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It appears that Google's Chrome OS has been hacked by researchers, despite the search giant's claim that the OS would be safer than current offerings from Microsoft and Apple.

Chrome OS has only been available (commercially, not as beta) for a few months, so the news is even more disheartening.

Researchers at the recent Black Hat security conference say they hacked the system to access user’s emails, Google Docs, contacts, and Google Voice messages.

The researchers called for Google to fix the flaws, and soon. Hacking the built-in ScratchPad app the team easily grabbed user's contacts.

Google responded:

This conversation is about the web, not Chrome OS. Chromebooks raise security protections on computing hardware to new levels. They are also better equipped to handle the web attacks that can affect browsers on any computing device, thanks in part to a carefully designed extensions model and the advanced security available through Chrome that many users and experts have embraced.

Reaching a new price point for 4G devices, Sprint will begin selling the Samsung Conquer 4G for $99 (with rebate), on August 21st.

The device runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has a 1GHz processor, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, dual cameras and 2GB storage.

While the phone is certainly affordable, Sprint requires an Everything data plan + Premium Data, at $80 a month, to activate the phone.

Sprint's 4G WiMax network is available in 28 states/ 71 cities.

According to the WSJ, cable and satellite TV providers are just not selling as much porn as they used to.

While still wildly profitable, revenue on adult VOD and PPV service have been falling, showing consumer's move to the Internet for their pornography.

Over the course of two weeks, Time Warner and DirecTV has directly stated that PPV profits were weaker than expected thanks to "lower adult buys."

Says the Time Warner CEO:

There's been a fairly steady trend over some time period now for adult to go down largely because there's that kind of material available on the Internet for free.

HTC has acquired mobile app company Dashwire for $18.5 million, likely in an effort to fight against current patent litigation brought by rivals.

The global smartphone maker says the move will help it strengthen its cloud-based services.

Following suits from Apple and others, HTC has used its lush cash supply to begin acquisitions, including a $335 million purchase of S3 Graphics.

That move has already paid off, as S3 won a patent case over Apple two weeks ago.

Dashwire is said to have a portfolio of 20,000 patents purchased from a company called Intellectual Ventures. IV has licensing agreements with Google, Intel and Microsoft, among others, with many related to mobile devices.

Following its acquisition of Motorola's networking business for $1.2 billion, Nokia Siemens Networks has begun its layoff of 1500 employees.

The company has 70,000 employees and the layoffs will mainly be research staff.

In June, the company announced the cuts, alongside the relocation of 1200 employees into the LTE and WCDMA divisions.

GMB Union rep Andy Prendergast says (via ZD):

It's real tragedy that these jobs are going [as] they are well-paid, high-skilled jobs of the kind that we should be a world leader in.

The light regulation around labour laws makes it a lot easier to dispense with workers in the UK than in other areas. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea that the Tories have an economic policy built around growth.

Following up on their popular July 4th sale which slashed iOS games to just $0.99, Electronic Arts (EA) has started a back-to-school sale, slashing 80 percent off prices for their popular mobile games.

A few of the games are also "HD" versions built for the iPad.

Among the discounted are classics like Tetris, Scrabble, Battleship, Snood and Risk and on the newer side is the brand new (released last month) Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Furthermore, popular sports games like Madden NFL 11, Fifa 11 and Fight Night will be available.

Check the list here: EA Back-To-School Sale

Will Russia be getting the iPhone 5 just one month after its expected U.S. launch?

On the heels of word that Apple is actively looking to lease space inside the trade gallery of the historic Hotel Moskva in Moscow for an Apple Store, a Russian paper is claiming that the nation will get the iPhone 5 in November.

The iPhone 5 is expected to launch in September or October in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Citing handset retailers in Russia, the paper says sales of the iPhone 5 will begin "almost immediately" after the U.S. launch.

Russian carriers are in current talks with Apple about speeding up delivery of the smartphone, as previous versions have launched months after the U.S. launch, leading to a huge gray market for iPhones in the nation.

Despite Sony's recent announcement that its Vita handheld would not be hitting North America or the EU until 2012, Best Buy Canada has still put the console up for pre-order, at least 5 months before any possible retail launch.

The company has a page for the Vita with Wi-Fi-only at $250 and the Vita with 3G/Wi-Fi at $300.

Additionally, Best Buy Canada says March 30th is the expected date for launch, although that is likely educated speculation by the chain.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back, dual micro-analog sticks and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Pics via Nexus404:

On this date in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee (no, not Al Gore) published the first website ever on the World Wide Web (WWW).

At the time, Lee was a contractor at CERN, the European nuclear research organization and had access to the largest Internet node on the continent.

The Internet, back then, consisted of computers being able to talk to each other. Lee proposed the WWW system, which would give users a way to access various information sources, from whatever computer they were on using hyperlinks.

Thanks to the WWW, typing in a web address actually leads you to that site's servers, and a visual page.

The first ever website was a part of info.cern.ch and was just an info page with links. You can view a cached version of that page here: The first web page

For more info on the start of the WWW, check here: http://info.cern.ch/

Sanford Wallace, better known as the "Spam King," has been indicted in Las Vegas.

The 40-year-old is accused of sending 27 million spam messages to millions of Facebook users.

From November 2008 to March 2009, Wallace allegedly compromised 500,000 Facebook accounts after sending millions of pieces of spam through the company's servers, says USAT.

In March 2009, Wallace was banned from ever using Facebook, but the indictment claims the "Spam King" started using the site again in April.

Wallace has been sued by Concentric Network, AOL, CompuServe, MySpace and the Federal Trade Commission over spamming and phishing.

The Spam King is facing up to 16 years in jail if convicted on all counts of electronic mail fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt.

Customers lucky to still have unlimited data plans are putting it at risk if tethering.

AT&T has confirmed that it will revoke unlimited data plans held by users who are using a Jailbroken iPhone for tethering. It will then lump its 4GB tethering-approved plan on the customer. The carrier has sent out warning letters to those tethering without a plan.

In order to keep tethering, a customer will have to switch plan, but since the unlimited data plan no longer exists, that means taking on a 4GB limit split between smartphone use and tethering. The minimum tethering plan would actually cost a customer with unlimited data an additional $15 per month.

Customers lucky to still have unlimited plans could be forgiven for getting angry about this policy, as there was no state restriction on tethering at the time the unlimited plan was still available.

Global mobile connections to hit 5.7 billion this year.

Research firm Gartner has said that global mobile data revenue is to rise 22.5 percent this year, to $341.7 billion, compared to 2010. It also projected revenue to increase to $552 billion by 2015.

Driving this demand for data is a rise in mobile connections from 5.6 billion at the end of 2011, to 7.4 billion by 2015. "Data revenue will continue to grow but at a much slower rate," Jessica Ekholm, principal research analyst at Gartner.

"This is causing a decoupling between revenue and data traffic, and is creating an increase in network costs for carriers as they try to sustain growing data traffic." Network operators are trying to strike a balance between capacity and revenue, dumping unlimited data plans for monthly data caps.

"What carriers need are innovative ways to increase data revenue while finding smart solutions to manage a growing demand in data," said Sylvain Fabre, research director at Gartner.

"Ultimately, it will be the consumer who chooses the content he or she wants to use, and carriers need to ensure the quality of experience is good. A sub-standard user experience may lead to higher churn."

Sony has ruled out exiting the TV business despite continuous losses to its divisions.

Kazuo Hirai, head of Sony's consumer businesses, said that the company was not considering selling off any of its factories, and that it would not exit a TV panel partnership with Samsung Electronics. "Televisions are a core business for Sony and it would be unthinkable for us to shrink that business," Hirai said.

The company has said it will put forth plans to reform its troubles TV business this month, while warning that losses on TVs could widen this year. In the past, it has sold off factories in Spain, Mexico and Slovakia, and outsourced much of its production to third parties.

The company's TV business is heading for an eight straight year of losses, as it struggles to cope with competition from lower-cost Asian rivals, and even with Samsung. Hirai was clear however that the company has no plans to dismantle its partnership with the South Korean firm.

"We are absolutely not thinking of abolishing the joint venture, and it's not something that would be easy to do," he said.

In an update to our recent article, Seagate has refuted the claim that they are slashing their warranties to 2 years (from 5) in an effort to cut costs.

In mass tweets sent to journalists, bloggers and others who reported the news, the company says simply: "Rumor's wrong. Seagate retail internal drives still have 5-year warranty."

Original story here claimed:

Seagate has noted today that it will shorten the warranty on most of its consumer series HDDs.

In an effort to reduce costs, the warranties will be reduced from 5 years to just 2 years.

Included in the list are Seagate's most popular drives, the Barracuda 7200.12 and Momentus Green product series.

Barracudas are 3.5-inch form factor and used for desktop builds while the slimmer Momentus are 2.5-inch and used for notebooks, or as slim external drives.

Enterprise models, like the XT series, will keep its five-year warranty.

It is unclear when the new move will go into effect.

According to the latest figures from comScore MobiLens, Android continues its exponential growth story, taking 40.1 percent of the U.S. market share for smartphones for June.

Overall, 78.5 million Americans owned smartphones, up 8 percent from the period ended March.

Android moved from 34.7 percent to 40.1 percent, holding the top spot. Apple saw smaller growth, but took second place at 26.6 percent.

RIM continues to fall, down from 27.1 to 23.4 percent, but still good for third place.

Microsoft, even with the release of Windows Phone 7 devices, continues to see share erode, down to 5.8 percent from 7.5 percent.

Symbian and WebOS controlled the rest of the pie.