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Summit Distribution, the studio behind the blockbuster franchise 'Twilight,' is demanding that struggling rental chain Blockbuster pay up what it owes, or head into liquidation.

When Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy last year, it told Summit it would not pay Summit the $6.8 million it was owed for DVDs shipped out.

Summit is now demanding a judge force Blockbuster to pay up, or head into liquidation where it will raise the money needed.

Blockbuster went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September, giving the company a chance to reorganize debt without liquidating. If the company cannot recover, it will be forced into Chapter 7 where the full management team will be replaced and all of the rental company's assets will be sold off to pay debts.

Summit's latest, 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,' was the 4th most popular DVD in 2010.

Reads the court documents (via Yahoo):

According to a new survey conducted by online sample company uSamp, 54 percent of Verizon's current smartphone userbase is considering switching to the iPhone when it becomes available next week.

The company used a "highly profiled online panel" of over 700 current smartphone users.

Overall, 25 percent said they were "very likely" to switch while 29 percent were "somewhat likely" to switch over.

BlackBerry users were the most likely to switch, with a full 66 percent (when combining both answers) indicating a likelihood. Android users were at 44 percent.

Furthermore, a different survey last week said 16 percent of AT&T users would move over to Verizon for the iPhone.

According to a new survey commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance, 32 percent of respondents admit to logging into their neighbor's unencrypted Wi-Fi at least once.

In 2008, the last time the group did the poll, the number was 18 percent.

Says Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director at the Wi-Fi Alliance (via USAT):

The reality is that many consumers have not taken the steps to protect themselves.

The risk of leaving a Wi-Fi connection open is neighbors (or anyone really) can use readily available software to steal info, like passwords.

One such tool, Firesheep, is noted by anti-virus firm ESET. Says the company:

With Firesheep, almost anyone can effectively hack into your Facebook, Twitter and other accounts. Almost anyone has the skill to use Firesheep to be a nosy neighbor."

The Wi-Fi Alliance urges everyone with a wireless router to use WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) security.

Multiple sources are reporting that HTC's first dual-core Android phone, the 'Pyramid' will be headed to T-Mobile in May.

The 'superphone' will feature a dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 4.3 inch qHD display, and 4G/HSPA+ support.

Qualcomm announced their dual-core offering at CES and implied a Q2 availability, placing May squarely in the expected range.

HTC and T-Mobile have a long-standing relationship with Android devices, dating back to the launch of the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network supports up to 14 Mbps downloads and 5.6 Mbps uploads.

In terms of codecs, the phone will support MPEG-4, MPEG-2, H.264, H.263, VC-1, DivX, WMV-9, Sorenson Spark, VP6, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, FR, EFR, HR, WB-AMR, G.729a, G.711 and AAC stereo encode.

1UP has confirmed today that 'Bionic Commando Rearmed 2,' purchasable through the PlayStation Store, will come with the dreaded 'always-connected' DRM last seen on Ubisoft titles.

'Always-connected' DRM means the game is unplayable unless the gamer stays connected to the Internet at all times.

In this case, gamers must always be logged into the PlayStation Network so PS3 offline playback is not an option.

Earlier in the year, developer Capcom raised some eyebrows when it released Final Fight: Double Impact with a special DRM that blocked the game from being shared with any other PSN user.

Family members who shared a PS3 but had different PSN accounts were effectively locked out.

On Thursday, the last top level block of free Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses was assigned, igniting a discussion about the future of the Internet and its rapid expansion to more locations and devices.

IPv4 uses 32bit addressing to route data packets across the Internet, providing for 2³² addresses, or 4,294,967,296 addresses. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is intended to succeed IPv4. Using a 128-bit address, the IPv6 address space allows 2¹²⁸ addresses, or around 340 undecillion unique addresses (1 undecillion == 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). That means an address pool that is a billion-trillion times larger than IPv4.

IPv4's address format uses a Dotted Decimal Notation, such as "209.62.87.157", to enable communication between devices over the Internet. IPv6 addresses are composed of four hexadecimal digits separated instead by colons, such as "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334".

IPv6 certainly has lasting power because of the mind-numbing numbers involved. The IPv4 pool is now technically completely exhausted, an event that has been anticipated for years (although a lot of free addresses still remain in most assigned IPv4 blocks and will continue to be allocated for the time being.)

Verizon Wireless has confirmed today that it will be "preventing users from downloading entire videos at once to help ease capacity burdens on the network," thanks to the launch of the iPhone.

Additionally, the carrier will "eliminate some colors and other data from videos that it deems to be not visible to the human eye. The loss of information from the input file may result in reduced color accuracy and sharpness."

Furthermore, the top 5 percent of downloaders in metro areas like San Francisco and Manhattan will have their speeds throttled, to avoid "jamming" the network.

The carrier says it will throttle speeds only at "specific high-traffic times of the day."

New customers, or anyone renewing as of today will be affected by the limitations, meaning all future iPhone users.

CNN is reporting this week that if you have been waiting out to buy an LCD TV, this week may be the right time to head out to the store or check online retailers.

Because of slow holiday sales, HDTV makers will likely discount TVs this week by as much as 30 percent, in anticipation of the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Says Paul Gagnon, director of TV research at DisplaySearch:

Just prior to the Super Bowl is one of the last opportunities for manufacturers to clear out their 2010 models. If they can't sell them now, they're going to have to discount them even more.

Gagnon does say if you are willing to wait a bit longer, 2010 model TVs will get their max discounts by the first week of March.

Overall, average LCD prices are expected to drop 16 percent again this year (as pictured).

Michael Phelps, the Olympic gold medal winning swimmer has his own Kinect game coming this summer, giving the world possibly their only chance to ever beat Phelps in a race.

Says Phelps in the press release:

I'm really excited to help bring a one-of-a-kind swimming video game to the market that is reflective of my competitive nature and passion for swimming. This definitely isn't your typical video game; much like my training in the pool, Push the Limit is about improving and mastering every race element -- from controlling your adrenaline on the block to perfectly timing your finish. In my world, it takes a lifetime of dedication to get one-hundredth of a second ahead and I believe Push the Limit offers players a unique journey inside swimming that will challenge themselves as much as their in-game competitors.

The game is set for release in June.

Viacom has announced they have signed a new deal with Hulu which will return content to the video streaming platform.

Last March, Viacom pulled popular TV shows like 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" after a scuffle with Hulu over financial terms.

Today's new deal will give access to Comedy Central, MTV and BET content.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report will stream for free (with ads), the day after they air on TV, but other shows, like 'The Jersey Shore' will only be available to Hulu Plus subscribers.

Hulu Plus costs $8 per month. Most of Viacom's shows will stream with a 21-day delay, but back catalogs will be readily available.

Says Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman (via WSJ):

We didn't feel the revenue model was appropriate at that time. We're going to be getting both ad revenues and subscription fees. That's the kind of model that has worked well in the traditional universe, and one that we think is a positive trend in broadband.

LG Electronics is embracing Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology to offer a swipe payment system to users of LG smartphones.

The company will build the functionality into smartphones intended for the European market in 2012. It will allow users to make payments using their smartphones at a check-out.

"The point-of-sale technology, which will be targeted at small and medium-sized businesses and will involve NFC or near field communications and cloud computing, is currently in beta testing," Jin-Yong Kim, vice president for business solutions at LG's Home Entertainment division, said.

Frost & Sullivan has predicted that there will be 860 million NFC-enabled mobile phones in use by 2015, and that NFC will be the technology embraced to drive mobile payment systems.

Kaspersky has re-assured users of its security software that the availability of source code for some of its past products on file sharing sites does not pose a threat.

The source code for early 2008 versions of the Kaspersky security suite was showing up on more file sharing sites and networks over the past few days. The code was originally taken by an employee who tried to auction it off online.

The incomplete dump of the code actually leaked in November but has only just become a popular thing to trade online recently. The easy availability of the code means that Kaspersky competitors can look over it and possibly make improvements to their own products based on it.

The company does not think that the code is of any use to authors of malware, however. The code is outdated and incomplete, and the core features of the software have been radically changed since it was in use.

"Kaspersky Lab reiterates that this incident cannot harm users of its products, solutions and services in any way. The stolen source code is related to one of the previous product lineups, and since then the company has renewed all key protection technologies," a statement reads.

Verizon has finally revealed prices for multiple services relating to the upcoming iPhone 4 launch.

Pre-orders for the smartphone start on Thursday and will launch later in the month.

Verizon says a basic voice plan will cost $40 and include 450 minutes.

Unlimited texts will cost $20 per month, and the iPhone unlimited data plan will cost $30.

Overall, most users will be paying over $100 per month with fees and taxes for their new iPhone on Verizon.

Additionally, the carrier says owners will "be able to use the iPhone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for an extra $20 per month."

Berenberg Bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad has written an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop this week, telling the companies they must join forces in the phone market, or disappear.

Ahmad says that Elop should immediately make a deal to have exclusive access to Windows Phone 7, and commit to a date for a product shipment.

Elop admitted last week that Nokia "must build, catalyze and/or join a competitive ecosystem" in order to adapt to the fast moving smartphone industry. Nokia has notably lagged.

Continued the analyst (via Bloomberg):

Nokia is no longer in denial. Microsoft also faces very big strategic challenges as smartphones and tablets attack your highly profitable installed base business.

Nokia, despite being the world's top phone maker, has practically no share in the United States and access to Windows Phone 7 will finally give it an American presence.

Sony has revealed today that the company is pushing developers to bring games formerly released on UMD to the upcoming NGP (PSP2), porting the games to the new memory cards designed for the system.

Furthermore, Sony is asking developers to add their existing games to the PlayStation Network as digital downloads, so new owners can purchase them.

If you purchased a game from the PlayStation Network, you can re-download that game for free on the new device, however, if you owned the game on UMD, you are out of luck.

The company did say it will not be releasing any external UMD accessories, so it appears that Sony is finally leaving the dead format in the past.

New to the NGP are 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.