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Stanley "MC Hammer" Burrell has announced the launch of his own search engine, dubbed WireDoo.

The former popular 90's rapper made the announcement at this week's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Hammer's search engine will go up against behemoth rivals Google and Bing but the plan is to create "relationship-driven searches" and "go beyond the generalities that give you more relative information in a consistent way in a new environment," says CBS.

The first example given was a simple search for a zip code. WireDoo will bring you the relevant info, but will also add info like schools, homes and hospitals. Going "deeper," clicking on schools, for example, brings you to detailed info like academic performance index scores, teachers' credentials and truancy rates.

WireDoo has a planned launch date of December.

Sprint has said this week that they are removing the unlimited 4G data option that has been available for tablets, notebooks, USB cards, Mobile Hotspot modems for over a year.

The broadband service will not see a price hike, but the unlimited 4G feature will be removed as of next month.

Users will still have their limited 3G data plan they pay for (3GB, 5GB, 10GB) but the free unlimited 4G feature will be removed.

Sprint had offered the free add-on as they rolled out their 4G WiMax offering to new cities.

Smartphone owners, especially new iPhone 4S buyers should not fret, however:

This change does not apply to phone plans. Sprint continues to be the only national wireless carrier to offer unlimited data use without throttling for smartphones, on both our 3G and 4G networks.

Samsung has finally given the official pricing and release details for their upcoming Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

Last month, Samsung introduced the small form factor tablet to their Galaxy line.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus has Android 3.2, runs on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 4G, 1GB RAM, 16GB or 32GB internal storage and a microSD slot.

Additionally, the device has 1080p playback support, dual-cameras 3/2MP with LED flash.

Samsung is charging $399 for the 16GB model or $499 for the 32GB version with a November 13th release date.

Ultraviolet appears to be a fail, for now.

The service, which comes included with physical movie discs and allows users to have a digital copy remain in a "digital locker" for viewing has been hit with terrible reviews on Amazon and elsewhere.

"Green Lantern," by Warner Bros., is the first film to come including the service.

Here are two examples of reviews the service is getting:

This review does not relate to the movie, but it is focused on the ridiculous process to download the digital copy. After creating accounts for both Flixster and Ultraviolet, linking the accounts, enabling WB to view my personal information, the system hangs and doesn't download the movie. I contacted Ultraviolet first with the issues and error messages. After a day, I was told this is not an Ultraviolet issue, but a Flixster problem. I then contacted Flixster. They responded by sending me to the FAQ. To date, I have not gotten a proper response from Flixster on the error messages. I plan on canceling both accounts and will NEVER buy another DVD tied to Ultraviolet. This is a complete rip off and WB should be ashamed of this dreadful service. Please do yourself a favor and don't buy the movie with the digital copy. If you want a digital version, just got to iTunes.

RW Baird analyst Colin Sebastian has said today that he expects the PlayStation 4 to launch before the Xbox Next.

Recent rumors have pegged the Xbox Next as having a late 2013, early 2014 launch.

Baird believes that Sony does not want to give Microsoft "first mover's advantage" like they had with the launch of the Xbox 360.

Says the analyst:

I doubt they will be ready for launch in 2013. Between Sony and Microsoft, we expect Sony to be first to market perhaps as early as 2013, but more likely in 2014. There is still a lot of investment for both companies to recoup in the current generation.

Nintendo has said today that a new firmware update to the 3DS and Wii will bring a couple of anticipated features.

For the 3DS and Wii, Nintendo is adding Hulu Plus support. The service costs $8 per month and gives users a chance to watch current and full back catalogs of TV shows like "The Office," "Family Guy," "Lost" and many more.

ABC, Fox and NBC are owners of the streaming content site.

For the 3DS by itself, Nintendo is adding support for 3D video recording.

Gamers can record 10 minutes of video and even build their own stop-motion animation videos.

According to mobile research firm Research2Guidance, the Android Market is quickly catching up with the iOS App Store in raw amount of apps available.

Currently, the Android Market has 320,000 apps, with 500,000 apps submitted since launch in 2008.

37 percent of Android apps submitted have been removed, a rather large churn rate when compared to rivals.

The iOS App Store has a 24 percent churn rate and 460,000 active apps.

Although its a new entrant, the firm added the Windows Phone Marketplace to the list. It has a 13 percent churn rate.

This has been a rumor since Wednesday but now appears to be confirmed.

The PlayStation 3 has been jailbroken again, with users playing pirated games that require the latest firmware, v3.73.

Dubbed JB2 (Jailbreak 2), the new jailbreak, is a dongle available in Indonesia.

JB2 costs $45 and can play a large amount of games on burnt/pressed BD media, but not off of the PS3's HDD like in past jailbreaks.

The details on how to burn the games yourself will be available next week, but for now games like PES 2012, FIFA 2012 and God of War Origins have all been confirmed via video:

Earlier this week we reported that C Spire Wireless, a tiny carrier with just 1 million subscribers was set to become the fourth provider in the U.S. to get the iPhone 4S.

T-Mobile, which has 33.6 million subscribers, is the fourth largest carrier in the nation and the only major to not have the Apple smartphone.

Says the company:

We think the iPhone is a good device and we've expressed our interest to Apple to offer it to our customers. Ultimately, it is Apple's decision. The issue remains that Apple has not developed a version of the iPhone with technology that works on our fast 3G and 4G networks.

We believe a capable version of the iPhone for our 3G and 4G networks would offer an additional compelling option for our customers on a fast 4G network. However, the iPhone is not the only option to experience the benefit that smartphones offer.

A Joint Committee of MPs and Lords in the UK has issued a report recommending website operators get additional protection from liability for content posted by their users.

Under current UK law website operators are considered secondary publishers of information posted by people using their services. That is, if you operate a forum, social media site, or other service where users may contribute content, and someone writes something defamatory, you can be held liable for its publication.

The committee is recommending changes to those rules which would create a notice and take down process. Any website operator who complies with the procedure would be immune from liability as a secondary publisher.

Under their proposal, 2 sets of rules would be created. One would apply to content posted by someone under their real name, while the other would cover content posted anonymously or under a pseudonym.

For the first category, where the poster could be readily identified, their proposal would require a notice to be attached to the content:

a) Where a complaint is received about allegedly defamatory material that is written by an identifiable author, the host or service provider must publish promptly a notice of complaint alongside that material. If the host or provider does not do so, it can only rely on the standard defences available to a primary publisher, if sued for defamation. The notice reduces the sting of the alleged libel but protects free speech by not requiring the host or service provider to remove what has been said; and

A biography of Steve Jobs, set to go on sale Monday, goes into detail about his near obsession with Android.

Walter Isaacson worked on the book for more than 2 years, interviewing Jobs multiple times, as well as numerous friends, family members, colleagues, and competitors of the visionary, and sometimes abrasive, Apple co-founder.

According to an AP article on the book, it paints a picture of Jobs as a man dedicated to destroying Android. He described Android as, "a stolen product."

Jobs recounted turning down an offer from Google's Eric Schmidt to settle an Android related lawsuit. He told Schmidt:

I don't want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want.

Picasso had a saying. He said, "Good artists copy. Great artists steal," and we have, you know, always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

It appears AT&T may be have been the biggest beneficiary of a record iPhone launch last weekend. Sales of the new Apple smartphone topped 4 million units in the first 3 days.

Yesterday AT&T said they had already activated more than 1 million iPhone 4Ses already. The announcement came during their quarterly earnings call.

Although they haven't released specific numbers, Sprint reported record sales less than half way through the day the new iPhone went on sale.

Verizon also hasn't released sales figures, but we should know more after their earnings call which is scheduled for today. Don't be surprised if those numbers are less impressive.

Unlike AT&T, who was the exclusive US iPhone carrier until last February, Verizon sold their first iPhones earlier this year. That should translate into fewer immediate upgrades from the iPhone 4, and obviously none from earlier iPhones.

That may, however, be a good thing for Apple. It could mean steadier US iPhone sales through next year, with Verizon customers upgrading later.

A New Mexico software company is suing Research In Motion for trademark infringement over the name of their new mobile OS.

BASIS International develops and sells a programming language called BBx. BBX is also the name chosen for the new RIM OS which merges their older BlackBerry OS and more recent QNX.

On the surface, it seems like BASIS' trademark infringement claim is shaky. Trademark protection isn't universal. It extends only to products which compete in the same market.

BASIS Chairman and CEO, Nico Spence claims the two products are, in fact, in the same market. In a statement released the day after RIM's announcement, he said:

We have thousands of product licenses installed worldwide with the 'BBX' prefix that run on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other proprietary UNIX OSs from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and SUN, with mobile clients running Apple iOS, Google Android, and Windows Mobile. We are fielding numerous customer inquiries voicing their confusion about the RIM announcement.

Since yesterday the web has been full of reports that Samsung may have become the top smartphone manufacturer in the world. Before you buy into the hype, there are a few things you should consider.

Without a doubt, Samsung is the fastest rising star in the smartphone market. Their Galaxy S II Android phone has generated more buzz than any non-iPhone handset in recent years.

Now The Wall Street Journal is reporting Samsung shipped 20 million smartphones in Q3, beating both Apple and Nokia. That's impressive to be sure, but does it really make them the market leader?

The most obvious problem with that assumption is that shipments aren't sales. Based on Apple's recent financial report, we know they sold just over 17 million iPhones in the same period.

If Samsung had actually sold more smartphones than Apple in the third quarter, it seems likely they would have said so. Since they haven't made such a statement, it's probably safe to conclude that's not the case.

Google Music, the cloud locker that is set to expand into a fully fledged music download service in the coming weeks, could be coming with a twist, P2P file sharing.

How the service will work is anyone who purchases a song can share it with friends who can then play it a limited amount of times before deciding if they want to purchase it or not.

If true, the file sharing could be what Andy Rubin was alluding too when he said Music would come with "a little twist - it will have a little Google in it. It won't just be selling 99-cent tracks."

There has been word that Google is missing the catalog of a major label (here's looking at you Warner) but that the company plans to launch the store in the coming weeks, regardless.

Google Music will come into a market dominated by Apple (and to a lesser degree Amazon), but Google certainly has the ecosystem (and Android) to get the service out to millions of consumers.