Latest news

Rovio, the developer behind blockbuster game 'Angry Birds,' has said today that the game has hit 50 million downloads, with over 10 million coming from Android devices.

The company also announced the "Bad Piggy Bank," an in-game payment structure on Android that lets users pay a certain amount to remove the ads in the free version of the game, or even purchase the "Might Eagle" DLC that is upcoming.

To use Bad Piggy Bank, you will not need a credit card, as the in-app purchases are billed to your monthly phone bill.

Eventually, the Bad Piggy Bank will be extended to other operating systems, like iOS.

Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka confirms that Angry Birds will be hitting PCs, gaming consoles and Macs next year.

Fritz Lanman, Microsoft's senior director of corporate strategy and acquisitions, has confirmed today that the company unsuccessfully bid $15 billion for social networking giant Facebook in 2007, being rejected outright.

After being turned down, Microsoft instead purchased a small stake in the company for $240 million.

Added Lanman (via CW): "Yeah, we tried to acquire Facebook. Facebook had a lot of similarities to Microsoft back in the day."

The exec says he believes the company will one day be worth as much as Microsoft. Microsoft currently has a market cap of $233 billion, second only to Apple in the technology sector.

Facebook currently has an estimated value of $41 billion.

Both companies currently work together, with Facebook's search being powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has finally voted to move ahead with a contract with ICM Registry that would create domains with a .xxx address, to be used by pornographic sites.

While closer to being a reality than before, there are still concerns from some government officials about the suffix that will be dedicated solely to adult sites.

ICM's CEO Stuart Lawley says the new suffix will fully benefit adult content sites by making it easier for would-be customers to find them.

.xxx domains, however, will be voluntary and it is unclear how many popular adult sites will actually give up their .com addresses and move.

ICM says there are already 189,000 "pre-registrations" for .xxx sites, with another 300,000 expected to launch next year.

According to the latest NPD figures, the Microsoft Xbox 360 led the way again for the month of November, beating out rivals Wii and PS3 in hardware sales.

The Xbox 360 has now led sales in the States for six straight months.

Microsoft saw 1.37 million Xbox units sold for the month, up 68 percent year-over-year, followed closely behind by the Nintendo Wii at 1.27 million units, up .8 from last year.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, one of the most well-known in the video game industry has said today that Microsoft's Kinect is crushing Sony's rival Move motion control system in regards to sales.

Sony says it has shipped 4.1 million units since launch, but it is unclear how many of those have translated to actual retail sales.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has confirmed 2.5 million sales in just under a month.

Pachter added:

"About one fifth of PS3 sales included bundles with Sony’s Move controller, suggesting a modest third month. About half of Xbox 360 sales included bundles with Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, suggesting a strong first month. Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles outsold PS3 Move console bundles by more than 5:1."

Google has launched YouTube 2.1 for Android devices running version 2.2 of the OS this week, the first time the popular video sharing site can be downloaded unconnected from the OS.

YouTube 2.1 is fully redesigned and should "mimic" the desktop version.

The update is the "fastest, most intuitive" mobile YouTube app created for any device, says Google.

Some of the welcome updates are the ability to read descriptions, post comments, see related content, rate the video in-play and in-page playback.

2.2 owners can download the app now, and it is natively built into 2.3 Gingerbread.

Michael "Shag" Washington, backup singer for the band Cypress Hill has sued Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two for $250 million dollars, for allegedly using his likeness without permission in the blockbuster hit Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

$250 million is 25 percent of the profits the game has made since its release in 2004.

Washington says that while the game was in development, Rockstar consulted him for a real-life look into "gangs and street life," promising to call him if they used any of his material in the game.

The singer says now that the entire appearance and story of Carl "CJ" Johnson, the main character, is based on what he consulted Rockstar and his own life story.

Washington says he never heard back from Rockstar and only just heard of the game after a nephew purchased it for his Mac last month. After playing the game, Washington says he believes the stories and appearance of the main character are based off his life and info.

"Upon examination of images of 'CJ' and comparison to his photos from that year and other evidence, it became clear that Rockstar had stolen his image and never paid him," reads the suit (via GamaSutra).

Sirius XM has signed a new five-year deal with infamous 'shock jock' Howard Stern, one that will pay him somewhere between $80-$100 million per year.

Stern's current 5-year $500 million deal expires at the end of the year.

As part of the new deal, the shock jock can also be streamed via mobile/Internet apps, such as those found on the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones, alongside satellite radio devices.

Stern's first deal blocked the host from being on Internet sources.

Since Stern's original contract was signed, Sirius' subscriber base has jumped from 600,000 to 19 million.

According to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 8 percent of American adults currently use Twitter, with only 2 percent using it on a daily basis.

The company surveyed 2550 Americans, 74% of which use the Internet.

Although the overall number was low, Pew found that Twitter was popular among younger adults, urban city dwellers and minorities.

Women were also more likely to use Twitter.

Overall, 10 percent of Twitter users were women, compared to 7 percent for men, with the majority being in the 18-29 age group.

From a racial standpoint, Hispanics were most likely to use the micro blogging service followed closely by the black population and finally the white population.

24 percent of Twitter users check the site for updates multiple times a day, while 12 percent check it just once. A full 21 percent never check their accounts.

For those that actually post, 72 percent post about their personal lives, 62 percent write about work and 55 percent post news. 54 percent "post humorous or observational tweets" and 53 percent re-tweet other posts.

52 percent send private messages, 40 share pics, 28 percent share videos and 24 percent tweet their geo-location.

Google's head of Android Andy Rubin took to Twitter today to let the world know that over 300,000 Android smartphones are being activated each day.

Marking only the second time he has ever tweeted, Rubin says, simply: "There are over 300,000 Android phones activated each day."

The number is a huge jump from the 200,000-a-day claim stated in August. In February the company claimed 60,000 per day and 160,000 in June.

Adds Rubin, via MM: "It looks like Android is not just phenomenal but incredibly phenomenal in its growth rate. God knows how long that will continue."

Android has quickly become the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States, surpassing RIM and Apple in the Q3 2010.

Version 2.3 of the OS, dubbed Gingerbread, has just been unveiled and will be available next week via the new flagship Nexus S.

The European Union has fined five companies $863 million USD this week for being part of an 'LCD cartel' that helped fix prices from 2001 through 2006.

Samsung, the sixth LCD maker in the scheme and the largest in the world, blew the whistle on the other companies and therefore avoided a fine from the European Commission.

LG Display, the second largest LCD maker in the world, was fined $284 million and accepted the fine saying: "LG Display acknowledges the wrongful acts of the past and respects the European Commission's regulatory authority in this regard."

The company did say it may appeal the ruling if it finds any "procedural issues with the investigation."

Netflix has signed a new licensing agreement with Disney-ABC, adding tons of new content to their Watch Instantly streaming service.

For the first time ever, Disney has added ABC Family content to the streaming library.

Newer first-run content will be available 15 days after initial telecast.

Part of the new agreement are "prior season episodes of current ABC hit series "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and, for the first time on Netflix, "Brothers & Sisters."

Furthermore, Netflix will have all seasons of "Scrubs," "Lost," Ugly Betty" and "Reaper."

Prima Cinema, a new start-up, wants to bring movies to your home movie theater the day that movie launches in theaters, but it won't be cheap.

The company will charge a one-time $20,000 fee to install the digital-delivery system, and each new movie will cost $500.

Prima says it has $5 million in venture capital from Universal and Best Buy and hopes to begin delivering movies to customers in the Q4 2011.

The company has high expectations, as well. Prima wants to install the delivery system in 250,000 homes by 2015, however, executives in Hollywood seem to see that number as a lot lower.

Stuart Hughes, the brand behind such excess as the $3 million iPhone and the £200,000 PlayStation 3 has gone prehistoric this week, designing the "iPhone 4 History Edition."

The iPhone 4 History Edition will be encrusted by diamonds, feature a 65 million year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth and polished meteoric stone from the same prehistoric era.

The Japanese ISP NTT DoCoMo has said today that they will begin equipping taxis with free Wi-Fi.

Additionally, some of the taxis will have Sony PSPgo handhelds left in the back.

820 cabs in Tokyo will get the Wi-Fi, while only 100 will get the handheld.

The company says taxis with the extras can be identified by red DoCoMo Wi-Fi stickers on their doors.

DoCoMo's service is in testing now and will launch fully in March.