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The Roman Catholic Church has approved of a new iOS app, one that it hopes will bring "modern" Catholics back to their faith.

The app will give downloaders a "personalized examination of conscience for each user."

iApps, the company behind the app says (via Huff):

Our desire is to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology.

Taking to heart Pope Benedict XVI's message from last years' World Communications Address, our goal with this project is to offer a digital application that is truly 'new media at the service of the word.

The app will help users figure out if they are sinning, and will help them write out a draft before heading to a real confession booth.

You can purchase the app for $2 in the App Store, now.

Disney, Fox, Columbia, Warner Bros. and Universal have jointly sued cyberlocker Hofile.com, claiming copyright infringement "on a massive scale."

The suit is against Hotfile and Hotfile manager Anton Titov.

Hotfile, based in Panama, has quickly become one of the top "cyberlockers," following in the footsteps of Rapidshare and Megaupload.

The suit says Hotfile "encourages" users to upload and share copyrighted content, while the site and its owner profits.

Comments the MPAA (via Reuters):

Hotfile profits from this theft by charging a monthly fee to users who download content from its servers. Hotfile also operates an incentive scheme that rewards users for uploading the most popular files -- which are almost exclusively copyrighted works. Hotfile profits richly while paying nothing to the studios for their stolen content.

The site, in under 2 years, has become a top-100 site on the entire Internet.

The BBC has confirmed it will be launching iPad and Android versions of their popular iPlayer, starting next week.

On February 10th, the Flash-less iPad app and the Flash 10.1-based Android app will be available for UK residents. Android users will need version 2.1.

Furthermore, all versions of the iPlayer will be updated this week to add 'inter-linking,' which allows for non-BBC content to be offered through the service.

Each of the apps will only be available in the UK due to licensing restrictions, but the BBC has promised international apps "soon."

You will need to be connected to Wi-Fi on your media device to play the video content.

Just weeks away from launching Firefox 4.0, Mozilla has revealed its roadmap for 2011, which ends with the launch of Firefox 7.0 by the end of the year.

Overall, the company has seven main goals:

1. Ship Firefox 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the 2011 calendar year
2. Always respond to a user action within 50 ms
3. Never lose user data or state
4. Build Web Apps, Identity and Social into the Open Web Platform
5. Support new operating systems and hardware
6. Polish the user experience for common interaction tasks
7. Plan and architect for a future of a common platform on which the desktop and mobile products will be built and run Web Apps

Number 4 is particularly of note, as the company plans to open up support to Windows 64-bit, OSX 10.7, Android 3.0 and ARM CPUs, meaning Firefox should be headed to tablets and smartphones.

Firefox 4 just launched in Beta 11, with one more beta expected before a release candidate.

LG has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission this week, asking the ITC to block the import of the Sony PlayStation 3.

The company is claiming that the Blu-ray drive in every PS3 console violates multiple LG patents.

Sony, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment America are all cited in the complaint, says Cnet.

The patents in question relate to "the way a Blu-ray player reproduces data from a Blu-ray disc" and how it "reproduces multiple data streams by way of multiple camera angles."

Finally, LG says Sony is violating a patent relating to the display of subtitles in Blu-ray films.

LG's choice, over 1500 days after the PS3 launched in the U.S., seems like a direct retaliation for Sony's complaint filed with the ITC late last year over patent violations in mobile phones.

Rovio Mobile has announced this week that Nintendo fans will be getting 'Angry Birds,' as well, with Wii and 3DS versions confirmed.

Furthermore, the company announced a Valentine's Day version, and a "secret" Rio-based level for the game.

Rio is an upcoming animated movie telling the story of a Macaw and his adventures.

Rovio did not give a specific date for the Nintendo version, except to say "later this year."

The Angry Birds mini-game, with 63 levels, hit the PS3 and PSP last month.

Rovio says the Valentine's Day levels will be an update to Angry Birds: Seasons, which is $1 on the iPhone and free on Android.

BusinessWeek has posted a nice concise report on how secure most passwords are, and how long it takes even hackers to guess it.

As it has been for years, the most popular password is "123456," followed by "password," "12345678," "qwerty," and "abc123."

The following is how long it takes for a hacker to randomly guess your password:

Length: 6 characters
Lowercase: 10 minutes
+ Uppercase: 10 hours
+ Nos. & Symbols: 18 days

Length: 7 characters
Lowercase: 4 hours
+ Uppercase: 23 days
+ Nos. & Symbols: 4 years

Length: 8 characters
Lowercase: 4 days
+ Uppercase: 3 years
+ Nos. & Symbols: 463 years

Length: 9 characters
Lowercase: 4 months
+ Uppercase: 178 years
+ Nos. & Symbols: 44,530 years

Furthermore, the report says it costs a company $10 to take a phone call that will eventually require a password reset.

30 percent of all help desk calls are password related, and 50 percent of all users make their password a "common word or simple key combination."

According to comScore's latest figures, Google's Android smartphone OS is closing in on RIM's BlackBerry OS for most popular mobile OS in the U.S.

Overall, smartphone ownership has increased 60 percent year-over-year (YoY), to 63.2 million.

Total Americans, aged 13 and up owning mobile phones, jumped to 234 million.

In the smartphone market, RIM remained on the top, at 31.6 percent, taking a -5.7 point change YoY.

Android exploded to 28.7, a 7.3 point change.

Apple kept its ongoing growth, moving .7 points to 25 percent, while Windows fell to 8.4 percent and Palm fell to 3.7 percent.

(via comScore)

Sprint has unveiled the Kyocera Echo today, an Android device with dual touch screens.

The smartphone goes on sale in the Spring for $200 with contract.

Kyocera, of Japan, is not very well known in the United States although they do make a plethora of feature phones.

The Echo has dual 3.5-inch screens and will allow users to run multiple apps at the same time, or watch videos whilst surfing the Web on different screens, for example.

Another example is splitting the operations of one app, such as having the email inbox on the top screen and the email text in the bottom screen.

The company says the phone will run on Sprint's 3G network, not their WiMax 4G network, but 4G models may come in the future.

Finally, the phone has huge power drain, because of the dual screens, so Sprint is adding a free spare battery in the package.

(Pic via Engadget)

T-Mobile USA has announced they will offer all their phones, including 4G smartphones, for free over the weekend, as part of a Valentine's Day promotion.

The promotion is in-stores and will include all phones available from the carrier, as long as you sign up for a two-year contract.

Says the company:

Smartphones offer people incredible flexibility to stay connected and express their love to the people that matter most. T-Mobile’s Valentine’s promotion makes it easier for anyone to get their favorite smartphone and keep connected on America’s largest 4G network.

The most expensive phones available as part of the promotion are the myTouch 4G, HTC HD7, T-Mobile G2 and Samsung Vibrant, each of which run on Android or Windows.

According to a new comScore report on digital trends, email usage has significantly declined, especially amongst teenagers.

From December 2009 to December 2010, overal web email usage declined 8 percent, dragged down by a 59 percent decline among teens aged 12-17.

Users aged 18-24 saw the smallest year-over-year decline, at just 1 percent, while usage among 25-35 year olds fell 18 percent. Usage by 35-44 year olds fell 8 percent and the 45-54 demographic saw a 12 percent decline.

Older people helped buoy the fall, as 55-64 year olds increased usage 22 percent and the 65 and older crowd saw 28 percent growth.

Most of the share lost by email usage, was found by social networking, especially among teens.

(Pic via Crunch)

PSX-Scene has revealed that Sony is expanding its lawsuit against PS3 hackers, moving on from just Geohot and adding well-known hackers Cantero, Peter, Bushing, Segher, hermesEOL, kmeaw, Waninkoko, grafchokolo, kakaroto to its list.

The company will subpoena a number of sites, like PSX-Scene, Twitter, Github, Slashdot and even YouTube, in an attempt to find the location of the defendants.

Many of the hackers, such as hermes, are not located in the U.S., so it is unclear how Sony will be able to bring them to court.

Github was where hackers shared the source codes. The site was recently sent DMCA takedown notices and removed the code.

You can view all the documents here: Sony Expanding It's Case - Looking For All PS3 Hackers

Beginning next week, online music service Last.fm will move to subscription-only for mobile users (except for Windows Phone 7 users), moving from the current ad-based model.

The company says ad-based models are no longer "practical" and now mobile users will have to pay to continue their Last.fm service.

Online use will stay free, in the U.S, UK and Germany, adds Matthew Hawn, Last.fm's head of product.

Says Hawn (via BBC):

We think that the best experience is ad-free. It's not that we're losing buckets of money on our service... but we're trying to make rational decisions about our business model.

The company does note that Xbox Live users will still be able to access the service for free, as well.

Adds the company:

On the Last.fm website an ad-supported, free-to-listeners model is what supports our online radio services in the US, UK and Germany. In other markets and on emerging mobile and home entertainment devices, it is not practical for us to deliver an ad supported radio experience, but instead, we will migrate to what we believe is the highest quality, lowest cost ad-free music service in the world.

An Iranian official said that the country must investigate claims that the Stuxnet worm could have caused major harm to its first nuclear power station.

Mohammad Ahmadian, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said that reports of damage to the country's Bushehr plant were a malicious campaign by countries hostile to Tehran's nuclear program.

"Many of these discussions raised in the media and world public opinion about the Stuxnet virus are an effort to create concern among the Iranian people and people of the region and delay the work of the nuclear power plant," he said.

"Therefore it is necessary that experts in the field investigate to see how much truth there is in these discussions."

Analysts believe that Stuxnet was a successful attack by the United States and/or Israel on the Iranian nuclear program, which both suspect has a goal of creating nuclear weapons. Iran has given mixed reports on the true impact of Stuxnet on its systems since the story emerged publicly.

Russia's NATO ambassador created headlines recently when he said the virus could potentially lead to a "new Chernobyl". Russia supplied the fuel for the Bushehr plant, and despite the alarming comment on a new Chernobyl-like incident, Ahmadian indicated that there is no significant delay as a result in the start-up of the plant, which will supply electricity to the country's national grid.

A man is facing jail time for stealing thousands of pounds worth of virtual pokers chips from an online poker website.

Ashley Mitchell admitted in court to stealing more than 400 billion virtual chips after breaking into the systems of Zygna, an online gaming outlet. The 400 billion virtual chips had a face value of about $12 million (£7.4 million).

Mitchell had managed to gain £53,000 from the theft by selling the stolen virtual chips using a series of online accounts on social networking sites. He charged £430 per 1 billion virtual chips.

He posed as an administrator for the Zynga Poker game between June and September of 2009, before he gained access to the company's computer systems and carried out the electronic theft.

After realizing the amount of chips that had gone "missing", Zynga set up a sting which tracked down Mitchell. He pleaded guilty to five charges brought under the Computer Misuse Act and the Proceeds from Crime Act. He was remanded until a date was fixed for sentencing.