Samsung has noted today that its upcoming Galaxy S II already has 3 million pre-orders worldwide, not including the U.S. where the phone hasn't gone up for sale, yet.

In Samsung's home country of Korea, the phone is already on pace to outsell the iPhone 4, which has been on sale for over 9 months.

The smartphone has a 4.27-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen, Android 2.3.4, a 1.2GHz Samsung dual-core processor, an 8.49mm thin chassis (at lowest), an 8MP camera with autofocus and 1080p recording, NFC support, a 2MP front-side camera and HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0+HS.

Furthermore, the device will run on Samsung's updated TouchWiz UI.

There is still no set date for launch in the U.S. following a delay from late March.

Although the company has had to delay the resurrection of the PSN, Sony is looking to make amends to frustrated gamers and will offer up two free PS3 games to everyone affected.

Users will get to choose the games from a small 5-lot of select titles.

For now, it is unclear what those titles will be, however.

Additionally, Sony announced last week that it would be offering everyone a free 30-day trial to the premium PlayStation Plus service.

After first announcing that the service would be up by yesterday, over the weekend Sony confirmed that they would have to delay the return of the service to an unknown time.

Adds Nick Caplin – Head of Communications, SCEE:

Please be assured that we are continuing to work around the clock to have some PlayStation Network and Qriocity services restored and will provide you with specific details shortly.

Daily deal behemoth Groupon has teamed up with Live Nation this week, in an effort to bring discounted ticket deals.

The new venture, GrouponLive, is already available if you want to use your email to subscribe to deals but deals won't start until the summer.

Live Nation Entertainment, a venture by Live Nation and Ticketmaster, currently promotes 20,000 shows every year.

Says Groupon CEO Andrew Mason:

With unprecedented access to Live Nation's expansive roster of performers and events, GrouponLive will be the destination for exclusive live event deals. We're excited to work with Live Nation to further deliver on our commitment to offer amazing local experiences to our subscribers.

Adds Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment:

GrouponLive represents a new channel to drive value for fans, while helping artists and others to reach ever larger audiences. By adding this channel to our ticketing platform, we will also provide our venue partners with another option for driving ticket sales across a wide range of events. Our success is based on selling tickets and filling seats and GrouponLive gives us another platform to achieve this.

Launched with just Android compatibility, Amazon's Cloud Player has now been updated to work with iOS devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

While Android owners have a native app for the Cloud Player, iOS device owners need to stream the music via the Safari browser.

Open Safari, head over to the Cloud Player site, ignore the "your browser is not supported warning" and sign into your account.

From there, just click on the playlist/track you want to hear and it will begin streaming within the browser. Volume and controls work as usual and will even play in the background.

Unfortunately, on iOS you can't rearrange the songs in playlists or upload new files because the latter requires Flash.

Sprint has announced the release of the Nexus S 4G for their network, giving CDMA/WiMax 4G users a chance to use Google's flagship Android device.

Furthermore, the smartphone will launch with Android 2.3.4, meaning video chat through Google Talk is enabled.

The device is available for $200 with contract from Sprint, or $150 with contract through Best Buy.

If you want to buy the device without contract it will cost you $549.

As with all Sprint smartphones, you will be charged an extra $10 per month for "premium data."

Electronic Arts (EA) has said this weekend that all reports that the company is already working on software development for the next-gen Xbox console are false.

Reports had stated that EA had been given a working kit of the Xbox 360's successor in an effort to start game development early.

EA spokesperson Jeff Brown says, however, "this story is a total fabrication - 100 percent not true."

The original reports suggested that Microsoft could be ready to announce that new console at this year's E3, rivaling Nintendo's launch of the Wii 2 (Project Cafe).

For now, we will assume that Microsoft is not working on an Xbox 360 successor, and will have it available by 2015, at the end of a 10-year cycle.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer just reached American shores last week but has quickly seen huge demand and shortages.

Asus says today that they expect to produce 100,000 in May and 210,000 in June, and that all shortages are demand-based, and not due to component shortages or rumored quality control problems at their plants.

When asked when the shortages would stop, Asus responded:

We will see a significant alleviation in the month of June and if the demand continues to increase substantially then we will have to continue to ramp up production in order to fulfill our customers' demand.

Additionally, the company says: "The current demand surpasses our expectations by far."

The Transformer is different from most other tablets because it offers an easily attachable keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a netbook. The dock has a second battery, meaning you will have around 16 hours total of battery life, compared to just 9 hours or so in the tablet by itself.

Hysteria over the launch of the iPad 2 has led to four would-be buyers being injured, and a glass door being smashed through at the Beijing flagship Apple store.

The state press says four people were taken to the hospital after "a foreign" Apple employee jumped into the crowd "to beat" people who had allegedly cut in line.

In response, the crowd smashed the glass front door and rushed the store in anger, leaving those four injured.

Just like in the United States and other nations, there were hours worth of lines for the iPad 2, which just went on sale in China this weekend.

The store closed and has not yet re-opened, and a sign has been posted saying "queue jumping and the unauthorised sales of Apple products would not be tolerated."

It appears that Apple will go environmentally friendly with the release of Mac OS X Lion this summer, saying goodbye to physical discs and instead making the operating system available via the Mac App Store as a digital download.

The disc will be available if a user requests it (or has slow broadband/dial-up) but the digital download will be the default.

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January and it is expected to be a major component of 10.7 Lion.

If accurate, the move is part of a broader plan by Apple to lose the SuperDrive altogether, with upcoming MacBook Pros expected to remove the drive in an effort to make thinner notebooks with better battery life.

Apple is expected to reveal Lion at their June event instead of the iPhone 5.

If a new rumor proves accurate, the upcoming iPad 3 will go glasses-free 3D, like the Nintendo 3DS and a few newer smartphones.

Speculation has placed Apple releasing a new iPad in September or very early 2012, outside of their normal 1-year schedule.

For now, the source of the rumor is a "Hollywood insider" who says "the fact that the iPad 3 is 3D is a dead cert."

Furthermore, studios are rushing to get enough 3D content ready for the tablet's launch.

According to the New York Post, Conde Nast may be the next publisher to announce a magazine subscription via the iPad.

The "New Yorker" app may go up next week, in an effort to capitalize on the media hysteria revolving around the death of Osama bin Laden.

Additionally, the company will sell subscriptions to Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Self, and Golf Digest in the near future.

An annual subscription will cost $19.99.

Single-issue prices will drop to $1.99, down from cover-stand prices of $3.99-4.99 for the mags.

Last week, rival Hearst said it would make Esquire, O, the Oprah Magazine, and Popular Mechanics available on the iPad starting in July.

According to the latest comScore MobiLens survey, Android continues to take smartphone market share at a rapid pace, and mainly all at the expense of RIM's BlackBerry line.

The survey polls over 30,000 American smartphone owners.

For the month ended March 31st, BlackBerry fell to 27.1 percent share, with Android jumping to 34.7 percent.

In January, that number was a lot closer, with Android at 31.2 percent and BlackBerry at 30.4 percent.

By the same ticket, Apple continues to see stagnant share (as a percentage), holding above 24 percent but under 26 percent since October.

Microsoft has yet to see any significant bounce from the release of Windows Phone 7 and continues its multi-year free fall.

In this very quick guide we will teach our users how to keep updated with the latest AfterDawn news via the excellent (and FREE) Pulse news reader app for Android (and iOS).

Please follow the guide here (including QR code for quick download from your phone): Quick Guide: Adding AfterDawn feed to Pulse app on Android

Sony has said early Saturday that it must delay the restoration of PSN, although last week it promised to have the service up-and-running by Sunday.

A spokesperson simply said restoring PSN this week "would not be possible" and left no set date for its return.

Additionally, Sony said it removed the stolen personal info of 2500 PSN users that had been posted on a website.

The data stolen included name and some addresses.

For more coverage of the current debacle that is the PSN takedown, check our past articles:

Sony considering offering a reward for info on hackers

Sony offering identity-theft protection and insurance for one year to all U.S. PSN users

Hackers planning third attack on Sony

Following the breach of security that has caused 100 million accounts to have their data compromised, Sony is now considering offering rewards for info that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for the hacks.

So far, Sony has not decided on whether to offer the reward but is actively considering.

The PSN has been down since April 17th, when Sony says it detected an attack and promptly shut down the service. Unfortunately, it was not quick enough, and 77 million accounts had their personal data stolen. Last week, Sony confirmed that another 25 million accounts were hacked from their Online division, which was then shut down, as well.

Yesterday, Sony Chairman Howard Stringer apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and offered all affected users in the U.S. one year of free identity-theft protection.

The company will offer $1 million insurance per user, which will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.