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Google has confirmed today that they have pulled 50 infected apps from the Android Market, although it has not triggered automatic uninstalls yet for those that have already installed it on their devices.

"The apps were 'Trojanized,' for a better word," says Symantec's security response senior manager Tom Parsons. "With the phones being 'rooted,' the attacks can do almost anything, including pulling data off the phone."

Each of the apps were available for over 72 hours on the Market, and between 50,000 and 200,000 were downloaded by users during the time span.

All of the apps were infected with "DreamDroid," code that lets attackers take over Android smartphones, connect them to a command-and-control server and then issue orders.

Google has not yet used their ability to remotely remove malicious apps from phones, and has only used that power once, in June of last year.

Will be updating as the event goes on...


1:02 PM: Steve Jobs has come on stage to applause.

1:05 PM: Random House adds 17,000 books to iBook store

1:06 PM: Apple has paid out $2 billion to iOS app developers.

1:06 PM: 100 million iPhones sold.

1:07 PM: "Today we're here to talk about Apple's third post-PC blockbuster" iPad made 9.5 billion in revenue, 15 million sold in 2010, 65,000 iPad-specific apps. Compares to Honeycomb which only has 100.

1:15 PM: Introducing iPad 2:

-New chip A5: CPU is 200 pct faster, with graphics 900 pct faster. Same consumption as A4

-Dual cameras

-Gyroscope

-MUCH thinner, from 13.4 mm to 8.8 mm. Thinner than iPhone 4

-Lighter from 1.5 pounds down to 1.3 lbs

-Ships in White and Black

-AT&T and Verizon support at launch

-10 hour batter life

-Same pricing

-March 11th launch in America

-Smart Covers "This isn't a case anymore. It's a cover for the screen...Magnets grasp and auto-align the case. You can put it on in a second....The micro-fiber screen cleans the screen every time you close it, and it's incredibly minimal...And it comes in polyurethane, which is used to make space suits!"

-iOS 4.3: Improved Safari performance, Javascript 2x faster, iTunes Home Sharing, updated AirPlay, PhotoBooth, FaceTime between all iOS devices..coming March 11th

China Unicom has launched their own mobile OS today, dubbed "Wophone," the first OS developed in China.

Motorola, Samsung, Huawei, HTC and TCL have already committed to releasing phones with Wophone.

The new OS is based on Linux and Unicom says "Wophones" will sell sell for 1,000 yuan ($150) to 2,000 yuan ($300), aimed at consumers who cannot afford high end devices, like the iPhone.

Says one analyst of the move (via GT):

Medium- and low-end smartphones will be a new driving force for the industry, since this group of people now also shows a growing interest in smartphones as their incomes increase.

The Wophone OS can support all 3G Chinese mobile standards, WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA, and also has support for LTE 4G.

Former Senator Christopher Dodd has been appointed the new CEO of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), years after the group began searching.

The studios behind the trade group had long fought over fighting a candidate but all seem very excited by the new appointment.

One studio boss even said, of Dodd: "He has great experience in government, is a leader and has real charisma."

Dodd became a senator for Connecticut in 1981 and remained in office until January of this year.

Despite his many years in politics, Dodd is likely best remembered for his failed presidential bid in 2008 and his call that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "fundamentally strong" and "in good shape" just months before the government was forced to nationalize the companies in a deal that will likely cost taxpayers over $150 billion.

Although the rumor of a smaller iPhone being built has been floating for over a month, the latest "confirmation" comes directly from Apple COO Tim Cook.

Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi has posted an investment note this week, after having a meeting with Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue, in which he claims that Cook "appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings".

Furthermore, Apple is planning "clever" ways to get into the prepaid market, and that Apple is trying to not let "any" market get away from them.

A smaller version of the iPhone, likely touting a small 2.6-inch screen, would be cheaper than current iPhone models and would be aimed at the market which is currently on-the-fence about smartphones and aimed at nations where Symbian and low-end Android devices rule.

Finally, Cook said Apple is very confident about the tablet market despite "intense competition."

Pwn2Own begins next week on March 9th, and will have security researchers "battling" to exploit Chrome, Safari 5, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6.

If anyone successfully hacks Chrome on the first day of the three-day event, Google will pay out $20,000. If anyone hacks it during the event after the first day, Google will pay $10,000 and Pwn2Own sponsor HP will pay the other $10,000.

In anticipation of the event, Google has patched 19 vulnerabilities and paid out $14,000 to nine researchers who submitted the flaws.

16 of the bugs were rated "high" and the rest were "medium." "High" is one step below Google's most sever ranking of "critical."

Anything ranked "critical" means the hacker has infiltrated Chrome's anti-exploit sandbox, says CW, and Google has had to patch two "critical" flaws already this year.

On-demand streaming music service Rhapsody has begun giving away two-month free trials to new users via a promotion with MTV.

The move has been seen as a way to prepare for Spotify's "imminent" launch in the U.S.

Spotify has signed licensing deals with EMI and Sony Music, and has allegedly come very close to signing a deal with the largest label in the world, Universal Music Group.

Because of a promotion deal signed between former owner Viacom and Rhapsody, MTV has committed $33 million to free advertising for the service and will promote it during "The Jersey Shore" and on Comedy Central.

Since spinning off from Viacom and RealNetworks, Rhapsody has regained 100,000 subscribers bringing it to an all-time peak of about 750,000 users.

Rhapsody is facing an increasingly more competitive market thanks to Pandora, Rdio, MOG, and soon Spotify.

Nvidia has announced today the availability of Tegra Zone in the Android Market, an app that will give users a chance to easily find apps that have been optimized for devices running the dual-core Tegra 2 chip.

The app shows all the games and apps alongside professional reviews, HD screenshots, HD trailers, some gameplay videos and even behind-the-scenes featurettes.

After selecting an app through Tegra Zone, you are then brought to download or purchase it via the Android Market.

The company says the first Tegra 2-enhanced games are Samurai II: Vengeance by MADFINGER Games, Dungeon Defenders: First Wave Deluxe HD by Trendy Entertainment, Galaxy on Fire 2 THD, by Fishlabs, Backbreaker THD, by Natural Motion, Fruit Ninja THD, by Halfbrick Studios, Vendetta Online, by Guild Software, Monster Madness, by SouthPeak Games and Hardwood Solitaire IV, by Silver Creek Entertainment.

Says Nvidia:

introduced over the past several months in a variety of super phones and tablets, the Tegra 2 super chip is finding a growing market, particularly among those interested in console-quality gaming on their mobile device. It is built with the world’s first mobile dual-core CPU – which unleashes the best Web experience, with up two times faster browsing and support for full Adobe® Flash® Player hardware GPU acceleration, plus unprecedented multitasking capabilities. It also includes an NVIDIA GeForce® GPU – which provides stunningly rich visual experiences and console console-quality gaming.

According to new data from web analytics company StatCounter, Bing has overtaken Yahoo! for global search engine reach, taking 4.37 percent share to Yahoo's 3.93 percent.

Overall, the global leader remains, clearly, Google, at 89.94 percent reach.

In the U.S., Google has the lead at 79.63 percent, while Yahoo remains in second at 9.74 percent. Bing has quickly taken large share, however, moving to 9.03 percent.

It is important to note that in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, Bing powers the Yahoo! search engine, so many firms have moved to just combining the figures for both engines.

Says StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen (via PR):

It is significant that Bing overtook Yahoo! globally for the first time on a monthly basis but it remains a tough battle to claw back Google's market share. Although Google dipped below the 90 percent mark in February worldwide for the first time since August 2009 it shows little sign of losing its global dominance any time soon.

Gogo Inflight Wireless has released iOS and Blackberry apps today, while promising an Android app is 'coming soon.'

The apps should make it easier for flyers to connect to in-flight Wi-Fi from their mobile devices, which was notably difficult from standard browsers.

Reads the brief description:

The free Gogo® Inflight Internet app gives you one-step sign in on all Gogo equipped flights. Next time you're in the air, the Gogo Inflight Internet app will detect if you're on the Gogo network. After signing up, get online in flight with a push of a button.

Blackberry 5.0 or higher is required for the BB app and there are no restrictions on the iOS version (it appears).

Currently, Gogo Inflight Internet is available on all AirTran Airways and Virgin America flights, and select Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and US Airways flights.

Check the apps here or via the iTunes Store/Blackberry App World.

Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka made an interesting comment today during the Game Developers Conference, claiming that the company has sold 2 million of the official 'Angry Birds' plush toys.

Vesterbacka says the company is now looking to expand the brand into other products as popularity for the game remains high.

The game has been downloaded over 60 million times, and continues to be the best selling iPhone game of all-time.

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

Finally, the exec says around 40 percent of all Angry Birds downloaders also purchase the $1 "angry eagle" add-on that can be purchased in-game.

New York Senator Charles Schumer has called on America's largest sites to make the HTTPS protocol the default for their sites in an effort to prevent ID theft when users hop on public Wi-Fi at places like Starbucks and McDonalds.

The Senator says the growth of public Wi-Fi spots is making it easier for hackers to steal info like credit card numbers and passwords for banking institutions.

Says Schumer (via Reuters):

The number of people who use WiFi to access the Internet in coffee shops, bookstores and beyond is growing by leaps and bounds.

The quickest and easiest way to shut down this one-stop shop for identity theft is for major Web sites to switch to secure HTTPS web addresses instead of the less secure HTTP protocol.

HTTP, says the Senator, is a "welcome mat for would-be hackers." Most major site operators, outside of the banking institutions, use HTTP as the default, even if they do have HTTPS versions.

AT&T has announced this morning that it will begin selling the Amazon Kindle 3G in stores in the U.S., beginning on March 6th.

The device can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi, as well as AT&T's nationwide 3G network.

AT&T will include the device in its "connected devices displays" throughout the store, allowing would-be buyers to test out the e-reader.

Says the carrier:

Amazon has without question pioneered the eReader space with Kindle, and it's exciting to not only connect this device through our network, but now offer it in our stores to readers around the country. As the first dedicated eReader offered in our stores, we are confident the Kindle will be an attractive addition to our in store connected devices lineup.

The updated Kindle 3G can hold up to 3500 e-books internally, and Amazon has 810,000 books available. The device has one month of battery life when not connected to Wi-Fi.

There are no contracts or data fees and the devices sells for $189.

JPMorgan Securities has noted today that it expects the tablet market to grow into a $35 billion behemoth in 2012, taking a significant share from the PC market.

Furthermore, the increase in competition will lead to a steep price drop in prices, for both tablets and PCs.

Growth will be spurred by educational and enterprise customers and the continued improvement of tablet operating systems, like Android 3.0, iOS, WebOS and eventually Windows.

Says one JPM analyst:

We expect tablets to have an increasingly negative impact on PC shipments. More than 35 percent of tablets sold in 2012 will be cannibalistic, particularly as relates to netbooks and notebooks.

The bank raised its 2011 tablet revenue forecast to $26.1 billion, as well, on shipments of 48 million tablets.

It expects almost 80 million tablets to be shipped in 2012.

According to Grandtheft5, Rockstar Games may be set to announce Grand Theft Auto V in the very near future, three years after the blockbuster release of GTA IV.

Take-Two, the developer behind Rockstar, has purchased five domains names already, just like it did prior to GTA IV, to house its fake websites seen during gameplay.

The domains are:

CashForDeadDreams.com
SixFigureTemps.com
StopPayingYourMortgage.net
HammersteinFaust.com
LifeInvader

Bloggers have speculated that HammersteinFaust is a parody of bank Goldman Sachs, while LifeInvader will be a parody of Facebook.

Furthermore, astute journalists have found the resume of stunt actor Declan Mulvey, who is credited as working on Grand Theft Auto V, right after Red Dead Redemption and right before Max Payne 3.

There is likely no chance the game will be released anytime before the holidays, if this year at all, it is still interesting to see that an announcement may be on the horizon for one of the biggest franchises in gaming.