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According to multiple reports, the 4G-supporting Dell Streak 7 tablet will hit on Wednesday and cost just $200 with contract, and $450 without.

Says T-Mobile:

As tablets change the way we consume content, T-Mobile’s combination of 4G speeds, breadth of our 4G network, our affordable data plans and compelling new products like the Streak 7 place us in a position to offer the best experience and value for our customers.

Microsoft software 'deconstructor' Rafael Rivera has said today that he believes the reason some Windows Phone 7 devices use up massive amounts of 'phantom data' is thanks to an issue with Yahoo Mail, the popular email service.

Rivera looked through the IMAP packets leaving the device and saw that "Yahoo's IMAP server was not responding to the phone's requests to fetch new messages with the correct response," explains Cnet.

Therefore, instead of sending tiny commands, the servers were sending back blocks of data up to 25 time larger than necessary.

Adds Rivera:

This can also be read as: Your phone is downloading ~25 times as much data as it normally would, had you sided with another e-mail provider.

Internet monitoring company Renesys has confirmed this afternoon that Egypt is now in a complete Internet blackout, after small ISP Noor Group went offline, following the path of all of Egypt's major service providers.

The Egyptian government ordered all the ISPs in the nation to disconnect from the Internet four days ago.

Noor was the service provider for many businesses, as well as the country's stock exchange and controlled about 8 percent of the country's Internet connections.

The government's order has come amidst protests and riots in Egypt demanding the end of the Hosni Mubarak regime, and the implementation of a new government "that represents the interests of the Egyptian people." Most believe the Internet cutoff is an attempt by the government to halt the use of social networking sites as a tool for the protesters to organize themselves.

Egyptians can still use mobile phones and landline telephones to communicate.

(Pic via Getty)

According to the market research company Canalys, shipments of Android smartphones reached 32.9 million in the Q4 2010, making it the best-selling smartphone operating system in the world.

Symbian, long on top of the list, fell to second, at 31 million shipments.

In terms of market share, Android grew 615 percent from 2009 to take 32.5 percent, while Symbian fell from 44.4 percent to 30.6 percent in the same period.

Phone makers HTC and Samsung had notably strong years, accounting for 45 percent of the Android phone shipments.

Apple's iOS fell to third, at 16 percent, remaining practically flat year-over-year. Shipments increased 86 percent, however, to 16.2 million iPhones.

RIM's BlackBerry share dropped from 20 percent to 14.4, despite seeing a reasonably strong 35 percent growth in shipments.

Windows-based phones rounded out the top 5, although market share fell from 7.3 percent to just 3.1 percent. Windows Phone 7 sales were "steady," says the firm.

According to new reports from Taiwanese component makers, the Apple iPad 2 will have dual core 1.2GHz processors, alongside a plethora of upgrades.

Furthermore, the company will produce 5 million units in the Q1, expecting strong sales of the device.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the tablet will not have Retina Display, as previously rumored and will keep the same 1024x768 resolution as the original model.

Says the analyst (via Insider):

The improvement of the iPad 2 display focuses on thickness and anti-reflection, not resolution. iPad 2 display module is 30~35% thinner than iPad 1 and it’s helpful for better form factor.

Thanks to anti-reflection, iPad 2 could have better sunlight readable experience and it's helpful for Apple to compete with Amazon's fast growing Kindle business.

The most important reason why iPad 2 won’t have retina display is yield rate of panel making. At this point, making high resolution and bright IPS/FFS panel is not easy and the production volume and cost couldn’t meet Apple’s requirements.

According to multiple reports, Microsoft is ready to drop a major update for Windows Phone 7, with the firmware upgrade "imminent."

The software giant has updated its support sites with the "Troubleshooting problems during software update for Windows Phone 7" document, implying an update should be coming, soon.

Although it is unconfirmed, the update should bring faster loading times, copy/paste capabilities and a new and improved search function for the WP7 Marketplace.

There is no word on when the upgrade is coming.

Microsoft sold 2.1 million licenses of Window Phone 7 to OEMs in 2010, tacking on almost 900,000 in December alone.

Developer/hacker "@deeper-blue" has posted a quick video this weekend of how he ported the new tablet-optimized OS Android 3.0 to run on the Nook Color.

Deeper-Blue is able to boot the OS, and control the device, but functionality is still somewhat limited.

The hacker is now working on completing graphics acceleration, which should speed up the interface, which currently runs slowly.

Says the hacker (via XDA):

Graphics acceleration more or less working. The SGX driver seems too old for some buffer request of android 3.0, so right now the statusbar is invisible but still functional. Not sure if I can fix that or have to wait for the AOSP release.

What is not working... pretty much everything else, no accelerometer, no wlan, no sound. Haven't started working on those things yet.

Earlier this week, Google began censoring any search queries with references to torrents from its 'instant search' and 'autocomplete' features.

Last month, the search giant promised it would begin "making copyright work better online" whilst blocking "terms that are closely associated with piracy" from autocomplete.

BitTorrent services have been up in arms since the move, pointing out that there are many legal torrents out there that are being censored, like films that have been released for free by directors and made available via torrent sites.

A couple of the banned search terms are "utorrent," "bittorrent," "rapidshare," and "megaupload." However, other cyberlockers like Fileserve and HotFile are not banned. Suprisingly, "The Pirate Bay," is still a searchable term.

Rapidshare expressed the concerns of companies now censored:

William Power of R.W. Baird & Co has noted today that Verizon could sell as many as 25 million iPhones in 2011, basing the figure off a 1000-person survey.

The analyst believes a large number of Verizon feature phone users will upgrade to their first smartphone when the iPhone 4 hits.

Power was quick to add, however, that many factors could affect that number, including manufacturing capacity.

The latest analysis is the highest figure yet, ahead of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster's 15 million estimate and Gleacher and Co.’s Brian Marshall's 12 million estimate.

Munster, in his analysis, added the following:

Android phones outsell iPhones in the U.S., but we believe when Verizon gets the iPhone, that trend could be reversed. As an example, in countries where the iPhone is available on multiple carriers and competes with Android, we see the iPhone outselling Android.

Engadget has posted screenshots this weekend of Amazon's upcoming subscription streaming service, one that should directly rival Netflix.

The service will offer free, unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows to Amazon Prime members.

Reads a now removed page:

"Your Amazon Prime membership now includes unlimited, commerical-free instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost."

China has blocked all searches for the Chinese word for "Egypt" on microblogging sites Sina, Tencent and Sohu, limiting the public's knowledge of the unrest occurring right now in the nation.

In response, Sina said (via PCW): "In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search result did not display."

The English word "Egypt," however, is still searchable.

Severe political unrest has hit the nation over the past week, with thousands of protesters rioting in the streets and demanding that President Hosni Mubarak be removed from power.

The Egyptian government shut down the Internet in the country, in an effort to stop protesters from organizing efficiently.

Mubarak's government also ordered the suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, while canceling the network's licenses. Al Jazeera was one of few broadcasters to get video of Cairo after the riots.

Sina, Tencent and Sohu have a total of 63 million users.

New York Senator Carl Kruger has made headlines today after introducing another ridiculous bill, one that will ban phone usage when crossing the street.

If passed, the bill would ban talking on the phone, texting, listening to iPods with headphones and playing handheld devices while crossing the street.

The fine? $100 if caught.

Says the Senator:

You can't be fully aware of your surroundings if you're fiddling with a Blackberry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod.

Comcast has completed its acquisition of NBC Universal this week, gaining a 51 percent stake for $13.45 billion.

NBCU is in charge of NBC, the fourth-highest ranked broadcaster in the U.S, Universal Pictures, the Universal theme parks, and popular cable channels like E!, Bravo and USA.

The FCC and US Department of Justice, facing criticism that the deal would allow Comcast to favor its own cable subscribers, has imposed numerous conditions that will force Comcast to keep NBCU content "as a single package to online competitors on terms comparable to those reached with more established rivals such as Dish Network Corp. and DirecTV," says the AP.

Furthermore, Comcast will have to match any new deals for programming between traditional media firms and online video providers, if it has a comparable program. For example, if Viacom makes a reality show available via Netflix, NBCU will have to make a comparable show available.

As part of the deal, Comcast bought the stake from GE for $6.2 billion in cash, and gave its cable channels (like E! and Bravo) to NBCU. Those channels were worth $7.25 billion.

If investment firm ITG is to be believed, 15 percent of all Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets are returned after purchase, a huge figure when compared to market leader Apple's 2 percent return rate for the iPad.

Says the firm: "Consumers just aren't in love with the device."

Samsung announced yesterday that global sales for the Tab had reached 2 million, just two months after launch.

The analysts believe the main problem with the Tab is its use of Android 2.2 Froyo, which was designed for smartphones, and is not ideal for large screens.

Upcoming Android tablets, like the Motorola Xoom and LG G-Slate will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which is optimized for tablets.

Research firm iSuppli says the Tab is not alone in its issues, however: "There are a lot of issues with Android tablets, not just Samsung. A lot of those products have difficulties with high return rates or with not moving off the shelf."