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T-Mobile saw a massive spike in customer desertions last quarter, mainly due to "competitive pressures."

The carrier lost 471,000 net contract customers in the Q1, compared to 318,000 in the Q3 and just 77,000 in the same period last year.

Overall subscribers fell by 99,000 for the quarter as new and renewing customers could not make up the difference.

T-Mobile says "the decline in net contract customers was driven primarily by fewer contract gross customer additions and continued high contract churn due to competitive pressures."

For the quarter, the carrier showed $135 million profit, down from $362 million in 2010. Revenue was down also.

Earlier this year AT&T announced it was purchasing T-Mobile for $39 billion. That deal requires at least 10 more months before it can be approved by anti-trust regulators, however.

(Pic, source via ZD)

One of RIM's most-anticipated features for their PlayBook tablet is its ability to tap into the 250,000 app-strong Android Market.

This week, the company has demoed the feature and says it will be pushed to users in the summer.

The apps appear to run very well on the tablet, with the company showing off a few music apps, and IMDB.

Unfortunately, RIM does not show off any apps that would tax the graphics portion of the hardware.

Because there are no buttons on the PlayBook, the home/back/search/menu buttons have been mapped as gestures.

There are two new rumors today about the RIM PlayBook, one that the Sprint 3G model has been delayed and the other that a 10-inch model of the tablet is imminent.

If accurate, the 10-inch version of the tablet will be announced at the end of RIM's BlackBerry World, while the CDMA 3G version of the Sprint tablet has been delayed indefinitely.

The Sprint device was supposed to hit May 8th, but the new release date is unknown.

Says a briefing: "The launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet has been delayed for all Dealers. The new launch date will be communicated as soon as it is available."

Sprint's 4G model is still on track for its summer release, however.

A 10-inch model of the tablet would be put in more direct competition with the iPad 2 and Xoom (in terms of size).

According to new reports, iOS 5 may finally bring the ability to receive OTA updates from carriers, specifically Verizon and AT&T.

The two carriers are currently in talk with Apple over how to best make the updates work.

Apple will need to shrink the current size of its updates, say sources, with current iOS 4 downloads topping 500MB.

To get around this, the sources say "we believe that Apple will make the updates much smaller by using incremental patches rather than full OS downloads."

The Apple iPhone 5 is expected to be released later this year, possibly September, running on iOS 5 and with a dual-core A5 processor, 3G FaceTime capability, NFC and a better camera. There is also a chance that Apple will redo the form factor.

Warner Music Group has announced today that it has sold itself to the investment firm Access Industries for $3.3 billion, including assumption of debt.

Access will pay $8.25 per share, a 4 percent premium over the company's closing price yesterday but about 40 percent higher than the company's average share price of the last year.

Says Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music’s chairman and chief executive (via NYT):

We are delighted that Access will be the new steward of this outstanding business. They are supportive of the company’s vision, growth strategy and artists, while bringing a fresh entrepreneurial perspective and expertise in technology and media.

Following the close of the WMG deal, many analysts expect Access to go after EMI, another Big 4 label that has been shopped by its debtors for years now.

The latest rumor in the microprocessor space has Apple moving away from Intel and instead adopting ARM architectures for its laptops.

Apple will make the move when ARM releases 64-bit versions of its processors, likely at the end of 2012.

The source accurately reported in 2009 that Apple would begin moving away from Nvidia, and mostly all new iMacs now either have an AMD Radeon or Intel integrated GPU.

Additionally, Apple will "presumably" move their desktops to ARM, as well, with the deal all but set in stone.

Apple currently uses ARM architectures in iOS devices.

Sony Chairman Howard Stringer has apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and has 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.

Debix has been hired to do the monitoring in the U.S. and it is unclear when international PSN users will get the same treatment.

Sony admitted this week that 101.6 million accounts were compromised by two "highly sophisticated attack" on Sony's servers on April 17th.

If you want the $1 million insurance, you have until June 18th to sign up for Debix's AllClear ID Plus protection service.

Added Stringer (via SFG):

I know this is a frustrating time for all of you. Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber attack we've all experienced and on fixing it.

Last year, AT&T began locking down all Android devices, blocking sideloading of apps for "security reasons."

Today, it appears that AT&T has removed that restriction, following considerable criticism.

In the newly launched Infuse 4G, users have confirmed that "Install from Unknown sources" is available in settings.

Outside from downloading pirated apps (which was likely AT&T's concern), there are a plethora of legal reasons to need to sideload applications, including the newly launched Amazon Appstore.

The Infuse 4G goes on sale next week for $200 with contract.

According to IRC chat logs acquired by Cnet, a group of hackers is planning a third cyber attack on Sony, which is still reeling from two attacks that have taken the PSN down for two weeks and left 100 million customers with data exposed.

The upcoming attack is planned for this weekend, and the hackers claim to already have access to some of Sony's servers.

Furthermore, the hackers plan to publicize all of the info they steal, including names, addresses and credit card numbers.

Earlier this week, Sony revealed that a "highly sophisticated, planned" attack hit Sony's servers and they took down PSN as soon as it was detected. The company also implied that the group Anonymous had something to do with it, as there was a file planted on the server named "Anonymous" which included the statement "We are Legion," one of the group's mottoes.

Anonymous, twice now, has denied being part of the attack.

Speaking to investors this week, Barnes & Noble has announced that it will reveal a new tablet or e-reader on May 24th, with many speculating it will include Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Says the SEC notice:

In a meeting with investor analysts on May 4, 2011, Barnes & Noble ... indicated it expects to make an announcement on May 24, 2011 regarding the launch of a new eReader device.

B&N currently offers the e-ink Nook and the 7-inch tablet/e-reader hybrid Nook Color, which was recently updated to support Android 2.2 and Flash video.

There are no other details about what the new Nook will bring, but most expect it to be a Honeycomb tablet.

Possibly, B&N may be updating the e-ink Nook, instead, to be slimmer and include more features, just like Amazon has done multiple times with their market leading Kindle e-reader.

B&N is currently in a patent dispute with Microsoft, who sued them last month over the Nook and Android.

Sources have said this week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been actively speaking to Skype about a potential buyout or a joint venture.

If accurate, the report says Facebook could pay up to $4 billion for the video chat service.

More likely, however, the two companies will tie-up for a new joint venture.

Additionally, Google appears to be interested in a similar venture, as well, and has had "early talks."

Skype only commented to say: "As a practical matter, we avoid commenting on rumor and speculation."

CNET has been sued this week for distributing 220 million copies of LimeWire over the years.

The record labels say CNET parent CBS Interactive profited from the free downloads, which accounted for 95 percent of all LimeWire downloads since 2008.

Reads the complaint:

The CBS defendants received massive amounts of revenue from P2P provders on a ‘pay per download’ basis and also from advertising revenues generated by advertisements placed on the download screen for P2P software.

The suit also claims CBS was "well aware" of LimeWire's infamy as an "infringement tool" yet continued to offer the client and "videos, articles and other media that instructed how to use P2P software to locate pirated copies of copyrighted works and remove electronic protections placed on digital music files."

LimeWire was shut down last year and had 50 million active users at its peak.

Netflix has confirmed that it has fired a call center worker that was caught stealing credit card numbers from customers of the rental service.

The data theft was discovered on April 4th and the worker was promptly fired.

Says Netflix Senior Counsel Sharon Williamson in a letter to the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General:

The worker accessed over approximately the past two months, without authorization, the credit card information of some Netflix customers who spoke with the individual over the telephone.

Adds head spokesmen Steve Swasey:

We do everything we can to safeguard our members' personal data and privacy, and when there's an issue like this we deal with it swiftly and decisively.

Netflix has only confirmed that two people had their info stolen, but there may be more.

Sony has submitted their written responses to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce over the massive cyber-attack that has taken down the PSN for two weeks and exposed personal info for up to 77 million gamers.

You can view the PDFs of the report, "The Threat of Data Theft to American Consumers" here.

The most shocking part of the report is the fact that they imply the group "Anonymous" in the attack, even though the group has denied any involvement.

Says Sony:

Sony has been the victim of a very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyber attack.

We discovered that the intruders had planted a file on one of our Sony Online Entertainment servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion.”

By April 25, forensic teams were able to confirm the scope of the personal data they believed had been taken, and could not rule out whether credit card information had been accessed. On April 26, we notified customers of those facts.

As of today, the major credit card companies have not reported any fraudulent transactions that they believe are the direct result of this cyber attack.

Nintendo has announced it will begin officially selling the Wii console for $150 bundled, starting May 15th.

The bundle includes a Wii remote, Mario Kart, and a steering wheel.

Nintendo will continue to sell the $169.99 bundle (which includes Wii Sports Resort and Wii Sports) until inventory runs out. From there, that price point will be discontinued.

Says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime:

There is quite a bit more volume to be sold on the Wii home console. And the way we are going to get there is by offering the system at this low price and by including a key software title like Mario Kart."

Mario Kart has sold over 10 million copies, making it one of the most popular games on the console.

Overall the Wii has sold 86 million Wii consoles, to date.