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The large French telecom Orange has purchased a full 49 percent share of the online video streaming site DailyMotion, one of YouTube's "larger" competitors.

Orange purchased the stake for 58.8 million euros.

As part of the deal, Orange can purchase the other 51 percent in 2013.

Orange will use the site in the same manner it used small music streaming provider Deezer, as a way to becoming a multi-platform content aggregator and distributor.

The company's music subscription service based on Deezer has over 500,000 users.

Opponents of the deal say it might break net neutrality principles as Orange could technically favor DailyMotion content over YouTube.

Google has announced the start of an in-browser weather app today, for users running Android or iOS.

After opening the Web browser, if users type in "weather" to the search bar, they will be greeted with the current weather, using GPS for location.

iPhone owners can use the slider bar to see the hourly forecast for the next twelve hours.

For now, the app is not available for BlackBerry owners, or anyone who needs a language other than English.

(Pic via Electronista)

Internet security company BitDefender has reported this week that pornography is the top reason the average user gets hit with malware on their computers.

According to the firm, 63 percent of users who visited adult sites "compromised their security on multiple occasions."

Says the company (via Thinq):

This BitDefender survey confirms that users should think twice when accessing pornographic sites since this is an area that cyber criminals continue to exploit.

Over 60 per cent of respondents admitted that they have had malware-related issues more than once as a direct consequence of accessing adult content. The findings of this study should make users consider whether accessing these sites is worth compromising their systems, data and work.

72 percent of the 2017 people surveyed admitted to searching for and viewing adult content. Of that list, 78 percent were men and the rest were female.

Surprisingly, 69 percent of those interviewed accessed the adult sites from home while a full 25 percent accessed from work and 6 percent from public Internet cafes.

Microsoft has asked the International Trade Commission to block all TiVo imports to the U.S., claiming the company has violated multiple patents.

The complaint focuses on patents relating to technology used in TiVo's Mediaroom software, available on various DVRs, including the AT&T U-Verse set-top box.

Microsoft filed a formal lawsuit against TiVo last January.

The software giant had initially tried to join AT&T in similar patent infringement suit, but instead opted for its own suit.

Reads the latest filing (via WR):

Microsoft seeks an order excluding TiVo’s infringing set-top boxes and associated software and hardware from entry into the United States and a cease and desist order or orders halting the domestic sale of infringing, imported set-top boxes and associated software and hardware.

In January of last year, Kodak sued smartphone giants Apple and RIM over patent violations relating to the cameras used in BlackBerrys and the iPhone.

The suit alleged that the smartphones infringed on Kodak patents "covering technology for previewing photos."

Today, the ITC (International Trade Commission) has thrown out the case, claiming that the patent was simply a small variant of an earlier patent and therefore could not be used.

Current generation smartphones like the iPhone cannot violate the patent in question, as a result, explains Electronista.

The ruling is not absolute, and will face an ITC panel in the coming months. Kodak filed a similar suit against LG and Samsung, and the judge in that case upheld the same exact patent.

In April 2010, Google unveiled Google Cloud Print, a service that enables any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer.

The option was given to Google Chrome OS users last month, but today Google has opened the public beta for mobile documents and Gmail for mobile.

Google says the service will be "rolling out to users throughout the next few days."

"Print" will be an new option in Google Docs and Gmail, and you can print PDF and .DOC attachments, as well.

To use the Cloud Print, you will need a phone with Android 2.1+ or iOS 3+ and connect a printer to the cloud service.

More info on that, here: Cloud Print instructions

Huawei Technologies of China has sued Motorola this week in an effort to block the company's sale of its network equipment unit to Nokia Siemens.

The company wants the $1.2 billion deal to be restructured to avoid infringing on Huawei's IP rights.

Huawei is demanding the deal exclude any equipment that is based on GSM or UMTS standards.

Allegedly, Motorola does not have a material UMTS business as it resells Huawei's UMTS equipment for wireless service and therefore should not be able to sell that gear.

Motorola split its company in half earlier this year, seperating its phone and set-top operations from its other core operations.

Both companies involved in the deal are still awaiting approval from Chinese anti-trust authorities, but say the case is "without merit" and hope to close in the next month.

PreCentral has posted the specs for the upcoming HP Topaz, the first of the company's WebOS tablets.

The Topaz will have 1024x768 resolution, premium audio and connect wirelessly to a Touchstone dock for content sharing and charging.

Notably, the Topaz will have cloud-integration services, such as e-book sharing.

Although unconfirmed by HP, the rumored specs:

Processor Dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 at 1.2GHz
Graphics Integrated Adreno 220 GPU
Screen 9.7" XGA 1024 x 768
Dimensions 190mm x 240mm x 13.7mm
Weight 700g / 1.5lb (estimated)
RAM 512MB DDR2
Storage 16g / 32g / 64g eMMC
Camera Front-facing 1.3mp camera for Video Chat
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
WiFi Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n
Other Radios Optional WWAN for HSPA, LTE, perhaps CDMA later
Sensors Accelerometer, eCompass, Gyro, Light Sensor, Microphone
Speakers 2 integrated speakers with Beats Audio, 3.5mm audio jack
Battery 24WHr for >8hrs, using two 3150mAh cells

According to Internet research firm Emarketer, Twitter's ad revenue will likely triple to $150 million this year.

Twitter introduced its ad program in April 2010.

The company believes revenue can top $250 million in 2012, as more corporations join early adopters like Nissan Motor, Hewlett-Packard and Starbucks.

Twitter currently has 175 million registered users, and competes almost directly for ad dollars with giants like Facebook and Google.

Despite the large user base, a Pew report in December claims only 8 percent of U.S. Internet users have Twitter.

Says EMarketer (via Bloomberg):

The company is definitely attracting brand advertisers. The difference is going to be whether Twitter can prove itself to advertisers as delivering results. I think this will be the year that we know a lot more.

Twitter is current valued at $3.7 billion, after 5.5 percent of shares were sold for $200 million last month.

According to multiple reports, the upcoming iPad 2 may have very low quality cameras, under 1MP.

Although still unconfirmed, the tablet should add dual-cameras, a combined GSM/CDMA chipset, Retina Display, and a slimmer form factor.

The alleged camera quality was discovered looking through the most updated iOS SDK.

Speculation is the rear camera, which is 5MP on Galaxy Tab, Xoom and even the iPhone 4, will instead be a tiny 0.7MP with the ability to shoot 720p video.

The front-side camera will be a 0.3 VGA camera, just enough for snapping self-pics or using FaceTime.

(Mockup via iFunia)

Former Facebook president Sean Parker has said today that the movie "The Social Network" was great, but the plot is "complete fiction."

Sean Parker is played in the film by actor/musician Justin Timberlake.

In the film, Parker is portrayed as a drug-using, paranoid playboy who eventually loses his position at the company after being caught by the police whilst partying with cocaine and under-aged Facebook interns.

When asked about his thoughts on the film, Parker told the DLD media conference (via Reuters):

It's a complete work of fiction. I kind of wish my life were that cool. There are no Victoria's Secret models in Silicon Valley."

In the late 90s, Parker co-founded Napster, and the online address book Plaxo later.

Because of his current 7 percent stake in Facebook, Parker will become a multi-billionaire when the company goes public.

Engadget has posted a few leaks showing off the Motorola Xoom's still unconfirmed release date and price.

The site says the powerful tablet will be released on February 17th (at least in Best Buy stores) with a price tag of $700, $30 less than the comparable Apple iPad (Wi-Fi/3G/32GB). The current-generation iPad's other specs, however, pale in comparison to the Xoom.

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.

A few years ago, the infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay registered The Music Bay domain, but did nothing with it.

It appears now, however, The Music Bay is well on its way to becoming a reality and TF says the record industry should be "very afraid" of its presence.

The subdomain fear.themusicbay.org has been displaying a "coming soon" headline recently, with no other details.

TF spoke with a Pirate Bay 'insider' who said:

The music industry can’t even imagine what we’re planning to roll out in the coming months. For years they’ve complained bitterly about piracy, but if they ever had a reason to be scared it is now. It will be a special surprise for IFPI’s 78th birthday, and we’re thinking of organizing a huge festival in Rome where IFPI was founded.

The IFPI, one of the major music trade groups in the world, will turn 78 in April.

The Japanese Nikkei has posted some details about the upcoming PSP 2 handheld, which has yet to be confirmed by Sony but most expect to be unveiled next week.

In the report, the paper says the device will have full 3G support.

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo will offer the 3G in Japan.

Through 3G, gamers can play multiplayer, download apps, movies and music, but not make any phone calls.

Furthermore, the PSP 2 will have an OLED screen, one that will be significantly larger than current PSP displays. The new PSP's processor will also allow for a new way to "handle HD resolution visuals," says Destructoid.

There is no word on 3G data plan fees and whether Sony will release a Wi-Fi-only model.

Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant owners will finally receive their OTA Android 2.2 upgrade, after months of waiting.

The Vibrant is the T-Mobile model of the device, which sells as the Captivate on AT&T, the Fascinate on Verizon and the Epic 4G on Sprint.

Because Samsung would not give a detailed answer as to why 10 million Galaxy S owners were still without the update, rumors began flying that the manufacturer was purposely sinking the update to not "devalue" the upcoming 4G models of the device.

As a response, Samsung said:

Samsung does not charge carriers for updates to new versions of Android. We are working to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available to all U.S. Galaxy S owners as soon as possible. Due to the complexity and unique functionality of each Galaxy S device, we are performing additional testing.

T-Mobile has said the delay was purely technical and the OTA update will hit all Vibrant users within the next month.