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During the summer, when Netflix decided to split its streaming and by-mail services, the company also announced it would begin renting video games.

Earlier this month, however, Netflix cancelled its decision and left the gaming rental addition up in the air.

CEO Reed Hastings says the company is still undecided:

We have yet to decide whether or not to offer video game discs. The decision will have little financial impact either way.

Originally, the CEO had said: "Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done."

Apple has just been granted yet another patent on basic touchscreen technology in the US. Their latest patent, granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), is for the swipe-to-unlock feature they first used on the iPhone.

This patent is an extension of one granted by the USPTO last year which covered locking devices until an appropriate swipe gesture was performed. This latest patent adds the specifics of Apple's iOS GUI:

• movement of the unlock image from the first predefined location to a predefined unlock region
• wherein the moving comprises movement along any desired path
• wherein the moving comprises movement along a predefined channel from the first predefined location to the predefined unlock region
• further comprising displaying visual cues to communicate a direction of movement of the unlock image required to unlock the device
• wherein the visual cues comprise text
• wherein said visual cues comprise an arrow indicating a general direction of movement
• A portable electronic device... wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; and to unlock the hand-held electronic device if the unlock image is moved from the first predefined location on the touch screen to a predefined unlock region on the touch-sensitive display

Sprint, following its 16th straight losing quarter, has said today that it may need up to $7 billion in capital going forward to pay for its upcoming network upgrade and new handsets, including the iPhone.

The company will refinance $4 billion of its current debt and look to secure $1-$3 billion in new financing from suppliers.

What is clear, however, is that company is in trouble. Sprint has $20 billion in outstanding debt, with 60 percent coming due before 2016. The company only has $4 billion in cash and liquid investments.

Additionally, the company's massive $20 billion bet on the iPhone has cost their credit rating, which is now B1, well below "investment grade" and barely above "junk."

For the quarter, the company lost $300 million, down from a $900 million loss year-over-year.

Sprint, Apple's newest iPhone 4S partner, has been seeing an increasing amount of criticism for the extremely slow speeds of its 3G network when using the device.

A leaked internal email shows that Sprint is aware of the "nationwide issue" relating to the slow data and is looking into ways to fix it.

Reviewers and critics says the 3G speed, thanks to the new influx of iPhone owners, was down to an average of just 400 kbps, well below the over 1 Mbps seen on rival carriers.

Despite the internal email, the company's public statement paints a very different picture:

Overall, iPhone performance on the Sprint network is consistent with our expectations and the rest of our high-end portfolio. Sprint also did benchmarking of Sprint's iPhone against competitor's iPhones and the testing showed little to no performance difference.

Sprint allegedly broke the bank for the iPhone, paying Apple $20 billion over the next 4 years for iPhone devices.

Nexus One owners, it may finally be time to upgrade your handsets.

Google has confirmed today that the original Google flagship device, the Nexus One, is "too old" to receive the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and therefore will not be getting the update.

Nexus S users, on the other hand, will be getting the upgrade "within weeks" of its launch.

The Nexus One was released in January 2010 and was the first device to run Android 2.1.

Finally, responding to Microsoft CEO's statement that users "need a computer science degree" to use Android phones, Google's Hugo Barra says "Android, especially this new version 4.0, is an incredibly intuitive platform - the best one we've ever built. There are power user features, but there is no need for an instruction manual or a computer science degree."

According to the Steve Jobs biography the Apple iPad was initially slated to run on an Intel Atom processor before execs convinced the former CEO that ARM SoC would work better.

Jobs and Jonathan Ive, the VP of Industrial Design at Apple and one of Job's best friends, began development on the tablet in 2004, filing for patent applications and creating sketches of the multi-touch-based iOS. How the tablet would be powered was very much up for discussion, however.

In 2005, Apple made the move to Intel x86 chips in its Mac computers and the company had a good working relationship with Intel. Jobs expected to use the Atom processors in its upcoming iPad tablets.

In 2008, however, the company purchased PA Semi, who was creating the SoC for the iPhones. Jobs was very satisfied with the chips and later would say that Intel "too slow and not too flexible" to create something for the iOS devices.

Nokia finally gives us some Windows Phone 7 handsets.

The release of the Nokia N9 smartphone was a bitter-sweet event. On one hand, it was praised for its sleek design and simple (MeeGo) user interface. On the other, it's absence from major markets, along with the very uncertain future of MeeGo, served as the ultimate buzz kill to Nokia's party.

Today, Nokia has shown an evolution of the N9, featuring the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango mobile operating system. It comes in the form of two new smartphones, the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710.
 

Nokia Lumia 800

The Nokia Lumia 800 comes in cyan, megenta and black, featuring a 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display. It is powered by a 1.4GHz processor and features hardware accelerated graphics. It comes with 16GB of internal memory, and also uses 25GB of SkyDrive cloud storage.


Nokia Lumia 800 Specifications

• Dimensions: H - 116.5mm; W - 61.2mm; D - 12.1mm. Weighs 142g.
• Display: 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack capacitive touch-screen, 800x480px.
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM8255 1.4GHz.
• Memory: 512MB SDRAM.
• Operating Band: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900; WCDMA Band V (850), I (2100), II (1900), VIII (900).
• Data Bearer: WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps, HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, Dual Transfer Mode (MSC 32).
• Local Connectivity: WiFi, Micro USB, USB Mass Storage, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, USB 2.0 High-Speed, 3.5mm AHJ Connector, Bluetooth Stereo Audio.
• WLAN Support: 802.11b/g/n, WEP, WPA, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Enterprise.
• Storage/User Memory: 16GB mass memory; SkyDrive 25GB cloud storage.
• Camera: 8 megapixels; Photo - 3984x2992; Video - 1280x720, 30fps, MPEG-4.
• Camera Digital Zoom: 3x.
• Music: Supported Codecs - AAC, M4B, MP3, WMA, EVRC, MP42, QCELP; Formats - FLAC, Ogg Vorbis.
• Video: Formats - ASF, AVI, VC-1, WMV-9, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, 3GPP formats (H.263).
• Navigation: GPS, A-GPS, CellID, SA-GPS, WiFi Positioning.
• Internet: Internet Explorer 9 Mobile.
• Operating System: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
• Battery: BV-5JW 3.7V 1450mAh, USB charged.
• Battery Charge: 2G Talk - 13 hours; GSM Standby - 265 hours; 3G Talk - 9.5 hours; 3G Standby - 335 hours; Music Playback - 55 hours; Video Playback - 7 Hours.
• Other: TV-Out; Micro SIM; Nokia Maps; Bing Maps; Flight Mode; Nokia Drive; Nokia Music; Nokia Store; 2 Microphones; Microsoft Lync; 3D Accelerometer; Proximity Sensor; Megnetometer Sensor; Ambient Light Sensor; Nokia Contacts Transfer.

The new Nokia Lumia 800 is now available in select countries for pre-order on www.nokia.com and is scheduled to roll-out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November, with 31 leading operators and retailers providing unprecedented marketing support in those first six countries. It is scheduled to be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and in further markets in early 2012.

Nintendo's fiscal H1 results are eagerly awaited.

The company will report its financial figures for the fiscal first half on Thursday. It had previously forecast a loss of ¥55 billion (around $720 million) for the period, but a report is now suggesting that the loss could be far worse than Nintendo itself anticipated.

The online edition of the Nikkei business daily has reported that the loss will be closer to ¥100 billion, or around $1.32 billion, for the fiscal first half ending September 30. At a point after the news, Nintendo shares took a 7.5 percent plunge.

Nintendo is experiencing increased competition from mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, which are appealing to casual gamers. Nintendo heavily targeted casual gamers with its Wii home console and DS handhelds. Recently, it has seen interest in both the Wii, and the DS, wane.

The Nintendo 3DS handheld, for example, has only managed to sold 4.32 million units since it was launched, while total Nintendo DS sales since its 2004 launch, top 150 million across all revisions.

To add to the problems of increased competition and waning interest in its products, Nintendo also suffers as a result of the surging yen currency, hitting the value of overseas earnings for exporters in Japan.

Anti-piracy firm back tracking down web pirates in France.

Back in May, plans to implement a three strikes policy in France that could lead to the disconnection of Internet users caught sharing illegal files were put on hold after it was revealed the company tasked with tracking activity had been hacked.

Trident Media Guard (TMG) was found to be using very insecure servers that were easily penetrated by hackers. They were running a custom administrative program written in Delphi, which didn't require any authentication at all, meaning anyone could connect to port 8500 and start sending commands.

Even though the commands that could be carried out were limited, they were sufficient for hackers to figure out how to do, more or less, whatever they wanted. Hackers had figured out that they could specify any FTP server as the update server and deliver their own malicious updates to be installed.

TMG had to provide details on the breach to the French government. Since the breach, TMG has tightened up its security and the French data authority says it is now happy with the level of security deployed, meaning TMG can continue to track IP addresses of suspected Internet pirates.

Third quarter net income reported at $63 million.

Amazon's profits have dropped 73 percent after the company invested heavily in the Kindle Fire tablet computer, according to the online retailer. As a result, Amazon's shared dropped 12 percent in after hours trading with questions about the web giant's business in the air.

Still, Amazon said that sales had grown by 44 percent. On September 28, it experienced its biggest ever day for Kindle orders, surpassing even previous peak sales during holiday seasons.

"In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.

The web giant forecast lower-than-expected sales during the next quarter, despite the holiday season , and warned it could see an operating loss as it continues to invest in the Kindle Fire tablet.

Taiwanese company announces deal with popular cloud storage provider.

Dropbox is a cloud storage service, founded in 2007, that lets you bring your files (documents, photos, videos etc.) everywhere with you. It has a free option that provides 2GB of storage space (can be extended by recruiting others).

The service has more than 45 million registered users to date, with over 1 million files being saved every five minutes. Pro Dropbox accounts provide storage space up to 100GB. Saving files into a Dropbox folder means they will be synched / available across all devices you have Dropbox software installed on.

HTC has confirmed that it is partnering with Dropbox to pre-install the Dropbox app on all new Android phones. The devices will receive 5GB worth of cloud storage at no extra cost.

HTC didn't provide details about the deal with Dropbox, nor did it suggest whether the extra free storage space would be available to existing users of its Android smartphones.

Japanese officials have confirmed that computers in the Parliament have been infected with a nasty virus.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters that a server and three computers used by members of the lower house were infected. Local media reported that the virus was used to hack into the computers to steal log-in info and e-mails.

The reports says the virus spread after members opened email attachments.

Last month, Japanese defense contractors were hit by similar attacks, with the attackers looking to steal classified military data.

There was no indication on where the attacks are coming from.

In September, Netflix announced it had signed a streaming content deal for upcoming movies with DreamWorks Animation, the studio behind blockbuster hits like the Shrek franchise.

While the deal is already signed, Netflix will begin streaming the brand new films in 2013. Catalog movies like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Antz and more will be added over time. In 2013, DWA has three titles set for release, "The Croods," "Turbo," and "Peabody & Sherman."

Today, the first pieces of content from DWA are available to Netflix subscribers; "spooky" Haloween mini-series including characters from "Shrek" and "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Additionally, animated TV show "Father of the Pride" and the movie "Joseph, King of Dreams" are now available.

According to Digitimes, Apple's iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE, the first iPhone to do so.

The iPhone 5, which will likely have a June 2012 release date, will come with the embedded 4G LTE radio giving access to fast speeds on AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.

Furthermore, in the report, the site says Nokia, RIM and Sony Ericsson will launch their first LTE phones next year, as well.

HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG will continue to sell 4G phones, obviously.

Currently there are 35 active LTE networks in the world but that number is expected to jump to 100 by Christmas 2012.

JP Morgan analyst Douglas Anmuth has upped his expectation for Kindle Fire sales in the Q4, from 3 million to 5 million.

Basing the new number on supply chain checks, the analyst says "production momentum" for the tablet is ever-increasing, suggesting extremely strong pre-order demand.

Manufacturers have been experiencing rush orders in the past weeks, reads the research note.

Furthermore, the note says that Amazon will create a 10-inch model next year with a 3G radio.

Some reports have Amazon seeing 50,000 pre-orders per day for the $199 tablet which is built around the Amazon ecosystem but lacks some standard features like a mic and camera.