFF wants Jailbreaking to be considered acceptable, encouraged practice in the U.S.

Whether its smartphones, tablet PCs or video games consoles, the EFF wants it to be legal and safe to "jailbreak" the devices. Last week, it asked the U.S. Copyright Office to grant an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for the practice, and has explained its reasoning for it.

The EFF finds that jailbreaking has delivered in areas of innovation, security, privacy, usability and more, across all the devices it affects.

With video game consoles, the EFF cites the U.S. military supercomputers made up of PS3s. The low-cost (relative) of the PS3 clusters wired together, is enabled by using OtherOS, a feature originally available for all fat PS3 consoles. It allowed a user to install an alternative operating system on the console.

In 2010, however, Sony decided to kill off the OtherOS functionality with a network update, effectively removing an entire function that was available at the point of purchase for millions of customers. The EFF points out that the only way for those customers to regain the feature is to hack the console, and it wants exemptions to the DMCA to allow any owner of a PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii or other consoles, to run their own homebrew software or alternative operating system.

Users unlikely to want to upgrade, IDC says.

As part of its "Worldwide System Infrastructure Software 2012 Top 10 Predictions," research group IDC examined the Windows 8 operating system, and what it could expect from the market next year.

The group expects that Microsoft will have Windows 8 available to be installed in new PCs by August 2012, but it does not expect it to gain much attention from potential upgraders. "Windows 8 will be largely irrelevant to the users of traditional PCs, and we expect effectively no upgrade activity from Windows 7 to Windows 8 in that form factor," IDC predicted.

It also predicted that while Microsoft might expect some success with the Windows Server 8 software, it will be another disappointed year for it in the tablet PC space, despite the Windows 8 launch with the Metro touch-screen user interface.

"This is a tall order for Microsoft, and while the x86 tablet strategy makes sense as a transitional solution for today?s PC users, it will be the ARM-based devices that need to shine and clear a high bar already set by Apple."

MIPS has created their own Android tablet, and it will sell for $100.

While there are many cheap Android tablets available on the market, what separates this from the rest is that it will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and have a capacitive multi-touch screen.

The Novo 7 tablet will run a 1GHz Ingenic Xburst processor made by MIPS, dual-cameras (2MP rear/VGA front facing), an SD card slot and HDMI out.

Additionally, the tablet can handle "3D graphics with the Vivante GC860 GPU and 1080p video decoding."

Says Ingenic:

We are pleased to join with MIPS to announce these breakthrough high-performance, low-power, low-cost Android 4.0 tablets. Combining the elegance of the MIPS architecture and Ingenic?s innovation in processor design, we are bringing a new level of processor technology to mobile devices. As we continue to collaborate with MIPS to broaden the mobile ecosystem around the legendary MIPS architecture, we anticipate even broader proliferation of our devices worldwide. We believe the mobile world will be more versatile and colorful with another processor joining in.

PlayStation 3 (PS3) just entered its sixth year on the market.

With six years passed for the console, Wii U confirmed and a new Xbox (or more than one) rumoured to be in development for release within the next couple of years, what is Sony's plan for the PS3?

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO Jim Ryan said in the Official PlayStation Magazine UK that the company plans to aim for a younger audience, but not neglecting the needs of the core gamer. "I think you'll see us taking the console more towards a slightly younger demographic," Ryan said.

"More family market. The core gamer will absolutely not be neglected. There's going to be tons of great stuff for the core gamer but from our own studio, third parties there's some quite interesting stuff happening in a number of areas which would allow us to open up a market that we accessed pretty successfully on both PS1 and PS2 but haven't yet got to on PS3."

Sony's PlayStation and PlayStation 2 (PS2) consoles both had a decade-long life-cycle, and Sony has repeatedly insisted the PS3 will be no different.

Mozilla could lose significant amount of revenue if Google walks away.

According to Mozilla's most recent financial statement (PDF), approximately 84 percent and 86 percent of royalty revenue for 2010 and 2009, respectively, was derived from a contract with a search engine provider.

That search engine provider is Google Inc., and that contract was due to expiry in November 2011. It accounted for around $100 million of Mozilla's $123 million in revenue in 2010.

Now it is not clear if Google will renew the contract with Mozilla at all, or if it will do so with drastically different terms. Mozilla has had a rough year, watching its Firefox browser drop from 25 percent of the market to 22 percent, while Chrome has reached 18 percent. It also lost a key manager, Mike Shaver, who left in September.

After Mozilla switched Firefox to an accelerated development schedule, it lost a lot of support among enterprise customers too.

When Google+ was announced earlier this year, it was hailed as a possible Facebook killer. Despite their previous failure with Buzz, Google was looked at as the one company who might have the resources and know how to truly compete with the social networking giant.

But the reality hasn't lived up to the hype so far. In fact, all the signs have pointed toward Google+ actually being something of a disappointment.

When the invitation-only beta was announced, people seemed to be lining up to get in. It took less than a month to reach 20 million users.

But it didn't take long for the initial excitement to subside. Data from Experian Hitwise seems to indicate their decision to open Google+ to the public occured immediately after traffic started dying down.

There was an initial spike after that, but once again the public seemed to cool on the service. Analysts at Chitika pointed out that Google+ traffic returned to more or less the same level as during the closed beta just a couple weeks later.

Chief Exec to be charged with negligence in sales stampede.

A November 25 sale of BlackBerry devices had to be broken up by police after several people passed out and became ill in a crowd of 5,000. They were there trying to get a 50 percent discount at the launch of the latest BlackBerry in Jakarta.

The discount was to be given to 1,000 people, but after 5,000 showed up, things got out of hand. Police have said that Andrew Cobham, RIM's CEO in Indonesia, is responsible for the promotional event, and is being charged with negligence.

"The suspect has been banned from travelling overseas. He must go through the legal process here," said police investigator Budi Irawan. The maximum penalty for negligence is nine months in prison.

There are about two million BlackBerry users in Indonesia.

Unnamed executives reveal Indian requests.

According to New York Times' sources, the Indian government has asked several major Internet companies to pre-screen content posted by users, and to remove content it deems disparaging or defamatory.

Staff from the Indian units of Google, Microsoft and Facebook are meeting with Indian telecommunications minister, Kapil Sibal, to discuss the issue.

Several weeks ago, Mr Sibal reportedly called legal representatives from ISPs and Facebook into his office in New Delhi. He showed them a Facebook page that maligned the Congress Party?s president, Sonia Gandhi, saying it was unacceptable and asking them to find a way to monitor what is posted.

He also told them that he expected them to use human staff to screen content and not rely on filters.

NYTimes sources said that top executives from the firms involved would inform the minister that what he is seeking is not possible, even just due to the sheer amount of content that is posted by users.

It's certainly not news that the anti-piracy bills making their way through Congress, PIPA (aka Protect IP) and SOPA (aka E-PARASITE) are essentially just wish lists written by the entertainment industry.

While sponsors of both bills claim they are tightly focused on taking action against websites operated outside the US which are "dedicated to infringement," the reality is there are a number of troubling implications for innovation and even security.

The Sunlight Foundation, an organization dedicated to transparency in government, has published lists detailing the amount of money contributed by the TV, movie, and music industries to the campaigns of SOPA and PIPA sponsors.

The list for SOPA includes 18 of 25 sponsors:

• Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., $1,727,156. His southern district border is Hollywood Blvd. and he was the beneficiary at a fundraiser earlier this month hosted by two lobbyists at a firm that represents the National Broadcasting Association.
• Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., $516,400
• Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., $488,731
• Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., $488,636
• Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Tex., $392,995 (sponsor)
• Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-VA, $316,686
• Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., $261,700
• Rep. Lee Terry, R-Nev., $248,168
• Rep. John Barrow, D-GA, $210,900
• Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., $204,199
• Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., $133,023
• Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., $130,100
• Rep. John Carter, R-Tex., $75,850
• Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., $64,648
• Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA, $54,000
• Rep. William Owens, D-N.Y., $42,850
• Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., $30,000
• Rep. Thomas Marino, R-Penn., $21,300

Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation Vita will region-lock all digital content.

If you need to switch to a different PSN account the hanheld will need to be factory reset, says Sony Japan's Third-Party Relations chief Brad Douglas.

Just like the PSPs of the past, gamers can only use one account.

Physical media will remain region-free but gamers who are fans of region-specific PSN content will not be able to access the content without factory resetting their console.

Admitted Douglas, however (via Reg):

The Vita is not region-locked, but that only applies to physical media. Don't know the rationale behind locking digital.

It has been slowly working its way to this point but Android 2.3.x is now on a majority of Android devices, at 50.6 percent.

Android 2.2.x Froyo is on 35.3 percent. Google's newly released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich brought up the rear at 0.01 percent.

Android 2.1 Eclair fell to under 10 percent (9.6) for the first time in years, while Honeycomb 3.0-3.2 came in at just 2.4 percent, showing the low availability of the OS for tablets.

Somewhat astonishingly, the 3 years old Android 1.5 and 1.6 was still on a combined 2.1 percent of devices.

(Pics via RWW)

It appears the most serious allegations about Carrier IQ, the diagnostics software secretly installed and run with root access on a variety of smartphones, may be unfounded.

Carrier IQ comes pre-installed on a number of smartphones, most notably Sprint and AT&T branded Android smartphones, and is sold as a diagnostic tool to help carriers monitor problems with their mobile networks.

The software's existence was discovered last month by a security researcher named Trevor Eckhart, who calls it a rootkit.

While Carrier IQ disagrees with that description, there appears to be no question it is installed without the user's knowledge or permission and runs secretly (hidden from user view) with privileged access. That's the basic definition of a rootkit.

Further revelations by Eckhart include Carrier IQ having the capability of logging every keystroke the user makes and secretly reporting the contents of SMS messages and encrypted communications to the carrier.

Another security researcher, Dan Rosenberg has performed his own analysis of the Carrier IQ implementation on a Samsung Epic 4G Touch and concluded Eckhart's conclusions were in error. According to Rosenberg, claims that Carrier IQ has a keylogger or is capable of sending carriers the contents of SMS messages or webpages are completely false, at least for the Samsung phone he looked at.

App feature intended for use while watching TV.

A recent survey by Yahoo/Nielsen found that 86 percent of smartphone owners use the device while watching TV, with a quarter of them regularly searching content related to the show. Watch with Ebay is a new feature on eBay's iOS application that aims to help users buy items related to what they are watching.

"The idea is to provide a new form of TV watching entertainment that includes the possibility of shopping and discovering interesting products people never would have discovered otherwise," said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile at eBay.

Users can enter the network provider and channel, items related to the TV show itself, or the actors, guests or sports teams involved will be displayed by the app.

Purchasing an item in a particular team on a TV show or movie is not something there is any help for yet, but that is an idea that is being kicked around the industry.

"We've seen that guys sitting around watching a sporting event will buy jerseys for the team they like," Yankovich said.

The disgraced Japanese camera company Olympus may have hid up to $1.7 billion in losses through fraudulent accounting.

Sources close to the panel investigating the fraud say Olympus, at its peak, hid losses of 130 billion yen, equal to $1.7 billion USD.

Although there was rumors of Yakuza ties, the panel has not found sufficient proof.

In an effort to hide losses from poor investments over the past decade, Olympus went through a huge series of mergers and acquisitions and then inflated the administration fees paid out for the acquisition to companies that did not exist or were owned by Olympus.

Former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and ex-internal auditor Hideo Yamada are likely to be charged with the fraud, and potentially former president Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. All have resigned.