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Google unveiled their web version of the popular Android Market today, live now at market.android.com.

The site should help Android device owners find their apps easier, in the same manner that iTunes gives iOS users a chance to look up apps online before downloading to their devices.

Until today, Android users had to find and download their apps from their smartphones and tablets, or read reviews from third-party sites.

If the app is paid, you can purchase it online via the website and send it to your device, directly.

Because the Market is attached to your Google account, when you log in you can see all your purchased/downloaded apps.

Google does note that the store may have some first-day early bugs, which users should expect to be ironed out by the end of the week.

Sony is set to bring the PlayStation Move motion controller to the PC this month, as part of the "Move Server" project.

At the GDC, Sony America's John McCutchan will discuss the device:

This talk will bring developers up to speed on developing for the PlayStation Move controller. We will cover developing for the new PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter accessory. We will discuss the new Move Server project that will make it possible for academics and hobbyists to develop software using the PlayStation Move controller on their own PCs.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced on Tuesday that refunds will be offered to customers who bought Samsung PCs that have Intel's flawed chipset inside.

Intel announced on Tuesday that some of its Cougar Point chipsets had been found to have a bad design flaw that required a silicon fix. The chipmaker halted production of the defective chips and started production on new fixed units instead.

The affected chipsets are used in systems that feature Intel's Second Generation Core microprocessors, like some sold by Samsung. "There are six PC line-ups released in Korea and one in the U.S., and we plan to fully refund or exchange the product in question," James Chung, Samsung's spokesman said.

"No financial impact on our business is likely as the total payment will be funded by Intel." The design flaw is expected to cost Intel over $1 billion in repairs and lost revenue, as well as delay the release of more computers using its Sandy Bridge microprocessors.

Japanese technology giant Toshiba Corp has been hit with a $100 million lawsuit alleging gender bias, brought by a female employee.

Elaine Cyphers, a senior human resources manager at the company, alleges that women are paid lower salaries than men for comparable jobs at the company, and that it favors men in promotions while putting women into lower grade positions.

The complaint states that just 3.4 percent of Toshiba's 6,237 managers are women, despite Toshiba creating a "Gender Equality Office" six years ago. "We believe the class claims are significant, and will be substantiated in the litigation," said David Sanford, a partner at Sanford Wittels & Heisler LLP who represents Cyphers, calling the numbers "atrocious."

Cyphers says she was paid between $90,000 and $91,800 a year between 2008 and 2010, while men in comparable jobs at Toshiba pulled in $120,000 a year. The lawsuit seeks class action status on behalf of all current and former female employees of Toshiba within the United States.

Toshiba does not comment on pending litigation.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with chief executives from U.S. tech companies at the White House on Tuesday to discuss several issues.

Among the CEOs visiting the White House was Ursula Burns of Xerox, Michael Dell of Dell Inc. and Samuel Palmisano of IBM. On the agenda was jobs, education, trade and taxes as the President picked the brains of the heads of the tech giants.

A White House statement said that the President and the CEOs discussed plans for investments in the United States, as well as the importance of prioritizing Science and Math in U.S. education institutions. They also discussed "ideas for reforming and reorganizing the government to streamline the process and improve efficiency through the use of technology."

The group also pledged support for the Obama administrations's work to get free trade agreements through Congress citing support for the Korea Trade Agreement. "Seventy percent of our industry is outside the United States and most of the growth is outside of the United States, so we need a competitive playing field," Palmisano said.

Apple has blocked Sony's e-book application from the App Store, saying it conflicts with Apple's system for managing the purchase of content.

Sony's app would have allowed iPhone / iPad users to read books bought from the Sony store using the Apple devices. The company accused Apple of changing the way it enforces its rules in its decision not to allow it to offer the application through the App Store.

Apple denied that it changed its rules in any way or enforced them any differently for Sony, and that it instead was only looking to ensure that customers could buy books using its "in-app purchase" payment method, which provides Apple with a 30 percent cut of sales made.

The dust up doesn't appear to have affected Amazon.com however. Amazon offers a Kindle app through the App Store which lets users view books bought through Amazon on the Apple devices.

"We opened a dialogue with Apple to see if we can come up with an equitable resolution for both companies as well as our consumers, but reached an impasse at this time," Sony said in a statement on Tuesday. Developer guidelines from Apple state that apps using a different system to the in-app purchase to buy "content, functionality or services" will be rejected.

A debate has been brewing over the safety of images produced by 3D televisions amidst suggestions to keep younger viewers away from them.

The Nintendo 3DS handheld is due to be released in Japan on February 26, offering 3D images to gamers without the need for any glasses to create the effect. Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime had recommended that very young children not be exposed to the 3D images, and said that it was a standard protocol within the industry.

Following that suggestion and similar advice, a debate has grown in the media about the potential "dangers" of 3D images. Often brought up are comments from Mark Pesce, an early pioneer in virtual reality, made last year where he said children could potentially suffer permanent damage from regular and extensive exposure to 3D images on a screen.

He also criticized the major tech companies pushing the technology for not doing healthy safety tests. Sony, Samsung and LG are among tech giants that do actually issue health and safety guidance with 3D products, mostly echoing the advice made by Nintendo but also extending to people under the influence of alcohol, pregnant women, senior citizens and people with heart health issues.

The BBC has reported that films available through Apple services to iPhone and iPad users are being sold without the consent of the copyright holders.

Popular films dating back to the Soviet era were obtainable through Apple's services, taking the form of applications that can be installed on Apple devices. Films include old favourites such as Gentlemen of Fortune, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka.

Mosfilm and the Joint State Film Collection (Obyedinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinocollectsia) own the copyright to the specific Russian movies, and have not given anyone permission to provide them through Apple's services for free or for a fee.

"It is illegal to present our films as applications either in iTunes or on any other internet site. It is permitted only on our own Mosfilm site," Svetlana Pyleva, Mosfilm's deputy director general, said in an interview with BBC News. "There are no third parties which we have permitted to use our content."

Mosfilm at the time was preparing to submit complaints to Apple. Before apps can be made available through the App Store, Apple has to approve them. The company has said it takes copyright complaints very seriously and will take action immediately against any infringing app.

Microsoft has warned Windows users about a security flaw that could affect 900 million Internet Explorer users.

The company warned in an advisory that the flaw could potentially be exploited by malicious users to hijack a computer or steal private information. Even though the flaw itself is in Windows, it only appears to affect the way Internet Explorer handles webpages and documents.

"When the user clicked that link, the malicious script would run on the user's computer for the rest of the current Internet Explorer session," wrote Microsoft representative Angela Gunn.

"Such a script might collect user information, e.g e-mail, spoof content displayed in the browser or otherwise interfere with the user's experience."

Microsoft said it has seen no evidence that the loophole is being exploited in the wild. The company is working on a permanent patch to fix the problem permanently, but concerned Internet Explorer users can utilize a Microsoft "Fix It" solution to guard against it until then.

More information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501696

Intel announced yesterday that it had discovered a design flaw that affects its Intel 6 Series (code-named Cougar Point) chipsets.

The chip-maker said it has implemented a silicon fix for the problem. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as HDDs and DVD drives.

The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories.

The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue. The company will start delivering the updated version of the chipset to its customers in late February. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue.

For the first quarter of 2011, Intel expects this issue to reduce revenue by approximately $300 million as the company discontinues production of the current version of the chipset and begins manufacturing the new version, but full-year revenue is not expected to be materially affected by the problem.

Localytics has posted an interesting figure today, stating that 26 percent of mobile apps are used only once, before being uninstalled or just left unused on owner's devices.

The site studied the hundred of thousands of apps used by iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 users by using "its real-time app analytics service."

On a quarterly basis, the Q1 saw 22 percent of apps discarded after one use, the Q2 and Q3 saw 26 percent, and the Q4 saw a bump to 28 percent, although owners may still find time in 2011 to use those apps downloaded in late 2010.

Using the service, Localytics was able to see the first time a new app customer actually used an app, and whether there was any follow through later in the year.

There are currently over 300,000 iOS apps and around 200,000 Android Market apps.

AT&T has been sued this week for over-billing iOS users by 'systematically overstating' the data use of iPad and iPhone owners.

The class-action suit was filed by Patrick Hendricks who says a third-party consulting firm studied AT&T's data billing practices for 60 days and found that some users have their usage overstated by 7 percent, while others had it overstated by 300 percent.

Reads Hendrick's claim (via EW):

Not only does AT&T systematically overbill for every data transaction, it also bills for phantom data traffic when there is no actual data usage initiated by the customer. This was discovered by the same independent consulting firm, which purchased an iPhone from an AT&T store, immediately disabled all push notifications and location services, confirmed that no e-mail account was configured on the phone, closed all applications, and let the phone sit untouched for 10 days. During this 10-day period, AT&T billed the test account for 35 data transactions totaling 2,292 KB of usage. This is like the rigged gas pump charging you when you never even pulled your car into the station."

According to Cnet, Google's Google Music platform is nearing a debut, although there are still hurdles.

Google is still negotiating "complex licensing agreements" which should require a few months, says the site, but this is the closest the platform has ever been to debuting.

It appears that each of the Big 4 labels has a varying mindset on how a cloud music service should be run, and finding a happy medium is harder than Google ever thought.

The search giant had hoped to launch the service by last November.

Apple's iTunes remains the clear market leader for digital music, accounting for over 70 percent of all worldwide sales. A streaming, subscription service by Google (which might also include download options), however, could make a dent, given Google's strength in many markets.

Google could bake the service into Android (most popular smartphone OS), and connect it to YouTube, which is one of the most trafficked services in the world.

Strategy Analytics has said today that the iPad has seen its tablet market share fall from almost 96 percent to 75 percent in the last few months, thanks to Android devices.

Android tablets jumped to 21.6 percent while the rest of the share was taken by Windows and other tablet OS.

While technically "Android" encompasses a large number of tablets released in 2010, most of the gains by the OS came from the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which shipped over 2 million tablets by the end of the year.

Samsung did admit, however, that it believes hundreds of thousands of those shipped tablets still remain on retail shelves.

Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010 after releasing the tablet to much fanfare in April.

Android is expected to take a much larger share of the tablet market after a number of Android 3.0 tablet-optimized devices hit the market, starting with the Motorola Xoom this month.


(Pic via Electronista)

World of Warcraft maker Blizzard has taken the next step to blocking virtual currency sellers, filing complaints with PayPal to block all 'gold sellers.'

A number of outfits make a living selling WoW virtual goods for real money, which is not endorsed by Blizzard.

Virtual goods include gold, characters, power-leveling and other rare items.

Most of these sellers accept payment through PayPal, but that will no longer be the case as Blizzard has filed complaints with PayPal claiming "Intellectual Properties violation" for the "sale of World of Warcraft Merchandise."

The large online transaction service has sent notices to all affected sellers and they now have three choices. Either give up selling that merchandise, lose your PayPal account permanently, or fight Blizzard in court.

Reads the notice (via Curse):

You were reported to PayPal as an Intellectual Properties violation by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. for the sale of World of Warcraft Merchandise.