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Current AT&T iPhone owners have been receiving texts all weekend thanking them for being loyal customers to the carrier, and offering 1000 free rollover minutes.

All you have to do is reply "yes" to the text message and the minutes are added to your account.

Cnet says any AT&T iPhone user can send the "yes" text to 11113020 to receive the minutes, even if they haven't gotten the original incoming text.

The move seems like a ploy to thank users for not switching over to Verizon, which began selling the iPhone earlier in the week and saw strong early sales.

Earlier this morning, Best Buy put up a pre-order page for the upcoming Motorola Xoom, pricing the tablet at an insane $1200.

The listing also confirmed a late February release.

At around 6 PM, however, Best Buy took down the listing, with no word on when it will return. Originally, leaks had shown the Xoom selling for $800.

More notably is the fact that to be able to use Wi-Fi on the device, you must pay for at least 1 month of Verizon 3G service, which will cost you a minimum $20 for a 1GB package. That fact was also confirmed by the new Best Buy listing.

Motorola's Xoom will be the first tablet to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which has been optimized for media tablets.

The powerful tablet will ship with a 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.

Last year, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), paid out $57,000 to piracy whistleblowers, rewarding 16 reports.

Overall, the group received 157 reports of alleged 'corporate end user software piracy' and pursued 42 of those. Only 16 paid out, however.

Most of the reports came from former IT staff members, with a full 75 percent coming from current or ex IT staff and managers. 11 percent came from company senior management and 4 percent came from outside consultants. The rest was a variety of sources.

Of those reporting, 59 percent were no longer employed by the company they snitched on, and SIIA says many of those reported that the primary reason they left was the company's unethical use of pirated software.

The sizes of the companies reported were rather large, with the average having 567 employees and annual sales of $441 million. The most pirated software came from the "productivity" sector, at 57 percent.

In 2010, 36 companies settled software and content infringement cases with the SIIA. The first case settled involved graphics software and was settled for over $200,000.

According to the latest figures from Experian Hitwise, Google lost some global search engine market share in January, with Bing picking up the slack.

For the month, Google dropped to 67.95 percent share, down from 69.67 in December 2010.

Bing rose to 12.81 percent from 10.6 the month prior.

Overall, "Bing-powered" search, including Yahoo and Bing, jumped to 27.44 percent from 25.77.

Perhaps more importantly, Bing/Yahoo had a higher search engine success rate, the number of results that actually lead to a visit to a site, says CNet. The Bing-powered sites had an 81 percent success rate, far ahead of Google's 65 percent. Both rates remained practically unchanged from December.

Engadget has posted the specs and a picture of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S II, slated to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress next week.

Additionally, the site has some specs on the upcoming Galaxy Tab II, a sequel to the original Tab which sold 2 million units in 2010.

The Galaxy S II will have a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen with 800x480 resolution, run Android 2.3, and work off a dual-core 1GHz Orion processor.

It is unclear what cameras the smartphone will have but it will include NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, and 24Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. Finally, the SII will be just 8.49mm at its thinnest point, and likely reach 9.9mm at its thickest.

The Tab II will have a 10.1-inch display and run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The site says it will be a "Google Experience Device" meaning Honeycomb will not come with any extra UI.

Samsung's Tab II will run on a dual-core 1GHz processor and have a 1280x800 resolution.

A full version of the upcoming game, Crysis 2, has been leaked on the Internet this weekend, a full 5 weeks before its official release on March 22nd.

The leaked version is a developer build, and contains all levels.

Additionally, multiplayer allegedly works, and the leak comes with a master key for online authentication.

Many of the features and inscriptions are not final, but the game is complete. Many pirates have noted there are resolution issues as well as bugs.

Electronic Arts has responded, and they are not happy:

Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites. Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news. We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on March 22.

Crysis 2 is still in development and promises to be the ultimate action blockbuster as the series’ signature Nanosuit lets you be the weapon as you defend NYC from an alien invasion.

Pandora, the popular streaming Internet radio service has filed for an IPO today, finally revealing numbers on the service that was close to shutting down just 3 years ago.

The proposed price of the IPO is $100 million.

Revenue for the 9 months ended October 2010 was $90 million, a 300 percent YoY increase from 2009. For the same period in 2010, Pandora lost $328,000, a far cry from the $18 million loss they took in 2009.

Pandora made $12.2 million off subscription revenue and the rest from advertising. The service has 80 million users in the U.S. and apps on Android, BlackBerry, WebOS and iOS.

Pandora's founder Tim Westergren owns 2.39 percent of the company and will get 3.6 million shares.

You can check an interview our staff had with the founder in 2008 here: A convo with Tim Westergren from Pandora

Earlier this week, Activision announced that the once popular 'Guitar Hero' franchise is finished, with the company "disbanding Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit" and ending support for current games.

Harmonix, the developer behind 'Rock Band' has said today that the series will continue on via DLC, despite the "discouraging news" of Guitar Hero's demise.

The developer will still release new songs for the series, and will continue as planned with the release of the Fender Squier Stratocaster Guitar controller.

John Drake of Harmonix also noted that most Guitar Hero peripherals will work on Rock Band, if gamers want to switch over.

Adds Drake (via GameSpot):

The music genre is one that calls for constant reinvention, and Harmonix is continuing to welcome and embrace that call. In short, the beat of Rock Band marches on. We're continuing to invest in the franchise and the brand that we have built and will do our best to serve all loyal band game fans.

Bloomberg has brought back the age-old rumor of a smaller 'iPhone Nano' being in the works, one that will also sell for cheaper than the current iPhones.

Sources have already seen the prototype, and claim Apple will make it available on multiple wireless networks.

Although they would never announce it publicly, the sources say CEO Steve Jobs is afraid of losing market share to Android, and a cheaper iPhone would widen its appeal to those that may be on the fence about a smartphone, or those in developing nations.

Android currently controls 32.9 percent of the global smartphone market, compared to Apple's 16 percent.

Apple's new device will sell for $150-$200 with contract, will be 30 percent smaller than the current iPhone 4, and will remove the Home button. Additionally, Apple wants to add a "universal SIM" slot which will work for many GSM networks.

Eldar Murtazin, the Russian tech blogger famous for getting early access to devices, has tweeted this morning that Nokia is still in negotiations that will eventually lead to a partnership with Google's Android.

Says the tweet:

According to my sources Nokia in negotiation with Google as well. First Nokia Android devices for 2012. Turnover. No own OS platform

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced this morning that Nokia smartphones would now run the Windows Phone 7 operating system, a huge move for Microsoft which instantly gains a worldwide footprint, but a tough admission from Nokia that they have been slow on innovating in the burgeoning smartphone market.

Elop says the partnership will "jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity."

According to Bloomberg, RIM is prepared to launch software that will let their upcoming PlayBook tablet run Android apps.

The software will integrated into the new QNX operating system, giving PlayBook owners a chance to download and use the 150,000 apps in the Android Market on their tablet.

Sources say the software will not be ready at the PlayBook's launch (allegedly end of March) but will be ready in the Q3.

Price has not been confirmed but has been "leaked" as $500 for a base model, in line with the Apple iPad and $300 cheaper than the newly launched Motorola Xoom.

RIM's PlayBook will have a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024x600 resolution, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP standard camera and a 3MP front-facing camera.

Following Nokia's official announcement that it will be partnering with Microsoft, shares have tumbled, reaching session lows as of writing of down 14.50 percent on 700 percent average volume.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop announced this morning that Nokia smartphones would now run the Windows Phone 7 operating system, a huge move for Microsoft which instantly gains a worldwide footprint, but a tough admission from Nokia that they have been slow on innovating in the burgeoning smartphone market.

In just 4 years, Nokia's smartphone share has fallen from 51 percent to 27 percent, losing all of its share to Android and Apple. Microsoft was once a leader in that market as well, but has seen its share fall to single digits.

Elop says the partnership will "jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity."

In Windows Phone 7, the Nokia Ovi Store will be merged into the Marketplace and all Nokia smartphones will have Bing as the default search engine. Furthermore, WP7 will add Nokia's NAVTEQ maps.

Multiple sources are reporting today that Apple's upcoming iOS 4.3 might bring gaming to the Apple TV, expanding the practically useless "Game Center" introduced with iOS 4.

In the 4.3 code, there are references to "ATVThunder" and "ATVGames," each of which point to scheduling of games, leaderboards sortable by date, the streaming of live/archived games, and a new storefront (likely similar to iTunes).

Because the Apple TV only has 8GB of internal memory, streaming seems the only way to play games via the set-top.

Furthermore, there are references to streaming like "Sedona" and "Flagstaff." Sedona is Apple's video rental mechanism, explains TUAW, who speculates the rentals will turn to streaming, for movies/TV/games.

Finally, the code references FEATURE_REMOTE_SCREENSAVER, which could speculatively lead to interactive screensavers.

Nokia has officially announced partnership with Microsoft and will adopt its smartphone platform Windows Phone 7. According to the press release, Nokia has selected Windows Phone 7 as the primary platform for its upcoming smartphones.

Nokia says partnership between the companies will combine the strengths of the companies. They believe that Nokia's strengths in manufacturing and the software prowess of Microsoft will "jointly create market-leading mobile products and services designed to offer consumers, operators and developers unrivalled choice and opportunity."

The software side of the joint cooperation will now largely fall into Microsoft's hands. However, Nokia's Ovi Store will be integrated with the WP7 Marketplace and Microsoft's Bing will get location and map data from Nokia-owned NAVTEQ. Marketplace will also benefit from Nokia's operator billing platform.

Despite the shift towards Windows Phone 7, Nokia will continue to develop Symbian and MeeGo. Lower end smartphones will likely have Symbian in the future as well and MeeGo will remain as a test platform for future developments. Nokia still has plans to unveil its first MeeGo handset during 2011.

Dell has announced today that it is discontinuing the Dell Adamo line of ultraportables, the last real competitor to the MacBook Air.

The Adamo launched in 2009 at 0.65-inches thick, was housed in an aluminum case, runs an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and had SSD before they became popular.

Dell packed in a 13.4-inch screen with 1,366x768 resolution, a SIM card slot, and the device weighed in at under 4 pounds.

The company discontinued the extremely thin Adamo XPS (at 0.39-inches thick) last year.

Sources say Dell was able to clear out remaining Adamo inventory buy selling the computer at $800, well under the $1300-$1500 it was selling for, on average.