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The new VIA Eden X2 dual-core processor has been unveiled at Embedded World 2011.

The company claims the fanless Eden X2 is the world's most power-efficient dual-core processor. It is made for use with a broad range of industrial and commercial embedded systems.

"Eden X2 shows how once again VIA is setting the pace when it comes to highly optimized, power-efficient processing," said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Embedded developers will relish the opportunity to integrate a native 64-bit, dual-core processor in passively cooled, ultra stable systems."

Designed with the latest 40nm manufacturing processor, the VIA Eden X2 processors combine two 64-bit, superscalar VIA Eden cores on one die, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on a rigidly low power budget.

It also touts VIA VT virtualization, a technology that allows legacy software and applications to be used in virtual scenarios without impacting on performance. The unique VIA AES Security Engine offers hardware-based data encryption on the fly, and essential tool in content protection and system security.

VIA Eden X2 processors are natively 64-bit compatible, facilitating an essential transition for the future of the embedded industry as 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Embedded Standard 7 allow for vastly improved data throughput per clock cycle. It is also fully compatible with the Windows CE and Linux operating systems.

According to Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio, the free Android versions of 'Angry Birds' has been downloaded over 30 million times, making it one of the top apps, ever, on Android.

Furthermore, the developer says downloaders remain interested in the game after the initial download, with a full 80 percent of Android users downloading updates, like the 'Valentine's Day' add-on for Angry Bird's Seasons.

Earlier in the month, Vesterbacka said the company had sold 2 million of the official plush toys and that the company was now looking to expand the brand into other products as popularity for the game remains high.

On Android, Rovio says the app is bringing in over $1 million a month in advertising.

Finally, the developer says Angry Birds is headed to Facebook and "there will be completely new aspects to it that just haven’t been experienced in any other platform. The pigs will have a more prominent role." There was not too much else said about the upcoming launch, however.

Nielsen has reported this week that Android is the top smartphone OS in the United States.

Active smartphones running Android have 29 percent of the market, just beating out iOS and BlackBerry, which are tied for second at 27 percent. In fourth place is Microsoft, with their Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 devices.

For Android, HTC remains the top manufacturer, at 12 percent share, followed by Motorola at 10 percent and Samsung at 5 percent.

The figures are for the period ended January 31st, so Nielsen notes that the figures may be different following the launch of the iPhone on Verizon.

Rounding out the top 5 is HP's WebOS at 4 percent.

Jenni Farley, otherwise known as 'J-Woww' on the hit MTV show 'The Jersey Shore,' has apparently become a dangerous search term.

According to an annual security report by Barracuda Labs (via Fast), searching for "Jenni J-Woww" is the second most dangerous search term, right behind searching for "music video."

Among the other top searches that led directly to malware were "Rex Ryan," "credit score" and "Barack Obama."

Malware comes in the form of browser add-ons, trojans, viruses, and spyware.

According to reports, Microsoft Corp. will not unveil an operating system for tablets to compete with Android and iOS until next year.

Bloomberg cites people familiar with the company's plans in reporting that Microsoft will not release a tablet OS until the 2012 back-to-school season. This means Microsoft will be entering the competition very late, with many analysts claiming 2011 will be the year of the tablet wars.

It provides Apple and Google with ample time to strengthen their hold on the market. Microsoft's OS will likely be released after a third iPad is unveiled by Apple. HP and RiM, among many other firms, will likely have released second generation tablets by then too.

In January this year, Microsoft vowed to support ARM architecture-based processors in the next versions of its Windows operating systems. ARM processors are used in smartphones and tablets to drive the feature-rich devices while keeping power consumption and heat as low as possible.

Higher demand for PC alternatives, such as tablets, will result in lower than expected PC shipments this year, according to research firm Gartner. Microsoft's Windows operating system powers more than 90 percent of personal computers, but Apple is claiming 90 percent of the tablet market, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Sony has admitted that PlayStation 3 consoles have been seized by customs officers in the Netherlands.

It was reported earlier this week that tens of thousands of PS3 units were seized in the Netherlands following a Dutch court order. The actions stem from a patent dispute between Sony and LG Electronics, which has so far resulted in a 10-day import ban being ordered.

The legal dispute between both consumer electronics firms can be traced back three years, when the companies failed to renew a technology sharing deal. Since then, both have sued the other alleging patent infringement.

Last year, Sony tried to have imports of LG smartphones to the United States blocked, while last month LG filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging the PS3 infringes on patents related to Blu-ray technology

While the Netherlands is an important entry point to the European market for Sony, the company is looking for alternative solutions to avoid supply problems anywhere in Europe. It does not affect the issue to affect its regional sales.

Intel has shown off the next in a line of new solid-state drives (SSDs) featuring fast SATA 6Gbps performance.

The new drives in the Intel Solid-State Drive 510 Series take full advantage of the transition to higher speed SATA bus interfaces on the recently introduced 2nd Generation Intel Core processor-based platforms. The SSD 510 models support transfer speeds up to 500MB/s, doubling the sequential read speeds, and triples the sequential write speeds of the 3Gbps line to 315MB/s.

The Intel SSD 510 with 6Gbps SATA interface outperforms 10,000 RPM HDDs by 50 percent for fast performance and high visual fidelity game play. The line is aimed at gamers, media creators and performance-intensive workstations.

"The Intel SSD 510 Series helps round out our SSD product line and was specifically designed for applications that require high sequential media transfers," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for Intel's NAND Solutions Group.

"Whether it's a gamer wanting impeccable visual performance and faster game loading, or a performance-intensive workstation user, the new 6Gbps SATA SSD from Intel is not only significantly faster than the top 10,000 RPM gaming HDD, it's also faster than two RAIDed gaming HDDs."

Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account (@aplusk) has been hacked this week, while the actor was at the TED 2011 'The Rediscovery of Wonder' conference.

Kutcher has 6.4 million followers and the hackers used account to write two simple messages.

The first says:

Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?

The second, taking more of a political stance, reads:

P.S. This is for those young protesters around the world who deserve not to have their Facebook & Twitter accounts hacked like this. #SSL

Kutcher joins the growing ranks of celebrity Twitter accounts that have been hacked, including those of Barack Obama, Britney Spears and recently, Selena Gomez.

Gomez's account was hacked to say "Oh yeh, JUSTIN BIEBER SUCKS!!!!!!" Beiber is the actor's boyfriend.

Sony America digital distribution manager Pierre Gravreau has noted this week that worldwide PlayStation 3 sales have reached 41.6 million.

The company says over 80 percent off all consoles are now connected to the Internet and there are just over 70 million PSN accounts.

Overall, traffic to the PlayStation Store has grown 60 percent year-over-year, and revenue has increased 70 percent.

Specific numbers were not given for PSN but in late January, the company confirmed that PSN had seen 1.4 billion downloads.

Strangely, the numbers contradict Sony's own corporate earnings report, which placed sales at over 47 million.

Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox have jointly announced today that the first 3D 'Star Wars' release is coming on February 10th, 2012 with the release of 'Star Wars: Episode I:The Phantom Menace.'

The 3D conversion is being supervised by George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, adds Lucasfilm.

By releasing the movie in theaters in February, historically a light time for blockbusters, Lucas expects the film to have open run while merchandise sales can continue into the end of the year.

The companies plan to release all of the rest of the films, in 3D, as an annual event, ending in 2017 with release of "Return of the Jedi."

THR does say, however, that if the February release did not work as expected, the timetable for the other films could be changed.

Within 24 hours of launching the iPad 2, Apple has dropped the official price of the original iPad, with $100 price cuts across the board.

The base model 16GB/Wi-Fi iPad is now selling for $400, with refurbished models dropping to $350.

At the high end of the spectrum, the 64GB/3G/Wi-Fi model will now sell for $729.

Apple's iPad 2 will be released on March 11th, with the same pricing model as the original, with the base model starting at $500.

Anybody who has purchased a first-gen iPad in the last two weeks can get a $100 refund.

The iPad 2 introduces a new dual-core 1GHz A5 processor, dual cameras, an extremely thin and light form factor, two colorways, an HDMI-out dock and "Smart Covers."

For more information on the iPad 2 check our report here: Apple iPad 2 coming March 11th, Steve Jobs returns

DroidLife has posted some pictures today showing off a significant discount (already) on the Motorola Xoom.

The first tablet with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the Xoom went on sale last week to much fanfare.

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has said the Wi-Fi-only model will sell for $600, but the pics from Sam's Club show off a $539 price tag, a significant discount that will place it in the same ballpark as the iPad 2, which will sell for $500 when it is released on March 11th.

There is still no set date for when the Wi-Fi-only model will be released so for now you will have to drop $800 and sign a Verizon contract to get a Xoom.

The powerful tablet has 10.1-inch display, 1280x800 resolution, a Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 32GB onboard memory (expendable via SD), a 5MP dual-LED flash standard camera and a 2MP front-side camera for video conferencing.

BGR has posted an interesting report today claiming that Research In Motion will soon launch BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) apps for Android and iOS, making BlackBerry's most popular app non-exclusive for the first time in its history.

There is no word on a timetable or whether the apps will be free, but the "sources" claim that it may end up being free. There is also a chance that the apps may be subscription-based.

While the move makes little short-term sense, BGR speculates that RIM has grown angry with the emergence of Kik, which is available on all mobile operating systems and offers, literally, the same experience as BBM and wants to take back the market.

As for the app itself, it will be a "stripped down" version of the BlackBerry app, stripping out the ability to share videos, photo and geo-locate.

By offering the app to all, they might even get some Android or iOS defectors to BlackBerry.

According to BBC iPlayer director general Mark Thompson, the international iPlayer app for the iPad and other devices is "definitely coming this year" and will cost under $10 per month for a subscription.

Says Thompson, the app will cost "a small number of dollars per month, definitely fewer than 10." He also added that "we're exploring internationally what the right pricing and models are ... the most important thing is the consumer pricing is right."

When asked if the international launch will affect BBC Worldwide's current business model, Thompson said the company was following the Hollywood studios in "looking at a series of windows for TV shows to optimise value across that lifecycle".

Most international rights windows for TV shows mean they hit DVD and PPV first, followed by free-to-air TV and online VOD.

The iPlayer has become synonymous with streaming TV in the UK, and Thompson says 162 million programs were downloaded via the iPlayer in the UK in January, alone, an average of six per household.

Facebook has acquired the group messaging service Beluga today, in an effort to create "new and better ways to communicate and share group experiences."

Says Beluga: "We're excited to continue to build our vision for mobile group messaging as part of the Facebook team."

The company has a free app available for iOS and Android and Beluga says users should utilize the app to "plan a night out or just share updates and photos."

Beluga is run by three former Google execs, one who worked on AdSense, one who worked on AdWords, Google News, and Google Docs and one who worked on Gmail, Gmail Chat, and Mail Goggles.

Says the service (via PCM):

For now, Beluga will continue to function as it does today. Your Beluga account and data will not be lost. We'll be providing more details on future plans for Beluga in the coming weeks.

The Beluga app will likely be integrated into Facebook's Places location feature.