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A new music startup, ReDigi, has opened in beta, offering the first digital marketplace to buy and sell used digital music.

Short for "Recycled Digital Media," the company says it is fully legal and allows users to purchase digital music files from owners who already purchased them in the past.

The company says it has done "extensive research and have spent many hours with well respected law firms in Boston, NYC and LA" and believes the "marketplace will provide and protect the rights of consumers as they were provided for under US copyright act and the first sale doctrine."

ReDigi says it believes that just because a file has been digitized does not mean users should lose the right to re-sell their goods as if it were a physical object.

The new marketplace will as a forum for re-selling the digital tracks, first by verifying that the track was properly acquired and then "managing items selected for sale within the sellers music libraries to prevent multiple copies (protecting the seller from copyright infringement)." Finally, the company "facilitates an even greater level of copyright protection than the previous CD market."

HTC has confirmed that a number of their smartphones will finally receive the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update during the Q2, which starts in April and ends in June.

Says the company:

We are excited to announce that the Desire HD, Desire Z, Desire and Incredible S will receive the Gingerbread update in Q2.

The Desire Z is otherwise known as the T-Mobile G2.

HTC's Desire is the oldest phone of the bunch while the Incredible S was just announced earlier this month at the MWC.

(Pic via WWW)

HTC has announced their first Android 'world phone,' the Merge.

The slider CDMA phone will go on sale in the U.S. during the "spring," and will likely be available on Sprint and Verizon.

Featuring a 3.8-inch multi-touch display, HTC did not say what the resolution of the Merge will be.

For the QWWERTY slide-out, it is unclear whether the phone will feature a four or five row keyboard.

As standard for other HTC smartphones, the Merge will run on Android 2.2 Froyo, include a 5MP camera with autofocus and flash, GPS, Wi-Fi, 720p video and Microsoft Exchange. There doesn't look to be a front-side camera.

Says HTC (via PCM):

HTC prides itself on creating unique solutions that meet the needs of different customers, and with features like a full keyboard and global 3G roaming, the HTC Merge smartphone is the perfect example of this commitment. Combining the functionality of Android with the HTC Sense experience, the HTC Merge is the perfect device for those customers who are looking for a reliable mobile experience with the features and functionality of a smartphone, whether it's at home or travelling around the world.

Google is actively looking to begin an unlimited streaming subscription service, one that will rival Netflix and Amazon, and may launch it first in the UK.

The search giant has been in talks with the major studios for months but may begin in Europe first where there is much less competition.

Netflix does not currently offer services in Europe but Amazon, following their purchase of LoveFilm last month, has a strong foothold.

For now, Google has put aside $100 million for content deals with the studios.

The NYPost says the plan is being lead by executive Robert Kyncl, who left Netflix last September.

The Chicago Sun-Times posted a remarkable blurb this week, one in which a man from Naperville, Illinois was conned out of $200,000 by his "online girlfriend."

Last week, the 48-year old man called Naperville police because he believed his girlfriend had been kidnapped somewhere around London.

In explaining the situation, the man told police that he started the online relationship 2.5 years ago, and over the course of the relationship he wired over $200,000 to the woman's bank accounts.

The bank accounts were in England, the U.S., Malaysia, and you guessed it, Nigeria.

When the police asked for any pictures or ID to help them find her, the copy of a driver's license he produced turned out to be a sample ID from Florida.

When officers told him he had been conned and his girlfriend did not really exist he "was in disbelief."

Oodle, the company behind the popular Facebook app Marketplace has released a study this week, one that shows Craigslist is really a "a cesspool of crime."

The report links Craigslist to 330 crimes and 12 deaths in the U.S. in 2010, and a total of 20 deaths since the classified's launch in 1995.

After Oodle released the study, Craigslist CEO went ballistic on the report, slamming it, and with good reason.

The study has the incredibly sensationalist title "Crime and Craigslist: A sad tale of murders and more" and starts like this:

"Craigslist: A site of murder and mayhem":

Sadly, Craigslist has become a cesspool of crime. Murders. Rapes. Robberies. Hitman-for-hire. Assault. Fraud. Rental rip-offs. Unfortunately, these are everyday occurrences involving people who use Craigslist to buy or sell, or for worse. And the old rules — "meet in public;" "always tell someone where you’re going;" "know who you’re dealing with" — often don’t work on Craigslist.

Oodle says it is different from Craigslist due to accountability. All transactions are tied to a user's Facebook account, whereas on Craigslist all accounts and emails are anonymous. The Marketplace app has moved to 14 million unique users.

FileSoup admins ‘TheGeeker’ and ‘Snookered’ are now free, after the prosecution in their file-sharing case dropped the charges.

The site was founded in 2003 in the UK, and remains one of the longest standing torrent communities. With the decision, it is now the second time UK-based torrent site admins have walked free, following the case of OiNK owner Alan Ellis last year.

In 2009, UK authorities and the anti-piracy outfit Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) raided the homes of the admins, and both were eventually arrested.

The following summer, both were charged with conspiracy to infringe copyright.

Just like in the Ellis case, the evidence was collected only by FACT, with the police not carrying out any independent investigations. The solicitors for the new case were the same from the OiNK trial and they brought up the lack of independent investigation to the Court, which agreed with them on at least two issues.

TorrentFreak says those issues were "whether to prosecute FileSoup as a business or not and whether the copyright holder had caused prejudice."

Mozilla has introduced the latest (and possibly final) beta for Firefox 4, with beta 12 now available for download and testing.

Says the browser company (via ZD):

The latest Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta is now available to download and test. This release delivers improved performance and responsiveness when watching videos on your favorite video websites. We are in the final stages of the Firefox 4 Beta cycle. The team has fixed more than 7,000 bugs since the first beta release.

Additionally, Mozilla is asking plug-in developers to begin finalizing their respective plug-ins for the release:

We are working closely with the community of add-on developers to ensure their Firefox Add-ons are ready to customize the features, look and functionality of Firefox 4 Beta. For more details on how to make your add-ons compatible with Firefox 4 Beta.

Firefox 4 Beta 12 adds increased performance with Flash content, improved compatibility when hardware acceleration is enabled, "hovering over links now displays the URL at the bottom of the window rather than in the location bar" and overall stability improvements.

The Nintendo 3DS has barely been out for 24 hours in Japan and it has already been hacked to run flash carts like the infamous R4.

R4 cards allow gamers to run homebrew, play DS games, and even run older games, like those from the GameBoy Color.

Two hackers have posted their videos on YouTube, one showing a much older game (Zelda) being played back on the device with the other showing off the DS version of New Super Mario Bros. running from R4 cards.

It is important to note that while flash carts can apparently be used on the device already, 3DS-only games are still secure and have not been cracked, although there are likely teams out there already trying to do so, as with every new console.

The news is likely rough for Nintendo, which boasted of the 3DS' increased anti-piracy measures.

Daily deal giant Groupon saw its revenue top $760 million in 2010, according to an internal memo, growing from $33 million in 2009.

Notably, $285 million of the revenue came from overseas, where Groupon continues to expand to new nations.

The memo was sent from CEO Andrew Mason to staff earlier this year and Mason also says he expects the company to hit "billions" in revenue in 2011.

Said the CEO (via WSJ):

By this time next year, we will either be on our way to becoming one of the great technology brands that define our generation, or a cool idea by people who were out executed and out innovated by others that were smarter and harder working.

Groupon rejected a gigantic $6 billion bid from Google late last year, and instead raised almost $1 billion from private investors during a round of funding.

The daily deal site now has 4000 employees, is available in 565 cities and has 51 million subscribers to its daily email.

The two largest HDD makers, Seagate and Western Digital have confirmed today that they will support Intel's newly launched Thunderbolt interconnect technology.

Both will have drives available with the technology during 2011.

Says WD of the move:

Western Digital believes Thunderbolt technology will bring both new performance levels and simpler connectivity for consumers to access and enjoy their digital media in new and innovative ways.

And Seagate, similarly:

Seagate will support Thunderbolt with our external GoFlex drives with in calendar year 2011.

WD and Seagate combine for just over 50 percent of all the HDDs sold globally, and Seagate did not initially endorse the standard, like Apple and WD did.

Xbit explains Thunderbolt, which was recently just shown off by Apple on their MacBook Pro refreshes:

Last week, popular European streaming music company Spotify announced it had signed a deal with EMI, following a licensing deal it signed with Sony Music in 2010.

Today, new sources close to the talks say the company is "a few weeks away" from netting a deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), the largest label in the world.

The same sources say that Spotify may have to launch with just UMG, EMI and Sony, however, because all talks with Warner Music Group have gone nowhere. Warner is the third largest label in the world.

Investors recently valued Spotify at $1 billion, even though it has had to delay its American launch for almost a year. The platform is hugely popular in Europe, however, and is a mainstay on smartphones.

Universal and Warner executives have publicly expressed concerns that offering free, streaming music may "cannibalize" competing subscription packages like Rhapsody, and even hurt CD sales and individual digital sales, through services like iTunes and Amazon MP3.

On the 23rd, hacker "graf_chokolo" said his home was raided by local police, as well as a Sony representative.

Says graf via his own blog:

Guys, SONY was today at my home with police and got all my stuff and accounts. So be careful from now on.

After the raid, graf (Alexander Egorenkov), uploaded all his databases to the Web, encouraging anyone and everyone to share it so Sony would have a harder time removing it.

Sony did not take that action lightly, sending a legal notice demanding all the links be removed and Egorenkov pay a 750,000 euro fine.

Egorenkhov posted some final comments today:

You know guys, you will say i’m totally crazy now, but i never slept better than in the last 2 days I don’t know how to explain this feeling but i don’t care about those threats with jail and high money penalties, btw, SONY wants about 750.000 euros from me if i don’t cooperate They don’t know me at all I don’t care about it and they might double it The higher is the sum the higher gets my motivation They don’t understand what makes me tick. Money and even my life doesn’t mean to me very much without knowledge. I have a scientific mind and the knowledge is food to my brain. Without HV, Linux and FreeBSD kernel hacking my life is meaningless.

Sony has announced today that it is slashing the price of the PSP handheld to $130, a full $40 discount.

Additionally, PSP Entertainment Packs will sell for $160.

The price cut comes as PSP sales have continued to collapse, and on the heels of Sony's announcement of the next-generation NGP handheld, which will launch by the end of the year.

Sony's updated pricing goes into effect on February 27th.

The NGP adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

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

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support, and access to Android gaming.

Money transfer company Xoom Corp. has filed a trademark lawsuit against Motorola today, claiming it has used the name "Xoom" actively since 2003, and has an incontestable trademark on the name.

Motorola just released the Xoom Android tablet, the first real competitor to the market leading iPad because it runs on the tablet-optimized Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.

Says the complaint (via Beta):

Through this long online use accessible via computer and mobile devices, Xoom's trade name and the XOOM products have become associated exclusively with Xoom. Until [the] Defendants' adoption of the Xoom brand without authorization from Xoom, Xoom to its knowledge was the only entity using the name or mark for online product offerings.

Xoom is asking for a permanent injunction on the sales of the Motorola tablet and treble damages.

For the most part, the transfer company's main concern seems to be a disruption of business to its website, because the keyword "Xoom" on search engines brings millions of hits relating to the tablet. However, when typing in "Xoom" in Google, the first natural hits are for Xoom.com, then followed by Motorola.com so the case may have limited weight.