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According to the NYTimes, Google has a secret product lab called Google X that is out there trying to change the world.

Google X is the team behind the driver-less cars seen around California and the lab is also working on other projects like "space elevators" and Internet-connected household devices.

Sources claim that the labs are run "as mysteriously as the C.I.A." and work out of two locations, one undisclosed and one in Google's headquarters.

The lab is mainly run by robotics engineers and a few software engineers.

Google would not comment on the existence of the mysterious labs.

AMD, the second-largest computer processor maker in the world, has announced today that it will try to regain relevance in the server market with its first new design since 2003.

Since 2006, AMD has fallen from a 26 percent share in the server chip market to just 5.2 percent. Rival Intel controls the other 94.8 percent.

The new chips, based on the "Interlagos" design, will sell for $125-$1019.

Patrick Patla, general manager of the server business notes (via Bloomberg)

We've got to get relevance back. We want to drive rapid expansion of our market share.

AMD's latest chips will "provide 55 percent more performance than Intel equivalents" at similar price points, says Patla.

Intel has unveiled a chip for the "we have too much money crowd," the Core i7-3960X.

The Extreme Edition Sandy Bridge chip is six-core, 12-thread at 3.3GHz.

Additionally, the chip supports up to four channels of DDR3 memory, has 15MB of L3 cache, and can be overclocked with one click to 3.9GHz with Intel's Turbo Boost.

The processor uses 130W TDP and will cost above $1000 at retail, given that Intel is selling it at $990 wholesale.

According to multiple reports, HTC is preparing a quad-core tablet to be announced at the Mobile World Congress event next year.

The tablet will be powered by a Tegra 3 processor, likely at 1.2GHz.

Additionally, the company is expected to launch two new smartphones, including one with a quad-core processor. It been rumored those devices are the HTC Edge and the HTC Ville.

All of the devices will run Android 4.0.

MWC starts on February 27.

Windows Phone may not have reached their current goal of being the number three mobile OS with consumers just yet, but among developers the story looks a little different.

In a developer survey conducted by Appcellerator, makers of the Titanium mobile development platform, with the assistance of IDC, 38% expressed interest in developing for Windows Phone. Of those, the majority were specifically saw opportunities with Nokia's new Lumia line.

While that's still a far cry from Android or iOS, it's significantly ahead of BlackBerry phones, which interested just 21% of developers.

The other big winner in the survey was Amazon, whose Kindle Fire is seen as a hot commodity among tablets. Worldwide, compared to other Android tablets, it was second only to the Galaxy Tab.

US developers were even more enthusiastic about the Kindle Fire, putting it ahead of the Galaxy Tab and nearly as high as the iPad. The price, in particular, seems to be the biggest factor.

After a revelation last week of their abusing the DMCA takedown process, Warner Brothers went into damage control mode on Friday.

Their improper DMCA takedowns, which involved files where Warner didn't own the copyrights, came to light in their case against cyberlocker service Hotfile. As part of the takedown process, the DMCA requires the sender to include:

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed

If further stipulates the notice must include a statement promising:

that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Even as they defended their actions, Warner Brothers admitted to relying on automated software to identify infringing content without double checking the results for errors. That software made the kind of mistakes you would expect from amateur programmers:

With as much success as Apple has had in attracting major carriers for the iPhone, their inability to ink a deal with China Mobile stands out as perhaps their biggest failure.

China Mobile is the largest mobile carrier in the world by any objective standard. They have more than 600 million customers and their network covers more area than any other provider worldwide.

It appears the sticking point in negotiations between the two companies isn't over the phone, which would have to be modified for China Mobile's network, but rather the iTunes App Store. Specifically, it's a question of app store revenue. China Mobile wants a cut.

Citing information from Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, All Things D reports that China Mobile has told Apple they are not interested in selling the iPhone without a revenue sharing deal for app store purchases.

If true, there is some irony in the situation. Apple's demand for revenue sharing with carriers was one reason they were able to secure very few carrier deals for the original iPhone. In fact, China Mobile was one of the carriers who turned them down.

Last week, Adobe announced it was killing development on its mobile Flash player.

Today, the company's principal product manager for developer relations Mike Chambers has confirmed that it was Apple's rejection of the format that lead to its demise:

The Flash Player was not going to achieve the same ubiquity on mobile as it has on the desktop. This one should be pretty apparent, but given the fragmentation of the mobile market, and the fact that one of the leading mobile platforms (Apple's iOS) was not going to allow the Flash Player in the browser, the Flash Player was not on track to reach anywhere near the ubiquity of the Flash Player on desktops.

Adobe has now moved its focus to AIR and HTML5 apps, but will also provide bug fixes and ongoing scurity updates for Flash.

Despite the passing of former CEO Steve Jobs, Chambers says "no matter what we did, the Flash Player was not going to be available on Apple's iOS anytime in the foreseeable future."

Notion Ink CEO Rohan Shravan has let it slip that the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code may be released this week.

The exec says Google is preparing for a November 17th release date, but it is unclear whether that date is set in stone or an educated guess based off talks with the Android dev community.

Giving more credibility to the rumor is Shravan's leaks in the past to other Android developments.

Additionally, it has been rumored that the Galaxy Nexus will launch in Europe on the same day.

For more info on ICS, check here: Samsung unveils Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0, SDK available now

Nintendo has noted this weekend that the 3DS handheld is on pace to have stronger sales than the original DS had in its first year.

The old handheld had 2.37 million units sold in its first year.

Nintendo launched the console in March to lackluster sales and reviews. When sales dried up, the gaming company was forced to drop the price from $250 to $170.

The company, in its press release, says the 3DS has sold 1.65 million units in the U.S., alone, not mentioning overseas sales.

Nintendo should see very strong sales this holiday, thanks to the release of games like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7.

Kobo has followed in the footsteps of Amazon, launching a Touch e-reader that is subsidized with ads.

Priced at $99, the device automatically displays "sponsored screens and valuable offers" when the e-reader is not in use, replacing standard screen savers.

Additionally, the ads can show up "in other discreet places that are always outside of the reading experience, like on the bottom of your home screen."

The release date has not been revealed, but the product page says the e-reader is shipping in "2-3 weeks."

Featuring an e-ink display, the device has a 6-inch screen, weighs about 0.45 lbs, has 1GB internal memory, an SD card slot and access to the Kobo store, which has 2.2 million books.

According to new data from video services provider Ooyala, tablet owners were more engaged while watching videos, compared to desktop or mobile users.

Video completion was also significantly higher, with rates 30 percent higher than desktop users.

For every minute viewed on a desktop, tablet owners watched 1 minute 17 seconds.

Tablets, mobile devices, and game consoles are becoming the preferred devices for medium and long-form videos, videos over 10 minutes long.

As expected, the iPad was the most popular tablet for viewing videos, accounting for 97.7 percent of all play time.

(Pic, source via Cnet)

Romanian tax authorities have seized local assets of Nokia due to unpaid debts.

It appears that the company owed around $10 million.

Sorin Blejnar, the head of the authority, confirmed the move:

We decided to seize the assets as a precautionary measure to prevent Nokia from selling them before they pay their debt to the state. This won't affect the activity of the factory.

Nokia announced in September that it was shutting down its Romanian factory.

(Pic via BGR)

According to research firm eDataSource, Amazon took 500,000 pre-orders for the Kindle Fire tablet before October 28th, and sold over 1 million to retail partners during the same time frame.

Additionally, the firm says some people are actually buying multiple devices, which is almost unheard of for tablets.

Says Carter Nicholas of eDS:

I think it resets the bar. In our data, we're seeing people ordering two and three of them. That's not the majority of people, but it is showing up.

The Kindle Fire goes on sale on the 15th at Amazon.com and 16,000 retail locations.

Amazon has begun offering a $50 credit to buyers of the Playstation 3 160GB, the Microsoft Xbox 360 4GB or the Xbox 360 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Bundle.

Additionally, it is offering $60 credit with a purchase of the Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle.

The Amazon credit is good for any future Amazon purchase but cannot be used on digital purchases like Kindle e-books.

For the PS3, the 160GB model sells for $250. The low-end Xbox sells for $200 and the MW3 bundle is selling for $400.

Included in the bundle is a custom Modern Warfare 3 320GB Xbox, two custom wireless controllers, special Avatar items from the store, a black wired headset, and of course, a copy of the game.

Check the deals here: Amazon $50 credit towards video game hardware